by Vivian Gray
“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” he said, voice strained with effort.
My jaw felt bruised from the crushing pressure of his fingers, and I felt my strength failing. My lips stayed closed, but with every passing second, I lost ground to Angel. With every passing second, he was closer to overpowering me, to shoving the pills down my throat.
A strangled cry ripped through my body, muffled by my closed mouth, as I pulled from my reserve strength, doing everything I could to resist. But with my hands numb and bound above my head, my ankles tied to a chair, I didn’t have anything left. I was a sandcastle in the midst of a tsunami. A rotted old shed in the face of a tornado.
I felt Angel’s fingers wedging my jaw open, the pills in his other hand, ready to force into my mouth as soon as it opened.
It was over.
I was going to lose.
Angel would force me to swallow the pills, my baby would die, and I would be killed. I didn’t have a shot at being let go, of ever seeing my old life. The Marin who worked at Jasper’s Grill and volunteered and though the worst thing in life would be not making rent – that Marin didn’t exist anymore. She died the moment she saw Bear and Tats carrying out the dead Jackal.
That made it better almost, to think I’d been dead for weeks. It wasn’t such a loss then. Not really. When my mouth opened and everything Angel had planned for me began to play out, he would be torturing a ghost. I closed my eyes and prepared myself for my fate.
Then, the floor began to rumble. Dust fell from the ceiling in showers. Was it an earthquake? Was the old building falling down? Angel turned around, still smiling. And then the door burst open, and his profile became a silhouette from the light pouring through the open doors. I watched as his smile faded and his lips parted in shock.
And then, I heard the sirens.
Chapter Nineteen
Jasper
I messaged the woman back, and she wrote back with a mile marker and exit number within a minute. As I neared the exit, a trail of Hellions behind me, and the sound of police sirens growing louder, all I could do was repeat the same words over and over again.
Please let this be the right place. Please let her be safe. Please let this be the right place. Please let her be safe.
The hour time limit had just passed, and Angel hadn’t texted me again. He’d been sending me taunting pictures and images throughout the hour, but suddenly they stopped. Was it because he was too busy torturing her? Or because he had given up and let her go? My mind flipped back and forth between the best and worst scenarios. Marin happy and safe. Marin mutilated and cold. Marin jumping into my arms. Marin shattered in a heap on the floor.
I kept reminding myself that the only thing I could do was get to the building and try to save her. I couldn’t change what was happening to her now, or what had happened. All I could do was get there as fast as I could and try to stop whatever Angel had planned.
If it was the right building, of course.
I quieted the doubting voice in the back of my mind – I didn’t have time for it – and held down the throttle. I heard the Hellions behind me speed up in response.
We would get there. She would be okay.
Exit 37 was off to the right, and I began scanning the frontage road for any signs of Marin. The whole area was industrial and run-down. Empty warehouses and storefronts dotted the road, layers of graffiti coating the sides of the buildings. Some were local gang tags I recognized, others were amateurish and clearly the work of local teens.
As we pulled off the interstate and onto the frontage road, I checked my watch. It was five minutes past the hour deadline Angel had given me.
Hold on, Marin.
Tats rode up next to me and waved to get my attention. It was weird to see him alone. He and Bear always stuck close together. I told Tats he didn’t have to come, but he wanted to avenge Bear just as much as I wanted to save Marin. Angel had the full force of Tats’ particular brand of crazy coming at him. God help him.
Tats pointed out a faded sign on a long, one-story building just to the right. Half of the sign had fallen down, and what was left read: ___tress Wa_____se.
Mattress Warehouse.
My heart began to hammer in my chest. This had to be it. The windows that had once run across the front of the building had been boarded over with large sheets of plywood, but one panel had been removed and was leaning against the front door. From the road, it wasn’t noticeable, but if you knew what to look for, it was clear someone had unscrewed the board to get inside the building.
I took a hard right, tires squealing behind me as everyone followed me in. Off of the interstate, the rumble of our collective motors was deafening. If anyone was inside, there was no way they couldn’t hear us. I prayed Marin was still alive to hear it. I wanted her to know I was coming for her.
I parked in the cracked cement parking lot, grass and weeds slowly reclaiming it, and didn’t even bother turning off my bike. I hopped off and ran for the door.
“Should we wait for the cops?” Tats asked.
Three police cars were taking the off ramp, sirens blaring, but it would be two minutes before they were able to get through the door, and I had no idea if Marin had two minutes. I shook my head and kicked the plywood board aside. The doors had once been glass, but black tarps now covered the shattered holes. I pulled the door back, and light flooded the dark space. It took half a second for my eyes to adjust, and then I saw Angel.
He was smiling, standing in front of a bound Marin. He had her face firmly in his hand, his other hand holding something I couldn’t make out. Marin squinted against the light. Her arms were spread above her head, each wrist connected to a strap that had been attached to an exposed ceiling beam.
I ran across the room, watching as Angel’s smile gave way to shock and then fear. He let go of Marin and dropped whatever he was holding. Then, he ran.
“Don’t let him escape,” I shouted.
