by Mary Calmes
She giggled again, careful to not be too loud. "The thing is, Sam loves you but so does Dane. And before I met Sam I wanted you as far away from him as possible too. I thought he brought whatever it is back into your life, but from what I'm hearing, this has nothing at all to do with you being a witness."
"No, it doesn't."
"So Sam's just trying to keep you safe, and since Dane wants that too, when they get tired of arguing over who knows what's best for you, they should come to some kind of mutual agreement and understanding."
I wasn't convinced. As I was sitting there, I noticed her wedding ring. "God, that thing is huge. What is that, like a carat or something?"
She grunted. "You, my darling, know nothing about diamonds. That is four carats of icy goodness."
"Icy goodness?" I teased her.
She smiled wide. "It's my only bling."
"Yeah, it's enough."
She made a low noise of appreciation. "Yes, it is."
"So-owww," I groaned, having shifted so that my shoulder hit the back of the couch. I was being so careful to keep the pressure off it.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. It's a surprise for Sam. I figured he'd need the pick-me-up after this."
"What is it?"
"I put his name on the back of my right shoulder."
"You got a tattoo?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yeah, today at lunch. He had to go to work for a little while so... I went and did it."
"How very Hollywood of you," she teased me. "Can I see?"
"Wait, I wanna know how your dad is."
"Oh, thank you for asking, baby, but he's fine. Doctor said he'll be just fine."
"I'm glad."
"Me too. He didn't even have to spend any time in the hospital."
"Good."
"So, again, can I see the tattoo?"
"You wanna go to the bathroom with me?"
She waggled her eyebrows at me and we got up.
"Do me a favor," Dane barked at me. "Go get us all something to eat."
I looked at him and his eyes were cold and dark, Sam looked much the same, brows furrowed as he stared at me.
"Sure."
"C'mon, Jory," Aja said gently, walking over to Dane to take his hand for a minute, her eyes suddenly on Sam. "You two play nice while we're gone."
"Yes, ma'am," he said quickly, his voice low and husky. His eyes softened when he looked at me, and I got just a slight curl at the corner of his mouth.
She patted Dane's ass and then grabbed my hand and tugged me out after her.
We took a cab to toward Hubbard and Clark because there was a Thai place I wanted to try. Once we were on the street, she told me all about the honeymoon and how romantic it had been and how much fiddling with his ring Dane did.
"He'll get used to it." I smiled at her as she walked arm in arm with me.
"I know, it's just funny to watch him. I like seeing women see the ring too. Ooh!" She said suddenly. "I've got something to tell you."
"What?"
"I saw Clarissa Connelly on the plane to New York."
"Really?" I smiled wide, remembering the woman that had been dating Dane the night he met Aja. She had told everyone that she would be the one to get him to the altar.
"And?"
"I made sure she saw the ring."
"Evil," I snickered. "You're just wicked mean."
"What? I can't help it if she couldn't keep her man."
"And can you keep him?"
"Oh no, you didn't just ask me that question." She laughed, pinching my side.
"I—Aja!"
I yanked her back against me as a van came to a squealing stop on the sidewalk in front of us and the side door was hurled open. We both saw the gun at the same time.
"Get in the van!" the man yelled at us.
And it was stupid, but my movement was instinctive. I grabbed Aja's hand and ran. I heard the gunshot and then we were behind the van, next to the rear right tire.
"Jory!" she screamed and the back doors flew open. I yanked her sideways and a guy jumped out but missed us.
"Go-go-go!"
We ran across the lanes of cars, heard the blaring horns, squealing tires, and the crush of metal. We didn't stop and look, we ran. There were gunshots, but we ran. I took her down an alley, across another street, through a parking lot and we huddled together behind a trash-filled dumpster.
"Call Dane," I ordered as I kept lookout.
"Ohmygod, Jory, they're really trying to get us."
I would have laughed at any other time "Just call him—
hurry up."
