by Camy Tang
Panic gripped Liam by the throat. He tried to shout, but his voice came out reedy. “Where’s the detective?”
“What is it, son?” Detective Carter appeared, his face serious.
“Elisabeth,” he gasped. “Patricia took Elisabeth. The Bagsics have her.”
* * *
Elisabeth awoke suddenly, covered in cold water that smelled like mold.
Tomas’s evil face leered in front of her face. “Good morning, princess.”
She jerked away from him, and ropes bit into her hands, tied behind her back. She sat in a heavy wooden chair with her ankles bound, also.
Tomas laughed and threw aside a bucket, which had apparently been filled with the foul water he’d tossed on her.
“Took her long enough to wake up.” The high male voice came from her right. A young man in a gray T-shirt and wearing bright purple basketball shoes lounged against a table. He’d been the voice on the phone.
“Nice performance on the phone,” she said.
The man preened. “I know. I missed my calling.”
Sitting at the table but not even bothering to look at her was a man matching Liam’s description of Richard Mendoza, typing on a laptop.
“Eyes front, princess.” Tomas grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “Where’s Joslyn?”
She said nothing, simply gave him a neutral look.
Tomas sighed, straightened and then backhanded her across her face.
The blow made her eyeballs feel like they were rattling around in her skull. Stars bloomed in her vision. She found herself going completely still, just as she used to when Cruise beat her. When she went quiet and limp, somehow the strikes had seemed to hurt less.
“I know you don’t want to ruin that pretty face,” Cruise/Tomas said. “Just tell me what I want to know and I’ll let you go. Scout’s honor.”
“You were never a Boy Scout,” she guessed.
It earned her another blow.
“You’re a tough chick. I respect that. But, princess, there are three of us. When I get tired, I’ll just get one of my friends to take over for me.”
“Not me,” Richard said, still typing on his laptop.
“I’ll take double duty,” said the younger man.
She tasted blood in her mouth. Not a lot yet. It would get worse. And this time, she wouldn’t be able to just wait out Cruise’s temper tantrum. They would continue until she told them, or until she died.
She didn’t want to die. And yet she didn’t want to give herself false hope that Liam or the police would be able to find her. She didn’t even know where she was aside from the fact the room was cluttered like a large storage closet.
Then she heard Monica’s voice.
Even in the midst of suffering and pain and loneliness, He’s there with us. He loves us, and we’re not alone.
No, that wasn’t true. She was all alone with these men, and they would hurt her even worse than Cruise ever had.
Joslyn’s voice cut through her mind.
I have to believe that God will save me—will save all of us somehow.
Oh, God, she prayed.
Why would God answer her? She’d been thumbing her nose at Him for so long. He couldn’t truly care about someone like her, someone who wouldn’t believe in Him.
But God had saved Liam. He’d caused her to overhear him being attacked over her cell phone. Liam wasn’t perfect, but God was his best bud.
Would God want to be her best bud?
Oh, God, please save me.
The tears began to fall down her cheeks, off her chin. She was so scared.
God, please take care of me.
And then somehow, in a way she couldn’t even begin to describe, she knew she wasn’t alone.
She closed her eyes. Dug deep. And believed.
When she opened her eyes, she looked straight at Tomas’s arrogant face and said, “Bring it.”
* * *
Shaun arrived at the duplex just as Liam was about to lose it. Detective Carter had been trying to get him to calm down and think clearly, and the EMT was threatening to sedate him.
Shaun took one look at Liam, then grabbed his shoulders in a hard grip, shoving his face right up to Liam’s nose. “Chill. Now. Or I will punch you.”
Liam jerked away from him. “Who needs enemies when I’ve got you?”
“That’s the brother I know and love. Now take the time to explain what’s going on.”
Liam tried to be concise as he recounted what had happened, but he found himself stuttering and stumbling over words.
Elisabeth had been taken, right after he’d come to realize how he needed to trust in God more. It was like a sick and twisted test.
