Chaz watched intently. They leaned in close to one another, occasionally looking around themselves. The second man gestured over his shoulder in his animated talking. Chaz moved further back into the shadows. Where had the man parked? He hadn’t noticed a car coming in.
He pushed a hand across his jaw, felt the stubbly hairs that grew far too quickly. Chaz walked along shadows. He looked at the cars parked along the street. At the end of the block sat an old navy blue van that Chaz hadn’t seen before. He moved closer and crouched looking at the plate.
They were definitely fake. Chaz stood up and moved around the van. He turned on a small flashlight and looked into the windows. Clean enough.
Chaz listened to make sure there were no oncoming footsteps. He moved around the back of the van. Locked. There was a faint smell of something he couldn’t quite place. When he made his way back around to the driver side door, he put a small wedge into the door. He slid a small wire poker in to unlock the door. The door opened and leaned inside. There was barely a sign of anyone having been in the van. The wolf smell of the driver’s seat covered the smell he’d sensed at the rear.
He opened the console, empty. He unlocked the rest of the doors then looked in the pockets and under the seats. Under the passenger seat was a small slip of paper with an address and a question mark. The address was familiar, it was part of the territory that Chaz normally kept an eye out for. No immediate answer for the address came to him so he slipped it into his jacket pocket and kept looking.
When he opened the back door the smell came out to him. It was sugary and sweet, like a girl’s perfume, there was something vaguely adolescent about the smell. The back was open and empty. His light crept along the interior then landed on something pink.
Chaz leaned forward and picked it up. He looked at the loop for a long time before sliding it into his pocket next to the piece of paper. He relocked and closed the van and walked back into the shadows.
He hadn’t found drugs, he hadn’t found a dead body, but he wasn’t sure that, what he had found wasn’t worse.
Chaz pulled the little loop out of his pocket and looked at it again. Two call girls walked toward him. One was drooping with age but the other was young, too young to be in her line of work.
“You want some company,” the older one said as Chaz walked toward them.
“No,” Chaz shook his head. He held up the loop to the younger girl. “You know what this is?”
“We don’t do freebies, buddies.” The older one pulled on the girl’s arm.
Chaz reached for his wallet and pulled out two twenties, he lifted them to show the older woman. The older woman reached her hand out but Chaz pulled the bills away and gave them to the girl instead.
“I just need to know what this is,” he handed the girl the loop. The girl looked to the older woman then down to the pink glittery loop.
“…but it’s just a jelly bracelet.” The girl looked up with questioning eyes, obviously expecting Chaz to take the money back. The older woman pulled the bills out of the girl’s hand and tucked them into her bra.
“And who would wear something like this?” Chaz didn’t shift his focus from the girl.
“Any girl, high school, middle school probably…” Her wide young eyes looked from Chaz to the older woman.
“Ok,” Chaz nodded. He was about to walk away but turned back to the girl. “How old are you?”
“Interested?” The older woman seemed ready to push the girl into Chaz’s arms now that she knew he had cash.
He didn’t respond to the older woman but looked at the girl.
“I’m eighteen,” the girl said, obviously lying, and standing up taller.
“You shouldn’t be doing this, you should be in school…” Chaz felt a wave of heat and resentment toward the older woman who obviously cared nothing about the girl.
The woman grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her away.
“Just, be careful,” Chaz said loudly to their retreating figures. “Stay away from the new men in town.” He felt his face burn hot with anger.
“We play to whoever pays,” the older woman shouted back at him. She laughed.
Chaz pulled out his phone as he walked back toward the diner and the direction of his motorcycle. He dialed in Anthony’s number.
“Hey.” Chaz looked at the bracelet in his hand. “We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter Three
Saturday was even busier than the night before. Zuri was amazed to find her lightweight shirt clinging to her body with sweat.
“Is it just going to be like this from now on?” Zuri asked Greg as she counted out her cash tips.
