Taken

by Mia Ford

  "You mean he doesn't know? Nat, are you sure that is a good idea?"

  "I just need some time to think. Time away from photographers and wealthy people and homes with more rooms than people to stay in them. I just want my quiet home for a while."

  "How long will you be gone?"

  "Just the weekend. I don't want to miss work, right?"

  Diamond smiled but I could see she wasn't exactly happy with my decision.

  "I'll be alright."

  We left the coffee shop and while helping me carry my bags to a taxi I heard Diamond sniffle.

  "Are you kidding me?" I said, laughing through my own tears and wiping a tear off her cheek with my thumb.

  "I'm just worried about you. Call me, okay, and right away as soon as you are settled. Promise?"

  "Yes." I promised.

  And I did just that. I called her as soon as I got to my parent's house. But she didn't answer the phone. She didn't answer the second time I called or the fourth time. She didn't answer her phone.

  JOSHUA

  “Now, we are going to go through this one more time and if you don’t tell me what I want to know you’ll be eating your food through a straw for the rest of your life. Kay, sweetheart? ” I said.

  Diamond. She was looking so tasty just lying there on the floor, her hands tied behind her back, her nylons torn and her blouse untucked from the waistband of her skirt. It certainly did cross my mind to have some fun with her before beating the information I needed out of her. But, that just isn’t my style.

  You hear cops always talking about how with rapists it’s always about the power not the sex. I had power. I had power wrapped in tissue paper stuffed in my closets. I had so much. And right now I just needed to convince Diamond that it was for the best of everyone involved that she tell me where Natasha was. Perhaps I started off on the wrong foot, I wondered recalling how I got in touch with Diamond in the first place.

  She helped Natasha get into a cab and before I could get my car the taxi had merged with a dozen other yellow cabs. It would have been too difficult to try and figure out which one held my beautiful, deceitful ex-girlfriend. But, as the Universe never closes one door on Joshua Hewitt without opening another, Diamond just turned and walked slowly down the sidewalk. She must not have felt like a cab ride. Lucky, lucky me.

  Police also warn women to always be aware of their surroundings. As I walked behind Natasha’s friend I let my eyes wander just a little to the other females walking along the sidewalk. It was getting dark already at this early evening hour. The streetlights had another half an hour at the most before they would flicker on causing the city to take on a more ominous appearance.

  So why not walk with your purse just hanging loosely over your shoulder. No one will swipe it in broad twilight. Keep your face buried in your cell phone as you walk. No one will sneak up on you. And truthfully, those of my own gender were really no better. They yapped on their cell phones and stomped around heading in this or that direction wrapped up in their own thoughts.

  With everyone on the sidewalk preoccupied I thought I’d conduct a little experiment. You see, when you are virtually untouchable and so much more elevated than the average Joe walking the beat you have to continually hone your skills. To become complacent, to settle into mediocrity is an affront to the Universe. I would never do it.

  With long strides I quickly came up on Miss Diamond and walked right past her without her even noticing me. She was too busy on her phone. I made it about a block ahead of her and quickly ducked down an alley. Once in the smelly, stagnant gangway I stepped into a shadow and waited.

  Sure enough Natasha’s friend reached the opening still gazing at her phone.

  “Oh, God, help me.” I whined, just loud enough for her to hear. It was an instinct Diamond couldn’t fight. It was a very rare woman that, when hearing a cry for help, could push her maternal instinct aside and keep walking. I was doubled over, leaning against the wall as if I had been ill or attacked.

  “Hey. Hey, there. Are you okay?” she asked, looking at me, then looking behind her then back at me. Her eyes were wide with concern until I looked up at her quickly snatching her by the wrist and pulling her toward me, my other hand clamping over her mouth.

  “You aren’t going to make a sound, Diamond, right?” I said, squeezing her wrist tightly.

  “You! Heee…”

  SLAP!

