Chapter 18 – Greg
Mariah didn’t want to see me, and even though I wanted to respect her wishes, I wasn’t going to stay away from the woman I loved. She was everything to me, and even though she was going down this dark road, I didn’t want her to think that she was lost. She wasn’t. Just like time when I had to help her before, I was going to be there for her, even if no one else was.
She looked as good as I remembered, maybe even a little more so now that she had this great amount of confidence that she hadn’t had before. The fact that she was still innocent was a testament to what was supposed to happen. I couldn’t believe that she was still intact, but it was still all that I could think about. I’d wanted her since the moment that I wrapped that warm blanket around her years back when I got called in on a job.
Mariah had been so helpless and so scared that she’d clung to me when I found her in her old childhood home. The chaos that must have gone on there would never be spoken of out loud, but it didn’t have to be because the horror of it was clear in her eyes. She may not have been killed that night, but something inside of her had died. I’d been trying ever since then to bring that part of her back to life.
This was just another step in her recovery, and I felt like if I went home without her, I was going to be failing Mariah. I’d told her that I was going to help her, and leaving her wasn’t an option. She was running because we were getting closer, I was sure of it.
I played the day before in my head and mused on the fact that I would see Mariah again soon. All of the time that I’d spent on that website made me realize how much I missed her physically. I missed her company as well, but Mariah was talented, and I missed the types of things that we used to do together. There was no way to replace a woman like her, and I hadn’t even tried.
The clock said it was two in the morning and I couldn’t sleep. How could I sleep when Mariah was so close, yet still not in my arms? I’d given her a day to figure out what she wanted to do, to decide and make the right decision, but I was not above dragging her back home. It was where she belonged and it was where she was going to end up.
After lying down in the bed and looking at the ceiling much longer than I had any reason to, I pulled out my phone and went to the website that I kept telling myself I didn’t want to see. Mariah was on my phone soon enough, and I was left trying hard to breathe. My hand moved to touch myself and I closed my eyes, imagining that it was Mariah touching me. I missed her so much. I was close to coming when I heard a noise at the door of the motel I was staying in.
I wasn’t expecting anyone. No one knew that I was there. Mariah knew I was around, but I hadn’t told her where. I’d figured that I would go see her tomorrow at her house and take care of all of this. All I had to do was make it through the night. No one was going to be welcome, so I didn’t even bother getting up to answer the door. It just didn’t matter who it was.
When the knocking increased, it was more of an annoyance than anything else. I wanted to know what was causing someone to break into my quiet time, but it still wasn’t enough for me to get up. It was probably someone who was looking for someone else and just had the room number wrong. I was sure that was what it was. There was no reason to think anything else.
“Greg?”
When I heard my name in a rough, gravelly voice, then I started to take notice. It wasn’t someone here for someone else. He was here for me. The fact that I didn’t know anyone in town was a good indicator that I wasn’t going to like this meeting. Wracking my brain with the possibilities of who was on the other side of the door, I was slipping my boxers back on and slowly opening the drawer in the nightstand next to me.
My gun was in that drawer, and I’d just wrapped my hands around it when the door in front of me splintered open and two men started to walk through the newly opened threshold. My gun went up with my hand, pointed at the dark-haired man closest to me. He looked surprised that he wasn’t the only one with a weapon – and that the one he was holding wasn’t as deadly as mine.
“What do you want?”
The one holding the knife was silent for a minute, and then he moved it to his side.
“Are you Greg Bellam?”
“Yes. Who the hell are you? You can’t just barge in here.”
“We’re here to deliver a message.”
The man didn’t seem to fully appreciate the situation he was in. I was in no mood to have a discussion with him, and I certainly wasn’t apt to listen to anything that the two of them had to say. It was clear what kind of message he was trying to send me.
“Who do you work for?”
The two men looked at each other and then back at me with faces that were hard to read. They weren’t going to tell me who had sent them, not willingly, anyway, and I was okay with that.
“Why don’t the two of you come in here? Since the door is already open, I’ll let you let yourselves in.”
