Saving Each Other (BWWM Romance) (6 page)

I paid quickly and got out of there, feeling her eyes on me even as I got in my car to leave. I thought about Tamara the whole way home, and I had no idea why. I kept thinking about her before I took her, how she looked on television, and how much I wanted to see her in person.

I was never angry at her directly, I mean I had no way of knowing whether or not she was aware of the things that her company did. Once she got here I knew she didn’t. On television, she always looked so breathtaking, so powerful. The small time I saw her as herself was enough to prove my hopes right. Thinking about it made me stop at the hardware store before the house.

I looked through the aisles for one of those old lantern type things. I was glad I found one made of plastic because I assumed she would try something with the ones made of glass. I had to give her at least that much. The cashier didn’t bother me as much as the other one so I was out of there and back home quickly.

“Did you do what I told you?” I asked Justin as I walked past him, still sitting in the same spot.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did it, boss man,” he said shortly.

“Good.” I glared at him as I walked by, sometimes he could be so annoying. From day one, he insisted on staying with me, being my ‘partner.’ He was the only activist I’ve ever met that’s actually done time for violence. The whole idea of kidnapping came from him, I planned to go about it what now seems like a much harder way. I was going to somehow get in on their company, become an assistant or something to one of the board members and then-- I never thought past that. So, kidnapping their best lobbyist, the one who really made their propositions pass, was the best way to stop their evil.

I went into the kitchen to make Tamara’s dinner, the chunky soup, and bring her the lamp.

“Good evening, Tamara,” I said when I entered the room. I could barely see her where she was sitting in the corner, all balled up like that.

“Hi,” she said shortly.

“I brought you dinner.” I approached her slowly.

“Thank you, it looks good.” I set the tray in front of her and almost lost my footing. I shined the lamplight on the ground to see that she had been chained up. She tried to move to eat but couldn’t.

“What-- did Justin do this?” I asked with concern. I could see her face better in the dim light, her face had sunken in and her hair was a matted mess.

“Y-yes.” Her voice had lost the fervor it had the first day she was there. I was breaking her.

“I’ll be right back.” I left the room quickly, heading to get the key and confront Justin.

“What the fuck did you do?” I shouted at him. He was still sitting in that same spot in the living room.

“What are you talking about?” He stood up to face me.

“I’m talking about you chaining Tamara up like some kind of animal,” I said matter of factly.

“Oh, right. I just wanted to put her in her place, scare her a little.” He laughed like it was a joke.

“Don’t you get it? You can’t scare Tamara.” I at least learned that much. I walked away from him and went to the medicine cabinet to get something for her ankle, I could imagine how much it would hurt after I took the cuff off. Justin put it on there so tightly.

“Where’s the key?” I growled at Justin. He stood up and took the key from his pocket, handing it to me. I shot him a warning look, not having any more words to say.

“Done already?” When I entered the room again, she had already finished eating. She didn’t say anything to me, she just watched me as I came closer to her, crouching down to her level. I released her from the cuff, revealing a very cut and bruised ankle. She rubbed them immediately but I moved her hands away so I could rub the cortisone in.

“I’m so sorry about this,” I said honestly.

“You’re sorry about this? You should be sorry for a lot more,” she said firmly.

“What makes you think I’m not?” I replied simply.

“How could you be? That doesn’t make any sense.” I continued to rub in the cortisone. Her jumpiness told me it was burning, which meant it was working.

“I am. This isn’t something I wanted to do, but it was necessary. Like the bombing of Hiroshima, it was a bad thing but for the good of the American people.”

“And what am I necessary to?” she pressed. I admired her tenacity. I didn’t answer her though, I just applied another round of cortisone until it was all rubbed in.

“There, it should feel better by morning.” I grabbed her tray and stood up. “You can keep the light,” I added. I turned on my heel to leave but was stopped by her.

“Wait. Can you tell me if you’re getting closer to whatever it is you want?” her soft voice asked me.

“Tamara, it’s best if you don’t ask questions like that,” I replied and left her alone.

I spent the rest of my evening in my room, flipping aimlessly through the channels until I dozed off into an uneasy sleep.

I woke up in a worse mood than I was in the day before and I couldn’t place why. I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth before I went to make breakfast for Tamara. I had forgotten I left the cereal in the bowl while I was looking for orange juice, but I didn’t seem to care when I brought her soggy cereal and warm orange juice.

“Eat up.” I barged into the room, forcing her to jump awake. I set the tray in front of her and sat to wait for her to finish.

“This is different.” I knew she would comment.

“The economy is tight,” I used as an excuse. She practically drank the sorry cereal and washed it down with orange juice. Her face scrunched up when she did so, making me feel bad about it.

“Are you done?”

“Yes,” she answered shortly. I grabbed the tray and left, as if I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

I didn’t see Justin until late afternoon. Until then I had been reading all day.

“Are we ready for phase two yet?” he asked me as we ate dinner.

“Tomorrow,” I answered. “Shit, I forgot to bring Tamara her dinner.” I dropped my face in my hand and rubbed my eyes awake, I didn’t know why I was always so tired lately.

