Misguided Target

by Jessica Page

  It took a while, but once we were both finally dressed, I found myself staring at him and cursing my luck. Leave it to me to be on the brink of starting my new life and potentially finding the man of my dreams while I have a target on back from a bunch of unknown killers. Ironically, I probably wouldn't have seen Kane again beyond the party had it not been for all this craziness.

  Kane checked his beeping phone; he must have received a text message. “Shit! I never thought he would actually see me.”

  “What's wrong?” I asked placing the coffee cup I'd been sipping. A fresh wave of anxiety rushed through me. I felt like I was being crushed inside. I had so much more to lose this morning.

  “Nothing, it's just I reached out to Damien when I took off last night and he just texted me that he can meet, but I have to be there in thirty minutes. That means that I have to go now while I still have a chance in hell of making it through security,” Kane offered, rushing around, grabbing his things.

  I stood up and hurried towards him, panic coursing through me. I'd forgotten about Kane's intention to meet with Damien. I needed him to understand that this man wasn't to be trusted and he needed to be careful. “Listen, Kane… about Damien, I really think you need to be careful what you say. He really had it in for James and me. Well, not me, but Raina.”

  “I know. Don't worry, Kendall. I'll be careful. I'm sorry I don't have time to talk about it right now. I really have to go,” he stated, closing the distance between us and wrapping his arms around me.

  “For the record, I think it's a mistake to talk to him.”

  “We're up against a wall here, Kendall. James doesn't have much time, assuming he's still alive. I need to try something, I'll be careful,” he offered, giving me a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Stay put until I get back. I'll text you if something happens.”

  I wanted to protest one last time, but it was too late, he'd already disappeared out the door. I couldn't shake this bad feeling; I knew in my bones that this was a mistake. I need to make sure we had some kind of backup plan. I ran over to the piles of files and took pictures of each one of the documents with my cell phone. I turned on my laptop and loaded all the pictures to my computer. I opened my email and attached all the photos to an outgoing email. I did a few web searches in order to ensure that all the major media outlet email addresses' were included. I drafted instructions about what the contents of this email were, along with information about what had occurred, leaving out the part of me being an escort, of course. I explained what I suspected had happened, and that if Kane, James and I went missing we'd potentially be dead. I made sure to include my suspicions about Damien Ryan being involved. I didn't have proof yet, but I knew in my gut he was involved. I set the timer in my email extension so the email would be delivered at 7:00pm. That way if all was well, I could cancel it, and if anything happened at least the world would know about it.

  Kane

  “Kane Clarke! My friend, it's been a long time,” Damien greeted approaching me in the waiting room from his office.

  “Yeah it has for sure,” I agreed placing my hand into his extended one.

  “Please come into my office. We can chat a bit before my next meeting,” he offered pointing over to his opened office doors. I nodded following him sitting down in the chair at his desk adjacent to his.

  “Not that I don't like seeing you, but I suspect there is a purpose for this visit.” “Thanks for making time for me but yeah, you're right I do. I'm wondering if you know where my brother might be.”

  “Your brother? No, why would I? In case you aren't aware we aren't exactly the best of friends.”

  “Yeah I heard there was an issue of some kind.”

  “Yeah, your brother's a dick who has a tendency to turn his back on his own kind. Plus that asshole sucker punched me a few months back,” he stated roughly pushing back in his chair. I was curious that James would actually hit him; he was a lot of things and he could be an asshole in a lot of ways, but he was not the type to be violent. His preference had always been to create action by words. Something pretty serious must have set him off.

  “Well, I bet it was a weak punch if it came from James,” I joked trying to put Damien at ease; this incident had clearly bruised his ego and I was hoping to encourage him to open-up a bit more about it.

  “Well it was more the reason he punched me that pissed me off than the actual punch,” He stated smugly his blue eyes softening at bit; he seemed a little more relaxed.

  “Must have been over a woman.”

  “Well that's a generous term for her, I myself prefer 'whore' but then again that's just me.”

