Cocky (15 page)

Chapter Twenty Eight

But she couldn’t wait. She couldn’t take the waiting. Her sister had been kidnapped for days. She had been taken by some monster and was locked away in a cage. Did she know Chelsea was looking for her, or had she already given up hope? What if she did something foolish and reckless because she thought it was her only chance for freedom?

What if they were hurting her? What if they had been hurting her for days and Chelsea hadn’t done the one thing she should do? But Blue would never forgive her if she did it. She would never be able to look him in the eye again. But it was her only choice. The day of the fights was coming up, but how was she to know if the boys from Detroit would keep their word? What was money when it came to family?

She pulled Terrance’s number off of Blue’s phone and with a deep breath she called him. The phone range once and then twice and then three times, what would happen if he didn’t pick up?

“Hello, Chelsea,” Terrance said. His voice was as oily and over-confident as ever. She could easily imagine him sitting behind his desk, his feet propped up as he smirked into the phone.

“You did this,” Chelsea said into the phone. “From start to finish this was all you. You had my sister kidnapped. You’re marrying our mother; Jamie would have been your stepdaughter.”

“Jamie will be my stepdaughter,” Terrance said. “Nothing is going to happen to her. As I said before, she hasn’t been hurt. She’s just collateral.”

“Collateral for what?” Chelsea demanded.

“He hasn’t told you?” Terrance asked with mild surprise. “Well, how serious can the two of you be?”

“Don’t try that with me. I know all your tricks, Terrance. I know how you lie to people and get them to question everyone around them except you. I’m not falling for that. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I’m going to do the talking from here on out.”

“All right.”

“How much for Jamie?” Chelsea demanded.

“In dollars? Billions, I would have to say.”

“Come on, Terrance. I’m serious. I have a lot of capital and I want my sister back, cut a deal with me.”

“My, my, you are a girl who is used to getting her way, aren’t you? Here’s the thing about pretty girls like you, Chelsea. Pretty girls are spoiled girls; they are constantly told how pretty they are and they are rewarded for their beauty. They have more confidence, they date whoever they want, and, in general, life is very good to them. This makes the beautiful girl think she is special. But she isn’t. The special girl is something different. There are millions of beautiful girls; you see them on street corners every night. They are raised to think the sun shines out of their ass and whatever they want will always be handed to them.

But the pretty girl has a short shelf life. Before she knows it she’s the beautiful woman, and then with the snap of a finger, she’s just another old woman, same as all the rest. Because, you see, Chelsea, you were never really that special to begin with. You’re just pretty and I can get all the pretty girls I want. I don’t take orders from you, I am not interested in your happiness, and you mean nothing to me at all.”

Chelsea’s whole body was shaking and she gripped the phone tightly. “Fine, I may not be special, but I am rich. I saw your house, Terrance, and I can tell you this: it’s garbage. My pool guy wouldn’t live in your house. Now I have money, Terrance, real money. What’s it going to take to get my sister.”

“You don’t have it, sweetheart.”

“Five million,” Chelsea said into the phone.

“No, no, you still don’t understand. These fights aren’t about money. I mean obviously money plays a part, but there’s more to it. These are elite fights, not just anyone can attend. People are desperate for an invite to these fights. People come for miles in the hope that I might bless them with an invitation. This is how I keep my business afloat, my dear. How can you put a price tag on that?”

“Ten million,” Chelsea offered. “I have it, Terrance. I can get it right now.”

“I don’t need your money. Wow, that does feel good say. Go to hell, Chelsea Riley, I don’t need your money, just your desperation.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I can hear your heartbreak. I can see your tears all over the internet. But I know this isn’t really about you and Ryan. I know you’re really crying for your sister and I know that every tear that slides down your perfect face is a knife in Blue’s side. It’s what I wanted.”

“I don’t understand...”

“If I took you, Blue would have gone mad. He would have tortured me and snapped my neck to get to you, I have no doubt about that. But Jamie? He wouldn’t go that far; he would fight for her, though. But really he’d be fighting for you. He could never stand to see you unhappy, or live knowing he was the cause of it.”