"Baby, we're really in trouble here."
She was obviously in a little bit of shock.
"Hurry," I said and heard my voice get panicky.
I saw the van streak by on the street and I stopped breathing. Alone I could outrun them, but not with Aja.
"Dane," Aja almost shrieked. "No-no-no, listen-listen—
somebody just tried to grab me and Jory. Listen! We're on the street, we're running and I don't know what—"
"Shut up," I yelled as I saw the van suddenly reverse in the street and start racing down the alley toward us. "Run!"
I grabbed Aja and ran. I took a chance and we dived across the alley to the opposite side. We hit the bagged garbage and rolled off under wooden stairs that ran around the back of an apartment building. I scrambled to my feet and a bullet hit the stairs behind me. Ducking down, I tugged on Aja's hand and pulled her around the corner of the building.
"Dane, tell Sam we're—shit! I can't see the—ohmygod, there's a white van and—"
"Shit," I yelled because I saw the van, and yanked her the other way, doubling back, heading for the subway. "Aja, just stop talking and run!"
I felt the change instantly: I was no longer pulling her, she was right beside me, her feet pounding the pavement with mine, dropping my hand and keeping pace with me as we both ran as fast as we could. We flew by so many people and crossed behind an apartment building when the van was suddenly there and I had to pull up fast or slam into the side of it. Aja grabbed me as the door flew open and the gun was inches from my face.
I put up my hand. "Just me, not her."
"Both of you now or you're both dead!" the voice snarled back.
Aja clutched me tight as I took a step toward the open door. Never-never-never get in a car. Better to try anything, fight wildly, recklessly, then to succumb to another's power and get in the car. I saw the gun and clawed for it, got my hands around the wrist that held it and fought hard.
"Aja, run! Run!" I shouted at her, and she listened because I heard her fumbling behind me and then felt the bump as she pushed away from me and, when I turned to look, saw her running down the road. She was flying, arms pumping, legs a blur, and then my face was covered with a rag. I heard the slide of the door, felt the jolt as I lost my balance, and then nothing.
* * * *
"Jory, open your eyes. Please-please-please...."
My eyes fluttered open and it was dark except for a slight glow across the room. When I tried to lift up, I realized my hands were tied behind me. It was all too familiar.
"Shit." I focused my eyes and was stunned to see Caleb Reid lying on the floor beside me, his eyes wide open, staring at me. "Caleb?"
"Jory," he said, obviously relieved. "Thank God you're all right."
"Caleb." I was trying so hard to wrap my brain around it all. "What the hell?"
"Jory, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," I assured him as I struggled to sit up.
"What's going on? Tell me."
"I dunno—I dunno," he almost whined, his voice rising. "I was in town on business, but I didn't even bother calling Dane
'cause I knew he was still on his honeymoon and—" He stopped suddenly as the door slid open and a man appeared there. The light was behind him, which made it impossible for either of us to see his face. "What do you want?" Caleb yelled at him.
I saw the raised gun.
"Facedown, you fucks!"
I did as I was told, moving as fast as I could.
"What the—get off me! Get off me!" Caleb screamed, and it sounded like he was being dragged out of the room. I listened to him yell until I couldn't hear him anymore.
"Please don't hurt him," I pleaded.
I felt the foot squarely in the middle of my back. There was scrambling above me.
"You should worry about yourself," the man warned me, grinding his heel into my back. It hurt like hell but I didn't make a sound. "Don't do anything stupid."
I nodded.
"I'm already pissed at you for making me lose his wife.
You better hope he'll pay for you, little brother, or you are royally fucked."
It was about money. Somehow I was relieved.
"Just sit tight and don't fuck up."
I nodded again.
"Good," he said and was gone. The door was slammed shut and I heard the chain and the lock on the other side. The room was pitch-black. I put my cheek down on the cold floor and waited for my breathing to become regular. I was terrified for Caleb even as I rolled to my side and realized I was really light-headed. Something was wrong, and as the wave of nausea went through me I wondered briefly if I was more hurt than I knew. I must have dozed then, because the shouting jarred me awake.
