The Family's Secrets

by T N Lowe

“Erin, it’s Patrick Love.”

  “Hey, Patrick. How’s it going?”

  “Not good, I need you to come to D.C. Now,” I order, hearing the panic in my own voice.

  “Patrick, what’s wrong? Did something happen to my mom?”

  “No. Your mother is fine. But they took them.”

  “Who? Who was taken?”

  “Rylie and Shauna, I need your help to get them back. One of the men has a cartel tattoo; I should know which one by the time you get here. I’m sending my plane to pick you up in Loveland; it will be there in four hours.”

  “Shit, I’m going to call Fi-Fi and tell her to catch the first flight to D.C; we’re going to need her help too.”

  “Okay, please hurry,” I plead.

  “I’m coming,” Erin says, ending the call.

  I walk back into the kitchen and kiss Lena, “Until we know more, I would like you and Andrew to stay with your dad for a couple of days.” Samuel, Lena’s father, is also the President of the United States. He has Family security as well as Secret Service watching him at all times.

  Lena stills, “Are we in danger?”

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t want to take any chances with your or his safety.”

  “If it will make you feel better, Andrew and I will stay with Dad for a while. But before I do, I need to tell you something.” Lena sits down and takes my hand. “The doctor ran some tests trying to figure out why I’ve been sick. All but one came back normal.”

  Thoughts come crashing into my head; Shit, its cancer. Her mom had cancer and lost her battle. Fuck, I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her. Lena and Andrew are my whole life; as long as they are by my side, I can take anything on. Without Lena, I will be a shell of the man I am now.

  “Whatever it is, we can get through it.”

  Lena takes a deep breath, “I’m pregnant.”

  “Princess, you gave me a heart attack! I thought you had cancer, like your mom.”

  “Oh my God! I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I am so sorry; are you mad?”

  “No princess, it’s great!” I say, standing and pulling her into my arms and kissing her, breathless. “But now I need you to stay with your Dad till I know what’s going on.”

  “Okay, I’ll pack our bags.”

  Chapter Three - Erin

  Patrick ends the call and I yell, “Landon!”

  “Yeah sweetheart,” Landon calls back from the living room where he’s playing trucks with Jackson, our two-year-old son.

  Watching Landon play with our son and call me sweetheart reminds me of how far we have come. When I first met Landon, he was an arrogant ass and not happy with having to play host to a city girl. He had helped me move into my house here in Moose Valley and had taken me out on our first date in payment for his muscle. We both tried to fight our attraction, but in the end, Landon wore me down. From that day on Landon has been at my side. Even when the D.C. Carver tried to frame me for murder.

  “Pack a bag. We’re going to Washington.”

  Landon's eyebrows shoot to his hairline, “What’s going on?”

  “Someone has kidnapped Rylie and Shauna. Patrick is asking for my help.”

  “Okay,” Landon says, picking up Jackson and kissing me before going into the bedroom to pack.

  I dial Fi-Fi (her real name is Ophelia Murphy but she’ll always be Fi-Fi to me) who is my best friend, sister-in-law, and former FBI partner. A year before I married Landon, Fi-Fi married my brother Cain and now they live in California with their three children. Fi-Fi stills works for the FBI and my brother is a computer programmer for a gaming company there.

  “Hey, Erin. What’s up?”

  “I need you and Cain to pack and catch the first flight to D.C.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Someone has kidnapped Rylie and Shauna. Possibly the cartel, so Patrick needs our help,” I explain.

  “Cain is booking our flight now. I’ll text you the details.”

  “Good. I’m going to text Mom and tell her to expect us.”

  “I’ll let Cain know. See you in a few hours,” Fi-Fi says, ending the call.

  “Is everything okay?” Landon asks as I join him in our bedroom.

  “It will be. Fi-Fi and Cain will meet us in D.C. Were you able to get Jackson’s stuff packed?”

  “Yep. He’s packed and ready to go. I also called Edwin and he’s going to look after the store and since Roy is bored with retirement, he will fill in as Police Chief while we are away. I explained we had to fly to D.C. for a family emergency.”