“I wouldn’t complain if it was,” Greg said with a sigh. He might be glad for the business but Zuri could see that he was just as tired as she was. There hadn’t been a moment of downtime all night. She’d been hustling around the bar trying to get to every empty glass filled.
“Well, I am headed home.” Zuri grabbed her bag and put on her jacket. “I will sleep quite well tonight, I think.” She looked at Greg with tired eyes and didn’t even bother smiling. She walked out of the bar, rolling her head around and cracking her knuckles.
Zuri stepped into the chilly night air and kicked herself for not thinking to bring another dry shirt or at least an extra layer. She had no idea that she would come out of the Smoke Stack looking like she’d just come out of the Pacific.
“You want me to walk you home?” Big Joe was standing outside under a street light smoking a cigarette.
“Did you wait out here for me?” Zuri asked, surprised. It was two hours since the bar had stopped serving and no one had ever waited to walk her home before.
“With those guys hanging around, it’s not as safe as usual.” He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and put it out with his large shoe.
Zuri gave a little puff of laughter. “It’s never safe here.” She thought of all the reasons that she kept mace, bear spray, and a panic alarm in her bag. “I’m fine, thank you though.”
She didn’t look back at Big Joe, always aware that she didn’t want to give any of the men at the bar the wrong impression.
She looked at her phone. It was going on five in the morning. She would begin to see the early risers coming out at any moment. Zuri wondered about what Big Joe had said.
Turning the next block she was about to get out her keys when she heard something in the street. Zuri stopped in her tracks.
What was in front of her didn’t make sense.
A blue van was parked in front of her building, the back doors were open and she saw shadowy movement. At first she thought someone was moving out of her building, or maybe breaking in. Then she noticed the nature of the movements and soon after a muffled scream swam through the air.
“Ava?” Zuri called the girls name as she began to move into a sprint. She reached in her bag fumbling. Zuri could barely think about what she was doing. She was reaching for her mace but her hand clutched on the panic alarm. Zuri pulled it out, pulled the pin, and without thinking she threw it at the man who was beginning to take shape in front of her. The alarm sounded loud and clear but as it hit the ground it shattered and went silent.
She saw a new movement and Zack came running out of the building.
“Hey,” Zack yelled at the man. Zuri noticed a second man.
“Get off of her,” Zuri screamed at the man who was now putting a struggling Ava into the back of the van.
Ava kicked out and hit the man in the arm just as Zuri launched herself at him. She jumped at his arm but with one sharp movement he threw her off.
Zuri hit the ground hard.
“Get off of my sister,” Zack yelled. He was trying to fight with the other man, who had stepped between him and the struggling Ava, but it wasn’t a fair fight. The first man pushed the rest of Ava into the back of the van and slammed the door. He turned to Zuri who was pulling herself to her feet.
Recognition rolled through Zuri, it was the man from the bar, the on
e with the blue gray eyes.
Zuri pulled her bag around, thinking again of her mace, just as the man transformed.
In a flash a wolf was pinning her to the ground. The smell of his breath overwhelmed her, the weight of his paws on her arms and body heavy upon her. Zuri screamed, ready to meet her death but the wolf paused staring at her.
The wolf shifted again and Zuri saw the man, his eyes twinkling, smiling at her.
“Two for the price of one.” He leered at Zuri.
Zuri felt herself being lifted and pulled toward the van. Zuri reached her boot out for the man’s groin. Her foot hit but the man didn’t stop. Zuri dug her fingernails into the hand that now held her. She felt the man’s rubbery skin break under the pressure but still he didn’t stop.
The man opened the back of the van and Zuri felt herself propelled into the back. Zuri screamed. Half of her body was over the van and the other half was still hanging out of the back of the van.
There was a sudden thud and a violent shaking. Zuri turned to see a new man, the member of the Magus Club who she’d seen the night before on the street. He had grabbed the other man and the two were in blows.
