by Calinda B
Logan slid out the cab and waved goodbye to the old man.
Practice went smoothly and the coach released them at three-thirty. Logan showered and called for a cab, requesting Gus. Leaning on the brick wall and waiting for the cab, he checked his phone. Damn, still no text from Drew. He hit her number and waited for an answer but got her voicemail. A quick blow of a horn caught his attention. Glancing up, Logan frowned, noticing a different driver. Shit. That sucks. He opened the door and slid into the back seat. Before he could give his address, the cabbie glanced back.
“Good morning, Mr. James. I’m Sonny. Gus told me to treat you good, said you’re a personal friend of his. Are you heading home? He gave me your address.”
Logan laughed. “Hello Sonny, pleased to meet you. Yes, I’m heading home. Gus still working?”
“Yes sir. He’ll be on until four. Gus is a fine man, always helping everyone out. Did you know last year he took my shift when my wife had a kid? Yep, everyone at the garage inspires to be like him.”
“He’s a mighty fine person to emulate.” Logan sat back and listened to the chatty driver, nodding in the right places as he paused and glanced in the rearview. Before long, they were pulling in front of Logan’s place. “Thanks for the ride, Sonny.” Logan slid out and handed the cabbie the fare plus tip. Once inside, he tried calling Drew once again. What the hell are you doing, woman?
Logan couldn’t explain the feeling of unease he had. He thought once again that she was in trouble but didn’t want to admit it. What the hell did she get herself into? He grabbed some lunch and sent a text. Let me know if you are okay. Sorry to be bothering you, but something just felt off last night. We’ll laugh about this later. At least he hoped they would.
Logan turned on the shower and checked his phone one more time before climbing into the water. If he hadn’t heard from her by the time he was dressed, he was heading to the Diamond Club to see if she was there. It would probably piss her off, but damn he was mad at her for not calling him.
When the cab pulled up in front of the club, Logan found himself saying a prayer as he paid the fare and headed into the lobby. Glancing at his watch, he noticed it was almost seven, the usual time she would be here for dinner. Striding quickly through the lobby, he slid his card and the door opened. He nodded to the host and kept walking. He knew he was breaking protocol, but he needed to make sure she was at her table. Before he made it there, Sergio was walking beside him. Logan expected the man to stop him. Glancing over, Logan noticed the man’s brows drawn down.
“She’s not here, sir. I was hoping she was with you. Someone is waiting at her usual table, and he seems very worried. Have you heard from her?” he whispered.
Shaking his head, Logan blew out his breath. “No, no I haven’t. Who’s at her table?”
“One of her friends, Ramsey. Here we are, sir.” Sergio nodded and made his way back to the front of the club.
“Mr. James? How nice to meet you finally. Drew told me about you, and I looked you up online. Please, have a seat. My name is Ramsey.” He motioned for Logan to sit before he continued in a much lower voice. “Have you heard from her?”
“No.” Logan ran his hand through his hair before leaning forward and lowering his voice. “What the fuck is going on? She isn’t answering her phone or her text messages.” Logan watched the color drain from Ramsey’s face.
“That’s just it, I don’t know what the hell is going on but I have a feeling whatever it is, it isn’t good and I would bet my life that Scott is involved.”
“What do you mean?” Logan felt like someone just sucker punched him in the stomach. “Why do you think that scum is involved? What’s going on?” He could feel the knot of anger spreading over his body.
“I’ve probably said too much as it is. After all, you and Drew have just met.” He shook his head and Logan noticed the tight draw to Ramsey’s mouth.
“We may have only met recently, but we’re close. She’s very special to me. If she’s in trouble, I want to help.” Leaning forward, he looked Ramsey in the eyes. “If Scott is involved, the man is a brute. If he lays one hand on her, he will answer to me. How soon until we can call the police?”
“Drew doesn’t want the police involved. I told her last night we should call them.”
“What?” Logan thought his heart might stop. “I think you need to tell me everything. But I think we need to go somewhere private.”
