“What’s going on?” I ask out to anyone who will answer me.
“That’s what were fixin’ to find out,” Gunner says to me. “Which one of you wants to start and tell us what it is exactly you overheard?” he asks the bunnies in the room. This catches my attention, what is it and why does it need to be discussed right now?
“Speak!” Sandman screams out at them. They look at each other, but it’s Tilley who starts talking first.
“We were walking by Classy and Glitter’s room when something they said grabbed our attention.”
“Well, what was it girl?” Blaze says this time, I can tell he’s fixing to lose his shit with them. He’s not known for putting out fires, he’s usually the one starting them—in all forms of fashion.
“Stop yelling at us please and give us a chance to tell you,” Shelby says, causing all of us to stiffen up in our stances. Gunner leans up against the wall and crosses his arms and legs. I mimic him and take the same stance against the bedroom door.
“Continue,” I say.
“Like Tilley was saying, we overheard the girls mention Charlee and Cameron’s names, we got curious of why they’d be talking about them.” They were being nosey is most likely the case, these girls are always competing with each other and any information they can use to one up each other is golden in their minds.
“For the love of God spit it out already!” Polo finally steps in, we’re all getting aggravated with them now.
“Ugh, alright, here it is put plain and simple.” Finally, someone give her a cookie she’s finally figured out we’re not in any mood for games. “They were complaining that all the work they did to help some guys kidnap the girls is all out the window since they heard the brothers talking and know that Charlee and Cameron’s location has been found. We didn’t want them to have the chance to call and warn whoever these guys are, so we came to you as soon as we heard that.” Sandman and Polo don’t wait for instructions from Gunner, they push me out of the way, nearly causing me to eat the floor as they run out the door.
“Thank you for coming to us right away ladies, please don’t tell anyone else what it is you told us just now,” Gunner orders them.
“No problem,” Tilley tells Gunner.
“You got it,” Shelby says at the same time. The girls leave the room and head out to do whatever it is they do around here.
“Looks like we’re interrogating a couple bunnies before we head out,” Gunner tells me.
“Yep, looks that way.” As anxious as I am to get the girls, we need to know as much information about the people who took them, it helps to know who you’re killing and why. We hear the girls screeching out at Sandman and Polo as they drag them down the hallway. Gunner and I look at each other and each of us has a smile on our face, let the trials begin…bitches are going to pay for their betrayal.
I’ve never been a part of interrogations before, had to clean plenty of them up. I’m secretly hoping we don’t have to get as graphic as some I’ve cleaned up, I don’t have time to play cleaner today, I have a girl to bring home. I hope this bitch squeals like the pig she is, they are, either one of them needs to talk, just one and I don’t give a fuck which one it is. As long as they do it fast, so we can hit chapel and get a plan of action together. The girls are set in chairs and tied to them, their ankles to the legs and their hands behind their backs.
“What’s going on here?” Classy screams out, “we’ve done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment from you!” Gunner laughs in her face causing her to pale, wonder if the bitch has figured it out yet…she’s been busted.
“Nothing wrong, huh?” Gunner ask looking back and forth between the two. I watch them closely and see them turn their heads towards each other as they have some type of silent communication happening. “Care to rephrase that statement?” Gunner asks them, neither of them say a word. Gunner slams his hands down on the chair in anger, they each start to shake, and their eyes grow wide. Too wide for their faces, they’ve awoken the beast that lies inside of him. “I’m giving you both one more chance to speak the truth, if not one of you does, I will drag it out of you screaming and crying…understand?”
“We don’t know anything…swear!” Glitter screams out and Classy begins to cry. Those tears aren’t those of innocence but those of fear, normally a crying woman gets to me, but this time I feel nothing for her or her friend.
“Get the pliers,” Gunner tells me, this is his way of letting me be involved.
“No please!” Classy begins to shake while she cries, “we’ll tell you anything you want to know, please don’t hurt us.” Little does this bitch know, she’s already signed her death warrant. She’s given us a license to kill, and that isn’t something any of us takes lightly. What she’s done is unacceptable, you don’t fuck with a brother and his family. And both Charlee and Cameron are family.
I watch as Sandman walks up to Classy, bends down in her face and demands, “Speak now bitch, or I’ll slit your throat without any remorse.” You can visibly see her swallow and she nods her head that she understands what was said to her. “Now!” he screams in her face and she jumps, and the tears start flowing harder and faster.
“About tw...two months ago, we were at the store purchasing some things for the clubhouse. We we...were out of liquor and some other items. Charlee tasked us with picking up the items because…because she was busy with the shop. We were upset with her because we’d had plans and didn’t want to be out running errands. We were going up and down the aisles talking about it when two men approached us. They…they said they had a business offer for us, one that would take the nuisance out of our lives…for good. We paid for our purchases and met them out by my car, they told us that they needed us to cooperate with them and help get rid of the girls or the rest of the club would pay in blood. We have an allegiance to the club, not those fucking brats!”
