by A. J. Macey
I bit my tongue not to give a scathing remark. I didn't know how many more hits to the face I could take before he would dislocate my jaw, break my nose, or do worse damage. The man was built like a fucking ox, and my body couldn't handle that kind of hit over and over. They filed out of the room, closing the door with a loud thunk and a click of the lock. Despite the severity of the situation, I couldn't help but chuckle slightly hysterically.
“That was the most clichéd thing ever,” I muttered to myself. “Not only do they have the cheesiest name I've ever heard of, but apparently they like to be the cliché-ist mob known to man.”
The thought was slightly comforting, helping steady my quickly growing out-of-control nerves. Once the footsteps had silenced on the other side of the door, my resolve built. I'm going to get the hell out of here before they come back. The thought steeled me, and I got back to work on the ropes.
Liam
“You better fucking have something.” I leveled a glare at my brothers and Sam where they all stood around a large conference table. Everything that we knew up until I had a meeting with Inspector Carter was spread out across the shiny wooden surface. I tossed the folder that I had received at them, outlining exactly what I had learned as quickly as I could.
“How the hell did they even know she was with me?” I questioned, pacing back and forth as my brothers, Sam and my father all stayed silent.
“They saw you, didn't they?” Sam asked.
“Yes, but how did they know she was staying there? It’s not like I just blast my address around everywhere; we have that information buried under miles and miles of redirects, fronts, and fake names. Not only that, we're here,” I emphasized. “The photo that they had was her at this building. So, how did they know exactly where she was enough to get her through a window? It’s too good to be sheer coincidence.”
When I said that the mood immediately plummeted even worse than it had previously. We all came to the same conclusion.
“Sam,” my father commanded, looking at him.
“On it,” Sam said without further instruction. “Come on, you're with me.” He pointed at Hunter, the two of them striding from the room.
There’s a leak within the crew. The Auckland Kings had someone who had some very loose lips.
“Are we sure?” Theo put forth as soon as it was just the three of us. My father glared.
“I'm not taking any chances.”
“So, now what?” Theo murmured, eyeing the papers across the table.
“Tech and retrieval teams are looking into where they could be holding her,” my father explained. “Checking security footage, traffic cameras, tracing, anything they can possibly be doing. We’ll know as soon as they know something.”
“I alerted my police contact as well,” I stated before starting to pace. “But if there is a rat and we find them, which to be quite fair is going to be quite some cathartic therapy because I'm going to beat the shit out of him until he slowly withers away,” I ranted, “but how the hell does that help me get Harper back?”
The rage and determination fueled me onward, dulling the panic and the worry about how this would turn out. I latched on to those strong emotions knowing I couldn't let myself break with Harper's life on the line.
“Well, we figure out where the four of these men are and then we can find them,” Theo started, gesturing to the photo I had gotten from my police contact.
“That's great, but the Phantoms have a hell of a lot of different businesses and safe houses. How do we possibly know which one it is even with our best men looking into it?”
My father rubbed his jaw in thought at my point, deep frown lines appearing on his face as he stayed silent. The odds weren't looking good, so I continued to pace back and forth as we waited for Sam and Hunter to have some kind of information. But after a minute of silence, clenching my fists rhythmically in a piss poor attempt to stay still, I couldn't stand there any longer. Abruptly snatching a chair, I launched it across the room with a growl. Bits of drywall flew through the air when the metal legs collided with a loud crash. Neither my brother nor my father said anything, no doubt having an idea of what I was feeling right then.
My father's phone rang, the cheery notes sounding off in the somber situation and mood of the room.
“Yes,” he answered gruffly. “On our way,” was all that was said before he hung up. He looked at us and, based on the anger that slipped past the cold mask, Sam and Hunter had found our leak.
I hadn’t expected them to figure it out in such a short timeframe, but I knew what Sam was capable of and I would have hated to be on the other end of his interrogation and questioning.
We made our way farther into the mansion and down into the basement. Father led us to the room that was typically only used for when we needed to hold someone—usually an enemy. I stormed in, not bothering to knock and almost hitting Hunter with the door. I found John, one of the guys that had been at the garage when I dropped off the parts the week before, bloodied and duct taped to the chair.
“You,” I hissed. He just looked at me, not saying anything. I wanted him to suffer, to be terrified, but the cold, dead stare he gave me only pissed me off more. Stepping forward, I kicked out and caught him right between the legs. A satisfying scream filled my ears as he folded over the best he could in his restraints.
“You know,” I mused, pacing back and forth, readying myself for what I was about to do, “if there was going to be a leak in the Auckland Kings, I would have expected Andy. That big mouth and all. You, though? Color me fucking surprised.”
“Why?” my father questioned as soon as my statement was out. John didn't say anything, continuing his vow of silence. I leaned forward and looked him in the eye.
“You’re going to talk,” I told him resolutely. “Either you're going to do it on your own or I'm going to force it out of you.”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. The great bad Liam King coming to rescue his princess. News flash,” he ground out, “you're not a knight in shining armor, you're a killer. You really think she's going to stay with you knowing all of that?”