“I agree.” Ramsey motioned and Stawcee appeared. “I’ll pay my check now.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you. I’ll let you know when Ms. Taylor arrives.”
“Thank you. Follow me.” Ramsey stood and walked toward the back of the club. “You must promise to never divulge this area to anyone. I’m trusting you only because Drew seems to trust you.” He made a turn in a small hallway past the kitchen and stopped in front of a wall.
Logan felt his mouth drop as a panel slid open, and they stepped into a room. He would have liked to explore more, but right now, he needed to find out everything Ramsey knew.
“All right, let’s hear what you think is going on. Don’t try to bullshit me either. I knew last night Drew was hiding something.” He sat down on the sofa watching Ramsey pace the floor.
“I’m trusting you and she is probably going to be mad as hell at me.” He sighed and sat down beside Logan. “Okay, you know Drew went out with Scott a couple of times. Well, he took her home one night, and things didn’t go as expected. She left in a hurry.”
“I remember. Go on.” He motioned with his hand, knowing he was acting like an ass.
“Well, he started texting her, telling her she was going to be sorry, that he knew what she’d done. I met up with him, and he just went off about her. Last night, while she was at your house, he was here bad-mouthing her and causing a scene. I texted her to meet me at my house and asked her to stay with me. Between the time she left her house and got to mine, he sent her all these texts. She forwarded each one to me as they came in. I read them, and each one was worse than the last. He’d obviously been drinking a lot before he’d shown up.”
“What was he mad at her for? What are you not telling me?”
Ramsey looked up. “He’s mad about you. He thinks she left him for you.”
“What the hell is wrong with him? They were never together, and she was done with him before we ever even talked.”
“I know that. I don’t know what he is capable of, but I don’t think he’s right in the mind. I’m really worried about her.”
Logan pulled his hand down his face, sat back, and closed his eyes. “If anything happens to her, that man will rue the day he ever laid eyes on her. I also think there has to be more to the story, if she doesn’t want the police involved.” He held up his hand when Ramsey opened his mouth. “I won’t ask you to betray her. When we find her and make sure she is all right, it will be up to her if she decides to let me in or not. She will have to make her own choices, but first we have to find her.”
“We can’t let anyone else in. It’s going to be up to you and me.”
“What type of training do you have, Ramsey? I went straight from high school to college and football. My special training is limited to the field.”
Ramsey smiled. “I have more training than you would believe. I was a thief by trade. I did very well for myself as you can see. I can get in and out of places without detection.”
Logan’s jaw dropped. He blinked his eyes and shook his head. “A thief?”
“Yep. Now, you and I have some work to do, and quickly I fear, if we are to help out our dear Drew.”
20
Drew paced the small. The man was insane. She’d seen it in his eyes when he’d locked her in here. Why had she carelessly allowed her chauffeur to leave before she was safely inside? She wished she’d had her phone on her instead of in the damn bag she’d dropped. She was thirsty and hungry. What time was it? There were no windows anywhere, so she couldn’t be sure if it was morning or still night. She wondered—an
d feared—if anyone was coming soon. She had to use the bathroom. Dare she knock on the door? Call out?
For the first time in her life, Drew was terrified. She should have stayed at Ramsey’s. Better yet, she should have stayed with Logan. What the hell was wrong with her? She had everything and she had to play with people’s lives just to get a thrill from time to time. “I swear if I get out of this, I will set my life on another path,” she whispered. “God, please help me.”
Her heart caught in her throat. Cocking her head, she listened, holding her breath. She heard the click of a lock opening and the whisper of a door scraping over a floor. Scott loomed in the doorway. The light from the opening cast his distorted shadow in front of him on the dusty floor. Drew pulled her shoulders back.
“Scott. What the hell do you think you are doing? Why am I locked in here?”
He stepped into the room as a menacing laugh spilled from his mouth. “What the fuck do you think I’m doing, sweetheart? I’m getting what I deserve from the slut who thought it was funny to play games with me.”
