Marine Firefighter

by M K Dwyer

  “Maybe she’ll be back tomorrow.” What else was he supposed to say?

  As he drove out of the school parking lot, his phone rang, and “Unknown Name” showed on the screen of his truck’s dashboard. He pressed “Answer” and accepted the call.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, is this Will Braun?”

  “Yes. Who’s this?”

  “This is Joyce Cross. I don’t know if she’s ever mentioned me, but I’m a friend of Nikki’s.”

  “Hi, Joyce. Of course, she’s mentioned you. What can I do for you?”

  “Have you talked to her today?” Alarm bells started going off in Will’s head.

  “No. Why?”

  “Oh, God. She didn’t show up to work today, she didn’t call in, and she’s not answering her phone. I’m worried about her. If everything is fine, then I just violated like a gazillion rules finding your number in her student files, but I have a bad feeling.”

  She, no doubt, feared the same thing he did. That Aiden had reached the height of his desperation and would attempt to coerce her into returning to him by force. He looked over at Joe who had heard the entire conversation. He wanted to go running to Nikki’s side and make sure she was all right, but he couldn’t take Joe in case she wasn’t.

  “Joyce are you still at the school?”

  “Yes.” He flipped a U-turn back to the school.

  “We just left, so we’re not too far. I’m bringing Joe back to you. If I give you my keys, can you take him home and stay with him while I check on Nikki?” He was choosing to trust this stranger with his precious flesh and blood. But Nikki thought the world of her, so he was choosing to trust not just his judgement, but her judgement as well.

  “Absolutely, and I’ll give you Nikki’s keys to get into the gate at her complex and her front door. If you break down her door and she’s just there sick as a dog, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  In any other circumstance, Will would have smiled at her statement, but his mind was only on Nikki.

  “Sounds good Joyce. We’ll be there in a few minutes. Meet me by the front entrance. I need to call my friends and let them know what’s going on.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Will. I’ll be there.”

  Will hung up without saying anything else. Time was of the essence.

  He called Adam to tell him what was going on, and he insisted on meeting him at Nikki’s condo. He said he would call War and Jesus to back them up as well. Will hoped the four of them would be overkill for checking on Nikki, but he appreciated their unwavering support. There was no brotherhood like the Marine Corps brotherhood.

  As promised, when he pulled up to the front of the school, Joyce was outside waiting for them. Before Joe got out of the truck he turned to Will with tears in his eyes. “Be careful, Dad. I hope Ms. Sparks is okay.”

  “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine.” He wasn’t sure, but what else could he say?

  He and Joyce exchanged keys, and he peeled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.

  The length of the drive to Nikki’s condo was excruciating, though it took less than ten minutes. He parked and retrieved his gun from the lockbox under his passenger seat. He’d rather be over prepared than under prepared. He prayed he was overreacting, but he had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  He was double-checking his gun when he saw Adam’s car pull into the parking lot, and Jesus drove in with War in his car only thirty seconds later. They were all there. They were all armed, plus War always had a few knives strapped to his person. Thanks to these guys, he wouldn’t have to go into an unknown situation alone.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Nikki

  Her Good Samaritan days were over. Shortly after she woke up tied to her kitchen chair with a goose-egg sized bump on her head, she vowed not to help the next damsel in distress that showed up on her doorstep.

  She’d welcomed that witch-with-a-capital-B, Brandy, into her home because she felt sorry for the girl. She was blubbering on and on that she thought Aiden was having an affair. Nikki couldn’t comfort her and say Aiden would never do that because he had done that. She also felt guilty because Aiden had spent so much time trying to get her back that it looked like he was cheating.

  Not anymore. She no longer felt sorry for Brandy or guilty for Aiden’s actions. She was only pissed.

  Hoping to get her calmed down enough to leave, she left Brandy alone in her living room to make her a cup of tea. When she came back, someone, who she can only guess was Brandy, hit her over the head with something heavy.

