Enamel

by Tim Sabados

  Charlie threw an uppercut into the bouncer’s face. Than another. And another. It wasn’t slowing his momentum. In a matter of seconds Charlie’s lower back careened into the railing. Pain rifled up his spine and into his shoulder blades. A punch to the bouncer’s ear did nothing to slow him.

  The man in the black shirt kept driving Charlie backward as if he were a lineman on a football team. The railing buckled. Shifted. Charlie wrapped his arm around the bouncer’s neck just as the railing broke.

  Aryssa’s scream filled Charlie’s ears. He was suddenly weightless. Air rushed by his head. The world flipped and twirled like an uncontrollable gyroscope. He managed to spin the bouncer underneath him just as they both came to a crashing halt.

  Bones snapped. A bolt of pain ripped though Charlie’s pinned arm. The bouncer blew out a breath followed by a barely audible moan then fell silent. Even though Charlie had landed on top, the jolt of striking the floor ripped into his core. The shock wave roared into his head and jumbled his circuitry. Static filled his eyes. Disconnected his consciousness. Then everything went black.

  35

  Sammy was stomping up the flight of concrete steps when the two brothers descended onto the landing above him. Their breaths chugged like an old Buick.

  “What’s going on?” the taller brother asked.

  “She’s here,” Sammy responded bitterly.

  “You kept saying that over the phone. Who’s here?” the portly one said.

  “Aryssa and that guy of hers.” Anger curled the edges of Sammy’s voice.

  “You mean that dancer?”

  “Yes, that one.” Sammy bound up the last couple of steps and yanked the wood door open.

  Ahead, near the far end of the balcony, two men were tangled in a fight. The railing suddenly gave way, sending them both tumbling to the floor below. A collective cry went up from the crowd in the bar. Aryssa screamed, “Charlie!”

  Kami, that blonde from Bulgaria, was standing near the railing. Her eyes were wide with shock and her hand covered her gaping mouth.

  “I want them both.” Sammy javelined his arm forward. “Then we get the hell out of here.”

  Sammy bound toward Kami. He couldn’t allow her to get away and expose everything he had spent so long putting together. She was cautiously creeping toward the edge of the balcony in order to get a glimpse of the damage below, seemingly unaware that he was closing fast.

  Ariek was heaped on the floor. He slowly tried to prop himself against the wall. Sammy grunted. There was no time to stop and help. Sammy needed a smooth exit and it needed to happen fast.

  Sammy snagged Kami by the arm and yanked her across the balcony.

  Kami screamed and tried to jerk free of his grasp. Sammy squeezed even tighter and threw her against the wall. “How dare you!”

  “I no run,” Kami said in her thick accent.

  “Yes, you did,” Sammy responded with a hiss. “And your sister will pay dearly.”

  Shock crinkled Kami’s expression. “You no touch my sister!” She squirmed. Tried to kick Sammy. The taller brother latched onto her.

  “Take her to the van,” Sammy demanded. “We’re going back to…”

  The taller brother didn’t let Sammy finish. Instead his rage bolted across his face as he grabbed Kami by the scruff of her neck.

  Sammy held out his hand. “Don’t damage the…”

  “Does it matter right now?” the taller brother questioned tensely.

  “I guess not.”

  “I thought so.” The taller brother let his fury rifle through his arm and out into his hand as let go of Kami’s neck and immediately slapped her across the cheek. Her head snapped, eyes glazed with confusion. The opposition that had tensed her body softened to conformity. The taller brother forcefully led her toward the elaborate staircase that descended into the lobby.

  Sammy pointed at Aryssa. “You tried to screw me over.” Gestured at the portly brother. “I don’t care what happens to her.” He took off down the balcony toward the staircase.

  “Neither do I,” the portly brother mocked.

  * * * * *

  Charlie was unconscious, maybe even dead, on the lobby’s floor. Kami was being dragged away. One of Sammy’s men was in front of Aryssa, essentially boxing her in like a cornered animal. The cold fingers of dread curled around her heart and made it thump with desperation. The venom of numbness leaked into her veins and fanned out through her limbs.

