by Lake, Rae B.
* * *
It takes about thirty minutes for us to get back to where Keeley lives, but the second I turn down her road, my stomach fucking drops to my feet.
"What the fuck is this?" My hands start to sweat not from the heat, but from fear. I see flashing lights—cops and an ambulance. Something happened. Roth must have seen it the same time I do, because as I speed up so does he.
Please don't fucking do this to me.
I pray to whoever is listening for the safety of my family. I hope Lily just got her hand stuck in something, there was a water main break, or they were there for someone else. Anything besides what I feared.
I skid to a stop right behind one of the ambulances that is indeed parked right in front of Keeley's house. There is a flurry of activity, but no one has yet to say anything to me or even acknowledge my presence.
"Keeley!" I run toward the house, letting my bike fall to the ground as I jump off.
"Sir, you can't go in there." A cop puts his arm out to stop me, but I don't let him. I grab his face and push him to the ground. There is no fucking way that I was going to let them stop me from getting inside that fucking house.
A few more cops rush over to where I am, and they try to stop me as well. "Keeley!" I scream out waiting for them to answer. I stop fighting for the briefest of seconds when I look over to the side and see a man walking out with a large golden retriever limp in his arms.
"Oh fuck, Max." If Max was hurt, then I knew that someone had come in and tried to hurt my wife. "No! Get off of me! I need to get in there." I roar out in desperation as four officers hold me back telling me that I can' t go in, "That's my fucking wife. Let me go! Where's Lily?" Panic began to squeeze my chest as I realize that I don't see her either."
I see two men walking out of the house a body bag in their hands. I nearly pull out my gun right there and start shooting everyone in sight.
"Hey, let him go. Let him the fuck go!" Roth rushes up behind me and pulls a few of them off. It's enough for me to break free. I run in the direction of the men carrying the body bag and I can already tell by the length that it's not Keeley. I push past them and into the house where I see a bunch of paramedics on the floor surrounding someone.
Keeley is there, unconscious and bleeding profusely. Her skin is pale and sweaty. She opens her eyes to see me and the gold that I love is now a dark amber. She's slipping away right before my eyes.
"No, oh God, no. Keeley." I fall down and try to shove my way through the paramedics. She tries to raise her arm, but she doesn't even have enough strength to get it more than an inch off the floor.
"Sir, you have to move. We need to work. Move!" The EMT screams in my face. I nearly grab his head to slam it down on the ground.
"Dillon." An arm reaches under my arm and pulls me up.
"No!" I try to fight whoever it is to get back to Keeley. When I look back, I see a spattering of blue hair.
"Dillon! I need you to get your shit together now." Fly barks at me and I focus on his face.
"What the fuck happened?" I ask him and he pulls me away. Roth comes into the house. He sees Fly and I moving to the corner. He joins us.
"You were here?" Roth asks Fly, speaking the questions I clearly couldn't focus enough to ask.
"No. I was out. When I came back home, I heard her screaming." Fly says his voice cracking at the last part. "The cops are all over the place here." He slips something out of his sleeve and places it in my palm. It looks like a small tape recorder. What the hell is this? I look at it like it's an alien artifact. My mind can't comprehend what he wants me to do with it.
"They took Lily." Fly's voice is rough.
My head pops up and I stare in his eyes. He must mean the paramedics took Lily. Social services? The police?
"What? Who took Lily?" I ask through gasps of air. I can't catch my breath. It feels like my entire fucking head is swimming.
"The same ones who did this. They are going to sell her off." Fly says lowly.
"No, you're fucking lying. You piece of shit! You're lying!" I grab Fly by his shirt and jerk him once, willing him to tell me anything besides that shit. When he doesn't my entire body gives way and I fall down to my knees.
"Oh God. Oh, my fucking God ..." My body shakes with anger and fear. I feel broken.
"Wire, you need to get up, they're taking Keeley to the hospital. Don't let her be alone." Roth bends down and tries to pick up my body, but it’s all dead weight. I feel like there is nothing that my body knows how to do anymore besides hurt.
"Fuck. Oh fuck." I cry out and do my best to look around at what is happening. They are moving Keeley out the door even as they continue to try breathing for her and stop the bleeding. "Lily. I need to get Lily." I turn back in the opposite direction. "Wire, Keeley needs you." Roth says from behind me. I turn back and see my ol' lady fighting for her life on the stretcher.
"Key." I call for her. My mind spins in a million directions. I need to make a fucking decision, but I won't be able to live with myself if she dies and I'm not there. It'll end me, but if they hurt my daughter and I didn't go do anything to save her, It'll be the same outcome.
"Wire, come on man. You need to focus!" Roth grabs the back of my head and forces me to look at him. I need to make a decision. There's no one that was going to help me now. One way or another shit was going to be bad. I had to figure out which of the bad I was going to let happen.
I take a breath, close my eyes and think for a beat. "Roth, find out what's on this recorder and get every piece of intel that you can on where they would take Lily. I'm going to ride with her to the hospital. Once I see her safe, I'll ride out to find my kid. Fly, I know that we just met, but I could use back up. Keeley trusts you, maybe you could be there with her in case she." My breath hiccups at the mere thought of me having to say in case she dies.
