Chapter 31 Lincoln
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I sat on the edge of the hotel bed. When I saw it was Liam, I ignored it and threw it on the table in front of me. I couldn’t deal with anymore shit right now. My head was pounding. I took some Advil from J.C.’s purse and swallowed it. I went down to the bar of the hotel and grab a drink to ease the pain in my head. Right before I went to leave I heard the phone vibrate from the table. Dammit Liam. He never calls twice unless it’s urgent.
“What?” I said, annoyed.
“Linc…” His voice was quivering.
“What happened Liam?” I knew something was off.
“I don’t know if this seems important to you, but I’m at the mayor’s yearly event and you remember that girl that was hanging in my apartment a month ago?”
“Why Liam? Is she there?” I could barely hold it together.
“Yeah, she’s here. She came up to me and asked if I could let you know she’s here but-”
“Liam, I’m on my way. Do not let her out of your sight. Do you understand me?”
“Yo Linc, I mean the girl is busted, man. I can’t even explain it. Dude, she’s drugged and completely busted. I don’t think you want this piece of ass.”
“Liam fucking listen to me. She is more than that to me. I need you to watch her, make sure you know where she is at all times. Don’t get involved because they will kill you. Just be able to tell me where she is when I get there. Do you understand?”
“I got you, boss. Hey and uh, wear something nice if you want to blend in?”
I hung up the phone, and my hand was shaking when I dialed the mayor’s number. He picked up after the third ring.
Fear was evident in his voice as he asked, “Lincoln, is everything okay?” He never would admit it, but he was terrified of me and I liked to keep it that way.
“I need you to add me to the list for the party tonight.” I kept it short. I didn’t want him to become suspicious.
“Yeah…I mean, I can do that, but this isn’t really your scene, you know?” I could tell he was drunk. He was slurring his words and could tell the alcohol was affecting him.
“It’s my scene tonight. I have some girls I want to check out.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll see you soon then.”
I looked back over at the girls, who were sound asleep. I needed to leave and taking the time to explain would just delay me further.
On the drive there, I could only hear Liam’s words echoing in my head. She’s busted. She’s drugged. If she were truly as bad as he says, she wouldn’t have been able to approach Liam. I needed to think of a plan. I’m sure she’s right under Alek’s thumb. Once I scoped the scene, I would have to think on the fly. I’m not sure if Alek knew I had escaped yet, but something tells me he does.
I stopped by my apartment to grab a suit. My door man was surprised to see me, but I didn’t have time for questions. He has his face wrinkled in a frown as I passed by. I nodded a brief hello, and he took the hint. When I entered the apartment, it was completely ransacked. My couches were slashed, t.v.’s busted, chairs overturned. Those fuckers. I rushed to the closet, trying not to waste time.
Something caught my eye as I pulled the closet doors open. I noticed a single rose on the pillowcase with petals leading to the bathroom door. With my gun in hand, I carefully approached the bathroom door, listening intently for any movement. I flicked on the bedroom light. Blood. It was all over the floor and the bathroom door. I kicked the door in and saw a woman dead inside my bathtub. As I approached, I noticed her slumped forward, her dark hair obscuring her face. I took the end of my gun and pushed her head back to reveal her face. I realized it was the girl I had saved from the club. It made sense now. They have me on the cameras, and those fuckers are going to set me up. Shit. Shit. Shit. I couldn’t deal with this right now. I had to get to Laynie. I watched her go into the police station. What the fuck happened? I closed the door to the bathroom.
I went to the closet and pulled out a black suit and dressed as quickly as I could. I slid my shoes on while walking into the elevator.
I called my clean-up crew on the way to the Mayor’s and told them what to do in the apartment. They will finish by morning. It would have to be tomorrow’s problem.
I arrived at the gate and the attendant let me in without issues, so this meant that Rolando had addedme to the list.
The door man nodded me in after I told him my name. I needed to keep a low profile while I was here and I also had to control my rage or it would blow my cover.
