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“Do I not pay you enough for your loyalty?” I roar, charging forward and bitch slapping him like the traitor he is.
“It’s for my mother!” He cries.
“Did it even dawn on you to tell us the truth about your situation and ask for help?” Lars asks.
“No, it didn’t. The boss is not warm and fuzzy. Do you think he would give a shit about my sick mother? All he cares about isher. Look around, Lars. He doesn’t care about us. We’re just a means to an end. It’ll be a miracle if I make it out of here alive and you know it. I’m only here because Megan begged me not totake her back to Fabre because she believed that Boss could be reasoned with.”
I’m so incensed by his admission that I can’t see straight.
“So you found her and were going to take her back to Fabre?”
Megan didn’t tell me any of this. To be fair, I didn’t want to push her to explain anything after all that she’s been through, but this…is untenable.
Why is she protecting this piece of filth?
Can I trust anyone around me?
“I didn’t know he was going to take her. He gave no indication that he was going to hurt Megan. How was I even supposed to know that she’d come downstairs alone? That’s not her usual MO.”
“If you were supposed to disappear for an hour, then how did you know she was taken? How did you end up in Arizona following them?” Vaughn asks with the calm demeanor of a police detective.
“A part of me knew that whatever he had planned wasn’t going to involve just talking, although I wanted to believe the best, so I stuck around. I parked around the corner and walked back on foot, staying out of sight.”
“Your story doesn’t make any sense,” I say, shaking my head in disbelief. “None of it.”
Lars’s body language mirrors my own. Neither of us believes this story. Parker’s not stupid, and there are holes in it. He's probably been working with Fabre for a long time, just biding his time.
“If y’all are not ready to shoot this liar yet, then I’ve had enough for today. I have a club to run.”
“Hunter–” Vaughn tries calming me down.
“Maybe Parker needs a moment in silence and several moments away from hisdying motherto consider what’s truth and what’s fiction,” I continue.
Everyone knows what this means.
We’ll leave Parker tied up down here in total darkness, with no food, no nothing until he decides to tell us what we need to know...the complete truth.
And I don't care how long it takes and who may disagree with my methods.
Even Megan.
Chapter 9
Trust Goes Both Ways
MEGAN
The faint smell of fabric softener feels comforting against my skin as I snuggle under the sheets of the king-sized bed I share with Hunter. The problem is, he hasn’t been near it since we’ve returned from Arizona. I think he’s been consumed with uncovering whatever he thinks that Parker knows or maybe he’s just still furious with me for walking out of the apartment that day. After all, if I hadn’t stormed out, I wouldn’t have been taken by Naomi’s father that day.
I’ve been asleep for hours now and with the drapes closed I’m not even sure what time of day it is but whatever time it is, I know that I can no longer rest (hide) in here forever. It’s time to have the conversation that both of us have been avoiding but before I do that, there’s a knock at the door.
“Lena.” I open the door and smile, happy to see a friendly face.
“Were you sleeping?” She stares at the hair on my head sticking straight up in the air.
“Not at all,” I tell her. “I was just getting my day started.”
“Your day?” She grins.