Runaway Love

by Amber Nation

  I slammed my hands on the bar counter, which had Tessa nearly jumping out of her skin. I didn’t apologize because at the present time I wasn’t exactly sorry. Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I tried to call Charlie once more…again getting nothing more than his voicemail.

  FUCK!

  The door swung open and Toby runs in with Grady hot on his heels.

  “Grady knew where Charlie was, and put a call in for him to come here. He should be arriving anytime now,” Toby looked and sounded frantic.

  I spared a quick glance at Tessa, and she looked like she had seen a ghost, her eyes kept darting back and forth between Grady and Toby incessantly. Finally she spoke up, “It’s the Emmy situation all over again isn’t it?”

  Toby released a long drawn out sigh, “Maggie was kidnapped.”

  Here would be the time that you would hear Tessa’s loud yelp of a gasp, but it wasn’t even audible because, at the exact same time, the door to the bar burst open again, and a loud crack rang through the confines of the quiet building.

  Everyone turned to look at the ruckus. The sheer force from Charlie throwing the door caused the thick wood to crack.

  He stormed up to the bar, the tempestuous mixture of worry and just pure, unadulterated rage was pouring off of him like a tsunami. His nostrils were flaring, and the veins in his neck jutted out because he was clenching his jaw so hard. He looked insanely menacing. He finally focused on Toby, “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN MAGGIE WAS KIDNAPPED?!” he boomed. The loudness and harshness of his tone, made Tessa whimper all over again. I could just imagine her knees knocking together forcefully, because in all actuality, he even scared the piss out of me.

  (Charlie)

  Seeing everyone’s confused and worried expressions, confirmed the worst, that I did indeed hear Toby correctly.

  Maggie was kidnapped.

  My stomach plummeted and I immediately saw crimson, and was ready for bloodshed. Because in fact, whoever did this to Maggie would see plenty of their own blood being shed, and they wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it. Revenge would be the name of the game, and I wouldn’t stop until I deemed that retaliation was complete.

  My Maggie…

  I was beginning to get extremely impatient, no one was speaking up. I asked a question and I damn well deserved some answers. “Someone had better start talking!” I bit out.

  Gio finally looked like he found his tongue, and proceeded with his explanations. Each and every detail he emphasized, just made my seething rage grow further. My vision blurred and I couldn’t see the different colors and hues of the world, the only prominent was red.

  Once he finished, I didn’t stick around to find out everyone’s reactions, I had to get to Mason. Somehow Declan got to my Maggie, there was no ifs ands or buts about it, his men took my Maggie.

  I settled into the driver’s side of my Camaro, when I heard the passenger door open. Grady folded himself into the seat. “Grady, no… Just no… Em just had a baby and you have a family to look out for. I can’t risk you too. This guy,” I let out an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through my hair, “he isn’t playing, he is one sick motherfucker. And if that doesn’t just fucking terrify me.” I looked him in the eyes, “He has Maggie, man. I have to get to her.”

  “Which is why I’m coming with you, you’ll need all the help you can get, and I’m going to be the one to bring it. You helped me when Emmalynne was kidnapped, what makes you think I’m just going to sit back and not get into all the action. You forget, I used to live for this type of shit.”

  And that was that.

  Grady had my back, just like I had his.

  I prayed that things wouldn’t turn out differently than they did with Emmy, when Corbin had kidnapped her. That was one man, no telling how many men Declan Smith had on his side now.

  Emmy was able to get her happy ending, I wanted Maggie to have that as well. I needed to be on my game and not start flipping the fuck out, which was just what I wanted to do.

  I shoveled my phone out of my pocket and connected immediately with Hunter Severin.

  “Charlie my man, how is Miss Maggie?” he answered with his usual calm and cool tone.

  “I believe Declan Smith has had Maggie kidnapped. I’m on my way to see Mason Walker at the US Pen in Atlanta. It’s going to take me a bit to get there, but I’m going to need answers. I need you to connect with them and have him ready, he’s going to talk dammit, I have to find out where he’s possibly taken her.”

