Caged (Caged series Book 1)

by Destiny Hawkins

  “This will all be over soon,” I said. “And then I’ll have time to think about relationships, and being with you...” I took a deep breath and kissed her cold hand. “For some time now, I’ve been thinking about how I feel about you. I didn’t understand because I never felt this way before. I’ve never been in love before...” The pain in my chest came back, but it wasn’t from Arnold’s punches. The thought of losing Lorena was scared me.

  “Lorena I-”

  “Stop...” Lorena said. She held my hand back. “Stop talking like that.”

  The sound of her soft voice was relaxing, “Lorena, I-”

  “No, not now. You can’t tell me you love me cuz you think I’m gonna to die. Tell me after we get out of here,” she sounded positive.

  I smiled and kissed her hand again, “Okay.”

  The basement door creaked open and Miss Shy peeked down at us. The flashlight she held shined on Lorena, and I could see that her bandages were all bloody. We had to get her out of here, and fast.

  Miss Shy came down the stairs on light feet and got on her knees next to Lorena. “How do you feel?” She asked.

  “I could be better,” Lorena answered.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Roy?” I asked.

  “Something happened with his partner- I don’t have much time to explain, we have to get her out of here,” She helped Lorena sit up, and then we both helped her to her feet.

  “Wait. Is he still coming?” I asked.

  “Yeah, him and the whole crew, but we have to get you out of here before Arnold’s warned,” Miss Shy and I, slowly and quietly, got Lorena up the stairs. She put her finger to her lips for us to be quiet and led us to the backdoor. I was surprised at how easy it was for us to get through the house unseen, but then again, this was a big house, and it was very late. Everyone was probably upstairs asleep.

  When we got to the back door, Miss Shy pulled out a key and unlocked it.

  “What are you doing, Stephanie?” Arnold asked behind us.

  Miss Shy froze, then turned around to face Arnold. The gun he held by his side glistened from the moonlight.

  “Arnold,” She stepped in front of us while holding her gun that was tucked in her belt.

  “You’re not leaving with them,” Arnold said calmly.

  “Yes, I am. Let us go, Arnold,” Miss Shy said with a shaky voice. She didn’t seem as calm as she did earlier.

  Arnold laughed, “Why would I do that? I just got her back.”

  “Arnold, I’m taking them home. The cops are already on their way.”

  “She’s mine!” Arnold yelled.

  Arnold looked over at me, and for a second, I saw the man that I wish had changed. The man that I fought for because I wanted to make him proud. I wanted so badly for Arnold to change back then, but he didn’t, and at this point, he never will.

  “Arnold, just let us go. Please,” I said, “I can’t fight for you again. I can’t do anything for you.”

  Arnold frowned, “You’re my only child...” he pointed his gun at Miss Shy and she whipped hers out. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “Get out of here!” Miss Shy said. “Arnold, I will shoot you!”

  Me and Lorena slowly opened up the backdoor and were about to slip out when I heard gunshots coming from our right.

  “Go!” Miss Shy yelled.

  We tried to move as fast as we could with Lorena’s injuries. There was gunshots popping off inside the house behind us.

  “The woods,” Lorena said.

  I gripped her hand that was hanging over my shoulder, and pulled her into the dark woods. Once under the safety of the trees, I leaned Lorena against a tree to catch our breaths.

  My chest was hurting from the heaving, and Lorena couldn’t go any further without a break. Maybe if I were on my own, I would have gotten further, but I was trying to pull someone the same size as me that could barely walk.

  “What are we gonna do?” Lorena asked. “We have no keys to a car, and have no idea where we are.”

  I took a deep breath, “You’re going to stay here. I have to go back and look for some.”

  The gunshots stopped, and I ducked down. It was dark, and we were pretty far from the house, so I’m sure whoever stepped out couldn’t see me.

  “Don’t move,” I said to Lorena.

  “No problem,” She said still catching her breath.

