Her Carnal Games Series

by Chanel Ivy

  I watched a flurry of activity as two gurneys were pushed inside the hospital in a rush with half a dozen paramedics around them. I recognized them as Jack, the pilot, and Anna, the co-pilot. How did they make it here before Emma?

  What the hell was going on?

  Todd and I sat down in the waiting room, trying to console one another. I tried calling Emma’s phone repeatedly, but it continued to go to voice mail.

  A half an hour had gone by, and no other patients had been brought in. I went back to the front desk, and the same nurse was there.

  “Excuse me. We’ve been here for over thirty minutes, I’ve seen the other two patients from the helicopter crash come in already, but not Emma Cross. She was the first ambulance to leave the scene. Are you sure she’s not here?”

  The nurse huffed at my persistence. “Let me check again.” She typed away at the keyboard before looking back up at me. “It looks like that ambulance was diverted to a private care facility.”

  “What do you mean, a private care facility? Where?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. Are you family of Miss. Cross?”

  Ugh, this again. “No, I’m not family, I’m her girlfriend, and I want to know if she’s alive, or badly injured, or if she’s going to be just fine. Now can you tell me where the hell she is or not?”

  “There is no reason to get rude, but if you aren’t family, then I can’t share that information with you.”

  “Then what the hell am I supposed to do?” I asked, my patience wearing thin.

  The nurse shrugged her shoulders at me in response. I wanted to reach across the desk and grab her by her collar, shaking the information out of her. Todd came up behind me, putting his arm around me, and thanked the nurse for her help and apologized.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. We’re just distraught about our friend is all, and we want to make sure she’s okay. Thank you again for your help,” he said, smiling at her and pushing me towards the doors.

  “Mom, chill. We’ll find her. Don’t worry. Who can you call that may know how to reach her or anyone she may have called for help?” he asked me as we walked back to the car.

  “I have her personal doctor’s card back at her house. I can call him. Maybe she wasn’t that injured and reached out to him for help instead of going to the hospital.”

  “That’s great. That’s a good place to start. Do you know his name? I can look him up, so we don’t have to go all the way back to Charlotte to get his number just in case she’s still in the area up here.”

  “I do, but he’s not the kind of doctor you lookup online. He’s not going to be easy to find. He’s a private doctor, so anonymity is his best attribute. I need that card.”

  “Okay, so we get that card and go from there.”

  Just as I was about to get inside the car, my phone rang. I didn’t look at the caller ID, and I just answered it, hoping it would be Emma.

  “Hello?” I answered anxiously.

  “If you want ever to see your precious girlfriend again. Meet me at Southern Atlantic Spring, 127 Rowan Street in Granite Quarry at midnight. Bring your phone with you but turn it off. Come alone. I see anyone else or get any inkling that you called the police, I slit the bitches throat and let her bleed out slowly. Do you hear me?” a woman’s voice with a heavy German accent whispered.

  An overwhelming rush of fear filled my entire body. This is where Emma went. She didn’t find her own doctor. Someone kidnapped her.

  “I... I hear you, but I’m... I’m going to need that address again,” I stammered.

  “I’ll text it to you. As I said, no police or Emma is dead. Do. You. Understand?” she punctuated every word.

  “Yes... yes, I understand. Can I talk to her, though? Like proof of life or something?”

  I heard a scream in the background and a muffled cry that resembled Emma’s voice. “Mia, no, don’t...”

  “Proof enough?” the woman’s raspy voice asked.

  “Yes.” I cried. “Please don’t hurt her,” I begged.

  “Midnight.” The phone clicked off before beeping back in my ear that the call was disconnected.

  I looked at the phone and thumbed through the call log, but the last call showed up as an unknown number. I expected that, but I had to check.

  “Mom, who was that?” Todd asked from inside the car.

  I stood at my opened door, wiping my eyes and trying to steady my hands on the roof before answering him. “Just somebody from work. They wanted to know if I’d seen the news about the crash.” I lied.

