Rush of Redemption (Rush Series #2)

by LR Potter

  Rush threw back his bourbon and tensed when his cellphone vibrated again. Tiko Mars. When he clicked on his phone and saw the picture of his Trinity and an obviously dead Marlena Franklin, his blood ran cold. And especially when he read the text: How about now? Still not wanting to negotiate?

  Marlena Franklin? What did she have to do with anything? Rush’s mind spun. Was she in on it with Tiko Mars? Because of her husband? It made no sense. And Marlena Franklin had just called him. He clicked his phone and saw she had left a message. He hesitated a second before clicking on the message. His heart crushed in his chest when he heard Trinity’s voice. He struggled to rein it in enough to listen to her message.

  Hey, it’s me, I’m okay. Rush… I’m so sorry. Sorrier than I can ever tell you. I was wrong in so many ways. I just… I just needed my mom… and wanted to believe… Please don’t come after me. Please concentrate only on getting Blake home. He’s so wonderful and doesn’t deserve the danger I’ve put him in. I never meant… I love you Rush. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you enough, even though you gave me no reason not to. Please tell my precious boy that I love him so much. Please let him grow up believing good things about his mom… even though you know better. I deserve this…

  Damn it to hell. She’d called him and he’d ignored the call. He’d told her he’d always take her call. He’d let her down when she’d needed him the most. Quickly, he called the phone back but it went straight to voicemail. Clicking back onto the message he listened to her again. Scrolling through his phone list, he pressed Alex’s number. “I need you here now… Okay, ten minutes.”

  He replayed Trinity’s message again. It was obvious she was crying and scared. It was also obvious she was telling him goodbye. He wasn’t going to let that happen. He glanced once more at his son nestled on the bed. Nope, he wasn’t going to let it end this way. People she’d trusted had been letting her down her whole life… he wasn’t going to be one of them.

  A soft tap on the door notified him that Alex had arrived. Rush moved to the door and let him in.

  “Alex, I need you to listen to this. I need to know where this phone is now. Okay?”

  Alex listened in silence as he spoke, and took the phone without comment. Alex pressed the message button and listened intently. He cut his eyes to meet Rush’s when he heard her voice. Once the call ended, Alex depressed it and played it a second time while putting a finger in his other ear, concentration etched into his sharp features. Once it finished for the second time, Alex glanced at the phone.

  “Call came in fifteen minutes ago,” he said to himself. “I’ll call some people I know and have the phone located… if it’s still on,” Alex said emotionlessly and matter-of-factly.

  Rush shook his head. “It won’t be on. Didn’t you listen to her message? Even if she somehow still has the phone, she’d have turned it off. She’d remember that’s how we found her in the garage the last…” Rush stopped as the emotion of the situation became too much for moment. “…the last time she was taken. Damn it! Damn it to hell!” Rush exclaimed as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. His jarring voice caused his son to jerk and a thin cry broke the air. Rush hung his head. He didn’t know if he could save her this time.

  Alex padded a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t offer any false assurances, instead he said, “I’ll get started on this right away.” Without another word, he exited the room.

  Rush went to his infant son and gathered him up in his arms and kissed his head. He closed his eyes when his son nuzzled into his neck. Sobs broke loose from his chest and he held his son close to his body. “I know, buddy,” he whispered brokenly. “I miss her, too. I miss your mommy, so much.”

  ~*~

  Trinity couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe and she was so hot. She turned her face into the cement floor seeking any coolness, but it was denied her. She struggled to lift her head, but it was just too heavy. A fit of coughing came over her and the extreme pain ripping through her chest caused her to pant in agony. She knew she should be afraid, but she couldn’t exactly remember why. Curling back up in a ball to comfort herself, she drifted back out.

  Sharp slaps to her face made her open her weary eyes. She struggled to focus on the white-haired man in front of her. Somewhere in her fuzzy mind, she knew she recognized him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  “What the hell is wrong with her? You stupid morons. I can’t let her die yet! I don’t have the money! What part of that is too hard to understand? Go to the store and get her something. She is burning up with a fever; get her something to bring it down now!” Tiko Mars shouted.