I watch as Polo loses his shit and walks up to her and slaps her across the face. “Don’t you ever talk about them like that again! Those girls are more club than the two of you will ever be!” And for good measure he gives her another slap, I’ve never witnessed him raise his hand to anyone in anger, so I’m a little shocked at his outburst. He’s more of a lover than a fighter, don’t get me wrong he’ll fight and die right beside anyone of us, but he’s the tamest brother we have.
“You’re so fuckin’ lucky he got his hands on you before I had the chance,” Gunner leans his chair forward and gets right in her face as he tells her that. I mean they are nose to nose, hardly any space separates them at all. I’ve never seen him like this, he’s always so friendly with women, doesn’t disrespect them or mistreat them, this is a side I hope I never end up on the receiving side of. I vow right here and now that I will do whatever it takes to not ever do anything to get me there.
Needing this showdown to be over with I step in, “What did these guys want with our girls?”
“They said that they were the key to keeping the club safe from retaliation,” Glitter speaks up finally.
“Retaliation from what?” Gunner asks.
“They didn’t tell us that, please, all we wanted to do was protect the club and its members.”
“And yet you didn’t come to us?” I ask, how dumb are these two?
“We did what we had to do!” Glitter screams out.
“No, you did what was best for the two of you, not the club,” Gun tells them, “you betrayed us by not only not trusting us, but siding with a potential enemy of the club.”
“No we didn’t,” Classy says shaking her head no. “We protected ya’ll, you’re our family, it’s our club too.”
“It’s not your shit!” I scream at them. “You have one job and one job only, spreading your fucking slut legs! If this club meant anything to you two, you would’ve come to us,” I say shaking my head. Where do these two get off, they weren’t protecting shit, they were getting rid of competition?
“End them, put them to sleep…permanently.” Gunner tells San
dman.
“Happily,” Sandman says, with hatred in his eyes. As Gunner and I walk out of the room we can hear them screaming, ‘No’ in unison and crying out in fear. I leave that room knowing they’re both getting what is deserved, the punishment fits the crime. We walk into chapel and spend the next two hours going over the information we received via Pops, and make a plan of attack. Those girls will be home, tonight.
We’re led into the bathroom and are kept together as I requested. I turn on the shower to drown out any noises and our conversation to where the assholes can’t overhear anything we say or hear us snooping. I point to the shower indicating to Cameron that she should go ahead and shower first while I check out the drawers and cabinets to see if I can find anything that could be useful and aid us in escape or protecting ourselves should we need to. She nods her head in understanding and strips out of her clothes, I notice bruises and dried blood covering her body and I worry that she may be more injured than she let me know. I see a hand print across her face that I’m just now noticing, and I realize that it’s older than the few days we’ve been in these assholes’ custody. It’s already got shades of yellow letting me know it’s at least five days old.
“Cam, your face,” she ignores me and gets into the shower drawing the curtain closed, officially cutting off any potential conversation. I shake myself out of it knowing we only have a limited amount of time for me to search every inch of this bathroom. I’m angry and confused as to why my best friend is leaving out an important part from her story. What the fuck happened to her while she was with Jamie? I swear to God if that handprint is from his hand I will break it off! She’s suffered enough abuse at the hands of her father, she doesn’t need it from her man, a man whose job is to protect her at all costs, not inflict injury upon her.
The more I search the more desperate I become to find something, anything that I can protect us with. I’m coming up empty, this bathroom has been stripped of everything that could’ve come in handy. There’s painkillers, toilet paper and other essentials, but nothing that could be useful, unless I wrap them up in toilet paper and make mummies out of them. I snort out at that thought, if only that would trap them and allow us to leave without them pursuing us. I can imagine their faces when I wrap them up, I nearly double over in laughter at the thought, but then come out of it when I notice Cam is done with her shower and stepping out. I hand her a towel I found under the sink and start to remove my own clothing. I shake my head no, letting her know I found nothing, nada, zilch…looks like we’re on our own here. We’ll need our wits and strength if we have any hope of getting ourselves out of this mess.
Once we’ve both had our showers and brushed our teeth and done other bathroom duties we’re escorted back to our room. We didn’t find a brush for our hair that was new like we did for our teeth so I’m sitting, chained once again on this nasty ass mattress, running my fingers through my hair. There wasn’t any conditioner so I’m pulling out a shit ton of hair as I work the tangles out. I don’t know if you’ve ever had to do that before, but it hurts like a bitch. Feeling exhausted, both Cameron and I decide to take a nap, I’m keeping one eye open, with our situation I can’t afford to fall into a deep sleep. I’m awakened with the door opening and mean man number one leaning over me and undoing my chain. “Where are you taking me?” I ask him in a panic, Cameron is still fast asleep on her side of the room.