Was he really sincere in his faith? Could he rely on God’s strength rather than trying to fix things himself?
He thought of all the things he’d never said to her. He might never get a chance to say them.
He could imagine her alone and helpless. In pain. Frightened. Despairing.
All he could do was let himself believe that the God who had parted the Red Sea, walked on water, moved as a pillar of fire, would not leave Elisabeth alone.
God, please help me find her.
“Okay, we need to find this Patricia.” Detective Carter’s voice was urgent and low. “What do we know about her?”
He thought back to the interview he’d had with her. Had she given Liam a business card? No.
“She seemed comfortable with her body,” Liam said. “Like a dancer or a model. When she paid me, she’d emptied some things from her purse to reach the cash at the bottom—wads of receipts from Donny’s.”
“It’s a chain restaurant,” Shaun said. “There are dozens in California.”
“It’s a start,” Detective Carter said. “What else?”
Then he realized, “Joslyn might know.”
Liam called his cousin. The phone rang three times before he answered, since it was already past one in the morning, but then Jeremy quickly put Joslyn on the phone.
Liam gave a quick recap of the situation, then said, “Joslyn, tell me if you recognize this woman.” He described Patricia as best as he could.
“It sounds like Lauren, Tomas’s cousin,” Joslyn said.
His heartbeat picked up. “What’s her last name?”
“Ramos. She lives in Napa.”
“Thanks.”
“Liam, please find her,” Joslyn pleaded, and then hung up.
Detective Carter wasn’t as excited as Liam expected him to be. “I’ll call the Napa police department. Their new captain is a bit snippy about jurisdiction.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, the Napa police will search Lauren’s house, but they won’t want Sonoma P.D. interfering. They might even get annoyed if I’m there, especially since I’ll be waking the captain up.” The detective went to phone the Napa police captain.
“So, what? We just wait here twiddling our thumbs?” Liam said to no one in particular.
“Hey.” Shaun poked Liam’s shoulder. “You’re a skip tracer. So find her.”
Shaun was right. What was he doing whining? He’d been trained for this.
“I need internet access,” Liam said. He remembered Elisabeth’s gentle voice, telling him to ask for help from his family. “Let’s stop off at Dad’s house and get Brady.”
“Good idea. Nathan’s there, too.”
At the house, the four of them huddled around the kitchen table while Liam connected to the internet. The faces of the men were grave, but calm. At that moment, Liam was proud to be their brother and friend. They wouldn’t fail him.
“There’s only one Donny’s in Napa,” Liam said. “But I’m not sure how that’ll help us.”
“It’s better than waiting around doing nothing.” Shaun rose to his feet. “Let’s go.”
Liam phoned Detective Carter as they drove to Napa, telling him what he’d discovered.
“Liam, all I ask is that you don’t interfere with police
business.”
“We’re only driving around a few city blocks. Besides, our only lead is a bunch of receipts. But please tell the Napa P.D. where we are.”
Most of downtown Napa was beautiful, a bit upscale—the perfect tourist destination. But the area where Donny’s was located was on the very edge of the town, in a neighborhood a bit more run-down than other streets.
“There’s the Donny’s.” Shaun pointed out the bright yellow sign.
“It’s the only place open,” Brady said. They passed a closed Mexican restaurant and a wine store.
“Didn’t you say she looked like a dancer?” Nathan pointed ahead to a sign to their left that said Ellie’s Gentleman’s Club.
“They wouldn’t take Elisabeth through the front,” Nathan said. “Shaun, see if you can drive the car around the back.”
He parked a street over and the four men walked the quiet sidewalk. Ellie’s Gentleman’s Club rose three stories above them, and music could be heard pulsing from within the square brick building. The back door was a heavy painted metal affair, and it was locked from the inside.
“I don’t know if we could get in through the front door,” Brady said. “They’ll recognize Liam.”
“They won’t recognize me,” Nathan said.