  It was the driver that stumbled outside. He stood there for a moment, then fell to the ground.

  “Who was it?” Lorena asked.

  “The driver. He was shot,” I said, “I’m gonna go to the van and look for a spare set of keys.”

  Lorena nodded and crouched down. “You better be careful.”

  I nodded and ran off before I changed my mind. The woods stretched all the way to the van, so I knew that I would make it around unseen. It was the part where I had to come out of the woods that I was worried about. I could dodge a punch, but not a bullet.

  I ran through the trees as quickly as I could, with the thought that Lorena could die at any moment in mind. I had to make a move and get us out of here, because it didn’t look like Roy would be getting here any time soon. For all I knew, he could be dead.

  When I finally became parallel with the van I sprinted out of the trees and did my best to not be seen. There were no gunshots, but no one came out claiming victory, either. It was just quiet.

  I finally made it to the driver side of the van, and was about to get in when I was pulled back by my hair. As soon as I hit the ground, I got back to my feet and put my hands up to fight.

  “Oh? Now you want to fight back?” It was Arnold.

  Another gunshot went off in the house.

  “Looks like they’re still at it,” Arnold laughed and dropped his gun. “I ran out of bullets. Sis is tougher than I thought,” he started walking towards me. “Problem is, she won’t be living that long with the bullet I put in her belly.”

  I looked to the van. My mind was still on finding the keys and getting away from here.

  “You’re not going back, Rose,” He pointed at the house. “This is your new home now!”

  Arnold looked like a wounded puppy, and I actually felt bad for him. He was going to try and take everything from me, so that I had nothing left but him, because he had nothing left but me.

  “You’re so pathetic,” I said. “All these years, and all you wanted to do was take me back? I would kill myself before having to live with you again!”

  Angrily, Arnold came at me, but I dodged all of his punches. As I was moving around to stay out of his reach, I looked around for any sort of weapon. I hoped that maybe there was some metal pole lying around, but there was nothing. Nothing but his gun.

  Arnold swung again and I quickly ducked then reached for the pistol, but all I ended up getting was a hard kick to my ribs. My body slammed against the van and I almost fell to my knees, but I caught myself.

  Arnold grabbed me by my arms and slammed me back against the van, and right before he punched me, I head budded him in the nose and kneed him between the legs. I took the hit and was about to fall again, but I didn’t. Instead I turned around and punched Arnold as hard as I could in his face.

  I felt the bones in my hand shift and I knew it was broken, but I didn’t care. I thought about going for the gun again, but it was too late. There was no point in gun whipping him when I could just do that with my unbroken hand.

  “You’re not leaving again,” Arnold said with a raspy voice. My punch must have really hurt.

  “Yes, I am,” I said. He must have punched all of the fear out of me earlier, because I was starting to feel more like myself.

  Arnold was about to come at me again, but I kicked him on the side of his knee and he yelled out in pain while holding his leg. After he fell to his knees, I saw this as the perfect chance to go crazy with punches, but as soon as I got close enough he swung the gun at me and it landed right on my temple.

  I dropped to the ground, and was starting to
black out again. That blow to the head really dazed me. When I looked up I saw Arnold standing over me, and then felt him choking me.

  It was hard to fight back with my lights going on and off. I did the best that I could to get his hands from around my neck, but he was too strong, and I could barely get a grip with my broken hand.

  “You will stay here,” Arnold said. “You’ll train my new girls, and you will obey me.”

  His grip got tighter and the light was starting to go out. Everything around me became blurry and even sound was fading...

  I heard someone yelling, but it was muffled by my oncoming death.

  Pop! Pop!

  Arnold first got shot in his chest, then his shoulder and he let me go. I looked up at him one last time, and saw the same pathetic narcissistic man that I wished would have changed, then the sound rushed back in and Arnold fell to his side.

  “Rose!” Miss Shy ran over to me. “Rose, are you okay?!”

