Garold clicked his tongue. “First the elders will have their turn.”
The cultist forced Arden’s legs open.
Garold continued. “And then everyone in the room will take a turn. There are approximately fifty-six of us.”
Arden felt her hope withering
Garold said. “When everyone else is done, the elders will go again, and then we’ll keep you in the pool room until you’re fat with child.”
The five robed elders looked at Arden. Through every mask, the devil himself was watching her.
The elder put his soft, mole-spotted hands on Arden’s knees as he stepped closer.
“When all that’s finished,” Garold said cockily. “We’ll deliver the child right here and start again. All in the name of our lord.”
Arden locked eyes with Scarlet, who sat behind the nude elder. She took in a deep breath.
Boom.
Boom!
The thunderous sound of gunshots echoed off the wall.
A bullet ripped through the naked elder’s head, and his limp body collapsed on top of Arden.
More gunshots sounded quickly, followed by screaming and terrified cursing. The entire room became a single noise as bodies started dropping.
The cultists let go of Arden and ran for cover. Garold took a bullet to the neck. He spit blood, tumbled down the steps, and was trampled by the fleeing elders. The crowd tripped and fought over one another as they ran for the door. The guards around the platform aimed their pistols into the pandemonium but couldn’t figure out who was shooting. One started firing in a certain quadrant of the room and other guards followed suit, accidently gunning down their own people as they scattered for the exit.
Arden pushed the body off her and rolled off the table. Her elbows slammed on the stage floor and she army crawled to Scarlet. She grabbed the girl and held her close, using the altar as cover. She covered the girl’s ears with her shaking hands.
The doors swung wide and ear-bleeding concussive grenades blew up, further adding to the insanity. Arden glanced around the edge of the altar and watched the SWAT team herd the masked patrons back into the room, taking down anyone who attacked them.
Arden pulled Scarlet to her and shut her eyes tight.
It lasted for four minutes.
The screaming in the room had turned to sobbing and the SWAT team shouting orders.
“Hey!” The shout seemed far away.
Arden opened her eyes and looked at the three members from the SWAT team aiming at her. They said something to her, but Arden didn’t understand.
“I don’t…” she said weakly.
“Let go of the girl!” they shouted furiously.
Arden slowly removed her hands from Scarlet’s ears. One of the three men quickly grabbed Scarlet and tore her away from Arden. They all hurried off the platform.
She reached out, failing to catch them. “Wait! Why are you--”
They had already moved on.
Arden was alone. She pulled her knees close to her chest and trembled. She wanted the nightmare to end.
She shut her eyes and blocked out all noise.
A light shined over her eyelids.
“Ma’am? Can you hear me?”
She opened one eye and looked into the beam of a small flashlight. When her eyes adjusted, she noticed she was looking at the worried face of a female EMT. “Ma’am. Nod if you understand me.”
Arden glanced around. The body of the naked elder rested in a pool of drying blood. How long have I had my eyes closed? she asked herself.
“Ma’am?” the EMT repeated.
Arden nodded weakly.
“Can you stand?”
Arden grabbed the edge of the altar and used that to get to her feet. Her knees buckled. She kept herself from slipping. The ballroom was mostly empty. Some of the concussion grenades had exploded the crystals on various chandeliers. The one above Arden was intact. There were roughly twenty bodies scattered, littering the floor. Most of them were being photographed by forensic analysts. A few members of the SWAT team chatted. A few EMTS rushed a gurney out of the room.
“Put this on,” the EMT said behind Arden. She put a blanket over her shoulders. Arden held the cloak tight against her body, hiding her nakedness. The EMT led her down the stairs.
“What’s your name?” the EMT asked.
Arden was too preoccupied looking at the bodies to answer. None of them looked like Joe, Dawkins, or Kovac.
The EMT took Arden through the doors. She walked through the fine mansion.
“How did you get here?” the EMT asked her.
Arden glanced down the hallway, seeing officers walking and talking. “They found human remains in the kitchen, too…” one said before leaving Arden’s earshot.
Eventually the EMT opened the door for Arden to go outside. Helicopters circled overhead. There were dozens of police cruisers with their red and blue lights spinning. There was a fire truck, six ambulances, and a few SWAT trucks. The hostages from the pool room were carried out on stretchers and by hand. Unmasked cultists sat in a long line outside on the grass. Their hands were cuffed behind their backs. Most of them had bleeding ears and busted lips. Joe sat in the midst of them. They locked eyes as Arden was escorted to an ambulance. A small smile grew up his bearded face.
Before Arden could act, she was put inside and her back examined. They assessed that the damage wasn’t great and had her put on sweats and a sweater. They stepped out for a moment. Arden stayed seated on the bench and wondered how she was still alive.
10
Deliverance
Dressed in jeans, sneakers, a V-neck tee, and a leather jacket, Arden stepped into her office. Light spilled in from the hall behind her and exposed the room’s emptiness. All the waiting room chairs had vanished. The twin offices at the back were empty.
