Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
The sun was setting orange and red, catching in the bedroom window like fire. I stared at the sky, trying to keep the tears that stung my eyes from falling.
The conversation with my family had gone as I probably should have expected, yet still I wasn’t prepared.
First it started with denial. “You sure, Lena? Maybe she was just going out with a group of friends?” Dad said as casually as a father could when confronted with the knowledge his kid might be missing.
“No, Dad. They were not friends.”
“You sure it was her ex? Maybe it just looked like him.”
“Yes, Dad, I’m sure. It was him.”
I sent him the voice message Trish had sent me. Only then did he grow silent.
“And you talked to the police?”
“Yes, they are looking into it.”
A long pause, then, “I need to call your mom. Your brother—”
“I’ll call him,” I replied. Mom was on a business trip and wouldn’t be back in little over a week.
Dad was a retired coast guard and spent most of his days fixing whatever needed fixing around the house.
Now I knew he was set to sit down in his favorite chair and call half the damn family.
“Don’t talk to anyone else until we have some more news, okay? ”
“Alright.” I heard the tension in his voice, the subtle shake in his tone. He was worried now. As he should be.
Once I got off the phone with my father, I called my brother.
“You sure Trish is gone?” he said in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“You get a good look at any of the guys who took her?”
“No,” I said.
He cursed under his breath. I could hear groups of people talking in the background along with the clinking of glasses on his end. He must be at work. “You told Dad?”
“Yes.”
“I knew Trish wasn’t being careful. That fucking guy she was with was shady as hell.”
“Which guy?”
“Luke.”
I went quiet. I had yet to tell him Luke was dead and that I had worked on him earlier today.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“He was shooting up for sure. Not just steroids if you catch me. He just had a bad way about him.”
Still not exactly enough to go by. It sounded more like my brother was just being overprotective more than anything.
“Trish hung out with a lot of shady people,” I commented.
“True.”
“Will you go see Dad?” I asked.
“After work. Gonna be a long night. But I’ll stay with him.”
“He’s probably going to want to talk to the police himself.”
“Probably. You gonna come home too?”
I hesitated, biting my lip. “Eventually. I have…some business I gotta take care of here. And Trish’s roommate is keeping me in the loop.”
“I can come down to the city and help.”
“Maybe. Right now, just go to Dad.”
“Alright…you better stay safe. Don’t go looking around yourself, Lena. I mean it.”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
I called Jamie next, and our conversation must have lasted an hour.
I told him everything that went down at my sister’s apartment, her clothes strewn around her room, her favorite bracelet broken.
Then the police arriving after, the recordings of the men that took her and the voice message she left me.
“I’m coming down this weekend,” he said without hesitation.
“What about Ben?” I said, knowing he usually spent time with his partner.
“He’s working, don’t worry about it.”
“You don’t have to.” I started pacing my apartment again, my hip aching along with my knee.
“I am. And we are going to get this figured out. We’ll go to the station, see what they learned. We’ll go to her work and ask around. We’ll do whatever we have to.”
Jamie was always ready to get the job done. And I was grateful.
But I knew it wouldn’t solve anything. Running around hoping for answers when there were only two people who could give me any answers now.
After I hung up, I went into the bathroom and opened the mirror.
I took out a bottle of painkiller with a funky name I couldn’t pronounce and popped one in my mouth before taking a sip of water from the faucet.
Then I went back to my bedroom and sat on the bed, realizing the tears beginning to sting my eyes were angry tears more than anything.
As the sky darkened, I turned from the window, my gaze drifting over to the black jewelry box.
I stared at it for a long time before I got up and staggered toward the box like it was a snake on my dresser. I opened the top and took out a single piece of paper before staggering back to my bed and plopping down. Carefully, I unfolded the paper and set it flat on my lap.
I stared at the scrawled letters on the paper and that night came flooding back….
Eve was resting her head on my shoulder. For the first time in days, I felt some sort of calm even though I was worried for her. Afraid she’d been broken down even when I needed to trust her. I let myself think everything was really going to be okay.
I’d shut my eyes for a minute when a shadow passed over us. When I opened my eyes, he stood before us. Leslie in a police uniform wearing a mask. I made a sound of surprise, startling Eve awake.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, annoyed because I thought he was playing some trick, trying to scare us.
