Heavy: A Contemporary Romance

by Mells, J. C.

  I held my breath, waiting for a shout that I’d been seen, but none came. Outside for the first time in over an hour, I noticed the wind had picked up a bit and being so near to the water, the temperature had dropped considerably. My body trembled just as much from the elements as it did from the overwhelming fear for Thaddeus’ safety.

  “Stay with the boy, Mary,” Josiah called out from the other side of the mobile home. “I’ll come get you both once I’ve checked on the boat Sam left for us.”

  Mary. That was the bitch’s name.

  I heard her mutter something in reply, and then I saw her come around and enter the caravan. Josiah came into view briefly as he took off down the marina.

  Over to the right, I could see a small office building. I crept my way over to it, keeping a close eye on the trailer as well as the docks. The door was locked. I quickly and quietly went around to the back of the building, terrified to temporarily not have eyes on either of the kidnappers. There was a small window, the frame so rusted and old, I could feel one of the panes was loose. I took off my ABAS T-shirt that I’d put on over my camisole, shivering when the wind blew across my now-exposed shoulders. I wrapped it around my hand and punched the square of glass until it fell out into the room. I held my breath again waiting for a crashing sound of it breaking, but miraculously, apart from the small pop of the glass separating from its frame, there was silence. The place must be carpeted.

  After throwing my T-shirt back on quickly for another layer of much-needed warmth, I slid my hand through the empty pane and unlocked the window.

  I nearly jumped out of my skin when a strong gust of wind blew over some empty paint cans. Once I’d regained control of my breathing and convinced myself neither Mary nor Josiah were about to come around the corner and find me, I timed my opening of the rusty, squeaky window to coincide with the clamoring of the cans.

  So far so good.

  I climbed in as quickly as I could, letting my eyes adjust to the heavier darkness of the interior of the room. It was a storage room filled with boxes and junk – nothing that could help me.

  The building itself was small and I hurriedly made my way to the front office, careful to stay away from the only window that had a view of the marina. I could see Josiah all the way at the end of the dock, readying a boat. I didn’t know much about boats beyond the couple of minor things Charlie had told me when we’d spent that day on the lake. From what I could see from the light given off from lampposts widely spaced along the dock, it was one of those fishing motorboats where the captain’s driving area was up high above the small cabin.

  The desk was covered in papers and the computer looked older than me, but after a quick rummage, I discovered a phone. A phone! Thank you, Jesus!

  I picked the receiver up gingerly, half-expecting there wouldn’t be a dial-tone. My heart leapt for joy when I heard the crackling buzz of a connection.

  I glanced out the window again and saw Josiah walking back toward the mobile home again.

  Shit!

  I had seconds to make a call…seconds! I needed to do it fast and be able to leave the absolute briefest of messages without having to go into extensive detail. But then my heart sank again as I realized, thanks to cell phones and the apps that came with them, if I wanted to call someone I usually just clicked on their picture. Who actually dialed numbers to call anyone these days? I couldn’t call the police, as not only would it take a few minutes to connect me to the right department, I could also already imagine how long it would take for ‘The Girl Who Cried Wolf’ to be believed when she called in a kidnapping. I didn’t know Thatch’s or the Solanos number. Hell, I didn’t even know my own father’s number, he changed it so often.

  But I did know Bernie’s… I thought. His had never changed over all these years. I must know it, right?

  With trembling fingers, sitting on the ground behind the desk, I pressed the numbers that I thought might be Bernie’s. By some utter fluke or pure dumb luck, the dial tone changed to a ring tone.

  And went straight to voicemail.

  Are you kidding me?

  Bernie always answered his damn phone!

  I could see Josiah and Mary leaving the trailer – Thaddeus slumped in Josiah’s arms.

  I didn’t have time to call anyone else!

  I left a message.