His jabs were like a red-hot poker to my chest, but I didn't react to his insults other than with a chuckle.
“You're right. I am a killer. And the next person whose blood is going to be on my hands is yours.”
John blanched, realizing that I wasn't kidding and that I wasn't going to be shaken by his verbal sparring. I didn't give him a chance to say anything else before I unleashed the anger I had been harboring since last week, when she had almost been taken out from under me.
“Liam!” Sam shouted, hands grabbing hold of me after a long while. I didn't realize that I had gone so far deep into the rage that I had lost track of time or what was going on around me, I was focused solely on hurting him. When I finally focused back on John, he was barely recognizable, my hands throbbing and my cracking knuckles bleeding on the floor.
“Where is she?” I asked, my voice shaking in anger.
“She's—” John started before coughing up some blood. “At a new construction site.” He rattled off an address before falling into another fit of bloody coughs. I didn't wait, shoving out of the room and running for my car.
“Wait!” Sam called out once more, and I whipped around and glared at him. No one else was in the hallway with us. My brothers and father were still probably in with John, cleaning up the rest of the mess quickly so he couldn’t find a way out of the room and warn the Phantoms.
“Wait for what?” I snapped back up.
“You idiot,” Sam hissed storming over, “you're going to get yourself killed and then Harper's not going to have anyone if you go in there gallivanting all by your fucking self. Didn't you learn anything growing up?” he scolded, smacking me on the back of the head. “Go stock up on your weapons and meet us at the garage in five minutes.”
“Five minutes?” He seriously couldn’t expect me to risk five minutes.
“Do it,”
he commanded, leaving no room for argument.
I had to fight back the anger, knowing that while I had been in this career for as long as I could remember, he was the one with military and police training and knew what he was talking about when it came to storming buildings and hostage situations.
“She's going to be okay, Liam,” he told me, squeezing my shoulder.
“I certainly fucking hope so,” I muttered before following his directive and heading to the armory. And if she wasn't, then I would take down the entire Phantom infrastructure with my bare hands.
14
Harper
I wasn’t sure how long I worked with the ropes, my back throbbing from being bent over. My mouth was raw from yanking at the rough fibers, but finally I got the first hand free when the ropes loosened just enough for me to be able to slip my hand under. It took everything within me to not cry as I sat up, my back having locked up.
It went much quicker on my other hand now that I had one free, and in only a few minutes, I had both free and could focus on untying my legs. Everything within me was practically electrified; my heart pounded erratically in my chest and anxiousness made me jittery while my hands trembled. There was no way to know when they’d be back, nor did I know how many men were here, where I was, or how I could get help. They had smashed my phone before we left Liam’s, meaning I was on my own.
My wrists and ankles were raw when I finally got myself untied from the chair, blood pooling in some of the scrapes from how deep they were. I pushed away the pain, focusing on one thing: sneaking out of the room and carrying out what my next move was. What exactly that move was, I hadn’t quite determined yet, but I ran through everything I had worked on with Liam, hoping that it would be enough until I could get my hands on a weapon or find someone to help me.
The doorknob turned silently, unlocked, and I cracked it open just enough to peek out. No one was standing outside the door. Pulling it open even farther, I stuck my head out to find it was a barren, unfinished hallway. Several other rooms were open and empty, with no furniture or fixtures, and it looked like it housed only construction equipment and floodlights.
Creeping out and down one direction, I found the bottom of a staircase a couple feet from where I was being held. The door at the top of the stairs was closed. I debated risking how long it would take to grab something from the construction equipment, or if I wanted to risk sprinting up and barreling out before anyone could find me or realize I had gotten myself out of my restraints.
No, Harper, be smart, I reprimanded. I knew I probably could have sprinted out of the house, but it was glaringly obvious I wouldn’t have been able to outrun them for long. Backtracking, I found one of the other empty rooms and dug through the tools. Amongst the debris scattered around from the construction project, I found a crowbar. It was old based on the wear and tear on the edges, but it would do the trick. It was heavy and rough in my hand as I picked it up, the metal scraping against the cement ground grating on my ears.
Once I had it, it gave me a sense of security among the adrenaline and fear winding through me. Taking a deep breath, I ran over to the staircase and started up the steps. I neared the top when one of the floorboards creaked and I paused, holding my breath and straining to hear. Listening to anything outside of my own heartbeat thudding in my ears was a challenge, but after counting to ten and not hearing anything else, I continued forward. It was still bright outside, meaning I hadn't been in that room for very long unless they had kept me sedated overnight.
It looked like it was a home in an up and coming neighborhood that was still under construction. Even on the main level, the only area seeming to have anything done was the kitchen, and that was still missing flooring and hardware on the cabinets. The appliances appeared to be functional though and based on the amount of take out containers, pots and pans, and dishes that lined the counters and sink, there were several people here.
Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I started to creep around one of the corners. At the other end of the hall was the front entryway but unfortunately, just inside the living room area that was off the front door stood a man flipping through a magazine, not paying attention. I was glad I was barefoot, knowing that while I risked stepping on nails or anything else sharp, I was going to sneak up on him easier.
