At first, I only expected him to pass by with a friendly wave. But when he stopped in front of me, I practically dropped my pizza. Hundreds of eyes burned into me, as he smiled, leaned in… and kissed me.
The room erupted into a roar, as I did actually drop my pizza. Luckily, Owen was there to catch it as Jake peeled away from me.
“There, I can’t lose now,” he said with a cheeky smile.
“You better not,” I said, my voice sounding more worried than I’d intended it.
Jake’s smile wilted, then he strode off.
“You two are cute,” Owen said out of a pizza mouthful.
“And you have insane reflexes,” I said, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for catching my pizza.”
“Of course.”
He tightened his hold on my waist as he leaned in to whisper, “Don’t look now, but pretty much every guy in this place wants to be me and get the chance to be beside you.”
Despite his words, I couldn’t help myself. One quick glance thrown around found that a good portion of the spectators weren’t even looking at the stage where Jake and his opponent were squaring off, preparing to start. No, they were looking at Owen with… was that actually longing?
I’d never considered myself that much of a catch. Just your average girl who apparently had good boobs and a killer smile, but the twins… they made me feel like a Maxim and Victoria’s Secret model and Angelina Jolie all in one.
In my surroundings scan, I noticed something else, too.
“Don’t look now,” I whispered back into Owen’s ear. “But pretty much every girl in this place wants to be me and get the chance to be beside you.”
His cheeks pinked as he drew away. “We should pay attention to the fight,” he said, sounding sorry to.
And just in time, too. The referee made the signal and the fight began. The other guy, a tan guy with muscles scaling up his arms, whose name I didn’t catch, came on strong. His punches were whip-fast and brick-hard. Only one – the last one – caught Jake in the chest. I winced.
Although it was unrealistic, not wanting Jake to even be hit once, if I was completely honest with myself, that’s what I wanted. The first fight hadn’t been like this one, I realized as more blows landed. This time, when Jake took a punch, I felt it too.
I could barely watch as the fight progressed and Jake, clearly, began to lose. Round after round, blow after blow, I finally kept my gaze stuck on my sneakers.
Beside me, Owen was livid. “I don’t get it. Jake’s better than this guy, I know he’s better. He’s hardly making any hits, hardly even trying.”
As little as I knew about boxing, I had to say the same thing. Sure, Jake was getting beaten up badly, but he seemed nothing like the superstar I’d seen the last time. What was going on?
Angry muttering had overtaken the crowd, and that was when I noticed some pudgy balding guy staring at me and Owen. After another minute or so, Owen caught my gaze.
“That’s Kade’s, the other guy’s, manager,” he explained with a scowl, his glare extending long. There was something more he wasn’t saying, but I didn’t want to push it. We were both suffering enough with how Jake was faring.
By now, it was clear: it was only a matter of time before he fell down for the last time.
That time seemed to be coming sooner rather than later. After a horrifying series of blows, his eye blacked, his chest mottled black and blue, Jake fell to one knee.
I looked away yet couldn’t stand not seeing it either. I had to watch – for him.
When I looked back – that was when I caught his eye.
29
Jake
Pain. The pain I saw in Cin’s eye was like none I’d ever seen in her. Eviscerating pain.
And it was caused by me.
I’d intended this one-knee stance to be my losing one, but that flash of Cin had me bringing my fist up again.
It caught Kade by surprise, sending him stumbling several paces back.
I smiled grimly, my bloodied teeth looking grotesque. He thought that was bad? Let’s see what he made of this.
Smashing my fist into his abdomen doubled him over. He was ready with his own, which I easily parried. No more playing games now. Fuck whatever BS the other guy’s manager had over Owen, no way was I going to have Cin suffer at my hands like that.
The next slam caught him in the chin – hard. A satisfying crunch, and now he was the one on one knee. His eyes bulged out at me; maybe his manager had told him he had this one in the bag. Too bad.
My last punch, I didn’t even look to confirm it had ended him. I knew it had.
Instead, I twisted around, searching for the face that mattered most. Cin was glowing.
Then, the bell rang, and the crowd screamed. The referee was saying something, but I beelined to Cin and Owen.
Owen was eyeing me strangely, as though he knew. “Shaky start, there.”
I shrugged. “Gotta give the fans something to talk about.” I’d delve into the whole ‘do you owe this douchebag money’ conversation way later.
“That was…” Cin let out a ragged breath.
I wiggled my brows. “That good?”
She responded with a kiss, full on the lips.
We broke apart, laughing.
“Damn,” I said, grinning like an idiot. “If I’d known I’d earn that, I would’ve won way sooner.”
Now, Cin was slamming a kiss into Owen too. Jesus, with everyone watching, I reflected. Surprisingly, the thought only warmed me.
Let them see. Let them all see the woman my brother and I couldn’t get enough of.
Cin seemed bouncing with energy, the reason for which I found out soon enough.
“Got to go to the bathroom,” she said. “Be right back.”
“Hang on,” I told her.
Owen and I made sure to cut a way through the still-cheering fans so Cin could pass through. While she was in the bathroom, Owen turned to me. “Guess that earned you a slice of pizza.”
