Unsteady

by Elizabeth York

  I stepped out of his office and closed the door to hear what he had to say while Brooklyn struggled with her labor and men rushed the room.

  “The man we answer to is dead, but Agent Montgomery didn’t know and she has been meeting with this man every few days for months. I want to know what he had her working on, everywhere he was meeting her, and everything he knows about the man who has her. I want to know everything I didn’t already know as her handler. First one to get an answer out of him will join me in leading a task force to get our agent back.”

  Men and women in suits scrambled as the man in handcuffs was moved into a darkened office. It didn’t take long to see that they were wasting no time to get him to fess up. I walked back into Avery’s office and with Mark busy, Avery distracted, and Brooklyn in labor I pushed the white button.

  We could hear someone struggling to breathe through the line. It sounded like they were dying and my heart shattered. What had they done to her?

  “London,” I whispered and I heard the breathing speed up.

  “Logan,” her voice sounded weak and it was evident they had hurt her.

  “Are you still on a train?” I asked and heard a murmur of a yes come through the line. Then I heard a sharp intake of breath followed by a groan. “Do you know where you are?”

  “Bluegrass,” she whispered and I wanted to go through the line and save her. I would do anything to take her pain away. “Logan,” her shaky voice broke. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  “Its okay. I know,” I sat at the desk and listened to her try to move. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “He beat me. My ribs are pressing on my lungs I think. I can’t move my right arm. It’s hard to breathe. Don’t let my dad come.”

  “Did you tell Michael who you were?”

  “No, but he knows. Don’t call him because the last time I called Dad in he nearly died,” I turned my head and looked at Brooklyn who had tears in her eyes and nodded that London was right.

  “Your sister is having her baby,” I tried to give her hopeful news. “Looks like she will have it here at Langley.”

  “Tell her to name it something happy,” her words quivered as she struggled to talk.

  “You’re going to be okay. Once we find you I’ll be there waiting to wrap you in my arms and never let you go again.”

  “No Logan, we have to face the reality that I won’t survive. It’s bad. We’ll have to say goodbye soon.”

  “No,” I shouted as I banged my fist on the desk. “Don’t give up.”

  “I love you,” her words were as broken as her spirit.

  “Don’t talk just listen,” I continued as I pushed the speaker off and picked up the head set. “I don’t know how much time they’ll give me once they figure out I’m talking to you so just listen. I love you. I loved you the minute you walked into the school carrying that silly backpack. I knew you were mine the minute you trusted me to talk to you in a closet. I wanted to make a life with you the first time you snuck out with me. You put your faith in me and I have faith in you. You can survive this because we need you. I love you London, and I don’t love anything except you.”

  “You love food,” she groaned as her words seemed to fade.

  “I don’t. I hate nachos and wish hot dogs didn’t look like penises,” I heard her try to laugh and then she weakly cried. “I like flying, but I don’t love it - I only love you. Please don’t give up, please don’t die, because if you do I would die too.”

  “Logan,” her voice drew softer and her breathing quietened because she was dying and I couldn’t do anything to save her. I felt helpless and lost, but I couldn’t accept it.

  “You and I are going to get married and have a house with a big yard so we can have our own orchard. We are going to have more kids than we know what to do with, and every night I am going to hold you in my arms and tell you that this nightmare is over like a bad dream. We are going to fly all over the world and show our kids everything, and then when our time is up. In a eighty years when that day finally comes we will die in each others arms and the kids will bury us underneath the trees in the orchard.”

  I heard her gasp and then there was silence. She wasn’t breathing and I couldn’t do anything. Tears fell down my face even though I didn’t even know I was crying. I felt hopeless. I had waited for her unconsciously for all those years only to lose her when I finally decided it wasn’t her I was mad at I was angry with myself for not chasing after her.

  “You’re my apple,” I told her and Avery pushed the button. “Is she gone?” I asked, but no one would answer me. I didn’t even notice Brooklyn was screaming as she pushed to get the baby out. I didn’t notice that the agents were all getting ready to leave the office. I didn’t even notice that Avery had his hand on my shoulder. My life no longer existed. London was gone.

  “You got him?” Avery asked some man in the office. “We have a location just waiting on the choppers.”

  “I’m going,” I told him as I re-channeled everything I was feeling into pure fiery rage. I was engulfed in the flames of violent indignation. I wanted Michael’s head. I wanted to kill him.

  “You aren’t trained,” Avery started to protest when Mark yelled and looked at Avery with determination.

  “Let the man go. He won’t do us any good here. Besides if that were Brooklyn you wouldn’t be able to stop me,” then his focus turned back to his wife as he coached her to push.

  “Ahh,” Brooklyn yelled as she turned that alabaster skin a maroon color. I could tell she was in pain, but she was so determined not to leave until London was back that she was about to deliver on the floor of the CIA offices.

  I watched the family they were and how much Brooklyn looked like London. It was so easy to love London for me, just as it was for Mark to love Brooklyn. They seemed to shine under our praises, our compassion, and our love.

