Chapter 11: The Unwanted Visitor

(Beth's POV) TW: drugged and kidnapped.

Today nears my three-month anniversary working for Anthony. I couldn’t be happier. Even Anthony, who’d been tense with work, seems to have relaxed a little bit. Even more so, we have been steadily growing closer in the past couple of months. Ever since the drinking incident, we’ve come to a mutual understanding that flirting and touching was rather normal.

Although Anthony still refuses to answer most questions that I have concerning his more private matters. Last week we were in his club in Detroit and after an argument with someone, he disappeared, Griffin ushered me out of the club to a car and I was driven back to the airport. Anthony later refused to answer any questions, saying that I was safer not knowing.

I suspect Anthony might have killed someone though. Because when he had arrived back on the plane, he had different clothes on and handed a wad of bloodied fabric to Griffin. That later turned out to be a very sharp knife.

Today we are on the northside of Chicago, near Lake Michigan. Standing in the back office with Anthony, he goes through the agenda of people that might be around tonight, all ‘business partners’ as Anthony refers to them.

His ‘partners’ sure do seem to be afraid of him most days. “Why is that, Anthony?” I ask, leaning over his desk to stare at him.

His eyes immediately drop to eye my breasts which are almost peeking out of the shirt I have on. “Why is what?” Anthony replies fully distracted now.

“Why are your ‘business partners’ all afraid of you? You never did answer me.” I once again ask him. Third time this week I’ve brought it up, to be honest.

“Money is power. And power makes weak men cower.” Anthony answers back after a long moment of thought. I can tell he’s trying to word things carefully. What is he hiding? I have a suspicion it’s all highly illegal. I didn’t care if it is illegal. I just hate being lied to.

“That doesn’t really matter now. We can talk about it later. Tonight, you don’t really have much to do. I have an important private meeting I must attend to. So, your task is to take down anyone’s name and number that wants to speak with me,” he says, standing and pulling me along with him.

Ah. He doesn’t want anyone near him tonight. That usually means I’m not going to see him until much later. “Okay, that’s easy enough. I won’t disturb you then.” I walk away from him with my clipboard and find a seat near the doors that lead back to the offices.

Sometime later, Anthony comes back leading a man to the back. “I’ll be in my office," he states. I nod, letting him know that I heard him, and go back to playing a game on my phone.

I enjoy nights like this. My only job is to keep people away from him. Easy and to the point. By midnight, I’d taken down nearly twenty names and phone numbers with varying degrees of messages for Anthony. Anthony has been gone for a few hours now that I think about it, and I haven’t seen him come out of the office.

Shrugging, I watch another small group of men approach me. The man is shorter than Anthony. He seems much closer to my height and I’m only 5’7. He is most of the way bald with just a slight come-over that doesn’t at all cover the shine on top.

He leans forward and stares at me with squinted eyes. “You. You’re Anthony’s girl aren’t ya?” His girl? “You know, the woman that takes down information for him. Possibly his girlfriend?”

What the f*ck is this guy trying to get at? “Sir, I’m his assistant. Can I help you with anything today?” I try to clear up any confusion. Are we dating? Am I missing signs?

“Yes, you can. Take me to him right now. I have business with him.” The man breathes in deeply and the buttons on his shirt pull tight and strain against the lack of fabric. Gross. There are a few questionable stains on his shoes...

The man pulls a cigar out and lights it, puffing smoke into my face, causing me to gag. “Sir, I’m sorry but Anthony is in a meeting right now and can’t be disturbed.”

The old man scoffs and shoves me aside, “I don’t care what he’s doing. You’ll go get him or I will.” The man grabs a handful of my hair and drags me along with him into the back room. “Now go before I take my anger out on your pretty face.”

Hatred and disgust boiled up inside of me. “I’m sorry you’re angry, but you will not treat me this way. I’ll go get Anthony after you learn to ask politely.” How dare the fat b*stard lay his hands on me like that. “And if you lay your hands on me again, I will cut them off you f*cking pig."

Wrong thing to say. The older man slaps me across the face and glares at me. “Listen here, missy. I don’t care what privileges Anthony has given you in his gang. I don’t care if you are his wife. You will do as your told or I will cut your heart out of your chest and give it to Anthony on a silver platter.”

Fear has replaced itself with anger. I march over to Anthony’s door and walk in with no care for rules anymore. Anthony has a guy pinned in the very chair I’d been sitting in earlier with a knife to his throat.

Anthony looks up at me and a kaleidoscope of emotions travels across his face. Concern, worry, anger, annoyance, and back to concern when he sees me holding my bruising cheek. “You have someone waiting for you and he’s already threatened to kill me so please just figure out what he wants.”

I turn around and march out of the room without waiting for a reply from Anthony. “He’ll see you now, d*ckhead.” I flip the old man off and go into the employee lounge to try to relax and cry my eyes out.

I can hear yelling and a commotion outside, but I ignore it. I did what was required. Everything made sense now. Anthony is a mob boss. He runs the mafia, and that old guy is just another slime ball creep that Anthony has to put up with. All of Anthony’s business partners made sense now.

He never lets me answer his phone. Random and extremely gross men call him boss. I've seen him wash blood off his hands, but he never tells me what happened. I'm paid a lot to do a simple job. I'm told to not ask questions. It makes sense.

I’m already involved in it; no wonder Anthony is paying me so much. F*ck I’m screwed. I could probably back out now but then I’d have a price on my head and don’t want to leave Anthony. Even though I knew he has been lying to me, I didn’t want to abandon him.

I barely know anything about him. I want to know him though. I want to care about him. I want to keep making this amazing money… Even if it is dirty money.

I don’t know how long I sit here lost in thought, but I found myself finally relaxing and almost slipping into a sleep-like state. The door creaks open, and I don’t bother to open my eyes. It’s probably just some of the dancers getting changed or taking a break or something.

No voices meet my ears. Barely any footsteps. A horrible-smelling cloth is shoved over my nose and mouth, and I let out a scream of protest. I try to swing at whoever is gagging me, but the room starts violently spinning and my heart is racing out of my chest. No. No, no. I don’t want this.

Anthony help… The last thing I remember thinking before I am ruthlessly pulled into a dark abysmal pit of nothingness.