He scoffed as he read an article, flipping to a new page as I came up behind him. Bile creeped up my throat as I lifted the crowbar. I didn’t breathe as I swung, hitting him in the side of the head. The crunching of the metal hitting his skull made my stomach turn, and he fell to the floor in a heap. I was shaking, staring down at a man that I might have just killed when I heard another voice.
This time it was a woman who called out, “Hey, Eddie! Where are you at? I got your food.”
Panicking, I looked around for somewhere to hide and came up with nothing, so I darted over to where I thought she would be coming in. Pressing myself against the wall, I hoped it would give me just enough cover that she wouldn't see me coming down the hallway. Adrenaline pounded through my system and my hands had started to grow sweaty as I heard her steps come closer.
“Are you in here?” At the end of her question I heard her gasp, and that was when I moved, coming around the corner and swinging like it was a baseball bat. Only she was faster and ducked just far enough that the crowbar went over her head. Panic made me flail recklessly, knowing that she probably had some kind of weapon. A knife, or worse, a gun, so as I tried to regain my footing to swing again, I kicked out catching her in the nose with my knee. The hit sent her stumbling up and back, so with my next wide baseball swing, I was able to get her.
She whimpered as she hit the floor, disoriented and dazed before finally succumbing to passing out. God, I really hope I did not just kill them. My stomach rebelled at the idea. I knew it was self-preservation, me or them, and my freedom on the line, but it didn't make it any easier to handle. I didn't hear any more footsteps, talking, or doors opening anywhere, so I turned and sprinted to the door.
Unfortunately, when I had been fighting the woman, a man hid in a very similar fashion to me back out in the main hallway. As I passed by, he reached out and grabbed the crowbar before I could even react, yanking it from my grasp. He chucked it, the metal clanking down the hall as it scattered across the unfinished flooring.
“Well, well,” he said, grabbing my upper arm. It was the man who had kidnapped me from the house, the one whose hand could no doubt encompass my entire face. He held on to me easily, as if I were a child throwing a temper tantrum no matter how much I fought.
“Looks like we got an escape attempt, Boss,” he called out. The guy in the suit came down a second set of stairs I hadn't noticed, before straightening his tie and his hair, eyeing me with a harsh scowl. “What do you want me to do with her?”
“What do you think I want you to do with her?” he snapped, hitching his thumb back to the basement.
“No,” I exclaimed, pulling away until I felt like my arm was going to dislocate from my socket.
“Chance!” the so-called boss shouted. Another man from earlier came running down the stairs at his call. “Would you escort our little guest back down to her room?” he instructed. The cold dead eyes he watched me with sent a fresh wave of fear through me.
No… I wanted to fight, but it was two large men versus me. My heart sank as they picked me off the ground and carried me back down the stairs, my body quickly draining the last bit of adrenaline I had as they tossed me into the room. A pained ‘oof’ leaving me as I collided with the hard flooring.
Chance, I thought his name was, stormed forward to where I had landed. I braced to fight him off but his punch to the gut distracted me. A slap with the back of his hand quickly followed. Agony coursed through me at his hits, and as the adrenaline leached from my system, the pain rushed in waves. My current injuries from my wrists and ankles, my shoulder, and now my cheek and stomach, all fought for my attention, and it took everything within me not to cry from whe
re I'd curled on the floor.
“Know what we’re going to do with you, little lady?” he murmured, kneeling. I couldn’t stop myself as I glanced at him. There was no humanity in his dark brown eyes. It was cold and dead, a sick gleam glimmering in them as he smirked down at me. “We're going to have a lot of fun when we get back. Me and the boys. You've put us through a lot of trouble, and I feel like we owe that to you.”
I blanched at his threat. It took everything I had not to throw up right there at the insinuation of what he was talking about.
“But lucky for you, you can sit here and think about that for a bit while we finish up what we were doing. So, you stay here like a good little girl, and Ricky here, will stand outside the door and make sure you don't try and escape again. How's that sound?”
“Go to hell,” I snapped through the pain in my jaw. His grin curled into a cruel sneer, and when he stood up, he kicked out, catching me right in the ribs. I felt them snap and I couldn't hold back the scream.
“Yeah, that'll tide you over for a while,” he muttered under his breath before striding from the room with the others. As soon as the door slammed shut I allowed the tears to fall, letting my body relax on the floor and the pain work its way through me. Whatever happened after this… I had no plans, but I would get through it, I vowed.
I had to.
Liam
Somehow, I arrived a few houses down from the construction site where Harper was being held before my brothers and the other Auckland Kings. I needed to wait, to listen to Sam’s advice, but when I saw one of the Phantoms strolling past the window with a sick smile on his face, I wasn’t able to stop myself.
Darting across the lawns of the homes between my target and me, I hugged tight to the half-built houses and scanned for any entrances that weren’t the front or back doors. Aha, I thought triumphantly, finding an egress window into one of the lower level rooms that was partially built into the hill. There wasn’t anyone inside the room, so I made quick work of the window, thankful it hadn’t been secured yet.
