That never happened, the feeling in my stomach still even to this day, I can still feel the bullet piercing my skin. How I tasted the blood in my mouth, how my hands covered the wound only to be covered in my own blood. I don’t think I will ever forget it. It will be in my head until the day I do die.
Now I think about how every day Cash thinks that I’m dead. How is he going to react when Argos tells him the truth? They might be best friends, but I don’t think Cash will care.
***
“Cash!” I wake up screaming, touching my stomach to make sure it was a dream and I wasn’t re-living the worst day of my life. Wiping the sweat off of my forehead, my body is covered in a cold sweat. Taking the covers off of me, I get in the shower quickly. Taking off my clothes I jump in. Since I came out of the hospital, I’ve never looked at my body in the mirror. The gunshot wound always makes my blood run cold, and then there are the places that the men touched me. At the moment, I can’t look at my body and feel happy with it.
Getting out of the shower, I pull on a pair of jeans and tank top, grabbing my boots so that I can go for a quick walk around the garden; I need the fresh air.
I hear a sound that has me rooted to the ground, panic rises through my body as I realize that it’s the alarm in the house. Someone’s coming, my breath coming out in pants as I begin to shake. Damn it. Who could it be? I need to call Argos. I become unstuck and run back into the house, the sound of the alarm getting louder as I do. I run straight to the bedroom and grab my cell and call Argos.
“Argos, what…” I start saying in a panic.
“Get the gun, Lucy.” Argos shouts into the phone. Running to the kitchen, I get all the guns together. “Lucy…”
“Give it to me.” I hear Cash shout at him and he sounds pissed.
“Lucy, I’m on my way, grab the gun and keep your eyes open!” Cash tells me, and my heart beats faster as I hear his voice. I’ve missed him so much. Just hearing his voice has me calming a bit. Cash won’t let anything happen to me.
“O…okay.” My voice betrays me as you can hear a tinge of fear.
“Two minutes. Do you have the guns?” Argos asks.
“Yes.” I run to hide behind the counter.
“Lucy,” I hear Cash’s voice, “you shoot, point and shoot.” I hear him shout into the phone. “Keep your eyes open.”
I stare at the gun in my hand as it shakes. I can do this. I can fight this. I can’t let them take me again. I can’t live that horror again.
“Cash, I’m sorry that we lied…I’ve missed you,” I tell him as I try and control my tears. “Argos and I thought it would be better this way…”
“Lucy, we’ll talk after…” His voice is hard and I’m more scared of what he’s thinking than whoever it is that’s coming.
“Lucy get ready, they’re coming.” Argos shouts and I hear the door being kicked, my heart beating harder, faster.
I jump as I hear the door fly off the hinges, and move further into the corner. “They’re inside.” I whisper into the phone.
“Lucy, you fucking fight. It’s still going to take me five minutes to get there.” Cash shouts at me. I scream when I feel someone wrap their hand around my ankle and pull me. I drop the cell and hear it hit the floor and I just pray it didn’t break. I need to talk to Cash. I need them to know that I’m here.
“Nooooo,” I kick him in the face, quickly crawling back to grab the gun. I turn around and shoot. Missing him, I shoot again, quickly getting to my feet as I hear the others shouting my name. Picking the phone up, “Hello,” I try to get my voice to stop shaking so much.
“Lucy, I’m getting closer.” Cash tells me.
I feel arms wrap behind me. I try my hardest to move but the arms that are wrapped around me are strong. So strong, that I’m finding it hard to breathe. My scream is lodged in my throat and no matter what I try and do, I can’t get it out. I feel warm breath on my ear and hear, “You’re just as pretty as they’ve said.” I feel sick. God, what do they want from me? “We’re going to have a lot of fun with you.” He starts to walk backward as he lifts me and carries me out of the safe house. Why? Why is this happening to me again? I feel so helpless as he brings me to a van. My head smashing against the floor of the van as he carelessly throws me in.