“You’re not going in alone,” Liam said.
“Of course he’s not.” Shaun clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Hang tight. We’ll head to the back and open the door for you.”
Liam and Brady prowled around the back of the building. The windows were dark, boarded up. Slits of light filtered out from one, but it was high up and they couldn’t see in.
“I’ll look for something to stand on.” Brady went around the corner to where they’d seen a Dumpster.
Liam stayed and looked up at the window. It was at least a foot above his head.
Wait a minute. Windows that high on the first floor meant that there must be a basement or sublevel underneath.
Liam crouched as he searched the base of the building. He saw some small windows, but they were also dark. He was turning the corner, heading toward Brady, when he caught sight of it—a small window set close to the ground, boarded up like the other one, with slits of light glowing feebly in the darkness of the alley between the two buildings.
“Brady,” Liam hissed.
His brother joined him, kneeling by the window. “Can you see inside?”
Liam got on his stomach, feeling something slimy under his shoulder, and got his face close to the window.
Through the cracks, he could see inside a small room that looked like it was used for storage. At his angle, he only saw a set of metal shelves filled with toilet paper and bleach. He scooted sideways on the ground to get a different perspective.
And then he saw Elisabeth.
She was tied to a chair, and he only saw her in profile, but blood smeared her mouth.
“Brady, call Detective Carter. I see her!” Liam shifted sideways again to see more of the room, and that was when he saw Tomas.
He was livid, his face turning a maroon-purple color. “That’s it!” he said, his voice muffled by the wooden boards and the thick glass window.
And then he pointed his gun straight at Elisabeth’s head.
Time slowed down for Liam. His vision sharpened. He noticed the curve of her cheek, the scarlet of the blood.
Liam bolted to his feet and raced to the back door of the club just as it swung open.
“I feel like I need to burn my eyes out of their sockets,” Shaun was saying, but Liam shoved him aside as he raced inside.
The hallway he entered was dark and low, and he almost tripped when he ran into the short flight of stairs at the end of it. Wrong staircase—he needed to go down, not up. He whirled, reaching for the flashlight in his pocket, but Nathan had one out already, and the light passed over a door set against the wall.
Liam threw himself against the door. It wasn’t dead bolted, but the doorknob lock held. He threw himself against it again, grunting in his desperation, and this time, one of his brothers added his force to the door, and it burst open with a crash.
He leaped down a short flight of stairs, directly into a large man who had been standing near the bottom. They went down in a tangle, and Liam swung an elbow at the man’s head.
“I’ve got him!” Shaun said.
Liam jumped to his feet and dashed across the room. Straight for Tomas.
Something huge crashed sideways into him, and he went flying into a steel shelving unit. There had been a gang member there that he hadn’t seen. He didn’t wait to get his feet under him, but snapped up with a knee, then followed with blows to the man’s head, shoulders, torso. They rolled, and then he grabbed the man’s head and slammed it against the edge of a lower shelf of the shelving unit.
He saw Tomas raise his gun at him. While he’d been fighting the Bagsic, Tomas hadn’t had a clear angle to shoot, but now he stared down at Liam with enraged eyes.
But Tomas had forgotten about Elisabeth. Apparently only her wrists and ankles had been tied, and she’d used the distraction to stand up from the chair and then get her arms in front of her. With a yell, she jumped and threw herself on Tomas’s back, hooking her arms around his neck. Her momentum swung her sideways in an arc, and the two of them went down together.
Tomas elbowed Elisabeth in the gut. She curled up with an “Oof!” and Tomas untangled her arms from around his neck.
Liam fell on him. They rolled, knocking into more shelving units and dropping boxes of paper towels onto them. Then Liam got slightly behind Tomas and sliced his arm across the man’s neck in a choke hold. He secured his hand against his other forearm and squeezed.
Tomas’s legs kicked out. He twisted and jerked to try to break Liam’s hold. From where he lay on the ground with Tomas, Liam could see Brady deliver a punch to the gang member he’d been fighting earlier, and the man crumpled to the ground.