He really seemed the type for it if he got bored.
But I wasn’t in the mood for games, I didn’t need him scaring Eve like that, I could tell she was already on edge. I went to tell him off and then…
He aimed his gun at Eve. And my stomach dropped.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
He said he was sorry. And the next thing I knew Cassidy had come.
The angry girl who wanted revenge. They tore Eve away and Leslie grabbed me, pulling me up so my feet didn’t touch the ground.
He held me and I screamed. I kicked and hit but he wouldn’t let go.
Andrea was there one moment and the next she was on the ground as the gunshot rang out, ringing in my ears.
Blood…blood on the doorway, and on the floor.
Time seemed to slow. He’d shot her…I couldn’t fucking believe it.
I was sure he had killed her. I struggled as he pressed his mask to the side of my face and said—
NO. No…
I took a shaky breath. It didn’t matter; he was a LIAR. He was taking Eve and I hardly heard him. I must have imagined it anyway.
He set me back on the couch and left me there, taking Eve with him. Leaving me alone, leaving me with a dead or dying woman.
I panicked. Everything was a blur. But eventually Andrea came to. We helped each other as best we could.
It felt like hours of waiting, of feeling absolutely useless because I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t drive and take her to the hospital.
So, we waited. I couldn’t stop crying because all I could think of was Eve.
Where they were taking her and what they were going to do.
And I couldn’t do anything. I was so helpless.
Andrea had laid herself out on the couch, her leg wrapped as best she could. Her hair damp from blood. I held her hand as I sat on the floor next to her and I felt her squeeze my hand trying to assure me.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Micheal will come. It’s okay,” she repeated.
My face was wet with tears. “He h-has to get Eve…they have to find her.”
She squeezed my hand again. “They will.”
“We need to get you somewhere. We should call an ambulance.”
“We can’t give this place away,” she said. “We have to wait. Micheal will come.”
A few minutes later we heard the garage door open and the sound of car doors slamming.
“In here!” I called without thinking, expecting it had to be Micheal.
It wasn’t.
“Micheal—” My words caught in my throat as the two appeared out of the dark. Dom entered, followed by Leslie who was limping behind him.
“You—you,” I breathed. “You fucking bastard. What did you do!” I screamed as they came into the community room. “What did you do with Eve!”
The look Leslie gave me was there for only a mere second. A look I couldn’t describe. Almost something akin to rage, or something just as powerful. Then he disappeared down the hall without another glance.
As I turned to Dom, I caught his look of pity before he turned for his computer station and started disassembling it.
“Dom…” I couldn’t get the words out. “Dom, where did he take her? Where is Eve?”
I knew he heard me but he didn’t stop to sign at me.
“Dom…please.” I sobbed.
He wouldn’t look at me. He took his computer and disappeared, then returned again for the rest.
They ignored us as I pleaded and cursed while they grabbed their things as it was clear they were leaving. Because Leslie had done a bad thing and he was going to suffer if he didn’t disappear for good.
“You can’t leave us here!” I yelled as they returned one last time. “You son of a bitch, tell me what you did to her.” I cried.
Finally, they turned to us. Dom moved first. He took my hand and made me look at him. His face was grim, black eyes shining as he signed to me. “Sorry.”
I shook my head, mouth twisted as I tried to hold back more tears. He was betraying me too. He cupped my face and kissed my head before moving to Andrea and picking her up.
I immediately reached for her. “Where are you taking her?”
“The hospital.”
It was Leslie who’d spoken.
I turned to look at him in surprise. Then practically growled at them as Dom carried Andrea down the hall. I tried to slide across the floor but my legs were killing me. “I don’t fucking believe you, you’re a liar. You’re—”
He moved so swiftly he made me gasp.
“Just stay away from me! S-tay away!” I shouted at him.
He crouched beside me and I didn’t want to look at him, but I forced myself to meet his gaze.
“I hate you,” I whispered.
His sharp green eyes searched my face and he nodded. “I know.”
“I fucking hate you. You asshole. I hate you. I h-hate—” The words broke into a sob. I covered my face in my hands. “How could you do this,” I said so softly I didn’t think he’d hear me.