  Trinity’s head lolled to the side and she was out before the men slunk out of the building. Tiko stood and rubbed a hand over his neck. This had been dragged out for far too long. This had to end! Fine! Rush Drayton wanted to play hardball, well let’s play, Tiko Mars thought. Pulling his phone out, he took a picture of the very sick woman lying naked on the cold concrete… looking like death. That should be a nice reminder of what could happen… of what would happen, Tiko thought savagely.

  ~*~

  It was early morning and Rush was giving Blake a bottle while Alex gave him a rundown on what he’d been able to gather since they’d listened to Trinity’s message the night before.

  “You were right. The phone has been shut off. Not only that, it…” Alex paused before saying quietly, “it was disabled.” He saw Rush cringe.

  “She probably did it herself. I told you she would do that. Dumb girl,” Rush muttered, even as he swallowed hard.

  Rush muttered a curse when his cellphone which seemed to go off every damned minute began to vibrate on the desk. Glancing at the phone, he immediately gave his son to Anna, who had just arrived from Savannah an hour before. Snatching the phone up, his stomach roiled and his jaw tightened. It was a picture of Trinity… she looked dead. But no, that made no sense. Tiko wouldn’t kill her until he had the money. But she looked so bad. What was wrong with her? His chest heaved as he struggled to breathe. With everything he could muster, he read the text under the picture: How much closer to death must she be before you pay?

  Thrusting the phone at Alex, Rush turned and walked away, lifting both hands, he interlocked his fingers and laid them on the back of his neck as he stared unseeingly out the window.

  Without inflection, Rush said, “Alex, I need you to find her. I’ve got to find her. Tiko is running on fumes. If you think there’s a chance to get her, I’ll give him the damned money. I don’t care about the money. I only want her back… I’ve got to get her back. She’s sick. Did you see? She’s so sick…”

  Alex cleared his throat to stop Rush’s rambling. “I’ve got a couple of leads we need to look into first. Rush… I don’t have to tell you that once you give him the money, it’ll be over,” he ended quietly.

  “NO! It will never be over.” Rush spun around, “We will find her. Do you understand me, Alex? Failure is not an option!” Rush shouted, causing Blake to shriek his distress. Rush took several deep breaths before taking the baby from Anna and cradling him against his chest. “I need some of your men, at least two, here with Anna and the baby. I don’t want them left alone. Understood?”

  “Understood,” Alex replied calmly.

  Alex was turning away to leave when Rush’s phone vibrated again. Giving the still whimpering child back to Anna, he glanced down at the phone, cringed, and motioned Alex to wait.

  “Tiko,” Rush answered abruptly. “What the hell have you done to her? You better hope she makes it out of this…”

  Cutting him off, Tiko said with a smirk, “There’s nothing wrong with her that a few aspirin won’t cure. Right now, I have control, but the longer this drags out, the more chances there are for things to happen. My men have been eyeing her luscious body for days. I don’t know how much longer I can keep them away. Who knows? I might decide to be the first to sample her. It must be pretty good if you want her. Am I right?”

  “Listen to me,
you son-of-a-bitch, if you so much as touch a hair on her head…” Rush shouted before Alex caught his eye and shook his head. Taking a deep breath, Rush said with deadly calm, “If she is touched, I will kill you. Mark my words. You know I can find you, I’ve done it before.”

  “I want my money. I’ll kill her and your brat, also. Don’t threaten me when I’m holding all the cards,” Tiko said before hanging up.

  Rush closed his eyes at the truth in his words. Looking to Alex, pain pouring from every fiber, he said, “We’ve got to find her… fast!”

  Alex nodded before once again exiting the room.

