by Karen Deen
“Come on, Leshy, talk to me. I need you to wake up.” Luke is yelling at her as he sinks to the ground next to the truck, cradling her in his arms. “The ambulance is coming. Stay with me. Xavier needs you. Stay strong for him. We need you.” He is stroking her face and rocking her a little. I see the raw emotion of him trying to stay strong, protecting his baby sister, but I can also see the anger building of wanting to kill whoever has done this to her. I know that feeling as it’s also building in me. It’s like it consumes you, the rage can overcome your rational thought.
I lean over Ally, checking her over. Her pulse is weak, and breathing is shallow, but I think she’ll be okay.
Luke looks up at me with that look that I know all too well. I’m going to have to keep an eye on him.
“I’ll kill them. When we find them, I get first shot!” His anger is getting ready to burst.
“Just concentrate on Alesha, then we need to all focus on finding Xavier. After that, you stand in line because I’ll be at the front of it. No one gets away with doing this to people I care about.” It’s hard enough protecting people I don’t know. This one is personal.
Jordan, standing behind me, places his hand on my shoulder.
“What can I do? I feel useless. I need to be doing something to help.” I’ve only met him a few times but for a hot shot NFL player, right now he’s just a regular guy who is desperate to find his friend.
“We need to get Alesha sorted, then we take off. Have you ever walked these mountains in the daytime?” I ask as I’m already planning my strategies in my head waiting for backup.
“A few times but not enough to know them well.”
“Then we will put you with me, Luke and his dad. They are going to be our best guides, especially in the dark.” I pat him on his arm as I hear the ambulance and squad cars getting closer.
Luke is still talking to his sister who is still out cold. I can see she is breathing, and her color is still good. Let’s just hope it’s shock and pain that has her passed out. Head injuries are such an unknown. That’s what concerns me about Xavier. He was also hit hard in the head and we have no idea how bad he is. It sounds like he was still out to it when they moved him by what Alesha described of the drag marks in the dirt.
“She’s so cold, man. They need to hurry,” Luke’s voice bellows through the dark night.
“They are nearly here, you can hear them. She will be okay. She has to be.” I look down at the woman who is fighting for her life and the man she loves. I won’t let you down, little one. You have my word.
Everything starts to get crazy as the ambulance arrives, followed by squad cars that just keep coming. The paramedics are attending to Alesha while I instruct all the others to head to the parking lot up ahead and we will set up the command post there. Cars moving and more sirens coming, I watch them load Alesha into the back of the ambulance. They are hooking her up to machines and treating her head. Luke stands at the doors just watching in at her. His shoulders are slumped in defeat. He feels helpless to fix this situation. I get that.
I hear her scream out for Xavier and she starts thrashing around. They are trying to calm her down. She keeps screaming that she needs to get to Xavier, to find him, and that he needs her. There is no way she can be out here in her condition. She will slow us down. Plus, we don’t know what we’re going to walk into when we find him. That is not something I want her witnessing.
I can hear another vehicle approaching at speed which puts me on alert. I try to work out if it is coming from the road or the parking lot. The lights come around the corner from the highway direction and skid in the gravel to a stop. An older woman is running from the truck crying, as the man starts stalking with fury towards the ambulance. They will be Alesha’s and Luke’s parents. I stand back and wait to give them time before I approach the group.
“Who the fuck is this woman you are talking about? I want to know who the hell did this to my daughter,” her father is roaring to no one in particular. Another truck then comes screeching around the corner in the gravel and two more men jump out, racing to the ambulance. The other brothers, I guess.
It’s time to get this search happening.
I’m coming for you, buddy, just hang on.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Xavier
I can see her, I just can’t reach her.
Standing on that cliff edge. Sun shining on her hair as she peacefully looks out into the view. I’m calling her but she’s not listening. It’s like she can’t hear me. She starts to walk forward. I don’t like how close she’s getting to the drop-off. I need her to stop. I need to protect her and keep her safe. I call her and she finally turns but it is not a smile I see, it’s panic and then she is falling.
“Ally! No!” I scream as I try to sit upright, but something is holding me down. Sweating, my heart racing, excruciating pain pounds in my head.
“Fuck. Where the fuck am I?” I try to open my eyes, but the light makes my head hurt worse. I push through the pain. I need to find Ally. Why can’t I move?
“Stop trying to move, baby, just relax. You’re here with us. We will make you feel better.” That voice. I know it. It’s not Ally.
Slowly my eyes focus on the direction of the voice and I feel like I want to vomit. It’s her. I knew I should have been more worried that I hadn’t heard from her.
I see Dana across from me, sitting at a small wooden table and some chairs. The walls behind her look like stone and old, dusty and damp. I try to look around a little and see we must be in some old hunting cabin or retreat. It smells like cooking food, but everything else in the room still looks old and like it hasn’t been touched in years. There are lights that are hanging around the room that must be gas or oil. It gives enough light that I glance down to see that I am tied to a metal bed with rope over my chest. My feet are tied together and so are my hands. I feel panic starting to rise through my body. This is not good, and I have no idea what is going on. My head is confused and can’t think clearly.