  “Bernie, it’s me. I’m at a marina and boat repair place on Lake Mead, I don’t know which one, but I think the guy who owns or runs it is called Sam. The kidnappers don’t know I’m here yet, and they’re about to get on a boat with Thaddeus. I’m going to try to follow or stop them. Call the police. Call Thatch. Call the fucking cavalry, Bernie!” I hung up and rushed to the front door, anxious to not let them leave with Thaddeus, but unsure what it was I could do to stop them.

  Keeping to the shadows, incredibly with my damn kitchen knife still in hand, I crept along the narrow dock, moving between storage boxes and staying out of the direct light of the lampposts.

  The wind was bitingly cold, but it also caused the water to bounce and knock the moored boats and, although we were the only people out here right now, there was a lot of noise happening.

  The crazy duo did not even look back once. They had no idea whatsoever of my presence. Fuck going to college, I obviously had the makings of a secret agent! Or so I thought, until I tripped over some rope moorings and fell flat on my face, narrowly missing stabbing myself in the eye with my knife. I stilled immediately, sure I was at last going to be discovered. I kept flat along the ground, shifting slightly so I was behind a storage container, and watched Josiah, who was much taller than his wife, turn slightly to look for the origins of the small noise.

  “It was just a rat, dear,” his wife said, evidently anxious to get going.

  He nodded at her and tightened his hold on the unconscious Thaddeus as they both stepped onto the boat.

  They carried Thaddeus below deck and Josiah immediately appeared again, heading up to the driver’s seat up top. This time, I was able to see clearly what he now carried in his hand. A gun. Just the sight of it knocked the air out of my lungs and paralyzed me with fear. The last time I’d seen a gun in person, it had been pressed to my head and had killed someone shortly afterwards. I struggled desperately to regain my composure. Josiah arrived at the controls and he started up the engine. The loud noise it made knocked me back to my senses immediately.

  I moved nearer and crouched down behind the storage box assigned to their boat. I was only five feet away, but not sure what I could do now that I was there.

  Mary came out carrying a life vest, which she threw up to Josiah. She had also put one on herself, too. How sweet, she was following safety precautions – at least where she and Josiah were concerned. Then, the evil bitch began to untie the moorings. She got the ones nearest to me first, and then made her way to the front of the boat to untie the remaining ones. With both their backs to me and the engine so loud, I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t hesitate.

  I quickly made my way up the ramp and stepped gingerly onto the boat, careful not to rock it in any way that would alert them to my arrival. I immediately ducked down next to the cabin, keeping an eye on where Mary was going to go next. She was either going to join Josiah up top, or head back in this direction.

  Please, please, please, let her join her husband up top.

  The boat began to slowly pull away from its berth and it looked like my lucky streak was about to run out.

  Mary was definitely heading back towards me.

  I quickly and carefully went down into the cabin and desperately looked around for a place to hide. Thaddeus was lying in the lower bunk, but I didn’t have time to check on him as I glanced around the tight space. There was nowhere except for the tiny bathroom, so that’s where I went, praying that Mary wasn’t intending to use the facilities. The boat began to pick up speed and I’d barely closed the bathroom door when I heard her enter the cabin proper.

  She hummed a tune as she pottered about. Yes, the delusion
al bitch was actually humming a fucking tune as she prepared to murder an innocent little boy. I felt the pinch of pain before I realized the knife had slipped a little in my hand and I was now gripping the handle and some of the blade so hard, blood was dripping onto the floor.

  I took a deep, quiet breath and forced my hand and body to relax. There was no way these people were going to harm Thaddeus. Not a chance in hell. Over my dead body. And any other damn cliché I couldn’t think of right at that moment.

  {33}

  Thatch

  It was well after two in the morning when the group of us that were packed into Tony and Zak’s living room noticed some sort of commotion happening outside. Detective Johnson was standing on the front lawn, talking on his phone and barking out orders to his men. Cop cars began to leave and it left no doubt in my mind that there had been some sort of vital update.

