“What are you doing?’ I ask him, and he wraps my feet together with the duct tape. I try to move them and can’t.
“I can’t have you running before the preacher gets here tomorrow,” he says, looking up, and I see that his eyes look crazy. He grabs my hands and does the same thing to them, and now even if I wanted to run, I can’t. “Hope it’s not too tight,” he says. I try to move my hands but nothing budges.
“I don’t understand,” I whisper, and then he ties me to the chair with the rope around my waist. “What is going on, Tommy?”
He runs his hands through his hair. “I never meant for this to happen,” he starts to say. “But …” Wringing his hands together nervously, he looks at me and tries to talk, but nothing comes out of his mouth.
“But what?” I look at him, trying to see if he will reason with me. “Whatever it is, we can fix it.” I try to get him to look at me. Surely, he wouldn’t hurt me.
“It’s gone,” he says quietly, sitting on the table in front of me. “Everything, it’s gone.”
“What do you mean it’s gone? What is gone?” I ask him, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. I don’t know if it’s all this, but my stomach roils, and I have a feeling I’m going to throw up.
“It’s gone. Everything is gone. The company, the houses, my money, your money, it’s gone.” It’s worse than I thought, so much worse.
“I don’t understand.” I look at him, and he gets up and starts to pace in front of me. He runs his hands through his hair, pulling it and cursing.
“I took a gamble on a new project. A retirement project that was going to triple my money.” His voice then softens. “I just needed the investment, and then once I cashed out big, I was going to replace the money, all of it. They said six months tops, but then the city shut it down. The environmentalists blocked it because of fucking frogs or some shit.” He shakes his head. “We couldn’t touch it because of wildlife!” he yells, picking up a glass on the counter and throwing it against the wall. I close my eyes as it shatters behind me. “Then I just couldn’t get it back. I just kept chasing the money to get it back to you before anyone noticed it was missing, but I couldn’t get it back. No matter what I did, it just bled more money.”
“That explains it … My debit card was denied today,” I tell him. “We were at Gucci, and when I went to pay with my card, it said declined. Of course, they just gave me the stuff, and I didn’t have a chance to call the bank to discuss it.” The sickness I was feeling before comes back now, and I think I’m going to get sick. “Are you saying everything is gone? All my hard work.” I look at him, my voice going a bit louder than I wanted to.
“Everything but the houses in Nashville,” he tells me, and I laugh, not sure if I’m going crazy or in shock.
“How?” I have financial planners who watch my money to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen.
“I forged some documents, and they didn’t question me,” he says, shaking his head. “I submitted some fake bills, and they just pushed them through.”
“They would have called me,” I tell him. At least, I’m hoping.
“They did, and I told them to let me tell you,” he says, rubbing his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him softly, and he just shrugs, so I yell the last part, and I try to get up out of the chair, but the ropes prevent me from getting up, pushing me back down. “Why not just tell me?”
“I don’t know.” He closes his eyes, rubbing his face with his hands. “I was trying to get the courage to, okay?” He comes over to me and then squats in front of me. Grabbing my hand in his, he kisses it. I try to yank it away from him, but I’m stuck. “I was going to.” He now reaches out and pushes the hair away from my face, and I turn my head. He grabs my chin with more force than he’s ever used and then yanks my face back to his. He holds my chin in his hand, telling me the rest. “And then Brian came into the picture,” he hisses, getting up. Putting his hands on his hips, he gets louder. “And all of a sudden, you had your head up your ass and then you went and fucked him,” he spits, and I blink my eyes closed. “I figure I’d scare you with the first couple of letters and then you would turn to me instead of him.” He laughs. “I’d save you.” He puts his hand on his chest. “I’d be the savior and make everything okay, and then you would finally do what I’ve been dying for you to do since the beginning.” I wait for the next part, my heart pounding. “Fall in love with me,” he whispers, putting his hand on my cheek and my stomach roils from his touch. “And then when you found out the truth, you would already be in love with me. But it wouldn’t matter because we’d figure it out together.” He drops his hand from my face, then looks in my eyes. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”