  “You got it. I’ll call Paul and give him a heads up as well, he may want to fly in since things have taken a turn.”

  I groaned, as I hung up from Severin, I didn’t want my father’s input. But it was inevitable, I supposed.

  Gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white, I recalled the good news I had just received not even thirty minutes ago. It was amazing how things could go from amazing to fucking shit in two point five seconds.

  Things felt off after I left the hospital yesterday, after Charlotte was born. I didn’t like lying to Maggie, she’d done nothing wrong so didn’t she deserve the truth? I was just further digging myself deeper and deeper into the hole that I had created, from trying to keep her safe, and now look what happened. It was all for nothing. I should’ve just been completely forthcoming since the beginning, but my own selfishness ruled that out quickly. If I would’ve spilled the beans about me being an FBI Agent, I wouldn’t have had this amazing ride with Maggie. And once this was all over, so would Maggie and I.

  Imagine my surprise when I received a call from Sheriff Mitchell later yesterday afternoon, he wanted to meet with me first thing this morning for a private discussion. I had no clue what was going on, but he had my interest peaked so there was no question that I’d go.

  I realized my mistake, once I sat down with Sheriff Mitchell in his office, I never once let Maggie know that I’d be unreachable this morning. I never said anything back after she had texted me about her staying with Toby, and for me not to come over. I’ll admit, it stung a bit knowing that she didn’t want me there, but then I thought better and knew she just wanted to be there for her friend.

  I didn’t even tell her “Good Morning” or “I love you” so she was possibly, heaven forbid, hurt and scared, and hadn’t even had that reassurance from me this morning.

  The meeting with Sheriff Mitchell was the beginning to an extremely wonderful life. He offered me the position of Sheriff Deputy of Brown County, and I accepted. He was voluntarily resigning after having to move him and his wife to Virginia, to take care of her ill sister. He was first and foremost all about family, and this just proved it. Everything would be happening so quickly after I gave my notice to the FBI. Actually being able to stay put in one spot, for however long I wished, forever if it tickled my fancy.

  I was so full of energy, and rearing to go give my notice right away, until the female dispatcher poked her head in the room and gave me the scare of my life. “Uh… Charlie Hennings?” She said and I gave a swift nod of my head, confirming that was me. She held up a post-it which apparently held the message that would make me lose all semblance of functionality. “Grady Finnegan just called, and stated that something was wrong with Maggie, and to get to Emmy Lou’s ASAP.” She appeared apologetic, before disappearing out the door she was peering in.

  I looked at Sheriff Mitchell, an unspoken conversation taking place between us, and he gave a curt nod and I took off. I ended up at Emmy Lou’s and had absolutely no recollection of even driving there.

  Arriving at the United States Penitentiary, with just a flash of my FBI badge, we were able to gain access relatively easy, and after we passed inspection through the metal detector, we were brought into a room, and seated behind one of several stations that were located behind individual glass partitions.

  Within mere moments, Mason Walker took the seat across from us, picking up his phone. He was eyeing me suspiciously as I picked up on my end.

  “What do you want?” he ask
ed, emphasizing the fact that it was me who was here.

  “It’s Maggie.” Seeing his already hard expression, not even soften a little towards hearing the mention of his sister, made me grit my teeth. “Listen here you piece of shit,” I grumbled. “Declan and his men have kidnapped Maggie. You have to tell me where he could’ve possibly taken her.”

  “I don’t have to tell you shit. You are the reason I’m here instead of the local jail.” He raised his index finger and thrust it in my direction, the barrier of the glass hindered him from going any further. “You made them transfer me into the Pen for Christ sakes!”

