The Hawks_A Novel

by SD Hendrickson

  “I can go,” Cole said. “Y’all stay here. I’ll see where it goes and then bring back help.”

  “No. I’m not staying here. We only have one light,” Scarlett whispered, panic growing in her voice.“You have to take me with you. I’m not staying here in the dark.”

  The girl in the tarnished flapper girl costume climbed up from the ground. She was by Cole’s side before I could even blink. I shifted the light back to Javier. “What do you want to do?”

  He gave Elmore a pointed look. “Can you and Virginia make the trip?”

  “If it means getting out of here, then yes. Virginia and I can walk just fine.”

  Javier let out a deep breath. “I don’t know where this tunnel goes. My father never told me any stories beyond the entrance. We may find nothing and be forced to return. Is everyone okay with that?”

  We nodded and murmured in agreement. I didn’t care if we walked or tried to blow the damn door off with dynamite. I just needed to move. To stop sitting here, fidgeting and waiting. My mind was too restless. I needed out of here. This placed held me captive. I sucked in a breath and let it flow over my lips, trying to stifle the growing claustrophobia.

  “Okay. We stay together. I don’t know what could be living in this tunnel.” He looked at Cole. “Can you help Elmore? I’ll carry Sarina.”

  “Wait. No. I can walk.”

  He shook his head and pointed at my feet. “You wear no shoes.”

  I didn’t want to be carried out of this place. I needed to walk and I didn’t care what rested at the bottom of the tunnel floor. It couldn’t be any worse than Deuce.

  “There might be snakes.” His lips pursed together in a serious frown.

  Somewhere inside of me, I found humor in his adamant look mixed with his fear of reptiles. I smiled. “I’m not the one who’s afraid of them.”

  “No arguing. I can carry you now or I can carry you later with your ankle swollen from a bite. Your choice.”

  I was too tired to argue anymore. “Fine.”

  Reluctantly, I climbed onto his back. My arms went around his neck as he held my thighs in place with a tight grip.

  “I’ve got Elmore.” Brenda placed an arm around his waist. She looked at Cole. “You go in front with the gun in case we run into something that needs shootin’.”

  We walked into the unknown. Cole led the way. Scarlett was behind him, clasping the flashlight. She walked with Virginia. Elmore and Brenda followed with their arms around each other. Javier brought up the rear with me on his back.

  Water dripped from the stone walls. The air seemed heavy, the oxygen levels sparse. Our steps weary but determined. Sometimes through the mud. At one point, the tunnel turned into a pool of ankle-deep water. We crossed through with hesitant steps, fearful of what lived in the murky darkness.

  We trudged on as fatigue gradually crushed each of us. Javier readjusted his hold a few times on my body. He was larger than me, but I knew my weight would grow heavy as time passed in the tunnel.

  “Put me down,” I whispered in his ear.

  “No,” he growled.

  So we kept moving, the walls passing by us on each side. The ground changing below our feet until Cole eventually came to a stop. “What do you wanna do?”

  Javier joined him in the front. I immediately saw the problem. The path had a split. He looked back at Elmore. “What do you think?”

  “Try the left. I think it might be pointing east toward downtown?”

  I didn’t know top from bottom in this place, let alone the geographic directions. But his guess was better than nothing. The group continued moving—one foot in front of the other. The path narrowed a few times, forcing Brenda and Elmore to separate and walk single file. The darkness seemed endless until Cole spoke again. “We got a problem.”

  This time, we really did have a dilemma. One without a decision. The path was blocked by a pile of dirt and rocks from a cave-in. One by one, we turned around and headed back. No one uttered a single word as fear circled through the thick air. What if the other path had the same problem? Would we have to dig ourselves out of here?

  The group reached the split and we took the passage down the other tunnel. Our feet kept moving forward. We didn’t have a choice. The air grew thicker and more difficult to breathe. But the group kept going in the darkness.

  I lost all sense of time. And direction. My mind knew we kept moving forward, but my body felt as if we stepped in circles. It must be six in the morning by now. Maybe even later. I wasn’t sure.

