When Dez tries to fight, one of the guards punches his side. Looking to him when I see him try to fight again, I shake my head, knowing it’s no use. He looks pained as he relaxes against the guards and his face drops to the ground. Rolling my shoulders back, I lift my chin and follow Ricco out.
A guard follows behind me as we walk through a maze of hallways and doors, all within the dark basement/dungeon-like place. I get an eerie feeling when Ricco stops in front of a door and looks over his shoulder with a smile. Taking in a deep breath, I hold it until I walk inside.
The room is a normal-looking bedroom, for the most part. A clawfoot bath sits in a corner with a sink and vanity next to it. There’s a door next to them that I’m hoping has a toilet on the other side. In middle of the room is a giant canopy bed covered in blankets and pillows.
My eyes keep scanning, and then I see it and my stomach drops. On the far wall are steel wrist and ankle locks, a long chain connecting another, and several other medieval-looking contraptions connected to the walls in various places.
“Please don’t do this,” I whisper to Ricco, hoping he’ll have a heart, even a little. “I’ll do what you want, but please don’t lock me up in those things. Please?” I beg.
His hand comes up to my face, and I flinch before he pushes my hair behind my ear. “You’re going to do whatever the fuck I want regardless if you’re locked up or not.” His eyes go to the other man in the room. “That one,” he says flatly to him before looking back at me. “The only option I’m going to give you is this: Do you want to strip yourself? Or should I do it for you?”
I feel like someone has punched me in the gut, and my head pounds as everything dulls in color around me. My mind drifts to another place as I begin to remove my clothes until I’m left naked and cold in front of a man I hate and another I despise.
Doing as I’m told, I stand against the wall and let them lock my wrists and ankles to it. I look straight at Ricco as he watches on. Walking to me, he puts his hand to my throat. “Every time you listen, you’ll get a reward. But if you fight or disobey my orders, you will be punished. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” I say, trying to sound unthreatened by him.
“Good.” He smiles at me as his hand slides down my throat to my chest. He palms one of my breasts, and I grit my teeth to keep from dropping my eyes from his. I refuse to show him any weakness, even as he violates me. Tears sting my eyes when he pinches my nipple, but still, I hold firm. “You have grown a lot since the last time. You’re quite exquisite.”
“And not yours,” I can’t help but say.
My head whips to the side after he backhands me across the face. Picking my head up to look at him again, I lick at the blood I can taste at the corner of my mouth.
“It would be wise of you to learn to hold your tongue,” he says angrily before he turns to leave the room.
When the door closes and I’m left alone, naked and strapped to a wall, my head drops and I let my tears fall. I pray that Sonny finds us fast.
I’m afraid of everything we’ll lose if he doesn’t.
22
Sonny
Looking at my watch, I note the time, and a feeling of unease drapes over me. Dez calls or texts me at different times throughout the day. We have a system in place that isn’t always the same, yet to us it is because we know the variations. But looking at the time, he’s missed not just the last one but the last two check-ins.
Dialing his cell, I get his voicemail. I try calling three times and text several more. Nothing. Running a hand through my hair, I let out a frustrated breath and then dial and text Ruby. Still, nothing.
Something isn’t sitting right. We had a threat made on one of the girls at the club today, and then when my security got here to sweep the building, they found a suspicious bag in the stairwell. When the rest of my team got here to look into it further, it was a fake.
Now, I’m thinking it was a ploy to have me here. The fact that I can’t reach Dez or Ruby isn’t helping my chest from heaving as I hurry to leave.
Running out of my office, I speed home to walk in to an empty house. I think about Ruby’s schedule, trying to remember what she had today. I pull up her calendar and see she had school but no other appointments.
“Where are you?” I ask the open air of the empty house. Dread fills my stomach as I try to think of all the possibilities, none of them good.
I call my mom to see if she’s seen or heard from them since this morning, and she hasn’t either. I’m about to call the school to check if she went to class when I get a text from a private number.
Private: I have something of yours.
I fall against the wall when a picture of Dez bound and in the back of an SUV comes through. I run a hand over my mouth, scared of what will show next.
Private: But that’s not all.
I fall to the floor when a picture of Ruby comes through next. It looks like it was taken from a surveillance camera. She’s naked and crying and locked to a wall spread in an X by her wrists and ankles. I yell and hit the floor next to me.
Private: Pretty isn’t she?
Me: Who are you? What do you want?
Private: I already have what I want.
Me: From me. What do you want from me to let them go?
Private: I think I’ll keep them a little longer.
Private: I’ll be in touch.
Running a shaky hand down my face, I look at the pictures again, trying to see anything that might give way to who this is and where my wife and best friend are. I call my main security guy and get him on it as fast as possible, tracing my cell, looking for anything to help find them.
Someone just messed with the wrong man. They’ll soon learn that I don’t share what’s mine.
I didn’t sleep all night. I smoked through an entire pack of cigarettes to calm my nerves, which have been on edge since I received that first text message. Funny thing is, I haven’t smoked once since I left prison.
I got a call from one of the top cyber hackers I know telling me to meet him in an hour. After a quick shower, I dress and head to my mother’s wing of the house to talk to her.
“Oh, good morning, Sonny,” she says with a bright smile. It quickly falls when she sees the dark cloud hanging over my head. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone took Ruby and Dez.”
“What? Why would someone do that?”
I give her a small exhausted grin. This woman who was married to a boss for over twenty years still doesn’t see the dangers or consequences of our crimes. “To hurt me.”
“Oh, Sonny, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”
Placing a hand over hers, I tell her, “I need you to stay here, in the house. Don’t go anywhere, not even outside. There’re men here to watch the house. I’m meeting with someone soon to hopefully find them. I’ve had people working on it all night. I might have a lead, but I’m not sure.”
“Go. Go find our girl and bring them back home.”
I kiss her on the cheek before I turn to leave.
“This is all you have? This is horse shit!” I yell, throwing the folder down on the table.