Chapter 14 #3
“Sure, but, if she just sent him away and didn’t take care of it permanently, at some point in time he’s coming after his property. Jesus, what a fool.”
“You?” she asked suddenly.
“No, not me,” he snapped, jumping up and standing over her, glaring. “I’m not a fool.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know what you were saying.”
“Damn it. The only reason I stayed with her as long as I did was because she could give me a damn roof over my head, a place to rest while I figured out my next move,” he shared. “I have no intention of staying beyond that. She’s nothing but a whiny bitch anyway.”
“If she tried to steal property from her nephew, that would definitely qualify.”
He stared at her and then nodded. “Unless the nephew is dead.”
She frowned at him, hoping to appear confused.
“I mean, if he’s not dead yet, he could always get that way.”
“And then what? How do you get the property in your name when it’s probably already bequeathed to somebody else?”
“Well shit,” he muttered. “I don’t know. I don’t know how that shit works.” He raised both hands. “I don’t worry about legalities. It’s just a really crappy time right now.” She didn’t say anything, but, as she shifted to try to get more comfortable, he glared at her. “Don’t try any funny stuff.”
She froze. “I was just trying to ease my back.”
He shrugged. “I don’t give a shit about your back. If you give me a reason, you’ll be sorry.”
That look in his eyes she’d seen before.
It was that conviction that suggested he was prepared to do anything he needed to do, and that was frightening.
He just didn’t have a plan formulated in his mind as to what that would entail, which made him infinitely more dangerous than a lot of people out there.
She waited while he paced the apartment, until finally he turned to her and announced, “I need a way out of town.”
She blinked at him. “Don’t you have a vehicle you can just drive away in?”
“I don’t have any money to leave,” he spat.
She stared at him. “Can’t you just ask her for some money?”
“She doesn’t have any more,” he declared. “That’s why she’s hassling her daughter for the student loan.”
The fact that he didn’t even understand how student loans worked and thought that $50,000 would just be handed over in one lump sum in the form of cash and would still be here after four or so years of school was unbelievable.
At least it had never worked that way in Lindsey’s state when she’d gone to school.
Maybe for him it was that simple, but it just didn’t make any sense for a government body nor a financial institution to do that.
She wasn’t sure what else to say, so she remained quiet. She closed her eyes against the building pain in her arms and her head. When her legs were kicked hard, she cried out.
“Yeah, I don’t like it when people sleep around me.”
She muttered, “My arms are sore.”
“That’s nice, and I really don’t give a shit.”
She could see he really didn’t, and, as far as he was concerned, this was all about him. She needed to find a way to help him get out of town. Otherwise she couldn’t even imagine what kind of chaos he would leave in his wake.
“I need Chelsea here to give me that money.”
“What money?” Lindsey cried out. “There isn’t any money. We went through all that.”
“She better fucking find some then, hadn’t she? I was told she had money. That’s all I need to hear. She has money, and I need it. End of story.”
The fact that he couldn’t get it through his head that there wasn’t any cash money was terrifying enough.
That he thought just badgering Chelsea into giving it to him was the answer was completely wrong.
She didn’t even bother to tell him that what he was doing was just awful because he didn’t care.
As far as he was concerned, Chelsea had money, and she was holding out.
He looked at her and added, “I don’t even know for sure that you’re telling the truth. Maybe you’re the one who’s full of shit and telling me lies.”
“What lies? I haven’t told you anything more than what a quick Google search would tell you.”
He didn’t say anything about that either. “If it’s that easy, why wouldn’t her mom have mentioned something?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered, feeling tired, worn out, yet still so terrified and not sure how this would end. She needed to stay somewhat calm and stable, but she really just wanted to scream.
What she did know was that, if she didn’t have some answers soon, she wasn’t sure what would happen.
Given how unpredictable he was right now, she couldn’t begin to presume how he would react to somebody else showing up.
She was hopeful that Chelsea was safely a long distance away.
That was an even more terrifying thought, especially considering how he seemed to blame her for whatever was going on.
Then there was always Sterling.
