by Tia Lewis
"Sure you are," Lillian said from behind the counter, a knowing glance in my direction. Or at least I thought it was Lillian. Hell, I couldn't keep anyone but Hannah straight nowadays. "You're looking hot today, Travis. I'm loving the whole someone bashed my face in look."
"Lillian be nice," Hannah said with a sigh. "Julia left well over an hour ago, Travis."
"I, thanks," I said. She must have gone to the apartment then. Damn, my plan to keep her as far away from my bed was shot to hell.
"Can I just say," Hannah continued with a smile on her face. "That you couldn't have picked a better girl, Travis. Julia is a gem, and I would love to keep her around."
I felt my face grow hot. Damn women and their gossip. It was enough to make a grown man uncomfortable in his own skin. "I, uh, thanks?"
"Look, he's blushing," Lillian laughed. "Damn you are cute when you blush, Travis. Why couldn't we had worked out together?"
I turned and nearly ran out of the bakery, peals of laughter following me all the way out.
When I arrived at the apartment, I turned the place inside out looking for Julia, a cold fear settling over my heart. She wasn't here. She hadn't been here since this morning. "Shit," I said aloud, reaching for my phone. This had gone on long enough. I should have made the call the first time she had told me about her mess, and now I might have waited too long. He picked up on the first ring. "Detective Brady."
"Jace," I said, not allowing my fear to override me just yet. She could be anywhere and maybe not in trouble. But deep down I knew she was. I would bet my money on it.
"Travis, man it's been a while," Jace said with a chuckle. "You must need something."
"I need something," said with a sigh. Jace was a police detective who had been a fighter back in the day, finding out quickly he really didn't like bashing people's faces in and needed something more lucrative. Why he had chosen law enforcement was beyond me, but we had stayed in touch over the years. He was the only person I knew to call, the only person I knew would help me out. I just hoped he could. "I hope you are sitting down for this."
Chapter Eighteen
Julia
Well, I wasn't dead. Light shined through the slats of the boards under my feet, a comforting thought unless I was waiting in line to meet the man upstairs. The entire place was dark, pitch black, in fact until just a few moments ago when someone had apparently switched on a light. No one had answered me for what seemed like hours, my voice growing hoarse to the point where I had just remained silent, wondering what fate was about to find me. A thousand ideas had run through my mind, which wasn't the best thing to be thinking of but when one is trapped in a box without much to do, it came to mind quite frequently. I also thought about how much I hated my ex and how if I survived this, he wasn't going to. I was going to the cops. I was tired of my life being put on the line for him, and even if the police didn't believe me, they would believe the fact that he had taken all I had. I was going to press charges against Kevin, something I should have done the first time I had found out about his deception.
But right now I was stuck in quite the predicament and didn't know if I was going to get that opportunity. I had no idea where I was at, who had me, or what their intentions were but I could garner that it probably wasn't going to be anything good. The only thing I had known is that they had taken me in a van, a dark van that gave no indication who had taken me and ridden me around on some of the bumpiest roads in Chicago. Or at least I hoped I was still in the city. If I wasn't, no one was going to find me.
The door opened, and I scrambled back, seeing that I was not in a box after all but a small closet that only looked like a crate. Hands reached out and pulled me out of the closet and into the light, wincing as the blinding light overtook the darkness I had been put in.
I was roughly placed into a chair; the strong hands clamped on my shoulders to hold me in place.
"Can I ask you a question?"
I turned toward the heavy voice, unable to see in the bright light. "Depends on what the question is?"
The backhand came out of nowhere, causing my ears to ring horribly, the taste of my own blood exploding in my mouth.
"Yes, would be the more appropriate answer, but I'll let it go for now. Where is your asshole of a boyfriend?"
I fought the urge to spit in his direction, my cheek now throbbing in pain. "He's not my boyfriend any longer. You understand? I have nothing to do with him! Nothing!"
