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He shook his head slowly. "No. I think my best bet is to leave you right where you are until those guys arrive. They can decide what to do with you."
I gave him a dark look. Hopefully I conveyed all my loathing to him. I'd hate for him to miss out on knowing how much I thought he sucked right now. Asshole.
"I was wrong, you're not a nice guy. You're a self-serving son of a bitch. I'm not sure I'd even try to stop Mannix or the other guys if they wanted to kill you." Right now, I could happily stand by and cheer.
"If that's supposed to change my mind, it hasn't," Charlie said. He frowned at me. He seemed to be considering something.
"What?" He was giving me the creeps.
"I was just thinking if putting duct tape over your mouth to shut you up would constitute touching you, or if they'd understand." He eyed my mouth speculatively.
I bristled. Being handcuffed was bad enough, I didn't want to be gagged as well. Especially with something as sticky as duct tape. I wasn't due for a waxing, especially on my face.
"It would definitely require touching me," I assured him. I'd scream my head off, but if anyone came running to help me, they'd be sucked into this insanity as well. I didn't want any more blood on my hands. Especially from someone who was actually innocent. If there were such people in this city.
"You didn't look that surprised when I told you about what I saw." Slightly disturbed, but not surprised.
"Dusk Bay is…" He searched for the right words. "Shady shit central. People like Caleb Brantley run the place and him and his family are the worst. If it's illegal, they're doing it. Lots of it. Running guns, extortion, smuggling diamonds, prostitution, human trafficking. And that's just what I can think of, off the top of my head. Everyone in town either knows about it and turns a blind eye, or is involved in it. So when I said they weren't joking about killing me, I meant exactly that. They wouldn't bat an eye. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the newly poured concrete in the gym contained the remains of someone."
"And how do you know all of this?" I wasn't even sure I believed half of what he said.
And yet, there was obviously at least several grains of truth in it. Criminals running around a city, getting way with everything from murder to blackmail to fuck knows what else, was nothing new. Why wouldn't it happen here, in Dusk Bay?
He shrugged one shoulder. "I was born and raised here. I went to school with guys like Mannix Cassani, Ice Miller and Ares Turner. I did my best to try to stay out of trouble, but it was inevitable trouble would find me. And it did the moment you walked through the door. But maybe it's not a bad thing. Being a gymnastics coach doesn't pay very well, and honestly, I'm sick of teaching those little shits."
I was starting to feel like an even worse judge of character right about now. Where he was concerned in particular. He'd done a better job of fooling me and hiding the real him from me than Mannix, Ice and Ares put together.
Where they were concerned, I knew there was some capacity for violence, even if I hadn't admitted that fact to myself.
Charlie, he was an asshole, hiding behind the façade of a nice, gentle guy. Judging by the way he was looking at me, if he didn't know the guys would kill him, he'd try something with me. He could have slipped something into my coffee. He could use his bigger size and weight to try to pin me down. Something. If it wasn't for the threat of death, he wouldn't have held back.
The coffee curdled in my stomach and threatened to come back up. In spite of everything, I felt safer with the other guys than I did with this one. They might kill me, but they wouldn't force themselves on me.
Yeah, that wasn't a whole lot of consolation.
"Maybe they'll give you a job as hired muscle," I said. "How do you feel about beating the snot out of people?"
He stiffened slightly. "Whatever it takes. I'm ready to get out of this shit hole." He gestured around him with one hand.
Okay, I got that. This place was tired, dark and depressing. Only one wall was painted white. The others were exposed, dark brown brick. Every one of them sucked in the light and gave back depression in return. The dark carpet was no better. The whole effect was unloved, dated and miserable.
"You live here alone?" The place was big for one person.
He visibly debated whether or not to answer that question. Finally, he nodded. "I have a sister. She's at a friend’s house. You didn't think I'd let her stick around with this going on, did you? The moment you texted me, I sent her off to play."
"What would she think of this?" I jerked my head toward the handcuff. "Most people don't keep a handcuff attached to the couch." The bed, yes, but not the couch. Not that I would knock anyone's kink. If this was what got him off, then whatever. As long as he didn't expect me to take part, then I didn't care.
"She knows I'll do anything to take care of her," he said earnestly. "I made that promise to her after our parents died. They wanted to send her to live with our aunt. I had to work my ass off to make sure that didn't happen. We belong together."
This, right here, was the real Charlie. Maybe not the nice guy he made himself out to be, but not a monster either. Just a desperate big brother who wanted to keep his family together when the system wanted to tear them apart. He still sucked.
"Is that what happens to her if you die?" I asked. "She gets sent off to your aunt?"
"She gets sent off to Brisbane. A long way from everything and everyone she knows. She's only eleven. She deserves better than that."
If Dusk Bay was as bad as he said it was, he might be better off to grab his sister and take off to Brisbane, but obviously that wasn't my call. No doubt he would have done that if he thought that was the answer. For some reason, he didn't.
That wasn't really my problem. Any temptation I had to ask was cut off at the knees by a brisk knock on the door.