***
My head hurts. Not just a little either. I mean it is fucking killing me, trying to open my eyes to focus on what is happening around me. My stomach starts to feel sick due to the swaying motion. Am I on a boat? Why the hell am I on a boat?
Slowly getting to my feet I place my hand on the wall to steady my balance. “You know they told us you were pretty, and I have to agree.” I quickly turn around at the heavily accented voice, it sounds as though he’s Brazilian. I back up until my back hits the wall and look at the man standing by the door. Panic and fear grip me as I look at him. There’s no way, he’s supposed to be dead! Argos told me that Cash had killed him! Luis is dead! “No, you’re not seeing someone from the dead. I’m Raphael, Luis’ twin brother.” he says as though he can read my thoughts. His voice is as cold as his brothers and I’m on the verge of tears. I’m about to go through hell all over again. Raphael seems to have a darker and more evil look to him. His eyes hold the look of the devil.
I take a quick look out of the window and see the water. Turning back to him, I hear something hit the wooden floor. I can feel my body burning as he watches me. “My plan was to kill you, but then I saw your pretty skin and thought no. Meu Pai wants me to sell you, but I have a better idea.” his lips curl up into a smile and I start to feel sick. “I need a new pet, and thought…” My Portuguese is a bit rusty but I know that Pai means father.
“Fuck you! I would rather die.” I shout back at him. I won’t let him touch me.
“I thought this would be your response. To be honest, it’s really turning me on,” his tongue moves over his lips and his eyes drink in my body. “and I have plenty of time to train you. I mean where are you going to go?” He points to the window of the boat.
I’m asking myself that same question right now. Where can I really go? I don’t even know where the boat is at the moment. I need to be able to go upstairs to see how far away from land we are. I can’t just make a quick decision for it to go bad for me. I need to think this through. Cash found me once, he will find me again.
“Would you like some dinner? I don’t want my new prize to go hungry.” Two men walk into the room with a small table and a chair and place it in front of me. “Sit.” He commands and his voice holds a tone that says don’t disobey.
“I’m not a ten-year-old girl that is scared of you.” I bite back. I have no idea where this brave person has come from but I wish she would shut up.
I watch as his lips curl up into a smile, and on the inside, I’m so scared about what he’s thinking. “I heard you were a little fighter. I’m going to enjoy breaking you.” He stands and slowly takes a step closer to me, “now the crazy fuckers I know, they like to rape their girls. Me? Not so much. I don’t find it as a turn on, I like it when they beg.” My back is against the wall and there’s nowhere left for me to go. Raphael stops, not leaving any space between us, his breath hot against my skin and I feel repulsed. “And when I break you, you will beg. It might not be for me to fuck you, but you will beg. And when you do, that’s when I’ll be ready to train you.” He grabs my face, pushing my cheeks in, and kisses me hard. I try to push him away from me but it’s not helping.
Raphael takes a step back; I spit at him, and he starts laughing. “You do taste nice, don’t you?” He licks his bottom lip, as his eyes move down my body. “I might have to tie you up and taste that sweet pussy of yours.” he tells me then takes a step back as my body shakes as his words hit me.
I watch the two men walking closer to him. “She does not leave this room, unless I say she can.” Raphael tells them, and they nod. Turning back to face me, “I might even like to have dinner tomorrow night.” he gives me wink and leaves the room.
&n
bsp; I can’t stop staring at the door. What the hell am I going to do? How long will it take Argos to find this place? I mean I’m in the middle of fucking nowhere. Time to think of a game plan, I need to find a way to try and escape. The warehouse was different. I didn’t know what was going to be behind the doors, now I have water on my side. I can swim and I can swim well. I turn around to look out the window to see if I can see something, anything, but all I see is water. Maybe when I have dinner with him tomorrow, it will be out of this room so I can gage my surroundings better. That’s when I will have to decide what I will be doing and where I can swim to.
Chapter 4
Cash
“How much longer?” not even looking at Argos as I ask him the question because I may just kill him if I do. I can’t believe they both kept this shit secret from me. I thought I was the twisted one.
