by B. B. Hamel
That thought was my only solace as the day wore thin.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Reid
I woke up early feeling decent for the first time in a long time.
I didn’t have a long hike ahead of me. Since I didn’t have a drug shipment to lug along with me in my pack, I could move a lot faster. Consequently, I was going to get back into town around noon, hours before I usually did.
I broke down my campsite and repacked my bag, but kept my phone slipped into my front pocket instead of buried in some random pouch. I wanted to get any messages from Becca as soon as they came.
I had messaged her the night before when I finally got on an American cell tower with decent enough service, something pretty rare. The little blue bubble said it was delivered, but the night went by without a word from her.
That was unusual, I had to admit. That girl always had her phone with her. It was the most reliable thing in the world: the sun would rise, the wind would blow, and Becca would have her cell within arm’s reach.
As I hiked back toward town, I began to get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt anxious, like something was eating me up inside, but I wasn’t sure what.
Yeah, the mob might still kill me, but it wasn’t that. I was confident about that.
With about two hours to go, it hit me: Becca still hadn’t responded. There was no way she hadn’t seen my text. Even if she were mad at me, I doubt she would ignore a message like that.
What was going on?
I shook my head, forcing the thought out of my mind. There was probably some explanation. Maybe she dropped her phone in the toilet, or the battery exploded, or any number of reasons why she couldn’t shoot me a quick message.
I concentrated on walking, one foot in front of the other, and resisted the urge to start running. That would only exhaust me, and I had a long day coming.
Minutes turned into hours, and I was just outside of town when my phone buzzed. Excited, I pulled it out of my pants pocket.
Come to my place when you get this, Thom said.
I blinked at the message, feeling disappointed.
Why, you hear something? I wrote back.
Just do it.
I frowned at his response but decided to head right over. It was actually closer than my house was, and that suited me just fine. I didn’t need a rest, didn’t want a rest. Becca was perfectly okay. I didn’t need to worry.
It was a few minutes after noon when I walked up through Thom’s backyard, or at least the stretch of woods that led up to his trailer. I stopped outside his door and knocked twice.
“Thom, it’s me,” I called out.
He answered the door, looking haggard. “Hey, man.”
“Did you hear from them?”
He nodded. “But first, I have to show you something.”
“What did they say?”
“Come inside.”
Something felt off. Had the Canadians said no to our deal? I didn’t have time to wonder, because Thom was already back inside his trailer. I followed him in, resolving myself to go with whatever was happening.
He gestured to sit across from him at the table.
“You’re annoying the hell out of me. What’s happening?” I asked.
“I heard from the Canadians, but I got to tell you something first.”
“What’s more important than the mobsters right now?”
“This.” He held out his cell phone. “Take it.”
I reached out and grabbed it.
I was staring at a picture.
For some reason, I was having trouble understanding it.
It was a topless girl, a familiar girl. Her hands were tied up behind her back and she had a length of chain around her throat. The chain was connected to a steel ring set in the wall. It looked like she was standing above a drain in some dingy, disgusting basement.
I stared at it. Slowly it dawned on me who she was.
Becca.
Becca was tied up. Chain around her throat.
“What the fuck is this?” I asked slowly.
Becca was topless, her bra dirty, her hair disheveled. Like she’d been there at least a night.
“I got that from Jay.”
Terror spiked through me. Jay had Becca chained up in his basement like a fucking piece of meat.
And that terror was quickly replaced with rage.
“Motherfucker,” I yelled, standing up.
“Whoa, Climber.”
I reached back, fingering my gun. “I’m going to murder him. Where the fuck is he?”
“Calm down, Climber. We have to talk first.”
I got in Thom’s face, not caring that he had nothing to do with Becca getting kidnapped. I wanted to hit someone, to break something, and Thom was the closest thing. Rage flowed through me, threatening to overwhelm everything.
“Tell me where he is,” I yelled.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. But you got to sit down.”
I grabbed the front of his shirt. “If she’s hurt, I’ll kill every one of them. I’ll rip out their fucking eyes.”
“Climber, man.”
“Where the fuck are they? Tell me where the fuck she is.”
“Climber.”
My grip tightened. “Tell me now, cocksucker.” I pulled the gun from my waistband.
“Climber, dude. Calm down. I didn’t do this.”
I held the gun up. “Tell me now.”
“Climber.” I could see the fear in his eyes but I didn’t care. All I saw was that picture of Becca, and I felt so much anger course through me. “REID. Put the gun away.”
My name snapped me out of it. I looked from my gun to Thom’s face and slowly lowered it, slipping it back into my waistband. I moved back away from him, releasing his shirt. The anger was still there, but I knew I shouldn’t direct it toward him.
“I have to go there now, Thom.”
“I know, man. I get it. But listen to me.” He paused to right himself and then continued. “I heard from the people up north. They’re taking your deal.”
“When are they coming?”
Thom checked his watch. “An hour.”
I nodded slowly. “They’re coming here in an hour.”