Tats was running next to me, and he broke off to the left, moving to block a door on that side of the room. Before he could reach it, though, several Jackals walked through the door, wondering what the commotion was. They didn’t even see Tats coming. He launched himself at them, kicking one man in the stomach, his elbow connecting with another man’s nose. Then a few more Hellions arrived for backup and overpowered the Jackals.
Angel was headed towards what appeared to be a solid back wall, but as I followed him, I noticed a thin crack of light surrounding a door. The building had a back door, and if Angel got to it, he could possibly escape. The police were just coming in through the front door, shouting for everyone to get down on the ground, but I couldn’t lay down and risk Angel escaping. I pushed even harder, leaning forward into my run.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tats and the other Hellions getting down on the ground, the police patting them down and cuffing them, unsure who was a criminal and who wasn’t. I heard police yelling at me to stop, but Angel’s hand was reaching for the door, and I couldn’t let him escape. I was so close. As he made contact with the door, I leaped forward and tackled him.
My arms closed around his knees, bringing him down. His face smashed into the wall, and he slid to the floor, hands clutching his nose.
I crawled up his body, knees on either side of his hips, and rained blow after blow down on him. Angel tried to block my hits, but it didn’t matter, I was striking out at him so fast that he couldn’t stop all of them. I felt his face give way beneath my fist. My knuckles came back bloody, but still, I went back for more.
Hands grabbed my shoulders and slammed me back into the concrete, and it was then that I realized I had been yelling, cursing at Angel for ever touching Marin. It took three police officers to pin me down and flip me onto my stomach. All the rage and anxiety that had been brewing inside of me since Marin first telling me Angel had tried to rape her, since Angel had called me, had exploded, and I couldn’t contain it. I felt as though the anger would rip me apart.
&nb
sp; “Jasper.”
I heard my name amid the noise. A single word, broken and raspy. But I recognized her voice. I’d been so focused on Angel, on keeping him from escaping, that I’d forgotten about Marin.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said to the officer with his knee in my back. “I’m the one who called you.”
“Let him go,” Marin said weakly. An officer had cut the straps that held her arms up and undone the ties around her ankles. She was holding her robe around her chest and standing on shaky legs. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
The officer hesitated, but Marin begged, and he finally let me go with a warning. “Please leave the apprehending of criminals to the professionals, all right?”
I nodded and turned to Marin. It wasn’t the best or worst-case scenario I’d worked out in my head. Marin wasn’t shiny and perfect, running into my arms. She was bruised and battered, weak from the emotional and physical toll the day had taken on her. However, she also wasn’t dead. She hadn’t been slashed and left for dead. She was alive and running into my arms.
“You came. You came,” she said over and over again, curling herself into my chest as if she couldn’t believe I was really there.
“Of course I came,” I said, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back to look at her. There wasn’t any electricity in the building, but the police had flashlights, and all the doors had been propped open to let in the afternoon light. Marin looked pale, her eyes as wide as quarters. “I will always come for you. No matter what.”
Her lower lip quivered, and then she shook her head as though her mind were an etch-a-sketch and she was trying to erase an image. “Angel said you weren’t coming. He told me you didn’t try to bargain with him, that you cared more about money than me.”
“I knew it wouldn’t do any good to bargain. Angel is crazy. No amount of money would have stopped him from doing whatever he wanted to you. My only shot was to find out where he was keeping you and get here before he could hurt you too badly.” The idea of what could have happened had I arrived even a few minutes later made me shiver, and I saw it was on Marin’s mind, as well. “But he can’t hurt you anymore,” I assured her.
We both turned to see Angel being practically carried out of the building. Our fight had left him bloody, swollen, and nearly unconscious.
“You came,” she repeated, her eyes full of gratitude.
“I love you, Marin,” I said. It was the first time I’d ever said those words to her. In fact, it was one of the first times I’d let myself even think the words, but I knew they were entirely true. I loved her. More than I’d ever loved anyone. She was the woman who made me want a better life. She made me want more for myself. And she had made me a father. That thought sent a jolt through me, and before Marin could respond, I was dragging her out of the building towards the police cars and ambulance that had just pulled up.
“She is pregnant,” I shouted to anyone who would listen. “We need to make sure the baby is safe.”
An EMT hopped down from the ambulance and helped Marin into the back of the truck. I followed them, sitting on a small chair attached to the inside of the truck. He asked her questions about where she was hurt and what had been done to her. Angel was incredibly lucky to be in police custody because hearing her recount the story of everything they’d done to her had me seeing red. I wanted to kill him.
I held her hand as we drove to the hospital, and as they rolled her to the emergency room on a stretcher. I held her hand while the doctor did an initial examination and while we waited for the ultrasound technician to arrive.
“Everything will be fine,” I said, rubbing her knuckles with my thumb. “The baby is fine, I’m sure.”
She squeezed my hand. “I hope you’re right.” Then, she looked up at me, eyes glassy with unshed tears. “I never got to respond to what you said before.”
“About what?”
“You said you loved me,” she said quietly, a small smile playing on her lips.
