Escape to Love

by Vanessa Miller

  “No,” Ramsey said, “But Renee has a room there. We were hoping that you would be able to go out there with us and convince the hotel staff to help us search the hotel for our daughter.”

  “Thing don’t work that way in the Bahamas. You can’t just come here, claiming that we’ve got some kind of kidnapping scheme going on. The Bahemians are law abiding citizens. We’re not interested in getting anything from Westerners but what they freely give.”

  Carmella jumped in. “I think you mis-understood. We are not accusing anyone here of kidnapping our daughter. We know the man who called, trying to extort money. He is a Westerner, and our daughter’s ex-boyfriend.”

  “Ah, love gone bad, eh?”

  “Very bad,” Ramsey agreed.

  Officer Corey appeared to be in thought, then he said, “Okay, I will help you. Let’s get over to the Atlantis and rescue your daughter.”

  “Thank you, thank you so much,” Carmella said as they followed the officer to his car.

  “Don’t thank me yet. We still don’t know for sure that she is being held at the Atlantis.” They got in Officer Corey’s car and sped off.

  Carmella put her hand in Ramsey’s and said, “We’re going to find her. God is with us on this journey, I can feel it.”

  14

  “I know why you shot Jay. I know what you’ve done and I’m going to make sure you pay for everything you’ve done.”

  “Get in the elevator and shut up.” Marlin pushed her forward as he put the gun in his jacket pocket.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked as the elevator descended.

  He didn’t respond to that question, but said, “If you draw attention to us when we walk through the lobby I will shoot you on the spot. And wipe those tears.”

  She had to think of away to get back to Jay, and she couldn’t do that if she was dead. So, she wiped the tears from her face and stepped off the elevator as if this was just another ordinary day. Nothing to see here, the love of her life wasn’t laying on the floor bleeding to death and she wasn’t being held at gun point.

  “Come on, let’s walk down the beach, just like two love birds out for a stroll” he said as they left the hotel.

  Jesus, I need You to show up for me. Lead me and guide me. Show me what to do, she silently prayed as they continued to walk down the beach. Then suddenly it came to her to sing praises to God, like she had been doing earlier. Things seemed to be getting worse the more she prayed and praised, but Renee was reminded of another childhood bible lesson they’d been taught about Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. The wall didn’t come tumbling down the first time the Israelites walked around the city, nor the second, third or fourth. It wasn’t until the seventh lap that God caused the walls to crumble and allowed the Israelites to wage a victorious battle in Jericho.

  So she started singing about Jesus and kept right on singing no matter how agitated Marlin became.

  He grabbed her arm, and turned her around to face him. “Why do you have to irritate me.”