  “Beg your pardon?” I laughed aloud as my insides clenched; I did not like where this conversation was heading.

  “Oh, you know, his little whore of a girlfriend Raina or whatever her name is. Anyway, Raina, who is a prostitute, like literally a professional, she thought I was being too “handsy” one night when I tried to acquire her services. Things got a little rough and your brother accused me of sexually assaulting her and he sucker-punched me. I mean how could you even sexually assault a woman who sells sex? So ridiculous.” He mocked folding his arms over his chest. Kendall tried to warn me but I didn't listen; my blood pounded in my ears as anger coursed through me. I've never wanted to harm someone as much as I wanted to harm him. For a moment I thought about all the ways in which I could do it too; I decided that I would take my time with it.

  It took me a minute for me to realize that Damien had stopped talking and was giving me an odd look.

  “Yeah, my brother has a tendency to overreact,” I offered, trying to recover from my noticeable behavior.

  “I didn't realize you and James were close again. I thought a dislike for him was one thing we had in common.”

  “I wouldn't say we're close, but I'm starting to learn more about him,” I stated diplomatically, suddenly really hoping that I got the chance to get to know him better. One thing was for sure — Damien and I had nothing in common.

  “So he's missing you say?”

  “Yeah, I think he is.”

  “Any ideas who would take him or why?” he asked, sounding uninterested, but he'd made a mistake; he'd let on that James had been kidnapped, even though all I said was that he was missing. I decided to shake him up a bit to see what would happen.

  “Well I'm not sure; I know he's had some issues with a few of his fellow politicians.”

  “Oh…what kind of issues?”

  “Well I've heard of some pretty serious ones about my brother was making some accusations about individuals. It's stuff that would piss anyone off. Does any of this or ring any bells?”

  “No, I'm afraid it doesn't. Have you found and managed to talk to that disgrace of a girlfriend of his at all? I'm thinking she might have some insight.”

  “No I haven't. I don't know her but I doubt she would be of any help,” I said, feeling like this conversation should end soon; I didn't like him talking about Kendall.

  “Oh, I don't know, those whores can surprise you. They're often exposed to a lot of information…besides, at the very least maybe you could get a taste of what your brother seemed to be so pussy-whipped over.” He laughed, causing my anger to spike again. “You all right?” he asked, watching me curiously. “You seem a bit rattled.”

  “No, I'm good.”

  “Listen, I really hate to cut this short, but I should head over to my next appointment,” he stated, scratching his forehead just below his hairline.

  “Yes, of course. Sorry to take your time, but thank you again for meeting with me,” I offered, firmly gripping his extended hand and wishing so badly that I could press down and feel each one of the bones within it breaking.

  “You take care. And, hey, let me know if you talk to Raina or get any more information on your brother. I'll do my best to help and I'll discreetly make some inquiries on my end to get to the bottom of who took him.”

  “Yes, thank you. I'd appreciate that,” I replied throug
h gritted teeth as he sat down, reaching for his phone. I quickly headed out the room.

  “All right, Mr. Ryan, I'll cancel your meetings for the rest of the day,” his assistant said over the phone as I walked past her desk on my way out.

  I quickly grabbed my cell. Kendall, get ready. Something has happened. Will explain when I get there.

  I flagged down the nearest taxi and headed back to the hotel. Kendall had been right all along; Damien was clearly involved and I had the strange feeling he was on to me. Shit.

  Kendall

  Kane busted through the door in a mad panic. “Kendall…” he said once he saw me, wrapping his arms around me, “I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you about Damien. What he did to you… I can't even handle that he did something like that to you. Getting punched was the least of what he deserved.”

  I could feel the anger pouring off of him. I'm glad he wasn't there that day because the torn dress, scraped cheek and bruises were not a pretty sight. “It's okay, I'm sorry you had to find out someone you thought was a friend is such a horrible person,” I offered, hugging him tightly, enjoying the warmth of his embrace. “You said for me to get ready. What happened?”