The chuckle just irritated the shit out of me. "Yes, well it's too late to be saying that Ms. Chase. You know you really should be more careful of who you associate with. They can get you in a great deal of trouble."
"Tell me about it," I muttered, unable to help myself.
Another chuckle. "I find you refreshing really. Too bad I will more than likely be killing you in a matter of days."
A sliver of fear slipped down my spine at the callous way he said that. This man, he wasn't joking. "What are you waiting for?" I asked, unable to help myself.
"I believe I am a fair man," he continued, the disembodied voice making it even creepier than it already was. "And I will give you the chance to get me my money."
"How generous," I answered, another backhand causing tears to spring to my eyes. I was going to be a sight if I ever got out of this. I thought about Travis's bruised face and how we would be quite a pair. My heart slammed against my chest at the thought of never being able to see him again. I didn't know how he felt about me, or about us, but I didn't want him to have to go through that pain like he had with his fiancée. He had suffered enough and didn't deserve to be dragged into this mess.
"Two days," the voice said as something was pulled over my head, drowning me in darkness. "Two days, Ms. Chase or we will be doing this again and believe me; you won't walk out of here alive this time around."
I was pulled up by my armpits and slung over someone's hard shoulder like a sack of potatoes, fighting back tears as they threw me into something hard and metal, my head banging off a metal wall and causing me to see stars. The engine started as I attempted to sit upright, my hands reaching for the thing over my head and yanking it off, only to be greeted by the empty, black space around me. At least I was moving this time, meaning they were either taking me to my grave or taking me somewhere to drop me off.
They drove around for what seemed like hours but I was sure it was only a matter of minutes before the van lurched to a stop and I watched as the door flew open, only able to see the blur of faces as they grabbed me and threw me out, my body landing hard on the cold ground, jarring my teeth and an explosion of pain racking through my body as a result. Groaning, I pushed up to a sitting position, grateful that it was cold ground and not the sidewalk or the river they had thrown me in. My body felt like it had been run over, my face aching from the slaps and starting to swell. But I was alive. They hadn't killed me. Yet.
I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to get off the ground, standing and waiting for the nausea to pass before I looked around. My head was pounding, and I winced as I felt the goose egg on the back of it from hitting the van wall, knowing I wasn't going to be able to move in a few hours. Tears threatened my eyes, and I wiped them away angrily, not wanting to cry right now. I had to get to the apartment, to safety first.
Thank God I recognized my landmarks, shivering from the wetness that had seeped through my clothes and the biting wind as I trekked down a few blocks, stopping every few moments to allow for the inky blackness that was hovering at the edge of my already fuzzy brain to pass. I couldn't pass out now. The streets were nearly deserted, and if I fell down, God only knows when I would be found.
Finally, I saw Travis's apartment in the distance, ignoring the tears that streamed down my cheeks as I hurried toward it. It was safety. It was home for the moment.
I slid down the stairs, barely keeping my balance and threw open the door, all but falling into the warm apartment.
"Shit, Julia?" Travis's voice came from somewhere in the distance. "
Fucking hell." I felt his strong arms wrap around me tightly but tenderly, the black edges coming closer together before I fell into the dark hole. My last thought was at least I would die in his arms.
When I woke, it was still dark all around, but this time, I had a comfortable cushion of a bed under my tired body, a warm compress on my aching face. Travis's worried face swam into my sight of vision, the relief palpable in his eyes. "Where does it hurt, Julia?"
"All over," I croaked out, my throat raw from my screaming earlier. I wasn't lying either. I hurt literally from the roots of my hair down to my pinky toe. "Anything broken?" It sure felt like it.
Travis shook his head, his hand coming up to adjust the warm compress on my face. "No, not that I can tell. You were lucky. I've never looked this bad after a fight."
I laughed then groaned as the basic motion made everything start to hurt again. I wanted to go back to sleep, to forget this ever happened. I wanted Travis to hold me, to tell me everything was going to be okay. But I could do neither. This was my reality, and it was going to get worse if I couldn't get my hands on that money.