The house was buzzing with people. Dressed in suits and ties. I fit in perfect. Liam saw me before I saw him, but he didn’t approach me. He knew it would draw attention. I took a drink from one girl walking by with a tray. She turned and smirked at me. I looked back at Liam that nodded towards the living room. I made my way through the crowds when I saw her sitting on the couch next to that nasty bastard. My heart stopped in my chest when I saw her appearance. She was either sleeping or unconscious, as she leaned on Alek’s arm. He had his hand on her thigh and I felt my fist clench. I could see bruises covering her legs and a poorly wrapped wound on her calf. Her face was full of bruises, some old and some turning a yellow color.
I saw Rolando out of the corner of my eye sitting in a chair mingling with a few young girls. Very young girls. Disgusting pig.
“We need to talk,” I said as I leaned over his chair.
He jumped and looked back.
“Shit Lincoln, you scared me.”
I didn’t let him finish. I walked around the corner towards a back bedroom. He would follow. Fifteen seconds later, he swept around the corner.
“Is everything okay?”
“I need the girl.”
“What girl?”
“Alek’s girl.”
“Oh shit, Lincoln, I can’t help you with that. He will slice my balls off and feed them to my dog.”
“Okay, so get him away from her. A moment, that’s all I need.”
“What is this about Lincoln?” he watched me closely.
“It’s personal. She’s important to me. I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Okay, you don’t, but Lincoln, these girls are addicts, they come from the streets. They are throwaways.”
I grabbed him by his throat and slammed him against the wall behind him. “Don’t talk about her like that.” I let him go after a few seconds and watched him gasp for breath, grabbing at his throat.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”
We both entered back into the main living space and parted different ways. Alek obviously hadn’t noticed I was there yet. I looked back at Laynie on the couch and noticed she was awake. One eye was almost swollen shut, but Laynie’s other eye darted around the room. She was looking for me.
Alek whispered something in her ear, and she nodded and tried to stand up. She was wobbly. She took a breath and limped outside towards the bar that was set up on the pool patio outside. Rolando saw his moment and sat next to Alek, distracting him. I followed Laynie outside and waited as she ordered drinks with a cracked voice. Hearing her voice almost brought me to my knees. I stood directly behind her.
“I’m here baby. Don’t turn around. Don’t react.”
I saw her body go rigid and her a sob escape her throat. She tried to cover it with a cough when the bartender turned to look at her. He handed her two drinks and looked back at me. I stepped beside her.
“Scotch on the rocks.”
Laynie stood holding two drinks in her shaking hands. The liquor was about to splash over the top. I wanted to order a drink, so it looked like I wasn’t leaving when we exited through the pool screen door.
“Wait,” I whispered.
The bartender handed me the drink, and I gave him a 20. He turned to the next customer, unaware of anything.
“Follow me,” I said as I brushed by her.
She immediately turned and stayed close behind me. I walked casually out of the back screen door and no one seemed to notice us. Half of them were high or drunk, anyway. I downed the drink and tossed the cup aside. Right when we entered the blackness of the backyard, I pulled her to me. She dropped the drinks and clung to me with desperation and was choking back sobs.
“I got you baby, I got you.” I scooped her up, and she straddled my waist as I walked through the back towards my car. We needed to hurry. Any second Alek would realize she was gone.
I sat her in the passenger seat and as I closed the door, I heard screaming and commotion coming from the house. I ran to the driver’s side and slammed the door. When I turned the key to the ignition, nothing happened.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I screamed.
“No no no no…” Laynie was sobbing in the passenger seat.
I pulled out my phone and saw Liam calling, “They know you’re here,” his voice echoed through the car. “Take my car. It’s near the fountain with the concrete angels in the front. I have a spare key in the gas tank door.”
I slammed the phone down and ran back to Laynie’s side. I picked her back up and her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. “We’re getting out of here. I promise.” I hoped I wasn’t lying. I heard gunshots going off towards the front of the house and I crept behind a black SUV.
“I’m going to find you, little lamb.” I could hear the rage in his voice.
Laynie clung to me tighter. “Please save me,” she begged.
I knew I couldn’t leave in Liam’s car now. They knew we were out here. We were sitting ducks.
