by Chiah Wilder
“Is there anything else I can get you?” their waiter asked. Both women shook their heads and he placed the bill tray on the table. “Whenever you’re ready I’ll take it.” He sauntered away.
“I’m having such a problem trying to decide which paint color to use on my walls. I also want to replace the window coverings. I wish I had an artistic eye,” Annie said as she took out her wallet.
“I’m not that good either, but I have a friend who’s an artist. She’s amazing. She did a fantastic job with my place.”
“I’d love to have her help me. I’d pay her. I really need some guidance. Do you think you could come over and take a few pictures to show her? If she’s interested, I can set up an appointment with her. I live only a couple of minutes from here.”
Fallon looked at her phone; Diablo was coming by to pick her up in a couple hours. “I can go, but I can’t stay too long.”
“I understand. It shouldn’t take too long to take the pictures. My place isn’t that big.” Annie laughed and stood up. The two women left the restaurant. “Follow me.”
Fallon went to her car and followed Annie to a small apartment complex. “What floor are you on?” she said.
“The second.”
Fallon climbed the stairs slowly, then entered her apartment. Annie’s place was practically bare. There were a few boxes against the wall, three chairs, a small table with a television on it, and a small love seat. It didn’t look lived-in, and there wasn’t a warm feel to it. The ambience was cold and sterile, and Fallon shuddered involuntarily as she sat on the love seat.
“It needs work, huh?” Annie said.
“A little. Raven will make your place look awesome. I better take some pictures.”
“Let’s have a drink first. Do you want a glass of wine?”
“No. A Coke would be fine. Remember, I don’t have a lot of time.”
“I know.”
“How many bedrooms do you have?”
“Two. What about you?”
“Only one. My place is tiny but I love it. It’s my first apartment.” Fallon took a sip of Coke.
They chatted about the neighborhood. Annie had some wild stories about some of her neighbors. As Annie told her another story, Fallon began to feel sick. Nausea hit her and she started sweating. Annie kept talking, but her voice seemed distant and unintelligible as Fallon’s pulse pounded in her ears. Everything looked blurry and it felt like she was in a dream state. She tried to get up but just fell back against the cushions.
“I don’t feel so well,” she said, her head pounding. What the hell is wrong with me? I feel like I’m drugged, but that doesn’t make sense. It must’ve been something I ate. She forced herself to focus on Annie’s smiling face. “I’m sick, Annie. Real sick.”
“Is the room spinning? Do you feel out of it, like wading in a pool of mud?” Fallon nodded as best she could. “Bedtime scoop will do that.”
What the hell is she saying? And why the fuck is she just sitting there smiling at me?
“I bet you can’t talk so good now. Bedtime scoop is the street name for GHB. That’s a synthetic sedative. It’s made in underground labs.”
“Why did you give it to me?” Fallon slurred.
“I have seven hundred thousand reasons why.” She laughed. “You’re worth a lot of money. I mean, my share will only be two hundred thirty thousand, but fuck, that’s a fortune for someone like me.”
“You want my money? Who are you?” It felt like there was cotton in her ears.
“We gotta get going, Fallon. We can chat later.”
One of the doors opened and a man of medium height came out. Fallon tried to take him in through her blurry vision, and she gasped when his penetrating eyes speared her.
That’s the guy who’s been following me. But he doesn’t have dreadlocks. I know it’s him. I’d never forget his eyes. No! Oh God, who are these people? I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. Fuck, I’m slipping away….
* * *
Fallon blinked several times as she tried to adjust her eyes to the dimness of the room. Where am I? What the fuck happened? She couldn’t remember much of anything except that she’d gone over to Annie’s apartment to take some pictures. She tried to move but her body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Then she heard voices and knew she had to pretend to be sleeping.
“We have to get this shit wrapped up tomorrow,” a woman said.
I know that voice. It’s familiar. Fuck, it’s Shanna. The bitch outdid herself.
