He paces the floor in front of me, I remember him now. The man who smiled as I screamed that night. The man who stood back and watched Orion use his fists as weapons. He just stood back with a smile. Now though, that smile has gone. Hours have passed and I’ve been sitting here, my legs are sore, and smoke fills the small room we are in. I just want to go home. Placing my head down, I try to relax. It’s a hard thing to do, to relax, being tied to a chair, sitting in a room with a bunch of guys watching over you. Just as I close my eyes to rest them, something loud smashes to the floor, and my head pops up to see Kama with anger written on his face and a smashed glass at his feet. He looks up. His eyes are so similar to Roan’s that I see the resemblance.
“You… tell me where to go.” he demands. My eyebrows scrunch up in confusion. “He has Roan, he’s going to kill him. So you need to tell me where he would take him.”
“He wouldn’t kill Roan.” I shake my head, and he laughs at me.
“He would for you. I have you. Do you see the dilemma here?”
“Why do you have me to begin with?” I ask rather loudly. He walks over to me while wiping the sweat from his forehead. I should be scared, this man has me tied to a chair. So far though he hasn’t done anything to worry or frighten me. He’s been on his cell phone non-stop.
His breath smells as he leans in and talks directly to my face. “Because your lover fucked me over.”
I nod my head, I got that part. “Figured that. But what did you plan to do with me?”
He stands, his hand goes to his belt of his pants. “I planned to send you back to him in pieces until he delivered everything I need.”
My eyes bulge from their sockets. Maybe I’m mistaken, and I feel stupid. Because now I am afraid, and I don’t want to be here a second longer. Pulling at the restraints, I try to break them, but he simply laughs and walks away from me.
“Now tell me where he would take him.” He picks up his cell, waiting for me to answer him.
“You let me go first.”
He tisks his tongue. “You may think you have the upper hand here, sweetheart, but please remember who has you tied to that chair.” He looks down then suddenly points a knife my way.
“Let me speak to him?” I ask.
“Boss, I can get her to talk.” One of the men in the room stands up. Rolling his shoulders back, he takes a step over to me, his hands wrap in my hair as he pulls my neck back so far it’s painful. It’s hard to try to form any words when he holds me like that. Then I feel his other hand on my neck, tightening.
“Just black out…” I don’t know the answer because I can’t see or hear it, but he applies suffocating pressure to the point of no air, and I black out. With a large face smiling down at me.
The screams leave my mouth the minute I wake up. I’m on the floor, my hands are being tied, but each pull is ripping into my skin, tearing at it. The man who knocked me out with his hands around my throat is sitting on my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. Lifting my bottom half to move him, he doesn’t budge.
“Tell me where you think he could go.” Kama’s voice. I hear before I see him, then his face comes into view above me.
“The house.” That’s the only place I know of where he might be.
“Where is the house?”
“Out where we lived.” It wasn’t too far away from our house, I only went there once, but I remember it clearly. Because I went to get out of the car, but he told me to stay in. Orion never kept me away, apart from that house where he worked, I was never allowed to go inside.
“Stand her up, she’s coming with us.”
The man who is intent to squish me to the floor now towers over me as he lifts me by my hands into a standing position. He holds my wrist tightly, which are already in pain from him tying the rope around them.
“Boss, you need her awake?” Kama looks to me, then to the man still holding me.
“Leave her awake… for now. We need her for the address.” He pulls me out of the house following Kama to the car. Opening the door, he roughly pushes me in, coming to sit next to me. Kama talks on his cell, some of it I have no idea what about, but drugs is what I pick up mostly. And Orion’s name is mentioned a fair few times. A good hour later, we’re slowing down, coming to a dirt road, one that’s all too familiar.
I see Cole’s car before they do. A single light shines in from the house, indicating someone is there. Kama brings the car to a stop, looks back to us, and nods to the dickhead of a guy who I have no name for, to get out. He pulls me out with him, by my hair. I try to not scream, really I do. But my hair is long, and with each pull, I don’t move because the seatbelt is tied around me. Trying to undo that as well as hold onto my hair is not an easy task. Actually, it hurts, the pain tries to take focus, but I know I need to get it undone.
“Come on, slut,” he says with another large pull. Thankfully my seatbelt comes undone just as he pulls me all the way out of the car. My back slams onto the gravel ground—my spine hurts, my back hurts, my whole fucking body smarts.
The door opens to the house, Orion walks out, his eyes as black as the night sky as he starts toward me. The man who has hold of my hair pushes me, so I’m blocking his body as Orion keeps on walking toward us.
“Where is he?” Kama asks him.
Orion is gone though. He doesn’t hear any words. Nothing registers, as he makes his way toward me and the person holding me. The man holding me realizes Orion isn’t stopping and kicks me with his foot, so I fall to the ground. My hands are tied, so when I catch my fall, I scrape them on the gravel, bloodying them up.
I hear the sounds of fists—crack, crack. Turning on my knees, lifting my hands up, Orion is ducking and weaving as each punch is thrown toward his face and body. The man doesn’t have a chance in hell. Trying to stand, I make it to one leg up as something cold hits the back of my neck.
