Above all Else

by Sophia R Heart

  Nathan and Trace took the lead, explaining everyone’s role for the day. Kellan had a kind of backseat role since he wasn't a cop or an agent, and I could tell that he was frustrated by that. I didn't say a word, but leaned against a wall and listened quietly. Phoenix stood silently beside me, eyes bouncing around with interest.

  Ten minutes later, everyone stood, gathering their things. I kept my eyes on Kellan as he walked towards me. He didn't look surprised to see me there, just a little wary, maybe even a little accusatory.

  The guys started to disperse into different vans. I cleared my throat, realizing I needed to be quick.

  Phoenix looked between the two of us. "I’ll wait by my car.”

  "You left in a hurry," I said, self-consciously playing with the scarf around my neck. Kellan hadn't been serious when he'd suggested it this morning, but it was the only thing that worked.

  "There wasn't really any reason for me to dawdle," Kellan said stiffly. “Alex–“

  "Axel," I corrected, a little exasperated.

  He gave me an unamused stare. "What's going on between the two of you?"

  I almost wilted in relief. Was that what this was? Simple jealousy? I'd worried it was something else, something more. In other circumstances, I might have been pleased that he was jealous. Now, with my friendship with Axel on the line, I just felt tired.

  "Nothing," I said empathetically.

  He didn't look convinced. "What happened on his birthday?"

  I fidgeted. I'd never feel entirely comfortable talking about that night. "We were drunk. We kissed... we made out. But I–“

  “We’re on a schedule,” Nathan said, cutting me off. I hadn’t noticed him approach us. I glanced around, and saw that everyone was waiting for us. “We need to move.”

  “Two minutes,” Kellan said to Nathan. He sighed, but walked back to one of the vans.

  “Please, be safe,” I told Kellan. Standing on tiptoe, I leaned in close to his face. “He really is just my friend.”

  “We’ll talk later,” he said with a sigh. He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss. It was something, at least. I could tell that he believed me, but he was most probably still wondering about our history. I couldn’t be angry. I'd have wanted answers if our roles had been reversed.

  The cars drove away, and I sent a quick prayer up to whoever might be listening. Please bring them both back safe. Please.

  Phoenix was on the phone, a sweet smile on his face as he spoke to Poppy. I sighed. Why couldn’t things be that easy for me and Kellan?

  Noticing me, Phoenix pushed away from the wall.

  "Poppy, I'll see you in a... what?" The smile faded, confusion appearing on his face. "Who's in the house? I can't – Poppy? Poppy?"

  He pulled the phone away from his ear, and I could see that she – or somebody – on the other line had disconnected the call.

  "Did you lose the signal?" I asked him, a forbidding feeling growing in my gut.

  "Somebody was in the house," he said, his face unbelievably pale. He looked as though his worst nightmare had come to life.

  "Are you sure?"

  "That's what she said.” His voice shook. He fumbled with his phone, and tried calling her back.

  "Okay. Let’s go," I said, trying to remain calm through my rapid thoughts. Having Phoenix sit behind the wheel didn't seem like a good idea. "I'll drive."

  I kept a hand on his arm as we hurried back towards the parked the car. He didn’t seem to see where he was going, and I was sure that it was my hand guiding him that kept him from heading off in the wrong direction. He was shaking by the time we got into the car.

  Pulling the phone away from his ear, he looked at me with panic clear in his eyes. "She’s not picking up."

  "Call the police. Have them get over there, too," I told him, pulling the car out of its spot. I took in a deep breathe myself, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. It wouldn’t do us any good to have me freaking out, too. One of us needed to be level-headed.

  "Good idea," he said, doing just that.

  If I had brought this on his doorstep. If Poppy was hurt... I'd never be able to forgive myself. I should have known from the night those men had broken into Dad's house, from the moment the other thugs had barged into Kellan's apartment with their guns blazing, that something like this would eventually happen. After last night, I'd really begun to believe that we'd all get out of this unscathed.