“How do you know she’s going to go along with us? I mean, seven hundred thousand is a lot of money to just sign over,” Annie said.
“She’ll sign it over or I’ll make her sorry she didn’t. Although fucking her would be fun. She’s pretty hot,” a male voice said.
I don’t know who that is. They can have the damn money. I just want to be back with Diablo.
“You asshole. You’re not fucking anyone. If she doesn’t go along with it, I’ll pretend to be her. I already got her handwriting down, and you got all the IDs fixed. It’ll be a snap,” Annie replied.
“It’s better to have her sign it over. It’s cleaner that way. I don’t believe in complicating things. It was luck that the cops found her mother’s bones. It gave Charlie the perfect motive to kill himself.” Shanna laughed.
“We lucked out on that one,” Anne replied.
“You bet we did. I was trying to find a reason why Charlie would kill himself. He wasn’t the suicide type. But then this murder investigation fell into my lap. I knew I could make it look like suicide, and given the circumstances, it made sense that he’d do that. I couldn’t have planned it better. Now that he’s out of the way, Fallon is the last loose thread. Once we get the money, she’s history too.” Shanna chuckled.
“I’ll take care of her. Don’t sweat it,” the man said.
Shanna killed Charlie, and the bitch is going to kill me. Wait. That man. The one following me. I saw him. Images pierced through her drug-addled brain. He was at Annie’s. That’s right. How are they connected with Shanna? How the fuck am I going to get out of this?
“She’ll be coming out of it in a couple of hours. I’ll tell her the choices and she can decide. I can’t wait to get the fuck out of this hick town. I was made for a city like Los Angeles.”
“Two hundred thirty thousand won’t go very far in LA,” the man said.
“You should go somewhere in the south where things are cheaper,” Annie added.
“My hair would be a mess in all that humidity. Anyway, I didn’t say I was actually going to move to LA.”
Fallon peeked out from under her eyelids; she didn’t dare open her eyes all the way. All she could see was their feet: Shanna’s stilettos, Annie’s sneakers, and black boots worn by the man with the cold eyes. Despair began to wrap around her nerves, strangling them. She had no idea where she was; her only hope was that Diablo would be able to track her location from the GPS device he’d installed on her phone. The three of them acted like amateurs, and she prayed it didn’t occur to them that she’d have a GPS tracking device. In her heart she knew Diablo would come for her.
Until then, she’d have to play the waiting game.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Diablo let himself into Fallon’s apartment. “Sweet pea?” His voice echoed eerily. He went into her bedroom and checked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but concern punched his gut. He called the bookstore. She wasn’t there. Scrolling through his phone, he checked to see if she’d sent him a text message he’d missed. Nothing.
He called Muerto and asked him if Raven was out with Fallon.
“No. Raven’s right here.”
“When’s the last time she saw her?”
“Hang on, I’ll put her on.” A few seconds passed, and then Raven’s phone filtered into his ears.
“When was the last time you saw Fallon?”
“When Breanna and I went out with her for our girls’ night at Alfonso’s. It was last Thursday.
Has something happened to her?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Do you have any idea where she could be?”
“Wait a minute. She went out to lunch with her friend Annie. I received a text from her saying she was at Annie’s apartment taking pictures. She was doing it because Annie wanted me to help her decorate the place. I told Fallon to send me the pictures when she was done, but I never got them. I texted and called her a few times but I haven’t heard from her. I was getting worried. It’s not like her to not return my calls or texts.”
As Raven spoke, his gaze flitted around the room and his mouth went dry. He’d been living in his world too long not to heed the warning signs. His gut was telling him that Fallon was in trouble.
Muerto asked if he needed any help, and Diablo told him yes, but he’d call him back. He opened her laptop and went into her photo folder. A series of images of him, club parties, her girls’ night out with Breanna and Raven, and photos of him and Fallon popped in front of him.
