25. Char
CHAR
“Char.”
My neck hurt as I tried picking my head up.
“Char, take my hand.”
I groaned as I cleared my throat. “Dallas?”
“Char, look at me.”
I turned toward the sound of his voice. “Dallas, is that you?”
Relief flushed its way through my veins, but only for a millisecond. Because when his hand came down around my ankle, panic gripped my throat. My body slid against the floor. Even if I wanted to cry out, terror had me in its claws.
Deacon’s face showcased the bowels of Hell itself as Dallas tossed me over his shoulder.
“Dallas, please,” I whimpered.
“Shut up,” he glowered.
Oh God, they’re going to kill me.
I had no more fight left in my body. My head ached. My neck felt swollen. My arm still burned as if it were on fire. I dangled there, swinging from Dallas’s shoulder like a piece of body jewelry.
I guess, in a way, I sort of gave up.
I mean, even if I got away from them, what the hell was I going to do? I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t have a vehicle to get anywhere. For all I knew, we were hours away from my apartment with no hope of ever returning.
If I wanted to get back to my life, I had to play nice.
I watched the steps pass us by. Up we rose, with beige carpet the color of sand passing through my field of vision. I had no clue how many fucking steps we walked up, but when the carpeted floor gave way to hardwood steps, the smell was unmistakable.
They were taking me into an attic.
“Please, Dallas, I’m sorry. I let my paranoia get to me. I shouldn’t?—”
“No,” he said as he placed me down, “you shouldn’t have. Now, stand there and arms up.”
I furrowed my brow. “What?”
Deacon appeared behind me and forced my arms up. “Up. Now.”
I tried to pull away from him, but Dallas pinned me to… fucking hell, I don’t even know what. The clinking of metal sounded as Dallas stretched upward. I tried to move my body, but every time that I did, I found a new pain that ricocheted through my bones.
And when they were done, both Dallas and Deacon returned to my view.
“Well, well, well,” Deacon said as he crossed his arms over his chest, “look at what the cat dragged in.”
I slowly looked up and found chains securing my wrists to something above my head. A blinding light beat down against my face, drowning out most of my surroundings. I cowered away from its harsh presence. The pain in my neck trickled down my spine, and it grew hard to keep my mind focused.
“Where—where am I?” I asked.
“Well, at least we found her phone.”
I peeked down at my chest and found the corner of it protruding from my bra.
“I’ll take that, thanks,” Deacon said as he pulled it out.
“Hey! Give that back!” I exclaimed.
I tried moving toward him, but I found that my ankles had been bound, too. I looked down at the shackles around them as tears flooded my cheeks.
Oh God, I was in so much trouble.
“You know, you’ve got some good memes on here,” Deacon said as he leaned against the wall opposite of my body. “Nice sense of humor.”
“How the hell did you figure out my fucking code?”
He snickered. “Birthdate is the first thing we try. You should be a little more creative next time.”
“And how the fuck do you know that?”
“Employee files,” Dallas said flatly.
I looked over at him as tears flooded my neck. “I’m so sorry.”
He nodded. “You should be.”
“Oh, ho ho! A bikini shot!” Deacon exclaimed as he pushed off the wall. “Wanna see, Dallas?”
“Don’t you dare!” I exclaimed. “Those are private!”
Deacon shoved the phone in front of Dallas’s face, but he looked away. “Just delete the recording and give her the damn phone back.”
Deacon snickered as his finger danced along my phone screen. “Must be good pussy if I can’t get you to have some fun with her.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I hissed.
He peeked up at me from my phone and his gaze grew cold. “You should’ve been a good girl the first time around, little one. I’m not known for my patience.”
Then, he picked up his thumb and dramatically pressed the screen.
Before the recording filled the spaces between the three of us.
“All of them? Every single one? Are you sure he didn’t leave one untouched?
Shit, this isn’t good. Did he do anything else?
Say anything else? The payment cleared? It wasn’t stopped in any way?
Okay, we’ll have to leave that alone for now, just in case.
I know, I know, the guys are gonna be pissed, but we don’t have any other choice.
For now, we put our plans on hold until the heat dies down on Doc.
We stick to the renovations, focus on the grand reopening of the bar, and nothing else.
By then, we should be good to do some digging before we contact Doc again. ”
Dallas’s heavy sigh told me everything I needed to know as the recording filled the attic.
I was a dead woman.
“Now,” Deacon said as he erased the recording, “what might happen if I factory reset your phone?”
“Don’t do that. I’m serious,” I said.
Deacon tilted his head. “Because I know enough about technology to know that deleting this recording isn’t completely permanent.”
I let my panic get the better of me. “Deacon, please.”
He paused. “Oh, she begs.”
He walked up to me and stood so close that I felt his body heat reaching out for mine.
“Let’s see if you can do it again,” he said.
He turned the phone around for me to see and there it was.
In black and white. And red, too. The factory reset button.
The one thing standing in between me, and the rest of my life being obliterated before my eyes.
No more pictures of Mom. No more vacation snapshots to look back on.
