A/N: Same disclaimer as Chapter I. Also, a note at the end of the chapter. Eric makes an appearance in this chapter, finally.

Chapter II

"Bobby's been sent back to De Castro." The voice whispered. I thought for a moment someone was talking to me, but they continued without a response from me.

My eyelids were sticking together and I felt like I hadn't opened my mouth in over a month— it was dry and pasty. I knew right away that I hadn't moved much while I slept because my neck protested against the sudden movement I made when I realized that I had no clue where I was or how I'd gotten there.

"Shh, you'll wake her."

"So?" Asked a female voice, one that I vaguely recognized.

The night before all came rushing back to me, except that a large portion of it was actually missing from my memory. There was nothing there, no trigger or hazy image to jog my memory. My mind was blank of memory for almost the entire latter part of my night, unlike blacking out due to alcohol. My brain fumbled and tripped over ideas as I tried to place together how I could be missing such a large portion of my memory when all I could remember was having one stinking drink.

Now a bit more awake, it all hit me. I'd clearly been drugged. My body tensed up so quickly and so tightly I thought I was going to spill stomach acid out of my empty tummy off of the sofa I was lying on. Jason had been kidnapped and I'd try to get him free. I'd gone to a bar alone to save him. He was obviously dealing drugs for these very well off and dangerous people and they had refused to let him go. Refused to let him go and were killers. And drug smugglers that had no problem using who knows what kinds of drugs for drugging people.

My hand shot down, checking to make sure that I was wearing clothing. I was in my crumbled clothing from last night, but after checking, I confirmed that I still wore the same undergarments from last night. I hadn't been raped or at least I didn't think so.

I could feel my own tortuous past sneaking up on me like a shadow. I'd been sexually assaulted as a teenager. Would I even be able to tell if I had been assaulted again? Would someone do that and put my clothes back on me? Would they leave me on a sofa with a blanket? Was that some sort of sick joke? I was furious and completely lost at the same time. I wanted to cry but I couldn't. I wouldn't let myself.

My bag was still next to me, the same purse I'd grabbed before going out to Jason's place. The same bag that I placed my gun into.

Gun. I'd shot someone last night. I moaned a bit, feeling like I'd absolutely become a different person in a matter of hours and knowing that I probably wouldn't ever be the same person anyway. Jason was clearly still missing and I was in an unknown loft, I was far from completing my job. I was terrified. All I wanted to do was shove my face into the familiar scent of my own pillow at my own apartment and make this all go away.

I looked around, presumably hearing Bill and Pam talking someplace in this loft. By how loudly they were talking they must have been a bit further. This place had a lot of light coming in through large industrial windows and it looked a lot like the bar from last night. My stomach turned and loudly grumbled at my thinking of the similarities.

I had been placed on a cream suede sofa, low to the ground with a throw thrown over me. I'd clearly been tucked in. A small table, rug, desk, and other pieces of finely made furniture were in the section I was in. all of it was divided off by a folding Japanese screen in a dark blood red. The ceilings were high and I could see a large corkscrew staircase spiraling up through the ceiling in the distance. I wondered if the person who owned the bar last night had the same interior designer. The similarities really were quite noticeable, as was its size. There must be more floors than just this one, which already felt larger than my apartment I shared with Amelia.

Amelia. I'd have to contact her. I couldn't bare the thought of dragging her into this. She knew something was up last night, though. Maybe I could forego a serious conversation and just text her something to get me by a day off at work and to keep her distracted. That seemed like the best case scenario and I didn't even know if I had my cell phone. Digging into my purse for the first time I found that I indeed did not have my phone. Big surprise there.

I heard footsteps and then the soft sound of the leather divider scrapping against the floor.

The man named Bill I recognized from the night before came into view around the Japanese style divider. He was once again dressed in a gorgeous brown suite with a light blue dress shirt underneath. He had forgone a tie or it was still too early to put one on as he was probably still getting ready for the day. He was much taller than I remembered, but being on the sofa, feeling violated, did seem to make his height more dominant at that moment, I realized.

His dark eyes found mine staring at him— he knew that I was awake.

"You drugged me!" I yelled at him vehemently, my voice scratchy and hoarse from disuse. He didn't even look shocked or try to look remorseful. He kept the same clean look on his face. He didn't look uninterested but clearly he had little remorse.

He stood silent for a beat and then opened his mouth to speak. "I was only doing what I had been told to do. I follow very direct orders. Last night was a lot more complicated than it appeared to someone in your... understanding." So he was willing to admit it but still no remorse. I was fuming.

"More complicated? You kidnapped my brother and you drugged me! Do you understand how violated I feel? You drugged me," I repeated. How thick was this guy's head? He seemed completely underwhelmed by anything I was saying.

I felt my eyes tear up a bit, stinging the dry corners of my eyes. This was unbelievable. "You. Drugged. Me." Two more large men came into the shared space looking like they were ready to pounce on the situation to calm things down, both irritating me and scaring me a bit. These people meant business. Whether or not they'd hurt me was something I really didn't want to find out.

Bill waved them off and both of them nodded, understanding his spoken dismissal. I realized that they looked like bouncers. They had to be body guards of some type. How much money did you have to have to own two body guards, I wondered.

I looked back at him and I saw something crack on the surface. Something he was trying to keep together fell apart in that moment and he did look regretful and almost pained. His thin lips pursed together tightly and his eyes glanced to hold my own and then he quickly looked away. "Yes, I do, as a matter of fact."

"What?"

"I said I do understand how you're feeling. How it feels to have part of your ability to make choices taken away from you."

"I'm not talking about some type of hypothetical, ambiguous, loss of control. You deliberately drugged me and I am, in reality, missing memories from last night." His demeanor had changed a bit and it appeared as though he was possibly opening up a bit more to me. But I was far down the road of being rational at this point. Clearly I was going to have to go under hypnosis or some other hoo ha to reclaim my memories from last night.

"You had no right to. You took advantage of me. What have I ever done to you or anyone you're working with?"

