Captured

by Humphreys, K. L.

  I walk as quickly as I can, pissed that I’m leaving a trail of blood as I do. Fuck, it’s like I’m leaving a trail for Raphael to find me. I have no doubt that the fucker knows that I’ve killed the assholes he left me with. Raphael has an end game and I’m going to make sure that he never reaches it because if he does it means he’ll get Lucy. As I move toward the safe house, I know that someone’s following me. I can feel them watching me. I move out of the city limits, not wanting to be caught on camera killing someone. They follow me with every twist and turn that I make, they’re fucking stupid; being so easy for me to clock.

  I need to get rid of the fucker tailing me before I make it any closer to the safe house, I’m close to an interstate and this is the perfect spot to lose the asshole. They won’t know which direction I’ve gone. As I reach the interstate I hide in the shadows waiting for him to follow me. He doesn’t disappoint, as soon as he’s within touching distance I grab him; my arm around his neck. He struggles and pain radiates throughout my body as I take his weight when he tries to fight me off. I tighten my grip around his neck cutting off his air supply while my other hand reaches around and feels for a gun. As I hit his pocket, I feel the handle of a knife and grip my hand around it. This will be better, no noise and that gives me more time to put distance between us. I pull tighter on his neck as I bring the knife around and stab him in the chest, the fucker tries to scream but can’t as I’ve blocked his airways.

  He stops struggling and goes almost limp in my arms. Now I’m not that gullible as even I would pretend to be dying if it means that my assailant will get the fuck off me. I wait until I know for sure that he’s out cold, as soon as I’m sure I throw the fucker to the ground. With the knife still in my hand, I stab him once more. This one, I know there’s no way he’s going to survive. I hit his jugular and as soon as I pull the knife out, I know he’ll be dead in a matter of seconds.

  I take off after stealing his jacket, which I ball up and place on my wound, hoping it will try and stop the blood from giving away my location. I’ve got another fifteen-minute walk ahead of me and I don’t know if I’m going to make it. I’m dizzy and the sweat is pouring off me. I need to make it back to the safe house, it’s the only way I’ll be able to survive. I’ve lost too much blood as it is and I don’t know how the hell I’m still standing. But I do know one thing, I won’t stop trying until I’ve taken my last breath.

  It takes me forty-five minutes to walk what should have been only a fifteen-minute walk, I’m barely hanging on. I lost the jacket I stole from the asshole and I fell more than once, but I’m here. The safe house is in front of me and I’m regretting choosing this one as I look at the four steps I have to climb to get into the house.But I start the ascent, knowing that if I don’t I won’t get the help I need. As soon as I open that door, Argos will leave the lair. We made that decision when Raphael went after Ruby. It’s why when Argos leaves, he’ll be leaving Lucy behind at the lair. It’s the reason I never went back to there, if Raphael is having me followed he won’t be able to get to Lucy.

  I struggle to climb the stairs, my hands white from the grip I have on the railing. With each step I climb, it feels as though my body is about to give up. I tell myself three more steps, then two more steps and finally one more step. When I reach the top, I lose my balance. But thankfully the tight grip that I have on the railing is the only thing that’s keeping me from going head first down the stairs. The relief is imminent as I open the front door, but that quickly vanishes as nausea and dizziness hit me and I collapse as my vision goes black.

  Chapter 19

  Lucy

  “Argos what’s happening? You’ve not said anything” I watch Argos moving from one screen to the other. Cash hasn’t even called us and Argos can’t get the camera back from the house. We have nothing and I’m worried; very, very worried.

  I’m pacing the room as Argos is still not telling me anything, and I don’t know if he’s worried or if he’s annoyed that he has no idea what is happening. I hear beeping coming from the laptop, running over I stare at the blank screen. Why is there nothing on it? “Argos…”

  “I can’t get picture, only sound…” He puts his finger up so that I won’t ask any questions and listen.

  “Check every room.” I hear Tanner shout, “How many dead?”

  “Seven,” another voice shouts. I try to reply what I can remember trying to think how many Cash had killed and how many shots were fired, my mind’s blank. I can’t remember anything.

