The Darkest Of Light

by Sandy Alvarez

  The nearest neighbors look to be about two miles down the road. He lives on the outskirts of town in a rural area. After taking in the property we both check our weapons and pull gloves over our hands, so we leave no evidence that we were ever here before getting out of the truck. Once done casing the perimeter of the home, we make our way around back.

  Yesterday, Reid showed Logan how to reset the alarm system once we gain access to the home with a universal hack code he can punch into the keypad. Pulling a small leather case from his coat pocket, Logan uses a set of tools to pick the lock and after a couple tries the lock pops. We walk inside and as I’m closing the door he disarms the alarm. I didn’t even know someone could do that shit until he got to talking about it on the ride here. Ever since my mind’s been running a mile a minute. I thought my system at home was top notch and now I’m not so sure.

  Quietly Logan and I make our way through the house doing a sweep through every room. I took the upstairs while Logan took the main floor. I come upon the only room I find furniture in. A queen size bed that was slept in at some point because the bedding is disheveled and there is a chest drawer to my left. I walk to it first pulling open the drawers only to come up empty. They had nothing but clothes inside them. I notice the only bedside table and proceed to dig through it coming across a piece of mail with his name on it, a rent receipt. Thinking we can possibly lift a full set of prints off it I take a plastic bag from my back pocket that we both have on us for any evidence we happen to come across, place it inside and seal it shut. I find nothing else of importance, so I head back down to find Logan. As I’m rounding the stairs I notice a small door underneath the staircase. Logan comes walking from the kitchen, "No signs of the guy. What did you find upstairs?" he asks.

  "His room and a rent receipt. I stuck it into a bag, so we can check it for prints later. Where do you think that small door leads?" I ask him, pointing to the door I notice to my left.

  "We have one of those. It’s usually a storage space," He says walking to the door and opening it up.

  Peering inside we see nothing—at first, but upon closer inspection I notice a handle attached to a door on the floor. "Does yours have that?" I point.

  A puzzled look crosses his face, "No."

  Squatting down, I grab the handle and pull. The fucker is locked. Logan digs the lock pick tools out of his back pocket and hands them to me. I haven’t picked a lock in years. It takes three attempts before the locking mechanism on the inside clicks. Handing the tools back I lift up on the handle again and find stairs leading down underneath the house.

  "He had this locked for a reason. Let’s get down there and see what we can find."

  Trying to fit my large frame through the small and narrow stairwell wasn’t easy, and the thick stagnant air that engulfs us as we make our way down is suffocating. I pause trying to let my eyes adjust to the darkness as I reach inside my jacket pocket and pull out a flashlight.

  A dim light comes on overhead and I turn my head to find Logan has found the switch on the wall next to stairs and a stunned look in his eyes. I spin around ready to take some fucker out only to be met with a sea of pictures covering the wall in front of us.

  All of them pictures of Alba.

  The cords in my neck tighten and my breath gets caught in my throat. I’m looking at some kind of shrine. There has to be at least fifty pictures pinned to the old wood wall. This guy has been watching her for months. Even before she left for college because one of the photos I recognize is from the day of her party when she wore that breathtaking blue summer dress. I reach out and rip it off the wall.

  "Brother, focus. We need to dig through here and find anything we can to who this guy is and where he could have gone."

  Logan’s voice is muffled. I can only half-ass make out what he said through the rush of adrenaline that has started pumping through my veins. Desperately trying to shake it off I start canvassing the room and come upon another door located near a shelf full of boxes by the back of the room. When I turn the knob, it opens without hesitation and I walk inside.

  What I find makes my stomach knot up. Shackles hanging from cold damp walls. Off to the right a twin-size bed and a toilet in the corner of the small room. It’s a small fuckin’ jail cell is what it is.

  Did this guy have plans to take my woman and keep her prisoner in here? The more I take in, the more my heart rate increases. It’s to the point I hear it roaring in my ears.

  "Gabriel," Logan shouts from the other room, "I found something."