  He held me for a moment longer before kissing the top of my head. “Did you pack up your things?” he asked, and I nodded. “Good, we need to get out of here. I'm pretty sure you were right about Damien being involved.”

  “Where will we go? What about James?”

  “I'm not sure what to do at this point, but I was thinking going to a café where there's Wi-Fi. I can try to hack into Damien's computer and find some clues on where James might be. All I know is that Damien was suspicious of me, and he's looking for Raina, so we need to get some distance.”

  Hearing the uncertainty in his voice had me on edge. I didn't like Kane being this unsure. Throughout this whole nightmare he had always managed to know what to do. It seemed so out of character for him to be worried, but right now that's exactly what he looked like. I know it was probably naïve on my part, or maybe just wishful thinking, but for first time since this all started it was becoming much clearer that we likely wouldn't be able to save James or ourselves.

  I grabbed my laptop off the coffee table and shoved it – along with all the file folders we'd found – in my backpack. At this point I didn't know where we would end up, so the safest thing was to have everything with me. I quickly put boots on and tossed my jacket over my shoulders, running to meet Kane at the door. I watched him place a handgun in a concealed gun holder under his jacket. “Kendall,” he said, his face fierce with intensity, “I won't let anything happen to you. I will fight to the death to protect you.”

  I believed him, and it broke my heart to think that he might die trying to protect me. If he died for me I'd never forgive myself. I'd actually debated leaving while he was gone, but I knew ultimately it wouldn't do any good. He was in this now whether I wanted him to be or not, and leaving would be signing James' death warrant. Given Damien's attraction to me, if worst comes to worst, I could try to leverage myself to save them. I knew pretty much everything that was going on, and even though it might kill me, at least it would hopefully be enough to save them.

  I followed Kane down the hall when suddenly I stopped dead in my tracks as it dawned on me who the missing initials belonged to.

  “What's wrong?” Kane asked, concerned.

  “Do you know Damien's full name?”

  “Yes, it's Damien Edward Ryan.”

  “I know who they belong to. It's so obvious! How did we miss it?”

  “Kendall, what are you talking about? You've lost me.”

  “H.S. and D.E.R, those initials belong to Henry Samuels and Damien Edward Ryan.”

  “Kendall… that would mean that…you're saying the Vice President is involved?” Kane clarified, looking as shocked as I felt.

  “Yes. That's why Damien is so involved. He's cleaning up this mess. You can't have the future leader of the free world and his chief of staff sitting under a laundry list of felonies.”

  “Of course! I should have known that. Dammit! This is worse than I thought,” Kane stated, grabbing my hand. “We need to go,” he took off again and we speedily made our way down the hall to the elevators. The doors opened and I followed Kane inside. I watched as he squared his shoulders and his calm demeanor returned. He faced me and pulled me to him, his lips consuming mine. This kiss was unlike all the others we had shared to date. I melted into it, surprised by the forcefulness guiding his movements —at the same time — there was a desperation in his embrace that made it hard for me to pull away. He slowly drew back and scoped my hood up over my head. “Kendall, keep your head down. If I tell you to run, you run. Go somewhere public. Understood?”

  I wanted to argue and tell him I wouldn't just leave him. I wanted him to know that I was willing to risk just as much for him as he was for me, but I didn't. I didn't want him to be distracted. I didn't want him to worry about me not listening, so I said nothing. “Kane, I should tell you, I did something while you were gone. I uploaded…”

  “Kendall, I'm sorry, we don't have time. I'm not saying this to be a dick, I'm saying this because I trust you. I trust that whatever you did while I was gone will be for the best. You've pretty much figured out everything we know, so whatever you did is fine and I thank you. I just can't think of anything else right now. They will be here any minute. I'm sure of it. They don't know you're with me yet, but once they do, well, let's just say all hell will break loose. Stay alert.”

  “Okay, Kane,” I said as he firmly held my hand in his. I watched as his razor-sharp focus instinctually took over. The elevator doors opened to the main lobby and we were bombarded with a series of loud noises and sounds. We exited and he led me down a long hallway to a side exit. Kane released my hand, holding his up, halting me as he opened the door and quickly scanned the outside of the building. “Okay, let's go.”