  “Remember me?” the portly brother taunted. His sinister smile scrunched his burnt cheek. “Got lucky once. Not going to happen a second time.”

  Aryssa tried to swallow her fright. “Wasn’t luck.” She tried to leap sideways, but the portly man was too quick and matched her movement. Her path to freedom was choked off.

  “Not as quick as you think.” The portly brother stepped toward Aryssa. Pushed her closer to the edge of the balcony. A balcony with a broken and missing railing. “You weren’t when you were tackled in the alley, neither.”

  His mocking tone ignited a flame of anger deep inside Aryssa. The will to fight spread. “You needed a gun, a bag over my head and the element of surprise.” She baited him with a nonchalant flick of her hand. “Too short and too soft to do it like a real man. Must be too scared to take on a woman.”

  The portly brother grunted his displeasure. “You little bitch.” He sprang toward Aryssa with wrath bursting from his eyes.

  Aryssa shifted her weight to the right but quickly stepped left. The portly brother bought the fake only to realize Aryssa wasn’t moving in that direction. She planted her left foot and drove her right knee into his gut with everything she had.

  A gust of pain exploded out of the portly man’s mouth. His eyes widened. Face reddened. He managed to stop himself from tumbling over the balcony’s edge and spun.

  Aryssa anticipated the spin. She regained her balance, side-shuffled toward him, cocked her leg and rifled her foot into his chest.

  The man’s brows molded into an arch of bewilderment. He stumbled backward and lost his balance. Before he could register anything else he toppled over the balcony’s edge and plummeted to the floor. Splat!

  The crowd gasped. A few people screamed. Aryssa looked over the edge and down the thirty or so feet to where the shorter man was lying face down with his limbs sprawled across the floor. He desperately tried to dig his fingers into the stone tile, as if he were trying to claw his way toward the exit.

  One of the bouncers ran out from the bar. He angrily glanced up at Aryssa, then turned his attention to the portly brother and finally at the one under Charlie who wasn’t moving at all.

  Aryssa sucked in a deep breath and stood tall. She pointed at the bouncer and yelled. “He’s one of them!”

  The music kept playing. Some of the bar crowd was rushing toward the exit. Others gazed in horror. Still there were some inside the bar who had no idea what was happening. “He’s one of them!” Aryssa shouted again.

  Irritation slid off the bouncer’s face. Uncertainty made him cock his head.

  “He’s a part of the sex ring!” Aryssa screamed. “He’s responsible for enslaving women and beating them! There are other women in this hotel being forced to have sex, as I speak.”

  Aryssa’s words were a spear that pierced the bouncer’s chest. He stepped away from the portly man who was trying to slither across the floor. Spun to look at the crowd who, he quickly realized, were staring at him. Some appeared to have already made up their minds about what was happening.

  The bouncer opened his mouth to speak, but his jaw froze in place, allowing nothing but silence to pass over his tongue.

  “Is it true?” A voice piped up from the crowd.

  “A sex ring? In our city?” questioned another.

  “How many have you forced…?”

  The bouncer took three or four steps backward. Kept his hands out in front of him. “I…I don’t know anything about…”

  “It’s true!” Aryssa yelled. “I watched him beat a woman
senseless!” She gestured at the men spread across the floor. “Two of those men are part of it, too.”

  Several in the crowd fidgeted while others whispered to those standing next to them. Murmurs overflowed with irritation. The tension that bound the group became even tighter.

  The bouncer must’ve sensed it. He sprinted through the lounge and toward the rear of the lobby.

  “Get him!” someone shouted.

  Five or six men took off after him. Aryssa watched the men chase the bouncer toward the exit. The very exit that she, Charlie and Kami had ran into only minutes earlier. The matter quickly fell from her concern, because there was something far more important to attend to.

  Aryssa looked down on Charlie. He still wasn’t moving. She couldn’t tell if he was even breathing. Was he dead? Angst nearly tore her heart in two. “Charlie!” She bolted toward the staircase leading into the lobby and ran right to him.

