by Jayne Blue
I shuddered, thinking Darby could have been in this spot. I was sure they were all drugged, starving, and scared out of their minds.
The man started to open the car door and then stopped. He picked up his phone and answered.
“Yeah, now? We could make a little right now. Fuck, no. Fine. Get back in the car.”
“Something’s wrong,” Ridge said, and I strained to hear what was happening.
“Did someone see us?”
“No idea, but he’s not going up,” I said and wanted to punch something.
I called Sawyer.
“They’re not going in, someone warned him not to go up.”
“Fuck,” Sawyer said, and I knew he was going to tell us to bail.
We watched as the man got back in his car.
“We’re going to have to call it if he knows we’re here,” Sawyer said.
“No, we can still get this. We can follow,” I said to Sawyer. Ridge was behind the wheel and he looked at me for Sawyer’s instructions.
“Fine but stay far back. Keep me in the fucking loop, and wherever this leads, do NOT charge in there just you three. We’re not going in somewhere blind.” I gave Ridge the let’s roll sign, and he started the van.
As the car pulled out of the motel parking lot, we did the same. I only hoped the asshole didn’t realize he was being tailed.
“Don’t get too close,” Ryder said, and Ridge nodded. The car pulled out onto the highway. We followed.
The car passed a few other cars, and before we knew it, we were three cars behind him. I hoped that gave us enough cover.
“There, he’s merging over to the business loop.” Ridge did the same. I normally traveled on my bike, but this time it would stick out like a sore thumb. The van was non-descript and came in handy for this type of shit.
We followed as the van pulled off the highway and headed to an industrial section of Grand City.
My phone buzzed, Sawyer again.
“Yeah, we’re headed to the Ampoint tracks area.” There were cargo rail lines, warehouses; it was an ugly section of town. And one that was easy to hide in.
“Shit, he turned in there. I don’t see him.” There were looping roads, warehouses, storage units. It was a maze of big structures.
“There, turn there,” Ryder said, and we looped around toward a road with no sign. Sure enough, there were the taillights.
“He’s going to see us. We need to stay back.” It was enough to know where they were headed, this was progress. But I didn’t want to lose them again.
“Let me out. I’ll go on foot. You keep in touch with Sawyer. I’ll keep eyes on that car.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Ridge said, and I nodded. I wasn’t going to be stupid, but I was going to get those girls free, and I was going to punish whoever it was that took them.
First on the list was that dick driving the car. Ridge and Ryder turned away, and I ran toward the last place we’d seen the car.
I spotted them again. They were parked, and the engine was off. The driver pulled the girls out of the car, and they all headed into a building. I stayed out of the light and snaked my way closer and closer.
Finally, I was able to get close enough to peer inside. The man had thrown the three young women into a corner, where they huddled together.
I was happy as hell we’d interrupted whatever business was going down tonight. If I was going to guess, the three women were the ones who’d been in the basement with Darby and they were new at this. Maybe new enough that they wouldn’t be scarred and scared for life. If we could just bust this up tonight, maybe they stood a fucking chance. I wanted them to get to Bess. She was good at her job; she’d know how to help them.
I needed to get a count of people, a layout of the building.
A set of headlights snaked around the corner. Shit. I hoped it wasn’t Ridge and Ryder. It was too soon. I didn’t know who was who in there, and it still felt like we were only dealing with the lowest rung of this group.
It wasn’t the van though. It was a car I didn’t recognize. Good. This could be it. This was someone in charge.
I hunkered down so no one from the car could see me. They killed the engine, and a man got out. He walked around to the trunk and popped it open.
And I saw fucking blood in my eyes.
Nineteen
Darby
* * *
I had the evening. I had made promises to Steel, but I had the evening.
Steel wasn’t my boss or my dad. And neither was Uncle Reid. It was Uncle Reid I needed to see.
I hadn’t had time to tell Steel about what Mr. Jenkins had said. And truth be told, it had been chaos since the moment I’d gotten back from my meeting.
The explosion didn’t leave time to track down old leads from my strange life. Why would Uncle Reid tell me my parents’ crash was an accident? There had to be a reason. And I strongly suspected the reason was about over-protecting me. He’d seen how I was. He’d lived through my paralyzing panic. Maybe he thought I couldn’t handle the news that someone was responsible for the crash. I had a difficult enough time just handling getting up in the morning and had zero ability to handle the simplest things in life since he took me in.
That had changed. I had changed.
Part of me already forgave Uncle Reid for not telling me.
But then there was the email. I was certain he’d sent an email to keep Mr. Jenkins away from our first meeting.
I had to know. I had to clear the air. And if there was a person out there who should be brought to justice? Well, I had to know that too.
“You’re my new favorite customer.” It was the same Uber driver who’d driven me during my adventure yesterday. It was nice to see a familiar face, and I realized I’d limited not only my space but the people in my life to a dramatic degree. Even seeing this driver lightened my soul. Could I become a people person? Was I?
“You sure you’re brave enough to drive me after yesterday?”
“This job can be boring as hell. Yesterday was not boring. Where to?”
