by Amber Burns
“Mr. Cade Winters, and I run a fairly prestigious tattoo parlor in the heart of the city.”
He felt very proud of his own business venture, no matter how small it was compared to this tycoon before him.
“Hmm,” Her father grunted and raised his eyebrows in mock amusement; clearly not impressed with Cade.
They stood in silence and Cade wondered where Cindy and her mother had disappeared to. Just then, Cindy stormed into the study, her eyes were alight with anger.
“Supper is ready,” She growled and stalked over to Cade; wrapping her arm in his.
They ate in silence, the awkward clink of silverware as it brushed against the fine china nearly echoed from the absence of noise.
“So, Cindy, have you thought anymore about finishing up that medical degree?” Her father wiped his mouth and sat back from his plate, taking a long drink from his glass of water.
“Well, as I have told you before,” Cindy sighed while rolling her eyes. “I love being a nurse and I love what I do. So, no.”
“You graduated the top of your class in pre-med!” Her mother interjected and placed another piece of the juicy speared meat in her mouth, slowly chewing and placing her fork back down on her napkin between each bite.
“She saved a life a few weeks ago. A stab victim came in and she worked quickly to save his life,” Cade defended.
He smiled at her, anger with her parents bubbling beneath the surface. She squeezed his thigh under the table. Cade wasn’t sure if she was thanking him or shushing him. He waited for any response from her parents, but they acted as if he had said nothing at all.
“Well, you really should consider going back before you get too old,” Her father continued with his line of thought. “The longer you are out of school the more information you will lose.”
Her parents didn’t even look at him as they continued to try and plan her future.
“How is Todd?” Her mother asked as she looked at Cade, a darkness flashed behind her eyes and then she looked at Cindy conspiratorially.
“Mother, you know that ended ages ago.”
Cindy’s cheeks burned and Cade wondered who Todd was.
“He was so handsome and a successful doctor at your work. I know you still work with him. I spoke with him the other day and asked about you, since you ignore my calls. He said some shaggy haired man covered in tattoos brought you flowers and that was what prompted me to visit you the other morning.”
Cindy’s mother narrowed her eyes at Cade and it was his turn to turn bright red. He now realized that Todd was the smug doctor ogling Cindy. It bothered him that they had apparently been a couple, but that was her past so he put it behind him.
“Did he mention the bedpans?” Cindy muttered under breath.
“What? Don’t mumble dear, it is truly un-lady like.”
Her mother took a sip of her wine and sat back, a satisfied look on her face. Cade was more upset now by her parent’s treatment of Cindy than he was of being found naked in her bed by her mother.
“What is wrong with you?” Cade lashed out, anger taking over his ability to bite his tongue.
“Excuse me?” Aghast, her mother dropped her jaw and held her hand to her chest in a dramatic gesture of shock by the anger in his voice.
“I said, what is wrong with you? Your daughter works hard to save lives day in and day out. She breaks her back to provide care to those in need. Their first moments spent in an emergency room and their last moments on earth are spent in the presence of your beautiful, smart, and talented daughter. If anything, you should be through the roof with pride over her sacrifices and accomplishments.”
Cade instantly regretted losing his temper, but he couldn’t understand how they could treat her this way.
“You may not be able to understand what I am about to say,” Cindy’s father chastised, cocking his head slightly to the side. “I assume you have a rather limited vocabulary, seeing how ‘running a fairly prestigious tattoo shop’ doesn’t even require a two-year degree, but we aspire for excellence in this house. Now, while we are proud of Cindy’s accomplishments, we expect her to shoot higher than the bottom of the rung. Of course, seeing her current love interest, we think maybe we missed an important part of her development that we managed to work into her older brother.” Her father stood up and buttoned his coat. “Now, I believe you should remove yourself from our home. I have found your company to be distasteful and beneath my daughter.”
Her mother also left the table and Cindy sat there, anger brewing behind those bright blues. Cade stood and reached a hand down to Cindy, but she did not take it. Without a word, she stood up and walked out the door. Cade followed behind as they made their way out the front and to his bike.
“Cindy,” he started.
“Don’t,” She stopped him. “Just, take me home please.”
Obviously, she was angry at everyone. So he climbed on his bike and she climbed on behind him. Her grip was not as tight as it had been before. When he pulled up to her condo, she hopped off and stormed towards the door. He looked after her, not sure if he should chase her or leave her be. Deciding it was best to let her stew on her own, he sped off towards his own apartment.
9
Days passed without a text message or call. Cade couldn’t understand why she was mad at him. Her parents were verbally attacking her. He couldn’t just sit and let them do that. He always protected the ones he cared for. It was just his nature. He regretted tossing those smokes at Lou Lou’s and ripped his apartment upside down looking for a pack. There wasn’t a single piece of paper wrapped around tobacco in his apartment, so he went down to the corner store and bought a pack. It had been weeks since he felt the cool burn hit his throat and he inhaled deep to enjoy the full effects of the nicotine.