  I did my best to stay calm. Resting my cheek on Javier’s shoulder, my eyes traced the lines in the walls. They moved back and forth in the shadows. He clasped onto my thighs. I held tight to his shoulders. But I felt so tired. My mind just couldn’t stay focused any longer.

  Fear crept into my sluggish thoughts. The oxygen levels were messing with me. What if we survived the intruders only to suffocate in this damn tunnel? This path to freedom might very well be leading us to hell.

  The stones in the wall moved toward me and shrank back into the crevices. They breathed with me. I closed my eyes and reopened, trying to stay focused. My head was playing tricks on me again. The walls were not moving.

  “Th-the walls are shaking.” Scarlett stopped dead in her tracks. Virginia ran into her back.

  I wasn’t imagining it. The tunnel really was moving around us.

  “Are we under a road?” Brenda asked.

  The flashlight beam tilted up toward the ceiling. The walls continued to shake. A little bit of dirt and debris fell on our heads.

  “No. It must be an earthquake,” Javier said next to my cheek.

  And as suddenly as the disruption happened, it stopped.

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” Cole said as he started walking again.

  My heart pounded in my chest. This was insane. What if we got crushed in this damn tunnel? Would anyone even know our fate? Would they ever find our bodies down here?

  I heard Brenda’s voice in the darkness. The low hum turned into a full-blown song. “I saw the light . . .” She had such a powerful voice. The words burst through the tunnel, disappearing into the depths of the abyss.

  Scarlett’s timid voice picked up on the chorus. The ladies blended into a beautiful harmony as we kept walking. We kept moving. One more step forward as we searched for our salvation.

  The words circled around me. They filled me. My soul. Somewhere in this heartbreak, in this darkness, in this terrible tragedy, I had to believe there eventually would be light.

  I don’t know how long we walked. How long Elmore limped along. How many times Brenda and Scarlett sang their hymn. But eventually, the beam of the flashlight touched a thick, gray, rusted metal door. It resembled the one from the house except the sliding metal bar remained unlatched.

  “We made it,” I whispered.

  “Si, we did.” Javier looked at Cole. “You try it this time.”

  I prayed for it to open. Prayed for it to work. Prayed for it not to break. Prayed for it to be our escape. Prayed for something other than this.

  I couldn’t fathom the number of years since this tunnel had been opened to the outside world. We didn’t even know what existed on the other side. Far as we knew, we might open the door only to find another barrier covered with bricks or rocks.

  Cole pushed the handle down. It made a jarring sound, but it moved. The wall shook a little as the thick metal door released, swinging back inside the tunnel. Light came from around a second door. I held my breath as Cole tried the latch. The door opened outward as a bright light cast into the darkness.

  I gasped.

  “Hallelujah!” said Brenda.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  One by one, we each stepped through the opening. Javier and I were the last to exit. I slid off his back. The cold marble floor caressed my feet with a shock. I could hardly believe it. This ghastly night had finally come to an end.

  As my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I looked arou
nd at our surroundings before pushing the secondary door closed. The other side remained camouflaged by a display shelf with antiques, hiding the tunnel entrance. I turned to the left and then the right. We appeared to be in another passageway except this one came with industrial lights and walls.

  “What is this place?” Cole asked.

  “I’ve been here before.” Javier’s tired brown eyes came alive with excitement. “This is one of the city tunnels between the downtown buildings. If we go this way, we should find the Carmichael Hotel on the Fifth St. Plaza. The other way would take us to a split. One side going to the old bank vault and the other to Hawk Tower. But it’s Sunday. We need to find people and call the police.”

  “So we go to the Carmichael,” I whispered. The old fancy hotel dated back to when the family had built their estate in the city. Mrs. Hawthorn had shared with me the history of the original families just a few weeks ago as we ate lunch in the hotel restaurant on the rooftop. The Hawthorns and the Carmichaels and the Delaneys. The original families. That luncheon was just a hazy memory now in my mind that seemed so very long ago.

