by Bry Ann
“Fine. Gunner, Sam,” Tim added. “Chemistry sell this. You both suck at flirting and being anything but workaholics. Gunner, I don’t need to convince you of the seriousness of this deal, but Sam let me fill you in real quick. These men are dangerous. Intrigue them with your sexuality, make yourself less of a target. This deal, if done right, can get you a quarter of the way to your goal Sam.”
The men around the room glanced at me curiously, but I just stared at Tim with my jaw dropped. A quarter of the way in one night. I turned to Gunner.
“You better fucking pretend to be interested in me,” I snapped.
Gunner smiled and nodded at Tim.
“Got your wire?” Tim asked.
“I do. Will Sam have one?”
“Not in that outfit or her first run. Don’t leave her side.”
Gunner didn’t seem to like that. At least someone here didn’t want me to die. I followed Gunner out to his car and got in. It was pitch black outside now.
“We are meeting in an alley three blocks down.”
He was still. avoiding looking at me.
“You are very uncomfortable with my outfit, aren’t you? You haven’t looked at me once.”
That got his attention.
“Yeah, you’re my partner, and you’re smart. I feel awkward staring at your stripper outfit. I will when necessary.”
“Okay. I just say that because your lack of eye contact is a little weird.”
He gave a small nod. “Got it. Anyway, Sam, don’t do anything stupid. Don’t be your usual independent self. Let me talk and just be sexy, flirty and stay by my side. Got it. I’ll be frank and say that I am not happy Tim put you on this for your first case. He only did it because this meeting has been pushed off for so long while we tried to find a woman who could make it with us. Speaking of, your contract, how long did you have to sign on for? You know you can’t just stay until you get $100,000, right? Tim likes you. You are in this now. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this is short term.”
My heart started pounding in my chest, but before I could respond or react Gunner was out of the car, and I realized we were parked. We were here. God, please suppress my panic. Flirt. Think like Logan does. I pulled my sore ass out of the car and headed to Gunner who was outside of the car waiting for me.
“You ready?”
“Hmm-mm.”
I felt like I was gonna be sick.
“Try to look alive,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, I'm better when my survival instincts kick in. Let’s just get over there.”
“Okay,” he nodded. He understood that.
“Gunner.”
I grabbed his arm, and he tensed. This guy was super attractive, why did he act like he wanted no human contact whatsoever? Even I liked sex and friendly banter once in a while. I just didn’t want any real connection. Well, until Logan. Now I was all confused. I didn’t know what I wanted. Logan and I were getting more and more serious by the day. Gunner wanted none of it, nothing but business. I couldn’t help but be curious what happened to him.
“You have to flirt with me. I don’t want to die, and I need this money.”
He grabbed my arms and pinned them to my side.
“Don’t doubt my skill,” he growled.
I swallowed and nodded quickly. He glared at me for another second before letting me go. Roughly.
With that we headed over, and I hooked my arm around his. It was awkward at first, but the closer we got the more he relaxed. Or seemed to. We reached the alley outside the bar and approached three men. One large Hispanic man with two muscled Hispanic men behind him. All with similar tattoos and sizes that almost rivaled Gunner’s. Almost. I had a sick feeling in my gut that they had more men around here. I didn’t feel alone. I felt cornered. Gunner gave me a look, and I knew he had the same feeling. We had two men hiding, but they weren’t that close by. Somehow, I knew their other gang members were. We had to sell this flirt story or we were in really deep shit. I leaned into Gunner and set my head on his shoulder.
“Not now babe,” he said kissing my head and gently pushing me away. I pretended to pout. Eh, vomit. I already hated this.
“Gunner,” the main guy said extending his hand. “Who’s your lovely lady?”
“Allie,” I said extending my hand to him and sticking my chest out flirtatiously. He licked his lips.
“Damn, I wish I was the one selling. I could definitely use some of that pussy.”
He looked at his other two men. I scooted closer to Gunner instinctively now, and he wrapped his arm around me pulling me closer. This wasn’t even part of the act, merely me trying to keep my heartrate down.
