~ A Tale of Two Cities - J. Cole ~
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"Only 28 thousand," I tell Grey as I finish counting. He curses under his breath and reaches into his pocket pulling out his wallet. He tosses it onto my lap and I take all the money out of it and count it. "30k now."
He sighs as he parks. I look around, realizing we are not in Ridgeview anymore. The town we are in looks run down and really old. The warehouse in front of us looks broken down and as if no one uses it anymore.
"Stay here for a second," Grey says before leaving. I watch through the rearview mirror as he walks to the back of his car. I can't see anything he does, except adjusting his pants and pulling out a bag. He walks back around to my side of the car and opens the door.
He tosses a duffle bag on my lap. "Put the cash in there," he says before popping off the lid of a bottle of alcohol. He opens his throat, chugging down the hard liquor.
"Grey, don't drink. You're driving," I remind him as I shove the money in the bag.
He pulls the bottle away from his lips and takes a deep breath. "Yeah well it'd be a lot easier to drive if I wasn't in pain. Let's go, I can't leave you out here alone," he says. I stand up and look around the town.
"Grey where are we?" I ask.
"Jacksonville. Don't freak ou-"
"Fucking Jacksonville!" I exclaim. Grey clamps his hand over my mouth. Jacksonville is a town with the highest criminal rates in the city and top ten for the country. What the hell are we doing here? It's basically a town filled with murderers, rapists, gangs and drug lords.
"Harley, you're fine. Do what I say, when I say, don't go wandering off, stay in my view. Got it?" I nod since my mouth is occupied by his hand.
He let's go and snatches the bag from my hold. "Let's go!" I follow him, right by his side as we walk into the warehouse. He leads us down a couple of halls before knocking on a door. He opens it, defeating the purpose of knocking.
I notice a man sitting down in a chair, a cup of whiskey in his hand and the bottle sitting on the table. He has scars on his face, and is wearing a suit with possibly blood on it. "Leave," he orders the two other men in the room. They walk out and Grey takes my hand leading me to the couch in the room.
I sit down right next to him. "West, you have it or not?" His voice is deep and firm. Not in a good way like Grey's, in a scary, frightening way.
And let me tell you I'm so scared I could piss my pants. The room is dark, a dim lamp in the corner, that barely works, illuminating the room. "More than half, Larson is bringing the other half." Grey's voice is kept calm and firm as if he's done this a hundred times before.
He shakes his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not good enough."
The door opens and four men enter. They all stand behind who I believe is Cujo. "Greyson, Greyson, Greyson. You should know better than to have my money ready. Two minutes for Larson," he continues speaking. He reaches into his pocket and tosses something heavy on the ground. He turns back around and begins talking with the men who entered the room.
I look down and gulp when I see it's a gun.
I look at Grey with sheer panic in my eyes. "You're fine. They aren't going to hurt you," he whispers.
"Grey that's a fucking gun," I whisper back.
"Just chill out, you're fine," he reassures. But nothing his words are reassuring. They're cold and empty as if he doesn't know the truth either. Whether they will or will not hurt me.
"Time's up. Stand up West." Greyson stands up and walks over to 'Cujo'. Cujo stands up towering over Grey. He looks like he overpowers him in everything. Height, weight, strength.
I shriek, covering my face with my hands as he punches Grey across the face. I don't know how long I kept my eyes closed or how many times I shrieked hearing the sound of bones breaking or whatever I heard but when it stopped I finally opened my eyes again.
Grey is sitting up on the floor. He doesn't look as bad as I imagined. He looks at me before shaking his head and gripping his stomach even more. He's in pain, I can tell but he's trying to mask it.
I hear the sound of a gun click and look up at Cujo holding a gun to my head. Tears fall from my eyes and I look at Grey. "You're fine," he mouths to me. How am I fine when I'm seconds away from death.
"Name," Cujo asks.
Grey nods slowly. "Harley Prince," I answer.
"Nevermind, wrong girl," he huffs. He slowly retracts his gun but I still can't breathe. My vision is blurry with tears and my chest hurts.
Suddenly the door flies open. "Cujo the rest of your money is here," I hear Emmet's voice. He tosses a duffle bag down by his feet.
"With extra. So drop the scary act," Jet mutters as he walks over to Grey with Zion by his side.
"Now hand us our shit. We'll get the money to you on time next time," Zion says. They both help Grey up onto his feet while Emmett takes a seat down next to me.
"And an upgrade. This one shit," Grey says. He reaches into the back of his pants and tosses Cujo a gun.
Why the fuck don't I listen to myself.
I immediately look at Emmett. "Don't worry. It seems scary but really it's chill. Grey's fine," he assures. Cujo takes his gun and replaces it with a different one.