  The group continued down the corridor path to the hotel. Javier’s coat hung loosely off my body. He came over next to me, putting an arm around my shoulders. What would happen to us once we emerged in the lobby? This relationship had always been doomed from the start but now shivered in tragedy. We couldn’t be together. Not before. And definitely not now. Not after what my family had caused tonight.

  The press would explode and exploit the details across the papers. She was a legend with a sizeable fortune from an old wealthy family. This story would get picked up on the national circuit. The reporters would eat my family alive. They would hurt us, almost as much as the men with the guns. They would blame Ty.

  A chill went up my spine and I sunk deeper into the coat around my shoulders, feeling a tear roll down my cheek. The reporters would say terrible things about my brother. They would blame him. Blame me. The press would tie it up in a nice little half-truth bow. And maybe they would be right. None of this would have ever happened if I didn’t take the job with the Hawthorns.

  We reached the end of the tunnel and a small set of stairs came into view. The vibrant sound of voices drifted from somewhere at the top. We climbed each marble step, emerging just off to the right of the check-in desk of the old historic hotel.

  Cole tucked the gun down in the back waistband of his pants to avoid scaring anyone, and Javier did the same. But that only helped a little. Eyes turned in our direction. Guests checking out. Locals coming for brunch. People stared with gaping mouths.

  But we kept walking.

  Broken. Battered. Bloody.

  A man in a blue suit yelled at a young blonde girl at the front desk. “Call nine-one-one.”

  Javier kept his arm around me as we fell onto a sofa in the lobby to wait for help. I gazed up into his brown eyes, seeing the sorrow reflected deep. We’d been terrorized and hurt. We’d both lost people tonight. Our worlds turned inside out.

  The agony inside my chest stretched into hushed sobs. Now that we were safe and the fear of the night was coming to an end, I felt overwhelmed with grief and guilt. I never knew something could hurt my heart this much.

  “Javier, I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I-I’m sorry. This is my fau—”

  “Shh.” His lips brushed mine. “I don’t blame you. No more talk of it.”

  I reluctantly nodded, the fight gone from me. He could tell me not to mention those words again, but that didn’t stop those feelings on the inside.

  Javier brushed away my tears with his thumb. I rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes as the sound of police sirens came from outside of the Carmichael Hotel.

  Present Day

  MY HANDS WOULDN’T STOP SHAKING. I pressed my palms flat on the cold metal table only to have the tremors still visible to the man in the room and those lurking behind the reflective two-way glass. I wondered how many watched in amusement at my discomfort. How many had already drawn their conclusions? Yanking my hands away, I shoved them under my legs, curling my fingers up until my nails dug into my skin.

  “Ms. Atwood,” the officer spoke again. “Answer the question.”

  Detective Brennan could have intimidated me on a sunny day in the park, but in this never-ending night of horror, I could barely even look in the man’s direction without panic simmering in my chest. His bulky shoulders consumed the entire other side of the table as his hard eyes tried to pry into my brain.

  Just another man wanting answers I didn’t possess.

  The interrogation had been going on for at least an hour. Maybe. I think. I don’t know. I felt so very tired. Everything hurt. The bruises turning darker as I sat in this room. They lined my arms. I felt them down my legs. And tasted them on my lips. I needed to go to the hospital, but I guess my swollen face didn’t seem to bother Brennan. The police had a kidnapping and Delsey’s murder to solve with two men on the run.

  Outside of the hotel in the ambulance, the EMT had just started cleaning the dried blood from under my nose when the detective invaded our space, asking questions about the intruders and the party. Asking so many questions. I’d told him the truth without thinking otherwise. I worked for Delsey Hawthorn. And the men had pretended to be valet drivers, but I knew their identities and I could help the police. Before I realized what was happening, I sat in a squad car on the way to the station for even more questioning.

  Brennan had tried to intimidate me into giving up some grand secret. The location of Van and Deuce. Our master plan to meet up afterward. Surely one of them was my lover and I opened the damn door for the men to just waltz in the house.