  I coughed and rubbed my neck until my breath came back, and then I stood up, still dazed.

  “Lorena,” I completely ignored Miss Shy, and headed back in Lorena’s direction, but I didn’t make it to her. The world around me went completely black, and I crashed to the ground.

  * * *

  “How is she?” Roy asked.

  “Fine. She’s okay,” Miss Shy answered.

  “And Lorena?”

  I blacked out again.

  “What did the doctor say?” Cameron asked.

  “She’ll be fine,” Roy answered, “just a concussion.”

  Cameron sighed, “Must’ve gotten hit hard.” I could feel Cameron touch my hand and balled my fist. I didn’t want anyone touching me but Lorena. Where was Lorena?

  “Rose, you awake?” Cameron asked.

  I tried to open my eyes, but as soon as a crack of light got in, I passed back out.

  “Where did the detective go?” Abigale asked.

  “To the bathroom,” Cameron answered. “He wants to be here when she wakes up.”

  “Ohh....”

  I cracked open my eyes to see that it was finally day time. Abigale was asleep in the chair next to my bed, and Roy was on the other side, also asleep.

  “Good morning,” an older woman with bright blue eyes said. She was standing next to me with a smile on her face. “Glad to see that you’re finally awake.”

  I frowned in confusion, “Who...” I couldn’t get the rest out.

  “Oh, don’t do too much speaking right now,” The woman said as she sat down on my bed. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Rose.”

  I had no idea who this woman was, but she wanted to meet me? What was going on?

  “Lorena had told me so much about you. Back when you were kids...I wasn’t sure if you were real, but you were.” She smiled. “It’s so amazing that your here. You were the only person my baby could remember when she got back.”

  Now I understood. This woman is Lorena’s grandmother. She must have been called last night to be here so early in the morning.

  “You really are as pretty as she described. I mean, look at those eyes of yours, and that curly hair. You’re exactly the same as she said all those years ago.”

  I smiled up at the woman, and she smiled back.

  “My granddaughter would never stop talking about you. Ever. She knew for sure that you were real and not some false memory,” She rested her hand on mine. “And sure enough, you’re real,” She sniffled. “Here you are.”

  I held her hand back with tears in my eyes. It was over. Everything was over, and I was finally free now. All I’m doing now is talking about memories...

  “Well, let me go. Lorena should be waking up soon,” The woman said sniffling again. She got up from the bed and left the room.

  When I looked around, I saw that Abigale and Roy still hadn’t woken up yet. I wanted to get up and follow the woman to Lorena’s room, but then Cameron came rolling in on a hospital wheel chair.

  “Rose,” He said calmly, but with excitement, “you’re awake.”

  “Yeah,” I said smiling back.

  “How do you feel?” he stopped on the side of me.

  “I feel fine, you?”

  “Better,” he answered.

  We both just looked at each other. There wasn’t much he could say, and after my talk with his mom, I felt a little awkward around him.

  “So, Lorena’s okay,” Cameron said. “Doctors said that they got her in right in time and were able to stop the bleeding.”

  “She saved us,” I said, thinking about Miss Shy. “Is she okay?”

  “Who?”

  “Miss Shy is just fine,” Roy said with a grungy voice. “The bullet only scrapped through some skin. She’s a tough woman, she’s fine.”

  I sighed with relief. Everyone was okay, “And my aunt?”

  “On her way back now,” Roy said.

  I smiled, and then started to laugh. Cameron awkwardly started laughing with me.

  “What’s funny?” Abigale yawned.

  I laughed even harder and felt a sharp pain in my chest. It was okay though, because I would heal and move on. I was finally going to move on and live the life I always wanted to live.

  “Rose?” Cameron stopped laughing when he saw tears streaming down my face,

  “I’m so confused,” Abigale said.

  Roy just shook his head. I was crying and laughing at the same time, then he held his head in his hands and started to laugh with me. We were cracking up in that hospital room, and the other two had no idea what was going on.

