by Kady Hunt
“Fuck me!” I snap, angry. I kill the cigarette in an ashtray on the table and turn to her. I grab her by the shoulders and shake her. “Jamie,” I say. “This is your wakeup call! You want people to respect you; you’re going to have to make them. It’s the only way.”
“Stop.”
“No,” I say. “I’m not going to stop, until you agree to do as I say.”
“I have to leave.”
“Your flight’s not until tomorrow.”
“Holden,” she says. “You’re hurting me.”
I realize my mistake and drop my hands from her shoulders. “Jamie,” I say. “The guy who roofied you and forced you to have sex with someone else, is right across the hall. You know why he has the balls to pull something like that? Because you refused to press charges. And you’re refusing to even confront him about this!”
She doesn’t say anything, just keeps giving me that blank stare.
“He hurt you,” I say. “Don’t you want to stand up for yourself for once?”
She breaks out crying again. “I was willing to love him,” she says. “I was willing to give it my all! Is that so bad? That I was willing to care about him even if I never felt any real feelings for him, I still wanted to make it work!”
I don’t know what comes over me, but I take her in a hug.
Awkwardness be damned.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I don’t know what to do! I feel so helpless!”
“Jamie,” I say. “You’re stronger than this. You’re stronger than some asshole and a breakup! You’re not going to fall apart if he goes away!”
At this point, I think I’m basically talking to myself instead of her. But keeping up the charade of non-hurt gives me, though completely false, a sense of being in control. It’s the same with my tries at helping her. I want to do it I guess, because no one came to my help. I know it’s a stupid way to think but it’s the truth.
She finally breaks away and looks at me. “She broke up with you over a text?”
Why the hell did I even tell her that! Why did I tell her about Natalie at all! I have no clue. Maybe I was weak and she was there. That had to be it. “Holden,” Jamie says. “What happened to me, happened to you too. So how come you’re not taking revenge or reporting it?”
The only person I do want revenge from is Natalie.
And suddenly, I know how I’m going to do it.
“Jamie,” I say. “Do you trust me?”
12.
TEAGUE
I watched from the sidelines as Mia sat next to that stranger. They started talking right
away and it seemed as though the stranger was really into her. Why wouldn’t he be? Mia was one of those women who always got what they wanted from men. Her beauty wasn’t subtle—she was gorgeous enough to turn heads and confident enough to pull off being sexy. She was the complete package. Fine so I might be biased because I’m head over heels in love with her but that’s beside the point. Just watching her talking to that guy is making me jealous like nobody’s business. I hate fighting but I wouldn’t shy away from one either. Within minutes, he’s buying her drinks and my hand is itching to beat the shit out of him.
At this point, he’s basically asking for it.
“Teague?” Holden says and Sebastian’s with him and they both take their places on the booth. “Is that Mia?” Sebastian asks.
“No, Sebastian, that’s Mia’s ghost accepting a drink from a complete stranger!” I snap.
“Jeez,” Sebastian says. “Take it down a notch. It’s not the first time she’s doing it. I thought you were okay with the whole open relationship thing.”
“I fucking lied okay!”
“You think getting mad at him is the solution?” Holden says.
“Some nerve you have to tell me I have unresolved issues,” I say. “You’re sleeping with a woman who’s twenty years older than you and that would have been fine, if she was worth that kind of admiration. But she isn’t. Natalie’s the kind of woman you stay away from, that you never even touch because her one touch could turn you into stone and you’ll be walking around with a permanent hard-on and no one to fuck, for the rest of your life.”
“I know you thought that metaphor was clever, Teague. But it wasn’t.”
If he can be cold, so can I. “Yeah well,” I say. “I forgot to take classes to learn the correct usage of metaphor in sarcasm because I was busy fucking the right women.”
“Why are you two fighting?” Sebastian says. “You need to stop.”
“Or what, Baby-face?” I know Sebastian hates it when I use such terms of endearment. “You’re going to call the cops?”
