Take a Chance

by Ash Johnson

  “Dom says he’s busy with some personal shit but wouldn’t tell me where he was. Says he’ll be in later today.”

  Mr. E scowls but doesn’t say anything more to him. Instead he turns his eyes back to me and furrows his brow.

  “You okay, darlin’? You’re eyes are a bit too wide, and your neck is turning red.”

  I touch my neck and then feel my forehead and realize I’m starting to get a fever. “Yeah, I’m okay, but I could use a glass of water. I just got out of the hospital yesterday for pneumonia, and I need to take my pill to keep the fever away.”

  Giant leaves to grab me water, and I root around in my bag to find my prescription but come up empty-handed.

  “Shit.” I left both my antibiotics and my pain relievers for my throat in the bathroom at Blake’s house.

  “Forget your meds, girlie?” Giant asks as he places glass of water in front of me.

  “Yeah, hopefully this fever will go away on its own.” Both of the men stare at me like I’m mental for what I just said.

  “Come on, darlin’, we’ll run over to the drug store and get you somethin’ to stop the fever, and then we’ll talk about where we go from here,” Mr. E says as he scoots out of the booth.

  I follow him but am hanging onto my last nerve. I’m worried about what he means when he says “where we go from here”.

  Chapter 34

  Blake

  I’m scared out of my fucking mind. I woke up a few hours ago to an empty bed. When I got up to see if Harlow was in the bathroom or the kitchen, I found nothing but a note on the counter.

  I stare down at the crumpled white paper in my hand and read it one more time, hoping it will give me any indication of when she’ll be back.

  Dear Blake,

  I am so sorry that I had to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t risk you coming after me or trying to stop me.

  Something is going on with Mr. E. I got a call today saying that he wasn’t receiving any of the payments I’ve made over the past few years and that he needed to talk to me. I know this is a big thing, and I’m scared to do this, but I need to get all of this cleared up and find out where the payments have gone.

  I’ll call you as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I need you to take care of Alex for me. Please promise me that you will keep her safe.

  I can’t thank you enough for the things you have done for my sister and me. You took us in and never asked for anything in return, and I will be forever grateful for that. You are a wonderful man, Blake.

  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Love,

  Harlow

  I have to fight back burning tears when I get to the end of the note. The way she worded it makes it sound like she has a feeling that she won’t be coming back at all, and that scares the shit out of me. I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t have Harlow in my life.

  Just then, Alex comes strolling into the room, her clothes much more modest than I’m used to seeing on her and her hair dyed a light brown, no more of that bright fucking red.

  “Hey, Blake, where’s Harlow?” she asks as she rounds the counter to get a bowl for her breakfast.

  “Uh--” I struggle to think of what to tell her. Do I lie and say that she’s still in bed sleeping? Or do I tell the truth--that her sister is in Detroit dealing with a dangerous loan shark who hasn’t been getting his money and doesn’t know if she’ll come back to us at all?

  Alex notices my hesitation and looks down at the note in my hand. Before my hazed mind notices, Alex snatches the note out of my hand and reads it over. Her blue plastic bowl drops to the ground and she covers her mouth with her free hand as she finishes.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she squeals. All I can do is lift my shoulders, showing her I’m just as confused as she is. I can’t even speak past the enormous lump in my throat to tell her that things will be okay, because I’m not sure they will.

  “We have to go get her, Blake.”

  I glance at Alex and try to come up with some feeling to express other than numbness but come up empty. “Where do we even begin to look, Alex? I have no fucking clue how to find this guy, do you?” I growl. The fear is taking over, and I’m lashing out, I know, but I can’t stop myself.

  She pales and shakes her head slowly, which tells me she’s just as scared as I am. We have nothing to go on and don’t have the first clue where the hell to start. I have been trying to call Harlow’s phone all morning, and it goes straight to her voicemail.

  The two of us sit around the kitchen counter for what feels like forever. When I peer at the clock on the microwave, two hours have passed, and neither of us has moved. I guess Alex isn’t going to school today, and I’m skipping out on work, but I’d be too nervous to go to work anyway. My mind would be on Harlow the entire time.

  Alex opens her mouth to speak for the first time in hours, but she’s cut off by Jason Derulo’s song “Trumpets” playing through my phone. My ringtone for Harlow.

  I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a phone call this fast before. “Harlow, baby, where are you? Are you okay?” I shoot out rapid fire questions and give her no opportunity to answer them. A few seconds of silence, and then the most beautiful voice, even though it’s scratchy and soft because of her throat, comes through the line.

  “Blake, I’m okay, but I’m at the Phoenix airport, and I thought I might call you for a ride home. I can take a cab if you have to get to the gym or something, but I thought I’d press my luck and see if you had time to come get me.”

  I sag with relief against the countertop. She’s at the airport and in one piece.

  “No, baby, I have all the time in the world for you. I can be there in twenty-five minutes. Can you wait that long?”

  “Yeah, I’ll just stay inside the airport and grab a bite to eat while I wait. Be careful, and call me as soon as you get here.”

  “Harlow,” I stop her before she has the chance to hang up.