  I walk into Landon’s open arms and bury my face in his chest, “Thank you. Thank you for being the perfect husband and partner.”

  “Anytime sweetheart. You know that,” Landon says, kissing the top of my head. “We’ll need to leave soon to catch our flight.”

  Chapter Four - Rylie

  I wake with my head pounding and a metallic taste in my mouth. The memory of the men tossing Shauna and me into a van floods my mind and fear races through my veins. Opening my eyes slowly, I take a quick assessment – I don’t feel any pain or bruising including between my legs, and I breathe a small sigh of relief, thanking God they didn’t rape or maim me. I raise my head and begin to take stock of the room I’m in.

  The air is warm and humid with a sweet scent reminding me of somewhere tropical, South America maybe. Sitting up slowly, I take in the lumpy twin bed I’m lying on, with its squeaky, white wrought iron frame and cheap rough purple sheets. To my left, there is a bedside table with a glass of water on it, stupidly, and without a second thought, I down the water, then set the glass back on the table. Looking around the room I take in the cement wall painted robin egg blue, and the cathedral nine-foot high ceiling. Looking up the wall to my right I see a window, about a foot long by five inches wide, where the ceiling and wall meet. Even if I were able to get to the window, there is no way I would be able to squeeze ample boobage and backside through it. Shanna has a slighter frame than I do, but even her smaller boobs and backside would have issues slipping through that window. Sighing I look around the rest of the room, on the wall opposite of the bed is a large black lacquer chest of drawers and in the corner is a closed door.

  To my right, Shauna is sleeping in a bed identical to mine and another closed door, “Shauna wake up,” I whisper loudly. I try standing to walk to her but my ankle catches on something.

  “What the fuck,” I look down to find a metal shackle wrapped around my right ankle and bolted to the floor.

  “Shauna, wake up now,” I scream, becoming more scared of what these monsters might to do to us. The movie “Taken” plays in my mind; the possibility of being sold to some old man who will beat and rape me daily fills my mind.

  “What?” Shauna moans.

  “Shauna wake up. We need to get out of here before they come back.”

  Shauna shoots up in bed, taking in our surroundings. She too finds the water on her nightstand, downing the glass, before sitting on the edge of the bed. “Where the hell are we?” she asks, confusion and concern clouding both of our faces.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I don’t have a good feeling, Rylie,” Shauna sniffs, as tears form in her green eyes.

  “I don’t either, but we will get through this. Maks knows something happened. He will call Patrick, and they will stop at nothing to get us back.”

  “Who took us and why?”

  “My guess….someone Maks or Patrick pissed off.”

  “That’s a long list of people,” Shauna cries, looking at the cuff on her ankle as tears slowly run down her cheeks. “Is there anything in here we can use to pick the locks?”

  “I haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “Let’s try to find something to pick the locks or use a weapon,” Shauna says, taking a deep breath as she opens the drawer in the bedside table.

  It takes us less than five minutes to discover that the room is barren. Other than us, there are only the two beds, two side tables, the pla
stic cups the water was in, and the chest of drawers that sits across the room, where we can’t get to it. There is nothing in the room we can use as a weapon. Since we are chained to the beds, we can’t even get enough force to break the tables and make any weapons.

  “This is hopeless,” I sob, falling back on to the bed; now my turn to feel overwhelmed by our situation.

  “We stay together, no matter what,” Shauna admonishes. “And we wait for an opening to get free. If one doesn’t present itself, we wait for Maks and Patrick,” Shauna says, flopping back on the bed, ready to wait for their chance.

  Shauna and I both bolt upright as one of the men who swiped us from the sidewalk walks into the room holding two trays of food. He’s not bad looking; at five foot ten, on the heavy side of two hundred pounds, a black goatee that looks as if he should have trimmed it three weeks ago, and a large M with devil horns tattooed on the side of his neck.

  “Where are we?” Shauna demands.

  The man ignores her question as he sets the trays on the floor at the foot of our beds and then leaves.