“Dana, where the fuck am I? What have you done with Ally?” Tugging at the ties holding down my hands and feet, I feel helpless, and anger is now tearing at my body, pushing away the panic and trying to break free.
“Shh, baby. You don’t need to worry about her. She’s gone from your life now. We can finally be together. All three of us. We’ve been waiting a long time for you,” she says in this sickly-sweet voice as she comes closer to stroke my chest. It’s then I realize I have no clothes on. My shirt and shorts are gone. Only my boxer shorts are left, thank Christ. My skin is crawling where she is touching me.
“What. Have. You. Done. With. Her.” My voice is angry through my clenched teeth. If I can get loose, I will kill her if she has hurt Ally.
“Stop talking about her. She was just a slut to fill the gap for you until you got to have me. You know you could have had me at any time. You didn’t need her. Anyway, with any luck, when she wakes up from that hit on the back of the head, she will stagger off the edge of the cliff. Or she could lie there, dying on her own. In a pool of blood.” My heart sinks and almost stops. Please let it just be a dream. My vision of her falling, please, it can’t be true. I can’t lose her. It will be my fault if something has happened to her. I told her I would always protect her and keep her safe. I led the danger to her and then left her to fend for herself.
Oh, Ally, my love.
I’m so sorry.
Fight to survive. Fight for me.
No matter if I make it.
Fight to live, beautiful.
Dana leaning down to kiss me, brings me out of my thoughts fast. No way am I touching her if I can stop it. As she gets close, I spit in her face which has her reeling back cursing me.
“Don’t touch me. I’m not yours and I never will be. No matter what you do, I will never belong to anyone except Ally.” I hear movement from behind my head and then a man comes into view. He looks familiar but I can’t place from where.
“That is where you ar
e wrong, my sweet man. You belong to me. I’ve watched and waited to have you just like this. Here so I can touch you, kiss you and make love to you. You are my lover now.”
I can’t hold back anymore, I turn my head to the side and vomit all over the floor next to the bed I’m strapped to.
“Bear, he’s mine too. We are sharing. I told you that. This time I get to share. I’m keeping him. This one is special.”
Trying to stop the convulsions in my stomach, I look at him again, still trying to place him.
“Who the fuck are you?” I mumble, trying to get the vomit taste off my lips by wiping it on the pillow.
“My name is Edward Floren. I am your new boyfriend. Congratulations, you have finally found your perfect man. You will love playing on my side now, too. I will teach you everything. Just relax, we have plenty of time to get to that.”
Dana’s brother from the gym. Shit.
“Get fucked!” I scream with rage. “You will never have me, and neither will your sister. You two are fucked in the head. Totally deranged! Whack jobs! What is wrong with you? You aren’t normal.” Words are tumbling out of my mouth. I’m in shock at how far they have gone to live out their perverted fantasy. All I can think of is how glad I am that they didn’t bring Ally here. She would never get over this. I could never cope with seeing anyone hurt her or touch her in the way they have plans for me.
I look at him and know if I can just get myself free, I can overpower him. He is big but weak-looking. Although there are two of them, I would be out of here easily. I need to think out a plan to get free. To do that, I have to try to calm the beast inside me that is roaring with rage. I need to get to Ally. Now!
“I know you are upset and confused. It is just from the whack on the head. You will feel better soon and then we can start on our relationships. We promise you will love it. All the others didn’t at first, but in the end, they gave in. They learnt to enjoy it and you will, too,” Dana says as she walks to the table sitting to the side of the room.
“Are you hungry, my love? I made you some dinner. I’m not as good a cook as you but I tried out that chicken, spinach, feta and sundried tomatoes for you. I hope you will like it.”
My mind is now on overload. Firstly, she said there have been others before me. Oh God, how many? Are they dead? Did they get away?
Secondly, how did she know about that meal I cooked? There is no way Ally would have told her. She didn’t speak to her. No one was in the apartment that night except Ally and me.
My head is in so much pain anyway, but this is just sending it spinning. I need to trick her into telling me how she knows about the meal.
“Not hungry and don’t eat chicken.” I stare straight at her as I say it. Waiting for some sort of reaction on her face.
“Of course you do. I saw you cook it and eat it with her. You really like it. You told her that it’s one of your favorites.” Oh, my God.
“How did you see me?” I yell.
“In the cameras, silly. The ones in your apartment that Bear installed. We have watched every part of your life and hers for weeks. You eating, showering and fucking the slut. Don’t you worry. We will fuck you so much better than she did. She was not even worth the effort to fuck her from what I saw.”
The bile is rising up my throat. “You watched us?” I whisper because I am just so shattered to know someone saw Ally exposed like that. Private moments and they saw it all. How will I ever tell her that? “How could you do that to us?” I murmur. My strength is gone. I’m gutted.
“Oh, it was easy. Bear just got into your apartments and installed the hidden cameras and microphones. Then we could watch you from anywhere we liked. He works for the surveillance company that monitors the gym cameras. He knew as soon as he saw you, we had to have you. You are a rare gem. We waited for the right time. Now we are all finally together how we should be. It just took a little longer than normal because she turned up and nearly ruined everything. She thought she could outplay me. She was wrong. I never lose. I played the game better than her. Plus, Bear was my secret weapon. He knew just how to get you here.” She rambles it all out like she is so proud on how their plans came together perfectly.
