by Vi Carter
“Sorry,” I put out the cigarette and Craig lit one. He slid his phone out of his pocket. It had gone off a few times, but I hadn’t wanted to disturb his crying.
After a few more moments of silence as Craig read his messages, he spoke. “I need you to do something with me.” I didn’t agree, but waited to hear what that was. I mean, he could say do drugs or have sex, so I waited.
“Right now, I am having a strong moment, but I’m not sure how long it will last. I need you to sign me in now.” Wow, this was huge. Craig took another long drag of his cigarette while looking away. I had felt such guilt over not helping, and now was my chance to make it up to him. Even if he had pissed me off, this was about Craig and doing the right thing.
I smiled at him. Grace would be so proud of me. “Absolutely.” I was happy with his decision, but it also meant I would be alone again. He glanced at me before getting up and putting out his cigarette. He pulled on his jacket slowly before turning to me. His dull eyes looked glazed now. “What, you mean like right now?” Jesus, that was quick. Too quick? I got up, but didn’t look away from him.
He nodded. “Yeah. Amber, I could change my mind any moment. Please.” I nodded, not ready to let him go, but I grabbed my stuff quickly. We left our room and headed out into the night. It was cold, and my sockless feet let me know it.
“So where is this clinic?” I asked, and he shrugged. I stopped walking. “Craig I’m not walking around in circles,” I grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“It’s up ahead,” I looked up to where he was pointing, but why would he lie to me. I looked back at him, trying to figure out what was going on, but he wouldn’t look at me.
“So now you know where the clinic is?” I questioned. Something wasn’t right about this. It just didn’t make sense. “Craig?”
He looked at me, then something in his eyes cleared. “Yeah, I do.” I nodded, and we started to walk again, but as we passed more buildings, I wrapped my hands around my waist. “Remember I said I was having a strong moment?”
I glanced at Craig as we walked. “Yeah.” I couldn't stop the irritation in my voice. What the hell was he playing at?
“I’m not so strong now,” he looked at me. I was about to ask him what he was talking about when he whispered, “Run,” before he turned away.
“What?” Was he serious? I tried to reach out to him, but then lights of a car came on, blinding me.
“Run!” Craig roared at me, but I was frozen. I knew in that moment that he had just sold me down the river. I wasn’t sure who to, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out, so I turned and sprinted. The roar of the engine and the brightness of the light told me I wasn’t getting away. The car was on my heels. Tires screeched, and doors opened. I looked over my shoulders to see three men chasing me before a piece of cloth was slung over my mouth. I screamed wildly, trying to rip it off as hands grabbed me. I fought with everything I had, but it was not enough. Before I knew it, I was lifted into the air and carried back towards the car. I thrashed and screamed. Not this again. Who gets taken twice and lives? I kicked again, this time connecting with flesh, but my captors’ grip didn’t loosen. I was so screwed.
“Craig!” I screamed his name over and over. He stood with both hands hanging either side of him, just watching me, even as I was thrown into the boot of the car. I pounded on the hood, screaming, but soon grew hoarse. This time, I knew for certain that no one was going to rescue me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
EMMETT
WHEN I RETURNED from my search, it was to find my car intact. I gave the boy another hundred before driving off. I dialed the number Eddie had given me and the phone rang, but there was no answer. I made another call. “Benny, how are you?” I asked as soon as I heard the deep voice on the other end.
“Emmett Harrington, it’s been a while,” Benny was an old friend, and from a time when I needed the help of the police, he was there. But he was right, it had been a long time. Benny was one of many police officers that my father owned, so I didn’t use him often, but this was an emergency.
“I need you to trace a number.” I read it out, and Benny agreed to ring me the moment he had a location. I drove around the city looking at every face, searching for Amber, but I wouldn’t find her on any stranger’s face. Time was running out, and my anger was growing.
