Our Sins

by Kimberly Blalock

  I slide the key into the door noting that Brent isn’t at his post in front of it to greet me. The door clicks and opens and I inside. “Hello?” I growl. That dude is so fucking fired if he walked off. Fucking bullshit. “Brent? Abby?” If they’d gone somewhere, he would’ve let me know. I’ve only recently slowed down on calling them. I felt confident that it was a lot safer with Monica out of the picture.

  Grabbing my phone from my pocket I dial hers. “Hi this is Abby, you know what to do.” Her voicemail answers on the first ring.

  “Abby, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this.” Normal people wouldn’t have a fucking nervous breakdown because their wife wasn’t home when they got there, but our lives aren’t like most. Our lives are fucked up and deranged, and keeping her safe from the monsters is the only thing I care about.

  I dial the next person after having called Brent’s phone with the same response. “Natalia,” she answers.

  “Get to the hotel. Something’s wrong.” I grip my hair pacing the large suite.

  “What’s wrong?” She knows by the sound of my voice I have a horrible feeling.

  “Abby’s gone, Brent’s gone, and their phones are going to voicemail,” I growl not having the time to go over these details right now.

  “On my way, give me twenty, I’ll take the bike.” She disconnects the call leaving me to call Michael.

  “What’s up, Bro?”

  “Get to the hotel, Abby’s gone and I don’t know where she is.”

  “I’m assuming that you’ve called her?” he asks knowing I jump to conclusions.

  “Yeah, and Brent’s gone too.”

  “On my way.” He is a true brother, always there when needed. Always willing to take time from anything he’s got going on to help me out. That’s what family does for each other. I’ve come to learn in my life that family isn’t always blood.

  “Okay see you in a few.” I end the call. I head in the direction of the bedroom looking for any signs that’ll help me. The bed isn’t made. That’s not like her at all. She always has the bed made. I toss through the sheets looking for anything but see nothing useful. “Fuck!” I slam my hands on the bed. I’ve got really bad people that would love nothing better than to hurt me. They want to hurt me the way I’ve hurt them.

  I pace in the hotel room while I wait for Michael and Nat to get here. When I hear pounding on the door I know they’ve arrived.

  “I spoke with the people downstairs, and they saw her leave an hour ago. One of the girl’s at the front desk said she was staring while she was walking with some man.”

  “Brent?”

  She nods her head. “No, I showed them his picture, but they said that the man Abby was with was someone else.

  “Video cameras?” Michael chimes in.

  She nods again. “I asked, but they said we’d have to have a warrant to see them. Hotel policy.” She shrugs.

  “We need that video, Nat.”

  She shakes her head, “Again, Evan, they said we have to get a warrant. Hotel policy.”

  “Dude, let’s just call one of our boys for a warrant. Call her in as a missing person.” This would make sense to all normal people in the world, but again we’re not normal and if someone did take her, I’ll kill them, and I’d prefer that isn’t traceable.

  “No.” I grip my hair as Nat begins walking around probably looking for clues. We need evidence, anything that will help us find them.

  “What do you want to do?” Michael pats me on the shoulder.

  “There’s only one thing I can do.”

  “Guys, get in here!” Nat yells. We jump from the couch and run into the bedroom, and what I see makes me cringe. Every fear I’ve ever had comes to life. “This is hers,” Nat speaks while holding a large chunk of hair held together with skin, her scalp. My body collapses to the floor.

  “Is this hers?” Michael’s holding her pink gown she’d been wearing when I left this morning. I nod. He unfolds it revealing bloody hand prints covering the material.

  “What the fuck happened to her?” I cry. I’m a man that has Nano qualms about crying for his girl.

  “We know that she left with a man. We need the video, DNA, and we could probably get some finger prints,” Nat responds.

  “He probably did a good wipe down, Nat,” Michael disagrees.

  “The gown, where was it?” Nat asks.

  “In the bathroom drawer.” He had begun looking around after Natalia found tangles hair.

  I cringe.

