Forgive Me...but You're Mine

This is the story of Jared Laylan who is part of the infamous Laylan Brothers who dominate the debt collecting underworld of Las Vegas. This story is longer than Cadean Laylan's story (although I will come back to him in a later story) and is broken down into a series so bear with me to get to the juicy sex part but trust me it's coming. The beginning is about how Nicki and Jared reluctantly meet... but will their relationship stay reluctant? Or will the people they are, outshine the situation they're in?

This story may contain some grammatical errors and spelling mistakes because I'm a new writer and am just testing out the waters of story writing. I have no idea if you will enjoy my writing let alone if you will want to read more, so for now I will just focus on getting the story out there and if you enjoy my stories and feel it is worth me writing more I will definitely look in to making them more grammatically correct for you all in the future.

For now just enjoy the story of Jared and Nicki...

*

She had felt this moment a thousand times... the emptying swell in the pit of her stomach as she witnessed the probable end of her life. Those precious moments before she once again stood on the dangerous end of a loaded gun, those familiar thoughts wondering through her mind, Places she didn't go. Things she didn't see. Well at least you did do one thing right...at least you tried to run this time.

'Please... look in a few days I can get you the money.' Steve promised the sentence so familiar he wondered if it even sounded authentic anymore.

The gangster aiming the gun at Nicki scoffed raking his devilish eyes over her body sketching out the curves of her breasts and slim waist with detail in his mind.

'Seems like the boss wants something a little more concrete than your promises this time Mr James.'

Nicki swallowed.

Steve trained his eye on the gun and the son of a bitch pointing it at his fiancé.

'But I...'

'Made quite a bargain to spare your balls I hear...I bet your lady here is going to be so delighted she has a use in all this.'

The bile reached Nicki's throat as the conversation swelled in her mind. Only moments ago she had been making her escape, throwing her few belongings into a tattered carrier bag and braking towards the front door while Steve lay asleep, only to open it to her worst nightmare the fear that had been following them for two years.

'I never agreed to this.' Steve demanded edging bravely towards Nicki.

'Of course you did Steve when you took the money and refused to pay it back and may I say if you take another step towards your beautiful woman there, I will spread her lovely brains across your back wall. Do you understand me?'

Steve quickly stepped back sparing a pitying glance towards Nicki. The alcohol on his breath suddenly tasted bitter when mixed with regret.

Nicki saw the moment of clarity in Steven's drunken eyes. Yes, maybe he would finally understand that he had killed her. Everything she had worked for. Two jobs and favours for all their so called friends who now shunned them because of his addiction had been for nothing. She alone could not pay off his gambling debts; she couldn't even make him see reason when he flitted the last of their savings away on the blackjack tables in the casinos. She felt foolish, sickened by her stupidity.

Fall in love with a gambling addict? Check, in the mother of temptation city... Vegas? Check, Stupid? Check.

The thinly veiled malice laced behind the mobster's eyes darkened 'So I just say you let her come with me and keep to the agreement we had Steve, and you contact me in three days with the money and I'll bring back your girl unharmed, easy.'

Nicki tried to muster the courage to protest but as she focused on the gun pointed straight at her head the words slipped back down her throat like acid. Steve spared a glance her way then trained his eyes on the floor.

'I...I won't be able to get that sort of money in three days.' His words were barely audible over the thundering of Nicki's heart.

The mobster wrinkled his eyes before turning the gun abruptly on Steve.

'Well don't we have a problem then Steve, as I WANT that money in three days? And you HAVE to get it for me.' The gun cocked hissing a bone chilling click in the silent room. Nicki's heart stopped. This was the moment she had nightmares over. Is this how her life would end in a pool of her own blood upon the dirty carpet of a rundown flat on the wrong side of town?

Nerves momentarily frozen she felt herself take a step forward, flashes of her blood smeared over the back wall flooding her eyes.

'Wait... he can get you the money.' Her breathe hitched. Steve cautiously looked her way, desperation written across his face.

'Ahh the lady dares to speak.' The mobster smiled easing the gun back to face Nicki.