  * * * * *

  The absolute darkness that surrounded Charlie was so thick that it engulfed the horizon of his consciousness. It squeezed him on all sides, found a way beneath his skin and before long it weighed heavily in his limbs. The faint chatter of voices floated from somewhere in the distance. It grew a little louder. A little closer. There were a lot of voices. Maybe hundreds. Was it coming from inside his head? Nothing about it was relaxing; in fact it was rather harsh. Uninviting. He tried to cover his ears, but his arms wouldn’t respond to the command.

  “Charlie!” The voice rose above the chatter.

  Who was calling his name? Charlie tried to open his mouth. Tried frantically to thrust the air from his lungs. Not even a whimper managed to pass across his vocal cords.

  “Charlie! Please wake up.” The voice sounded more desperate.

  Electric pain skewered his wrist and shot up into his shoulder. At the same time something soft brushed across his cheek.

  “Charlie…”

  The darkness, the chatter, the heaviness seeping into his skin, all of it was sucked into a vacuum. For a microsecond nothing existed. Then he opened his eyes to a bright light that flooded his awareness.

  Aryssa was kneeling over him and gasped in relief. “Charlie…are you okay?”

  He was on his back, staring at the ornate ceiling way above Aryssa’s head. The ceiling of a hotel. The…the Cad. Charlie exhaled. Several other people were standing over him. To his right someone was struggling to crawl away. To his left a large man wasn’t moving at all. The dam holding back the events from up there, up on that balcony, burst open and it all came rushing into him.

  “Say something, please,” Aryssa pleaded as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.

  Charlie gasped and sat upright. “What the hell just…?”

  “Oh, my god.” Aryssa threw her arms around him and squeezed tight. “You’re alive.”

  “I am,” Charlie affirmed. He wrapped his good arm around Aryssa and reveled in her embrace. “At least I think I am.” He paused. “How did I end up down here?”

  “Take it easy,” a man in a blue blazer said. “The ambulance will be here soon.”

  “Ambulance?” Charlie tucked the bad arm into his side to protect it. “I don’t think I need…”

  “You definitely need one, especially after a fall like that.” The man in the blue blazer knelt by Charlie’s side. “And the cops too.”

  Aryssa pulled back and nodded. “He’s right. You’re hurt and there’s so much to sort through.” She softly stroked his hair. “We’ve managed to rescue some of the girls.”

  “Some?” Charlie couldn’t stop the disappointment from infiltrating his tone. “What about the others?”

  “There were two in the bar.” Aryssa gestured through the crowd. “Security is upstairs looking for some of the others.”

  Charlie rubbed his temple. “Can you trust them? They could’ve been bought off.”

  “Possible, but I doubt it.” A tear trickled down Aryssa’s cheek. “The cops will be here soon. Let them deal with it.” She tipped her chin toward the burly man lying on his back. “You’ve taken care of one.” The portly man trying to crawl away grunted in pain. “That one is not going anywhere.”

  “We’ll make sure of it,” said a dark-haired man wearing a white dress shirt. Two other men looked down on the man trying to crawl away like hawks eyeing their prey.

  Aryssa motioned up toward the balcony. “And Ariek isn’t going anywhere either.” A smile creased her lips. “You got him good.”

  A memory behind a dissipating cloud. Someone trying to stop him up on the balcony. Charlie’s punch that crumpled him to the floor. He sighed. There was something missing. More like someone. “Where’s Sammy?”

  Aryssa’s head bowed momentarily. “He got away.”

  “He got…?” Tension held Charlie’s tongue. His blood thickened with anger. “Where’s…?” he couldn’t remember her name. “You know, your blonde friend from…”

  “You mean Kami?” Aryssa sniffled. “They snagged her and took her with them.”

  “Where?”

  Aryssa shrugged. “Maybe to the factory. Somewhere else? I’m not sure.” She readjusted her knees. “I think he may have said something about going back to that room.”

  Charlie glanced at his deformed wrist, sucked in a breath to try to relieve the pain and then braced it against his gut. “Maybe we should…”

  Aryssa shook her head. “You’re hurt. We’re not going anywhere until the medics get here.”

