Rock Chick Regret (Rock Chick #7)(134)

That made me feel better but I still spat at him, “You’re a pig.”

At my words, his face went hard. “Rather be a pig than a traitor.” He leaned in and his face started to turn ugly. “You make me sick. The idea of that ass**le’s hands on you, his mouth on you, his dick in you. Christ, your father trusted him and Chavez f**ked him, he f**ked all of us. Now you’re lettin’ him f**k you. Can you imagine how that makes your Dad feel?”

“My father feels? Wow, Jerry, thanks for sharing. That’s news to me,” I retorted sarcastically, too beyond angry to stop myself.

His face twisted with fury. “It was me you f**ked over that way, I’d let the Balduccis play with you. Not Seth. ‘Take ‘em down, one-by-one, make it hurt,’ he says to me. ‘Keep an eye on Sadie, Chavez falls down on the job, make sure she’s safe,’ he says. Fuck.”

My body had gone solid.

Make sure she’s safe. He said.

My father wanted to be sure I was safe.

And, if I read it right, he was resigned to Hector having that job.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it and I started to tremble but luckily Jerry didn’t notice.

“Eat. You’re father’ll call, he’ll talk, you’ll f**kin’ listen then I’ll take you back to your f**k buddy,” Jerry finished our tête-à-tête and turned to go.

In desperation, before I could stop myself, I blurted, “I need to call Hector.”

Jerry stopped and grinned again then his eyes got weird in a way I did not like.

“Like the idea of seein’ what you’d do to get that call, Sadie. Maybe I’d make you let me f**k that smart mouth of yours.” My heart started beating harder just as my eyes narrowed but he kept on, “But I like the idea of Chavez tearin’ Denver apart lookin’ for you more.”

Then he was gone.

I stared at the door, giving it my Icicle Ray of Death Glare which didn’t work, no matter how hard I tried. Then I ate my cereal, drank my coffee and waited.

Jerry came back, stun gun in one hand, keys to the handcuffs in another.

“Bathroom. You got one minute then I come in,” he threatened.

I didn’t fight and did as he asked.

I just had to wait. He said I had to listen to my father and for Detective Marker this was what I was supposed to be doing. I didn’t pretend to be happy about the circumstances but I wasn’t going to do anything stupid either. Jerry was mean and I didn’t want to test him. I wanted to get through this latest trauma alive and breathing and go on. I was noticing the bad parts were interspersed with good parts. And of those good parts, some of them were great, some of them were fun and all of them gave me that warm, snugly, safe feeling.

If all I had to do was talk to my father to get back to all that, that was what I’d do.

After my bathroom break, Jerry cuffed me to the bed and disappeared again.

I tried not to think about Hector tearing Denver apart looking for me which I was pretty certain sure he was doing or the rest of my friends worried about me (again!). Instead, I decided what color Hector’s living room should be painted (a dusky gray, like the thermal he owned that I liked so much). Then I decided he should install an island like Buddy and Ralphie’s in his kitchen (I figured that would work, if it was an eensy bit smaller).

It might have been an hour, maybe longer, when Jerry came back.

He had a cell to his ear and he was nodding.

“She’s right here,” he said into the cell, stopped by the bed and handed it to me.

I took it and put it to my ear.

“Sadie?” my father said.

I thought about my coaching from Hector, Eddie and Marcus and I snapped into the phone, “You had me kidnapped.”

“Sadie –”

I interrupted him and clipped, throwing Jerry right under the bus (where he belonged, in my personal opinion), “I asked to make a phone call and Jerry told me he wanted to f**k my smart mouth!”

Silence.

Or, I should say, scary silence.

As usual, I sallied forth. “Is this how we spend father and daughter hour now, Daddy? Any time you want to speak to me, one of your henchmen kidnaps me and threatens me with sexual violation before you and I have our chat?”

“I’ll have a word with Jerry,” my father said, he sounded angry and I looked up at Jerry who now looked pale.

Ha!

“Make it two. I think two words with Jerry would probably be better,” I retorted, my eyes locked on Jerry.

That’s when Jerry’s handsome face twisted in that ugly way again and even though deep down inside it scared me half to death, I just kept glaring at him.

“Sadie, there’s things I have to go over with you. I don’t have a lot of time so I need you to be quiet and listen.”

“Well, Daddy, seeing as I’m handcuffed to a bed in a room in a house where I don’t know where the hell I am, I’ve got nothing better to do. So fire away.”

He sighed then he said, “I need to tell you where the money is.”

This surprised me. I had no idea what he was going to say but I didn’t figure that would be it. Giving me grief about Hector, yes. Money, no.

My chin dropped and I blinked at the bedclothes.

“What money?”

“My money, your money, our money.”