  “Why do you have to be so evil?” With that question a thought came to her mind. “Do you have to be so evil?” She looked in his eyes and saw pure darkness, but when she had been with him, she hadn’t seen this kind of darkness in his eyes until it was too late. Now she understood what was going on. Stepping away from him, she shouted, “The blood of Jesus is against you... in Jesus name I call you out now!”

  ~~~

  “How dare you call me out!”

  Slithering out of Marlin was one of the biggest, most elusive demons Arnoth had ever come in contact with. But he had put the words in Renee’s mouth to get this demon to show his face, so now he would have to go to work. Failure wasn’t an option because it would cost Renee her life. “I’m over here you gutless lizard. Come terrorize me,” Arnoth goaded him.

  The evil one slithered toward Arnoth. “Get a good look at her, Arnoth. This will be your last mission.”

  As Arnoth reached for his sword, tentacles stretched out and wrapped around him to the point of squeezing the life out him.

  ***

  The clerk opened the door to Renee’s hotel room. It was empty, but things were thrown around. “He must have taken her from this room,” Officer Cory said.

  Carmella bent down and picked up a small sprayer. She handed it to the officer. “This is Renee’s pepper spray. I bought it for her myself.” She leaned her head against Ramsey’s chest, he rubbed her back for comfort as Carmella said, “Our baby is missing, Ramsey.”

  “And we are going to find her. Don’t lose the faith on me now.”

  Pulling herself together, Carmella said, “You’re right. We are bringing her back home.” She turned to the clerk and said, “Her bosses name is Dean Richards. Can you call his room to see if he knows anything about Renee’s disappearance?”

  As they left Renee’s room, the clerk called the front desk and asked a few question. When she hung up she told them, “He’s already checked out. There are only two people in that party who haven’t checked out. One is your daughter and the other person is Jay Morris.”

  “Jay is a friend of Renee’s. Can you call his room?” Ramsey said.

  The clerk contacted the front desk once again, the call was put through, but it just rang and rang. “He’s not there.”

  Ramsey turned to Carmella, “Now what do we do?”

  “I think we need to go to Jay’s room. Renee and Jay could both be in that room and not able to answer the phone.” Turning back to the clerk she said, “Can you get us in Jay’s room?”

  The clerk looked at Officer Cory, “Are you requesting such a thing?”

  Officer Cory nodded. “If we can get a look inside Mr. Morris’ room, we could at least rule it out if no one is in the room.”

  “Okay then, let’s go get the key.”

  ***

  While Arnoth was taking the beating of his life from this enemy of the Lord. He tried to focus and figure away out. Renee was depending on him and he couldn’t let her down. He hadn’t let down any of his charges throughout history and he wasn’t about to start now.”

  “Let me go, Marlin. I don’t want to be with you.” Renee yanked away from him.

  “You’ll go once I get my money and not a second before. Keep walking.”

  “But Jay will die if I don’t get back to me.”

  Grabbing her shoulders, Marlin pulled her so close that their faces were only inches apart. “Don’t you ever say his name to me again. And since you’re too stupid to get it, let me explain something to you. You wasted your love on a dead man.” He shook her. Do you get it now. He was supposed to die.”

  She wasn’t as stupid as Marlin thought. Renee had been putting things together and had planned to talk to Jay about it. Just to be sure, she asked, “So when you said that you didn’t come to my job to kill me, you were telling the truth.”

  He nodded. “I told you. If you act right, I’ll keep you with me. I just want the money that Ram owes me.”

  He doesn’t owe you anything. You’re a thief and you always have been.”

  Marlin shoved and then slapped her.

  The slap sent her reeling backward. She fell on her butt in the sand. But she was smiling wickedly. Because, just before he shoved her, Renee had slid Marlin’s gun out of his pocket. She was pointing it at him.

  “I guess you think you’re going to shoot me?” Marlin asked, advancing on her.

  ~~~

  “You will not torment Renee not another day,” Arnoth said as he took the demon by the throat and plunged his sword into the depth of him.

  The demon sputtered and spat out venom as he decreased.

  This one wasn’t going easy, too bad for him that the saint of God were still praying for Renee. They hadn’t given up and simply went about their business. So he pulled the sword out of the demon and plunged it back into the depths one more time. The second time did the trick instead of just diminishing in side, the demon vanished all together.

  One of Arnoth’s
wings had been slashed and tattered, he felt like passing out but his charge was on the ground struggling with Marlin for the gun. He limped over to her.

  “Let go of the gun, Renee.”

  “You let go,” she said as they rolled around in the sand together.

  As Marlin struggled to get the gun from her, he put his finger on the trigger and then turned the gun towards Renee. She felt herself loosing control of the gun, but she wouldn’t let it go. She wouldn’t let him win like this. Then the gun went off.

  ***

  “I could get in a lot of trouble for this if Mr. Morris is in there and doesn’t want to be disturbed,” the clerk said as they stood in front of Jay’s door.

  “And if he’s in there gagged and tied up, needing our help, then what?” Officer Cory asked.

  “Okay, I’ll open it but if I lose my job, I’m filing a complaint against you,” she pointed a finger at the officer and then opened the door.

