Lost for You

by BJ Harvey

  We’ve all decided to go out for pizza tonight, so after getting ready, Brax and I leave the apartment and head downstairs to walk the few blocks to the pizzeria. Stepping outside the building, the cool spring air caresses my bare arms. It’s getting lighter at night, so the purple tinged sky is breath taking.

  “I love this time of year,” I say to Brax as I pull my body tighter into his as we walk.

  “Me too. I love Summer even more, though. The hot days, the even hotter nights...” He waggles his brows at me, and I slap him in jest.

  “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?”

  He stops in the middle of the sidewalk and turns to face me. “Darlin’, I’m planning on many more hot summers with you. I hope you know that.” He leans down and nips my bottom lip with his teeth, I respond eagerly, grabbing his hair in my hands and holding his mouth to mine as we kiss.

  I hear a wolf whistle come from beside me. We both turn our heads to find Shay and Devon standing near us with huge grins.

  “Maybe you two should get a room,” Devon muses, giving me a sly wink.

  “Maybe you two should not be late. I’m starving,” I retort.

  Shay steps up, opening the restaurant door for me. “We can’t keep the lady waiting gentleman. Let’s eat.”

  After picking a booth, we order some drinks and the boys bicker about a baseball game that has just finished. Before too long, three piping hot pizzas are placed on our table and they all go silent as they begin stuffing their faces.

  “I just need to go to the restroom,” I tell them as Brax slides out of the booth to let me pass, giving me a quick peck on the cheek as I walk by.

  I walk down the corridor to the ladies, barely reaching the door when I feel myself being pulled from behind into an open supply closet. I panic and try to throw them off, but I can’t scream. A hand wraps around my mouth and I feel some sort of fabric being held against my nose. I hold my breath, trying not to breathe in the sweet smelling vapors, but it’s too late. My mind goes hazy; it’s like the edge of my consciousness has become blurred. My eyelids feel heavy as lead, and my whole body feels stiff like I can barely move it.

  The person behind me drags me backwards. I try to struggle with him, kicking and throwing my legs out, but my movements are staggered. Suddenly, everything feels like it is running in slow motion, except my heart which feels ready to beat out of my chest. There’s a lump in my throat as I grasp that this is actually happening. It is not an out of body experience, not one of my nightmares. I’m being kidnapped just meters away from the three men tasked to protect me. I’m thrown against the wall of a supply closet like a limp rag doll, my mind stuck in the limbo of consciousness as I feel an arm curl under my legs and then my body being lifted up and carried towards the restaurant’s back door.

  The restaurant backs onto an alley, and I realize that once I’m taken outside, I’ll have even less of a chance of being traced. I rack my hazy brain as each step the man takes leads me further away from Brax and the boys. I grab at my neck, finding my necklace. With no other options, I rip it away from me and drop it on the hallway floor just as I’m taken through the open back door.

  The man carrying me dumps me roughly into the car’s trunk before grabbing some rope, pulling my arms behind my back and binding them. I try to cry out, but no sound comes out except a hoarse moan as my eyes close and I’m plunged into darkness.

  I check my watch. Elle’s been gone for ten minutes.

  “What’s up, B?” Shay asks.

  “Elle’s been gone awhile. I’m just gonna check that she’s okay.”

  He quirks his brow. “You need me?”

  “Not yet, but maybe you two should settle the bill. Something feels off,” I say, getting to my feet and walking towards the back of the large restaurant.

  I turn the corner into a long dark hallway and notice a back door leading to an alley is open. Seems rather strange. I reach the ladies room door, and see that the supply closet door is also open, and there is linen strewn around the floor and cleaning products spilled everywhere. Definite signs of a struggle. Fuck! I quickly pull the bathroom door open.

  “Elle?”

  “Elle, are you okay?”

  “Darlin’, answer me!”