I can’t even talk or look at her. I close my eyes and turn my head to the wall to look away from them both. My life has been violated and there is nothing I can do to stop them while I’m trapped here. My poor, beautiful Ally. I just want to picture her and will my heart to stop. If I can’t be with her, I don’t want to live.
“That’s it, my sexy man. Just rest, it has been a big day. You can eat later, and we can talk more. Start making plans to get you to our new home. Sleep now while it’s dark outside.”
I lie here, trying to process everything I have just heard. The longer I lie here and think, the more my anger returns and my determination to get out of here. What right do they have to take my life away from me? No fucking right at all. If it’s night time, then we are supposed to be meeting everyone for dinner and a night out. They will work out something is wrong when we don’t show up. Kane and Mitch both knew we were hiking today. Hopefully they will come looking for us. They need to find Ally and make sure she is okay. She’s got to be okay. I can’t let myself think otherwise or my fight will leave me again. The boys in Ally’s family know these mountains better than I do. They will find her.
Keeping my eyes closed, they think I am asleep. I can hear them talking quietly on their plans of leaving tomorrow and how we will get down the mountain without being detected. I now know I am in an abandoned cabin in the mountain off one of the trails that heads the opposite direction to the main trail to the parking lot. It’s accessible by a 4-wheel buggy which is how they got me here unconscious. The worry is that they are talking about drugging me tomorrow to get me out of here. I can’t let that happen. I will need to think quickly to work out my plan.
I’m fighting to get back to you, beautiful. Keep believing in me. I need your strength to help me fight. I meant what I said. We are a circle. We never end.
Alesha
I hear my mom talking quietly but I’m confused where I am. My head still hurts, and I feel funny. Opening my eyes, the room is full of bright lights and all white walls. Blinking, my mom’s voice stops, and I feel her squeeze my hand.
“Princess, I’m here. We’re all here. All the girls are here.” Her voice is calm and soothing as I try to focus on her standing next to me. I can hear Lilly quietly crying and being comforted by Zoe.
“Where am I?” I look to Mom.
“You’re in the hospital, sweetheart. The ambulance brought you hear from the mountain.” She talks in a low voice and sits in the chair next to the bed, leaning down to kiss my cheek. “You are going to be fine. You just need time to get over the concussion from the bang on your head.”
My head feels muddled and I try to understand what she is talking about. “Mom, where is Xavier, is he here, too?” Lilly starts to cry again and the look on Mom’s face tells me there is something wrong. Something I can’t quite understand in my head. I see her take a deep breath.
“No, sweetie, he’s still missing. Kane, Dad and the boys are looking for him now. They will find him. He will be okay. We just have to keep believing that.”
It all comes flooding back like a movie reel of every painful moment. The tears start to fall again.
“Dana,” I cry out. “She’s crazy. They need to help him. Please, Mom. Tell them to hurry.” I reach out to grab her. I need something to hold onto. My heart is breaking into a thousand pieces, thinking of the man I love, hurt and missing.
“Nat, where is she, is she okay? I need to see her.” She must be beside herself with worry.
“I’ll get her, she’s in the waiting room with Emily and the kids. She needed some air, she couldn’t sit here watching you sleep,” Zoe said as she headed to the door. Now that she’s not wrapped in Zoe’s arms, Lilly lunges for me, sobbing into my chest as I hug her back.
“I’m okay, Lil. I’ll be okay. Please
stop crying.”
At the sound of the door, Mom takes Lilly with her out of the room, so Nat and I are alone. I just look at her for a moment and we both fall apart. Opening my arms, she rushes to me. We both hang onto each other with all the strength we have but also crave.
“Nat. I’m sorry, I tried… to save him…they hurt him…I couldn’t get to him,” I get out between sobs. I need her to know I did everything I could. We both try to calm down and breathe deeply. Pulling back, she takes my shoulders and finds her inner strength.
“You did good, Ally. You got help. You got them searching already. That’s because of you.” We rest our foreheads on each other. Just taking a moment.
“Nat,” I say, pulling back and she sits next to me on the bed nice and close, so we are touching and holding hands. “Can you still feel him, in your soul, can you sense him still with you?” I hesitate asking, waiting to hear her answer.
“Yeah, Ally, I can. He’s still as strong in there as the day we were born.” Her arm tightens around my shoulder.
“Me too, Nat. Me too.”
“Then we just have to keep believing they will find him, that he will come back to us. He will fight to get back home. We both know he’s strong. His love for you will bring him home. His annoying nature of being the overprotective big brother will bring him back to me. There is no other option.”
For some reason a sense of calmness comes over me, a lot like the feeling I get from Xavier. Nat is channeling her twin power to sense him which is protecting me too. We continue to hold each other, just waiting for the slightest bit of news. I have no idea how long it has been since we were attacked or since the boys found me. All I know is that it has been too long since I’ve been with Xavier. He is never leaving my side again.