  Ramsey rushed in. “Renee, Renee, are you in here?”

  “Oh my God, Ramsey look,” Carmella was pointing at Jay as he laid on the floor in a pool of blood.”

  Officer Cory went to check on Jay as Carmella and Ramsey searched the rest of the suite. As soon as they saw the ropes on the bed, they knew that Renee had been held hostage in this room. “Oh dead Lord, what has Marlin done?”

  15

  Marlin felt like dead weight on top of her. Renee pushed him off and then saw the blood oozing out of his chest. “Oh God, oh God!” Scared out of her wits Renee backed away from Marlin. His eyes were open but they were void, and distant. “I killed him.”

  People were walking or jogging along the beach, but they seemed oblivious to her plight. “Help! Help! I think he’s dead... somebody, please help me.”

  Two men approached. One had his ear to his cell talking to an emergency dispatcher. “Yes, a man has been shot... No, he looks dead.”

  The other man helped Renee to her feet. “What happened?”

  “He kidnapped me. He had a gun, we tussled and the gun went off.”

  “The police will be here in a few minutes. Just wait here with us.”

  But that’s when Renee thought about Jay. “I’ve got to get back to the hotel. He shot my friend. I have to check on him.”

  “The police will want to speak with you,” the man with the cell phone said.

  “My name is Renee Thomas, I’m staying at the Atlantis. And please, call the the dispatch again, and ask them to send an ambulance to my hotel.” Renee then took off running down the beach, back towards the hotel. She was determined that Jay was not going to die if she could do anything to help him.

  As she ran, Renee felt as if she had jet propellers attached to her legs. She was running so fast that she feared she would fall on her face and then that ambulance workers would come to her aid, rather than Jay’s. As she rounded the corner, Renee saw the ambulance. She wondered how on earth they got to the hotel so fast, but then again, she didn’t care. She needed to direct them to Jay’s room and get him to the hospital.

  She approached the ambulance waving and screaming. “Thank God... thank God you’re hear.” But as she looked inside the ambulance she realized that the medics were not inside. “Where’d they go?”

  Renee ran inside the hotel. She stopped one of the desk clerks and frantically asked, “Where are the medics. I need them to go to Jay Morris’s suite. He’s been shot.”

  “Ms. Thomas,” the woman asked, with wide curious eyes.

  “Yes, I’m Renee.” She pointed back towards the ambulance. “where are the paramedics?” she asked again, hoping that she wasn’t dealing with a language barrier.

  “Mr. Morris is being brought down now. Your parents found him.”

  “My what?”

  “Your parents they came looking for you.”

  That simple statement from this woman reminded Renee of the bible story of the Shepard who would live ninety-nine sheep, to go look for the one little one that had somehow gotten lost. Her Dad and Carmella had always been a perfect representation of Christ to her. If it had not been for their guidance through the years, she would have never made it through this ordeal.

  The elevator doors opened, Renee swung around to see Jay being wheeled down the corridor. “Jay!” she yelled as she rushed over to him. He was pale as a ghost. She grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse. It was faint, but he had one. “Heal him Lord, for my sake, please heal him.”

  “We need to get him to the hospital, ma’am. You’ll have to let go.”

  Renee didn’t hear the paramedic she was too busy praying for Jay. But she felt herself being moved to the side as Jay was being lifted into the ambulance. “Let me go, please. I need to be with him.”

  “Don’t worry honey. We’ll take you to the hospital,” Ramsey said.

  Renee swung around and fresh tears drifted down her face as she saw her father. She hugged him. “Thank you for coming after me, Daddy.” She hugged Carmella and said, “Thank you too Mom. I’m so thankful that you’re in my life.” This was the first time she’d called Carmella ‘mom’ but it felt right. Like God had blessed her with a second chance at having a mom to confide in and hang out with, and to treasure. She had all that in Carmella and she would never take it for granted again.