I’d never once backed any of it up. Not the photos.
Not the voicemails I’d saved. God, what kind of daughter was I?
I couldn’t lose Mom’s voice.
“P—please, Deacon,” I said as the tears struck up again, “it won’t happen again. I won’t do it. I just—don’t. Don’t do that. Please. It’s—it’s all I’ve got of them. Of Mom.”
“See, I really want to believe you,” he said.
“Take out the SIM card!” I damn near barked. “Crush it. Wipe my downloads. My archives. But, please, don’t factory reset it. I’m so sorry. Please. It won’t happen again. Just—don’t take her from me. Don’t take my mom from me. Please. Not again.”
My entire jaw quivered as he bent down, locking his stare with mine. I hated how scared I felt. How helpless I had become.
It made me feel like that stranded little girl again from my childhood.
“Please,” I whispered as tears flooded my lips.
I had to gain control. I had to focus. I couldn’t allow myself to spin any further out of control.
I focused on his beard. So soft, with every hair exactly in place.
The lines along his face, trimmed to perfection to separate his smooth, impeccable skin from the rough, rugged outlines of his facial hair.
The sides of his head were freshly shaved, gleaming beneath the harsh light that his body blocked.
I lost myself in a wisp of hair that fell against his forehead.
Deacon’s chuckle pulled me back to reality, though. “And what do I get if I do as you ask?”
I swallowed hard. “Huh?”
He grinned wickedly. “If I do as you ask, what do I get in return? How much are your memories worth?”
“Deac,” Dallas said curtly.
He didn’t budge, though. All he did was let his finger hover over that red button as he held the full force of my mental health in his hands.
Char, why the fuck don’t you ever back up your goddamn phone, you lazy, stupid son of a bitch?
“Answer me, little one,” he glowered.
I saw his finger flinch and I caved. “Me.”
Deacon blinked, and I knew I had his attention.
“Delete the recording. Go into the hard files of my phone and delete all downloads. I’m sorry, I never should’ve taken it. But, if you don’t reset my phone, you can have me.”
It was the only thing I thought of that was of any worth.
I didn’t own jewelry. I didn’t have money.
There were no designer clothes to pawn off.
No family to exploit. No vehicle to sell and pay them off.
All I had was my phone, eight-year-old laptop that somehow was still trucking, and my body.
A body I had used a long time ago to navigate my way through the world.
And with the way Deacon licked his lips, I knew I had struck a chord.
My body quivered as he lowered the cell phone. He pressed the home button and I sighed with relief before he closed the distance between our bodies. His warmth relaxed me. Goddamn it, the hold these men had over me was so confusing. And alluring. And tactile. And feral.
His heart beat against the tip of my nose as he wrapped his arm around me and slid my cell phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
Before he gripped my chin between his fingers and tilted my gaze to meet his. “I’ll be back after my meeting, little one.”
Wait, he was going to leave me here?
“Please, don’t go,” I said.
Deacon took a step back from me. “You really do beg so beautifully, Char.”
I struggled to catch my breath. “Dallas, tell him. I won’t go anywhere. I won’t cause any more trouble.”
He simply shrugged, though. “Maybe if you hadn’t pulled what you did this morning, I’d be more inclined to help.”
That caught Deacon’s attention. “The hell did she do?”
I pleaded with my eyes. I had no more words. My tears choked off my ability to speak, and I begged any God watching for some sort of reprieve.
But, there was no god watching over me. There never had been.
“Remember our plan to give up some information to shut her up?” Dallas asked.
My brow furrowed tightly. “Your—your plan?”
Deacon nodded, though. “Yeah, I take it that didn’t go over well this morning?”
“Wait, what we did was just… a plan?”
My head spun with so many things as Dallas turned to Deacon. “When I told her that the DEA came in to check things out that first time around that they didn’t stick around for long, nor did they come back.”
“And?” Deacon growled.
My body went limp as Dallas sealed my fate. “And she accused me and the crew of selling drugs. She figured we chased the DEA out of town because we were peddling the drugs they were looking for.”
I hung my head and waited for my death. It was the only other logical conclusion.
They weren’t going to let me live. Whatever the hell they were doing, it wasn’t good.
I should’ve never started this. I should’ve listened to Miss Lilly.
I should’ve run for the hills, just like I did after that trial, and I should have never looked back.
Deac gripped my chin and picked my head back up. “I’ll deal with you later. Dallas?”
“Yep?”
“Let’s go.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” I exclaimed as the two of them retreated. “I’ll do anything! Anything! Don’t leave me here, please!”
“Turn off the light,” Deacon commanded.
“No! Not the dark! I hate the dark! Please!”
“Let’s go,” Dallas said after the light disappeared.
“Deacon! Dallas! Pleeeeeeeease!”
And as I yanked at my chains, trying to set myself free, a door thudded closed off in the distance. Leaving me alone. In an attic. In the middle of God-only-knows where. In the dark.
Just like the basement Daddy always locked me in whenever I was being bad.
Goddamn it, I hate the fucking dark.