“Oh,” I nodded, “okay, well then just let me know when it’s time.”
“I will. Oh, and Alex has another fight coming up soon. Just thought I’d let you know.”
“Okay,” I said as I turned around and left the office.
I went up to Alex’s room and found him doing pushups on the floor. He had his shirt off with a black pair of shorts on and sweat all over his back. I never really noticed how his hair had grown, but it was now passed his ears and almost touching his shoulders.
“Hey Alex,” I said by the door.
Alex didn’t say anything. He just continued on with his pushups. I guess he was trying to prepare himself for the next fight, but after everything he’d been through, there was no need. Alex was a fighting beast, and I’m pretty sure that if this continued he would go undefeated.
I stepped inside his room and closed the door behind me. Then I walked around him and sat down on the bed.
“So, where’s Lorena?” I asked.
“Sleeping,” Alex answered.
“She’s still in bed?”
“Yup,” Alex stopped and got to his feet. He took a deep breath in order to slow down his breathing. “Roberto said not to bother her today.”
I frowned. “Why? Did you hear anything last night?”
“No. It was pretty quiet last night. I don’t think she’s in any trouble if that’s what you’re wondering.” Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat down next to me. He stared over at the door for what seemed like forever and sighed. “I don’t want to fight.”
I rested my hand over his. “I don’t want you to fight either.” I shook my head then looked back to Alex. “You know that I care about you right?”
Alex shrugged. “I hope you’re not about to get all emotional,” he said with a slight smile.
“I’ll try not to,” I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulders. “Just know that I would do anything for you and Lorena.” I leaned my head down to his ear, “I’m going to get you two out of here.” I whispered.
Alex looked up at me with his big brown eyes. His hair hung over his forehead a little, making him look a lot older than when we first met.
“I already knew that,” Alex whispered.
I smiled down at him. Alex gave me hope that everything would turn out in my favor, and he definitely got me pumped.
We stayed in his room for a while, and then as usual, I eventually fell asleep. I wanted to go and visit Lorena in her room, but didn’t want Roberto to think anything of it. By the time I woke up, it was late and time to go.
It was Ronald that came and woke me up. It hadn’t been that long, but he looked like he lost a little weight around the stomach area.
“We’re about to head out,” Ronald said after taking a toothpick from his mouth.
“Alright,” I cleared my throat. “I’ll be right down.”
Ronald nodded and walked away.
I sat up and scratched the back of my head. My curls were out and spilled over my shoulders since I had forgotten to put it up in a ponytail this morning. I was just too distracted by the bad news to remember.
“Be careful. Roberto seems to be in a bad mood today,” Alex said tiredly.
“I will,” I stood up from the bed and straightened myself out. Before I walked off I felt Alex’s arms wrap around my lower stomach, locked tight.
“Really, be careful Sarah,” Alex whispered against my back. “Me and Lorena need you.”
“I know,” I rested my hands over his, “I will be.”
“I love you…”
I slightly smiled, “I love you too little man.”
Alex slowly let me go, and I walked out of the room. I didn’t look back at him, because I knew that I’d get all emotional and debate on shooting Roberto in the head tonight. I could just kill him now, and all of this would be over.
I looked down to Lorena’s room and sighed. She hadn’t come out all day and she had me worried. I was about to go and check on her when I heard Ronald call for me from the steps.
“You coming?” Ronald asked.
I stopped and turned around. “Yeah,” I sighed, “here I come.”
I jogged down the hall and down the stairs behind Ronald. I had a bad feeling about Lorena, but there was nothing I could do right now. I would have to check on her when I got back.
We walked out of the house behind Roberto and got into the truck. Mark was asleep in the same spot that he had dropped me off earlier and he jolted awake when we got into the car.
“Well, good morning Mark,” Ronald said as he slid into the front seat.
“Good morning,” Mark rubbed his face and slapped his cheeks. Then he looked back at me through the mirror.
I nodded back to him and he started the engine. Roberto didn’t notice anything because he was too busy looking through his phone.
The sun was just starting to set as we pulled out of the curved driveway. I did my best to pay attention to where we were going just in case something went down and I needed to get away, but there were so many damn turns that my brain couldn’t keep up.
This ride wasn’t very long. It only took about twenty minutes for us to arrive at our destination. This warehouse was surrounded by many tall vacant buildings, and it made me wonder if this was the place that the children were being held.
It could very well be it.
We pulled through an old gate by the time it was nightfall, and stopped in an empty parking lot with only a few cars scattered around.
When we got out of the car I looked around for a white van while waiting for further instructions from Roberto. I felt as if I was just standing there forever while he was on the phone. Apparently he was trying to find someone to take Bruce’s spot at the strip club.
Roberto finally got out of the car and motioned for us to follow him into the warehouse. We went right in through the back door where two security guards stood on the other side. Once we were passed them, we walked down a few dim hallways until we ended up on the open floor.
This warehouse didn’t look anything like the one Roberto held his dogfights. It was only lit up in the middle of the floor with old boxes and scraps of metal hiding in the darkness around it. The floor was in a serious need of sweeping, and instead of the smell of perfume and cologne it smelled stale inside.
