The Price We Pay (18 page)

“We already ate the snacks.”

She turned her head, facing Jack. “We aren’t models and we like to eat. Please. Food and snacks?”

I turned my head and watched him pull his cell phone out. What I wouldn’t do to get that phone. My knee started bouncing and crazy ideas were shooting off like fireworks in my head. I was a tall girl with a little meat on her bones, but there was no way I could take him on. His muscles flexed and hardened just from holding his cell phone.

Too bad I didn’t have any sleeping pills.

“We want Tequila and beer also,” Marvey added. “We aren’t too picky on the beer but make sure the Tequila isn’t crap.”

She turned back towards the TV and continued flipping through the channels.

“And limes,” she added.

“At least he’s finally calling someone,” I muttered, my knee still bouncing up and down.

“Harper.” She demanded my attention so I forced my knee to stop and glanced her way. “Don’t do anything stupid,” she warned, pointing her slim finger in my face.

“I’d never.”

“Bullshit.” She bounced her finger off my nose.

“I’m just hungry.”

“You look determined to plow him down and take the cell phone from him.”

“I’d lose,” I sighed, defeated.

“You would.” She tossed the remote down on the coffee table. “I’m bored. I’m hungry. I’m upset. But we need to keep ourselves together. We can fall apart another day.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“It is, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to be there and witness that. I’m sorry you were alone.” She pulled me into her. “I guess you can cry on me. I have extra clothes.”

I chuckled with her and then got serious.

“I didn’t cry.”

“Yeah, you did,” she said.

“My brother,” I said softly. “I didn’t cry. I haven’t cried. But then last night, I cried with Randy and now I feel bad. I shed tears for Randy but not my brother. I need to call my parents, Marv. I need to apologize to them for not crying. I should have cried, but instead, I let the hate fill me up and I just wanted revenge.”

“Honey, your still full of that hate. I get it,” she said running her hand through my hair. “But sometimes you just have to let go.”

“Like you’ve let go of your name?” I joked.

She smiled and pushed me away playfully. “It’s different.”

“I know, I know.”

“So let’s eat and drink and remember our time with Randy. Even though it was short, we got to meet him. We had our time with him before he had to go.”

“I’m glad we met him.”

“I am too.” She said standing. “I’ll be right back.” I watched her walk to the bathroom and shut the door. I glanced at Jack, watched him stand and move the chair aside. “I’ll be right back.” He unlocked the deadbolt and slipped out of the room.

I was curious, stubborn, and just nosy as hell.

I went to the door, spying through the peephole. There was another man there with Jack. They were looking through their phones and talking about something. The door was too thick and they weren’t talking loud enough for me to hear them. I pulled away from the door and then heard a noise that sounded like someone had dropped something. I put my eye back to the peephole and saw Jack’s body jolt and fall down.

I got on my tip toes and my hand went to the doorknob. I couldn’t see either of the guys.

I froze when Arsen stepped in front of the peephole. “Oh shit,” I gasped backing away from the door. The handle turned, and I watched in slow motion as the door swung open.

Here he was. Wearing another black suit, without a shirt just like last time.

“This was fun,” he said taking a step into the room. His bodyguard, along with three other men, walked in behind him. “Aren’t games fun?”

I had no idea what he was talking about so I kept quiet. I tried to look past him to check on the guys in the hallway but I couldn’t. He was blocking my entire view.

“Those boys need to step up their game.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and I heard the bathroom door open.

Marvey tried to talk but Arsen jerked his chin towards her and one of the men went after her. She tried to fight him off, kicking and screaming, and Arsen got frustrated.

“Shut her the fuck up,” he ordered, and another man stabbed a needle in her arm.

“Harper,” she whispered as she passed out in his arms.

This wasn’t good.

We were going to die.

“God, she has an annoying voice.”

Arsen’s word brought my attention back to him.

“You want one also?”

“No,” I said through gritted teeth, trying not to attack the man, just to see if I could reach him before they dragged me off him.

“Too bad honey, it’s my game. I found you, I won.”

What a sick fucking bastard.

“Killing people is not a game.”

“You’re still upset about Randy?” he paused. “So am I. I’m upset he betrayed me. After all those years. I took care of him. I employed him. I gave him a home. I gave him friends. He had nothing before me. He was
nothing
until he met me!”

“Randy turned his life around. He was clean and sober. He finally had a clear thought on life; he had dreams. He had a life to live you sick fucking bastard!”

“You were Randy’s,” he took a step forward putting him about a foot away, “and what’s his is mine.”

“I wasn’t-”

“Blah, blah, blah!” He came in close, closed his eyes and breathed in my scent. “Shut her up,” he said, taking a step back. The last thing I saw as I faded away was the nasty grin on his face and I was afraid of what he was going to do to me when I woke up.