"You crazy piece of shit," a man roared, and something hit the other side of the door really hard. "You never told me you were fuckin' around with Sam Kage!"
There was a muffled sound from the other side and then the bang, again followed by a low moan.
"You don't fuck with a cop, man, especially not a goddamn detective! How stupid are you?"
No sound, just silence until a sort of light hammering began.
"Let's just dump the guy and walk away before—"
A sharp crack then, and glass shattered.
"No! Get rid of the goddamn—"
And there was a firecracker sound and then a low thud and nothing after that but thundering silence. That silence that you almost hear things in but is really just your own heart beating. All alone in the dark, I was terrified that I would never see anyone ever again. There was nothing to do but wait and see, so I laid there and waited for what came next.
It was scary to have my eyes open and see no more than I would if my eyes were closed. I tried not to think about it too much.
* * * *
I must have nodded off again because the door opening woke me up.
"Jory?"
"Caleb," I said. "Come here. Did they hurt you?"
"No." His voice cracked and I could hear how raspy his breathing was. When his hands touched my face, I realized he was untied.
"Ohmygod, you're loose—why're you loose?"
"He untied me before I talked to Dane."
"You talked to Dane?"
"Just for a second."
"And?"
"And it's a ransom. He wants ten million, Jory. Five million apiece or Dane doesn't get either of us back ever. He said Dane would have nothing to bury."
"And?"
"And what? That's it. I was told that as long as I behaved he wouldn't shoot you. If I do something stupid—you get hurt, not me." I felt his hands cup my face. "I don't plan to be any trouble, so you're gonna be just fine."
"Caleb—"
"No, Jory," he said flatly. "We are going to do whatever is asked of us. All they want is the money. We're gonna be perfect and they'll get their money and we'll get to go home."
"Okay."
"Okay," he said. "Okay."
"What'd Dane say?"
"Dane said the guy could have the money."
"Why do you sound weird?"
"Nothing."
"Caleb, please just say."
"No I just—I... I figured Dane would pay for you but... I didn't think he'd agree to pay for me. I'm nothing to him, Jory. Nothing at all."
"You're his brother, you idiot."
"Yeah, but not like you."
And I knew what he meant. Three years ago, Caleb Reid had appeared to tell Dane a very strange story. Caleb's parents, Susan and Daniel Reid, were actually Dane's birth parents. And while Dane had known he was adopted, he was not ready to receive the Reids with open arms. I, on the other hand, had started out working for Dane Harcourt, but after five years he had decided that he didn't just want to run my work life but my personal one as well. I had gone from being his assistant to his brother after one trip to his lawyer's office.
And while Caleb, Jeremy, and Gwen were all now his siblings too, I was the only one Dane had chosen. I was the one who had stood up with him in the church when he got married and I was the only one who shared his name besides his wife. I knew Dane would do anything to get me back, but the kind of man my brother was, I never doubted that he would put in the same effort for Caleb. He was the only one that was surprised.
"Dane thinks of you as his brother too, Caleb," I assured him.
"Yeah, but I didn't really get that he thought so before today."
"Why not, why wouldn't he?"
"I guess I just—"
"Did somebody get hurt?" I cut him off.
"When?"
"Before. I think one of the guy's got shot."
"How do you know?"
"I heard it."
"I dunno, J. I didn't see anything."
"Shit."
There was a silence before Caleb gasped.
"What's wrong?"
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I was instantly terrified.
"Jory, there's somebody in here," Caleb whimpered.
"What?" I almost cried out and then the back of my head exploded and I didn't hear anything.
