by J Marie
Hagen answered on the first ring.
“Hey, buddy, what’s goin’ on?” he said, sounding slightly distracted.
“You pick up my little runner yet?” I asked him harshly.
“Not yet, but we’re hot on her heels. I gotta hand it to her. Your girl is fast on that thing.”
I almost groaned out loud thinking about Jaden riding around on my bike at high speeds and without a helmet. I knew she knew what she was doing, especially since she was on the same bike she used to own herself, but mine was modified, and if she crashed I would absolutely fucking lose it.
“Apprehend her carefully, Hagen. I don’t need her crashing and getting herself killed, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear ya. She’ll be fine. What do you want me to do with her when we get her?”
“Just keep her in a secluded holding cell. I’ll pick her up when I get back.”
“You got it.”
“I want a full report when she’s safe, got it?”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, I gotta go. I’ll call ya when we have her.” And he hung up.
“Pull up her security tapes,” I told Scott as I began to slowly pace again.
He opened the laptop nearby and fiddled around with it until he turned it toward me to reveal the last hour before she escaped. I sat down and watched intently on how she figured out exactly what would enable her to escape. I saw her go to sleep, woke up in the middle of the night, and basically created a Molotov cocktail with the shit in her own bathroom. How the fuck had I let this happen? But what really blew my mind was when she took what looked like rubber shoe soles, glued them together, and wrapped them around her throat under the collar.
“Son of a bitch …” I muttered under my breath.
She then changed her clothes and bolted the fuck right out, bypassing all my fuck-up guards and taking off on my blacked out Panigale. I slammed my fists down on the table and rose from my chair so fast that it slammed down to the floor behind me.
“Fuck!” I roared. I paced back and forth, trying to contain my rage until I finally started laughing at the audacity of it all. I guess Jaden was right. I really had underestimated her.
“Call Moross,” I told Scott. “Tell him I want to meet an hour earlier so we can wrap this shit up. We have a flight to catch.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chase
The wind whipped through my hair as I took off down the alley, burning rubber as I tore off into the town. I knew it was that sheriff on my ass, along with a few of his men. I took a quick look back as I sped down the main street and saw three flashing cop cars on my tail. Well, the gig was up, but at least, I had completed my mission, and now, I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to see if I could make myself famous.
I tore off into the main road, making a right and headed for the big city I could see way off into the distance. It looked like it was maybe twenty miles away. I kicked the bike all the way into fifth gear, riding eighty miles an hour in a forty-mile zone, hoping it might actually cause a helicopter to enter the chase. I wanted my fucking face all over the news so the world could see me.
Thankfully, with it being past three thirty in the morning and stuck in a small town, there was no one around. No cars on the street, no walking passersby to accidentally run over. Besides the sirens blaring behind me, it was actually a pretty quiet and peaceful night, and with the wind and hair in my face, I almost felt free. Almost.
I knew the speed I was going at was dangerous. Plus, I didn’t have a helmet. But fuck, I hadn’t been on a bike for several months, and I missed the rush my Ducati at home could give me. I could not believe my luck in finding out that Darren had the same bike as I did. Even all the settings on the bike were perfect. Darren was so going to kick my ass after this.
The cops were closing in on me now, yelling at me to pull over, but I just flipped them off knowing they were dirty anyway. And then I noticed something black and shiny keeping up with me on the next street over. I looked to my right and saw the exact same thing. Darren’s guards. They were trying to close me in.
I saw as they sped up even more, and then suddenly, they turned a corner onto the main street and blocked the entire street. I kicked it into sixth gear and brought my speed up to 96 mph and left the cops in my dust. I could see the guards exit their vehicles yelling at me to stop, but just before I reached them, I decelerated, and maneuvered right between their cars, nearly running them over. I noticed the drivers remained in their cars and immediately took off after me.
Once I passed them, I decided to have a little fun. I pulled the clutch in just enough as I brought my RPMs to rise up to the torque peak and then quickly released, the front tire lifting and bringing me into a fantastic wheelie as I tore off down the street.
With my headlights still off, I quickly sped down another street with fewer lights, hoping to conceal myself better. Darren couldn’t have made it easier with the bike completely blacked out. The only thing that really gave me away was that my engine was loud as fuck. I headed down another street that ran parallel to the main road, still hoping to make it to the city.
I could still hear the sirens and the roar of the BMWs in the background until my GPS signal finally revealed the street I was on. But then something magical happened as I felt a searchlight come over my bike, with the whopping sound of helicopter blades above. I looked up at the giant newscaster helicopter and smiled. Bingo.
But now my location was completely given away and stealth mode quickly became obsolete.
I turned my lights back on and took off, popping another quick wheelie, but only to suddenly find three black BMWs ahead of me, with the cops closing in behind me. Fuck, they might actually box me in.
I was going too fast to make a quick turn, and if I slowed down, the cops behind me would definitely box me in. If I sped up, the three BMWs would prevent my advance. Shit.