“Oh, right.” I felt my cheeks flushing, and I turned towards the television in the corner of the room. The evening news was on, and images of the abandoned mattress store and the cops parked all over the property filled the screen. The media were all over the story since I had released the information of Marin’s kidnapping to the local gossip blogs.
“Did you mean it?” she asked. “It’s okay if you didn’t. The situation was extreme, and emotions were high. I know people can say things they don’t mean when they—”
I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, stopping her mid-sentence. She was tense at first, but quickly loosened beneath my touch, opening up to me. My tongue slipped into her mouth, tasting her. I ran my hand beneath her hospital gown and up along her spine. I followed her rib cage up to her breasts, rolling over them with my palm. She groaned and wrapped a hand around my neck to pull me deeper into our kiss.
I was hard, but I pulled away, catching my breath. The emergency room was not the place to have a quickie, especially not after everything Marin had just been through. She was breathing hard, her cheeks flushed, and I reached out to cup her cheek. “I meant it. Every word.”
Marin bit her lower lip, and I twitched inside my jeans. God, I wanted her. “You did?”
I nodded. “More than I’ve ever meant anything. I love you, and I love our child already.”
She placed her hand on her stomach and beamed up at me. “Everything is going to be okay, huh?”
“Everything is going to be great.”
Chapter Twenty
Marin
The ultrasound technician arrived a few minutes later, and despite our assurances to one another that everything would be fine, Jasper and I held our breath as the woman performed a vaginal ultrasound on me. The pregnancy was too early to register with a traditional ultrasound, so she had to do it internally. As soon as the probe was inside of me, I saw a tiny gray speck in the sea of black that was my uterus.
She pointed to a small computer screen hanging on the wall. “That is your baby.”
“He’s so tiny,” Jasper said.
“He or she is actually being magnified quite a lot right now,” she said.
I was too busy staring at the gray bean to care about size or gender. “Is there a heartbeat?”
She moved the probe around a bit, hit a few buttons on her keyboard, and then the most beautiful sound in the world began to play out. It sounded like a rhythmic wind blowing through a set of very old speakers.
“That’s a healthy heartbeat,” she said. “165 beats per minute.”
Jasper squeezed my hand. “Perfectly healthy,” he repeated.
I began to cry. Relief washed over me in uncontrollable waves. The technician tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t stay quiet long enough to listen, sobs bursting out every few seconds. Finally, she congratulated me and left.
“Our baby is fine,” Jasper said, pushing my hair back from my face and kissing my forehead. “You are both safe.”
I ran my hands over my smooth stomach and looked up at him. “I love you, too.”
He bent down and kissed me. It was warm and tender, and everything I needed right then. He laid down on the bed next to me and held me until we were discharged.
***
“Do you need anything else?” Jasper asked for the fiftieth time in the last hour.
I looked around the bed at the pile of extra blankets he’d brought me, the two keeps of tea, one of which was now cold, and the huge stack of books I would never have enough time to read. “I’m fine.”
He sighed. “I know I’m being annoying, but I just want to make you comfortable.”
“I’m lying in the comfiest bed ever, in a house that is decked out in the most high-tech security, looking at the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. I’m as comfortable as comfortable gets.”
He laughed. “The security guy said I’m the only person in Houston with their newest motion sensor cameras and lights.”
“Your house is basicall
y Alcatraz, so why don’t you come lay down with me and relax.” I patted the pillow next to me.
“You’re sure you aren’t hungry or anything?”
Jasper had been so reserved with me before the incident with Angel, but now he gushed over me. He was caring and considerate, nothing like the man I’d stripped in front of.
I patted the pillow more aggressively, my face pulled into a serious mask.
He held up his hands in surrender and smiled. “All right, all right. Whatever you say.”
As soon as he laid on the bed, I curled my body into him. I had spent the last several days decked out in a set of silk pajamas Jasper bought for me, eating dinners delivered from some of the best restaurants in the city, and watching romantic comedy after romantic comedy. It would have been the best weekend ever if Jasper would let me touch him.
Even though he’d clearly been straining against his pants in the emergency room, once we were discharged, he would barely look at me, let alone have sex with me. I knew he was trying to be sensitive to the trauma I’d endured, but if anything, I was in need of a distraction, and his abs were certainly distracting.
I ran my hand down his chest and found the hem of his shirt. My fingers drew circles on his bare skin, and then my index finger pressed beneath the waistband of his fitted sweatpants.
“Are you thirsty or anything?” he asked, sitting up a little, so he slid away from my hand.
I lifted myself to my hands and knees, crawled over his body, and slid my fingers into his pants. “I’m parched,” I whispered, my lips pressed against his ear. I knew my pajama shirt was unbuttoned very low, so he had a clear view down my shirt. I wiggled from side to side, allowing gravity to swing my breasts. Jasper groaned but still didn’t touch me.
“I can get you water or more tea,” he said, slightly strained.
I pushed my hand lower into his pants and wrapped myself around his length. He was already hard, and he twitched in my hand.
“I think I have some lemonade powder.” His voice was husky, and I knew he was seconds away from giving in.