'I...I know where he can get the money.' Her thoughts were hectic. Of course she knew the truth. They had no savings or income left and no one was going to give them a dime after the reputation Steven had made for them. Pilfering lowlifes who beg stole and borrowed but never gave back.

Of course she had been trying to payback their old friends as much as she could each month but with debts mounting up and Steven's violent gambling addiction she just couldn't earn more than they owed.

Last night she had had an epiphany. Finally she had seen sense. It wasn't her debts to pay; her friends didn't hate her just who she was with. Steven had stolen money from everyone they knew, lied to her more times than she could count and last night revealed he owed fifteen thousand dollars to some notorious loan shark called Rick Laylan. The moment that clarity hit her she shook herself, Steven had not started this gambling addiction alone, had people known the truth to the story she would have no more friends than he did. Nicki was just as much of a low life as Steven and she knew it. Bravery or cowardice had made her pack her bag leave a twenty on the dresser for Steven as he slept and open the front door to her worst fear, a mobster with a scar across his face, a gun trained at her head and a debt she knew she couldn't repay.

Steven and Nicki knew the truth behind their situation they were more than broke and no one was looking their way to lend them any money.

'And where do you think he can get me fifteen grand honey?' scar face scoffed retraining his gun on Steven though he looked straight at Nicki.

Her mind raced, desperation coursing. 'We know some people who owe us money. If you give him the time he can get the cash I swear.' Nicki couldn't lie to save her life but this time she had to... literally. Habit told her to stare at the floor hide her eyes from the lie she had to say but her survival instinct forced her not to, if she even glanced at the floor her cover would be broken. She focused right at the mobster, refusing to wipe her sweaty palms on the back of her faded jeans belying the truth. There was no way Steven could get hold of fifteen grand in three days.

Give him a month and he probably couldn't even keep hold of a hundred dollar bill but god she wanted to get out of this situation alive, the images of her lifeless body pooled in blood almost drove her to tears. How many times would Steven keep putting her in situations where her very existence was threatened? Running from the small time gamblers and people they owed money too felt like child's play compared with the likes of Rick Laylan. Even Nicki had heard of his fierce reputation.

'Promise me sweetheart that he won't let my boss down and I guess we can keep our bargain.' Scar face pressed softly on the trigger aiming it skilfully at Stevens head. This was what life had offered her. Endless occasions of protecting a man she now wondered how much she truly loved but love or not her conscious could not let the man she had spent six years with die over something she had blackmailed him into. Regret weighted heavily on her heart.

Summoning the last of her strength in the moment, Nicki looked him in the eyes, calmed her heart and pledged her life on a lie for the man who had brought her nothing for so many years but misery.

'I promise.'

Moments later Nicki was spinning down the Vegas strip in a black sedan at ninety miles an hour. The beauty of the casino signs tortured her as they sped by. If it wasn't for their appeal she wouldn't be saying goodbye to her freedom and possibly her beating heart in three days. Would this be the last time she saw casino Royale lighting up the sidewalk? The supple leather seating felt rough on her bare arms.

As they had sped her out of her small home on the outskirts of the city and into the giant car no one had spared a thought for her comfort or the crisp November air chilling her delicate skin uncovered in her small T shirt. God they had barely spared time to let her put on shoes, she had grabbed an old pair of sneakers from her bedroom, gun still trained on her head and slipped them on as she was roughly pulled out the front door. Steven had looked as helpless as she felt as he watched her drive away with an army of men. Perhaps this was the last time she would see him? Perhaps that wasn't a bad thing?

'Yeah Rick I've got her here' Snorted Scarface down a slim black phone. He'd rested his gun on the back seat between them as his driver forged a route through the evening traffic on the strip. For a moment the thought of reaching for it overwhelmed her with possibility but she could sense, though he looked relaxed, he still had one eye on her every move. To reach for the gun and not fire it in time would mean the end of her life for sure. She turned back towards the window noticing the laughing thralls of tourists staggering in their hundreds towards the nightclubs and casinos. Vegas could be an electrifying place when visiting but as a home it carried its dark side in plain view.

