Reduced to Ashes

by Kay Gordon

  I forced one eye open and attempted to drag a hand up my chest. When I realized I was still fully clothed with the exception of my shoes, I let out a sharp, relieved breath.

  That relief was short lived when I heard the door open to the room. I blinked rapidly to keep my eyes open and watched as Jarvis stopped at the foot of the bed I was on.

  “You’re awake.”

  “Nice nose,” I bit out, although the words sounded muddled. His nose was swollen, probably broken, from where I head-butted him earlier.

  He just smiled and stared at me for another minute. When he slowly started moving towards me, I tried to back up on the bed, to get away from him, but my limbs weren’t very cooperative. Judging by the shit eating grin on Jarvis’s face, he knew it, too.

  “I’m not as nice as Zero is, little girl.” He reached out and grabbed my hair, pulling hard and forcing me to look up at him. I managed to shove back my yelp of pain so it was just a whimper, but triumph flashed in his eyes.

  “You’re so fucking hot.” His other hand reached out and despite me trying to knock it away, he was able to run his fingertips up my throat. “The things I’m going to do to you…”

  Before he could elaborate, the door opened again and Jarvis released his hold on me like his hands were on fire. Widener appeared, looking pissed.

  “Didn’t I tell you to dump that fucking van?”

  Jarvis rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of the bed, right next to the lower half of my body. “You can’t see it from the street. I’m not going to risk dumping it and then needing it to move her.” He gestured to me with his chin.

  “I told you- we’re going to leave her here for Coleman to find. And when I tell you to do something, you do it.” Widener shifted his gaze to me and his lips curled up into an evil smile. “Hey, pretty girl. Nice nap?”

  “Go to hell.”

  He pulled out his phone and shook his head as he did something on it. “Careful what you say. I don’t know if you remember earlier, but I can be really good to you, Tori. If you want to talk about hell, I’d be happy to take you there instead.”

  “You’re a coward, Widener,” I spit out with as much venom as I could muster. I gestured towards Jarvis. “This guy might be an idiot but he’s not as big of a coward as you are. You have everyone doing your dirty work for you and you hide behind big words, threats, and even video.”

  He turned and glared at me before taking slow steps in my direction. “Oh, I’m going to do some dirty work in this very room.” Jarvis moved away from the bed without being told, making room for Widener. “Get it ready, Clay.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  Widener leaned over me so his arms were caging me in. He was a lot bigger, a lot stronger than Jarvis. “If you knew all of the things I’ve done in the last seven years, you would be fucking scared out of your mind right now. This is nothing.”

  “Injecting someone with drugs against their will is nothing? Sexually assaulting someone is nothing? You’ve got a skewed sense of right and wrong.” My words sounded brave but I really wasn’t. I was just trying to stall.

  “It’s not rape,” he whispered, putting his mouth at my ear and nipping at my lobe, causing me to shrink away from him, “if she wants it. And trust me, pretty girl- you wanted it so bad. You know, I never went into this with the intention of fucking you. I just wanted to get you high, show you how great it could be, and make sure your boyfriend saw how much you loved it. Saw that he couldn’t save you from it. But, hell, you were so goddamn sweet and eager that I can’t wait to have you now.”

  Bile burned low in my throat along with shame. “It was the drugs.”

  “Sure it was.” He reached for me and I rolled away from him, but it was no use. My body was still so weak from the drugs earlier. It felt like I was trying to recover from the flu.

  He wrapped his arms around me from behind, like he was giving me a bear hug, and lifted me with ease so I was in his lap. He leaned against the headboard, very unconcerned with my attempts at struggling.

  “Ready?” Jarvis asked as he approached the bed with a syringe and I felt my stomach sink.

  “No,” I cried out, trying to wiggle out of Widener’s hold. He thrust his hips from below me, a wordless promise of what was about to come.

  Jarvis walked towards us and when I kept struggling, Widener put his lip against my ear.

  “Do you remember how it felt last time, pretty girl? The rush of happiness it gave you? How good it was?”

  I did remember, although I would never admit it. I understood why heroin was such a dangerous and addicting drug after recalling the way it soothed my blood. Any temptation or desire was shouldered away when I remembered Widener’s hands on me and the threats of what he was going to do.

  “You want it, don’t you, Tori?”

  I shook my head and struggled again when Jarvis used his free hand to grab my wrist, extending my arm out as much as he could with Widener still holding my shoulders back.

  Despite my meager struggles and protests, that needle penetrated my skin again and I cried out, tucking my chin to my shoulder and slamming my eyes closed. The burn at the injection site flared again but only seconds passed before that poison spread into my veins, reducing any discomfort.

  “Fuck, how much was in there?” Widener sounded angry and whatever Jarvis replied with only pissed him off further. “You idiot. That’s almost twice as much as I gave her earlier.”

  They continued their conversation but I didn’t listen to them. I smiled and when Widener let go of the restrictive hold he had on me, I relaxed my heavy body against his chest. He was so warm and my scalp tingled with pleasure when his fingers slid into my hair.

  He tilted my head and breathed against my ear. “Tell me you want me to touch you, pretty girl. Say it. Tell me to touch you.”

