Can't Walk Away (The Thomas Family Chronicles #1)

by Ashlee Taylor

  If there was anything I knew for sure it was that Nicholas would never be with this woman, and nothing would take him away from his baby girl.

  “You keep telling yourself that. DNA proved that’s his daughter—she’s his heir, he’d never let go of her.”

  “No. He will for me,” she screamed.

  I chuckled a little bit and shook my head. “No, he won’t. Never underestimate the power of a father’s love for his daughter.”

  She blanched at my words, her nostrils like an evil hyena. She stalked over to my hanging form and smacked me straight across the face before pulling my hair. I didn’t scream, I didn’t make a sound. I didn’t even let myself cry.

  “You honestly underestimated me, you stupid bitch,” She growled before spitting in my face.

  “Enough of this. Cain, bring me a chair,” she called out with a sneer, snapping her fingers in the process.

  I could hear and feel his footsteps before I could see him. He came into the room and I was terrified of what I saw. He was way over six feet and built like a football player. His bald head glittered as he walked closer, the way the light hit the sweat it seemed to shimmer before my eyes. Turning his head, he looked at Anise, waiting for her instructions.

  Cain put the chair down and she slid into it, crossing one scrawny leg over the other.

  “Lower her,” she said with a roll of her eyes and a flip of that bleached blonde hair that I wanted to rip strand by strand from her head.

  Cain walked over and with a quick flick of the ropes, my knees hit the ground with a loud thud while my arms were still tied above my head.

  “I’m going to tell you a little story, seeing as how I have you here and you should know why we’re at this point.”

  Keeping my eyes on her, I tried my hardest not to show fear. I didn’t want to give her that power.

  “You tell stories, right, so this is fitting. Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.” She waved her hand over herself. “Who was madly in love with a handsome prince, and they were one day going to be married.” Anise let out a huge exaggerated sigh that made me want to vomit.

  “One day, said prince went to a ball where he met a loose slut—that’s you. And the loose slut manipulated said prince and put him under a spell to try and take him away from me, the princess.” Anise rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “You, the loose slut, took the prince back to a house of ill repute and had your wicked way with him. You had him under the spell so deep that when I and my friends came upon you in the room, you were both sleeping. Well, I got him out of there and left you to wallow in what you had done to him. I didn’t know you would find your way back to each other, or I would have ended you while you slept.”

  Things started falling into place. I started to remember a little bit more.

  “You drugged us?”

  “I drugged, you drugged…it’s all the same.”

  “I didn’t drug anyone, you did. Neither of us could remember that night, I only had faint memories that I didn’t think were real. When Nicholas finds out, you better run and quickly.”

  “He won’t find out. He hasn’t figured it out in all this time, he won’t figure it out.”

  It was my turn to laugh. I knew something she didn’t and I couldn’t wait to let her know. “That’s where you’re wrong, Anise. Nicholas’ memories started to come back. He knows that someone came into our room while we were sleeping. He knows he fought them but they put a cloth over our mouths. He’s putting two and two together, and even if you had a shot, I’d sleep with one eye, as he’ll kill you once he realizes.”

  Anise’s nostrils flared again. She stomped both her feet on the floor as she stuttered what she was going to say. Unable to form words, she did the only thing she could.

  “B-Bobby, teach Christianna here some respect.”

  I watched as Bobby cracked his knuckles before walking over to me. I felt his fist connect with my jaw, the pain radiated throughout my whole face. I could no longer feel anything along the left side of my head. A warm oozing feeling started to trickle down the side of my face and I couldn’t tell if it was tears or blood. The way Anise was laughing as she looked at me, I assume it was the latter.

  I took the hits one right after the other before I passed out from the pain.

  Nicholas sat in the grass holding Layla in his arms. She was pointing out all the wildflowers scattered around the expanse of this garden. When he looked up and saw me approach he smiled, his face beaming with each step. The gentle nudging of my stomach caused me to look down. My stomach was now swollen and moving. I rubbed my hand over the firm roundness to calm down the little one when Nicholas reached his hand out and placed it on my belly. Nicholas smiled and then laughed before pulling his hand back and punching me dead in the stomach.

  I gasped for air as I came to. Another hit, which I saw was a kick from Bobby to my prone body. Laying now with my arms to my side, I tried to curl myself into a protective ball to protect my baby, but every time I moved he kicked me in the opposite direction. He laughed with every move I made, it seemed to spur him on.

  A kick to my side and I was having trouble breathing, I was gasping for air desperately when I passed out again.

  The next time I woke I was lying on my side in what looked like a mixture of vomit and blood. There wasn’t a spot on my body that didn’t hurt or ache in some capacity. I knew my major problems were my breathing and the possibility that my jaw may be broken.

  Slowing my breathing to a minimum, I tried to listen to try and hear anything in this building. I didn’t hear anything anywhere. There wasn’t even outside noise, it was weird. Where was I? Was there anyone around? If I could get up and move, could I leave? Would someone out there, be able to help me?

