CUT (New Adult Dark Romance) (21 page)

Red and blue… He’s calling someone to clean up this mess.

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The ride into Austin was tense. Ash and the gang split off and headed north toward a Rampant safe house, while I sat silently next to Black as we continued alone into the city. The plane ride back into LA was something I dreaded. I could barely hold my hands calm, let alone get through TSA screening without screaming out loud. They knew, they had to know. They could smell it on me. The death, the lives I’d taken…

They let me board the plane.

They let me get off it too.

A pair of men were waiting near the entrance at LAX, clearly keeping an eye on us, but they let us out of the airport as well. There was nothing to do except follow Black as he walked slowly leaning heavy on the wooden cane. A cab sat waiting and we climbed on board. Black seemed disinterested in our tail, asking the driver to go easy for the sake of his leg. I sat back and pretended everything was OK all the way to a building I’d never visited. It was in the seedier part of LA, close to hollywood. The side was painted a garish pink, clearly the makings of some kind of adult business…

A strip club… One of Black’s ‘legit’ businesses…

Everything was
not
ok.

The club was in an uproar and it didn’t take a genius to see we had serious problems as I followed Black into the open space. Ash wasn’t back yet, and without a boardroom table, Black wasn’t taking any time to honor the dead.

“Rampant, you know we’re at war now,” Black said, his voice silencing the room. Men stood round a dance platform with solemn looks on their faces. There were new recruits and veterans, but all stood with concern evident on their faces.

“Carcetti’s dead. The Kings moved in on two of our properties in LA. Before we blew his fucking head off, Carcetti mentioned Jude. I’d have to be blind and stupid to not see a connection.”

“Jude shot up a room full of Kings, why the fuck would they take him in?” Acre asked, voice raised above the murmurs of the crowd.

“We were there Acre. No Kings left that meeting alive. Dead men tell no tales and we sure as fuck didn’t tell the rest of them that one of our boys shot up their buddies.”

A murmur of sound rocked through the men, and Acre was the first to speak up again. “We never should have let him walk the fuck out.”

“We live and die by our honor,” Black said, cutting Acre off. “You fucking know that.”

Acre nodded, looking down at his hands. He was one of the few people I ever saw stand up to Black, but he also seemed to know when he was wrong. I respected him, maybe more than I should have.

“And that means we finish this. I’m not going to live scared and tuck my tail between my fucking legs. I want out of the shit. This club is going legit, Jude is going into the ground, I don’t care if we have to kill every goddamned last King in California to do it.”

“Just how exactly are we going to find him?” Acre asked.

“That’s easy,” Black said, tossing a cellphone down on the raised dance platform. “Jude left us a map.”

“Are you serious?” Acre asked, staring at Black’s hands as if he expected Black to pull a piece of parchment from his pocket.

“If Jude was talking to Carcetti, there’s a reason. He gave us to the Italians on a silver platter while the Kings swept down and pushed us off the dock. You damn well know they’re looking to catch the next inbound ship.”

“Mother fucker… There wasn’t supposed to be another ship.”

“We’ve been running product for twenty years now Acre. You think the wheel stops turning if we’re out of the game? That’s how Jude got his cut with the Kings. He sold them my head
and
the coke trade. He knew enough about club business to make the connections. I want to know what’s hitting those docks over the next few weeks. You know what to look for Acre, we’ve still got friends down on pier seventeen and I want them paid off no matter what it costs. Find me that boat, and we find Jude.”

I had to get out of here. I couldn’t hear this. Death, war, Jude, the Kings… My heart raced as I backed away from the group, fists pounding on the raised dance platform. All those dreams of a happier future were fucked. Black wasn’t going to save me. I wasn’t going to save him. Nobody stopped me. Nobody even noticed. I slipped round what would probably become a DJ booth, making my way to a curtained VIP room. My feet carried me faster and faster as I reached the back of the club, and with a quiet push, I burst out a side door.

Light crashed down on my eyes like I’d never seen the sun. The dark club was starkly contrasted by the noon high, and I raised an arm up over my forehead before setting out across the parking lot. There wasn’t really a plan, no direction. I’d just run. Not to my family, not to my friends, I’d just run and keep running until I couldn’t go any further. The sidewalk beckoned, the streets called my name. Terror and adrenaline and some mix of insanity coursed through my veins. The world was so bright. I was alive, I was free.

But I didn’t want to be.

