Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I sighed.
And that was the last thing I knew that night.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kick
The next two weeks were similar.
I went to work.
Sometimes I saw Rico, sometimes not.
Which, I reminded myself frequently, was for the best. Because the guilt was already eating me up. Having to face him when I had stolen money stashed in my pants or sweater or purse would have been just too much.
I would leave work and head to the Bronx, doing some more staking out of convenience stores.
Then I would get home and hope Rico would show up.
Some nights he did and always with food.
But some nights he didn’t.
And I couldn’t shake the dark cloud that clung to me those times. Even if I knew I was getting too close to him, that I was risking everything. But most of all, my heart.
Though, if I were being honest, it was too late.
It was already his.
More so than my heart had ever belonged to anyone.
Each time I thought of that, I couldn’t stop the tears from flooding my eyes. I was emotional every moment of the day. Crying in the bathroom at work. Crying in the cold and dark as I waited to see if I could find Kyle coming out of a bodega. In the shower in the morning. On the way home from dropping off the money to Kyle after demanding to see proof of my brother being okay.
I was both the happiest and saddest I’d ever been.
Happiest only in the stolen moments when I was in Rico’s arms. Miserable in every other moment.
It all seemed so completely and utterly hopeless.
Until, on one frigid night, the wind whipping lazy, wet snow flurries around, freezing me all the more, it finally happened.
I saw Kyle.
Coming out not of a bodega, but a Chinese food place.
Adrenaline surged as I pulled my jacket hood up over my knitted beanie, casting my whole head in shadow.
Then I started walking, keeping a safe distance as I followed Kyle as he hunched forward against the wind.
And then there it was.
The building he was living in. Possibly the building he was keeping my brother in.
As he got to the door, I slunk back, not wanting him to turn and see me, knowing how capable of violence he was, how willing he would be to grab me. Or, worse yet, just kill Jake, cut his losses, and run.
Alarm bells went off in my mind as he disappeared inside the building, thinking that maybe this was my chance. Maybe I should call the police, tell them that my brother had been kidnapped, that he was being kept in the basement.
That would solve… everything.
Except, of course, lying to and stealing from Rico.
I could sit him down and explain, though. Tell him I didn’t see any way out, that I would work for free to pay him back. Beg for his mercy. Tell him how sorry I was, how much this had been killing me.
He was a good man.
He would forgive me.
But something would always be fractured. Nothing would ever be the same between us.
It would break me to lose him. And I would lose him. But it was better than living like this forever.
The only thing stopping me from reaching for my phone with my frozen fingers and calling the police right then, though, was not having any proof.
What good would I do if I called the cops to report the kidnapping and torture of someone… who might not even be in the building?
If Jake wasn’t in the basement, then all I would accomplish was pissing off Kyle. Who would, almost certainly, take out his anger on my brother.
I needed to get closer. I needed to see in the basement. Or get in there myself without being seen. See with my own two eyes. Then call.
Decision made, I waited a few minutes, figuring by the size of that bag of Chinese food that Kyle would be sharing it with his friends. So when I was sure that they were all likely diving into their food, I moved toward the building.
There was a basement with small, barred windows.
But they were so covered in decades of dust on the inside and grime from the city streets that even when I flashed my phone flashlight in them, I couldn’t see anything inside.
“Damnit,” I grumbled, tucking my phone away and walking away so it didn’t look suspicious that I was hanging around.
Then I hid out, waiting for someone to be making their way up the steps. When I finally did, I rushed up behind him.
He startled, sensing me behind him.
“Oh, my God,” I said, giving him a frazzled smile. “It’s freezing out here, right?” I asked as he pulled the door open.
“Yeah. Heard we’re gonna get an inch or two,” he said.
“Really? I don’t know whether to be happy about that or not,” I said as we moved into the lobby in unison.