“Well well well,” Daniel’s voice forces us to pay attention to him. “Looks who it is. The gang of misfits; aka, The Consistently-Virgin-Sebastian and the Two Horny Gentlemen of Vegas.”
“Why the hell is everyone throwing around so many bad literary references?” Holden says. “I’m having a hard enough time getting over my roofie hangover.”
“You know Holden,” I say, finally knowing I have something better I can mock him about. “Everyone knows why people get roofied. So maybe that guy was trying to get sweet on you. Just wondering if you had something to do with it? I mean, Holden, is there anything we should know? Like finally coming out of the proverbial closet?”
Holden looks like he’s about to tear me a new one. “Don’t joke about that, Teague. It was kind of a horrible experience.”
“You had sex!” I say. “What’s so horrible about that?”
Holden looks like he’s hiding something. Whatever it is I wonder if I did something to make him not trust me. Was there something else? Besides him claiming to hallucinate Natalie and fucking that girl…what’s her name…Jamie…yeah! Jamie-whatever. Maybe something else happened. But I have no time to think about that because Mia is now standing and she and the other guy are ready to leave the bar.
This is stupid.
Why do I agree to this kind of stuff?
I finish my drink and stand.
“Teague,” Daniel says. “Where’re you going?”
“To keep an eye on her,” I say and start walking.
“Teague!” Holden says. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
But I’m not staying back for anyone.
I follow the two of them and they both stop at the guy’s room. I stay hidden, which is not easy considering we’re in a hallway, but the guy is pretty drunk so I don’t think he’s going to notice. Mia is openly flirting, touching his arm here and there, biting her lip seductively. The guy is sporting an erection that I can see from where I’m standing a few feet away. I want to just go and drag her away but I’m curious to know what she’s going to do next.
“So,” Mia says. “Would you like me to come in?”
“Would I leave you out here all alone?”
“You’re so sweet,” Mia says. “And so so nice!”
“I can be nice,” he says. “But I can also be incredibly naughty.”
I make a gagging gesture but then remember no one’s actually watching me spy on these two. I mean, this guy is a total jackass. Every line he says next also sounds like its coming from some Worst Pickup Lines articles that you read online and think are so ridiculous because no one would actually use them. Well, this dude was proving the experts wrong. He was taking the cheesiest lines he could find, and for a second it occurred to me that maybe he knew what he was doing and was using those lines ironically, but I know he’s not that smart. The worst part? He’s using them on a girl who is way out of his league. I’d say I’m curious as to what will happen next but I already know what that would be.
“Let me help you with that,” Mia says to him, and takes his keycard.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I wasn’t planning on being this drunk. I don’t even know how it happened I barely had two drinks.”
Mia smiles. “I’m kind of a lightweight myself.”
“But that’s the thing,” he says, using his hand to gain his b
alance on the wall. “I’m not a lightweight.”
Mia opens the door with the keycard and waits.
“Aren’t you going in?” he asks.
“After you,” Mia says.
He smiles and goes in. Mia pockets the keycard and steps inside, but before she does I run like hell to get to the door and manage to lodge a foot in before it closes. I can hear the two of them talking, Mia is probably pouring more drinks from the sound of it, and I go in. When the door behind me closes, it makes noise which alerts them both. Mia turns to look at me, with a glass in her hand that she’s about to hand to him, but I go and take it from her. I take one sip. “You know I hate gin Mia,” I say.
Mia doesn’t speak.
But he does. “Who are you?” he yells. “And what’re you doing in my room?”
“Mia,” I say. “You didn’t tell him about me? How rude.” I go over to the guy and shake hands with him and he does it because he doesn’t have much choice. He knows he’s too drunk to do anything. “Teague,” I introduce myself. “Teague Connolly. I’m Mia’s boyfriend.”
He stares at Mia.
“It’s an open relationship,” Mia says to him.