I stopped on the sidewalk, just breathing. There was nowhere I could run where Jude wouldn’t find me. He would scour the whole goddamned Earth if that’s what it took.

And what about Black…
I though to myself, a deep crushing feeling coming over me. I needed him… He needed me… All I had to do was get some air, turn around, and stand by him. I breathed deeply, blind to the world, hidden away in the safe little place I always went to when bad things were happening.

Then everything went black.

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When you’re thrown into pitch darkness, there’s a moment when you might wonder if you’re alive at all. I woke shivering, blinking my eyes without sight returning to them. My hands patted uselessly at my body, feeling around and trying to make sense of the inky black. I was naked, laid out on some kind of bed. I could feel the seam of the mattress, but no sheets or blankets lay atop it. To my side, a cool block wall rose upward. Crushing pain filled my head, and my hand instinctively swept through my hair, rolling across a large and scabbed knot. My breath came in gasps as I touched around the wound, wet warmth rubbing between my fingertips.

Someone hit me…

Panic came from the most visceral part of my being. I had to get out of here. My legs tried to move, aching as I lifted myself from the bed, but without anything to orient myself I found it hard to move quickly. My bare feet shuffled slow across the cold floor, coming to a stop as I hit another wall. Soon, a third wall slid beneath my hand, and as I moved across it, my fingers bumped against a seam.

A door…

I swept my arms over the door, trying to size up it’s orientation. One edge, the other, the door handle had to be there… My hand slid down along the side, coming to rest on a small square plate of metal. Four large screws bolted the panel over what must have been a hole left behind by the handle’s removal.

“HELP!” I screamed, pounding on the door. “HELP ME!”

I screamed until the breath refused to vibrate my vocal chords, my throat raspy. That’s when I noticed the weight round my neck. A hand snaked up, grasping the heavy leather band wrapped round me, sliding across it’s surface until I met with a metal ring that held it in place.

Collared, like a dog…

My voice found itself again, a sobbing cry coming from my lips as I fell to my knees in the darkness. Hands grasped at the collar, trying to pull it free. There was no use, no hope. I forced myself to crawl round the room until I found the bed, lifting myself into it and curling up, springs squeaking beneath my weight.

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Light…

My eyes blinked wildly as a small bulb flashed on above me. With no way to gauge the passage of time, I only knew I was thirsty. The light was blinding despite it’s dim wattage, and as I adjusted my eyes gazed around the small space. It was something like a closet, the metal cot with a mattress pad beneath me, and a bucket in the center of the room. A small piece of metal slid open at the base of the door, followed by a metal pan being pushed under along with several bottles of water.

“HELP!” I screamed, but the little opening crashed shut, the light blinking about above me. Once again I found myself crawling toward the door, sweeping my hands around for the delivery. I found the pan first. A quick touch found bread and some kind of sliced meat. After a few minutes, I’d gathered everything and returned to the bed.

I didn’t know where I was, couldn’t guess why they were keeping me, but the meal did tell me one thing. Jude was on the other side of that door. My teeth sank into another bite. Ham and pastrami, just how I always ate it. A glimmer of hope rose up. I didn’t belong to Jude anymore, didn’t belong in his world, but if Jude was here that meant Black would be here soon… Swallowing hard, I pushed my tears back and took a good long drink.

Black will save me…

The thought left me hollow. I couldn’t just sit here waiting forever. My voice welled up again, but this time, I had to know.

“JUDE! PLEASE! HELP ME!”

I could hear the boots. I’d heard them before. There was a time when I feared them because I knew the pain they would bring. Now, all I wanted was to see his face, to see…

Murder eyes.

Jude stood in the doorway grinning like a madman.

“About fucking time you call for me sweetheart. Starting to feel nostalgic?”

I sized him up. He looked even more fearsome than ever, his chest flexing beneath a Kings cut. The door closed behind him.

“Jude… Let me out of here, please.”

“Let you out? What? So you can run back to your cripple?”

Jude’s eyes were predatory, tracing across my body as he approached. I looked down at his hand, a long leather strip dangling to the floor. His hand reached out, my body wincing away from him as he touched my cheek more delicately than I ever expected from him. Then came the slap I knew all too well.

“Please…” I gasped, looking up for forgiveness.

The sound of metal clicking into place snapped near my ear.

“On your knees.”

“Please!” I whimpered.

“I said GET ON YOUR KNEES!” Jude shouted, pulling at the leather strap and sending me crashing off the bed to the floor. He’d put a leash on me. I shivered from head to toe.