by R. A. Smyth
“I just got off the phone with the school and they tell me you weren’t at any of your classes the other day. Where were you?”
Knowing this was coming, I already have my response prepared, “Sorry, I ran into Preston and Barrett that morning. They mentioned that they were planning on skipping school to hang out and asked if I wanted to join. I figured it was a good opportunity to get close to them, like you asked me to do.”
My father looks at me intently, assessing me for any tell that I may be lying to him. Not that he will find one. My impenetrable mask is firmly in place, my face is a blank, unreadable slate right now.
Having decided I’m telling the truth, he nods. “It’s good to see you obeying my orders, Sophie. I’m pleased to see you making an effort.”
I’m so glad my actions please you, asshole, I think to myself, but outwardly I just smile like his admiration makes me happy, like I live to do his bidding and achieve his praise.
“In that case, you will hopefully be pleased to know I’m hanging out with them again this evening,” I mention casually, not seeing any point in hiding it from him.
“Tonight? Unfortunately, that won’t be possible,” he states absently, making my eyebrows draw together in confusion. “I was speaking to Charles earlier. He mentioned in passing that Preston was going to visit family.”
That makes no sense at all. Why would Preston be going to visit family, now of all times, and why would he demand a meeting with me tonight if he’s going to be out of town? There is something more going on here.
Not wanting to give away my suspicions though, I’m careful to keep the tone of my voice casual and unconcerned when I respond to my father, “Oh, I didn’t realise. He didn’t mention anything today.” Needing to try and gain more information in the hopes of working out what is going on I question, “Do you know how long he will be gone for?”
“Quite some time, I’m afraid. I don’t believe he will be back before graduation. Now, I’ve work to get back to. That will be all.” He finishes dismissively.
Getting up from the chair, I hurry out of the room, every cell in my body screaming that something is wrong. Flashing back to the conversation I overheard between my father and Mr. Donaghue the night we held the party here, where Mr. Donaghue told my father that Preston was becoming a problem, I have this sick feeling that Preston has done something that requires my father’s skill set in order to remove him from the playing field. Permanently.
He may be an arrogant tool and I am definitely pissed as all hell at him, but that doesn’t mean he deserves what is about to happen to him.
I need to find a way to get to Preston, to let him know, before it’s too late.
Epilogue
PRESTON
Sophie doesn’t come to school the next day. I can’t blame her for needing a day off after what I did to her.
Fuck, just thinking about what I put her through has guilt slamming into me.
As Sophie unwillingly spilled her life story to us, words that couldn’t be anything but the truth, I realized how wrong I’d been. I was so caught up in trying to get rid of her and her father, so busy assuming she must be involved in some way, that I never really considered the possibility that she was innocent in all of this.
That reality is now slapping me in the face like a wet fish.
Barrett is furious with me. He stormed off as soon as Sophie and the two men working for her father left. Not that I can blame him. I’m furious with myself.
However, despite the guilt, I still maintain we needed to know for sure that she was innocent. We have spent so long gathering evidence against my father, we just couldn’t afford for anyone to screw things up for us now, least of all a spunky little brunette with an attitude problem.
Now we know the truth. In hindsight, I should have listened to Barrett, gone about finding out what I needed to know in a different way, but there’s no point in dwelling on that now.
No, now I need to meet with Sophie, find out what she knows. She’s clearly close with those two thugs that work for her father, which makes no sense. How can she hate her father but be friends, or whatever they are, with those gangsters? Can she even trust them? For all she knows they could be spying on her, getting close to her and reporting back to her father.
There are too many unanswered questions and everything is even more complicated now. I just need to talk to Sophie, sooner rather than later.
I’m on edge, my body overflowing with adrenaline, waiting to find out what she knows. I need this shit with my dad dealt with so I can move on with my life. I can’t stand the thought of him walking around like he’s invincible, using my mother’s death for his own gain and hanging everything and everyone I care about over my head so I’ll do his every bidding. I need it to stop. Now.
I know there is more going on than what little I have managed to dig up on him. I don’t know what he’s involved in, but I know it’s something big, something important. If I could only find out what it is then I would have the ammunition necessary to get rid of him, once and for all.
