14. Dahlia
“Is that him?”I asked.
“Yup,” Drake said, then sipped his coffee.
After being in the quiet and laid-back areas of Europe and Haiti, the hustle and bustle of America was a bit jarring. Around us, hundreds of students milled about with backpacks and laptop bags. Some of them tossed frisbees and footballs back and forth, while many more sat around, faces buried in phones or computers, working outdoors on the beautiful sunny day.
Drake and I had made our way into the port in Savannah and managed to get into the country without trouble. Customs and processing was much less stringent than flight, and within twenty minutes, we’d made our way deeper into the city to the college Owen’s nephew, Blaine, attended. After stopping to grab lunch, we then camped out near the open-air park that sat opposite frat row, and waited.
The young man I’d pointed out looked just like the picture Drake had shown me from his files. He was jogging to catch up to a group of students, his blond hair bouncing and his bright white teeth shining. The guy looked like he should be on a fucking tooth paste commercial. He had no idea the shit storm that was about to descend upon him.
“What’s the plan?” I asked, eyeing Blaine as he strolled along with his friends.
“We follow him. It’s Friday, so there will probably be a party of some sort this evening. That’s where we make our move.” He turned and looked at me, a mischievous look in his eyes. “How are you at flirting?”
Drake had purchased me my own burner phone as soon as we’d gotten away from the dock, and now he left me to go run some errands as he called it, leaving me to watch the kid. Drake and I were wanted people, so we both wore baseball caps and sunglasses. Drake had let his facial hair grow out more, and I’d trimmed my hair so that I could shove it fully under the cap. It was the best we could do for disguises, but honestly, I thought it would be fine. In my experience, people were mostly oblivious to what was going on around them. All we really had to do was not draw attention to ourselves and we’d be safe.
The kid was a stereotypical college student. Going to classes then to the campus cafeteria for food, hanging with friends. After a few hours it was getting boring. Blaine also had what I called a punchable face. A pretty boy who knew he was pretty. There was a sense of privilege that he exuded as he walked around campus. Even from the distance I was keeping, I could see the swagger and cockiness oozing out of him. Part of me wondered if he was just like his uncle, a sadistic prick, or if he was simply exuding the same snotty attitude that frat boys who thought their shit didn’t stink all had. I’d seen enough of their kind in the diner in my old life to know their kind.
Drake texted me late in the afternoon and we met up after Blaine had gone back to his frat house to get ready for whatever evening festivities were in order. He approached and handed me a bag with a burger and fries, as well as a large soda. He sat beside me at the picnic table and sighed.
“Everything okay?” I asked as I tore into the burger.
“All good. I needed to get some stuff to take care of Mr. College Boy here later. Had to use one of my office partner’s prescription ID numbers to get what I needed at a local pharmacy. There were cameras there, but we should be gone before anyone realizes what happened.”
“What the hell did you need?”
He unzipped his backpack and showed me a hypodermic needle in a paper and plastic package. Inside the syringe, a clear liquid sloshed gently. “A little something to put our boy to sleep.”
“What if he doesn’t leave tonight?” I asked. “What then?”
Drake slid a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Found that stapled to a light pole downtown. I doubt our boy will miss it.”
It was a flier for a party. Apparently all the frats and sororities were throwing some big shindig that night. The description said there would be a DJ, as well as a bunch of food trucks and other stuff. It did sound like a college kid’s dream night.
“What do we do now then?” I said, handing the paper back and returning to my dinner.
“Once you’re done, we walk back to the docks, and try to get a quick nap in, then come back for the party.”
I popped a fry into my mouth and nodded to the plastic shopping bag Drake had tied to his backpack. “Do I want to know what that is?”
He smiled. “A slutty little number I picked up for you. For tonight.”
“Sweet fuck.” I groaned and bit into my burger.
Five hours later I stood in the commons of the college, music thumping around the entire area, the starlight above drowned by flashing laser lights, strobe lights, and a few firepits. College kids gyrated against one another in time to the music. There’d been no mention of alcohol, but I spied at least a dozen kegs stuffed into huge bins of ice.
It took all I had not to feel self-conscious. It wasn’t the people, most were just a year or two younger than me. It was the shit I was wearing. Drake had purchased a skimpy halter top that was covered in sequins, and just barely kept my tits covered. That, along with a tiny mini skirt that let the bottom of my ass cheeks show, I felt more like a prostitute than a college student. Though, he was probably on to something. I kept spotting guys giving me hungry looks.
