Just then his phone rang. “That’s the old man. I need to take this call.”
“What?!” he screamed into the phone.
I heard some yelling on the other end and then the word, “Garrett.”
Chase’s whole face changed instantly from one of adoration to pure hatred, as though a switch had been thrown and another personality had taken hold of Chase’s body. He hung up the phone, placed it on the edge of the table, and walked over to me. “What are you looking at, whore?!”
His hand lifted back and slapped the crap out of the side of my face, making it throb in pain. I cried out as the tears poured out of my eyes.
He was quiet for what felt like an hour, before bursting into laughter. “Kind of fitting, huh?”
I didn’t understand what he was saying. “Wh-what d-do you mean?” I managed to stutter.
“That the very house he grew up in will be the one he dies in.”
The words were out of my mouth before I realized it. “Garrett?”
That seemed to be the trigger word that sparked his mood. He instantly stood up and slapped the shit out of the other side of my face. Any harder and I felt I would lose consciousness.
Oh, my God! No wonder this room seems familiar. Garrett had brought me here a couple months ago to show me where his life started, prior to going to live with the Waters family. He wanted me to know his roots were as simple as mine.
The pain had subsided enough for me to make a coherent sentence. “So you’re planning on killing Garrett?” I needed to know the answer and warn my dearest, somehow.
His eyes were lost to a whole other realm as his facial expression became pure evil. “We’re planning on killing more than just that.”
Oh, no! “What do you mean?”
He came over and laid a hand on my stomach. The very thought of him touching me there made my skin crawl. I looked between him and my stomach and realized what he wasn’t saying.
“You can’t kill my children!” I protested. “They’re innocent in all this.”
“They’re his demon seed and we have to destroy the Andrews bloodline once and for all. If you live through the process, then you’ll be mine to own and do whatever I want with you.”
I had to talk some sense into him. “But they’re defenseless, unborn babies,” I pointed out, trying to persuade him.
“They’re his!”
Okay, wrong tactic; that seemed to make him angrier. “Do you honestly believe your father will allow me to live, knowing what I know?”
Chase got right in my face. “We have ways to make you forget what we want to. You’ll be mine to control and do with as I please.”
So he was going to brain wash me or put me under hypnotic suggestion to wipe my memories clean…wow. I didn’t hold much faith in me being kept alive, though. “So, how are you going to destroy these babies and ensure my life?”
He smirked. “I can’t! I can only hope that you don’t bleed to death as we pull them from you. We aren’t going to do anything to the babies themselves, even I’m not that malicious. We just aren’t going to do anything to save them. They won’t last for long without food and warmth. No one would ever think to find babies in an abandoned house set for demolition.”
Oh, God, NO! This can’t be happening. Think, Laurel, think!
Every possible scenario of escaping this was nothing more than a wishful thought. I watched the clock on the wall tick by and realized nearly two hours had passed, when suddenly…
“How are you feeling, sweetheart? Why is your face so red? Are you hot? Do you need some ice to cool you off?”
I had hope. His trigger word wore off after two hours. Apparently it could be repeated while he was inside the hypnotic state, only angering him, but it wore off.
Right as I was beginning to have hope, the phone rang. “What now?!” It was no surprise that his demonic personality returned shortly after he answered the phone.
“That was my old man,” he explained, even though I could tell by his anger. “I’m to call HIM and let him speak to you to show you’re alive and set up the first meeting point, nothing more. Don’t try anything funny or you’ll suffer some painful consequences, understand?”
I nodded, realizing this was my one and only chance to get a message out to Garrett to warn him and to tell him how much he means to me if I don’t make it. Stop thinking like that, girl. You have to make it for the sake of these babies.
My conscience was right. I needed to do whatever was within my power to ensure my babies lived and my husband was safe, even if it meant losing my life in the process. I don’t know where the burst of power came from, but I wasn’t going to waste it. That’s when I realized what earrings I had on today and started willing someone to remember and check the GPS located in one of the earrings. I knew I didn’t have telepathic powers, but hoped that somehow Garrett would think to ask Grace, since she always noticed my jewelry.