  “She put it there, she’s a smart girl, E. She’d know to do that.” Nat’s voice offers reassurance. I know I need help. The help I need though is from someone I never thought I’d have to ask.

  I dial Thomas Carter knowing this is going to come with a price. A hefty fucking price. “Thomas,” he answers

  “I need your help.” I wince, leaving any and all pride at the back of my mind. I run through what’s happened and ask that he get us the warrant we need for the security footage, and to my surprise he doesn’t disappoint.

  “Anything you need, we’ll get them home safe, Evan.” He’s been trying so hard to get into my life, knowing he’s going to be a grandfather has sent him into parental overdrive. I just hope Abby doesn’t hate me for the help I’ve asked him for. I’d sell my soul to keep her safe. I won’t apologize for that. Thomas has the warrant delivered by LAPD. Getting us into the security office of the hotel.

  “This is for the last twenty four hours,” the attendant says.” He clicks the computer mouse. I’m very angry at myself that I’m in a position that’s required Thomas’ help. I’m just glad we have the video now.

  “There!” I point to the screen seeing Abby on the video.” She’s not looking at the attendant at all. “She’s looking at the camera. She’s trying to tell us.” I can’t see the man’s face, his back is to us walking half sideways as he tries to shield her from the camera. But my angel knows what to do. “Your right, she was trying to tell us. Can you run DNA on this? Prints, anything?” I ask handing him the gown we’d put into a bag.

  “I’ll see what we can do.” The officer that’s no doubt doing my father a highly paid favor agrees.

  “We’ll find her.” Nat squeezes my shoulder offering support the best way she can. Nat didn’t grow up with a family like Abby’s. She grew up in the slums of Brazil. She ran away as a young girl from a stepfather that abused her every fucking day. When she left she had to do things to survive and that’s how she met Marco. So any emotion Nat can offer warms my heart because I know she’s feeling human emotion more and more every day she’s here with us in our family. “She’s my sister, E. I’ve never known anyone as forgiving and loving as her.” Her dark brown eyes falter for a second leaving a tear pull to the corner of her eye, but I don’t acknowledge it.

  “Mr. Carter?” The detective wearing a polo and jeans asks in his southern accent. It’s so obvious this guy isn’t from L.A.

  “Young,” I answer.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “My name is Evan Young.”

  “My apologies, your father, I just assumed. I’ll need to get inside the hotel room, do a sweep for anything that we can find.”

  “Yeah --” I nod. “Of course.” I agree, turning the knob to the hotel security office. “Nat, Michael, I’m going upstairs.” We leave the room and walk towards the elevator. They stay back looking through the video just in case there’s something else we didn’t catch.

  I run through her description repeating twenty times that she’s carrying our babies on our walk to the elevators. The detective writes every word down on a notepad.

  “Is there anyone that would want to hurt Miss Hayes?”

  “Her name is Mrs. Young. Abigail Marie Young,” I growl protectively.

  “Sorry, yeah.” He shakes his head. “Anyone at all?” he continues.

  Fuck yeah, there are a ton of mother fuckers that want to hurt Abby, but not because she’s their target. I’m their target. I’m a fucking trained
killer. Let’s face it, I’m not the perfect dude. I’ve hurt a lot of people, people that had loved ones and families that will kill me in revenge. I know that every single day I’m alive is just another day I live in torture of what I’ve done. Not to mention the shit that’s happened during my time in the ATF. I’ve pissed a lot of people off. It could be anyone.

  “I have no idea who would want to hurt her.” I’m speaking the truth. It could be anyone.

  He nods looking at the notepad he’s holding. “Any enemies? Old boyfriends? Lovers, anything?” Marco was the only man that I know of that was dead set on hurting her. But he’s the one that’s dead.

  “No.” I shake my head bringing my hands through my hair. “She’s five months pregnant with our twin girls. If anything happens to them.” I repeat once again. My teeth grind trying to hold back the anger.

  “If he took her out of the hotel alive the likely hood that he actually wants to hurt her is slim. I’d imagine that he would’ve done that here. He nods his head motioning above us in the elevator.

