They dragged her to the bedroom and tossed her on the mattress. When they started duct taping her, she tried to fight again, but it was two against one. She was completely overwhelmed.
“What the fuck is this?” she asked as they wrapped duct tape around her thighs.
Both men just looked at her like a bug under glass.
“This? Well, that depends on who you ask.” Travis kept wrapping, tearing the tape with his teeth and moving to her ankles.
They had taped her legstogether, over her sweats, so at least rape wasn’t their primary intention, and she found a small measure of comfort in that. Especially since that used to be Billy’s kink, taking her when she really didn’t want him to. The harder she’d fought, the harder he’d gotten.
Funny how one’s mind works when faced with the unknown. With her biggest fear alleviated, she could analyze the situation for what it was, not from a place of defense.
“What’s going on?” she asked again since her previous inquiry went unanswered. She needed to understand, to have a sense of control.
“If you ask me,” Billy sneered, “You’re not worth much more than what’s between your legs and what you took when I got locked away.”
“What I took? Dude, you’re fucking delusional if you think that shack in the desert had anything worth taking.”
He got in her face so fast, she recoiled out of habit, but he didn’t hit her. Instead, he pulled her hair, wrenching her head back, and spit in her face. She gagged.
“Oh, there was, and you fucking know it. My stash was gone when I got out, and so were you. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”
Taylor’s brain was spinning. He’d gotten out shortly after she’d fled. He was only out three months before getting locked away again, that time for years.
When she left their home, if you could even call it that, she took nothing but the clothes on her back, her cigar box, and her piece of shit car that gave out within the week.
“Do you mean the one hundred and fifty bucks in the cigar box that I earned in tips? Because that’s all I took with me.”
“No bitch, I don’t mean that piddly stash of cash you had in a cigar box, I meanmystash,” Billy roared and drew back his fist. Taylor screwed her eyes shut and braced for impact, but it never came. Travis stopped him.
What the fucking hell alternate universe was she in where Travis protected her?
“Easy, big guy. I told you. You only get paid if I do, and I won’t get paid if she’s all bruised up.”
Billy turned on Travis
“You promised I’d get payback.”
“Yes, I did, and you will. But I can’t deliver that if the Kings don’t want to pay for damaged goods.”
“Payback isn’t just about the money and coke she took. She humiliated me when she left. That can’t go unanswered.”
“I said I would get you your money. As far as any other retribution you’re after … well, that will be between you and the Kings, AFTER we get paid.”
Billy was pissed at Travis’s answer. Taylor knew that look, and Travis would be smart not to turn his back to … wait.
“What?” Taylor asked in disbelief. What the hell did the Kings have to do with her brother and her ex? It made zero sense. Other than Travis and a ridiculous scheme to get money. No way Prowler knew her ex or her brother. The world just wasn’t that small.
“Oh, sweet sister. You didn’t think I found you by accident, did you? Wait, actually I did. And this whole time you were blaming Terry the goody two-shoes for ratting you out.”
“If Terry didn’t tell you where I was, how did you find me?” She cut her eyes to Billy, who was seething in the corner. He was the more dangerous of the two in his current state.
“I think it was divine intervention. I owe those bastards in Kings a large sum of money. And do you know they had the gall to threaten me? Sent their muscle after me even. I was a good customer, always paid my debts. But I get in a bind once or twice, and they turn into savages.”
Taylor was hella confused because none of what Travis just said answered her questions in any way, shape, or form.
“Get to the point already.” This from Billy in the corner.
Travis snapped his head in Billy’s direction. And issued a rebuke Billy didn’t take well. Hell, Taylor could’ve told him not to poke the bear.