“Now, now,” I teased. “Can’t go upsetting my man.” I placed my hand on Gunner’s rock hard chest.
“Let’s quit talking about my girl and talk business.”
The guy smirked. “Even with a beautiful woman you are all business.”
Gunner simply raised his eyebrows and began negotiating with the men. I zoned out a bit and would occasionally offer details to support Gunner’s propositions, impressing everyone in the room. I believe they made some comment about understanding why he brought me along. After ten minutes of quiet, but intense negotiation more men started to gather behind us, other gang members. I was pretty much glued to Gunner’s side by this point. I was so close I was pretty sure he could hear my heart pounding in my chest. We were in trouble. I knew it. Call it female intuition, gut instincts, common sense, whatever you want to call it our situation was not looking good. I pretended to be touching Gunner’s ass but was really looking for the wire I’d heard them discussing earlier. If they heard us talking maybe they would send back up. Gunner knew exactly what I was doing. Gunner was being watched too closely to do anything, but only my boobs were being looked at. They should have told me where that wire set was. I couldn’t find it, and if I searched much longer, I would draw suspicion. There were several men now. I tried to focus my attention back to the discussion on hand.
“Well, Gunner I can agree with those terms in one condition. You give us a few minutes with your whore over here. Just a bit. We won’t hurt her. You do that, and we will agree to the terms discussed, sign today and provide the first payment.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“Gunner,” he tisked. “This is business. What would Tim think? The other people who are waiting to get paid?”
“We will have to discuss other terms.”
“I don’t think you realize you don’t have a choice. You are by far outnumbered. Do this peacefully Gunner. We don’t want trouble. Not with the cheapest, most efficient dealers in town. You shouldn’t have bought those tits around here and suspected we wouldn’t want a piece.”
Gunner’s face told me he already knew this. He hadn’t wanted me here in the first place. His body was tense, alert. He didn’t know what to do. I was normally a take one for the team type girl, but a brutal gang rape in my already fragile state. Yeah, no. That’s not worth $25,000. I don’t even think I could do it if it meant saving my mom. I was frozen, hooked onto Gunner like glue.
“Come on guys,” I squeaked out, “There are tons of girls. I can find you some friends.”
I tried to sound at ease and strong, but I was stuttering, and I wasn’t hiding my fear well anymore.
“Yeah but you’re here, and you have this big attitude with great tits. Can’t get that everywhere.”
I felt someone grab my arm. I tried to hold onto Gunner, but I was being pulled away.
“Gunner!” I screamed. “Gunner!”
Gunner was already in motion. Two bullets were fired, and I saw him fighting. There were so many men. Had my fear and panic just gotten him killed?
I didn’t have time to dwell on that. I was dragged behind a dumpster by the leader of the group and his two sidemen. They threw me to the ground and started trying to remove my clothes. I squirmed and squealed, but didn’t scream. There were three of them. Two held me down, and one started removing my p
ants. Thank God, the pants were so tight. They were hard to get off. It bought me some time. After a few seconds of struggle, my jeans were down past my ass. I was in full flight or flight mode. It didn’t matter that I was half naked and being held down by multiple men. I just kept squirming and fighting to get away.
“Get away from me,” I squealed.
While trying to rip off my top, the main guy looked down at the fire in my eyes.
“You know, Allie,” he emphasized, clearly not believing my alias. “They wired your friend, but not you. Tisk. Tisk. You need a better group.”
I spit in his face. My anger was dulled a bit by the fact that my shirt was ripped up and my pants were down. The guy started to undo his belt, and I started to jerk around desperately. Giving one last ditch effort to stop this. I gave the guy holding my arms down a run for his money.
“Chick isn’t easy to hold down boss,” he grumbled. The boss just glared at him, his belt now unbuckled.
“Oh, come on,” I cried giving one last bit of struggle.
It was in that instant his body was jerked off me. I heard two loud cracks and the other two men were lifted off me as well. I shut my eyes as tight as I could. I didn’t know what had happened. I was so scared. My heart was pounding, and my stomach was rolling.