He lifted a dismal looking rectangle from his pocket, wagging it. “For a minute there, I thought our good old lucky fry had stopped working.”
“About that…” I said.
Just then, a trio of teenage boys pushed their way through. “Autograph?”
“Sure,” I said, accepting the proffered sharpie. “Where?”
Smiling sheepishly, they held out their shirts. As I signed away, more people thronged to get their autographs as well. I happily obliged, although it ended up taking way longer than expected.
I only stopped when Owen pulled me aside. “First thing, Cin’s been gone a while. Second thing, your pizza’s gone cold.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” I took a bite of the admittedly cold triangle. “I would’ve gotten another one.” I tossed a glance at the bathroom. “Don’t be a spaz about Cin. It’s a girl thing, taking ten minutes in the bathroom.”
“Yeah, except it’s been” – Owen checked his watch – “twenty minutes. And she hasn’t responded to my text five minutes ago.”
“Oh shit. Really?” Time really had flown while I was autographing.
“Yeah.” We exchanged a look.
“Let’s go,” I said.
In the bathroom, some girls squealed as soon as we made it to the doorway.
“Sorry ladies,” I said. “But we’re looking for our friend. Could you call out and see if there’s a Cin – she has highlighted brown hair – in there?”
A minute or so later, the redhead we’d asked returned with a decided head shake. “Nope. No Cin in there.”
I scowled. What was the face I’d seen as I made my way?
Rodney’s. Absolutely fuming. I’d forgotten it, barely registered it, but now, could Cin being missing have anything to do with it?
No.
Owen gave me a questioning look, but I was already striding into the bathroom. Luckily – or not so luckily – there was no one there. No one to berate us for coming where we didn’t belong. But Cin wasn’t t
here either.
My heart felt like a fist pounding against my ribs. My phone buzzed with a text.
Unfortunately, I realized the number all too well – Rodney’s.
Got your girlfriend, it said simply. You’re not getting her back until the money’s paid up.
30
Owen
No. That was all my brain could process as Jake showed me the text. Suddenly, the air in the boxing venue was stifling. Outside, it wasn’t any better.
Jake was saying something. “What the hell was this about dude?”
“What the hell was that about?” I asked. “You in touch with Rodney?”
“Not by choice,” Jake said. “He wanted me to throw the match on purpose, so he could earn back the money you owe him. But then I saw Cin and I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her to see me lose.”
He stabbed a number on his phone, and next second was on a call – with Rodney, probably.
“Rodney?” he said, sure enough, a few seconds later. “It’s Jake. I’ll throw however many fights you want, just bring Cin back.”
A pause, where Jake’s scowl deepened. “I know I screwed up, but I won’t this time. You can believe me.”
Another pause, and Jake was lowering the phone, snarling, “You do that, and you’ll be sorry. Mark my words.” He looked at me and the sunken in quality of his eyes shook me.
“He said he didn’t believe me. That I have three days to get him the money, or he’ll kill her and send her to us in pieces.”
Jake shook his head, his expression going angry as it rested on me. “What the fuck dude? You’d better tell me everything right now Owen. Everything.”
“I borrowed the money to get you started,” I reminded him, angry myself. “But after I paid it back and Rodney saw how good you were doing, he started asking for more, claiming he’d forgotten about the interest. He threatened to hurt you and end your career unless I kept paying. So I paid him three times over what we’d originally agreed on, but he still wouldn’t let up.”
Jake frowned, his eyes still angry, although the anger itself directed elsewhere. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you involved,” I said. “I thought Rodney would get the hint that I was done playing his game by me ignoring him. Guess he just went to you instead.” I shook my head, looking at him. “You were really going to throw the match?”
Jake nodded. “But then when I saw how worried Cin was.” His face crumpled. “What the hell are we going to do, Owen? We have to get her back.”
“And we will,” I said firmly, pausing.
“Look, they want money, why don’t we just call dad?” Jake suggested.
“Fuck no!” I practically screamed. “Ever since we joined the Army instead of going into the family business with him, he’s practically disowned us. Why would he help us now? And how would we even explain it to him? ‘Hey dad, we’re dating the same girl and some shady loan shark Owen borrowed money from kidnapped her’. Yeah, that’ll go over well.”
“Well what the fuck is your suggestion then?” Jake asked, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.
“We need to find out where he’s keeping her first,” I said to him. “We’re ex-Army and fucking boxers Jake, we can get her back ourselves. We have the training and the skills, we just need to use them.”
“Well standing around here isn’t going to help us figure it out, let’s go home and make a plan,” Jake said.
We hopped into Jakes’s car and headed back to our apartment to think about what to do next.
Some dangerous asshole had our girl and we were going to get her back.
The next part, the ‘how’ part was the most important one, and the one I didn’t know yet.
“We just have to think,” Jake said. “What do we know about Rodney?”
“Next to nothing,” I admitted. “Except that he’s an asshole.”
We sat at a stoplight, both quiet and immersed in our thoughts. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.