I kept creeping behind vehicles, avoiding the voices walking towards us. I texted Liam.
I need a distraction.
“I hear her over here!” I heard Liam yell a few seconds later through the dark. I waited to move until the feet near us moved farther away. Liam’s car was 10 feet away. I crept to the side and removed the key from the gas tank and stuck it into the trunk. I set Laynie down.
“Get in the trunk,” I said.
She complied without a second thought. I climbed in after her and quietly pulled the trunk closed from the inside. I held her against me, kissing her face over and over.
“We’ll get out of here,” I whispered.
She was freezing. I took my blazer off and slid her into it. It swallowed her.
Liam drove a white Chrysler 300, and I felt like I might suffocate in this tiny ass trunk. I wanted to text him we were in his trunk but didn’t want to blow our cover if, for some reason, they targeted him.
“I’m here baby. I’m here. Shh,” I whispered in her ear.
We stayed like this for 2 hours until I heard Liam crank up the car and drive off. At least I hoped it was Liam. Laynie had dozed off and jerked away every 10 minutes. When the car started to move, she clung to my shirt. “It’s okay,” I told her.
We drove around for 20 minutes until I felt the car come to a stop. My phone buzzed in my pocket and saw it was Liam.
“You fucker, open the trunk.”
“What?” he sounded confused.
“Open the trunk,” I repeated.
He popped the trunk, and I realized we were in my warehouse.
“Man, you scared the shit out of me,” Liam said and reached to help Laynie out of the trunk first. He touched her arm, and she pulled back in fear.
“It’s okay, I got her.”
He nodded and stepped back. I climbed over her out of the trunk and leaned back in to scoop her up. I placed her gently on her feet and she clung to my side.
“Man, that’s a first, someone afraid of me and not you.” Liam laughed at his own joke.
Laynie didn’t question where we were or even seem to notice the piles of drugs on the surrounding pallets. I needed to get her out of here. I called the hotel and reserved another room right next to the room Charlie and J.C. were in. They were probably still asleep since I hadn’t heard from either of them. Laynie still didn’t know I had found Charlie but I needed to get her to a doctor.
I called George who had fixed my gunshot wounds and I told him I’d pay him double if he could come to the warehouse. He said he’d be here in 20 minutes. I took Laynie to my office and although I didn’t have a bed in here, I had a couch that would suffice while we waited. I told her to lie down but she wouldn’t let go of me. She still had on my jacket, but one hand was being cradled up to her chest and I saw he had ripped the rest of her fingernails off. I sat on the couch and she curled up next to me and I held her hand up for her. I know it was hurting when she let the blood rush to it. She was out of it. He must have drugged her before I got there. Her pupils were dilated and she was slurring her words when she spoke. I could tell she was trying to fight the effects.
“I have someone coming to look at your injuries. Just rest for now.” She slid down a bit on the couch, so she could rest her head in my lap. I rubbed by hand over the side of her face, brushing her hair back each time while my other hand held her fingers up. She was asleep within minutes, but I kept doing it.
When Doc showed up, I immediately saw a startled look in his eye. He had seen plenty of injuries and he knew I wouldn’t do this to a woman.
“Is he here?” Doc whispered, looking around like he had seen a ghost.
“Is who here?”
“Alek,” he said his name as if he was saying a forbidden word.
I ignored his question. “You know her?”
“Yes I do,” he looked back over his shoulder.
“Alek is not here. I don’t work for him.” All I could think about was that this whole time Doc knew where she was. “How long have you been working for him?”
“Too long,” he said, barely above a whisper.
“Why? Why would you work for him?”
“It’s a long story, Lincoln. One I don’t want to get into.”
I respected his privacy, for now, anyway.
“Did you get her out?” he asked.
“Yes, but he’s looking for her and for me. You can’t tell anyone you were here,” I warned him.
“I would never, Lincoln.”
I nodded.
“I saw her yesterday and gave her an antibiotic shot and slid her a pain pill, without them noticing. They wouldn’t let me do anymore. Let’s wake her and get her undressed so I can assess her properly.”