“Blue didn’t cause this,” Chelsea whispered into the phone. From the other side of the wall she heard Blue turn off the shower and the background noise of the falling water faded away. The house sounded deathly quiet without it.

“He didn’t cause it, but he can end it. You could have had your sister back days ago, Chelsea. All I wanted was Blue’s assurance that he would fight, but he refused to give it me, so I had to take your sister as collateral.”

“You want Blue to fight?” Chelsea demanded. “But it’s a fight to the death.”

“I know,” Terrance said. “But he’ll win. I’m betting my whole fortune on it.”

“You can’t make him do this,” Chelsea said, she was reaching for straws anything that would undo this horrible situation.

“I’m not making him. You and those tears are.”

“Stop it! You have Jamie! You brought the sponsors here, you did all of this.”

“And now Blue is going to undo it. He’ll win the fight, you’ll get your sister back, and I’ll get even richer. Everyone wins, Chelsea, can’t you see that?”

“Chels?” There were three quiet knocks on the door and Chelsea looked up with a gasp.

She looked down at the phone and hit end. She couldn’t talk to Terrance anymore; she couldn’t handle his lies. Or was he telling the truth. Blue had been acting strangely. But had he lied to her this entire time? They had been searching for Jamie for days and Blue hadn’t told her. She shook her head; she should have known better than to call Terrance. He was never any help, ever. He just fed into her fear and made everything worse.

“Yeah, one second,” Chelsea said, trying to hide the shaking sob in her voice. What was she supposed to do? If she confronted Blue she would have to admit she had called Terrance. He would think she betrayed him. Plus, she would be believing Terrance, the man who was legendary for his lies. How could Blue ever trust her again?

But what if Terrance was right? There was no other way that kidnapping Jamie made sense. They didn’t want Chelsea’s money; the just wanted the fight to go on. A fight to the death, and Blue was the best fighter any of them had ever seen. Jamie being collateral for Blue made perfect sense. Taking a deep breath Chelsea opened the voice recording app and hit stop. She saved the conversation and then backed it up to the cloud. She hadn’t been dumb that time.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Chelsea stepped out of the room and walked to the kitchen where Blue was drinking a glass of water.

“What’s wrong?” he asked slowly lowering his glass.

Chelsea’s eyes were blurry with tears she was desperate to hold back. They were hovering right on her lower lashes and were sure to slip over any moment. “I called Terrance,” she said. Blue put down the glass and shook his head. “I know I shouldn’t have. But I needed to. I offered him money for Jamie – a lot of money – and he laughed at me.” Chelsea stopped, she was hoping Blue would take over, that he would fill in the gaps, but his jaw was locked and he lifted his eyes from the linoleum floor to Chelsea’s eyes and waited for her to continue. “He said you’re supposed to fight, that they’re holding Jamie as collateral. Is it true?”

He didn’t speak or move for a moment and then he let out a single word, “Yes.”

Chelsea couldn’t hold back her tears and a sob escaped her as she leaned against the table. Tears were pouring down her face and soaking her shirt and she was helpless to stop them. “Why didn’t you tell me? We’ve been running all over town and you didn’t tell me. Why?”

“Because I hoped we could find Jamie and I wouldn’t have to fight,” he yelled back at her.

“It’s a fight to the death,” Chelsea whispered. “You can’t do that. You can’t kill someone, Blue. What if they’re stronger than you? What if you don’t win?”

“I’ll have to.”

“No! That’s bullshit. I won’t let you do it. I’m not going to let you go into that ring if I have to kidnap you myself.” She remembered the basement, the hard packed floor dotted with blood, the beer cans, and cigarette buts, the darkness. It was like a nightmare come to life. She couldn’t let Blue do that.

“What’s the other option, Chelsea? That Isaac and Amos return Jamie to you piece by piece because that’s what’ll happen. These are not guys who threaten lightly. They’re dangerous and they have it out for me. I’m sorry, Chelsea. I’m sorry I came back here. I roped you and your whole family into this thing with my dad. I just wanted to protect you and I couldn’t even do that.”

“You did protect me,” Chelsea said. “You literally saved my life yesterday and this isn’t your fault. Promise me you won’t think that. This is all Terrance; it’s all his fault and we need to get him. I recorded our conversation,” she said holding up the phone. “I got every word of it. We can take it to the police.”