  I stand, the chain making a loud clunk as it hits the floor. Bending, I pick up the tray, eyeing the chicken nuggets and French fries, I ask Shauna, “Should we trust it?”

  Shauna shrugs, “We drank the water and nothing happened. I’m sure if they wanted to kill us, they would have done it in D.C. Not cart us to wherever we are to poison us.”

  “True enough,” I reply, setting my tray on my bed, then picking up Shauna’s tray and handing it to her.

  We sit in our beds, our legs extended, and eat our dinners of cheap, gross chicken nuggets and French fries. We talk as if we were at a slumber party. Shauna tells me that now that Maks is settled in as Pakhan, they want to grow their family. She wants three kids; he wants ten.

  I burst into laughter, “Ten kids?”

  “I know, right? Maks wants all boys. And he thinks they should be spaced so we always have a baby in the house. Needless to say, this led to many a heated discussion. We settled on four kids.”

  “Four sounds doable.”

  “I agree. Enough about me. Anyone of interest in your life?”

  I giggle, “Nope. I work too much. And all the guys at work are scared because Liam is their boss. No one wants to break the boss’s sister’s heart for fear they will be fired and maybe blacklisted.”

  “I’m sorry honey. You should come to Philly. I can introduce you to some nice guys.”

  “Thanks, Shauna, but I’m good. I have an ambitious plan to be a junior partner in three years.”

  “Your time will come,” Shauna tells me as she places her tray on the floor then takes mine and places it next to hers.

  The large man with the horned M tattooed on his neck returns along with an older woman who looks to be in her early sixties. She moves to Shauna’s bed and unlocks the chain. She motions for her to get up and escorts Shauna to the bathroom. I hear a shower turn on as I question the large man watching me. “Where are we? What do they want from us?”

  He stands, leaning against the chest of drawers, watching me, not saying a word. Shauna comes back into the room wearing a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The man moves to stand over Shauna as the woman returns the shackle to her ankle. The woman turns and undoes my chain and then escorts me to the bathroom. As I use the toilet, she starts the shower. When I’m finished, she gestures for me to get into the shower. She watches as I undress and move into the warm water noticing that there is no curtain. She watches me with her look of detachment and when I reach to turn off the shower, she attentively hands me a towel.

  As I dress in clean shorts and a t-shirt, I try to question her. “What is your name? I’m Rylie.”

  She looks blankly at me.

  “Who is in charge here?”

  Still nothing.

  “What do they want with us?”

  She says nothing as she takes my elbow with a surprisingly firm grip and leads me back to the bed. The man stands over me, looking annoyed, as the shackle is returned. When he picks up the empty food trays from the floor, the old woman steps towards the door ahead of him, and they leave, locking the door behind them.

  Chapter Five - Patrick

  While Lena packs an overnight bag for herself and Andrew, I call Samuel and tell him the situation. “As soon as Andrew wakes from his nap, I’ll bring them to you.”

  “I agree. Lena and Andrew should stay here with me until we know they’re not in any danger,” replies Samuel with concern. “What kind of details do you have so far?”

  “Rylie and Shauna were exiting the Capital Grill; four men surrounded them and put them in the back of a cargo van. Bryan said one of the men had a cartel tattoo on his neck; he’s working with the FBI to determine which cartel the group it might be based on the design. I also called Erin Jefferies for help.”

  “Good. She has allies who can help. Let me know if I can do anything to help,” Samuel says.

  “Thank you Samuel, I will,” I say, ending the call.

  Two hours later, I am helping Lena and Andrew get settled in the residential wing of the White House while Samuel attends to matters of state.

  “Hey! How’s my little buddy?” Pepper White, the Vice President, asks, taking Andrew from Lena’s.

  “Hi Pepper,” Lena greets, hugging him. “Did Dad tell you that we are staying for a couple of days?”

  “He did,” Pepper answers, kissing Andrew’s cheeks. “Samuel asked me to stop by to see you two.” Pepper reaches out with his free hand and shakes my hand in greeting.

  “Thanks for checking on us. Do you mind watching Andrew while I walk Patrick to the door?”

  “Of course,” Pepper replies.

