Chapter 55
That’s something I could get behind…
Dallas
“Do you have her?” I yelled into my cell when Jackson picked up on the first ring.
“Yes, sir,” I never thought two words could release me form so much fear in my life.
Knowing Delaney was safe and out of harm’s way made what I was about to do so much easier.
After getting the run down from Jackson I knew that poor bastard that held Delaney, had no time to warn Teddy before they got to him; we still had the element of surprise on our side.
All he knows for sure is that I’m eager to get Delaney back and will cooperate with his demands.
I was only minutes away from the pinned location Teddy sent me, an old business district that seemed to have seen better days. The ‘for sale’ signs on each building gave me the impression that they were vacant, which would make my plan even easier to execute.
If this was going to work the way I hoped, we would have to work very quickly before he had the chance to make an escape or to realize Delaney wasn’t in his possession.
As we made our way to the end of a long row of abandoned businesses, I saw his arrogant ass standing next to a blacked-out sedan.
Our plan was this: Jacob and I would show up and meet him alone, all while the others walked up on foot, hopefully in time to assist whatever may happen in this meeting, keeping the fact that he was outnumbered and shit out of luck,
under wraps until the last minute. The fact that there were bushes and buildings and gates to keep them hidden was a major plus.
* * *
I opened the door and was immediately met by a big motherfucker with a pistol pointed at my side. I instinctively threw my hands up in surrender.
“Easy, these papers aren’t any good without my signature.” I reminded him, raising a stack of fake forms to transfer all my business properties into Teddy’s name and all my liquidated assets, from my breast pocket.
“Be careful, you will get your fun soon enough.” Teddy smirked at the man who was now pushing me toward Teddy and another man.
I glanced over to see Lindsey sitting in the front seat of the car picking at her nails feigning boredom.
The red that streaked her cheeks when she made eye contact with me told me she wasn’t as bored as she let on.
“Hey, Rico Suave, eyes over here.” Teddy’s high pitched squeal of a voice rang in the air, pulling me from the staredown I was unintentionally having with Lindsey. I smiled and blew her a kiss, just to keep her flustered. I may need to use her for a decoy later.
“Here Teddy, your papers.” I tossed the forms toward him, then they slid down the hood of the car onto the ground. “Now, where’s Delaney?” I questioned putting on my best scared boyfriend facade.
A heavy blow to the back of my head made me wince when the buff guy smacked his pistol handle against my skull.
“Pick those up.” He demanded, pressing the barrel against my temple this time.
“Oh hey man, no need for violence. It’s cool.
” I chuckled trying to hide my ever growing rage that was threatening to boil over.
It wasn’t time to reveal my hand yet, but boy was I going to enjoy it when I did.
I was going to enjoy taking these assholes down, starting with the big goofy motherfucker.
Wiping that ugly grin from his face was going to be a highlight of this whole thing.
“Now, what have we here?” Teddy cooed when I handed him the forms. He stood staring over a handful of papers with the club’s logo at the top.
He swayed ever so slightly side to side like he could never relax, his lopsided body uneven when he walked.
I noticed his limp when he was trying his intimidation tactic as I kept my eyes locked on his so he couldn’t tell I saw his handicap.
Some sympathetic, Stockholm-Syndrome part of me felt bad for him.
He was repulsive when he would undress me with his eyes but it also felt like he was forcing the action to try to intimidate me, like he was trying hard to make himself seem authoritative.
His hair was awkwardly grown out from a sad attempt at dying it black and was thinning at the top, his roots revealing his age.
I didn’t have to look, I could already feel the powerful presence of Enzo and my team approaching. They knew to wait for my signal.
When Teddy’s eyes darted to something in the distance, I chuckled, drawing all the attention to me. My laugh got louder and obviously intentional.
“What the fuck is so funny?” Teddy snapped, anger filled his eyes. A crimson flush covered his neck and face. Knowing I was under his skin was so satisfying…
“Hey, you gotta still find your happiness even when your haters think they’ve won.” A smirk raised the corner of my lips.
Teddy’s eyes narrowed, “See that’s where you’re mistaken,” his spirit suddenly lifted in his tone.
“I don’t just think I’ve won, I know I’ve won. It’s been my goal for the last twelve years of my life. To watch you have everything taken from you as quickly as I did twelve years ago.”
I was confused by his statement, but remained hopeful that I’d get the answers I desperately needed.
“To have so much: popularity, athletic career, and…” he sucked in a breath, “the girl.” His voice cracked at the last part.
“What does any of that have to do with you?” I snapped, provoked at just the mention of Natalie.