"I'm here. She's family. Whatever needs doing." He nods.
"Check here after they leave for anything that you can find to help us. Then drive down to the hospital." I dish out orders like I'm their leader. Though I feel nothing like one. I shouldn't have come back. I shouldn't have brought my shit back into their lives.
When I rush outside, I can see Roth with the recorder to his ear. He lets his head fall back and mouths the words Motherfucker. I knew for sure that this wasn't just some random hit on my family.
"What is it?" I ask him.
"It's a recording. That bastard, Dr. Strand called his friends before we killed him, that’s why he identified you so whoever was on the other end would know who to come after."
I shake my head and squeeze my eyes shut. Another decision of mine that led to my family being hurt. This had to do with Dr. Strand and what I did to him. His people had come for revenge quicker than we thought they would.
I watch him get into his car and peel off, while Fly rushes back into Keeley's house with the swarm of police that are in there.
I jump up into the back of the ambulance and settle down next to Keeley as the two EMTs poke her with needles and hook her up to machines. The ambulance puts on its wailers and we race to the hospital.
After they do everything possible to get her as stable as they can I move over and sit by her head. Her eyes are closed now, and she barely looks like she is breathing.
"Keeley, baby. I'm so sorry. Please don't leave me. Just fight princess."
Her eyes don't open, but one tear trails down her face. I wipe it up with my thumb and move her hair away from her face. Her eyebrow is split open and there is dried blood on her face. "You're my everything. You and Lily are everything to me. I fucking love you more than anything. Keeley, just stay with me." When I lean back and see that her eyes still have not opened I can't help but break down again.
I lean back and try to compose myself. I don't have time to lose it. Even though all I want is to crawl up next to my woman in this small bed and hold her tight. I need to go find my daughter. My children mean everything. Children. Fuck.
"What about the baby?"
I ask one of the medics.
"The baby is still with us, but it's in distress. They will probably need to do a c-section. You know how many months she is?"
"Little more than seven."
"Ok there is a good chance that it will make it." The man tries to comfort me, but I can hear the words that he didn't say. There is a chance that it might not. I lean down to Keeley's belly just to be close to the child that may or may not be mine. Something hard rolls up against her skin the second I lay my head down and it's the only thing in the past hour that I would consider a blessing of some sort. "There you are MC, help momma ok. Help her stay with us." I speak to her belly knowing that so much can go wrong and quickly when it comes to having a baby.
The ambulance screeches to a stop and the medics rush to get Keeley out of the back of the van. I follow behind them as they talk a million miles a minute to the doctor and nurses that are now taking over her care. Everything appears to move so fast and if any of them are asking me anything I can't tell. I just stare at Keeley trying to force myself to remember every part of her just in case this is the last time that I see her alive. Suddenly a hand pops up to my chest stopping my motion.
"You can't come in here. Just wait out here and someone will come see you as soon as possible." A nurse says.
"I have to go in there with her." I try to push my way forward.
"You want us to save her? You have to let us work. I know it's hard, but you need to wait." She says and points to the waiting area.
I nod my head knowing she' s right. There is nothing that I can do in there, besides get in the way. I walk into the waiting area and drop myself down into one of the hard chairs. I pull out my phone and already see more than a dozen messages. Most from a group text chain that they must have created between Roth, Brendan, and Fly. Roth telling me what he found out about the people that Dr. Strand was known to do business with. Brendan says he is going to try to get in contact with some of his friends to call in some favors. Fly sends over photos to me from his home security system. I'm sure that Keeley had one too, but I can't access it right now. With every text I note the information, but my brain can’t function past what I’m going to do to the bastards that hurt my family. Besides Roth there are three calls from Clean and one from Archer. Roth must have told them what was going on.
There were voicemails from them, but I didn't have the mental capacity to listen to them right now. I wait for Roth or Fly to get back to me. So far all that they have been able to find is a few names. A photo Brendan sent over from some small airfield of a man getting on a plane. Brendan must be using his FBI contacts again. I didn't see Lily though.
I send over my own text. "Where is Lily? I don't give a fuck about them if Lily isn’t with them." I wait for what seems like an eternity before Brendan sends over another text. This time it's the same photo of them getting on the plane, except a dotted line is drawn along the bag in the form of what looks like a body. They had my baby in a fucking duffle bag.
I yell out in anger and frustration, not giving a fuck who heard me.
Is she dead already?
Is she scared?
Did they hurt her?
How slowly can I make them die?
My mind races with a never-ending storm of questions.
My phone goes off constantly with texts and calls of concern, and with Brendan, Roth and Fly all feeding me information, but nothing that tells me anything that I want to hear. I want to know where my kid is.
The police show up and ask me a slew of questions none of which I know the real answer to and few that I do. I know they would never be able to find the bastards that did this before I did. The local police force just didn't move that fast.
They left without much to add besides that I should call them if I happen upon any information. Sure, I will call them. I'll call them when I put a bullet in each and every one of the heads of the people that did this to my family. There was no law in the fucking world that was going to stop me from killing those motherfuckers.
