“Oh, don’t worry, slut,” he hisses dangerously. “You’re coming too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Oliver
At first, it’s just a ringing sound, and darkness. I blink, and my eyes are open, but all I see is black. There are voices fading in from far away—from the other side of the ringing sound, but the more I focus, the less I can make them out.
I blink again, and I can see light bleeding in around the corners of my vision.
“You’re…”
I frown, hearing the one word, coming faded like someone’s talking underwater.
“What?” I hiss. “I can’t hear—”
Something hard slams into the side of my head, and I grunt and I fall off of whatever I’ve been sitting on. I hit the ground hard, and I realize my hands are tied behind my back. I grunt, inhaling dust and dirt and what tastes like masonry fragments.
“You hear that, douchebag?”
Loud and fucking clear.
I blink again, and this time, my vision swims back, slowly. The light fades in, and I realize I’m lying on my side, wrists bound, naked except for a pair of boxers on the ground of a what seems like a warehouse. I’m staring at a pair of basketball shoes, and when I slowly and wincingly drag my eyes higher, up over the jeans and then the t-shirt with some band on it I don’t know, it suddenly clicks.
“Hey cocksucker,” Barnes hisses, right before he hauls back and kicks me in the shoulder, hard.
I grunt, and he cackles.
“Rise and shine, fuck-face!”
He kicks me again, this time in the gut, and I growl as my body stiffens to absorb the blow.
“Just in case you didn’t hear me before,” he spits, his eyes hard and vicious as they glare down at me. “I said you’re a real piece of work.” He shakes his head and reaches into back pocket to pull out a pack of cigarettes.
“Want one?”
I shake my head. Barnes shrugs and sticks one in his mouth before he lights it and inhales slowly.
“Where…” I croak, my throat swollen and full of dust or something. I clear it, wincing, before I try again.
“Where is—”
“Don’t you worry about her.”
“Where—”
“I said don’t fuckin’ think about her!” he roars, suddenly snapping as he hauls back and slams a foot into my side again. I grunt, hissing in pain at what feels a whole lot like a cracked rib.
“You know what, Gauge?” he spits. “You’re an ungrateful piece of shit, you know that? I mean here you were, betting more than you could, picking the wrong racers, just fuckin’ flailing out there, you know? And you had that shitty little Honda you were trying to get in on races with. So what do I do? Me, a respected member of the community?”
He drags hard on his smoke and looks past me.
“What’d I do, fellas?”
I frown and roll, and I blink at the sight of about nine of Barnes’s mates that I recognize from the track, including a downright gleeful looking Jay.
“Helped him out, boss!” Jay crows.
“Exactly!” Barnes crouches down over me, jabbing the cigarette at me as if using it to make a point. “I helped your dumb ass out, that’s what I did. Took on your debts, took you under my wing, and upgraded that shitty ride of yours to that sweet piece of sex on two wheels you’re on now, winning every fuckin’ race too, I might add.”
I roll my eyes, and he frowns.
“What? What? You’re mad that I take a cut? That I ask for a small fee for my services?”
I roll my eyes again. Look, I know I fucked up. I bet recklessly, and without really knowing the local scene yet or who was good or not. And then I got in with a geezer like Barnes who charges sixty percent interest on his loans, and a one hundred percent interest on the bike. Right, like I was ever, ever going to get out from under that. And Barnes fucking knows it. He wasn’t helping me out, he was imprisoning me.
“I do all that for you, as a friend, I might add,” he sneers.
Right.
“And how do you thank me? Huh?”
His face turns a horrible shade of purply crimson, and his eyes narrow to slits.
“You fuck my girl!” he roars. “You take Delphine from me!”
I laugh, and he looks positively livid.
“What!” he roars, stooping low over me, his teeth grinding and his eyes livid. “Something you wanna say to my fucking face, you little bitch!”
“Yeah,” I growl. “There is.”
“And what’s that?” he seethes.
I snort. “She was never ‘yours,’ mate. You know it, I know it, all of these little toadies of yours know it.” I chuckle. “What, her daddy owes you some money, so you keep her as a prisoner? How fucking pathetic do you have to be to think that makes her—”
I grunt as he slams a foot into my stomach again, doubling me over as I wince in pain. Fuck it. Worth it.
“Yeah, fuck-face, it does,” he hisses. “I could give her all the shit she could never have before.”
I laugh.
“Something funny?”
“What sort of shit?” I chuckle. “Toddler temper-tantrums, bruises, and a baby-dick that doesn’t work?”
Instantly, the way his eyes go sort of hollow, I realize I’ve hit the right button. I’ve found this cunt’s weak spot and kicked it. Barnes looks straight murderous, and I managed to at least flex this time before his foot comes slamming into my gut again. And again, and again, and again, until I choke dust and spit blood.
“The fuck did you say to me?!” He roars. “What the fuck did you say?!”
He kicks me once more before he stands back, panting and glaring at me.
“She’s mine,” he grunts. “Always was, always will be.” He swallows, his eyes glaring into mine. “You know, I knew her from high school. Yeah, she thought she was hot shit back then, never gave me the time of day. But now?” He stiffens, clenching his fist repeatedly. “Well, now she’s mine, huh?”
I don’t answer him, but I can tell he already knows how stupid he sounds saying that to the man who truly has her.
“You know I should kill you.”
I shrug. “That a threat or a promise?”
He smiles thinly. “You’re good at this whole tough guy against the world shit, you know?”
“I try.”
He chuckles darkly. “Well, it’s not gonna help you much longer. You know why I’m not gonna kill you?”
“Enlighten me, please.”
He smiles wickedly. “’Cause you’ve got a friend.”
I frown. “What?”
“You’ve got a friend, and he’s real eager to get his hands on you. You and anyone you’ve ever loved or called friend.” Barnes’s lips curl wickedly. “Or brother.”
My jaw clenches as I stiffen. “What did you just say?”
He chuckles. “Oh, I know all about your brother, you fuck. If your little friend wasn’t paying me so good, believe me, after I killed your dumb ass, I’d go do the same thing to Asa.”
Rage sizzles through me, my teeth baring in a snarl as Barnes just stands above me chuckling.