“You bitch!” Jerome roars; he’s ten steps away. My arm and shoulder is through the crack. Just a little more. I suck in and slide through just as Jerome’s hand grabs my shoulder. But he’s too late to get a grip and I’m able to get the rest of the way through. I hit the ‘stop’ button and the door halts its movement. He can’t get through. I can’t celebrate; he can open it again easily enough on the other side.
Spotting a side door, I sprint in that direction.
“I’ll kill you.” I don’t take the time to look back and see if Jerome has gotten through. I hit the door, pushing the flat handle that forces it open. Before I realize I’m out and hit a wall.
The wind is knocked out of me and I’m knock backwards onto the ground. Dazed, I look up and see a mountain of a man standing over me.
I scramble to my feet and am instantly pinned to the wall.
Beside the huge man, a woman appears. Ice blonde hair and features so stunning they seem unreal.
“Help me! Please!” I beg, as the door I just rushed through is opened again. It’s Jerome and he comes up short in the presence of the other people.
“Can I not trust you with the simplest of things,” the blonde says to Jerome and his jaw tightens, but his eyes lower to the ground.
“I’m sorry,” he says, but she ignores him.
Instead, she steps closer to me and smiles. “On a positive note, they like them feisty where you’re going.”
Chapter 17 - Jerome
“I’m sorry, Anna,” I say for the tenth time in the past few minutes. I really am. I nearly fucked everything up.
She holds up her hand, rage flashing in her eyes. “Don’t say another word.” I open my mouth and she glares. “Not one. I have not built an empire for you, a bumbling idiot, to fuck it up.”
I start to cry and hate myself for it.
Anna glares as me again. “You’re pathetic. How did I ever think you had potential?”
Her words are knives and everything I’ve heard throughout my life begins to echo in my head:
You’re stupid.
Yuck. You can’t play with us.
Don’t pick Jerome the faggot. We’ll lose for sure.
“Can I trust you to watch these girls while I meet the client? Or should I hire a ten year-old to do that?” she snaps. She walks out of my office and into the hallway. “They are, after all, locked up and shackled now. Surely even you can’t mess this up. Right?”
I follow her. “Right, Anna. I won’t let you down.”
She turns to look at me and runs her tongue across her teeth, a women’s universal ‘I’m pissed off’ movement. She stares at me. And stares. I swallow, but I don’t say anything else.
“Very well. I’ll be back by midnight at the latest.”
I look at my watch. It’s a little past nine p.m.
“Make sure they are bathed and changed into the clothes I brought for them.” She raises a finger and points it at the tip of my nose. “Keep them shackled, do you understand.”
I nod.
“Say it!” she screams.
“Y… yes. I understand.”
She smiles, a tight lifting of her lips. It’s not perfect, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. “Better.”
She turns and her heels click against the concrete. She doesn’t even glance at the girls as she passes them. A moment later, she’s up the stairs and I hear the door begin to grind open. I wait until it grinds closed before going back into my office.
I yank open a desk drawer and pull out a bottle of pills. I need to focus better. Anna was right. I lost momentary focus. I pop an Adderall in my mouth, then pop another one. I open the fridge and pull out a beer. ‘Do not drink alcoholic beverages when taking this medication’ the label says. Fuck that. I down it in one long drink and then break open a second. I open the desk drawer again and pull out the Xanax, swallowing one of those.
Adderall for focus. Alcohol and Xanax to calm my freakin’ nerves. Perfect.
I sit down and wait for the combination to take effect. I still can’t believe the bitch called me pathetic. And the way she looked at me. She’s not my mother.
I stand up again, unable to sit still. I go into the hallway to walk off some energy. I stand outside Steph’s cell and feel a pang of guilt as I watch her stare at the wall. She’s the picture of despair. That’s not what I wanted.
“I can’t believe she spoke to you like that,” Stephanie says which surprises me. I thought she was catatonic.
“She’s a bitch.”
Steph’s head swivels to me and her green eyes pool up and spill over. “How did we come to this?” she asks. “Do you have any idea?”
How did we?
When we first met, I thought she was the sweetest, most beautiful person I’d ever met. She was wearing khaki pants that cut off at her knee and a pink t-shirt that hugged her breasts. She’d been eating an apple and her nose was in a book. I’d watched her for a while and then there was this magical moment when she just looked up.
When she noticed me looking at her, she wasn’t like the other girls who either smirked or turned up their nose. She smiled. A full, genuine smile. Then she took a bite of her apple and returned to her studies.
Gathering my nerve, I went to her and introduced myself. She’d been having some struggles with a biology assignment and I took her book and helped her sort it out. Then I bought us both coffees and we were still there, an hour later, our heads still close together. I remember the moment it clicked for her. She looked up and smiled again and said, “Thank you so much, it would have taken me forever to figure that out by myself.”
I offered to meet her at that same spot the next day. Then we met the next and the next and the next.
The first year had been amazing. I was honored to be her first. We made love and she cried. Not from pain, but from the intimacy we had together. She was very much a loner and was feeling the isolation her loneliness created. She wasn’t getting along with her roommate, who was whoring it up around campus.
