That’s what Charlie wanted, though, and she’d gotten tired of people bossing her around over the years, so she was doing what she wanted.
So, I was helping Branson out at a job, counting the hours until I could get back to Charlie. We were watching over some rich kid whose father thought she was in danger of being taken because of his job. It was purely delusional shit and I was pretty sure Branson was going to tell him that soon. We had clients who were in real trouble.
I was pacing the floor, worried about leaving Charlie alone for the first time outside of my house, where I knew she was safe. I sighed and looked at my watch. A few more hours and I’d be able to get back and make sure she was okay.
“Fuck, Tucker. You’ve got it bad, brother.” Branson grinned at me knowingly and shrugged. “It happens to all of us, apparently.”
I frowned. “It’s not like that. I’m just worried that she isn’t safe.”
“You said yourself that you thought it was perfectly fine. If you were really thinking that she wasn’t safe, you would’ve never left her there.”
I growled and shoved my hands through my hair. “I just don’t have a good feeling.”
Branson stared at me. “It’s probably all of that denial about what she is to you. Causing acid reflux or something.”
“I’m not in denial.”
“Sure.”
“Dammit, Branson. I’m not in denial. I just worry about her.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t do relationships. It’s not like that.”
“Yep.”
“I’m going to knock your teeth down your fucking throat.”
“Like to see you try.”
I glared at him, wanting to knock the shit out of him, but aware that we were at work and that we were evenly matched. It’d be a fight to exhaustion and neither of us wanted to have to explain the bruises. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck you, too. You want to go call your girlfriend and check on her?”
I sighed. I did. She wasn’t my girlfriend, though. She was… a friend. A friend who I slept with every night and had intense sex with at all hours of the day when we could. She was a friend who cooked for me and didn’t complain when I cooked for her. A friend who massaged my shoulders when I was stiff and who woke me up in the best ways possible when I started to have a nightmare. A friend who got excited to see me after work and whom I rushed home to.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Did you just realize that you have a girlfriend?”
I rubbed my hands down my face and looked at my watch again. “How the fuck did that happen?”
“You complaining? About Charlie? The woman who made a death stick for Mercer and made him smile?”
“Fuck, no.” I paced again. “How much longer until this asshole gets home? I need to make sure she’s okay.”
Branson looked down at his phone and grunted. “Another couple of hours or so.”
“I’m going to call the office at least.” I walked away a bit and dialed the number. When no one answered, my heart sped up. “No answer.”
“It’s probably nothing. No one told her to answer the phones.”
I dialed Lauren’s cell phone and swore when it went to voicemail. “Lauren didn’t answer either.”
“Call Elizabeth. She’s close by today. Ask her to stop by the office and check on Charlie.”
I did as he suggested and then paced harder up and down the hallway while we waited on Elizabeth to call us back. I was just about to give up and go myself when she called. “She okay?”
“She’s not here, Tucker. No one’s here. Lauren went out to check on Mercer. I passed her on my way here.” I heard her gasp. “I just found Charlie’s bandana in the back parking lot. What are the chances that she just ran out to get some supplies and dropped it?”
I was already moving towards my truck. “She loves that stupid thing. There’s no way. Go to the control room and pull up the security footage, Elizabeth. I’ll be there soon.”
Branson looked between me and the doorway to the teenage girl we were guarding. “Fuck. I’m calling him. He can come the fuck home and watch his daughter himself. I’ll be right behind you, Tuck.”
I jumped in my truck and sped to the office. I left my truck running and the door wide open when I got to BDS. Running in, I didn’t plan on staying long. I just needed to see if someone had taken her, and who that someone was.
Elizabeth was pacing in the control room when I ran in. On the screen behind her was a clear image of someone walking up behind Charlie while she was lugging a chair to the trash and hitting her with something hard. Charlie went down hard and then the person, in a ski mask, dragged her to the side of the building, where we could see from another camera the dead man loading her into a van.
I was already rushing out of the room.
“Where are you going? Who took her?”
I knew that gait anywhere. Gerald was a dead man. “I’ve got to find her. I’ll be in radio contact.”
Elizabeth ran after me. “I’m coming with you. Charlie’s my friend. No one gets to take her and live to tell about it.”
I wanted to argue, but I didn’t have time. I had to find Gerald.
Chapter 26
Charlie
I woke up with a massive headache playing at the back of my head. It literally felt like a hammer was fucking a power saw and they were both enjoying it. I rolled my eyes. Tucker was getting to me. That was something he would’ve said.
The act of rolling my eyes felt like the devil himself was torturing me. I pried them open and blinked as the darkness surrounding me started gaining shapes as my eyes adjusted. It didn’t take any time at all for me to recognize where I was. The recording studio.
I tried to sit up but my whole body ached like a bitch.
“Ah, there she is.”
I snapped my head in the direction of the voice and groaned as a wave of nausea rolled through me. Standing in the dark on the other side of the room was Gerald. Even with a throbbing head, I could put the pieces together fairly easily.