There were a group of men standing in the middle of the warehouse drinking and smoking cigars. They turned around and quieted down when they saw Roberto walking inside.
I could see in between the men that there was someone tied to a chair behind them, but I couldn’t see her face. All I saw was her head slumped over and blood dripping from her mouth. Her blonde bang hung freely over her forehead and I couldn’t see her face very clear.
“Hey Boys,” Roberto said in his French accent.
The men just moved out of his way while nodding their heads. I walked behind Roberto, next to Ronald, and waited for whatever was going to happen next.
“Let me see the girl,” Roberto ordered.
The men that stood in front of the woman moved out of the way, and my heart sank when I saw who was sitting in the chair. Abigale.
“Is she awake?” Roberto asked, looking down at her.
“She should be,” someone answered. “Hey chick,” The man next to her grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head up. “Wake up.”
My heart began to race, and I could feel my hands shaking. What was I going to do now? There weren’t enough bullets for all of these men in my gun, and I couldn’t take them all. Roberto would know something was going on if I went somewhere quiet to call Bobby, but he was my last hope.
Roberto crouched down in front of Abigale and ran his fingers through his hair. “I told you guys to hold back,” he said.
No one responded.
Abigale’s eye were more swollen than the last time that I saw her, and her bottom lip was busted open.
Roberto sighed, “Well, little lady. I just have a few questions for you, and depending on her a
nswers, I’ll let you go.”
I almost sighed with relief. Abigale wouldn’t possibly stick up for those men that broke in. Not unless she became attached to them.
“Fuck you,” Abigale said in a raspy voice. She was clearly hit in the throat a few times.
Roberto sighed and stood up. “I’m not in the best mood. I suggest you answer my questions or my men here will have a little more fun with your face.”
Abigale looked up at him, and I could tell that she was doing her best to hold back tears. I didn’t even notice how badly my eyes were starting to water because all of my focus was on her.
“Fuck you!” Abigale said. “I’m not telling you shit.” She spit blood onto his shoe, and Roberto slapped her so hard I saw blood fly from her mouth.
“Ronald,” Roberto looked back at Ronald, and then at me.
Ronald nodded and walked up to Abigale. He balled his fists and started whaling on her.
Roberto kept his eyes on me the entire time. “Sarah, are you alright?” he asked.
I was seeing red, but I needed to control myself. I needed a plan. Pulling my gun out and shooting wasn’t a good plan, and we’d both end up killed.
“No. I need some-” I swallowed. “I need some air.”
Roberto grinned, “Can’t stand the sight of blood now, huh?”
I clenched my teeth and shook my head. “I don’t feel well,” I said while holding my stomach. I wasn’t lying. I felt as if I were going to vomit all over this floor.
“There’s a restroom over there,” Roberto pointed behind me. “Don’t leave this building.”
I covered my mouth and nodded my head, then I jogged over to the restroom and slammed the door shut. Once inside, I flipped open the toilet seat and spit my insides into the bowl. When I finished, I flushed, turned on the sink, and called out to Bobby.
Chapter 38
“Bobby?” I whispered as quietly as I could.
“Rose? What is it?” Bobby sounded alert.
“It’s Abigale. She needs you.” It felt as if the room around me was starting to spin. I was having a panic attack.
“What’s happening? Where are you?” Bobby asked. “I’m coming right now. Just tell me where you are!”
“I don’t know,” I sniffled. “What do I do? I’m alone and I can’t take them. They have Abigale.”
“Rose, Rose, calm down. Describe where you are.”
“A building-warehouse. There’s a lot of vacant buildings surrounding it.”
“OK,” Bobby sighed.
There was a knock on the door.
“You alright in there?” Someone asked.
“I’m fine! Coming right out!” I yelled in a shaky voice. “Hello?” I whispered. “I have to go. I think that Roberto knows something.”
“OK, look. Keep this phone on, and hide it. Hide it somewhere, I’ll trace the call somehow.”
I sniffled, “OK, I will.”
I did as I was told and slid the phone behind the toilet, and then I stood and took a deep breath. Once I got myself halfway together, I opened up the bathroom door.
There was a man waiting on the other side of the door with an eyebrow raised. I ignored him and walked back over to where Roberto was talking to Abigale. She looked dazed by the way her head slumped to the side with more blood and spit oozing out of her mouth.
“Are you alright Sarah?” Roberto asked, looking back at me. “Do you feel better?”
I nodded. “Did she tell you what you needed to know?”
Roberto sighed, “Barely, but I guess this is good enough.”
“So-so you’ll let her go?”
“I suppose so. I was never into killing women. I guess I’ll send her back to them as a message,” Roberto put both hands into his pockets. “Are you ready to go?”
I nodded again.
“Good. Ronald, you stay here and make sure that she’s being taken care of,” Roberto said as he walked away.
“No problem,” Ronald said, rubbing his fist.
