29. Azrael
TWENTY-NINE
AZRAEL
O ne ring, two rings, three rings.
“Come on. Pick up!” I shouted at no one in particular but that didn’t stop me from getting some glares from both Max and Clover.
“The person you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave—” the lady on the other end of the line said, and I all but threw my phone across the room. But that wouldn’t help anyone in this situation, least of all Max and Clover, who didn’t need me turning into a wild animal in front of them. It was enough that they were feeding off my stress.
I closed my eyes, checked my messages, and took a deep breath.
Just because Slade hasn’t texted yet doesn’t mean he’s not working on a plan. It doesn’t mean he’s not working on a plan. It doesn’t mean …
I exited my messages, returned to my contacts, and tried Remi’s number again.
This time, he answered straight away.
“Hello?” he sounded groggy. As if he’d just woken up.
“Remi! What the fuck. Why aren’t you picking up your phone? Are you okay?”
“Whoa, whoa, big brother. You’re shouting.”
“Of course I’m shouting. Are you okay? Where are you?”
I heard shuffling on the other end and chewed my lip so I didn’t chew his ear off.
“Please don’t tell me Nanay came into my room, didn’t find me, and started panicking?” he said after a few moments, and I huffed.
“What the hell, Remi? No. Where are you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, of course I’m okay. I was sleeping.”
“Where?”
“Um…some guy’s bed?” he whispered.
I collapsed on the couch and took a deep breath.
“He hasn’t tied you up or put a gun to your head, has he?”
“Huh? What the—I don’t know what kind of shit you and Duke get up to, but I’m not answering that.”
Another deep breath.
“Remi, don’t joke right now. Don’t…he…they’ve all been taken.”
“What do you mean? Who?”
I rubbed my hand over my face and wiped the tears away.
“Everyone. Noah, Duke, Nanay, Tatay, Lola.”
There was a loud bang on Remi’s side, and he cursed.
“What do you mean they’ve been taken?”
“Someone…someone’s abducted them. They want me to leave the island or…or…”
“Fuck!” he shouted. “Does this have anything to do with the bullshit at the sanctuary?”
“What do you think?”
“What are we going to do? Are we gonna call the police?”
“No!” I shouted. “The police can’t do shit. Not without fucking it up.”
“Then what are we going to do, Azrael? We can’t let our family…”
“ We’re not doing anything. I am. I’ve got a plan. Well, waiting for a plan.” My phone buzzed, and I quickly checked the messages. “I’ve got a plan.”
“You’re not making any sense. I’m coming right over?—”
“You’re not doing anything! You stay where you are. Don’t move, and don’t call Nanay or anyone. Okay? We don’t know what they might do if they find out about you. If they don’t already know about you.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“Me? I’ve got a ferry to catch,” I said before hanging up and calling Slade.
He walked me through the plan he and the others had come up with, and I repeated it to him to ensure I got everything right before we set it in motion.
First, I took Clover out to his kennel, then I went back inside and left a note for Jake and the rest of the volunteers. When I tried to leave, Madison came in.
She combed her fingers through her pink and blonde hair and tied it up with a scrunchy, greeting me good morning with a big smile.
“Are you okay, Azrael?”
I faked a smile and nodded.
“I…I just need to run an errand. Duke is…Duke is off sick today, so can you call up his appointments and cancel them?”
“Of course, no problem. I’ll get right on it. But…are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Just…stressed. I…I hope he hasn’t caught anything.”
Madison hummed.
“I get it. You’re worried he might give it to Noah.”
“Yeah. That’s right. That’s…that’s it. I’ll see you later, Madison.”
“You got it, Azrael. Go take care of your man.” She smiled at me and picked up my notes from the table where I’d left them, and I returned upstairs.
The next step was to pick up my suitcase and guitar case and carry them out to my car. Just before I left, I gave Max a good scratch along with his breakfast, and I put on the brightest jacket I could find in the house, a yellow windbreaker from Duke’s closet that made me feel like a buoy at sea, and a baseball cap. Finally, I put my keys on the table and left the sanctuary as if for the last time.
