Making excuses

Maybe something was wrong. Maybe she was in trouble? You needed to find out if for no other reason than to calm your mind. You made some excuse about work calling you in before rushing out. You could almost swear that you saw Lauren smirking.

You drove like a madman to her apartment. You were shocked to see the door cracked open. You burst in, hoping to help, but we're quickly hit on the head and knocked out. It seemed someone knew you were coming.

You woke up tied to a chair next to an **** Dillon. "Looks like the hero is awake!" You heard from behind you. Jake walked around in front of you and stood there with his hands behind his back. "It's almost ironic that you'd be the one to disrupt my plans again." He stepped forward and grabbed Dillon by the chin. "My little cash cow here thought she could leave me. I was content to just let her run around until she found her way back to me, but then she crashed into you!"

"...the fuck?" Your head was pounding. "Why... let us go, you asshole."

"I intend to." Jake winked, catching you off-guard.

"You— what?" What did he mean by that?

"I don't have time to fuck around with people like you. Lauren was supposed to keep you busy—at least, that's what I hired her for—but you made your way here anyways. Still, I don't need unnecessary blood on my hands. So, I'm not going to offer you a deal; I'm going to tell you what you are going to do and you are going to do it." He walked back a bit and sat down on the couch.

"You and your law firm are going to work for me from now on. You'll help me cover up evidence, keep my guys out of prison, and all that jazz. I'll let you keep your freedom as long as you do that and look the other way when I take what I want." He crossed his legs and leaned back.

"Or...?" You almost regretted saying it, though he seemed to be expecting it.

He reached into his waistline and pulled out a gun, "or I will have to get my hands dirty here."

You felt your stomach drop. He didn't appeared to be bluffing. "What do you mean by 'look the other way?'"

"You see, I run this small town. Everyone in it belongs to me. The men and especially the women. All of the women of the city know that if I call on them at any time, their job is to give their body to me. Sophie's done it, Emma's reluctantly done it, and plenty of other women have as well. I'll be adding Tegan to that list. Dillon has an important role to fulfill since she's the daughter of a very wealthy family. She's going to marry me and give me all of daddy's money." Jake was too confident about all of this. He had been getting away with it for years now, most likely ever since he took office.

There was really nothing you could do. You either died or you took his deal. In the end, you accepted and everything worked out the way he said it would.

Tegan pushed back, but after seeing how much you capitulated to Jake, she knew it was pointless to resist. In the end, you got to keep some semblance of freedom and you life, but maybe if you'd acted earlier, you could have avoided all of this.