  I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves before getting in the car to face Todd. “I’m going to take you back to the hotel.”

  “What? No!” Todd replied, angrily. “I want to make sure Emma’s okay, too, and I can help you, Mom.”

  “I know you can, sweetie, but you have to worry about school tomorrow, and I have a lot of back and forth driving to do. I’ll call you as soon as I find her, and I’ll let you know she’s okay. I promise.”

  “I thought I was going to stay with you from now on, though, and not Dad?”

  “You are, honey. I just need to get this all squared away and then well buy a new car and get you properly moved into my apartment, just like we talked about. I’ll get you enrolled in school by me, and we’ll be all good. I promise, little man.”

  “Fine,” Todd huffed as he crossed his arms.

  I dropped Todd off with Ben at the hotel and briefly explained what happened with Emma and the crash. I told Ben the same story I told Todd that I had to go back to Charlotte to get the doctors number and track him down or hopefully find Emma at home already on the mend.

  I got the text message from the mystery kidnapper shortly after leaving the hotel, and when I plugged the address into the GPS, it had me arriving there just before ten if I left now. I had nowhere else to be, so I decided to head up there now and wait until midnight.

  I drove past the place I was supposed to go, and there was a chain-linked fence around the property with a small red and white sign that read Southern Atlantic Spring. This was it. It was a large metal building in the middle of nowhere on a single laned paved road. There were no cars in the lot, but that’s to be expected after ten o’clock at night on a Thursday evening.

  I drove down to the end of the road that ended at a cluster of thick trees and shrubs, turned my car around, and turned everything off. I didn’t expect to sleep, but just in case I set my alarm on my phone for eleven fifty. I sat back in the comforting leather seat and rested my eyes.

  Before I knew it, my phone was buzzing in my lap. I had fallen asleep, and it was already eleven fifty. I had the sudden urge to pee, and there was no way I was walking into an unknown situation with a full bladder. The last thing I needed was to try and rescue Emma only to piss all over myself.

  I quickly found a tree, pulled my jeans down, and did my business wiping myself with some tissues from my purse. When I stood up and pulled my pants back on, something glimmered in the moonlight. I brushed away some of the leaves. It was a screwdriver with a broken plastic handle and a long rusted flathead tip. I slipped the makeshift weapon between my underwear and my hip and covered it with my shirt as best I could.

  I got back into my car and drove down to the gate that was now open. There were still no cars in the lot, but I pulled in slowly and parked in front of the building. I got out, leaving my headlights on and looked around for any direction as to where to go. Everything was quiet.

  My phone buzzed in my hand. I looked at it, and the caller ID identified the number as Unknown. I answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Turn your headlights off and come to the back left entrance of the building. The door is open. Come inside, and I’ll meet you. As soon as we hang up, turn your phone off, but bring it with you in your right hand. Remember no funny business, or I slit her throat.”

  “What...” The phone clicked off before I could finish my question.

  I turned my headlights off, put my key in my pocket,
turned my phone off, and held it in my right hand as instructed. I put my hands up, not knowing what else to do with them as I walked around the left side of the building. The side door was open just like she said it would be, and it was dark inside except for one single light bulb shining from high above me on the thirty-foot ceiling.

  “Welcome,” said a woman’s voice from behind a set of heavy-duty shelves stacked six feet tall with white buckets.

  “I’m here. There are no cops, and no one knows I’m here, so can you please tell me what’s going on and who you are?”

  “I’ll do all the talking from here. You just need to shut up and do as you’re told,” she responded angrily from the shadows.

  “I want to see Emma,” I demanded.

  A tall blonde woman walked out from behind the shelving holding Emma in front of her like a human shield. Emma limped, favoring her right leg. She had black soot all over her, and blood stained her clothes and face. Emma had a piece of cloth tied over her mouth so she couldn’t speak, but I could tell by the look on her face that she was in intense pain.