  I could hear noises now, low murmuring voices and footsteps. I lay there closing my eyes just enough to make it look like I was still out of it. I could see the pairs of boots as they entered the room. Four pairs of feet stood there at the entrance and they were all talking about me.

  One of the boot wearers walked over, bent down slightly, and pulled me up by my hair. I didn’t say anything, just opened my eyes slightly to get a good look.

  “She’s broken,” his voice said.

  “She’ll heal. Her body is fucking sweet though,” a voice commented

  “Her mouth is fucked up, she can’t even suck my dick,” he replied.

  “Forget sucking your dick, take her pussy. She can’t say no,” a different voice called out.

  I was let go then, just dropped to the floor. I wished that this was over. No one should endure this. Please God, take me now before they rape me. Two men reached out and ripped apart my clothes. I couldn’t scream or fight back, I was just there in the moment, praying for death.

  “What the fuck is going on in here?” another voice yelled. “Get the fuck away from her.”

  It was Cain. He was livid and pushed the men away and out of the room. I didn’t get to hear what was said, the screams were like a lullaby, causing me to pass out again for the millionth time it seemed.

  I woke up much later in the dark, cold and shivering. At the same time I was sweating. Was I closer now to death? I was sure I was. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe this was it. This was the end.

  Saying prayers and telling those I love that I missed them and for them to not mourn over me too much, my breathing became worse. I was gasping like a fish out of water when I heard the footsteps again.

  A light overhead came on and I opened my eyes slightly. Cain came into the room and stood a few feet away from me. He dropped a bolt of plastic on the floor that rattled everything around it, including me. I looked up at his face to give me an indication of what was going to happen next.

  When I saw what he had been carrying in his other hand, I knew my life was over.

  ***

  Nicholas

  It had been six days since I last saw Christianna, six days since Layla had her mo
mmy. Six sleepless nights, not that I could sleep with her being gone, but Layla couldn’t sleep either.

  I’d been staying at Jonathan and Evelyn’s house, they were both very comforting. I lay in Christianna’s bed, in the room that smelled like her. The bedding smelled of her, it was the only place in the house that calmed Layla down. So I lay here, Layla passed out on my chest. Her little tiny hands fisted the cotton of my shirt. This is where she cried for her “Ma” for over an hour before she cried herself to sleep.

  Alex had been a tremendous help, with her looking and sounding the most like Christianna. She was an easy stand in when I had to have meetings with the family and the men that had gathered to help find the people that did it.

  Bobby—one of my own, my good friend—he committed the biggest sin of all.

  Betrayal.

  I didn’t know who Bobby was working with since everyone was in the wind at this point, it was odd. Everyone had their ears to the ground. I had placed a huge bounty on his head and no one had turned up with any news. This was unheard of, there was always one snitch that ratted out the other for the payday. So I had to delve deeper into the seedier part of the life.

  Dad kept Anderson alive for the time being because he knew something, although he refused to talk. Instead he just dared me specifically many times to just kill him. He was still hanging in there. I couldn’t wait for the day when I got to destroy him. I’d do it while he was still alive and while he could see my face. He’d pay for every single tear my baby girl cried over the loss of her mother. This was a fact.

  The dull light of my phone glowed brightly in the dark room. I didn’t care who it was nor was I going to move. Nothing was more important than what was going on right now. I held Layla a little tighter, I looked at her sweet face as she slept. Her lips pulled together, making sucking motions with her lips; the noise made me smile.

  I couldn’t think of all the negative as I held her. Call it a gut instinct on my part, but I didn’t feel as if Christianna was gone, maybe my connection to her through Layla gave me reassurance that she was all right, all right in the sense that she was still breathing. Even though I pitied the person who had the gall to take away one of the most precious things in my life, I wouldn’t show them mercy.

  A soft knock on the bedroom door brought me back to reality. The door opened slowly and Alex popped her head in.

  “Hi, Luke’s here. He’s been trying to get in touch with you. He’s downstairs, I’ll take her,” she whispered as she got closer.

  Kissing my baby girl before carefully passing her to Alex was really fucking hard, but knowing Luke as I do, he wouldn’t have come here if it weren’t important.

  I padded silently downstairs into the living room where Luke stood with a couple other guys. His face was filled with anger. Whatever it was wasn’t going to be good.

  Luke turned to me as I entered the room, which calmed him down a bit. “Sorry to interrupt, Nico, but I knew you needed to hear this as soon as I found out.

  “It’s okay, Alex has her. What’s up?”

  “We got news. Someone came to us for money and protection. He’s seen her, Nico. He knows who has her.”

  “Where?”

  “I have him at the safe house. As soon as he spoke of Bobby I got him there right away. He’s protected. I came to get you knowing you’d want him first.”

  Nodding, I headed back up the stairs into the room silently. Alex had put Layla down on the bed with one of Christianna’s sweaters. It was genius. I wish I had thought of that.

  Grabbing my keys and phone along with my shoes, I turned to tell Alex to let her know what was going on but I think she already knew. Alex gave me a polite smile along with a reassuring pat on the shoulder. I bent down, resting my knee on the bed as I pressed a kiss to Layla’s sweet face.

