Denied

by Marissa Farrar

  She was a laser therapist, not a gangster, and right now she’d never felt more like a laser therapist in her life.

  Monster (Present Day)

  Monster hated that he’d put Lily in yet another dangerous situation, with a man she despised, but it was the only way he’d been able to figure out how to get inside the airplane. She had her gun, and had told him she wanted to be the one who killed Cigarette Hands, but if the opportunity arose, he would whip the gun out of the hiding place in the waistband of her jeans and shoot the piece of shit himself.

  The man was a creep, nothing gentlemanly about him whatsoever. Monster was furious with himself that he’d forced Lily to spend time in close confines with this guy all those weeks ago. Just knowing that he’d threatened her, and hit her, made him want to wrap his hands around the other man’s throat and strangle the life out of him. The irony that he’d been the one to bring Cigarette Hands into her life in the first place wasn’t lost on him.

  Cigarette Hands gave the kidnapped girl a shove and sent her flying toward the back of the plane. Her hands were tied behind, her back and when she stumbled and fell, she did so head first, smacking her face against the side of one of the seats. She gave a muffled cry as she glanced off the chair and landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. Instead of staying where she was, she pushed with her feet and wriggled away until she was in the farthest possible corner of the plane.

  Monster tried not to show any discomfort in the girl’s plight, but he had felt Lily wince in his arms when the girl cried out, and had heard her sharp intake of breath. He didn’t care about anyone else, but he cared about how Lily was feeling, and that the man’s treatment of the other woman upset her set his anger on a slow, rolling boil.

  “Listen to me,” Monster said, tamping down on his anger in order to continue his façade of cool businessman. “I don’t know who you’re selling to, but please believe me when I say that whatever repercussions you think you might have from switching girls will be nothing compared to the total shit storm I’m prepared to land on your head. You’ve already seen that I’m willing to kill for what I want. Do not underestimate me.”

  He couldn’t allow the trafficker to see he was emotionally involved in the whole situation. If he did that, he’d get the other man’s suspicions up right away. This was a business deal, no more, no less.

  Cigarette Hands dropped down into one of the seats of the plane and crossed his legs. “Everyone I sell to is willing to kill for what he wants,” he said. “What makes you so different?”

  “How about the fact I’m the one standing before you now? I don’t know where your other buyer is, but by the fact you need to use a plane to get the girl to him, I assume he’s a lot farther away than I am.”

  The trafficker gave a low chuckle. “Yes, I’d say that’s probably true, but that doesn’t mean I should do as you ask.”

  “Would knowing that I have armed men outside, and more on the way, help to sway your judgment?”

  “Now, now, there’s no need to talk about violence just yet.” He gestured to the opposite chair. “Take a seat, and I’ll get us something to drink. Throw the girl over there with the other one. They can keep each other company.”

  Monster didn’t plan on throwing Lily anywhere, especially as she still had hold of the gun. “I don’t want to sit, and I don’t want to drink. I just want you to agree to my proposal so I can get on with my day.”

  Cigarette Hands sighed, as though exasperated. “Well, you’re no fun.” He languished in the seat, almost too relaxed, slouching to one side. Monster’s eyes narrowed in a twitch as the other man tried to surreptitiously reach beneath the seat.

  With certainty, Monster suddenly knew he had another weapon hidden there.

  “Flower!” he yelled in warning, releasing her so she could shoot the man.

  Lily pulled out her gun, but she wasn’t quick enough and the trafficker whipped another handgun out from whatever fixings he must have had fastened to the bottom of the chair. Monster had a split second to decide what to do—go for Lily’s weapon, or take out the trafficker. He made the choice in a fraction of a second, knowing by the time he tried to take the gun from Lily, Cigarette Hands would already have shot her or him.

  Monster lunged for the other man, focused on the hand holding the gun which now lifted toward him and Lily. Their bodies collided, and they spilled to the floor in a tumbling heap of grunts, and he grappled for the gun. Monster somehow ended up on top of the other man and he grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the gun and slammed it against metal casing of the airplane seat opposite. A loud crack resounded through the plane, accompanied by a howl of agony from Cigarette Hands. The gun went flying and skittered across the floor.

  Something smacked him on the other side of his head, stars exploding behind his eyes, and he realized Cigarette Hands had used his uninjured side to punch him in the temple. The blow had weakened him enough to give the trafficker an advantage, even for the briefest of seconds.

  “Flower!” he yelled.

  He needed her.

  Twenty-four

  Lily stood over Monster and Cigarette Hands, the gun shaking in her hand. “Don’t move, asshole,” she yelled. “Or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.”

  The trafficker froze.

  “Get up, Monster,” she said, trying to stop her voice from wobbling.

  Monster got to his feet, and swayed. The bloom of a bruise was already spreading beside his eye and down to his cheekbone, but he didn’t let his injury stop him. He lifted his foot and stomped it down onto the trafficker’s other wrist, the fragile bones breaking with a crunch. The man let out a strangled scream and tried to curl his limbs into his torso.