Angry, and a little hurt, he made his way towards the club. A fight would help him relieve some tension. Tank was surprised to see him.
“Hey, you look miserable.” Tank patted Cade on the shoulder.
“Thanks?”
“Woman troubles?”
“How could you?”
“Trust me, every man that looks and smells like you do, just had a fight with the old ball and chain.”
“It was pretty bad. I am not sure how to fix it,” he sighed.
“You will figure it out, or you will find a new ball to chain yourself to,” he laughed at his own joke, but Cade just smiled to be polite.
His heart wasn’t in it tonight. It also wasn’t in the fight. For the first time, his record was almost blemished. He only won because the young man was so exhausted, he let his guard down for just a moment and Cade attacked. Exhausted, Cade collected his earnings and sat at the bar with Tank, drinking beer after beer until his head hurt.
Stumbling out from the bar, Cade looked at his bike. He knew he shouldn’t even attempt it, so he started for his apartment on foot. Once inside, he crashed fully clothed on his couch, asleep before his body was fully horizontal.
Cade awoke the next morning to a splitting migraine and a puddle of his own drool. His phone flashed that he had several new messages. Tommy had tried to contact him at strange hours and Cade listened to the first voicemail.
“You have two new voicemails, first message.”
“Hey man, call me when you get this, it’s urgent.”
“Message deleted. Next message.”
“Hey Cade, you really need to call us, something is wrong with Cindy.”
“To replay your message hit ‘4’”
“Hey Cade, you really need to call us, something is wrong with Cindy.”
Cade’s heart was racing as he played the same message over and over. He hung up and called Tommy.
“Hey man, are you ok?” Tommy’s worried voice boomed over the receiver.
Cade pulled his phone back from his ear a bit, trying to keep Tommy’s voice from making his head feel worse.
“Yea,” Cade finally responded. “What’s going on, what’s wrong with Cindy?”
“We don’t know,” Tommy said quickly. “Her parents tried calling us after they hadn’t heard from her and we went to her condo and work, nobody has seen her. We have called the police, but they said it had to be over so many hours before we could actually report her as missing.”
Cade’s hands shook as he felt his stomach toss and turn. His nerves mixed with last night’s drinking binge made him feel nauseous.
“Cade, are you there?”
“Yeah, I am. Listen, I have to go.”
He hung up and ran to the sink to splash water on his face. He had never felt as scared in his life as he did right now.
Where is she… is she ok?
He needed to run by her place to make sure nothing had been missed. As fast as he could, Cade ran down the few blocks to Tank’s nightclub and he jumped on his bike. Revving the engine, he sped to her place. Tommy, Heather, her parents, and a police cruiser sat outside her elegant condo. He rushed up to them and her parents looked at him accusingly.
“Did you do something to our daughter?” Her father grabbed Cade by the collar, but he shoved the man’s hands away.
“I would never do anything to hurt Cindy. I love her!”
Shocked to say the words out loud, Cade was interrupted from his thoughts by a cop walking back from the condo with a crumpled piece of paper in her hands.
“What’s that?” Cade asked, pointing at the paper.
“We can’t figure it out. There’s a bunch of squiggly shapes and symbols, but nothing makes sense.” The officer shook her head and headed for her partner to show him the paper.
Cade’s heart hit his stomach for real this time and he lost whatever contents remained all over the lawn and sidewalk.
“I know who has taken her,” he whispered, his mind swimming with thoughts of what that crazed and murderous fool might do to her.
“What did you say Cade?” Heather leaned in towards him.
“I know who has taken Cindy,” he said louder.
“Who?” Her father crossed his arms and waited, trying not to strangle the information out of Cade.
“I fought a kid several weeks back at an underground nightclub. All I know is his name is Spencer and he is apparently obsessed with me. The stab victim I told you Cindy saved, was me. I was stabbed in the alley behind the nightclub, and I am certain it was that kid that I fought who stabbed me. Cindy was the first person I saw in my delirium, but I didn’t see her again until Tommy and Heather’s wedding. Spencer sent a scrawny young lady to my shop last week and had her deliver me a message. It was exactly like this one; a chaos of scribbles and symbols with no rhyme or reason.”
His stomach was still queasy and Cade knelt to try and stead himself. One of the two cops had overheard him retell the whole story and approached Cade.
“Could you describe this ‘Spencer’?”
“Yes,” he declared. “I know exactly what he looks like.”
“Well come with us to the station. We need a full report, including where you were last night and someone to back your alibi. Also, we need to get you in front of the facial recognition artist, and have him cross your description across the database for any known records or violations.”
