Second Chance Addison

The second time Tucker woke up, the room was significantly brighter. In the time he'd been asleep, the sun had fully risen and the light easily permeated the thin chiffon curtains.

He turned his head towards the bright window and instantly regretted it. Though he had certainly sobered up, his poor choices had left him with a debilitating migraine.

In an attempt to lessen the pain, he closed his eyes and covered them with his free forearm.

Before he could fully recover, a voice suddenly broke the silence and reminded him of his current reality.

"Good morning, Mr. Malone." It was a familiar voice and sounded far more friendly than expected.

"Good morning, Mr. Addison. It has been a while." His own voice came out dry and hoarse.

"It most certainly has."

"Forgive me for not getting up to greet you. It is rather difficult given the circ.u.mstances." Tucker lifted his right elbow to call attention to his arm that was still tied to the headboard.

"I see."

With his eyes covered, Tucker couldn't tell exactly what was going on but he could hear someone approaching him. Each footstep made him increasingly nervous.

'Are they just going to go ahead and kill me?'

He flinched when he felt someone grasp his arm. Then there was a crisp snapping sound, as the person cut the cable ties that held his arm to the bed. They quickly released his arm and walked away.

"Thank you." He slowly brought his arm down to rest on his torso.

"Tucker?"

"Yes, Mr. Addison?"

"I need you to be honest with me."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"What happened to you? And what was going on last night?"

Tucker let out a deep sigh. Whether he told them or not, he was as good as a dead man walking. So why not tell them?

"I'll explain what I can. But first, does anyone have any aspirin? It is near impossible to focus right now."

Chance observed the man for a minute, looking for any sign he was pretending to be in pain. Finding nothing amiss, he nodded to Koty, who retrieved a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water.

Koty, was not happy to provide aid to their captive and had unwillingly cut the ties.

'I could kick his a.s.s anyways.' He nodded to reassure himself as he did what he was asked.

Koty shook the bottle a bit to indicate that he was approaching.

Tucker slowly moved his arm away from his face and sat up. His eyes cautiously slid open to find a redheaded young man holding out a medicine bottle and a water bottle.

Somehow, this young man looked familiar. Tucker accepted both items and thanked him. Koty just sneered in return and walked over to stand by Chance.

Looking around the room, Tucker found that it was just him and these two men. Maybe he could still get away. As if it was reminding him just how stupid that idea was, a strong bout of dizziness hit him. He held his head in his hands as it ran its course and passed.

"What would you like to know?" He quickly popped open the aspirin bottle and downed a few pills with the water.

"Let's start with last night. What did you plan to do?" Chance stared blankly at Tucker and waited for an answer.

"I... I was supposed to get you alone and some other guys were waiting to jump you." He tried to gauge Chance's reaction but the man didn't so much as blink. "They didn't tell me everything but it sounds like they were going to frame it a certain way. Like you owed money to some loan sharks and then they beat you to death when you couldn't pay."

"And you were going to go along with it." Although Chance appeared calm on the surface, beneath the facade a storm was raging.

"In my lousy defense, I didn't realize what was happening until I last night. Initially..." He trailed off as he fought another dizzy spell.

"Initially what?" Chance encouraged him to continue.

"Initially, I was told they wanted to scare you. That it was revenge for what you did to the company."

"What I did to the company?"

"No offense, but everyone believes you drove it into the ground. From their point of view, you were solely responsible for them losing their jobs. Many of your former employees would love to see you suffer."

"But not you?" The way Tucker was talking was if he was an outsider to all of this.

"Not particularly. I never could believe that you self-destructed. Looking back now, that is probably why I was fired."

"I thought you had resigned on your own. A certain bastard told me you had gotten a better offer at another company." Chance's expression remained steady but his eyes flashed in hatred and disgust.

The bastard in question was of course none other than Jerome.

"I bet I don't even need three guesses to figure who it was." Tucker smiled bitterly as he recalled security escorting him from the building under Jerome's orders.

"Were you really going to follow through with it?" Chance needed to know.

"With what?"

"Last night."

"Ah, well... I didn't have much of a choice."

"And why is that?"

Tucker lowered his head and though for a moment. 'Maybe, just maybe, there is still hope...'

"If I tell you, can you help me?"