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The flash of black metal caught my eye before the muzzle of a handgun was pointed at my head.
“What the fuck?” I jumped back farther and put my hands up. “Why would you pull a gun on me? I have nothing you could possibly want. Look around. I’m not exactly living in the lap of luxury.” Jesus, what the hell was going on? Emerald had never been anything but nice to me. There was nothing I could think I’d done to him to warrant this kind of behavior.
“Get moving, Ocean.” He motioned with the gun for me to go toward the door.
I went because what choice did I have? I wasn’t a fighter like Peyton. I didn’t know any badass moves. My luck, I’d swing my leg out to kick Emerald and fall flat on my ass. So, it was either get shot in my living room or get in the car and hope someone found me. I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, grateful my shirt was long enough to cover it. I couldn’t answer it, not now.
Peyton had me share my phone’s location with him in the app when I started working for Perry so he could locate me. I never minded it. He said he’d only use it in case of emergencies. Perry’s safety was a priority. I knew he didn’t track me or else he’d see how often I was at Untouchable. Then again, I could have been going there as a member, which was laughable since I didn’t have the money for it.
I hoped with everything in me Peyton was going to track me. It didn’t bother me then, and certainly didn’t now. If Peyton wanted to ensure Perry’s safety while he was learning to trust me, I was all for it. Maybe it would help me too, now that I had a gun to my fucking head.
IfPeyton found out something was happening to me. That was the key here. How, I had no clue. It wasn’t like there were cameras in my apartment. I didn’t live in a high-tech home like they did. My security consisted of the chain lock on the door. There was no doorman. No code to enter the front of the building. Now that I thought about it, it was another reason the rent was on the cheap side.
Emerald stayed behind me as we walked out of the building and into the night. Ice crunched beneath my feet where the plow and salt had missed it. It was quiet, only a handful of families living in the small building with me. Emerald opened the passenger side door of his sedan and told me to get in. I could have run. I probably wouldn’t have gotten far and would have been shot in the process. I slid into the car and closed the door, hoping I wouldn’t die tonight.
On the other side, Emerald got in and started the car, his gun pointing at me while his other hand put the car in drive and left the parking lot. He turned left and headed onto the small bridge over the creek into East Dremest.
This was Jordan’s territory, which had me wondering if he was involved in this somehow. He knew I worked for Perry. Used to anyway. Jordan had never threatened me. I didn’t even know the man. There was no reason for him to come after me. Did Emerald work for Jordan?
I was so confused. I wanted to ask questions but was afraid I’d get shot if I did, so I kept quiet and watched the streetlights as we passed them. Traffic was stop and go, the last stragglers of rush hour heading home. There were enough traffic lights to slow us down.
We were nearing Jordan’s building. I’d lived in Dremest long enough to know where he resided. No one entered his place unless they had a reason. But Emerald kept driving past it, slowly keeping with the flow of traffic like nothing out of the ordinary was going on in this particular vehicle. Hell, for all I knew there were other people driving around holding guns at someone. I didn’t put it past Jordan or any of the men who worked for him.
Emerald pulled up in front of a business where the windows were dark, only a lone light on the front of the building to illuminate the sign. The sign that let me know we weren’t at Jordan’s but at JJ’s shop instead.
“Get out,” Emerald said, putting the car in park and shutting it off.
I did as he said. This was the last place I’d run. My luck, I’d find someone way scarier than Emerald, though maybe I could get out of that one.
He put a key in the door’s deadbolt, turning it until the lock disengaged and he could open the door. Inside, he tapped buttons on the security panel to disarm the system. JJ had to have cameras in there, right? Something? Or was he in on whatever this was?
Emerald shut the door and locked it before turning to me with a wide, not friendly in the least grin. “You can scream all you want in here, Ocean. No one will hear you. Nor will they see you. I have a dummy video on a loop. And this place is soundproofed so the neighbors aren’t disturbed by the work on the vehicles.” That answered it about JJ. Guess he wasn’t involved. But then why the fuck were we here?
The gun waved in my face to get me moving until I was sitting on a hard metal chair. Emerald brought my wrists together in front of me and bound them with rope. Then he lowered a giant hook down into one of the garage bays.
“Like it?” he asked. “I installed it just for you. Up you go.”
I stood and stepped closer to him, trying to find a screwdriver or a different tool within reach so I could fight him, but there was nothing. Apparently, the mechanics were neat freaks. Figured.
I should have fought him earlier. Done something, anything. But I didn’t and now I was about to be strung up in a garage that smelled of grease, oil, and stale cigarette smoke.
27
PEYTON
JJ wasn’t Perry’s cousin in that moment. He wasn’t the man who I’d been starting to actually like. He was the key to why Dominic never showed up at work and why he was in JJ’s shop.
“Pey, stop,” Perry said, standing near us but smart enough not to try and get between us. “We don’t know if JJ had anything to do with this.”
“I don’t,” JJ ground out. He was as pissed as I was but for different reasons. When it came to Perry and Dominic, I would level everything around me to make sure they were safe. JJ was angry because I was in his face, and he obviously didn’t like it. Well, fuck him.
“Dom didn’t call me,” I said, trying to keep my anger at surface level. If I let it boil too high, I wouldn’t do us any good. I’d tear everything apart. I had to think with a calm head, at least until I knew what the situation was. “He didn’t answer when I called him.”
“He didn’t call me either,” Perry stated. “If something changed and he wasn’t going to work tonight, he would have let us know. At least, I think he would have.” He would have at least told Dexen.
I gripped my phone, pulling up the contact for one of Dominic’s neighbors. He had given me the number once. He said the neighbor was nice and would check in on Fawn if he asked. To give me the number was Dominic’s way of letting me check on him too. He knew I liked to have plans in place, just in case. Ways to reach someone. I’d only had to call this neighbor once when Dominic didn’t show up at work last year. He was sick with the flu and could hardly get out of bed. Fawn was recovering from it as well. The neighbor relayed it to me, and I sent soup and a doctor to his apartment to help them both.
The phone rang twice before the neighbor answered. I didn’t give him much time to talk before I was asking him to walk next door to check on Dominic.
