Page 79 of Charger

“Thanks.” She unties her waitress apron, tucking it under the bar. “Bye, Joe. You know if I were Jules, I would start putting you to work.” She waves and the back door closes. Joe doesn’t laugh; in fact, he’s been abnormally quiet all night. Not to mention, he hasn’t left yet. Beads of sweat glisten his forehead.

I lean my hands on the counter, slouching into my shoulders. “Joe, I’m sorry but I’m gonna have to kick ya out.” He doesn’t look at me, but his breathing picks up and his chest heaves in and out faster. “Joe…”

“I’m so sorry, Jules.” He eventually turns to me. Tears start to form in his eyes. I step away from the counter and straighten.

“What are you talking about?” I can feel my heart beating faster and faster.

“I needed the money. I… they said they would pay me. I just… I’m so, so sorry. But I didn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. They wanted me to…” Sobs leave him and I can barely make out what he’s even saying. He slouches forward, his hands shaking.

I step back, pausing to think. Now I’m panicking; my gut is telling me that something is about to happen. What exactly could he be referring to? Does it have anything to do with the Skulls?

The back door opens at the same time the front one does. Scorpion walks in and through the back, Venom. It’s as if the world stops. No one moves. I can hear my breathing, like I’m no longer in my own body, as if I’m floating outside it. I can’t move. I can’t speak. My stomach turns and tears start to burn my eyes. Utter panic overtakes me. I need to move. Come on, Jules, move. I dart to the opposite side of the bar, thinking I’m in the clear, and try to make it upstairs, but I run straight into what feels like a brick wall. One of them grabs my wrists and I start thrashing around violently, trying everything possible in order to get away. I scream but someone behind me pulls a gag over my mouth.

He leans in my ear from behind me. “Shh, I promise if you just give in, this will be so much easier.” Scorpion’s vile, hot, cigarette-smelling breath grazes my cheek. I start thrashing again, and whoever’s holding me spins me around in his arms, hugging me so that I’m trapped and unable to move. Venom’s still on the opposite side, his arms crossed and a blank expression on his smug face. Tears are flowing down my cheeks, stopped only by the gag that still covers my mouth. It tastes like dirt and grime. That alone makes me want to dry heave. Scorpion tilts his head to the side, taking his thumbs and wiping the tears as they fall. I shake my head, like it’s going to keep him away. I don’t want him touching me, which makes my crying even worse. But he holds my face so I can’t move.

Joe, who can’t even look at me, is crying, sobbing, like a coward. I have so many questions. Like why… why would he do this to me? My sobs pick up and they aren’t just for me anymore. I lost the father figure I thought I had. He’s dead to me, nothing to me, and I hope he rots in hell. I turn to Venom, as if he’s my last hope in having someone come to my rescue, but he doesn’t do or say anything. His expression remains emotionless.

Scorpion leans in, licking a tear off my cheek. I wince, screaming against the gag. Bile rises up with a wave of nausea swirling in my stomach. “We’re a little disappointed in Joe here. He didn’t quite hold up on his end of the deal in bringing you to us. But I have to admit, when we first hired him to watch this place, we didn’t realize it was you he’d be watching.” Venom never mentioned I worked here? “This bar is a great place to pick up our… how should I put this… our little employees. We had some outside eyes, but we needed someone from the inside. Didn’t know we’d be scoring Venom’s little whore too.” He laughs. “Actually, guess she’s not your little whore anymore, is she, V? Guess she’s Charger’s plaything now.”

Venom’s jaw ticks. Maybe that just hit a nerve. Did Venom not like the fact Scorpion just called me his whore? Doubtful, because he quickly returns to being a blank canvas. He didn’t like the idea of me being with Zach; that’s what it was.

I try again to get out of the man’s hold. He smells of body odor and alcohol. But he is too strong. Then I feel a sharp pain on the side of my neck, followed by pressure. The room starts spinning, and the drowsiness hits like a ton of bricks. A blurry, almost distorted version of Scorpion leans in closer to me.

“It’ll all be over soon.”

I try to shake the cloudiness, but it weighs too heavily and my eyes begin to close. I am completely powerless and the darkness takes over.

Charger

I back my bike into Jules’s parking lot. The lights are still on, which is odd. I figured she’d be done cleaning up by now. I would have been here sooner if I didn’t pass the fuck out waiting for her shift to end. It seems my sleepless nights have been a little better since being with Jules again. She makes me feel at ease, at damn peace. And that’s something I haven’t felt in a long time. She and Chloe make me the happiest fucking man on the planet.

On the ride over tonight, I had time to think and I have every intention of telling her how I feel. I want them to move in with me. I want Jules to be with me, really be with me.

I stalk toward the back of the bar, but stop dead. The front door to the Fallen Star is wide open. I turn to pan the street for the prospect who was supposed to be watching her, but I don’t see him. Panic runs through me like ice. I take off sprinting inside.

“Jules!” I run straight upstairs and jiggle the locked handle. Fuck. I take a shoulder to the door, knocking it off the hinges in one strong force. My adrenaline is on fire right now. “Jules,” I call out again, checking both her and Chloe’s rooms. But nothing; the place is empty.

I run back downstairs, skipping two steps at a time and jumping down from the last two. My chest is heavy and my breathing is out of control. I take out my cell and dial her number, but it goes straight to voicemail.

“Fuck!”

I pick up one of the stools in anger, tossing it across the room until it hits the wall; the legs shatter in one blow. Resting my hands on the bar counter, I try to slow down my breathing, try to calm myself, but I can’t. I slouch into my shoulders, my thoughts on overdrive. That’s when I hear a groan. I follow the sound to the back, and in the corner where the kitchen is at, there’s a man slumped on the floor. Joe.

“Joe? What the fuck happened?” He’s battered, bruised, and his eyes are starting to swell shut. Blood’s everywhere. If they wanted to kill him, they almost succeeded. I pick him up gently by the shirt. “Joe. What happened!? Where’s Jules?”

He’s sobbing and tries to say something, but his jaw is severely fucked up. “I-I’m s-sorry.” He winces from the pain.

“Joe, what happened?”

“It’s all… it’s all m-my fault. I’m so sorry. They took her. I-I don’t know where, but they took her.”

My stomach drops.

“Who? Who fucking took her!?”

He sobs another sob before saying, “The Skulls,” and I drop him to the floor. I run my hands through the top of my hair and fall back onto the tile. My ears are ringing, the blood is pulsing through them, and everything is muffled.

A surge of rage takes over as I slide back over to Joe. Picking him up by his shirt again, I get in his face. “What the fuck did you do?” I grind my teeth.

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