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you. Glad you’re okay, babe.”

  I wanted to wait to tell her those words face to face, where I could look her in the eye, and she would know how deeply I felt for her, but after worrying that she was hurt or possibly dead for the past few hours, I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  A soft sigh comes through the line and can tell she’s smiling from her tone when she answers back. “I love you, too.”

  We hang up and I find Alex appearing a bit less nervous after hearing the conversation I had with her sister. “So you’re gonna go pick her up then?” she asks as she grabs a cup of yogurt out of the fridge and moves to the other side of the kitchen for a spoon. I don’t miss the way her hands shake slightly from lingering nerves, but she’s trying to put up a tough girl act. I’ll let her have it this time since I’m in the same boat as her.

  “Yeah. Do you want me to drop you off at school before I get her, or do you want to wait until after I get her and then take you?” I ask knowing that she’s already late, so it won’t make much difference.

  “I’ll just stick around here and make sure I have everything ready for school before we go. I need to feed Rosie before we leave, too, so go get Harlow before she spends the entire day sitting at the airport.”

  I give Alex a small smile and grab my keys off the counter before slipping my feet into some flip flops and moving to the garage.

  I choose to take the BMW since it’s lower to the ground and a bit cheaper on gas. I get to the car to find that there is a piece of white paper taped onto the driver’s side window with my name written on it in red marker. I pull the paper off, and before I even open it, the dread of what’s written inside sinks in my stomach.

  You’ll be mine soon.

  Fuck. My eyes seem to take five minutes before they fully close. Heaven. This chick is crazier than I gave her credit for. I search around the garage for ways someone got in and notice the door leading from the backyard to the garage is unlocked. I hardly ever lock i
t because I keep the beer in the garage during parties so it stays cooler for longer but it will be locked permanently from now on.

  I crumple up the psycho’s love note and toss it in the recycle bin before jumping in the car and heading toward the airport to pick up my girl.

  The knot in my stomach doesn’t ease up until I pull up into the pick-up area of the airport and see her sitting on a bench waiting for me. I think the idea of her being gone was haunting me until I could see with my own two eyes that she was okay.

  She opens the back door and tosses in a frayed blue duffle bag that has seen much better days and then hops into the front seat without a word. I sit still while she buckles her seatbelt and adjusts the bun that’s barely holding her hair out of her face.

  When she realizes that we aren’t leaving the airport she finally turns to me. “What?” she asks.

  Is she fucking serious? “Are you fucking serious?”

  Harlow raises her brows and lowers her gaze to her lap like she knows she’s in trouble and I’m a parent dishing out a punishment.

  “Baby, you left in the middle of the damn night to fly to Detroit and meet with a man that would rather kill you than discuss where all of his money is, and you ask me ‘what’?”

  She lets out a deep sigh before her eyes connect with mine again. “Blake, I know I should have told you about this instead of just leaving in the middle of the night, but if I did tell you about it, would you have let me go?”

  Not on her fucking life. “Of course I wouldn’t have. That man is dangerous, and you just got out of the hospital yesterday. You aren’t healthy enough to be traveling anywhere, let alone going to meet a loan shark and his lackeys, who have beaten you repeatedly over the years, by yourself. You could have set up a time to meet with him in a few weeks when you were better, and I would have gone with you. It was dangerous and stupid of you to go alone.”

  That might have been a bit harsher than it should have been but I’m pissed off and I can’t seem to reign in my temper at the moment.

  She bites her lower lip, more than likely trying to keep herself from crying, and glances back down to her lap. After a few seconds, she gets herself under control. “I knew you wouldn’t let me go because of the fact that I’m sick, and I needed to go straighten things out before they got worse. It wasn’t bad, and Mr. E was very nice. I promise I’ll explain everything, but right now I need to take my pills and nap. I sat next to a middle-aged woman on the flight home that talked nonstop about her ex-husband and his new girlfriend showing up at her son’s wedding, and I didn’t get any sleep.”

  I crack a small. I know Harlow is the type of person that would do anything to avoid hurting someone else’s feelings or ruffling feathers, so I’m sure she gritted her teeth and listened to every annoying word that the woman said, without complaint.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Don’t even start with me, Blake. I was hoping the flight attendant would look the other way so I could drop a Dramamine in the lady’s coffee when she wasn’t paying attention, but I couldn’t get so lucky. I had to listen to hours of annoying stories instead of getting any sleep like I wanted to. So can we just go, please?”

  I nod and make my way out of the airport in silence. Harlow leans her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes, but I notice that every few minutes the skin around her eyes clenches like she’s flinching when she swallows. She must be in a lot of pain, since she left all of her meds at home and has gone nine or ten hours without them.

  I lean over and grasp her tiny hand, giving it a slight squeeze before moving our entwined hands to the console between us. “You hurting, babe?” I ask, but I don’t expect much of an answer. I get a slow nod in response and figure that making her tell me about what happened in Detroit can wait.

  Fifteen minutes later we pull into the garage of my house, and Harlow opens her eyes. “Why don’t you head inside and take your pills? I just want to check something in the backyard real quick, and then I’ll be right behind you.”

