“Yes, damn it. I need you to look at me. I need to know you’re all right.”
I turned my head away.
“You’re just as stubborn as you’ve always been. You know that? What do I have to say to convince you that you’re safe?”
“You’re not real, and I’ll never be free,” I whispered.
“I am real. I’m right here with you. I came to get you, Jared. That’s as real as it gets.”
I attempted a laugh, but it came out sounding like a groan.
“Remember our last week at the cabin, Jared? When we were all together?”
A hiss escaped me. How could I forget? It was the hardest good-bye of my entire life.
“And the sheriff showed up… and you… you threatened him because he came out there to harass Riley?”
The sound of grease hitting charcoal and the sun beating down on me slipped into my thoughts. Sheriff Sloan and his bitch of a daughter. Who the hell could forget that?
“Remember when we put the time capsule together? And we forced you to put your watch in there? You were so pissed. You moped for like two weeks about it. And then we had a pendant made for Riley, ’cause we felt so bad about leaving her out of it.”
“You wanted that pendant made because you were in love with her,” I replied.
He chuckled. “I’m still in love with her. And what about you? Murphy’s been a complete mess ever since you were taken.”
Murphy. Ace. Ace was talking to me. His rough hand clasped mine as he leaned against the makeshift platform I rode on. Could it be that they’d really rescued me? I turned my head towards him and cracked one eye open. His face beamed with a smile that threatened to take over his entire face.
“Welcome back, Jared.”
Tears. Real tears rolled past the corners of my eyes. Ace was there. I was free.
“Now, all you have to do is rest. You have an IV to help speed up your hydration. We’ll be on the road for about forty-five more minutes until we get to the choppers on standby.”
“We’re not going home?”
“We are, but we have to get out of the jungle first. That’s why we’re re-routing to the choppers. They’ll fly us to the airfield where the plane is.”
“They brought me here by plane and then by truck,” I said, gesturing for him to let me have more water.
“Hang on,” he said as he reached behind me and pulled a stack of blankets out. He handed them to the woman who was silently sitting on a bench behind him. Once his hands were free, he slid his arms under me while she placed the blankets behind me, propping me up. The water bottle was in my hands seconds after that.
“Small sips or you’re gonna hurl,” Ace warned me. “That make sense,” he said, jumping back into our earlier conversation. “We were able to bribe the information about the small cargo plane, but then the trail broke off. We knew you’d been moved, but we weren’t sure in what direction. I’ve spent the better part of two months trekking the jungle with Eli to look for possible locations.”
I almost choked on the small sip of water I’d swished around my mouth. “Eli?”
“Yeah, coincidently, we’re in Haiti. At first, I fought the decision to enlist his help,” he shook his head, running his hand down his face, “but we were running out of options. Eli could gather information better than we could since he was already here, moving around the island. It took him a few weeks, but he was finally able to gather a little information and we took it from there.”
The straw between my teeth was momentarily forgotten as I answered him. “But no one saw me. Once I got to that room, they never let me out.”
Ace winced. “That’s why it took us longer to find you.”
“So how did you find me?” I asked, settling the bottle of water between my legs.
“The Red Cross did a ‘campaign’ in the area. They offered free medical assistance for anyone in need. People take advantage of that sort of thing, especially when food and water are brought in. It was a process of elimination after that. Those who refused to allow the Red Cross in were our first targets. There were about fifteen in total who refused; the house you were at was one of them. We never stopped looking for you, Jared.”
I nodded, wincing as I tried to shift to a more comfortable position. The effort of holding my head up had taken its toll on me. “Who took me?”
Ace moved from his squatted position and sat on the floor. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he chewed his lip as if gathering his thoughts. “There’s a lot I don’t know, but I can tell you that the target was one your parents had dealings with. The same one who sent a sniper to the house in the Poconos. From what I understand, the guy is a small fish in a big pond, but he’s looking for ways to rise to the top. What he didn’t realize was that your parents had caught wind of his plans and made him a secondary target in order to get to the primary one. I’m not even sure what it means,” he said with a shrug, “There are times where knowing all the information could get me and the others killed. We’re only told what we need to know to carry out the mission. But I will tell you this, the man that kidnapped you? He’s dead. Your parents found him in The Dominican Republic and sent in a team. The last thing they needed was for him to make his way back to the house where you were held in the slums of Port Au Prince.”
I nodded in understanding. Besides, there was nothing left to say. The old man who’d had me kidnapped was dead. But I couldn’t help but wonder. “What about his boss? Did he know about my kidnapping? Does he know about my parents?”
“Intel says he hasn’t been informed since there’s been no move against Cole Enterprise or your parents. That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t informed and decided that he’d wait it out to see what moves would be made next. It’s easier to keep an eye on your target than plan an attack against it.”
Knowing there was someone else linked to my kidnapper made me uneasy. Especially if he knew about the situation and that I’d been rescued. “Does that mean Eli’s coming home with us?”