“Less than ten minutes, Cash, I know that you don’t…”
“Shut the fuck up. Right now, all I want to do is wrap my hands around your throat and squeeze the fucking life out of you.” Instead of doing that, I squeeze the fuck out of the steering wheel; my grip is so strong that my knuckles are turning white.
“Cash, you’re taking this the wrong way. It was to keep Lucy safe.”
“Taking it the wrong way? You made me believe that the woman I love was fucking dead. There’s no other way to take this.” The way I’m feeling right now, this anger that’s inside; I don’t think I’m ever going to forgive him.
“Why does this have to be about you? What I did was to make sure that Lucy stayed safe. You became a fucking hitman when my sister died and I knew that you wouldn’t stop until you made sure everyone involved in Lucy’s death paid the price, in turn making her safe.” He’s so fucking sure of himself; like what he did was completely normal. I ignore him, there’s no point in trying to argue with the fucker because every time he opens his mouth all I want to do is punch him.
I see a small road up ahead and I know without the asshole even saying, that it’s the road I have to take. It leads me up a long driveway. I know she’s gone; the door hanging on its hinges along with the shattered window. Fuck! I almost got her back and she’s gone again. This is Argos’ fault; this wouldn’t have happened if she’d have been with me. I get out of the car as soon as I park it. I need to see if there’s anything to tell me where they’ve taken her. I can only assume that it’s the Gonzales Cartel; whoever it was, have a fucking death wish. You don’t fuck with what’s mine; they should have known that; look what happened to the last one that did. I killed the asshole.
“Cash.” Argos shouts as soon as I hit the doorway. I turn and give him a look that would have men quivering, but not him, he stands tall and pretends that I don’t scare him when we both know that I do. If there’s one person on this earth’s surface this should be frightened of me, it’s Argos. He knows absolutely everything about me. He knows what I’m capable of and for that reason alone he should be scared.
I walk through the house and can see the evidence proving that Lucy didn’t give up. She fought and she fought hard. The table is turned over as are the chairs. My girl fights, it’s one of the many things that I love about her. I turn to the asshole who looks dumbfounded while standing in the doorway. “Do you have footage?” He can’t be that fucking stupid not to put cameras here.
“Of course, I do.” He sounds offended that I even asked him that question; well I don’t trust the asshole so I had to ask. “We’ll check the feed as soon as we get back.”
I don’t answer him, hell I don’t even acknowledge him. I walk past him not even giving him a second look. The bastard had better get used to it, because it’s not going to change any time soon. I get in the car and blow the horn at him to hurry the hell up. I’m being childish but fuck if I care.
“You’re a fucking ass you know that?” I give him a pointed look, one that speaks volumes. “Is it that time of the month? Hell, take a fucking Midol or something.”
“Not even funny. You need to work on your jokes. They’d bore a corpse to death.”
I hear him splutter and I hide my smile. “Wow, old man has jokes.” The fucker actually smirks at me.
“Hey asshole, you’re older than me, you’ll need a cane soon. I still haven’t forgiven you and I don’t think I will anytime soon. Every time I look at you, all I want to do is hurt you.” I glance in his direction seeing that the smirk he had on his face has vanished and he looks as though I’ve just killed his puppy.
“Cash…”
“Don’t Cash me, Lucy’s gone and that’s on you. If anything happens to her, I will kill you!” I know some of what happened to her the last time she was kidnapped. God only knows what’s going to happen this time.
***
“Mr. Hades, where the hell is my daughter?” The anger coming from Lucy’s father would make any normal man wither.
“Argos is working on finding her as we speak.” I try to conceal my anger although I don’t know how the hell I’m managing that. All I want to do is kill everyone who is connected to that fucking Cartel.
“How the hell did this happen?” Mr. Mayers asks, demanding answers; looking for someone to blame. When in fact, he should be looking at himself, he’s the one who left her alone.
