Unsteady

by Elizabeth York

  Both Mark and Brooklyn stared at me as though I was speaking in a foreign language.

  “Didn’t you get our messages?” Brooklyn asked and I shook my head. “We called your work, your cell, and even here.”

  I walked over to the answering machine and looked there were forty two messages. I pushed play.

  “Logan, I think you are in the air right now, but something has happened. Please call me when you get this,” and then the next one played. “Logan, I hate to leave this on your machine, but we are at Mercy Sister Katherine is in the hospital.”

  I turned and looked at them, as the machine kept going. “Hey man,” Mark’s voice was on the line. “Seriously you need to call me as soon as you get this. We have all been trying to get in touch with you. I’m going to call your boss if I don’t hear back from you.”

  I pushed the button to stop the messages. I deleted all of them and took a seat across from both Brooklyn and Mark.

  “Tell me,” I prepared myself to hear that Sister Katherine had passed on, but that wasn’t what left Mark’s lips.

  “London was kidnapped.”

  Mark definitely had my attention. I listened as Brooklyn argued about how London would have come for her if she could have. That London would’ve saved her and she had to do the same even though she was a million months pregnant.

  “Wait,” I interrupted their disagreement. “Let’s start at the beginning.”

  “London was packing up to leave and meet you at the airport when he found her. Then he pulled a gun and there was a struggle. A bullet was fired at Sister Katherine. We tried to save London, but when the gun went off she stopped fighting to save us.” Brooklyn’s voice took on a raspy tone as if she might cry.

  “Who took her?”

  “A man named Michael Pierce,” Brooklyn answered as if that told me anything at all.

  “You know how the girl’s dad is?” Mark asked, and I nodded. “Multiply the body count and add in the buying and selling of people, guns, and drugs. That’s Michael Pierce.”

  “Why would he take her?”

  “He has her up for auction, and we have to get to her before she’s gone forever,” Brooklyn spoke fast as her irritation grew and it seemed like nothing was happening fast enough. I was confused by all of this - London had never mentioned anything about this. Plus, I was just a pilot who worked out, ate bad food, and had a lot of sex. Brooklyn’s talking like this is something we would need Thomas Magnum or James Bond for.

  “London told me she was on a six month suspension. She had to go to the meeting, but said it was the predicted outcome.”

  “She’s a liar,” Brooklyn scoffed.

  “The Montgomery women don’t like to share information sometimes,” Mark smirked.

  “What kind of big sister would I be if I didn’t stalk her? I let her lie to me about her job for far too long,” Brooklyn continued. “She went to the meeting with her boss who ordered that she come back to work immediately. She filled out reinstatement papers which is how we think Michael got her address.”

  “Where is she?” I asked the most obvious question. Where did I need to go to get her back?

  “I don’t know exactly, but I know someone who might know where. When she got assigned to this new department there were no meetings in the office which lit up a red flag to London. When she was drugged by my dad and Sister Katherine she confessed a lot more than she thinks she did. She told them that not being able to go into the office was strange, but then her pay went up and started coming in as direct deposits from an off-shore account. She has the Markovich blood, so she knew something was off, so she asked her handler to look into it.”

  “Its standard practice for her to tell her handler everything,” Mark added and then Brooklyn continued.

  “Magically, not long after searches started into this a photo, itinerary, and bio appeared for the faceless name named Michael Pierce along with an assignment for her to track him and translate whatever conversations he had and find out who he spends time around.”

  “This sounds fishy,” I admitted and Mark agreed.

  “Dad thought the same thing,” Brooklyn answered in a rush. “Dad asked Mark and I to call in some favors, but the truth came when dad called in his own. Michael saw London before she was given a case for him. This cretin had her up for sale with pictures, copies of pictures he stole from your dad, George,” Brooklyn balled up her fists as she spoke. “I’ve dealt with men like him. I’ve prosecuted those who hold him up on a pedestal as if he is a deity when he is nothing.”

  “London’s been following him?” I asked and Mark nodded.

  “London was on his tracks for a few days, it seemed like it was a game to him. To force her to obsess over him. To revolve her life around him. It was all fun and games until you entered the picture,” Brooklyn explained that I was the reason he took her. I inadvertently had gotten her hurt once more.

  “Where is she? Who do we need to talk to? Where is my Londi?” I asked repeatedly as I tried to contain the fury I felt thinking about some man with his hands on her.

  “The problem with people like Pierce is that they have those who will do anything for them. Your co-pilot Caroline Jenkins is one of those people. As soon as I picked her up on suspicion she spilled her guts to Brooklyn. She confirmed London was on the plane and called him,” Mark gave me the details as Brooklyn started rapidly typing into her phone.

  “Caroline?”

  “She needed money for flight school. He approached her to get closer to you, but when London wound up on your plane - when he confirmed her passport was being used - Caroline only had to tell him it was her,” Mark explained while Brooklyn sent more messages on her phone.

  “What happens if she gets bought?” I asked because this was all stuff you hear about after the fact on the news.

