The Life She Couldn't See

by ChaShiree M.

  “Ahhhh. No. Please stop.” Oh god. My baby. I feel pain. Like a brick being slammed into my abdomen.

  “Fat bitch. I told you not to piss me off.”

  BAM!

  He kicks me again. This time the pain is more than a slam. It feels as if my insides are being kicked out of me. Please no. My baby. Please save my baby. The tears I was holding back are no longer unshed. I lay on the floor crying, praying that Colton finds us before we lose everything.

  All I can think is ...I knew it was too good to be true.

  Chapter 31

  COLTON

  “Where the fuck is she? She should have been home two hours ago.” I have been pacing since quarter past five, when the GPS tracker I put on her cell phone went offline. I immediately called Drake and when he didn’t answer, everything in me knew something was wrong. Rec is my next call.

  “I was just about to call you Colton. Blade and I have been doing some more digging. Turns out, Lucifer and Damien are brothers. They have the same father. One guess who their father is.”

  “What the fuck does this look like. Wheel of fortune? I don’t have time for this Rec. Kea and Cole are missing.” My panic is quickly turning to anger. It’s the same feeling when I was a soldier. I thought I left all of that behind when I left the service.

  “Fuck man. I’m sorry. Where the hell is Drake? I thought he was on Kea?”

  “He isn’t answering his phone and Kea’s tracker is offline.”

  “What do you want us to do?”

  “I want you to FIND her!!!” I grab my keys, and as I am walking out the door the house phone rings. Turning abruptly, I walk over to the phone. Not many people have the number to the house. It is unpublished and only used in an emergency.

  “WHAT!?!” I yell into the phone. I don't have time for this, whatever it is.

  “Y-yes. I’m so sorry sir. We were trying to reach Ms. Ryan. Her cellular phone seems to be off, and she left her appointment so fast this afternoon that she didn’t remember to take her prenatal vitamin sample pack with her.”

  I hear only static in my ears. The sound you hear when your TV only has snow. It’s the type of static that clouds the brain and doesn’t allow anything else to enter. There is a rattling going around in my head as it tries to process what was just said to me.

  “Hello. Sir. Are you there?”

  “I-I’m here. I’m sorry. I think I heard you wrong. You said she left what?”

  “Her sample of prenatal vitamins. We give them to all the new moms. Sometimes pharmacies…….” Slamming the phone down, I fall into the chair. My head starts pounding and my heart splinters into pieces. A baby. She’s pregnant. It feels as if someone has hit me in the head with a brick. I stand, but then somehow my ass ends up back in the seat. My legs won’t work, and neither will my hands. My body has gone numb and my limbs are useless.

  I have only had this happen to me one other time, and that was when I saw seven of my men blown up by a roadside bomb in Syria. I remember sitting there on the side of the road looking at pieces of them spread out all over the place. Finding heads twenty feet from the explosion. My SAT phone was not working because the bomb knocked out the signal. I sat there in the middle of the desert, in shock. Filled with rage and vengeance, but nowhere to put it.

  Right in this moment, I am in my own war zone and I don’t know who the enemy is I need to kill. Yet. I inhale and exhale over and over trying to calm myself down. It is time to get my shit together. I need to find my family.

  Finally, I grab my keys and make my way out the door. Driving to Ren and Fae’s, my mind is whirring. Thinking. Checking boxes of the people I have killed, rescued, and put into witness protection with the help of the FBI. The truth is, I have made a long list of enemies in this line of work. But fuck, I am always careful. Even if it is one of them, how the hell did they get this close to me and I didn’t see it? How did I allow myself to be so distracted that my family was taken right from under me? How in the hell did I let this happen?

  My hands are shaking on the steering wheel, as I try to fight the urge to rage at the cars on the street. The people who are going on with their day like there isn’t any evil in the world. Those that steal other people’s sunlight and dim it. The people strolling in and out of stores with their children, when there are people in the world who hurt kids and sell them for their own needs. These same people have no idea that what me and my crew do to allow them their false existence.

