by Anya Palvin
The sharp pain comes back, but he still scrolls to the last message.
But if you do, I'll be waiting outside the warehouse tonight. I'll wait until the sun comes up if I have to. If you don't come I'll know it's really over between us. At least after tonight, I can honestly say I tried everything to make things right between us again.
----------
He contemplates texting her back. He even wrote "I" and erased it once....then twice.
Finally, he pushes his cellphone back in his pocket and jogs over to the stable.
...
"She'll rope me back in, and fuck my heart up again....no way." He decides in silence, shoving all the unnecessary emotions she again stirred up in him back of his mind.
He walks out in a plaid cowboy shirt, jeans and brown leather over the knee riding boots.
He climbs over the fence, and placed a saddle carefully on Sadie.
Sadie is his mother's white horse, and she named her after Choker's would be sister that almost made it to full term. But because of the severity of her uterine fibroids at the time, she lost the baby. Her name would've been Sadie. Gadeno bought Julia the horse shortly after the miscarriage to remind them and for the memory of her daughter be still with them.
Choker rides Sadie down the trail towards the stream he made at the far end of the estate. He finds Black Thunder and Mya resting under an oak tree. He climbs down, and ties Sadie next to Black Thunder.
"Hey" Mya greets him as soon as she sees him walking over.
She's sitting with her back to the tree, watching the little ducks swim upstream.
They sit in silence, just listening to the brook and watching the birds fly by. He attempted to open his mouth to say something numerous times but changed his mind. He stole glimpses of her every time she looked away, as if battling with a hard decision. Truth be told, he just doesn't want to hurt her either...he doesn't want to hurt either of them.
Come to think of it, she's matching him perfectly right now; plaid crop top tied shirt, short jean shorts and brown cowgirl boots.
"Relationships really are complicated. Here's a girl that wouldn't try to change me for all the money in the world, and would put up with just about anything just to be in my arms when it suits me. She can build any weapon I can and more, she's just as rich as I am, and just as hot headed. But who do I yearn for? The inexperienced, silly, shy, modest, girl that has no idea how to do what I do and no idea how to handle dangerous situations. Nor does she have any idea of the dangerous effect she has on me. I guess it's true what they say, opposites do attract." He thinks silently, and in full frustration hiding behind his poker face.
"What's wrong?" Mya asks breaking the maddening silence between them. "Nothing" he offers her a weak staged smile but she sees right through it. "You stink of anxiety, and you keep shaking your feet and tapping your finger uncomfortably." she points out all the things Choker had no idea he was doing. "I'm just thinking that's all." he whispers and stops moving all together. "You miss her, don't you?" She blurts out and he whips his head around to view her face. She doesn't look upset, just worried. He stays quiet and she sarcastically smirks and turns her attention back to the flowing stream. "Why don't you just call her back?" She asks something else and this time he couldn't stay quiet. "Why on earth would you want that?" He asks in awe of her. "....because, I want you to be happy." she turns to look him in the eye so he'll know she really means. "...and because if you felt that way about me and I messed it up, I would do anything to fix it." she shocks him again.
"Why are you being so good to me? You should hate me, instead" he looks at her eyes feeling unworthyof all the affection she had for him. "Charles please, I couldn't hate you if I tried. Let's face it, we have history, we'll always have history, but we always made a good business team and really solid friends over everything else. Besides, you don't look at me the way you look at her, and even I know better when to stop the game I’ll never win, after all we’re both business people." He remains speechless, listening to every word she says. "You asked me to help you with a new project so I did. It was fun hanging out with you once again, and it was hilarious seeing the look on your mom's face when she saw me. Are you going to tell her that we didn't have sex? You know she thinks we did." She chuckles and he joins in. "It was fun working together again. I just want you to be happy, even if that's not with me." she goes above and beyond with her speech, and her point was well received. "You do make me happy." He puts his arm around her and she leans her head on his shoulder. "I needed you and you were there for me. I didn't think I could smile again, and you had me laughing in stitches after one day. Apart of me wonders what would've happened if we didn't take a break after college. I know you're a great girl, and you've always made me feel like there's nothing I can't do, and I needed that this week." he kisses her hair and she smiles. "Glad I was in some help." She replies in a happy go lucky tone.
She should be crushed right now, but for some reason she's happy just knowing he's okay, and so is he.
"So this Prince....?" he tries to convert their conversation in a new direction, referring to her so called engagement and they both burst out laughing. "Shut up" she slaps him playfully and they try standing up; holding onto each other for support.
"Where's Keys?" She asks mounting Black Thunder. "He's actually waiting on you to make him some lunch. I don't know why you started cooking for him again. It took me a long time to get him to try restaurant food after your July 4th cookout in college." he rats out Keys' obsession over Mya's cooking. "I'll go make him some Tacos, but you...you have somewhere else to be." She hints that he should go back to America, and rides off leaving him standing there with a silly grin.