The three BMWs ahead of me were flanked in a triangle formation and all at once, they all started to hit their brakes with the cops no more than ten feet behind me, way too close for comfort. But then, eventually, everyone got too close and successfully blocked me in. I hit my brakes, both BMWs that now flanked my sides pulled in so close that they were less than a foot away from me.
As soon as we were at a dead stop, the BMWs were close enough to me that I was able to reach out with my legs and press their car doors closed with my feet. They pushed and jammed on the doors, yelling at me to knock it off, but I didn’t know quite what they were thinking. There was barely any room for their doors to open anyway with bike successfully wedged between them. One of them finally got smart and started to roll down their window while one of the guards in the driver’s seat got out.
In a rush, I kicked off one of the doors and managed to leap out between the cars, landing on the top of the BMW to my right, jumping off the hood, and taking off at a dead run. All sorts of lights were on me as more adrenaline pumped through my veins while the cops ran after me, shouting my name along with orders I did not intend to follow.
One of the cops finally caught up with me and made the mistake of grabbing my upper arm. I turned and side kicked him in the gut and then retracted for a second kick right under his chin. Another cop advanced on me, attempting to strike my face, but I quickly spun low, knocking his ankles out from under him and dropping the motherfucker to the ground. I then quickly slammed an axe kick right down on his throat. A third cop came up behind me and grabbed both my arms, while another came up in front of me and tried to hit me in the face.
I instantly moved my head to the side and he ended up punching the cop behind me in the mouth. I kicked the guy in front of me in the face and sent him back a few feet while I swiftly brought my heel up between the legs of the cop who held me and shot it up into his groin. He loosened his hold immediately, allowing me to slam my elbow into his face several times before he finally loosened his grip. I was then able to take hold of his arm, lock it, and then tossed his limp ass over my shoulder, slamming his
body into the ground and forcing another axe kick into his gut.
By then, the rest of the cops made it to the scene and basically dog piled me to the ground. I screamed in absolute rage as I felt something prick the side of my arm. A wave of dizziness quickly consumed me as it dawned on me that my hands were now being cuffed behind my back. I was then yanked to my feet and held up by my upper arms as my mind fought against the drug they had pumped me with.
All kinds of shouting was going on, but I couldn’t make out a single word. Flashing lights blurred together in a storm of red and blue as I was dragged to a squad car. I looked on to the distance to find Darren’s guards leaning up against their cars, one of them smoking a cigarette as they watch me get carted off with the cops. Two of them I didn’t recognize, as they were both dressed in black suits and actually looked like the same person. I gave them all a cocky smile and laughed. I was sure they were in just as much trouble as I was.
The ground beneath me felt like it was crumbling with each step I took. It felt like I had downed an entire bottle of tequila on an empty stomach … in an hour. My vision blurred, sounds were nothing but noise, and my stomach felt like it was on a roller coaster.
Eventually, I realized I had been tossed into the back of a cop car and was now on my way to wherever the fuck they were taking me. I presumed back to Darren’s. As we drove, I laid on my side; my legs sprawled out across the seat as I groaned from the effects of the drug.
“Where we going, boys?” I asked as if I was some child tired from a long road trip.
One of the cops looked back through the fenced window and acknowledged me. He was the sheriff who brought the gardener to Darren. Hagen, I think his name was.
“Ya know, you’re in a lot of trouble, little lady,” he said with a toothpick in his mouth.
“Yeah, no shit.” I giggled and then finally blacked out in the backseat.
Chapter Forty
The Wait
I woke up hours later, groggy, thirsty, and with a pounding headache. I barely opened my eyes to find I was, in fact, not back at Darren’s, but what looked like a prison cell for solitary confinement. I was lying on a padded bench, surrounded by cement walls, a toilet and sink, and a large door with a single small square window. Panic rushed me.
Lying back down on the bench, I tried to calm myself down. I was nearly shaking now. Darren was probably well aware of the situation, and I wondered if I had possibly ruined his important business trip. Would he come home from it because of my escape or would he continue on knowing his cop buddies had successfully apprehended me? It didn’t really matter. He would be furious anyway, and my punishment would probably last weeks, if not months. Whatever—it was worth it.
Gathering my strength, I slowly stumbled my way to the sink and began dragging handfuls of water to my desert of a mouth. The water calmed my roiling stomach and brought me back to the present as I splashed it on my face. I felt a little better after quickly using the toilet and rinsing my hands and arms under the sink.
Then that sheriff fuck came in without so much as a knock as I dried myself off with some paper towel.
“Well, look who’s up?” he said enthusiastically with a grin.
I glared at him from across the room, instinctively pulling my left leg back and giving him only the side of my body to face.
“The fuck do you want?” I asked with a scowl.
He let out a deep sigh before finally speaking.
“Jaden, I’m Sheriff Hagen. We’ve met previously, you remember?”
“Like I could forget.”
“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Well, I’m in charge of safety for this little town you just tried to run through last night.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“How safe can it be if you have a criminal organization living right under your doormat?” I asked him.
“Oh, you mean Mr. Davis?” he asked casually.
“Yeah, that asshole.”