I was almost ready to jump over the brink when my phone rang, and to my relief, it was Benny with a location. I slammed down on the accelerator and drove to the street that he had given me. Thankfully, I was close. I pulled up to a curb and got out on foot. Not many people were around, but I instantly recognized the boy who had stood in my sister's apartment. The one who had told me he’d fucked Amber. The one who was beaten and bleeding in a doorway. I pulled him up, so he was sitting, so he could see me. “Where is she?” His eyes closed briefly, rolling back in his head, and I thought he was dead. I shook him until he looked at me again. “Where is she?” I repeated through clenched teeth.
“Gone,” It was only one word, but with that one word, I felt the world slip through my fingers. I stood, unable to accept this. Gone. Gone. Gone. “I couldn’t stop them,” His words broke through my darkness and I pulled him to his feet, slamming him into the closed shutter.
“Who?” My roar was attracting people, but I didn’t care.
“I don’t know,” His head bounced off the shutter as I slammed him into it again. “I don’t know.” He said once more as he raised his voice, but I knew he was lying. The tears running down his face and the guilt in his eyes didn’t make his words believable. I forced his mouth open, jamming my gun in. The sound of steel hitting his teeth gave me pleasure. “Remember, or this…“ I pushed the gun further down his throat. “…becomes your last memory.”
He spoke, but I had to remove the gun to understand him. I held it at his eye, instead. “All I know is that a woman was with them,” he paused, and I lost my patience. I slammed the gun into the side of his head. He would have fallen, only I caught him and straightened him back up. Blood oozed from the cut on the side of his skull. I slapped him hard across the face, and he moaned.
“Describe her.”
He did through half-lidded eyes. When he had finished, my blood ran cold. He had described Natasha to a tee. I let him go, and he fell hard to the ground. Blood pooled around him, and I left him to die on the dark street alone. It’s what he deserved, and if he lived, I vowed after this I would find him again, and kill him slowly.
AMBER
After what seemed like hours, the car stopped moving and the moment the boot opened, I started to fight. I kicked and punched and screamed, but it was no use. Hands restrained me, and I was pulled from the boot, the cloth ripped from my face, the light blinding. Trepidation pooled in my stomach as I looked at the group of men. I blinked, clearing my vision.
“What is this?” A large man with a Russian accent asked the man who walked towards me now. Dread filled me as Emmett’s father reached me.
“Amber, it’s so nice to meet you,” he reached out his hand and I looked at it and back to the people around me. Natasha stood beside me, smiling at Emmett’s father. He dropped his hand. “There is no need to be rude,” he told me before turning back to the group of men. “She is nothing, just my assurance that my son will behave.” He nodded at one of the men beside me, who grabbed my arm. I pulled it away. “Don’t fuss, Amber.” The warning in Emmett’s father’s voice had me allowing this thug to take my arm. I don’t know how I had ever thought Emmett was scary. He had nothing on his father. His father gave a new meaning to the word ‘fear.’ My legs moved, but I couldn’t feel them. I thought I was going to pass out. Another man pulled up the shutter of a truck that was parked to the left of the large room. I was hoisted up into it. The guy climbed up onto the back and took my hands, tying them up expertly with a thick rope.
“Please,” I whispered to him and he looked at me, pausing momentarily enough to give me a glimmer of hope, but then he tightened the knot, hurting me. He
got ready to climb down but paused again.
“Just do as they say, and you might live.” That was the warning I got before my world was plunged into the darkness again.
EMMETT
I had Benny pull up all the footage from the street from where we got a registration number of the car that had taken Amber. Following it from street to street would take time. I was still waiting on the results. I rang Benny again. I was late for the meeting already. I couldn’t push this out much further, there was too much at stake. “Where are we now?” I asked.
“Emmett, you can’t keep ringing me. I only have so much power. What you are asking takes time.”
“I don’t have time, Benny. I want that car found now!” My voice rose, and I tried to calm down. “This is the final time, Benny, find that car.” I hung up and started to make my way to the meeting. I couldn’t put this off any longer.