“We’re headed to The Gates.”
“Oooh, moving up in the world.” I smiled and realized this easy exchange, this normal way to navigate the world, was what I’d been missing. What I didn’t think I could do over the last few years. It filled me new strength and even optimism to know that I could.
I knew Steel would be pissed as hell if he found out I’d lied, that I broke my promise to stay at the hotel. I could clear the air with my uncle and then get back. I would tell Steel, but after it was done. Yes, I had been kidnapped and saved from something worse. But there was nothing to connect the fire at the MMA gym OR the explosion to me. Those were Steel’s world. Those were something outside me and something I wasn’t going let stop my progress.
I could work on Steel; his protectiveness was easy to trace. He said he loved me and so we could change, together. I knew better now. I could easily slip into the same pattern of letting someone else brave the world so I could hide. I had let Uncle Reid do it, and I had started to let Steel do it too.
I was done with that. All these thoughts swirled in my head as we drove to my uncle’s. Thoughts could lead to out of control emotions, and then my body could be overrun with anxiety. But somehow, I was controlling all of it. I was scared, but I managed it; it wasn’t paralyzing me.
Finally, we arrived, and looking at the house gave me a pit in my stomach. I didn’t want to go in, but that was ridiculous. I had to clear the air with my Uncle, and then I could move forward.
“Do you need me to wait for you, miss?” This Uber driver was getting big ups from me, whenever I did get my cell phone back.
“No, actually, I have a car here somewhere. But thank you.” I paid him and took a walk up to the front door. I’d run, scared for my life, confused, and with no plan for what came next, the last time I was here. And in a short span of time, everything changed. Life was like that. It turned upside down in a minute and then years could go
by with nothing moving at all.
I was done not moving.
I used the security code to get in and called out.
“Uncle Reid!” I walked through the halls to his office. If he was home, he was in his office. The light was on. And there he was. He came around his desk and hugged me.
“Thank goodness. You had me so worried.”
“I’m okay, they told you—Sawyer told you, about what happened before you left. They did as soon as I got back in town. Sit.” He returned to his place behind his desk, and I sat in a chair in front of it.
“Uncle Reid, I have so much to ask you, to talk to you about.”
“Yes, well, fine.” He’d never been a warm man, or affectionate, or even into just sitting and talking with me. But he’d always gotten me the best of everything. I was grateful, but the coldness, the reserve, it stood out in stark contrast to the way Steel and the Great Wolves were with each other. There was no doubt they were a family even though they weren’t blood.
“My parents’ accident. I heard from a friend of theirs that, uh, that it wasn’t an accident.”
“A friend?”
“A book dealer, the one I’d gone to meet, we did finally get coffee.”
“So, your bikers aren’t really keeping a close eye on you?”
It was an odd thing to say, but I moved on.
“I needed to keep making progress, and that meeting was progress, but back to the issue, he said there was a driver that ran them off the road? And that was why they crashed?”
“Oh, I see, and you believe this person, instead of me?”
“It’s not that. I just thought you said it was a total accident.”
“I’m sure they didn’t want to hit a tree and die, so yes.”
Uncle Reid’s eyes were cold. He was more distant than I expected. It was as if I’d done something wrong or disappointed him.
“I need to know the truth if I’m going to move on. I’ve made some big strides, in the face of what happened. I’m excited about what I can accomplish. I haven’t had a panic attack. I went to the mall.”
“That reminds me, it’s time for your medication.” Uncle Reid looked back toward the door. I looked too, into the empty hall.
“That’s another thing. I don’t think I really need all I was on. I think, well, it might be overkill right now. Like I said, I’m making progress.”
I felt the walls closing in. All this time, this place kept the great big world away, and now, there was an overwhelming feeling that it was here that I was in the most danger.
“Here. You’re going to want this; I promise you that.” And my Uncle tossed a container of my pills toward me. It fell to the ground, and I leaned down and picked it up. That was also part of the discussion.
Did I really need this medication? Was it still right for me? I’d been off it and felt better, even after all I’d been through. I put the medication in my pocket. That was the next discussion, for now, it was about my parents. I needed to understand.
“I can see you’re agitated.” Uncle Reid got up from behind his desk, walked over to the other side of the desk, and sat on it in front of me. I so desperately wanted him to understand me, and me him.
“I’m agitated because I think you’re lying to me. Or were lying to me to protect me. I understand I didn’t seem to be able to handle anything. But I can now. I’ve realized something.”
I could smell Uncle Reid’s familiar cologne. He was, as usual, perfectly groomed, and even now, when I was asking about my father’s death—his own brother—he was calm and cool.
“You’ve realized things? That’s too bad for you. Dear niece, I ran your parents off the road. Your father was asking a lot of questions, and I’d simply had it.”
“WHAT? What are you saying?”
Of all the things I’d had to accept, handle, survive, in the last few days, this one was beyond my imagining. Had he just said that? That he’d run his own brother off the road?
“I’m saying this since you want the truth. Here it is. Your parents got in my way. And now YOU’RE getting in my way.”