“Laynie…Laynie,” I whispered in her ear, and shook her awake. She jerked up, forgetting where she was. “It’s okay, baby. It’s just me. The doctor is here to look you over.”
She slowly moved to a sitting position and laid her eyes on the silver-haired man that sat across from her. I saw her breathing increase as fear climbed up her spine.
“He’s fine Laynie. He’s not one of them.”
I could tell she wanted to protest but didn’t have the energy. I stood her up and helped her undress until she stood before both of us naked. While looking at her, I was shaking with rage. Someone had whipped her back at least 20 times, leaving bloody welts. She had burns on the backs of her thighs, welts on her head, and her nose looked swollen. I wanted to walk away while Doc was asking her questions. It was almost too much for me to hear. He determined she had several broken ribs, even without an x-ray. The gun-shot wound on her leg had only ripped through flesh so it would heal on its own. He gave me a bottle of pain medication, but warned me to be careful because she had already been addicted to heroin 2 years earlier and had experienced severe withdrawals when they stopped injecting her. Laynie hadn’t mentioned this. I’m sure there is a lot that she didn’t mention.
He cleaned her wounds with care and precision. She sat still and allowed him to do everything he needed until he tried to clean her fingernail beds. She pulled away and pleaded with him to leave them alone.
“Alayna, cleaning and treating them will make them feel better in the future,” he said.
“No. Please don’t,” she looked over at me with pleading with her eyes.
“Laynie, it’s necessary. You’re tough baby. It will only last for a second.” I sat next to her on the couch and watched Doc bring a silver bowl of blue antiseptic liquid towards her.
“All you need to do is stick your fingers in the bowl, Alayna. You can do this, I know you can,” Doc said.
Laynie finally complied, but screamed as her fingers touched the liquid. It was ripping my heart out of my chest to see her in this much pain. I wished I could take it from her.
Finally, he was finished and she was crying in pain.
He explained some care methods for her wounds and patted her thigh before exiting.
“Can we go?” Laynie asked as I helped her put her clothes back on.
“Yeah, but we have to go to a hotel for now. I have another apartment lined up, but I have to wait a couple of days for it to be ready. It’s too risky to go back.” I also left out how there was a dead girl in my bathtub.
* * *
We arrived at the hotel and walked through the back entrance. I still hadn’t told Charlie and J.C. I had found her. Before bombarding her with all the news in front of her, I wanted to give her a few hours of rest. I needed to check on them, though.
I walked Laynie to the edge of the bed and sat her down.
I knelt down in front of her and touched her chin. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?”
I could see the panic in her eyes, but she nodded.
I walked into the room next door and saw both girls still sleeping. I would tell them in a few hours. In case a text would wake them, I left a note on the table. Both of them had been through a lot and seeing them resting, I couldn’t disturb them. They would probably be angry with me tomorrow. I grabbed a bag of J.C.’s that had soap and a brush in it.
I walked back to the room and saw Laynie had laid down on the bed. She jerked up when she heard the door open.
“It’s just me,” I said. “Do you want to take a bath?”
She nodded.
I helped walk her to the bathroom and slip back out of the little black dress she was wearing. As she eased into the hot water, I could see the relief on her face. I took a hair tie out of J.C’s bag and scooped her hair up into a bun. She gave me a weak smile.
“Do you want to talk?”
She shook her head.
“Do you want me to stay?”
She nodded.
I watched as she soaked in the tub and it took everything to hold me back from getting in there with her. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to kiss her. But I refrained. I knew she just needed space right now.
When she finished bathing, I helped her out of the tub and dried off. I didn’t have clothes for her, so I gave her a shirt and boxers from my bag. She slid them on and I could see her nipples poking through the shirt.
I pulled her close to me in the bed. She curled up into my side and laid her head on my chest. She needed to sleep off the drugs in her system. I rubbed her back, and she fell asleep immediately. I couldn’t sleep, but even if I could, Laynie was jerking awake constantly with her tiny broken body pressed against me and I did my best to soothe her. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but I knew I would protect her with my life.