  Argos pushes himself off the chair as he puts his phone to his ear, I keep my eyes on the screen waiting for the picture to come up. I mean they have to come up sooner or later. “Tanner, I want pictures sent over of all the dead… Hades was there and I’ve lost connection, I know he was shot…” I turn around to listen to Argos, hoping that Tanner sends them over to him soon. But a cop is always a cop and as much as he is keeping Hades and Argos quiet from other detectives, even I know that arresting Hades would be a big career win for him. “You and I both know that I’m not sending you a picture of Hades, so you have two choices: send me pictures of all the dead there, or find another person to help you put an end to this fucked up ring.” Argos shouts at him, slamming the phone on the table.

  I sit here only thinking about myself, how worried I am about Cash. Not once thinking that Cash is a brother to Argos, they have been together as friends, family, and a team for so long this could be worse for him.

  Slowly walking over to him, “I really don’t think that Cash would go down that fast,” I say quietly, I don’t want to add stress to him.

  “I’m sorry; I don’t mean to be a dick. Things with me and Cash haven’t been the best at the moment…”

  “I know, and I’m to blame for that, but I know he trusts you. I know that he is okay and you two will be back to arguing over something stupid in no time.” I tell him with a small smile. I know that there is no way that Cash would leave me without a fight, I know he’s not dead; I won’t believe it until I see him.

  Argos pulls me in for a hug, “We will find him.” he kisses the top of my head.

  As the laptop starts beeping, we both look at the screen. Did Tanner send him the pictures? I follow Argos, as he sits down to see what the email is, and I stand behind him.

  “It’s not from Tanner, it’s from Raphael,” my body tenses up as Argos goes to open it. This man is not going to leave me alone until someone shoots him between the eyes.

  I watch as the video loads, Argos pulls a chair closer to him and points to it telling me to sit down. “My Queen, the men may think they can protect you but they can’t. I mean I thought this computer wizard was meant to be the best, but here I am hacking into his system and he never saw it coming.” I look over at Argos, as he starts tapping at the other laptop. I know he’s not happy about how this happened, and when he finds out who is behind this I don’t think Cash will get a chance to kill him. Argos will beat him to it.

  “So, My Queen, I’m sending you this to let you know that I’ve killed one of your bodyguards and when I kill the other, you can finally be mine.” The screen goes blank and I just stare at it. My body has gone numb, I can’t feel my legs.

  I hear a sound but my body has shut down on me. I see Argos in front of me, his lips are moving, but I can’t hear him. Did he really kill Cash? I blink, and a tear rolls down my cheek.

  “Lucy!” Argos shouts, “He’s playing with your head, don’t lose hope.” I nod my head a little as I focus on what he is saying to me. He’s right I need to focus, I need to be thinking about finding him.

  “Can you not get camera views of the street around the house?” I ask.

  “I’m working on it. Tanner emailed me,” Argos pulls my chair closer to his, and I look at the images as the load up. “Not Cash.” Argos says, his voice sounds a little more relaxed now, but he’s right back to tapping on the laptop to find cameras around the house.

  Rubbing my forehead, as it’s starting to hurt with not sleeping,
always being worried that Raphael will walk through the door any day, and now this. We have no idea where Cash is, or if he’s okay.

  I jump when I hear a siren going off. What the fuck is that? Argos turns around and looks at the door next to the sitting room. To be honest I have no idea what is back there. “Argos, what is it?” I ask as he runs over to it. “Argos?” I ask him again, but he’s ignoring me.

  Placing his hand on the wall, he then moves his eye closer. They have a fucking retina scanner! I mean I’ve only ever seen them in TV shows. Whatever is behind this door, is something they want to hide.

  I follow as Argos races through the door, only to come to a screeching halt. Holy shit! I look around at all the screens. He has a camera in every safe house they have. I didn’t think they had so many, my eyes stop when I see Ruby. Moving closer to the screen. “Ruby…” I whisper to myself as I watch her reading a book. I can’t wait to see her again it’s been way too long and I hate that I’ve kept me being alive a secret from her.

