Chapter 6 Ben #2
The smell of fish and industrial cleaner warred with each other. Outside, the storm still raged, and they were close enough to the ocean for the sound of the waves crashing on the seawall to rise above the thunder.
Ben remembered his hostage training, but the darkness made it difficult to see his surroundings, and his captors wore black neck gaiters pulled up to hide the lower half of their faces. He listened as they talked to each other in Russian and wondered what they were saying.
One of them disappeared into the shadows and returned after a time with a metal chair and a length of heavy rope, stained with fluids Ben didn’t want to think about too hard.
“Sit.” The man closest to Ben shoved him, and Ben fell more than sat.
A second goon wrapped the rope tightly around Ben’s chest. From the way he moved, Ben could tell the guy had plenty of practice.
The Newark Mob were stone-cold killers, but the Russians brought a whole different level of lethality to the game.
“And now, we wait for Mitchell to do the sensible thing,” one of the men said.
The Russians stayed in sight of Ben, but one found a table and another pulled out a deck of cards and some dice. Ben couldn’t understand their conversation, but the tone and gestures reminded him of soldiers passing the time on a boring assignment.
Ben felt a chill and sensed that the warehouse ghosts had awakened.
The Russians didn’t seem to notice, or maybe they just didn’t care.
Some of the spirits hovered in the shadows around the edge of the large room, while others didn’t—or couldn’t—make themselves visible to Ben.
He couldn’t usually communicate with the ghosts, but an idea struck him, and he decided to try his luck.
“Warehouse ghosts. I can see you, and I need your help,” he whispered, hoping his kidnappers would think he was praying, and hoping that the spirits would hear him and bother to assist.
“If you can leave this place, I need you to tell my friends where I am.” Ben told them where to find Monty and Haley.
“These guys are mobsters. They’re going to kill me unless you tell my friends where to find me.” He thanked the ghosts and offered to return with a medium who could help them pass over.
Ben forced down his fear and let his training take over. He carefully scanned what he could see of the darkened warehouse, looking for anything that might work in his favor. That included memorizing the faces of his captors, now that they had removed their masks.
The few portable lights barely illuminated the center of the space.
That made it easier to hide if he got loose, but gave him no idea of what might be hidden in the shadows.
Equipment could shield him from pursuers or be an obstacle to his escape.
Wires, cords, and pipes posed hazards if he needed to run.
Ben couldn’t see far enough in the semi-darkness to spot any other exits aside from the door where they had entered.
That meant running in any other direction could leave him trapped with no way out.
If the warehouse had a security system, it was clearly deactivated.
He wasn’t very familiar with the port area, but there was little reason for traffic here, especially during the storm.
No one was likely to notice unusual activity and call the police.
I won’t allow them to use me as a bargaining chip with Erik. They’ll kill both of us. No one is going to find me here, so I guess I’m going to need to figure out how to save myself.
He took inventory of what he could use. The goons hadn’t patted him down since his gun was gone, so they didn’t notice his pocketknife or the dog collar with the tracker.
Ben had a key ring with several keys, but his phone was in his slicker, which got left at the rental house. His pen and notebook were also there.
Ben had remembered to inflate his chest before they wrapped the rope around him, but that didn’t get him enough wiggle room to get free, and his captors could see his every move.
The metal chair wouldn’t break easily, and while they hadn’t tied his ankles, he wasn’t going to get far in the dark.
He might be able to stand up and smack someone with the chair, although that wouldn’t deter men with weapons for long.
But several feet to his left, Ben spotted a large pile of boxes. If they weren’t too heavy, he might be able to get to the stack and knock it over if a diversion was needed. It wouldn’t hold back the mobsters for long, but it might slow them down for a few seconds.
The same darkness that kept Ben from seeing more of the warehouse would make pursuit difficult, unless the mobsters had flashlights that they hadn’t used yet.
Time dragged. Ben had no idea how long it had been since he’d been brought in, but he guessed a couple of hours had passed.
Outside, the wind rattled loose sheet-metal panels, and the thunder echoed.
Somewhere in the shadows, water dripped with a relentless patter.
Lightning streaks glowed through windows high up on the walls, but otherwise, the lack of light told Ben it was still night.
Ben tried to remain alert for an opportunity. He reminded himself that circumstances could change suddenly and that he might still find a way to escape, or at least put up a good fight.
The leader called Erik a second time, telling him to bring the haunted stained-glass window and the location of the Tiffany dome to a parking lot near the port at dawn.
That didn’t reveal much about where Ben was imprisoned, since it was a large area with hundreds of hiding places.
He didn’t have any faith that the Russians would let him and Erik walk away, even if Erik met their demands.
The two of them had been too effective at stopping both Bratva and the Newark Mafia too many times for them to be set free.
I don’t see a way out.
Ben wasn’t giving up, but the odds weren’t in his favor.
I just moved in with Erik, and it was going so well. We’re a good match, better than I ever thought I’d find. He’s everything I ever wanted in a partner, and for the first time in a long while, I’ve been happy.
When Ben made the move to Cape May, he wasn’t sure he’d find his footing or ever fall in love again. Rental real estate was a long way from being a cop or a detective. That was the point, plus taking over the rental company, but it really seemed like a long shot.
To Ben’s surprise, he found himself liking a job that wasn’t one emergency after another, and realized that he was good at it.
Returning to the town brought back fond memories of spending summers helping his aunt and uncle when he was a teenager.
Cape May, which he had feared would seem dreadfully dull after the big city had grown on him.
Of course, the supernatural dangers he and Erik fought were anything but dull.
Most of all, he’d met Erik when Ben had nearly given up finding a forever match. And now their time was being cut short.
I’ll fight to keep what we have with everything I’ve got, but we might have run out of luck this time.
I hope Erik knows how much I love him, how much I cherish the time we’ve had together. If this is all we get, it’s better than none at all.
But damn, I wanted to get old and gray and totter into the sunset together.
We never even had a chance to get a dog.
If I don’t make it, it’ll throw a wrench into my aunt and uncle’s retirement. I was their way out. Will they find someone else to buy the business, or have to sell off the properties piecemeal? That’ll play havoc with their plans.
With the power out, I wonder how long it’ll take the police to find those bodies on the steps at the other house. Hendricks will have a heart attack over that. Jenny will worry herself sick over me.
And being the scene of a Mob hit isn’t going to do good things for attracting new renters.
Not to mention that Erik and I might not be around to do our programs for the festival. I wonder if new attacks will make the organizers decide to cancel, just to be safe. That would be a shame. People put in a lot of work. One more thing I was looking forward to.
Ben shook off the mood. Feeling sorry for myself isn’t going to change anything. Either we’ll live through this or we won’t.
But it sure would be great to take some of these sons of bitches out with us. Screw up their plans, keep the Tiffany windows out of their boss’s hands, make this an expensive failure for them.
In the absence of hope, Ben decided vengeance would do.