“Well, you see,” he started, “I’ve been working with the Davis’s for over twenty years now. I’ve grown to realize what works and what doesn’t work and how to keep our little town and employees happy.”
“By sleeping with the devil? You sound like a real hero.”
“When you’re in my position, Jaden, you do what you have to do to keep the peace, and if keeping off Mr. Davis’s tail accomplishes that, then I have no problem with it.”
“You mean so long as he continues to pay you for your discretion …”
“Well, to each their own.” He chuckled as if it was no big deal.
I shook my head at him. What a piece of shit.
“Anyway, I came to tell you that Mr. Davis is aware of the situation and has requested that we keep you in our custody until he returns from his trip to collect you.”
I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. “And just when will that be?”
“Tomorrow, I believe.”
“Well, why don’t you go ahead and tell him to take his sweet-ass time. There’s no rush,” I replied venomously.
“Sure.” He smiled and started to head out, but then turned back to the door and suddenly turned the lights out. I looked over to him in a panic, but he just smirked at me.
“Oh, I was also asked to keep these off until he said otherwise,” Hagen answered and then shut the door. The only light I had was the small amount shining in from the hallway, which wasn’t much. I was then left alone in the dark and I curled into myself on the mattress, silent tears falling down my cheeks until I fell asleep.
***
For the remainder of the day, I was kept cooped up in that cell in the dark and was fed only once. I was given a simple plastic cup of water and a bologna sandwich with mustard. That was it; but it hardly made a difference since I ended up throwing the nasty shit up anyway. My stomach was still too fucked up from the drug they gave me to be able to keep anything down. I didn’t know why Darren was having them starve me, though. It didn’t make sense since he was always so keen on my having the perfect body and keeping it healthy. Maybe now he didn’t care.
I pulled the soles of the shoes out from my collar and tossed them in the trash bin. Not like I’d ever get to see those things again. I tried to spend most of my time sleeping off the shitty aftereffects of the drug, but in the end, I still felt like shit. I drank water until I thought my stomach would explode to help flush it out of me, and that seemed to help as I spent most of my night pissing it away or vomiting it up.
For some reason, I was thankful for the darkness in my cell. It provided me with a sense of clarity as I thought about what I had accomplished last night. I had finally proved Darren wrong … and it was an amazing moment. I had showed him that he was not the master of all and that I was capable of far more than he ever imagined. Let this be a lesson to him for fucking with what’s mine!
Hopefully, Jason was halfway around the world by now with my mother and brothers in tow. I hoped Jordan has disappeared to her aunt’s place in Paris, France. She should be safe there. I didn’t know what would happen to the rest of my sparse family or where they would go. I just hoped it was somewhere Darren wouldn’t be able to find them.
The following day, I’d spent hours praying Darren’s plane would crash and he’d die a horrible fiery death, but I doubted that would happen. He’d probably survive the damn thing anyway like the fucking cockroach that he was.
That morning, I had been given a small bowl of bland oatmeal and black coffee for breakfast, both of which I barely touched. I laid on the bench, staring up at the ceiling with my hands behind my head and my ankles crossed, trying to keep myself relaxed for when the time finally came for Darren to come get me. This time it wouldn’t be just a little battle between us; it would be a full-on war. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. And I knew I was going to fucking lose and lose hard. It was okay, though. I said it would all be worth it, and even though I had no idea what was coming for me, I still didn’t regret a damn thing.
A f
ew hours later, the lights suddenly came on and bright light instantly blinded me. I squinted my eyes but remained in my relaxed position as someone stepped through the door. I didn’t even have to fully open my eyes to know who it was. My entire body could sense him before my eyes could even register him. I could probably pick him out of a crowd blindfolded.
My muscles tensed as my nose caught a whiff of Darren’s scent and my stomach retracted into a thorny bush of knots. Terror began to fill my body knowing he was here and I tried hard not to show my fear, but I could already feel his rage in the air like a thick reminder of how much trouble I was in.
When my eyes had finally adjusted to the light, I formed a sleepy glare on my face before I finally sat up to meet his stare. He was leaned up against the wall nearest the door, his arms crossed over his chest with the most pissed off, terrifying look I had ever seen. It made my blood run cold, and I suddenly felt myself shiver with fear.
Then randomly, he lifted his hands and began to clap slowly, as if he was applauding me. I entertained his gesture and brought my arm up, twisting my wrist and hand up and lowering my head in a bow, a slight smirk on my face.
“Well done, Jaden,” he finally said, his voice low and cold as ice. “You successfully bypassed my security and made it off my estate.”
I just nodded with an amused look as if it was the greatest accomplishment ever. It kind of was.
“Not only did you manage to get away,” he began, “but you also attempted to burn my childhood home to the ground, caused several second-degree burns on many of the men who were there to guard you, stole one of my bikes, and put yourself in serious danger by riding around at high speeds in a small town with no helmet, drawing attention to yourself and making contact with your fucking family. Have I forgotten anything?”
“Probably cussing. I did a lot of that.” I shrugged. Sarcasm always made me feel better.