“You took it all for granted, you didn’t deserve her, or any of it. You were just a hot-headed, entitled, prick that had everything handed to you.” He spit his words at me through gritted teeth.
I sensed a vulnerability in him as he spilled over with jealousy and anger. Maybe I could use this moment where he’s weak to exploit him…
“You had it all too, once upon a time, it’s no one’s fault you got injured and had to give up your football career, it happens man.” I tried to level with him for reasons I couldn’t explain.
“She was the only one there for me, you know that?” He said in response to my attempt to manipulate his vulnerability.
He continued spilling over with his remorse, giving me even more weakness to work with.
“At first, I only saw her as my kid sister’s best friend, but there was something real special about her, real special – ”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Natalie was cheating on me? With you?” I saw red, my breathing immediately quickened as I fought against totally losing my temper.
I looked up at Teddy one last time.
“No, she never did. She said her heart belonged to you and that would never change. She loved you, Dallas. She loved you and only you.” I noticed tears starting to form in his eyes. He shifted his gaze to the ground and went on.
“But, I loved her and I accepted that I would probably never have her. You had her heart and you let her walk away that night, you let her leave and YOU let her die.” His words came quickly like daggers, piercing my heart and shattering it to pieces again, the wound that I can never heal.
“You took her from me, and now, I’ll take everything from you, DALLAS KINGSTON!” His jaw tightened as he raised his head to make eye contact with me, rage behind his glare.
“Poor Delaney, she didn’t see it coming. It was easy to set all this up.” He waved his hand around in a grand gesture.
“You really should be careful who you trust. Not everyone in that family of yours is trustworthy.” He spoke with disdain and jealousy.
“Even with me sending in my spies they didn’t get me nearly as much information as your very own family spilled the beans about.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” My mind reeled trying to figure out who he could possibly be referring to. I trusted everyone in my small circle. There was not one person I’ve allowed close to me that I could ever imagine turning their back on me like that.
He’s trying to get into my head.
“You’re a liar!” I snarled, taking a step closer toward him with my fists clenched. He was lucky that the big bastard still stood between us and that gun was still stuck in my side.
“Ha! You can’t possibly believe that everyone in that club of yours is loyal to only you? How incredibly na?ve of you, silly silly Dallas.”
My mind went back to a few months ago when one of the dancers Juliet started to get a little pushy with her flirtatious behavior towards me.
It was no secret that I wasn’t interested in crossing lines with my staff, especially those I’d grown close to over the years.
She wouldn’t take a gentle, ‘no’ so I had to get more stern than I usually do in those types of situations.
She was upset and embarrassed. I heard she was making friends with one of the other big wigs in town but I didn’t see an issue with it, as long as she didn’t bring any drama into my club or allow what she did outside of there affect my establishment.
The next time I saw Juliet, she apologized for being so aggressive and asked that we forget it even happened.
I’m not the type to let things like that linger so of course I agreed and moved past it, but what was strange was that she kept showing up, in different parts of the club, rooms she had never shown interest in before.
I noticed her behavior and felt uneasy about it.
Soon after that, I had Miss Rice implement a new employee rule that she announced at our monthly employee meeting.
Juliet was the only one to become angered by the new rule that prohibited dancers in the specialty rooms without a guard or member of staff.
It was a necessary precaution anyway for their safety but also for me to ensure there were no lines crossed.
When her name slipped from my lips and Teddy’s smile grew wide, I knew I had it right.
“So all this time, all this effort for what?” I said in a condescending tone, switching off my anger to make my point with this idiot once and for all.
“You deserve everything coming to you Dallas, I wont stop until I have everything you want and the whole world knows that Dallas Fucking Kingston is a sorry piece of shit. I’ll avenge Natalie’s death until my last breath.” He snarled, his words filled with so much hate and anger,
Natalie was truly special, and her death was my downfall and the reason I gave up on myself.
But the memory of us and of her smile is the reason I am the man I am today.
Natalie taught me how important it was to be honest, and honesty starts with being honest with yourself.
She taught me to always find the good in every situation and to project positivity.
If she knew I planned to deprive myself of love because of guilt that I harbored over losing her, she would disapprove and dammit, if she knew what I planned to do to Teddy today, that would be a whole other thing of its own.
I shook my head at the image that played in my mind, her giving me one of her infamous pointed looks.
I stepped back and raised my hands in surrender when the gun dug deeper into my side, causing me to wince this time.
I knew he wasn’t going to kill me because then Teddy wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me suffer after he thought I signed over my entire life to him.
I would be damned if I let him have what I’ve worked so hard for but I knew in my heart that killing him wasn’t right either, but scaring him a little, now that’s something I could get behind.