Authors: Sarah Dosher
“I will get her back, and if anyone so much as touches a single hair on her head, they will pay.”
We stood, toe to toe, until he nodded once.
Tony didn’t seem surprised to see me when he entered the visiting area.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“Who?”
“Don’t fucking play games with me, damnit! Who took her?”
His eyes grew large as he shook his head. “I don’t know, Deac. She was here, but she left hours ago.”
“What did she want? Why would she come see you?”
“She was asking about you, said you were unhappy about something, and she wanted me to help her figure out what. I really don’t have a clue what she wanted, I told her to leave and never come back.”
“That better be the truth, I’ll fucking kill you if you’ve gotten her hurt!” Shaw yelled.
“Calm down, you’re gonna get us kicked outta here.” I told him as two guards moved closer to us.
“I swear, Deac, I have no idea what happened to her. She wasn’t here very long before I told her to leave, all we talked about was you. That chick cares about you something fierce, she was just sniffin’ for insights I didn’t give her. Told her we were even, and I didn’t owe either of ya a thing, then she left.”
“What did your guy see?” I asked Shaw.
“She ditched him at the parking garage at Savage Man, he lost her. Then we tracked her cell phone here. He got here just in time to see one of Vito’s guys snatch her by her car.”
“Vito?” Tony whispered.
“Are you sure it was Vito’s guys?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s sure. One of the same guys he saw when you guys were here last time. He knows Vito’s guys, if he says it was, then it was.”
We both looked back at Tony, who immediately threw his hands up defensively.
“Hey, don’t look at me, I haven’t seen Vito since the last mess. I gave up on that shit then. I ain’t got nothing to do with this.”
“What about Angela? She still messin’ in Vito’s business?”
“No man, she ain’t. She’s gone, outta town ‘til I decide she comes back, and I don’t even like that you asked shit like that. Don’t be trying to blame your problems on my family.”
“Fuck you, Tony, don’t act like you’re high and mighty now. You fucked over Eli and I last time, why wouldn’t I think you have again?” I reminded him.
“Last time was a mistake, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Wrong place, wrong time my ass. Angela called me, said she’d fucked up and needed my help. You expect me to believe that shit wasn’t planned?”
“If shit was, I wasn’t the one doin’ the plannin’.” Tony snapped. “You seem to think I want your ass in the middle of my business, but I can set that shit straight right now, I don’t want you anywhere near it. Thought you’d know that by now. I fuckin’ put my ass in this shithole for you, and now you think I’d try to send trouble after you. Fuck you, man.”
“Both of you shut the fuck up, we’ve got bigger problems than which of you loves the other most. Vito took Elizabeth, and right now it doesn’t matter whose fault it is, it only matters how we’re going to get her back before they hurt her.” Shaw said.
“The last thing Vito will do is hurt her, he wants something from her—I’m assuming money. So the last thing he’s going to do is hurt her. But you guys need to get outta here, I’m betting it won’t be long before you hear his demands.” Tony added as he stood. “When you get her back, tell her…never mind, just find her ass, okay? And Deac, when you do, don’t ever let her go again, ya feel me?”
I nodded.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eli Blue
It was completely dark and smelled like something had died and was rotting in the warm afternoon air. I didn’t have a clue where I was, and part of me didn’t want to know. Laying on my side, curled into a ball with my knees pushed into my chest and my hands tied under my legs, wasn’t the most comfortable position, but I figured it could get a lot worse than this.
I knew I should be scared, but I wasn’t. My dad’s music was filtering through my ears, bringing a sense of solace and calm with it. If I ever had a doubt they knew who my dad was, that had long since disappeared. A sharp pain shot down my right arm, through my leg, and finally swirled into my toes, but I closed my eyes and pictured my dad singing to me in his soft, aching voice. The sound of his voice inside my head quickly morphed to Deacon’s, which settled just as heavily.
I’d recognized the man that pulled me into the white van at the prison as one of Vito’s guys. After he wrapped himself around me and carried me away from my car, he gagged me, tied my hands together, and then put a thick tan bag over my head, leaving me no way to fight back, or scream for help. But he hadn’t hurt me; he even placed his hand on the top of my head, helping me duck into cargo hold of the van. That gave me a small amount of comfort, and, oddly, made me feel safe.
