31. Aiden
Anna’s warning still rings in my ear as two men in ski masks jump out of the van and point a gun at us, screaming at us to get in. We comply, but Anna pretends to be scared while doing so.
The man holding the weapon trains it on Anna. “Stop your whining. We have been informed that you are more than you appear and know this is all an act. Put your hands out where I can see them!”
Anna places her hands in front of her, and I do the same. Every instinct in me says that we should fight our way out of this mess, but I promised I would follow Anna’s lead. Right now, she’s perfectly calm and in control. If she’s not panicking, then I figure I shouldn’t either. The man binds our hands and then our feet with zip ties.
He takes the gun Anna has in her belly band holster and looks at it. “What kind of gun is this? It looks like a toy, and are these paint-tipped bullets?”
She looks away, pretending to be embarrassed. “We’re not allowed to carry real guns. That’s for intimidation purposes only.” Anna told me the truth that the tips are laced with a sedative that will incapacitate an assailant for over an hour or more. It’s non-lethal but highly effective.
The man laughs, setting the gun down on the floor of the van. “I’m real intimidated. I”m shaking in my boots.”
“Aren’t you going to place a bag over our heads so we can’t see where we’re going?” Anna asks.
“Why bother? It’s not like you’re going to live long enough to tell anyone the location. And if you do, we’ll be like ghosts in the wind. Our boss has eyes everywhere in this city. There won’t be any place you can hide from us.”
“Who’s your boss?” I ask.
The man rolls his eyes at me. “You already know the answer to that question, but if not, you’ll find out soon enough.”
As we drive along, I nudge Anna with my shoulder. “What’s going on in your head?” I ask softly.
Her eyes are hard as stone. “I’m wondering why my mother sold me out. Mr. McFadden said as much.”
I didn’t anticipate her response, assuming she was thinking of a way to get us out of this. I had no idea her mind was still back in the courtroom. “No, he didn’t. He said that she openly admitted what she had done. He never said to whom, Anna. If you recall, Gretchen unburdened her sins long ago, and when Patricia was married to me, she was part of the women’s group that your mother confided in. Your mom didn’t sell you out, Anna. Patricia did.”
“I hope you’re right, Aiden. Forgiving my mother the first time around was hard enough. I don’t know if I have the strength to do it again.”
I lean my head against hers. “You’re one of the strongest people I know. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”
The man still holding the gun chortles. “Aw. Isn’t that sweet? You’re professing your undying love for one another before you meet your Maker.”
Anna glares at him. “Do you mind? We’re trying to have a moment! You’re ruining it with your commentary!”
The van pulls to a stop before he can retort with a snappy comeback. “Times up. After you,” he says, gesturing with the gun for us to exit the vehicle.
“We can’t really go anywhere with our feet bound. Would you mind helping us out?” Anna quips.
The man scowls at Anna before pulling out a pocket knife and cutting the zip ties around our ankles.
Sean O’Sullivan is waiting for us as soon as we emerge, surrounded by several armed men. “Check them for any wires,” he demands.
I know I’m not wearing any recording devices, so there isn’t any concern there. I only get nervous when they scan Anna. I know her necklace is recording everything. When the scanner passes over it, and there’s no beep, I try to hide my surprise.
Sean walks up to Anna and touches the necklace, flipping it over and inspecting it. He’s already been appraised of the video evidence we submitted for the trial, and based on the angle of the image in the recording, there is only one place from which it could have come. He’s not wrong to be leery.
“I thought for sure that this was some high-tech gadget capable of storing footage. Everything that transmits has a signal, but yet this doesn’t. Explain to me how you captured us on tape.” Sean demands.
“Likely in the same way you snagged a photo of you and your brother talking to me. You assume I was alone in the store when you approached me. How do you know that there weren’t others watching? How do you know you aren’t being watched now?” she retorts.
Sean darts his eyes around the area quickly but doesn’t notice anyone else. Not willing to call Anna’s bluff, he shouts, “Get them inside!”
The barrel of a gun is shoved in my back, forcing me to move forward, yet I go slow enough that I can keep Anna in my peripheral vision as she walks beside me. She frequently looks down at her bound hands in front of her, and I follow her line of sight. She fiddles with the ring and turns the stone clockwise. I do the same to mine, preparing it to deliver an electric charge when the opportunity presents itself. Now is not the time with so many guns pointed in our direction.
“I bet you would like to visit your friend and see how hospitable we can be,” Sean says gleefully.
