Alex’s scream caused us both to jump, but I was more than surprised at what he did next. As he screamed at the top of his lungs, he lunged at Roberto and tried his best to knock him down. Unfortunately, Roberto was still much stronger than him and was only moved a little bit, but Alex threw him off guard enough for me to go after him.
“I hate you!” Alex screamed. He held onto Roberto’s leg and then dug his teeth into it as hard as he could.
“Alex! You disobedient-”
I got to my feet and ran at Roberto with my fists ready. I had thrown two blows at his face that caused him to drop his gun. The next two made him stumble back a little, but he didn’t fall. He kicked Alex off of him and then came back at me, but missed every swing.
Roberto had men working for him because he wasn’t a fighter. There were so many things about him that reminded me of Arnold, but I was glad his fighting skills didn’t.
I ran at Roberto and tackled him to the ground. I slammed his head down once and then started elbowing the shit out of him. I slammed my elbow down on his face as hard as I could in hope that I could kill him that way. I wanted every second of his oncoming death to be as painful as possible.
After hitting him so many times I didn’t even realize how much blood I had gotten all over myself. It looked like a murder scene already, but I didn’t think that he was dead yet. He wasn’t moving, but something told me to keep going. To make sure that he was gone.
“R-Rose?” I heard Alex call. He sounded scared, and when I stopped to look at him, he stumbled backwards.
I looked down at Roberto’s bloody face and waited for any sign of life. My brain told me to start hitting him again, but my body wouldn’t move. There was just so much blood… It was everywhere.
A few seconds passed and Roberto started coughing. I wanted to slam his head down again and dig my fingers into his eyes, but I couldn’t move. There were just so many images running through my head. Images of the fights I had as a child. Jessie's dead body. The blood in the snow...I couldn’t move.
“Rose, look out-” Alex tried to warn me, but I couldn’t move.
I must have completely blanked out, because the next thing I knew, Roberto was pressing the gun against my chest, then there was a searing pain running through me, and I was lying on the basement floor.
“No!” Alex’s voice echoed in my ears. I saw him run towards me and push his hands over my chest, then I saw Roberto get to his feet. The next thing I heard was a loud noise coming from upstairs, and Alex was being pulled away from me.
“Ale...Alex,” I struggled to get out. I heard another gunshot come from upstairs, and I slowly began to daze off.
“Shit! Rose...” A raspy voice said.
I opened my eyes a little to see Bobby on his knees over my body.
“You’re going to be okay,” his voice echoed. “Down here!”
“Bob…by?”
“Don’t you die on me girl! Not you sis, come on,” Bobby rested one hand on my shoulder while holding the pit of his stomach. “Just keep your eyes open Rose. Stay with me.”
“Where...Alex?” I started coughing.
“He’s...he’s okay,” Bobby wiped the sweat off of his head and left blood smeared there instead. I couldn’t tell if it was mine, or his? He was bleeding out a lot...
Chapter 39
Three days passed after that night before I woke back up, and when I did, my family was in the hospital room waiting for me. Everyone but Lorena, Alex, and Bobby. When I got the news about Roberto getting away with Alex I damn near lost my mind, but when they told me about Bobby I broke down. Bobby died saving me. He was shot before he even made it to the basement. He had gotten to the mansion before the rest of the team did, and he was coming to save me. The other half of the team was helping Abigale. The children were also found locked in a hidden room under the warehouse.
Lorena was in the hospital and had woken up earlier than me, but she was in no condition to be walking around. Roberto had ripped her back to shreds with a knife. They said that there were so many cuts that he had practically skinned her. Other than that she had a few bruises that would heal, and she’d be back to good health in a couple of weeks.
I was told that the bullet barely missed my heart and went straight through me. Bobby helped with keeping me from losing blood, but he died before the medics got to the basement. My heart apparently stopped twice after the medics got me to the hospital, but I was quickly brought back. If it wasn’t for Bobby, well Derrick, then I wouldn’t even have made it to the hospital.