  "Yeah, I found something too, brother," my voice catches in my throat as it echoes off the bare stone walls. I hear his footsteps as he walks up behind me flashing his light inside, getting a look at what has me rooted in place.

  "Fuckin’ hell, man," he says stunned by what’s in front of him as he hands me a stack of papers mixed with photographs. "It seems this psycho has done this before. He has various pictures of women, and tons of news clippings about their disappearances. And that’s not all, man," he hands me one more bundle, this time containing more pictures. I know right away by the look on his face I’m not going to like what I see. I look down and shine my light on the stack of photos in my hand.

  I am never going to be able to get these images out of my head. The site of these women as I sift through them one by one chained to the wall. Some of them so emaciated you can make out their backbones and their backs are scarred with slash marks.

  A sudden need to call and check on Alba hits me. I haven’t gotten a text from her lately. I need to hear her voice to settle the storm brewing inside me.

  Handing the pictures back to Logan, I dig my phone out and swipe the screen bringing up her number then putting the phone to my ear. Nothing happens. I look at the screen noticing that I have no bars down here.

  "Need to go upstairs. Can’t get a signal down here," I tell Logan. I let Logan lead the way back up the narrow staircase opening and back into the foyer area of the house. Once I check my phone and make sure I have reception I tap send calling Alba again.

  "Hello," her sweet voice says.

  "Hey, babe, how you and my sister doin’?"

  "We’re good. Your sister just fixed us the most amazing coconut pastry turnovers."

  "We’re about to head back. I needed to hear your sweet voice a moment. See ya soon, mi amor," I tell her.

  “I love you,” her voice softly says before hanging up.

  Logan strides towards me, "Get on out to the truck and start it up for me," he tosses me the keys, "I’m about to trip this alarm so Bozeman’s finest can find all the shit we found down there."

  Walkin’ out the door, I make my way to his truck get in and start it up and wait. As soon as he jumps into the passenger seat, I take off.

  Before we reach the exit to Polson, Logan is on his phone talking with Prez filling him in on what we found. I decide to check on Alba again and pull my phone from my coat pocket. The snowfall is heavy, so I pull off to the side of the road before swiping the screen. It rings but goes straight to voicemail, so I try again.

  It rings and rings.

  Come on baby, answer the phone…

  Nothin’.

  "Wasn’t Reid heading to your place over two hours ago?" Logan asks, "Maybe she is away from her phone or something."

  "Yeah, I’ll call him," I inform, as I’m pulling up Reid’s number then hit send, and wait.

  "Motherfucker! He ain’t answering."

  "Okay listen, I’ll call Prez and tell him what’s going on. We’ll get someone out there to check on things," Logan tries to reassure me even though worry flashes across his face when he says it.

  "Fuck!" I yell. Starting the truck back up I pull out onto the road. We’re roughly thirty minutes from my place, we’ll probably make it before someone else does.

  Five minutes later my phone rings. Reid’s number lights up the screen and I hand my phone to Logan, so I can pay attention to the road. "Put it on speaker," I tell him.

  REID

/>   I’m in my truck driving out to Gabriel and Alba’s house. He and Logan left for Bozeman a few hours ago. My ass should have been out there already, but I fell asleep sitting at the damn computer earlier.

  I was up all night trying to find out who this Green fella is and I’m nowhere closer than I was. I’m pretty sure he’s done this kind of thing before. No fingerprints or paper trail anywhere. This guy knows how to hide his tracks. I’m positive Calvin Green isn’t his real name, which makes finding the asshole a lot harder. Maybe Gabriel and Logan were able to find something—anything.

  It’s a fuckin’ mess out here on the roads. When I make it out to Gabriel’s place, I’ll have to borrow a room or the couch for the night. There’s no way I’m going to be able to make it back out in this mess if it continues coming down the way it is. It’s getting heavier by the minute. Thirty minutes just to drive fifteen miles…this is fuckin’ insane.

  Finally, I’m able to pick up my speed once I get outside the downtown area where it looks like most people have chosen to stay off the roads. About another five minutes and I should be pulling off the road onto their driveway.

