“It’s my high school fucking graduation!” I shrieked, looking over to the SUV. Was this them?
Dad blanched. I’ve never before sworn at him, never raised my voice at him. I’ve always treated him like he’s fragile. The front passenger and rear passen
ger doors of the black SUV opened and two big burly guys in suits looked out.
“Problem, O’Connor?” the burly guy from the back seat asked in a gravelly voice.
“Naw, no. Not at all. Not at all. We just need one minute.” Dad was like a stuttering fool,”Tia, please.” His eyes plead with me.
“Dad…” I folded my arms. I could not believe he came to my grad to set me up to be his marker. That it was the only reason he came!
Burly guy from the front seat lifted his shades off, “We need to go, O’Connor.”
I took a step back as the two of them got out, leaving their doors opened, revealing a big scary looking black dude in the back and a younger blond pissed off-kind looking but hot guy in a suit in the driver’s seat.
Dad leaned forward and took my hands in his and his face had a look of desperation that made my scalp prickle, “They’ll kill me,” he whispered.
What the ---? What would make him use me as a marker? Did he think they wouldn’t kill me? Did he think they wouldn’t hurt me? How much money did he owe these guys and how would he even pay them off?
He’d let me down countless times. In the early days of foster care he’d promise that his life was almost together enough to gain custody back. He’d promise to take me places, buy me things --- I never needed or wanted things but he always tossed promises around and he never ever kept them. Why would I believe him now? Why would he put me at risk, make this even an option?
“Just hang tight. They’ll keep you comfortably in a luxury hotel suite or something like that. You’ll be fine. Look at it like a little getaway.”
I tilted my head at my dad, dumbfounded. This couldn’t be real. Back at Rose and Cal’s, they were waiting for me. There was a big beautiful cake congratulating me, Mia, and Bethany for all graduating. Ruby, her brother Connor, the other girls, and everyone’s friends and relatives were all there. There was a table filled with everyone’s favorite foods. There were graduation gifts. Tonight there was a dance and all my friends would be there. He was ruining this, a pivotal day that I’d worked so hard for. I was a nearly straight A student. I was on the motherfucking honor roll. I’d beaten the odds despite my screwed up childhood with a loser father and a mom lost to suicide. I didn’t deserve this. Something like a combination of pain and rage rose in me.
“Athena, sweet pea; trust me.” His eyes implored me.
“How much do you owe? Do you even have a way to pay them back?”
He nodded, “It’s not out of my reach, and I have a plan.”
“It must be pretty bad for them to want human collateral, Dad! What’ll they do to me if you don’t pay?”
He put his hands on my shoulders and said, “I just need you to trust me.”
I held my breath. Burly man #1 and burly man #2 seemed like they were staring me down from behind their Men-In-Black sunglasses.
I was about to open my mouth when the hot blond guy came out of the vehicle and rounded it. He strode to the passenger side where this standoff was happening and took my elbow and ushered me into the SUV, his mouth in a tight line. Burly guy #2 opened the back door. It happened so fast that I was in the vehicle before I had a chance to protest.
“In!” Blond hot guy was dressed like Mr. GQ and he was angry. He blurted at the goons, “For fuck sakes,” then he gave Dad a chilling death stare. Before I had a chance to react, angry hot guy got back in the driver’s seat. Then we were pulling away from my Dad who was standing there with his hands in his pockets watching the SUV pull away. I was sandwiched in between backseat burly guy #2 and the big scary-looking angry black dude. I glanced over my shoulder out the window to see my Dad take a sip of his coffee and dial a number on his phone. Backseat burly guy passed the big black burly guy on the other side of me my seatbelt and he fastened it for me.
I frowned. Dad had looked so flippant, so nonchalant as he dialed that number and sipped his coffee. What on earth? I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t even think straight. Half an hour ago I was graduating from high school. Now I was some kind of marker for my father’s gambling debt. Now I was in an SUV with a bunch of scary looking men heading, where? I was trembling.
No one was saying anything. No one was even looking at me. The blond guy was driving and radiating this pissed off vibe and there was some kind of sports event on the radio. I gulped hard and just stared straight ahead, saying a silent prayer.
Tommy
It’d been a couple of weeks since Pop had told me about Tia O’Connor. A long couple of weeks. I’d given the matter thought, like I’d promised him. In fact, I thought about it more than I’d care to admit because the more thought I gave it, the more it made sense. Getting married meant getting handed the keys to all of it. It meant I wouldn’t be second guessed, it meant I’d be in total control.
The idea of owning a woman did things to me. I couldn’t deny the fact that I’d been thinking about the fact that in addition to being in control of the business, I’d be in control of her. Owning this girl, having her available for my every whim, it was stirring something in me. And did I have whims.
Something about the idea of a girl who was mine, a girl who probably hadn’t already had dozens of sexual partners… it appealed to me on a deep level, a level so deep I was having trouble shaking what felt like cravings; the things I was imagining doing to her. Naw, I wasn’t deprived but I certainly was depraved.
I’d dreamt about her almost every night since seeing her picture. Filthy dreams. I woke up every night a few times as a rule, anyway, but since seeing her picture I’d woken up sweaty, with a hard-on, after delicious dreams of her across my knee getting spanked and fingered, dreams of her tied to my headboard, dreams of her on her knees in front of me, taking my cock into that gorgeous mouth with her hands tied behind her back with one of my belts.
It got even worse after I managed to gather intel about her because in addition to the way she looked, she had other qualities I liked. I decided to check out the goods myself, in person, because I put one of my men on detail to watch her and report her activities and after a week he came to me with a report and some photos and I was ready to get this going.
I’d probably never before defined what my ‘type’ was but I now knew. She had a smokin’ hot body and though she was younger than I’d normally go for she didn’t look 19. I knew where she lived, where she worked, where she spent her time, who her friends were, and I knew what sort of person she was. My man had taken candid photos of her at school, at play, in the pool in her foster parents’ back yard. In a string bikini. He’d been watching her, how she interacted with others. She wasn’t hard to read at all. She was quite the open book.