Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Kaylie grippedLia’s hand tightly within her own, unwilling to let her go even for a moment. She knew this bus station well. She’d cemented it as her best getaway option as soon as they settled on the outskirts of Alexandria. And every so often, she and Lia practiced the routes to get here.
Kaylie memorized the bus schedule each time it changed even slightly. Which was how she knew that in exactly forty-seven minutes, there was a bus to Atlanta. She’d already purchased the tickets from the disinterested teenager working the window. They’d settled in the stiff plastic chairs that lined the depot along with a handful of others.
“Can I play my tablet?” Lia asked.
“In a little bit,” Kaylie said, her eyes scanning the bus station again.
An elderly black woman in the corner was intent on her knitting. A ragged middle-aged man with a US Army hat, three jackets on, and a worn duffel bag strapped to a bicycle was staring at the clock. A mother with two elementary-aged kids was dozing off in the corner. It was exactly how it had been on other early-morning visits.
But the familiarity couldn’t ease the ache that furrowed deep into her stomach. It was a tangled ball of guilt and worry and shame and every other dark emotion that had been plaguing her since she brought Tank into her mess. She should have known better. Even with Drew’s panicked message, she should have been brave and taken this bus to Atlanta or Seattle or anywhere else but running to Tank.
He was going to be so angry when he found her gone from Black Tower. She’d never been somewhere so high-tech and secure. But unless they had jail cells she hadn’t seen, the building was a fortress meant to keep people out, not trapped inside. No one had batted an eye at them when they’d walked out, everyone focused on their own jobs. She didn’t know what they were working on, but it was clear that they had priorities other than her own fight with the leader of the Moreno family.
“When will Mr. Anthony be here, Mommy?”
Kaylie’s heart fluttered at his name and the sweet way Lia stumbled over the th sound.
Through the painful squeeze of her throat, she forced her voice to be calm and lighthearted. “Mr. Anthony can’t come, sweetie.”
Lia’s bottom lip pushed out with a slight quiver. “But he said he’d keep us safe. He promised.” Her whisper betrayed her fear and devastation.
“I know. But Mommy will always keep you safe, right? It’s you and me, girlie. Forever.”
That promise had always been enough for her daughter, but this time Lia turned away from Kaylie, snuggling Elphie instead. “I want Anthony.”
Kaylie’s own echo of the sentiment was silent but no less sincere as she watched a man enter the bus station. She would never forget the way Anthony’s arms circled her, holding her together when the world seemed to be crashing around her. No matter what happened when they got to their next home, part of her heart remained with him. But she had to do what was best for Lia, and she wouldn’t be the reason Anthony got roped back into the world he’d worked so hard to leave behind.
He deserved that much.
She kept her eyes trained on the single man who’d walked in, every muscle in her body ready to fight if needed. When he paid them no attention, she relaxed slightly.
Lia asked for her tablet again. Kaylie rifled through her Disney princess backpack to find it. She lifted her eyes back to the room, checking the positions of each person. Knitting. Staring. Dozing. And where was—
Lia’s startled cry brought Kaylie’s attention back. Horror flooded through every cell as she saw the man next to her daughter, his hand wrapped around her tiny ponytail. He wrenched her head back, and the pain on her daughter’s face made Kaylie furious.
“Let go of my daughter,” she seethed. She reached out to push him away, every fiber of her being screaming at her to throw herself between the predator and her precious little girl.
“Ah, ah. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The man’s lips twisted into a cruel smile as he shifted his other hand out from behind his jacket to show the gun he held, aimed directly at Cecelia’s head.
Lia’s voice was pure terror as she whimpered. “Mommy!”
“Shut up, you little brat.” His angry words and tightened grip only made Lia cry harder.
“Stop, please.” She wasn’t above begging. Not when it came to Lia. “We don’t have anything. Let her go!”
The man sneered at her. “I don’t know what Paulie ever saw in you. You’re nothing but—”
Suddenly, something crashed into the man from the left. There was a tangle of muted green and gray—the vagabond Army veteran had tackled the man. Of course, the cruel attacker was someone Paul had sent. But he no longer held Lia’s hair.
She looked back down at the scuffle in front of her. The gray-bearded rescuer met her eyes. “Go,” he urged before landing another punch.
