Saving Hanna (Romantic Suspense)

by A. L Long

  “It’s about time someone stepped in to stop these guys.”

  It’s amazing how a few words of praise can get even the best of them to talk. “Yeah, it’s just too bad that we didn’t get here sooner. Would have loved to have caught them in the act. Based on the blood pool on the sidewalk, at least another one is off the streets.”

  “I totally get that. I’ve been watching these guys for a while,” I confessed, professionally.

  “I only wish we caught Mendez and Ruiz before they took off. We’ll continue to watch the place, but I’m pretty sure they have left the state to pick up where they left off,” the agent admitted.

  “Keep up the good work.” I said, before leaving the agent to his job.

  As I headed back to my car, I had a bit of information that could give be some sort of idea of where Hanna might have been taken. It shouldn’t be too hard finding out who Mendez and Ruiz were. I was pretty sure that as soon as the dust settled, they would be back at the house. I just hoped that by then it wasn’t too late.

  Making a U turn, I headed down the street and back to my house. Because it was Friday night, the traffic was crazy. It seemed that everyone in Houston was getting in on the weekend action. When I finally got to the exit I needed to take, I knew that I had wasted enough time already. Pulling my phone from my suit jacket I decided to call Albert to see what he could find out about Mendez and Ruiz.

  Stopped at the top of the exit, there was nowhere for me to go, and the only thing I could do was wait until it reached the stop light. Tapping my steering wheel impatiently, there was something odd about the car in front of me. I had seen this car before. I knew that I had because of the decal in the back window that was an image of rose losing its petals. There are not too many cars that have that plastered on the back window.

  It finally hit me where I had recognized the car. It was the same car that was parked at the house across the street from Hanna. Looking down at the plate, I kept my eyes on the car as I opened the glove box to find something to write on. Unable to find anything, I cussed under my breath that I hadn’t had anything to write on or write with. Concentrating on the plate, I began saying it over and over again so that I wouldn’t forget. “GHI-496, GHI-496, GHI-496.” Then I realized there was no reason to memorize the number. It was the same number Hanna had tried to text. Belonging to the same car parked across the street from her house days ago and the same car that might have taken her.

  If ever there was a God, he must have been watching over Hanna and he just made me her savior. I wasn’t sure if Hanna was in the car or not, but there was no way I was going to let this car out of my sight. In order not to be seen, I knew that I had to keep a safe distance from them. And even if Hanna wasn’t in the car, there was a chance that they would take me where they were keeping her. My saving prayer was that it was dark, which gave me more of a chance of not being seen.

  Chapter Eighteen

  HANNA

  “I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re taking about. I don’t work for anyone. I am a waitress and don’t know anyone.” What was the matter with these losers? Didn’t they get it?

  Laying in the back seat of the car with a Hispanic guy holding a gun to my head to make sure I remained there, I had no idea what they wanted with me. The way they were questioning me, it was almost as if they thought I was staking them out. I knew I should have ignored the gunshot and minded my own business. These guys must have been high or stupid because nothing I said was getting through to their fried brains.

  As afraid as I was, I wasn’t about to let them know that. I could string them along until someone found me, but I didn’t know what information they were looking for. I’ve watched enough cop shows to know that once you gave them the information they needed, you were dead. I guessed I could lie to them and tell them what I thought they wanted to hear.

  Thinking about what I could say, I realized the only person that could help me out was Aiden. I needed to think about how to use this situation to my benefit. It was then that I came up with an idea. A way that I could bring Aiden to me and not get killed. Knowing the intellect of these men, they would probably believe anything.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “You will never find him. He only talks to me, and only in person.”

  There were a few words exchanged and I wished I paid more attention in my Spanish class. There were only a couple of words that I knew: puta, coño, creer, all of which gave me a pretty good idea that they didn’t believe me.

  Pretending that I knew exactly what they were talking about, I said, “Look, I don’t care if you believe me or not. It’s your choice. And for god’s sake, would you please stop calling me a cunt bitch?”

  “How do we get in touch with this pendejo?” the driver asked.

  “He will only talk to me, so I would need to call him,” I replied, knowing that I didn’t have my phone. “Pull over and I will call him right now.”

  I think that the driver was deciding on whether to pull over or not. When he began shaking his head from left to right instead of up and down, I knew there was no way he was going to pull over. I had no idea where I was going, but maybe I could at least convince them to let me sit up.

  “My body is getting pretty cramped down here. Can you please let me sit up?”

  Once again, a few words were exchanged and after everything had been said, I was allowed to sit up. Looking out the front window, I wasn’t sure where we were, but I knew that we were in Houston. Tall building could be seen, and even though I knew we weren’t on a busy road, we were close to downtown.