  Ignoring the calming hand my dad laid on my shoulder, I ran outside to find out what was going on.

  “We got a lead, Mr. Reston,” the detective said before I could even ask.

  “Do you know where they are?”

  “We believe they’re somewhere near or on Lake Mead. We’ve alerted the authorities in the vicinity, and I have units already on the way there.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir. The best thing you can do is stay here with your friends and family.”

  Fuck that.

  Before I could actually say the words out loud, a stretch limo pulled up to the front of the house.

  The door opened and Brock and Bernie stepped out.

  Behind me and through the still-open front door to the Solano’s house, I heard Zak say, “Honey, I think Brock Huntington is on our front lawn.”

  I vaguely remember my dad saying he’d contacted California’s family a few hours ago.

  “How are you holding up, Thatch?” Brock asked.

  Detective Johnson didn’t even blink at the fact he was now in the presence of a superstar. Good for him.

  “I’ve just been told there’s a lead,” I managed to say in a controlled voice. I was anything but calm on the inside.

  “Yep, I had a call from Cali on my voicemail from about forty-five minutes ago and I called it in as soon as I heard it,” Bernie said, looking between me and the detective. “I didn’t realize my phone was set to airplane mode until after we landed.”

  “If you will excuse me, gentlemen,” Johnson said. “I have to go. Thank you for forwarding the message to us, Mr. Solomon.”

  “Of course. God speed, detective,” Bernie replied as he shook hands with Detective Johnson.

  “But—” I said angrily, making a move in the direction of the detective.

  “Let him go do his job,” Brock said in a low voice, his hand gripping my bicep to prevent me from following.

  “I can’t sit around doing nothing, Brock,” I snapped. “If Thaddeus and California are at Lake Mead, then I want to get over there right now.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, son,” Brock smiled. “We don’t intend on sitting around at all. Bernie?”

  “Everything is confirmed. The helicopter is picking us up about five minutes from here. It was the closest area where they could land safely. You ready to go find our girl and your son, Thatch?”

  Fuck yes, I was.

  {34}

  Cali

  About fifteen minutes after she’d come into the cabin, Mary Jones headed back up to join her husband. I had no idea of how long she would be gone, or even how long it would take for us to get to wherever it was they were taking us. In other words, if I was going to act, I had to do it now.

  I stepped out of my hiding place and quickly checked on Thaddeus. Thankfully, he was not restrained, probably because there was nothing on the cabin bunk to restrain him to. The cuffs, and the keys to them, were on the bed next to him. Thaddeus’s breathing was shallow and for the first time I allowed myself to worry about the quantity of drugs the little boy had been given. Should he still be in such a deep sleep? The Jones’s were crackpots, not doctors. Had they overdosed him? Was I in danger of losing him before I could save him?

  Not an option. Right now, I was all Thaddeus had, and I was not going to let him down.

  I frantically searched the cabin for anything that might help us. There was nothing – no phone, no weapon, no flare gun. Not a damn thing.

  Then I noticed that the built-in bench behind the fixed table was also a storage box. Lifting the vinyl-covered lid, I finally found something that might prove to be the answer to all my problems.

  It was shaped like a bright yellow briefcase and had the words ‘inflatable life raft’ printed on the side. This was it. This could work.

  I hoped.

  I read the instructions on the side of the yellow canvas case the raft was folded up in, and quickly saw it was just a case of pulling a cord and the thing blew up in seconds.

  Perfect.

  Only… how big would it get and how much noise would it make when inflating? Would I be able to do it on a moving boat, right under the noses of the kidnappers, without them noticing? Then how to transfer an unconscious child and myself into it safely?

  I was in a state of panic and my mind addled with fear for Thaddeus, but I was also amazed at how I was able to slow all my frantic thought processes down so I could think of everything calmly and collectedly.