  She nods, grabs her bag, and goes into the house. Once the door is shut, I go through the side leading to the backyard and head to the side of the house. I want to check the padlock on the ten-foot metal gate and see if it has been tampered with.

  When I make it to the fence, I find that someone, in fact, did tamper with the lock. It’s open but not just like it was popped with a paperclip or something. It has a hole the size of a pencil eraser in it just below the locking mechanism.

  Shit. That crazy bitch shot a hole into my padlock to get into my yard? She’s a lot more dangerous than I thought. I need to call Ronan and see what I can do about getting a restraining order.

  I shake my head and head back toward the garage. I have to focus on getting Harlow in bed and Alex to school and then get some work done at the gym today.

  I move into the mud room and see that Harlow tossed her duffle in the middle of the floor which is totally unlike her. Normally, she’s a bit OCD about where things go.

  I move it to the side of the room and enter the kitchen. When I find that room empty, I start toward the stairs and hear a small squeaking sound. I furrow my brow and quicken my steps, only to make it to the top of the basement stairs and find Harlow lying on the floor at the bottom, duct tape across her mouth and zip ties around her hands and feet.

  Her eyes are pleading with me to do something, but I’m not sure what it that would be. When my body catches up to my mind, I start to move toward the stairs, but, thanks to my MMA injury, I don’t see the body creeping up on me in my periphery until it’s too late.

  The blunt end of a hard object hits me on the back of the head, and then everything goes black.

  Chapter 35

  Harlow

  Tears don’t stop running down my face as Blake’s strong, muscular body collapses to the floor at the top of the stairs. I close my eyes and try to rid myself of the idea that something will happen to him, or to me¸ but it’s not working. Then a high pitched noise behind me has me rolling onto my back and turning my head.

  I find Alex duct taped to a kitchen chair that must have been dragged down to the basement. Her hands and feet are individually attached to the chair, and there is a wide strip of silver tape matching mine across her mouth. There is also a small trickle of blood from the left side of her hair line running down her face to her pale cheek.

  The tears flooding out of her terror-filled eyes break my heart as she silently begs me to come over and rescue her. Only this time I’m not sure how. I didn’t have time to see who they were or what I was up against before they hit me on the head in the mud room, tied me up, and tossed me down the stairs like I was a rubber ball.

  I came around in time to see Blake at get hit in the head with some blunt object-- what it was, I couldn’t tell because I wasn’t wearing my glasses and couldn’t see that far away. Then he dissolved into a heap at the top stair, and someone’s hands grabbed onto his ankles, dragging him away from the stairwell.

  My hands are bound in front of me, which is helpful in this situation. Whoever this is must have heard Blake come into the house and didn’t have time to flip me over and zip tie my hands behind my back.

  I roll onto my stomach and push myself up to my knees in order to stand. Once I’m balanced and the dizziness from my knock to the head fades, I hop my way toward Alex.

  I thought for sure she’d be at school right now, so having her and Blake here in what is a life or death situation scares me more than if it was just me about to die.

  Once I reach her, I rip the harsh tape off her mouth quickly, so I don’t extend the pain, cringing a bit when she lets out a sound that is somewhere between a scream and a moan.

  After her tape is removed, I try to speak and remember that I have tape covering my own mouth. Jesus. I am terrified for Blake and my sister that I forgot about the enormous piece of tape still covering my own mouth. I grab onto the edge on one cheek and rip it off quickly, gritting my teeth against the burn to my skin and
lips.

  “Harlow, I’m scared,” Alex whimpers out as her hands struggle against the tape around her wrists.

  “I know, Alex, I am too but I’ll get you out of here okay?” She nods vigorously at my words and stills her movements long enough to let me remove the tape from one wrist. She works on the other hand while I get to my knees to remove the tape from her ankles before the psycho that did this can come back.

  We’ve got almost all of the tape removed from the last ankle when we hear footsteps moving across the floor above us, kicking us into high gear. Once Alex is freed, she starts tugging at my cable ties in a panic.

  I lift my hands and try my best to place them on her cheeks to get her attention before whoever is upstairs comes down and discovers that she’s free. “Alex, honey, I need you to go out the back door and run to a neighbor’s house as fast as you can. Get to a phone and call 911. Do not come back here. Stay away from the house until I come get you, do you understand?”

  She jerks her head up and down in acknowledgement but makes no move toward the door.

  “Alex,” I hiss at her. She finally jumps into high gear. She runs for the door but flings it open, lacking any finesse and, according to the loud and fast footsteps coming down two flights of stairs, alerting our captor that she’s free.

  I stare at the open door through which Alex has just fled and wonder how far I can get if I hop my way to it, but then I remember that Blake is unconscious and in need of help somewhere in the house, and I can’t just leave him here by himself. I need to believe that Alex will get to a phone and that the police will be here soon.

  “You let her out? That was very naughty of you Harlow,” someone growls behind me.

  I jump around to face my captor head on, but as soon as I do, I’m once again knocked in the head with another hard object, and everything fades around me. My last thoughts are of Blake’s handsome smile.