“With muscle, too. Apparently Rigley doesn’t want to give Jay any time to regroup before they hit him.”
“I have to go now.”
“No. If you do that, you’re dead. But if you wait for Rigley and his muscle, we’ll get Becca back.”
“I can’t let her stay there. It’s my fucking fault.” I clenched my jaw, trying not to let my frustration spill out on him again. “I put her in there.”
“I get it. I really do. But going now is a suicide mission and might hurt her more in the end. Look, Rigley wants the money you have. He won’t let Becca get hurt.”
I turned my back on him and shoved out the door. I ignored his protests and started back into town, my head spinning.
I had to find them. I had to get Becca out, and I couldn’t wait an hour.
Rage filled me, spun down my limbs, and made my pulse race through leaping jumps. I was so full of adrenaline and anger that I didn’t hear Thom come up behind me.
He tackled me hard, sending me to the ground. I threw up my hands and broke my fall, but he was on me already, struggling with my pack. I felt him grab my gun and yank it free.
“Get the fuck off me,” I grunted.
He held the gun at me. “Stop struggling, Climber. This is for your own good.”
“Fuck you, Thom. Kill me if you want to but I’m going.”
He pressed me down, gun against my temple. “You think that’ll help, getting your ass killed? Do you even know where you’re going?”
“I can’t stay here. They have Becca.”
“They do, but only since yesterday. She’s fine, man. We’ll get her back but you can’t kill yourself in the process.”
I took deep, calming breaths.
I knew he was right. I knew he was right. I knew it but I could
n’t help wanting to get out there and do something.
“Rigley has to let me come,” I said finally.
“He will, man.”
Thom moved back and let me go, still holding on to the gun.
I slowly got up. “We wait an hour. If they’re not back, I’m leaving.”
“Okay. Fine.”
I stared at him. “Gun.” He handed it to me. “Don’t hit me from behind like that again.”
He grinned. “Roger that, Climber.”
We walked slowly back toward his trailer.
Thom was right. Getting myself killed wasn’t going to help Becca. As much as I despised waiting and hated myself for getting her involved at all, I knew that I couldn’t rush out there like an idiot and fuck everything up.
I’d wait one hour. After that, nothing was going to stop me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Reid
They came in four huge black SUVs.
Forty-five agonizing minutes after Thom tackled me from behind, Rigley and his men pulled up and climbed out. There were twenty of them all together, each man carrying an assault rifle and wearing body armor. Each of them looked like they knew what they were doing.
Rigley laughed and threw his arms open when he saw me. “There’s my favorite thief.”
“Rigley.”
He embraced me and laughed. “This is a glorious day, thief. Why do you look so serious?”
“They have my stepsister.”
He pulled away. “Captive?”
I nodded.
He made a face. “Jay is scum. Real scum. I look forward to breaking him.”
“I’m coming with you guys.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You have training? Know how to kill a man?”
“They have my stepsister,” I said slowly. “I’m coming or we don’t have a deal.”
He frowned. “You’re trying to change the rules now?”
“Jay changed the rules. I have to come.”
Rigley studied me for a minute and I stared back at him. It didn’t matter to me whether he said yes or no, I knew I was going anyway. I’d walk if I had to.
“Okay. You ride with me.”
I nodded. “Fine.”
Rigley looked at a man with a deep scar down his right cheek. “Pierre, get this thief a vest.”
The man shrugged, took a drag of his cigarette, and then rooted around in the trunk of the SUV. He pulled out a black flak vest and tossed it to me.
I’d never worn one before. It was surprisingly heavy as I strapped it on. Rigley watched appraisingly.
“You look like a real badass now, thief,” he said, grinning.
“I always was one.”
He laughed loudly. “Now thief, the rest of the cash.”
I rooted around in my pack and pulled out a trash bag and tossed it to him. He caught it and looked inside and then back at me.
“You had it the whole time?”
I nodded. “Bargaining. Just in case.”
He laughed again and tossed the bag to Pierre, who put it in the car.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
The men immediately put out their cigarettes and began to load back into the cars. I looked back at Thom.
“See you later.”
“Good luck, Climber. Don’t get killed.”
I grinned. “Dying isn’t my style.”
But killing Jay sure is, I thought as I followed Rigley into the car.
It was a tight squeeze, but it didn’t matter. The driver pulled out, the cars moving in formation, heading farther away from town.
I had no clue where we were going, but evidently Rigley did. I didn’t bother asking questions, and the mood in the car didn’t make me feel talkative.
I kept thinking about that picture. Becca chained to a wall like an animal, her shirt ripped off, her hands behind her back. I didn’t know what they did to her, but I was going to make them pay for it.
I was bringing hellfire and retribution down on their doorstep.
We drove farther and farther, out into the woods and the mountains. Finally, the driver made a left and headed down a dirt path. We were probably a half hour outside of Ridgewood in a pretty sparsely populated area.
The place had huge, high chain link fences with a gate. For a second, I wondered how we were going to get past it.
And then the driver floored the car, answering my question.