Cade nodded and followed the cop’s instructions. He would do anything if it meant getting Cindy back safe.
After supplying the cops with his alibi, backed by Tank, Cade also made sure the artists were given the clearest and most detailed description of ‘Spencer’. They quickly found a record matching Cade’s description. When they pulled up his file, Cade knew it was the same young man from before. He nodded when asked if this was the one who had left him to die.
“That’s the little sick bastard, yes.”
Cade touched his now mostly healed side. Where it once burned, and ached, it was now just a tender memory of the pain.
“Spencer Flemming, age twenty-six,” the Cop recited. “He has been busted on several accounts of assault and possession. He has been in and out of treatment facilities for a mental condition. Not sure what.”
With each word read, Cade grew more concerned for Cindy’s safety. When they were finally done questioning Cade, he left the precinct and made his way towards Tank’s. It was too early for the club to be open, but Cade knew that Tank lived above the club. Cade texted him and waited in the alley he was once stabbed in, the rancid smell of the dumpster just as bad as that night. A series of locks moved and rotated, let Cade know that Tank was just on the other side.
“What do you want Cade?” His voice was gruff and lacked the usual friendliness to it.
“Tank, do you keep any information on the fighters? I remembered we left our addresses on a sheet once and our phone numbers. I am looking for someone, I think he has Cindy.”
Cade didn’t know if he was making any sense and by the look on Tank’s face, he was sure he wasn’t.
“Cindy?” Tank questioned.
“Yes, Cindy. Look, I believe Spencer has her and I have to find her before he hurts her.”
Tank must have seen the pleading behind Cade’s eyes, because he sighed and ushered him inside.
“You know, cops have been sniffing around here. Did you and this Cindy have anything to do with it?”
Cade winced and nodded.
“I am sorry Tank, but I must find Cindy. I gave them information about Spencer and our fight. I wasn’t even thinking about what that could potentially do to your business.”
Cade was truly sorry, but he his mind raced with saving his girl.
“Look, I am going to help you, because you are a really nice guy. I have always liked you. But after this, you are no longer welcome here. I do not need to have the cops sniffing around and scaring off my customers. What did you say the name of this kid is?”
“Spencer, Spencer Flemming,” Cade choked out.
Tank rifled through some papers and a beaten-up ledger. Names, addresses, and phone numbers of his recurring fighters were listed in surprisingly neat handwriting. Cade wondered why he had this tracking method, but he figured it might have something to do with tracking down anyone that didn’t pay their dues. Tank ran his large finger down the list and after a few moments and a few page turns, he found Spencer’s information. The police station had a different mailing address, which wasn’t surprising to Cade. This kid was trouble and he would obviously have no issues lying to the law. Tank handed him a piece of paper with the address copied over and he rested his hand on his shoulder.
“I hope you find your girl and not a single hair on her head has been harmed. Take care of yourself Cade. You are one of the scrappiest damn fighters I have ever seen and you will be missed in the ring.”
Cade smiled at Tank and thanked him one more time. With that, he left and hopped on his bike. He needed a weapon, preferably nothing sharp or loaded. He didn’t need to add homicide to his record. Just then a message from Cindy flashed on his phone. Excitement bubbled up, but was quickly replaced with true terror as he opened the attachment. A picture of Cindy with a gag in her mouth, tears streaming down her face filled his screen and was forever burned into his memory. Anger fueled him as he stopped by a store and bought a thick wooden baseball bat.
His phone guided him to the address that Tank had provided. He parked his bike and walked towards the old abandoned warehouse. Windows were broken on many floors and some were boarded up. Broken bottles littered the ground and a few bodies slept under layers of clothing and ratty blankets around the outside of the building. He entered through one broken doorway and was met with a gutted interior. He checked the picture of Cindy again and recognized the same run down building he was now standing in, falling apart in the background of her scared profile.
Cade walked around, not finding anyone on the first floor and then moving towards the next. Debris littered the floors, and exposed insulation hung freely from the ceiling and walls. Some had been ripped in areas and he could see them piled up in corners, like fluffy beds. The same symbols and scribbling from the crumpled papers were scatte
red across the surfaces. The second floor was all open and Cade did not see Cindy anywhere, so he made his way up the creaky falling rotting away stairs to the third floor.
Every corner was stuffed with trash and more of those symbols. He felt a chill as he looked down the long corridor of doors. All, but one stood wide open. He heard a soft sob from the closed door and inched his way towards it, bat ready to swing at any assailants. He lightly pushed open the door and found Cindy tied to a chair. He rushed to her, not even caring or considering this may be a trap. She sobbed and shook all over as he removed the gag from her mouth.
“Are you ok?” He asked her with pained eyes.