  I couldn’t help myself. I rushed toward them, yelling for Emma, “Are you okay? Did she...”

  “Stop!” The woman shouted as she pulled a gun I hadn’t seen before from Emma’s side and pointed it at me.

  I froze in place and held my hands up higher. Thank goodness I went pee before, or I surely would have pissed my pants just now. Even so, I think I may have wet myself a little.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not going anywhere, but please don’t hurt her,” I pleaded.

  “Don’t hurt her, huh?” The woman pulled back hard on Emma’s hair, making her look back at her. “She’s worried about me hurting you. Isn’t that rich?” she laughed.

  “Look, just tell me what you want, I’ll get it for you, and we can all go our separate ways, okay?”

  “What I want, neither you nor Emma can give me, but I’ll have to settle for money. Emma, here, says you have access to her accounts on your phone to transfer the money, and she has the account numbers. Bring me your phone, and once the transfer is done, you both get to walk out of here.”

  “What assurances do I have that you won’t just kill us as soon as you have the money?” I asked as I felt the itch of the screwdriver at my hip. If she gave me an opportunity, I was going to stab this woman in the throat.

  The blonde woman laughed at me, her face contorting in almost inhuman ways. “You have no assurances. You’re lucky I don’t just kill you right here and now that you brought your phone with you. But, I’m not a murder like Emma, here. I don’t burn people’s homes to the ground with them inside shattering families before they even get a chance at a life together.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I can tell you’re hurting, and I’m sorry. What you’re doing isn’t going to make up for anyone you lost...”

  “No, it’s not. But it’s going to pay for my son’s care. It’s going to make Emma pay for what she stole from me!” she shouted. “Now stop it with the bullshit and grab that chair over there.”

  I pulled a chair from along the wall and pushed it towards them. The woman moved Emma to sit in the seat and held out her hand for me to give her the phone. I turned it back on, put in my password, and handed it to her before stepping back quickly.

  She looked over the phone, and as she was handing it to Emma, a soft thumping sound filled the massive space, and the woman’s face exploded in a puff of red. Her body slumped to the floor, as my phone and the gun she was holding fell, clashing along the concrete at Emma’s feet.

  I didn’t know what happened. All I knew was this woman was down, and Emma needed help. I ran to her and pulled the cloth from her face. She coughed as she tried to get enough moisture back in her mouth to speak. “My... leg... broken.”

  “You’re safe now, Emma, and I’m going to get you to a hospital,” I replied as I looked around for anything I could use to help move her.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black shape moving along the rafters, and I froze. I knew whoever killed this woman was still in here with us, but I didn’t know if we were next.

  I made sure Emma was sitting up on her own, and I reached for the gun on the floor. “Whoever you are, show yourself or get the hell out of here! I’m armed, and I won’t hesitate to shoot you!” I yelled into the open space.

  “Mia, put that down before you hurt yourself, girl,” laughed Matt as he pulled a black ski mask from his head and pushed a massive sniper rifle behind his shoulder. Matt was dressed in head to toe black tactical gear. He looked like he was ready to go to battle.

  “What the...” I lowered my weapon. “Matt? How the hell did you find us? What are you doing dressed like that, and what in the fuck are you doing with a sniper rifle?” I asked, utterly flabbergasted.

  “Would it surprise you if I told you the EMT in high school story I told you was only partially true?”

  “No. Nothing would surprise me at this point.”

  “Good. Well, long story short. I enrolled in the military right after high school. I trained to be a field medic, and when I got out, I became an operative with a company called Innocence Inc. We’ve been working with Miss. Cross here for years to try and take down The Company, and when Miss. Cross went missing after the less than shady helicopter crash, I started monitoring your cell phone calls. When I heard the exchange between you and Mila Muller here,” Matt said, pointing to the body of the blonde woman on the ground. “I followed you, and here we are.”

