Her Fire (Part 2)

Chapter 1 Gasoline

A black fly buzzed near the lonely light bulb, testing its heat. The sound of water coming from the floor drain filled the space with a gargle and then a dripping echo.

Nicki opened her eyes slowly as she lay on the cold concrete floor. A brick bunker. The dim light bulb dangling from a wire shook with the footsteps on the floor above.

The fly gave up and flew into the shadowy abyss.

Nicki’s palms dragged onto her temples in an attempt to relieve the pounding pain inside of her head. The dark reality came screaming back to her in a matter of a second; it wasn’t a dream.

She had been taken.

Flashbacks of her kicking and screaming in handcuffs as she was dragged out of the paid-for police cruiser with a bag over her head replayed in her mind. So did the silencing slap across her face by the greeter at the door and another one upon entry into the dungeon.

She was having a hard time remembering the rest.

Nicki’s eyes painstakingly scanned the dark, empty room from behind the metal bars. No windows, no vents, no concept of time.

No hope.

She couldn’t even venture a guess as to how long she had been out for, but estimated it must have been at least 24 hours in the captivity of the Leemans.

As she tried to remember what happened, and how she had been kidnapped in plain sight of Tyler, her breathing quickened.

The desperate look on Tyler’s face when he thought she was only being arrested.

The level of meticulous deception the Leemans went through to pull off such a stunt. The payroll police.

All for what? To get the Dorien brothers to hand over their gun clients in Vancouver? The border? The entire territory of Washington state?

Nicki took another deep breath, trying to process it all. Everything was such a blurry mess. Her head pounded harder the more conscious she became.

Breathe, she pictured Tyler saying. The one word that could calm her down more than anything when he said it in his low, soothing voice.

She mimicked his heavy hand pressed down on her chest—and gasped. Her gold lion’s tooth chain was gone.

Inside the heavy, desperate air of the Compound, Tommy tried to calm Tyler down in the dungeon of his mind.

His face wore a new shade of red, and his feet paced back and forth along the carpet of the basement workroom.

He’d walked the same stretch of carpet so many times it looked as though he’d worn it thin.

“This is all my fucking fault,” Tyler growled. “They’re going to kill her.”

Tommy jumped off of the couch and grabbed his brother by the arms, hard.

“Don’t you fucking say that!” he screamed to a hopeless face, that now released tears from bloodshot eyes. It was the first time in Tommy’s life outside of their father’s funeral that he saw his brother cry.

“Listen to me. They’re not going to do anything to her because they want Vancouver. They know she’s the trading piece. If they did anything, they’d lose their leverage,” Tommy said as rationally as he could.

Tyler barely nodded and proceeded to collapse in his brother’s arms.

“It’s going to be OK, brother. She will be fine and we will get her back,” Tommy said, with a full grip on Tyler. “Get it together, buddy, they’re going to send instructions any minute. We have to be ready.”

Tyler released from his brother, wiped his face, and reached for the whiskey bottle on the coffee table.

He took a swig straight from the bottle in another attempt to numb the guilt.

The guilt and searing loathing of their archnemesis and biggest rival gang that kidnapped the love of his life right in front of him.

And that he let it happen. The pain was unbearable.

“If they do anything to her…” Tyler tried to control his quivering lip. He took another drink to keep it still.

“They won’t do anything! They can’t!” Tommy yelled out and wished to God that it was true.

The brothers sat on the couch in deafening silence, waiting for the phone to ring and for the Leemans to announce their demands.

“Boss! There’s a package on the driveway!” Cliff called down the basement stairs.

Tyler ripped himself from the couch and rushed outside.

“Yeah, a random car just drove by and threw it on the ground. I saw it on the cameras. Wait, let me go get the metal detector—”

“No! It’s them, I’ll deal with it!” Tyler shouted, marching to the end of the driveway.

He looked around to an empty street.

An unmarked cardboard box lay on the tiny gravel rocks.

A fury of panic poured over Tyler.

His heart pounded inside of his throat, picturing the worst as he stared at the box in his trembling hands.

Tyler ripped it open. Nicki’s gold lion’s tooth chain, splattered with drops of blood was inside.

The lava in Tyler’s chest erupted but the relief that it wasn’t a body part cooled it slightly.

He read the note attached to the necklace.

Didn’t know limes could taste so sweet!

Be by your phone for our demands.

Tyler clenched his jaw and turned back to the house, nearly crashing into Tommy.

“This is what’s going to happen,” Tyler said to his brother, practically vibrating.

“We will give them Vancouver. They can take all of fucking Canada if they want. But to facilitate the transfer, we will tell them that we will be the delivery boys as everyone knows Chase will only buy guns from us. This way we maintain control over everything: the schedule, the cargo, the logistics. And when we get Nicki back…” Tyler paused, defeated, allowing one more tear to fall from his eyes.

“We will get her back!” Tommy interjected.

“When we get her back, and when they least expect it, I’m going to fucking kill every single last Leeman left standing.” Tyler looked right into his brother’s eyes and sealed his promise by putting Nicki’s chain on over his head and under the collar of his T-shirt.

Tommy realized he had to be strong. Strong enough to keep his brother’s rage at bay, and swallow his own feelings for Nicki as far down as they could go. All while powering through the agony, knowing that she was out there, somewhere, alone, without either one of them.

Tyler’s phone rang just as they sat down in the living room.

He picked it up on the first ring, without saying a word.

After a brief pause, Tyler put the phone on speaker and waited.

“Tyler, Tyler, Tyler… I got your attention now, don’t I?” the slithering voice said.

Kane Leeman, the head of the Family and orchestrator of the event basked in the sensed desperation of the Dorien brothers who were all too cocky to reply to his previous attempts at communication.

Messages sent through Dominik Skarpa that were ignored.

The refused and undelivered packages to the Compound.

Finally, the visit from their errand boy at Nicki’s apartment which only ended in his murder.

“I tried to be nice, Tyler.” Kane’s smile was heard through the phone.

“Send a picture of her, untouched, and then we can talk. Better yet, I want a video call with her, unharmed, now!” Tyler demanded, fighting every fibre in his being to remain calm and in control.

“That’s not how this works and you know it, asshole! I’m in charge now!” Kane shouted.

Tyler grabbed the phone from the table and hung up.

“Why did you do that?” Tommy yelled. “You can’t be so impulsive!” he added.

“Kane needs to learn; this is how we play their little game. No Nicki? No negotiation.”

Jake came in.

“OK, Tico and Trevor are at the Leeman residence, in case they brought her there. I got Rex and Luca at their cabin a couple of hours out, and Vinnie is trying to break into Kane’s phone’s location. Maybe Nicki is near him.”

“Thanks, bro,” Tyler muttered.

“We need guns,” Tommy said. “Load up the truck to the max and pack extra ammo. They want a war; they’re going to get a war.”

“And one more thing,” Tyler added, turning to Jake. “Bring gasoline. After we get Nicki back, we’re going to set their entire house on fire.”