  I should have known that would be too good to be true.

  I drove as fast as I could, almost slamming the breaks whenever I thought I saw a cop car. Getting stopped by the police was the last thing we needed right now.

  Phoenix continued to call Poppy after he’d phoned the cops, and with each unanswered call, he grew increasingly ashen. I didn't even try and park correctly when we arrived, just left the car as it was; half on the sidewalk.

  Phoenix quickly unfastened his seatbelt, his hand going to the door handle.

  "Maybe we should wait for the cops?" I said hesitantly. After all, we could be walking into a situation that we had no hope of getting out of.

  "I can't," he said, sounding painfully desperate.

  He took off down the pathway towards his house. I hurried after him, running flat-out most of the way. I tried calling Nathan to let him know what was going on, but he didn't pick up, and I was forced to leave a voicemail.

  I was gasping for breath when the house came into view. I wasn’t sure what I'd expected to see, but it looked the same as usual, nothing out of the ordinary.

  When we stepped into the hallway, the house looked empty at first glance. Passing Phoenix's den, I saw that somebody had indeed been inside. It was completely trashed. Things had been upturned, screens smashed. Whoever had broken in... they hadn’t just been looking for something, they’d also enjoyed breaking everything within sight.

  "Poppy!" Phoenix yelled, his voice reverberating across the hall and through the open ceiling to the floors above. There was a ringing silence inside the hallway after his voice faded.

  "Let's separate," I told him, feeling a little more certain that there was nobody in the house. He nodded, taking off without a single glance backwards.

  I slipped into Phoenix's den and made my way carefully over towards the corner of the room. I crouched down next to the computer that had felt like my only life line to Dad. It was broken.

  I shuffled into the utility room, casting a cursory glance around. It looked the same as before and there was nobody in there.

  I hoped that Poppy had managed to slip outside when she’d heard the intruders and was currently hiding out in the underbrush. Anything else was unthinkable.

  An agonized cry reached my ears as I stepped out of the room. I bolted in its direction, my heart thumping in my chest.

  I ran into the kitchen, coming to a sudden halt at the scene in front me. Poppy was on the floor, unmoving on the ground. She had an apron tied around her waist and had obviously been cooking. A trickle of dark red liquid lined her hairline, dripping down to her ear.

  Phoenix was crouched down next to her. I met his pained eyes for a fraction of a moment, before his eyes widened, looking behind me

  "What–?" I started to say when something pulled my hair, yanking hard. A small scream escaped my lips as I toppled backwards.

  Rough hands slammed me into a wall. "Shut the fuck up," a harsh voice said, and a hand clamped down on my mouth.

  "It doesn't matter, Slade. There's no one around for fucking miles," another guy chortled. My eyes darted towards him as he bared his crooked, yellowing teeth in a grin. He surveyed the room, a shiny black gun in his hand. It was pointed directly at Phoenix, who had frozen right where he was on the ground.

  "What do we do?" Slade said, his filthy hand still pressed against my lips. I tried to back up, pressing my head harder against the wall behind me in an attempt to get some distance between my mouth and his hand. I recognized him. He was one of the guy’s who’
d broken into the house and then Kellan’s apartment.

  "Just knock them out. We still have some rooms to search," the other guy said with an obvious air of authority despite his thin, emaciated body. Something flickered in my mind as I looked at him.

  "But this one is so pretty," Slade said, leaning into me. “She’s caused us all sorts of grief.”

  I felt something hard press into my stomach, and gagged, panic filling me. I stopped trying to disappear into the wall behind me, and instead, bit down viciously on his hand.

  When his grip on me slackened, I jerked forward, hitting him hard with my head. Something crunched, but I didn’t feel any gratification at the sight of his bloody nose. I was too distracted by the searing pain in my forehead.

  He staggered back, cursing thickly as he clutched his nose. I wobbled to the side once his restraining arms were no longer caging me in. The distraction was enough that Phoenix was able to whack the other guy, who'd turned around to glance at Slade, with a frying pan over the head. It collided with a loud thud, and the bastard slumped forward, landing hard on the floor.

