Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

Cory

Somehow, I'd ended up in hell. I came to slowly, trying to lift a hand to my throbbing head, but my wrists were bound together with rope in front of me. Blinking sluggishly, I fought to open my eyes. Muttered words hit my ears as what happened slowly began trickling into my mind.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You lost your shit. Now what are you going to do?"

Peering through the slits of my eyelids, I saw Huey pacing back and forth, clutching his hair and muttering to himself. I wanted to get my bearings before he knew I was awake, but a cough choked out of my throat unexpectedly. He spun in my direction, his hands falling from his hair, and he glared at me.

"This is your fault."

"Huey." I coughed again, then cleared my throat. "What are you doing? Where are we?" My voice sounded so rough to my own ears, hoarse and scratchy, like I was recovering from strep throat.

"You did this!" He screamed. "It's you and people like you that screw up everything. You have this big, beautiful hotel, and you couldn't even let me have this."

I had no idea what he was talking about, and my head hurt so badly that I didn't have it in me to worry about him. But no, I had to care because he'd me tied up. "I'm sorry, Huey. Whatever I did, I'm so sorry. Can you…can you untie me?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun, aiming it at my chest. Applesauce. That's right. He'd hit me with his gun. This wasn't good. "No. You're going to stay right here until I figure out how to get out of this mess. Shit. This is all your fault."

"What did I do? I'm sorry, but I don't understand," I admitted. I hadn't felt this confused since the police officers arrived at my house to tell me that Mac had died in a car accident.

He waved the gun in my direction again. "Of course you don't. Why would you? You've had everything handed to you on a silver platter. You don't care about people like me. My grandfather always said that it was people like you who ruined everything for the rest of us. But I didn't listen to him, Cory. No, I believed you. Big cheese, my ass." He spit on the ground.

My head throbbed, and his babbling wasn't helping. He made no sense. Moving my head just a little, I tried to take in my surroundings. We were in some kind of metal-like box with a hole the size of a door opening into beyond. He had a lantern on top of a table with fast food bags, paper cups, and wrappers. On the floor behind him, it looked like a sleeping bag and pillows in a crumpled heap.

"Huey, have you been sleeping here?"

"Sometimes. When my girl throws me out. Or when she's nagging too much. She always wants something. That baby's always screaming. You always want something. Why won't anybody ever leave me alone?"

He clutched his head between both hands, the gun pointing up at the ceiling. I wondered if I could take him down if I rammed my shoulder into his stomach. He was a lanky man, bordering on scrawny. He'd never made use of Vigor or any of the other facilities here, so I knew if I was fully functioning, he'd go down easily. Especially since it hadn't occurred to him that my legs weren't bound.

The problem was, I wasn't at full capacity. My head screamed with pain, and without the use of my hands, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the gun away from him before he used it. How the hell had what should've been a simple employer-employee confrontation led to this?

"You haven't told me where we are," I said gently, hoping to calm him down.

He scoffed. "You know exactly where we are."

"Huey, I swear. How did we get here?"

He waved the gun haphazardly. "I rolled you down in your chair."

Down where is what I wanted to know. Why wasn't he answering the question? "So you knocked me out and brought me…" I trailed off, praying that he'd pick it up and finish.

"Yeah, so I rolled you in your chair down through the tunnels to under the hotel."

What was he talking about? Tunnels? Under the hotel? This place didn't have a basement. How could we still be in The Gin Mill? "So just to be clear, we left through my office?"

"Yes," he spat out, exasperated. "How else would we have gotten down here without being noticed? It wasn't like I could waltz you through the lobby." He scoffed. "Between that big security guard and your shadow, boss's little pet, Harlow, they'd have called the cops or something. Now shut up while I think."

That was fine. He could take all the time he wanted. I needed to figure out how to either calm him down or regain my strength enough to get past him. Think. Think. Think.

How was it that my hotel had tunnels, and I didn't know? Where did they run? How did you get into them? How the hell did Huey know? After a few moments of his muttering to himself, I took a chance and asked, "So are you the one who's been going into the rooms?"

He faced me, puffing up his chest with pride. "That's right. It's been me this whole time, and you never knew."

He waved the gun up and down between my head and chest. Now that I wasn't so scared, fear started to creep in. I didn't see how he'd have a choice but to kill me. Well, unless I convinced him that he could go and I wouldn't report him for this. With the crazed gleam in his eyes, I didn't think he'd believe me.

