Caged

by Shanna Ehrlich

  Annie took a deep breath, she was getting frustrated. “Stop telling me everything in bits and pieces. It’s not finished? What the fuck does that mean? How did the detectives know I was the one you marked,” she air quoted. “I know you didn’t just throw my name out to a gauntlet of heartless criminals.”

  “Just so we’re clear, I’m going to do whatever I want with you if I think it’s best, and you’re going to respect my choices. I’ve said it before and I’m not going to tell you again. This is how my world works and it’s too late for you to back out now. Is that understood?” He didn’t wait for her to respond. Her pride would never allow her to answer the question willingly, but her silence spoke worlds. “I did not throw your name around. I gave them a description. I confirmed I had someone in my life who I would go to war for if anything happened, but a description alone won’t hold forever. I basically forbid them to touch anyone with blonde hair, blue eyes and who looks to be around thirty. That won’t stand much longer. Eventually they will take their chances and hope it’s not you. That’s why I said it’s not finished. We use the term marked for a reason, and you’re not going to like it.”

  “Why won’t I like it?” she asked, uneasy of what he would say. “Is it like a tattoo or something?”

  “No, it’s not a tattoo. If I were just a soldier that’s what it would be, but I need something more permanent, harder to come by. If it were as easy as a tattoo, there’d be nothing to deter other people from getting the mark and claiming they were under my protection. It happens more than you think; my men tatting their wives with our mark and then her girlfriend gets the same tat. At that level it’s not the end of the world, and when they’re caught impersonating they’re dead on the spot, but it could be the end of the world for me. You’ll have power B. You could walk into any gang’s headquarters, kill one of their men, and they couldn’t do shit about it. The mark isn’t the same for everyone else. With their mark, it’s simply to avoid retaliation against family. It can also keep people safe in that if you’re caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, your life might be spared for fear it would be considered retaliation. Am I explaining this okay? It’s all a little convoluted.”

  Annie told him yes, but he still hadn’t explained to her what she really wanted to know. “I understand why you’d need something different than everyone else, but why won’t I like it? What is it?”

  “It’s this.” Reaching in his pocket he pulled out a circular, metal, medallion, about two inches in width, and held it between his thumb and finger. Etched into it was a similar design to the tattoo on his chest. Two axes crossed over each other and a snake wrapped around. Small letters of the MO3 acronym rounded out the bottom. “This will be soaked in black ink and burned on to your skin.”

  “Okay, fuck you,” she smacked the ornament out of his grasp. “That’s not happening.”

  Reaching to pick it up off the floor, he held it tight. “I have to get it too, not just you, and for me the ramifications are worse. Once I have that mark, everyone will know who I am.”

  “Then why do it? It’s not worth it. I don’t need that fucking mark. I’ll take my chances.”

  “It’s worth it to me, for my sanity, to know you’re safe. If I don’t do it, they could go after you. Anyone who ever wanted to hurt me. Especially now that I put it out there you’re important. This is going to happen B. I need you to be okay with it. It won’t even hurt and it’s done by a professional. He’ll put you under and when it’s over you’ll have the best painkillers you could ever possibly have.”

  “Do I get to pick where you do it?”

  “No, it goes right here.” Turning her arm over he pointed to the center of her forearm. He turned his arm over too. Tattoos covered halfway down his arm, the same tattoos she’d seen before, but now noticed a circular area at the end, clear of any markings. He set the metal piece down on his arm and it completed the design. “It’s all that’s missing.”

  “You knew all along you’d eventually get this done? I thought you never cared about women.”

  “I don’t. I didn’t,” he corrected. “I purposely left it blank. Draws more attention to the fact that I don’t care about anyone. I’m deemed more ruthless that way. How can you hurt a man if he has nothing to live for?”

  “And you’re willing to drop that façade for me?”

  “Yes. Absolutely. In a heartbeat.” He reached up toward her face, rubbing a thumb against her cheek.

