Once that is out of the way, we can go get Kiana.
Lawson will never be okay with our relationship, but it sounds like he’s had to take a really hard look in the mirror. He’s made mistakes. Some of them were the reason Kiana needed me to begin with. That has turned into something that he can’t stand in the way of, and even if he tries, I won’t let him.
One thing is for damn sure.
Diaz has no idea what kind of hell is coming his way.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kiana
“Make yourself comfortable.” A man who identified himself as Juan pushes me into a chair—hard enough for it to leave a few bruises. “Otherwise, I might have to rough up that pretty face the same way I did your boyfriend.”
Boyfriend? How does he know that? Were they watching us?
“That’s enough, Juan.” I hear a familiar face and look past Juan to see Mr. Diaz standing in the doorway. “Ms. Brooks is our guest—nothing more.”
“If I’m your guest, then I want to leave.” I narrow my eyes and pull at the restraints holding my wrists.
“You will. Just as soon as Mr. Ward delivers the money I’m owed.” Mr. Diaz nods.
Juan secures me to the chair, then leaves the room without saying anything else. Mr. Diaz walks closer. He’s no less imposing in the daylight than he is on a dark night on a dimly lit street.
“You and I had a deal.” I look up at him. “I know the one you made with Bram was a lot better than the one we had, considering I was barely scraping the surface with every payment I made.”
“You were paying what you could. I respected that and respected the lengths you were going to in order to earn that money.” Mr. Diaz pulls a chair over to sit down in front of me. “Bram’s deal was made in haste before I realized that he was capable of clearing the debt in one transaction, so now it’s time to renegotiate.”
“Do you really think kidnapping me is going to make him want to sit down at the table with you again?” I shake my head.
“I tried to get him to come to the table without taking such drastic measures, but he refused, so here we are. I don’t have any problem stacking the odds in my favor; it’s good for business.” His eye twitches. “All of this will be over tomorrow regardless. I’ll have my money, and you two can go live the rest of your lives together.”
I wish it were that simple. Mr. Diaz obviously has no idea that Bram nearly went bankrupt to buy my father’s shares of the company. I know how much my brother owed, and I know Bram would have paid it all at once if it was possible.
“What if he doesn’t bring the money? What then?” I fear his response.
“Well…” Mr. Diaz sighs and begins to stand up. “Then things get ugly, my dear.”
Mr. Diaz walks to the door and once it slams, I hear a lock click on the other side. It looks like I’m in one of the storage rooms of his club. There are a few empty boxes beside me. The room doesn’t appear to be one they care about based on the condition of the walls and floor. They’re grungy and downright filthy.
I pull at my restraints again. There’s no way I’m getting them off my wrists. Even if I could, getting myself free from the chair would be harder, and then I would have to deal with the locked door—it doesn’t look like it would even budge.
I’m trapped. The only one who can save me is Bram. I don’t believe he would leave me here to get hurt or die, but I don’t know what he’s going to do if he can’t come up with the money. Based on what Juan said, it sounds like they’ve already had one interaction that didn’t go Bram’s way.
Is that why I haven’t heard from him? What if he’s the one who is hurt? Maybe I was too quick to assume he was okay after the cops didn’t show up to arrest my father.
I really wish I could talk to Bram. There’s so much for us to clear up, and if I’m going to be walking the tightrope to heaven or hell, I’d like to know where we stand. Maybe that’s a foolish notion considering my current predicament, but I can’t help it. If he tries to come save me and something happens to him, I’ll never be able to forgive myself for dragging him into this mess to begin with.
He was just trying to do the right thing for his best friend’s daughter. This situation has gotten so out of control that it makes me sick. I tried to save my brother’s life and now I may end up losing someone else I care about.
Or I may not see the light of day again…
A couple of hours pass. I hear commotion on the other side of the door a few times, but it never opens.
