Chapter 38 Siren
Siren
I’m in the backseat of Jo’s car, lying on my side, on top of little pieces of sharp glass, weeping.
I’ve done some terrible things (secretly recording Nash and Alessandra, uploading Nash’s videos to a porn site to make money, luring old dudes in the comments section and through DMs in order to make even more money, lying, lying, lying).
Now, not only am I being punished for it, people all around me are being punished for it.
Patricia and Jo are injured (I pray they’re not dead) in this car.
Darin and Henry are probably still shaken up in the hospital parking lot.
Carter T. Douglass and Sruthi could be in danger.
And Oscar has been taken away, kidnapped, headed towards certain doom.
I don’t deserve to live.
Suddenly, Jo moans in pain. I lift my head up. She’s writhing in her seat. She needs my help.
I manage to get the door open and stumble onto the pavement. I open Jo’s door, and I see that the crotch area of her stretchy pants is covered in blood.
I throw my palm over my mouth, shocked and dismayed. Jo moans again, and I quickly unbuckle her seat belt.
A car approaches. It slows down. An old woman pokes her head out.
She says, “Oh, dear God.”
“Call an ambulance!” I scream at her.
Since we’re not even a block away from the hospital, I hope it won’t take long.
The woman starts dialing on her cell phone.
“Hang on, Jo,” I say. “An ambulance is coming.”
Patricia stirs. She also sounds like she’s in pain.
Watching Jo and Patricia like this, I start to wonder what’s happening to Oscar, what kind of pain he must be in right now. I need to focus.
I hear the cry of a siren.
“They’re coming,” I say. “Patricia, Jo, they’re coming.”
Time is of the essence right now. Every moment Oscar is out of my sight, the closer he is to an outcome that will be irreversible.
As the ambulance comes toward us, I run right past it, heading back to the hospital. When I cut across the lawn and reach the parking lot, I see Darin and Henry, leaning against a car, looking like they’re trying to catch their breaths, trying to orient themselves.
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Hunter,” Darin says, when he sees me.
“Where are the others?” asks Henry.
I yell, “Where did my brother go?!”
“Calm down,” says Darin. “What happened to Jo and Patricia? And your friend.”
“I need to find my brother!”
I then see a black SUV pull up to the emergency room entrance. Nash is driving it.
I run.
The front doors of the hospital slide open. A nurse is pushing a wheelchair out, and in the wheelchair is Nikolai. His clothes are bloody, and his neck is wrapped in bandages. He doesn’t look good. He looks like he could drop dead at any moment.
I hear the nurse say, “It’s not a good idea for you to leave, sir. But I guess I can’t keep you here if you don’t want to listen to me. I’m just telling you again. Insisting.”
Nash has hopped out of the vehicle.
“He’s fine!” Nash exclaims. “We’ll take care of it from here.”
“Nash!” I call out.
As Nash helps a silent Nikolai into the passenger seat, he says, “Get the fuck out of here, Hunter!”
“They took Oscar,” I say. “It was Nikolai’s men, right? They took Oscar. Where did they take him?”
Nash slams the passenger side door shut. “Stay out of this. Don’t you understand I’m protecting you?”
“What are they gonna do to him?”
“Go away!” Nash climbs into the SUV. “I’ve worked hard to work my way up in Nikolai’s organization.
And I’ve gotten really far. I’m his number-one guy.
And he was about to give me a lot more responsibility, which means a shit-ton of money.
But now you and Oscar have completely screwed up my standing, and I’m trying to make it right.
And I found a way to make it right that doesn’t involve you.
So I’d like you to show a little goddamn appreciation! ”
Nash slams the door shut.
How did my brother go from being the most popular kid in high school to secretly pursuing an acting career to descending into a life full of drugs and sex parties to being one of the top men in a criminal organization? My brain feels like it’s going to break just thinking about it.
But I shouldn’t concern myself with that right now. My primary concern—my only concern—is Oscar.
I say, “If they’re gonna hurt Oscar, if they’re gonna kill Oscar, take me instead! Take me! I don’t wanna live anyway. Take me!”
“Stop being such a fucking drama queen, Hunter.” Nash hits the accelerator, and the SUV flies out of the parking lot.
The ambulance pulls in, screeching to a stop. The back doors burst open, and two EMTs carry Jo out on a stretcher. She continues to moan. The blood stain on her pants is horrifying.
Patricia also hops out of the ambulance. It looks like she’s okay. She runs alongside Jo.
I say, “Patricia, I’m sorry.”
But she’s too focused on her wife. She ignores me.
Darin and Henry appear.
Darin says, “What the hell happened?”
“Car accident,” I say.
Darin and Henry run inside.
Suddenly, all is quiet out here. Eerily quiet. It’s like I’m all alone in the universe.
“Do you know where I can find Nikolai?” I ask.
I’ve managed to get myself to the 7-Eleven. I wasn’t able to run as fast as I normally do, but I did get back to Patricia and Jo’s house (they’re still at the hospital) to get my car, and now I’m here, hoping to get some kind of information.
Since I’m completely out of other ideas, I’m hunched down, talking to the homeless woman, who’s on her side, trying to sleep. “Lady, do you know who Nikolai is?”
Her eyes shoot open, wide, and she grins with her dirty teeth. “What do you think I am?! Some kind of witch?!”
I’m so startled that I flinch, almost falling onto my ass.
The woman closes her eyes again. Then she whispers, “Maybe I am. Maybe I am.”
“Hey, I’m not Nash, okay? My name is Hunter. Nash is my brother. He comes here. You know him, right?”
“Nash, yes, Nash.”
“He probably comes here sometimes with another guy named Nikolai. Do you know Nikolai?”
The woman starts snoring.
I shake her shoulder. “Do you know Nikolai?”
“Nikolai, the Russian,” the woman mumbles.
“Yes! Yes! That’s him! Yes! What do you know about him?! Do you know where he lives?!”
“Up near the mountains,” she says.
“What city?”
“This one.”
“Point Liberty?” I ask.
She nods. “Nikolai loves Christmas so much. He loves Christmas all year long.”
“What? What does that mean? Do you have an address? Do you know exactly how I can get to him?”
The woman’s eyes open again, and she screams at me, “How the fuck am I supposed to know?! Do I look like Google to you?!”
I back away.
She closes her eyes and snores again.
Well, at least that’s something. I don’t know what she means exactly. Maybe he has Christmas lights up or something?
Point Liberty isn’t that big of a town. If I get lucky, I might be able to find a house like that just by driving around.
But then what’s my plan? I’m just one guy. Nikolai has a whole team. I’ve seen the big dudes he rolls with.
It’s clear that even if I do find out where Nikolai lives then I’m going to need backup. I need a bunch of guys who can take on a drug lord and his henchmen. Jesus, it sounds like something out of a movie.
I need the help of some straight-up thugs. And there’s only one person I know who knows those type of people.