  The wind was cold; the water was going to be freezing. I also remembered a fair bit of what Charlie had told us the day we came out here. Choppy waves and strong undercurrents one minute and glass-like smooth the next.

  I took a couple of large black garbage bags out from under the sink. I stuffed two blankets and a couple of towels in one. I stripped Thaddeus down to his underwear and put his clothes and shoes in the bag too. I paused for a second to make sure I didn’t hear Scary Mary returning. I could barely hear the mumble of their voices over the loud sound of the engine, but what I could hear told me they were still up top. The fact I didn’t know for how long made me return to my task at full speed.

  There was one more life vest in the cabin, and I wanted to put it on Thaddeus, but it was just too big for his little body. I then stripped down to my underwear, put the life jacket on, and placed my clothes in the garbage bag with Thaddeus’s. Tying the end together, I stuffed the entire thing into the second bag for extra protection.

  Taking the handcuffs, I placed them around Thaddeus’s wrists.

  “Sorry, angel,” I whispered, “It has to be done.”

  Using the rope that had originally bound my wrists, I secured the compacted life raft to my waist and then hooked Thaddeus’s arms over my head and around my neck so he was hanging down my front. His head hung limply against my chest.

  A small child and a life raft attached to my body slowed me down much more than I ever expected. I still had the bag of clothes and blankets to add to that weight.

  I had created a handle at the tied top of the garbage bag, and slipped it over my arm so both hands were free.

  I was wearing nothing but underwear and a life vest, a small boy attached around my neck, a canvas bag tied to my waist, and a large garbage bag hooked over one arm. Yeah, definitely one of my more interesting looks. Was this off-the-rack enough for you, Tallulah?

  I cautiously stepped up the small staircase that led down into the cabin, and stuck my head out to look around. I felt Thaddeus stir against me.

  I ducked back inside and looked at him.

  “Thaddeus,” I whispered. “You awake, angel?”

  “Cali?” he mumbled in a thick voice.

  “We have to be very quiet, okay, angel? We can’t make a single sound, do you understand?”

  The boy nodded his head at me and tightened his grip around my neck slightly. He was still very weak and I was glad the handcuffs would hold him to me securely.

  “I’m going to put us in the water, Thad. It’s going to be very, very cold. But you still can’t make a sound, okay?”

&nb
sp; “Are we going to see Daddy again?”

  My heart flipped in my chest at his worried tone.

  “Of course we are, angel. If we’re very quiet, the bad people won’t hear us and we’ll be back with Daddy really, really soon.”

  “Okay, Cali,” Thaddeus replied sleepily, resting his head on my chest again.

  Taking a deep breath, I slipped up the stairs again.

  Mary was sitting with her back to us next to Josiah, who sat in the driver’s chair. They seemed very focused on the empty black ahead.

  The ladder on the side of the boat was towards the back on the right. If one of them even glanced to the side, there was a chance they would see me in their peripheral vision.

  I’d worry about that when and if it happened. No going back now.

  I moved excruciatingly slowly along the right side of the boat, careful to not make any sudden or heavy movements. The wind blew my hair into my face and caused the garbage bag to buck against my body, making a rustling noise that I didn’t think could be heard over the sounds of the motor and the waves.

  I looked out into the inky black of the night, unable to see the shoreline in any direction. I hesitated for a second as I considered whether I was putting us potentially in even greater danger. Then I thought about the intentions of Thaddeus’s kidnappers. I was going to take our chances against the elements than over them. I’d seen what a gun could do firsthand and I wasn’t going through that again. Not when Thaddeus was involved.

  I climbed over the side of the boat, turning on the ladder so I was facing the backs of the evil duo. I slowly lowered my cargo and myself down until I was up to my knees in the icy cold water, never taking my eyes off the Joneses.

  When Thaddeus’s feet touched the freezing water he opened his eyes in shock.

  “Take a deep breath, little man,” I whispered, using his father’s term of endearment for him. “We’re going in now and it’s going to be cold.”