His eyes were cold, ice blue, small, mean, and aiming something evil and ugly in my direction.
“I don’t understand.”
“Filch, get in here. Get her in the car.”
“What?” I turned, too late to defend myself. Detective Filch was there. He grabbed me from behind. My mind raced. Everything I believed about my life, my uncle, my parents was thrown into chaos.
“If you’re going to be a problem, we’ll dose you up.”
“I uh, I’m not a problem.” Any idea about my new found bravery went out the door. I felt my heart rate spike and my mind race. If Filch didn’t kill me right there, my heart would do the job for him. But one thing ran through my mind. I didn’t want them to dose me up with something. I wanted a clear head for whatever might happen. It was the only way to survive.
Surviving this nightmare would take every bit of courage and brain I had.
“Good to hear. You’re going into a new line of work,” my uncle said, and then to Filch, “Put her in your trunk.” Then, problem or not, I felt a hard rap on the back of my head. And my legs collapsed under me.
I woke up in darkness, confined, and most definitely in the trunk. I used every technique I had learned to get control of my breathing. I wasn’t dead, yet. My head hurt; my body was contorted into this space. It was stifling, uncomfortable, terrifying, but I wasn’t dead.
My uncle, he’d been behind everything. I had never seen it, or even suspected the evil that he was. The car rolled on. I had no idea how long we’d driven or any sense of where we were headed.
But we stopped, and the car engine turned off. Uncle Reid’s dirty cop, the one who’d scared me, shot at me, and now had squished me into this trunk, opened the hatch, and I was dragged to my feet.
“Let’s go.”
Uncle Reid walked ahead of us. I no idea where we were, except he was headed into some warehouse-looking building. It looked like a metal barn. There were no signs on it, no address plate.
I wondered if this was where he took the other girls. If this was exactly how it had happened. Uncle Reid had done this to me. He had killed my parents and was now responsible for what? Trying to sell me? I didn’t want any of it to be true. But it was. I saw clearly now, for the first time.
I stopped walking, stopped cooperating. I just stopped.
“Let’s go,” Filch said.
“You aren’t going to do this to me, I refuse,” I shouted, and Uncle Reid stopped in his tracks and walked back to us. Filch had my arm in a vice grip. I leaned as far away as I could from him, but I was trapped in his strong grip.
“Excuse me?”
“You killed my parents, you tried to keep me hidden, you drugged me, and kidnapped me. Why?”
“Your parents found out about my import/export business.”
“So that’s what you call sex trafficking?”
“So ugly, just like your father.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me?”
“Oh, that’s the other thing. Your parents’ money went to you, but I’m the executor. I needed that money. You were a perfect way to launder my other profits as well. Investments. Oh, just all sorts of good reasons to keep you around. And under my thumb. And I am about to turn another profit on you.”
“What?”
“Get her in there, and if you need to sedate her, do it. I need her able to stand but not able to talk. It’ll be easy. I’ve nurtured her drug dependencies for years. Look, Darby, we’re out in the open. How’s your heart feeling?” Uncle Reid turned and laughed. I thought back to the way he always stoked my fears. The way he undermined any attempt I made to get better.
He’d done it so I would be the perfect victim.
I felt the hot sting of tears in my eyes. I felt a rage like I didn’t think possible. And things got incredibly clear. If I was going to survive, I had to comply. I had to be the scared girl.
I
wanted to yank free, lash out, run, but I had to pretend. The fears I had all this time were the wrong fears.
They shoved me into the warehouse room and inside were the three girls I’d been taken with. They watched me with no emotion. I would be them inside of a few seconds if I let them shoot me up with a tranquilizer. I had to try to avoid that at all costs.
I didn’t have a plan or a way out. But if I was out of it, I was doomed.
“Stand up.” The girls did as they were told. The other man who’d pretended to be a cop, Shaw, was there too. He was herding them into a line. Filch pushed me in line with them.
“We’re going to do pictures, of all four. I have buyers in Chicago. This one needs placement overseas.” My Uncle Reid wasn’t even referring to me by name. He didn’t think of me as a person, maybe he never had.
Shaw got out a camera and grabbed the first girl.
“Stand over there.” There was a dark curtain, a tripod, some lights. I had no question of what was to happen next.
“Strip, now,” he said to her, and she began to take off her clothes. I couldn’t watch it. I was going to have to do the same thing. It was barbaric. And I knew it was only the beginning.
“Leave them the fuck alone!” It was a low, unmistakable growl. The door had burst open. Steel was standing in the doorway.
Shit, it was three against one. They’d kill him for sure. They all turned to look at Steel, who didn’t look scared in the slightest. I was petrified not paralyzed—I could help or do something. I just didn’t know what.
“You mother fuckers didn’t lock the door?”
I yanked free of Filch and ran. But I didn’t run to Steel.
Twenty
Steel
* * *
How in the fuck did they get her? That was my first thought as fucking Reid Bishop and that Filch pulled Darby out of the car.
How in the fuck? I should have stopped to plan. I wished I was Sawyer in this moment. I wish I knew something clever to do to save her.
