Hold Me Close (Edited Version)

Chapter 26

I made sure Ryan was sleeping peacefully in the corner before I knocked softly on the door to the room we were locked in. "Hello?" I called, keeping my voice down so as not to not wake Ryan. "Can I talk to someone? Please?"

For a few seconds, no one responded. However, after a minute of silence, there was a clicking sound echoed and the door opened towards me. "What do you want?" a guy asked he looked irritated to have to talk to me.

I cleared my throat. "I want to speak to your boss," I said.

The man rolled his eyes. "What makes you think I care what you want? Get back in the room and sit down," he said, pushing me back so I wasn't so close to the door.

He was about to slam the door in my face when I saw Steven walking past. He was typing something into his phone. I took a second to think of anything more rational before I ducked past the guy in front of the door and made a beeline for Steven. "Hey! get back here!" The guy tried to grab my arm, but I avoided it and ran to my mom's ex-boyfriend.

"I need to talk to you," I pleaded.

He sent me a disgusted look, but to my relief, he turned to the other guy and waved him away with one hand. "I'll bring him back personally if he makes any trouble," he said. The man grumbled something about getting blamed if anything went wrong, but did as he was told. As I followed Steven away from the room, I glanced back at the guy and sent him a triumphant look to which he scowled and turned away.

Steven lead me down a hall to a nicer room with bookshelves and a computer in the corner. It looked to be something of a manager's office. As soon as the door was closed behind us, he turned to me with his arms crossed. "I don't have time to waste on trash, so spit it out," he said.

I nodded quickly. "I want to talk to you about my mom," I said. His expression didn't change and I went on. "What is she paying you to do this?"

"It doesn't have anything to do with you, so I don't see why I have to answer these questions," Steven said, walking past me to sit down at the computer.

I frowned. "Why would you help her? She never did anything for you. She's probably going to cut you off at the end anyways. You probably already know that too," I said, hoping to get a reaction. I got one as I saw his hand clench over the mouse. "If you let us go, I'm sure I can get my dad to pay what you should be getting. Maybe more even."

Steven stood up and turned to me, an unreadable expression on his face. "You don't get it do you? I'm not like the other perverts that just wanted your mother for her body or her money. I did love your mother," he said. I felt slightly revolted by the fact that anyone could love that monster, but then again my dad did marry her, so it couldn't be that unbelievable. 

Walking towards me, Steven glowered at me. "I'm not doing this to help her though, oh no. Of course not. I'm doing this to ruin her. The way she did me." He said it very coldly as he backed me into a wall, using his bulky body to block most of my exits. "As soon as she goes through with her plan, I will go through with mine, sending in all the video recordings of our conversations," he said. "It will all go right to the police."

I frowned in confusion. "So, wait. You're helping us?" I asked.

Steven chuckled, shaking his head. "Not exactly. I'm helping myself. I must remain anonymous if I am to succeed with this, so I can't let you go back to your father, who will probably be dead by that time anyways," he said. The twisted look of pride on his face made me feel sick as he spoke. "You'll be disposed of where you can't tell a soul about this. Along with your boyfriend."

My heart was beating over time as I tried to speak in coherent sentences. "But, why? We never did anything!" I said, hoping to change his mind. "We just wanted to protect my dad."

With a shrug, Steven pulled away. "There's no particular reason. I just never really liked you. You were annoying from the start and you haven't changed a bit," he said. He started walking back to the computer. "As for your boyfriend, it's only logical to make sure he's quiet too, and judging by his reaction to my questions earlier, he would rather die than leave you. Cute, but not very smart."

I was boiling over with rage. How dare he? We never did a thing to him. He was going to kill us just like that because he didn't like me? I couldn't control my anger and the next thing I knew I had storm up to Steven and grabbed his shirt. "What is wrong with you?! How can you be such a monster?!" I shouted. I pulled him right out of his chair, slamming him into the wall. "I never did a thing to you! Ryan never even knew you before this!" I yelled.

I would've punched him, I should have, but some guys had heard my shouts and had burst into the room. They yanked me away from Steven, dropping me to my knees so I had less leverage to fight back. "Let go of me!" I snapped at them. When I knew I couldn't get away, I narrowed my eyes at Steven. "This will come back to you. Just because you got rid of the witnesses doesn't mean your home free," I spat.

Steven was rubbing his neck with a pissed look on his face. "Get him out of here," he said.

I shouted at the top of my lungs for anyone to hear me and fought to get away, but in the end, I was dragged back to the room where Ryan was and thrown inside like a lump of potatoes. I hit my knees and hands on the ground hard as I fell, and I winced from the pain, sitting back on my heels to look at my scraped palms. I barely realized Ryan was rushing towards me until he grabbed my shoulders and started looking me over urgently. "Where in the world did you go?" he asked. "I was worried something had happened to you."

I was so mad at that moment in time that I didn't even want to talk to Ryan. "Nowhere worth talking about," I said.

He frowned as I pushed his hands away from. "Jacob? Is everything okay?" he asked.

I sat back against the wall, brushing dirt from my already-ruined clothes in an attempt to distract myself. "Not hardly..." I said under my breath.

Ryan's frown deepened. "What happened?" he asked. I didn't get a chance to reply be for his eyes widened and he asked, "They didn't do anything to you, did they? Like... what they did to me?"

I sighed, knowing that putting distance between us would only serve to worry Ryan more. "No. Nothing like that..." I said. I rested my head back. "They're planning to kill us."

Ryan's eyes showed slight denial, like he couldn't quite believe that. "If that was the case then why keep us this long?" he asked.

I shrugged, laughing bitterly despite myself. "For their goddamn amusement probably. Nothing else we're good for."

There was silence and Ryan touched my hand. "Jacob, what happened?"

I felt tears prick my eyes and looked away, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. "Nothing..." I sighed. "Absolutely nothing..."

*******

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