The drive took me another forty minutes and, as I pulled into the docks, my phone rang. “What have you got?” I asked Benny. For the first time, I felt real hope. He had an address. As he read it out, fear filled me, real fear like none I had never felt before. I was sitting at the address. I knew then that Amber was in the hands of my father, and I honestly couldn’t say if she was still alive. He must have figured out what I was doing. I closed my eyes against the horror that was building in me. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t walk in there and find her body.
I opened the glove box and took out two guns, making sure they were fully loaded. I placed one in the waistband of my trousers, the other inside my jacket pocket. I strapped a small one to my left leg, and a knife to my right. If Amber was still alive, I would get her out safely. No matter the cost. Before leaving the car and walking into an ambush, I made one final call that I hoped would save the woman I loved.
“Son, you took your time.” My father greeted me as I walked into the warehouse. Kirill, his brother, and seven of their men stood to my right, while Kirk, JP and Marcus stood close to my father’s gang. I eyed a few crew members I remembered from a past I preferred to forget. I looked at Natasha, who leaned against a black sedan. She moved, taking a step away from me. She could move as far away from me as possible, even across the state, but I would still find her and kill her. Silver’s father greeted me with a nod of his head. The Black Bloods were standing in line behind their leader. Everyone was here and ready.
“Where is she?” I asked my father. My question had him laughing.
“This is why you are my son.” My father actually looked proud as he pointed at me. “Emmett the fucking Hunter. God, I love you.” His pride had him smiling, but it had me fuming. He was a lunatic. When I didn’t speak, he turned to Matthew. “Open it up.” I knew Matthew was a traitor, but seeing it with my own two eyes was something entirely different. He didn’t meet my gaze, but moved to a lorry with a shuttered back. My heart started to race as he pushed it up. It hit the roof with a resounding bang, and there sat Amber, huddled against the side, her hands tied together. She seemed unharmed, but tears had left tracks down her face. I hid the relief I felt at seeing her alive. “It’s going to be okay,” I told her, and she nodded, even gave me a slight smile. That’s my girl, I thought.
“Let her go,” I ordered my father. I knew it was no use. I knew that he wouldn’t. But I had to try it the easy way.
“She’s my assurance that you don’t kill me.”
“You have my word,” I told him, and he laughed.
“Your word, son, has no value to me.”
“Is this a family reunion we’ve walked in on?” It was Silver’s father who spoke.
“Almost seems like it.” I said to him. “Sorry about Silver,” I added, and his face hardened.
“Your father assured me that you were looking into who killed him.” This was the moment I had planned on telling him it was my father. But now I couldn’t, not with Amber here. It all finally made sense. That’s why she was here.
“I am. I hope to have an answer soon. I have it narrowed down to a few suspects.”
He wasn’t impressed. “So where is the shipment?” he asked, and I looked to Matthew, who was already moving to the large crates that sat at the back of the warehouse, each one filled with 9mm handguns. I looked at Amber. She hadn’t taken her eyes off me since she saw me. Her body trembled from fear or the cold, maybe both, I didn’t know. But it killed me, and even more so when she gave me a small smile. Her eyes shone with unshed tears. I looked away, only to find my father watching me with a grin on his face. I don’t know how I could have ever let my guard down enough to show him the one way to destroy me. I was too focused on destroying him, that I wasn’t there for Amber. But I would make it up to her if it was the last thing I did, even if it meant my life.
“I made the right move?” He smirked. It was a question filled with so much self-praise that I fought to stand still. I didn’t answer. Speaking right now felt like it could trigger the darkness inside me, and if I gave into it, I wouldn’t be able to stop. “Don’t get all stony, Emmett. Lighten up. No one touched her.” I ignored him and walked towards Matthew, who was showing the Black Bloods their new shipment. It hadn’t escaped my attention how Kirill was watching the interplay between my father and me. I was just waiting for him to strike. One of my father’s new men blocked my path now, his arms folding in front of him, like I wasn’t a threat. He was all muscle, but I was fast.
“Move,” I warned.
“He is only going to pat you down.” My father’s whimsical attitude had me clenching my jaw.