  Now, I am not worried about the lives of others, mine has been taken from me. ‘Stop it Colt. Pull it together. You are going to get them back. You are a fucking Soldier’. Never in my life have I felt so weak as I feel in this moment.

  Pulling up to Fae and Ren’s, my phone rings a second before I get to their front door.

  “Colt, it’s Blade. Drake’s been shot. He’s in critical condition. They are rushing him into surgery now. Someone took Kea and Cole. We were tracking her phone, but we lost the signal.”

  “Who? What dead fuck did this?”

  “Traffic cameras show two men in suits. Not anyone I recognize. However, the license plate is registered to Lucifer.”

  Ren’s door opens a second before I let out the loudest wail ever in my life. “Ahhhhhh!!!!!” I scream punching the brick on the side of their house. Over and over I punch it screaming at nothing and everything. I should have killed him when I had the chance.

  “Whoa. Whoa. Colton calm down. I will kindly ask you to refrain from destroying my house. My wife designed this herself, you know. Come in brother and tell me what is going on.”

  I am about to tell him screw his damn house when I look up and see Fae standing there holding her belly and looking worried. I can’t help but look back down at her stomach and allow myself to wonder what Kea will look in the same condition. With the evidence of our love growing inside her with each day and kicking to show us she is aware of our love for her. I hang my head in shame. I allowed this to happen. I can’t look at her sister right now. Instead I look at the floor as the blood from my hand drip onto his marble floor. The evidence of how royally I fucked up in my broken hand.

  “Perhaps Fae should not be here right now.” I say with my head still hanging.

  “Fae, baby, maybe you can….”

  “NO! Something is wrong and I can feel it. Is it Kea? Cole?”

  I look up, knowing she is as stubborn as her sister. But being an extension of the woman I love, I want to protect her as well. I look to Ren for help. He sighs. I figure he is coming to the same conclusion as me.

  “Now, tell us.” I see why she often gets her way. So defiant and strong. Her arms are crossed, barely above her stomach. Looking every bit, the firecracker, my Kea does every day.

  “Kea and Cole have been kidnapped.”

  “WHAT?!?!?” She screams, putting her hand to her mouth.

  “Please calm down, amore mio.”

  “REN SOMEONE HAS MY SISTER. I CAN’T CALM DOWN. WHO TOOK HER?” she screams at the top of her lungs. He looks at me with eyes deadly and serious.

  “Well, you heard her. Who took Kea and your son?”

  “These dealers I have been basically at war with for years. Lucifer and Damien. I just found out they are brothers. Apparently, they shot the guy I had on Kea, and took them.”

  “How dangerous are they?” This is definitely not the question I want to be answering in front of her pregnant sister, but right now I have no choice. I need to get them back before ...before, Lucifer does what he does best.

  “Dangerous enough that when they kill someone…. you never recover the body.” I say the last part of that, as low as possible.

  “Oh God!!!” she begins to cry.

  “Fata please. Please go and sit. Let Gloria take you upstairs my love.” Ren begs her, his concern palpable.

  “NO! YOU HAVE TO FIND HER. YOU HAVE TO…. ahhhhhhh.” She bends over clutching her stomach. I immediately move to help her, but just as I move Ren is already there.

  “FAE, TALK TO
ME. What is happening?”

  “I think the baby is coming!” He immediately begins giving out orders in Italian to everyone around us. I see people moving but I don’t speak Italian, so I have no clue what is happening. To be honest, I don’t care. I turn to leave the house, when Ren stops me.

  “I have instructed Leonardo to activate ‘The Throne’. Everyone is on their way. Please, make yourself at home. I want to stay and help……” his words fading as he looks over at Fae, obviously torn a bit over what to do. I stop him putting his mind at ease.

  “Please. I understand. Let us know how she is doing as things progress.” I tell him patting him on the back before he moves to help Fae walk out.