I watched as Chase dialed a phone and began barking orders into it. “Here, tell him you’re fine, but you say one word out of order and I’ll make sure you’re in pain.” He slapped me hard across the face and a small whine escaped my lips.
“Are you okay, love?” Garrett’s voice was filled with panic and rage.
I felt weak, but managed, “I’m okay for now. It’s so good to be home with you.” I hoped he would hear my hidden message.
“But you’re kidnapped, darling, not here with me. Are you and the babies all right?”
He didn’t get it, so I needed to reiterate. “The babies are fine, for now. I’m just so happy to BE HOME WITH YOU in an hour.” I wanted him to understand that their lives were in danger and he needed to act quickly to have the upper hand and to find us at his childhood home.
“What the hell are you telling him, bitch?” I felt another sting across my face and moaned in pain.
My voice was soft, but I hoped he would hear my final words as Chase moved the phone away. “I love you so much, my darling. I always have and always will, forever.”
I heard Chase reply, “You’re delusional, Laurel. I’m not your damn husband. I wanted to be, but you wouldn’t have me.” Then I heard his voice scream into the phone, “I want you outside your office building, alone, in two hours, without any cops, wires, or tracking devices on you or else I get to have some fun with my former fuck buddy before the real pain begins.” He ended the call.
I felt completely defeated. I was hoping for a miracle now.
It felt odd being back in my old neighborhood, bringing back all the bad memories and anxieties from my childhood, but that would have to wait. My priority now was my present and my future. My wife and my unborn babies’ lives depended on it.
We hid our vehicles a couple blocks away and moved quietly through the neighborhood. Driving up in cars would have made too much noise and give away our location. The police wanted to storm the place, but I wouldn’t hear of it. I didn’t want to do anything that might endanger my loved ones.
Thompson directed Dillon to the back of the house while we stayed hidden in the shadows behind the hedge at the front door. We listened in as Laurel kept Chase talking.
“Hold your position,” Thompson whispered into the communication wire everyone was wearing, sounding loud and clear in all our ears.
As a safety, we had an ambulance and emergency crew waiting a few blocks out, behind an abandoned house. I didn’t know what condition I’d find Laurel in and if she’d need to be rushed to the hospital or not. I wasn’t willing to take any risks.
“Can’t I please go to the bathroom?” Laurel pleaded. “If I don’t go soon, I think my bladder might bust.”
“Then wet yourself, bitch!” It was obvious Chase was in his tormentor state. I heard a hard slapping noise and her moan in pain. “Maybe you’ll remember how that feels so you won’t ask me to go to the bathroom again.”
Thompson had to hold me down. I was ready to claw my way in there and take out that bastard once and for all.
I looked
around to see if I could spot any of the other men in the area. They were hidden well, blending in with their scenery.
Laurel’s voice was weak, but she asked, “Will your father be joining us soon or is he having you take care of all the dirty work?”
“Oh, he’ll be here. He’ll be watching you while I go fetch him from his office. He doesn’t want to miss any bloodshed. He’s waited a long time to kill him.”
“Kill him for what reason?” Laurel asked. That’s my girl. She was keeping him talking, giving us everything we needed to hear, without realizing it.
“He witnessed a fight and my father can’t have any possibility of it linking back to him. My father ensures no witnesses live.”
“But, it’s been over twenty years,” Laurel countered. “Don’t you think it’s just personal now and not a means of covering his own ass?” She was spitting some fire back at him. “For that matter, if he kills all the witnesses, what do you think he’ll do to me?”
I heard another slap of flesh and a painful moan as Chase yelled, “I told you, bitch! You’ll be mine once we rid you of your demon spawn. If you don’t bleed to death, we’ll rid you of any memories linking us to a crime and you’ll be mind to keep.”
