Page 43 of Captivated with Them

“I’m sorry to have done this to you, but I need your help, and I couldn’t see any other way of getting your attention.”

“How about asking nicely?”

“You think you would have given me even a second if I’d just approached you looking like this?”

His lips tightened and then he said, “I think maybe you could have given me a chance.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t have the time to risk you saying no.”

Gordon folded his hands in his lap. “So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

“Ryan is in trouble. We all are. Some powerful men are threatening us. They’ve kept me a prisoner for almost a week. The reason I look like this is because I only just managed to escape, and they’re making Ryan and our friend, Kodee, work for them.”

Gordon’s mouth dropped open. “Jesus Christ. You should be telling this to the cops, not me.”

“I can’t go to the police. These men have eyes everywhere. They even have bent cops on their side, and if I try to report this, I can guarantee my dead body will turn up in a cell or an interview room, possibly with a note, and everything pointing in the direction of me having hanged myself.”

Gordon shook his head, his eyes wide. “This is insane.”

“Aye, it is,” I agreed, “but it’s the truth.”

“And what is it you want from me?”

“I don’t know if these men are listening in on Ryan’s phone calls, or even if they’re in the apartment with them. If I try to contact him directly, I could alert them to my location and get us all in some deep shit.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Call Ryan for me,” I said. “Tell him that you need him to come in urgently, for a fitting or something. Don’t even mention that I’m here.”

In his lap, his fingers tightened around each other, his knuckles white. “And if I refuse to do this, are you going to shoot me?”

I wanted to say no, that I had no intention of shooting him, but I also needed him to do this for me, even if it meant he thought I was a complete asshole.

“Aye. I’ll shoot you in the foot first, though, and then I’ll give you the chance to make the call again. It’ll be entertaining to see if you can get through a conversation without screaming.”

Gordon glared at me, lips tight, looking as though he was internally wrestling with what his response should be.

“I’ll help you,” he said eventually, “but not because you’re threatening me. I’ll help because I like Ryan. He’s a good guy. I’m not sure what he’s doing hanging out with the likes of you, but when you were here together, I could also see that you cared about him. That other man he was here with the other day was the same.”

I jumped on his words. “Kodee came here?”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Kodee. Yeah, I think that’s what his name was.”

I exhaled a breath. “Look, we’ve got ourselves caught up in something that was never intended. You think I’m one of the bad guys because I’m here, pointing a gun at you, but you don’t know the half of it. Really bad men don’t look like this.” I gestured to my bearded face and filthy clothes. “The really bad ones are dressed in expensive suits and drive top of the line cars, and always get the best tables in a restaurant, even when they haven’t made a reservation. It’s those kinds of men who are threatening us. They kept me prisoner, and they’re essentially keeping Ryan and Kodee the same way, even if their leash is longer.”

“They were here this week. I didn’t see any sign of them being threatened.”

“Have you got CCTV outside of the building?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Yeah, we have.”

“If you’ve got access to it, I guarantee there will be something on it that shows Ryan and Kodee being followed. You want proof? Go and check the footage.”

Maybe it was something in my intensity, my passion, my determination, but his shoulders dropped. “Okay. I believe you. You can put down the gun. I’ll make the call.”

I still didn’t know if I should trust him. If I put down the gun, would he rush me? He was probably fifteen years older than I was, but he also had a good amount of bulk on his frame, and I thought we’d be pretty evenly matched if it came to a hand-to-hand fight.

I lowered the gun, but I didn’t put it away completely. “Make the call, then.”

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