  My ears heard my rough, slurred voice repeat those words just seconds before his lips met my neck. The scratch of his facial hair was divine, and I wanted to feel it all over.

  “That’s right. I’m going to touch you and you’re going to love it. I’m going to put my lips on every part of this beautiful body.”

  He continued whispering sweet things that made me smile even though I knew I shouldn’t. When his hands slipped under the hem of my shirt and trailed along my stomach, the thought of stopping him never crossed my mind. All I could think about was how nice his warm skin felt against my scorching flesh.

  My heavy eyes closed and when Widener asked me a question, I couldn’t even try to answer. He chuckled against my neck and that was the last thing I registered before darkness took me under.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Evan

  “Fuck.” I slammed my hand into the dashboard and looked around the parking lot frantically. “It’s not here.”

  The small motel was a dump. It looked like it had about twenty units total and I was pretty sure it was pay by the hour. The red paint on the siding was faded, missing chunks in certain sections, and there was old, junked out patio furniture next to the doors of some of the units. It definitely looked like a place drug users would happily hide out.

  “Let’s go in and show the desk clerk the mugshot of Jarvis anyway,” Dominic suggested, pointing to the small office.

  I nodded and waited as he turned the car around in the parking lot. Something behind the motel caught my eye, though, and I yelled for Dom to stop. He slammed on the brakes and I pointed to the dumpster behind the motel.

  “The van.”

  We both pushed out of the car at the same time, not bothering to move it from where it was currently in the middle of the parking lot, and I ran towards the dumpster. The van had obviously been put there with the intention of hiding it because it was only barely sticking out.

  I jogged around to the back and the second the license plate came into view, I nodded at Dom.

  “It’s the van.”

  He had the phone to his ear almost instantly, call
ing for back-up and demanding that they come in quiet. We both took off in the direction of the office and I slammed the door open with so much force that the kid sitting behind it jumped about four feet.

  “We need to you tell us if you’ve seen this guest.” I quickly brought up a picture of Jarvis and held up my phone for the clerk to see while Dom did the same with his badge. As the clerk studied it, I studied him.

  He was just a kid, maybe twenty at the most, but he was aging horribly. I could tell he was a user by the pockmarks on his face and by how sunken in his eyes were. He was also currently coming down from a high.

  “Um…” The kid hesitated and scratched the back of his neck. “Do you, uh, have a warrant?”

  “Judging by that needle in the trashcan, right in plain sight, we don’t need one to arrest you,” Dom growled menacingly. The kid blanched and his eyes darted to where his drug paraphernalia was visible for us to see. “So you can give him up or we can take you in. You decide.”

  The kid nodded his head slowly, almost infuriatingly so. “Yeah, I get it. He’s in room twelve in the back. Need a key?”

  A patrol car showed up just as I was walking out with a keycard twenty seconds later and I pointed towards the small office.

  “Make sure he doesn’t call and warn him.”

  The officer nodded and went inside to do as I said. The second patrol officer who’d come with him was given the room number and instructed to wait for back up to tell them where we were. We were supposed to wait but Dom didn’t bother pointing that out. There was no way I wasn’t going in for Victoria right then.

  As quietly as we could, Dom and I went around the back of the building. I ducked under the window and soundlessly moved so I was on one side of the door and my partner on the other. With our guns drawn, he held up the key in his free hand and nodded at me.

  I gave him a nod back and watched as he counted down. On three, he slid the card in and slammed open the door so I could go in first. What I saw made my blood run cold.

  A guy, one that looked familiar but I couldn’t place, was straddling Victoria’s unconscious body. She was completely clothed, although her shirt was pushed up and her pants were askew, like someone had started to take them off.

  He was half naked, with his shirt gone and his fly open, and was in the middle of checking her pupils when he looked over at us.

  “You mother fucker.” I surged forward and slammed my shoulder into his chest, knocking him back to the second bed.

  Before he could react, I brought my left fist up, the one not holding the gun, and crashed it into his face. I did it again. And again. And would have done it again if it wasn’t for someone pulling me off him.

  “He’s down, Ev, he’s down. Let patrol have him and come help me.” I turned to where Dominic was performing chest compressions on Victoria. “She’s not breathing.”

  It felt like my own breath had been stolen with his words. I just stared at him, unsure of what to do, and didn’t snap out of it until my best friend yelled at me.

  “Help me, Evan! Get over here and breathe for her!”

  I made my limbs move, shaking out of the grip of whoever had pulled me off the other guy, and went to where my girlfriend was completely slack on the bed.

  I’d just straightened her head when someone from behind us said, “A lot of heroin over here. Think it could be an overdose?”

  Dominic and I looked at each other, both obviously thinking the same thing, and I nodded before looking the patrol officer who was putting handcuffs on the guy I’d knocked unconscious.

  “Naloxone. Go to our car, get the first aid kit out of the trunk. There’s Naloxone in there. Hurry!”

  “Does she have a pulse?” Dom asked and I felt her neck when he stopped compressions. I nodded when I felt the faint thumping, grateful for that because it meant the Naloxone, a drug that could reverse respiratory failure due to opiates, could be administered.