I turn my head to look down the hallway in Beth’s direction. They ended up tight after a rough start.
Steph and I were the opposite. We started out tight and then things fell apart. Then they got worse and worse and worse and now… here we are. I’m about to send her away to be a sex slave to God knows how many men.
What the fuck am I doing?
This is crazy shit. I don’t even hate Beth enough to do something like this. How did I get here? How did Anna talk me into this?
My hands start to shake and I hold onto the bars of Steph’s cell. She stands and walks over to me on the other side; the chain shackled to her ankle clicks against the floor.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she says, and curls her fingers around mine.
She does love me. I knew it.
“I’m sorry I hurt you too. I was just so mad. I can’t believe you left me like that. And fucked a fireman. A fireman, Steph? A fireman!”
“Shhh…” she soothes and reaches through the bar to stroke my face. “I can’t believe you were able to do all those things. Do you know you outsmarted the FBI?”
I lift a shoulder. “It was easy.”
She shakes her head. “No. It was sexy. I can’t believe you went to those lengths to get me back; to have me be with you. Do you know how flattering that is?”
I want her back? Yes, I do want her back. That was my initial goal until Anna stepped in and fucked everything up. But…
“How can I believe you?”
Her eyes fall to the floor and she swallows, then looks back up at me with those big green eyes.
“Let’s go away together,” she says. “Just you and me. Give me a lifetime to prove it to you.”
She’s playing me. She’s fucking playing me. I pull away from her and slap away the hand still extended past the bars.
“Don’t lie to me!” I scream at her. “Don’t you dare lie. I hate you.” I kick at the wall, then punch my fist into it. Pain explodes into my
knuckles and they drip blood.
I howl at the ceiling. Pain. Suffering. Torment. Fear. Hope. They all mean the same thing. I punch the wall again.
“Stop!” she says and I shudder to a stop. In a soft voice, she says, “Come here, let me see.”
Not trusting, I nonetheless extend my hand into her care. She looks up at me. “Do you have bandages? Antiseptic? Anything I can use to clean up the wound?”
I shake my head and she pulls her sweater off, intending to use it to clean my hand. I’m flattered that she would sacrifice her warmth to take care of me.
Then I see it. A fucking LVFD logo on her t-shirt.
“Take it off!” I scream at her. “Take it off! Oh my god, take it off!”
She stares at me and I point at her shirt. She gasps and then whips it over her head, standing there in one of those little tank tops she likes to wear instead of a bra.
“It’s gone.” She kicks the offending shirt into the corner. “Come back to me.” She extends her hands through the bars again.
I’m shaking with fury. And something else. I stand closer, drawn to her. She steps back and tears the sleeve of her sweater off. Then she’s back and wrapping the material around my wounded hand.
“Does that feel better,” she asks, and holds my hand against her cheek.
I step closer. “Yes. It does.”
She smiles. “Good.”
“I love you, Steph.”
She smiles again. “I love you too.”
“Really?”
She nods. “Really. Well, most of the time anyway.”
“Why?”
Her eyes flicker down and then back up at me. “Remember the first day we met and you helped me with the biology assignment?”
I nod. Funny, I was just thinking about that. We were always on the same brainwave.
“I fell in love with you then because you were so patient with me, helping me understand. You didn’t think I was foolish.”
“And now?”
She drew in a breath. “Now, I see how much you love me and I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.” Tears overflow her eyes again. “I’ve never had anyone go through these lengths for me, do what you’ve done. I’m so sorry I didn’t see it before. I don’t blame you for sending me away.”
“I don’t want you to go away.”
“Then let’s go away together. Disappear.” As she speaks, her words flow faster, with more animation. Her eyes are bright with anticipation. “You can make us disappear, can’t you?
Leave Vegas. Leave Anna. Just me and Steph, the way it was always supposed to be.
“Yes, I can do that.” Her excitement is contagious.
I take the key out of my pocket and open the door. A moment later she’s in my arms.
“Before we go, will you do one thing for me? Just one?”
I stroke my fingers through her soft hair and bend down to kiss her forehead.
“Will you set Beth free? Please?”
I stiffen, but she raises her hands and places them on either side of my face. “It will give me closure. If she’s sent away, I’ll worry for forever. If she’s free, I’ll walk away and never look back. I can focus only on us.”
I can’t tell if she’s sincere or if she’s lying. Both emotions look the same. I lean down and kiss her, draw her tongue into my mouth. She moans and grips her fingers into my shoulders. That felt real enough.
Excited now, I realize this will work. I look at my watch. We have plenty of time to slip away. But, free Beth? Why not; I can give her that one gift. It’s a favor to the woman I love, after all.
“Tell me again that you’re sorry.”
“I’m so very sorry,” she says instantly.
I reach down and unbuckle my pants and let them fall to the floor.
“Show me how sorry you are.”
With no hesitation, she sinks to her knees.
Chapter 18 - Ken
It feels like I’ve been sitting in the same chair for a thousand years, my head a paperweight in my hands. Chaos is going on around me and I’m glued to this seat. I hate waiting here. I hate that I’m not out looking for Steph.