“Sam, let’s go,” Gunner’s yelled. “Sam!”
I was frozen. Flight. Fight. Freeze. Was he there? Was I safe? I heard Gunner groan.
“Sam come on,” he kneeled next to me carefully adjusting my shirt. I could feel his presence. “Come on, the sooner you are up, the sooner your pants are.”
That snapped me out of it quickly. I slowly opened my eyes. I carefully sat up as my reality came into focus. Gunner was still by me.
“You’re alive?” I asked dazed.
He looked mildly offended and leaned further down next to me, still trying to adjust my top.
“Yeah, I’m not easy to kill Sam.”
“I’m sorry,” I said with a crack in my voice. “I panicked...I….”
“Sam,” he said effectively silencing me. “You’re in shock. You’re not thinking straight. You have to get up okay? We have to go, now.”
“Okay,” I said quietly, trying to stand. Gunner put his hand under my arm and jerked me upright.
I pulled my pants up and nodded. He took my elbow and led me to the car. I was in a haze, not really focused on where I was going. My thoughts were spinning. I was in Gunner’s car, and he was speeding off.
“Where are we going?” My voice was panicked.
He looked behind me checking for something and then looked at me with a dark fire still in his eyes.
“We are going to our safe house. You’ll see it when you get there. We normally don’t take new people there, but we have a lot to discuss with Tim and Collins. We need absolute privacy.”
“Collins?”
“He’s an ass and slow in the field, but he’s smart and loyal.”
“But not your partner?”
“He’s smart, but he would not make a good partner. Teamwork isn’t his specialty.”
I nodded. I could see that.
“So, what happened after…”
“Well, they took you, and I radioed in immediately. Fought off some of the guys. Archer and Ty were there pretty quickly. So were a few others. Once they had it handled, I came to get you. They left when I affirmed I had you.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly. “You had my back. I won’t forget it.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t protect you sooner. I was surrounded.” He was looking straight ahead, haunted. He acted heartless, but he couldn’t deny he felt bad about what went down. It was in his eyes.
“I know that Gunner. Just… let’s make sure everyone plans better next time. I won’t go out on the floor without a wire ever again. I won’t.”
“I Know.”
“Okay.”
The rest of the drive to the safe house was awkwardly quiet after that. It took us fifteen minutes to arrive. Gunner parked his car, and I immediately got out.
“Sam,” Gunner called.
“Yeah.”
“You’re still shaking a lot. Visibly shaking. To the point where I can see it, and I'm not that observant of people’s physical quirks.”
“I just want my jacket.” My body felt heavy, and my shoulders were slumped over. I felt temporarily numb and exhausted.
“Okay, Tim has it. I told him to bring your clothes.”
“Gunner, you earned my trust tonight. Thank you again.”
He nodded. We walked inside, and he led me down a series of pathways. When we got closer to the room where we planned to meet my breath hitched. I immediately stopped walking. I couldn’t face everyone, not yet. Gunner turned around and raised an eyebrow. I cleared my throat and worked to increase the power in my voice.
“I’m just gonna take a sec. You go on in.”
“I’ll grab your clothes and tell everyone you are getting changed.”
I nodded. He was in and out in an instant. He threw my clothes at me and got back in the room. I went to the restroom and threw up everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours and then some. Then I changed into my clothes, my lovely modest clothes. I ripped up the ones I had been wearing. I was so angry, and it was the only outlet I had. I ripped them to shreds, until they were unusable, unlike me. Once there was nothing else I could do with them I threw them in the trash and smashed them in with my foot. I went to the sink, rinsed out my mouth and washed off all my makeup. There I was, me again. I zipped my jacket up all the way and walked out hoping my breath didn’t smell too bad. I walked to the door and heard voices, so I decided to listen in and see what they were saying, especially when I remembered that it was just Gunner, Tim, and Collins in there so they would probably be more open.
“What the hell happened?” Tim said in the most menacing voice I had ever heard from him.