  I get why a lot of the guys live out here and I almost bought myself something not far from here until the owner of the old firehouse put a for sale sign up. She was selling the historical building to help pay for her husband’s medical expenses…

  "FUCK!"

  Bright red flashing lights come out of nowhere snapping me from my thoughts causing me to jerk my steering wheel hard to the right. To avoid hitting the stalled vehicle, I take my truck off the road before skidding to a stop.

  Once I regain my train of thought I put the truck in park, leave it running and get out checking for any damage. My door doesn’t even close completely before squealing tires catch my attention and a white SUV comes barreling towards me. I try to move out of the way but I’m not fast enough.

  The force of the impact sends me flying. Instantly I’m finding it hard to breathe and the pain radiating through my body is indescribable. A few seconds later I realize I’m on the ground because the cold from the snow-covered ground is starting to seep through my clothes.

  "You still breathing?" A male voice I don’t recognize speaks from above me. I open my eyes to look at him. "Looks like you’re pretty busted up there," he says as he kneels down to the ground, "She was supposed to be mine you know. I paid those dirty fucking bikers for her and then you guys took her."

  It takes me a few seconds to process his words before it hits me.

  "I think I’ll leave your broken body right here. You’ll be dead before anyone finds you in this storm and I’ll have what’s mine before anyone knows what happened. Don’t worry, I’ll let Alba know you won’t be making it after all," he spews.

  Lying on the ground I watch him walk off. The only thing I can see through the snow are the taillights as he pulls away.

  I’m screwed.

  I’m busted up good, but somehow, I need to find a way to get to my truck because my phone is sitting on the seat next to my laptop. I start trying to move my limbs and instantly realize I can’t feel much from the waist down. As much as I want to take a moment to curse the situation I need to focus all my energy on trying to drag myself towards my truck, which looks to be about twenty yards away. The pain that pulsates throughout my body as I put weight onto my right forearm and pull causes my vision to blur. And with each pull I cough up blood and gasp for more air.

  I have no idea how long it takes me or how many times I was on the brink of passing out, but I find myself near the passenger’s door. My body is so cold at this point I have lost all feeling in my hands. Reaching up I fumble with the handle of the door. I’m able to pull on it enough for it to swing open. Spent, I lay there on the ground wondering if I have another ounce of strength to give when I hear my brother’s voice inside my head—

  You fight. Fight for her and that baby. Fight for yourself. Fight for me. Get your ass up, Reid.

  His voice sounded so real it felt like he was right beside me as I took my left arm and used whatever was left in me to hoist my body into the floorboard of the truck and reach for my phone. I can’t get my chest to expand enough to take in a full breath anymore and I know I’m about to lose consciousness any moment because adrenaline and willpower have all but gone. I pull up Gabriel’s number, swipe the screen, and wait.

  "Where the fuck are you?" he asked frantically as he answers the phone.

  I suck in every last bit of air I possibly have left in my body, "He’s here."

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Alba

  “Okay girl, spill it," I hedge while sitting on the sofa next to Leyna. She stopped by earlier for a visit and said she would stay with me until Reid got here. She has been glued to her phone for the better part of an hour. Every time she reads an incoming text she gets a huge smile on her face. And there is no hiding the blush that has taken over her cheeks this very moment.

  "What?" She feigns innocent and quickly slides her cell back into her pocket.

  "Don’t what me, I’m not blind. Now tell me who he is. And before you try denying it again, I know it has to be a guy. Only a man could put a smile like that on your face. Not to mention you’re blushing."

  Rolling her eyes, she confesses, "It’s nothing really. It can never be anything because my brother would hate me and kill him."

  I scrunch my brows, "What does Gabriel have to do with anything? He just wants you to be happy. As long as this guy is good to you that’s all that matters."

  She shakes her head, "No, I know my brother wouldn’t approve. It would never work Alba," she insists. Now she really has my attention.

  "Who is it, Leyna?"

