by Willow Rose
“Josie,” I said nervously. “Where is she?”
Al seemed to have to think it over for a few seconds. “I was…working on that thing you asked me to and didn’t…I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t paying attention. Suddenly, there was movement; someone approached me faster than I could react, and I felt something hit the back of my head. I am sorry, Hunter. I completely blacked out.”
“Who was it? Who took her?” I asked, my voice shaking in despair. “Who took my Josie?”
“I didn’t get a look at them, but I have cameras. The entire place is covered.”
Wincing in pain, she leaned over her computer, then clicked a few times with the mouse and wrote a passcode to something. A picture showed up on the screen, a picture of the door. The door was then kicked in, and two men in black masks and clothing entered, pointing big guns at Josie. Then, a man entered, wearing a suit. With fists clenched and heart throbbing, I watched him talk to Josie. Then the men grabbed her and carried her out, kicking and screaming. Al stopped the video right before the man in the black suit turned around and was about to leave.
“There you go,” she said. “That’s your guy.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said and rubbed my hair. I stared at the face, my nostrils flaring and blood boiling.
“There’s more,” she said, wincing again in pain. “I found this for you. It had been deleted from Savannah Hart’s cloud on the night she died, but I managed to recreate it. Here you go. This is what this guy is so eager to cover up. This is why both Savannah Hart and Emilia García had to die.”
Al pressed play, and I watched the shocking video for a couple of seconds, then asked her to play it again and again. Then I asked her to send the file to my phone before I left in a fire of rage. I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid all along. I had been trusting the wrong people.
Chapter 42
“God, give me the strength to not blow his head off because I will do it if you don’t stop me.”
I mumbled the words as I ran up the stairs and burst inside. I threw my helmet on the couch, then grabbed my gun, and pulled it out of the holster. I grabbed the door to the pantry, then pulled it open, pointing the gun at David, who was still sitting inside on the floor, cuffed to the pipe on the wall behind him.
He gasped when he saw me. My six feet eight could be very intimidating when I wanted them to be.
“You betrayed me, why?” I asked. “How did you know where to find her? How did you know where Josie was? Because I don’t remember telling you.”
David stared up at me, his hands shaking. “I don’t know…what are you…I’ve been here the whole time.”
“Cut the crap,” I said and walked closer with the gun, finger steadily on the trigger. Boy, I wanted to kill him, right then and there. Just pull the trigger and get it over with. I was that angry at this point, and sick of being deceived. I had truly believed this guy, trusted that all he wanted was to protect Josie and Emilia’s heart. I had believed that he was just a grieving father who wanted to be close to whatever was left of his daughter. I had even felt sorry for him.
I felt like the biggest fool on earth.
“I’m sick of your lies. I saw you,” I said. “On that video that Savannah Hart made before her death. The one from the graveyard where you shot Wolfe. I saw you, and then I saw Emilia, your daughter. You were arguing, weren’t you? You had asked Wolfe to meet you there, hadn’t you? And then you were arguing. Emilia was there, playing. Being homeless after you left them, her mother often let her run around in parks and at the cemetery while she was passed out on pills, sleeping in the car. That evening, she had parked next to the cemetery, and Emilia was playing around when she suddenly heard voices and hid behind a tombstone. Someone was arguing, and one of the voices sounded familiar. The girl then peeked up and, seeing her father, the man she hadn’t seen in a very long time, she called out to him just as the shots were fired. Terrified, she realized she had just witnessed her own dad kill someone, and she screamed. Then, she took off running.
Seeing this, you ran after her, trying to catch her. Meanwhile, Savannah Hart was out on one of her evening jogs, as she usually was at that time of the day, when the air is cooling down after sunset. She was in her own thoughts when she heard the shots go off and found herself right outside the cemetery. She heard the scream that followed it and realized something was very much off. Thinking she was unarmed, and her only weapon was her phone, she pulled it out and started filming between the trees. She filmed the body on the ground and then turned it to film you as you ran for the girl and grabbed her just as she reached the exit. On the video, I saw how you were holding the girl’s mouth, covering it, and I could hear you hushing her, telling her it was all right and just to make sure she stayed quiet. Seeing this, Savannah knew she had to do something to save the girl, so she yelled at you. Filming you and coming up toward you, she told you to let go of the girl. On the video, you can clearly hear her tell you that she is live streaming it, probably thinking that will make you stop, which she is right about. You let go of Emilia, and she ran off. Run, Girl, Run, Savannah yelled after her. But as she made it into the street, Emilia ran into someone else, a buddy of yours. He was waiting by your car, waiting for you to finish the business he asked you to do, killing Wolfe. He’s a guy with steel-gray eyes, who Emilia didn’t know. Savannah was filming the encounter, and the guy saw her and forgot about Emilia, who ran with all she had while the man approached Savannah, yelling at her to stop filming.