"We don't play like that, we don't play fair. Someone you know, Jason, has messed with us and therefore you are just as response for the problem," a woman's voice said. Pam came around the same divider. Just how many damn people were there at this loft? Was I actually at an office or something of some sort? Pam was just as beautiful and petite as I remembered her being., I thought. Her blond hair was delicately pulled up in a lose chiffon. She couldn't have been much older than myself. I feel sick as I watched her eyes raked over my form quickly and then she frowned. Her logic made so much sense to her but she was much more calm than I remember her being last night.

"You had no right at all. This is insane!" I repeated with as much feeling as I could muster. I had to have these people understand how I was feeling.

"You're a grown woman, are you not? Maybe it would do you good to learn to take care of yourself better," she said. That struck a nerve. To imply that this was somehow my fault was absurd. I had only been wanting to help my brother.

"It was your decision to help your brother," she said as if she had heard my thoughts. "Being smart and taking care of yourself sometimes means letting things or people go, you know," Pam said. She was insane. This was nothing like the common courtesy you learned growing up.

"Take care of myself? You don't know anything about me. I've been taking care of myself for years. You don't know my past or my history or my brother. We've done a damn good job of surviving"

"And what do you think we're doing then? We, just like you, are just trying to survive," she calmly tried to rationale. She finally sighed a long, deep sigh. She knew that I was not going to give up easily on this topic, nor should I. She brought her tiny hands up and cracked her knuckles, taking a moment before continuing to speak. A strong determination blazed in her eyes after that moment.

"Maybe you can't see it now, but we did what we had to. We know what your brother has done, and if you want to see him or help him then you best cooperate with us." She had jumped to the point, the one that would make me shut up. Play nicely or Jason and or myself would be killed. It was eerie how there wasn't anything necessarily terrifying or scary about these people aside from the entire situation that I had found myself in.

I closed my opened mouth silently as I contemplated arguing, yelling, anything, but I decided against it. I watched her smirk. She was proud of getting me to see her way, in one way or another it seemed.

"Good" She chirped in a much more upbeat voice. "Now get dressed and have some breakfast, no doubt you'll need your strength today. We have some use of you and no doubt Eric will want to see what all the fuss is about with this situation," she concluded with an air of finality.

"Bill, see to it that she gets some food."

Great, the last person I wanted to spend my time with, I thought.

Pam had been kind enough to leave some clothes out for me, although how she had anything remotely my size was beyond me. She was shorter than me and a life time closer to size zero than I would ever be. For holding me and my brother hostage, they at least seemed eager to keep me decently sated, aside from intense bouts of anger because of the drugging.

After changing and moving around a bit it was evident that this place was the entire floor of the building. Walking up to the massive floor to ceiling windows informed me that I had to be at least 12 floors up and the building looked like one of those old warehouse buildings off of Sixth that I sometimes saw while driving around. Looking down I saw an ashtray with a newly put out cigarette butt, it's smoke wafting up into the vents above. I didn't smoke, and I didn't care for it, but working around and being friends with enough smokers had make me complacent to the stuff.

Bill was easy enough to find in the open spaced loft. He stood out like a brown blob amongst the otherwise gray interior. He was cooking what looked to be eggs and I was surprised that he even knew how to cook, not that eggs were a difficult task by any means. By the looks of things he was probably in his early 30s, although he had no wedding ring.

I sat myself on a stool a part of the kitchen bar. He swung around to meet me. I wasn't used to having people do things for me. I couldn't remember the last time someone had cooked me breakfast. Under different circumstances this may have been extremely romantic. I could feel myself blushing lightly. He was a very strong and handsome looking man.

Upon closer inspection, the eggs looked like they'd been slaughtered. He frowned at them and then looked up at me. "I tried my best." He plated them and went to get me a cup of coffee. "I don't usually eat breakfast," he said lamely. Who didn't eat breakfast? Gran always said that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. No wonder he looked so sour.

At least the coffee was good.

Leaning against the wall next to the stainless steel fridge, Bill watched me eat silently. I was a bit spooked by it, but I also figured he was told to watch me so I wouldn't escape. The loft looked normal enough, for an extremely wealthy person, but who knew what types of booby traps or other body guards were just waiting around for me to fidget in the wrong way.

"So, you smoke?" I assumed, thinking about the recently put out butt. Might as well start somewhere.

He shook his head, sipping at his own black coffee. "Eric."

There was that name again. I felt myself tingle a bit. There was something obviously intriguing about this guy. He was just so mysterious and he was here it appeared. Out of sight but not out of my mind.

"Is this his place?" I wondered vaguely if he owned the bar I'd gone to last night as well.

Bill looked hesitant about answering. "I'm just a woman, I'm not going to bring down your little empire by getting a few questions answered," I snapped. "You did drug me," I threw in as motivation for quick responses. I raised my eyebrows and he glared back at me, seemingly surprised by my snarly response.

"You are quite… verbal." I looked at him, unblinking. "Yes, this is Eric's place."

Interesting, I thought, I'd been brought to the boss's place. I wanted to do a little dance but realized quickly how absurd that would be and how insane my thinking was. These were dangerous people, I reminded myself. Just because they saw it fit to bring me here, of all places, didn't really mean anything.

"Why isn't he here then?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"He's very busy. This also isn't his only residence." That was surprising and this also meant that he'd already left. He couldn't have been here for more than a few minutes. I had thought that perhaps he was still here, just hidden away on another floor. This place had to be massive. The hole in the ceiling letting the stairs through looked like there were at lest three floors incorporated with this place.

"Northside isn't his only business either," Bill added. This surprised me, why was he giving me so much information. "I figured you want some information and it's the least I can do for drugging you," he finished, a bit more remorse in his deep voice.

"When will I see him, Eric that is."

"Soon, perhaps later on this evening."

"I have work, a life, things to do," I snapped. I couldn't just let everything go.

"Well, it's best that you cancel that then. Tonight you are otherwise occupied. We need you to do some work for us… and for Jason," he said.

I found myself laughing quite bitterly at his comment and the sound of it shocked me— I wasn't normally a bitter person. But of course, I was working for Jason— Jason's life that was. At least he tried to word it a little more friendly than Pam had made it seem earlier.