The last place I need to be right now is trapped in my own thoughts. I’m scared for Bram, scared for myself—scared of what lengths Mr. Diaz will go to if Bram doesn’t show up with the money. Will he just hurt me? Will he hurt the rest of my family? I may have liberated myself from my parents, but I don’t want anything to happen to them.
What if the conversation we had this morning is the last one we’ll ever have? I know I hurt them—with words, just like the ones they used to wound me with.
The only solace I have is that Hudson may make it out of this unscathed. He’s completely dropped off the face of the earth. I thought he might resurface when the debt was cleared, but I haven’t dared to reach out to him—I think I’ve been too afraid of hearing that the debt with Mr. Diaz isn’t the only one he has—that everything I’ve done wasn’t enough to accomplish what I set out to do.
Now I wish I could hear him give me shit one more time. I wish we could have one more day in his room where he was reading comic books and I was making fun of him for being obsessed with superheroes. The little things like that are so special, but you never take the time to appreciate them.
If this is where it ends for me, I hope Hudson finds a way to live the life our parents always dreamed he’d have. It’s a strange thought to find comfort in.
I want to cry but I don’t want to give anyone on the other side of the door that satisfaction. If I was strong enough to stand up to my parents, I can be strong enough to stand up to my own untimely demise.
The broken pieces that will be left behind are casualties for what should have been a good cause. I wish I could turn back the clock and stop Bram from ever making his deal with Mr. Diaz. None of us were in danger when I was just a foolish girl sitting across the table from a loan shark and putting myself on a stage to pay that debt—now I’ve put everyone I care about in danger.
I won’t be able to forgive myself if they get hurt.
“Open the door.” I hear a voice echo. It’s recognizable, but it’s so muffled through the door I can’t quite put my finger on it.
“Mr. Diaz said none of his guys get in here. His orders.” A gruff voice responds.
“Well I’m not one of his guys am I?” That—that can’t be who I think it is.
Have I been in this room so long I’m hallucinating?
“No sir.” The lock clicks.
The door opens and the light blinds me for a moment, but I only need a silhouette to confirm who is standing there.
“Hudson? What are you doing here?” I feel my heart begin to race. “You need to leave! If Mr. Diaz sees you…”
A surge of panic floods my veins.
“I’m sorry, Kiana. He wasn’t supposed to do this.” Hudson walks straight to me and begins to untie me from the chair.
My thoughts are in disarray. I don’t want to be here, but Hudson shouldn’t be here either. But what he said…
“What do you mean he wasn’t supposed to do this?” I blink in confusion. “Hudson, what is going on?”
“I’ll explain everything, but we need to get you out of here first.” Hudson finishes untying the rope and moves to the zip-ties that are holding my wrists.
“Ah, the prodigal sun returns.” Mr. Diaz walks into the room. “I wasn’t expecting you for a couple of days.”
“You kidnapped my sister?” Hudson turns to him. “That wasn’t part of the deal…”
“Deal? What deal?” I look back and forth between them.
“I told you,
I’ll explain it…” Hudson glances at me then back to Mr. Diaz. “I’m taking her home. I should have put a stop to it the second she got involved. This is too much.”
“I’m afraid we’re past that point now, Hudson.” Mr. Diaz’s eye twitches. “But I won’t keep you from having this joyous family reunion if that is what you really want.”
Mr. Diaz takes a step back and reaches for the door. Hudson rushes towards it, but Mr. Diaz slams it in his face. A second later, I hear the lock click.
“Diaz! Open the fucking door!” Hudson pounds his hand against it. “Hey! We had a deal!”
“Hudson.” I narrow my eyes and the panic flooding my veins turns into anger. “What fucking deal is he talking about?”
My brother’s shoulders slump forward. I hear a heavy sigh. Jagged pieces of a puzzle I can’t quite put together begin to form, and it’s enough to finally bring tears to my eyes.
“Kiana, I’m sorry…” He turns around. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
“Did you… Did you set Bram up?” I tilt my head in confusion and pull against the restraints he loosened. I can almost get them off, but they’re still a little too tight.
