by Flora Burgos
"For fuck's sake, Court." Cole stood from her couch right as a timid knock came at her door. They both froze, then Courtney stalked across the trailer and yanked the door open to see a trembling Claire standing there.
"Hey, uh, Court. Devon and Clint came in, and Katy woke up when Ev did, so she sent me out here to get you guys because she's starting breakfast."
Smiling at Claire gently, even though she wanted to scream, she turned to Cole and said so sweetly that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, "Cole, could you be a dear and grab my bag and bring it with us? Katy's up, so it's go-time."
He didn't say a word, just stood up and walked over to where she had dropped her bag, picking it up and bringing it to the door before following the two girls to the house. He was seething, and Courtney knew it, but he must have picked up on her demeanor with Claire because he went along with her as docilely as he could.
When they walked into the house, she grabbed the bag from him and muttered, "Thanks."
He didn't let go of it and instead growled low so only she could hear, "We're talking this shit out after, right?"
She rolled her eyes. "I told you months ago that we would, and I meant it then, just like I mean it now. We will talk, but first, I have friends who need to get married. It's way overdue for them."
She could see the way his face softened when she said that, and she knew down to her bones that he was thinking the same thing as her. If things had been different, they would have been married a long time ago as well. She tore her gaze from his and tugged on the bag once more, and this time he let it go. She felt his eyes on her as she strutted into the kitchen and announced, "Alright, y'all, the party is here!"
He couldn't help but smile at her antics. That was pure Courtney.
THEIR DAY WAS A WHIRLWIND of activity with lace and bow ties.
It was beautiful at the same time it was oh-so painful. Being there with Cole, standing on opposite sides of the couple reciting their vowels, it burned deep in her chest, and for the first time, she was seriously doubting the merits of meeting him to have that talk later. This was everything she had ever wanted, only not. She feared that she was going to lose her tenuous grip on her emotions before the wedding was over, but thankfully, they kissed and suddenly they were Mr. and Mrs. Sean Everett. The warring emotions inside of Courtney were mindboggling.
She was desperately happy for her friends, but on the other hand, her heart was being torn from her chest. It was when the first strains of the song "You Should Be Here" that Courtney realized that she was going to have to dance with Cole. Days before, when they had talked about this, she had assured Katy that it would be ok, but now faced with it, she was terrified. She looked up and saw her brother take Claire's hand and lead her onto the dance floor. She watched as he tucked her to his chest and she nestled in, then her big, dopey brother did something that shocked her to her core. He wrapped Claire tight in his arms and rested his lips against the crown of her head. The couple swayed, lost in their own world, and it was the first time that she had seen Claire at peace. Not drunk, not void, just there, in the moment and at peace. Her brother had done that for the beautiful, broken woman who Courtney was coming to call a friend.
Cole took her into his arms before she had a chance to object and led her onto the dance floor. "It's not what you think, Baby Girl. I swear. I would never hurt you intentionally, and I just keep fucking this up, but I swear to you that you will see how fucked up this whole situation is and how it happened once we talk. Just, can I hold you while we dance? We can go back to your trailer as soon as this is over and talk everything out, and if you want me to leave after, I'll go. Ok?"
Unable to talk, Courtney nodded in agreement. He pulled her tighter to him as if he were afraid that loosening his grip would allow her to disappear. She had so many emotions roiling through her body that she couldn't grip one long enough to analyze it. When the song drew to an end, she pulled away telling him, "We've gotta go to the middle of the dance floor for the bouquet and garter toss. We'll talk after."
He watched her closely for a moment, and deciding that she wasn't lying, he nodded and kissed her forehead. He pulled away from her just as the DJ requested all single ladies to one side and single gentlemen to the other. She participated in the tradition for her friends, but that bouquet could land in her hands, and she was going to hot-potato that sucker at someone else. She was lost in thought when Sheriff commented loudly and for the event, inappropriately, saying, "Oh shee-it!" And then she couldn’t hold back the laugh when his wife whacked him in the chest and shushed him, then she laughed a little harder when she saw her brother holding the dainty lace garter and staring at Claire in shock, who was holding Courtney's huge bouquet.
She went through the rest of the ceremony smiling because honestly, if there was someone who was perfect for Claire and her broken angel wings, it was her big dumb lug of a brother.
Chapter 13
AFTER THE MAJORITY of the clean-up was done, Courtney snuck away and headed to her truck. It was now or never. Her stomach tossed and turned with emotions and nerves as she tried to mentally prepare for what was coming. She didn't know how this day was going to end, but she was ready to finally make sense of the past and move forward.
She didn't see the man waiting next to her truck, and when she did, she didn't have the foresight to be alarmed. Instead, she walked right up to him where he stood between her vehicle and a van. Assuming he was a straggler from the wedding, she put on her friend-of-the-bride smile and greeted him, "Hey! Everything alright? Ev and Katy are heading out, but there's still plenty of food and drinks, if you would like something for the trip home."