  “Lucy, it’s Cash.” I follow the sound of Argos’ voice and look at the screen he’s pointing to, at Cash on the floor with a lot of blood around him. My breathing stops, I feel as though time is at a stand-still when I realize that he hasn’t moved. I try and check to see if I can see his chest rising but nothing. “I have to go to him, you…”

  “I’m coming with you.” I cut him off before he can tell me that I have to stay here because that is not happening, I need to go to him. I have to be with him.

  “Lucy, this is the safest place for you. I have no idea what could be there waiting for us. It could be a set-up, Raphael could have lured him there.”

  “Argos I really don’t care! I can’t sit here waiting to hear from you, I am going with you so you might as well just deal with it.” I tell him leaving the room. I wait by the door, so he can’t go without me.

  Argos is still in the room and I already know that he’s fighting with himself because he knows that Cash will kill him for taking me along. I don’t care. He finally walks out of the room with a bag. “We need to stock up with medical supplies, guns, get all the laptops together, and every piece of paper

  on that table.” Argos throws a bag on the table, and I walk over to help. At least I know that he's not going to fight with me about going with him.

  Getting all the things together, I watch Argos running around. I know that we have to get going and fast. We have no idea how bad it is for Cash and I want to leave. “You stay close. You don’t move out of my sight unless something is to happen. Then you run,” handing me a cell phone, “and you call me on this. Then you throw it, and keep running.” Argos grabs the bag and starts walking to the door.

  I take in a deep breath because the moment I walk out that door, I’m at risk again. Raphael can get me, but I know that staying here is not an option for me. Walking out of the door, I get in the car, and wait for Argos to start driving. I don’t even know where this safe house is.

  ***

  I didn’t look at what speed Argos was driving at, I was too busy looking at the mirror to see if there was anyone following us. “We’re here, run if you need to.” Argos says and gets out of the car quickly, grabs the bag from the back and runs to the house. I grab the other bag and follow him.

  I stop in my tracks as I get through the door and see Cash lying in a pool of blood. That man is never going to stop, Raphael is going to kill everyone that I love to get me. Would it be easier if I just went to him?

  “Lucy!” Argos shouts my name to get me out of my thoughts, “I need your help.” he shouts again. My frozen feet become unstuck and I run over to him, kneeling down next to Cash.

  He looks too gray, I mean scary gray. Argos takes his jacket of, “Hold it on his wound.” he throws it over to me, and I wait until he’s finished cutting Cash’s t-shirt off.

  “How bad does it look?” I ask him. To me this doesn’t look good, and just the look on Argos’ face tells me he’s worried about it too.

  “Not the best.” Argos pulls the bag over to him and I put the jacket over his chest. There isn’t a lot of blood coming out, that cannot be good.

  “Argos…”

  “Lucy, I need to focus and with you talking it’s very hard.” Argos cuts me off. I nod, wipe the tears from my cheeks and put my hands back on the jacket, as I watch Argos do what he has too. I can’t help but stare at the blood bag that Argos pulls out. It makes me wonder how many times this has happened in the past. I’ve seen the scars on Cash’s body, and I’ve seen him fighting too. But to have your own blood bank is a little over the top even for me.

  “I won’t be able to do this alone; I’m going to have to call someone.” I watch Argos hooking everything up, and I look at Cash’s white face.

  It’s really bad that only the bad is running through my head. But after everything that is happening, only bad things go around it. I refuse to think that God is that mean, he’s taken my mom; he can’t have Cash too.

  “I’m just going to make a phone call,” Argos grab his phone and walks to the other room. When are we planning on moving Cash off the floor? We can’t just leave him here. But I’ll leave the questions for later, even I can see the worry on Argos’ face.

  Leaning closer to Cash, “You’re scaring me now, I think now would be a good time to wake up.” Gently stroking his face as I lean in to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I love you, and I think that we need to fight this.” leaning back up, “I have a lot of things planned for us,: we still need to go on our first date, I mean I need to see what you do on a date, and then we have to go on our first vacation. There is so much to do.” I tell him, and hear Argos walking back over to me. I quickly wipe my tears away from my cheeks.