"You boys can leave now," he says.
"Cujo, you got Death?" Jet asks.
Cujo shakes his head. "Get my orders done in a week and I'll have Death ready for you by then. Packages will be in tomorrow," he says.
"Alright, thanks Cujo. Later," Grey says before leaving. He just beat the shit out of him and now he's being nice. The rest of the boys greet him a goodbye before we all walk out together. I didn't bother saying a word to Cujo.
We walk back out to the car. My arms stay crossed against my chest as I try to focus on my breathing. Grey and the guys are laughing like it's an everyday thing.
"Let me see," Jet says. Grey rolls his eyes lifting his shirt revealing a dark purple and blue bruise on his abdomen. It looks bad and is a little bigger than the side of a fist. "Damn, Cujo needs to step up his game. He barely hurt you," Zion jokes, making everyone else laugh.
"Whatever," Grey shoves Jet with his elbow.
"Yeah I got worse than a bloody lip and black eye. You got lucky," Jet says.
"That's cause you talk back," Emmet rolls his eyes.
I stand still, confused. Emmett gets into the driver's seat of Grey's car while Grey takes up the front. "Harley get in," Emmett says cheerfully. I look up and watch as Zion and Jet get into their own car.
If I wasn't in Jacksonville right now, I'd walk my ass home.
I get in the backseat of the car behind the driver's seat. I stare down at my feet. I notice a splash of red or brown on my shoes. Grey's blood. "Angel, you alright?" I don't bother replying. "Angel, angel, angel. Harley!"
"Grey where are we going?" Emmett asks.
"Home. Drive me home," I tell Emmett.
"No. Harley," Grey repeats as he looks back at me.
His right eye is bruised pretty bad but his lip stopped bleeding. "I want to go home. Emmett bring me home please," I beg. Grey sighs leaning back in the seat.
"Bring her home. She'll hangout with us another day after she cools off," Grey mutters.
I shake my head. "Not ever again. I mean it when I say I'm done this time." I said it a thousand times before but I swear I'm done this time. He has a gun, some sketchy person he had to give 50k dollars. Grey is worse than I thought.
As soon as Emmett parks in my driveway I open the door. "Thanks Emmett," I mumble before leaving. I walk to the door.
"Wait."
I look back to see Grey carrying me my backpack. "Thanks," I mutter as I take it from him. "You can leave now," I remind him as I search my bag for my house key.
"Angel look-"
"Stop Greyson please. Just leave me alone, please," I beg. I need him to stay away from me. Because every fucking time I come back to him, to hangout, to get close.
He grumbles under his breath. "I can explain." I find my key and unlock my door.
"I really don't want to know, I just want to be left alone."
"Why're you being such a bitch about this Harley? You weren't the one who got their ass beat!" Grey exclaims.
I step in the house but turn back to face Grey one last time. "He held a fucking gun to my head Greyson. I thought he was going to kill me. Maybe this is a usual thing for you but it sure as hell wasn't for me. I never want to be put in a position like that ever again. I couldn't even watch Cujo hurt you." My voice cracks on the last few words.
He sighs giving up. "You're right. Alright, you're right. I didn't want to bring you there, Harley but trust me. It would've been way worse for me if I dropped you at home and then went there," he says.
"Well maybe it should've been worse for you," I mutter before slamming the door shut. I walk upstairs and head straight to my room. Tears spill out from my eyes and I crawl into my bed.
I still can't shake off the amount of fear and silent panic attack I was having at that place. I should've just cancelled and hung out with Ollie. Ollie doesn't do that kind of shit. He doesn't have a gun or an insane amount of money in cash or go to Jacksonville. Most of all he would never put me in a position like that.
I blind search for my phone then call his number. He answers immediately. "Hey Harley! What time do you finish work? I want to pick you up for ice cream," he says. A smile forms on my teary face.
"Um, actually I ended early." I sniffle as I sit up. "I just got back home. They didn't need me that long. Want to come over, I don't have ice cream in my freezer but I have cookies in my cabinet," I tell him. I don't feel like going out tonight. I just want to feel safe and Ollie makes me feel safe. "You can sleep over."
"Sure! But I'm still bringing us ice cream. What flavour do you want?"
"Surprise me."
"On it. I'll be there in 20 minutes, I'll let you pick the movie," he says.
"Deal!"
❤︎❤︎❤︎Author's Note ❤︎❤︎❤︎
I made a new TikTok account, my regular account is following it so go follow it(link in bio)! I will still be using my original one regularly, just the second one I will use when I'm banned from posting like right now 🙃
Also how're we liking this story so far?
Any ideas on what Grey is 'hiding'??