“Make it quick.” He did, taking the gun in my waistband and my jacket pocket.
“Wouldn’t want you turning on your old man,” My father said as his guy handed him my guns.
“I’ll want them back,” I informed my father, who smiled at me. I moved forward, and it was my father who stopped me this time.
“The one strapped to your ankle, as well.” At my blank expression he grinned. “You're my son, I taught you to always suit up for war. So, hand it over.” As I reluctantly retrieved the gun, Kirill and his brother passed me. It was what they had been waiting for, they had been waiting until all my weapons were removed. I handed the gun to my father.
“What did you tell them?” I asked my father. The smile he gave me turned my stomach to stone. I should have known that I could never trust him.
He smiled. “That you wanted me to kill them both, but not to worry. I would strap the leash right back on you, tight this time.”
AMBER
My mind raced. I couldn’t believe I was in a warehouse with mobsters, real life mobsters. Seriously, this shit didn’t happen to real people. It only ever happened to people in the movies. As all the men checked out their merchandise, Natasha was keeping a close eye on me, so I couldn’t exactly escape. When the shutter had gone up and Emmett stood there, none of what was happening mattered. All I could think about was the fact that he found me, again. He came for me. Surely, that meant something. As an added bonus, I also noticed that he hadn’t glanced once at Natasha, and that pleased me. Yeah, I knew it was petty since I was up shit’s creek, but that’s what raced through my mind. I watched on as they took all of Emmett’s weapons from him, and that instilled fear in me again. How could he get both of us out of this? My parents, Luke, even Grace, I hadn’t seen them in so long. What if I never got the chance to see them again? Cold fear spread through me as I thought of my grieving mother when they finally found our bodies. If only I had trusted Emmett enough to talk to him, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
I looked to Emmett, hoping to find calm in his face, but his back was to me. I could feel eyes on me from across the room. I didn’t look directly at the source, as the guy the eyes belonged to was freaking me out. His face was crisscrossed with scars; his eyes bulged in his bald and very pale head. I had spotted him very quickly, at first. I wasn’t sure if he was real, he hadn’t so much as blinked. But what frightened me the most was that I wasn’t sure who he belonged to, but his orders were clear. He was to
keep his freaky eyes on me. When the shutter was down, I had tried to get my hands out of their binds without success. Now, with it open and me exposed, that plan went out the window.
“No funny business!” I choked on a scream at the Russian voice that was now right behind me.
“Get away from her!” Emmett was there, blocking the guy with the freaky eyes. If I leaned out, I could have touched Emmett and I wanted to so bad.
“Everyone needs to calm down.” Emmett’s father appeared, along with Kirill.
“Andrei, stand down,” Kirill spoke. Andrei moved away from me, without looking away, and that was scarier.
“No one is going to touch her,” Emmett’s father squeezed Emmett’s stiff shoulders before looking at me and smiling. “You're safe, Amber,” he assured me. I wanted to spit at him. If I was so safe, why the hell couldn’t he let me go? Why the hell did he need me here?
“Don’t use her name,” Emmett spat with such a forced control that no one spoke of me again. Emmett didn’t look at me, but walked away towards Kirk.
The men gathered near the crates, the leaders leaning together, complimenting the merchandise and the drug trade. They spoke of how it was booming for them. I closed my eyes briefly. I didn’t want to hear this, hearing this would get me killed. Andrei hadn’t joined everyone. He stood at a distance, watching me. It still bothered me, but the fact that Emmett had JP watching him made me feel a little better, if only just a little. We were in a staring triangle.
“We have an even better trade in Russia. It’s not millions, but billions of dollars, and we want to bring it here,” Kirill spoke now. I couldn’t see him, but I recognized his voice. “It’s the reason I set up this meeting.” The noise of a gun chamber being pulled ricocheted around the warehouse. “Guns and drugs are good. Good for business, but pussy, that’s where the money lies.” They were talking about prostitution, or human trafficking, like I had seen in 'Taken.' I loved the film, but the reality was truly frightening.