Chapter Fifteen
(Chloe)
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” I cried out.
I woke from a horrifying dream to the sound of ominous footsteps thudding up the stairs. There was no light in the room even though I’d been sure I had fallen asleep with the light on. When the footsteps reached the top of the stairs, I prayed the person wouldn’t turn left toward my room. But the footsteps were getting closer and closer toward the door.
I felt disorientated, as though I’d woken form a coma. My body hurt from the night before and the bruise on my face throbbed with pain. I sat up in the bed, and brought my knees to my chest – positioning my body in the corner of the walls.
The door crashed open, snapping me out of my groggy and confused state, but there was no flood of light into the room from the outside. Nothing at all. I squinted my eyes in the direction of the door, but they couldn’t adjust to the lack of light fast enough.
A man, his appearance hidden in shadow, sat down on the bed opposite me. I sensed that there was somebody else in the room as well.
“Chloe Mariano?” a familiar voice said.
“Yes. Who are—”
The man cocked a gun, cutting me off.
I was certain this was the same distinctive voice of the man who’d kidnapped me last night. If I was right about that, then I had already seen this man’s face. Whoever was the other presence in the room was the reason the light was off. “Yes. Yes, that’s me,” I replied.
“Why are you here?” he asked, leaning toward me.
“Honestly. I’m not entirely sure—”
“Who is Jaxson Coltrane to you?” He cut me off again before I could think.
I don’t know how many times I’ve asked myself this is the past three days.
I knew what I had wanted…For Jax and me to be together. I had thought Jax wanted that too. But after he told me he was to blame for my father’s death, I didn’t know what I wanted or who I could trust. All I knew for sure was that I had to make sure I kept myself and Jax alive. I pursed my lips as I imagined Jax being shot to death by the Bloods. I was sure it would be my fault for breaking the law of my father’s club and entering a relationship with a member of the Black Devils. It had to be the reason I was taken.
“He’s a—I mean…We’re just friends. I met him through a dating app. That’s a-all,” I shuddered in fear, and my vocal chords felt raw from all the crying I’d done in the past few days. It left my voice weak and my lie unconvincing.
I started to spin a lie in my mind; anything to try to protect myself and Jax. I had asked Jax when he took me home to stay him that first night whether there could be consequences for doing so. But I knew the answer. Jax should never have taken me into his home; it was against club law. I wanted to ask the man where Jax was and what they’d done with him but I was terrified that they could use that against one of us.
“A dating app?” the man asked, but his voice didn’t sound convinced.
In any case, I was sure this man had no proof of who I was. None of the Bloods’ had seen me since my mother and I had left Tijuana, and even if they had, I’d been away at College for the past three years. And I’d grown up a lot since then. “I know… I was surprised myself, I mean, it’s not like me, but I mean, sometimes you’ve just got to put yourself out there you know? And it’s hardly as though there’s anything I have to lose but just try—”
The man held the gun against my forehead.
Fuck! I closed my eyes.
“Why. Are. You. Here.”
“I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “The truth is he’s my best friend.”
“Oh? Your best friend? Ask yourself this, Miss Monero: Has Coltrane ever said one thing to you that you can prove to be true?”
I didn’t know what to say. Jax had lied to me for the past ten years about the death of my father. And he had lied to me when I had asked him if it was ok for me to stay with him with the MC clubs.
“What have you heard of the Black Devil’s MC election for a new president?”
“I don’t know anything about that. Jax has never said a word about the…uh...election...whatever.” But I knew everything about it. If Jax didn’t get the role it would destabilize the MC’s entire operations…the club and Coronado would be at risk.
“Yet, you have been with him the past three days. Three days ago, Jax was given strict instructions to hand you over to us. But he never showed. He deceived you, Chloe. He’s not with them. He’s with us. I needed to bring you here for your protection. You’ll be safe here.”
I could hear his mounting fury.
“If Jax cared so much about you then why did he leave you last night for his club?”
How did this man know Jax was out on club business? Was he supposed to tell me that or had he just slipped up? I got the sinking feeling that Jax had been set-up. Whatever he had left to do was set up by this man and his gang.