  The next thing she knew, she woke up tied to one of her kitchen chairs with a gag in her mouth and a splitting headache. Her arms were tied to the arms of the chair and her legs were tied to the legs. No one else was around, so she checked her bonds. They held tight with no wiggle room even causing poor circulation in her extremities, and the struggle left her fatigued. She checked her surroundings. Everything in her kitchen and dining area looked undisturbed, but she couldn’t see beyond that. By the way the sunshine came in through the windows, she could tell it was mid-morning. She’d been out for half a day, give or take. Being tied sitting upright to a chair for 12 hours would certainly cause the aching stiffness in her joints and muscles that she felt.

  She wasn’t sure how long she sat there alone, but it felt like forever. She was half glad whoever was holding her hostage was leaving her alone, and half ready to find out who and why so the anticipation would be over with.

  She assumed it was Brandy, but why? Was she working alone? Again, why? What could I have possibly done to Brandy to garner this kind of retaliation? Brandy stole Nikki’s husband. If anyone should be strapped to a chair, it should be her. The bump on the head must have been more severe than she initially thought because the image of Brandy being strapped to the chair became the funniest thing in the world. Nikki started laughing uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop. Is this what insanity feels like?

  “What the fuck is so funny in there?”

  That did it. She stopped laughing the second she heard Brandy’s voice.

  “Good. You’re up. I thought I was going to have to dump a bucket of cold water on you. I even tried smacking you a couple of times. I guess I hit you too hard. You were dead to the world. You can’t be dead yet though. Not before I’ve had my fun. Aiden will never want you back when I’m through with you.”

  Her eyebrows lifted in shock. She tried to talk through her gag, but her mouth and throat were drier than Death Valley.

  “Didn’t think I knew about you two, did you?”

  Again, she tried to protest behind the gag, but only managed a grunt or two.

  “I heard him on the phone with his mommy. The wimp practically begged her for your address and phone number, and then the idiot left it all written on a notepad in his office. I tracked him using one of those overprotective parent apps right to your front door. Over. And. Over. Did you like my calls and texts? I guess the fact that you let me in your house means you never figured out they were from me. Idiot. I knew you would block the number each time, so I had to keep buying new phones.”

  No wonder the calls and texts didn’t quite make sense, they were from Brandy, not Aiden. Little good did that information do Nikki now. She just stared at the delusional woman standing in front of her while she monologued to her heart’s content.

  She was done trying to protest. She couldn’t speak around the gag. She probably couldn’t speak anyway without some water. Fat chance of that happening. And attempting to speak was using up her much-needed energy. The woman was insane and wouldn’t listen to her anyway. She had to bide her time and store up energy to make her escape when the opportunity presented itself.

  “No protest this time? Nothing to say? I’ll take that as confirmation that my suspicions are correct.”

  Nikki rolled her eyes. She couldn’t win with this crazy bitch.

  “Don’t roll your eyes at me! I’m in charge here, damn it!” Brandy backha
nded Nikki across her face. First with one hand and then the other. Great. She’s ambidextrous. Nikki’s face was on fire, and she could feel her cheeks starting to swell, but the sarcasm in her head kept her from losing her mind to the fear coursing through her body.

  She closed her eyes and hung her head, trying to breathe through the pain, but Brandy grabbed her hair and yanked her head backward.

  “How’d you like that, honey? That was just a taste of what I have in store for you. I told you you’d be sorry if you continued your whoring ways and didn’t let my Aiden go.”

  Brandy let go of Nikki’s hair and moseyed out of the room like she didn’t have a care in the world. Like she didn’t just threaten someone she was holding hostage.

  Nikki wanted to cry, but she didn’t. She focused on breathing through the pain in her face and the massive headache. She needed to keep her wits about her instead of breaking down, and she didn’t have the hydration to spare anyway.

  Brandy left her there for another stretch of time, but she couldn’t be sure how long. At one point, she slipped into blissful unconsciousness only to be woken up by the bucket of water being dumped on her that Brandy had threatened earlier.

