Chapter 31 #2
“I’m not following how we can help.” Lachlan shrugged, his feet inching closer to Jessie. She could feel the apprehension rolling off his body.
“Not you. Her. We need to know where it is.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jess shook her head as she ran her hand over her belly. Bee was rolling, the sensation comforting. Everything inside of her was screaming to get out of there.
“The thumb drive. He said he gave it to you. That you had it. We’re not leaving here before we figure it out.”
“I don’t—”
“Call him, Boss.” The guy whose name she couldn’t remember said to Mack. “Tell him he needs to show his face. This is his fucking mess and we shouldn’t be here doing his dirty work.”
Silence filled the space, but Lachlan was shuffling slowly, very, very, slowly, in front of her.
“Get behind me,” he whispered, so quiet she barely heard him. And that’s when she started moving too.
“Get your ass in here. They’re not fucking talking.”
A minute later, a man covered from head to toe in black, strolled into the shop. Oh, god. She was going to be sick. Because there in his hand, was a baseball bat. Her eyes dropped to Lach’s hand, where the large adjustable wrench was beginning to bounce up and down.
“Now. Where is the thumb drive?” Mack was staring right at her, but it had to be some sort of misunderstanding. She didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.
“I-I don’t have anything. I don’t have a thumb drive.
You can go into that office and look. The laptop we had before was stolen and the replacement one we’ve been using is so old, the ports stopped working years ago!
” A tear slipped down her face as the masked man took a step closer to them.
Lachlan moved his hand out in front of Jess and tucked her into his back.
“That’s where you’re wrong, little mama.
You’ve had it all along.” Mack flicked his finger towards the guy in the mask.
“He told us so. And since this place was meant to be empty today so we could tear it apart and find the fucking thing, I think it’s the universe’s way of helping us out…
putting your pretty little self right in our path so we don’t have to go through the hassle. ”
“Who the fuck are you?” Lachlan spit at the guy in the mask. He used his free hand to roll up the sleeve of his shirt. All the color drained from her brother’s face as he stared down at the dragon tattoo on the man’s arm.
The taller guy looked at Mack, laughing, before turning back to Lachlan. “Look, man. We don’t have time to tell you all the fucked up details. We just need to know what you did with the thumb drive.”
Lach’s hand rested on her arm. “Jess?”
“I swear, I don’t know anything about a thumb drive.
We store all of your business stuff right on the laptop in the office.
After the first one was stolen from my room, I’ve only restored a few things digitally.
You know before that, we kept things on the computer or printed out in the file cabinet. I haven’t used a thumb drive in years.”
Lachlan nodded. “You heard my sister. We don’t have what you’re looking for.”
Mack lunged, his hands wrapping tightly around Jess’s arms. She screamed, trying to pull away as Lachlan swung the wrench in his hand at the second man. Her belly bumped into the tool cart and she cried out as the pain spread across her side, silently praying that Bee was okay.
“Come on. Stop fighting me and just tell us where it is. We know you found it. We know you have it.”
“I didn’t. Please. Please. Why would I risk my baby’s life over this? I wouldn’t. Just go! We don’t have any drive here. I didn’t see or take it.”
“He said it was in the—”
Jessie hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening with her brother.
But she should have been. Her stomach pitched as the sound of metal banged so loudly in the garage that her ears rang like a gunshot had gone off.
She turned in an instant, looking for Lachlan, but a true horror was playing out in front of her.
Because the restored car, the one that had been high in the air, was now on the ground.
It’d fallen, and the only people still standing were the men that barged in.
A different sound filled the air in an instant, and Jessie’s knees buckled.
“LACHLAN!” she screamed as she stumbled towards him.
“Shit. We need to get out of here.” The masked man growled over her shoulder.
Some part of her knew that she needed to file away the sound of his voice for later, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than her brother, who was screaming out in pain.
Her eyes traveled down from his face to his chest, over his waist, and then down to his legs.
Only, she couldn’t see both of them. One of his legs was being crushed under the car!
Her tears blurred her vision. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay, Lach. I’m going to get help.”
“Get… outta… here…”
“NO! I just need to get to the office. My phone… my stupid phone!”
Jessie felt a tap on her shoulder. Her eyes flew up to the masked man, who was standing facing away from her. But his arm was held out, her phone illuminated with 9-1-1 on the line.
She snatched it from his hand, watching as he left the garage. A dragon tattoo wrapped around his forearm. Jessie filed that information away for later. The other two men must have made a run for it, because in an instant, she and Lach were the only two left.
“Jessie… you need… the baby…”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m getting you help. We’re fine. And you’re going to be too,” she sobbed as her shaking hands finally brought the phone up to her ear.