“There’s one last thing I need from you, Chloe. Put this on.” He tossed an item of clothing at my chest. “All my girls wear a uniform.”
When his footsteps left the room and the door slammed shut, I turned on the light. With the gun away from my head, I let out a long held sigh of relief. But it was to be short-lived.
It was a small silver dress.
“In fact, come downstairs when you’re through. You can pour me a drink in that thing. I’d like to see what I’ve got to work with tonight.” He snickered through the door.
A little while later, I stared up at my body in the silver dress in the dirty mirror. My long brown hair cascading down my back. Terrified of what was going to happen to me, tears were streaming down my face.
As I descended the stairs, I heard a man slam through the door of the Bloods club and I stopped dead on the stairwell.
I heard somebody speaking in an aggravated tone. The man had to be on the phone.
The conversation escalated to enraged shouting from the man in the room, “Look just hold the shipment for another day. I can’t have two-hundred grand of whiskey lying about in the open for the world to see. My buyer will pick it up tomorrow. They’re hungry for product. And I need to make sure I’m good for it. Hold it another day and I’ll cut you in on the deal.”
The next thing I knew he was climbing the staircase and stopped mid stride in a frozen-panic. I backed up a few steps but he turned the corner and our faces met. My eyes widened when I realized who I was looking at. But I couldn’t let Antonio catch on that I had recognized him. He would kill me for sure. It was Antonio and I wasn’t meant to hear what he was just discussing.
He pulled on his shirt collar and wiped a bead of sweat from his top lip. “What the hell do you think you’re doing creeping up on me like that?” He scowled at me.
“Sorry,” I replied and turned my back up against the wall to let him pass.
In one blinding motion, he pressed himself up close to me. His breath and the squelching sound of him chewing gum was right in my face. He kissed my neck. “That’s a real nice dress.”
I didn’t dare resist.
My thoughts weren’t on this though. I kept trying to figure out how Antonio played into this. He was a Black Devil, right? What was he doing here then? And…Only the Black Devils traded whiskey. Everybody knew that. The Bloods had worked with drugs and weapons but never whiskey. What would the Bloods be doing with so much whiskey unless they had stolen it? At that moment, I put two and two together. If Antonio and the Bloods found out I knew all this, they would have no choice but to kill me, if word got out that Antonio took the whiskey he would be dead and he knew it. Antonio would have betrayed not only his club but his father as well and he knew his father would put a bullet in his head for that.
“Chloe? I need a drink,” the man’s voice called from downstairs—my kidnapper’s voice.
I smiled apologetically at an annoyed Antonio and shuffled my body out from his.
“Be careful honey, he’s a dangerous man,” Antonio said with a smirk. His voice was an unnerving monotone, as though devoid of feeling.
I hurried down the steps.
I wondered whether he knew I heard his conversation…
As I came down the final few steps, I could hear an impassioned fight between a man and woman in the main room.
My kidnapper was smoking a cheap cigar and fixed his fierce gaze on one of the other two girls in the room. As I stepped into the room, he had stood up and grabbed the girl by the throat, nearly lifting her from the floor. “I swear to god, Lucy!” he yelled, holding her close to his face then letting go violently and she fell to her knees.
He hit Lucy across the cheek and she shrieked as she got up, running out of the room and up the stairs in tears.
My kidnapper took a few steps after her, stopped, and then turned to me.
I hovered by the bottom of the stairwell, and he turned his attention to me. He fixed his cold blue gaze on me. Holy shit. I would have been better off at Roy’s place. He stormed over to me with a hungry smile, wrapped his arm around my lower back, and roughly pulled me into him.
I chewed on my lip and endured the man’s touch as he stroked my hair and curled his meaty hand around the back of my neck.
“Darling, I’ve been waiting for you,” he said in a lecherous tone.
“Don’t worry my sweet, I’ll take real good care of you.” And I followed him behind the bar, walking slower now. I felt like I was in a nightmare I couldn’t wake from with my kidnapper leering at me like I was his intended prey.