But look where? How would we even begin?
Ramsen has been on the phone, yelling at someone to get Steph’s phone back online and has promised to ‘fire every tech person we have’ if they aren’t able to figure out how their secure phones were hacked.
Turns out that my personal hell has turned into a national crisis. My apartment has turned into headquarters.
Finally pulling myself out of the chair, I walk around my place again. I’d done this twenty times already, hoping some type of clue will present itself. I remember being a young boy and looking for something like my shoes. I’d yell for my mom to help me after I’d looked everywhere. She’d walk into the room, point and say, “We really need to get your eyes checked.” Sure enough the shoes would be in the fucking middle of the floor. I had looked all around them.
Maybe I should call my mom for help now.
“You okay, son?” Captain Frank asks as I walk by him again. He unscrews the top on a bottle of water and tells me to ‘drink’. My buddies from the station have stopped by, to check on things and give encouragement. I thought Octavio was going to cry. Jeff brought by another of that sweet shit wine that Stephanie loves. “She’s going to be back to drink this,” he had said.
There’s a knock on my front door, but I ignore it and head back to the bedroom to look in there again. I hear a woman’s voice asking for me. I know that voice. I rush back into the living room.
The woman is dressed in black with the hood of a sweat jacket pulled over her head. She’s looking down at the floor and her hands are fidgeting with each other. She speaks again. Oh my god, it’s her…
“Hannah?”
My sister looks up and although the face is startlingly different, it’s also the very same. Same eyes. Same mouth. Same crooked tooth when her grin flashes for just a second.
“Ken,” she says, and her hand leaps to her face to cover her mouth. “I need to talk to you.”
When I’m a step away from her, she literally falls into my arms. She’s shaking and scared. I pick her up and carry her to the couch, sitting her down and wrapping a throw around her. “Do you need something to drink? What can I do? I can’t believe you’re here.”
She shakes her head. “There’s no time for that. I saw what happened to you on the news, and tonight there’s been a lot of, uh, activity at the house. There’s rumors there are two girls being sent to Moldova tonight. It’s not usually a big thing…”
I hold up my hand. “I need some other people to hear this. Okay?”
She looks around and her face grows hard. She shakes her head. “I’m only telling you. I’m not going to get locked up for trying to help.”
I nod in the direction of Agent Grimes. “See her. She’s cool. If I can get her to promise nothing will happen to you, will you talk to her?”
Forever passes before she nods. I call over to Grimes who comes over and sits with us. “Agent Grimes, this is my sister, Hannah.”
Grimes eyes widen in recognition. She sticks out her hand. “Nice to see you again, Hannah. Real good of you to come support your brother.”
“That’s the thing; Hannah has some information she heard, but she’d like to make sure…”
“Hannah,” Agent Grimes leans forward. “If you have something to tell us about this case, I’ll personally raise forty kinds of hell to make sure you’re protected. Is that what you need to know?”
Hannah nods and pushes the hood back from her hair. It’s a color I can’t even begin to name. “I was telling Ken that there’s been a lot of talk about two girls being sent to Moldova tonight. Normally, it’s not big news. It’s usually prostitutes being sent to places like that.” She leans forward. “These girls are different from what I hear. They were talking about high risk and shit like that. When it was on the news that Ken’s girlfriend and her friend were missing… I put
two and two together. I don’t know if it’s them, but it’s something to consider.”
“Hannah, do you have any idea where they might take them?” Grimes asks.
Hannah nods. “Sort of. The general area anyway. There’s a warehouse in Northtown that I believe they’re hiding them in.”
“There’s a lot of warehouses in Northtown. Any idea which one?”
Hannah’s face collapses and her voice is small. “No.”
“Would you recognize it?”
“No, I’ve never been there. I’ve just heard about it over the years. Apparently there is a basement like thing underneath and they keep the girls there and do… other things.”
I lean over and kiss my sister on the cheek. She smells like beer and cigarettes, but I don’t care. “Thank you, Hannah. That’s the best lead we’ve had yet.”
“I hope I’m not wrong.” She looks so scared, like she’d be punished if she was wrong.
“Remember when we were kids and we’d be out in the woods and get lost. You’d always know how to find our way out. You’d stop and stand for a minute and then tell me which direction to go. You were always right.” I put my hands on her shoulders and look her straight in the eye. “Always right.”
She smiles and gives a little laugh. I kiss her on the forehead and hop up from the couch. Hannah stands too, but I push her back down. “Stay. Will you stay here with me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. No promises.”
“Thank you, Hannah.” She hugs me and I yell for Captain Frank and Gage and head for the door.
Grimes calls out, “Where do you think you’re going?”
I turn, “Where do you think?”
She tosses me a walkie talkie and starts ordering people around. Soon, there’s an entire line of us busting ass toward Northtown, lights hot and sirens blasting.
Chapter 19 - Steph
I always prided myself with having high morals and standards in which I wanted to behave. I never thought I was better than anyone, ever. I just wanted to retain a measure of self-respect.
Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series Page 33