  I didn't feel relieved for long, my mind turning blank with pain as I was shoved back into the wall, this time head first.

  I must have blacked out.

  When I came to, I was being dragged through a haze of overgrown bushes. Everything felt vague and fuzzy, and I didn't recognize my surroundings. They weren't using the familiar trail towards the main road, but were pulling me through a canopy of trees and dense shrubbery. I could only hope that we weren’t too far from the main trail and that the cops would arrive and come across us soon.

  My foot caught on something in the shrubbery, bringing the guy to a halt. His arms under my armpits were already creating a painful strain in my shoulders, but the harsh yank he gave to pull my foot free was absolutely agonizing. My eyes flew open, landing on a familiar sneaker in the underbrush.

  Despite the debilitating pain across my forehead and shoulders, my eyes remained rooted on that sneaker.

  Axel.

  He was lying there on the floor. Oh god. How long had he been there? He wasn't moving, and it had been over an hour since he'd left the house.

  I must have made a sound because the man was suddenly right in front of me. Suddenly, something clicked in my mind, a memory coming back to me. I began struggling in earnest when I realized who was standing in front of me.

  His dark, sunken eyes latched onto mine, and my mind filled with raw hate. I didn't blink, didn't look away, as Archie Chamber's heavy fist came towards me.

  Axel, Phoenix, and Poppy were my last thought.

  - KELLAN -

  Nathan and Trace were moving things along really quickly apparently – it was still too slow for my liking. The waiting around was making me fucking antsy.

  We convened about a mile away from the warehouse. There were a number of vans and cars around, and Nathan and Trace seemed to be in full swing. I leaned against a van's door, my eyes trained on the number of monitors inside.

  Max sat in a seat, headphones on, as he listened to the recordings coming in from the bug I’d planted. Someone had been monitoring it since yesterday, and Mario hadn't been heard again since I'd left the warehouse.

  I didn't want to think too much into that, or I'd drive myself crazy. It had nearly killed me to leave him there. I hadn't been able to see him, but knowing that he'd been just a thin wall away from me had been maddening. If we were too late, I didn't know what I'd do – or how I'd ever face April with such news.

  April was another place I tried not to let my mind wonder to. After she’d left a short while ago, I'd felt as though I'd behaved like a really insecure teenage girl. God, I wished I could go back. I wished I'd pulled her into my arms and given her a kiss that she’d never forget.

  Even if something had happened with Axel, there was no way that anything had been going on between them these past several weeks. I'd been around them. I would have known. Right?

  God, I hated all this doubt. I'd never felt unsure like this before. Then again, I’d never felt this way about someone before. Ballerina was special. She did this to me... and I wouldn’t change any of it for the fucking world.

  I shook my head, trying to focus on the present. I itched for a smoke, but knowing how much April hated it, I'd been trying to cut back the past few days. I hadn’t wanted my breath smelling like an ashtray in case I got the chance to kiss her again.

  Finally, after what seemed like forever, Nathan and Trace dispersed.

  “Let’s get moving,” Nathan yelled.

  The SWAT team piled into two vans. Nathan, Trace, and me, along with Max, and the other agents piled into another one. I was more than pissed to learn that I wouldn't be going into the warehouse until right at the very end.

  I wanted to help – in any way possible. Mario was like a father to me, and getting Archie Chambers would just be the icing on top of the cake. Hearing him last night had left my blood roaring. The entire reason Mario had first disappeared had been because he'd been tracking Chambers. The LSG must have already gotten to him, though. I was sure that Chambers had had a hand in Mario's capture. Tonight, everything would finally come to a full circle.

  Trace had a dispatcher radio with him and communicated with another senior member of the FBI, while a man I hadn't seen before drove us to the location of the warehouse. Nathan took Max's place next to the monitor, listening intently to what was going on inside the warehouse.

