Page 46 of Capture
“Annika?” I called in the dark.
Dripping water nearby, the smell of damp dirt, the air stale and dense. I wasn’t where I should be.
“Annika?”
I stood up and felt something warm and wet on my lap and realized my cock was in my hand. Confused and downhearted, I tucked it away and scrutinized the room I was in.
Then it dawned on me where I was, and the sex I just had wasn’t with Annika, but it was just me jacking off., and my cock alone in this depressing shelter.
I sat back down, hugged my body as the cold started to set in, and closed my eyes again, hoping to arrive back in bed with Annika, where it’s nice and warm.
21
Gunner,” I mouthed with my eyes closed as a warm body next to me wriggled.
I bolted upright when I thought someone was in my room. I patted for Gunner to wake him, but his side of the bed was cold. And it occurred to me that I was in the room at the club, and Gunner was somewhere else.
I stared at the ceiling in the twilight, barely making out the grooves in the plasterboard and the floral wallpaper as I listened for the slightest of sounds. Sometimes, underneath the sex noises and footsteps along the floorboards, I’d hear jazz music playing, like the music they played in the bar when girls danced.Upbeat, fun music that made the members smile and buy more liquor, and they let their guard down, they’d spin the roulette wheel and spend or lose more money than they intended.
“Where are you, Gunner?” I whispered into the night. No reply. “I hope you’re okay and not hurt. Someone will come for you soon. Mikael and Ronan won’t let you down. Of course, they won’t because you’re family. They’d never abandon you, and even if it took months, they’d move oceans and destroy to find you.” I swallowed. “That’s why I want to stay, Gunner. I want to stay with you three and work my butt off to build your trust in me. I promise, Gunner, I’ll never let you down, ever. Not anymore, Gunner. I will never let any of you down, including Mikael, who…well, is a bit intense, isn’t he. He needs to take a chill pill, and then maybe we could get along; he could even hire me to work here. The four of us together can make it the best club in the country. That’s my objective now. To make Savile, the best club in the entire country.”
Silence.
“But where are you, Gunner?” I hissed. “Do Mikael and Ronan know where you are? I know it sounds insane, but if you can hear me, whisper my name in the dark?”
Silence.
“Okay, maybe that’s harder to do, and maybe you’re sleeping and can’t hear me talking to you telepathically. Yes, I know I could be going insane, Gunner, because I’m talking to myself, but thinking of you, hoping you can hear me. Let’s try something else. If you hear me, tap on the wall.”
Silence.
“Go on, Gunner.” I cupped my mouth and whispered-shouted, “Tap on the wall.”
Silence.
I closed my eyes again, sinking back into the mattress to sleep, only to snap my eyes back open when I heard a tap on the wallopposite. My body bolted upright and peered into the dark to see if someone was there.
“Oh my god, I am losing my mind,” I whispered out loud. I so desperately wanted Gunner to contact me that I imagined him tapping on the wall.
Was this the first sign of madness? Or maybe the room was creaking. Yes, that’s it. It is an old building made of wood, so naturally, the natural materials move and creak with changes in temperature and moisture.
The tapping repeated, and I sat up again and stared at the wall as if Gunner was going to appear like a ghost and take me in his arms. No movement, so I climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the wall and pressed my ear against the wallpaper. Then tapped to see if he’d return my fake Morse code.
When he did, I propelled backwards in fright, slamming into the edge of the bed and falling onto the mattress.
“Gunner?” I whispered as I rolled off the bed, then stepped toward the wall again. I pressed my ear against the wall, wondering if he was trapped inside, creating an entire scenario in my head that he had been hiding in the foundations of the club the whole time.
“What are you doing, Gunner?” I raised my voice because there was unlikely to be anyone here to hear me talking to myself, even though I wasn’t talking to myself, if Gunner were here.
“No,” a muffled male voice replied. “Gunner is not here.”
“Ronan?” I exclaimed as my heart fluttered, knowing that he was only a wall away, but disappointed that Gunner wasn’t here.
The lock clicked, and the door opened as his impressive figure moved in the dark, bringing with him a cloud of cologne and body heat. “How long have you been out there?”
“I’ve come and gone and maybe been here for a couple of hours, guarding the room,” his smooth voice filled the room and cocooned my body.
“It must be uncomfortable out there, so why don’t you come in when you have to guard me instead of sitting out there in the hallway?” I suggested.