  “Depends on who buys her,” Mark answered. “She could wind up with a decent person, a sexual predator, an abuser, a murderer, or anyone. Typically, these men and women that buy people are not good people…”

  “What?”

  “The odds of her living past a year after she’s taken are slim. With her personality, they aren’t going to be able to beat the light out of her. She’s a Markovich and when they find out who she is it will get her killed,” Brooklyn explained as we heard a thud from my bedroom.

  “I’ll kill him,” the words fell out of my mouth as I clenched my fist.

  “No, my family will handle this. I just need you to get us somewhere,” Brooklyn argued.

  “You think with that information I am going to sit by and let your disabled dad try his hand at fixing this?”

  “He isn’t handicapped. My dad can be brutal when necessary,” she defended him as I shook my head.

  “He has nothing on what I’m going to do.”

  “Logan,” Lisa opened the bedroom door wearing my t-shirt and her Smurf panties.

  “Go back to sleep.”

  “No one likes Nosy Smurf,” Brooklyn sarcastically spoke as Lisa waved at them and went back to bed. She was nearly sleep walking as I watched her go back in the room and shut the door behind her.

  “You have to ignore her sometimes,” Mark laughed and got an playful jab from Brooklyn.

  “Will you fly me down to Langley so we can get answers or not?” Brooklyn asked.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked needing all the minute details that no one had mentioned yet. I grabbed the house phone and pulled out my American Express in hopes of chartering an immediate flight.

  “I’m going to kill him.” Brooklyn confessed as she rubbed the baby safely sleeping in her stomach. “I am going to skin him alive and leave his under skinned flesh covered in honey in a fire ant field. I am then going to decapitate him like the slimy snake that he is. Then I am going to mount his head on the wall like an animal for all the people he treated worse than trash, and leave his bones to be gnawed on by wolves until there is nothing left but ash. Then the ashes can drift off into the wind as if he never existe
d. I want to watch him suffer as I am sure my sister is doing now.”

  “Brook,” Mark interrupted. “That’s a little morbid.”

  “I’ll do it,” I responded without a second thought. Obviously, London was in trouble and I couldn’t think of anything else I would rather do.

  “Logan,” Lisa mumbled my name again as she walked back out of the room again. “Your phone won’t stop ringing,” she seemed to be more awake this time and turned ghostly white when she saw that Brooklyn and Mark were staring at her in her underwear.

  “I know Brooklyn Montgomery has stolen a plane,” a strange voice spoke into my phone.

  “You stole a plane?” I asked as I turned around with the phone to my ear.

  “It is only theft if there is no intent to return. I’ll put it back,” Brooklyn tried explaining and Mark shook his head. “She’s my only sister,” Brooklyn defended herself as Mark stood up and walked over to me.

  “Who is this?” I asked and then they asked to talk to Brooklyn. I passed my phone over to her and turned to Lisa.

  “I’m really sorry Lisa,” I whispered as I placed a kiss on her cheek. “You’re an amazing friend, but I can’t give you the heart I gave away as a kid. It’s not mine anymore, it hasn’t been mine since I met her. I can’t be the man you need me to be, but I can be your friend.”

  “She’s a lucky woman,” Lisa’s voice rasped.

  “She’s my apple,” I explained the best I could. No one truly knew what it meant, but I did. I needed to say the words out loud for no one but myself. I would go the distance for London, but if I didn’t make it back it was the one thing I wanted everyone to remember so they would tell her. If she made it back…

  “Bring her home,” Lisa gave me a sad smile and let out a shaky breath. “Ada and I will be waiting to meet her with dinner. Steaks and Jell-O sound good?”

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  London

  “Did you want a coffee?” Michael offered as I sat on the bench inside a train car. I heard a girl scream in agony from the cab behind us. She hadn’t eaten in days so she was being punished. She wanted to die rather than be some piece of jewelry that was given to the highest bidder.

  “I want to know how Sister Katherine is,” I responded as I tried to stay as emotionless as possible.

  The scene still played out in my head, and it tormented me. I got to stay long enough to hear an ambulance in the distance come for her. The video feed in my head showed the pain from Brooklyn as she lunged for me, and Mark’s battle to hold her back. He was fighting so hard for his wife and child when she was doing everything she could to save me. Sister Katherine lay on the sidewalk as bystanders reacted to her and held her hand. I watched as she kissed her rosary and I knew she was getting ready to walk through Heaven’s gate.

  I said a silent invocation for her. I asked God to accept her as I was shuffled into a waiting SUV. She wasn’t like the other nuns at the school or in the church. She seemed to march to her own beat. It sometimes felt like she was walking a tightrope of doing what the church said and what her heart said. I wondered if the nun life was for her, but when I asked she would glow and tell me all the wonderful things about it. She was so different that it was easy to relate to her, to confide in her without getting in trouble, and she was the one you wanted in your corner if something ever went wrong. She was the mom I never got to have. I know that Logan and I used to talk about the fact that we had no family except each other, but we always had her.

  “Rest easy,” Michael ran his hand over my hair. “It’s riveting how the bullet missed her. She can thank God for protecting her and letting me have you.”