  Carmella smiled. “Let’s get you to the hospital.

  “Not so fast,” a detective said as he entered the hotel. “I’ve got a dead body on the beach that needs to be accounted for.”

  It took a few hours but after Renee relayed her story to the detectives and her family corroborated it they let her go to the hospital to see about Jay. He had just come out of surgery and the doctor had high hopes for a recovery. Renee finally breathed easy.

  She and her parents spent the night at the hospital, receiving periodic updates on Jay’s condition. by morning he was woke and asked to see her.

  Renee entered his room, tears were in her eyes as she stood over his bed looking at all the bandages and the tubes that were hooked up to him. He man was alive and she would forever praise the Lord for that.

  “Don’t cry. Accept for busted ribs and the bullet they pulled out of me, I’m doing just fine.”

  “This is no time for jokes. I could have lost you yesterday. I don’t know what I would have done if you had died.”

  “You would have survived.”

  Renee wiped the tears from her face. “I thank God that I’ll never know.” She leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. “I love you Jay, and I need you in my life.”

  “I love you too, babe. I thank God for sending you back into my life... Now if I can just get you to stop hanging around dangerous characters, maybe I can date you without being run over or shot.”

  Sure enough, Marlin had been been trying to kill Jay, but not for the reason he thought. “I wish I could take the blame for this, but I have something to tell you that you’re not going to like.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “All in good time, my love. Just rest for now. I’ve got a story to tell that will bring clarity to everything that has happened.

  ***

  Jay stayed in the hospital for a week and a half. Renee refused to leave his side the entire time. So, her parents decided that they would stay in the Bahamas for a second honeymoon. They all flew back to the states together and a week later Jay called a private meeting with Dean.

  “Everyone is so excited that you’re back and can get to work on our IPO again,” Dean said as he took a seat on the sofa in Jay’s office.

  “Everyone but you, right?” Jay asked as he joined his business partner and so-called friend.

  “Of course I’m excited. We’re going to be ten times richer than we are now. Why wouldn’t I be thrilled about that?”

  “Because of the dirty deals you made with Marlin Jones behind my back.” Jay put a file on the table and opened it. “This document that Renee questioned you about clearly shows that you refinanced our building through Marlin’s property development company
. The two of you took two million in equity out of the building.”

  Jay pulled another paper out of the file. “And this document shows that we are not in default on that loan.”

  Dean held up his hands. “I can explain.”

  “Can you explain why you would try to have me murdered over this? Because that’s something I’m very interested in.”

  “It wasn’t my idea,” Dean admitted. “When you got all excited about the IPO I went to Marlin and told him that something had to be done about the money. He claimed that if I invested in his schemes I would get ten fold the return, but he had lost my money. So, he figured that killing you would be easier than paying off a two million dollar debt.”

  “So much for friendship, huh?”

  “It’s not like that. I didn’t want you dead. But I didn’t have the money to fix the problem I created. I didn’t want to go to jail.”

  “Speaking of jail. How did you weasel your way out of the rape charge against Renee?”

  Dean put his hand to his face and rubbed back and forth. He then said, “Before your friend killed Marlin, he helped me grease a few palms and we fed them a story about Renee selling herself.”

  “Did you get all of that, Renee?” Jay yelled over his shoulder.

  Stepping out of closet, Renee said, “I sure did.”

  Putting another document on the table, Jay handed Dean a pen. “As of this moment, I no longer have a business partner. If you sign this document, giving me ownership of all the programs you have created thus far, and relinquishing your percentage of the company, and then go quietly, then I will give you ten million. If you refuse, I will have you arrested. Your choice.”

  “Some choice,” Dean said sullenly. He grabbed the pen and signed the document.

  “Your things are being boxed up as week speak. I want you to leave this building immediately.”

  Dean opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it and just turned and left the building.

  Renee sat down next to Jay. She put her hand in his. “I know that wasn’t easy for you.”