  I barge in, not caring if I interrupt anyone. I look under each stall and find them all empty. I run back out into the hallway and down towards the open door. I look down both ends of the alley, finding it empty. I suddenly feel a chill run down my spine as I’m hit with the real possibility that Elle has been abducted right underneath our fucking noses. Fuck!

  “Shay!” I yell down the hallway, seeing Shay and Devon rushing towards me after a few seconds.

  “Someone has taken her, man. She’s not in the ladies, the supply closet is messed up, and this door was wide open,” I state, talking way too quickly. I rest my hands on my knees as I try to slow my breathing down. Then I see it, a silver chain sticking out from under my sneaker. I quickly bend down to grab it and recognize it straight away as Elle’s infinity necklace. I clutch it in my hand.

  “She’s definitely been taken. This is her necklace.” I hold out my hands to them so they can see.

  “I’m calling the cops,” Shay says, his phone already in hand as he punches in 911.

  “What do you need me to do, bro?” Devon asks.

  “Go see the manager and ask if there are any cameras in the alley or hallway. We need to see who took her. Better still, what they were driving. I’m gonna call Elle’s phone, then I’m calling Victor. If it’s who I think it is, we need all the help we can get.”

  I punch in Elle’s number and it rings until voicemail picks up. I know it was in her back pocket because she’d left her handbag at home. I ring it once more and I hear my ring tone playing softly from somewhere close by.

  “Guys shut up. I can hear her phone ringing,” I say as I redial her number. I hear the music playing again. I walk down the hallway, the noise getting louder as I get close to the supply closet. Mother fucker!

  “Dammit!” I yell, kicking the wall.

  “What?” Devon asks, running to my side.

  I point to the open supply cupboard where Elle’s phone is lying on a wooden shelf. The fucker took it off her. How the hell are we going to find her now?

  I put my phone to my ear again, dialing the boss. Thankfully he picks up straight away.

  “Brax,” his low voice rumbles.

  “Someone took her, Vic! From right under our bloody noses!” I’m yelling down the phone, so fucking angry at myself. She was only gone for ten minutes. That’s all it fucking took.

  “Calm down. Now, tell me what we know. Have you called the police?”

  I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. “Shay’s on the phone to them now. Devon’s checking out the alley and hallway for cameras. She went to the ladies and didn’t come back. There are signs of a struggle, and the back door of the restaurant was left open, leading into an alley. If it is Gibbons, I’ll fucking kill him myself.”

  “Join the fucking queue, Brax. This is what you need to do. I need you guys to think about any place where he could’ve taken her. Gibbon’s is smart, but he’s not in his neck of the woods so he won’t go far. And I think you’ll be receiving a ransom call from him. Sooner, rather than later,” he states very matter of factly. “But until then, I’ll get the boys on it. We’ll find him, and we’ll find her. I swear, Brax.”

  I open my eyes, and I instantly feel closed in. I can’t move my arms which are stretched uncomfortably behind my back. My legs feel sluggish, and my head is throbbing. Then I remember what happened. Someone took me. Grabbed me from the restaurant, then threw me in this trunk.

  Brax! Oh my god, he’ll be frantic! I try to move my tightly bound hands again, but the rope keeps digging into my wrists the harder I try to free them. My ripped skin stings as it is exposed to the air. My heart sinks. I’m completely helpless right now.

  I have to stay calm. I have to believe th
at the boys will find me. That Brax will save me.

  What the fuck have I just done?

  Desperation will drive a man to do anything, to take the biggest chances, to fight the odds, to make the biggest mistakes of his life.

  I can hear her yelling from the trunk. Her screams tear through me. My warring conscience is eating away at me, but I have no other option. I have to continue on.

  After driving for about fifty miles, I reach my destination. When I made the decision to kidnap Elle for ransom, I knew I wasn’t thinking straight, so I reached out to the one man I thought would help me. The only other man other than Harry Brimstone that hates the boss as much as I do. It took a few days to get hold of him, but he sounded way too pleased to hear from me. Almost like he was expecting my call.