Thankfully, Sophie was back at school today so, before I left for the day, I stuck a note in her locker, telling her I’d pick her up tonight for our meeting. I can’t let another day go by without getting some answers.
The only way to distract myself while I wait for the meeting is to burn off some of this adrenaline coursing through my body. Usually, I’d exhaust myself in the gym, but my body is still fatigued from the extra hours of training I put in the other day after the fiasco at the warehouse. So, today, I decided to take my baby girl, my beautiful black and red Stingray Convertible out for a spin.
I’m driving aimlessly along the mountain roads, taking the corners faster than I should, but I love the feeling of freedom that I only ever feel when I’m behind the wheel of this car, with the wind blowing all around me, and the possibility of death staring me right in the face.
Rounding a particularly tight corner, I prepare to drop down a gear and gun it as I approach a large straight through the valley, however, once I’m around the corner, I notice a black SUV parked across the middle of the road, blocking both lanes. What. The. Fuck?
I quickly slam on the breaks in an attempt to stop before I smash into the car. I was doing over a hundred miles an hour when I flew around the corner, for fucks sake; what idiot just abandons their car in the middle of the road?!
As my car comes to a screeching halt, the back door of the SUV opens, and out steps none other than my bastard of a father. Fuck, this can’t be good.
“Son, we need to talk.” He demands, loud enough to be heard clearly over the engine of my car. I can practically feel the anger radiating off of him.
“Most people just pick up the phone. I’m busy now, we can talk later.”
My insolence pisses him off, causing him to grind his teeth even more than he already was.
“No. Now. It won’t take long. Arnold will drive your car back to the house for you,” he says as three men built like brick shit houses step out of the car, not so subtly pushing back their suit jackets and showing me they are all armed. I’m outnumbered and outgunned here.
One of them walks over to me, while I try to work out how to get myself out of here, opening my door and leaving me with no other choice but to get out of the car. He better get my girl back in one piece. If there is even a single scratch on her, he’s going to regret it.
Not having any other plan, I head towards my dad and his two goons. Since he started his re-election campaign for Governor, he has hired some private security that follows him around whenever he’s outside the house. Seems a bit strange to me, it’s not like he is running for President or anything, and I did suspect they did more than just provide security. Now, I know I was right.
Without saying another word, one of the goons opens the back door and ushers for me to get in, while the other walks around the back of the car and climbs in the other side.
As I step past my father, I see the smug look on hi
s face. He thinks he’s got me right where he wants me. I fear he might be right this time.
Clambering into the back seat, the goon holding my door open gives me a look until I move over into the middle seat, enabling him to climb in beside me. Great, I’m pinned between two fucking stone walls for humans.
My father climbs into the front passenger seat, and once he closes the door, the driver starts the engine and we head down the road.
My father doesn’t initially say anything, letting me sit and stew. Charles Donaghue is excellent at intimidation; wielding the power of silence to try and break me. Lucky for me, I know all of his tactics, so while he might be hoping to unravel me, get me talking, he’s only giving me time to fortify my mental walls and ensure my face is an impenetrable mask of indifference, giving nothing away.
“I know what you have been up to.”
Turning to look at me, staring me down, hoping to crack me so I’ll spill my secrets to him. Not a chance, fucker.
He rolls his eyes at my obstinance, unbothered by my lack of reaction. “I know you have been messing with my re-election for Governor. Causing issues within my campaign office, setting up websites and blogs encouraging people not to vote for me, using campaign finances for unsavoury and illegal reasons – spending thousands of dollars on BDSM sex items and signing me up to beastility porn sites,” he snarls out in disgust and anger.
I struggle to contain my laughter, remembering all the shit I did. It was more than just signing him up to a few porn sites and buying sex equipment in his name.
There are so many different kink communities that I’d never heard of before I started down this path, ursusagalmatophiliacs, autoplushophiliacs, and paraphilic infantilism, just to name a few. I picked the ones I thought voters would be most outraged by. I photoshopped images of him jacking off to teddy bears, having orgies with people dressed up as cartoon characters, and of my father dressed in a diaper, pretending to be a baby. I uploaded all of it, along with a little blurb of how Charles Donahue likes to spend his spare time. I shared it where I could, to make sure his investors and the voters got an eyeful.
What? I thought the voters would want to get to know their governor better.
