Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sutton
After a long day at the office, where I had to duck and weave from Allen’s attention, I drag myself home—forgoing hitting the gym like usual.
It takes all of my manpower to climb out of my vehicle, my entire being is plain exhausted.
I didn’t realize how much work went into avoiding someone as if they have the plague.
As I climb my porch steps so I can enter my house, my forward motion steps freeze at the sight that greets me.
A collage of pictures of me are taped to my front door.
I get a glimpse of my everyday life. Me at the market, me at the gym, me walking along Main Street, but the ones that have me shaking, are the ones taken of me in my own home where I should be safe from outsiders.
Tears freely fall from my eyes as I see myself in my fluffy, pink and purple bathrobe with a drying towel wrapped around my head to soak up the water from my strands as I fast walk down the hallway toward the kitchen with my face pinched in concentration.
I remember when this occurred since it was only this morning.
I was running late and was rushing around to get my lunch bagged up and my go-go juice brewing so that once I was dressed I could hightail it out the door.
When I let myself look down from that grouping of photographs, an inconsolable sob escapes me.
There are a dozen, if not more, black spray painted roses with the petals drooping on my stoop, spread out before me like an omen of bad luck which has my knees buckling and I hit the wooden boards, my body going weightless.
My limbs hang listlessly at my sides as my entire being quivers from shock.
“No. No, no, no,” I cry, shaking my head in disbelief. “This cannot be happening.”
Now, I don’t feel safe entering my own house and I’m not sure what to do from here. My body isn’t the only thing that becomes immobilized, so does my rational thinking. Which I’m sure is what he counted on—making me vulnerable.
“Fuck you, Allen Jeffries. I hope you sit on a cactus and spin on it.” I’m not sure how long I stay frozen in place, it could be mere seconds, minutes, or hours, time seems to stand still as I begin to rouse from the fog.
As I stand on shaky legs, I swivel to the right so I can haul ass back to my car only to notice a calendar pinned to the side of the house near where my bedroom is jutted out and located, one I missed since the pictures were the first thing that caught my eye and kept me entranced.
A date is circled in red with a clock drawn in the square with the phrase ‘time is ticking’ written inside.
What’s it supposed to mean? Is that the day I’m going to die?
Is it the day that he’s going to make his play with whatever game it is he’s started?
I wish I knew what that was since I seem to be a key player.
Anger swamps me as I recall everything I’ve suffered from at the hands of others.
Not again. I won’t let anybody throw me back into my submissive shell.
“Oh, hell no!” Now I’m breathing fire as I stomp back down the steps and march to my car.
“Never again!” I scream out to the universe.
With my shoulders taut I fling open my door, toss my purse inside, and plop down in the driver’s seat.
I start it up and let my Bluetooth engage as I scroll through my contacts list and press my finger on Gemini’s name.
At this point, I trust him and the Kings more than I do the authorities.
I’m not sure how deep Allen’s pockets are and I don’t want this getting swept under the rug.
“Good evening, beautiful,” he says as he answers the phone. His cheery disposition is fixing to take a hit to the gullet.
“Gemini, I need you,” I blurt out. Now that I hear his voice, my bottom lip begins to tremble. “Somebody left me a welcome package and I’m too damn scared to go inside.”
“Where are you?” he asks, his voice thunderous.
“Sitting in my car like a sissy,” I admit, feeling foolish for being so cowardly.
“Don’t do that, Sutton. There’s nothing wrong with keeping yourself safe. Lock your doors, keep your engine running, and if you see anything or anyone that sets your radar off, get the fuck out of there. If it’s not me and my cousins, you get gone. Hear me?”
“Oh, I hear you alright and wild horses couldn’t keep me from putting the pedal to the metal and getting the fuck gone,” I remark, pissed off that this motherfucker has tried to steal a piece of my identity.
“On the way, we’ll be there soon. Sit tight,” he orders.
“Not sure there’s any other way I could sit at this point,” I mumble before disconnecting the call.
Reaching into my glove box, I pull out my taser and hit the switch, turning the device on.
I love this thing, it was a great find at the flea market.
It’s disguised as a flashlight, but when I press a button, it becomes a zapper.
One that has enough voltage that it’ll disable any sonofabitch who gets close and tries to touch me without my explicit permission.
As I sit idling, I recall any and every interaction I’ve had with Allen.
Most of them are innocent, as well as work related, but several of those photographs were taken before I started working at the hospital.
How did he find me? Better yet, how did he know who I am?
Every interview I had with the board was done via the internet through a secure browser.
Not once did I see him during that process so how did he know to look for me?
Those are questions I may never have the answers to, but they’re ones I’d like to find out the reasons behind because they could help me discover what it is he wants from me.