  “I don’t know how my sister did this on her own,” she cried to Mark. The words hit me in the gut. London had told me the baby had died, but I never imagined that she would have had to deliver her all alone. Tears fell from my eyes and I no longer had control. I was shifting between raging and feeling like my heart had been crushed.

  Entranced by the reality of it all I watched as Mark and Brooklyn gave birth to a little apple of their own. It was like a surreal video in front of me. It was of the life I was supposed to have versus the one I didn’t get to have.

  “Pilots are a half hour out,” Avery broke through my thoughts.

  “I can fly you,” I told him and he shook his head. “I’m trained on most anything that goes airborne. If I don’t know how I will figure it out, but we can’t wait. She said Bluegrass. She’s in Kentucky, right? I can get you there in no time. Let me do this.”

  “No, we believe she’s at a factory called the Bluegrass. Used to be a fertilizer company. It’s about two hours southwest of here by air.”

  “But the train?”

  “The train was a misdirection to ensure we wouldn’t find her, and if we did it would be too late,” Avery replied. “It was all set up on a closed down Western aged Ghost Town Attraction. The land is owned by the man in the suit. If we fly we could get there in two hours, but there is nowhere to land in that field. I have agents enroute, but we need more for this type of venture,” Avery explained as he pointed to a big open area of trees on a IPad.

  “I won’t let them leave her to animals, or bury her alone. I wasn’t there for her before, but I can do this for her now. She isn’t going to die alone.”

  “Wheels up,” Avery said as he handed me a bullet proof vest and motioned a circle with his finger and men began to head to the doors.

  “Logan,” Brooklyn yelled, and I turned back to see an exhausted woman basking in love and worry. “No matter what you find, you bring her home to me.”

  “I promise,” I declared across the room and then headed out to fly everyone there.

  Chapter Thirty One

  Logan

  “I�
�m going to land her in the clearing to our east,” I told Avery through the mic as we flew over the trees. I had already flown over the place she was supposed to be, but there was no sign of life having been there in years. I worried we got it wrong. I worried that I’d never be able to say goodbye.

  As the night sky took hold I saw the stars and knew her halo wouldn’t be up there. Not yet. She’d wait for me. She wouldn’t watch over me when she could be down here with me. Gravity would hold her here till we said goodbye.

  It had been a long time since I had flown a helicopter like this. It was more like a war machine. I didn’t know what some buttons did, but I did know how to get her off the ground and how to land her. Everything else I figured out as I flew toward the spot on the map that Avery pointed out.

  I noticed something piercing the tree line as I moved away from the building. Looked like a long line of cars hiding in the trees. I tapped Avery and pointed. Metal flickered as we cast a light over them, as I flew past and circled again, letting the chopper sway as if I was having trouble flying it. This way if they saw me it would seem innocent enough.

  I moved past just enough to see a shadow of a man in the clearing standing there waiting for us as he held onto his cane.

  “What the hell is her dad doing here?” I asked Avery as he looked down.

  “That’s Nikolas Markovich?” Avery questioned as he took him in as I had. He didn’t seem like much. A scarred-up geriatric that didn’t know when to retire, but when he spoke of people harming his girls you saw the man people still feared. You saw someone who wasn’t afraid to die as long as you were coming with him to hell.

  “What’s he doing here?” I asked and Avery smirked.

  “I called him,” he explained. “I didn’t have the man power needed for this. Everyone I had is scattered from looking for Michael in Arizona. This was my only shot to help take down this narcissistic asshole, and I’m not above joining forces when necessary.”

  I landed the chopper wondering what I had got myself into. The agents bailed and stood in formation as a multitude of men armed with assault rifles stepped out from behind trees. It looked more like a battalion going to war than a rescue party.

  “Keenan,” he called my name as I stepped out and the propellers slowed. “You came for my daughter?” I nodded. “Then let’s go get her.”

  We stormed the gray building as the sun began to rise on a new day. Storm clouds sounded outside as rolling thunder helped hide the doors we broke down. We combed every inch of the area and just when I thought all was lost Nikolas’s phone rang.

  “Sputniki vverkh?” he asked someone and got a response. Then he hung up. “Satellites show body heat about fifty yards to our west in an abandoned slaughter house.”

  “You heard him, move out,” Avery called and then everyone went into stealth mode. They were trained to do this where no one made a sound, but I wasn’t. Even my breathing sounded loud.

  I hung back with Nikolas as they surrounded the building. I watched as his men took a knife and slashed all the tires on the cars hidden in the tree line. One of Avery’s men found the train tracks. He disabled the drive, so the train couldn’t move and then we were ready.

  “You love my daughter?” Nikolas asked and I took a deep breath. I was ready to lay down my life to save hers if that is what it took, but the way Nikolas looked at me with duplicitous indignation I knew he was hiding something. I knew if it came to it I’d end his life to save hers.

  “More than anything,” I responded without a second thought. As he patted me on the back I had to remind myself that she ran from me because she was scared of him and what he was capable of. That she allowed herself to be tortured than to face him. Whatever it was that people feared I didn’t see it until someone mentioned his daughter.

  “Good, I don’t want to have to kill you for defiling her, but if you make her an honest woman I can let it go,” he smirked and then Avery gave the signal. The first wave of men went in and screams sounded. We could hear brutality coming through the waves of sound mixed into the wind.

