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Chapter
Twenty-Four
Brooklyn
I wasn’tsure why I had decided to eat cotton balls, but that was the first thing that came to mind as I came to consciousness. My brain felt foggy and confused and I tried to move my body. I immediately realized things weren’t what they should be as I started trying to take inventory of myself.
Pain lanced through my head when I tried to move and I stopped and took a moment to breathe to keep my stomach contents where they belonged. Confusion was thick as I tried to picture what the last thing I remembered was. Frank’s face came to my mind, but he looked shocked and scared, something I had never seen from him before.
I kept my eyes shut, trying to let the rest of my senses come back first. I recognized that my fingers were tingling and a sharp needle like feeling was moving along my arms and shoulders. When I tried to move my hands, I panicked when I realized my wrists were bound behind my back. I moved slightly, feeling handcuffs circling tightly around my skin.
What the fuck is going on? I asked myself. More images were flashing through my mind and I gasped on my breath, remembering that Frank had been hurt right in front of me, shot I thought. But I couldn’t help him. Why couldn’t I help him? The memories were going in slow motion and weren’t coming back to me fast enough to make sense of what was happening to me.
I was lying on my side, my hip digging into the hard ground below. I rubbed my cheek against the surface of the floor slightly, deciding it was concrete, with no rug or carpet. The atmosphere felt dank and wet, leading me to think I was near water somehow. A chill crept through my body as the sweat on my skin dried in the cold air.
Voices caused me to freeze my movements. I wasn’t positive about what had happened, but I knew it couldn’t be anything good if I had been knocked out and tied up. Letting my abductors know I was awake was the last thing I wanted to do. I slowed my breathing and tried to listen to the sounds I was hearing.
After a few moments it became clear, there was a door or wall between me and whoever was speaking. It was muffled enough that I could only tell one voice was slightly higher than the other,sounding female. That thought brought my foggy memories back, and I tried to concentrate on what was flashing in my mind. The thoughts didn’t make sense, and it felt like multiple events were melting together.
I waited as the voices rose in what sounded like an argument. When everything went silent again, I laid still, wondering if someone would be coming for me. The Knights came to mind, and anguish lanced through me. They would know I was missing by now. How much time had even passed? It was hard to think about them, worried and searching for me.
A tear slid from my eye, landing on the concrete below me. My own stubbornness put me in the position that I could be taken off the street. If I had just talked to my men, worked out the things we didn’t agree on, stayed with them in the safety of their home, none of this would be happening. Frank wouldn’t have been shot. That image crossed my mind again, and a sob tried to bubble up.
The sound of a door opening had me fighting down my emotions, bringing my breathing back under control. The door slammed and clicking heels came toward me. When the noise stopped, I could sense someone standing over me, and that was confirmed with a huffing sound.
A sharp kick to my foot brought my attention to the fact that my shoes were gone. For a moment, anger blossomed, thinking about the stilettos I had been wearing for work. Oliver had bought those for me and they were my favorite pair. Rationally, I knew the thought was silly, but I loved the reminder of what Oliver had done for me.
“I know you’re awake,”a voice said, accompanied by a kick to my thigh this time.
The voice started to match with my foggy memory and I realized that I knew who was speaking. Even with that start of understanding, I couldn’t understand how the pieces of eventsmatched up. I knew with the kicking, I couldn’t keep up the charade of still being knocked out.
I forced my heavy eyelids to open, blinking against the harsh light coming from the exposed bulb above my head. A shadow fell over my face and I had to blink rapidly to try to focus on the figure above me. Missy’s sneer was the first thing that registered.
“Finally,”she said.
“Missy?”I asked dumbly.
“I figured you’d remember my name,”she replied with a sly smile.“Couldn’t stop thinking about what I said to you in your office, could you?”
I swallowed, trying to clear my throat, wanting my voice to sound stronger than possible.“I haven’t thought of you once since then.”
Missy’s sly smile transformed into an ugly scowl, a look I was sure was much more natural for her face. She was dressed similarly to how she looked in my office. Expensive suit, but with more skin showing than necessary. Expensive jewels on her ears and around her neck. Her make up was done to perfection, though a sheen of sweat was showing across her face.
“I put in my time with those four. Long before you were ever a blip on their radar,”she said.
“History,”I replied.
“They were a mess back then,”she continued, as if I hadn’t spoken.“All four of them tied up in the drug business with Jaxon’s father. At times, testing more product than necessary. But it was ok, I enjoyed the high too. We loved to party in all ways. Tell me, have you had all four of them take you at once yet?”
I wasn’t quick enough to mask my thoughts passing across my face. I didn’t have all four of them. I had lost Aiden and now I knew I would likely never have the chance to fix that. I saw the triumph in Missy’s eyes before she even spoke another word.
“I figured you weren’t that special. Really, Brooklyn dear, you’re quite plain. And these scars,”she said as she leaned down and flicked my collar to the side.“Did you really think men like them would want something tainted and ruined?”
Her words sliced deeper than I wanted to think about. More than once, I had wondered the same thing about the Knights. They could have any beautiful woman in the city, but they had picked me.
“I’m sure you’ve thought about it. Sorry sweetie, it’s just the way things work. Men with the power, money and influence as my boys do, they aren’t looking for something broken. They need a woman that’s going to make them even stronger than they are on their own,”Missy said.
“You don’t know them,”I said lamely.
