Chapter 39 - Laurel #2
I got on the bus and flashed my old TAP card onto the reader, and miraculously, it hadn’t expired yet.
Collapsing into a free seat, it was about ten minutes of catching my breath before I looked up to see where we were going.
I checked the bus schedule app and a map loaded with Nell’s aunt’s address, and decided to stay on as long as I could since we were roughly heading in the proper direction for the moment.
Then I remembered to turn off my own phone and tucked the now useless gadget into my purse.
So much for a plan, but at least I was doing something on my own and no longer relying on Mik’s kindness and pity.
I’d spend the night with Nell and then move on before Rand tracked me to her.
Other than that, I was flying by the seat of my pants.
I wasn’t sure if my stomach was acting up because of nerves or the baby, but I was sure the tears I was fighting while sitting on the bus were for a lost future.
There was no doubt in my mind that Mik would be a great father.
If only I didn’t have a psychopath determined to hunt me down and destroy everyone I was involved with along the way to further punish me, Mik and I might have been able to make things work.
Now I was on the run again, this time with the prospect of being a single mom looming on the horizon. Not to mention the guilt that kept trying to get me to get off the bus, turn my phone back on, and call Mik to come pick me up.
I had grown used to the safety and was wild about that infuriating man. If only, if only, if only. That was as bad as ‘maybe one day.’
The bus from the mall finally made its final stop at a hub, and the driver told me which one to get on next to take me further up the coast. I walked a little ways to find an ATM and took out the hefty sum of four hundred dollars.
It wasn’t like I had so much in there, but it pissed me off that I couldn’t have all of it at once, since this was the last time I could use my card if I didn’t want to be traced.
It felt oddly distressing not to be able to search my phone for a nearby pawn shop to cash in Mik’s watch, and I didn’t really want to do it, anyway.
The heavy gold watch weighing down my bag was like having a piece of him close to me, and in more practical terms, I didn’t want to ask anyone for directions and tip them off that I might have something valuable on me.
After about eight more bus rides and what felt like forever, I was finally close enough to decide to shell out for a taxi to the neighborhood. I had to turn my phone back on to get the address, but immediately turned it off again.
“This is fine,” I said, about four blocks from my final destination.
I hadn’t been paranoid enough the first time I ran.
Now I was doubling down on everything. On the bus, I had tried to distract myself by coming up with a new name, but it was too depressing, and I gave up on it.
Getting a fake ID and a new Social Security card seemed out of my grasp with the measly amount of money I had.
The only thing to do was keep moving and get as far away as I could.
It had been little more than two hours, but life on the run was already wearing me down.
After the driver dropped me off a block away, I easily found the house and looked all around before opening the gate and walking up the tidy gravel drive.
Since the multiple buses had taken so much longer than driving, I figured Nell would already be there waiting for me, and I hoped her aunt was fine with me staying with them at least for a night or two.
It wasn’t a kindly older lady who answered the door when I knocked, but a man I had never seen before. He wore low-slung pants and a button-down shirt with a gas station logo on it, his hair spilling down his back from underneath a red bandana.
I looked up at the number over the door. “I think I might have the wrong house,” I said, confused. But it was the number Nell gave me in her text. It was emblazoned on my brain since I didn’t want to keep turning my phone on.
“Nah, you don’t,” the man said, reaching out to lock his grip around my wrist.
One swift, alarmingly strong tug and I was inside.
Reaching behind me, he slammed the door shut and twisted two deadbolts into place.
Was this Nell’s cousin? I followed dumbly because I had no choice.
His hand was still clamped around my arm.
He dragged me to the back of the house, kicked a door open, and shoved me into a bedroom.
“Wait here a sec,” he said, looking extremely pleased with himself. Then he shut the door and left.
I was swinging the door back open, about to follow him and demand answers, but he had already returned, waving a package of zip ties around. “Oh, no you don’t,” he said. “Not when you’re worth so much money.”
“What’s going on?” I demanded, fighting the urge to shut my eyes and disappear. That wouldn’t work here, with no Mik around to catch me when I collapsed. “Where’s Nell?”
He shrugged. “Not here. Now don’t fight me. You’re not supposed to have any marks on you.”
Those ominous words made me do something unprecedented. My fear had crystallized into anger after sitting so long on buses lamenting what I was leaving behind. My fist shot out and bopped him in the nose, making his head jerk back, but not strong enough to draw any blood.
“Damn it,” he said, wrenching both my hands behind my back. “What did I say?”
Once my hands were zip-tied together, he motioned for me to sit down. There was an unmade bed, and there was no way I’d go anywhere near the disgustingly stained mattress, so I took a seat in the folding chair pushed up against the wall.
“Good, now don’t do anything stupid so I can get paid.”
He was being bizarrely jovial, almost reminding me of Chase in a weird way, with the way he was instantly friends with everyone around him.
“Who’s paying you?” I asked. “And why?”
“Some guy from wine country thinks you’re worth a hell of a lot,” he said, leaning against the door frame and looking at me like he didn’t necessarily agree, but wasn’t going to be rude about it. “A hell of a lot.”
If I thought I was putting on a good show when I got Georgiy to agree to take me to the mall, I had to put on an even better one now. “My husband will find me,” I warned, wishing it was true, now, when it was too late. “Then you won’t get your money from my ex.”
Bandana boy only grinned wider. “That’s even better then. Mik Fokin is worth just as much to my boss as you are to the wine guy.”
What the hell was he talking about? I didn’t like that predatory look in his eyes one bit at the mention of Mik’s name.
How did he even know it? I had to change tack, forget about threats that weren’t going to come true.
“Just turn me over to Rand and get this over with,” I said.
“Mik and his family have nothing to do with this.”
He laughed heartily, truly enjoying himself. “Are you kidding me? The Fokins have everything to do with this. Your husband’s the reason I volunteered for this job in the first place. If your ex shows up first, that’s just a bonus.”
I stared at him, uncomprehending, and he shook his head, still chuckling. “You really don’t get it? Maybe you’d want to go back with the wine guy if you knew.”
“If I knew what?” I asked.
Mik was a brewer from Moscow, family money, but down to earth and mostly, usually kind. He had a heart of gold when he wasn’t being a pain in the ass, and if he was controlling, it was because he wanted the very best, same as me.
“Oh, girl,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and settling himself more comfortably against the door. “You really have no idea.”
And then, with the enthusiasm of someone who thrived on gossip, he proceeded to tell me everything I needed, but never wanted, to know about Mik and his family.
Where all that generational wealth came from and how they kept it.
About his current boss trying to take over the Fokins’ territory, and how the bounty on my head was the perfect chance to flush Mik out and use him as leverage against his cousins.
Or just kill him. It seemed like they were fine with that, too, because all those nights Mik was out, he was apparently wreaking havoc all over the city with the crime family that ruled LA with an iron fist. After being served up with all the lies Mik had been telling me, I wasn’t exactly against it.
That nice, fresh burst of anger dried up pretty quick, because I wasn’t going to make it out much better. Worse if Rand got his hands on me again. On top of that, I was terrified for Nell, because I learned she was being held captive somewhere else, forced to make that call to me to get me there.
By the time Bandana boy wound up his story about the bloodthirsty and power-crazy family I had married into, I was worn out, and the darkness was closing in on me fast. It took him all of ten minutes to dismantle everything I thought I knew about Mik, and my mind was reeling.
The man who zip-tied me and finally left me alone in this godforsaken room was right.
My psycho ex might actually be the least of my problems, because apparently I was married to the mob.