  “You’re telling me you shot her, but she didn’t get hit?” I asked in disbelief.

  “I’m not a liar,” he angrily replied allowing those snake green eyes to show me that his patience with me was wearing thin. I let it go because angering him was not going to get me anywhere, and he probably wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the auction,” he replied giving me an answer that told me nothing.

  “When will we get there?” I was eager for any sliver of information that would help me figure out where I was so I could plan my escape.

  “I will tell you where we are when you tell me who told you about the bids,” Michael sneered. “Should I be expecting someone in particular?”

  I knew what would happen if I told him who I was. I would be dead, and he would go after my dad, and then my sister. Bad guys never played well together, and having a bargaining chip like Nikolas’s daughter would ensure the demise of my family while increasing Michael’s clout.

  “I don’t remember,” I lied, and he backhanded me. My eyes felt like they were going to explode out of my their sockets as my skin flamed. My hand reached up and covered the fiery flesh as tears welled up in my eyes.

  “You will remember by the time I get done with my rounds or it’ll cost you,” he warned and walked forward in the train. I watched as he talked to dark haired woman who was a hysterical mess. I overheard her saying that she had a flat tire fresh from the dealership and didn’t remember anything after pulling over to change it.

  “Come on London,” I mumbled as I looked out the window and tried to use that genius brain everyone claimed I had. I needed a landmark, or a sign... something. I was a tracker, this is why they kept me on people. I could treat it like a case and observe… tears began to fall as I realized there was no one to report it to. No one in my ear to tell me I wasn’t alone.

  “Los Angeles,” I continued my quiet ramblings. “They would have brought us in from a private air field in Los Angeles. More people, more security, but easier to sneak the girls through,” the information about a private hanger in California was in his bio, but the dossier was a lie. If it was all a lie, then the truth was I didn’t know where we were.

  “Who are you talking to?” A red headed woman across from me asked as I opened my eyes and looked over at her.

  “I’m just praying,” I lied.

  “Pray for us all,” she was nearly pleading when I gave her a nod. I had been praying since we landed on the plane he had brought three of us to this train from. There had been more people inside the train cars, but everyone who stepped out of line or they felt the need to torture would be escorted past me and they never returned.

  “Focus,” I was going crazy because I was now talking to myself. It dawned on me I didn’t have to be. I didn’t have to be alone. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my ear piece that I had taken away from Brooklyn before everything happened.

  “Avery,” I whispered and heard nothing. I tried everything I knew of to make it work, but it didn’t. “Please be there, Avery.”

  “You can do this,” I spoke under my breath as Michael moved a little further up and spoke to another woman. “If we left Los Angeles and took a normal… No, if we left New York and flew for…”

  “London,” Avery came through my ear bud with static around his voice. “I taught you better than that.”

  “Talk this out with me,” I whispered. “I need to know where I am,” I was almost in tears of relief hearing his voice on the other end. I might have been surrounded by a hundred prisoners, but I felt partnerless until his voice came through the line.

  “What kind of train are you on?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered as Michael came walking back to me and my stomach knotted as my survival skills kicked in.

  “I’m going to get you some ice for that eye. Then you and I are going to move into a private car and have a conversation about who knows you’re here,” he smirked as he walked past me and into another car.

  “Come on London, you want to be a field agent. This is your chance to show them that you have the biggest balls in the office. You can do this, and I will be right here with you every step of the way,” Avery pushed me, but everything I thought I knew had evaporated into thin air. Every clue was gone, and I knew nothing.
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br />   “This is the end of the line for me. When I go into that car I’m dead,” I told him.

  “No,” Avery responded and I nearly cried out. This was not the time for defiance. “Hold on.”

  “Londi,” Logan’s voice came through the line. “I know you’re scared, but we’re here. We’re right there with you.”

  “We?”

  “We’re coming for you,” Brooklyn’s voice echoed as it came through the line. “We flew to Langley and are with Avery and your colleagues. We are working to find you. Anything you can tell us will help.”

  “I don’t know. The desert I think,” I told them as Michael’s men took a chain saw through the train cars. “Either they plan to dismember me in the caboose or they are trying to scare me, and its working.”

  “You’re on a train?” Logan asked, and I mumbled a yes as men walked back to the front of my cab from the end. “How long have you been on the train?”

  “I’ve been awake for four dead ended main line stops, two extra-long side car stops. That means somewhere between two hundred and forty to two hundred and seventy miles. We are moving at medium speed so approximately six hours as we seem to be moving east putting me somewhere outside of California, if we flew into Los Angeles.”

  “That was great. This is why you were my math champion,” Logan laughed, and I smiled as I held my face down.

  “Are you okay?” Logan asked, and before I could answer I heard Avery break through.

  “London, there are nine deadened lines that are unmonitored coming out of California. We could find you if we were sure where the plane took you. Do you know where you’re going?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “London what kind of train are you on?” Logan asked, and I murmured an I don’t know, but he pushed the issue. “Look around and tell me what you see. Select trains can only go on certain lines.”