To hit a casino a few times a day on holiday was fun. To hit a casino a few times a day not on holiday was an addict. She should know she had spent the best part of six years trailing one around Las Vegas, hauling him out of nightclubs and strip joints doped up to the eyeballs lashed with the bitterness of another loss at the tables. She had worked two jobs every day for four years repaying his debt, debt to the bank, debt to their friends and more recently debt to their loan sharks. They had moved five times in two years eluding the fate that was to be theirs if they could not stump up the money they owed each month. Now her fate had finally found her, swept her up and thrown her into a black sedan with bullet proof windows and crazy mobster's hell bent on getting their money by any means necessary.

'What the fuck... if I can't bring her to you then were the hell can I bring her. I thought you wanted that guy to pay? I got you a way to get your money.'

Scarface stared her way angrily as though for a split second he regretted her very existence. 'Since when has Jared been back in the game?' Scarface dropped his voice 'She's hot to look at but I doubt she'd make the ideal house guest.'

Nicki gawped at him indignant. Who the hell was he talking too and why would they be making her a guest of anywhere. Come to think of it as she had gotten into the SUV she had not really given any thought as too where she would be staying during these three days of hell. Maybe they had a place they kept kidnap victims such as her until the ransom was paid, or not as the case may be.

'Well at least ring him first, I don't want a war to break out over this bitch, she's not god dam worth it' Scarface spat harshly into the phone glancing at Nicki with venom in his eyes. She swallowed quietly feeling her face flush with nerves. Anywhere they took her had to feel safer than this; she thought he might kill her before they even made it off the strip, the mood he was in.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jared Laylan heard his cell phone ring in the hall. Pulling back his plush bed sheets he hastily ran towards the noise before the phone woke what he had just put to sleep.

Flipping open the receiver he pressed the accept button on the pad.

'Yeah.'

'Jared. It's Rick.'

Jared looked perplexed as he glanced at the time on his phone before returning it to his ear.

'Rick for God's sake it's one thirty in the morning.'

'That's why I called your cell.' Rick answered as though he had no comprehension of Jared's complaint.

'That doesn't change the fact that I was asleep. It's been a long day Ricky what do you want?'

'I want what you said you would do for me ten years ago Jared. I need you to repay me for that tonight. It's a long story and as you were sleeping I don't imagine you want me to go through it all right now so... just say you will do as I want now!'

Jared's muscles tensed. The memory he had suppressed every day since that night flooded his senses. He pinched the bridge of his slightly bent nose in remembrance of that fateful moment in his life.

'Why do you bring this up tonight?'

Silence deadened the phone causing Jared greater annoyance. If Rick brought up that event tonight he better have a dam good reason for it.

'I need you to help me with a package... Well it's not exactly a package as much as it is something I need you to keep hold of for me for a few days.'

'Like drugs?' Jared spat quietly into the phone. 'You know why I can't keep that stuff here Rick.' His anger flared as the thought of stashing anything like drugs in his flat crossed his mind. He turned to stare at the little room down the hall next to his.

'No not drugs, calm down I know why you won't do that and as your big brother of course I wouldn't ask that of you. I need to give someone a place to stay for a couple of days.'

'Someone... Who's someone?'

'Now therein lays the problem.'

Nicki felt her head bobbing as she rested her face against the coolness of the glass window, she felt like they had been driving for hours and long car journeys always made her impossibly tired. She had rested her head on the car door some time ago and as Scarface hadn't demanded she stay awake for their little car journey she had helplessly nodded off.