"Bobby's being taken care of, by the way. He was flown over to De Castro last night." Bill's eyes appeared to have a bit of laughter in them as he recalled Bobby. I was glad. But this also meant that there was a good chance I'd be sent over to De Castro as well for breaking his man.

"So what the hell is my brother in trouble for?" I asked, skipping the possibility that I may be killed sometime in the near future.

Bill was back to looking as though he wasn't going to say anything. "Really, you just assumed I wanted information and gave me some but obviously not all of it," I heard myself said.

"Your brother has been working for Eric's drug men for about 5 years now." This surprised me. I thought for sure that this was a new job that Jason had started.

"He handles drugs?" I asked, clearly disturbed by the fact that my brother had been handling drugs for about five years without me even suspecting anything.

"No, he doesn't handle the drugs per say. We have lower end guys that do that. He meets with the smuggler's bosses. He doesn't do business meetings, but he goes to locations and ensures that the exchanges have been completed. He'll secure locations and or pick them. He doesn't actually touch the drugs."

"Oh, sure, he doesn't physically touch them, that makes me feel so much better," I said sarcastically. "So what happened?"

"He signed off on a deal saying that it had been completed and that the money was indeed in our hands. It weren't."

"If it's money I can pay the money if this is what it's about," I offered, probably sounding more optimistic than I had since meeting him.

"No, you couldn't pay this. This is more money than most people make in a lifetime," he said a bit grimly. He didn't sound cocky saying it but I decided to believe him if he said it was a lot of money.

I was already racking my brain trying to figure out how I could possibly get that much money to get Jason back. On a waitress's earnings there was no way that I could do this one my own. I knew Amelia's family had a lot of money, but this wasn't an instance where I could ask to borrow something that I wouldn't be able to make a dent in paying back.

"His partner is also missing," Bill added quietly, disturbing my thoughts. Ah, now there was the rub. I didn't care to ask if missing meant thought to be dead or what.

"Are you sure that Jason was the person signing off on all of this? What if someone is trying to frame him?"

"We have video footage of him signing it." Bill looked like he pitied me. Maybe Jason was guilty. The thought made me ill. Him asking me to go grab what sounded like half a million from his house did sound sketch as fuck. How did he even have that type of money lying around and why hadn't he bought a house if with or something. I shook my head, realizing I'd finished all of my eggs. I was glad I'd been talking while eating them, allowing me the chance to not think about how horrible they tasted.

A man then came through the front door, quite large, followed by a woman dressed in a finely tailored navy blue dress and heels. He was her bodyguard I assumed, which meant she was someone of decent importance. Her lips were painted a bright red and her hair looked as though it'd be styled to fit into the 40s but was a shockingly white blond color. She must be a blond, but had died it even lighter.

"Clancy," Bill nodded in greeting. "And Lorena," he added, much more friendly than his Clancy greeting but still quite boring. It was Bill greeting her that I realized he had a slight drawl in his voice, an accent perhaps. How unusual.

The woman named Lorena glared at me, looking me up and down. A difficult task when the kitchen bar was hiding most of me. While my attire usually lacked, Pam had left me in a very nice crème colored dress that I thought looked very nice with my extremely noticeable tan. This woman clearly had little to go about on judging me. I disliked her already. If she was judging me then I'd just judge her back just as quickly.

"Who's this, Bill?" She asked, coming up behind Bill and familiarly placing a hand on his shoulder. He didn't flinch, but he didn't look too comfortable either. "Lorena, this is Sookie, she'll be staying with us for some time."

Lorena looked pissed when he said this. "Sookie," she said slowly. I could see the evil wheels in her head moving, albeit slowly. "With you, I assume?"

"Yes, until Eric says otherwise."

"Did you offer or did Eric ask you to?" She asked, her sweet voice betraying a bit of her jealous side. "Crazy, psycho bitch," I thought. I had no urge to be anything with Bill. Although handsome he was still dangerous and was holding my brother hostage and had drugged me nonetheless. He had a strange heir of always seeming disinterested, even when being nice. All of a sudden he looked up at me and looked a bit apologetic, although, again, a bit disconnected.

"Lorena." He said no more and she appeared to know that this meant to shut up. I was surprised that she followed his insistent command. At least I knew she was someone's bitch and I didn't necessarily have to listen to her if she was following Bill's orders.

Lorena huffed and stomped away. I bet she thought wasn't stomping, but her cadence was much heavier than when she had first entered the loft.

"Don't let her bother you, she's a bit high maintenance," he said, sounding a bit hopeful. I cringed a bit, knowing she had left but no doubt could hear his words in this open setting. Maybe he really did care little for her.

"I want to see to it that you do understand how to care for yourself, how to protect yourself," he said, a bit more gently than before. "Especially after last night. Drugging you was not something I did with a clean conscious, Sookie. I'd like to get to know you better" This statement caught me completely off guard. Clancy, who still stood by the door with his arms crossed also looked skeptical. I saw him look me over as Lorena had done and appeared to find something of interest. Which suited me just fine, but it also made Clancy look a bit pompous as well.

Now Clancy knew I'd been drugged as well. Who didn't know?

"The only people I need protection from are you people," I found myself saying. How strange. Why would he care for me or about me? He had offered to take me in last night as well, and although I didn't trust him he did appear to be trying his best to be at least nice, although it seemed to be a personal struggle for him.

"Maybe some self defense. Some gun welding lessons," he suggested, clearly hoping I'd just say yes. He wasn't demanding it. My eyebrows must have disappeared into my hairline. Gun training? "Just a visit to the shooting range, perhaps?"

"I don't think I need help welding a gun that I don't intend to use."

"Eric wants to keep you at the bar, gather information from talk going around at his locations. No one knows you and it's always good to have unrecognizable informants." Ah, so here was the entire truth, the truth I'd been waiting for— my task. Listen in on some of his sketchy clients and then report back to him.

"Eric will discuss it further with you, but I insist that you stay with me. Other people may offer to care for you but I must insist that you stay with me." How strange. It was almost like he was interested in me. Maybe Lorena truly did mean nothing. Felt like he was hitting on me a bit. I felt myself warming a bit to the thought, although it was a very small feeling— I felt much like a toy of his suddenly. "I can give you a place to stay, everything that you'll need while working for Eric, away from De Castro." Maybe I was a pet of some sort. I snorted at the idea, but he ignored it if he noticed.