  “Well I can’t let you do that for me.”

  Braxton wasn’t an idiot. He may not have been a psychology major, but he knew what she was doing, turning it around on him. Showing him what he would lose. But it wouldn’t work. He didn’t care what he would lose, and honestly never did. He has never cared about the Emmo like he should have. He was sucked into his role against his will and it just happened to be something he was very good at. That’s all. If losing his edge meant keeping her safe, he was all for it, and little did she know, she didn’t really have a choice. He hoped she’d do it willingly, and maybe she would, maybe she just needed time to think about it, but if not, there were other ways.

  The car pulled up to the hotel and Greg hopped out, walking around to open their door. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. You’ll come around sometime. Just think about it.”

  “No, I won’t.”

  He kissed her. A soft peck on the lips but enough to shut her up, and then stepped out of the SUV when the door opened, leaving her speechless. Braxton laughed and reached in, taking her hand to help her out and escorted her inside, back toward the elevators, passing the front desk.

  “Don’t we need to get a key?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. Trevor should be in the room by now to let us in.” What he left out was she didn’t need a key because he didn’t anticipate she would be staying the night at the hotel. He only got the room as a distraction for Trevor. To give them time alone. Although, as a backup, the Empire Suite did have three rooms. They could use one if they had to.

  When they stepped on the elevator Braxton pushed the button for level twenty-eight and it lurched upward.

  “How do you know what room we’re in? Are you and Trevor best friends now? Did you exchange phone numbers or something?” she joked and he gave her a look that screamed, are you kidding me.

  “I only know what room we’re in because I’ve stayed in this room before. I requested it. You’re going to love it.”

  “You didn’t have to do that Brax. I could’ve just stayed in one of the regular rooms.”

  “What makes you think it’s not a regular room?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Because you just said I’d love it and if you stayed in this room it has to be nice. There’s no way you’d slum it in a regular room like the rest of us.”

  “Well, you have me there. I can’t believe I let you stay in that room in the first place,” he shook his head in disgust. “It won’t happen again.”

  “Oh geez, you say it like it was a hostel or something. This is one of the nicest hotels in the city. We paid seven hundred dollars a night for that room. It might have been small, but it wasn’t bad. You’re kind of a snob,” she said, nudging him with her hip.

  He looked over toward her and then spun her by the elbow so she was backed up against the elevator wall, the gold handrail digging into the small of her back. The elevator doors dinged open, but he could care less. “I am a snob B. I like nice things. I don’t settle for anything, but the best.” He brought his hand up to her breast and teased her nipple with the pad of his thumb. “That’s how it’s going to be from now on. I’ll only give you the best.” Stepping closer he picked her up a bit and rubbed himself against her, right where he wanted to give it to her. She moaned and leaned in to kiss him, but he set her down instead and went to catch the door before it closed.

  “Did you think I was going to kiss you? Not after you threw up.”

  Twelve

  Braxton hit the white double doors with the side of his fis
t; two hard knocks announcing their arrival before wrapping his arm back around her. Annie was uncharacteristically nervous to see her best friend. She was going to have to give him answers and didn’t know where to start.

  She could hear Trevor’s heavy footfalls from beyond the door as he ran to answer. The pull of the heavy handle echoed in the silent hall as the door swung open. Trevor stood in the doorway looking melancholy and serious.

  “Braxton,” he greeted before his eyes narrowed in on her. “Girl. You have a shit ton of explaining to do so don’t think for one minute that I’ve forgotten,” he broke out in a shit eating grin, “but holy shit you have to check out this fucking room. I was trying to be all serious, but I can’t, it has fucking five bathrooms. Five,” he reiterated and held up his fingers.

  Grabbing her hand he pulled her from Brax’s hold and took off down the short corridor into the immaculate suite, showing her every feature it had to offer. Not only did it have five bathrooms, it had three bedrooms, each with king beds, no more of that full size bed bullshit, and two of the bedrooms were upstairs. Up-fucking-stairs. She didn’t realize hotel rooms could take up two stories.