  Leaning against the back seat, the driver’s eyes met mine in the review mirror. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I could tell that he was the cabecilla of this whole thing. The other guy holding the gun didn’t seem smart enough to be the ringleader, and the way his eyes kept opening and closing, I wasn’t sure if he should be the one holding the gun.

  There were no more words said and the silence was killing me. I hated not knowing where we were going or what their plan was with me. All I knew was that the dead guy in the trunk needed to be taken somewhere. Maybe they already knew what they were going to do with him. Turning down a residential street, the driver of the car stopped suddenly as though he had reached his destination.

  “Juan, give me the gun and help our friend to his home,” the driver commanded as he put the car into park.

  “How come I always have to do the dirty work, Fernando? You’re the one who shot him.” Juan questioned.

  These guys were really stupid because now I knew their names. Maybe they didn’t care. Maybe it didn’t matter since they were going to kill me. Staring down the barrel of the pistol, I sat still. The last thing I wanted was to make any sudden moves and have a bullet in my head like the poor guy in the trunk.

  Turning my head slightly, I watched Juan drag the limp body up the sidewalk and to the porch. As I looked around, I saw that this was another not-so-desirable area of Houston. Most of the homes had bars on the windows and the doors. I remember reading in history class about these kinds of neighborhoods and the statistics that went along with them. Kids growing up in poverty areas like these have no chance at a real life. If they aren’t initiated into some sort of gang, they end up being killed in the crossfire, or in the dead guy’s case, becoming a drug dealer.

  When Juan returned to the car, leaving the dead guy propped up to the front door, Fernando honked the horn and sped away before the door to the house opened. I looked out the back window and could only imagine how the family of the house felt. When the outside lights came on, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of a woman screaming. I never saw her face since the door had blocked the view, but there was no doubt she was either a mother, sister, or wife.

  ~*~*~*~

  It seemed as though we had been driving for hours when Fernando finally stopped in front of another house that looked like a shit hole. Getting out of the car, he ordered Juan to make sure to keep the gun on me a
nd to shoot me if I tried to get away. Even if I did manage to get away, where the hell would I go? This neighborhood was even scarier than mine.

  As we walked to the door, Fernando in front with me in the middle and Juan behind, I could see that there were lights on in the house. I was afraid to see what was on the other side of the door. Opening the door, Fernando began yelling, “Ese.”

  Giving another Hispanic guy a shoulder to shoulder hug and a weird handshake, I knew that this guy was his homie. Stepping in the house behind Fernando, there was money all over the place and lots of it. Hispanic girls were lined up at a table, placing piles of bills onto a bill counter and bundling them. I had no idea that selling drugs could bring in so much money. I guess I was pretty naïve in that sense. If it weren’t for the fact that I was straight up and never got so much as a parking ticket, I would have loved to make the kind of money that was being handled. There must have been hundreds of thousands of dollars on the tables.

  As they walked me toward the back of the room and down a narrow hallway, I peeked inside the rooms and found mattresses on the floors with no frames to hold them. There were pillows and blankets on them, which told me some of the people in the house must have slept there. It was actually pretty disgusting. Sharing a bed with the three cockroaches that made their appearance from under one of the blankets was not my idea of fun.

  Stopping in front of a closed door in the kitchen, Fernando said, “Take her to her new home until I can deal with her,” as he looked at Juan, who was no longer pointing the gun at the back of my head.

  As we headed down the stairs, I could tell they were steep and each step was the width of a two-by-four. I guess the money that came in didn’t allow for necessities, like a safer staircase to the basement. If Juan continued to shove me the way that he did, I would certainly tumble down the steps.

  “Can you ease up a little? I can fall down these stairs on my own. I don’t need your help,” I spat sarcastically.

  “Cállate,” he said loudly, not giving an inch to my request.

  When we reached the bottom, he pulled a string that was hanging from the ceiling that turned on the light. The one and only room was filthy. There was garbage everywhere, like it had been the used as a dumping ground for all the trash. Kicking the bags of garbage to the side, he made a path to the other side of the basement where yet another mattress laid on the floor. Above the mattress were handcuffs, which were dangling from a pipe that had been secured to the stone wall. It was then that I knew where my new home would be.

  Pushing me onto the bed, Juan ordered me to cuff myself. Grabbing each cuff, I slapped them around each wrist. As I sat on the filthy mattress, I wished I had never looked out the front window of my house.

  Chapter Nineteen

  AIDEN

  This neighborhood was no better than the one Hanna lived in. I watched patiently as the car stopped in front of a rundown house with bars on the windows. Some guy got out of the car, and I thought for sure this would be their last stop. Keeping my distance, I pulled the car to the curb, turned off my lights and waited. When the interior lights came on in the car, I couldn’t have been more relieved to see Hanna sitting in the back seat.