“It seems that the Cartel didn’t believe that Lucy was dead. They’ve been checking everything including the grave we had.” Argos informs him and I leave them to talk, not wanting to be part of this conversation seeing as they are the reason that Lucy is gone.
I walk into the kitchen, going to the cupboard and reach for the only thing that has been able to get me through these last few months. As I take a sip of whiskey, Argos and Lucy’s father turn to me; both have an expectant look on their faces. I narrow my eyes as they walk closer; sometimes I fucking hate how this house is open plan living. No privacy.
“What are your plans in finding my daughter?” I can see the hope in his bright eyes filled with unshed tears.
“I’m waiting on Argos to get the footage from the safe house you and Lucy were staying in. That way we can get a definite answer on who took her and maybe a clue as to where they’ve gone.” I watch as Argos’ eyes shutter as I remind him yet again that I’m waiting for him to get me that fucking footage. It doesn’t take him long to get back onto his laptop, the asshole starts pounding away on those fucking keys again.
“You shouldn’t be so hard on him.”
My eyes slide to Lucy’s father and see that he’s staring at Argos, “Oh and why is that exactly?” I can’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Shouldn’t be so hard on him, that’s the joke of the century.
“He’s done everything he can to make sure that my baby girl was safe.”
I can’t help but laugh at that statement, “Great job he’s done.”
“Mr. Hades, I understand that it was kept from you. Surely you can understand why it was.” He’s actually trying to defend what Argos did.
“I respectfully disagree; let me explain something to you. For three months I believed that the woman I loved was shot down dead in front of me and there was nothing I could do except flee like the criminal I am. For three months, I grieved for the woman I loved. I killed using my grief for her as my driving force. All the while my best friend who watched me break didn’t say a fucking thing. So, no, I don’t understand and I never will. You should be lucky that you were allowed to know she was alive. You were lucky you didn’t have to grieve.” I watch as what I’ve just said sinks in and he flinches. I turn toward Argos and I know from the paleness of his face that he too heard what I have just said, not that I give a shit.
“Mr. Argos, have you found anything yet?” The shakiness of Lucy’s father's voice makes me turn and look at him again. He has tears in his eyes again and the sight of them don’t make me feel guilty.
Argos coughs which gains my attention but I don’t turn, let the bastard sweat it out. “Yeah, I’ve found the footage. Although Mr. Mayers, I don’t think that you should watch.”
/> “I’ll do what I want and I want to see what the hell has happened to my daughter. She told me what happened to her the last time she was taken, nothing can be worse than that!” Mr. Mayers grits out and that just seems to get Argos’ to back up. He thought he had an ally in Mr. Mayers.
“Play it.” I tell him as I walk up behind him.
We watch Lucy jump as the front door of the safe house opens. I see her on the phone and knowing that I was the last person to talk to her makes this worse. I should have been there to protect her. One of the men walk into the house and it’s as if he knows exactly where she’s hiding as he grabs her ankle and pulls her. I can’t help but smile as I watch as she kicks the asshole in the face. I hear her father say “Atta girl.” He too is proud of the way she’s fighting. It’s not enough, the man wraps his arms around her. My temper soars as I watch as the asshole whispers into her ear. Whatever he’s saying makes her face pale. He carries her out of the house and throws her into the van parked outside; he slams the door closed and that’s the last image we see of Lucy.
I’m about to walk back to the kitchen to get the whiskey, no doubt Mr. Mayers will need some after watching that, when someone on screen stops me short. “Pause it!” I demand and instantly Argos does it. The man on the screen looks similar to the last man to take Lucy. Luis St. Clair is dead, that I know for sure. Who the fuck is this bastard?
I watch as Argos starts tapping away and a different laptop starts up. At this, I know he’s trying to get facial recognition which could take hours. “Argos, that’s time we don’t fucking have. The asshole has Lucy and I want to know who he is, where he is and I need to know now!” Yeah, I’m being an asshole again but I don’t give a flying fuck. I need Lucy back.
Captured Page 3