  “I’m going to need a more extended explanation later, but right now, we have to get Emma to a hospital. She said her leg is broken, and I bet she has some other injuries from the crash and Mila, whatever her name was.”

  “Agreed. Since Miss. Cross is injured, it’s best if you call The Company and ask for a doctor and a cleaning crew. If Innocence Inc. gets any more involved, The Company is going to know we’re onto them, and our whole operation will be blown.”

  “What do you mean? I don’t have a number for those people,” I gaffed.

  “I’ll give it to you, and you can tell them you got it from Emma,” Matt replied.

  “How am I supposed to explain the bullet hole in her head then? I don’t have a high-powered rifle. All I brought was a rusty old screwdriver,” I said as I pulled the weapon from my pants.

  “That’s perfect!” Mat exclaimed. “You’re not squeamish, are you?”

  “Kinda, why?”

  “Then, I’m sorry, but close your eyes if you need to.” Matt put the screwdriver in my right hand, lifted Mila’s limp body, pressed it against the wall behind us, and motioned me over to him. I had no idea what he was doing, but I walked over to him.

  “Give me your hand,” he demanded.

  He took my right hand in his and hovered the screwdriver over the hole just above Mila’s left eye and plunged the weapon deep into her skull. He pushed and pulled my hand in and out a few times for good measure, covering me in her blood before letting my hand go. The screwdriver stuck in her skull as I released my grip, and Matt let her body fall back into the same place it had rested previously.

  “Good. Now it looks like you rushed Mila, stabbed her in the eye with the tool against the wall, and let her drop and bleed out right there. Now I just have to find the slug.”

  Matt moved around some of the white buckets that were filled with plaster and found one with a bullet hole in it. “Here we go. And look at that, easy cleanup. The bullet slowed enough from hitting her skull only to enter the bucket and not have enough force to leave, so it’s still inside. I’ll take this with me, so there’s no evidence that there was ever a shot fired. Problem solved,” Matt smiled.

  “How the hell can you be so positive about everything?” I asked him.

  “I’ve seen a lot of fucked up shit, and I know if this helps us get any closer to taking down The Company, then it was worth it. Now, where’s your phone?”

  Matt looked over Emma quickly while I called The Company to ask
for medical help and a cleanup crew, which made me feel ridiculous. It was a quick conversation, and they told me they would be at our location in no less than fifteen minutes. That scared the shit out of me. How the hell were they that close?

  I relayed the information to Matt, and he said Emma’s leg was indeed badly broken, but all of her other injuries were minor. Mostly she was tired and needed fluids. He grabbed his bucket and was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

  I didn’t want to move Emma, so I left her in the chair and stood behind her. I brushed her hair with my fingers telling her that everything was going to be okay. She was in and out of consciousness and seemed really out of it.

  A few minutes after Matt left, a bunch of guys in white jumpsuits walked in with the same large black cases I saw when we had the incident with Stuart. A stocky guy with a completely shaved head came up to me and asked that I explain to him what happened. I reviewed the details Matt told me to share exactly as he told me to say them, and the bald guy seemed to be satisfied.

  Dr. Jenkins and Nurse Simpson were the next people to show up. They tended to Emma quickly and escorted her out to an unmarked van in the lot on a stretcher. Dr. Jenkins told me to follow them to Emma’s beach house. They were already having a team set up a medical suite for them at her home there since it was the closest.

  Before I pulled out of the parking lot, I took stock of everything that had happened, trying to piece the events of the evening together. I needed something to make sense. I remember Emma telling me that one of the families she was sold to in Germany was murdered by being burned alive in their home by The Company. But how did Mila Muller fit into all of that? Mila mentioned a son who needed care, but that would have been over twenty years ago. Emma said that asshole kid, Elias was older. Maybe Mila was his girlfriend, and she was pregnant with Elias’ son when he was killed with the rest of the family. If Mila found out Emma was the reason they were murdered, I could see how she would hold a grudge. At this point, though, I was so tired, all of my thoughts were just a jumbled mess.