I don't plan on staying here and as gentlemanly this offer seems I'm not settling down into something I don't understand even a little bit. I bet he thought explaining just the tip of iceberg in this situation would have me crawling to him. I look up and realize he's clearly waiting for me to say something in response to his gallant effort to "protect" me.

"We'll see." He seemed surprise at my almost refusal.

"I need a phone, I have to call my roommate, let her know I'm pretty much alive and have her move my work schedule around. If this is really how things are going to be then I better figure out how to accommodate my real life into this nightmare."

Bill went to search for my cell phone, I assumed, while Clancy watched over me. I didn't dare move, not as if there was anything to keep my interest around anyway. He returned and I quickly found that all the numbers in my phone had been erased except Amelia's and in it were now Eric, Bill and Pam's numbers. I was so annoyed at discovering this.

When Bill left me alone to take care of my phone calls I threw my phone on the floor in complete frustration, not caring the loud clatter it made. No one came running to see what the noise was or to see me fuming and throwing a fit. I guess I was lucky that Amelia's number was at least still in there.

After calling her I had explained to her that I was staying with Jason back home with Gran because she had suddenly become ill, thank god that wasn't the real case. She asked me multiple times if I needed anything and I told her no, although it did occur to me to ask her for a money loan a few times, but I didn't. Amelia, being the great roommate she was, had already called in work to tell them that I would miss tonight, just as I had alluded to yesterday. She agreed to do the same for the rest of the week and apologized in advance if my boss didn't exactly accommodate my missing days. She seemed to understand that I would distraught and in no condition to really talk to my boss.

There was a good chance I was going to lose my job over this fiasco. At least I had Amelia to delay things for a bit in terms of shifts. She did most of this without many questions, which was thankful as she was often times incredibly nosey. I didn't need any one else involved in this. The fact that she wasn't asking questions also led me to believe that she must have known something else was going on.

"Alcide came by earlier," she mentioned excitedly in her "this is obviously scandalous" voice. I "hmm"ed into the receiver, knowing that I had little time to finish my conversation before someone came in. "Yeah, I know!" she said enthusiastically. "He was awfully surprised that you weren't here." Of course he did, he thought that I had left with that stupid Bobby fellow the night before at Northside's.

"He said that he'd come back another day."

Drug problems, boy problems, work problems and a multitude of other problems. I chatted quickly with Amelia about a few other things before I regretfully said goodbye to her, wondering when would be the next time I could call her, if at all.

I tried escaping the loft almost every hour but the security guards were well placed and must had known what I would try to do. It was like they were anticipating my escape— granted I had been screaming about being drugged all morning and was probably tagged as a high-risk problem.

Aside from still being a bit scared out of my mind I was also bored to death. When I given a form fitting red dress and moved to a limo, the first one I'd ever been in, I was almost giddy.

"Don't look so excited, it makes me sick," Thalia, a woman I had met before being put into the limo at the loft, said. She was quite blunt and truly appeared to dislike me. Surprisingly enough, she was the tiniest of all the women I had met, and unlike Lorena and Pam, a brunette. Unlike Pam and Bill, I tried to ignore her as best as possible. She acted sort of like a bodyguard, which I was unsure of if she was. She was not nearly as friendly with the rest of the staff I'd met and acted pretty much like a bodyguard.

This limo ride couldn't have been ruined anymore unless Lorena also joined us. Clearly I had thought this too soon, because a moment before leaving Bill and Lorena joined us. I bit my lip.

Lorena huffed and made a fuss about getting in and moved sides of the cars twice before she settled. Thalia, who I had thought disliked me, looked at me and rolled her eyes. How ironic, it seemed that we both had something in common: the dislike of Lorena.

I mostly listened to the conversations, which consisted mostly of Lorena running her mouth and Bill answering when he deemed appropriate. Only rarely did Thalia make a comment on anything.

"Will Eric be here tonight?" Lorena asked, her eyes finding mine, narrowing with spite.

"Yes."

"Hmm," was all she said. "He usually doesn't come in on Sundays, how unusual," she added after a few beats.

I hid my laugh with a cough, not caring a bit that it was poorly covered. I could care less of when Eric worked. As someone who had worked in many businesses, it didn't surprise me that he would be working on some Sundays. Lorena looked like she had always been rich and obviously didn't know the first thing about running a business.

Lorena glared at me, and I smiled sweetly back at her. Maybe she saw me as some threat. I looked back over to Bill who was staring disinterestedly out the window, neither interested in her nor myself, confusing me immensely.

When I saw that we were pulling up in front of Northside's I felt a bit more disgusted with myself because I knew I'd be doing dirty work soon but also because there was a chance I'd be meeting this mysterious Eric and this made my tummy flutter. I felt like a hoe.

We were dropped off in front and Pam was at the front door with the body guard I recognized to be Clancy. He looked pretty bored and Pam looked distracted, not even seeing us until we were in front of her. I was pretty surprised to see her out front, seeing how important she was to Eric and because it was still before dinner time.

"I hate when girls wear tacky red to bars on Sundays before dinner. Over dressed," she whispered loudly to Bill who was at her side. I knew she was saying it because it was what I was wearing, although I didn't feel self-conscious at all. The dress was indeed a bit much for a bar before dinnertime when there were still a bit of casual costumers lingering around, but knowing that it pissed off Lorena made it well worth it.

"I like it," Pam said briefly with a smirk, looking me up and down. She was talking about my dress and I thought. It hadn't occurred to ask where it had come from when Thalia had brought it in at the loft. I heard Lorena sigh deeply behind me. I turned around and gave her another one of my huge smiles, surely pissing her off. Bill was oblivious to the entire thing.

Once I turned back around my smile was completely gone. I was unsure of what was going on, and for someone who liked being in charge and being independent, there was a lot of unknown still going on.

