Page 101 of Redd

Chapter Twenty-Three

Redd

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Slouched against thewall, I kept my head down and my fists tightly clenched. It had been hours since I had woken up in that room, and no one had come in to see us.

I had tried kicking down the door, using my shoulder to ram it, and slamming my fists repeatedly over and over again. But Pierre and I were trapped in this fucking box.

“How long is he going to keep us in here like this?” I asked out loud, not really looking for answer, but Pierre didn't register the solo question as a voiced thought.

Waving a lone hand through the air, he answered. “Until he's ready to talk to us. He's probably trying to wear us down.”

Shaking my head, I didn't look at him. “Yes, thank you for clarifying that, Pierre.”

“Look,” he said, calmly holding out his arms and walking over to me. “I screwed up, I know that. And what you said before, you're right. I'm weak, I haven't done anything to protect my family or protect Bijou. I only made it worse.”

Lifting my face, my lips drew back, eyes narrowing. I didn't have anything to say to him. He screwed up. . . He was just realizing that now?

Swallowing hard, his brows knitted. “I just want you to understand that I really didn't know what I was doing. I thought I could handle him, I honestly thought that he was a man of his word.”

You can't trust men like him. They'll eat you up and spit you out over and over again.

Diablo was a shark, he'd nibble his prey, injure them, force them to become weak and frail, and that's when he'd strike. It was a slow painful death, but the end would come, when he was ready.

“What happened? What did you do?”

Backing against the wall next to me, Pierre slid down onto his ass. “Years ago, this place was a mecca for businesses. Almost every major corporation had an office downtown, and this small city was the center of what every American family wanted,opportunity.”

“Okay, your point?”

I didn't want some sob fucking story about how he left poverty for the riches of this country. If he knew what I came from and how I lived before turning my back on the law—he'd know that opportunity was what drove me to begin with.

Opportunity had been the fucking catalyst that brought Bijou into my hands. Well, that and greed. I was a greedy motherfucker, I can admit that now. I wasn't proud of it, but it was the truth.

“My bar was booming, we had a full house almost every night. Things were great. I bought our home, I had luxury cars, the girls were born. But then things changed, the economy tanked. Those big businesses up and left, and most of the city left with them. It became a struggle to stay open. I had to use all of Bijou and her sister's college funds, we were in default on our home and the mortgage for the bar. I was about to lose everything.” Pierre's head fell into his chest as he reached for a small pebble on the floor and started rolling it between his fingers.

“That's a tough spot to be in. Did your family know?”

Cocking his head up, his lids turned to slits. “No, I couldn't tell them that.” Flicking the rock across the room, he speared his fingers into his hair. “But then Diablo came in, he offered me money, he gave me the solution to all my problems. It was going to be simple, he'd front me the money, and I'd let him work out of my bar. He'd use it, when and how he wanted, no questions asked. I looked the other way, pretending I didn't see him and his men, or anything that they did. And I of course, as part of our agreement, I was going to pay back the money with interest.”

“That didn't happen, did it?”

Shaking his head no, his mouth bent into a deep frown. “I didn't even come close. The bar never got better, it only got worse. With his men coming in and out, no one wanted to be there anymore. But the damage was already done, I still owed him.”

“And that's why he had Bijou?”

“Not exactly.” Scratching at his jaw, his lids closed as he laid his head back. “I had a deadline that I couldn't meet. I tried to explain it to him, I even threatened to call the cops. But that man showed up at my house, he held a gun to my head and said he would kill my whole family and make me watch if I didn't give him what I owed.”

Falling deeper into his knees, Pierre tipped his head up, eyes full of so much hurt and despair. “He came to my house, Redd, he stood in my living room while my children and wife slept. That's when it happened, he spotted Bijou's picture on our mantle, and he gave me one last option to walk away clean. Give her to him and he'd call our debt even. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don't know.” When he told me what had happened, all I felt was pity for him. He was put on the spot with a gun to his head. There was no time for him to think about another solution, he was trapped.

All the blame I had put on him vanished. He wasn't sinister and evil, he was just plain stupid. He was blind to the danger, listening to the voice of a mad man as he protested a solution to his problem that went far beyond money.

Desperate. . . Pierre was nothing but desperate.

“I swear to you, that man gave me his word. He promised me that he would be kind to her, he said he would give her everything she could ever ask for.” Sucking in a big gulp of air, Pierre's eyes started to tear up. “I did that to her, I caused her pain. And I didn't even get the chance to explain what was going on, or tell her I was sorry for it. He just took her.” Snapping his fingers, the noise popped in my ear. “She was gone, just like that.”

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