That’s when the filming stopped, and I assume Savannah ran off and later made it home. But you and your buddy then decided to go after them both, didn’t you? He said he’d take care of Emilia, your daughter, and you could focus on the runner, on Savannah. So you kept an eye on the area for a little while, and one day you saw her running again, then made sure you followed her home and to work, and knew all of her routines before you made your move, didn’t you? You burned down the house with her inside of it after you had made sure to remove the video from her phone and computer. But the thing is, those things never really disappear.”
I raised my phone and played the video clip again. I let him watch as he saw his daughter run, and right when he grabbed her, I paused it. “There you have it. Now, I’ve made sure that this clip is safe somewhere in cyberspace, so if anything happens to me, the clip will be the evidence. You can’t outrun it.”
David’s eyes didn’t leave the screen and the picture of his daughter. Tears sprang to his eyes.
“She was your own daughter, for crying out loud,” I said with disgust. “What kind of man are you?”
“I swear to God; I never meant for this to happen,” he said. “This is a nightmare. I told you I had gotten in with the wrong crowd. I was in trouble. I owed money, and this was my way out. I feared it might end up hurting my family; that’s why I left them. To protect them from these people.”
“Yet, that’s exactly what happened anyway,” I said. “You sure messed that one up.”
David’s eyes were spilling over with tears, and he was shaking his head like he had trouble believing it all, like the realization of what he had done hadn’t sunk in until now.
“Please,” he said. “Please, don’t… They said they’d kill me if I didn’t kill her. They were both witnesses, both girls were. They couldn’t let them live to tell what they saw. These people, you don’t joke around with them. I comfort myself with the fact that I didn’t kill my daughter or my ex-wife.”
“Yes, you did. You just let someone else do the dirty work for you. It doesn’t make you innocent. You might as well save it for someone who cares. I don’t have time to listen to your self-pity or excuses,” I said, stopping him before he began pleading for my mercy on his damned soul because I had none left for him right now. It was out of my hands.
“You can repent in front of God, and He’ll take it from there,” I said. “But for now, I need you to tell me where Josie is. You take me to her right now. I will shoot you if you don’t.
This is your chance to make something right again or die here. And don’t doubt I will do it. It’ll be the easiest thing in the world for me. See, without my daughter, I’m nothing. If anything happens to Josie, I will lose any will to live. The way I see it, I have nothing to lose at this point.”
I pressed the gun against his forehead, and he whimpered.
“All right, all right. There’s a warehouse on the port. That’s probably where they have taken her.”
“What warehouse? There are tons of them down there.”
“It has a number on the side, two-eighty-one. It’s a blue building. You can easily find it.”
I shook my head. “You’re coming with me. You’ll show me which one.”
I reached over and released his cuffs, then placed them back on his wrists while keeping his hands behind his back, so he couldn’t surprise me. I was done trusting this guy. I was done trusting anyone.
Chapter 43
She couldn’t see anything. The man with the steel-gray eyes had blindfolded her and gagged her, then tied her hands behind her back and tied her legs. They had then put her inside of something like a box. She lay curled up into a ball in this compartment, and she couldn’t move. Josie had never been more afraid in her life, except for the time she had come home and found her dad and mom in the living room, her mom with foam coming out of her mouth, her dad screaming for her to call nine-one-one. That was the worst day of her life. This came in as a close second.
Dad will find me. Of course, he will.
But he might not even know she was missing. Maybe he was still at work and wasn’t planning on stopping by Al’s apartment till tonight? Who knew where they might have taken her at that point? She didn’t even know where they were going, only that she was moving, swaying along inside her bubble.
Where are they taking me?
The man with the steel-gray eyes had touched her chest before she was taken away. He had touched it gently, then placed an ear against it like he was listening to it. Then he had laughed and told her how amazing the human body was and what it was capable of.
“To think that it could tell you about me, huh?” he had asked while gently caressing her cheek. “Yes, I know your heart snitched on me. Aw, what’s that face? Don’t look so upset; it’ll only hurt when we take it out. After that, you won’t feel a thing. I promise.”
The last part was said with a huge grin, and then his men had picked her up, blindfolded her, and taken her away. She had tried to scream and fight them, but it was no use.
Now, as she lay there inside her own darkness, all she could do was pray…pray like her dad had taught her to when in trouble. Pray the same way she had when her mother had overdosed. Pray the same way she had every day for three years while her mother was nothing but a vegetable. Josie had fought not to lose hope during that time, but it had been a tough fight. It was so hard to believe that a miracle could happen after all this time, and she kept fearing it wasn’t going to. She had remembered her granddad’s words every time doubt hit her like a freight train: “Sometimes our lives don’t turn out the way we want them to. That’s when we need faith to kick in. Trust that God knows what he is doing. Trust his timing.”
Back then, she hadn’t understood much of what it meant, but now she did. Once her mother had finally come back, it had been such a big miracle; it almost seemed impossible.
As she lay inside that small compartment she was being transported in, thinking about her mother and the miracle they had experienced helped strengthen her faith. She was afraid, yes, scared to death. But she also knew what God was capable of. And she had to trust him once again. Even though it was hard to, she had to do it. She simply had to because it was all she had.
Without faith, there was only fear.
Without hope, she was lost.
