by Brooks, Anna
Either way, I have a life that I need to live, and after my day of wallowing yesterday, the one thing that makes me the most happy is my work, so I look forward to going and getting my mind off all the shit for at least a little while.
I put on a happy face all day, mostly forgetting about Q, and when the day is over, I wave at my class as they leave, telling them all to have a good night and frowning at the seat Connor normally sits in that’s sat empty all day. It’s not unusual for him to miss school, but something about it makes my radar go off. Once the last student has left, I finish up some grading at my desk because there is no way I’m going to do it when I get home.
It only takes me about forty-five minutes to complete the grading, and by the time I gather my things and lock my classroom, I’m dead on my feet.
“What are you still doing here?” I screech and twirl around to find the principal, Paul, right behind me with a smile. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
In order to make it seem like I’m not crazy and paranoid, I laugh and put a hand to my chest. “You did, but I’m fine. And I was grading here so I don’t have to do it at home. What about you?”
“Same thing pretty much. Just finishing up.” He lifts the stack of papers in his hand. “Copy machine in the office is broke, so I had to use the one in the lounge.”
“That thing still works?”
“Surprisingly, yeah.”
I stifle a yawn and a line forms between his eyebrows when he narrows his eyes at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You seem a little… tired.”
“I am. I have some stuff going on in my personal life, but I’m good. And I’m tired,” I joke.
His laughter catches me off guard. “Well, have a good night.”
“You, too.” Dragging myself down the hallway and to my car, I’m off in my own world of doubt and don’t even hear anybody until I’m shoved from behind, my upper back forced to arch at a painful angle from the force.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, bitch?”
My entire body jolts back upright, and I stumble at the harsh voice coming from behind me. Without looking, I hurry my pace from a walk to running to my car because I can’t even think straight. Just get away from him. My fight or flight is kicking in, and obviously, my body chose the latter.
“I said, who the fuck do you think you are?” His words are louder and more angry, and that’s when I sprint. I barely have my fingers on the handle when my head is yanked back by my hair. I screech at the pain in my scalp and scream when he pushes me against my door. My neck is twisted when he turns my head by my hair, and when I look into his bloodshot eyes, my knees tremble. “You stupid fucking cunt, gettin’ my boy taken away from me.”
“Mr. White, I understand you’re upset, but—”
He yanks my head back violently, and I gasp at his swollen, bruised face now that I can see all of him. “You have no idea what you just did. You think this is bad? They’re coming for you. You’re next. But before they get you, you need to pay for what you did to me.” He rears back a fist, and I squeeze my eyes closed, but instead of feeling his knuckles connect with my face, I hear a familiar growl.
My eyes fly open, and I swear by the time I blink, Q has Allen on the ground right behind the tree I parked next to with his knee in his back. If I thought he was fast with the guy from the street that night, that was nothing. My mouth is stuck open as I watch Q detain him like he’s rearranging a doll. I don’t know if Allen has given up because he knows there is no way he can take Q, or if he’s that badly hurt.
“Grab my cell from my pocket, Madeline.” He maintains a strong grip on Allen’s wrists with one hand, and the other has his head shoved into the pavement. With how beat up and worn down Allen looked, and knowing the strength behind Q, there is no way he needs two hands to hold him down. But for some reason, he is. “If I take my hands off him, I’m going to want to put them back on him, and if I do that, I’ll end up killin’ this piece of shit.” He answers the question I never asked. “So I need you to get my phone out of my pocket and call Brodie.”
I don’t have time to be scared right now, so I get my ass in gear and squat down. Allen moans, and I flinch, practically falling on my ass. “You’re good, sweetheart. He won’t get to you again. Call Brodie and tell him I need a pickup at Wilson.”
“Um… okay.” I slide his phone out and am surprised there’s not a code to unlock it. Clicking the contact button with a trembling fingertip, I find Brodie.
He answers on the first ring. “’Sup, man?”
“Hi, Brodie, this is Mad—”
“Talk to me,” he interrupts with a growly panic.
I don’t delay. “Q told me to tell you he needs a pickup at Wilson. Um, the school.”
He curses. “Does he need backup?”
My fingers wrap around the bottom part of his phone while I ask him. “Do you need backup?”
Q doesn’t answer, just shakes his head.
“He says no.”
I hear a sigh of relief. “Okay. I’ll be there in five.”
“Um, okay. Bye.”
I end the call and put his phone in my purse.
“He’s a parent of one of my students. CPS took his son away because of a report I made.” I feel the need to explain to Q who he is.
“I know who he is, sweetheart.”
Of course he does. He knows everything.
Allen struggles in Q’s arms, but Q doesn’t budge. He looks like he’s sitting on a beach with a damn beer in his hand. “Took away more than my kid… fucked up, lady. They’re gonna come after you next.”
“Who?” I ask, looking around.
“Don’t, Madeline. I’ll find all this out back at Royal,” Q commands.
“What’s that? Royal what?”
He turns his head, and even with how harsh the angles on his face are, his eyes soften. “It’s the security company I work for, baby.” Yeah, great. Another reminder I don’t know anything about the real him.