* * * *
The sharp bump woke me because my head hurt and it rapped me against the floor really hard. I realized the bouncing was from movement, and from the tiny light I figured out I was in the trunk of a car. My hands were still tied, but the zip ties had loosened and I was flexible. I got my arms to slide over my hips and got my ass over my hands. I was bent like a pretzel but the outcome was that I got my hands in front of me so I could use them. I immediately went to work on the taillight, like they tell you to do in every book on self-defense ever written. Get the light out and wave to people on the highway. If there were small things to drop out the hole, you were supposed to do that too. I worked as fast as I could. There was the copper smell of blood, and I hoped that it wasn't Caleb's or mine. Not that Caleb was with me, which was scary since I had no idea where he was. But I pushed that out of my head and concentrated on getting the taillight shoved out. It was an old car and everything was rusted so it was harder than it would have normally been.
When we stopped suddenly, I had just enough time to put my hands up so my forehead hit them instead of the trunk. The ride changed then from bouncing and quiet to smooth with a hum. We were off a dirt road or something to an actual paved road.
I tried really hard to get the taillight out but it was no use.
By the time I got myself rolled over and turned around to try the other one, we had stopped. I heard voices, and there was a sudden knock above me.
"Make a sound and Caleb Reid is dead."
I froze. He had to be in the backseat or somewhere close.
"Did you hear me?"
"Yes," I rasped, whispering before clearing my throat to speak louder. "Yes."
"Good."
I laid there listening for anything, trying to feel if the car was moving at all, wanting to call out to Caleb but afraid of being heard at the same time. The mixture of tension, adrenaline, and fear made me have to pee. It was painful, and I rolled over on my back and was faced with the rusted metal trunk.
I heard the laughter before the car started; the motor was gunned and I was bounced hard before I got my hands up to shield my face. I was thrown side-to-side and there was yelling and blaring music. I rolled into a ball and tried to protect as much of my body as I could.
/> The ride went on for so long, the steady hum of the tires with only an occasional bump, that I fell asleep. I tried really hard not to, but I kept jerking hard only to realize that I had been drooling. When the car came to a sudden stop, the brakes squealed and I was hurled up against the back so hard that I was winded. Trunk thrown open, I blinked at the light and the bewildered faces looking down at me. They stared and I stared back. I absorbed their faces.
"Oh shit," one of the guys said. "That fucking guy was a goddamn kidnapper!"
"Shit!" Another yelled and I heard their pounding feet on the pavement as they ran away.
I wasn't sure what to do. After several minutes of looking up at the slowly lightening sky, I sat up and looked around.
The parking lot of the liquor store was deserted except for a homeless guy in the corner with his shopping cart and three guys standing around talking next to the side of the building.
I was somewhere downtown—I could hear the subway rattling close by—and because my surroundings weren't completely alien, I started to calm down. I crossed my legs, sat in the trunk, and tried to figure out the best thing to do.
I had no cell phone, no wallet, no money; the nearest hospital was blocks from me and getting a police officer in a deserted part of downtown first thing in the morning would be a miracle. When it started to snow, I climbed shakily out of the trunk. I didn't think I should leave the car—every episode of CSI I had ever seen told me not to—but neither did I want to be a sitting duck if the kidnappers came looking for me.
Although the chances of that happening were not likely. It was the most ridiculous situation ever. The kidnapper had gotten carjacked. Hysterical.
I took deep breaths as I walked through the parking lot and around the corner to the sidewalk. The front was boarded up and there were old flyers for bands performing in the city pasted up all over it. When I looked further down the street, there was a closed auto body shop and across from that a closed key shop and a store that sold vacuums. Across the street was a hotel that boasted rooms for ten dollars a night, fifteen if you wanted to shower. There was not one light on in any window. There was nothing open anywhere, no signs of life at all, everything was deserted. Pieces of trash blew across the street and into the gutter. It was cold and dark and a little gloomy. I walked toward the end of the street and checked to see where I was. Finding that I was close to La Salle wasn't bad. I could get home, it would just take forever as I was miles from my apartment. I would check the car first, see if on the off chance the keys were still in it.