“What are you talking about? I never played any games with you.” She crossed her arms over her chest, not feeling anywhere as brave as she hoped her voice sounded.
He leaned against the doorframe, his face in the shadows. “Really? Let’s think about this, shall we dear? You pretended to hold an interest in me. You get me to invite you to my home. We spend a wonderful evening together, that for some reason I can’t seem to remember very well, and then you laugh at me and walk out. You don’t return my calls, you tell me to stay away, and suddenly you are with that blond man. If the tables were turned, what would you think?”
“That things didn’t work out between two adults. If you don’t remember our night together, maybe you had too much to drink. That rather hurts my feelings. I had a wonderful evening, and I was so hurt by you the next morning. Don’t you remember making me cry? I never laughed at you Scott. And I didn’t even know the ‘blond man’ as you call him, until after I had ended things with you.”
“What?” He stood up again. “What do you mean?”
Drew’s confidence started to return. Maybe she could pull this off and get him to release her, and no one would be the wiser. “I was so happy when you asked me to your home, and you were so wonderful. I thought we had something special when you took me to your room, and we had a connection I thought was real. Now, here you are telling me you don’t even remember that night.” She threw her hands over her eyes and forced the tears as sobs shook her body. Please, please let him buy this.
He slowly approached her. “Look at me!” He demanded, grabbing her under the chin roughly.
She dropped her hands and looked up at him, making her eyes wide as the tears streamed down her face. Her body trembled from the disgust of his touch. He wiped the tears from her face. She had to force herself to stand still, when in reality she wanted to cringe.
“You thought we had a special connection?”
She nodded once, blinked her eyes, and forced more tears to fall. “I did.”
He slid his hands down her arms and took one of her hands in his. “Let’s see about that.” He pulled her roughly out of the room.
Drew looked around, trying to get her bearings. What the hell? They were in a basement somewhere. No one would ever know where to look for her. “What are you doing? Where are we? Where are you taking me?”
“Stop talking.” He hissed as he dragged her behind him. “You’ll see soon enough, sweetheart. Don’t fight me or you won’t like the results.”
Fear clenched her heart as she followed behind this obviously demented man. All she could think of was how disgusted Logan would be if he knew what was going on. Scott was so big; she knew she would never be able to overpower him. She would be at his mercy and whatever it was he planned on doing to her. Ramsey was right. She should have called the cops.
He stopped so suddenly, she almost ran into him. He unlocked a door set back in the wall and pushed it open. If Drew thought she’d known fear minutes ago, she was wrong. Frantically looking around the room, she saw things that looked like medieval torture devices. What was this sick piece of shit planning on doing to her? Tears started falling for real this time as sobs wracked her body.
“Please, don’t do this. You’re not this person. You’re a nice man. Please.”
He spun her around and roughly grabbed her arms. “Oh, now I’m a sweet man? That’s a good one, sweetheart. Funny how a woman sees my playroom, and suddenly I turn into a sweet man. I could have been, but no, you had to play your sick, fucking games with me.” He leaned close, his eyes boring into hers. “You remember, everything that happens to you in this room is your fault. Yours.” He shook her hard before slapping her face.
Drew was stunned. “I know it is.” She slumped in his arms, hoping he would think the pain and humiliation of being hit took all the fight out of her. “I guess I ruined everything, didn’t I? We could have been special together. But I acted like a spoiled brat.” She hung her head. “I’m sorry.”
Drew felt the vice like grip loosen a little. “What did you say?”
“I’m sorry.” Her body was shaking uncontrollably.
He grabbed her chin again and lifted her head so he could look him in the eyes. “You are sorry? Are you really sorry? Or is this a way for you to try to make me think you are so I don’t do anything to you? Why are you continuing to play games with me? That’s it, isn’t it? It’s your game to confuse me. Well, it won’t work this time. And if you really feel like that, well then, what’s about to happen should please you now, shouldn’t it?”
