Mistake Me Not

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘You think we’ll figure this out?’

  ‘I think the stakes just got higher,’ Ryder said. ‘But, yeah, we’re going to figure this out.’

  ‘You’re confident.’

  ‘Damn right, I’ve got to get this woman back just so I can chain her to my wall,’ Ryder said leaving the office to update Rocco. He would get his woman back, and when he did he’d never let her go again.

  Sorcha had taken Lacie through the residential village and now they were heading down a long road into a retail park.

  ‘Where are we going Sorch?’ Lacie asked when Sorcha changed direction yanking Lacie between two buildings.

  Her panic was justified because there a few feet down the road was a car, a beige Toyota with out of state plates. As Sorcha picked up speed, Lacie pulled her weight trying to slow her. Except the door of the car opened and the moment Sorcha let her go Lacie realised Bruce was emerging. Lacie slowed to a walk but Sorcha ran forward launching herself into his arms. Lacie was bound to join her friend but she dragged her heels wishing for a phone, or even a passer-by.

  Lacie stopped further from the car than would be considered normal but she wasn’t ready to trust Bruce, or to cut off her exits.

  ‘What is going on?’ Sorcha asked Bruce. ‘I have no idea what to think. Are you in trouble?’

  ‘I can’t explain here. Come with me, I’ll explain everything,’ Bruce said.

  Bruce still stood in the front car doorway and he reached for the back passenger door handle.

  ‘We’re not going to get in a car with you Bruce,’ Lacie said stopping him in his tracks.

  ‘Lacie,’ Bruce said. ‘I’m sorry; what... what happened was terrible.’

  ‘Why should we trust you Bruce?’ Lacie asked.

  ‘You’re in danger,’ Bruce said. ‘We’re all in danger.’

  ‘Why are you here?’ Lacie asked him.

  ‘We found him,’ Sorcha said. ‘This is all over now.’

  The sun was low in the sky and the glare made it difficult to see if there was anyone else in the car.

  ‘It’s not over,’ Lacie said. ‘Ask him what he was doing at Lewis.’

  ‘I’ll explain everything,’ Bruce said. ‘But it’s not safe here. We have to go.’

  ‘You sent them to me,’ Lacie said. ‘Last night, if they had found me I’d probably be dead now. You gave me to them.’ As Lacie spoke, Sorcha retreated a few steps from Bruce.

  ‘No,’ Bruce said trying to bring Sorcha back to his side. ‘You don’t understand what they’re like, what they’re capable of.’

  ‘I’m the only one here with bruises courtesy of your friends.’

  ‘They’re not my friends,’ he said beseeching Sorcha. ‘You have to trust me. I’ll explain everything.’

  ‘Why the clandestine meeting?’ Lacie asked. ‘Why didn’t you just go to Sorcha’s?’

  ‘I got away from them. I have to go now because they’ll come after me.’

  ‘You should be safe at Sorcha’s,’ Lacie said. ‘Or did you give them her address too?’

  ‘Come with me Sorch, come with me now.’

  Lacie didn’t believe Bruce for a second but Sorcha wanted to believe in him; it was written all over her face. Sorcha could be reckless; Lacie just hoped that her desperation wouldn’t fuel Sorcha to make the wrong choice.

  ‘We can help you,’ Lacie said trying to calculate a compromise.

  ‘What?’ Bruce asked. ‘You mean the police? No. No, you don’t understand these people.’

  ‘Not the police,’ Lacie said. ‘My friend, remember in that room, remember the man who was with me?’

  Sorcha sighed. ‘You can’t trust Ryder to—‘

  ‘I do,’ Lacie said. ‘You’re asking me to trust Bruce for you but if you’re wrong we’ll both end up with bruises a lot worse than the ones I have now.’

  ‘What if he calls the cops?’ Bruce asked.

  ‘He won’t,’ Lacie said. ‘But you’re not exactly selling me on the idea of trusting you. If you’re worried about cops you’ve confirmed that you’re up to something illegal.’

  ‘Sorcha, come with me,’ Bruce pleaded.

  Sorcha took a deep breath then tossed Lacie her purse. ‘Tell him to come alone.’