Chapter 44
“It’s that one right over there, the blue one.”
David nodded to show me which building it was since he couldn’t use his hands or fingers to point. I spotted the building and then the number on the side of it. Two hundred and eighty-one. I parked my city-issued Chevrolet behind the neighboring building and got out. I walked to David’s door, opened it, and helped him out as well, holding my gun into his side, making sure he understood the rules.
“No games,” I whispered in his ear, pressing the gun hard into his side.
I let him lead the way as we approached a big white truck and walked past it. I looked into the back of it before we continued to make sure Josie wasn’t in there or anyone who might surprise us from behind. The truck seemed to be in the process of being filled with appliances…what looked like a couple of fridges, several dryers, and at least one washing machine. It wasn’t even half-filled, so I knew someone would be there soon, probably bringing in more, and hurried past it toward the blue building before we were seen.
“No, not the front,” I said and stopped him as he was about to lead us to the big opening of the warehouse. I heard the sound of a forklift coming from in there; maybe there was more than one.
“There must be a side entrance or a back door or something,” I said.
“Over there,” he said and nodded. I turned to see a small door in the side of the building.
“Perfect,” I said.
I opened it as silently as possible and pushed David in first in case there was a guard in there, but he just walked straight in, gun placed against the back of his head.
“Now, take me to him,” I said.
“Are you sure?” he whispered back. “I mean, there’s one of you, and he has his own army.”
“I don’t care,” I said.
“I sure hope that God of yours is keeping an eye out on you today,” he mumbled. “You’re walking straight into the lion’s den.”
“And I won’t even smell like smoke when I come out,” I said, “now, show me the way.”
“It’s your funeral,” he said, then walked forward. He stopped at another door that I had to open for him, one that led into the big hall where the forklifts were working, grabbing the brand-new still wrapped appliances one after another, transporting them out to the truck. There was a lot of noise, and no one noticed that we entered. The first guy who did see us went for his gun immediately, and I pulled mine from David’s head, pointed it at him, then fired. I hit him in the shoulder, right in the spot that I knew would make him drop the gun. And it did. The gun fell to the cement floor below, and the guy fell to his knees in pain, holding his bloody shoulder.
Now, all eyes were on us.
The forklifts stopped what they were doing, and anyone working there stared first at me and then at David. I placed the gun to the side of David’s head to make sure they could all see it.
“I need to see him,” I said. “Now.”
Chapter 45
“What’s going on here? Why have you stopped working?”
Ferdinand came out from behind the glass window leading to the back office. He took one glance at me with his steel-gray eyes, then nodded.
“Ah, I see.”
He looked at me, then at David before he stepped forward.
“Stay where you are,” I said. “One step closer, and he’s toast.”
“What do you want, Hunter?” Ferdinand asked with a deeply annoyed sigh. “Why have you come?”
“I want my daughter back,” I said. “Where is she?”
“Your daughter?” he said with a grin. “You’ve come here looking for your daughter? Well, she’s not here. I don’t have time to have young girls running around here. It would be way too dangerous, anyway.”
“I know everything,” I said. “I know what you two did. I have the video. The one Savannah Hart took on that night at the cemetery. I know you killed Emilia and Jennifer García. I know David killed Savannah Hart and Major Wolfe.”
The grin on Ferdinand’s face had faded. He still stared at me like he was contemplating what his next move should be.
“What did you do with her, Ferdinand? And don’t tell me she
isn’t here because I know she is. I know you took her.”
“Well, you’re welcome to have a look around,” he said. “See if you can see her anywhere.”
I threw a glance around the warehouse, my heart pounding in my chest. Where could he be keeping her? A couple of his goons had their hands inside their jackets, waiting for me to make a mistake so they could pull their weapons and finish me off. They had all seen what happened to the first guy who tried and didn’t dare to yet. But it would only take me letting my guard down for a split second for them to make their move.
“No? Well, then, let us get back to work, will you?” Ferdinand said. “We have a shipment that needs to be in Chicago by tomorrow night.”
I stared at the appliances, all gathered up against the wall across from me. One forklift had stopped not far from me with a dryer barely lifted off the ground. I kept staring at it while so many questions piled up inside of me. There was so much I still didn’t understand.
I bit my lip, then turned to look at Ferdinand.
“It’s not just appliances, is it? I mean, I keep wondering what’s so lucrative about importing appliances illegally. Is that worth risking your career? Risk going to jail?”
I walked to the dryer on the forklift, holding David close to me. He was my collateral. My theory was that he and Ferdinand were partners in this, and Ferdinand needed him. At least I hoped he did. I let go of David, then reached over and pulled the bubble wrap off the dryer just enough to be able to open it. I pulled the door open, then peeked inside.
The sight that met me from in there almost made me lose it. I had a lot of theories as to what they were, in fact, transporting, but I could still barely believe what I was seeing.
Chapter 46
Josie gasped for air. It was getting tight where she was, and she was fighting to breathe properly. It was hot too. Unbearably hot. She was constantly sweating, and her throat was scratchy from thirst.