  I had absolutely no patience for this, and I was at the end of my rope. In a low portentous growl, I bit out, “I’m not fucking here for you! I’m here only because of Maggie. She hasn’t played a part in this destruction of your life, but she’s always been the one to take the brunt of your actions, and now she could be possibly paying the ultimate price.” I had to swallow back vomit that threatened to make an appearance, I knew what Declan did to women, the question running through my mind was, would he do the same thing just to get back at Mason for betraying him? To get back at me? My calm exterior was weakening a little more each minute. It was like tiny pieces of me were dying, because I wasn’t able to get to Maggie.

  “You’ve never done one good thing for your sister, but it isn’t too late to start now.” Grady chimed in by taking the phone out of my hands and putting it up to his ear. “It was always the drugs, wasn’t it? You had to choose between being there for your sister or the drugs, and they won didn’t they?”

  Finally, Mason started showing signs of remorse, as he concentrated on the cradle of the phone that was attached to the wall. I grabbed the handset back out of Grady’s hand, his shame shined through and he wouldn’t look us in the eye. “I never ever meant to hurt Maggie…”

  “Stop!” I yelled into the line, “You are not to apologize to me. You need to sit and stew on what Grady said. What I want to know is where the fuck Declan could possibly have taken Maggie!”

  Grady and I were back on the road ten minutes later, heading towards an abandoned warehouse that was about forty minutes north of where we were. Being that it was right off the highway, we literally passed it on the way to the Penitentiary.

  I hoped after the mess Mason realizes he made, he would finally get his act together and straighten up his life.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I quickly snatched it up, groaning when I saw that it was my father calling.

  “Yeah, dad listen now’s not really a good time,” I tried to say, so I didn’t have to endure the lecture that was coming my way. I didn’t have time for his shit right now.

  “Charles, Severin called and gave me a heads up on Declan kidnapping a girl you know? You need to follow protocol and wait for backup. You did call backup in, didn’t you?” He took my silence as confirmation on what he already knew. “Remember your reprimand you received last time for not following the rules? They may not be as lenient on you this time. And it’ll be your second strike, is this mere girl worth sacrificing your career for? You won’t only be making yourself look bad, but me as well.” He sneered through the line.

  I had finally reached the end of my rope, no one degraded Maggie. I knew he was my father, but he didn’t even know her.

  “Quit talking at me! Just fucking quit already!” I bit out into the phone. “She is not just some girl, her name is Maggie and she is absolutely everything to me! She is more than likely scared shitless and in danger, and you just want me to wait for backup to make you look better, giving Declan ample amount of time to possible hurt her, or worse, hurt her more? Fuck that.

  “Charles Thomas Hennings, how dare you speak to me in that tone. This is your career, your legacy we are talking about here. And again, you are acting as if it’s nothing all because of this Maggie.”

  The way he spit out her name as if she were an infectious disease, instead of an innocent in all of this, left me feeling more than a little unsettled.

  We were quickly closing in on the supposed location, and honestly my father had wasted more than enough of my time with his idiotic responses.

  “I am thirty years old and I don’t have to answer to you, and haven’t had to for quite some time now. It took the love of a woman, that woman who you are casting off so easily, to open my eyes and see the bigger picture, the finer things in life. The FBI is all you, always has been, it isn’t me. I don’t want the life you’ve lived, I don’t want my children waking up one day and not really knowing who their father is, because I was constantly on assignment and never around like I did. I want more. And for a brief amount of time, I was able to experience more. After this is all said and done, I’m not sure if I’ll have that opportunity again, but I’m never going to stop fighting like hell to get it back.” My emotions were starting to catch up with me, the fear of the unknown taking over. “Consider this my notice, I’m living my own life from here on out.”

  I heard my father’s sharp inhalation of breath, and him start to sputter on his words, but I was way past giving a shit. I abruptly ended the call and threw my phone into the center console.

  “Why are most father’s such assholes? Mine, yours, Maggie’s? At least Emmalynne’s sorted his shit out.” Grady said, while focusing his attention out the window. “I won’t ever be an asshole towards my kids, I know what kind of affect it has.”

  Me either, I thought. If I would ever be lucky enough to have children.