He leads us down the hallway into a room where Swank is being held. Pulling up Swank’s head by the hair so we can get a good look at his face. One eye is purple, and blood drips from his nose and mouth.
Swank opens his eyes, one more than the other, and chokes out a laugh. “It’s about time you came, Aiden. Oh, look! You brought the nanny!”
Anna assesses the situation and sniffs, scrunching her nose reflexively. She then stares at the ropes binding my friend and the pool of blood underneath, not liking what she sees.
Sean opens the door, “You’ve seen your friend and what we’re capable of. Now, it’s time to begin negotiations. My men will escort you to another room where we can talk without any distractions, but I still have some business to attend to first. I’m sure you’ll be content to wait for me.” He laughs menacingly as we are herded to a room down the hall.
One of the men points to the two chairs facing each other. “Sit!” he shouts. We do as we’re told, and I become anxious when they pull out a large roll of duct tape. With our hands still bound by zip ties, they wrap the tape around our chests and calves so that we are firmly secured to the chair. One of the men taunts us by placing Anna’s weapon on the table by the door, well out of reach.
I startle when Swank’s screams can be heard from down the corridor. I immediately begin praying for his safety and ours as well. The one man left to guard us until Sean arrives growls out, “Praying isn’t going to get you out of this one.”
After minutes of waiting, the door finally opens, and Conor enters instead of his brother. “Can you hear the consequences of your actions, Aiden? Your friend is taking your punishment for you. How does that make you feel?” When I don’t say anything, he continues, “The way I see it, you can give back the money your grandparents stole from us, or you can throw the games we ask you to. By stacking the odds in our favor when placing our bets, we can reduce your debt.”
“Are you talking about the money you forced my grandparents to launder? Because if I die, the proof I have will be sent to the FBI,” I tell him.
“No, Aiden. I’m referring to the two billion dollars they left behind. As far as the evidence is concerned, your warning last year gave us plenty of time to cook our books. Trust me, our men have scrubbed our ledgers so that we’re squeaky clean should any federal agency come poking around. Any paperwork you have will lead to a dead end and is now useless.”
Anna cocks her head slightly, and I know she’s listening to someone in her earpiece. She plays it off well by asking a question of her own. “Daddy must be very proud of you. Where is he? I thought we were going to meet the ‘boss.’”
Conor’s eyes darken. “Sean and I are the bosses now. There’s a reason no one has seen our father for the past two years. He got soft and is now nothing more than fish food. If you don’t want to join him, I suggest you start cooperating. As it stands, your friend is nearly on death’s door, and you are his only chance of living through this.”
I’m about to give in when the door opens again, only this time Patricia enters as gunfire echoes throughout the building. “We’re under attack, Conor! We need to get out of here!”
“So, this was your plan all along, Patricia? To try and take my daughter away from me and steal the billions my grandparents left to me. You’re a despicable woman!” I’m seething, and my vision clouds with red.
“It was never my plan, Aiden. I’m just along for the ride,” she retorts, urging Conor to leave.
Conor stares at us before turning to Patricia and telling her, “Cut their bindings to the chair but leave their hands bound. We need hostages.” He points a gun at us while Patricia grabs a knife off the table. “One wrong move, and you die.”
The moment the tape is cut, I can breathe easier. Anna is the first to stand up and fearlessly approaches Conor. The next thing I know, Anna ducks toward her left while simultaneously using her bound hands to push the gun out of the way. Conor fires, but the shot goes wide and strikes the wall behind me. Quick as a whip, Anna touches her ring to Conor’s jugular, and he goes down like a ton of bricks.
I stand there in awe of Anna and her skills until she shouts, “Aiden! Use your ring!” Patricia tries to flee, but I catch up to her and place the top of my ring against her back as she tries to escape. Her body seizes up, and she falls to the ground beside Conor.
I prepare myself to run, but Anna stands rooted in place. Instead of sprinting for the door, she pulls the bindings tighter by using her teeth before stretching her arms out and away from her body. I don”t understand what she’s doing when she practically punches herself in the gut. When she shakes out her hands, I realize that she is free from the zip ties. I try to mimic her actions but grit my teeth when I”m unsuccessful and they don’t break.