"Why didn't you ever take anything? Why were you just rifling through their clothes?"

He snorted. "At first, I wanted to see if I could get away with sneaking in and out. When I decided I might be able to make a little money, I used my brain." With the hand holding the gun, he tapped the side of his head. He was stressing me out with his lack of thoughtfulness while handling the damn weapon.

"I decided to wait. All these rich shits put their good stuff in the room safe. I hadn't figured out how to get into those yet. So, I waited. I knew one day some rich asshole would either leave out enough money to make it worth taking or something valuable enough to sell that I could get out of here."

Thinking quickly, I tried using his endgame in my favor. "What if I help you, Huey? What if I give you some money, and you can run?"

He thrust the gun back in my direction. "Like I can believe you. The minute I let you out of here, you'll turn me in. No, I'll think of something. I don't need your lies."

The more aware I became of my situation, the more my head throbbed and my heart pounded. Sweat prickled my forehead and underarms like I'd jogged the length of the hotel. Since I didn't even know there were tunnels, I'd never told Dante or Harlow about them. Were they looking for me already? How long had I been unconscious? How would they ever find me? All these months of break-ins, and we'd never figured it out, so the chances of them finding me were slim to none.

"Huey, please," I begged.

"No!" He screamed. "You don't get to plead with me. It's the wealthy who put me in this situation in the first place. Before I was even born. My grandfather said."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw motion. It was like one of those phantom impressions of a person that wasn't there. Like when you wondered if you'd seen a ghost. Applesauce . Was I going to pass out? I needed Huey to calm down. I didn't want to die down here.

I didn't want to die at all. If I was gone, who would look for my nephew? Who would take care of my employees? My hotel? Then there was Bosley. He wouldn't be here forever, but if I got out of this, I'd ask him to stay with me until he left Takoda. I'd ask him to be my sounding board, my Daddy, for as long as he stayed. I choked again, but it was on a sob.

"Huey, I'm sorry for whatever troubles you've had. I don't know what your grandfather told you, what happened to him or you in your life, but I promise, all I've ever wanted to do is help you. I care about you. I won't call the police or anything if you'll just let me go."

He glared daggers at me. "Sure, you will. Will you let me keep my job, too?"

Was this guy fucking kidding me? He was completely unhinged. Like I'd leave him amid my other employees and guests. What did he think? That I'd let Harlow be his bitch and pay him anyway? Screw that. On the other hand, to spare my life, I'd act my ass off. "We can work something out," I said in the most reassuring voice I could muster.

"Bull shit." He moved closer, aiming the gun straight at my chest, the sound of him clicking the hammer as he cocked the gun echoing through the room. "You're a liar. Everyone with money lies. I'm going to do the world a favor, and?—"

He cut off when a deadly roar filled the room. It sounded inhuman. Huey spun, and his arm jerked up, firing to my side, as his chin jerked backwards, and a line of red appeared across his neck, and Bosley's hand came up with the sharpest knife I'd ever seen in his hand.

"You fucker! How dare you hurt my boy!"

Face so red it was almost purple with rage, Bosley threw Huey's body to the ground and kicked him in the side, in the arm, then the side of his head before stomping his face repeatedly. He was pure fury. "He's mine! How dare you touch what's mine! I'll kill you for taking him from me!"

Dante slid in behind Bosley, his gaze swept over me, cold and appraising, then he raised his arms like he was contemplating grabbing Bosley in a bear hug. "Bosley. Bosley, man, calm down. Bosley, you're scaring Cory."

Was I scared? I didn't think so. I was too shocked, stunned that Bosley was calling me his boy. Stunned at the magnitude of his rage. Stunned it was over. And it was over, wasn't it? Bosley was freaking out and going ballistic on a dead man. Blood coated the floor and splattered with every kick and stomp of Bosley's large foot.

"Romeo!" Dante barked sharply.

Bosley barely paused, but I saw it. Dante had gotten through to him by screaming that name. Not his name. At least not the name I knew him by.

"Romeo?" I asked softly.

And that was enough. He heard me. He abandoned Huey and flew to my side, dropping on his knees in front of me, between my legs. He raised his hands to cup my face, then looked at the knife he'd wielded like a badass like he'd never seen it before, and let it clatter to the floor next to us. His fingers skimmed carefully over the wound on my head.

"Cory, my sweet quirky boy. I'm so sorry it took me so long to find you. I'm so sorry he hurt you." Then he leaned his face into my chest, and his body shook against mine.