“Hold on,” Rigley said, grinning at me.
I grabbed on to the car seat just as the driver rammed into the gate.
We pitched back and forward but slammed through it. The sound of crunching metal and grating plastic tore through the air. If they didn’t know we were coming, they did now.
The other SUVs followed as we barreled up the path, heading right for a house set back away from the road. Bushes and trees circled the place, and it looked like any other suburban home in the world.
Except it was full of violent gangsters. And the woman I loved, chained in the basement.
There was no movement from the house as the SUVs encircled it. Slowly, the men climbed out of the cars. I walked behind Rigley, keeping close, my gun drawn and the safety off.
They were using complex hand signals that I couldn’t follow. People spread out in all directions, one team heading toward the back, the others fanning out.
“Just keep near me, thief,” Rigley said.
He looked happy, like it was the best day of his life. He was absolutely terrifying.
For a second, I felt afraid. I was about to break into a house full of violent and dangerous men. There was a real chance that I was about to die.
But as soon as I remembered Becca and the look on her face, all the fear was gone. I felt as centered and calm as possible, almost like I was climbing a steep wall.
One team of four men approached the front door. They used a heavy steel battering ram and slammed it into the door once, twice, sending loud, booming noises through the area.
The door exploded inward on the third try.
There was silence and then the deafening roar of gunfire.
The men up front fell back as another team moved up to cover them. Men inside were firing rifles out at us, high caliber shit that ricocheted off the dirt and bore holes through the trucks. Rigley dove behind a nearby bush and I followed. The bullets whizzed through the air, and Rigley laughed loudly. He began to return fire.
“Die motherfuckers,” he yelled, laughing joyously.
Another team moved forward and pulled what looked like grenades from their vests. Rigley looked at me.
“Avert your eyes!” he yelled over the gunfire.
I watched as the men tossed the grenades into the room. I looked away just in time.
There was a loud, deep boom, and a flash so bright that I saw it through my eyelids twenty feet away in full sunlight.
“Come on,” Rigley yelled. I opened my eyes and followed him. The gunfire from inside the house had stopped and Rigley burst in through the door.
I followed him closely. Ahead there was an overturned table with two men behind it, both clutching their eyes, screaming.
Rigley fired, killing them both. Their heads disappeared in red smoke.
Another team followed us in and we fanned out. The next room was clear, but the room after that had three more men. I ducked against the wall, firing back at them, but we were pinned down as bullets tore into the walls.
They were insane. Fearless and insane, firing like they’d never run out of ammo.
I retreated. Rigley stayed there, returning fire and laughing like a psycho.
I had to find Becca. It was my only option. I didn’t have time to play commando with the rest of the gangsters. I had to keep going forward. I moved back toward the front hall and went down another corridor. Most of the other teams were taking care of the other room, and so I found myself alone.
Up ahead, there was a T-junction and another door. I poked my head around the corner and saw nothing. I grabbed the door handle, turned and pushed
it open.
Stairs, leading down.
My heart skipped a beat as I descended into the basement. I shut the door behind me and crept down as quietly as possible.
“Becca?” I said, looking around.
I heard something clink over in the back corner. I held my gun up and crept forward.
There were boxes all over the place and old workout equipment strewn around. The air felt muggy and damp, and I kept feeling spiderwebs on my skin. I picked my way through the mess and headed toward the noise.
I rounded a mound of boxes and froze.
“I’m surprised it’s you,” Jay said.
Standing a few feet away, illuminated by a single window, was Jay. He held his gun up, pressed against Becca’s temple, the chain wrapped around her throat.
I stared into her eyes. She didn’t look afraid, but she looked exhausted. Her shirt was torn but her bra was still intact, and Jay was holding the chain in one hand and a gun in the other. She shook her head slightly.
“Let her go,” I said.
“You must really like her,” Jay said casually. “You’re risking a lot.”
“And you’re hiding behind a fucking girl.”
“She’s my hostage. This is what you do with hostages.” He pressed the gun against Becca’s temple.
“Let her go, Jay. It’s over.”
“How about I don’t do that. Instead, why don’t you leave, or I blow her brains out.”
“You’re just making it worse for yourself.”
“It was you, wasn’t it,” he said suddenly.
“What are you talking about?”
“You robbed me.”
“Yeah. I did rob you.”
“And this bitch helped you.”
“She had nothing to do with it.”
“Ah. I don’t believe you.” He grinned and cocked his head. “My slut tells me otherwise.”
“Lindsey? She’s too fucked up half the time to know what’s going on around her.”
“Maybe that’s true. I guess it doesn’t matter. But you should leave now, or I’ll kill this pretty girl.”
“I can leave. But Rigley won’t.”
“I’ll handle him.”
“Let her go first.”
“No, that isn’t happening. You see, I like this one.” He smiled a sick, cruel smile. The hand holding her chain released it and moved down her chest. “She’s pretty. I think I’ll make her mine when this is all over.” He moved the gun slightly, concentrating on the hand reaching toward her chest.