  Chapter 40

  Hours passed and everyone started leaving. It’s not like it was going to be the last time that they saw me again, and it’s not like I was in any kind of danger, so they left knowing that they would see me again.

  Roy was the last person left watching TV with me. We were having a hard time finding a channel that wasn’t giving the latest news on Arnold Kiboski’s death. Neither I nor Lorena’s name was mentioned, but they did say that there were two teenage females involved, and I was okay with that. As long as no one knew it was us.

  I sighed and dropped the remote on the bed, with no luck of finding a good channel. “So, since we can’t escape it, what happened?” I asked Roy.

  Roy sighed and rubbed his fingers through his hair, “Carter.”

  “What about him?”

  “He was working with Arnold,” he slouched back in his chair and shook his head. “The bastard was working with the enemy. I couldn’t believe it. When I got the call from Stephanie, I told Carter and he pulled his gun out on me. We tussled a little, and I got the gun from him. He’s been locked up since last night. I guess they’re thinking about giving him some sort of deal, that if he names more men that were working for Arnold, he’d get less time in jail.”

  “What’s he looking at?” I asked.

  “Forty years,” Roy laughed. “Bastard should’ve stuck with the winning team.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  There was a knock on the door, and Miss Shy walked in.

  “Miss Shy,” I said excitedly. I was glad to see that she was okay.

  “Hey, I just left Lorena’s room. She’s as lively as you are...surprisingly,” Miss Shy sat down in the chair opposite of Roy.

  “So, you here to explain yourself?” Roy put his hands behind his head.

  “What?” I turned to Roy. “You didn’t know she was a cop either?”

  “Nope,” Roy answered.

  I turned back to Miss Shy, waiting for an explanation. It took at least an hour for her to explain everything, starting back to her and Arnold’s relation.

  Miss Shy’s father left her and her mother before she could remember, and she didn’t find out who he was until after he died and left her a portion of his money in his will. She met Arnold when she was fifteen, at her father’s funeral, and they became close. Arnold was very protective over Miss Shy, and loved her like any older brother would, but then he turned out to be overly protective. Miss Shy event
ually pulled away from Arnold and began living her own life. They completely stopped talking when Arnold took over the family business, and began buying and selling children for fights, mostly because he didn’t want her involved.

  After Miss Shy got her Ph.D. in psychology, she went ahead and joined the police force, where she made her way up to a detective. She didn’t go undercover until they found out that Arnold had a replacement in jail, and was out free somewhere. Once she heard about me, she got a job at the high school, because she knew that I would be his target. She knew that after all the commotion in Cali that he was going to follow me here.

  Since then, Miss Shy been working with me while trying to get in contact with him, and when he heard that she was in town, he ended up calling her. She then had been working to gain his trust by giving him little information on me. He finally asked her to work with him, and that’s how she got his location.

  After Miss Shy finished her story, she had to go back to the station. Roy went with her, but not without kissing my forehead and saying goodbye.

  My aunt came in a little while after they left, and I was just about tired of people coming to visit by now. Still, I was happy to see my aunt.

  “How are you, baby?” She gave me a tight hug.

  “I’m fine, lungs are fine, brain is fine, heart is fine, and spine is fine. Everything’s fine,” I said.

  “And I am so glad to hear that from you,” She sat down on the bed. “Now we can finally have the life we wanted, huh?”

  “Yeah, we can,” I smiled.

  * * *

  The next morning, I could finally walk without feeling drunk, and went straight to Lorena’s room. I couldn’t wait to see her.

  I peeked through the window and saw her laying peacefully in her bed. The bright sun shined through the windows making her glow.

  When I opened the door, Lorena opened her eyes and watched me walk inside.

  “Hey,” I said sitting down on the bed.

  “Good morning,” She said, smiling. “I was wondering when you would come visit me.”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t really walk yesterday.”

  “You kind of look like you’re still struggling.”