The days went by and no one left the state until it was time for me and Lorena to be transported back to Ohio. It was Cameron, Stephanie, Abigale, and My Aunt Shannon. I was happy that they were there, but who I really wanted to see was Lorena. I guess when either of us could walk, then we would finally see each other.
When I spoke with Stephanie, she told me about how everyone was on the hunt for Roberto, and that there was no way for him to leave the states. They also had Alex’s face on the news as a missing person. His name was Alex Cobalt, and his parents had died in a car crash, so he was put into foster care. He was apparently kidnapped off of a playground by Mark when he was seven years old, and had been under Roberto’s care ever since.
Mark had turned himself in a few days after I was shot. He said that he would work with the police in any way that he could in order to catch Roberto and bring Alex home. He told Stephanie that he was sorry about what had happened to me, but was even sorrier about Marie. Marie was hit in the head with a hammer, and the second blow had killed her. She was close to Mark, and was something like a mother to him.
We were finally moved back to Ohio and in a hospital near home. I requested that they moved Lorena and me into the same room and they said yes. Lorena looked as if she was recovering just fine, and was finally able to get out of the bed and walk around after a while. So physically, she was okay. Mentally, she was just like me. Broken.
That night we lost people who were dear to us, and the man who took them away was still alive and on the run. I blamed myself for some time about not being able to kill him, but she repeatedly told me that it wasn’t my fault. Deep down, I knew that she thought it was, but she was trying to be strong for me.
I finally got out of the hospital and Lorena and I went home. Cameron had long moved out, but kept paying the rent so that I would have a home to come back to. My aunt stopped by with groceries to make sure that we had food to eat, and Abigale checked in on us every now and then to make sure that we were okay.
When I spoke to Stephanie about working again, she told me that I couldn’t go back on the field for a while. I actually felt relieved when she said that, and started going to counseling, which was held by her.
A few weeks went by, and Cameron had finally come by the apartment to see me. Lorena didn’t mind him visiting, and had gone back to her room.
“Hey,” I said, staring at a very handsome Cameron. He was wearing a grey suit with his hands tucked into his pockets.
“Hey,” Cameron slightly smiled. He walked over and sat down on the couch next to me. “How are you?”
I sighed and rubbed my hand over my slick ponytail. “I’m alright I guess,” I lied.
“And what about Lorena?”
“She’s okay. We’re working through things,” I nodded.
“Well, I’m glad that you two are recovering. You’ve been through a lot. I thought that...I might have lost you back there.”
“No, Bobby...” I looked down at my hands and the blurry image of Bobby leaning over me appeared in my mind. “He...”
“I know. He saved you,” Cameron’s hand rested over mine. It felt good, but in a different way. Like he was my friend again.
Tears welled up in my eyes and I looked up at him. “Why don’t you hate me?”
“Because I love you,” Cameron chuckled. “It took a while to get over what happened between us, and at first I thought that I did, but when I heard that you were shot I rushed
over there with your aunt. I still love you, Rose. I always will.”
I sniffled and rubbed my eyes, but then I just broke down crying again, and he pulled me into his arms. Truth was, I wasn’t okay. I was very far from okay. The flashbacks from that night, and from my experiences as a fighter, came back full throttle. I woke up screaming almost every night, and I was lucky to have Lorena there to calm me down, but she couldn’t stop them. Roberto and Arnold still haunted my dreams, and then there was Alex. He hated me, and he blamed me for everything that happened. The boy that I thought of as a son...He hated me.
A few months went by, and children started going missing again. We knew that there was a pattern because a few of them were the children found on Roberto’s list. Stephanie still didn’t allow me to come back to work, and when I argued with her, she proved to me that I wasn’t ready yet.