***
It didn’t take much to get the information that I needed. The two men were goons for the Fetish Club, and it wasn’t hard to see where this was pointing. The only thing that I didn’t know was how much Mariah knew about their job. I knew what it was before they even said it. They were there with a message to leave town and to leave Mariah alone. It wasn’t something that I was going to do, though, not even close. I was here for Mariah and I was leaving with her, no matter who liked it or didn’t.
After I got all of the information that I needed, I had an urge to go find Mariah and ask her what was going on. I’d given her an ultimatum when I’d gotten frustrated at her reaction. She wasn’t as happy to see me as I was happy to see her, so I’d slipped and threatened a bit. Now I saw that she’d gone to this Elie and was trying to get him to take care of me.
It was either that or he’d decided to do this all on his own and now I had to give him my own message to help him understand the situation. There were two scenarios with two very different endings. I needed to know which one it was, but I trusted a man in pain more than I could trust whatever came out of Mariah’s mouth. I was going to have to go to Elie and straighten all of this out before he found out what had happened to his men.
I went to the club and found that no one was there. It was almost five by the time I got there, and it appeared that I was at least an hour late for catching up with anyone. It changed my plans as to the where, but not the what. I left determined to find Elie before the sun was all the way up. I wanted to catch him before he went to bed. I didn’t want him to have any good dreams today.
Elie’s house wasn’t hard to find, especially since he was on several websites that were linked back to an address a few miles away. I didn’t know the city, so I hired another taxi to take me around. I was ready for anything, except Mariah being involved more than just telling him. If she’d somehow set it up, I knew I was going to be crushed. No matter what happened between us, Mariah was always going to be someone I loved. I couldn’t just let her go, and no one was going to stand in my way. Some thug sleaze-ball who ran a place like the Fetish Club was certainly not going to be the one to get in my way.
His house was quiet when I got to it. After having the taxi drive past the place once to get a layout, I got out a block away and made my way back on foot. I had a lot to discuss with the man who’d sent his men to my motel. I wanted to give him my own message about who Mariah belonged to. It wasn’t him. She’d been mine for a long time and that was never going to change. Mariah was always going to be mine, and he was just going to have to come to terms with that.
***
“You’re making a mistake. I did not send anyone to your house. I think that you need to put that gun down so that we can talk about this like adults.”
I shook my head and sat down in the couch across from Elie. He’d been about as disgruntled as I’d been. I’d found him in bed with some dark-skinned woman who looked familiar. He was now in his boxers, sitting in front of me with the gun pointed at his face. This was the only thing that men like Elie listened to and understood.
“I’m done talking. I got the message you were trying to send, loud and clear.”
“Where are Bruno and Lex?”
I shrugged and told him that if he cared he shouldn’t have sent them out to do his dirty work. Elie just smiled at me, and an unsettling feeling came over me. The man was too calm. I watched him a little closer to make sure that he wasn’t going to do something stupid.
“If you’ve done something to them, I’ll…”
“You’ll what? I’m here and you’re there. I’ve got the gun. It looks like you’ve overestimated your position and underestimated your opposition.”
Elie shook his head that he hadn’t. “I never underestimate the person in front of me. You’re the one that doesn’t see what’s going to happen next. You still think you’re in control. Mariah is not going anywhere. She works for me now, and she’ll continue to work for me until I can’t squeeze another dollar out of her worn-out ass. That’s all you need to know about your Mariah. That’s her future.”
The man was unbelievable, so sure of himself that it made me sick. Didn’t he see how it was going to turn out? Didn’t he see what was coming?
I stood up and moved towards him. I was a foot away before I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t know what it was until I saw the metal gleam in the lamplight. I wasn’t the only one with a gun, and instead of holding it on me like I’d done for him, he pulled the trigger as soon as it was raised high enough.
My natural impulse was to shoot him, but I’d gotten hit in the chest and the second shot was already ringing out. I didn’t hit the target I wanted, and I watched the bullet glance off his shoulder before I felt the impact of another slug going into my chest. Then another, and another.
“I told Mariah that I wouldn’t hurt you, but you had to be an idiot. Die knowing what I’ll do to her.”