The Debt 11 (Club Alpha)

 
The Debt 11 (Club Alpha)

By Kelly Favor

© 2015 All Rights Reserved

Faith frantically tried to call Chase,
leaving a message that it was very important he call her right away.
 
And then she’d even typed “911” into
text, knowing he’d likely be freaked out by the urgency of her attempts to
contact him.

But what was she supposed to do?

Chase had been robbed.
 
That man—he’d called himself
Charles, Boogie, whatever—that man had taken a lot of money from Chase
and Faith had done nothing to stop him.

She was still shaking, even half an hour
later, as she once again peered out the window to the
street,
just to make sure “Boogie” wasn’t lurking nearby, waiting to do some new piece
of nasty business.

Of course, he had no reason to stick
around.
 
He’d come into Chase’s home
and gotten what he was after.
 

Money.

She could still picture the man’s hooded
eyes, the wariness and slyness in his gaze, and the confidence of his
gait.
 
How old had he been?
 
He’d moved with the ease of someone
still relatively young, but his beard had flecks of gray and she’d noticed deep
creases around his mouth and on his forehead.

He might have been thirty-five or even
fifty for all she knew.
 
The man had
frightened her with the way he’d talked knowingly of Chase’s sordid past,
“running the streets.”

Faith shivered.
 

She partly wanted to leave Chase’s
apartment and go home—go somewhere safe.
 
But what was safe nowadays?
 
Between Club Alpha and now this new
shadowy figure
who
’d entered the picture, Faith wasn’t
sure that she could trust anything or anyone to keep her out of harm’s way.

And to think, just a short time ago she’d
been basking in the glow of hot sex and the feeling of being loved.
 
Chase had even said he was falling in
love with her.

He said he was falling in love, which
should have been something to celebrate.
 
But instead she felt only dread and fear.

Faith sat on the couch, checked her cell,
and waited for Chase to call her back, while she occasionally peeked out the
window, just to be sure.

As she was waiting, her phone rang.
 
Hopeful it was Chase was finally
returning her calls—she glanced down and saw her sister’s number instead.

“Shit,” she muttered, but then figured it
might keep her mind off her anxiety to talk to Krissi for a minute or two.
 
Answering the phone, Faith tried to keep
her voice light.
 
“Hey,” she said.

“Is it true?” Krissi practically shrieked
in her ear.

“Ouch,” Faith said, squinting and pulling
away from the phone.
 
“Try not to
burst my ear drum.”

“I can’t help it,” her sister yelled.
 
“People sent me pics from last night and
they’re either crazy good at Photoshop or you’re leading a secret life.”

Faith sighed, realizing that of course
the news had made its way around town by now.
 
“It’s true,” she admitted.
 

“It’s true?
 
Are you serious?
 
Chase Winters was really with
you
at the bar last night,” her sister
said with disbelief.

Faith had to smile now.
 
“Yes, he really was with
me
.”

And
I’m even sitting in his home right this very instant
, she wanted to say, but held her
tongue.
 
Especially since that might
warrant her admitting that she’d been present while some strange and sinister
man robbed him of potentially thousands of dollars.

“How did this happen?
 
I feel like I’m dreaming,” Krissi said.

Faith laughed painfully.
 
“Tell me about it.
 
I know the feeling.”

“He’s, like, the most popular guy on the
planet and he’s hot—and rich—and he’s got women everywhere who want
him.”

“Right,” Faith said, her jaw tensing, “so
why would he want to be with a dog like me?”

“That’s not how I meant it,” Krissi told
her.
 
“Come on, Faith.
 
Don’t be mad.
 
Tell me how you even met him.”

Faith scratched her head.
 
“We met at the game the other weekend,
when we all went to the VIP box.
 
Remember how they brought me down for the meet and greet?”

“And he saw you and fell instantly in
love,” Krissi said.
 
“That’s
romantic.”

No, it was more like instant sexual
attraction.
 
But Faith wasn’t about
to admit that to her younger, impressionable sister.
 
“Listen, Kriss, I just need you not to
go running your mouth to anybody about this.”

“Everyone already knows.”

“Mom and Dad?”

“I was waiting until after I talked to
you to tell them,” Krissi said.
 
“I
don’t understand why you care who knows.
 
You guys were out in public together.”

“Yeah, but it’s…
”
 
Faith stared out the window
again, losing her train of thought as she thought she saw Boogie’s threatening
face passing by on the street.
 
“It’s
just a crazy time for me right now,” she muttered.

The stranger came more into focus as he
passed by outside, and she realized he looked nothing like Chase’s old friend
from Detroit.

“You sound upset,” Krissi told her.
 
“Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine.”

“You’re dating Chase Winters.
 
Everything should be incredible.”

“It’s not quite that simple,” Faith
replied.
 
Suddenly there was a beep
on the line and she checked, seeing Chase’s number pop up.
 
“I have to go, I have another call
coming in.”

“Is that
him
?”
Krissi squealed.

“My ear, you did it again,” Faith said,
grimacing.
 
“I’ll text you later.”

“Tell him—“

But Faith had already clicked over.
 
“Chase?” she said, licking her lips,
feeling anxious at what his reaction to the bad news might be.