"You scared the hell out of me."
I looked at Travis, seeing something flicker across his expression. "I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "No, I, never mind. It's not your fault. This isn't your fault, Julia. Who did this to you?"
I felt the tears gather in my eyes, mingling with the hot compress that was covering one of them. My arms felt like they weighed a ton, that it would take all of my strength just to wipe away the tear. When Travis did it instead, it only made me cry more. "I-I don't know. I didn't see him." It was his voice I would never forget.
"Shh," he said, his thumbs wiping away the tracks of my tears carefully. "Go back to sleep. We'll talk later."
I didn't want to go back to sleep, but the look on his face told me he wasn't going to take no for an answer. I closed my eyes and heard him leave the bedroom, wanting to call him back but too chicken to ask for him to hold me. What was I going to do? I had unknowingly endangered his life as well, and now he was being extra nice to me. A tear escaped my eye, and I allowed it to roll down my cheek, feeling like I could cry buckets right now. This was not me normally. I was strong. I wasn't the type to let people run all over me. But ever since Kevin had entered my life, I had become this wimp of a person. Well no more. I wasn't going to be that way anymore. This guy, whoever he was, didn't know who he was messing with. I wasn't going to be a victim.
Chapter Nineteen
Travis
I wanted to fucking hit something hard, to keep punching until my knuckles were raw and the pain in my chest eased. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was going to feel this pain, this rage for a while.
"Dude, you need to sit down."
I looked over at Jace, who was reclining on my couch, a beer in his hands though he hadn't drunk it since he had gotten his first look at Julia. It was enough to make a grown man cry. She looked like a fucking mess, her face swollen and bruised, her body covered with more bruises than I cared to count. The good thing was that she had no broken bones, nothing that required advanced medical attention, but still, I knew she was broken, and the thought made me mad as hell. I wanted this fucker's blood. "She woke up briefly."
"That's good," Jace said, his brow furrowed. "What did she say?"
I thought about our conversation, the way she had cried and felt fucking ill. "She didn't see his face."
"Damn," Jace swore, setting the beer on the coffee table. "I was hoping we could make a connection."
I ran a hand over my face wearily, not believing this shit was happening. When I had called Jace, he had known exactly what I was talking about. Turns out the police, more specifically his unit, had been investigating Julia's asshole boyfriend, not for the money, but for fraud. Months of investigation to be exact. They knew Julia had come out and until I had cleared it up, thought that she might be part of his scheme. Jace had been on the phone nonstop since I had spilled the beans on what I knew, and since Julia had arrived, scaring the fucking daylights out of me when she had passed out in my arms. I had never been so scared in my entire life to see her battered and broken body fall like that, and not knowing what had happened. With Jace's help, I had gotten her into my bed and checked her over, getting angrier as I revealed another bruise, my hands shaking as I had tried to take care of her. I had briefly thought about calling Hannah over just so she could have a woman's touch, but I was being selfish. Plus, I doubted Julia would want anyone to see her right now. Jace, on the other hand, she was going to have a long conversation with him.
"I still want to talk to her when she wakes up again," Jace was saying. "We have a list of all the known associates. Maybe she can pick them out or something."
I fell onto the couch wearily, feeling drained emotionally. "Are you sure you can get this fucker?" I was more than willing to track him down myself and show him what it felt like to be on the end of a furious fist.
"Yeah," Jace said, loosening his tie. "We got more than enough evidence, but I think we get the ex-boyfriend involved somehow first. He's a little fish. He'll sing once he hears how much time he's gonna get."
I looked over at him, cracking my knuckles. "I want five minutes with him, alone."
Jace stared at me, his eyes narrowing. "What's this chick to you Travis? I thought she was just some girl you picked up off the street?"
I thought about all the things Julia had done for me in the short time I had known her. She was much more than some chick off the street. What exactly, I wasn't sure, but I knew I didn't want her to leave anytime soon. I was back amongst the living because of her. "She doesn't deserve this. You said so yourself."