  “You think he’s holding her hostage for something?”

  “I don’t know what it is at all, but it’s likely he’ll make contact. I see this more often than not. Although,” he pauses.

  “What?”

  “It’s usually an ex-boyfriend or someone that’s become obsessed with the woman.”

  “Abby, is definitely easy to obsess over. But I don’t know anyone that’s been doing that.” I say gripping my forehead.

  “No, it’s usually someone that makes their presence known. They may become aggressive when they aren’t being acknowledged or the female isn’t giving into their request. Could there be someone that you don’t know about?”

  “Are you asking if she’s cheating on me?” Abigale Young is my wife, the love of my life, and I know she’s not like that. She’d never touch another man. I’d never touch another woman either. We belong to each other.

  “It happens, just checking all bases, that’s all,” he rebuttals when I sneer in his direction for thinking this could be something she’d caused.

  When we reach the hotel suite, I open the door stepping back leaving Detective Alverez to enter. He pulls the bag from his shoulder placing it on the floor careful not to disturb anything. “I’ll start with finger prints, but I’ll need anyone’s prints that’ve been in here recently.” He pulls the equipment from his bag. I pull my phone from my pocket texting Michael and Nat, letting them know I need them up here to give a sample.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asks tugging at the pockets of my jeans.

  “No.” He shakes his head.

  I leave him to do his job and walk towards the picture of our wedding on the table behind the couch in the suite. Picking it up, I trace my finger along the outline of her face. That dress was amazing on her, well it was way more amazing once I’d finally gotten her out of it. She was every bit a princess that day. Everyday.

  He walks along the perimeter dusting the obvious places someone would touch first. Light switches, door handles. “The front door,” I touched it several times. Fuck.

  “Honestly, he probably wiped that. Usually when we find something, it’s going to be from something that’s been nonchalantly touched. The flick of a switch. Something in passing. The door is the last place he’s coming into contact with so he probably wiped it. But a door or switch that he was passing he’d have most likely forgotten about that.

  “Yeah, that makes sense.” I agree nodding my head, feeling the most helpless I’ve ever felt. I’m standing here with nothing to do that can help her and it kills me.

  Who has you, angel?

  “Detective Alverez,” he says answering his phone.

  I nod, collapsing on the sofa burying my head in my hands. This isn’t real. Seems like something always happens keeping us from being together. If she dies I’m going to kill everyone, anyone that could’ve taken her. I’ll kill them all leaving no question to who took her because anyone that could’ve will be dead, then I will take my own life. I’ll risk everything for her.

  Michael and Nat enter the room with the detective having let them in a few minutes ago. “Hey, she’s a smart girl, bro. She’s gonna be okay. She’ll be alright.” I’m so glad they’re here. They’re all I have aside from the family Abby and I’ve created.

  “Don’t promise something you can’t deliver,” Nat whispers. I know she doesn’t know I heard that, but I did.

  I’m not glancing at them but can imagine the looks on their faces. “She has to be okay, they have to come back to me.” I’m not sure the words even leave my lips.

  “Here, drink.” Michael hands me a bottle of cold water.

  “What’s this? Familiar?” Detective Alverez ask, reaching out to an envelope with the letters HO traced on it with something red. “Do you know what this could be?” Since Michael and Nat came back up, a few other Detectives have joined us. They’ve set up equipment, and now I regret calling my father. I should’ve just called the police because that’s what’s happened anyway. Now the suite is crawling with LAPD.

  “Looks like a clue.” Nat jumps from her place against the couch. “She’s leaving us clues!” she gasps holding her mouth.

  “We know she’s alive.” Detective Alverez says speaking to another detective.

  “Code message,” Michael chimes in. “When you called from Brazil she was there when we talked about it. She’s sending you messages. She listened and learned, E. She’s going to be okay, besides she’s Nat’s mini me, she’s bound to be creative.”

