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ChapterTwo
Lavender
He was driving so recklessly,Lavender was tossed onto the floor. As much as she wanted to complain, she wouldn’t dare. She was alive—and that was all that mattered. Lavender wasn’t sure how far they’d gone before it felt like the car almost turned in a complete circle, then stopped abruptly. Groaning, she extended her arms and legs to keep from falling again.
“Get in the front seat,” he ordered, cutting the car off.
Doing as she was told, Lavender crawled into the front of the car. She wanted to look over at him but thought better of it. Even if he was helping her, he was still in the Jerome family, which meant he was now her enemy. Lavender thought the day she left that prison would be the happiest day of her life, but it wasn’t. Her family was still there, and she had no idea if she was going to be killed or not. Just because she was safe now didn’t mean it would stay that way.
Her head shifted in his direction, and she watched him as he read what appeared to be a letter. Though she could have made a run for it, Lavender felt eerily safe with him. It may not have been intentional, but he’d gone against his family to spare her. She had no idea what the consequences of such a choice would be, but for now, staying in his life was the only way she knew she’d keep hers.
As her leg shook, she looked out into the darkness of the night.
“Do you know where my family is?” She couldn’t help but ask.
He ignored her, causing her to look over at him. His eyes were trained on that paper, even after the light in the car went off. Lavender looked at the time on the dashboard, gasping at the date.
“Is this right?” she confirmed, tapping the screen. “This can’t be right.”
Slowly, his head turned in her direction. “Yeah,” he grumbled. “It’s right. Today is July fifteenth.”
“Fuck,” she whispered, covering her face with her hands. “They’ve had us locked in that place for almost a month now.”
“Hey,” he called, gently touching her thigh. “I need you to tell me everything that you can remember about when you were taken and whatever you know about why.”
Sighing, Lavender pushed her unkempt hair out of her face. Aside from feeding them one meal a day it seemed, her captors hadn’t done anything else to make their stay pleasant. She couldn’t imagine how horrible she smelled. One shower every few days could only do so much.
“I guess my dad’s gambling got him in trouble,” she started, looking out of the window again. “He came home yelling about how we needed to get out of town ASAP. Something about Winston was going to sic the Jeromes on him. We packed bags as quickly as we could and headed out, but before we made it out of the neighborhood, we were surrounded by trucks.”
“Do you know where you were taken?”
Her head shook. “No. Just that it was a big, empty house. But it didn’t look like a house. Maybe an apartment building that had been deconstructed. I don’t know.”
“How many of you were there?”
Lavender’s head dropped and her eyes watered as she inhaled a deep breath. “Four. My parents, me, and my sister. They separated us from our parents, but we had cameras in the room to see what was going on.”
“Did they… touch you?”
Lifting her hand to stop tears and mucus, her head shook. “No,” she whispered before sobbing. “But they beat my father daily and raped my mother.” His hand squeezed her thigh, and that small act of comfort was enough to keep her from completely unraveling.
“But they are all alive?”
“Yes. Can you…” Lavender inhaled a deep breath, unable to meet his eyes while hers were leaking. “Can you get them, too? Please? I’ll do anything.”
His head shook as he started the car. “I’m going to take you somewhere safe for right now. That’s all I can do, but I can assure you that they are okay. It sounds like you and your sister were taken to pay off your father’s debt.” He paused, and she finally looked over at him to find his eyes already on her. “Dead men can’t bring in money. My family destroys to make examples out of people and maintain their power, but they only kill as a final option. That’s why I was so surprised they tried to make me kill you.”
“If they do it as a final option, why were they trying to kill me?”
“I’ma be honest with you, if my family was brought in, your father’s been in debt for a while. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the business just yet, but I do know that we come in as problem solvers once all other options have been exhausted.”
Rejecting that notion, Lavender nibbled her bottom lip. “My father wouldn’t have continued to gamble if it was jeopardizing our safety.”
“I don’t know shit about y’all, but I know about my family. You were about to be a lesson. Your death was going to motivate him to do whatever he needs to get that money. If your sister was there when you left, she’s safe, too, but that’s only if they can’t get to you.”
Whining, Lavender began to shake and cry all over again.
“I’m going to do all I can to help her, but right now, she’s safe,” he continued. “They won’t do anything to her while you’re away. That’s not how they operate. They need leverage.”
“Then I’ll stay away if that’s the only way to keep my sister safe. But how long?”
As he put the car in drive, his head shook. “I can’t answer that right now, but I’ll have answers and more details soon. For right now, I need you to trust that you’re safest with me and do what I say when I say it.”
Nodding, Lavender shrunk slightly in her seat as her stomach growled. Though she was hungry, she was too anxious to eat or do anything other than worry about her family. His confirmation that they were alive and well, even if temporarily, gave her some peace… but it wouldn’t last. Not until she saw them and they were free.