Then his blood ran cold: his sister Taya was in one of the photos. From the look of the pictures, it seemed that she didn’t realize Fallon was taking a picture of her. Why the fuck does Fallon have a photo of Taya? He kept staring at the photo and saw a menu on the table along with Fallon’s purse. Hitting the Zoom button, the menu pixelated in front of him. The name of the restaurant was Burger Hamlet.
Fuck. Fallon had told him her friend Annie was in love with that place. So Taya is Annie. I fuckin’ knew she was up to no good. Why the fuck is she with Fallon? Diablo stared at the screen as his mind whirled. The only thing Taya wanted was money to support her habit. The only time he heard from her was when she needed money. But what was her connection to Fallon? She didn’t have money. Diablo’s blood ran cold. Fallon’s inheritance. I don’t know how the fuck she even knows about it, but she’s involved. And she’s in thick. I gotta get to Fallon.
He checked the GPS app and pinpointed her location: the warehouse. Fuckin’ Shanna’s in on it too.
Diablo plugged in Steel’s number.
“My woman’s in trouble. I traced her to the warehouse and I know that bitch Shanna’s there. I’m betting the Satan’s Pistons are in on this.”
“Let me get some brothers together. We’ll go with you. After we get your woman out of there, we’ll demolish the warehouse. That was the only piece we’d left dangling. We’ll take the cages since we don’t want to announce our arrival.”
“We gotta go now. I don’t know what the fuck they’re doing to her.” His voice was tight.
“Be cool, brother. You need a level head. We’ll get to her. Just stay cool.”
Diablo ran out of the apartment and jumped on his Harley, taking the back roads as he sped all the way to the clubhouse.
If anything happens to Fallon, I’m gonna spend the rest of my life exacting revenge on every last one of those fuckers.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ice water in her face startled Fallon out of a deep slumber. Stretching her limbs, she wiped her face with her hands.
“Get up, bitch. You got some stuff you need to do for me. And if you give me any lip, I’ll beat your ass. This has taken way the fuck longer that it should’ve.”
Fallon glanced behind Shanna and saw Annie, who stared at her. Cruelty etched her face. How could she pretend to be my friend all this time?
“Get the skank to the fucking bank so I can blow outta this damn state.” Annie lit a joint.
The man who had been following Fallon came in. “Are you up, princess?” He stroked her cheek and she flinched. “Don’t you like my touch?”
“Will you stop it, Tae? It’s not funny,” Annie fumed, shooting dagger eyes at Fallon.
“Shut the fuck up, slut.” Tae looked back at Fallon. “You’re not a slut, princess. You’re a good girl. I don’t see many of them.” He chuckled and ran his finger over her jawline.
“You’re the one who was following me. Did you cut your hair?” she said softly. She caught on that Tae was in charge and he was taken with her. She had to play into it if she had any chance of surviving.
He laughed. “It was a wig. I wanted to make sure you stuck around. Then I got to liking you and wanted to have a little fun with you.” He kissed her cheek, and Fallon gritted her teeth to keep from dry heaving.
Annie rushed over and threw her arms around Tae, kissing him. He shoved her away and she jumped back up. “Don’t you throw me away. What do you want with a crippled woman? Have your tastes gone over to the freak side? If you think I’m gonna stand around and watch you flirt with this skank, you’re fucking wrong. You need me for this to go down, so don’t fucking piss me off!”
Without warning, he punched Annie in the face. The girl howled and fell back. “Don’t you ever fucking threaten me again. You’re nothing but a trashy whore, spreading your nasty legs for some juice. You pathetic, slut.” He hit her again and Shanna rushed in.
“What the hell are you doing, you dumbass? How the hell can she go to the bank now with her face all bruised up? You never were the smart one of the family. Daddy was always beating your ass for stupid shit you did. I should do that now.”
I didn’t know Shanna had a brother. He must’ve been the one she was talking to when I overheard her that day. I’d thought it was Charlie. The dumb sonofabitch got played big-time by Shanna. He never knew about my grandmother or the inheritance.