“God, you slept the entire day away. I wasn’t planning on this taking so damn long. I have a plane to catch in the morning. I don’t want to look tired.”
I forced myself up and rested with my back against the padded wall behind me. The soundproof padding would make whatever Gerald had planned a lot easier. I knew that if I screamed, no one would hear. Even if there had been neighbors close enough to the burned-down trash that had been my home, they wouldn’t hear me scream.
“Aren’t you going to talk to me?”
I grunted. “If you wanted me to talk, you shouldn’t have cracked me over the head so fucking hard.”
He tsked. “What a mouth. I’m out of your life for a few weeks and look what you turn into. You look like trash. How did you revert back to your teenage self so easily?”
I just stared at him. I watched his hands and tried to figure out what he had planned.
“Fine. Don’t talk. I’ll talk.” He turned and paced in front of me, his jacket riding up to show a silver pistol tucked into the back of his pants. “I must admit, I’m a little surprised that you’re not more shocked that I’m here.”
“Sorry you’re not good at playing a nice guy?”
“Whatever. I did everything perfectly until that fire. Well, I guess until that mall appearance. Fucking John really messed that one up. How hard is it to grab someone who weighs less than a hundred and twenty pounds?” He looked me over with a critical eye that had always made me cringe before. “Should I say weighed?”
“So, you’re going to kidnap me and joke about my weight? That seems rude.” I forced myself to keep breathing. I was panicking on the inside because, what the fuck, John was involved, too.
“God. You were so much more enjoyable when you were deprived of nutrition and too weak to fight back.”
“You were never enjoyable.” I glared at him. “What’s the point of all of this? The company already let me go. I get to keep ev
erything.”
“A mistake on their part.”
“I heard they let you go, too.”
“I have the gun. You know that, right? I have the gun and I’m planning on shooting you with it. You want to go faster?”
I swallowed. Well, that was great to know. “Why? What’s this about?”
He rolled his eyes. “What it’s always been about. Making money. Sam was a brilliant idea at getting more attention on you. More attention on you and more jobs for John. With all the publicity he was getting, protecting you from harm, he was a sure thing at a lot of big action movies. The more attention on you, the more I could milk from you. It was bold, but it was smart.”
“Gross.”
“Gun. Remember, I have the gun.” He shook his head. “It was amazing at first. The security guards, the cops. Everyone so worried about little Charlotte. John rushing home to be with you between shoots. I had to keep taking it farther, though. Stalkers escalate. I couldn’t just do a few little things and call it a day.
“Then, I realized what I had to do. And I don’t mean that in some possessed sort of way. I don’t feel obsessed with you or ending it this way. I just know that, if I want to really make the money off of this that I can, I have to kill you. I didn’t even want to, necessarily. I think it’s gross that I have to, but John is a coward.”
I raised my eyebrows and slowly pulled myself to my feet. I had to find a way out. I didn’t want to die. “How does this help? You would’ve made more money with me than you can without me.”
“Hardly. I only got a percentage of the company’s twenty percent. I didn’t make enough. And you were such a pain in the ass that I couldn’t balance any other talent, besides John. With you dead, I’ll write a couple of books about it. I’ll get John in more headlines, and he’ll start getting more roles because of it. It’ll make us more than we would’ve ever made with you in front of us.”
Shit. “Shit.”
Gerald shrugged. “It’s not personal. Not that I liked you. You were always one step from going back to that trailer park you crawled out of. I don’t want to kill you, though. I just have to. Kill you and then get back to LA and get John ready for his shocked face when the news cycle catches him out and informs him.”
I held up my hands. “Gerald. You don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, can it. I know. I don’t have to do anything. I’m still going to, though. You know why? Because I want it all, Charlotte. I want fame and money and to be able to kick back and relax, eventually. Once John gets big, I’ll retire and he can foot all the bills.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You think John is going to keep you around once he’s making money?”
I’ll admit I had no clue what I was doing. One second I was spouting speeches I’d heard on TV; the next I was poking the beast, so to speak. I was pissed. I’d had a feeling about them—a feeling that Tucker had cemented—and there I was, being proven right. It was the worst thing to be right about. That the people who’d been around you for so many years wanted to kill you.
“Don’t be a bitch. I don’t have time for it.”
“You’re the bitch. John’s bitch. He’s going to use you up, until you’re nothing but a dried-up little man with bad fashion sense and nose hair that resembles something that lives in the swamp.”
He pulled the gun out and pulled the hammer back. “You’re really starting to get on my nerves.”
I kept telling myself to shut up, but it wasn’t working. “Fuck you. It’s hilarious that you think John wants you. John wants a step up to the next level. Do you know that he used to try to fuck me?”
Gerald lowered the gun and scowled. “Bullshit.”
I’d struck a nerve. “He did. You made us share a bed and he’d try to touch me during the night. Were you his everything back then, too?”
“There’s no way, you lying bitch. He was with me back then.”
“Maybe he’s bisexual. Or maybe, just maybe, John would sleep with anyone to get what he wanted. No matter how low they really are.”