Man, Barrett and I had great fun searching the internet for fucked up shit Charles could be involved in. Those searches should come with a warning label; I’ll never be able to unsee some things. Ever. The internet is a fucking sick place.
“Do you have any idea the problems you have caused for me!” He roars, losing the tight rein he keeps on his control as anger consumes him, interfering with my musings. “You have officially knocked me out of the running for Governor.” He confirms, sending a bolt of satisfaction through me.
“I can’t let it slide this time Preston. You’ve gone too far. You have no idea what you have done!” He growls out at me, letting the inner demon he keeps buried deep inside, rise to the surface. This is the Charles only me and my mother knew. The one that I have been trying to stop from gaining a stronger foothold in government, the one I have been trying to get out from under for the last few years.
“I’d say I’m sorry for what’s about to happen to you, but honestly, I’ll be glad to have you out of my way. You have been a thorn in my side for too long, but it would look suspicious if both you and your mother died so close together. I knew it was only a matter of time, though, until I could get rid of you too,” he states, smiling cruelly at me.
What the fuck is he talking about?
I’m on edge, quickly scanning my eyes around the interior of the car, trying to work out a plan of escape.
Before I can come up with an exit plan though, the car starts to slow down. Looking out the window, I can see that we are in the middle of nowhere.
Why the hell are we stopping all the way out here?
Fuck, this is not good, not good at all. I don’t know what my father is up to but it doesn’t look like it ends well for me. I always knew he was a cold-hearted bastard. He killed my mother after all, a fact he just confirmed, he obviously won’t have a problem with murdering his own son.
I guess I always figured he wouldn’t risk removing me permanently, due to his position as Governor. There are so many eyes on him, from all over the country, that my disappearance or death would raise questions he wouldn’t be able to answer. I never really thought about what he would do to me if he lost that position, if I pushed him far enough.
Before I can come up with a plan to get myself out of here with my life intact, I see a van, through the front windscreen, coming down the road towards us. It appears to be slowing down as it approaches, until the two vehicles are parked side by side in the middle of the road.
Just as I go to punch the goon to my left, and dive out the side door, an almighty pain wracks through my body, worse than anything I’ve ever felt, as my muscles seize up, causing me to fall onto the gorilla beside me.
This motherfucker tazed me!
By the time he stops and I’ve regained use of my limbs again, my arms and legs are bound together, tape has been put over my mouth and my eyes are covered. I’m being hauled out of the back of the SUV and thrown into the back of the van, landing painfully on my side.
Fuck, how am I going to get out of this one?
I roll around on the floor in the back of the van for about twenty minutes before it slows down and eventually stops. No one has said anything the whole journey so I have no idea who these assholes are, or how many of them there are. I hear the van doors open and close as people get out of the vehicle, before the side door rolls open and someone grabs me roughly by the legs and shoulders and drags me out.
I can hear whoever is carrying me walking over leaves and twigs, before the sound changes to something harder, like we are now moving over a concrete floor or something. We must be in some sort of building. The sound of footsteps echoes off the walls around me, indicating we are in a large empty space.
After a few steps, I’m unceremoniously dumped on the hard floor, causing me to groan out in pain. There’s a crinkling sound as I land – is that a plastic sheet?
My tied hands are wrenched above my head and something cold is clamped around them, before a squeaking noise rings out across the room, and I’m slowly lifted off the floor.
Oh fuck. This is bad. This is so so bad.
A burning pain begins to radiate out from my shoulders as they take the brunt of my weight as I’m hauled off the floor and left to hang in the air like a cow at the butchers.
Determined to stay silent, not giving these shitheads any satisfaction of thinking they have me running scared, I grit my teeth and try to breathe through the pain.
Whatever dipshits my father has recruited to do his dirty work must get bored of my silence though.
“The silent type eh?” some asshole with a gruff voice laughs out from somewhere in front of me, “Don’t worry, we’ll have you screaming soon enough.” He promises, right before punching me hard in the stomach.
THE END
…FOR NOW
I know, I know, you all hate me right now!
Two Forces, Crescentwood #2
As a newly published author, I rely heavily on ratings and reviews. I would also love to hear your thoughts about the book and series so far either via reviews, posts on my facebook page, or discussions in my facebook group – The Reading Nook.