Sofia

I passed out when they took my finger. I’ve never been in so much pain, I’ve never been full of so much rage and hatred. I’ve been trying to hold my hand high enough to help with the throbbing and to prevent more blood loss but it was getting difficult. The rest of my muscles burned and ached trying to support my arm.

The men spoke in a different language, Russian I think. They spoke two words that I was able to understand, though. Two words, one name, that made time stop. The name I have known my entire life—my father’s. This had something to do with my father and they were using me to get to him. Whatever my father had done, they were making me pay the price.

I sat in a metal chair, with blood on my pretty yellow dress and white gauze wrapped around my left hand. We were in some kind of abandoned building that was filthy and full of broken furniture. After the class was done with our final and excused, the entire class broke out in excitement for the semester to be over. Most of them were graduating like I was. After I got outside, the crowd swept me away from the parking lot. It was like being at a rave party. The man who took me put a cloth over my mouth, causing me to pass out.

A few men came and went from the room I was in. All the men looked identical in their black, long sleeved shirts and ski masks. I felt like there were dozens of them, and my already foggy head swam with their images.

They could take my fingers, but I wanted to live.

There was only one man in the room at the moment, but that didn’t last long. The second man came in barking orders, I’m assuming since he pointed at me. The first man got up, and they both came and walked me out of the room, each of them with their fingers gripping my biceps.

They took me to the table.

The table that held my fresh blood, some of it seeping into the wood and staining it.

“No,” I begged on a whisper the closer we got. “No, please don’t.”

I cried out, starting to fight back, digging my bare feet into the cement flooring, but it was useless just like the first time. They picked me up by each arm, my feet dangling a few inches from the floor, and I made my whole body go limp in the hopes that they would drop me. The larger man smacked me across my face, their fingers biting into my arms as they carried me to the table. Slamming my hand down in the same spot, they held me down and stretched my arm out.

I yelled, I cried, I begged for mercy.

My words bounced around the building.

Slowly dying.

No one caring.

They didn’t cut my finger off like they do in the movies. They didn’t hold a butcher’s knife above their head and swing it down. These assholes used an electric knife, the kind you use for cutting turkey on Thanksgiving.

The man turned the knife on and I closed my eyes and begged for a miracle. The humming of the knife sped my heart up, I felt the heat from the tool against my skin before the blade even made contact and my miracle didn’t come.

Kennedy

“I’m serious,” Gabe said looking into my eyes with his hand on my shoulder. “We do this my way. You listen to me, shadow Latch, and stay the fuck out of the way. If the bullets start flying, you drop like a fucking rock and play dead.”

I nodded but I wouldn’t be playing dead. I didn’t have a gun, but I had my body and all of my martial arts background if I needed to use it.

They found Sofia almost an hour ago and I insisted I go with them. They had to plan the extraction and get their men ready, and here we were standing outside a vacant building with boarded up windows. I guess Latch had found her father and made him talk. His knuckles looked a bit swollen and cut up, so I hope he gave her father a good beating.

Latch and Jaxon were here along with eight other men that Gabe employed. I never knew he had such a successful business. I needed to be a better friend going forward.

I wanted to be the best man I could be for Sofia, and she’ll never be without security detail ever again. She’ll complain and get sick of it after a while but I don’t care. No more chances to put her at risk. I don’t want her to live her life in fear, ever.

Gabe gathered the men and when everyone huddled together, he said a short prayer; then I did as I was instructed, I shadowed Latch. The men lined up with Gabe and Jaxon leading us into the doorway. We were in the middle with a few more guys in front of us. I watched them make their hand movements to each other while we made our way down the long corridor, checking each room we came across.

I listened for voices or noises that would tell us anything but silence surrounded us.  I smelled urine and who knows what else that lived or died in this building. At the end of the hallway, Gabe held his fist up, telling us to stop. He and Jaxon looked over a small monitor that one of the guys handed him prior to communicating to the group.

“We only see five men but there could be more hiding. Keep those eyes open, shoot anyone you see.”

Gabe had told me as much as he could on the drive over here. They didn’t have real guns. They were dart guns filled with a potent serum that would knock their targets out before they could fire a weapon. Gabe believed in fair justice and even though this wasn’t fair, what these men have done, I wasn’t going to argue or fight him on it. This was his business and he knew what he was doing.

I wish I had a gun, though.

I made sure my bulletproof vest was secure as we moved into the vacant space of the room.

I thought he said there were people in here?

I watched the men from behind us, running through the room towards the far back wall, guns up and ready. Gabe and Jaxon split up, one going right and the other going left.

“You ready?” Latch asked while we ran towards Gabe.

“Yes.”

“Grab her and get the fuck out of here.”

“What about playing dead?” I asked when we caught up with the other men.

He stopped and looked me square in the eye. “If you love her, you won’t be playing dead.”

I liked him and the way he thought.

The men went in and gunfire erupted in the room before we even entered.

One of Gabe’s men ran out of the room and inspected his bulletproof vest.

Gabe was yelling for their guns to be put down and another man yelled back in Russian.