After about 3 hours, the doctor comes into the waiting area. A solemn look on his face and a slow walk.
"You better not fucking tell me my wife is dead. Leave now if you are going to say that shit to me, because I will kill you where you stand if you don't." My eyes burn with more tears that I refuse to shed.
"Your wife has suffered a massive trauma. For now she is still alive, but her heart did stop while we were trying to deliver the baby. We did resuscitate her, but she has not woken up. There is massive swelling in her brain, and she is showing a decrease in brain activity. We've gotten her stable for the time being, but there is nothing more that we can do right now besides wait. She may wake up in a few hours or she may not wake up at all."
I nod my head hearing the words coming out of his mouth, but not really comprehending them fully. I was just happy that he didn't come in here and say that they had lost her completely. While my woman was laying in there on a bed she would fight. I know she would. My woman's the strongest person I have ever met.
"The baby?" I ask. It didn't even dawn on me that in the short time I’ve known she was pregnant that I've already grown a small bond with it.
"The baby is premature, and his lungs have not developed enough for him to breathe on his own yet. We have him in the NICU."
I smile slightly, "Him?"
The doctor cracks a smile, "Yes, you have a son. Congratulations, I can take you to see him."
"No, I'll see him when she wakes up." I nod and look away from the man.
"As you wish. I'll come back with updates as often as I can. They are getting your wife all set up in the ICU right now, they will let you in to see her shortly. She is very bruised so be prepared for what you see. Be strong for her." He reaches over and puts a hand on my shoulder before he turns to walk out. I stand there for a second thinking about everything when one of the nurses comes in. I can go in and see Keeley now.
There are tubes and machines everywhere. I do my best not to break down. I search for a spot on her body to touch that isn't bandaged or bruised. The only place I can find is her neck. I lay my fingers on that thin skin and feel her heartbeat thrum slowly under my fingertips.
"Keeley, I’m so sorry that this has come back to affect you. I thought I could stay away from all this shit, but I know that I can’t. I’m going to get our daughter back. I’m going to kill the men that did this to you and then I’m going to come home. We are going to take care of our son together. I don’t want you to worry about anything. I love you princess. I don’t want to leave you, but I have to, and I know that you understand why. I have a job and Lily is depending on me to do it." I don’t want to think that I’m hallucinating things, but I swear it feels as if her heart rate has increased. When I stand up and look down at her it looks like there is a slight smile on her face, but I know that it’s not possible with a tube down her throat to help her breathe. It’s only my imagination. I hope she'd be proud of me. I kiss her once before I walk out of her room, leaving my entire soul in that bed with her.
Someone once said that since I met Keeley, I had lost my edge. That I wasn’t as brutal as I used to be. Going soft, is what they had said.
They were right, Keeley is my conscious, the scale between right and wrong. Someone tried to take her away from me, the monster in me has been waiting to be let off its leash for a long time.
Dillon
It was worse than I’d thought. I made my way back to Keeley’s house to see if there was anything that I could figure out from what was left at the scene. I saw where they’d shot Max, one of the bullets still in the ground. I wonder if it was Max that had killed the man.
"Hey, I was wondering if you would come back here." Fly walks in behind me.
"Did you find anything more than what you sent me already?" I didn’t have time for small talk.
"No, just those photos." He must see the instability in my eyes, because he shoves his hands in his pockets as if he is looking for something more to say.
"Max is going to make it the vet says."
I tilt my head to the side as if I didn’t understand what he was saying. Did he think that just because my dog was going to be ok that made things alright? I’m ecstatic that he is going to be okay. Keeley would be happy about that too, but it didn’t change what I had to do.
"Make sure you lock up on your way out." I stroll past him to the door and he reaches out to grab me. I jump back in an immediate defense position. He puts his hands up to show me that he isn’t a threat.
"Listen man I want to come with you."
"No." I say matter-of-factly. I was about to get into some reckless shit and I wasn’t going in there worried about anyone, but my daughter.
"What are you going to do? Scour the earth looking for the hole where they hid her? Alone?"
"Yes! That is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll bury anyone that gets in my way, friend or foe." I glare at him for a second before I turn around again. He doesn’t give up though, just runs to get back in my line of sight.
"I love her too; you want to get her back you’re going to need help."
I push him to the side harder than I need to, but he doesn’t retaliate. I didn’t want any fucking help. I didn’t want anyone telling me what the right thing to do was. I would do what I needed to do on my own.
I make my way over to my bike and a message from Roth pops up on my phone. Whoever he used to know when he was running around killing people for his sister must have come through, because he’d found the location of where the plane landed. From there he said that he knew of an old preparatory school, at least that is what they told the surrounding community it was, that was used for the training and housing of the children that they kidnapped. Now I had a location. It’s exactly what I needed. I make my way to my bike to toss on my lid and pull out. I didn't even bother to look back at Fly. There was nothing that he could offer me right now. As long as my kid was missing the devil himself wouldn't be able to pull me away from saving her.