  “Colton?” She barely gets out as she tries to breathe through the contractions. “Find her. Please find my sister.” I grab her hand and rub it before they walk out the door.

  “I swear on my life I will find them both.” They walk out the door when their son comes down the stairs, and the whole family leaves followed by three guards. Standing in their quiet atrium now, my mind has time to conjure. I am trying my best not to, but I am picturing all sorts of horrible things happening to her. The worst is that they kill her. The thing I didn’t say to Fae is that if I find her and she is no longer with us, neither will I. I will lay beside her and go where she dwells.

  She became my air the moment I laid eyes on her. But she became my life the moment we touched. Though I didn’t introduce myself to her for quite a while, I followed her for months. I refuse to live without her. I can feel my heart slowing down at the prospect, finally acknowledging what I haven’t wanted to admit.

  I fall to my knees. Both hands are on my head as the tears finally fall. I have been trying to keep it together. Men don’t cry. Or so they teach us in the military. But saying it out loud to Fae about the depravity they thrive on, finally broke me.

  “Colton. What happened?” I look up as tears are blurring my vision. My throat is clogged and too filled with emotion to speak. As Apollo looks at me, waiting for me to answer him, the atrium fills with the rest.

  “Colton, where is Kea?” The question, for which I have no answer.

  “Sh…” the whisper leaves my throat as I try to answer him.

  “She’s gone. They took her. They took them both” I manage to choke out.

  “What the fuck are you saying? Who took her?”

  “Lucifer Benevides and Damien Machado. Colton has been hunting them for years. We just received word that they are brothers. Same father, but different mothers. We only just figured it out, because Damien being the youngest uses his mother's last name. He was the one who was trying to traffic Colt’s sister a few years back.”

  I look at Laser and nod, thanking him for answering. Not bothering with wiping my face, I get off the floor and stand there. I fully expect her brothers to lay into me for not protecting her. Hell, I want to do the same to myself. But to my surprise, Braxton pats my back.

  “Let’s get her and your son back.” I nod at him, grateful for his support, but unable to form words.

  “Hi. I am here. What can I do to help?” Mikhail walks in. I walk over to him and shake his hand.

  We are all sitting there talking to people and looking through the video of the lights trying to track their movements and find them, when Leif exclaims, “I found them. They are at the elementary school that is being torn down on 37th St.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I found the car that ran her off the road, using an alarm video from one of the houses across the street. Once I was able to clean the video and look up the car, I found it.”

  Immediately my mind becomes the sniper I was before I left the service. “Strap up. Let’s go and get my family.” I grab the guns her brothers brought, as well as some knives. We all strap on everything we can, not sure how many people he has outside or inside. Nothing is going to stop me from getting them.

  We load into three trucks to drive to the school. I look around the parking lot before we drive off and say what is in my head right now.

  “Thank you. I know she is your sister, but she is the woman of my life. I cannot lose her or Cole. Mikhail, you don’t have to do this, but I will be forever grateful for your help. Same with you, Laser and Blade.” I needed to get that off my chest.

  “No problem. You have made our sister happy. That is all we want. Now let’s go get her back.”

  We park about two blocks over making sure the trucks are not seen. Given how dark it is outside.

  “Two of you take the front. Three go to the back. Braxton, Blade, and I will take care of the ones inside.”

  “Do you want them alive?” Leif asks me.

  “I don’t give a shit.” It’s true.

  Once we have our assignments, we move swiftly. Knowing the guys have it outside, my mind is only focused on the inside. We open the door and are immediately met with gunfire. Hiding on the other side of the wall, I signal for Braxton to let him know I am hitting the staircase. He and Blade can take care of covering me. I hit the top of the stairs and see no one in the hallway. Moving down the hall slowly, but with my ears open, I come to the last door. I hear what sounds like crying coming from inside.