Drake was moving through the party as well, but his older age made it harder to fit in, and he told me he’d be keeping an eye on me from the periphery. That was fine, but I still had to seduce the little fucker.
Speaking of, he came walking out of his frat house just as I was thinking about him, as though called down by some malevolent god who wanted to see destruction, and had basically pushed the fast forward button on this little movie.
Blaine was flanked by three other men of closely the same age. He wore khakis, boat shoes, and a button up that was only buttoned to the bottom of his sternum to show off the scrawny muscles of his chest. He had nothing like Drake’s powerful and muscular frame.
Not wanting to drag this out, I moved straight toward him. The sooner we did this the better. Blaine spotted me from nearly a hundred feet away. Along with the clothes, I’d done my makeup to be as sultry as possible. I’d done all I could to make myself look as appealing to the horny college guy as I could.
“Well hey there,” Blaine said with a cocky smile. “What’s your name, pretty lady?”
His buddy shuffled off, sniggering as they went. I smiled at Blaine, and leaned forward to be heard above the music. “I’m Dahlia. You’re Blaine, right? We have class together. Don’t you remember?”
He frowned, then snapped his fingers as if making a realization. “American Philosophy? Is that it?”
American Philosophy?God he was a self-indulgent prick.
I smiled wider and put a hand on his chest. “Oh my god, yes! I didn’t know if you recognized me.”
Taking my hand on his chest as an offering for closeness, he pressed himself against me. “I’d have a hard time forgetting you.” He leaned down, putting his lips to my ear. “If you don’t mind me saying, you’re fucking hot, babe.”
Lowering my voice to sound as sexy as possible, I ran a hand up the back of his neck and into his hair. “God, I’ve been thinking about sucking your cock since the first day you walked into class. Let’s get out of here, so you can shove that big fat dick down my throat.”
Blaine jerked his head back, but rather than looking horrified or surprised, the look of excited desire was obvious in his eyes.
“Are you fucking serious?” he asked with a grin.
I swallowed my pride and decided to go for an Oscar worthy performance, and ran a hand down to his crotch, rubbing at the quickly hardening penis in his pants. “Are you gonna make me wait for it? Maybe, if it’s as big as I think it is, I’ll let you fuck my ass later tonight too.”
Without even answering me, Blaine grabbed my hand and hurried to lead me through the party toward a dark alleyway between the frat houses. He moved fast, and I had to almost run to keep up with him. I tried looking around to see if I could spot Drake but there was too much going on. A laser light swung around from the stage the DJ was working on, blinding me, and by the time I blinked away the light, I was already in the alley.
“Are you gonna suck me good, baby?” Blaine asked as he began to unzip his pants. “Do you spit or swallow? I’m cool either way, as long as I can come in your mouth.”
Putting my faith in Drake, I stayed in character and prayed he’d get here in time.
“Oh baby, I love a good frat boy milkshake,” I cooed at him.
“Holy fuck,” Blaine said with a laugh. “You’re like out of a dream.”
He reached in and pulled his rock-hard cock free. I glanced down, not surprised to see how small it was. Any fucking time now, Drake, I thought to myself as I lowered myself to my knees. I’d sliced men’s cocks off with my bare hands, so this wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever done.
Stalling for time, I wrapped my hand around it, and suppressed a shudder of revulsion before beginning to stroke him. “Do you like that?” I asked.
Blaine had his head thrown back, eyes closed. “Jesus Christ, put it in your mouth. Suck it, you whore. Suck it.”
Like an avenging ghost, a dark shadow appeared from behind Blaine. A hand lashed out, wrapping around his neck. A needle flashed, piercing Blaine’s arm a moment before he began to grunt in surprise.
I released his pathetic cock and stood, wiping my hand on my skirt as though I’d been touching dog shit. Blaine struggled and fought against Drake as he dragged him back, further into the darkness. The man’s struggles weakened quickly as whatever Drake had injected him with took effect. By the time we reached the other side of the buildings, Blaine was a limp rag in Drake’s arms.
“Hey? What the hell are you guys doing?” a voice called out.
I spun and found two men, college students from the look of them, walking toward us, looks of worry and confusion on their faces.
“My boyfriend is a lightweight,” I said. “We’re getting him back home.”
The men laughed, shaking their heads as they walked past us. I let a sigh tremble out of my chest and followed Drake as he dragged Blaine to a parking lot. I kept glancing around, terrified that a campus police officer, who would be less gullible, might walk by.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“That SUV over there,” Drake grunted. “It’s our boy’s car. I pulled up his registration online and found his tag number. Found it earlier today when I was gone. Help me.”