“Come on,” Zuri cried out as she grabbed Ava, pulling her out of the van. But Zuri didn’t see the man come up behind her. His hands were on Ava before Zuri knew what was happening. He pulled Ava’s small body away and threw her back in the van. The man pulled at Zuri and she pounded on the man’s arms and shoulders but her blows did nothing to stop him.
Before he could get Zuri into the van, the Magus member grabbed the man by the back of the shirt pulling him away from the van. But, before Zuri could reach in and grab for Ava the van began to move.
Zuri ran behind the vehicle. Ava’s face appeared at the back, her eyes looking down at the moving ground beneath her.
“Jump,” Zuri shouted. Ava looked at Zuri. The hopeless fear in her eyes made Zuri move faster, but not fast enough.
The van pulled ahead and shifted, throwing Ava sideways against the van. Zuri pounded to a stop just in time to see the blue van, with Ava still inside, rounding a corner.
Her chest heaved, she could barely suck in enough air. She turned around and saw the end of the fight. Zack was watching the two men from his place on the ground. Zuri dropped to her knees, she felt the world twisting around her head.
The Magus member punched the Ukrainian mobster in the face. The man, now released from the Magus member’s hands, turned and ran down the street in the direction of the van. He stopped ten feet from Zuri, his cold blue eyes peering straight at her.
“I’ll be back for you, don’t get too comfortable…I will be back for you!” He yelled and pointed a threatening finger at her as he began sprinting again. He made a few clumsy human steps before morphing into a full powered wolf.
Zuri felt an impulse to lay out on the cement, to disappear into the charcoal colored street and never return.
She looked back at Zack, then looked at the empty street where only a few minutes before Ava had been. She pushed herself up to standing and walked slowly back, looking between Zack and the Magus member before her mind went back to the look in Ava’s eyes before she had disappeared for good.
“Where are they taking her?” Zack stood up, barely stable on his own feet.
“I don’t know,” Zuri said, shaking her head. Her voice was fragmented, her breath still coming in sweeping gasps. “We’ll find out. Where is your mom? What happened tonight?”
Zack’s eyes blinked twice before he burst into tears. Zuri opened her arms. Zack crumpled forward into her.
“She’s at work, Ava was going to debate challenge against another school, it wouldn’t start until eight but she wanted to get there early to prepare…she…she…I heard…” Zack bent down to Zuri’s shoulder.
“Let’s call your mom,” Zuri said shakily. She pushed Zack away and looked at his face. Despite his new height he was still just a boy.
Zack got his cellphone out and made the call.
For the first time Zuri turned to the Magus member and really looked at him.
“You are both ok?” He asked. His nose was bleeding but he barely seemed to notice.
“Physically.” Zuri felt her body shaking and wasn’t completely sure she’d spoken the truth. “Who was that? Where are they taking her?”
“I don’t know where they are taking her but I’m going to find out.” He was calm now, his eyes glistening.
“You’re part of Magus?” Zuri asked.
The man nodded, “Chaz.” He held out a hand that Zuri didn’t take.
“If you’re Magus why didn’t you shift? You could have saved her.” Zuri felt a hot tension building inside of her. She wanted someone concrete and definitive to blame. She wanted Ava back. Every member of Magus was a bear shifter, Ava had grown up with them running her town. They acted as both protector and predator. “Ava is a good kid, she…” Zuri felt tears on her cheeks but she pushed them away and tried to force herself to keep calm to think clearly.
“We’re on…I’m on it. We’re going to find your friend.”
Zuri wanted to shout at him. She wanted to throw herself at him and hit him as hard as she felt like she was being hit in the heart and stomach. She wanted to yell and tear at his face. What was going to happen to Ava? She was just a young girl, with nothing to defend her, innocent in every way.
“What are they going to do to her?” Zuri began to imagine the reasons those men could have had for grabbing a girl off the street.
“Mom’s coming.” Zack looked pale.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to find Ava, I promise.” Zuri tried to sound confident and sure, though she felt nothing of the sort.
