Dahlia was in a new place now. Her head pounded as she tried to sit up. She couldn't. She pulled against her constraints and winced at the pain from the soreness of her wrists. She glanced downwards and saw her legs were bound too. Her eyes needed to adjust to the daylight streaming in from the window above her head. Her brain pounded against her skull, with every pulse.  Someone had hit her pretty hard last night. At least she was still alive.

 She looked around as the blurriness of the room faded slightly. The mattress didn't have a sheet and parts of it were charred and crispy. It looked like it had been dragged out of a burning building. The thick dust suffocated her. The walls sported a dark colour like it was covered in ash, burned. The floor was too. But the white door to the bedroom stood out against the rest

She twisted her body so she could see the window above her. Light streamed in but metal bars cast shadows over her face.

There goes my means of escape. There was nothing else in the room, except the bed she was tied to. There was a scrap of wallpaper that wasn't completely burnt on the wall to her left. The light caught it just enough for her to see its design. It was light blue with little yellow flowers pattered across it with green vines connecting each delicate flower.

Panic rose from the pit of her stomach. No, it couldn't be!

The frame of the bed that her legs were tied now looked familiar. So did the rusted metal bars and the burnt walls. 

"No no no no..." she started to whisper to herself.

Plenty of people had that wallpaper, she tried to convince herself. The alarm still grew steadily despite her attempts at reassurance. She tried even more vigorously to free herself from her bonds, ignoring the pain. Suddenly the woman's familiar eyes made sense. It was her. It was Margaret. And the man with the burned face, the one Dahlia broke was Barry?

Tears burned her eyes as she remembered the sinful things that happened in this room. Her skin began to crawl as she remembered how Barry traced his fingers along her arms and legs. The way he cupped her cheek. He called her beautiful before ripping off her underwear and forcing himself on her. She tried to fight back, but he threatened her brother's lives. 

She saw how Barry and his friends beat Devin for defending her. She was beaten when she scratched his cheek. Margaret, the witch, knew about it and blamed Dahlia for everything. Adding even more torture to her wretched life. Life here was worse than what she imagined hell to be. She thought they were finally free, that the bastards were dead. 