“I wouldn’t move too fast, beautiful.” His breath stinks, my body goes still, and I’m glued in the one position as I watch Orion.
He’s fast, very fast. The other man doesn’t even have a shot at touching him no matter how hard he tries. Each punch he tries to hit Orion with misses, and in return, Orion ducks and weaves and gives him one back which hits the mark. It feels like forever until the other man drops to the ground.
I think it’s over until Orion doesn’t stop. He keeps going, his fists keep swinging and hitting over and over again. Just like that night outside of the club.
“He’s about to kill my man, beautiful, aren’t you going to stop him?” Kama’s voice asks me.
“How?” I reply, unable to look away.
“Call his name.”
“Orion.” I don’t hesitate. “Orion,” I scream, louder this time.
His fists stop, there’s blood all over him. The man on the ground that was once a smart ass looks very much dead. Standing straight, his back is to me, Orion wipes his hands on his shirt as he slowly turns to face me. He doesn’t look at who’s holding me, he simply looks to me.
“Did they hurt you?” His eyes are still dark, he hasn’t paid any attention whatsoever to Kama, who’s holding a gun to my neck.
“I’m fine.”
He nods his head and goes to take a step toward me. “I wouldn’t,” Kama says, pushing the gun further into my neck.
Orion notices now and shakes his head. “Cole,” he calls out.
We all turn at the door slamming, and watch as Cole walks out with a very bruised Roan in his grasp. My breath hitches and I feel Orion’s eyes on me, but I’m concerned about Roan.
“Roan...” His name leaves my lips in sympathy. He looks up through one closed eye, to see me. Turning back to Orion, I pull Kama off just a fraction.
“What did you do?”
Orion looks to Roan then back to me again. “I had to have leverage.” He shrugs his shoulders. Then looks past me. “You ready to remove your gun from Lotus’ head now, Kama? Or should I put one to your brother’s head?”
“Let him go first,” he says from behind me.
Orion shakes his head. “No. You think you can take her from me?” He laughs, it isn’t a pleasant laugh either. “I can take him even faster.” Orion pulls a gun from behind him, points across to where Roan is standing and pulls back on the hammer. The gun behind me drops instantly, and I’m pushed forward, but instead of going to Orion I run straight to Roan. Who’s watching everything, wondering what the hell is happening?
My hands touch his face the best they can with them being tied. “Are you okay?”
Roan nods his head. Cole steps back as I help Roan stand. He looks over to Orion before walking to his brother. Turning, I watch Orion, who’s not even watching them. He doesn’t actually care. He’s watching me with the gun by his side.
I hear the sound of a car engine then I listen to the tires as it takes off. We still stand there watching each other.
“Hands.” Cole’s voice breaks my stare just for a moment as I drop my eyes to him. He cuts my hands free, which now have dried blood all around them. Then my eyes go back to Orion.
“What are you doing?” I ask him, really ask him. I want to know.
“I tried breaking a deal with Kama. I didn’t want that lifestyle anymore. I wanted a new one, a fresh start with you.”
“Is this it? This is what you do?” I ask, looking around then coming back to him.
“This is what I’m good at.”
Shaking my head, I rub at my sore wrists. “That’s sad, so sad that you believe that.”
Turning, I start walking, away from this place. I don’t want to be here a second longer. My mind begins to run in all different directions with unanswered questions. How long has he been producing drugs? And I heard what Kama said. Orion cooks it. He’s one of the best at cooking his drug named Luce, it’s very exclusive because he invented it. He wanted out. Now I guess he is, or is he? Does he really want to though? He can’t pretend it’s for me, it has to be for him.
“He was going to kill you, do you know that?” My feet stop, they’re so sore. “He described you that night to me. He had someone watching you from our house, so when I got back, and you were dressed exactly like he said, I knew right there and then that I had to do it.”
Shaking my head at him, I tell him, “I was in the water.” Then I remember he could still see what color my top was. I only had one red top, and I had it on that night. He could see it.
“You fuck with my head! Fuck with it,” I repeat the words screaming, pulling at my own hair. A car comes down the road where we’re both standing. It’s Cole, he stops right next to me. Looking back to Orion, he’s so close, yet so far.
Opening the car door, I say, “Take me away from here?”
Cole doesn’t look back for approval, he just nods his head as I slide in and starts driving. He drives me to his place. It’s had a revamp, the paint isn’t chipped, and the verandah isn’t falling to pieces anymore.
“Even got queen-size beds now.” He winks at me and walks me in, and on the wall are photographs. Orion and he fill most of them, but there’s one of all three of us that sits proudly on the wall. “You would swim in that murky pond for hours, it was disgusting,” he says. Cole used to say the same thing back then too, he totally disliked the pond.
“It’s only as dirty as you make it out to be. To me, it wasn’t. It was fine.”
He laughs. “Maybe that’s what you see him in, too. You never really saw the bad, just the good you wanted.”
He’s right, now I see more. Now I see who he is, how he is. And I have to work out if I still love that man, or if I can be the one to walk away from him this time. Because that’s what it’s going to come down to. One of us walking away for good. No coming back.
“Maybe.” He opens the door for me on the way out.
“But maybe you also see something in him no one else can,” he says as he closes the door.