The truck bounced over a rut, and Ace put his hand out to steady me as he answered. “No, he’s staying for now. Your parents gave him everything he’d need if things turned here on him. He’s also going to be keeping his ear out for anything to report back to them. Until the primary target is handled, this is still a dangerous situation.”
“Which means I have to remain in hiding, like I should have before.” Anger rolled through me. If I had just stayed at the house, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped, tortured, and locked away in a moldy prison.
“Yeah, it’s really important, Jared. Now more than ever.”
A sickening feeling rolled in my gut. It wasn’t just now—it was forever. There would always be something or someone because of my parents and their association with Cole Enterprise. How long before I was plucked up again, only not to make it through again? My music career was over. There was no way Lars, Retro, and Licks deserved to be pulled into the mess that had become my life. They shouldn’t be held back from continuing on, but what if it were too late? What if, because of me, they wouldn’t be able to put it behind them and move on with their lives?
I had to ask. I had to know. “What about the band?”
“After you were taken, they were brought back to Cole Enterprise and briefed on the situation. From what I understand, they’re still there.”
“What? What did they—?” My voice cracked, sending me into a wracking cough that threatened to snap me in half.
Ace put his hand up, calling for my silence. “I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I know happened before I left. Everything else has been reported to me through Oliver. My main concern was finding you. The rest,” he shrugged, “will fall into place when we get back.”
“I made a mess of things, Ace. A damn mess,” I said, running a shaky hand over my face, cringing when I felt the rough patch of hair that had grown in.
“It wasn’t just you. Your parents should have listened to Oliver when he told them you needed to know.�
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“But they refused…” Of course they’d refused. I couldn’t imagine them being eager to spill the beans about everything when they’d spent my entire life hiding it.
Ace’s shoulder hunched with a slight shrug. “They refused then, but they can’t anymore. The suck-ass part of it is you were the one to pay the price.”
I brought the water bottle back up and took another small sip, letting it roll around in my mouth. It could have been so much worse. I’d been tossed inside a cell and left alone. Other than the first guy that came at me shouting words I didn’t understand, and the kid who brought stale bread and a small cup of water, no one else bothered me. It didn’t make sense.
“Why hold me captive? Why take me to another country, lock me away, and leave me there?”
Ace rolled his shoulders. “Dunno, but we’ll figure it out.”
THE HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRLED OUTSIDE, stirring up a cloud of dust as I was settled into another makeshift platform to lie on. Straps were crossed over my legs and chest to keep me from rolling off the bed during the short flight to the airfield. Ace left me in the care of the nurse who’d rode in the truck with us.
“I’ll see you at the airfield,” Ace said as he leaned in from the open door.
“I’ll be the guy lying down,” I replied, using a weak gesture at myself.
Ace shook his head and stepped back to close the doors.
We’d only been in the air for ten minutes when all hell broke loose. The air around us combusted, sending the helicopter off course and the pilot cursing as he fought to keep us in the sky. My nurse shot up from her seat, pitching into the wall where I laid tied to the bed. Her head smacked hard and she fought to stay on her feet, shuffling her way to the small window at the foot of my bed.
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, and then she dropped to the floor on her hands and knees, making her way to the pilot.
Whatever had happened wasn’t good, and I couldn’t see a damn thing from where I was. Ripping the Velcro straps free that held me in place, I forced myself to sit up and shift to the end of the bed to look out of the window.
Black plumes of smoke belched from the jungle below with no sight of the second helicopter that was supposed to be flying somewhere in our vicinity. And I knew, deep down in my soul, that Ace’s helicopter had gone down. Our pilot hovered, turning the helicopter towards the wreckage, and for a brief moment, I thought he’d intended to go back. Seconds later, we swooped to the right and hauled ass for the airstrip.
“Where the hell are you going?” I screamed to be heard over the sound of the blades carrying us further from Ace.
The pilot couldn’t hear me. The nurse fumbled her way back to her seat and put her head between her knees for a minute. When she straightened back up, she was all business. Her features were schooled to take care of me and not let what had happened detour her from that.
I grabbed her wrist, locking my fingers as tight as I could. “Why did we leave them?”
She jerked her arm away and finally looked me in the eye. The pain reflected there ricocheted between us. “There will be people on the ground to check the wreckage. We have to get you to the airfield. Those are our orders.”
She blinked, closing off what was left of her pain, and moved back to her seat.
ONCE THE PLANE TOOK OFF, I was handed a phone. My father’s voice crackled against my ear when he spoke. “Jared, are you all right?”
Torn between freaking out about Ace’s helicopter, and the concern in my father’s voice, I settled on somewhere in the middle. “I’m fine. A shower and some hot food would be great though. Checking to see if Ace is alive would be better.”
He pulled in a deep breath that hitched. “I want you to know that we’re sending in the best of our people to bring Ace and his team home.”
It was my turn to fight the tears that tried choking me. “I know you will.”
“I’m sorry this happened, Jared. I can’t even begin to put to words the terror we’ve been living while you were gone. When you get back to Chicago, you, your mother, and I are going to sit down and talk. There are things you need to know, no matter how much we don’t want you to, but if anything proves how wrong we were, this is it.”