"Just go get yourself a drink, we'll come get you in a bit," Bill told me. I saw the words freedom flash before my eyes and I looked back to the door. "Don't try to leave either, we have both security and body guards combing this place every second." And with that he took off to the back, leaving Lorena next to me.

She scoffed at me and turned her back, heading towards a few sofas that were occupied with some young men. Her relationship with Bill was confusing to say the least.

I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb now, some of Lorena's words seemed to ring true.

I wasn't a heavy drinker, and the idea of having a drink so early when all I'd had all day was some crummy eggs and coffee was a bit off putting. I wasn't interested in sitting and chatting with people either, which was the only two activities currently going on.

I went to bar anyway, wanting a place to sit down and rest my feet. At any luck this fiasco would been over soon and I'd be able to wear some footwear other than heels. This place was every bit as classy and filled to the brim with peopled dressed just as Clancy and Thalia were: as bodyguards. Aside from the few that I could count there appeared to be normal costumers as well, laughing it up with drinks and mingling. Northside appeared to be booming.

Depressed and two drinks later I found myself swaying to the music.

A very handsome man with black hair in a black shirt and dark jeans came up to me. "Can I buy you a drink?" he asked, his voice a bit raspy. Something about the way he asked made me believe that he was kind. A double take at his body made me feel a bit frisky.

If my job for Eric was to chat up costumers and bring him back niblets of information, I may as well enjoy myself as I did it.

"Well, ok, then." I agreed. The man gave me a dazzling smile, highlighting his boyish charms. Maybe I was drunk.

"What brings you to a bar here alone?" He asked, buying me a vodka cranberry, which I took with no real qualms.

"Can't a girl go out on her own? I happen to be very independent," I said with a smirk, quite proud of my independent streak.

"Well, little lady, I am Sam, and you are?" He asked, charmingly catching my hand as it fluttered across between us.

"Sookie. What about you, what are you doing here?"

"Little old me? I'm a cop, just decided to stop by, grab a drink." I nervously looked to the bar tender when he said that. A cop. I was certain that he could hear my heartbeat in my chest and ask me something that would end up with my brother and me dead.

I sipped at my drink, attempting to keep my cool.

Just then a loud commotion broke out near the sofa area, the same place that Lorena had shimmied her way into. A smaller man was yelling at a taller, dark haired man. It looked intense, like they were going to come to blows— which they did moments after I thought it.

I gasped, throwing my hand up. Sam gave me an apologetic look and got up, probably ready to interfere. At the same time, many of the security guards and my very own body guards, Thalia and Clancy, ran over to break up what was fast becoming a brawl at an upscale bar.

In an instant I realized that this was my chance to escape. The clouds were parting and the door at Northsides almost seemed to glow. The door was even opening for me. In reality someone else was walking in, but by god this was my chance. I'd figure out the Jason problem later, the first step to his survival was me surviving.

I hopped off the bar, downed the rest of my vodka cranberry, making a disgusting face to relieve my pain and grabbed my purse. I began to gain a bit of speed, maneuvering around the people who were rushing to break up the brawl or just get a closer look. I didn't care.

I took one quick look behind me just before I'd reached the door to make sure that no one was following me and then stopped instantly as I ran into a wall.

I'd quite literally crashed into someone. Instantly I began to tumble down, my ankle twisting a bit in the process. This person I'd practically ran into was much taller than me and was currently holding my wrists above my head to keep me from falling. When had he even moved to do that, I wondered. I quickly readjusted my weight so that I was no longer in danger of losing my balance. In the back of my head, aside from noticing how delicious it felt to be held like this, I realized that his easily fit around both my wrists and that he was not letting the go. His scent was flooding my nostrils, and for once I feel completely at a loss of what to do, for a second, before I regain my composure. Maybe this is what walking into love felt like. I felt completely warm and protected in his strangely dominant embrace until he opened his mouth to speak.

"Tsk tsk tsk, leaving so early, I haven't even caught your name" The voice said. Really, that was his completely asshole line after this perfect moment? I looked up into the most gorgeous blue eyes I'd ever seen in my life and a dab of the annoyance floats away. He was also quite likely one of the tallest men I'd ever met as well, almost a complete foot taller than me.

His large hands moved from my wrists to my arms, firmly caressing them. I was insanely aroused and this man was beyond gorgeous. I realized that my body was pushed quite firmly against his.

'"Well," he asked again, waiting for a response. How rude!

I instantly moved away from his chest and I can feel him pulling me back towards him gently but with enough force that I plop back against him, my boobs smashing against his hard chest. He quite literally growls at the pressure. This guy is a complete pig, I realize. He's the most breathtaking individual I've seen quite possibly ever, but so far he's digging himself into a massive hole. As I look down of course he was wearing the most fashionable sweater over a collared shirt and tie, gray slacks and the greatest shoes I'd ever seen. Good looks, great scent, kinky hold, protective embrace and he was a complete tool.

"I'm Eric," he murmured quietly, his eyes still looking into mine. The way he said it make me feel like perhaps this was a bit rehearsed. Pity, I thought, there was no way that he could actually be as attracted to me as I was to him. That went against all laws of chemistry.

Sure enough, Pam slithered her way up to us, surprised by the he was holding me, no doubt. Eric didn't even budge. "I see you've found Sookie."

Eric's looked back down at me quickly, a flash of surprise on his face before he looked back up at Pam with a completely boyish grin on his face. He looked delighted before straightening his façade into that of someone cool and collected.

"How lucky to have run into you, Miss Stackhouse." A glimmer of that grin lingered in his eyes. Finally and all too soon he let go of me and began to walk to the back. Pam followed and I looked longingly at the door once before following both of them. Bill joined me at some point down the hall.

Eric's office looked like he lived in it. There was a massive stack of papers organized into metal baskets on his large desk, a large fridge in the corner and more than a few sofas. It was all beautifully decorated, but heavily lived in. His walls were lined with what appeared to be silhouettes of women's bodies contorted into the most unattractive positions, painted in grays and blacks. What a tool. I'm sure he'd answer that it was art when asked, when in reality he was a pervert.

His art taste seemed to coincide with the incident we'd shared outside.