“Just wait a minute,” Latch said holding back, but gun up and ready to shoot anyone that he didn’t like coming through the doorway.

I was listening to see if Sofia was crying out for help.

Latch moved.

I moved.

We came into the room and I immediately saw Sofia in the arms of a man, who had his gun to her head. There was a gag in her mouth, her makeup smeared across her face from crying. We made eye contact and it took everything I had in me not to go after her. She looked at me like this would be the last time we saw each other. The once white gauze was completely soaked. Her dress was torn and bloody, and I prayed there was nothing else wrong with her.

He barely spoke English, “I go. You have the girl.”

“Drop the fucking gun,” Gabe called out, standing two feet away from him.

Sofia was smaller than he was, and like the coward he was, he used her body as a shield. From my angle, we had a clear shot but with the gun to her head, there could still be a possibility of it going off before he passed out.

“I walk alive,” he demanded and tried to move with Sofia. I noticed she was holding her bloodied hand with the other one like she was protecting it.

Fucking bastards.

“Do something,” I told Latch, anger and rage about to burst from me. I didn’t want to do anything stupid but we were just standing there.

I made eye contact with Sofia again and her eyes went wide. I question her by wrinkling my forehead. She blinked twice really fast and I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. Then she looked down to the floor and I followed her gaze. She very slowly, without anyone else paying attention, lifted her foot off the ground. I glanced back up at her and she gave me an evil eye. She thought I would understand what she was trying to tell me and I couldn’t. I just wanted her to let the guys take care of it, but she didn’t let them.

She made a move.

She closed her eyes and appeared to have passed out.

Her body went limp, her head fell forward, and her feet slipped on the ground.

Dead weight.

The man tried to hang onto her and the gun but lost the battle when Sofia came back to life and kicked backward, hitting him right between the legs.

Sofia fell forward on her hands and knees and scurried away from the man. I ran to her, dropped to my knees and pulled her into my arms.

“Baby,” I said kissing her on the forehead.

We both stood clinging to each other.

“Let’s get her out of here,” Gabe said brushing passed us and we followed. She kept her hand against her chest. I looked over and saw the man had a few darts in his chest. Gabe's men were dragging the other men over and rolling them onto their bellies where they zipped tied them.

We followed Gabe out of the building and got into the black SUV waiting for us. Gabe climbed in the driver’s seat and we got in the back.

“Let me see your hand.”

She held her hand tighter. “No.”

“Sofia honey, it’s okay,” I paused and got no response. “I know what they did.”

“I’m still not showing you.”

I hugged her tighter and kissed her forehead. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No it won’t,” she said softly, and she looked down at her hand. “It’s not going to be okay.”

Sofia

I refused to show Kennedy my hand. I refused everyone but the doctors. I was mortified. The second finger they took was my ring finger. My ring finger!

I wasn’t sure which one upset me the most: my father or the loss of my ring finger. They could have taken all of them and left that one. It was the most important one. It symbolized something. A tradition. “Your fiancée wants to see you,” the nurse said, pulling the blood pressure cuff from my arm. “He’s a handsome one.”

My nurse was probably one hundred-years-old with blue hair so I wasn’t worried about her trying to steal him away.

“He does karate.”

“He could break me in two any day.”

We both chuckled.

I guess the pain pills were stronger than I thought because I felt like sharing.

“We’re virgins,” I confessed and breathed like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I mean, Marv knew that we were, but it’s not something we are allowed to talk about.

Another rule we had to follow.

Fucking parents.

“We were virgins also,” the nurse said running the thermometer across my forehead and behind my ear in one fluid movement. “We were also married for fifty years before he passed away.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said glancing at her.

“He was the love of my life. Lord knows I wanted more time but his body was falling apart, honey. So it’s okay, he’s in a better place.”

She truly seemed happy even though he was gone.

“No fever,” she said putting the thermometer back in the cart. “Your blood pressure is perfect; you look perfect despite what you’ve just been through. You could wear anything and pull it off.” She smiled and grabbed my good hand, and held it tight. “A modern princess if you ask me.”

“Thank you.”

“That man loves you, honey.”

Tears pricked my eyes and I held her hand even tighter. “I know he does.”

“I understand what they took from you, but my dear sweet girl,” she paused and put her palm to my cheek, “you’re alive. I think it's best you get back to living your life before I steal that man from you.”

She squeezed my hand again. “I may be old, but I’ve still got some flirt left in me.” She let go of my hand and grabbed the pushcart the computer was on. “I better get this done before I forget.” She winked at me and I slid down on the bed. I was wearing a white hospital gown that felt like a burlap sack, and it itched worse than those sheets at Latch’s house.

I missed my girls. I missed Randy.

But I missed Kennedy most of all. Those men could have killed me.

I could be dead.

“Margie, I’d like to see him now,” I said rolling my head towards her.

“Good.” She typed for a few more seconds and then left the room.