Dom
‘ANDRE?’ I SHOUT as I near the kitchen, ‘Andre?’
‘I’m here? What is it?’ He comes through the door into the hall.
‘Chloe said there were others, Patrick wasn’t alone. Did your men sweep the grounds?’ The look on his face tells me they didn’t. How could we be so fucking stupid. ‘Get them back here now, we need to make sure this place is secure.’
He gets on the phone ‘Where are you?’ he asks right away, ‘turn around we need the grounds sweeping.’ He covers the speaker and looks to me. ‘I’m so fucking tired I need to get my head in the game.’ He’s obviously annoyed with himself.
‘They far away?’ I ask a little on edge.
‘Not far away thankfully.’ He starts making plans and as he does that I head back to the bedroom, I’m not leaving Chloe alone when Patrick’s men could be anywhere.
‘Is everything okay?’ she asks, worry all over her face.
I nod. ‘Yeah, babe but you need to get dressed okay? I want you to stay with your dad and Charity while we check out the woods. You need to all be together.’
‘Of course.’ She pulls on some joggers and one of my t-shirts which buries her but the sight of her in my clothes is still a turn on even in this fucked up situation. She catches me looking at her and gives me a small smile as she takes my hand. ‘I’m ready,’ she says although there’s a tremor in her tone.
We find the others in the kitchen and I watch as Chloe’s eyes linger on the discarded PJ bottoms on the floor. I move her past them and pick them up throwing them into the rubbish bin. She doesn’t say anything about it but she doesn’t object. I look to Andre for an ETA on his men.
‘They’re only about fifteen minutes out. They’ve just turned around and come back.’
‘It was stupid to assume he was alone,’ Mike chastises.
‘Mike, we never saw anyone leave the warehouse beforehand, it was a bad call, I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry won’t cut it when we get attacked because you took your eye off the ball.’ He sounds like he has a mouth full of cotton wool when he speaks because his face is such a mess.
‘We won’t. I’ve been vigilant.’
Mike makes a sound like he’s scoffing at his answer but it comes out kind of strangled.
‘Boss you need to rest, you should sit down and relax a bit’ Andre motions toward the lounge.
Charity hasn’t stopped fucking about with a sponge and water dabbing at his face.
He wafts her away with his hand. ‘No, I’d rather stay in here.’ He turns to Charity. ‘Stop fucking fussing I’m fine.’ He tries to wave her off him again but she’s relentless and I almost laugh but hold it in. Only Chloe hears the snort I make in the back of my throat, it makes her smile and bite her lip as she also tries not to laugh. I take a gun from the counter and check the chamber making sure I’m good to go if needed and sit at the opposite side of the table to Mike and Charity. I indicate for Chloe to sit on my lap, and she comes willingly, resting her head in the crook of my neck and shoulder. This. This is what I want to be able to do on the daily without any threats. And she said yes. Fuck, we’re going to get hitched!
‘Do you mind if I speak with my dad?’ Charity asks of no one in particular just throwing it out in the room. We all look at each other and I’m not really sure I should answer, so I say nothing. But then neither does anyone else.
‘Charity do you really think that’s wise? Given the circumstance?’ Chloe asks. I feel a prickle of pride at my girl.
‘He’s still my dad, and he won’t hurt me.’
‘Oh sure, he was just going to sell you off to a fucking evil bastard for money.’ Mike chimes in. But it doesn’t hold any weight with her because she ignores it completely.
‘He won’t physically harm me,’ she says looking at Chloe.
‘Don’t look at me for an answer. You’re clearly going to do what you want regardless.’ Chloe snaps back.
‘I know it’s hard for you all to understand but—’
‘But you still love him, even after everything he’s put you through put us through?’ Chloe snaps again. Charity nods but has the decency to look ashamed about it.
‘He was going to rape me!’ She raises her voice now. ‘And what? You want to go down there and tell him you still love him?’ Charity suddenly finds her feet very interesting. But she says nothing. ‘Just go, you’re going to anyway.’ Chloe spits the words like venom.
Mike shakes his head at Charity trying to get her to reconsider, but she walks to the door and heads out of sight to the basement. Chloe glares at Mike and I’m not sure what she was about to say but Charity shouts up the stairs.
‘He’s gone!’
I haul ass past Charity and find his bindings cut through and a window smashed in the corner. Andre is only a second behind me and he’s cursing the air blue. Mike hobbles to the top of the stairs with Chloe at his back and we all look down in disbelief. Why is shit never easy? As we all get back to the kitchen we hear two vans pull up. Andre moves the net curtain and peeks out, he visibly relaxes and opens the door letting his men inside.