'Come on sexy, time to move that little ass of yours,' Chuckled Scarface as he prodded her with the open end of the gun. Unfocused slumber, stuttered into confused chaos as she was forcibly pulled from the car by the driver who had parked up on a quiet sidewalk of plush apartment buildings overlooking the Vegas skyline. She didn't recognise the street but was sure it was on the other side of town from her run down home. It looked a world away from her life. Lamborghinis and Bugatti's lined the private car parks; a concierge greeted them at the door. Nicki looked around her stunned. Was this the place they intended on holding her? A lowly captive gets to spend time in a building like this. Then a brief fear swept her... what if they kept her in the basement. In the dark dank confines of a room under the building, she didn't know what people like these where capable of but she didn't put it past them to make her worst nightmares happen. And god she did fear the dark, had since a child. She slept with a sickeningly bright nightlight in her room at the house which drove Steven crazy and gave him another reason to grasp for excuses to be angry towards her. The small window they had in their bedroom barely let light into the small space but they had chosen that place to stay specifically because the moon always passed their window during the night and the light she felt from it helped her dream less of violent mobsters and gambling debts and more of green fields and lazy summer afternoons in the sun. Would she have to tell her violent capture something as personal as the way she slept? Something as embarrassing as a grown woman of twenty five requiring a night light for her sleeping arrangements? She had the gut wrenching feeling that not only would they laugh at her childish confession but that they wouldn't care and stick her in the dark just to escalate her fear.

'Mr Laylan requested you bring her round the back way.' Demanded the concierge, hastening them round towards the rear entrance completely obtuse to the gun flaring in Nicki's face and the terrified girl surrounded my mobster men.

'So he is aware of the arrangements then?' asked Scarface prodding the gun end into the centre of Nicki's back as they entered a small door obscured from the view of the street.

'Oh yes he is aware of the...um... delivery you are leaving in his care tonight.'

Nicki glared bitterly at the well-dressed man closing the door behind them. How could someone who looked so pleasant, witness an injustice such as this and have no conscious about it. She hoped he couldn't sleep at night knowing what he was an accessory of; kidnap, forced captivity, possibly murder. He didn't look her way instead choosing to bustle her and the two men into a small freight elevator and closing the mesh door in front of them.

'And Tracy, just be sure to leave out this way when you go. I know you understand why' smiled the concierge towards Scarface, Nicki now at least new the name of the man who held her so terrified. She gently glanced his way hoping not to draw any unwanted attention from his leery eyes. She saw him stare momentarily embarrassed towards the large tattoo on his bicep and self-consciously roll down the fabric of his black T shirt to cover it. Then he focused his eyes on her and the direction she was looking before she could turn away.

Instantly she was slammed onto the back of the elevator as the carriage began to climb the building, with a giant fist around her throat. Her breathe caught tight in the firm grip of a deadly thug.

'Don't you be getting no ideas about how friendly I can be just because you know my name little girl.'

Through sheer terror Nicki wrapped her delicate hand around Tracy's prying at his fingers with no relief. 'If I wanted to I could fuck you right here and leave you for dead with one cock of my gun little miss lowlife addict.'

Nicki wanted to correct this perfect stranger on his ideas that she herself gambled. She had never touched a chip in her life or purchased a ticket from any bookies but the moment just didn't ring the bells of a heart to heart. Instead she tightened her small muscles and focused on prying the fingers from her bruised neck. These people were killers and no matter where they were or how obvious there involving's in crime no one was going to stop them even if they did kill her by the time they reached the designated elevator floor.

Ping! The elevator shuddered abruptly with the wait of two giant men slowing it down. Though they had stopped Tracy still did not remove his hand. Nicki could feel herself going faint, sweat breaking on her brow. She caught the eyes of the driver faintly noticing pity.

'Do we understand each other or do I have to demonstrate how much shit you have found yourself in tonight?"

Nicki hissed slowly as Tracy leaned in closer harshly tilting her head to smell a loose strand of her hair, the soft sent of Rose water permeated the small space, rose water shampoo, her only luxury in a life of poverty and fear. Now she found herself regretting trading in the groceries they couldn't afford each month for her rose water shampoo. Maybe she would be a little stronger on the arms and a little less molested in an elevator if she had eaten enough in the last two years to give her enough energy to work out. Finally the finger pinching grip on her neck ceased. She threw her head forward clutching the tender flesh there and gasping for breath. Seeing her lack of movement pushed at Tracy's last nerve, he had had enough of the stupid wench to last a lifetime and since he wasn't going to be able to do her, he might as well get her out of his sight as quickly as possible. Hastily Tracy swept her up and carelessly threw her over his shoulder, her shrieks resonating in his ear.