  “It could be too late by then,” Charlie reasoned. “We need to get there now.”

  “You mean leave?” the man in the blue blazer questioned. “Don’t think that’s a good idea. There could be so much more wrong with you.”

  “I agree,” Aryssa said. “Let the cops handle it from here.”

  Frustration boiled up in Charlie. He couldn’t sit here and do nothing. Couldn’t just let it be handled by someone else. Couldn’t let it remain unfinished. He used his good hand to clutch his temples with his middle finger and thumb. It was kind of like repairing his boat. Never leave things unfinished and expect someone else to do it for you.

  The pain from the fall was already waning. His memory of the events was sharpening. The steam of determination rose from his smoldering frustration. It swirled into his limbs and then up into his head. Charlie grunted and rose to his feet.

  “What are you doing?” Aryssa questioned.

  “Hey man, you should sit back down,” the man in the blue blazer said.

  Charlie took a deep breath, then exhaled sharply so he could steady the teetering. He braced Aryssa’s shoulder. “I’m going after Sammy, to finish this once and for all.”

  “But…” Aryssa stammered.

  “Send the cops to the factory,” Charlie interrupted. “They’ll eventually find that place where they held you captive. I need to get there before they manage to slip away for good.”

  “But you’re hurt!” Aryssa gingerly held his injured arm. “There could be something more…”

  Charlie held up his once-injured wrist. He wiggled his fingers. “I’ll be fine.”

  Aryssa’s mouth fell open in shock. “How’s that possible?” She pointed. “It’s not… it’s…it’s straight. How’d you…?”

  The man in the blue blazer stepped backward. “No way. I swear it was…”

  “You coming or not?” Charlie said to Aryssa.

  Aryssa wavered. “Are you sure that it’s a good idea?”

  “Now or never,” Charlie said firmly.

  Aryssa looked at Charlie, the crowd and then at the man who was lying on his back. Something grabbed her attention. She knelt, lifted his shirt and pointed at a metal object tucked into his waistband. “What about this?”

  Charlie didn’t flinch. There was too much happening and his mind was still a touch foggy. “Grab it and let’s go.” He stepped backward toward the door.

  “Are you sure you should be doing that?” the man in the blue blazer asked hesitantly.

  Aryssa ran after Charl
ie, cupping the gun in her hands. “I guess it’s now or never.”

  Charlie scampered to the exit with Aryssa in tow. Sirens blared from somewhere down the street. It echoed through the surrounding buildings joining the chorus of flashing blue and red lights that bounced off the windows.

  “This way,” Charlie said. He clutched Aryssa’s elbow. “We’ve got to get there before he leaves.”

  “What do we do if he’s not there?” Aryssa asked tentatively.

  Charlie shrugged. “Then I guess he’s gone for good.”

  36

  A cloak of silence hung heavily in the taxi. Even though it was invisible, Aryssa could almost feel its starched, sound-dampening texture. Smell the acrid odor of its fibers woven with the threads of exhaustion, pain, death and everything else that had taken place in the hotel lobby. She shifted in her seat, hoping to find a position that made her feel a little lighter. Maybe a little more energized. She shivered. Then again, maybe it had something to do with where they were going and the gun she was holding. These were things she didn’t want anything to do with, but destiny had bound them to her anyway.

  Aryssa looked over at Charlie. Whatever spell that had roped his thoughts was suddenly broken. He turned his attention on her and smiled ever so slightly. “Something on your mind?”

  “Yeah, a lot,” Aryssa answered.

  “Like what?”

  Aryssa hesitated, then gestured toward Charlie’s wrist. “Like that. No one can mend a broken bone that fast.” An uneasy pause. “I’m questioning myself if it was even broken?”

  Charlie opened and closed his fist. Laid his hand in his lap. “Maybe you saw it from a wrong angle.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it,” Aryssa stated decisively. “It was definitely messed up. I know it, you know it and everyone in that room who saw it knows it.”

  “It’s fine now.”

  “It wasn’t back there,” Aryssa thumbed over her shoulder. “What gives?”

  Charlie was silent for several seconds, then he shrugged. “I really don’t know.”