  Michael Evans is widely known to be corrupt and dirty. He’s been on the take for a number of years, and it’s no secret that he hates Victor Bertorelli. Actually, hate is too nice of a world. He despises the man with a deep passion. I’ve never found out why, but I suspect it’s some sordid deal gone wrong in the past.

  “Why are you calling me, Gibbons?” he asked when he returned my third call.

  “I need a safe house in New York state. Somewhere out of the way and undetectable.”

  “Why should I help you?” he asked deadpan.

  “Because I hate Victor as much as you do, possibly more, and I need somewhere to stow away for a few days where I can’t be disturbed.”

  “And what is in it for me? I’m not a fucking charity,” he says, his voice cold and emotionless.

  “What do you want?”

  “I want Brax and Shay away from Victor.” Fuck! He wants the impossible.

  “The only way to do that is to turn them against the boss man. How do you expect me to do that?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t really care, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll text you the address.”

  I let out a huge sigh of relief. This plan of mine might actually work. “I’ll pay you.”

  He bursts out laughing; a cold, maniacal laugh that chills my bones. “I don’t want or need your fucking money, Gibbons. But don’t worry, I’ll get what I’m owed. One way or another. Don’t you worry.” And with that, the line went dead.

  That was two days ago.

  Now, my GPS tells me I’m one hundred feet away from my destination. I turn into the driveway, and I’m confronted by a decrepit rundown cabin which doesn’t look big enough to swing a cat around, let alone hold two adults for a few days. It’ll be cosy, but I’m running out of options.

  I bring the car to a stop around the back of the wooden building and hop out. I push a warped wooden door open and flick on a light switch. There is a rusty wooden bed in the corner of the room, with a ripped two seater couch along the front wall. There is an old wooden table along the other wall, beside a doorway presumably leading to a toilet. At the very least, I fucking hope there is a shitter in this dump.

  Jamming one of the dining room chairs under the front door handle, I walk back out the back door to bring Elise inside. As much as I’d love to leave her in the trunk, I’m not an animal.

  I pop the trunk open, and all I see are her wide open eyes, full of fear and the unknown.

  “I’m taking you inside now. If you fight me, I’ll fight back. Understand?” I talk slow and clear to her, my voice low, almost soothing. I want to make sure there is no room for misunderstanding. “I’ll let you walk, but don’t even think of running. I have a gun and I’m not scared of using it,” I spit out, lifting my shirt and showing her the piece attached to my hip. Her eyes dart down to my gun and quickly back up to my face as she nods quickly. I can see her chest rising and falling rapidly, and she’s constantly blinking her eyes like she’s trying to hold back tears and appear tougher than she really is.

  “Okay, I’ll lift you out,” I say as I lean forward and hook my arms under her torso, hoisting her out and placing her feet on the dirt ground. I let her go for a second to shut the trunk, and she makes a run for it.

  I yell at her retreating back. “Fucking bitch! You’ll pay for that.” I run after her, getting angrier as I hear her loud screams for help echo through the darkness. I catch up to her, making a grab for her legs and knocking her over, flat on her face onto the gravel driveway.

  Towering over her, I look down at her now bleeding head. Her face grazed, small pieces of gravel and grit sticking to the blood trickling down her cheek. “Fuck, now I’m gonna have to clean you up. Maybe next time you won’t try running, you stupid little rich girl.”

  “W…w…hat do you want from me? I can get you money, however much you need. Just please don’t hurt me. I just want to go home,” she stutters and starts to cry.

  “You bet your ass you will, but we’ll deal with that later. Right now you need to get inside and cleaned up,” I say, bending down and lifting her up by her bound arms. I look her over as I’m holding her. Damn, Brax got himself a nice piece of tail. No wonder he raced back to her side.

  I shake my head. Eyes on the prize, Gibbons. My mind is racing a million miles an hour. She’s fucking bleeding now and looks like she’s been beaten. Fuck! If any of the boys see this, they’ll kill me first and ask questions later. God, that’ll probably happen anyway if they find me. I need to get the money and get the fuck outta dodge.