“Bram? No.” Hudson shakes his head. “This was about dad.”
“Dad?” My mouth falls open. “Oh my god, Hudson. How long has this been going on?”
“I borrowed some money from Mr. Diaz a couple of years ago, and when it was time to pay him, I didn’t have it.” Another heavy sigh. “Dad helped me out…”
“Yeah, I know that part. He helped you out and then you borrowed more money—and more money.” I nod.
“That’s not what happened.” Hudson sits down across from me and his head falls into his hands. “I didn’t borrow anymore money after that. I just told dad I did. Mr. Diaz was happy to go along with it as long as he got a cut…”
The jagged pieces begin to turn into ones that I can put together.
“It was a setup?” I stare in disbelief for a second and then my emotions get the best of me. “You didn’t owe Mr. Diaz any money!? You let me…”
“I didn’t know you were going to do that, Kiana!” He looks up at me and I see tears in his eyes as well. “My god, I would have never put you in that situation if I had known. I just wanted to bleed dad dry—for all of the shit he did to me—all the shit he did to you. I felt like he owed it to me.”
“You were golden child, Hudson! I was the one that always got the short end of the stick!” My jaw tightens as the anger continues to build. “You bankrupted him!”
“I know! I fucking know…” He exhales sharply. “That was the plan. Once he was out of money or just stopped paying, we were going to call it quits. Then you walked into the club…”
“To save your damn life!” I seethe through clenched teeth.
“Mr. Diaz was afraid we would blow our cover if he turned you away. He was afraid you would say something to dad, and he would figure it out…” Hudson shakes his head. “I fucked up, Kiana. I was ready to put a stop to it—then Bram showed up and offered to pay the debt for you.”
“Once again, to save your damn life!” I am literally trembling with anger.
“I told Mr. Diaz that I was done.” Hudson looks down for a moment. “He said one more deal. We’d get a big payoff from Bram and then we could go our separate ways. He wasn’t supposed to involve you…”
“Hudson, Bram doesn’t have that kind of money.” I glare at him. “He had to empty his bank account to buy our dad’s shares of the company.”
“Fuck!” Hudson stands up. “I need to tell Mr. Diaz that this is over. I’ll fix this Kiana, just give me a few minutes.”
“You damn well better fix it, and then I don’t want to ever see you again.” I slump in my chair.
Hudson walks to the door and after knocking several times, it finally opens. I stare a hole in him until it slams shut again.
My emotions are going in every direction at once. My brother is alive—he’s not in danger—but he’s a bigger asshole than my father ever was.
He let me make that deal with Mr. Diaz. He let me walk out onto that stage and take my clothes off for money.
For what? To keep up appearances—to protect himself from getting caught?
I thought I knew him. I would have done anything for him.
At least this will be over soon.
I hope.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bram
This is it. The moment I trained my whole life for. Granted, when I was getting my boots dirty in basic training, I never imagined using those skills for urban combat. I planned to fight for my country, not for the woman I love—but I’ll be damned if I won’t use everything Uncle Sam taught me to get her back in my arms.
“You good?” I look over at Lawson as my car pulls to a stop near Mr. Diaz’s club.
“Yeah.” He makes some adjustments to the AR-15 he borrowed from Keaton. “Let’s go get my daughter back.”
“We don’t leave without her.” I nod and reach for my M-16.
“I’m going to say this right now—I will never be okay with it.” He shoots me a glance.
“Yeah, I know.” I open my door.
Lawson has lost everything. His son is a disgrace who gambled away his entire fortune. His wife is leaving him because of all his secrets and lies. He treated his daughter like shit and his eyes are finally open to it. But none of that makes him okay with what happened—the night she crawled into my bed. Right now, none of that matters. We are two people who care about the girl inside that club more than our own lives. If we lose them today, so be it.
I’ll willingly bleed my last drop if I know she’s safe.
“One guy at the door.” Lawson motions, the slings his AR-15 over his back. “I got him.”