  Kissing Andrew on the cheek, I whisper, “I love you, buddy. Be good for Mommy and Grandpa.” Turning to Lena, I whisper, “Walk me to the door?”

  Taking my hand, she walks with me to the private exit. “I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  “Please be careful and don’t go anywhere without your dad.”

  “I promise. Andrew and I are going to veg and let the staff spoil us.”

  Reaching the door, I kiss her one last time before walking to my car and returning home.

  Within an hour of arriving home, I join Erin, Landon, Fi-Fi, Cain, Maks, and Mom and Dad in the living room. Aunt Riana and Uncle Connor, Shauna’s parents, are there as well. We are receiving a debriefing from Bryan.

  “At twelve-thirty this afternoon Miss Love and Mrs. Volkov were spotted leaving the Capital Grill. At twelve-thirty-two a red cargo van, seen here,” Bryan says, pointing to the TV screen playing the security footage, “pulls up next to them. Four men exit the back and force Miss Love and Mrs. Volkov into the back before speeding off. I was able to trace the van to a nearby parking garage where the kidnappers left it, for, what I can guess, is another vehicle. Unfortunately, the garage does not have security cameras. That’s probably why they used it.” Bryan rewinds the security footage of the kidnapping and pauses it on the four men exiting the van. “I sent this video to a friend at the FBI in an effort to ID the men. He scanned for the men in the FBI databases but was unsuccessful. However, he did get a hit on the men’s tattoos. These men are members of the Mal Cartel, one of the fastest-growing Cartels in Mexico and Central America.”

  “What does the Mal Cartel want with my sister and cousin? If they want money, all they have to do is ask. Between Maks and me, we have enough money to buy the whole country of Mexico.” I ask.

  “They haven’t contacted us yet so we don’t know yet. The Mal Cartel is not known for kidnapping and holding people for ransom. This is unusual for them,” Bryan answers.

  “What DO you know?” Dad asks, holding Mom close as she silently cries.

  “You now know as much as I know,” Bryan explains kindly to my father.

  “So where the hell is my wife?” Maks snaps, becoming increasingly agitated. “Because I sent my wife, my entire world, to Washington D.C. because Patrick told me it
was safe. Then I had to listen as she and her cousin were kidnapped,” Maks says, anger radiating from him.

  Bryan takes a deep breath, knowing that Maks will not like what he says, “We’re not sure. The Mal Cartel has factions all across Mexico and in Central America. All I know is what I told you, Mr. Volkov,” Bryan says, sounding defeated.

  Erin stands, “Let me and Fi-Fi make some calls. We have friends in the FBI who may be able to give us some intel on where the Mal might be holding Rylie and Shauna. Give us an hour,” Fi-Fi gets up and follows Erin into the hall.

  “Maks, I am sorry. If I had known this was a possibility, I would have told you to keep Shauna home,” I admit, knowing my words can never make up for what happened in my city.

  “I know you would have. But how does something like this happen without you knowing? I receive information on plans to kidnap my sisters twice a year. So how does someone plan this without letting someone in your network know?”

  That is a damn good question. The Family has a vast network that stretches around the world. We get reports on everything, yet somehow, this slipped through the cracks. And I find it hard to believe. “I don’t have any answers, but I will find out,” I reply, as we wait for Erin and Fi-Fi to return.

  Chapter Six - Erin

  Leaving the living room, I pull my cell from my pocket and call Paul, my former supervisor. When I was forced from the FBI, Paul was offered early retirement. But even three years later he still has several people at the FBI who owe him.

  “Hi, Erin. How’s it going?”

  “Not good,” I reply quickly.

  “Is Jackson okay?” Paul asks a little panicked. He would go to Jackson first. After several long arguments, we named Paul, Jackson’s Godfather. It is a role he takes seriously. Every year on Jackson’s birthday, Paul and his wife fly to Colorado to celebrate with us. I’ve told Paul he doesn’t have to, but he insists. It also helps that Paul’s wife loves Colorado. If it weren’t for their own kids and grandchildren in the D.C. area they would have moved to Moose Valley years ago.