  After ten minutes of running around the suite like excited puppy dogs they finally made their way back to the living room where Brax sat on the cream colored couch, calm and collected.

  “You like?” he stood and asked, kissing her on the cheek.

  “I do. It definitely beats the room we had this week. I can see now why you thought it was a shit hole.”

  “I never said it was a shit hole. I said I don’t settle for anything but the best, and since you’re my girl now, you won’t either. Anything you want B. All you have to do is tell me.”

  “I know one thing I want,” she pulled him closer by the hem of his shirt, eyeing where their bodies met hips to hips. No matter what happened between them, what she was told by the detectives, nothing could affect how her body felt when he was around. It screamed to be near him, even though she knew in her mind it was wrong. She shouldn’t be here. She should be home, back to her life of normal, sitting on the couch with Keith and—Fuck. Keith. She hadn’t called him. He had no idea she was still in New York.

  “Sorry to break up your little reunion here,” Trevor interrupted, “but I’m going to need answers and then you two can go back to fondling each other or whatever the fuck you’re planning on doing.”

  “Go get in the shower B. I’ll handle this.”

  “Sorry man, I appreciate the room and everything so I’m not trying to be a dick, but she’s going to be the one to tell me, not you. Aren’t you Bethany?” Trevor over pronounced her fake name; the threat crystal clear.

  Annie looked over toward Brax, unsure what to do. Trevor needed answers and he deserved to get them from her, but she didn’t know what to tell him. Maybe she could just start with questions of her own. “What happened when I didn’t get on the plane? Did the girls leave?”

  “Yeah. I told them I’d take care of it. There was no point in all of us staying. Mandy had to get home to the kids and Sara, well she’s just a bitch. I don’t think she even considered staying.”

  “Did you call Keith? Does he know I’m still here?”

  “No. I thought about it, but I didn’t know what to tell him. Hey man your wife just got picked up by four scary looking detectives in suits. Yeah, no thank you. You can tell him. The person I called was the only one I could think of who might actually be able to help.” He looked over at Brax. “And you did, so thank you for that, now can someone please tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “Trevor Trevor Trevor,” Brax shook his head. “So impatient to learn something you shouldn’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss man.” Brax let go of Annie and sat on the couch with his back to her, facing Trevor head on. “B, don’t make me tell you again. Go get in the fucking shower.”

  He didn’t look at her while giving his demand, but she knew that voice; had heard it before, and nothing good comes after. She stood frozen unsure what to do. If she left would Trevor rat her out? And what was Brax going to tell him? No way he’d tell him the truth and Annie didn’t want to get involved in whatever lie he was about to spin. Decision made she turned, without giving an excuse to Trevor, and walked up stairs to the master bathroom. The one boasting a shower that looked like a hidden alcove with six nozzles spraying in all directions. A ping of excitement jolted through her.

  Pulling her purse over her head, she set it on the counter and then took off her shirt and shimmied out of her yoga pants. She was about to remove the rest of her clothes but paused, looking left and right like she might find someone up there, and then took her phone from her purse. She needed to call Keith and this might be the only chance she got. Holding her phone in her hands she stared at the blank screen, working up her nerves and trying to think of a viable lie he might believe.

  Braxton and Trevor sat in silence downstairs until Bethany was out of earshot. While they waited he went to the bar, poured them both a glass of bourbon before walking over and handing him the short glass.

  “Can I trust you Trevor? Do you consider yourself a trustworthy person?” he asked while taking a seat in the chair across from him, sipping at his drink and placing it on the glass coffee table.

  “Cut the shit Braxton and just fucking tell me. I don’t care if you can trust me. She can trust me,” he pointed toward the stairs Bethany just walked up. “That’s all that matters.”

