by Amy Starling
“And bars on the windows, too, far as I can see. Go get the bolt cutters; that'll do the job.”
Moments later, they kicked the door in. I dove to the floor and rolled under the bed, sure that they had come to kill me.
“Where is she?”
“You think maybe he took her with him?”
“TV's on, so someone's probably still home. Look everywhere.”
The men made an awful racket as they tore through the first floor. Then their heavy feet stampeded up the steps, closer and closer to my hiding spot.
I'd never been so terrified in my life.
“Look, there. The door's shut.”
The knob shook and turned. “Locked, too. Hey, girlie, are you in there?”
Of course, I said nothing. The guys started kicking at the door, wailing on it until it groaned under the abuse and caved in.
Flashlight beams danced on the darkened walls. I clamped a hand over my mouth, knowing if I made a single peep, they would have me.
“Nobody in here.”
“Idiot, are you really that stupid?”
A man with a scraggly beard and wild blue eyes bent down and peered under the bed. He grinned when his light shone on me.
“There you are, girlie.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me out in the open. I flailed and screamed. The man's hand came across my face so hard that I was stunned into silence.
“Shut up, bitch. You're coming with us.”
I sobbed as he picked me up and hauled me over his shoulder. “Who are you? Where are you taking me? You're not the people my mom sent, are you?”
“Stop asking so many questions,” he growled. “You're worth a lot of money to the right people, evidently, and we're about to get our share of the pie.”
“What... I don't understand.”
“Nothing for you to understand, sweetheart. I suggest you shut your trap.”
They carried me downstairs. As I hung upside-down, something metallic glistened in the light. Oh God, that one had a knife!
“Don't kill me! Please, no...”
Back outside, there were two black cars parked in front of the house. One of the guys popped the trunk, and the man who had me tossed me roughly into it. Then he slammed the trunk door and I was shrouded in complete darkness.
The two vehicles started, and we began to roll down the hill. All I could do now was pray for a way out – or for Alec to help me.
No, he wasn't going to save me this time. I had to rely on myself for once.
But when I pushed the trunk with all my strength, it didn't even budge. I was locked in here, as if I'd been buried alive in a coffin, and there was no chance of getting out.
“Yo, this is Pete. Tell Trent I got the girl.” He was on the phone. “Call her parents. Tell 'em if they don't hand us over fifty, we'll be selling their little princess to the traffickers.”
What? But my parents didn't have fifty anything! Who were they planning on selling me to? Oh man, I had to get out of here.
From somewhere behind us, tires squealed. The roar of a car engine came closer and closer. This car's driver hit the gas and made a sharp turn, sending me rolling into the side so hard I smashed my head on the metal above.
“Uh, hold that thought. There's a guy behind us. Somebody coming up real fast.”
Another vehicle slammed into the back of the car, and it weaved back and forth across the winding road. Shaken and terrified, I reached for something to hold onto, but there was nothing.
“We got problems,” Pete yelled to his passenger. “I think it's the Ciarellos. Damn it, how did they find us so quick?”
“I'll take care of them.”
A series of loud popping noises came from the passenger's side. Was that gunfire? Was he shooting at the other car?
The other driver assaulting this vehicle fired back. Bullets whizzed past us, shattering the tail lights and pinging as they bounced off the bumper.
I curled into a ball and prayed to God that I didn't get hit next.
“Step on it, bro! This guy isn't giving up, and he's fast as hell.”
The other car rammed us again. Stuff the guys had stored in the trunk rolled around with me, smacking me in the face before I could shield myself. With each hit, our car swerved even more.
Pete began to drive erratically, going faster and faster and making turns that churned my stomach. I held my mouth and tried not to puke.
“We gotta get back to the house.”
“That's still miles away!”
“What the – where's Otis? I think he bailed on us!”
One more strike to the back of the car, and we began to spin in circles. Tires screeched and the odor of smoke filled the air. The men screamed, and the vehicle shook violently as it collided with something big and then finally came to a stop.
“Man, I'm outta here,” yelled the other guy. He opened his door and ran.
“Get back here, you – ugh!”
There was the unmistakable sound of a fist hitting flesh. Pete gasped in pain and begged for mercy.
“Where is she, you son of a bitch?”
Alec!
He hit the guy again. “I said, where?”
“Uh, um... In there, I swear! Just please, don't hurt me.”
The trunk lid flew open, and there was Alec staring back at me. I never thought I'd be so happy to see him. The relief on his face was palpable.
“Get me out of here,” I begged him. “These crazy people were trying to take me, and...”
He reached for me. “Shh, it's okay. You're gonna be fine.”
From the shadows, Pete leaped at Alec and landed on his back. Alec let out a howl of agony as blood sprayed from his shoulder. A knife stuck from the wound – he had been stabbed!
“The woman's ours,” Pete growled. “And you think I don't know who you are? Yeah, this is for all the shit your daddy's done to us.”
He raised the knife again – but was stopped by the crack of a bullet leaving Alec's gun. It sliced through the air and made a sickening sound as it connected squarely with Pete's forehead.