Thompson and I looked at each other in horror as I felt bile rise into my throat. That sick bastard planned on killing my unborn children and possibly Laurel, too. If he didn’t kill her, he’d hand her over to that fuck he calls a son.
I was ready to rush in there and rip the son of a bitch’s heart out of his chest.
Thompson held me down and shook his head. “Not yet,” he whispered.
I was surprised to hear Laurel ask, again, to go to the bathroom. Hadn’t he just smacked her for asking earlier?
To my dismay, he said, “I’m sorry, darling,” in a voice that was almost sickeningly sweet. “I should’ve been more considerate and asked if you needed to go earlier.”
I peeked through the windows to see him untying Laurel from a table and guiding her to the downstairs bathroom, a gun in his hand.
“Don’t try any funny business, darling. I’d hate to have to shoot that beautiful skin of yours.”
I looked to Thompson, my eyes pleading for us to storm the house. His finger was pressed to his ear; he had someone coming across the communications wire. “We have an unidentified car approaching from the south corner,” rang through everyone’s earpieces.
Thompson spoke softly. “Copy that. Must be Walt. Everyone stand ready on my word.”
We watched in horror as a rather stout man dressed in a business suit got out of the car. He had thinning hair, a determined look on his face, and a gun in his hand. He didn’t spot us as he walked to the back of the house and entered. I prayed that Dillon and his team were well hidden and didn’t ruin our chances of getting my family back.
Thompson and I rose up, just enough to see through the window, to get an idea of where everyone was currently located in the house. We watched as Walt walked into the house and began shouting.
“Were the fuck are you?!” he screamed as he came into the dining area and found it empty. He instantly pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed, only to see that a phone was ringing on a table nearby.
Chase came around the corner with Laurel in tow, his gun pointed down to the floor. He was surprised to see his father taking aim at him and jumped. “You weren’t due here for a while,” Chase said, obviously surprised. “I was about to tie her back up. She needed to go to the bathroom.”
“That bitch doesn’t deserve any of your care or concern. You’re too soft, just like your fucking mother,” he said as he lowered the gun’s aim to the floor.
Thompson spoke three words: “Steal two home.”
The first was to indicate two guns, the other meant to move in.
Our objective was to enter without having to fire a weapon and risking Laurel or the babies.
We crashed through the front door while Dillon came in from behind, all of us armed and ready to shoot, if needed. Walt looked one direction and started firing at Dillon and his team, while Chase raised his gun towards us. Laurel moved quickly to elbow Chase in the groin, which caused his gun to drop. She grabbed hold of his hair and pulled his head into her knee hard before whacking him on the back of the neck with her elbow. He was still conscious, but in pain.
As she was doing all this, she screamed, “Take down Walt now!”
I watched in horror as Walt took aim at her. That was all the motivation I needed. I jumped in front of her and took aim, straight at his heart, if he had one, and fired. The rest of the men opened fire on him from the sides, causing his body to slump to the floor.
I took aim at Chase and was about to fire, when Laurel, yelled, “No!”
“Garrett, watch out!” Thompson yelled.
I saw Chase’s facial expression change back to a look of pure hatred. I heard someone fire and saw the gun fall from Chase’s hand. Dillon had managed to shoot right through the center of his hand so he wouldn’t be able to hold the gun. They subdued him quickly, putting him in handcuffs.
“I hope you both rot in hell!” he yelled.
Laurel came running into my arms, hugging me just as hard as I was squeezing her. “Thank goodness you managed to figure out my clues.”
I kissed her lips gently, almost afraid to touch her face, because it looked so raw and swollen. “Don’t you know I’d move heaven and earth for you?”
I started feeling a little weird, stumbling a little when I looked down and saw blood dripping down my leg.
“Thompson!” Laurel yelled. “Garrett’s been shot! Get an ambulance.”