The guy turns to me again. “Leave now,” he says. “Or I’m going to call security.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I don’t think you’re going to do it buddy.”
“Oh?” he says, and heads to the phone receiver on the bedside, but I stop him before he can reach it. I grab his shirt and drag him in the middle of the room, make him kneel on the floor.
“All those boxing workouts are paying off,” Mia says. “You finally have a chance to show them off, Teague.”
I grin, as I take out the Zip-ties from my jeans’ pocket and tie his hands behind his back.
“Take whatever you want,” the guy says, pleading. “Please, just let me go! Take whatever you want! I have plenty of money! You don’t have to do this!”
“Oh,” I say. “We don’t want your money, Alex.”
He goes silent. Before, this could have been a random robbery but now it’s become something else for him, so of course he’s got nothing to say. I punch him in the face, just to make him understand who he is dealing with. He just stays on the floor and looks up at me. “How…how do you know my name?”
“You drugged a friend of ours, Alex.”
“Friend?” he’s obviously trying to remember something.
“Do you drug a lot of girls, Alex?” I say. “Is that why you can’t remember?”
“Jamie?” he asks, as if he can’t believe it. “Jamie’s your friend?”
“Bingo.”
I take out a ball-gag from my jacket pocket. “And now you’re going to pay for it, Alex.”
Mia looks at the ball-gag. “Seriously, Teague? You’re going to waste our best gag on him? This stuff is expensive!”
“I’ll get you a new one babe,” I say and start to tie the gag but Alex looks up at me pleadingly.
“No, please! I’ll make up for it! I’ll…I’ll…” he says but he can’t form the next words. He obviously feels dizzy and shakes a little. “What…what’s happening to me?” he asks, and I can see the fear in his eyes.
“You think you’re the only one who can score roofies, you piece of shit?”
“How did you…”
“That would be me,” Mia steps up and I put an arm around her and we kiss.
“I’m so hot right now,” I say, nuzzling her neck. “I could fuck you right here. He’s going to be unconscious in a minute anyway; he won’t know what’s going on. What do you say, babe?”
“How can you even think about sex right now, Teague?” Mia complains.
The guy starts screaming and calling out for help, so I gag him to stop the damn screaming. “Not so much fun, now that it’s happening to you, is it Alex?” I say. “Let this be a lesson, O’Keefe.” I grab his hair and yank it hard and his muffled screams get lost in the gag. “Say it with me,” I say. “Thou shalt not roofie people.”
He mumbles something incoherent.
It makes me grin. “Again,” I say.
He does the whole mumble sounds again.
That makes me grin even harder.
Mia rolls her eyes. “Wow,” she says. “You’re really getting off on this, Teague. Aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“A man getting off on power,” she says. “How original.”
“Hey,” I say. “That’s not fair! I also get off when you use the gag on me!”
She comes closer to me and licks the outside of my ear. “I would have done that today,” she says, in a sexy voice and then, in a complete turn of events, shoves at me. “But you had to use it on him!”
I kiss Mia and we start making out. But before it gets more intense, she stops me. I’m wondering why she’s doing this, when I see what she’s looking at. Her eyes are watching Alex and Alex is watching our little exchange and mumbling something that sounds a lot like please let me go.
“I can’t let you go,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
“How do you even know what he’s saying?” Mia asks.
I wink at her.
She rolls her eyes again. “Very funny Teague,” she says. “And why isn’t he out yet? I gave him a big enough dose to tranquilize a horse.”
“Oh he’s going to pass out,” I say, walking up to Alex. “Maybe he just needs a gentle push in the right direction.” I send Alex a fist that sends him reeling to the floor.
He’s out like a light.
“What did I tell you, Mia?”
She comes towards me and kisses me again. “You’re right,” she says, running a hand over the left side of my face. “This is kind of hot.”
“I know,” I say, and grab her, lift her up while we’re still making out and slam her against the hotel room wall so her thighs are aligned with my solid erection.