  She looked scared and had every right to be. The trunk popped open and laying inside was a man covered in blood on a plastic tarp. I could only guess that the man walking to the trunk was either Mendez or Ruiz. I watched him pull the body from the trunk and drag the carcass to the front of the house and up the steps. Propping the body near the front door, the guy ran to the car. When the horn sounded, and the car sped away, I knew that they left the body as a message to whoever was inside.

  What a way to go, I thought to myself as I gave the car a bit of a head start before pulling away from the curb. The men in the car were ruthless and Hanna was in extreme danger. I could only image how the young woman who answered the door must have felt.

  Keeping my sights on the car, I followed behind at a safe distance so that I wouldn’t be noticed. Just as the car turned left, my phone began to ring. Answering the call by hitting the hands-free button on my steering wheel, I knew that it was Albert since his name came up on the dash screen.

  “I hope you found something out, Albert,” I asked frantically, wanting to know who was holding my Hanna prisoner.

  “I did, sir. The owner of the house that you gave me the address to belongs to Fernando Mendez. The house was purchased not long ago. Seems he owns several homes in the Houston area. The other guy, Ruiz, I didn’t find any information on him. I am guessing that he is an associate of this Mendez gentleman,” Albert paused. “Aiden, I hope you aren’t putting yourself in danger. I have lived in Houston a long time and know this neighborhood well. I suspect that these men aren’t law-abiding citizens.”

  “I appreciate the concern, Albert, but these two dirt bags have Hanna. I can’t sit back and do nothing.” There was no way that I was going to let anything happen to Hanna, yet I knew Albert’s concern.

  “Just be careful, sir. If I don’t hear from you, I will be calling the authorities,” he stated.

  Maybe he was right. I was in no position to handle these guys myself. If they were part of a big drug ring operation, there would be more of them, and I didn’t like the odds of me against all of them. Hesitating for a moment, I said, “Don’t do anything until you hear from me. The last thing I want is for Hanna to end up dead.”

  I could tell that Albert wasn’t keen on me going in alone, but I needed to see what my chances were before getting the cops involved. The best thing for me to do was to keep my distance until I could figure something out.

  ~*~*~*~

  Coming up to another shitty neighborhood, the car stopped in front of a beige house and turned off the engine. “This is it,” I said to myself as I stopped and turned off my lights.

  Watching the driver get out first, I waited for the back door to open. My breath hitched as Hanna appeared. The man who got out earlier followed close behind her and there was a gun in his hand. She didn’t seem to be hurt, which was a good thing. Keeping my eyes on the three of them, I watched as they entered the house. When the door closed behind them, I waited a few minutes before I got out of my car to check out the house.

  Picking up my phone from the passenger seat, I opened the door and got out. I removed my suit jacket and placed it on the passenger seat before closing the car door. As I headed across the street, I kept my eyes on the house. Heading between the house and the one next to it, I carefully made my way to the front of the house. What I wouldn’t give to be another foot taller. The windows of the house were much too high and there was no way I could see inside.

  When I reached the back of the house, there was no back door. I thought for sure all old houses had a back door. Rounding the back, I made my way to the other side to find the door to the back was on the side. There was no way I would be able to enter through it without being seen. The door led to the kitchen and sitting at a table were two big burly Hispanic guys drinking a beer. I had to figure out another way inside.

  Just when I thought it was time to call the authorities, a light came on in the basement. Even though the windows were small, at least I could see inside and find out what was going on. Maybe this would be my way in. Crouching down, I extended my body and rested on my elbows. Looking inside, it was like looking at a war zone. Never had I seen so much trash.

  Scanning the rest of the basement, there on the far end was Hanna. They had her cuffed to a pipe and she was sitting on a filthy mattress. Tapping on the window, I tried to get her to look my way, but had no luck. I didn’t want to make too much noise and attract unwanted attention. Using my strength, I tried lifting the window, but it wouldn’t budge. The window was locked. Other than breaking the glass there was no way in.

  If she had only looked over, she would have seen me. Her sights were on something else. Trying to see what she was looking at, I adjusted my position and saw two men walking down the stairs. As they approached her, one of them uncu
ffed her hands, while the other pointed a gun at her. As they handed her a phone, I could tell that they were speaking to her, but couldn’t hear what they were saying. It was only after my phone began to ring that I knew she was calling me. I didn’t know why they would allow her to call, unless she had said something to them. Whatever the reason, I needed to play it safe and go along with her.

  “Mr. Drake, this is Hanna. I’ve been caught and the men holding me want to make a deal with you.” As I listened, her voice was shaking, yet confident.

  “What do they want?” I asked, careful not to reveal her last name. I wasn’t sure how much she had told them, and the less they knew about Hanna the better.

  “They know that you had me stake out their operation to put them out of business. They want to make a compromise,” she continued. “They want to meet.”

  With the way the phone was echoing, I knew that she was on speaker phone and I needed to be careful in what I said. “Where do they want to meet?”