She hesitated only a moment, then grabbed Lia and started toward the door. The crack of a gunshot sounded behind her. She glanced back in time to see her attacker push the limp body of the homeless soldier off himself and point the gun at her.
“One more step and you join him at the morgue tonight.”
Kaylie knew she would gladly take that bullet if it meant Lia would be safe. But this wouldn’t do that. Her eyes flickered to the others in the station. The mother held her two children close, hiding them behind a row of chairs. The elderly woman hadn’t moved, but her hand was on a cellphone. Hopefully, she’d already called the police.
She didn’t have any options. She’d never beat him in a fight. She couldn’t outrun him, not with Lia with her. Kaylie had only ever wanted to protect Lia, but this time she’d truly failed.
She held up her hands in surrender. “We’ll go,” she said, resigned to her fate.
Sirens grew closer, and the man directed them out the door with a flick of his gun.
Cecelia fought back as Kaylie tried to direct her toward the door.
“We have to go, honey. We have to listen to him,” Kaylie tried to explain.
“I need Elphie!” Lia’s wail filled the station as she tried to push past her.
Kaylie groaned. “The stuffed animal,” she explained. “Please. She’ll go quietly.”
Her capturer swore but grabbed the pink elephant from the floor by his feet.
When they got outside, he pushed her into the driver’s seat of a black Honda Civic, while he climbed in the backseat with Lia. “Don’t get any ideas. One wrong move and you’ll never see your daughter again.”
Kaylie trembled as she drove, struggling to keep her eyes on the road as her daughter cried in the backseat. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’re going to be okay.” She knew she was making promises she couldn’t keep, but she’d do anything to ease her daughter’s fears, even temporarily.
Turn by turn, her captor led them to a bleak motel with dark-brown doors and a sign hanging precariously from one edge of the post. If it hadn’t been for the four cars in the parking lot, she would have assumed it was out of business and abandoned.
Kaylie pulled Lia into her arms the minute they were out of the car, stroking her hair and pressing her face into Lia’s little shoulder. “I’ve got you, baby.” The question was how long they’d let her keep her.
The motel was exactly as disgusting inside as she’d assumed from the outside. There were no overhead lights and two dim lamps by the bedside weren’t nearly enough. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the relative dark after the bright noon sun outside.
But she didn’t need light to know Paul was here. His presence practically suffocated her, her body responding to his presence before she even saw him. But when her eyes adjusted, she found him immediately. He was sitting in a threadbare armchair, one leg crossed over the other knee and his fingers steepled together. As though he were holding court, instead of ordering a kidnapping and protecting a murderer.
That poor man at the bus station had been completely innocent. He’d tried to help, and it had cost him his life. Kaylie was going to find out who he was when she got out of this. If she got out of here.
With a flick of his wrist, four men pulled her onto the bed and tied her wrists to the headboard as Paul looked on with a twisted expression. She knew from experience that he had a hidden proclivity for rather dark tastes, but she’d always been spared his perverse fantasies. The gleam of arousal in his eyes made her want to retch.
With another flick of a finger, the four men left the room, leaving Kaylie alone with Lia, Paul, and the man who’d captured them. “I always knew you’d be back someday,” Paul said. “I should kill you right now for the way you betrayed me.”
Kaylie immediately looked at Cecelia. Her daughter was huddled by the dresser, clinging to Elphie with all her might. Her heart clenched at the idea of her daughter growing up in the clutches of the evil man she’d run from five years ago. No matter what, she had to survive this.
“Luckily for you, you’ve caught the attention of someone who could be… valuable to me. I’m not sure why they are even bothering with trash like you. But under my leadership and with a new partnership with the Syndicate?” His eyes flashed with greedy satisfaction. “The Moreno family will be more powerful than ever before.”
Kaylie’s head spun with questions. The Syndicate? That sounded ominous, but who–or what–were they?
Her eyes widened as Paul stood. He walked slowly across the room until he crowded Lia’s tiny frame, tucked against the edge of the dresser. Her daughter whimpered in fear.
Kaylie yelled again, “Leave her alone!”
“I’ll keep what belongs to me,” he said cooly, as he ran a single finger down Cecelia’s round, pink cheek, tracing the path of a tear.
Rage flooded Kaylie’s body, and she tugged against the restraints, the plastic digging painfully into her wrists. His face transformed into a sneer as he looked back at Kaylie.
“And I’ll let the other team take out the trash.”