I’VE BEEN PACING THE APARTMENT for nearly two hours. When I woke up, CJ was gone. No note, no nothing. At first, I thought maybe he ran out to get something to eat, but as the time ticked by, a bad feeling grew in my gut. Now, I’m worried out of my mind.
A hard knock on the door makes me jump. I fly across the room to open it. Please be CJ . . . Please be CJ . . .
Standing on the other side are the last two faces I ever expected to see.
“You going to invite us in or what, little sis?” Kayne glares down at me with his arms crossed and Jett just behind him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, feeling ambushed.
“CJ called us,” Kayne informs me.
“CJ called you?” I turn white.
“Why else would we be here?” They both walk into my apartment, taking over the place.
“What did he tell you?” I swallow the golf ball-sized lump in my throat.
“Everything,” Kayne says stoically.
My lip quivers. “Did you tell Ellie?” I automatically picture my sister’s disappointed face. She never liked Nino, and if she finds out what I got myself wrapped up in, I can only imagine the verbal lashing I’d get.
“No.”
I sigh with relief.
“Not yet, at least.” Kayne gets in my face. “I don’t keep secrets from my wife, Tara. They’re the fruit of the poisonous tree.” He glances quickly at Jett. “We’re here to fix this, and when it’s all over, either you will tell her what you got mixed up in, or I will. One way or another, she’ll know.”
I stand there staring defiantly at Kayne. I have never been good with ultimatums.
“I take it she doesn’t know you’re here then?” I challenge him.
“She knows what she needs to for now.” His weird eyes flash with malice. It’s clear he doesn’t like the fact I’m talking back to him, but I’m on edge as it is. I don’t need my overbearing brother-in-law’s bullshit, too.
“Okay,” Jett interjects, “a standoff is not what we need right now.” He separates Kayne and me like he’s parting the Red Sea. “Where is Juice?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him as calmly as possible. “When I woke up, he was gone.”
“How long ago was that?” Kayne demands.
“About two hours ago.”
Kayne and Jett exchange a silent look.
“What?”
“I hope that stupid moron didn’t take matters into his own hands,” Kayne fumes.
“We don’t know what he’s doing.” Jett tries to keep everyone level headed. But this time I have to side with Kayne. Something is wrong. Very, very wrong. I can feel it.
My phone rings, causing all three of us to look in its direction. I grab it off the nightstand, seeing Nino’s name flash on the screen. I curse under my breath, then answer it.
“Hello.”
“How’s my girl?”
“I am not your fucking girl!” I shout as Jett and Kayne crowd around me. Just their mere presence makes my apartment go from feeling like a shoebox to a ring box.
“That’s no way to talk to me, especially when I have something you want.”
I grip the phone as I hear unintelligible moaning on the other end.
“Nino, don’t hurt him!”
“It’s a little too late for that, Tara.”
“I’ll give you anything you want, just let him go!”
“I’m glad to hear that you want to cooperate.”
“Put it on speaker,” Jett urges.
I do as he says and continue talking.
“What do you want?” I ask him anxiously.
“What belongs to me, of course.”
“And that is?”
“Tara, don’t be so stupid. You know it’s you that I want.”
I look back and forth between Kayne and Jett. They’re both shaking their heads.
I stand there quivering, holding the phone. I have no other choice.
“Fine. You can have me. Just assure me you’ll let CJ go.”
“Tara!” Kayne snarls at me.
“So your free pussy has some friends, huh?”
Kayne swipes the phone from my hand and brings it to his mouth. “You’re goddamn right he has some friends,” he says so menacingly, he becomes a completely different person in my eyes. “And they will crack your fucking skull wide open with a crowbar if anything happens to him.”
“You better hurry up for my sake then.” Nino doesn’t sound the least bit threatened.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Kayne asks.
“Just do as I say.”
There’s suddenly banging on my front door. Both Jett and Kayne pull guns from out of nowhere.
“Tara!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Tara! Let me in!”
“It’s Philly.” I go for the door, but Kayne yanks me back, opening it himself. He holds the gun right up to a startled Philly’s face.
“Whoa!” He puts his hands up in surrender.
“It’s fine.” I pull on Kayne’s arms. “It’s fine!”
Kayne drops the gun with trepidation but lets Philly inside.
“Go with him, Tara. You know where to find your free pussy,”
Nino says lastly.
Then, click.
I nearly hyperventilate as the line goes dead.
“What did he mean? Where’s CJ?” Jett asks forcefully.
I look at Philly, and he nods.
“At a club called Clip.”
“Where is it?”
“Hell’s Kitchen,” Philly answers. “There’s a room on the second floor. Behind his office. You’ll find him there.”
Kayne slams Philly against the wall and raises the gun to his head. “If we go there and you’re lying, I have a bullet with your name on it.”
“I’m not lying.” Philly squeezes his eyes shut. He’s so anti-violence it isn’t funny. I hate seeing him caught in the middle of all this.
My heart is pounding so hard it feels like a swarm of bees is circling in my chest.
Kayne drops the gun, and Philly nearly drops dead.
“Let’s go, Tara,” he says, shaken up.
“Go? You think we’re letting her go anywhere with you?” Kayne sneers. “We’ll go get Juice, and then we’ll handle the idiot on the phone.”
“We have to go! If I don’t have Tara outside in five minutes, he’s going to burn my entire apartment building to the ground. Families live there!”
“You actually believe he’d do that?” Jett asks calmly as if he’s talking to a suicidal mental patient.
Philly turns his head and looks directly at Jett. “My brother has always been unstable, and he’s getting worse by the day. I wouldn’t put anything past him anymore.”
Jett gazes at Kayne with stern aqua eyes. “Let her go.”
“Are you fucking nuts!?!” Kayne takes a step toward Jett.
“Where are you taking her?” Jett goes on, not fazed by Kayne at all.
“I don’t know! We’re just supposed to be outside, now!”
“Wonderful.” Kayne grabs a fistful of hair.
All this fucking chitchat is making me nuts.
“I’ll go! Please, let’s just stop talking! CJ is out there, and God knows what Nino has done to him!”
Three pairs of eyes focus on me as if they’re just remembering I’m in the room. I slip on a pair of sneakers without socks and grab my coat.
“Tara,” Kayne protests.
“I’m with Philly. I’ll be fine,” I try to reassure him.
I hope.
Before we hurry out the door, Kayne catches Philly’s arm. “Forget the bullet.” He flat out threatens him once again. “If anything happens to her, I’ll filet you open right in front of your mother.”
Both Philly’s and my eyes widen frightfully. I have no idea who my sister married, but he’s scary as shit.
Outside, there’s a black Town Car waiting for us. Philly ushers me inside and then slams the door closed. I don’t recognize the man driving.
“Cell phones.” He reaches his hand behind him. Both Philly and I reluctantly hand him our phones. He then opens the front window and tosses them out before he drives away.
Shit.
“I told you!” Philly hisses at me. “I told you not to get involved with him!” he seethes under his breath. “You never listen! Now look! Fuck, Tara, we are in shit up to our eyeballs!”
I retreat into myself, wishing my ski jacket would swallow me whole.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I whisper regretfully. But as scared as I am for Philly and myself, I’m more terrified for CJ. Philly is right. Nino is completely unstable, and there’s no telling what he’s capable of. I shove my hand into my pocket and rub CJ’s watch obsessively. I found it on the bed when I woke up this afternoon and swiped it before we left. I make a promise right here and now that I will give it back to him. It’s my oath to persevere, to survive whatever’s coming. I just pray to god he’s not a corpse when I do.