  Lacie didn’t hesitate; she fished out Sorcha’s phone and searched for Shep’s number because she still didn’t have a number for Ryder. All she could hope was that Ryder was still there because she doubted Tiffany would have a direct number, and Bruce was looking antsy.

  ‘Sorcha?’ Shep answered the cell number she’d come across.

  ‘It’s Lacie, where’s Ryder?’

  ‘You don’t want to talk to me?’

  ‘Cut the crap and put him on,’ Lacie said. Wind touched the line, and a car passed suggesting to her that Shep had gone from inside to out.

  ‘Baby?’ Ryder said with clear desperation in his voice.

  ‘I need you to—‘Lacie stopped when Bruce reached for the back passenger door.

  ‘What Baby?’ he asked. ‘What do you need me to do?’

  ‘Come here alone,’ she said. Sorcha moved away from Bruce but the two continued talking. ‘And fast.’

  ‘Where?’ he asked steady, objective, and clear.

  ‘He’s here,’ she whispered unsure if Bruce would hear her, or if he cared while he and Sorcha argued. ‘Bruce, he called Sorcha. He wants us to get in his car, to go with him.’

  ‘Do not get into that car, do you understand me? I don’t care what it takes. Do not get in that vehicle.’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘Where?’

  Reading him the street name from a dusty sign nearby, Lacie then reiterated that he shouldn’t bring the police. He promised he would be there in minutes, and told her to keep the line open. Lacie kept the phone to her ear in an effort to buy some time, she didn’t want there to be any developments that might change the situation. The line had long since gone silent; presumably, he’d muted his end so she put the phone back in Sorcha’s purse.

  Bruce was moving in closer and Lacie recognised Sorcha’s hair toss. Sorcha backed away taking Bruce from the side of the car. Lacie liked her style, yet when Bruce swooped in for the kiss he also took a hold of Sorcha giving him just a little more control than Lacie liked. Bruce began to back up toward the car taking Sorcha with him. The pair remained lip locked but somehow it seemed to be more of a power struggle than a couple overcome with lust. Lacie considered her options if the situation went south though there weren’t many. Ryder wanted her to stay put but if Sorcha was forced into that car... The couple jarred apart when the truck raced up the street skidding to a halt at Lacie’s side. Less than ten seconds later, she was in his arms. Ryder crushed her against his chest and her eyes flooded when she took in his scent. Throwing her arms around him, she wanted to crawl up him, to be inside him, a part of him. He took her face in his hands and jammed his mouth to hers with bruising strength that only made her more desperate for him.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she managed only to realise tears were skidding down her face.

  ‘You scared me,’ he asserted. ‘Get in the truck.’

  Immediately happy to follow this order she moved to pass Ryder, but Bruce spoke up.

  ‘Hey now, wait a minute,’ Bruce said starting toward them.

  ‘That’s Bruce Booth,’ Lacie said quietly for confirmation purposes though she knew Ryder would have gathered that.

  ‘What’s your game Booth?’ Ryder asked subtly blocking Lacie’s body with his own. What Ryder had said to her about giving his life for a client played through her mind. She didn’t want him losing his life for anyone, or anything, least of all for her.

  ‘No game,’ Bruce said. ‘But we’ve got a few things to clear up.’

  Lacie heard the quiver in his voice, which she could only identify as fear, but what Bruce was scared of she couldn’t be sure.

  ‘How about we let the women get in the truck, and we can talk about this,’ Ryder said. ‘We can sort this out.’


  ‘I don’t know you,’ Bruce said. ‘But I can’t let Lacie go with you.’

  ‘What?’ Lacie said leaning back to see past Ryder, while Sorcha stepped away from Bruce.

  ‘What has Lacie got to do with anything?’ Sorcha asked.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Bruce said with apparent apology in his eyes but it hung for only a moment.

  ‘For what?’ Sorcha asked.

  Bruce grabbed Sorcha’s arm and yanked her body in front of his. His hand went to his back, and he produced a gun, which he proceeded to push to Sorcha’s temple.

  ‘I have to ask you to come with me Lacie,’ Bruce said.

  ‘You bastard,’ Sorcha struggled.

  ‘You’re not going to hurt Sorcha,’ Ryder said holding his hands up in a calming gesture. ‘You’re not going to hurt anyone. We can help you.’

  ‘No,’ Bruce said. ‘No, you can’t help me.’