Mia breaks off the kiss. “Fuck me, Teague.”
“Yes ma’am!” I say and run a rough hand over her breasts. She starts moaning and her fingers dig into my skin, wherever they are, trying to hold on tighter.
“And Mia,” I say, unzipping the front of my pants with one hand, while keeping Mia steady against the wall with the other. “I don’t think I want an open relationship anymore.”
13.
HOLDEN
“Where are we going?” Jamie asks as we walk through the hallway.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I say, because I don’t think I can actually explain what she’s about to see.
“If Teague hasn’t fucked it up,” Daniel says. He looks like he’s in a mood, but I don’t even know why. Asking isn’t going to help me because Daniel is hardly the sharing kind, neither of us are I suppose, except for maybe Sebastian, but it’s just that I’ve got other things to worry about at the moment.
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Sebastian says.
“Stop being such a wuss,” I say.
“So you’re a wuss if you don’t have shit and sperm for brains?” Sebastian shoots back.
“Shut up, Sebastian.”
When we finally get to Alex’s room, we knock.
No one answers.
A couple passes by and looks at us strangely, and Sebastian smiles at them. But they’re still looking at us suspiciously.
I don’t blame them.
Our rag tag team of misfits doesn’t exactly fit in. I have a hangover, Jamie has been crying and has a hangover and Daniel looks drunk. The only possible non-messed up person is Sebastian, but he probably looks suspicious simply on account of being with us. Before the spying couple can call security the door opens and we all rush inside.
I’m about to close the door when I catch Jamie just standing at the threshold, not stepping in. “Jamie,” I say. “Come inside.”
“I don’t know if this is such a good idea…”
“We talked about this,” I say. “We have a plan, don’t we?”
She nods.
“So please,” I say. “Just trust me.”
/>
She looks up at me.
I think she’s still trying to re-learn the word ‘trust’ and I can’t blame her. But soon, she’s stepped over the threshold and beyond, and I close the door and relax just a little. Everything, is riding on her being strong enough to do this the way we planned.
She gingerly walks next to me and we see Alex bound and gagged in a chair, right next to the bed the minute we go in. His face is bruised and bleeding and so are Teague’s knuckles which he is shaking now.
“Hey,” Sebastian goes to Teague and drags him away from Alex. “What the hell are you doing?”
“He won’t talk!” Teague snaps.
I leave Jamie’s side and walk over to Alex. I remove the gag and Alex spews some incoherent words and spittle at me. “Please,” he says, looking at me. “You got to let me go.”
“I will,” I say, crouching in front of him and taking out the switchblade I always carry around. I place it right against Alex’s crotch. “Now, here’s the thing O’Keefe. You don’t know me. And my friend tells me you won’t say anything, so I have no choice. You either talk, or we end this now. I will use this knife to take out your balls and leave you to bleed out here. Is that understood? The cops are never going to know it was me, because this isn’t my first rodeo.”
“No…please,” Alex cowers.
“Tell us what we want to know,” I say, pressing the blade harder into his sac. “And we’ll let you go. It’s a simple trade, Alex! She’s not even going to press charges against you if you tell us who made you do it.”
“No one did,” Alex says. “It was all me.”
But the minute I press the knife harder, he squeals. “Okay okay please stop!” he yells. “I’ll tell you…I’ll tell you everything I know just please stop!’
I knew it.
All of this couldn’t have been a coincidence, I was right!
I kind of feel like celebrating but I have to focus on keeping a straight face if I’m going to look menacing. “I’m listening,” I say, getting up.
He exhales a heavy breath, and then begins. “Look,” he says. “I was scared. Or I would have never done such a thing. They threatened to kill me if I didn’t comply, I had no choice.” He looks directly at Jamie. “Jamie, you know me. I’m a jerk, but I’m not capable of something like this, you know that, don’t you?”