“Boss is here, he wants to have a word with you,” he says to me as he roughly pulls me from the bed and manhandles me out of the bedroom.
“What about Cameron?”
“She’s just here as collateral to make sure you cooperate with us, now move it and stop asking so many questions.” Fucking hell, she’s in this mess because of me? What the hell did I ever do to these people? As I’m marched up a set of stairs and down the hallway I notice the bathroom we were escorted to earlier. We pass a couple of closed doors until we reach the main part of this house, it’s older, paint is chipping off from the walls and the color has faded over time. What were once white walls are now a dingy yellow color, I look out the window as we pass the kitchen and I see nothing but woods, no sign of life close by. No need in yelling out in hopes of anyone hearing me, we’re on our own, which isn’t good since I see no escape in sight. We walk straight into a living room where I see a man dressed for success, suit and tie, perfectly groomed. What in the hell is a guy like this doing with these scum bags that kidnapped me?
“Charlee, it’s nice to officially meet you,” says the groomed guy. I have nicknames for all of them since I don’t know their names.
“Wish I could say the same, but I have no clue who you are or what you want with me or why these guys hurt my friend and took me against my will.” I can see by his body stance that I’m making him uncomfortable or upset with my statement.
“Have a seat, let’s have a talk.” Not wanting to piss this guy off and needing to get information from him I do as asked. “You don’t know me, I’m sure this is all confusing for you, so let me introduce myself. My name is Luca Alvarez, and I am your uncle from your father’s side…he is my brother.” I’m shocked at this statement, as far as I ever knew my parents were only children whose folks were deceased.
“I can see by your expression you never knew of my existence, or that of your family background. Your father never told you about us, or about what our family is all about?”
“Not one word,” I reply as I mentally go back and try to remember if Pops ever gave any hints about his background, anything at all and I’m still coming up blank.
“I see, this displeases me very much. Let me give you some background on the family you and your brother were born into. We are of Columbian royalty, you my dear are a princess of the family, your father was meant to be our next leader, the boss. Our king so to speak. Only he fell in love with someone our father didn’t approve of—your mother. Don’t get me wrong, your mother’s beauty and heart are things even I loved about her, she was one of my closest friends. I met her when I took my year of solitude from the family, one we’re all required to participate in upon our twentieth birthday. I spent almost a year in blissful freedom, your mother and her people helped me become an independent thinker, a man of my word and showed me a world unlike any I’d ever participated in. We never had anything beyond friendship, but I was smitten with her nevertheless. When my year was up, I talked her into coming home with me to meet my family and have a getaway of her own. Once your father first set eyes upon your mother he was instantly in love, love at first sight if I may say. The three of us did everything together, where there was one of us you would find the other two. My big brother was my hero, my best friend and the only person I trusted one hundred percent. When they fell in love, we tried to hide it from my parents until your mother had a chance to win them over, my father unfortunately found out and banished your mother from our property. With your father’s inheritance from our grandparents he set your mother up in a home of her own and he went and visited her, I helped cover for him. As time went on, the more in love they became. I was so happy for both of them, knowing my best friend would always be around, both of them filled my heart with joy. Father began introducing your father, Julius, to available women whom he deemed acceptable to join the family. Your father started rebelling, he stopped coming to family meetings and eventually moved out of the family home and moved in with your mother. Things in the family became very strained, especially once your mother became pregnant with your brother. Julius refused to leave her, he wouldn’t have your mother be his mistress and your brother considered a bastard. He was very much in love with his woman and refused to have the child he conceived with your mother viewed as anything other than a child of love, and not that of a bastard child. You look pale dear, shall I continue, or do you need a break?”
“No please continue, I’m just in shock is all.”
“Understandable, Rocco, get our guest a glass of water please.”
“Sure thing boss,” mean man number tw
o who I now know the name of says to my uncle. Once the glass is set in front of me and I take a sip, Uncle Luca continues.
“Our father gave yours an ultimatum, let her go or she would find death at her door. So, late one night your father and mother took off and we haven’t seen them since. My father is dying and wants to make amends with his oldest son and wants him to take his rightful place within the family. Our search became more intense, we called in all of our favors and finally tracked down your parents. Your father must’ve spotted our man, and before I could make it to him and tell him of the circumstances your parents disappeared, and we began trying to trace them once again. The United States government got wind of us being here and looking for them, and took it upon themselves to camp out in front of your homes, business and clubhouse, blocking our way in to speak with you or your brother. We mean you no harm, but your parents must be located before my father passes. You are all in great danger until he takes his rightful place at the head of the family.”
I rub the back of my head where I still have a large knot, “Yeah, I can tell you mean us no harm, your men there,” I point to the men in the room, “didn’t mind hitting me in the back of the head.”
Charlee's Choices: DreamCatchers MC Page 13