He sat behind his desk, lighting up a cigarette and thumbed through some paperwork on his desk. They were all photos with hand written notes on them. He took his time, and neither Pam nor Bill said a word.

"My brother?" I asked, deciding that I wasn't going to give this guy more power to stroke his evident ego than necessary.

My question didn't seem to faze him and he continued taking drags of his cigarette until he finally looked up, his gaze much sharper than I anticipated.

"Yes, we have him, what about him?" Stubborn asshole, I thought. "We'll also ignore the fact that I caught you while you were trying to escape." This pompous bastard needed to get off his high horse. All of my problems were directly connected to this Viking of a man behind this desk.

"When will you release him?" A genuinely shocked look filtered across Eric's flawless face, his thick blond eyebrows creasing. He looked thoughtful before responding.

"It was my understanding that Bill has already explained to you the circumstances under which your brother has been held and what we expect of you."

"When will I be able to see him?" I asked, a bit annoyed that everyone appeared to be having the same type of conversation with me. I was also irked that he was beating around the bush, as that was not what I'd asked.

"Soon. He's actually with his other employer currently, I'm sure that he'd like a phone call." I turned and glared at Bill. Of course, all this time my brother hadn't been locked up, being tortured and to top it all of I could have just called him. Just fucking fantastic, I angrily thought. A second later I realized that perhaps Eric was being sarcastic. I wanted to throw something. The only thing my hand could find was my purse, but I resisted the urge to knock Bill out, even though Eric was also responsible.

"Just fucking great, thanks for letting me know hours ago after worrying that I could have just called him."

Eric gave Bill a curious look. "I was told you'd been informed everything," Eric said, casually glaring at Bill. I shook my head. Bill looked awkward sitting there with Eric angry with him.

"Interesting. Well, yes, Jason's gone back to De Castro. He's completing some work there." Pam also appeared to be surprised by this information, as her eyebrows also went up alongside mine. She didn't say anything though.

"De Castro? Then what am I doing here? Why am I being held prisoner?"

"You're not being held prisoner, you're here or your own protection," Eric scoffed. "And to help work off the debt that your brother still owes us." He said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Protection?"

"Surely you've realized that you're being followed on a regular basis?" My heart almost sprang out of my chest hearing this. He seemed surprised at my reaction. "Hm, I just assumed that you knew and just didn't deem it a high enough threat."

"No! I didn't know this." After a moment I realized that Eric could very well be lying to me to get me to stay here and work for them. Not that I seemed to have any choice in the matter.

"You're a very easy person to get information on as well and or have followed," he said, holding up a photo from his stack of my apartment with me talking to Amelia outside in front. I was wearing my uniform for the restaurant, so it couldn't have been taken more than two weeks ago as I had just started that job.

Could I really question who was telling the truth when it came to my safety as well as my brother's impending freedom? Who was I supposed to be afraid of in this situation, some mysterious group stalking me or this group that was seriously ambiguous about everything and were holding me hostage.

"You're not the one's following me, then, you mean?" I asked for clarification.

"No," Pam answered. "We had these photos taken of you once, perhaps twice, but that was only because of Jason." Her voice was the only one that sounded like she really cared.

"We know who is following you, but their affiliations do not match. To us they look like random people who are working together, there's something else that they're doing and someone else that we don't know that they're working for," Bill said, frustrated by this knowledge.

Eric nodded in agreement. "Since you've been staying with us, we've noticed a high amount of activity at both at your apartment and work place. All with members of high interest of us," Eric said, sounding superbly pissed off. He looked a bit frightening for a second. I did not wish to be the subject of his intense ire, especially with his size.

"Like who?"

"People that I do work with. People hire us mostly for protection, people with money, and we provide it. It is my first and foremost business endeavor. This bar, your brother's jobs, those are just side gigs." He seemed so cocky saying all of this, like I was supposed to be in awe of his blood ties. "I own other business as well," he added, winking at me. The nerve this man had, treating me like this. But that wasn't the most interesting piece of information I'd heard.

"You tag them?" I asked, unbelieving.

"Yes, I have a lot of money at risk. It's important for me to know where every member of my staff is as well as who I do business with locations."

"And that's legal?" I asked, incredulously before I could stop it from tumbling out of my mouth. Pam almost giggled. I had asked a completely idiotic question and that I already knew the answer to.

"Miss Stackhouse, many things that I do are not, shall we say, 'legal.'" He shot me a gorgeous, toothy smile and I felt my heart melt besides the information he'd just spilled.

"So what now?"

"You work for me, picking up information. Like we said, we keep tabs on our people on the floor," Eric said, smoothly laying out his expectations with a defiant edge. Electronics failed, but Sookie, the living girl would not, they meant to say. He was too proud to acknowledge that all the money he invested in this tracking was not yielding his desired results.

"That's where you come in," Pam offered.

A bit of reporting from Bill and Pam to Eric seemed to take place after that. I felt a bit more optimistic than I had in hours. Overall I felt less threatened, and while I was still in immediate danger and working (mostly) against my will, I was no longer terrified out of my mind.

Eric was cocky and full of himself, but over the next fifteen minutes or so I watched him skillfully solve issues and plan other happenings for his multiple businesses. To say I was impressed was an understatement, although I wouldn't be caught dead admitting this to him. The way, which he ordered his workers around and gave even mundane orders, was done with such ease and competence. His security either respected him or feared him, although it could have been both. His sheer gorgeous body and face didn't help any of it either. For the moment he seemed all business and I was rather surprised when he dismissed Pam and Bill but asked me to stay behind.

I had resolved that as soon as I was alone I would call Jason and tell him about my part in helping him free up his debt. I also had to call Amelia.

Bill glanced at me once more before leaving the room, looking like he wanted to say something but didn't.

Being alone with Eric, my thoughts immediately went to sex. I was just a woman and while I sometimes seemed to attract males they were always males with issues, case and point Eric. He was sex on legs, and even I couldn't refuse to accept the sheer adulterated lust I felt for this man. It had been months since I had slept with anyone, if not a year. Alcide had yet to really show any serious issues, but I barely knew him. At least with Eric I knew he was problem up front. The man, Sam, I had very briefly talked to the bar earlier, could very well be normal as well.