  Throwing her body against the couch, she rests her head on the back and closes her eyes tightly. I see the strain in her face. Whoever this guy is, she cares for him but for whatever reason is afraid for anyone to know. Reaching over, I grab a hold of her hand and give it a little squeeze. Turning her head, Leyna looks at me. Letting out a deep groan she drops the bomb.

  "Lex."

  Tilting my head to the side I rack my brain. Lex?

  At my confused expression she continues, "Alexander Taylor. As in Agent Alexander Taylor."

  Suddenly recognition dawns on me and my mouth falls open.

  "You mean the FBI Agent who rescued you?"

  She nods her head in confirmation, "Sí, the one and only."

  "Holy shit," I say staring at her.

  Groaning again, Leyna throws her arm over her face and lays her head on the back of the couch.

  "You see why I can’t tell my brother. The club and Feds do not mix. I mean you should have seen them the day Lex rescued me and brought me to Gabriel. If looks could kill, they both would have dropped dead on the spot," She waves her hand in dismissal, "It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re just friends."

  I narrow my eyes at her with suspicion, "Just friends?"

  When Leyna refuses to look at me I know she’s not only lying to me, she’s lying to herself. It’s written all over her face. It has been all day.

  "Friends don’t make you smile the way you have been smiling all day every time you pick up your phone."

  Scooting myself closer to her I place my hand on her shoulder and when she looks at me with a pained expression, I know her feelings are torn.

  "I don’t want to overstep, but may I give you some advice?" I ask.

  "Yes. I think I could use all the advice I can get."

  Not sugar coating my words, I tell it to her straight, "I say go for it with this Lex guy. Life is too short to worry about what other people think, Leyna. The most important thing I have learned over the past eight months is if you spend all your time worried about what others think and trying to please everyone around you, then you are wasting the precious life YOU have been given. Will Gabriel be upset? Probably. And you know I love your brother more than anything, but who cares what he thinks. As long as you are happy, and Lex is good to you then Gabriel will even
tually have to come to terms and except that. Please, Leyna, never be afraid to go after what is going to make you happy. I will stand behind you when it comes to your brother." Leyna’s shoulders slump forward. I hope she lets my words sink in. Everyone deserves happiness, and she is no exception. I have faith Gabriel will one day understand.

  After a few moments, Leyna finally speaks, "I know you’re right, Alba, but I also know it’s going to be easier said than done."

  "No," I say, "Giving up is easier. Standing up for what you want is going to be hard, but worth it in the end."

  Leyna lets out an unsure laugh and gives me a bright smile, "You’re very smart in the ways of the world for someone so young."

  "Trust me, I’m not that smart." I chuckle, "I just had to live and learn the hard way and suffer some consequences along the way. I don’t want to see you do the same."

  Leyna is about to open her mouth to respond when her phone chimes with an incoming text causing me to smile and Leyna to roll her eyes, "He’s relentless," She smirks.

  "I like him already," I tell her. Staring down at the phone in her hand, Leyna blurts out, "He wants me to come to Seattle."

  "Are you going to go?"

  "I don’t know yet," She shrugs, "We text constantly and sometimes talk on the phone for hours. I remember the first time he contacted me. It was a couple of months after the rescue. He said he had been thinking about me and wanted to see how I was doing. And then, I don’t know. One phone call turned into another, and now it’s just so intense. I feel like I’ve known Lex my entire life. He’s become my best friend."

  "Only a friend?" I hedge.

  "Honestly, I don’t know. I want there to be more, but I’m not sure about him. Lex hasn’t given me any signs that he sees me as anything more."

  I raise my eyebrow, "You sure about that? Because the way he makes you blush says different."

  "Lex can be a flirt sometimes, but honestly I think that’s just how he is. I’m not going to read anything into it. A man like him can have any woman he wants. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m unattractive or anything. I’m not one of those kind of women, but I do know there is no way I can hold a man like Lex’s attention. I’ve always been the kind of girl that guys see as ‘the friend’. I’ve been friend zoned more times than I can count. And I’m okay with that. I’m used to it. That is why, I will not get my hopes up when it comes to Alexander."