‘Dom and I will stay inside with everyone, I want you all to fan out and find that greasy bastard.’ I look over to Chloe who looks pale and like she just might be sick. I grab some water and wet a kitchen towel, kneeling in front of her.
‘Chlo, you okay?’
‘Mm.’ She nods but it’s bullshit. ‘I’m…’ she swallows and looks like she’s going to be sick. ‘I’m just going…’ snapping her mouth closed she dashes for the bathroom and I follow to make sure she’s okay. She’s obviously scared out of her mind now that he’s on the loose again. Fuck we should have taken extra precautions. I’m about to close the door behind us and hold back her hair when a gunshot sounds from somewhere close.
***
Chloe
My head is deep in the toilet heaving up everything I’ve had to eat and drink today as I hear a gunshot go off behind me. It echoes in the toilet bowl while my head is in it and my ears ring.
‘Stay here.’ Dom commands, with instructions to lock the door after he closes it. I can’t hear any talking outside the bathroom, only a lot of shuffling around, right before I hear another two gunshots. A knock sounds at the door.
‘Chloe, it’s me. Let us in quickly.’ Dad’s voice filters through the wood of the door and I rush over flip the lock off. Him and Charity rush in the bathroom and he pushes her into the bathtub and whispers for her to stay down before turning to me and trying to give me the same command.
‘No dad, I don’t need to be in the tub. You climb in with her and take cover.’ Even with all the adrenaline running through me, I turn towards the toilet once again and dry heave into it.
‘Chloe, this is the second time since I’ve been here that you’ve thrown up. Is it really just the stress and everything or is there something else going on?’ He questions as he lifts his leg and climbs into the tub next to Charity. She climbs onto his lap once he’s down. The sight of that alone makes me want to hurl again.
‘What do you mean?’ I ask as I grab a hair tie off of the countertop and tie my hair back.
‘Could you be…’ He motions his hands around Charity’s stomach, indicating a pregnant belly. ‘You know. Pregnant?’
‘What? Wait. No, I am not pregnant. At what point in all the months that I’ve been fighting your battles do you think that I’ve had time to go and get myself knocked up.’ Truth is, I really don’t know. And now I think about it, I haven’t had my period since before the first time I was held captive. But wait didn’t we use protection? Fuck, I can’t even remember. Shit could I be? Wait, why the fuck are we even having this conversation right now when the love of my life is out there in danger?
‘No, Chloe that’s not fair on Charity and me. Her father is to blame for all of this. I was just doing the right thing.’ His defences go up.
‘I don’t know, dad, but I’ll tell you what I do know.’ My anger is starting to boil. ‘Charity was down in the basement for a few moments before she called up and told us that he was gone.’ I point an accusatory finger in her direction. ‘You could have easily untied him and boosted him up and out that window down there.’ I look to Charity. ‘We all know how much you love your daddy.’
‘Chloe Marie Richards how dare you speak to her that way. You know damn well she didn’t help him escape. You’re not only insulting her right now but you’re insulting me. I won’t stand for that young lady.’
‘Young lady? Are you seriously calling me young lady while you have a nineteen year old little girl straddled on your lap? One that I’m pretty certain you’ve already stuck it to.’
‘Hey.’ Charity whisper yells but my dad cuts her off quickly.
‘Chloe I’m going to give you a pass right now because of the situation we’re currently in but when this is all done, all three of us are sitting down for a little chat.
‘Four,’ I correct him in a whisper.
‘This is not the time, no matter how upset you are. Fine four. I didn’t know if you expected to keep Dom around when all this is over,’ he whispers back.
‘I need something to focus on or I’m about to lose my shit…’ I’m cut off by footsteps running down the hall and a hushed whisper outside the door.
‘Chloe? Chloe, open up.’ It’s Dom’s voice and I crack the door open enough to let him in. ‘I just wanted to update you before Andre and I head off to take Pete to Andre’s doctor, he’s been hit.’
‘What’s going on?’
‘He got away but we managed to take down a few of his comrades before they all retreated. Right now, we need to get Pete to the docs. Here take this.’ He hands me a gun and another to my dad. ‘You make sure you stay together and Mike anything happens to her, I’ll kill you myself.’ He looks at my dad with searing intensity in his eyes. ‘I’ll be back as soon as possible.’ He pulls my face to his and kisses me long and hard. ‘I love you,’ he whispers against my lips and then closes the door gently behind him. His footsteps retreat down the hall and when they’ve finally ceased, I turn and slump against the bathroom door and I slide down as it hits me even harder that Patrick is still alive and he’s still out there threatening our lives. Oh and then there’s the fact that there could be a baby growing in my belly and I didn’t even have time to tell the man I love.