  I tried to remind myself that he was just doing his job. I would have assumed the same thing. I worked for the victim. I organized the event. The intruders came in dressed like the people I’d hired for the party. My own brother being one of them.

  “Ms. Atwood.” He clipped on the words as his irritation grew. “Answer the damn question.”

  His bald head glistened under the fluorescent lights with a layer of sweat while I shivered in my dress. I turned my gaze down to my lap. Stay strong, I told myself. This will be over soon.

  “I’ve told you everything I know.” My voice shook on the words.

  “Stop lying!” His hand slammed on the table. “Where are they?”

  I jumped at the sound and my eyes flew up to his hard glare. My pulse raced. The night too fresh in my mind. I couldn’t handle him getting this wound up, threatening and lashing out. Not after . . .

  “Please stop,” I whispered.

  “This will stop when you tell me where they’re hiding out.” His nostrils flared as he struggled to contain his patience. “No use in trying to protect your boyfriend. We’ll get him eventually. Rather do that sooner than later. But he’s gonna just turn on you once we haul his ass in here. Trust me. They don’t give a shit about the girl when looking at prison. So now’s your time. Your only time to get the upper hand. To protect yourself. Tell me where he is and we can work out a little deal. And I can help you.”

  I swallowed hard, throat burning as I tried to keep from crying. This just kept getting more twisted, more out of control. If I didn’t get out of this room soon, my mind wasn’t going to be able to keep it together. My weary body begged me to just lie down. Maybe I could rest my head on the table and ignore him. Maybe then he’d leave me alone.

  A knock sounded on the door and then swung rapidly open. The sudden movement made me jerk in my seat again. Another man stepped into the room, tall and thin with an angular nose. “Need to wrap this up. FBI is coming in. And she’s about to get a visitor.”

  Brennan gave me a disgusted glare, large black eyebrows slanting low as he pursed his lips.

  “Final chance,” he growled. “Can’t protect you once the feds are involved.”

  I sunk back into my seat. He scared me. But his words just scared me even more. It made sense, though. Of course the FBI would ge
t involved in this case, given the nature of the victim gunned down in their own home. Then again, these men could be lying to me, trying to make the situation more ominous to wrangle some new information from the suspect.

  The door opened again. This time without a knock, as a man dressed in a dark-blue suit entered the room, his face young and boyish. I noticed the faint gray at the temples of his blond hair.

  The new guy didn’t even look at the detective on the other side of the table. He came straight to where I huddled in my plastic chair, still in my stained and tattered party dress with Javier’s jacket over me, wearing a pair of socks the EMT had put on my feet.

  Bending down to my level, the man gave me a friendly but sad smile. “I’m Harrison Miles. But call me Harry. I’m your attorney. And you haven’t been charged with anything.” His eyes shifted over to Brennan before turning back to me. “So we’re leaving.”

  Harry put a hand under my elbow, helping me up from the chair. My legs moved in stiff and cautious steps as we left the room. Once out of earshot, I leaned over and whispered, “Thank you, for um . . . for getting me out of there. But I-I can’t afford you.”

  “Good thing I’m not sending you the bill.”

  I shook my head as a faint scoff left my cracked lips. “Javier?”

  “Yes.” He patted my back in a soothing gesture. “And sorry I wasn’t here sooner. Once you get checked out at the hospital, we can go over what you told the police so I can get it dismissed.”

  “Okay. But I didn’t say much.” I shrugged beneath the jacket. “I wasn’t involved. It was m-my brother. I’m innocent. B-but I’m sure that’s what they all say.”

  I hated Tyson a little at that moment. He caused this. He did this to me. To us. I hated him. And I hated that he wasn’t here for me to yell at him. A sob rose in my throat. He was dead. Ty was dead. Tears burned and ran down my cheeks, dripping under my chin. My knees wobbled and I wasn’t sure if I could take another step in the lobby. My body just couldn’t keep going.

  “Sarina!” Javier’s voice broke through my thoughts.