  Otherwise, the only way I’ll be leaving here will be in a body bag, and there’s no coming back from that.

  Two fucking hours.

  She’s been gone for two hours already. All I can see when I close my eyes is her scared face, her eyes filled with terror. I’ve been going mad, trying to think of who has taken her and where they may have gone.

  Thankfully, there were cameras in the restaurant’s hallway, but not in the alleyway. That was always going to be a stretch. While Shay and I were talking to the police, Devon went with one of the officer’s to view the restaurant’s security tapes. When he saw the moment that Elle was grabbed from behind, he called us in to take a look.

  I knew straight away that it was Gibbons. I’d know that silhouette anywhere. The bastard was hiding in the supply closet. God knows how he knew she would be alone. He must have been watching us, biding his time. Sitting there, waiting for his opportunity. We never would have followed her to the rest room. How were we to know that she wouldn’t even be safe going to the toilet?

  Watching this man, my former supervisor, viciously grab Elle has my blood boiling. I’m seeing red, and I know I need to calm down in order to think clearly, but seeing him wrap his hand around her mouth and watching her body slowly go limp shatters me.

  My poor girl. She’s been through so much already, and now because of me, because of my connections to Victor Bertorelli and Gibbons, she’s been snatched and is lying somewhere scared and helpless. I know she’s strong, but she hasn’t been exposed to this dark underworld before. I’ve never wanted my past life, the one I desperately want to leave behind, to touch her.

  I storm out of the office and into the alley again. I can hear Shay calling my name behind me, but I’m blocking him out. I’m trying to block everything out. I reach the brick wall lining the alley and kick it hard. The pain rushing through my foot pales in comparison to the pain ripping through my heart.

  “Fuck!” I yell into the night sky. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I brace my arms against the wall, resting my forehead against the cold rough bricks.

  “Brax, you need to calm the hell down and think. Where would he take her? Who would he know around here that would help him?” Shay says, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  I spin around and look at my best friend. I know he’s struggling with this too, but at least he’s still able to think rationally.

  I start pacing, wracking my brain with all the possibilities. Then it hits me. It’s a long shot, but it’s a chance I’m gonna have to take if I want any chance of seeing Elle alive again.

  Grabbing my phone from my jeans pocket, I pull it out and stare at it.

&
nbsp; “What B? What is it?” Shay asks. I look over at him and see the concern on his face. He’s never seen me like this; so helpless, so unprepared.

  “Evans,” is all I spit out before I bring up the last known number I have for my birth father and push the call button. I don’t care what this call is going to cost me. Whatever he wants, whatever he demands. If he can lead me back to Elle, I’ll do whatever it takes.

  “Brax,” he answers, his voice low and controlled.

  I take a deep breath, bracing myself for what I’m about to do. “Elle has been kidnapped by Gibbons. You know anything about it?”

  “Gibbons?” he sounds shocked.

  “Yeah, security footage shows him grabbing her and carrying her towards a car waiting at the back of the restaurant we are at,” I say quickly, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I’m actually nervous now, especially seeing as Evans is my last hope.

  “He rang me two days ago. Offered me money to find him a place to hide out for a few days.”

  “What? And you didn’t think I needed to know this? Where the fuck is he, Evans? For the love of God, you better hope he hasn’t hurt her!” I yell.

  I hear him cuss under his breath. “He’s at one of my safe houses about fifty miles out of town. I’ll text you the address. But no police, Brax. Just you.”

  I’m already walking back through the restaurant now. “Shay and Devon will be going with me, but no police. I’ll try throwing them off, but you better not be fucking with me.”

  “Okay, Shay and Devon, but that’s it, Brax. I’m deadly serious. I’m in the city, but I can be there in about an hour,” he explains.

  “I’m not promising a thing. You know that, right?”

  “I’m not asking for anything, Brax. Not this time. Your girl needs you. Move your ass and go get her.”