He didn't speak as she got closer to him, and when she took in his facial features, a chill ran through her. He had dark, dead eyes, and his face was a mixture of harsh angles and deep scars. Finally starting to feel worried, she paused and moved to step back, and he spoke with a strong Russian accent, "You don't leave. You must come with me."
She glanced over her shoulder prepared to run when the door to the van opened and he grabbed her around the waist, shoving her into the cargo area and slamming the door.
Immediately, she scrambled to her feet and desperately grasped at the door handle, trying to rip the door back open, but it was to no avail as the door was locked from the outside and the handle tugged uselessly without opening. Then she started screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Cole! Clint! Devon!" But it was pointless because as she screamed out the names of the men she knew were capable of rescuing her, she heard a female laughing at her mockingly.
Turning, she saw Monique.
God, if only that woman didn't exist.
"Why-what-what's going on?"
Monique responded in a smug voice and her thick French accent, "I wondered if you would remember me after so long. I am glad that you do."
"What in the hell is going on?"
Monique opened her mouth to speak, but the Russian yelled back from the driver's seat, "Quiet!" stopping whatever she was about to say.
It was then that it occurred to Courtney that there was a mesh guard separating the front of the van from where she was with Monique, and if she was able to overpower her, she may be able to escape. With that in mind, she leaned back against the wall in a crouch and prepared to spring at the other woman.
Apparently, her face gave her away, though, because Monique reached behind her and pulled out a gun, training it straight on Courtney's head, and she laughed. It was evil, and it was satisfied.
"I don't understand—" Courtney started to say again, but once more the Russian yelled, "I said quiet!" and punctuated his order with a smack to the guard.
The van lurched as he put it into gear and started to pull out of the parking lot before he yelled in an angry voice what sounded like, "Blyad!" what she could only assume was a cuss word from his tone of voice, as he slammed on the gas, and the tires screeched onto pavement, tossing the women inside around.
Courtney cou
ldn't understand what was going on, and it took several moments before it dawned on her that they were being shot at, and that was the reason for the erratic driving. She could only assume that meant that help was on the way and rescue was imminent, and she vowed right then and there to kiss whichever man was chasing them.
Panic set in, though, when the Russian rolled down his window and held what appeared to be a small machine gun out it, aiming toward the vehicle behind them. Courtney jumped up and rushed to the back to peer out the window over the sealed back exit, and watched in horror as the Russian found his mark and his bullets sprayed the front tires of the SUV that Clint was chasing them in.
Her world came to a screeching halt as she watched his vehicle swerve first one way and then back the other way again before the tires left the road. She watched as the vehicle tumbled over and over as she was helpless to do anything but stare in horror. As the van raced away, she saw the SUV come to land upside down and smoke billow from the decimated wreckage. That was when she started to pray.
Chapter 14
Cole
HE WAS NERVOUS ABOUT the upcoming confrontation he was going to have with Courtney, and he knew this was his last shot. It was all or nothing, and he had to give it all to her, cards on the table.
Nervous is an understatement.
He was shit-scared in a way he hadn't been when he was eating sand in the fucking desert, dodging sniper bullets. It was a bone-deep fear that could mean the end of every dream he had ever had.
When his phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket and thought for a split second about ignoring his big brother’s call, but his gut told him not to.
"Yeah?"
"Cole? Big dude with a jacked-up face was waiting for Court by her truck and did a snatch and grab and shoved her into a van. Looks like he had a partner, but I couldn't make out any details. I'm en-route now, but you need to get out here, bro. This looks like some serious shit just leaked back home. Again."
"Fuck!" Cole yelled as he turned and ran toward Courtney's truck, listening to the directions that Clint yelled back at him. Then he yelled it again when he heard his brother firing on the vehicle. "Fuck! Clint, Courtney is in there. Quit shooting at her, man!"
It was too late, though, because as soon as he caught sight of the clutch she had dropped in her struggle and stepped over it to climb into the cab of her truck, the sound of return fire pinging off of his brother’s vehicle was clear, followed by the crunching and crashing sounds of his brother losing control of his vehicle.
That was when Cole threw the truck into gear and hauled ass.
He came upon the wreckage of the SUV in moments and waged an internal battle as he thought of Courtney getting further and further from his reach, but the SUV was smoking in a way that he knew it wouldn't be long before it went up in flames. And by the looks of it, his brother hadn't escaped the overturned vehicle. He knew that there was no way he could let his brother die, especially after he risked his life to go after Courtney in the first place. It was hard to swallow, and he was sick to the pit of his stomach as he tagged his phone after throwing the truck into park and dialed Devon's number while he ran.
Quickly, he ran through everything he knew, and when Devon started to lose his mind, rightly so since his little sister had been abducted, Cole hung up and dialed emergency, giving the operator their location and disconnecting the call against her protestations, his sole focus now on getting his brother out of this ticking time bomb before it went sky high.