It took about thirty minutes to get to our destination, so I knew they hadn’t taken me far. The blare of rock classics on the radio blocked any sounds from the road, or outside. When we arrived, and they pulled me from the van, the only sound I heard was the rush of tires pounding down a nearby freeway.
Once inside, they threw me on the ground and left; my dad’s most popular album had been playing on repeat the entire time I’d been here, muffling every sound. After several hours, I finally heard male voices arguing somewhere nearby, but not close enough for me to make out their words. Eventually they drew close enough, I recognized one of them as Vito. His accent rang true, grating into my ear drums.
“Turn that shit off already, you think that music doesn’t haunt her as it is.” I heard someone yell from further away.
“Calm your ass down, woman! You’re about two seconds from trading places with our dear little one here.” I heard Vito yell back.
Shuffling footsteps grew near, and my breath slowed as my body tensed. Even with the bag still over my head, I could smell bitter whiskey mixed with the stench of death.
“Hey baby girl, I told you yours was coming, didn’t I?” A female voice slurred near my head. “Well, it’s your time to pay up.”
It was my fucking mom.
***
Deacon
“Where the fuck are the demands!” Shaw screamed from Eli’s kitchen.
I didn’t respond, I continued staring at the picture of her hanging near a bookshelf full of old music references. It had been hours since we’d left Tony at the prison, and even longer since Eli had gone missing, and we hadn’t heard a single word from Vito.
Shaw’s men were out walking the streets we knew to be Vito’s territory, but nothing—not a damn thing—had turned up. It was like she vanished into thin air. Willow wanted to call the cops, but Shaw and Duke had convinced her not to, but I was starting to think it might be our only option, unless we heard something soon.
“I think it’s time.” I said to Shaw who had wandered into the living room with me.
He glared at me, not even bothering to acknowledge I’d spoken.
“Hey, fucker! This isn’t the time to play chicken with the deranged drug lord. It’s been hours, it’s time to come up with another plan.”
“No,” was his only response.
I stood from the couch in search of my phone. It was sitting on a long skinny table, directly in front of him. His eyes moved from me, to the phone, and back, daring me. Hoping I’d give him an excuse to release the bundle of nerves wound so tight inside him, I could see it contorting him completely—I knew because that’s exactly what was happening to me. I took a step, then he took a step, another, then another as he cracked his neck from side to side, a visible tell of his I was starting to see more, and more often. A smile slowly spread across his face while his hands clenched and unclenched, as the veins in his neck grew bigger and pulsed. My heart pounded in my chest as my body tensed preparing to attack. The doorbell rang, shocking us both from our murderous glares.
On the other side of the door was a small, withered woman with long stringy hair and circles around her eyes so dark I wasn’t sure if they were drawn on with a marker, or a cruel joke formed by Mother Nature.
“Who the hell are you?” She slurred at me.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Shaw yelled from across the room before ripping the door from my hand and grabbing the woman by the arm, pulling her into the house. He grasped her neck and lifted her from the floor, pushing her back flush to the wall. “Did you have something to do with this shit, Christie? Because I will fucking kill you, and enjoy every single second of it.”
She didn’t speak, I’m not sure she could with his hand cutting off her air supply.
“Put her down, she can’t talk with you choking the life out of her.” I told him, probably a little more calmly than I should have been at the moment.
“Deacon, meet Christie. Elizabeth’s piece-of-shit mother that would sell her daughter for the smallest ounce of anything she could snort up her nose, or shoot into her veins.”
Her feet touched the ground just as her eyes shot to me, and I sprung on her, wrapping my hand around her arm pulling her against me.
“You don’t fucking deserve, Eli. You are the poorest excuse for a mom I’ve ever seen, and I hope I’m there when all you’ve done comes back to kick you in the ass.”
Shaw grunted, “So, I see you’ve heard about mommy dearest here?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.” I growled as I released her arm and pushed her against the wall.