“Oh my word, Madeline. Are you okay?” Paul comes running up to me, and I turn my head as he approaches.
“I’m fine.”
I almost think he’s not going to stop, and when he reaches me, he grabs my arms. “Are yo—”
“Don’t touch her.” Paul’s eyes bug out of his head at the rumbly, harsh edge to Q’s words. “I’ll gladly hold up this motherfucker by his throat while I use my free hand to break your fingers unless you get them off her. Now.”
Paul drops his arms immediately and takes a step back, not questioning Q at all. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Fine.” I wrap my arms around myself as I try to comprehend everything that’s just happened. I’m shivering from fear and the adrenaline that’s wearing off.
“Should I call the police?”
“No.” Q answers for me. “I have it. Why don’t you just go home, Paul?”
He jerks his head back, probably surprised that Q knew his name. “But Mad—”
“I have her, too. She’s safe. It’s better if you leave anyway.”
Paul looks down at Allen with disgust. “You’re probably right. Call me if you need anything, Maddy.”
“Thanks.”
He nods at Q, then smiles sympathetically to me before he goes to his sedan and drives away. It’s only a couple of minutes later that a black van pulls up and Brodie hops out. He gives me a once-over, then pulls some zip ties out of his back pocket.
Without any words or directions, he and Q work in sync to tie up Allen and toss him not so gently in the back of the van. I wince when the door slams shut, and I see the deadly look in Q’s eyes, but as he makes his way back to me, I keep my mouth closed.
“You’re coming with me.”
Q
Her entire body is still trembling, and I hate that she’s still shaken up. I want to comfort her, pull her into my arms and hold her and promise everything will be okay, but she made it clear th
at she was done with me. So as much as I want to do the simplest thing like hold her hand, I keep both of mine on the steering wheel.
“Why were you there?” she asks after we’ve been driving for a couple of minutes.
“I haven’t not been close to you from day one.”
Her mouth falls open on its own accord. “But… even after my… my mom. You left. You were gone.”
“No, I was still there, but you just couldn’t see me. You made it clear where I stood, and I’ve already hurt you enough, so I’m only keeping an eye on you because it’s my fault your mom found out where you lived in the first place. Even though she said she would leave you alone, she showed up the other day, so I—”
“How do you know that?”
I glance over at her quickly. “I just told you, I’ve had my eyes on you for a while.”
“How did you know who that man was?”
“I don’t want you bein’ any more pissed than you already are at me, especially because you didn’t let me explain, so right now, I’m not gonna answer that. But…” I hold up my hand when she tries to argue. “I will. My priority is on that motherfucker to find out his game because as far as I can tell, he has not one thing to do with your mother, so if there’s a different threat out there against you, I need to focus on that.”
“What?” She pushes back in her seat. “What do you mean?”
Sighing, I look at her at a stoplight. “I’ll take care of it, okay? Don’t worry about anything right now. That’s what I’m here for.”
“You’re here.” The words are a whisper, but I hear them loud and clear.
“Yeah, sweetheart. I’m here.”
The light changes, and we drive back to Royal in silence which I’m grateful for because it gives me time to think about what the hell this guy is doing. I knew who he was from the report she made, but only took him for a low-life druggie, not someone who would hurt her.
Pulling into the garage, I back in next to the van Brodie was driving, and Madeline grasps the strap of her purse that’s across her chest as she stares at the blacked-out vehicle.
“Hey. Madeline, look at me.” Her lip trembles, but she turns her head. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you. I know you don’t trust me but…”
“I do.” She swallows. “I trust you.”
God, her saying that is something I never thought I’d hear out of her mouth. My chest depresses as a weight is lifted off it. I can’t resist anymore, and I reach out and cradle her face in my hand. “Thank you, sweetheart.” After a gentle swipe of my thumb across her cheek, I reluctantly drop my arm. “Let’s go.”
I don’t give her a choice and hop down, then walk around to her side. When I open her door, she’s unbuckling and twisting her lower body in her seat. “Where did he go? Where are we going?”
“Brodie brought him out before we pulled in, and I’m gonna have you just hang out while we talk to Allen so I can assess the level of danger and decide if what he was threatening holds any merit. He’s probably just pissed the cops took his stash when they took Connor from him. I’ll get it out of him, though.”
She puts her hand in mine when I help her get down, but once her feet are on the ground, I move my hand to the small of her back and direct her to the door that goes into Royal. “Is that code for torture until he speaks or something?”
I chuckle. “No. Not torture, just… motivational persuasion.”
“Just don’t do something to get in trouble or anything.”
“Your concern is cute, but we’ve got this.”
“Okay.”
She walks next to me all the way up to the break room where I open the door and motion for her to go ahead of me. “There’s everything you could want in here. Food, drinks, movies, TV. You can take a nap on the couch or do whatever you need to. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Uh… okay.”
“Be back.”
I close the door behind me and rush downstairs and wind through the hallway to the back of the building where we have another “conference room.” It’s soundproof, has a drain in the middle of a concrete floor, and a single light dangles from the ceiling. There’s a small table in the center with two metal folding chairs. Allen sits in one with his hands tied together in front of him. Not that he’d be a threat if his hands were free, but they’re immobile to prove a point and make him feel more fear.