“There’s been a few people that tried the place since you left, but none stuck around,” the landlord said behind her. “I can offer you a discounted price if you want to take on a longer lease.”
Arden scanned the barren room with her green eyes. “I was just browsing. Thank you, though.”
“Oh,” the landlord said. “Are you sure? I mean, I can mark it down further…”
Arden turned to him. Her red hair rested on her shoulders. The tube lights above illuminated the freckles on her nose. “Have a good one, Mark.”
“Yeah, uh, you too.”
Arden went back outside, feeling the nightly wind brush against her. She mounted up on her cheap motorcycle and put on her helmet. Kicking it into gear, she raced down the streets of Atlanta. Even after three years in the can, the city hadn’t changed much. The buildings still reached for the heavens, traffic still cluttered the roads, and people walked on, completely isolated in their own little worlds.
Arden drove to a small house in a neighborhood.
She parked her motorcycle behind a few of the cars already in the driveway and knocked on the door.
Laughter sounded and then the door opened. “I got it!” A voice on the other side said.
It opened. Jessica, twenty years old with long brown hair and a gleeful smile, answered. It seemed like every year she got more beautiful. “We’re so glad you’re here!”
They hugged. It was the first time she’d had full body contact in years. It felt strange.
Arden asked, “How’s school?”
“I’m a sophomore in college now, so it's a little intense,” Jessica released her. “Come on. Dinner is ready and everyone is waiting.”
She stepped into the living room and saw the kitchen table. Joe, clean-shaven and dressed in business casual, got up and gave Arden a strong embrace. Arden squeezed him back.
“I missed you,” he said softly.
“You, too,” Arden said, squeezing fistfuls of his shirt.
“I was counting the days,” Joe said.
Arden blushed. “You’ve gone all soft now that you’ve shaved the beard?”
Joe smirked.
�
��Share some of that love,” Dawkins said.
Arden let go of Joe.
Dawkins, Kovac, Derrick, and five-year-old Ethan were at the table. Dawkins wore a wrinkled gray suit and scuffed shoes. At least he combed his hair today.
Arden grinned when she saw him. “Looking sharp.”
“You might want to get your eyes checked,” Kovac joked. She was dressed in a blouse and slacks. Her hair was down and she didn’t looked as stressed out.
“Kovac’s developed a sense of humor since you’ve been away,” Dawkins said. “Unfortunately for the rest of us.”
Derrick got up and met Arden with the third hug of the night. “I’m glad to have you back, man.”
“It’s been a while. How is everything?”
“New business. New me,” Derrick said. “
Arden waved to Ethan. “Boy, you've gotten tall.”
“Who are you?” the kid asked.
Joe took a seat next to her. “This is Arden. She helped Granddad out of a lot of trouble.”
“Oh,” Ethan said. “You’re the one that everyone talks about.”
“Is that right?” Arden asked kindly.
Ethan nodded.
Arden glanced over to Joe.
Jessica sat down. “What do you say we eat?”
Before they started to dig in, Joe asked Arden to pray. She did so and they enjoyed their meal, catching Arden up on everything that happened over the last few years.
Dawkins worked in vice. He hadn’t gotten much of a raise since the big bust. After all, he’d violated a lot of protocol by going undercover on his own authority, not to mention abducting Jose. Kovac’s father pull some strings to bury a few facts of the case. Nevertheless, it permanently locked Dawkins into his current position. He didn’t seem to mind though. The assault on the mansion was successful. He’d gotten the video to the SWAT team while inside the mansion. Little did he know that Kovac had already told her father about preparing for the raid a day before they infiltrated the mansion.
Because of this, Kovac earned a managerial role in the Macon Police Department. As much as she hated desk jobs, it was her father’s punishment for going through with Dawkins’s plan to help Arden. Though they weren’t partners anymore, the two detectives hung out on nights and weekends.
Derrick quit his dispatching job to work at a comic shop. After Arden was sent to prison, he lost the passion for dispatch work. With all the craziness surrounding the Scarlet Gales investigation, he decided it was better to read about heroes than to try to be one.
Scarlet was safely returned to her parents, though the road to recovery would be long and hard. The rest of the victims were alive but in need of a fresh start after all they had experienced.
Jessica went to Georgia State University for English with a minor in developmental psychology. She wanted to become a teacher while helping teenage girls cope with bullying and assault. Ethan would be starting school this year. Thankfully, she had Joe to watch him.
Joe got out of prison two years ago and had been working as a P.I. while he was taking care of Ethan. He seemed calmer and took better care of himself. Most of his work involved smaller cases, liking finding a family’s missing jewelry or the like. Arden could tell by looking at him that he was done with the fast life. Arden was happy for him. They’d all been pushed to the limit. He deserved a breather.
After dinner, Kovac and Derrick helped wash dishes. Dawkins stood in front of the TV as he watched the latest football game highlights. Jessica and Ethan packed away the leftovers.
Meanwhile, Arden and Joe went outside to the back porch. They leaned on the railing and looked out at the fenced-in backyard.