  ‘What do you want Lacie for?’ Sorcha asked still trying to struggle but Bruce increased his grip.

  ‘The boss wants her,’ Bruce said. ‘She saw him.’

  ‘I was there that day too,’ Ryder said.

  ‘You didn’t see him,’ Bruce said. ‘He doesn’t know you were there. No one told him about you.’

  ‘So what am I doing here?’ Ryder asked. ‘Why did you let Lacie phone me?’

  ‘You have to stop investigating me. You have to leave it alone. Forget you heard my name.’

  ‘I’m not going to do that,’ Ryder said. ‘You don’t have it in you to hurt Sorcha. You know it, and I know it.’

  Ryder crept closer but kept himself between Lacie and the man with the gun. ‘I never meant for any of this to happen,’ Bruce said.

  Lacie was sure his resolve was slipping and she willed Bruce to drop the gun. Ryder spoke again. ‘Let her go. You’re not going to hurt her.’

  Bruce’s hand loosened but just as Lacie thought they were home free a man stepped from the shadow of the building at their side, then another got out of the car.

  ‘He might not, but I will,’ the shadow man said cocking his own gun and pointing it at Sorcha.

  The man from the car wrestled Bruce back into the car keeping hold of Sorcha all the time. When he turned his gun on Sorcha the shadow man trained his on Ryder. ‘Get in the car Lacie.’

  ‘She’s not going anywhere,’ Ryder asserted moving closer still.

  This was a show of protection, or machismo, which was likely to get someone hurt. The two people who meant most to her in the world were in danger, and she was the only one who could get them out of it.

  ‘You’ll let them go,’ Lacie said, and she saw the tension flood Ryder but he couldn’t turn to her because the gunmen were in front of him.

  ‘Yes,’ the shadow man said. ‘They have to call off the investigation.’

  ‘They’ll call it off,’ Lacie said. ‘No more digging.’

  ‘Get in the car,’ the shadow man said.

  Lacie deliberately walked away from Ryder, around the back of his truck and onto the road so that he couldn’t reach her.

  ‘Do not get in that car,’ Ryder demanded.

  ‘She has no choice,’ the shadow man strutted. ‘She doesn’t want a bullet in her best friend, or her boyfriend.’

  Lacie stopped at the side of the car Bruce had been wrestled into and looked at Ryder. The goon still manhandled Sorcha, and she was pregnant so there was a risk to the baby. Ryder couldn’t move, there was a gun on him, and while she knew that he would give his life for hers if he got himself dead now all that would happen would be that the gunmen would pile her into the car and get their way anyway.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she mouthed to him, but he was so angry the rage radiated from him.

  She wished there was something else she could do for him, to ease this for him but she was as helpless as he was. He would give his life for hers, and she would give hers for him.

  ‘I’ll find you,’ he mouthed back, and her heart swelled with the tears blurring her vision.

  The car door opened catching her in the ribs but there was no time to register the pain because she was being tugged inside. Forcing her between the man who had pulled her in and Bruce the door slammed. The air around them was muggy, humid, and full of the smell of dirty, lowlife men. Sorcha screamed outside, and Lacie tried to see out but the man who’d pulled her inside yanked her head to his lap to hold her down with her hair coiled in his fist. An external gunshot made her jump, and the man who held her laughed, then there was another shot, and she tried to scream, she tried to get away but he squashed her against his groin. With his grip in her hair, he jerked her head to the side and stuffed a dirty rag into her mouth.

  Lacie tried to spit it out but he kept it in place. ‘Don’t you worry. You’ll have something better in your mouth soon enough,’ he snarled, and his erection grew against her cheek.

  Once again he turned her face downward rubbing her over him. She gagged but knew she couldn’t vomit with this rag in her mouth; all she could do was suffer the abuse.

  Two doors slammed then the car careened away from the kerb at speed. A few words were exchanged, then they rode in silence for a while, and still this man held her down. They’d been travelling a while, and the rocking of the car seemed to have slowed so they must have decreased speed. A podgy hand slithered over her behind and she was glad of the jeans she’d put on. It grabbed her hip pulling her to her knees on the floor between the seats of the back, and then it smacked her rear a couple of times.

  ‘Boss is going to be happy with us,’ a voice from the front said.