Stephanie slid a picture of a dead child that was clearly beaten to death, and I vomited all over her floor. I had gained a fear of blood, and would immediately start panicking when I saw any. I had gotten so bad that I was put on birth control pills just to stop my periods from coming. There was no way that I could get back on the field right now, but when I was ready I would, and this time when I find Roberto, I’m going to kill him.
***
1 Year later
Terry
I laid back in my bunk bed while listening to a little music when I felt someone tap my foot. When I looked up, it was one of the female security guards trying to get my attention.
I sat up and pulled the earphones from my ears. “Yeah?”
“You have a visitor,” she said.
My eyebrows drew together in thought. I didn’t make any plans for someone to come visit. As a matter of fact, there was no one besides Ms. Rose that would ever come visit me, and she hasn’t been here in I don’t know how long.
I kicked my legs over the bed and stood to my feet. “Who is it?”
“Your lawyer, Mr. Roberts,” the security officer answered. She was a new officer here that seemed pretty nice. I could never seem to remember her name though.
“Did he say what he was here for?” I asked as I followed her out of the room.
“Just to talk to you. Who knows, you might get out before you’re eighteen.”
I smiled at the thought. Maybe I would. My counselor, along with the rest of the staff, had nothing but good things to say about me. Maybe all my good behavior paid off and I could get out a month early?
I walked into the visiting room with the security officer, and she pointed me to my lawyer. Only, he wasn’t my lawyer. He was just some young man with black hair and brown eyes in a nice navy-blue suit.
I walked up to the unfamiliar man with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and sat down at the table across from him.
“Hello, Terry,” the fake lawyer said.
“Hi, where’s Mr. Roberts?” I asked, hoping that this man was just filling in for him.
“Don’t worry about that right now. I just need to speak with you for a moment and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Okay. Well first, what’s your name?”
“You can call me Josh,” the man said.
“Okay, so what do you want?”
“You,” Josh smiled, showing his pearly whites. “I’m here to offer you your freedom.”
“How can you do that if you’re not my lawyer?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well,” Josh chuckled, “It’s not necessarily me that will get you out of here, it’s my boss. He heard about you and your fighting experience-”
“My what?” I stood from my chair.
“Walk away from me or not, my boss will have you. He doesn’t take no for an answer Terry. He heard about you, and he wants you.”
“That’s not possible, I’m too old.”
“Not anymore you’re not,” Josh chuckled.
“My answer is no. I’m not doing that.”
“It wasn’t really a question,” Josh stood from his chair. “I was going to make it sound like a great offer, but we both know that it’s not. I was just here to let you know.”
“Whatever,” I stormed away from him and went back to my bunk. I hurriedly popped my earphones back in and laid down. I didn’t want to think about fighting. I’ve been doing so well now, and there was no way that I was going to let him freak me out and send me back into my old ways.
I closed my eyes and listened to the music while thinking about my bright future, and eventually I just fell asleep.
***
I woke up from feeling someone tap my foot. When I looked up I saw that it was the new security guard from earlier, and she was at the end of my bunk.
“What is it?” I whispered. All the other girls were sleeping, and I didn’t want to be the asshole that woke everyone up.
“I need to speak with you for a moment,” the woman said. She waved for me to follow her and I did.
I followed her out of the room and down the now dim hallway. I had a bad feeling about this so I asked.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just need to talk to you in private,” she said.
“Oh, well Okay,” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. We were almost to the end of the hallway where one of the exit doors was, and was going to turn down another hallway when we stopped.
“Ma’am-”
The security guard turned around and shoved her Taser against my stomach. “Sorry Sweetie,” she said as I fell to the floor. She Tasered me again once I was down, then turned around and opened the door.
Standing outside was Josh, and behind him I could see the back of a van.
“Take her and go. I need to get the cameras back on soon,” the security guard said.
“My pleasure,” Josh said.
The last thing I saw was Josh, and the bottom of his shoe…
to be continued.
Caged 2 (Caged Series) Page 27