  “Oh, pardon me. Were you napping? Am I a boring houseguest? Sorry, but it’s time to wake up now.”

  If Nikki thought the woman was insane before. She confirmed, without a doubt, Brandy was certifiable. But Brandy’s mental state wasn’t the only thing she noticed. She realized the stench of gasoline was strong all around her. She looked around and noticed several gas cans on her kitchen floor, and she turned her terrified expression to Brandy for answers.

  “I see you’ve noticed that I doused your whole condo with gasoline while you were having your beauty rest. I’m going to have to work fast or the fumes are going to give me a headache.” She smiled and laughed like she’d just said something funny.

  Nikki had no idea what Brandy meant by “work fast”. But when Brandy picked up Nikki’s butcher block full of knives and brought them over, Nikki’s mind went into overdrive with possibilities.

  “Do you know why Aiden decided he wanted you back?”

  Nikki just shook her head eying the simple steak knife Brandy had pulled out of the block.

  “He wants kids, and I can’t have any.” She huffed. “Stupid fucker never put two-and-two together that I let him ride me bareback all those times when we were sneaking around in his office because I wasn’t worried about getting pregnant.”

  Nikki wanted to retch, but the thought of puking with a gag on kept the bile in her stomach. After she found out Aiden was cheating, she got tested in case he caught something from his whore and passed it to her. The tests came back negative for everything but confirming that he could have given her something incurable made her sick and angry. If she thought she could never be angrier with Aiden than she was the day he ended their marriage, she was woefully wrong. She blamed him for everything, including bringing Brandy into their lives to begin with. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been strapped to her own kitchen chair.

  “So, I have to make sure he never wants you back again. You know Aiden. He’s so into looks, he’d never want a scarred-up wife on his arm.”

  Nikki trembled as Brandy held her chin and ran the tip of the knife across her cheek. It cut her, but not more than a scratch. Brandy let out a frustrated huff and cut Nikki deeper in the exact same spot as she was testing how hard to press the knife into her skin.

  Nikki cried out around the gag and the tears she’d previously kept from falling came of their own volition. She tried to pull away, but Brandy had a death grip on her chin, and her arms and legs were still securely strapped to the chair.

  Brandy cut her again across the same cheek, but at a different angle. Is she drawing an “X”? She thought the pain was the worst it ever could be, and she prayed for unconsciousness, but she was wrong. When Brandy started cutting into her other cheek, she screamed again through the gag. She hoped the knife would cut through the gag, so she could tell Brandy exactly what a crazy, messed up, maniac bitch she was, but the gag went too low over her jaw and around the back of her neck.

  Brandy let go of Nikki’s chin, but not before admiring her handiwork like some sort of insane cosmetician.

  Nikki prayed that was the end of it, but Brandy wasn’t done. She pulled a paring knife from the block and proceeded to draw bloody lines and shapes down Nikki’s arms and legs like a deranged Picasso.

  Brandy made the mistake of getting too close though. Nikki reared back and head-butted Brandy square in the nose. Brandy’s knee-jerk response was to slap Nikki across the face before grabbing a wad of paper towels to stem the flow of her bloody nose.

  Brandy, then, paced the kitchen floor ranting something that Nikki couldn’t make out through the paper towels or the ringing in her ears. Her whole body shook, and she groaned sounds she didn’t know she could make. Her only escape was in her head because her body had nowhere to go. She imagined being wrapped in Will’s arms, safe and secure. She couldn’t escape physically, but she could become numb and pray for sweet relief.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Will

  The four guys arrived at Nikki’s front door, but instinct told them not to knock. Instead, they looked through the front windows to assess the situation. On first inspection, everything looked in order, but Will noticed one of her lamps was missing off the end table. When he looked closer, he saw a small portion of the lamp sticking out from behind the couch. That was enough to confirm his suspicions that something wasn’t right.