“We were fucking screwed walking in. I knew we were. So, did Sam, but she played her role well. Anyway,” Gunner went on to relay the story of what happened. My attention caught at Gunner’s version of what happened next. “Dude, when he threatened her I felt like shit. We protect our own, and we put her in there with no protection; no gun, no knife, no wire, no phone. The minute they threatened her I knew she was fucking screwed. They grabbed her, and she screamed. She was scared, but up until then she was a rock and played it very smart. She even tried to flirt her way out of it. The minute they took her I radioed in. I was pissed as hell and fought off like eight guys. Archer and Raymon got there, and I ran for Sam. Guys it was awful. Her clothes were astray. She was still fighting though. He hadn’t even gotten his pants all the way down because even with three men she put up a good fight. She spit in his face right before I got there. She was helpless. I got him off her. She’s pretty shaken up. She’ll act strong but let’s try and be a little fucking … delicate with the situation.”
“Did you just say delicate?” Tim shot out, giggling like a girl.
“She earned my respect tonight so watch it!” Gunner tone was threatening. After all the gangsters I’d just witnessed him fighting off virtually alone I knew he was not one to be trifled with.
I couldn’t hear anyone else talking after that so I walked in the room. The minute I walked in everyone stared at me, clearly unsure of what to say.
“I’m fine guys. Everyone stop staring at me like I just lost a leg.”
Tim smiled, Collins sized me up, and Gunner wasn’t focused on me at all, he was deep in thought.
“You okay babe?” Tim said turning to me as I took a seat.
“Fine. What do we need to discuss? I'm tired, and I have work tomorrow.”
“Work?”
“Yeah, I have a job. This isn’t forever. My job it has… well, it has good health insurance. Plus…. oh shit, I forgot I have to meet a friend at 9 AM tomorrow. So please let’s get to talking.”
They discussed the gang members and our steps going forward, all of our next tasks and future s
afety protocols. That’s where I jumped in.
“I won’t go out on the floor again without a wire. I won’t!” I said adamantly.
“I know Sam. Gunner said you really proved yourself out there today. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re damn right it won’t happen again. Look I have to go. Text me when my next job is.”
“You didn’t say your name to them right?” Tim asked before I left.
“No,” Gunner interrupted. “Her street name is Allie. Tried to pull it on me when we met.”
I half smiled at that. It felt like I’d known Gunner for years by this point. He was starting to feel like some sort fucked up cousin or something.
“How are you getting home?” Gunner asked.
“Bus.”
I heard talking and then heard Gunner’s footsteps trudging behind me.
“I’ll take you, to the coffee shop of course.”
“I don’t think you are gonna murder my mom anymore, so you can take me to my house.”
“Oh, can I? Geez, you’re the best,” he said sarcastically as we both got in his car.
“You know you don’t need to feel bad about what happened today. We were both unprepared.”
Silence.
“Geez, I'm starting to understand the frustration the people who know me feel.”
He looked at me and shrugged. We drove the rest of the way in silence. Mostly because Gunner was thinking, and I kept nodding off. I was trying my hardest to stay awake. I told Gunner my address, and when he got there, we didn’t say bye or anything. I mumbled thanks and headed inside.
Chapter 9:
My alarm went off at 8 AM the next morning, and I immediately jumped out of bed to get dressed. I was in the middle of brushing my teeth when the memories of the night before came flashing back. I slammed my toothbrush back into its spot and shook my head trying to shake out those memories. As if it worked that way. I wish it did. I had to meet Dana in a bit, and Dana was Logan’s sister. She could not suspect a thing. Thank goodness, my body wasn’t nearly as sore anymore, and the bruises were turning yellow, making them easy to cover. I wore a sweatshirt, loose jeans and put my hair in a bun. I was on the bus relatively quickly after that. I was able to cover the bruises easily but struggled to cover my dark under eye circles. I looked like shit, pure and simple. I knew I did. Not to mention I was in some weird form of shock and was waiting for my brain to catch up with everything that had gone down the past 24 hours.