A FEW HOURS LATER
______________________________________
NYC
"What the fudge are you looking for?" Danny asks Ciara when he sees her almost wracking her closet up. She's wearing a matching panty and bra, and her hair is still wet from her shower. "I lost my lucky bracelet that my grandmother gave me." she says almost out of breath. "You haven't worn that thing since the fifth grade." Danny points out. "Why do you need it so bad now?" He asks stepping further into her walk in. "I have to find it, I put it in my jewelry box when we moved in here, but now I can't find it." she bursts into tears and sits on the floor.
She's scuffle to breathe, and Danny rushed over to help her get through the panic attack. "Hey, hey, it's ok. Breaaaaathe..." he coaches her and she slowly inhales and exhales until her breathing slows, searching for an incline of normalcy. "What's wrong, sweetie?" He gently brushes her hair with his hand and she sobs heavily, wiping her tears away with the tips of her fingers. "I don't know what else to do. I messed up. I really did mess up. I was afraid, and I said the wrong thing, and now he won't talk to me. This was literally the worst week of my life. Why does people date if it will gonnahurt like this after? What's the point? I don't wanna feel like this anymore. But I can’t help to think about him every single minute after that. This can't be normal. I just keep crying and I can't stop crying." she sobs and Danny rubs her back in a slow soothing circular motion. "Honey, love is never easy" he tries to console her. "Did you say love?" She seems surprised but at the same time it seems like it all makes sense now. "You think I love him?" She whispers almost not hearing her own voice. "Honey, it's not what I think, what do you think?" He dries her tears with his thumb and she stops crying, and the look on her face is as if a light bulb came on over her head.
She looks like she's thinking about everything; every moment, every touch, every kiss, the way she felt when she first saw him, the way she felt when he smiles at her, the way she felt when he looks into her eyes, the way she felt when he called her name for the first time, the way she felt when she thought he was in danger, and the way she feels now that she has no idea what's going to happen.
He consumed her every thought this past week, even more so now than he usually does, because now she knows what it feels like to imagine losing him, it
's not a feeling she ever wants to experience again. "I am aren't I?" She whispers, realizing the truth with Danny's help. "I'm totally in love with him." She finally says it out loud and her smile is contagious. "Wait, but what if he doesn't feel the same way? What if he doesn't come? What if everything is ruined for good? What it...?" She tries to continue but Danny covers her lips with his finger. "What if he does feel the same way? What if he does come?" He says smiling and she hugs him tightly, sobbing salty tears into his neck.
***
8pm
Danny and Tom drive her to the warehouse. The gate is locked, it only opens with a special code and she doesn't know it. "I'm nervous, not just nervous but I'm freaking out." She panics, removing her jacket, showing off her short red bebe bondage dress, black stockings and Christian Louboutin ankle booties. It's freezing here but her nervous state actually makes her body temperature just increases the coldness. "Calm down, he'll come. He'd be crazy not to." Tom assures her, and she manages to take her nervousness down a notch. "Maybe you guys should go, I'll be ok. I just think I should do this alone." she grabs her jacket and kissed them both on the cheek. "Are you sure? This road is pretty lonely." Danny asks but she nods yes. The last time she was here Choker forced her to leave because it was too dangerous, but maybe a little danger is exactly what she needs to endure right now to convince him that she knows what she wants this time.
***
Meanwhile...Choker's Mansion
Mya made Tacos for Keys as promised and homemade Sangria for lunch and more for dinner. He licked all ten fingers, literally. "Yooou, arrrre, amaaaazing." he says it slowly, putting emphasis on each word. "Thanks" she says smiling, and blush tongue pink. "You know, I uh, I envied Choke back in college." he confesses a much hidden secret and she frowns, wondering why he would say something like that.
Must be the Sangria talking.
"I envied him for ignoring you, and I guess I envied you too for picking the wrong guy." he blurts out and her mouth drops open.
Ok that's definitely the Sangria right?
Keys always had a crush on Mya, he's always team Mya because she's exactly the kind of girl he wants to be with. Loyal, hot-headed, sexy, beautiful, rich, powerful, feminine and the list goes on. But she's been in love with Choker for so long that she never bothered to consider him in that way.2
How many times have we seen cases like this? Girl falls in love with boy, boy doesn't love girl, and boy's best friend secretly has feelings for girl, but boy never says anything.2
It's not a very common situation but it's definitely happened to a few people I can tell you that.
"Wha---I, uh..." she's speechless.
"You don't have to say anything. I should've said something years ago." he brushed her cheek softly with his thumb and she shivers from the static their bodies created.
After an intense lingering stare, she scoots away and stands up trying to create some much needed distance between them. "I uh, I should get some sleep, um, I'm leaving early in the morning." she walks away as fast as she could, and closed the door behind her once she gets to one of the guest rooms. She touches her cheek, feeling them turning hot red even more now, the exact spot that he touched, and the look on her face is priceless.
Well, well, well...
10pm in the US
Ciara's still standing outside the warehouse. She’s been fidgeting with her iPhone thinking whether she should text him or try to call him, but she hold herself back and pushed it safely between her breasts...out of sight and out of mind.
The sound of a vehicle approaching makes her heart yelp. She's too giddy to remain still, too happy to worry about freezing in 25 degree weather. He's here... he came...he feels the same way. She drops her jacket and runs over to the car.
The back door opens, two men jump out, grab her and it's too late to do anything but scream.