  I look up and give Argos a small smile. I know he doesn’t buy it, but I need to see someone smile. Even if it’s a fake smile.

  “It doesn’t look good, does it?” I ask him, he’s a lot easier to read than Cash is, and I suppose that’s why he is the brains behind the machine.

  “It doesn’t. I wish that I could tell you something better, but at the moment, I know that I can’t help him. But someone is coming, and I’m praying that we got here on time.”

  Argos places his hand on top of mine, and I move away and I sit on the floor next to Cash and just stare at his face.

  ***

  The knock on the door scares me. I look over at Argos as he grabs his gun off the floor and tells me to hide behind the door. Getting up I move to where he told me to stand. He opens the door a little, with his gun to the side.

  “Open the fucking door asshole.” I hear a voice; A voice I’m sure that I have heard before.

  “Didn’t think you two would come with him.” Argos opens the door and I move closer to him, still behind him and grab his shirt so that he knows I’m behind him. “Doc, did you bring everything with you?” I look over his shoulder to see who he’s talking to.

  I knew I had heard that voice before. Satan and Storm from the biker club, look over Argos’ shoulder at me. “Didn’t think we would see you again for a while.” Storm says, and I know that Cash and Argos trust them, but he scares me.

  “Doc, keep looking at her like that; I can’t promise that Cash won’t hurt you.” Argos tells him. Which makes me look over at him and, fuck, the cold shiver running through my body scares me. Just like the last time I felt that was when Raphael touched me.

  “She’s Cash’s girl.” he points to me then looks at Cash on the floor.

  “Get working.” Satan shouts at him, then looks over and gives me a wink.

  “Well you have to help me get him on a bed.” Doc looks at the three of them, and they look over at Argos. I feel his hand tightening on mine. He gives them a nod, and pulls me away from them.

  Stopping in the kitchen, I look over his shoulder as I see them lifting Cash up and taking him into the bedroom. “Lucy, they were the only ones that can help me with Cash. Satan and Storm both know that you’re with Cash; Doc he's not all right up in the head.
” he looks behind him to see what they are doing, and then back to me, “Stay close and don’t say too much, I don’t know what Cash told them.”

  I give Argos a nod, because I don’t even know what Cash spoke to them about. I was there for bits and pieces, but not everything. Argos walks over to the spare room but I stop at the table, causing him to look over at me.

  “You go; I will get things set up out here.” I know that they won’t talk freely while I’m in there, and I need to them to do the best thing for Cash, to help him. “I’ll be fine, promise.” I reassure him. I know Argos well enough know to know that if anything happens to me, it will hurt him just as much. Even though Cash hates our relationship, he’s the brother I never had.

  Argos gives me a nod, and makes his way to the room, I start taking out all the laptops and get them set up, taking out all the notes too. Even though Cash is lying on his deathbed, I know the second he opens his eyes he will want answers. I might not work as fast as Argos, but I’m going to try my best to help as much as I can.

  I’ve been sitting here for over an hour, staring at the door to the room. What the fuck is going on in there? I mean I thought that Argos would come out and give me a little update. Maybe something has gone wrong, and he doesn't want to tell me, or maybe they have been working on him so much that he’s not had the chance to come out.

  Hearing the door open, I see Storm coming out first. Then Satan and Doc right behind him. I look behind them for Argos, but he's not coming out. “You might want to go in there.” Satan tells me. I don’t even look at him as I run over to the room. I stop by the door and see Cash hooked up to three machines.

  What do they mean, what is happening? If he was dead then the machines wouldn’t be here, right? I look at Argos who’s staring back at me. “Doc put him in an induced coma. He said it looked like Cash hit his head when he fell and that with the blood loss,” I slowly walk over to the bed and stop as Argos goes to touch me, but I move away from him. “We just have to wait until he wakes up.” he tells me.