  We arrived there within minutes, and everything moved quickly after that. The FBI team piled out of the van and ran into the warehouse in a steady formation. Another team was going in through the back.

  Everyone else stood outside, waiting for a signal. We could hear shouts and yells coming from inside the warehouse, but nothing concrete about what was going on. I waited with bated breath, tense and ready for action.

  "Drop your weapons. Drop your weapons!" voices rang out across the warehouse.

  Max looked at his uncle. Nathan shook his head. "Not yet."

  What the hell was he waiting for?

  With growing impatience, Max pulled out the cord of the headphone so we could all hear what was going on inside.

  A sudden, piercing scream came through the speakers, and I froze, every muscle locking into place. It sounded like... No. It couldn’t be. She was at Phoenix's place. She was safe and sound.

  "Dad," she screamed.

  It was her.

  I didn't hesitate. Pulling my gun out of its holster, I ran straight into the warehouse.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  * * *

  - NOW -

  I WAS ROUSED BY a burst of cold air hitting my face. Blinking rapidly, I tried to clear the fog from my vision. For a long, panicked moment, I couldn't get a sense of my surroundings. I craned my neck, pain shooting across my forehead and down my neck at the small movement.

  I was in the backseat of a car; that much I could make out. A large warehouse was right in front of us, visible through the windshield. I swallowed hard at the sight of it, my throat feeling raw. I had no idea if it was the same warehouse that Kellan had been at last night – the same one that Dad was hopefully still in.

  I hoped it wasn’t. I did not want to get caught in the cross fire. Nathan and his men would be storming into the place at any minute.

  "This was pretty useless," a voice said. I stopped moving and lay perfectly still. It was Slade, nose red and swollen from where I'd head-butted him. He had a syringe in his hand.

  "My way was much more fun." Archie’s lip curled. Had he been one of the guys who’d broken into Kellan’s apartment that night? There had been three of them, though I had only gotten a good look at one of them that night.

  Slade shook his head. "Crazy fucker."

  As subtly as I could, I looked around the car, trying to ignore the pulsing pain in my forehead. I was alone, sprawled across the backseat.

  I hoped that Phoenix, Axel, and Poppy were okay.
I felt sick thinking about them and prayed that the cops had reached them – that help had found them.

  My heart dropped to my stomach when I unwittingly made eye contact with Archie Chambers. Seeing I was awake, he hauled me to my feet. It was only then that I noticed that my hands were tied tightly behind my back. I'd been distracted by the pain in my forehead, but now I felt the numbness in my arms. My hands throbbed from the tight bindings, and a bead of sweat trickled down my forehead though I didn't think that I'd ever felt so cold.

  “Move.” He propelled me forward.

  The few steps it took to get into the warehouse felt like miles. I stumbled along on shaky legs, feeling nausea rise within me at each step. There were two tall gates – one of which was propped open – leading into the warehouse.

  Archie pushed me inside ahead of him. There were over a dozen guys inside, unloading and loading stuff into boxes. Some huddled in groups, drinking beer. They stared as they saw me. Several eyed me up and down in appreciation. Others looked away, not quite meeting my eyes.

  My eyes darted around, trying to recall the exits and rooms on Nathan's floor plans, but my memory failed me. I hadn't been sure whether this was the right warehouse, but judging from its size, and the number of men present, I guessed it was. It was the same warehouse Dad was in, the same warehouse that the FBI were going to storm into at any moment.

  Despite the paralyzing fear I felt, a part of me couldn’t help but glance around, a desperate kind of hope filling me. Was Dad really here?

  Slade came in behind me, cussing under his breath. There was dried blood underneath his nose, and my stomach churned at the sight of it. He shot me a nasty glare when he caught my eye, and I couldn't help but shrink away from him. There was a violent promise in his eyes that scared the crap out of me.

  "Finally," a derisive voice said, and there was a ripple through the crowd. It was obvious that the person who had spoken was important, someone that these guys listened to.