  We headed down a long back alley until it led to a busy street opening. “Where will we go?”

  “I need somewhere public, somewhere busy with Wi-Fi access,” he offered mindlessly as we walked.

  “There's a shopping center close by.”

  “That's perfect. Lead the way.”

  We didn't get very far because without warning two black SUVs pulled up beside us. “RUN!” Kane shouted as men exited the vehicles and took off after us. We ran to the nearest alley and headed towards a fence separating us from another back alley. Kane clasped his hands together and I stepped onto them as I gripped the top of the fence pulling my body up to the top. Kane did the same and we quickly climbed down. The men were close to us now, just seconds behind. We made a run for the back door of a building close by. We'd almost reached it when two cop cars came barreling down the alley, stopping nearby. Four police officers with their guns drawn exited the cars behind us. “Don't move,” one of them demanded.

  “I guess it's hard to fight fair when you've got the police in your pocket,” Kane spat at the cops, getting nothing but laughs from them. I looked over at Kane, who was scanning the area with his eyes, looking for some sort of exit strategy, but it wasn't long before the two black SUVs stopped arrived and we were surrounded. I realized we wouldn't be getting out this.

  A man exited one of the SUVs and approached me, I recognized him as Marty, one of the men who'd kidnapped James. “My goodness, Raina, your new look almost suits you,” he said as he reached out to touch a strand of my hair. “Although I must admit I've always been fond of your long dark hair. I've heard it looks especially good in dim lights against your bare back.”

  Marty took a step forward, now standing so close to me that I could smell the tobacco on his clothes. He went to reach for another strand when Kane grabbed his gun. Within seconds one of the officers had tased him, and he screamed in agony as his body writhed on the ground. “Raina, what's your real name, honey? If nothing else, Dominique was really good at keeping her girls' identities a secret. If the others had been smarter and followed her rule
s like you did, they'd likely still be alive.”

  “Fuck you, Marty,” I spat angrily, wanting so badly to run over to Kane, who'd finally stop screaming.

  “Oh how cute,” he said, slapping me hard across the face. I could taste blood in my mouth. “You remembered my name.” He laughed as he pulled my bag off my shoulder and unzipped it. He dug through it and pulled out my wallet, “Kendall Daley,” he read aloud, causing my heart to sink into my stomach. I'd worked so hard to protect my identity over the years and now I was completely exposed. “Is it weird that I still prefer the name Raina?” He giggled, “Load them up,” he ordered as men swarmed around us. I tried to fight them off but I couldn't, it wasn't long before they quickly overpowered me and bound my wrists with zip-ties. I was forced into the backseat where they shoved a gag in my mouth and pulled a black bag over my head.

  I strained my ears to hear Kane, but I couldn't. They must have put him in the other vehicle. I sat quietly, hearing nothing but the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears. After what felt like an eternity we stopped. I could hear people talking around me and I tried my best to stay calm. The vehicle door opened and I was yanked out; they roughly shoved me down to my knees on the hard ground. I whimpered as the rocks dug into my skin. I could hear the rustling of the leaves in the breeze and what sort of sounded like waves in the background. Someone picked me up and I stumbled as I was dragged along a rocky, uneven asphalt surface. We stopped momentarily and I heard the beeping of buttons followed by the creaking of a heavy steel door opening.

  “This way, Raina,” a man whispered in my ear, causing my skin to crawl.

  The echoing of footsteps told me we were in a large concrete space. I was stopped and the black bag was pulled off my head. I immediately scanned my surroundings and saw that we were in an old vacant shipyard warehouse of some sort. Feeling flowed through me as I spotted Kane by my side. Blood poured out of his newly split lip and his bruised left eye told me they'd done a number on him on the drive over. Kane stood, angrily focused on something in the distance. I looked over to see what it was and I saw that it was James. My eyes stung with angry tears as I looked at the lifeless body which had each one of its limbs shackled by large chains. There was so much blood.