Page 60 of Taming the Bear
I don’t know what to say so I don’t say anything. Am I supposed to tell him that Joe hired me to do it? No, I don’t think it’s a good idea to let him know why. How do I know that he knows why I did what I did?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I say defiantly and then try to back peddle the conversation. “Why would you go searching through my stuff?”
Q Ball turns in his seat and looks over at me with incredulous eyes. “You were snooping around a Veep’s room. You honestly fuckin’ think we don’t got cameras?”
I fiddle with my hands in my lap and then look out the door again trying to memorize where we are. “Where are you taking me?” I ask him.
“I’m taking you away from the clubhouse because we are going to have a little chat.”
“About what?” I ask him again.
“Shut the fuck up and sit back.”
We drive around for about fifteen more minutes and he must have known that I was trying to keep up where we were going because he started to drive in circles. I lived in this city for my whole life, there’s not many places where he could take me that I don’t know. I’m not going to be the one that tells him that though.
By the time he slows down, I know exactly where we are and it’s in the same neighborhood as my parents’ home I grew up in. He lives here? That’s something that I never would have thought because this a pretty affluent neighborhood full of rich people.
I watch with wide eyes as he stops in front of my parents’ house. “What are we doing here?” I demand from the backseat.
The house I grew up in is one of those two story Tudor style homes with a Widow’s Walk on the top of it. Being that I am an only child, I turned the Widow’s Walk into my play room and made it into a fort where I played. That is also where I had my first computer hidden so I could play with it and try to find out how to break through the internet.
The funny thing about the “web” is it is actually a web. Everything is connected by a string and leads to something else then goes back to the first one. It’s a giant spiderweb full of information that leads back to one thing. That is why I love the internet and am so good at hacking. I learned how to track and trace which string goes where and how it makes its web from that.
“You, little lady, have no room to be asking me questions. You think you can just barge your way into people’s lives and get away with it? Fuck that, Pinky. You are about to feel how invasive it feels.”
I put my hand on the door handle to get out of the car but he’s already opening the door for me to get out. “I need you to keep your mouth shut and follow my lead. Do you understand me?”
“Why are you doing this? Is it money? Do you want money?”
He shakes his head and puts his hand on my lower back to push me over the driveway until we get to the front door. “No, I don’t want fuckin’ money. I want you to learn what it’s like when people start digging through your life and then I want you to apologize to me.”
I don’t say anything while he shoves me through the wide front door of my parents’ home and I see both my parents tied to chairs. “Why are they here? They have no reason to be here!”
The grey haired head of my father pops up from leaning against his chest and his eyes flare open to look at me. He then makes a sound getting my mother’s attention who looks me over as well. I’m thinking that the reason why they are doing this is to make sure that I’m okay. Both of their mouths are taped shut and I run over to them to peel off the tape.
I’m stopped before I even get to them by Q Ball and he growls in my ear. “No, you sit in front of your parents and don’t say a word. I have your computer and I need you to do something for me. You got me?”
“What do you need me to do?” I question and sit on the floor like I was told to. My eyes scan over my parents to make sure that they are both okay and it doesn’t look as if they have anything wrong with them. Besides being tied up to a chair with their mouths covered in tape, I don’t see any injuries.
The front door to the house flings open and then comes in a person I definitely didn’t expect to see here. Big Sir and Big Don. Standing larger than life in front of me and they both have a cocky look on their faces. They totally have me where they want me.
Q Ball is bouncing on the balls of his feet and he claps his hands as if this is exciting. “This is great. Big Sir, tell Chantal what we need.”
The big man’s body drops down to the floor in front of me and he places his hand on my arm gingerly. “Chantal, what a pleasant surprise. Imagine my surprise when Q Ball and Smokey told me you were hacking into their shit and trying to expose our deal. You fucked up and now you’re going to have to pay.”
“What are you talking about?” I blurt out.
Q Ball and Big Don both grab an arm and yank me on feet. I feel their fingers bite into the flesh of my arms and it stings. Their rough and calloused fingertips are abrading my skin and my eyes begin to water from it.
“We had a deal. Our deal was,” Big Sir starts talking, “you keep your mouth shut and pay your debt. You fucked it up by working for The Bear.”
The thought of trying to talk is not happening and all I want to do is yank my arms out of their hands. Their nails are now embedded into my skin and I already know that I’m going to have half moon scars after this.
Q Ball then drops my arm and I fall into Big Don who holds me up by extending my arm to ball up against my shoulder. “You weren’t supposed to get in the middle of this,” Q Ball says and then stands in front of me. I look at his young face and I see lust. He rubs his hand down the arm that he was gripping and laces our fingers. “You were supposed to pay Big Sir and not be collateral damage.”
I gasp out loud and then squeeze my eyes shut. “What do you need me to do?” I whisper.
“What we need you to do is drain the accounts for the club and transfer it to Big Sir’s offshore account. If you can do that, we will call it even and you won’t owe,” Big Don says to me in my ear. His breath is hot and a little too thick with the smell of stale coffee.