  The officer made it back in with the bag and I dug through it until I could find the small bottle of liquid. With shaky hands, I unwrapped a syringe and suctioned the entire contents of the bottle into it. Once it was full, I made sure to eliminate any air inside and inhaled a deep breath.

  Dominic continued compressions while I grabbed her arm and searched for a vein. I found one, feeling enraged when I saw she already had a puncture mark there, and didn’t hesitate to stick the needle into her skin.

  Dom paused his movements and we both stared down at Victoria.

  Looking at her broke my heart. Her face was bruised from abuse and pale from the lack of oxygen. Dried blood covered spots on her lips and her wrists were completely torn up. Even so, she was so damn beautiful.

  The room was quiet around us as we all watched and waited. When her chest rose and fell twenty seconds later, I let my chin drop to my chest.

  “There she goes,” Dominic whispered hoarsely. “Those are some good respirations.”

  I nodded, bringing my eyes up to meet my best friend’s. “Thank you.”

  He offered me a small smile and went back to monitoring Victoria. I allowed myself to look up but the guy I’d beaten the shit out of was nowhere to be found. I heard one of the officers mention that he had regained consciousness and had been taken out to a patrol car. Drugs and paraphernalia covered the dresser and I instinctively knew that the guy I’d walked in on was Zero.

  “No,” Victoria murmured quietly, bringing my attention back to her. She curled the arm that I wasn’t holding back so it was against her chest and I watched her eyes try to flutter open.

  “Victoria.” I leaned down so my lips were at her ear. “I’m here. You’re okay.”

  It took several moments but her eyes finally opened, showing me that beautiful green color that I was addicted to. She stared up at me for a moment, blinking several times.

  “Evan?”

  I nodded and brought her hand up so I could kiss the back of it. “Yeah, baby. I’m right here.”

  She shifted and Dom and I helped her get to a sitting position. The second she was up, she pressed herself into my chest and a sob escaped hers.

  “Oh, Tor,” I whispered, feeling my own emotion bubble close to the surface. I wrapped my arms around her body and held her to me so tightly that I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t hurting her. “You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  Dominic’s hand touched my shoulder. “The ambulance is here. We need to get her to the hospital.”

  He was right. Her breathing, which had been non-existent a few minutes ago, was the complete opposite. She was breathing so quickly that I had no idea how oxygen was actually making it into her lungs.

  “Okay.” I shifted on the bed and Victoria’s grip on me tightened, like she was afraid for me to let her go. I moved to my feet and adjusted her so she was in my arms. I walked out of the gross motel room and a stretcher was already at the door, waiting for us. I laid Victoria onto the gurney and pressed my forehead to hers.

  Her eyes were full of fear and I wanted to find Zero so I could hit him all over again.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Tor, but you have to let them look at you, okay?”

  “Okay,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  I frowned as they put an oxygen mask over her face. “Why are you apologizing? It’s my fault you got pulled into this in the first place.”

  “No.” Her voice was muffled and it wasn’t until she was loaded into the ambulance and I was sitting next to her that she pulled the mask off. “It was Morgan Widener, my lieutenant from Las Vegas. All of this is because of me.”

  “It’s not. He has beef with us both.” I reached out and put her mask back on her face. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  She nodded once and turned to look at the EMT, who was just getting ready to start her IV. Victoria gasped and wrenched herself away from the technician. If she hadn’t been strapped to the gurney, she would have rolled right off it.

  “No!”<
br />
  The EMT gave me a confused look and I shook my head at him before running a soothing hand across the top of Victoria’s head.

  “Look at me, baby, not what’s going on over there.” When she did, I gave her a small, reassuring smile. “He’s not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t let him. It’s just an IV. We need to get fluids into you.”

  Fear clouded her entire face but I saw the trust there, too. When she nodded, I did the same to the EMT and kept her attention focused on me while he got the IV going.

  “I love you, Tor.”

  She pulled her mask off again and nodded at me, her eyelids heavy. “I love you, too. I’m so tired, Evan.”

  The ambulance came to a stop just as the words left her mouth and I hopped down so they could get her out of the back. She reached for my hand the second she could and didn’t let go as we walked inside.

  “What have we got?” a doctor asked when we came to a stop in a small curtained off area.

  “Victoria Jones, twenty-eight-years old, heroin overdose. Presented in respiratory failure and was given 1 milligram of Naloxone to counteract.”

  He went on about her high blood pressure and shortness of breath but I just kept hearing the words “heroin overdose” over and over again.

  Not only had she been just moments away from being violated in the worst way when we arrived- she was almost dead. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of what could have happened.

  “Do you know how much heroin you took, Ms. Jones?” The doctor gave her a disproving look and I wanted his face to be the second I punched that afternoon.

  Victoria shook her head and looked at him with tired eyes. “He injected me twice. Once right after they’d taken me and again however long ago. He said…” She paused for a moment and it looked like she was trying to recall something. “This last time, he said that they gave me too much- twice as much as the first time. I don’t know how much that is, though.”