I drove to the port and found the ferry on my ticket. It was already boarding, but I made sure to get out of the car and speak to as many employees as possible before getting on the boat myself. I parked the car at the bay and walked upstairs to the deck where I was most visible.
Once I was there, there was nothing else I could do but watch my phone and wait. And think of everything that could go wrong with this plan, everything we couldn’t account for because this wasn’t a warzone or a covert operation to rescue foreign assets or bring down enemies of the state.
This was real life. This was my life, and the stakes were higher than ever.
Thinking of Noah, sitting in a dark room, not knowing what was happening and why, wondering where his daddy was. Or Duke and Penny, tied up God knew where, not knowing that no matter what, I was coming for them, that I wouldn’t abandon any of them.
How could I have let this happen? I’d known the situation on the island. I should have been more alert. I should have been paying more attention. But no. I’d been too distracted by being in love and being a new dad to pay attention to my own nose. Maybe if I’d been more focused, if I’d acted like a damn adult and taken this more seriously, none of this would have happened.
The ferry started moving, and soon, Mayberry Holm was just a backdrop in the distance, getting smaller and smaller by the minute.
Ring, ring.
My phone was so loud it even took me by surprise, but it was necessary if this plan would work. I slid my finger across the screen and looked around at the other passengers staring at me before I brought my phone to my ear.
“I’m gone. You got what you wanted. Now let them go.”
The man laughed.
“You don’t call the shots here. I do. If you want to find your family, you better start looking already. There’s a lot of cars on that boat.”
The parking bay! Shit. They weren’t in a warehouse, locked away. They were here. In the back of a van probably. Shit.
“What about Duke and his sister?”
“That’s all for now,” he said.
“We made a deal!” I shouted. I wasn’t going to let him hang up. Not when everything could go undone before it had even begun.
“And we’ll hold up our end once you’re out of the way for good. Now go and get your son. If he’s a pussy like you, he’s probably throwing up all over.”
“You mother—” I started, but he’d already hung up, and I cursed.
I couldn’t believe I’d let this happen to Noah. That I’d let him get caught up in the middle of all this. I should have listened to Duke. I should have stayed in San Diego. I should have kept him there too and lived happily ever after with him. I knew it couldn’t be that simple, but was this situation better? Putting everyone I loved at risk?
I stormed back inside and took the steps two at a time until I reached the top car deck. The space was vast, with cars tucked one behind the other everywhere, leaving little space for walking in between them.
There were a lot of vans, trucks, and even some RVs.
“Fuck!” I spat.
They wanted to keep me busy.
“Nanay! Lola!” I shouted and ran to the first van nearest me.
I pulled at the handle to the back, but it didn’t budge. I banged on the door and pressed my ear to the metal, but I couldn’t hear anything.
What if they’re in there, but I can’t hear them because of the noise down here? What if they’d been drugged? I couldn’t risk it, so even though I hated doing this, I took my gun out, positioned myself so I was aiming at the lock of the side-loading door and the empty front seats, and fired.
Nothing. The van was empty.
“Damn it!”
I ran to the next one and followed the same routine. If I kept this up, I’d be out of bullets before I even managed to go through the first floor. There had to be a better way. A better solution. I started going down to the next floor and paused.
Think, Azrael. Think .
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and put myself in ops mode. This wasn’t personal. My family’s life wasn’t at stake. This was just a special operation, and I needed to find the bomb before it went off. To locate the danger amid the innocent crowd. And the best way to figure that out was to think like the enemy.
What would I do? How would I play this if I were the abductor?
I’d put the vehicle somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t tuck it away on the edges or the bottom floor because those would be the first places I’d look.
I stopped and walked back up to the first floor of the car deck and climbed up on a car’s roof. There were vans everywhere. Those would be the easiest and best choice. Especially if I planted more than one to make this as anxiety-inducing as possible. I’d plant some stand-out choices to lure me to them, like an RV, but they wouldn’t be in there. It was comfortable. And had amenities, and I would want my victims to be afraid for their lives, so they’d send me a message to stay away.