I felt myself sit up a bit more straight when they left the room. I was nervous to say the least. Eric came out and sat down next to me on the sofa, giving me a wide berth of space. His legs looked like they extended forever. I had the urge to move next to him and measure our legs against one another to see how much taller and larger he really was. Surely that height and overall body size was an accurate indicator of other pieces of anatomy.

I wanted to purr at the thought.

Eric had the nerve to pat his lap. "Care to join me?" He wanted me to sit on his lap. Part of me wanted to jump on. My rational side kept me in my own personal space.

"Why'd you have me drugged?" I asked suddenly.

"It was the simplest solution. I didn't know you." My confusion must have escaped to my face because he let out a small chuckle.

"You don't know me now," I countered.

He paused for a moment. "No, I don't, but I'd like to know you." Damn, Eric was the most forward and blunt. He felt closer somehow. He handed me his business card and I took it. I felt smug.

"Tomorrow you'll come back here, work the floor and bring me information," he said, completely smug and back to business. "You're staying at my place again, I have a room set aside for you, Pam will help you get settled. Call me if you need anything." I looked at the card. "I meant it, anytime. You'll not be alone often so it shouldn't be a problem."

I opened my mouth to protest, but I was quickly ushered out of the room by Thalia and we were being placed into the limo. I didn't even get to say goodnight, I thought sadly.

Eric surprised me when he pulled Thalia aside and told her, "Ensure her safety. That's your job now." Thalia didn't say a word.

Thalia had jumped on me, shoving me down against the sticky leather seat and Bill was yelling at Pam to get down. I could feel the limousine skidding across the road at the wrong angle, sending shivers down my spine. We couldn't have been more than two blocks away from the bar.

Another round of gunshots sounded and I resisted the urge to scream. The limo had stopped moving now and Thalia was pulling out a gun and handing another to Pam. Ironically I looked at Bill who gave me a reassuring smile. I was certain that the shooting range was sure to be in my future if I survived this.

Pam was holding the door open as Thalia was shooting around it. The limo was making that annoying dinging noise, signaling that the door was open. I wanted to help somehow but I saw there, knowing that there was little that I could do.

I stuck my head up a bit and came into contact with where the window had once been. I saw nearly six guys all of them shooting from cars across from us. They were not moving much either.

Thalia was exiting the car and Pam turned to me and said, "You stay here. Don't cause any more trouble!" I found this odd because until now I didn't know that I had been the cause of any trouble.

Bill wasn't in the cab anymore and that made up our party that had been heading back to Eric's. Now someone was shooting at us. I pressed myself back up against the seats, praying to god that bullets wouldn't penetrate the actual body of the car and somehow strike me. I wildly looked around the interior of the car and realized that it was empty.

Before I knew it someone, a man dressed in regular clothing squeezed through the window and grabbed me yelling, "Brigant, you, you!"

He had a gun but I didn't care, I started screaming as loudly as I could, thrashing against him and not hearing a word he said. He pulled the gun up and in an instant he had collided with my mouth. I bit down hard on his arm as he backhanded me with the other. I was dazed by the hit, panicking as I tried to get my body to follow my brain's frantic survival orders.

"You're coming with me," I heard him say.

He suddenly, silently slumped down next to me, unmoving. I kicked him a few times and he didn't stir. After the blow he must have been shot. I felt bile building up in my throat and I dry heaved a bit next to him, his black shirt becoming even darker with the stain of his blood.

Coughing, I realized that the shooting had stopped.

Someone stuck his or her head in the door and I screamed. It was just Thalia.

"God, Sookie, shut up, it's me." She looked at the man next to me, clearly dead. "Pam was right, you are trouble." She pulled me out of the car and left me standing there, moving about with Bill and Pam. "She is trouble," Thalia repeated into the receiver of her cell phone. I wanted to ask her whom she was talking about me with but I resisted my curiosity. I was usually loud and stubborn, I just felt beat down now.

I vaguely heard police sirens and wondered if we were going to run or what the protocol was on an incident like this. Maybe Pam had experience with attempted murders via massive gun sprees.

If we had been just regular people with no connection to racketeering, drug trafficking or a million other illegal things that Eric probably worked on, the police might have been a relief to see. But now, with someone dead sitting next to me, I just wanted to scream and run away.

Bill came up to me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. His skin was almost the same color as mine, darkened from the sun. He didn't say anything, but his presence did make me feel a bit more at ease. A crowd was forming around the scene that had taken up the entire street. People were coming up us, asking if we needed anything. I mostly shook my head no, not willing my mouth to open and not trusting my eyes that any of this was actually real.

My throat felt like it had swelled up and couldn't let any air through, not that my chest seemed to be working properly. The police officer coming towards us put his hands up as if signaling that he wouldn't hurt us. How absurd, I thought. Even though everything appeared to be safe and had calmed down, I was hearing a loud rasping noise. I realized then that I was hyperventilating and that was me making that noise. The police officer's signal must have been for me to calm down.

Looking at the damage it appeared as though our limo was set diagonally across both lanes of traffic. About a hundred feet from it was a black Mercedes with its windows and body in similar condition to our limo's. The doors were open and I could clearly seen the driver of the car slumped over to one side, part of his neck missing. I wondered if they were all dead and if so, how many.

The next thing I was aware of was Pam wrapping me in a dingy brown blanket from where I had no idea it came and the officer walked straight up to Bill who seemed as cool and collected as ever. From the corner of my eye I saw, to my relief and surprise, Eric quickly maneuvering alongside the crowd that was now forming. We couldn't have been that far from Northside, but his prompt response took me back for a second. His eyes were moving precisely along the crime scene, professionally taking in tiny details and facts, probably. He never lost a beat in his step as he purposefully made his way towards Bill.

His deep blue gaze met mine a second later and he held it for all of a few seconds. I thought for a second that maybe he was going to come over to me, but Bill had approached him and I saw him turn his undivided attention to him. I felt a flash of what I could only describe as jealousy. My overworking brain stomped the feeing out quickly.