If Chelsea had been tipped off before walking in here, hopefully she would have contacted Sterling because right now Lindsey needed to believe somebody out there would help her.
She couldn’t imagine all those years in foster care, where Sterling had held out hope that somebody would be there for him eventually.
Here Lindsay was, only a few minutes in this trauma, and all she could think about was the fact that nobody knew she was here.
If Chelsea really had been spooked and had left as her captor had suggested, hopefully she put two and two together that Lindsey would encounter Charlie.
Otherwise, chances were, nobody would get here before this stupid guy did something crazy.
Then she heard it, an odd noise, not so much a creak, but something off, something she’d heard a couple times before—that odd clink in Sterling’s prosthetic.
Relief flooded her body, followed by fear.
Not only was help close by, it was in the form of Sterling.
But did he realize how much danger they were both in right now?
Because, if he was coming, was he coming alone, or would there be a group rescue?
And, if there was a rescue, she needed it to happen soon, as in right now. Just as she was wondering whether somebody was out there, her captor stood up and started pacing.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you now,” he muttered. “That’s the bigger problem.”
“You can just let me go,” she repeated. “I can’t even see you anyway.”
“You say that now,” he replied, “and then you turn around in a court of law and try to nail my ass. The one thing I do know is that I won’t be locked up again.”
At the word again, she froze, wondering just what the hell he’d been in prison for in the first place.
He turned to her and shook his head. “No way, I can’t just let you go. Sorry, sweetheart, but that’s just not happening.” She didn’t say anything, just nodded slowly, as he sighed and continued. “If things were different maybe but not now. I can’t do this anymore.”
She stared at him in confusion and, damn, if he didn’t pull a small handgun from his pocket. She stared at it in shock, and he nodded. “I mean, it’s not like I have a choice,” he said apologetically.
She cried out, “Of course you have a choice. There’s always a choice.”
“Not if you don’t have any money to get me out of town.
If I can’t get out of town, that means I’m stuck, and, if I’m stuck, people will pay.
Rest assured it won’t be me.” He looked down at the small gun and added, “At one point in time, I promised myself I would never be in a position to do this again,” he shared. “and look at me.”
“You don’t have to do this right now,” she wailed.
He looked at her with half a smile and shrugged. “No, but maybe I want to.”
And then she realized it was just all BS anyway. She stared at him, torn, and then looked around frantically, as if looking for anything that would get her out of this situation.
“Nobody is here to rescue you, sorry,” he said. “You really should pick better friends.”
He held the gun out in front of him, then looked at it and frowned. “Damn, that’ll make way too much noise.”
She didn’t know what to say to that because she had no experience as to what noise it would make in the first place. She just knew that she didn’t want anything to do with it.
He looked at her with a small smile and said, “Stand up. I’ll take you down to the parking lot. It’ll just sound like a backfire down there.” Dumbly, she just looked at him, and he yelled at her, “Get up. Just stand up.”
She struggled to her feet, but they were tied too. “If you want me to walk, you have untie my legs.”
He stared down at the ties and groaned. “Yeah, I guess I do at that. But if you move or try anything, I’ll backhand you so hard it will break your neck. So keep that in mind before you do something stupid.”
She couldn’t imagine that anybody would consider trying to save her own life as stupid, but, from her perspective, he was completely disconnected from reality.
He bent down, quickly untied her legs, and then shoved her forward. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” she asked.
“Out to the parking lot. I already told you that. Don’t be dense.”
She moved ever-so-slowly, trying to get the blood back into her feet. When he kicked her hard in the back of her leg, she crumpled to the ground again, and he swore.
“Get up, you idiot,” he yelled. “Now we have to go.”
“What do you mean, we have to go?” she asked, as she struggled to her feet again. “I’ve been sitting there for so long that I have to get the blood moving back in my legs,” she snapped. “My feet are completely numb.”
He stared at her and then laughed. “I like spirit in my women. Maybe I should keep you for a little bit.”
When she heard those words, her stomach started to heave.
He laughed. “You throw up on me, and you’ll be sorry.”