“Sure thing.” I nod and let him take the lead.
Lawson was a demon in the desert. He could sneak behind enemy lines with a knife clenched in his teeth and walk out without a scratch on him—covered in the blood that wasn’t his. I never had a problem getting my hands dirty, but I was much better with a gun in my hand than without one.
I watch as Lawson disappears in broad daylight like it’s the dead of night. A minute later, he’s behind the guy guarding the front door. Crimson is all I see before Lawson drops him. Mr. Diaz might have had the upper hand with a beaten-up bastard like me coming for him, but he’s about to face a father’s wrath—a man who has nothing left to lose at this point.
“Alright.” I meet him at the door. “It’s probably going to get ugly when we walk in here.”
“Good.” Lawson clutches his AR-15.
I slam a boot into the door hard enough for it to nearly come off its hinges. The two of us storm the club with weapons drawn. We’re not here to take prisoners. Kiana’s life is the only one that will be spared. We didn’t pick this fight, but by god, we’re going to finish it.
“What the hell? Oh my god! Juan! Mr. Diaz!” A startled thug reaches for a weapon and dies before his hand ever gets close.
Two down.
“On your six!” Lawson points.
“Got him.” I turn and two bullets drop another one of Mr. Diaz’s thugs.
It might as well be a massacre. Shooting fish in a fucking barrel. Mr. Diaz’s thugs are good on the streets, and they’ll kill for the man who pays them, but they never get a chance. Bullets end lives in an instant until there’s enough smoke from our weapons to leave a haze.
“Stop! Dad! Stop!” A voice—a familiar voice, but not the one I expected.
“Hudson?” Lawson lowers his gun.
“Don’t shoot anyone else, please!” Hudson steps out from a back room with his hands in the air.
“What the hell are you doing here, son?” Lawson blinks a couple of time in confusion.
I share his confusion, but I’m not ready to let my guard down. I scan the room as Hudson approaches. Something doesn’t feel right. Why would Hudson be here? All of this shit started because of his fucking debt. This s
hould be the last place in the world he would want to be.
“I’m trying to straighten all of this out!” Hudson is sweating. He’s obviously upset.
“Where’s Kiana?” I ask the question before Lawson has a chance.
“She’s safe! I promise! She should have never gotten dragged into this.” Hudson looks down and sighs. “I fucked up, dad.”
“I want to see her.” I narrow my eyes at Hudson.
Regardless of whether Hudson is here by own free will or not, I need to know that Kiana is okay. His word isn’t good enough for me.
“You don’t have to worry about her. Not unless you plan to do something stupid.” Mr. Diaz walks out from the back part of the club—with Kiana in front of him like some sort of human shield and he has a gun to her neck.
“Are you okay?” Lawson’s expression shifts to panic.
“I’m fine, dad.” Kiana’s eyes are red. It looks like she’s been crying.
The sight of her in that predicament drives me into a rage, but I do my best to control my emotions.
“Why don’t the two of you put down your guns and we can talk about this like civilized people.” Mr. Diaz’s eye twitches and he shoves the gun into Kiana’s neck to make sure we get the point.
Fuck. Putting down my gun might as well be suicide, but I’m not going to risk something happening to her because I don’t comply. Lawson puts his on the table without a single moment of hesitation. I pause for a moment, assess the situation, and decide it’s the only option I have.
“Let her go, Diaz.” I bark at him. “Our guns are down.”
“I feel a little safer talking to you with a little insurance in front of me.” He glares at me. “All you had to do was bring me the money, Bram. It didn’t have to be like this.”
“You would have gotten your money if you had left her out of this.” I narrow my eyes and growl under my breath.
“This has gone on long enough.” Hudson holds up one hand to Mr. Diaz and one to us. “I’m the one that screwed up here. Dad, I never owed those gambling debts. I was just trying to get money out of you.”
Daddy's Possessive Friend (Once Upon a Daddy Book 12) Page 17