  He turned to the other three, and whispered, “War and Jesus, you two head around back. There is a short wall around her patio that is easy to scale, and her sliding glass door is probably unlocked. Adam and I will go through the front. Keep your head down and your eyes peeled.”

  War and Jesus hustled around the row of condos. Adam and Will gave them sixty seconds to get into position before Will unlocked the front door and they walked in with their guns drawn. Will first, then Adam. The smell of gasoline was heavy in the air, and Will suspected someone had saturated Nikki’s condo with it. He didn’t smell smoke or see fire, so they snuck towards the sounds coming from the kitchen area. To his surprise, it was a woman’s voice that Will heard first, and it wasn’t Nikki’s. He looked back at Adam and shook his head to tell him that wasn’t Nikki’s voice. He knew Adam would understand. They walked towards the voice that seemed to be ranting but muffled. It was coming from the kitchen.

  Will peered around the corner, and his heart jumped into his throat. Bloody, wet and tied to a chair, Nikki sat with her head hanging as a strange woman paced the kitchen. He still couldn’t understand what she was ranting about because she held a bloody rag to her face.

  Adam gave him a look that questioned what was going on. Will switched places with him, so he could see the scene for himself. Adam peeked around the corner, and then looked back at Will. He imagined the look on Adam’s face mirrored his own. Pure horror and dread.

  It’s now or never. Adam and Will rushed quiet as mice into the kitchen with their guns trained on the woman ranting like a crazy person. She didn’t hear them, but as they got closer, they could hear her.

  “You stupid bitch. That was a stupid, stupid stunt you pulled. I wanted to leave you to die in the fire. But I think I’ll just stab you in the heart instead, so I can watch you die now.”

  The woman reached towards the knives on the kitchen table, but Adam was right behind her. He holstered his gun and grabbed her arms. Then held her wrists behind her back with one hand while he pushed the block of knives across the table as far away from where they stood as he could manage.

  In the same moment, Will holstered his gun as well and ran to Nikki’s side to assess her injuries and untie her. He wasn’t a man prone to tears, but the scene in front of him brought him to his knees and tears sprang to his eyes. She looked so broken. He didn’t know how she survived. She hadn’t acknowledged their entrance, so he guessed sh
e was unconscious from the blood loss. The rise and fall of her chest was the only outward sign she was still alive at all.

  He pulled the gag from her mouth and checked her pulse. It was fainter than it should’ve been, but still there. While he started untying her bonds, Adam fought with the woman who carried out Nikki’s torture. He was stronger than her, but he was also bigger, and she knew how to use that against him. She got away from him, ran to the kitchen counter and grabbed a book of matches.

  “Brandy!”

  She stopped and looked shocked at Adam. Will wondered how Adam knew her name too.

  Adam held up his hands in surrender and walked slowly towards Brandy.

  “You don’t have to do this. I guess you know that Aiden has been down here trying to get Nikki back, but Brandy, she’s not interested. She’s done with him. You can walk away from this and go back to him, but if you light those matches there is no going back.”

  Will wanted to laugh. She’s buying this shit. There was already no going back for the bitch, but she appeared to genuinely think it over. Will used the time to further untie the ropes holding Nikki to her kitchen chair. Her legs were free, but he still had the ropes around her arms and around her body. Keeping half his attention on the scene unfolding in front of him, he tried to work as fast as possible without hurting her more than the damage Brandy had inflicted.

  Brandy looked down at the box of matches and pulled one out.

  Adam screamed, “No!” and drew his weapon on Brandy.

  He shot her in the shoulder, but she still managed to lite the match. She added the match to the remaining box of matches and threw the entire burning pack in their direction. The pack landed in a patch of the generously poured gasoline and sparked a fire immediately. A second later a rock came crashing through the sliding glass door, and she used the diversion to rush out on to the back patio.

  Knowing War and Jesus were responsible for the shattered glass door, and that they could handle the crazy woman heading their way, Adam and Will focused on freeing Nikki from her bonds.