“Do you think he’s alive?” I asked, gripping the edge of the armrest so tight my fingers ached.
“Ace’s team is one of the best we have, Jared. They radioed us right before the helicopter went down, informing us of the situation. Ace’s team leader gave the order for them to evacuate. That’s all I know right now.”
I blew out a deep breath. There was still a chance he was alive.
THE FLIGHT BACK TO CHICAGO, while long, was made worse by all the questions tumbling around in my head. Had they heard from Ace? Were Lars, Retro, and Licks long gone? What about Murphy… would she be in Chicago when I got there?
The nurse attending me hooked me up to a second bag of fluids, and then brought me some warm broth to ease my stomach. Halfway through the flight, I finally thought to ask her what her name was.
Sam, short for Samantha, was a life-flight paramedic who’d been offered a job she couldn’t refuse from Cole Enterprise. The lifestyle worked for her since she’d been an only child whose parents had died and had no other living family members save a great-aunt on her mother’s side.
Other than that brief conversation, we didn’t speak much, which was fine with me since I couldn’t hold a full thought for longer than five minutes.
I slept, by force, from the little concoction Sam injected into my pic-line. She’d said it was a heavy dose of vitamins, but the last time I checked, vitamins didn’t knock your ass out.
When we landed, she helped me into a wheelchair and we left the plane. I was glad she’d put her foot down about riding in the chair, because there was no way in hell I would have been able to stand, let alone walk, at that point. Not only that, but my skin itched like I had bugs crawling under it, and I craved water so bad my mouth had turned into a cork lake. Something wasn’t adding up right, and all I could think of was that my body was going into some sort of withdrawal.
We landed at a small executive airport, and I was moved from the plane to a black Escalade with dark, tinted windows after my IV had been removed from my arm. Sam explained that I might need another round, but it would be up to the medical staff once I’d been looked over.
Oliver got out of the driver’s seat and rounded the hood to open the door. “Good to see you again, Jared.”
He didn’t look mad. In fact, he seemed satisfied to see me returned in one piece. I didn’t know what to say to him besides to apologize, but that would open up the floodgates in which he’d curse me out for being so stupid. So instead, I nodded and allowed him to help me into the backseat.
“Jared, we’re doing everything we can to find Ace.” He swallowed hard and pulled his face into a neutral expression before continuing. “We won’t stop until he’s home. In the meantime, everyone is waiting for you back at Cole Enterprise.”
“Everyone? Murphy, the guys… Aiden?” I asked, gripping his hand with what little strength I had left. He returned my squeeze with a firmer one of his own. “Aiden left for Haiti not long after the helo went down, but everyone else is waiting for us,” he replied as he let go and closed the door.
The solid thunk was a reassuring noise compared to the clatter of a metal gate. I let out a ragged breath and watched Oliver round the front of the truck, turning my face to the window when he was seated behind the wheel of the truck.
Aiden will find him. He has to.
Sam rolled the wheelchair back to the plane with quick, efficient footsteps, and then made her way back to the truck where she got into the passenger seat.
The ride back to Cole Enterprise took us through a series of rights and lefts to avoid any red lights. A soft mist of rain beaded up on the windshield. The swish of windshield wipers dashed them away every few seconds and, along with it, the blur of colors trapped inside the water droplets. The radio pl
ayed soft and soothing music, almost sounding like the mellow tones of a jazz song. I made a strangled sort of noise, something between a snort and a grunt when I’d realized that was exactly what it was.
“Everything all right back there?” Oliver asked, flicking his eyes to meet mine in the rearview mirror.
My thoughts kind of skipped and scattered all over the place. The lights coming from the windshield was really screwing with my head, but I clamped my eyes closed and focused on his question. “I never pegged you as someone who’d listen to jazz.”
He scowled at me. “It’s soothing.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the fact he’d finally stopped treating me like I was fragile cargo, or if it was because he’d defended his music choices, but I couldn’t help but smile at his gruffness. “I agree. Can you turn it up a little?”
I let my head fall back against the headrest as the throaty sound of a saxophone floated out of the speakers. Sometimes, no matter what was going on, comfort could be found in the little things—like the ebb and flow of a song without words to clutter the way you hear it.
My eyes didn’t open again until we pulled to a stop inside an underground parking lot sealed away under the city streets. It was the Cole Enterprise building, Oliver informed me when I asked as he helped me into a wheelchair that had been rolled out upon our arrival.
Oliver waved away the man who’d brought it out, asking him instead to open the door as he maneuvered the wheelchair over the threshold and down a short stretch of hallway. “Your parents will be waiting down here for you,” he said, leaning over to speak low.
“And where is here exactly?” I asked, noting nothing but the walls and floor around us.
Oliver never broke stride as he answered, “This is the belly of the compound. Top-level positions are within these walls. No one is allowed in or out of them unless they have clearance.”
That confused me a little. “So why am I down here?”
“You were granted clearance the moment your plane touched down, and I verified you were safe,” Oliver answered.
End Note Page 26