Clint hung unconscious in the driver's seat, dangling from his seat belt and oblivious to the ominous creaking and thick smoke that cloaked them both. Cole tried to wake his brother several times, to no avail. And finally, with the heat growing more and more intense, Cole had no choice but to pull his pocket knife from his pocket to cut the belt to free his brother and pray that he wasn't causing more damage while saving his life. As soon as the belt was free, Clint collapsed like a rag doll, no control over his body, so he crumpled awkwardly into the window and over the steering wheel. Cole quickly wrapped both of his hands under Clint’s arm pits and pulled with everything he had.
Time froze in that moment.
This was his big brother. The one he had admired his whole life, the one he had emulated his whole life. Clint graduated and went into the service, and it was understood that Cole would, too. Clint left the military and went with a PMC, and no one batted an eye when Cole did the same.
Cole had lived through moments on the battlefield, where time had slowed and everything was crystal clear to him, and in this moment, as he struggled to pull his brother from the wreckage caused by him, trying to rescue the woman Cole loved, he knew then that he didn't deserve either of them. His brother, the hero, and his love, the woman he should have put above all else. He knew as he roughly breathed in the smoke and finally pulled Clint's limp body free from the vehicle that he could spend the rest of his life trying to make the past up to the most important people to him, and it would never be enough. He only prayed that he had the chance.
So enraptured in what he was doing, Cole hadn't even noticed the paramedics swarming him until they were yelling at him, so he released his brother to their hold and fell back on his rear, looking at the tragedy that he had inadvertently set into motion years before. He was still gasping for breath as the paramedics stabilized Clint on a small body board, and he realized that there was still someone yelling at him to move away.
Slowly, he got up, waved the other man away, and started to walk back to Courtney's truck. He raced as close to the ambulance as he could, flashers warning traffic to move out of the way, all the way to the ambulance.
By the time he parked the truck and ran in the hospital emergency room, they had already wheeled Clint away and Devon was pacing with his phone to his ear.
"Chief, I don't give a fuck what protocol is, and you can throw my ass in Leavenworth, Abu Ghraib, or the motherfucking North Pole as long as you get me some backup to find my fucking sister. Yeah. Ok, out."
Devon turned on his heel and stomped back toward Cole, running his hands through his hair in desperation. Before Cole could even think of something to say, Devon beat him to it. "Two things, La Barron. First, when we get my sister back, if you don't walk away from this life once and for all, then you walk away from her. She does not fucking deserve the shit that keeps landing on her door because of your extracurricular activities. And second, if she doesn't come out of this alive, Chief isn't going to have to worry about Uncle Sam throwing me any fucking where because I will kill you and put myself there, savvy?"
Cole didn't even ask why he thought it was about him. They both knew that with the life they led, relationships were a liability, and too many people had known about his feelings for Courtney for way too long. All he could do was look at the man he regarded as a brother and nod. If she didn't make it out of this, life wouldn't be worth living, regardless.
No words were said after that because Cole’s phone started ringing, and he picked it up to see an unfamiliar number before hurrying to answer it. What he heard made his blood run cold.
Chapter 15
Courtney
MONIQUE AND THE RUSSIAN had remained blissfully silent for the trip, and Courtney spent the time considering her options. She had to run as soon as the opportunity presented itself. There was no other option. So, she was conserving her energy and praying like she had never prayed before. They traveled out of town a short way and pulled up to a ramshackle hunting cabin, where the Russian put the van into park and killed the engine.
"Get her out," he said with his heavy accent, "and cuff her to the radiator inside."
Monique stayed silent and only nodded before flicking the gun she still held trained on Courtney toward the door that the Russian was walking around to open. The three trudged into the abandoned one-room shack with no apparent electricity or visible habitation for at least a decade. Once they stepped through the door, Monique grabbed a pair of handcuffs from the Russian and slapped
one to her right hand before dragging her to the radiator and latching the other cuff to one of the thick rusted pipes. She was thankful that Katy had her bridesmaids wore boots rather than heels because this whole situation would have been a million times worse in needle-thin stilettos.
Courtney took in as much as she could of the radiator, and her heart fell when she saw that the pipes were bolted into the floor and there was absolutely no way she was going to be able to pull it loose.
Instead of leaning over the radiator the way that she was, she used her free hand and flattened the skirt of her dress under her before taking a seat on the mostly dirt floor.
The Russian walked over to her and crouched down to her before speaking, "I call your man, you scream, and it won't be so bad, yes?"
Courtney gaped at him.
He wants me to scream for Cole? Why?
"But—"
Monique stomped over to her, yanked her back by her topknot, and practically spit in her face. "You scream, chienne. Or we make you."
As soon as the other woman released her hair, she turned her gaze back to the scary man and was chilled to her depths when he shrugged. "Either way, you scream, eh?"
Then he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. She heard Cole's clipped voice answer the call, and the Russian spoke, "You did not keep your word, Mr. La Barron. So, now I have a little insurance, yes?"
Cole immediately started yelling, and Courtney could hear him, panicked and angry, and she resolved not to scream. But she could warn him, and she did. "Cole! They hurt Clint! Go find Clint!"
The Russian looked at her in shock, and then he backhanded her so nonchalantly that he could have been flicking away an annoying fly. Still, she fought against making any noise. She had to trust that Cole would have heard her and would save his brother.