“Wait, I know someone who can help us.” Thirty or so minutes later, walking into Canada Computers, I was almost as frustrated as I was during the match itself. If this didn’t work, I wasn’t sure what our next step would be.
I shook my head firmly. There was no room for that thought. This had to work.
Jimmy was much as I remembered him from our Army days, egg-shaped bald head, easy carefree smile. He’d been a whiz at computers, working our counter intelligence unit on deployment. “Owen,” he said amiably at the sight of me. “You look like shit.”
“We can’t all be models,” I said, immediately going into gear. “I need your help with something.”
After I explained the situation to him, Jimmy was silent a long while. Then, finally, he said, “I know what you need.”
For a few minutes, he was gone in the back, Jake and I left staring dully at each other. I knew he was pissed beyond words at me and I didn’t blame him. My stupid stunt had gotten Cin kidnapped. And now they were threatening to kill her. I couldn’t bear the thought of them hurting one hair on her head. One look at Jake and his barely concealed rage told me he was thinking the same thing.
Finally, before one of us our fist through a wall, Jimmy came back.
“Lucky for you boys, my manager’s a wee bit of a hoarder and had this shoved on a shelf back in the store room,” Jimmy said, holding up an innocent-looking electronic box that looked like it was from the ‘80s.
“So what exactly is that ancient thing supposed to do?” I asked.
“Well if it still works, it should give you a location for where your girl is at.”
Jake and I both nodded, anxious to see if the old piece of tech still worked.
After he set it up, he fixed us with a stern look. “Anyone asks you, though. You didn’t get this done here.”
“Get what done?” Jake said, and Jimmy winked. “That’s my boy.”
He nodded at the black box which was blinking with lights, then to me. “She’s ready when you are.”
I called up Rodney, holding my breath. What if he just ignored my call just to fuck with me a bit? After three rings though, thankfully, he picked up.
” “You got my money already?” he asked.
“Listen Rodney,” I began.
“No, you listed to me you little shit. Get me my money or the girl dies. I’m not kidding,” he said.
I glanced at Jimmy who was making a gesture to me that I needed to keep Rodney on the line longer.”
“I’m sure we can come up with something that works for both of us. I know you don’t want to hurt her,” I said to him.
“No, I don’t. But I will. Get me my fucking money Powers.”
“Rodney, wait…”
But it was too late. He’d hung up.
I groaned, looking to Jimmy, whose face was inconclusive.
“Huh,” he said after a minute, peering into the small screen on the box on his side. “Actually worked.”
“It did? Are you sure?” Jake asked, looking over Jimmy’s shoulder like he knew what he was seeing. Jimmy’s gaze was still on the screen. “You boys are in for it.” He lifted his gaze to fix us with a significant look. “It’s on Clair Creek Drive.”
“But Clair Creek Drive is...” Jake began.
“All but abandoned, yeah,” Jimmy said with a shrug. “Pretty sure there’s still a handful of buildings left standing, though.”
“And that’s it?” Jake said incredulously. “Your little box thing narrows it down to a whole district?”
“Hey,” Jimmy said. “This isn’t NCIS.”
I gave my friend a pat. “Thanks Jimmy. Sorry about Jake, we’re just… we really like this girl.”
Jimmy nodded. “I can tell.” He came around the counter to give me a back-beating sort of hug. “Good luck to you.”
A few minutes later, Jake and I were on the road. While I drove, Jake was fiddling around in the overflowing glove compartment, looking for something.
“What are you looking for in there?” I asked, trying to keep my eyes on the road.
“These,” he said a few seconds later, holding out two knives. I’d all but forgotten about them, our self-defense tools from when we’d been younger.
Clair Creek Drive, despite its innocuous name, had the worst crime rate around. It was where overdose victims were found, were gang shootings went down, and where shady fuckers held innocent, unassuming women hostage.
We’d be lucky if knives where all we’d need.
31
Cin
“Cheer up, sunshine,” the fat floral-dressed woman cooed. “Soon as we get our money, you’re outta here.”
I glared dully at her, not saying anything. With my feet and hands tied up, what was there to say – ‘please let me go free’? I’d already said that several times. Her and the other two beefy assholes guarding me in this derelict room were all but deaf to my pleas.
It had been several hours since I’d been taken, and I had no idea where I was or if anyone was coming for me. I could only hope that Jake and Owen had called the police or something.
The woman had caught me by surprise in the bathroom, just seeming like a middle-aged housewife asking for help. Only when she’d pressed a knife from under her cardigan into the small of my back had I realized what was going on.
We’d crept out of the bathroom, and I could even see Jake and Owen, busy with autographing, oblivious. I’d longed to cry out, but not willing to take the risk. I knew all too well how fatal a knife wound could be, and I had no plans of experiencing one firsthand.
Now here I was, stuck here for reasons I still wasn’t sure of. I’d heard some mention of money at some point, and figured that was the motivation for my kidnapping, but couldn’t quite wrap my head around Jake and Owen being tangled up with people like this.
The taller male guard stalked around me, his gaze roving over me uncomfortably.
“You better get used to it here.” He spoke with a Southern accent. “Your boyfriends are never going to come up with the money.”
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