  The trafficker stared up at Lily, his eyes wide and almost rolling, his nostrils flaring, so he reminded her of a wild horse. With both hands now useless, Cigarette Hands must have finally realized he’d met his match.

  “Finish him, Flower,” said Monster, moving to stand behind her.

  She forced her finger to squeeze the trigger, wanting this moment to be over, but she just couldn’t make her hand work.

  Monster was right. Killing someone, even a man as evil as this, would change her. She wanted to be hard and cold, but the truth was she still felt too deeply.

  Monster must have understood exactly what she was going through, even though she hadn’t spoken a word.

  “It’s okay,” he said from behind, softly in her ear. He reached out and covered her fingers—the ones holding the weapon—with his own. “Let me be your hand. Let me take this pain and burden from you. After everything I’ve put you through, it’s the least I can do.”

  Her grip relaxed just a fraction, so close to letting him take over. But then she heard the muffled sobs of the girl Cigarette Hands had taken, and realized the young woman was still trying to be quiet and hide her misery, even though she was being rescued, and something hardened in her heart.

  Perhaps she needed to change.

  She pulled Monster’s hand from the gun. “No. This is my job.”

  Lily looked Cigarette Hands directly in the eyes, and her heart turned to ice. “Many weeks ago, you sold me, and when you did, you laughed about how it didn’t matter if I saw your face because we girls never come back. Well, I came back, you son of a bitch. Are you happy that I saw your face now?”

  He raised his broken hand, the fingers drooping uselessly, as though it could ward off a bullet. “No, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it!”

  “You didn’t mean what? You didn’t mean to abduct and sell countless women? Or you didn’t mean to rape and torture them? Or are you just sorry that one of us came back?”

  “All of it! I’m sorry for all of it!”

  Lily gave her head a slow shake. “It’s too late to be sorry.”

  And she squeezed the trigger.

  The shot rang out in a deafening blast in the small space, and the gun bucked in her hands. The girl Cigarette Hands had taken gave a muffled shriek, and the man
himself slumped backward, a dark hole in the middle of his forehead. He lay with his eyes wide open, blankly staring at the ceiling of the plane. Behind his head, blood began to pool on the airplane’s expensive carpeting, and slowly spread out like a drop of ink on a wet blotter. The distinctive scent of iron filled the air and she reared back as it hit her nostrils, the warm air suddenly growing ice-cold.

  Lily’s hands shook and she dropped the weapon to the floor. It hit with a clatter, and she stared both at the gun and the hand that had fired the weapon as though she didn’t know where they’d come from.

  I did it. I killed him. I did it. I killed him.

  Monster bent to pick the gun back up. He wiped down the grip and held it in the sleeve of his jacket so he didn’t get any more prints on the weapon. “We can’t leave this here,” he said. “The police will look for a murder weapon. They’ll struggle to build a case on anyone if they can’t find it.”

  Lily took a couple of deep breaths, pulling herself together.

  “Give it to me,” she said, not wanting to be without the weapon while they were still in this situation. In fact, even if she got out of this situation, she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to go unprotected again. “It’s my gun. I’ll get rid of it.”

  He hesitated and then handed the gun back to her, though, following his lead, she used the sleeve of her shirt to take hold of the grip, and pushed it back into the waistband of her jeans. She never thought she’d be one of those people who would feel safer with a weapon, but she was.

  Monster approached the body. He pushed Cigarette Hands’ head to one side, revealing the exit wound, ragged with bloody edges, exposing globs of flesh and the white flash of skull. Lily clamped her hand over her mouth as her body fought to gag, her mouth filling with saliva.

  Monster probed around in the blood and flesh until he found what he was looking for. He lifted it up between his thumb and forefinger.

  The bullet.

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anything to get linked back to you.”

  He dropped the bullet in his pocket and then wiped his hand on the seat of his pants. “What are you going to do with the gun?”

  Lily gave a shrug. “Throw it in the ocean, somewhere no one will find it.”

  Monster nodded. “Good, and we need to do it soon. Even though you’ve ridded society of a scumbag, his death is still a crime in the eyes of the law.”

  She suddenly remembered the poor girl who still cowered in the corner. “Oh, my God.”

  Forgetting about the dead man, she rushed over and crouched down beside the woman. She cowered back as Lily approached, and cautiously Lily put her hand out to her, as though coaxing in a nervous dog. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be frightened now. We’re the good guys. The trafficker is dead and you can go home to your family.”

  She stared at Lily with her big blue eyes wide and frantic, her skin pale. Her blonde, bobbed hair hung down either side of her face in dirty tangles.

  “I’m really sorry,” Lily said, taking hold of the edge of the tape covering her mouth. “This is probably going to hurt.” Gritting her teeth, she yanked the tape, peeling it from the woman’s lips. Tears flooded the girl’s eyes and she winced, but didn’t cry out.

  “Are you all right?”

  The young woman nodded. “I will be,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Thank you.”

  “Let’s get you out of here.”

  She worked on the knots of the rope, releasing the girl’s hands as well. Freed, she rubbed at her wrists and fingers with the opposite hands to bring back the blood flow. Lily remembered doing the same thing.

  “What’s your name?” Lily asked.