  Braxton pondered that. He had a point. “But what you don’t realize is what happened tonight wasn’t about her. It was about me. And I have a hell of a time trusting people I don’t know. Shit, I don’t even trust the people I do know, so I’m going out on a limb here. I’m going to tell you, and if you so much as breath a word about it, I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”

  Trevor, still holding his glass, downed the entire contents. Placing it on the table with a loud clang before using his arm to wipe his mouth. “I understand. Now tell me.”

  Seconds passed as they stared each other down, and with a curt nod, Braxton began to explain. “Tonight, at the station, they took her in because—” a knock at the door cut him off. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked, standing from the chair.

  “No,” Trevor replied, nervously shaking his head and stating “no” again.

  Braxton prowled with soft steps toward the door, reaching for his gun and cursing internally when he remembered it was filled with blanks. Keeping tight to the wall he leaned to the side, just enough to get a quick glimpse through the peephole and breathed a sigh of relief. A bellman with a cart full of luggage stared back. Still on alert, Braxton eased the door open and made sure to check left and right down the hall. All clear. It was just the bellman.

  “Is everything okay sir?”

  “It’s fine. Just give me the fucking bags.”

  Always hospitable, the bellman smiled and retrieved the bags from the cart; a large blue duffel and a giant black zip up case big enough to possibly fit his entire wardrobe. Braxton thanked the man with a fifty and briskly closed the door.

  “Which one’s hers?” he asked, carrying the luggage back into the living room. Trevor responded with an are you kidding me stare and Braxton knew what he meant. Without another word he dropped the small bag and continued on with the colossal case, heaving it up the stairs.

  Passing over the two open doorways, he went straight for the master, the only room with the door closed. Twisting the knob, the door creaked open and he walked further into the bright room finding an overbearing king-sized bed adorned with a chandelier above, but no sight of Bethany. Setting the suitcase down at the foot of the bed he listened for the sound of the shower, but heard nothing. The room was silent. Turning to leave and check the other rooms he stopped short when he heard her soft voice.

  “Hey babe.”

  Smiling to himself he turned back to greet her. She called him babe, the words sounding so sweet coming from her mouth.

  “Hey—” he cut himself off when he
didn’t see her, but still heard her voice, coming from the bathroom.

  “Well, about that. We didn’t make it on. There weren’t any open seats for Trevor to use his buddy pass and I didn’t want him to stay here alone so I volunteered to wait for the next flight with him.”

  Braxton continued down the corridor toward her voice, listening intently on the one sided conversation.

  “I know. I should have called, but I thought we’d get on one of the next flights. I didn’t think it was a big deal.” There was a quick pause, and then, “no, we didn’t. That’s why I’m calling.”

  He approached the arched entry to find her facing away from him in nothing but a black thong and matching bra. She had a hand on the marble counter as if she were bracing herself for his response.

  “Babe, calm down, it’s not that big of a deal. We have a flight tomorrow morning. They said if we took a flight out tomorrow and let some other standby passengers go ahead of us that we would have a guaranteed seat tomorrow. They gave us a free room too, so it’s really not that big of a deal.”

  Pulling out the claw footed stool from under the make-up vanity she sat down. It was clear to Braxton she was on the phone with her husband. He was the one she was calling babe, not him. The knowledge sent his stomach into his throat. He couldn’t move. Just stood there, listening to the conversation he was obviously not meant to hear.

  “I don’t know why they gave us the room,” she defended. “Maybe they felt bad because we’d been sitting in the airport all day.”

  Bethany mindlessly picked up the knickknacks on the counter, the wrapped bar of soap, the lotion bottle, the shampoo. Twisting them each around to read the label before setting them back down.

  “I’m not lying. Why would I lie? You know Trevor had to get a buddy pass because he couldn’t afford the ticket and you know I would never leave him here alone. If it’s that big of a deal to you, we should have just bought him a ticket like I originally suggested. You knew this was a possibility.”