“So you’re the replacement, huh? The rocker with the blue guitar and magic fingers, just like daddy?” She said with disgust in her voice.
“Where’s Eli?” I snapped.
“She’s fine, but my business is actually with Mr. Sutton here, not you.” She replied.
“No, if it has to do with Eli, then your business is with me.”
“Well, seeing as you’re a broke musician, and this one here has more money than he could ever dream of spending, then I think you’re mistaken.”
“You did!” Shaw yelled, his body was almost vibrating with anger. “You had Vito kidnap your own daughter! Damn, Christie, I thought you hit rock bottom a long time ago, but this is a new low, even for you.”
“Times are tough for some of us, love, Vito approached me with a business venture I just couldn’t pass up. Apparently, his little friends screwed everything up,” she said, pointing toward me. “That’s when he decided to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“What does he want?” I demanded.
“Thirteen mil, and not a single hair on her head will be touched.” She said.
“Done.” Shaw said immediately, without so much as a flinch at the amount. “Tell us when and where.”
She nodded, and a grim smile spread across her face. “Tonight during the opening act at lover boy’s show, outside next to the fountain. Don’t be late, or play any games, okay? Don’t fuck this up for me.”
She turned and walked out the front door, like she didn’t have a care in the world and had just been told she held the winning lottery ticket.
Shaw immediately put the phone to his ear making call after call while I found my place on the bottom step, the place I had been sitting this morning when Eli walked out the front door. Her dad’s guitar was still leaned against the wall, exactly where I’d left it. My mind started to wander to the possibility this morning could be the last time I would ever see her, but I pushed those thoughts as far into the recesses as they would go. She would be fine, we would be fine. She’d be back in her house tonight, exactly where she belonged.
I turned the tuning keys and lightly strummed the guitar. Luci meowed at me before stretching out on the step next to me.
“Chastain,” Shaw said after he’d finally called every person he could possibly think of to get enough money together to pay off Vito. “When Elizabeth comes back tonight, you’re going to stay as far away from her as you possibly can. I don’t care what I have to do to you, she will never speak to you again.”
I stood, slowly, ready for this fight; always ready to fight for what was mine. “Bullshit, Sutton. Eli made her decision already, it’s done. Now I’m glad she has you, and will always be thankful you are able to wave your magic money wand to pay off Vito, but don’t get that confused with thinking I’ll just step aside and give up ‘cause I’ll never do that.”
His eyes grew dark, and once again I could see the veins in his neck expanding as his heart rate increased, a sign of pure fucking aggression.
“I told you once you were trouble for her, and you still stuck around. Are you going to let this happen, again? She’s in danger, and it’s all your fault, you caused this, no one else.”
“Fuck you, Shaw. I didn’t cause any of this, at one point I thought I did, too. I let you convince me I did. Vito knows about her because of me, but that’s as far as my blame goes. I won’t continue to take the blame for shit I didn’t do, or cause. If you’re looking for a scapegoat, then you need to wait ‘til you get your hands on her mom and channel all that hate to her. I’ve had enough of it, don’t blame me because you stuck your dick where it didn’t belong and Eli dumped your ass.”
***
Eli Blue
“Hey sweetpea, how ya doin’? You think you can make it another hour?” Vito asked.
Since I was still gagged and my head was covered, I couldn’t exactly answer him, so I made a disgusted groaning sound, hoping to get my point across. I even flipped him off, but considering my hands were twisted under my legs, I didn’t figure he’d see that either.
He laughed, “Yeah, I got ya. I’d loosen everything, but then I just imagine you’d go and try to escape and, well, we can’t have you going and forcing us to hurt ya now, can we? Especially since we’re so close to being out of each other’s lives forever, and I do promise ya that. After one of your boyfriends saves ya tonight, you won’t be ever seein’ my face again. Scouts honor.”
I groaned even louder picturing Vito as a boy scout; I doubted he even had a clue about any sort of code.
“What? You think I wasn’t a boy scout? I coulda been, ya know, but you’re right, I wasn’t. I was born into this shit, instead of being born into a life like yours. But you’ve done good, considering the piece a work that mom of yours is, cause that lady is shit, ya know that, right?”