  The rest of the drive was spent in a heavy silence.

  Rolling up to the abandoned warehouse, I parked behind some thick shrubbery. Being I had a cherry red Camaro, the damn thing stuck out like a sore thumb, and would be a bitch to hide. So I would just take my chances, and hope for the best that Declan didn’t have outside cameras and see us coming. The element of surprise was what we were counting on.

  I checked to make sure my gun was fully loaded, and nodded my head towards the glove box, “You know where my backup is,” I indicated to Grady.

  This was almost like déjà vu, Grady and I had been in almost this exact same position before, only this time it was my world on the line.

  Corbin Montgomery was messy and he wasn’t very smart. Declan Smith on the other hand was a businessman, he wouldn’t be working alone, and he had money on his side and a lot of it, so he was able to get what he wanted.

  “Got a plan?” Grady asked, as he checked the clip to make sure it was full and stuck the gun inside the waistband of his jeans.

  The truth was I didn’t have a plan, all I had was my training and my instincts to pull me through this. My head wasn’t in the right place, being that it was Maggie in there suffering. I needed to think rationally, even though I wanted to run in guns blazing. “Get Maggie out unharmed, as well as yourself. Leave Declan to me. That’s the plan.”

  Making my way into the warehouse, I didn’t want to waste another minute not being able to get to Maggie.

  (Maggie)

  Waking up in a cold, dark, and damp room, the immediate smell of mildew invaded my nostrils. I tried lifting my head from where it was positioned at a weird angle, but quickly winced because there was a searing pain radiating at the base of my skull. I went to bring my hand to the site of the pain, but realized that wasn’t possible, because my hands were taped together. My feet were bound together as well, at my ankles, so there was no way I could move from off of this dingy floor. I was stuck with no way to protect myself.

  Looking around the room, trying to ignore the pain, there wasn’t much around. I could hear the distinct sound of a leaky faucet, drip, drip, dripping, but besides that, it was quiet. I had absolutely no way of knowing how long I’d been here, or if anyone was out looking for me.

  I do know that I had never been so scared before in my life. Even when my dad would come after me, this was a thousand times worse.

  Recalling the way things were handled before I was brought here, I didn’t think I had ever fought so hard in my life. W
hile I was on the phone with Gio, and I opened the front door, I could’ve never anticipated the outcome. The man on the other side of the door wasn’t someone I had recognized or even encountered before, but he wasted no time before he kicked in my front door and descended upon me. I was proud of myself for actually fighting back for the first time in my life. He was a large man, one of the biggest I had ever seen, like he had been pumped full of testosterone. He was almost to the point of being grotesque with all of his bulging muscles, and standing next to me, I didn’t have a chance, but I wasn’t going to go down without kicking and screaming.

  I was able to keep him at bay for a short while, being so small, I could dart around my apartment without him being able to catch me. It was when I actually tried to run out of the front door when he caught up with me, because another man appeared in my doorway, halting me in my tracks, Declan.

  When the giant ape grabbed me by my hair and jerked me back, I tried my hardest to channel every single memory of my father hitting me and use it to my advantage. But in the end, I was hit with something on the back of my head, and lost consciousness.

  I closed my eyes and spoke aloud very softly and began to pray.

  “God, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this, but please let Charlie find me. Please let someone be out looking for me.”

  An eerie calmness spread throughout the room, and the sound of the leaky faucet had even ceased.

  It felt as if I were in the eye of tornado, the calm before the storm. Like pure and utter chaos was commencing outside of this room, and soon would include me.

  The hairs on my neck stood up, and a chill settled over me.

  “Think your little boyfriend is going to come save you?” A deep voice said from behind me.

  A voice I had heard before. A voice that had delivered a substantial message to me before, but I had shrugged it off because Charlie told me to. He had assured me that it was all no big deal.

  Had I already been so wrapped up in him that I disregarded any idea of danger? The answer was a resounding yes, because I had instantly felt safe with him. He had a way to make me feel protected.