“I was thinking about growing a garden,” Joe said out of the blue.
“I never thought I’d hear you say that,” Arden retorted.
Joe shrugged. “I just want to try something new with Ethan. He’ll be grown up soon. I want to make some good memories.”
Arden looked up at the stars. Most of the city lights had flashed them out, but she could still see the common constellations. “It's nice out.”
“Arden.”
She turned to him. She was still trying to get used to him without a beard. He looked much softer. He seemed to speak softer too. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Don’t make me spell it out.”
Arden took a breath. “That’s all in the past. You don’t need to thank me.”
“You took the blame. You--”
“So did you,” Arden interrupted.
“It wasn’t right,” Joe said guilty. “I was just as much involved in the whole thing as you were. Probably more so.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I was ready to take my fair share of punishment,” Joe said.
“Jessica needed you,” Arden said. “Besides, the jury was going to sympathize with me more anyway, so it was only smart to take the role of instigator.”
The two were quiet for a moment.
Arden reflected on the trial after the mansion assault. No one knew that Joe was the shooter in the ballroom because everyone wore masks. He tossed the gun and was arrested by the SWAT team. It was only by a miracle that Dawkins was able to pickpocket one of the patron’s phones before the ritual, which he used to contact SWAT before he started filming. When the police searched the place, they found that the cultists were dumb enough to film every ritual for their sick pleasure. There was so much evidence and press that it was easy to push through the courts. Joe was charged with killing the guards in the pool room, but he pleaded self-defense. The jury showed him favor after seeing pictures of the pool room. Arden’s case was a little more complicated.
Firstly, Arden admitted to all of the breaking-and-entering charges during the time of the investigation, saying that she was the mastermind and Joe just assisted. She confessed to the self-defense murder of the Jamesville police officers too. When it was all said and done, the only thing that kept her jail time down to three years was her rescue of Scarlet Gales. As for the rest of the events that happened during that night, Kovac and Dawkins got the credit. After all, it was them who called SWAT. Arden was just the woman who got captured.
After the dust settled, Garold was confirmed killed. A massive branch of the human trafficking operation was shut down, along with a lot of the Atlanta movie studios. Scarlet went to a hospital and then returned to her parents, who vowed to take better care of her. The jury decided that five years was a good time for Arden to serve for her vigilante crimes. She got out in three for good behavior. During that time, she got a chance to run a small bible study on her prison block. It helped her battle some of her own demons. Many of the women could relate to her history of abuse.
Joe spoke, breaking Arden’s concentration. “What are you going to do now?”
Arden shrugged. “See where the Lord leads me.”
“Work?”
“There’s a lot of girls that still need help,” Arden replied.
“You don’t have to keep throwing yourself into every hopeless situation,” Joe said. “Your life matters too.”
Arden’s mouth made a line on her face.
Joe said, “You can’t love your neighbor without loving yourself. That’s biblical.”
“Nice try, Joe,” Arden stopped leaning on the railing and stretched. “Maybe dessert is out. I’ll go check.”
She headed for the sliding door.
Joe said. “Arden.”
She stopped and turned back.
Joe locked eyes with her. “Help me with this garden. It would be fun. Slow. No one will get shot at.”
Arden gave him a pitying look. “I’ll think about it.”
She went inside.
After eating dessert, sharing some laughs, and saying her goodbyes, Arden took her motorcycle to Mrs. Keller’s place. Her bunker might just be the perfect place to run her operation. After all, two of the three men that killed her sister were still out there.
The End.
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Kidnapped: A Small Town Mystery
1
Prodigy
Keisha’s fingers danced across the ivory keys with swift, surgical precision. She threw back her head and shut her almond eyes, giving herself to the music. Coplin’s Waltz was her song tonight. A personal favorite she replayed for the twelfth time since Carnegie Hall. The young pianist allowed emotion to guide the melody. With each session, the song became more unique, more distinctively her own.
From the chairs of the small opera house, the patrons ogled the eleven-year-old soloist. Her melody stole their hearts. Her mastery captivated their mind. In the front row, Avery and Trisha Rines held each other’s hand. They watched their daughter, still amazed at her talent after dozens of shows across the world’s greatest venues. Mr. Rines gave his wife’s hand a squeeze. She turned to him with glassy eyes and a sly, relief-inspired smile. He repaid it in kind, knowing tonight would be good.
The show came to a close and the crowd stood from their seats. Dressed in their finest, ladies and gentlemen clapped their hands and whistled. Keisha slid off the piano bench, pressed down her silky purple dress, and bowed. Her slinky, chocolate-brown curls bounced at the movement. Two tiny hair bells jingled and glistened in the spotlight. Keisha smiled wide and white, just as her father had taught her. Makeup painted her brown cheeks. It had been applied perfectly to keep her both elegant and innocent. Now that the concert had concluded, she wanted it off her face.
Secrets Boxset: A Riveting Kidnapping Mystery Collection Page 34