Gerald snapped. He raised the gun and pointed it at my head. “I’ll be so glad to be rid of you, once and for all.”
I refused to close my eyes. If he was going to kill me, he was going to know that I saw him do it. I stared him down and pushed my shoulders back. “After John leaves you, I hope I’m around to keep you company. I’m going to be the cold feeling at the back of your neck for the rest of your life, you scumbag.”
The door to the studio kicked in and I sagged in relief. I’d been hoping that Tucker would come to save me. Even as I thought it, though, Gerald’s hand steadied and he squeezed the trigger.
Shots rang out in the small room and the soundproofing didn’t do enough to save my ears. I screamed for all I was worth and fell to the ground. I just knew I’d been shot. I clutched at my head and tried to find the bleeding to stop it.
“Charlie, it’s okay. You’re okay. Stop screaming, baby. It’s safe. You’re safe.” Tucker’s voice sounded watery, even through my ringing ears.
I opened my eyes and saw him above me, his eyes watering and his hands shaking as he reached for me. I hurried into his arms, terrified that it wasn’t over. My heart was racing in my chest and I was finally coming to terms with what had just happened.
“Oh, shit. You killed him. He’s dead. Oh, God.”
I looked over and saw Elizabeth in the doorway. She was pale and fanning herself.
“I’m still not there with seeing dead bodies. I’m just going to wait outside.”
Tucker stood up and pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay? Fuck, baby. If he’d been a good shot, you’d be dead right now.”
“Don’t say that!” I hit his chest and then started sobbing. “Did he miss?”
Tucker laughed and then swallowed as a tear fell down his cheek. “He missed. He missed you. You’re okay.”
“I’m okay?”
“You’re okay.”
I let him lead me outside, not once glancing at the body on the floor. I didn’t need to see Gerald like that. I just wanted to get out of there and breathe in fresh air. I wanted to go home and have Tucker hold me in his arms for about a month.
“You saved me.” I held on to him as tight as I could. “You got there just in time.”
He shuddered. “I wish I could kill him again.”
“John helped him. They were in on it together.”
“I know. I found John at Gerald’s house. He was a nervous wreck when he saw me. So nervous that he pissed himself and told me where Gerald had taken you.”
“I hope you hit him.”
“A few times, baby.”
I looked up at him and frowned. “Can we just go home? I don’t want to be here. I want to be in your bed with you and Spark.”
“I’m going to have some paperwork and explaining to do. I can have Elizabeth take you home. I’ll be there as soon as I can be—okay?”
I shrugged and opened my mouth to say I’d wait around with him, but he leaned down and kissed me. It was a desperate kiss, showing me exactly how worried he’d been. He clung to me, holding handfuls of my hair and breathing harshly against my mouth when he pulled away.
“I was scared to death that I wouldn’t get here in time.”
I blinked away tears and nodded. “You did, though. You saved me.”
He pulled away. “We have to talk when I get home.”
“Is it bad? I can’t handle anything else bad.”
“I don’t think so. Go with Elizabeth before the cops get here and make you give a statement tonight.” He kissed me again. “I’ll be home soon.”
***
I was cuddled up in bed with Spark when Tucker finally got home, hours later. I’d been worried the whole time. I kept thinking that I should’ve stayed. What if the cops tried to arrest Tucker for murder? I should’ve been there. I worried enough that I couldn’t fall asleep. Not that I could’ve anyway, probably.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Gerald.
If not Gerald, then John. I hadn’t asked what Tucker did with John. I kept worrying about John showing up and trying to finish what Gerald had started.
Tucker came straight to the bedroom and started taking off his clothes. He pulled his shirt over his head and looked from me to the TV that was blaring a cartoon. “You okay?”
I scooted over and pulled down the blanket for him. “I’ll be better when you’re in here with me.”
He turned off the light and grabbed the remote to turn the TV off. When the room was completely dark, he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. When I felt him shake, I realized he was crying and cried with him. I stroked his back and pressed my body as tight against his as I could get.
“Stay with me.”
I froze against him. “What do you mean?”
He pulled back and wiped his face before capturing mine in his damp hands and staring at me in the dark. “I mean I want you to stay with me. I thought I’d lost you tonight and I felt like I was losing myself, Charlie. I don’t want to lose you. I want you here, in my bed, every night. I want to be with you.”
I sat up and turned on the lamp on the nightstand. “You’re not joking?”
He sat up with me and took my hand. “No. I need you, Charlie. I… I think I love you.”
“You love me?”
“I think so. I don’t know what else it could be. I think about you all the time. I miss you during the day. I want you to be happy, no matter what it means for me. And tonight, when I thought I was going to lose you… I didn’t know what else I had going for me, Charlie. I want you to stay with me. I know I’m not perfect. I’ll try, though.”
I felt like I was dreaming. It was everything I’d wanted him to say, but also everything I thought he never would. “You want a relationship with me?”
He swallowed audibly and nodded. “I want everything with you. Tell me you want me, too.”
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 47