He laughed again, a sick, twisted laugh that chilled her to her soul. At that moment, that very moment in time, Drew knew all was lost for her. He was going to use her and abuse her until he killed her. She was probably not the first and wouldn’t be the last. Drew squared her shoulders and stood tall. She’d not allow this man to see her cry again.
Scott licked his lips and backed her up against the wall. Pulling her arms over her head, he locked her wrists in a pair of handcuffs hanging from the ceiling before tossing the keys on a small table. “You stand here and look everything over for me, sweetheart.” He ran his hand down the side of her face and placed it gently on her cheek. “We’re going to have so much fun. You decide which one of my play stations you want to try first.” He leaned in and kissed her lips as she stood stock still, staring past him. He moved to her neck and nipped before moving his mouth next to her ear. “I wouldn’t pick the last one in the corner to your right, not just yet. That one is special. I always save it for last. For some reason, once we do that one, I seem to lose the woman. I’m not sure why though. I’ll see you in a bit, sweetheart.” He backed up and ran his hand down to her chest, roughly grabbing her breast and squeezing hard. “Now this is nice.” He tweaked her nipple through her blouse, turned, and started whistling a Christmas carol as he walked out of the room.
Drew’s legs were shaking so badly that if she hadn’t been handcuffed, she would have fallen. Her life was over. How did it come to this? Looking up at the ceiling, she prayed for the first time in her life, really prayed that somehow she would be found before this man killed her. She waited for him to return, the fear growing and the need to urinate almost overwhelming. She was sure she was going to wet her pants, and the thought didn’t embarrass her as much as scare her that it would piss him off more.
“Wake up, bitch.” Scott slapped her face with the back of his hand.
Her eyes flew open as the metallic taste of blood spread through her mouth, and the pain ripped through her cheek. Blinking at the bright light shining in her eyes, she tried to get her bearings again as the tears ran down her face. Had she actually fallen asleep? How? How could she have slept? Her arms were killing her, and she couldn’t feel her hands. “I have to pee,” she sobbed.
“What? I didn’t hear you.” Scott grabbed her around the neck. “Speak up!” He growled.
She looked up at him, gasping
for air because he was squeezing so tightly. The pain of her throbbing jaw was making it hard to talk. Just when she started feeling herself fade, he released his hold on her enough that she gasped again. “I have to pee. Bad.”
That sick, twisted smile came over his face again. “I’m sorry. I should have thought about that. Hold on a minute and let me help you take care of that.”
Relief flooded through her for just a moment. Maybe he had a little humanity left. Wait. “What are you doing?” she asked as panic flew through her.
“You said you had to pee. I’m going to let you pee.” He smirked as he pulled her pants down. “Step out.” He helped her lift one leg, and then the other. To her horror, she was standing in front of him nude from the waist down. He ran his hand over her stomach and then cupped her ass. “Just as nice as I remember. Let me get you something.”
“I... I can’t pee standing up,” she stammered.
“Sure you can. You’ll see.” He returned with a homemade contraption that had a large funnel attached to a plastic jug. “Spread.” He motioned. “Spread your legs.”
She looked at the ceiling, knowing her face blazed red. She moved her legs apart as tears ran down her cheeks. She felt him shove his contraption between her legs.
“Go ahead, I’ll hold it for you.” He reached up and stroked the side of her face that throbbed where he’d hit her. “Your mouth is bleeding.” He chuckled.
Drew sobbed as the humiliation of the situation overcame her. The pain of holding her urine so long made it painful to relieve herself. When she’d finished, she stood perfectly still.
He smiled. “Are you finished?”
She nodded once.
“Would you like me to dry you off?”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to stand there with it on her, but the thought of him touching her again made her gag.
“It won’t be that bad, sweetheart.” He chuckled at her discomfort.
“No, it’s okay. I don’t want you to touch me.” She closed her legs not wanting him anywhere near her.