  I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to slap her right there in the alley but she gave me no choice. It was funny. I felt her teeth rattle beneath my palm and was sure she was going to spit out one or two canines from the blow. She didn’t, but she did lose her balance and fall, cracking her own head on the side of the brick building next to us. It was perfect.

  I slipped an arm around her waist feeling the fullness of her hips and the soft cushion of the female form in my arm. There was an alley entrance to The Marquette, a crappy bar where construction workers, lawyers and secretaries would go to unwind after work. We slipped in quietly and since the crowd was already feeling good it was easy to say that Diamond had just had one too many.

  We stood in a quiet corner and had a nice long talk.

  “It didn’t have to come to this.” I said. “You could have helped me out.”

  “Helped you do what?” Diamond said as her eyes rolled and she touched the back of her head pulling it away with blood on her fingertips. I watched her tongue touching her lip gently, wincing at the pain. “Obviously you’re crazy and I’m getting away from you.”

  She took one woozy step before I yanked her back into the corner.

  “You aren’t going anywhere. You see there isn’t much that can’t be done when you have a pocket full of hundred dollar bills. Here, I’ll show you.”

  Quickly I leaned over and tapped the shoulder of a guy wearing a white t-shirt and faded blue jeans with steal toed work boots on and a tattoo of a spider web on his elbow. I whispered a couple of words to him over the noises of the jukebox, reached in my pocket and handed over a hundred dollar bill. The man took it and disappeared. Within a few minutes he was back with two shots of Jack Daniels and my change that I let him keep.

  He handed both drinks to Diamond and gave her a sly smile as his eyes felt her up.

  “Bottoms up, sweetheart.” He said, smiling with yellow, tobacco stained teeth.

  “I don’t want them.” Diamond said.

  “Sure you do.” I said. “You don’t want to insult my friend here who brought them to you. Come on, Diamond. You look like the kind of girl who can hold her liquor. Doesn’t she?” I nudged my new associate who smiled again, laughing as if we were indeed the best of friends.

  “She looks like she can hold a lot more than that.” The man said. It was a typical response.

  “Look, friend, my girl here has had one too many and I should be getting her home and into bed. Would you go hail us a cab out front?” I looked at Diamond who was still holding the shot glass and looking like she was about to throw up. “She’s in no condition to drive.” I handed the man another hundred dollar bill and off he went like an obedient little brother.

  “Now drink that shot before I let my new friend feel up your skirt.” I hissed. Had Diamond not hit her own head against the brick wall in the alley I think she would have been a lot harder to subdue. But, my luck was too good. After the bump had stopped rising on her head and the alcohol had started swimming in her brain she looked good and drunk.

  I paraded her through the middle bar and out the front door. Except this time she was practically clinging to me for dear life. She had to feel awful. I took her purse and read her address to the cab driver who gave me a knowing look like he had seen his fair share of drunk girls and knew it was going to end either in the bathroom in front of the toilet or on her knees in front of me.

  What did I care what he thought. We were nothing special. A typical couple. I had Diamond slurring her words and trying desperately to focus her eyes.

  “I told you that you shouldn�
��t have had that last one. But you never listen to me. Don’t you know how much easier things would be if you’d just listen to me?” I said while digging my fingers into her side with one hand and holding her wrist in a vice grip with the other.

  Finally, we made it to the building that was Diamond’s apartment. The sun was behind the buildings now and the street lamps had popped on. Pulling her keys from her purse I managed to get us inside and to her apartment without looking like anything more than her doting boyfriend.

  As I slid the deadbolt into place I looked at Diamond who was not doing too well sitting on her couch.

  “You live in this place, huh?” I said, looking around at the décor. It was that frilly, shabby vintage stuff that women in the United States thought looked very European.

  “My head.” She mumbled.

  “Yeah, I bet it’s hurting. You really smacked yourself there. You mean the shots of whiskey didn’t help? Well, you might need a doctor. Could be a concussion. That is very serious, you know. Just tell me where Natasha is and I’ll call you an ambulance. Simple, right?”