She pulls on my bindings to tighten them almost to the point they are cutting off my circulation. “There can’t be any wiggle room when you try to break them, Aiden. It’s going to hurt, but not as much as what these guys plan to do us. Try again.” This time, when I go through the motions, the ties snap apart easily. There is a stinging sensation, but it’s far less painful than my first attempt. On our way out the door, she grabs her weapon that’s on the table while I reach down and grab Conor’s gun. I pray I don’t have to use it.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
“Jerry was monitoring the feeds from my necklace and turned it off remotely when they were scanning for anything that was emitting a signal. He waited five minutes before turning it back on. When he got Conor’s confession, the FBI and my team moved in. Now, we need to move out and let them handle it. Your safety is my primary concern,” she explains.
“I need to get Swank. I can’t leave him here,” I tell her, my eyes pleading.
“I promise you that he will be perfectly fine.”
“I’m not leaving here without him, Anna. You can go on without me, or you can help.” I don’t understand why Anna would be willing to leave behind my friend, but I refuse to do so.
“Fine,” she says reluctantly.
I follow her down the hallway, unable to remember which room he’s being held in. Anna stops in front of a door and aims her weapon. She gives it a swift kick, busting the lock. “Hands up, Swank!”
Confused, I peer around the corner to see my friend standing at a sink, wiping the blood from his face. He still has purple bruising around his left eye, but otherwise looks in perfect condition.
“You’ve got to get me out of here, Aiden! They’re going to kill me!” he shouts.
Anna lifts her weapon a bit higher, her finger on the trigger. “You’re not fooling anyone. Explain to Aiden how you got free from the loose ropes. Tell Aiden why I smelled chocolate in the fake blood pooled around your body. Enlighten Aiden as to why you are trying to scam him for billions—billions he doesn’t have.”
“Anna, are you implying that my best friend since I was five is behind all of this?” I ask.
Anna doesn’t take her eyes off Swank. “I’m not implying anything, Aiden. He is a part of this. Look at him! Other than a black eye, there isn’t a single injury. The ropes that bound him were loose enough that he could have freed himself at any time. The chocolate I smelled is often used in fake blood as a thickening agent and to darken the tint. I knew within 30 seconds of seeing him that you were getting played.”
Swank chuckles. “I’ll admit, you’re good, Savannah. You figured it out.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Why would you do this? Why would you throw away decades of friendship? You’re Penny’s godfather, for goodness sake!”
“I never planned on hurting Penny, but I knew that a threat against her would get your attention. You didn’t take the first three of my letters to you seriously. All I needed from you was to play one more year!”
“How does my retirement affect you? What does it matter?”
Swank moves a few feet closer to me, staring at the gun in my hand. When his eyes meet mine, there is both hate and love there. “Life has been so easy for you, Aiden. Other than your divorce, you have never understood hardship. You landed a four-million-dollar contract your first year playing for the Rockets. Do you know what mine was? It was a tenth of that! I played just as hard and just as well as you ever did and was offered a pittance!”
“That’s because you were in the draft instead of waiting the two extra years. That has nothing to do with me, and it isn’t my fault.”
Swank takes another step closer, “Wasn’t it? I have always been in your shadow, Aiden. I had hoped to shine on my own. When I failed, the O’Sullivans approached me. I figured I could throw a few games to make some extra bucks, but once I was in, I couldn’t escape. Then, when you were signed and we played together, it was easy to lose by a point in the third period or have an ‘off’ day. There was no way I could guarantee that if you weren’t playing anymore. One more year, and I could have retired too.”
Anna finally speaks. “How does trying to get a hold of the two billion dollars factor into this? That’s what I can’t wrap my head around.”
Swank narrows his eyes at her. “It was my ticket out of this mess. The O’Sullivans said if I helped them, then they would stop harassing me. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t matter where I go. Even if I had been traded, they would have found a way to get to me or coerce me into playing longer. I just wanted to be done with them.”
Anna and I both shake our heads, but she tells him the hard truth, “There was no way they were going to let you go once they got that money. You’re a fool to think otherwise.”
Swank, angered by her words, snatches the gun out of my hand and puts it to my head as he moves behind me. “Put the gun down, Savannah. You’re going to let me walk out of here if you plan on ever seeing Aiden again.”
I put my hands up, “Don’t do this, Swank. It’s not worth it.”
Swank walks us backward until he’s in the hallway. I’m about to touch the ring to his body and knock him unconscious with a shock when there is a loud “Thud!” His hold on me loosens as his body crumples to the ground.
Spinning around to see what happened, I come face-to-face with Amy, who is holding a metal pipe in her hands.