“She’s asleep, I already tried to bring it to her.” I was honestly surprised, he never shows initiative to be humane unless I make him.

“What do you have against her anyways?” I asked him as I put the dishes away.

“She is the enemy,” he shrugged. I scoffed.

“She isn’t the enemy, Rory Corp is.”

“And she is Rory Corp, hence the enemy.”

“Look, it has become very obvious that she doesn’t have any idea what they are doing. I have a feeling that if she did, she wouldn’t work for them anymore.” I voiced my opinion, which elicited a laugh from him.

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“Okay, well we have to start writing up the speech then.”

“Yeah,” I agreed and we went into the den.

“I hope you’re prepared for what comes next,” Justin said when we were halfway into it.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“I mean that once Rory Corp sees this, they are going to do everything they can to rescue her and they will find her. Once they do we’re dead, they don’t play by the books you know --that’s why Tamara is in this situation.”

“I have a plan, don’t worry.”

“What is said plan?”

“You’ll find out.” I wrapped things up with him and went back to my room, falling into another uneasy sleep.

I didn’t have an appetite for breakfast the next morning so I just made myself a cup of coffee.

“Morning.” Justin appeared in the kitchen, dressed in dark jeans, a black shirt, and a leather jacket.

“Hey, will you uh…get Tamara ready?” I asked him. He looked at me questionably.

“Sure.”

“Good, meet me in the den when you’re done.” I left and went into the den, looking everything over.

I didn’t know why I was trying to avoid her as much as possible but I was. Perhaps it was because of the dream I had the night before. I contemplated going to sleep just so I could continue it. It took me by surprise but it made sense, it didn’t make sense for me to have feelings for her, but...

“She’s ready to go, boss.” Justin interrupted my thoughts.

“Sit there.” I didn’t look at her when she entered, I couldn’t. I always had a problem with blushing-- it was my weakness. Just seeing her out of the corner of my eye brought the details of the dream back to me --the shower, the heat, the desire…I had to look away from her but our eyes had already met.

“What is going on?” she asked.

“Shut up, bitch.” I flinched when Justin yelled at her.  I poured her a glass of water and got up to hand it to her.

“Drink this.” I instructed. “You are going to be making a video,” I told her as she downed the tall glass of water.

“For who?” she asked as she handed me the empty glass.

“Rory Corporation.” I sat back behind the computer and cued the screen.“You are going to read the screen exactly as the words appear, if you deviate from them...“

“I’ll shoot you,” Justin interrupted me. He stood behind her with a gun pointed at her head. I didn’t want to appear divided in front of her so I didn’t say anything, but Justin knew we never agreed to that.

She jumped and looked at me, fear was evident in her eyes. I didn’t respond though, I just turned the webcam on and rolled the words.

“Read!” Justin yelled at her. She glared out of the corner of her eye but turned her attention back to the screen and began reading.

“My name is Tamara Taylor,” she started with a shaky voice, “and I have been taken. I don’t know who my captors are--“ she stopped, I sent her a stern look, prompting her to keep going. “But they have a message for you. We know what you are doing, we know about your gun and cocaine transport and we know about the money laundering. We don’t want any money, all we ask is that you cease all illegal and immoral activities.” She finished and I stopped the recording, saving it and sending it to their CEO. I made sure Justin wasn’t visible in it then I hacked the company’s main frame so that it would be sent to every employee.

“Come on, time to go back in your hole.” Justin yanked her up from the chair and escorted her back to her room.

I stayed in that room for a while, lost in my own thoughts until I had to bring Tamara something to eat. I rummaged through the kitchen and ended up settling for another bowl of soup. I was afraid to be alone with her, I didn’t know what that dream was supposed to mean but it made me think about things I didn’t want to.

“Dinner,” I said as I entered and shut the door behind me. She was sitting against the wall in the far corner where I set her tray in front of her.

“So that’s why you took me?” she managed to ask me after a while.

“Yes,” I said without looking at her. I sat down next to her, but not too close.

“How long has this been going on?” she asked me in between mouthfuls of soup.

“Since Chris Simms became the CEO.” She nodded slowly and pushed away the tray after downing her glass of water.

“I had no idea.” Her voice sounded different, not like before but sad and disappointed.

“I know you didn’t,” I answered her. She turned around to face me and I couldn’t avoid her gaze any longer. When our eyes met it gave me a weird feeling, my heart skipped a beat even.

“How did you know about it?” she asked me.

“It’s my job to know what’s going wrong in the world.”

“So you’re an activist then?” I nodded.

“Gun control and drugs are red flags for me.” I didn’t know why I was opening up to her so much but I was, somehow it was easy.

“Any particular reason why?” I shrugged, not wanting to bring up memories. “Was it your family?” she guessed. I looked at her sadly, answering her with my eyes.

“I’m so sorry…if I had any idea what they were doing I would never have represented them, there is no way I would have.”

“I know.” I smiled sadly.

“I’m not afraid of you anymore,” she said quietly, looking at me through her thick eyelashes.

“I never wanted you to be afraid of me, I just wanted you to obey me.”  She giggled.