  I don’t know what it is with women. If you tell them to do one thing they have to do the complete opposite.

  “I’m not telling you anything.” She hissed.

  “Oh, yes, you are. You’re going to tell me where Natasha is or else.” I walked around the apartment and saw what I was looking for. A family photo. I snatched it off the bookshelf.

  “Oh, I see you have your mom’s eyes. And little sister does, too.” Through her haze I saw worry fill Diamond’s eyes. “Yeah, little sister has quite a few of your mother’s traits. I can’t be the only man who has noticed that.”

  Diamond swallowed hard.

  “Tell me where Natasha is, Diamond, and you won’t have to worry about your sister.”

  I watched her eyes flicker. She still wanted to be defiant. I had to slap her.

  “Diamond, I really appreciate your loyalty and not telling Natasha about our first conversation. That is what really makes this hard for me.” I pulled her up by her collar and shook her by the shoulders.

  “This isn’t a game, Diamond! I need to know where Natasha is!”

  “Stop!” she whimpered, the blow to her head and the alcohol were making her see three or four images of me by now. “I don’t know where she is. I don’t.”

  Leaning in to her I could smell the booze on her breath mixed with some vanilla smelling perfume or lotion on her skin plus the clean smell of terror and sickness.

  “You are lying.” I had had enough. Pulling Diamond to her feet by her hair I yanked her into the bedroom. There I tore her computer charger from the wall and used it to tie her hands behind her back.

  That was where we were right now. I didn’t expect things to take as long as they did. But I couldn’t say I wasn’t having fun. It was a lot more fun dealing with Diamond who was very easy on the eyes as compared to Denise. That old hag was like tossing around kindling that had been dried for several seasons. Even if I was sexually aroused by the power I had over her I have the feeling it would have been like humping the knothole of a tree.

  Every person has a trigger that will go off when they know they cannot endure any more pain. Diamond’s hands had started to turn blue almost immediately after I had bound them together. But, that wouldn’t stop me from breaking them one at a time. Grabbing one of her own pairs of panties I shoved it in her mouth. Rolling her onto her stomach I grabbed her pinky and wrenched it free from its socket. She screamed in pain but it just came out a muffled grunt.

  “Have I got your attention now?” I asked.

  Crying and gasping with snot running all over down her nose and lips Diamond quickly nodded her head. I knew this would work. I pulled the panties from her mouth and held her head up off the floor by her neck preventing her from getting enough air to scream.

  “Her parents. Nat went to her parent’s house.”

  “And where is that?”

  “I don’t know. Honest. I don’t know.”

  “And you were doing so well.” I said. “Maybe you just need something to help you remember something, anything about where they might live.” I shoved the wet undies back into her mouth. This time it was her big toe. I know what you’re thinking. How odd to break this particular appendage. I agree. But how much pain that little piggy would cause would be indescribable as Diamond proved crying in great ghastly sobs. When I pulled the cloth underwear from her mouth she choked out the suburb Natasha’s parents lived in. That was all I needed.

  “Now was that so hard?” Shoving the cloth back into her mouth I got up and left the apartment.

  Diamond wouldn’t be going anywhere. With a little luck she’d expire before anyone even noticed she was gone. Expire. Like a carton of milk. Expire like a driver’s license. After I found Natasha and talked some sense into her I’d come back for Diamond. If she didn’t slip quietly into that dark night we’d have to have a nice long talk about the future.

  Had I heard her cell phone ring I might have altered my plans just a little. We may have had that talk sooner. But I never heard it ring. Neither did she having blacked out before the front door was even closed behind me.

  MARTY

  “Come out with your hands up!” I heard the police officers shouting. I did as they asked. I put my hands up over my head and laced my fingers. I had to be quite a sight for them. I knew my face had to be a mess and I felt the salty sting of my own blood dripping into my left eye. My clothes were torn and stained. I was panting to catch my breath. The cold night air felt good.