He gave me a look like I had copped out on his question, but sighed instead, and I knew I was safe for now. I really didn't know how to answer his question right now. "Yeah, you're right. She doesn't deserve this. No one does, and if she cooperates, we can get these guys locked up."
I sat back on the couch. "I have no doubt she will."
Jace stood then, grabbing his keys off the counter. "I'm going to grab a shower and a few hours' sleep. I'll be back, but if you need me before then."
"I know where to find you," I said, standing and stretching out my hand. "Thanks, man."
"Anytime," he said, shaking my hand. "Get some sleep, Travis. You look like hell."
I chuckled as he let himself out, throwing the locks behind him before letting out a breath. I was damn near exhausted and jacked up at the same time, wanting to fight someone, anyone to release this anger inside. Julia didn't deserve this. With a sigh, I walked back to the bedroom, stripping off my shirt along the way. There was only one place I wanted to be if I was going to settle down for a few hours.
She was still asleep when I eased in next to her, not touching her for fear that I might make her hurt worse. Her face was a damn mess, and I knew she was going to be in some enormous pain when she woke. I just hoped I could keep myself under control to help her. I was going to catch this fucking asshole who put her in this situation, to begin with and make him wish he had never even laid eyes on her.
"Where is she?"
I thumbed toward the bedroom as I poured a cup of coffee and offered the mug to Hannah, who took it gratefully. I felt like shit, only able to sleep a few hours before I was up again, counting down the hours until dawn. Julia had slept through the night, not once waking or crying out, and for that, I was grateful myself. I didn't know what to say or do, so I called Tony, who in turn had brought Hannah over to help. He stood in the corner, his arms over his chest and a brooding, worried look on his face as he kept his eyes on his concerned fiancée. I suspected he wouldn't let her out of his sight after this. "She's still asleep, but you are more than welcome to go in."
Hannah took a fortifying sip of the coffee before setting it on the island and giving Tony a wink. "I think I'll go do that. You boys play nice."
Tony's eyes followed her as she disappeared down the hall before he let hi
s guard down, wiping a hand over his face. "Damn man, what have you gotten yourself into?"
I leaned against the counter, wondering the exact same thing. It had nothing to do with the trouble that Julia was in. I was more concerned with the mess that I had gotten myself in with just Julia and not her baggage. "She, hell Tony, I don't know what to do."
He nodded. "I know that feeling. Remember when Hannah was in the hospital? I had no idea what to do except do what I do best and fight the asshole. I felt fucking helpless man, like life had just gotten seriously fucked up."
"Yeah," I answered, feeling the same way. I wanted just two minutes alone with her ex, just two minutes. He might not have been the one to cover her with bruises, but he had been the reason, and he deserved an ass beating of some serious nature. "I called in some favors. The cops are on this."
"Good," he said. "This shit is deep man, real deep."
He didn't have to tell me that. I knew it was and was glad I had called Jace. He had already phoned me this morning to ask about Julia and to give some information. There was a unit tracking her ex and sorting through his finances again. They were going to find the kingpin and take them all down. Julia was going to be free in just a matter of days if I could keep her alive that long.
A knock sounded on the door, and I crossed over to open it, admitting a frozen looking Jace in. The weather had turned frozen balls cold, the wind chill in the negative double digits with the threat of snow piles by the end of the day. On days like this, I liked to have a few bottles of liquor stored to keep the blood warm, but today I couldn't even drink a fucking cup of coffee without my hands shaking.
"Damn, it's cold out," Jace was saying as he shed his coat and thick gloves, his badge gleaming from his waist. "How is she?"
"Hannah is in with her now," I supplied as Jace walked over and poured himself a cup of coffee. "I haven't talked to her yet." But I had seen the bruising on her face, looked at it far too long this morning in the pre-dawn light. It made me literally ill to think what she had gone through.