She wasn't afraid of what would happen to her, not until now.

~~~~

We went over the plan one last time. Marcus had gone back home and was attempting to make contact with the people who had taken Dahlia. It's obvious he wasn't kept in the loop.

We told him a plan we had to corner Juno and kill him. He didn't argue with it at the time. But I don't think he had a better idea. I still didn't trust him. This bastard got us into this.

Even if he did it for his mother, he'd thrown us into an unforgivable hell. What if he told these people our plan? What if he stabbed us in the back again?

Still, we needed to know where she was and if she was still alive.

It had been an hour since he'd left. We didn't hear from him. We had ditched the car we took from the man in the park.

It was left just down the street from where we'd made the deal to give up the diamonds. We stole another one not long after and made our way back to the warehouse that we'd use as a base to plan our attack on Fitz.

"So we go into the bar. Juno's bar. And just offer him the diamonds? With everyone around us?" I questioned.

"Not we, me. I am going in. You are staying out of it," Devin asserted.

"That's a terrible plan."

"I know. But that's all we got. "

He sat next to me on a block. As he spoke I couldn't help but notice the darkened circles under his eyes. He'd aged five years in three days.

"When we find out where she is, and that she's still alive. I take Juno to them. They'll fight it out over diamonds while we rescue Dahlia and get the fuck out".

"Well, that's a shitty plan." A voice came from the entrance to the warehouse.

Devin pulled out the gun and I my three-star. He motioned for me to stand behind him. I did without protest.

"Whoever you are, you better go before I put a bullet in your head".

"Now now Devin is that how you treat an old friend?"

Tino stepped out of from behind a wall, with two men behind him each on either side of him. They had their hands crossed in front of them with no weapons drawn.

"We come in peace Devin. No need for violence"

He spoke calmly as he walked toward us, kicking a bottle of beer out of the way. It rolled to the side and clinked against the wall. Broken glass continued to crack under their weight. I waited for Devin's move.

He lowered the gun slightly before speaking.

"The fuck do you want?"

"After our little tussle, I wanted to see how things were going."

"Well it's fucking peachy"

He stopped a few feet in front of us and nodded.

"Really, doesn't seem that way. How's the plan going to kill Juno?"

"How do you know about that?"

The gun was now raised again squarely aimed at Tino. His back tensed. Tino probably over-heard our conversation about Juno and the diamonds.

"Well aside from the fact that I could hear your shitty plan from the outside, I had Mike here watching you last night."

"Were you the one in the car? Who tried to run us over?" I questioned.

"No, that was Mike. He's still salty about you almost knocking him out yesterday morning."

Neither of us spoke.

"For God's sake, I came here to help. Can we get rid of the gun?"

"I don't trust him!" I spoke up.

"That's cute, kid." He brushed me off "Listen Devin..."

"I don't trust you either." Devin cut him off.

He turned towards the men who'd accompanied him in.

"Listen, guys, why don't you wait outside a bit. We need to have a private conversation."

"You sure boss?" Mike said looking over Tino's shoulder at Devin.

Mike stepped forward slightly and Devin pointed the gun at him. He retracted quickly.

Tino realized what had happened and pulled out his own gun. I expected him to turn around and start firing but instead, he unloaded it and shoved it onto Mike's chest. Mike gripped it.

The other man stayed quiet all along. He seemed to keep his cool. I saw a bandage on his hand. He could have been the guy I'd bitten I wasn't sure.

"Go," Tino commanded.

They slowly stepped back before turning around and going out the way they came. When they disappeared behind the wall, Tino lifted up his black jacket and slowly turned around.

"See no weapons. Now can you put the fucking gun down?"

Devin slowly relaxed. The gun lowered but was still armed. I stepped out from behind him.

"What do you want? How do you know about killing Juno?"

"I already told you."

"Details," I demanded.

"You know this kid might have more balls than you do"

"Talk, you're wasting our time."

"Right, saving your sister"

"After you left, I had you followed"

"Why?"

"Out of pure curiosity, I guess. How would this all play out?" He paused but we didn't respond.

"So Butch followed you to the park and Mike after some protesting went to your house to scope things out."

"Why'd you send him there?" I interrogated.

He pulled up another concrete block and gently took a seat. He could have been the one to leave the message; another task from our unidentified enemy.

"Seems a little perfect to me" Devin voiced.

"I didn't send my men to leave the message if that's what you're thinking..."

There was unspoken communication between them that I still didn't understand.

"...In fact, Mike saw the men leaving your house. He investigated, called me when he saw the message. I told him to stay. Just in case you needed back up"

"The dickhead nearly ran me over!" I exclaimed.

"Again, I apologize on his behalf. Now that we're all caught up, I want to know what you really plan to do about Juno and get your sister back."

"Why do you care?" Devin probed.

It's unlike Tino to just offer help because he cares.

"Come on, just for old time's sake?"

"Bullshit"

"Look, man, despite what happened in the past, we used to be cool. We hung out, I taught you how to con drunk women, a little petty theft here and there; the good old days. Is it crazy to just want to help because of that?"

If Tino wasn't a master con artist I probably would have believed the crap he was saying. Devin only shook his head.

"Try again"

"I actually do want to help. But if you must know, the man who contacted me to lead you to the tape, he called again this morning."

"Darius get behind me"

We were now on full alert. Devin raised the gun again but this time surveying the warehouse, looking for anything or anyone suspicious.

"Relax. He doesn't know I am here." Tino sighed heavily.

When we weren't at ease he continued.

"Look I'm no one's lap dog. He sent me to scope you out, see what you were planning to do. Oh find those diamonds too"

I looked at Devin when the diamonds were mentioned. He'd hidden them under a pile of broken glass in the warehouse. It was taken out of its fancy bag and wrapped up in a black plastic bag. If it were ever exposed it would blend in with the shimmer of the glass.

"You're not helping your case, Tino."

"I'm not interested in whatever this man is doing. He wanted me to put a hood over your head and take you to a location right after you did the deed with Juno. But I'm a businessman. I trade information for cash ok. I'm not into the kidnapping bullshit."

I snickered as I remember him doing that exact thing not too long ago.

"So you're saying this man sent you to kidnap us? And we're just supposed to believe you?"

"You're not seeing the bigger picture kid. He doesn't know that you are in on it. We'd fake it. But really it would be a covert mission. Take them by surprise!"

"We'll pass" Devin responded with a wave of his gun.

"So what? You're gonna kill Juno? Cause the way I see it that's your only other option. How are you going to pull that trigger when you couldn't do it a year ago huh?"

This time Tino stood only a couple feet in front of Devin.

"We'll take our chances"

"Fine, don't say I didn't try kid," he said as he turned to walk out.

"See you later...hopefully."