Then I felt his hand on my arm and I flinched away. “Don’t touch me!” As I uncovered my face, I saw Dom had returned. He was standing just a few feet away.
“We have to go,” he signed when Lez looked around.
I noticed something in Dom’s other hand. A ripped piece of paper. Leslie took it and turned back to me.
My lips trembled as he forced the paper into my hand, gripping it tight. As I tried to tug free, he leaned in, his face close to mine.
“Your hate is all I deserve. But at least it’s something.” I could no longer look him in the eye, his gaze so intense it scared me.
Before I could process his words, he released me and rose. “They’ll come for you.”
Dom moved around him and set me on the couch. Before I could fight or protest, they were gone.
And I was alone. Alone in the dark, with blood on the floor and my cries in the silence.
It wasn’t until later when Eve came back that I remembered that slip of paper. It took another day for me to even read it.
I stared down at the words now, written in crude, childish writing.
Our little secret…
Our little secret. Yeah, don’t tell anyone what happened, or we’ll come after you. That’s how I interpreted it anyway. It made me want to rip the paper into pieces the first time. But I fought against it.
Under the words was a number. I could only assume it was one of theirs.
Why they thought they needed to leave a number was beyond me. After everything they had done, why would I ever want to call them?
My hands shook as the urge to crumple the paper tempted me, but I let it pass. Guess it was good they gave me the number after all because I was going to make them answer me now and I wouldn’t stop till they did.
The number on the paper was different than the one that had left the messages a month or so back. Since there was no name for either, I couldn’t tell which number was whose.
I opened my phone and plugged in the number from the piece of paper. My finger hovered over the call button before I opened messenger instead. If it was Dom’s, I wouldn’t be able to talk to him over the call anyway. If it was Lez…I feared I’d hang up instantly if I heard his voice.
I glared down at the white text box for a moment before carefully starting to type.
Twin snakes wrapped around a blade. It was on your arm. There are others with it.
Do you know what happened to my sister?
Cryptic but I wanted to see how they might answer. If I accused them right away, they might get defensive and shut me down. I also really didn’t want to believe they had anything to do with it, but if they tried to hide anything, they would regret it.
After I hit send, my heart started pounding and my stomach did a little flip.
I got up and went to the kitchen to make a coffee, to keep my hands busy so I didn’t start a chain of texts.
I needed to keep my cool and not act like they perturbed me at all.
I wouldn’t let them get to me again. This was strictly business.
I took my time in the kitchen and tried to sit at the table and savor my drink while browsing on my laptop. Five minutes in I couldn’t take it and went back for my phone.
My heart skipped as I saw a message had come through.
You encountered others with that symbol?
I took a deep breath and replied.
My sister was with men who had it.
Do you know anything about it?
I hit send, then waited less than a minute to text more.
She’s in trouble. I want to know right now if you two had anything to do with it.
I waited another minute before I started to text again, forgoing my choice not to go off on them, when another text came through.
We know nothing about your sister.
I frowned, a knot tightening in my stomach.
But you know these men, don’t you?
Yes.
How do you know them? Is this some gang you’re in? I replied.
It’s complicated.
Is this Leslie or Dominic?
Dom.
I let out a slow breath.
Before I could answer, another text came through.
Can we meet?
My first response was to say no. I just needed to know they weren’t involved. I wanted to believe that Dom was telling me the truth, even if I wanted to know why it was complicated.
You swear you don’t know what happened to my sister?
I swear.
I rubbed my eyes. Dom didn’t seem like the type to lie. But he knew about those men. He and his brother had some connection to them.
When I peered down at my phone again, there was another text.
I can help you.
My grip tightened on my phone before I let it drop. I refilled my coffee before turning to the window to look over the city.
Dom could help me. I knew that for a fact. I’d seen all the things he’d done with taking down Severfalls. If anyone could find someone who didn’t want to be found, it was Dom.
But that meant interacting to some degree. And it meant getting close to him…and to his brother again.
I moved to the windowpane and let my forehead rest on the cool glass. Closing my eyes, I tried to bury the emotions starting to bubble up in me and the memories with them.
“You’re lucky I love you so much, Trish,” I whispered. “But damn you.”
I broke from the window and went back to my bedroom. Quickly, before I could change my mind, I sent Dom a text back.