His eyes were suddenly cloudy and empty, unblinking. He gasped, as if choking, and a thin trickle of crimson began to leak from his head. His hold on Alec loosened, then he fell to the pavement, lifeless.
Alec sighed with relief, cringing as he pressed his hand over his shoulder. He slipped the still-smoking pistol back into its holster.
“Jesus, Ceci, are you okay?”
I couldn't answer. Couldn't take my eyes off the man on the ground, nor the ever-growing puddle of blood that formed beneath him.
“Ceci?”
“You... You killed that man.”
He offered me his arm for support. “Yeah, I did. Come on. Think you can help me with him? I'm kind of hurting right now.”
I shrank away as I clambered out of the trunk. My legs were shaking so bad, I could barely stay standing.
“Help you with what? Are you serious? You just murdered a guy.” Panic swelled in my chest. “There's so much blood everywhere. And someone heard the gunshot; they had to have. The cops will be here any minute.”
Alec, despite his suffering, remained calm. He somehow managed to haul Pete's body into the trunk with one arm.
“That's why we need to hurry and get rid of him.”
“What? You're talking about this person like he was nothing more than a piece of trash.”
“He was a piece of trash. He hurt you – and he would have done a lot worse had I not spotted them leaving my house when I did.”
He slammed the trunk, but even with it shut I couldn't get Pete's face out of my mind. That hole in his head, his eyes still wide open even after he'd taken his final breath... How could I ever forget something like that?
Alec threw some dead leaves over the pool of blood. “We're still pretty far from town. I don't think anyone heard that, and nobody will come to investigate for a while, if ever. Lucky the lake's just down the road.”
He climbed int
o the driver's seat of Pete's car, turned the key, and got it to start despite the smoke pouring from the hood. Then he gestured to his own vehicle.
“I'll take this one. Keys are in the ignition of mine. Think you can follow me to the water?”
I was too stunned, too absolutely drained, to protest. As I trailed down the road behind him, I kept thinking about the body rolling around in the trunk where I had just been imprisoned.
At the stop sign, Alec turned left toward Lake Autumn. It suddenly hit me that I could turn right, toward town, and escape this hell. Alec was injured; I could be gone before he caught me.
But the doctor in me refused to ignore how badly he'd been hurt. I turned left with him and followed the path the rest of the way.
When I got there, Alec was already out of the car. He'd killed the engine and parked it on the pier. I slammed my door and shivered in the cool night air.
“Can you give me a hand with this? It's tough going with only one good arm.”
“...Huh?”
He sighed. “Help me push. It's only a little further.”
Without knowing why, I got behind the car with him and pushed. Big tears fell from my eyes the closer we got to the water's edge. Alec was too focused on his task to notice.
“One more good one ought to do it. And... There!”
The car tipped over the pier and plummeted a dozen feet to the inky water below. It hit the choppy surface with a terribly loud splash, drenching us both.
Alec watched the car float for a while before it finally started to sink. Then he turned his back to it and gave me a weak smile.
“Let's go, huh?”
I didn't say much as he drove us back to the cabin. I'd known Alec was a mobster, a hitman, a guy who killed people – but seeing him kill a man in person, well, that made it all very real to me.
At the house, I examined his shoulder in the light. It definitely didn't look pretty.
“You should go to the hospital for this,” I told him. “I don't have most of my supplies, and you'll need stitches.”
“There's some fishing line in the shed out back. Use that.”
“You want me to sew up your stab wound with fishing line? I don't know if I can.”
He put a thick towel over the cut, then shuffled to the medicine cabinet and pulled out an orange bottle of pills. When he popped two into his mouth, I didn't even bother asking what they were. Likely some painkiller Dr. Gray had illegally given him, no doubt.
“After what just happened, I'm not sure I'm in any condition to operate. I can't stop shaking.”
He didn't say anything, just slumped into a chair and closed his eyes. It didn't take long for the towel to be soaked with blood.
In a daze, I went around the house collecting supplies where I could. My first aid kit would be of little use except for the cotton, scissors, needles, and gauze.
Outside in the shed, I found the roll of line he'd talked about. I suppose I had everything – except for anesthetic.
Vaguely remembering how they used booze for that purpose back in the day, I fetched an old bottle of vodka out of the liquor cabinet.
“I don't have anything to numb the pain except for this,” I told him when I returned.
“Oh, I'm no stranger to pain, believe you me.” He winced and took the bottle. “But I appreciate it.”
He held his breath when the needle first pricked his skin. The fishing line wasn't very flexible, but at least it'd stop the blood loss. Okay, just had to keep my hands from shaking and it'd be fine.
But as I threaded the line through his flesh, I kept thinking about the men who'd kidnapped me. About the one who had died. Who Alec killed.
His eyes opened halfway. “I'm so sorry I left you, Ceci,” he muttered between swigs of vodka. “This wouldn't have happened if not for me. I won't ever leave you alone again.”
“Who were those men? They said I was worth money. Going to use me as a bargaining chip.”
“I saw their tattoos. They're from the Giseppi family, but that's what I don't get. If your mom was going to pay them to save you, then what exactly where these guys doing?”