  I open the door slightly, needing to see the situation first before taking action. My heart stops and falls to my knees. Her face is swollen. Both sides of her mouth are too swollen to move, and one eye is swollen shut. I see Damien and Lucifer holding a knife to her neck. I look around for Cole, but I don’t see him yet.

  “You’re too late, Moore. Even if we don’t make it out of here, neither will she.” His hand goes to slit her throat and I open fire. I clean my gun out ending the lives of them both. I turn the corner into the room with my gun still up and making sure no one else is here. As soon as I clear it, I turn and locate Cole over in the corner in an animal cage.

  “Oh God! Do you got her?” Apollo asks me as he runs into the room.

  “Yes. I have her. Grab Cole.”

  “Baby. Hey baby look at me.” I try to rouse her, as I untie her from the chair.

  “Colton?” She whispers, eyes barely open.

  “It’s me baby. I’m here. Can you stand up?” I wrap one of her arms around my neck, trying to see if she can walk.

  “Colton. I’m sorry. I couldn’t save him.” She must be talking about Cole.

  “Cole is fine baby. See?” Apollo brings Cole over to her.

  “M-mom?”

  I smile at him. Knowing this is the first time he has called her that. She begins to cry. I am about to pick her up when she bends over and starts to cry. Her hand goes in between her legs, when she lifts it there is blood.

  “Oh no. Colton. The baby. Our baby Colton. No... no... no.” She lays her head on me and cries. Hell. What can I say? I want to cry too.

  There are two ambulances waiting when we go outside. The boys ride with Cole in one and I ride with Kea in the other. Holding her in my lap, I rock her back and forth as she cries for our baby. A baby that we never got to meet and for everything she has gone through. The only thing repeating over and over in my head is please no. God no. How are we going to get over this?

  Chapter 32

  KEA

  Two and a half months later

  It has been a long two and a half months. After Colton found us, I ended up in the hospital. Riding in the ambulance all I could do was cry. Barely. My face was swollen from the beatings, I could hardly see. Knowing I was losing the baby I had longed for, before I really had a chance to bask in the fact of being pregnant. Colton held my hand the whole way. Kissing my bloody face and telling me how sorry he was, and how much he loved me.

  I tried asking about Cole, but every time I did my face would hurt. Finally, when we made it to the hospital, they rushed me in a room to assess the bleeding. It was determined that I had a bruised jaw, not broken. My eye was busted. Then I had to get stitches in my lip and one of my eyes.

  They removed my clothes to check the rest of me. I could give two shits ab
out that. I wanted them to check my baby. I had a few bruised ribs, not broken and a swollen side. When the ultrasound tech came into the room with the portable ultrasound machine, I was more than prepared for the worst.

  “Alright Ms. Ryan. Let’s take a look.” The ultrasound tech said. The doctor stayed in the room, looking as well.

  Seems like it took forever, for her to find it. I waited with bated breath. Every breath I took was a labor of pain and impossibility.

  “Ah. There. Look.” She points to the place in my stomach where my baby still is. “Usually this early, fetuses are tucked in nice and tight and are slightly more protected from things like this. Should we take a listen?” She looks at me and Colton. His eyes, watering as he realizes the same thing I am.

  “Do you hear that?” We both nod our heads. “Looks like your baby is going to be fine. You are going to be with us for a bit, so we will keep you hooked up to the monitoring machine to make sure.” My heart leaps. I look to Colton and mouthed the word Cole.

  “He is fine. He is in the waiting room with your brothers. I figured we would let them clean you up first, before bringing him in.” I nod my agreement. He takes that as his cue, once all the doctors and nurses have left the room to go and get him.

  That was the start of our new lives. Turns out, Fiero was shot and killed in a drive by a few days after I went into the hospital. This moved our adoption up. We explained what had happened to Cole. His concern was if we would still be able to adopt him with Fiero dead. We told him absolutely. He then asked Colton if he could call him dad. I could see his chest puffing out as he picked him and told him he would be honored.