I stared at Abigale and hoped that she would give me some sort of sign that she was okay, but she didn’t. I doubted that she even knew I was still here. My best friend needed help, and there was nothing that I could even do but wait for Bobby. He’d better not be late.
“Sarah?” Roberto called.
I jumped and turned around. “C-coming,” I said in a shaky voice.
I followed Roberto out of the warehouse and back into the truck with Mark. Mark looked at me with sad eyes once again, and I looked away.
Mark started the truck and pulled off.
Roberto sighed and slipped his phone into his pocket, and then he turned to me with a slight smile. I didn’t smile back.
“You know Sarah, you’ve done your job well since you started working for me,” Roberto said.
I just blankly stared back at him.
“But, I don’t know if I’ll be requiring your services anymore.”
“Did I do something wrong?” I asked, ready to pull out my gun.
“No, but then yes. First off, I’m thinking about returning my business to France. There’s just too much going on in the states and I’m about ready to go back home. Secondly, you don’t do so well with blood and well,” he chuckled, “working with me requires you to be able to stomach such things.”
“Oh,” I said under my breath. I looked up at Mark, who was driving slower than usual, and then back to Roberto.
Roberto reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a gun of his own. He held the handle as he stared down at it. “That’s not all though,” he turned to me with a straight face. “There’s something about you, something off, and for a long time I couldn’t figure out what it was.”
The gun he held was now being pointed at me from his lap. I stared down at it with wide eyes, and then slowly brought my eyes up to Roberto’s.
“You knew that girl in there, didn’t you?” Roberto asked.
My mouth opened to answer, but there were no words.
Roberto chuckled, “I could see it in your eyes. She’s your friend right? I could tell that look on a person’s face, and you had it all over yours Sarah. You care about her, just like you care about my wife. Only, you love Lorena in a different way, right?”
“Roberto-I... Where is she?”
“Where does anyone go when they cross me?” Roberto sighed, “Hand me your gun now, or I’ll put a bullet in you, and you’ll never see my wife again.”
I bit my lower lip and did as I was told. Once everything was out in the air now, I could finally speak.
“So, what do you know about me?” I asked.
“Ah, right. Remember that picture I told you about? It got lost in the move. Well, I found it back in the gallery in one of the storage areas. I was just looking around the place when I spotted your face on one of the paintings. I had a background check done on you, and you don’t even exist, but the name on the back of the painting? Rose Klein? She does exist,” Roberto laughed. “Rose Klein is a detective, and I’m pretty sure that you’ve been doing some snooping around. Did you find anything?”
I didn’t answer. I was steady staring at his pistol.
“I suppose you did. You must be good at your job, huh?”
I still didn’t answer him.
“You know I really did like you. It’s sad that I’m going to have to get rid of you. I mean, you’re the only person I met that was actually able to bond with my wife. Everyone else that I’ve hired would quit on me. I mean, if they knew what happened to them when they quit then they would have kept their jobs, but they didn’t so now, well, they’re dead.”
“So, what are you going to do with me? You know who I am, and what I’ve been doing. Why not just kill me now?”
“Because, I want Lorena to watch. She needs to know that you’re dead before we leave, that way I’m the only person that she’ll love. Before you came along, Lorena always kept to herself. I knew something, or someone was on her mind, but of course she never told me. With you gone, she
’ll know that there will never be anyone but me.”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t know if Roberto had just snapped, or if this was how he was all the time. Did he really think that with me gone that she would love him? If anything, that would make her hate him more!
Mark pulled up to the mansion and parked in front of the house. He didn’t look up through the rear view mirror this time. He just looked forward, and didn’t look back.
Roberto kept his gun pointed at me the entire way inside. Alex must’ve heard us come in, because he ran out of his room and to the top of the steps.
Roberto looked up at the confused boy. “Alex, get into the basement.”
Alex’s eyes went to the gun pressed against my back and did as he was told. Roberto and I followed behind him and when I got down to the bottom of the steps my legs gave out at the sight in front of me, and I dropped to my knees.
“Wh..wha..” I was lost for words.
Lorena was hanging by her wrists, naked and cuffed by the chains hanging from the ceiling. Her head was slumped over to the side with her eyes closed and she looked dead. I don’t know what he did to her, but dry blood ran over her shoulders and traveled all the way down to her toes. She was also covered with blue and black bruises everywhere but her face.
Marie was sitting in the torture chair. There was an open red gash on the left side of her head, and even with her head slumped over I could still see that her vacant eyes were still open. She was dead.
“You killed them?” Alex asked. He sounded as if he were about to cry as he backed away from Roberto.
“Just Marie. Not my dear love. She should just be sleeping,” Roberto said. He walked over to Lorena with his gun still pointed at me and kissed her cheek.
I almost burst out crying when I saw her eyes flutter open. She looked straight down at me on my knees and it was almost as if she forgot what was going on.
“Rose?” She said with almost a smile.
Roberto frowned and pulled out his phone. “Looks like you’re going to lose two people today!”
“What? What do you mean?” I said while still in shock.
“That friend of yours. All I have to do is make one phone ca-”
Caged 2 (Caged Series) Page 26