  What he’s saying is the truth. She’s a fighter, no one else could have gotten through the shit that’s happened to her and come out as amazing as ever. No one but her. She’s one of a kind. A miracle, no one can fuck that up.

  “Yeah, she’ll do whatever it takes to protect our babies.” My head raises finally having a trace of hope. I need to be strong for them no matter what. I need to save them from this. “We just need to know who the fuck has her and then we take them the fuck out.”

  Nat’s face shoots towards the two Detectives that’re in conversation to see if they’d heard me. They’re busy checking the fingerprint data base.

  “Got it,” Detective Alverez says as he writes something down and then looking up to me asks, “Hollister Carlson? Sound familiar?”

  The three of us look to each other. “As in Dr. Hollister Carlson?” I ask. “That sick mother fucker.” I pound my fist against the wooden armoire grinding my teeth together. “Yes, we know him.” I glance to Nat seeing her away with her phone in hand. I’m sure she’s making a few necessary calls. “Are you sure?” I ask, pissed that I hadn’t consider it could be him.

  How could I not think of that? I knew that dude was fucked in his head. All the times I’d caught him watching her. The way his eyes devoured her. I wanted to bash his head in, but out of respect for her parents I’d refrained. It wasn’t easy, don’t get me wrong. It was actually painful knowing that some man with a sick agenda watched her like prey. I should’ve known. But he always had some unsuspecting female with him. Never alone except in the hospital. I did think it was odd that they’d always flirt with me. Maybe that was his plan. Occupy me and take her. They were always irrelevant. I only ever see Abby.

  I’ll never fully be able to express the love I have for her. I wish everyone could feel this kind of love. I was never prepared for her. I’ve never known anyone like her before. I walked through that door of her small apartment knowing I wanted to know everything about her. I knew I wanted everything with her, but that night it became so much more for me. I surrendered who I was. No more of the dumb bullshit that was once a part of my life since I could remember. I was only living for her from then on out.

  “We’ll find your wife and babies safe.” Detective Alverez offers.

  My head shifts to my right where he’s just sat on the sofa next to me, then helplessly falls into my hands as I speak. “I’ve seen so many things in my shitty life. I’ve caused s
o much pain. But I’ve never felt fear like I do in this moment.” Tears fall at their own will. “I’ve never been afraid like I am now, and I’ve almost lost her so many times, but this... I was there, someone was always with her.” I shake my head. “No one’s there with her now. She’s alone and scared and I can’t do anything to save her or bring her comfort.”

  I feel a soft touch on my right shoulder and a harder one on my left. I know its Nat and Michael. I know that they’re trying to tell me they have my back. I know they’re sad too. I also know that I have to tell her mom and dad. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to see the look on their faces when they realize I’ve failed their daughter, my wife, and our baby girls. I am a failure though and I know this. “What do we do now?” I lift my head knowing I can’t sit here while she’s out there somewhere. The sun is going to be falling soon and she’ll be alone or with him, and I can’t imagine what she’s going through.

  “Now we find her,” Nat speaks these words like she thinks it’s another job she’ll take care of like she always does. Nat can handle some shit and she always gets her man. She’s been taken, she’s been through shit that no one could ever dream of imagining. She knows what Abby is feeling. Alone, lost, scared. “We’ll find her because it’s all we can do, E. We’ll find her because she’s a part of this family and it doesn’t work without her. It doesn’t work, Evan.” I wasn’t prepared for Natalia to break down. She’s strong, but Abby has warmed her way inside Nat’s heart. That’s what she does. She gets inside the places that are dark bringing the brightest light. She’s my angel and now you know why. She saved me from a hell I’d created. I grew up thinking that I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t believe I deserved any better than what I had. A dead mother, a father that hated me, and a life destined to be alone and unloved.

  She loves me. She gave her heart to me, and she forgave me. I lied to her and she still forgave me. The lies I told I wouldn’t have forgiven, but she did. Her smile, her soft skin. The way her hair turns three different colors in the sunlight. She’s beautiful inside and out. Again, nothing prepared me for her. Now you know why she’ll always be my angel.