And I wouldn’t want me to give up, so I’d make it as easy as I’d make it difficult, so I wouldn’t lock it up. Hell, I’d even leave the keys in the ignition so I could drive it away and never look back.
I zeroed in on the vans in the middle and jumped from car to car until I got to the nearest van. No keys in the ignition, fully locked.
I moved on to the next one. And the next one. When I reached the fourth, I spotted a key on the dashboard. I jumped off the car roof to the side of the van and grabbed the handle of the side door. I took a deep breath.
Please, God. Let this work. Please .
I pulled and slid the door. It opened. And several sets of eyes all looked at me.
“Azrael!” Nanay shouted.
I almost collapsed at seeing them in front of me, both with relief for having found them and with terror for seeing them in this state. All tied up and scared in the dark, unsure of their fate. I almost collapsed but didn’t.
“Oh, thank God. Are you guys okay? How is Noah?” I pulled my knife out and started cutting the zip ties straight away before taking Noah from Nanay and holding him in my arms while my family hugged us.
“Do you know where Remi is? He wasn’t home when they took us. He went out last?—”
“Remi is fine, Nanay. He’s safe and sound and sitting tight until further notice.”
They all sighed in relief, and Lola rubbed my back.
“We’re okay. We’re okay, sweetheart. It’s okay. It’s all okay. You can calm down now,” she said.
I shook my head and pulled away from their embrace.
“It’s not okay, Lola. Not yet, it’s not.”
“What are you talking about?” Tatay asked.
“They’ve got Duke and Penny. And they’re gonna kill them if we don’t leave them behind.”
Nanay grimaced and spat on the floor.
“Like hell we are!” she said.
“Exactly what I was thinking,” I told her.
“What are we going to do?” Lola asked.
“You are not doing anything. I am. And right now, I need to make a call.”
I took my phone out of my pocket and passed Noah to Tatay, but before I called Slade, I looked at Noah. No sick anywhere in sight.
“That’s right. We’re not pussies, son,” I told him, and Tatay raised an eyebrow.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I turned away, jumped out of the van, and called Slade to update him.
“Good job, Azrael. Now, we can move on to plan B sooner than we thought. Are you ready?”
I growled.
“Readier than I’ve ever been.”
“Great. See you soon, bud.”
I hung up and made my way to the stern. Slade, Parker, and Donovan waved at me from the speedboat, and I found an anchor line to throw at them. Donovan climbed up and hugged me before I could say anything.
“I’m sorry, Azrael. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
“Huh?” I asked.
“I was responsible for keeping an eye on your family and protecting them, and I failed.”
I looked at my old friend. The confident smirk and swagger he usually carried himself with was completely gone, replaced by a shadow in his eyes.
“It wasn’t your fault, Donovan.”
“Of course it was. I don’t know how they did that. I didn’t hear a pip. All I know is Slade could barely wake me up this morning. I don’t know what happened.”
“Sounds like they drugged you,” I said.
“But how?”
“They’re sneaky motherfuckers. And that’s why we need to get them. Come on. Let’s go.”
I led him down to the car deck again and gave him my coat and cap. If it was tight on me, it was even tighter on Donovan, but he’d have to make it work. At least until we dealt with the situation.
“What’s going on? Who is this?” Tatay asked.
“This is Donovan, guys, and he’s going to take you to safety. I’m gonna go save Duke and Penny.”
Nanay hugged me and kissed my forehead.
“You be careful, you hear me?”
“Yes, Nanay. Always.”
I turned to Lola and hugged her too.
“You go get your man, son. And make them pay.”
“Oh, I plan on it.” I left Tatay for last.
He hugged me, holding me in place and whispering in my ear.
“Go kill those sons of bitches,” he said. “Show them no mercy.”
I let go and nodded. I could see the fury of a Navy officer in his eyes. He may have never been a SEAL, but he’d served his country, and he knew what it took to get the job done sometimes. And that was exactly what I was planning on doing.
Get the job done and save my man.