I could see their mouths moving quickly as they discussed something unknown and unable to be heard by me. I grossly desired to be able to read lips at that moment. More cop cars were pulling up finally, their sirens adding to the unsettling pressure in my head.

Thalia had joined Bill and Eric and Eric was doing a fine job at showing no resistance while shouting at her. Thalia didn't even flinch and nodded at the end of his outburst. I wondered what he was so upset about, but his quick glance over at me had me pondering if it had anything to do with me and me alone.

Pam pulled me alongside her to the curb to sit, also placing me closer to the men talking and thus closer to Eric. I immediately felt safer being just a few feet away from him. "Do not move from this spot. I'll be back personally to take you back tonight," she said.

"Where's Lorena?" I asked.

"You're in shock. Lorena wasn't with us." Pam looked confused but shook her head.

"How convenient," I said bitterly, loud enough for Pam to hear. Lorena seemed to be the only person who'd gone with us who wasn't leaving with us. She as probably whoring herself out to some guys back at Northside's. Pam's eyes went a little wide at my words and then she went to join the conversation.

I wanted to cry but found I couldn't. When had I become so reliant on these people and their false sense of security when all they had done was humiliate me and put me in danger?

My clothes were wet in what I could only imagine was blood, blood that wasn't mine. The feeling against my skin was revolting.

The first and only officer out of his car, the one that had been the first on the scene, appeared to recognize Eric and went over to him, shaking his hand. The man was at least half a foot shorter than Eric, and he entered in the conversation with Bill.

I definitely caught the name De Castro from their conversation as well as the word "dead." For the first time since Pam had moved me I wondered how many people had been killed. There were many more people in our entourage than what were on the sidewalk now. I caught Eric's gaze again. He briefly let his eyes wander over my form. I saw the crease in his forehead deepen.

The police officer was shaking his head as Eric began to speak to him again, a bit more quietly than before. I realized then that Eric was clearing this mess up, pulling whatever influential strings or ties to make this disappear and fall into the back headline of some newspaper as a random attack on some civilians. Eric had more power, manipulation, and influence than I had ever imagined and I was getting a first hand look at his swift exploitation. A sad thought crossed my mind, "Who wasn't involved with him, his businesses or his dirty money?"

My head was pounding in sync with my heart. Sure, these people hadn't been too mean, or done anything horrible, but I'd almost been killed and it was a direct result of Eric's problems. Jason, my blood relative, was hostage because of this same man. I had to be kidding myself if I believed for a second these people were anything less than what I had scoped them for the moment I met them.

This was too huge of a mess. I didn't think that they'd necessarily hurt Jason either. Deep down I was scared but after tonight, this was all too much and confusing. One moment I was ok with these people, and the next I was reminded that they were all killers.

I glanced around quickly, trying to be discrete. Pam was no where to be seen, and the body guards that had been in the vehicle with us were otherwise preoccupied. I assumed many would be busy for a while considering there were some people who had been killed here tonight.

I knew that Eric would see me missing sooner or later and thus it was important that I left now before he noticed and pulled some chauvinistic move that I had no plan to put up with. I wasn't going to allow any of this blood money help me through my day any longer.

Making sure both he and Bill were busy in discussion, I got up and walked back to Northside. As I waked further away the buzzing in my ears got louder and louder and I fought the pull to turn around.

The valet guy looked at me strangely when I reached his little umbrella stand. I must have looked like I'd walked out of a scene from a horror movie. Being the nice guy he was, or the well paid one, he didn't ask any questions as he went to retrieve my car that I had left from the night before.

So much had happened in such little time. For one, I was surprised that Eric hadn't had my car removed from the valet, although they had either forgotten or had no clue that I had placed it there. I was even pleased that they had kept it over night for me with no problems.

With no time the valet had my car back and I tipped him whatever unknown change I had in my purse, too exhausted to count it. Maybe he said something to me, but I didn't hear him as I got into my car and proceeded to make the drive back to my place.

I felt myself losing my sense of reality. My brain felt numb, like it was floating much higher inside of my head, and that at any moment I would look over and there would be a dead body in my passenger seat. I did my best to not look, afraid of my sanity and its possibility of literally breaking.

I could have blown a few red lights, that's how out of it was. My feet were killing me and I was surprised I was even able to drive. In an attempt to ensure that I was indeed driving as responsibly as possible I looked over into my rear view mirror and realized that there was a car that had just make the same turn as me.

I wasn't usually so paranoid, but I had also been living on my own and knew when to take precautions in this type of situation if need be. Screw drive by shootings, at least I could handle stalkers. Eagerly my mind pulled up the memory of Eric relaying the information about how I'd been followed recently. There was something off about this. The time in my car read 3:21 a.m. There were always people going places in LA, but something still seemed off about this car and the fact that it was appeared to be going almost exactly the same pace as me.

I gripped the steering wheel in one hand and my cell phone in the other. I was suddenly a lot more awake and coherent than I'd been in the last hour or so. I decided to turn down a small alley and then make a right at a fork. This would essentially put me back on the main path I'd been in and was not a path someone would take if they had found out they were going the wrong way.

I quickly glanced up at my mirror a few times to see if the car had followed me at all. Sure enough, seconds later the green truck was turning the same way into the alley. I felt sick, sicker than I had this entire journey and also more alone than I had since I'd gone to Jason's house. I tried to calm my mind, making the final right at the fork, trying to convince myself that perhaps it as just a coincidence.

He turned.

I slowed down, squinting, trying to see who the hell was behind me. The car behind me also slowed down as a result of trying to continue to follow me. The car looked a bit familiar now that I thought about it. I slowed down even more so that the truck was no more than forty feet behind me.

I looked back up trying to decipher the man's face in the dark. At that moment we passed under a street light and then I could see who it was— it was Alcide.

TBC

A/N: So this was a bit of a long chapter, I hope no one minded too much. I hate cutting things off when I'm so engrossed in them. I got some feedback last time, which truly made my night(s) and a ton of alerts, which was also great. Hope to hear back from some people and I'll be posting again soon— my chapters are hitting about 10,000 words a chapter, which is mightily time consuming and thus a bit of a wait.

Cheers.