The crunching of gravel has me glancing up into the rearview mirror where I see two trucks pulling in behind me.
Sweat pebbles on my temples because they’ve blocked my escape.
My hands reach up and grip the steering wheel, I’ll go through my house before I let some piece of shit get their hands on me—I’ll never make it easy on somebody to take me against my will.
No, siree. Not me, never, ever again will I become an easy target.
I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep my freedom.
My eyes laser in on the men disembarking from the truck and my grip eases when I see my high school saviors hopping out.
My eyes stay focused on them as they toss their cuts over their leather jackets.
I tilt my head in curiosity, wondering why they didn’t wear them as they drove off from the compound.
As my mind wonders to the possibilities, I miss the fact that they’ve closed in on me, surrounding my car in a protective detail.
Gemini knocks on the window, startling me and causing me to jump. “Sutton, we need the key to your place so we can check it out,” he soothingly says, his face void of all emotion. A mask, I figure, since he has never hidden how he’s feeling from me in the past.
Since I have a keyless start vehicle, I pull the fob from my keyring and roll down my window, just far enough so he can extract them from my fingers. “Be careful, Gemini.”
He nods his head and declares, “Always, gorgeous. Mercury is going to start snapping pictures, but he will be within eyesight, so if you see something moving around in the woods that shouldn’t be, shout out to him, okay?”
“Yeah. Okay,” I promise, suddenly thinking that my desolate living style that I longed for doesn’t sound as terrific as it once did.
I wanted a peaceful, country setting with the mountains as a backdrop, and I got it, but now, I realize that it leaves me more open to those with bad intentions.
I never see my neighbors since there’s a lot of acreage separating me from them so they’d never hear me scream for help unless they were close to my property line, and that’s rare, it only happens if one of their livestock decides the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
Butterball makes at least one visit a week, if not more, which means I’ve become familiar with ‘the missus’ sending something to me while Mr. Bergstrom gets his wayward cow headed back to his own property.
With rapt attention, I watch as Mercury methodically circles around the displays left behind by my infuriating, egotistical antagonist. He not only takes photos, but he documents everything he notices on a notepad.
Was he an investigator in a past life? He sure does work like a detective and a crime scene analyst rolled into one person.
It’s mesmerizing to watch him work. He doesn’t miss any clues as he uses the tip of his pen to shift things to the side which has me curious if I missed anything during my freak out.
It’s a real probability since the only thing my mind was set on was escaping and seeking the safety and protection of my car.
I used it as a shield and still am. I know it can’t stop a bullet from a gun, it’d slice through it like a knife through softened butter, but it’d at least give me a fighting chance to survive.
I shake my head because I do not want to go down that rabbit hole of doom.
Suddenly, I can’t sit here any longer. I’m an easy target, a bullseye for any sharpshooter.
My hand grips the release handle and I fling my car door open, my breathing becoming erratic as those thoughts float through my head.
I fall from the seat and once again, land on my knees as I fight for each breath of oxygen.
I’m shaking like a leaf when Mercury makes it to me.
Having had panic attacks during my younger years, I feel as though the cloying confines of my car are slowly causing me to lose my breath.
“Sutton. What the fuck are you doing?” he asks as he leans down and grips me beneath my armpits and hauls me up.
When he witnesses the anxiety on my face he pulls me into his chest and pats me on the back.
“Breathe with me, Sutton. Inhale and hold it for three seconds, then exhale. Good… that’s good,” he praises me as I follow his directions. “Again.”
Footsteps rush toward me and then I hear Gemini’s voice as he asks Mercury, “What the hell happened?”
“Panic attack,” Mercury answers as he transitions me from his arms into Gemini’s. “She flopped out of her car like a fish out of water. I don’t know what set her off, but whatever it was, it got her good.”
I’m whisked up into a pair of strong arms and feel the ground shift beneath me as he rushes over to the pickup truck, flings open the passenger side door and leaps up into it, never removing me from his embrace.
When the door is shut behind us and someone jumps into the driver’s side, starting it, I lay there like a limp noodle, too stunned to react.
“Sutton? Talk to me, baby girl,” he demands. “Can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
My teeth chatter as the adrenaline wears off.
“I-I suddenly realized what an easy target I was. It scared the crap out of me and everything in me was screaming for me to get out.” My body begins to warm as the heater is turned on full blast and Gemini rubs his hands all over me, the friction from his touch easing the cold that once felt bone deep.
“If someone had their scope on me, they could’ve taken me out with one press of a button. ”
“You mean if he pulled the trigger?” a random voice asks, one I don’t recognize so I lift my head and take a peek.
Tucking my nose into Gemini’s neck, I ask, “Who’s that?”