  “Call me if she needs me,” I whispered to Alex.

  “She’ll be okay, you just get my sister back,” she responded, wiping a tear away.

  I stood outside of the bedroom door, putting on my shoes. I needed to find out what information this guy had and that was the only thing on my mind right now. I walked down the stairs and out to the car where Luke was waiting for me. The second I closed the car door, Luke was off down the driveway.

  The safe house was about twenty minutes away, but we made it in a little over ten. I stood outside the door and put my game face on. This guy, whoever he was, was going to see that I was serious. He would know beyond a shadow of a doubt I wasn’t playing, especially when it came to my family.

  I followed Luke into the house, through the halls, until we reached the back. When he opened the door, I stepped in. The man sitting in a chair looked up at me, wide eyed and terrified, as he should be.

  “Do you know who I am?” I asked, knowing undoubtedly he did.

  “Yes, sir.” His voice cracked a little in the end.

  “I’ve been told that you seek money and protection from me in exchange for some information regarding my wife.”

  “Yes.”

  Finally, a lead. I didn’t want to jump the gun and start giving in to his demands, so I played it cool. I pulled a chair to me and sat down, placing my elbows on my knees, I leaned forward with my eyes fixated on his face.

  “Tell me what you know and I will help you. Rest assured that I am a man of my word. However, if you had anything to do with harming her, I will end you myself and lay you on the front yard of your mother’s home. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir, I understand.”

  “Then tell me what you know.”

  “A friend of mine, his name is Mitch Lewis. He’s friends with this big beefy steroid guy named Cain. He said that Cain got this job paying him six figures, so he went to check it out. He said there was this girl there. She was half dressed and he even showed me a video. I saw the video and I recognized her from the news.”

  “Where is this video?” I questioned him.

  “It’s on Mitch’s phone. The girl, if it’s the same one, had a tattoo located around here,” he said, pointing to his rib area. “It was words, I couldn’t make them out. I recognized her face, although…” he trailed off.

  “Although what?” I raised my voice a little higher

  “Her face…I’m sorry…her face was bruised, bloody, and swollen.”

  My hands flew up and covered my face. It was starting to break me. I needed to know the rest or it would kill me.

  “Anything else?”

  “Her clothes were torn and they were bloody. I’m not sure if she was touched in that way. But Mitch and his friends in that video he showed me, they were going to touch her, but that guy Cain came in and stopped them.”

  I jumped out of my seat with such force that the chair flew backwards, smacking hard against the wall.

  “Do you know anything else?”

  “He said he saw another woman there. She was talking about how once it was all over with that she would have money and they’d have jobs. When I asked what kind of jobs, he said working with you. So I questioned how did that lady have that kind of pull and he said she was your wife to be?”

  “What?” I yelled, my mind spinning. This can’t be what I’m hearing for certain. “This woman is my wife to be? Who was she?”

  I watched as he slipped his hand into the front pocket of his jacket and pulled out a card. With a shaky hand he held it out to me. Taking the card from him, I looked down at it. Immediately I recognized that number, and I finally knew who was behind all of this.

  Feeling as if the floor was falling away from me, I stumbled back a few steps before leaving the room. I walked down the hallway, turned, and rapidly punched into the drywall multiple times before Luke pulled me back.

  “It was Anise, Luke. All this time we assumed that she fled with her mother after Anderson lost everything. She was behind this. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that first. I fucked up.”

  Luke stopped me, placing both hands on my shoulders. “If you hadn’t thought of it, Nico, t
rust me, I did. You were so wrapped up and consumed with what was going on and with Layla, I had to do something. So I checked. She hadn’t even been a blip on the radar. She’d used nothing, Bobby had used nothing. In order to have done this, it had to have been planned for some time.”

  “Don’t fucking tell me that!” I yelled. “Luke, he’s been with them, with Layla. He’s been there while we’ve slept. He could have taken us all out at any moment. What possessed him to turn on us? Where did things go wrong?”

  “Nico, I can’t tell you that. All I can tell you is that we will get answers to all these questions. People are going to die after this. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed and there’s going to be a lot of death before it’s all said and done.”

  “I just want it to be over, man, just please let it be over,” I said before plowing my fist through the drywall again.

  ***

  Officer Joseph Garrity

  The night was like any other night. My patrol downtown was going smoothly. The usual were out tonight, they weren’t causing any problems. They were just doing what they do. The homeless population had grown over the years, we had tried hard to keep them in check the best we could.

  I learned early on in my career that some people just wanted to live that homeless lifestyle, regardless of the issues they had, they were more comfortable there. So I did what I could for them. I watched out. Made sure they had food and blankets in those rough days.

  If I noticed a regular or two missing for a few days I would make inquiries. I couldn’t let that sit on my conscience if anything were to happen to any of them.

  Traveling my normal route, I usually went through the same area twice. When I made it down the block to the old industrial district, I saw one of the guys I became friends with when I first started this beat, Mel. He was sitting in one of the doorways of one of the abandoned buildings, not his usual spot. His eyes were focused on a building across the way.