I put Blaine’s other arm around my shoulders to help Drake with the weight while he dug into the man’s pockets until he found the keys and opened the back hatch. In only a few seconds we had him shoved in the back. With quick, practiced hands, Drake pulled zip ties from his left pocket and bound the young man. From his right, he pulled a bandana and tied it around Blaine’s mouth, gagging him. While he did that, I searched Blaine’s other pockets until I pulled out his phone.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” He reached up to close the rear hatch.
“Wait,” I said, stopping him. “Let’s get a picture first.”
I snapped a shot of Blaine tied and gagged in the back hatch, then another close up of his face, as well as a picture of his ID from the wallet we found in his back pocket. After that, we closed the hatch and climbed into the car.
In the car, lights off, and cloaked again in shadows, Drake put a hand out. “Let me see the phone.”
I handed it to him, knowing what he was about to do. He skimmed the contacts until he found the one he was looking for. Uncle Owen.
“Let’s see how he likes this,” Drake said through gritted teeth and began typing out a message:
You fuck with my family? I fuck with yours. I wonder how much he’ll scream before we’re done with him.
He then attached all the pics I took and sent it before handing the phone back to me. “We’ll see how he responds to that.”
“Where to now? We can’t just drive around with him back there,” I said, nodding back toward the unconscious Blaine. “Even tied up, he’ll make a hell of a lot of racket.”
“Can’t go back to the boat. It’s too small,” Drake said. “Only option I know of is to go to my parents’ house. They have one in Savannah. It’ll, uh, I guess it’ll be unoccupied now.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
Another house? My god, how much money did these people have? I wondered at the sheer amount of wealth Drake had as he drove away from the college. The entire trip he stayed three miles an hour below the limit, used his turn signals more than necessary, and stopped for a solid three seconds at each stop sign. The last thing we needed with a tied-up body in the back of our car was to get pulled over for something stupid.
By the time we arrived at the house, I was getting tired. The high of kidnapping Blaine had sent a surge of adrenaline through me, but now that was wearing off, leaving me to suffer the crash. Though my eyes did widen as we came to the ornate wrought iron gate in a very swanky part of town. Like Charleston and New Orleans, Savannah was one of the oldest towns in the country, and it looked like it. The piece of property we pulled into looked like it had been pulled out of a book about the Reconstruction era south. Oak trees draped with Spanish moss lined a two-hundred-yard-long driveway that led to a massive house that would have looked at home in some epic movie like Gone with the Wind or something. My mouth hung open as we pulled up to the circular parking area in front of the entry door.
My initial shock at the grandeur of the place was pushed away as I spotted signs of neglect. The grass was extra shaggy, and the garden beds were more unkempt than they should have been. Drake noticed too. He stared out the windshield at it all with a pensive look on his face.
“He must have had them for a while,” Drake whispered, not taking his eyes off the grounds. “Maybe weeks.”
“Come on, let’s go inside,” I said, trying to get his mind off of it. “Can we leave Blaine here?”
Drake seemed to shake himself out of whatever awful thoughts he was having and nodded. “He should be out for at least another thirty minutes if I estimated his weight correctly. Let’s find a spot for him.”
We got out of the car, and I took his hand as he led me up the walkway to the front door. In another situation, I’d have felt like a princess. Her prince escorting her to his castle to live happily ever after. Instead? We were nothing but animals being hunted and searching for a safe haven.
“How soon until Owen makes the connection?” I asked.
“It’ll take him a bit, I think,” Drake said, punching in the lock code on the front door. “He’ll assume we took Blaine and ran. He wouldn’t think we’d stay in Savannah. At least not at first. We should have a day or two at most. We’ll have to think of a new location if we don’t end this soon.”
He opened the door to a massive and sweeping staircase, marble floors, and an ornate hanging chandelier.
“A little dumpy, but I guess I can handle this for a couple of days,” I said sarcastically.
“No need to be a smart ass. Let’s grab Blaine. We’ll put him in the den.”
As we went back and hauled the limp body from the car, I glanced around the darkened grounds, and a chill went up my spine. It was so big, and so dark. Anything could be hiding in the shadows. After dragging the body inside and closing the door behind us, I breathed a sigh of relief, finally letting my guard down for the first time since we stepped off the boat earlier that day.