This room isn’t used often, and only in extreme cases, and some asshole who put his hands on one of our women and threatens her… and with what limited intel I have gathered about him after I listened to her phone call to CPS, I know Allen White is into some bad shit. I just need to figure out how bad.
Brodie is leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, Gio the same, Damien is behind Allen, and I take the seat across from him.
“Stupid bitch called CPS. Got my boy taken away.” He starts in right away before I can even say a word.
“That’s the last time you call her anything other than her name, you hear me? No, I take that back. You’ll never speak her name again. Ever. Got me?”
He nods frantically, his eyes darting around the room, clearly tweaked but for more than one reason.
“First, you get your kid taken away ’cause you beat him. And your response to that is to beat up the woman who actually gives a shit about your own flesh and blood since you don’t? Guess what, asshole? It wasn’t her; it was me. I called CPS. Come at me.” I didn’t but say it to prove a point. I scoot back and hold my arms out, and Allen just stares at me through a swollen eye. “That’s what I thought. Fuckin’ pussy.”
“Nah, man. I ain’t no pussy, but you better enjoy your woman’s while you still can.” He laughs, and if it wasn’t for the fact that another hit might kill the bastard, I’d ram my fist into his face again. And I know he’s trying to rile me up, so as difficult as it is, I don’t take the bait.
I push myself out of the chair and walk across the concrete floor, stopping next to him. I squat down but keep eye level with him and stare. I look at his beat down face until he shifts uncomfortably. “Do you want to rephrase your statement? Because I think I heard you threaten my woman. Did you hear that, too, or am I mistaken?” I don’t take my eyes off Allen but wait for Brodie to answer.
“Sounded like a threat to me,” Brodie agrees.
“Yeah.” Damien grunts at the same time Gio says, “Yup.”
“Yeah.” I tilt my head. “So again, do you want to rephrase that, but before you answer, know this; you talk about her again, and I won’t hurt you here. But your punk ass will wish I did when I’m done with you. Maybe a week from now… maybe a month, a year. You’ll never know, but I’ll revel in the fact that you sleep with one eye open for the rest of your pathetic life.”
His split lip reopens when he snarls. “You think I’m scared of you? You’re nothing. You can threaten me all you want, but I wouldn’t worry about me right now. That pretty little thing is who you should be protecting ’cause once he gets his hands on her, she’ll be the one wishing she was dead.”
“Who?”
“The man who nobody wants to owe. And because she sent them for my kid, they raided my damn house and took it all. The money, the stash… everything. I have less than a day to come up with what she made me lose. Otherwise, he’s coming back.”
I glance up at Brodie, wondering if he’s thinking what I’m thinking. “Who?”
“You know who,” he whispers ominously. “Dakota.”
Well… Allen White is as good as dead.
And not because he got his hands on Madeline, but because nobody owes Danny Dakota and gets away with it. Nobody. We’ve had our beef with him in the past, but as long as he stays on his turf and keeps outta our business, our job isn’t to police him. It doesn’t help that one of the only people in the world that he cares about is someone each and every man in this room would die for.
We don’t need to start a war with Danny.
But if he thinks to come after my girl, I’ll gladly go to battle with
him.
Fuck.
I stand and pull my knife from my ankle and cut off Allen’s restraints. “You can go.” I nod to Gio who opens the squeaky door. Bright light shines through, but before Allen gets to his feet, I grab his shoulder, applying pressure to the points that make his knees give out. He falls to the floor. “If you even think about putting your filthy hands on her again, I will find you. And after I do that, you’ll learn very slowly and very painfully why there’s a drain in the middle of this floor. Got it?”
He nods and tries to stand, but I squeeze. “Ow, fuck. Yeah, I got it.”
As soon as I release him, he runs outside where the door leads to an alley, and Gio closes it, securing the several locks. “I will find you.” He laughs. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think Liam Neeson was in the room with us.
“Shut up.” I flip him off and make my way to the door that goes back into Royal. “Fuck.” I run my fingers through my hair. Even though we have eyes on Danny Dakota, I am not looking forward to paying him a visit, but I know I have to.
If that low-life piece of shit thinks he’s coming after Madeline for a debt that Allen White owes him, he’s got a whole ’nother thing coming to him.
“What are you gonna do?” Damien asks me. “We can round up some more boys, pay a visit to Danny.”
“I’ll do it on my own.”
Brodie whistles. “Dude. I can’t let you do that.”
“I’m good. We’ll just have a friendly chat. He doesn’t want a beef with us any more than we want it with him.”
“I don’t give a shit about that. He’s unpredictable.” Gio speaks up. “You’re not going solo.”
“Listen, I appreciate the concern, really, it’s touching, but he ain’t gonna fuck with me. He won’t want to upset Brinley, and if he lays a finger on me, she’ll find out and go crazy on him.” Brinley is one of my best friends and also about the only friend Danny Dakota has. Not that I’m threatened by him at all. “Besides, Allen is a fuckin’ tiny fish in Dakota’s huge ocean, so there is no way he’d start some kind of war with us over what is more than likely pennies to him.”