The ambulance crew came running in with a stretcher. They had me sit down as they tore a hole in my pants and discovered it was a clean shot, entering and exiting my upper thigh, just missing any arteries.
“We’ll patch you up here and take you to the hospital to get this stitched up,” the EMT said.
I was about to get into the back of the ambulance when Laurel grabbed hold of her stomach and screamed out in pain. I watched in horror as fluid gushed down her legs and onto the street. Her water had just broke.
The EMTs were at her side quickly, guiding her to the stretcher. “How far along are you, Mrs. Waters?”
I didn’t even wait for her to respond. “She’s 34 weeks.”
“Have you been having any contractions?” the EMT asked.
She nodded her head. “They started a couple of hours ago. I think they’re about ten minutes apart.”
I was dumbstruck, not a word coming out of my mouth. Laurel had been kidnapped and in labor almost the entire time.
Thompson came up behind me, shaking my shoulders. “Garrett, you need to get inside that ambulance if you want to ride with Laurel to the hospital. You’re about to become a father.”
I just looked at him as my legs had me limping to the back of the ambulance. My head shook as I tried to utter a few words. Thompson knew what I was trying to say and offered, “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll notify the families and we’ll all meet you at the hospital.”
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I held Laurel’s hand on the way to the emergency room. Once there, they insisted on taking her up to labor and delivery while I was forced to be treated in the ER.
“But that’s my wife and she’s in labor!” I argued.
Luckily, my father strolled in at that moment. He had the chief resident come over and treat me immediately so I could be with her. He laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “By the time you’re done here, son, she’ll be ready and waiting for you. The labor process can take a while, so you’ve got plenty of time.”
As last stitch was knotted and cut, Grace ran in.
My heart nearly leapt from my chest. “What’s wrong?”
“Laurel’s blood pressure is sky rocketing and one of the baby’s heartbeats is erratic. They’re moving her the operating room now for an emergency C-section.”
“Tell her I’m on my way!”
/> My father grabbed a wheelchair and pushed me towards the elevators. He knew exactly where we needed to be and had me changing into scrubs and washing up within minutes.
He wheeled me over to Laurel, whose arms were spread out and covered with tubes. A drape was raised so she couldn’t see anything, but her stomach was poking through some surgical sheets, ready for the procedure to begin. She looked as frightened as I was.
My father had a mask on and whispered, “Good luck, you two. I’ll be in the waiting room with the rest of the family and will see you both soon!”
“Everyone ready to begin?” the surgeon, an obstetrician I’d never seen before, asked. Naturally, the one weekend we’d need our obstetrician and perinatologist, they’d be at a conference.
“Yes, Dr. Kelly,” everyone answered in unison. There were more medical personnel in there than I expected. I didn’t even want to know what they were all there for. I just wanted my babies and my wife to be okay.
I watched as she put the scalpel down to Laurel’s lower abdomen.
“Can you feel that, Laurel?” Dr. Kelly asked.
Laurel’s voice was extremely weak, but the answer was no.
“Okay, we’re ready to begin. You might feel some slight pressure. Just let me know if you feel any pain and we can adjust the epidural.”
I held Laurel’s hand, gripping it tightly and leaning down as close as I could to say sweet nothings to my beloved while trying to stay out of the anesthesiologist’s way.
I heard him call out, “BP is staying high, but holding steady.”
“What do you see?” she asked with tears in her eyes.
I looked up bravely. They were still working on opening her up and quickly averted my eyes toward the side of the room, where several nurses and a couple of doctors stood waiting for our babies. “It looks like they have everything ready to take care of our little ones. They’re prepared for just about anything.”
I felt her hand squeeze mine weakly. “You know I love you, right?”
“Of course, darling. But, why are you talking this way?” She sounded ready to give up and after the day she’d been through, I wouldn’t blame her for needing a rest, but right now I needed her to stay focused.
Learning to Love Again Page 19