“Are you safe right now?” Chase asked,
his tone urgent.

“I’m okay.”

“Good, because with the texts and
voicemail and everything, you had me worried, girl.”

“I’m not hurt, but something bad
happened.
 
This guy Boogie broke
in—“

“Don’t say another word over the phone,”
Chase told her.
 

She closed her mouth and waited.
 

He took a deep breath and she heard him
exhaling into the phone.
 
Faith
could already picture him standing there in his workout clothes, hair slightly
mussed, his eyes faraway as he thought about what to do next.

“Is that person you mentioned—are
they still with you?” he asked her finally.

“They’re gone.”

“Okay, just hold tight.
 
I should be back in less than an hour.”

“Chase….
”
 
She pursed her lips, feeling more
and more like a screw up.
 
“I’m
sorry.”

“Just hold tight.”

“Bye,” she said, but her words went into
a dead phone, as he’d already disconnected.

She waited for him, and it got harder as
each second seemed to pass by so slowly.

He didn’t know about Boogie taking the
money, he didn’t know the things Boogie had said to her, or the horrible
feeling she had that Boogie was going to do even worse things before everything
was over.

Would Chase blame her for the money being
stolen?

She hated to think that, but he
might.
 
And maybe he would be right
to blame her.
 
Maybe she should have
called someone—called Chase, for starters.
 
But everything had happened so fast and
she’d panicked.

Nothing could have prepared her for that
ambush.

Faith waited for Chase to get home,
pacing around the apartment, then sitting and thinking, then pacing some more.
 
Watching as texts poured into her phone
from friends and relatives as the gossip machine in her hometown worked its way
through the community.

Faith didn’t respond to any of them, not
even the phone calls that came in from her parents’ house.
 

She knew it would be her father, possibly
drunk off his ass, making stupid statements that Faith wasn’t interested in hearing
right then.
 
She ignored his call
and didn’t listen to the voicemail.

As for the texts from all her old
friends, she didn’t respond to them either.
 
It was all too strange.
 
Last night it had seemed magical for
Chase to come out and show himself, put his reputation out there and proclaim
his interest in her.

But now in the light of a new day, she
wondered if this wouldn’t somehow turn against them.

Perhaps Chase’s openness and willingness
to call her his girlfriend would end up creating bigger problems than either of
them had foreseen.

You’re
just being a Debbie Downer
,
she told herself.
 
But it didn’t
feel like that to her right then.
 
It felt like she was watching a train heading for a collision with
another train, head-on, and she was just waiting for it all to happen.

It was just a matter of time before
everything went wrong.

***

The first thing Chase did when he walked
through the front door was
take
her in his arms.

Faith started to cry, mostly from relief
that he wasn’t angry.
 
But also, she
realized, it was that she was finally safe again.
 
After Boogie had broken in and taken the
money, she’d been completely on edge.

It was only now that she could feel Chase
Winters’s strong arms wrapped around her, that Faith could breathe again.
 
Tears rolled down her cheeks and she
buried her face against his chest as he hugged her tightly and kissed the top
of her head.
 
“Hey,” he soothed,
“it’s okay.
 
Everything’s going to
be fine.
 
I’m here now.”

After a long moment, she finally pulled
back, laughing at her own tears and wiping her eyes.
 
“Sorry, I got your shirt all wet.”

“I don’t give a shit about my shirt.
 
What I’m worried about
is
you.”
 
He was
watching her intently.
 
“Now tell me
what happened.”

Faith,
took a deep breath and let out the
tension as she exhaled.
 
“Okay.
 
I got up and came downstairs this
morning after you left.
 
And someone
knocked and said they were delivering a package.”

Chase put his hands on his hips and
stared at the ground, grimacing, as he shook his head.
 
“Oldest trick in the book.”

“And I fell for it,” she replied.
 
“I guess that makes me an idiot or
something.”

Chase’s eyes blazed as he looked up again.
 
“I never said that.”

“I know,” she sighed.
 
“I just feel awful.
 
When I opened the door, he barged right
inside.
 
Said his name was Boogie or
Charles.
 
I wasn’t clear which.”

“Charles Bridges,” Chase said.
 
“But everyone just calls him Boogie.”

“So it’s true, then.
 
You do know each other from Detroit.”

Chase nodded, reached in his pants pocket
and pulled out a pack of gum.
 
“We know
each other very well,” he said, as he took a piece of gum and popped it in his
mouth.
 
“Now tell me the rest.”

“Chase, he—he went upstairs and
found money you’d hidden in your closet.”

Chase’s eyes widened and then narrowed
again as he registered what she’d told him.
 
“What about the painting?
 
Did he find the painting too?”

She shook her head, her mouth open.
 
“I don’t know.”

“Come on,” he said, his jaw flexing as he
chewed his gum, and then he was taking the stairs two at a time as he went up
to his bedroom.

Faith followed behind, her heart beating
fast, coming upon Chase as he bent down and examined the closet.
 
“Yup, he got everything from there,” he
muttered, and then stood up and went to the large modern painting that was
hanging above his bed.
 
The thing
was enormous, and it looked like nothing but a bunch of red and yellow paint
splotches across a very big canvas.