Chapter 2 #2
“Why?” I ask and she immediately shuts down.
She stands up. “That’s not important. What is important is that you expect me to believe your brothers would want peace with us.
I can’t just let you go, and I’m not ready to stick my neck out for a meeting yet.
” She turns to look at me. “Don’t make me regret not killing you.
” She walks to the table, laying her knife down before walking to the door; she turns one last time.
“Even though that’s not completely off the table. ”
The door clicks behind her, and I let my breath out in a whoosh.
Everything I told her is true. Evander and Mateo are nothing like Frankie, and I don’t even know the man personally.
I only regret the hurt in her eyes when she found out who I really am.
If I get out of this alive, I’m killing Evander and Mateo for talking me into this shit.
I don’t know how long I stay like that before I hear the door click back open, and Ryder steps through the door. My shoulders are screaming from being stretched out so far, and my fingers are numb from how tightly my hands are wrapped together.
He walks over, stopping right in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes are narrowed, and he looks fucking terrifying.
He’s about two inches taller than my six-foot-one, but he’s twice my size.
My brothers showed me everything they know about fighting styles and guns, but I wasn’t raised for this. Ryder was.
“I wanted to kill you on the spot,” he says, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
“She didn’t.” I don’t need him to clarify who ‘she’ is.
I don’t say anything because I can tell he has more to say.
He steps closer, and I see murder in his dark eyes.
Reaching over, he releases the chain holding me up; the sudden release has me hitting my knees on the concrete floor.
I grit my teeth so I don’t make a noise, which is what he wanted.
He squats down in front of me so I look into his eyes. “You better not be lying to her or your brothers,” he spits the word, “are as good as dead. Along with you.”
He unhooks the longest chain, jerks me up by my still tied arms, and drags me through a long hallway, going through several doors.
I don’t fight him because there is no point.
He would put a bullet through my brain with one of the Glocks hanging in the holster over his shoulders and deal with her wrath later.
What the hell is this place?
We finally come out in a room that looks like a wine cellar before stepping into a huge kitchen.
He continues through the kitchen before taking a left into another hallway, shoving me into a room under the stairs with the door open.
I stumble and then right myself. Now I’m starting to get pissed off.
He laughs. “There’s that backbone, pussy boy.” He points to the chair in the corner, where Alessa is waiting. “One hair on her head gets harmed, and I’ll cut you into little pieces.” He laughs again and shuts the door.
She motions to the bed. “Sit.” I sit down, and she comes over to unlock the chain around my arms. I rub them to get the feeling back.
“You’re going to call your brothers. You’ll tell them you’re staying with me at my beach house for a couple of days.
Keep it on speakerphone. If you try to tell them what’s going on or I even sniff out a code word,” she pulls a Glock from the back of her jeans, “I will end you.”
She hands me my phone with her other hand before sitting back down in the chair, the gun lying on her thigh aimed casually at me.
I pull up Evander’s number, dial it, and flip it to speakerphone. He’s my best option not to say something stupid like Mateo would. Evander is the oldest and, mostly, the more mature of the two.
“Hello?” he answers on the second ring.
“What’s up, bro?” I ask in my most ‘I haven’t just been kidnapped’ voice.
“Just got back in. Where are you?”
“I’m staying with Alessa for the next couple of days,” I tell him and close my eyes.
Please don’t say something to get me killed. Please don’t say something to get me killed.
He chuckles. “Are you now?” I hear him relay the message, knowing he just told Mateo.
Mateo’s voice filters through the line. “Damn. Pussy that good?”
Fuck. I look over at Alessa, and she raises an eyebrow.
“Shut up,” Evander growls to Mateo, and I could fucking kiss him. “Keep in touch, brother.”
“Will do,” I tell him and hang up, laying the phone in Alessa’s outstretched hand.
“That’s all it took?” she asks skeptically.
“I’m not a prisoner there. I told you they aren’t like Frankie.”
“That remains to be seen,” she retorts, jamming the gun into the back of her jeans. “You have a bathroom, and I brought you some of Gage’s clothes because they’re the closest to your size.” She walks to the door and opens it.
“Alessa,” I say softly before she can step through. “I’m not lying to you. I do love you.”
She turns back with sadness in her eyes. “I wish I could believe you.”
She walks out, shutting the door behind her. I can hear the lock click into place from the outside.
I flop back onto the bed in my newly found jail cell. It’s a standard room, except there are no windows or way of escape. It could be worse. They could have left me in the cold basement.
Small favors.
Now I just need to find a way to make her believe me. I already decided I’m not letting this girl get away from me, even if she just had me tied up in a basement.
Of all the scenarios we ran through when we made this plan, this wasn’t one of them.
Evander talked to someone and got some makeup to keep my tattoo covered until we were ready to tell her.
I got the tattoo almost a month before I met her; we all three had them now.
It was our way of embracing the change in the Perez family.
I had been helping out at one of the restaurants today and lost track of time, leaving just enough time to shower, get dressed, and run out of the house.
I have never seen so much hurt and betrayal in someone’s eyes before.
I wasn’t the type of person who went around purposely hurting someone.
Seeing that in Alessa’s eyes with whatever haunted look came along with it broke me.
I’ve been begging my brothers for a month to let me tell her the truth, and they kept saying it wasn’t time.
It looks like it was time, after all.
It also looks like it might be my time to leave this world.
Violently.