  I had never been to this quiet little suburb before. It was nice. There were big yards for kids to play in and the neighbors were far enough away that you had some privacy but close enough that if a half dozen squad cars pull up in front of your house they’ll see them and come outside to look.

  The flashing red and blue lights made the whole street look like UFOs were landing. The police had their bright lights aimed right at my eyes and I winced and blinked as the uniformed men approached me.

  “Get on the ground! Now!”

  Again, I did as I was told. They wrenched my right hand from on top of my head around my back and before I could mutter another word I felt a knee in my back as they pulled my left arm, connecting them together with cold, metal handcuffs.

  “Please,” I grumbled. “Help Natasha. She’s in there. Help her.”

  “Who else is in there?” The faceless police officer asked with his knee still in my back.

  “Natasha Morgan. My…my girlfriend. And…my brother. I think they are both unconscious. But please, be careful of my brother. He’s dangerous.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Okay fellas! Two more inside. Are any of them armed?”

  “I don’t think so.” I said and was finally pulled up by my arms to my feet and told to sit on the curb. I watched as about five more officers with guns raised entered into the house. Another policeman came up to me holding a small pad of paper and a pen.

  “What’s your name?” he asked without any real interest. To them this was a routine domestic violence case. A love triangle gone wrong and perhaps they were right.

  “Marty Reid.” The name meant nothing to him. Why should it? He was a working class man with a family to raise, I assumed by the ring on his left hand and the most thankless job on the planet. He didn’t know who I was and I was glad for that. It wouldn’t be long before he found out who I was, who my brother was and how much people will pay for any of the gory details.

  “Mr. Reid, I’m Officer Simmons. So, you want to tell me what happened in there?”

  I nodded my head and explained that I had gotten a panicked call from Natasha Morgan that I needed to check on her best friend.

  “Natasha, where are you?” I asked. She had hadn’t been at work for a few days and although I spoke to her on the phone I knew something was bothering her. She wouldn’t tell me and just said she needed a couple days to sort things out. Deep down I knew it had something to do with my brother.
He had been getting worse for several weeks.

  I came home about three weeks ago and found him waiting for me in the lobby of my apartment building. He was looking good, healthy and dressed nicely as if he were going out on a date or something. There were no photographers around him, no women in slinky outfits. It was just him.

  “What do you want, Josh?” I asked, waving to the doorman that he didn’t need to call for the police.

  “I just want to talk, big brother. That’s all.”

  So I nodded my head and we went to my apartment. Once up there the normal behavior ended and I saw the stranger my brother was becoming. He mumbled all the way up the elevator and once inside my home he began to pace.

  “Do you have anything to drink, Marty?”

  “Would you like a beer or maybe just some water?”

  “Still swigging the old man’s brand, aren’t you Marty?” He smirked at me. “The guy has been dead for how many years? You don’t need to kiss his ass anymore. Don’t you have any champagne, or vodka or something with kick?”

  “I like dad’s brand of beer, Joshua. And even if I did have any of the other stuff I wouldn’t give it to you. What do you want?” I took a step toward him but he backed up. “You aren’t looking too good.”

  “I’ll tell you what I want. I want you to stop seeing Natasha.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. It can’t work between the two of you. You know that. She’s just your average girl from some crappy suburb and you…hell, Marty. You should be dating models or debutants or someone with a little better breeding than that one.”

  “Joshua, you really lost any influence you might have had with me years ago. I don’t think you are in any position to tell me who I can or can’t date.”

  “She’s just a piece of ass! What? Do you love her? Is that it?”

  I stepped up to my brother and glared at him as I had done many times over the years growing up when he had overstepped his bounds.

  “One more word out of you, Joshua, and you’re out of here. Things are not looking well for your future. You’ve still got time to get your act together and perhaps find another avenue for your needs. But I am through baby-ing you. Mom and Dad said we were supposed to take care of each other. As far as I can see I’ve been taking care of you and that’s about it.”