  “Jess Rhinestone.”

  “We’re going to make sure you get home to your family now, Jess. I bet they’re going to be worried about you.”

  She nodded and sniffed, her eyes swimming. “I can’t even imagine what my mom and dad have gone through.”

  “Probably no worse than you. I’ve been in your situation. That man took me, too, but he’s never going to hurt anyone else again.”

  “Thank you,” she said again.

  Lily helped Jess to her feet, but Monster stood in their way, blocking the exit.

  He locked his eyes with hers. “She’s a witness, Lily.”

  She realized how stupid she’d been, killing a man in front of a witness. “So? She’s not going to say anything.”

  Monster focused his dark eyes on the other woman. “Is that right? You’re not going to say anything about us being here.”

  Jess shook her head. “I won’t, I promise. You helped me. I wouldn’t get you into any trouble.”

  “We can’t have even been here, do you understand?” he continued. “In fact, when the police do ask, I expect you’ll say it was someone completely different who was here today. Isn’t that right? Perhaps a couple of men—Hispanic, maybe?”

  She nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, that’s exactly what I saw. Two Hispanic men burst in here and started shouting with the guy who took me. There was a fight and shots were fired. When they were all distracted, I ran away?”

  Lily heard the hope in the girl’s voice and she looked toward Monster. “I think that would be a good enough story, don’t you, Monster?”

  He nodded. “Okay, but I don’t need to tell you that if we get wind the police know a different story, we will be tracking you down again.”

  Tears streaked lines in the dirt down her face. “I won’t say anything else, I promise. But there are more women,” Jess cried. “In a container down at an old port …”

  “They’re safe,” said Lily. “We found them before we found you and they’ve been taken to the hospital. You don’t need to worry about them.”

  Jess broke down, threw her arms around Lily’s neck and sobbed. Lily did her best to comfort her, pushing away her own awkwardness about being in such close physical contact with anyone who wasn’t Monster.

  “Thank you,” she said between her tears. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

  “You don’t have to. People and their lives should never need to be paid for.”

  Lily untangled herself from the young woman, and they started to make their way out of the plane. Monster paused to pick his gun back up from where he’d left it, but he left Cigarette Hands’ gun where it was. She guessed they had no use for it now.

  Morning had broken since they’d been on the aircraft, and the hazy morning light made her feel like everything she’d just done had been no more than a terrible nightmare.

  Monster (Present Day)

  They reached the bottom of the metal stairs and Monster felt his cell phone buzz in his pocket.

  What now?

  He took the phone out and checked the screen. A small part of him relaxed. It was only Mason calling to let him know they’d arrived at the airfield.

  Sean came running across the asphalt toward them. He took in the sight of the blonde young woman Lily was helping down the stairs. “I assume the other guy has been dealt with?” he asked.

  Monster nodded. “Yes, Lily shot him.”

  Sean gave her a surprised nod of approval. “Good to hear it. So we’ve got two dead bodies. What do you want us to do with them, sir?”

  Monster glanced back at the multi-million-dollar private aircraft. “Stick the other one on the plane and torch it.”

  Sean’s eyebrows lifted. “Seriously? That’s going to make a hell of an expensive firework.”

  Monster shrugged. “It’s not our money we’re burning.”

  They crossed the airstrip, toward the hangar, Lily with her arm around the young woman’s shoulders. As they walked toward the building, the crumpled shape of the other dead man became clearer on the ground. He was a skinny man in his late twenties—or at least had been. He didn’t look like someone Monster would lose any sleep over.

  Monster turned to find Lily staring down at the dead man. He hadn’t expected her to be able to shoot the traffi
cker and she’d taken him by surprise when she had. He just hoped this wouldn’t affect her into the future. Lily was going to have to go and start a new life now as someone else, and she wouldn’t have anyone to lean on in order to help her process what she’d been through. That she would have to deal with the emotional fallout alone made him hurt deep down in a way he’d never experienced before—a physical pain combined with a sickening sensation of dread.

  Monster reached out to touch her arm. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “That’s the other guy who was at the shipping container when I was taken. He’s the one who threatened to rape me.”

  The idea of someone else touching Flower caused a bubble of rage to swell inside him. “It’s a good thing he’s dead or I’d kill him myself for putting his hands on you.”

  She nodded and folded her arms around her body as though hugging herself. “I’m glad he’s dead, too. I know there will be plenty of others dealing in this sick trade, but at least a couple of them have been shut down for good.”

  The topic still made Monster uncomfortable. After all, he’d used this trade himself and thought nothing of it. In his mind, it had simply been a way of getting what he wanted. Only since he’d met Lily did he find he needed to think about the emotions and well-being of others. He still wasn’t completely comfortable with the situation. Having to consider other people’s thoughts and feelings wasn’t something he’d ever had to worry about, never mind having to process his own.

  “We can’t stay here too much longer,” he said. “I’m sure all the gunfire won’t have gone unnoticed by whoever lives in the property across the street. They might not have called the cops because I’m sure they’ll have been aware of what’s been going on, but that doesn’t mean we won’t garner unwanted attention.”