22.
6am outside Choker's warehouse.
"What the fuck happened?" Danny and Tom are being drilled by Ciara's dad, the NYPD and every reporter that showed up to the scene.
It looks really bad on their part, no matter how you say it, they look guilty, and they sound guilty. I'd be surprised if Ciara's dad doesn't throw them in jail.
"We're telling you the truth. She wanted to come and meet her boyfriend. She told us not to wait with her, that she'd be ok." Danny explains to another detective. "What's her boyfriend's name?" The detective asks. "I don't remember, Charles I think. No Shane, No wait it was definitely Charles." Danny just shut up please, for your sake. "Ok let me get this straight. Your best friend who’s been your housemate for years asked you to drop her off at an abandoned government warehouse to meet her boyfriend that you don't even remember the name, where he lives or what he does for a living? Yet you dropped her off and left her there in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night." the detective repeats everything back to them, and hearing it now makes it sound so stupid and unwise. "I know it sounds bad but it's the truth, we love Ciara, we'd never do anything to hurt her." Tom pleads, holding up the cuffs on his hands. "If anything, anything happens to my daughter, YOU'RE BOTH DEAD MEN! DEAD MEN!" Ciara's dad yells, and two officers had to stop him, or he would've punched both Danny and Tom right then and there.2
Choker called a meeting at Mya's golden hotel on the Upper East Side. You can tell there's tension between Mya and Keys, but this isn't the time or place to air their dirty laundry.
The private jets did wonders in the past few hours, getting everyone Choker needs on his search party here in time.
Choke called in the entire NYC payroll and his forensic experts from Russia. They can find Ciara a thousand times faster than the NYPD or the FBI.
"What happened?" Keys asks the question everyone is wondering. "I uh, I was on my way there, I was going to meet her. I got off the plane and I checked the surveillance cameras from the warehouse to make sure she was still there, and I saw it happening, all of it." he sounds devastated, and he looks just as devastated and ruined as he sounds. "This happened because of me." he tries not to cry but it's too late. "Alright, everyone get to work! First one with a lead on the license plate or identification of the men report to us immediately!" Keys sends everyone scattering across the suite, and he pushed Choker into the master bathroom and Mya follows them in. "This is my fault!" He gets louder, beating himself up, literally. He hits his forehead hard with the palm of his hand...Once...Twice...Over and over. "Choke, calm down. We're going to find her." Keys tries to help but that only makes it worse, she shouldn't be missing in the first place. "I should've called her back, I should've told her I forgave her. I should've told her we would be ok. She never would've been there in the first place." he beats himself up even more. "If anything happens to her I swear to god..." he makes an oath.
"Found something!" One of the guys yell from the sitting room. They rush out and he's at the computer typing away. "I have a located her cell phone, it's 3 blocks from here, at huh, this place." he points to the screen, and Keys zooms in... he knows exactly where that is. They took her to the hospital.
Choker left as soon as he saw the address, nobody even saw when he walked out.
He got to the hospital in record time. No plan of action; no thought-out strategy. Just plain desire to find her and make sure that she's safe.
Safe... there's that word again. "She was right to be afraid of my world. I should've known someone would try to use her to get to me. I should've never started this in the first place. I should've walked away from the first time I saw her in Italy." He thinks to himself as he runs across the parking lot.
He kicks open the front doors with such force that the patients waiting in the lobby screamed simultaneously. "Where is she? Where's Ciara?" He grabs the first nurse he sees and she trembles in his arms. "I, I, I don't know. She's not here. I haven't seen her in a week." she says shaking in terror. Who wouldn't?
He looks at his phone again and the locator shows that her phone is definitely in the building, but where?
<
br /> "How many entrances are in this place?" He yells at all the nurses and they jump first then answer in unison. "4".
He spins around holding his head. There isn't a worse or more helpless feeling than what he’s going through right now. He searched every employee’s locker room, every patient's room, he even searched the ladies bathrooms to be sure, but she was nowhere to be found.
Keys makes it in time with new information. "There's a basement, but only employees have access to it." Keys says as soon as he walks in. Mya came too, you can tell she's wearing a bullet proof vest and there's definitely a gun in the back of her pants waist. She's ready for anything and so are they.
Others showed up to scour the entire parking lot, and there's a search party doing house to house checks from the hospital back to the Golden hotel.
Choker got to the basement first, and Keys was right the door does have a key card for employers only. The door is made to resist fire and even bullets, so if he should fire a round of shots at it, it will be of no use. Choke took his chain off for the first time in forever, and he swiped it along the key card slot.
The chain has a magnetic yet acidic reflex and it burned through the metal like lava. Keys saw for the first time what the key could do.
Choke kicks the door open and there she is...sitting on the floor in the middle of the room hands and feet bound, choked and blind folded.2
He rushed over and she's startled at first. "It's ok, it's me." he says and she recognized his voice. He untied her, and Keys and Mya check the basement for the assailant but the place is completely empty. Choker finally finishes untying her and she takes the blind fold and gagged off and leaps into his arms. He kissed her severally, all over her face. Keys and Mya slipped away to give them some privacy but not too far incase he needs backup.