“Maybe they got greedy. Figured they'd try to milk a little more out of her,” I suggested. “Once they had me, they would play hardball with her.”
He laughed weakly. “I would wager you're right.”
I snatched the bottle away from him when he wasn't looking – combining alcohol and whatever pills he downed was not a wise idea.
At last, I finished the final stitch and covered it up with a large gauze pad. The bathroom floor was spattered with blood and smelled of antiseptic. Alec looked as if he was about to pass out.
“Thank you,” he said, reaching for me. “It certainly is handy to have my very own doctor here when stuff like this happens.”
I backed away from him. He looked at me with confusion, clearly not understanding why.
“You shot a man in the head, Alec.”
“Yeah? And what else could I have done in the moment, huh?” He brushed past me and reached for the vodka again. “The guy stabbed me. He was going to kill me – and then what happens to you?”
I knew that he was right, but that didn't erase the fact he'd taken a human being's life.
“He was still a person, like anyone else. He probably had family. People who are going to miss him.”
He swigged from the bottle. “Damn it, you can't think about stuff like that. It'll drive you crazy.”
“So what's the alternative – just shut off your brain and become a mindless killing machine? That what you really want?”
To that, he said nothing. He stood in front of the mirror but wouldn't look in it.
“You knew who I was from the beginning. I'm a Ciarello. A hitman. You were well aware of this, and you're just now throwing a fit about it?”
I fumbled with the first aid kit I was packing. “Yes, I knew, but it's different now. I've never... I never saw someone die like that before.”
He laughed bitterly. “If you plan on hanging around me for very long, you'd better get used to it.”
A great sadness welled inside of me. What an idiot I had been, huh? I knew who he was and the awful things he did, yet when it was just the two of us alone in this cabin, he was so sweet and loving that I couldn't imagine being without him.
I suppose I had convinced myself that really, deep down, he was a good guy. Maybe he'd grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, but how could I ignore that physical chemistry or how kind he'd been to me?
He tried again to hug me, but I ran by him and up the stairs, sobbing so hard I couldn't stop it.
“I told you not to get attached,” he yelled after me. “I warned you this would happen.”
I slammed my room door, locked it, and fell on the bed in a mess of tears.
Chapter 14 - Alec
It wasn't safe at the cabin anymore.
Last night, those Giseppi bastards tracked Ceci down somehow. They nabbed her because I wasn't there to protect her. But I couldn't be there all the time, and what if they came back?
So I made the decision to do something I never, not in a million years, imagined I would do.
“What's all the noise? You woke me up.”
I stopped what I was doing and simply stared. Ceci hung over the second-story railing, her eyes still half-shut and cloudy with sleep, confusion painted on her lovely face.
I felt so warm inside when I looked at her. So... happy? Huh. Maybe I did have a heart after all.
“Alec?” She squinted at me and folded her arms across her chest. “Are you staring at my boobs again?”
“Sure am. Ain't my fault you sleep in that t-shirt with no bra.” I licked my lips as I hardened for her. “I think you do it on purpose just to tease me.”
She groaned and padded down the steps. Her stomach growled, but there was no time to cook breakfast today. Hope she'd be okay with cereal.
“After what happened last night, you have the gall to hit on me. How charmin
g.”
She was still salty about me killing the guy. Well, fine, let her be. It wasn't something I'd apologize for, especially not when he stabbed me and almost took me out first.
I gently patted my shoulder. The only thing keeping the pain at bay was the opiates Dr. Gray gave me, and that supply was running out fast.
“I killed that asshole in self-defense, and you damn well know it.”
“I know you did, it's just...” She stared into the cavernous pantry. “It's the way you went about it. Like it was so freaking easy for you. And afterward, there was no regret. You dumped his body in the lake, for Christ's sake.”
I dropped the bag I was packing and came to her. This time, she let me put my arms around her, but her body was so tense I figured I'd best not push my luck.
“You're a wonderful woman, Ceci. But you're a bit too naive. What else was I supposed to do – call the cops? They would arrest me; there'd be hours of questioning. I mean, we got most of the law on our side in this town, but there's some things even they can't turn a blind eye to.”
She reached for a box of raisin bran and didn't reply. I let her go to get the milk. This conversation was going nowhere. She'd never understand my reasoning, so why did I even bother?
“You didn't answer me,” she muttered as she filled her bowl. “What were you doing down here making all that racket?”
“Packing some stuff. I can't keep you here any longer. Now that the Giseppis have figured out you're here, chances are they'll come back.”
“So where are you going to take me?”
I took a deep breath. Didn't much like this option, but what other did I have?
“I'm taking you to my apartment in the city. You can stay here until this blows over.”
She didn't say what she thought about that, just chewed her cereal thoughtfully.
“It's more comfortable there, at least. And the Giseppis will be less likely to try something smack in the middle of town, where everyone can see them.”
“Are you going to put bars on the windows to keep me inside there, too?”
“Pretty sure my landlord would disagree with that. Guess I'll just have to trust you.”
I hoped she wasn't crazy enough to try and escape. Surely she knew by now what could happen if I wasn't there to watch over her.