  The man who still had a hold of her hair in the backseat adjusted himself, and her, to keep her face in his crotch.

  ‘You did good work Bruce,’ the man who held her hair said then fondled her breast. ‘She’s perfect.’

  ‘What the fuck!’ Ryder exclaimed when the car sped off.

  The thugs had shot out his two front tyres, and he was already on the phone to Rocco giving him a licence plate and a heading hoping that his colleague would catch up with the car but he had no idea where they were.

  ‘Oh my god,’ Sorcha sobbed. ‘What do we do? What do we do?’

  ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ Ryder shouted at her. ‘Why did you bring her here? Lacie’s safety is paramount, you agreed with me!’

  ‘It is! I know! I’m sorry,’ Sorcha cried. ‘I thought... I thought... oh, what do we do? What are they going to do to her?’

  ‘Use your imagination,’ Ryder snarled stepping in closer. ‘She won’t be the same when she gets back to us. She’ll never be the same again. What you’ve...’

  Another car sped into the street, when he turned he recognised Gabe at the wheel. The car stopped and Ryder opened the back door to shove Sorcha in then he leapt into the front seat himself.

  ‘Where did they go?’ Gabe asked.

  ‘North,’ Ryder said. ‘Best I can tell at least. If they’re heading to their new lair, it will be further out than the last one. They won’t come back this way.’

  Gabe was already speeding toward the interstate. ‘Why come all this way for her? What does she know?’

  ‘She saw the boss; he’s paranoid, which makes me think he has a reputation to protect.’

  ‘Fear of jail?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Ryder said. ‘But it’s unlikely that’s his sole motivation; this is a lot of effort to go to for one witness. He made his men come back here, which is too close to Lewis for him not to be worried about returning to the scene of the crime. Booth left Lewis for a reason.’

  ‘There’s money missing,’ Sorcha piped up from the backseat though she still cried. ‘One of his friends told Shep that Lewis Fund and Investment are doing an audit, and there’s money missing.’

  ‘We knew that already,’ Ryder said.

  Gabe flashed a frown in his direction. Taking out his anger on Sorcha might not be fair but right now Ryder couldn’t stop replaying the moment Lacie had got into that car.

  ‘We have to phone t
he police,’ Sorcha said. ‘I have to phone my father, and—‘

  ‘You phone them now and they kill her,’ Gabe said.

  ‘What?’ Sorcha whispered.

  ‘They don’t want us sniffing around,’ Ryder said. ‘They told us to stop the investigation, they told us not to bring in the police. They have to be monitoring communication in some way, and even if they’re not I can’t take that risk.’

  ‘They don’t want us to investigate,’ Sorcha sniffled. ‘They told us to stop too.’

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Ryder asked. ‘Go home, and forget this happened? They’ll rape her, do you understand that? Lots and lots of dirty, depraved men will use her to fulfil their sordid wants, each trying to outdo the others. They’ll rape her. They’ll torture her. And then, they’ll kill her. Do you want that to happen?’

  ‘No,’ Sorcha screeched. ‘I’m sorry, oh I’m so, so sorry. What did I do! What will... oh Lacie, I’m sorry!’ She continued crying, but Ryder tried to tune her out.

  ‘How long do you think we have?’ Gabe asked quietly.

  ‘Until they get her to wherever they’re going,’ Ryder said keeping his eyes trained on the road, and his jaw locked.

  He’d promised to keep Lacie safe and he’d failed. Blame belonged on his shoulders as much as it did on Sorcha’s. More so because he knew what these people were capable of; Sorcha was naive, and that was her only crime.

  ‘Who have we got on our tail?’ Ryder asked.

  ‘Will is driving but Toby’s with him.’

  ‘Will,’ Ryder said. ‘He’s back from California?’

  ‘Just,’ Gabe said. ‘Rocco’s ahead. He might have them.’

  ‘Might not,’ Ryder said.

  ‘He was a street away when you called. He’ll have them,’ Gabe said.

  Ryder appreciated that Gabe was trying to be positive, but until he had Lacie in his arms again he would work on the assumption that the worst would happen. That light of innocence in her had already dimmed after what she’d been subjected to at the hands of these men. If they got their hands on her again he might never get her back, that innocence would be extinguished forever, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it – he would let her down again.