Blue shook his head, “They’ll kill her, Chels. They’ll do it as a warning to anyone else who tries to go to the cops. Besides, the cops know about the fights. They get a nice little wad of cash for looking the other way.”

“So what do we do now? There has to be something. I’m not letting you do this and I’m not losing my sister. There has to be something.”

Blue shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know where they have her, no one does. We’re out of options and leads, Chelsea. We never really had any to begin with. I’m going to fight. There’s nothing else to be done about it.” He brushed passed her and walked over the living room couch. He fell down onto the soft cushions and put his hands in his hair.

Chelsea felt her heart break. She felt it crack and shatter in her chest. Her sister or Blue, how could she ever be asked to choose? If only she had been taken instead. If it had been her she wouldn’t have wanted Blue to fight, she would have rather died that make him kill someone for her. But they hadn’t taken Chelsea; they had taken Jamie and now Blue was faced with Chelsea’s lifelong suffering if anything happened to her sister.

She was trapped between two people she loved. If only she could trade places with either one she would have. But she couldn’t; she was trapped in the middle. Terrance had designed his trap perfectly.

Chelsea walked towards Blue and stood next to him and pulled him closer to her. He pressed his head against her stomach and wrapped his arms around her as she ran her hands through his thick hair. She felt so right with him. They fit so perfectly together. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but it hadn’t mattered; they remembered each other perfectly.

So how could she ask him to do this? How could she ask him to go into a ring to risk his life and try to kill another man so she could have her sister back? How could she not? She could feel the pulse on his neck against her stomach, could feel his shoulders lift as he took deep breaths. He was so strong and so smart and so capable and it felt wrong for it to end like this.

Chelsea sat down on the couch next to him and took both of his hands in hers and then she looked up into his blue eyes. He was so handsome, there was a slight bit of stubble on his chin and Chelsea ran her fingers over it. He was alive and unhurt and hear with her, if only it could stay like that forever.

Chelsea leaned forward and kissed Blue slowly. He placed his hands on the small of her back and pulled her close. He kissed her deeply, sliding his tongue into her mouth as she wrapped her hands around his neck. They kissed and Chelsea rested her hand on his face and turned him so he had to look at her.

“I wish I could make this all better,” she said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I wish I had a fairy godmother or a genie or someone I could call to make this whole thing go away. I guess I thought that would be my label, but not even money was enough to tempt Terrance.”

“It’s all right,” Blue said, stroking her hair.

She scoffed, he was comforting her. It seemed wrong; he was the one who was being asked to make a huge sacrifice. She should have been comforting him. “I hate to have to ask you to do this, but-”

“Shh,” Blue said, placing his thumb on her lip. “That’s the thing, Chelsea, you don’t have to ask. You never have to ask. I would do anything to make you happy and I’m going to go into the ring and get your sister back.”

More tears poured down her face and she was shocked she had anything left to cry. Every time she was sure she was done crying some new horrible thing would happen and she would have realized that everything could still get worse. And things could get worse. Blue could die. He could lose the fight and the boys from Detroit might get mad and kill her sister and then her mother would marry Terrance and she would truly have lost everything.

Chelsea pulled Blue in for a fierce hug. She pulled him against her and he hugged her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder. There was nothing she could do to make everything better. She ran her hands up and down Blue’s back. He felt so solid beneath her, so real and so alive.

Blue pulled away and wiped an errant tear from Chelsea’s face. “I’m going to get your sister back. I promise you that. And you can play that tape for your mom and get her back, too. And I am good, Chelsea. I’ll win the fight. I’ll win it and I’ll come back to you.”

“Where are you going?” Chelsea demanded as Blue stood up. She reached for him, holding onto his shirt and hand as he tried to pull away from her.

“I’m going to get Jamie back.”

“No.”

“I’m going to tell my father that I’ll do the fight. It’s the only way. Please don’t try and stop me, Chels. You know we have to do this.” He pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead as he finally pulled his hand free of hers. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered, caressing her face with hand. And then he was walking away from her and Chelsea was frozen in place and she could do nothing but watch as he gave her one last look and closed the door behind him.