  ~*~

  “Drink it, you stupid bitch,” Tiko Mars yelled at Trinity as he tried to force pills and water down her throat, but she was unconscious. “Damn it!”Placing some tablets on the floor, he ground them with his heel before scooping up the crushed pills and dissolving them in a bottle of water. Forcing her mouth open, he poured the liquid down her throat, causing her to gag and sputter. Still she didn’t wake.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rush was on the phone with one of the contacts he’d used before to find Tiko Mars. The problem was, Tiko moved around and Rush wasn’t sure where Tiko had Trinity. He figured it was either here in El Paso or in Mexico. His eyes flashed to the door when he heard a knock. One of Alex’s security team opened the door and Alex strode in quickly followed in by a beautiful Hispanic woman. The woman had to be somewhere in her late twenties. True to her heritage, she had dark hair and dark eyes. She had golden skin, and a voluptuous figure.

  Because of the level of high intensity Alex gave off, Rush finished his call and clicked off his cellphone. He looked from Alex to the beautiful woman behind him.

  “What?” Rush asked simply.

  “We found them,” Alex said just as simply.

  Rush didn’t respond at first, refusing to believe his words. “Where?” he finally asked softly.

  “Juarez, Mexico,” Alex responded.

  Rush looked pointedly from Alex to the woman behind him.

  Alex seemed to shift his body in a way which indicated protectiveness for some reason. “This is Devon Montanez. She is one of my former contacts in Mexico.”

  Rush looked between the two of them as he tried to make his mind slow down and think rationally. “I’m assuming since you’re here and Trinity is not, that there is a problem in getting her?”

  “Apparently, Tiko has stepped up his game and is now playing with the big boys. It seems he owes some very serious money to a local gang called the Los Rojas and is looking to have you pay his debt,” Alex supplied.

  “Okay?” Rush asked, obviously asking how this impacted Trinity.

  “Tiko has a huge compound in Juarez. It’s fenced and is currently being guarded by the Los Rojas. They are protecting their investment, it seems.”

  Rush exhaled deeply and ran his hand through his hair. “So what do we do?”

  Stepping forward, Devon Montanez said in her soft, Spanish accent, “We make Tiko give her to us.”

  “How do we do that exactly?” Rush asked impatiently.

  “Tiko has a daughter in a private school in Chihuahua, Mexico,” Alex said as if it answered any lingering questions.

  “And that helps us how?” Rush’s impatience now reaching an all-time high.

  Devon Montanez met his gaze steadily. “We take his daughter and exchange her for the target.”

  Rush cringed and growled, “Trinity is NOT a target.”

  Devon glanced at Alex and Alex shook his head at her, speaking some private, silent language.

  Once again Rush dragged his hand through his hair. “So, the best we can come up with is to kidnap a young girl in order to convince another kidnapper to release his hostage. What’s the guarantee he won’t just kill Trinity?”

  “He won’t kill his only salvation from the Los Rojas,” Alex replied assuredly.

  “We wouldn’t have to actually kidnap his daughter. Only make Tiko think we did,” Devon supplied.

  “That seems really risky,” Rush said, unconvinced.

  Alex cast his eyes over to Devon and she gave a small nod of her head, again in their silent language.

  “Devon’s family has… ties to the Vato Locos, which is a rival gang to the Los Rojas. All it would take is for you to tell Tiko we have her stashed with the Vato Locos and for his daughter and someone from the Vato Locos to be seen sitting together… it could be as simple as a café or even a church, and he’d believe it.”Alex met Rush’s agonized eyes firmly. “Rush, he won’t kill his meal ticket.”

  Rush flinched at the words and pressed his palms firmly against his eyes. “Alex, is this the only way?” he asked softly.

  Alex thought it through for a long moment before answering. “At this point, without having an army to back us up, the only way we will ever get her is if Tiko brings her to us.”

  “How long?”

  Alex exhaled deeply. “Two days.”

  Rush closed his eyes. “I don’t think she’ll last that long. You saw the pictures.”

  “We’ll set it up as fast as we can,” Alex promised.

  “What do you need me to do?” Rush asked more decisively, now that the plan had been accepted in his mind.