  “Nikolas,” I turned to her dad. “I want to prepare you that she may not be with us anymore.”

  “No, you have no faith. My daughter whether she breathes or not lives in us. No matter what we find she’s still with us.”

  The second wave went in the opposing door as gunfire sounded. I hadn’t talked to God in a long time. I lost my faith in him along the way, but London had never given up. The worse things got the more she believed. So, as violence penetrated my ears I said a silent invocation and asked him to save my girl. To bring her back to me.

  A man yelled as I finished the prayer, and it was my turn to barrel inside. I had no weapon except my fists, but as I saw the blood soaked ground inside the building I realized I wouldn’t need one. Nikolas’s men had killed every man or woman that was bidding on the people. They slaughtered them and left them scattered all around.

  As the men moved into position and the view cleared I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were both men and women strung up, naked, and on display – all of them wearing marks of abuse. There were kids in a cage that were crying for their parents. It was something out of a horror film. I scanned every face looking for London, but I didn’t see her. I ran and looked into every metallic cage, but she wasn’t there.

  “Take this,” one of Nikolas’s lackeys yelled through the commotion as he put a gun in my hand. Then I looked to see no one had cleared the offices as Avery was headed that way.

  “You good?” he asked as I caught up to him.

  “Never better,” I sarcastically lied. I thought seeing a dead body disemboweled would have made me puke, but instead it fueled the flame inside me that said London was somewhere in here needing me. I had to believe that since I didn’t go after her before, it was my second chance to do the right thing.

  Avery opened the door and the smell hit us hard. I had to turn away, as Avery powered through. We walked inside to see they had moved the dead decaying maggot ridden animals into the offices. Then through the window I saw someone doing CPR on London and an agent worked on a woman beside her on the ground in the bathroom.

  Avery and I both burst through the door to get inside. I knelt down beside London and stared at the beautiful woman who once had alabaster skin, but was now nearly every shade in the rainbow.

  “She was with us,” the agent told me when he saw me looking at London. “She was asking for you, and then she was just gone.”

  “Why are you stopping?” I demanded to know as I turned her to lay her flat on her back. I was terrified to do anything to her because her chest was nearly completely black from bruises.

  “We got her back,” another agent shouted as the man who resembled the titanic barreled through the icy air to breathe life back into London. I wanted it to be me that saved her, I wanted the miracle - I needed it.

  “I used to be a medic,” he told me when I tried to move his hands off of her.

  “Can you save her?”

  “Let me try,” he replied as he worked I closed my eyes, drowned out all the cries, and prayed a little harder. I offered up my life for hers even though I knew if there was a God he wouldn’t bargain. I was desperate to get her back even for a second. All my faith was inside her as she lay lifeless on the floor. I had to have a belief in a higher power or I wouldn’t be able to breathe while they worked on her. I would merely lay down beside her, and anticipate my own demise.

  “Leah,” Avery shouted as he slid to his knees beside the woman the agent had successfully resuscitated, the woman beside London. He lifted her off the ground and held her to him as men shouted clear through the rooms. It was obvious Avery knew her, and I was a little jealous that she was alive, but London lay lifeless as the Hulk continued working on her.

  “I had her back and then lost her again,” the man with the dragon tattoo stated as he compressed her chest over and over. “Stop trying to leave us London. You belong with all of us.”

 
; I was elated for Avery, but the darkness in the room made me believe both were gone. The way the woman’s body hung in Avery’s arms said she was still standing at Heaven’s gates waiting for her turn in front of Saint Peter. I heard what sounded like fireworks, glass shattering, and men shouting as Avery twisted and fell to the ground releasing the woman from his arms.

  One of Nikolas’s men rushed in and guarded him with his body as everyone looked to see what had happened. That was the moment I saw him. I saw Michael holding a gun from a locked office window. I saw the man everyone was supposed to fear. The man who was supposed to be worse than the devil himself. He wasn’t Lucifer, he was just a middle-aged man who didn’t know how to shop outside of Sears for suits. He was the enemy, he was the man in London’s nightmares.

  I climbed to my feet, jumped over some kind of makeshift turnstile and went through the windows for him. He ran out the door, as men cleared the way to let me chase him. This was my fight.

  He got outside, and went past all the bidders cars when he saw all the tires were flat. He changed direction and went into the trees. He should have chosen a better location because I had memorized the layout while we were in the air.

  I pointed the gun beside a tree and waited.

  “Come out come out wherever you are. You deserve this,” I growled. “You took my girl, you tortured her, and then left her to die. Now it’s my turn,” the words left my lips and echoed off the trees without a second thought. I had never thought of myself as a violent man, but the thought of this man living was iniquitous.

  “I didn’t kill her. I punished her,” he defended himself as the rain started to pour. I fired a bullet beside the tree tearing off the bark when I saw his arm stick out just a little. “You missed,” he chanted and then took off deeper into the tree line.

  As we neared the clearing he turned back to fire a bullet at me only to trip outside of my chopper from a shiny cane that had been waiting for him.

  “Michael Pierce?” Nikolas asked.