In four minutes, Tomas was unconscious. Liam shoved his body away from him, then looked around for Elisabeth.
She flew at him, hooking her tied wrists around his neck, and then his mouth was on hers. Holding her close to him, he was aware of how precious she felt in his arms. And that he had almost lost her.
They came up for air, and then they both murmured at the same time, “I love you.”
She smiled at him, brighter than sunlight, her eyes shining like dark gold. Her scent wrapped around him, orange and tuberoses.
“I never want to be afraid of losing you again,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“Me, too.” And then she kissed him again.
SEVENTEEN
Christmas with the O’Neills was loud, crowded, filled with food...and wonderful.
Elisabeth helped Monica clear away the ham and turkey leftovers from the dinner table. Patrick O’Neill lingered at the table, chatting with Detective Carter. She hadn’t known until tonight that Monica’s aunt Becca was dating Detective Carter. It was strange to see him in a nonofficial mood, especially when he told her to call him Horatio.
“So the four of those boys took out five Bagsic members?” Patrick said.
Horatio nodded. “There wasn’t much left for the Napa police to do.”
“If I’d been there, I’d have taken them all out in half the time.” He laughed.
Brady was near the kitchen door holding his son, who looked almost as sleepy as his father after the huge meal, and talking with Liam.
“Tonight, maybe I can finally whip your tail on ‘League of Legends.’” Brady grinned at him.
“Forget video games. Let’s go for paintball. When’s the last time you went?”
Brady groaned. “When you hit me on the neck and gave me a welt the size of Texas.”
Liam smiled. “You’re the one who exposed your jugular.”
Brady looked fondly at his sleepy son. “Wait till this boy grows up. He’ll vindicate his old man by destroying his uncle at paintball.”
Monica’s sister, Rachel, was was
hing dishes at the sink. “Elisabeth, you never finished telling me what happened with the FBI investigation into the Bagsics. You told me Tomas gave up his bosses?”
“He’d been working so hard to find Joslyn because the heads of the gang had threatened to kill him if he didn’t do something to make up for the lost ephedrine shipment,” Elisabeth explained as she found a plastic bag for the ham leftovers. “He had nothing to lose by giving them up.”
“Did the FBI find their supplier in the Philippines?”
“They haven’t told me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve put something in motion. And they did search traffic cameras to find the truck the Tumibays used to move the shipping container, and got the license plate. They found it was hired by IRF Norris. They’ll probably shut the company down, although first they’re going to try to prove the connection to the Tumibays.”
“That’s going to cripple the Tumibays’ money laundering,” said Jane, Monica and Rachel’s cousin, who was drying dishes. “Did you hear about the bodies they found?”
“What bodies?” Monica turned to her.
“Two Tumibay gang members,” Jane said. “It was in the news.”
“Were they the ones who had attacked you?” Rachel asked Elisabeth.
“One of them was—Lamar Garcia, the man with the fishhook scar on his face.”
“I remember you mentioned him,” Rachel said.
“The other one was Daniel, Faye’s boyfriend, the one who had hurt Joslyn.” Liam hadn’t been as pleased about the two dead men. There was now no connection between Joslyn or Liam and the Tumibays, but the way it had ended—with the murder of two gang members—didn’t sit right with him. But Elisabeth had to admit that it was a relief that with the Bagsics’ troubles, the Tumibays were now lying low.
“How are they?” Rachel asked.
“Faye’s with her mom, but she’ll be able to go back to her life in San Francisco now that the threat against her is gone. Joslyn’s with family in Los Angeles, but we invited her to move here to Sonoma in the new year.”
“Really?” Jane’s eyes glowed. “She and I had so much fun talking computers.”
“Liam and I are seriously talking about going into business together,” Elisabeth said. “Skip tracing, helping people stay safe.” Protecting people, just as God had protected her and Liam.