  “I’ll set it up on my end first and get the picture. Also, Alex told me Tiko doesn’t know you have your son?” Devon asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “Make him squirm with that also. He might try to unload the sick one for someone he doesn’t have, if he believes that person is even more valuable to you,” Devon said solemnly.

  Rush met her eyes steadily before nodding his head.

  After they departed, Rush sat down heavily on the end of the bed and looked around the plush living area of the suite. Here he sat in all this opulence and Trinity was lying naked on a bare concrete floor, being gazed upon by those animals. His chest tightened so much that he nearly couldn’t breathe. With a sweep of his hand he knocked everything from the table onto the floor savagely. What if she didn’t make it out? What if he couldn’t save her? How could he endure that? Falling back on the bed, he allowed tears to slide unashamedly down the sides of his face.

  I never wanted this life, she’d told him. And here she was, right back where she’d been twice before. Maybe it would be better for her if he let her go. Even though it made his chest constrict even further, he promised himself that if that was what she wanted, he’d let her go. He wouldn’t keep trying to hold onto her so tight. God, please give me the chance to make things right, he begged with his eyes shut.

  ~*~

  It was midnight and Rush was sitting staring at the flickering lights of the television with the sound muted. He held a sleeping Blake against his chest, needing the contact of his body against his own. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. His eyes were gritty but he refused to give in to sleep, not while Trinity was out there suffering.

  He jumped when his cellphone began to jump and rattle on the table as it vibrated. His heart leaped into his throat when he saw it was Tiko Mars. Rolling his head on his neck, he answered.

  “Unless you’re calling to tell me where to pick up my family, I don’t think we have anything else to talk about,” Rush said with deadly calm, speaking in quiet tones so as not to wake Blake.

  “Your girl ain’t doin’ so well. You might need to rethink this whole ‘wait and see thing’ you got going on,” Tiko said just as calmly.

  “What do you mean she’s not doing so well?”

  “I don’t know, man. She caught some kind of bug or something… totally not my fault. A freak of nature, I guess you could say,” Tiko replied smoothly.

  “Let me speak to her,” Rush said as he gently laid his son down and moved to the adjoining room. “I want to speak to her now, or I swear you will never see one red cent,” he said with malice. The silence on the other end of the phone filled him with panic.

  “Well, here’s the thing. Your girl, she’s like… she won’t wak
e up. If you’re wanting to see her alive, you might need to start dealing with me now. So here’s the final deal… and I do mean final, she won’t make it much longer. Tomorrow, at nine o’clock, I will call you and tell you where you can pick up your girl and your son… only after the ten million is transferred to a specified account. Nine o’clock is the deadline. If the money isn’t transferred to the account number I text you, I’m digging a hole big enough for the both of them. I hope for your sake, she makes it that long.”

  “Tiko, I swear…” Rush was left speaking to air. Rush tried calling the number back, but as always, it was blocked.

  Bending at the waist to suck great gulps of air into his lungs, Rush panted at the pain. She was dying. What if she didn’t make it till morning? Rising, he pressed the heels of his hands against the extreme pain behind his eyes. What if she was already dead? No! This wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t care what it took. Moving through the suite, he tapped on Anna’s door. After only a few moments, she answered, “I need to go out. Blake is asleep on my bed. Can you sit with him for a little while?” She nodded.

  Moving rapidly down the hall of the hotel, Rush stopped in front of Alex’s room and knocked. Alex appeared at the door, obviously having been rousted from bed. He met Rush’s eyes with his ever calm stare and waited for Rush to speak. Before he could, however, Rush heard a soft, Spanish accented voice, call out, “Who is it?”

  Rush lifted an eyebrow then dismissed the situation. “I want Tiko’s daughter brought to me now.”

  “What’s happened?” Alex asked.

  “She’s dying. She’s unconscious and she’s dying. I don’t care how you do it, but I want Tiko’s daughter brought to me now. I have to have her before nine o’clock tomorrow morning. I don’t want to pretend to have her. I want to have her. I want Tiko to understand how this feels and that I’m deadly serious,” Rush said emphatically.