CHAPTER 21 #2
Bitter cold wind whipped at me right away, as I stuck my head out of the gap to look around outside.
I started badly and automatically moved for the gun at my back when a tall figure appeared in the dark before me.
He was tall, but slim. It was too dark to make out his features, but I had a suspicion I knew who he was.
“Jase?” I asked in a whisper.
“Yes! Come the fuck on!” he hissed at me, continually glancing around him nervously.
I already felt like I was making a huge mistake as I slipped from the door and pushed it closed as quietly as I could behind me, but I didn’t know what else to do.
I had to get to Gia. As long as I got her out of there, whatever happened to me didn’t matter.
I knew Rafe would be pissed, but he would get over my loss.
Afterall, he’d survived eleven years without me already.
But he needed Gia, and I needed to know my family was safe.
I didn’t utter a word as Jase silently slipped around the side of the house and climbed over the tall metal railings in the back corner.
I followed him over, refusing to take his offered hand when he seemed to begrudgingly hold it out to me in offer of help.
It was not a graceful landing, but there was no way I was taking help from the fucker who was very likely a traitor working for my brother. Why else would he be there helping me?
“Down here,” he whispered at me when I regained my footing from the fence climb and looked to him expectantly.
He slowly and stealthily moved down the dark street that ran along the side of Rafe’s home.
I followed, discreetly reaching a hand round to my back to ensure the gun was still secure in the top of my leggings, which it was.
Up ahead I saw the lights flash on a dark coloured hatchback.
I tried to read the numberplate but it was too dark to make it all out.
I did see the badge on the car though, and knew it was a Ford.
The colour was definitely black. I didn’t know if the details would ever be of any relevance, but I was determined to take in anything I could, just in case.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked him the second we were both in the car with the doors closed.
“I work for your brother.” He started the car and my stomach flip flopped as we pulled away from the house and any chance of safety I had left.
“Yeah right. You mean you’re a spy,” I scoffed. “Who for? Who has my sister?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a spy! I’m loyal to your brother, I swear,” he told me firmly, glancing at me for a split second before he turned his attention back to his too fast, erratic driving.
“Then how did you get mixed up in this?” I asked sceptically.
“Gia and I…we’re together. I…I love her. They called me, the same people who called you, I’m guessing. They told me to do this or they’ll kill Gia. I’m sorry, but I had to. I can’t let them hurt her,” he explained, and he sounded genuinely shaken and upset.
“You’re seeing my sixteen year old sister!” I snapped. “How old are you?” I couldn’t see him with any detail in the dim lighting coming from the street lights outside, but I could see enough to know he was way too old for Gia.
“We don’t have time for this bullshit now!” he snapped at me. “Do you have a plan when we get there? A weapon? What are you planning to do?”
When he glanced at me again I was watching him this time, and something in his eyes made me question myself.
I had good instincts from living on the streets, and spending time with the weasels and snakes my Mum often chose as ‘boyfriends.’ Right then, those instincts were tripping an alarm in my head.
Something felt off. I decided I needed to keep my cards close to my chest.
“A plan? Do I look like James fucking Bond? My plan is to get in there and make sure they let Gia go. I’ll be fine. Rafe will find me when he realises I’m gone.”
“That’s it? You just hope brother dearest comes for you?” he sneered, and again that alarm rattled through my brain.
“You’re trained, aren’t you? What do you propose?” I asked.
“I can’t take them on alone. I need back up. They’re going to take any weapons from me the second we pull up.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to endanger Gia anyway. You have to get her out of there though, okay? Make sure she’s safe, then tell Rafe where I am. You can come back for me, right?” I asked, my voice trembling to add to my distress, though that was not acting.
My entire body was trembling with adrenaline as we drove further and further from the house and to who knew where.
I was walking into the most dangerous situation I had ever put myself in, and I was no idiot.
I knew only too well the things evil men could do to a person, especially a woman.
But better that woman be me, than my sixteen year old sister.
I just had to make sure that Gia got out though.
There was no way I was letting them get the both of us.
“Yes, absolutely,” Jase agreed, but it was far from convincing. “I’ll get Gia safe, then I’ll gather our men. We can be back here within an hour. You just have to hold on until we get there.”
“Right. I can do that,” I uttered, trying to make myself sound even more terrified than I actually was.
I wanted him to not see me as a threat if he was working with the enemy.
I wanted everyone to underestimate me, as men always did.
Who wouldn’t? I was barely over five feet tall, too thin, and pretty pitiful looking.
No one ever expected anything but meekness from me.
But that was why I had learned to defend myself.
That was why I had toughened up and learned to trust my instincts and be mindful of everything and everyone around me – because I had no choice.
If I couldn’t take care of myself, no one else had ever been there to do it for me, and alone, a girl like me would be swallowed up fast by the monsters in this world.
I knew that from experience – so much experience.
I wished I could walk into this scenario that I was headed for, with confidence that I could handle whatever arose, and rise from it all at the end as some victorious badass, but the truth was, even with the skills I had, and a gun at my back I stood very little chance of fighting off a fully grown man completely.
More than one man and I’d be fucked. I barely knew how to fire the gun in a straight line, and my self-defence skills weren’t that powerful with my weak body behind them, but I was going to try.
I was going to get Gia out, and I was going to fight, just as I always had.
Whatever happened, I would at least know I did everything I could to save not only Gia, but myself too, which was quite the revelation considering I’d almost ended my life less than a week before.