The town of Cliffs had long since been off the police radar. The people of Cliffs took care of their own problems. They handled things their own way. Zuri’s only chance of getting Ava back alive and in one piece was to get Magus to do the legwork. She had no strength or artillery on her own but Magus was a force to be reckoned with.
“Go upstairs and wait for your mother,” Zuri told Zack. “Lock the door behind you.”
Zack paused and Zuri could tell that he didn’t want to go. He looked from Zuri to Chaz then nodded apprehensively and turned to go back in the building. Zuri watched him climb the stairs and open the door. He looked back at her once more before going inside.
Zuri turned on Chaz.
“My name is Zuri Hayes, I live in this building. I’ve known Ava and her brother since they were little. Ava is seventeen-years-old. She is smart, really smart. She is getting a scholarship to a good school and she is going to have a good life. She is a good kid and she deserves that. Do you understand?” Zuri tried to control her voice and the shaking of her body.
Chaz nodded slowly. “I will do everything I can to get her back.”
“Promise me.” Zuri walked forward and stood so her eyes locked with Chaz’s eyes. She held his gaze.
Chaz didn’t break the focus of his eyes on hers. His eyes were dark but there was a fire lit under them.
“I promise,” he said.
Zuri nodded her head.
“Ok, what do we do first? Where do we go?” Zuri cracked her knuckles and looked down the street in the direction that the van had gone. She noticed the remains of her panic alarm under her toes and she kicked at it ruefully. Lot of good it had done, Zuri thought, everything in her ready to explode.
“We?” Chaz asked. Zuri turned to look at him. “You heard that guy. They are dangerous people, you are not doing anything.”
“I just promised a fourteen-year-old boy that I would get his sister back. I don’t take my promises lightly.”
“And I just promised you that I would do everything in my power to find her and bring her back.” Chaz seemed to broaden and grow in height. “I don’t take my promises lightly either.”
“Good.” Zuri wanted to believe him but she knew she couldn’t just walk away and sit around without looking for Ava. She would go inside and start d
oing some research, she would leave as soon as Chaz left, set off on foot if she had to. “How do I contact you?” she asked.
“Contact me? You don’t think I’m letting you go back in there alone, do you?” Chaz looked at the building. Zuri knew that it would take less than two minutes for someone to break in if they wanted to but she wasn’t worried about her own safety. She didn’t care about the risks to herself, right now she only cared about Ava.
Zuri felt herself growing rigid. She didn’t want protection. She wanted Ava back. Really, she wanted to take Ava’s place. “You should have let me get taken with her.”
Without warning she threw herself at Chaz, hitting him fiercely in the chest. Chaz didn’t move, he took Zuri’s blows like they were nothing more than a fly landing on him. His calm only made her feel more helpless and she hit harder and harder until she had no strength left.
Zuri pulled back from him, despondency overcoming her.
“Why did you have to come? At least I would have been with her. Maybe I could’ve…done something.” She threw her hands in the air and let the tears come. “She’s probably still a virgin…just…”
“Hey,” Chaz moved forward and took book of Zuri’s hands in his. “Just breathe.” He stood with her hands in his until her breathing calmed down. When he spoke again his voice was soft, “We’ll find her. Ok? I promise.”
Zuri felt her lips trembling but Chaz’s eyes had the look of a man who meant what he was saying.
“Come on, let’s get moving. You aren’t safe here.” He turned and began walking down the street toward a motorcycle that Zuri hadn’t noticed before.
Zuri reluctantly followed him. It would be better for her to nearer to the action, to hear and know what was going on to help Ava.
When they got to the motorcycle Chaz pulled out a helmet and handed it to Zuri. She took it and looked at it in her hands.
“Where am I taking you?” He turned and looked at Zuri. She stared back at him. “Do you have family, a safe place to stay?”
Her mind went blank. If she called a friend then she would be out of the loop, she would have no idea what measures were being taken to get Ava back. She shook her head.
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