Shanna glared at Fallon. “I’m in charge here, and you’re going to do exactly what I tell you. You’re going to go to the bank and withdraw your money. I’ll be with you holding a gun to you in case you try to get cute.”
Fallon laughed. “Are you serious? Do you think the bank is going to just give me seven hundred thousand dollars in cash without me calling first? Most banks don’t have that much cash. I’d have to call ahead to request it.”
“Is that true?” Shanna turned to Tae.
“I don’t know. It sounds good.”
“Sounds good? I should’ve done this by myself. I knew involving you and your druggie girlfriend would fuck this up. You should’ve investigated all this.”
“Why the hell didn’t you?” Tae snapped.
Shanna sighed in exasperation and turned back to Fallon. “I think you’re making this shit up. You’re going to go to the bank and ask for the withdrawal.”
“I’m not doing shit. And you’re not going to do a damn thing about it because you need me. Annie can’t go to the bank looking like she just had a round in the ring. You’re nothing but a money-hungry bitch.”
Shanna raised her hand to slap Fallon but Tae intervened. “You can’t bruise the merchandise, sister. Take Annie and leave me alone with the princess. I’ll get her to play ball.”
Shanna went over to Annie and she flipped out, screaming and crying, her arms swinging everywhere. “I can’t control her. You take care of your bitch,” Shanna said as she stormed out.
Tae leaned over and whispered in Fallon’s ear, “I’ll be back, and I promise to show you a good time.” He licked her earlobe and went over to Taya. Pulling her up by her hair, he dragged her from the room, the young woman screaming the whole time.
When they’d left, Fallon frantically looked around for a way to escape. At that point she realized she was in the back part of the warehouse. Since Charlie had died, the fighting gigs had stopped and the ring girls had moved out. She knew there was a back entrance behind the partition. As she struggled to stand up, four loud shots exploded. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The noise reverberated around the room.
Silence.
What the hell happened? Her skin crawled as though she had millions of ants on it. Maybe Diablo’s here. Hope shot through her but quickly turned to despair when Tae walked back into the room.
“What happened? Who fired those shots?” she said, her voice laced in panic.
Tae sat down next to her and jerked her to him. “Shh, princess. No need to be worried. I took care of some business.”
“Where’re Annie and Shanna?”
<
br /> “First off, Annie’s name is Taya. She’s the sister of your bodyguard. Isn’t that a fucking small world? She didn’t make the connection until she bumped into him in a restaurant.”
“Taya? She knew I was Diablo’s girlfriend and she still did this?”
Tae laughed. “What you didn’t know about Taya is that she’s nothing but a cold-hearted bitch. She’d sell anyone out for a fix. I bet you wouldn’t do that. You’re a nice girl.”
“You didn’t tell me where they are.”
He smiled. “I’d say they’re both in hell, but not sure the Devil wants them.” He threw his head back and laughed.
“What does that mean? You didn’t kill them, did you?”
“I never was good at sharing. Shanna knew that. I never intended to share the money with them. I’m pretty sure she was planning the same fate for me, and Taya would’ve loved to have offed Shanna. Anyway, there’s no way Taya could pull this off. You can’t trust a druggie. And besides, she doesn’t even look like you.” He reached out and stroked her cheek. “You have an innocence about you that she never fuckin’ had.”
I have to buy time. “I can help you get the money. I never liked Shanna, but you’re different.” Hurry, Diablo.
Tae smiled and ran his hand down over her hip. “Now you’re talking. Before we go to the bank, I want a taste of you. I’ve been wanting to fuck you for a while. I like innocent girls, not slutty ones like Taya, although I have to say I got some decent money for her ass.”
Fallon’s eyes widened. “You were her pimp.”
“Yeah. And if you’re real good, I’ll let you live and be my special girl.” He kissed her and she jerked back. He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t fuckin’ do that.” His voice was cold and had an edge to it.
“I didn’t mean to. You just took me by surprise. Let’s see how much money I can take from the bank. Then we can come back and have the time we need.”