Chelsea watched as Terrance’s car raced down the street and away from the house. She looked over to Blue wondering what was going on, but he was still staring at the path his father’s car had taken. He seemed frozen in place, with his eyes locked on the receding taillights. He had an unreadable expression on his face and Chelsea’s mind began to whirl and wonder what new threat Terrance had given his son. It was cool outside and she wrapped her bathrobe around herself tightly. Her hair was wet and and she shuddered as the cool water dripped down her back. She could feel the cold on every inch of her exposed skin and beneath her bare feet.
“Blue, is everything all right?” Chelsea called across the yard. As if woken from a dream Blue stood up a little straighter and turned around. With one look Chelsea knew something horrible had happened. Blue’s jaw was set and his shoulders were squared and he looked angry and dangerous, like a tensed wild animal that had sensed danger.
“Get inside,” Blue said taking Chelsea by the arm and pulling her into the house. He slammed the door behind her and locked both the doorknob, the deadbolt, and the chain. “Cover up the windows in here and the bedroom.” He walked over to Chelsea and Jamie’s old room.
Chelsea stood frozen in the middle of the living room. She had no idea what was going on and she was suddenly stuck to the floor with fear. She felt exposed in her empty old house; what had once felt familiar and safe was now scary and unknown. She closed her eyes and focused on what Blue had said: cover the windows, she could handle that. Her limbs shaking, Chelsea ran into her mother’s room and grabbed some extra towels and bed sheets. The curtains were gone so Chelsea hung the towels in their place, tossing them over the curtain rods, quickly working her way through all the windows in the bedroom and the living room.
Blue was closing and checking the locks on all of the windows and Chelsea swallowed nervously as she looked at him. What had happened? Why was he so worried? His expression was, as always, unreadable and Chelsea hated being in the dark. But all she could do was watch him as he moved with a robotic precision, making his way through the house quickly and efficiently. There were no doubts in his movements and no hesitations in his actions. This wasn’t the first time he had done this.
“Blue, please tell me what’s going on,” Chelsea said, choking back tears. She was trying to keep it together, but the longer he took the more her mind raced. Her imagination leapt from horrible scene to horrible scene as it ran unchecked. She needed to know.
“Okay,” Blue finally said as he came to a stop. He had run out of locks to check. He was standing in the kitchen and he slowly turned around to face Chelsea. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, but he couldn’t look her in the eye. “I’m going to take care of it.”
Chelsea’s stomach dropped.
“Some men have kidnapped Jamie-”
“What!?” Chelsea screamed. She ran at Blue as if he had Jamie hiding behind him. She rushed to him and then had nothing to do with herself when they were only a few inches apart. “What happened?” she finally stammered
“I’m not sure, but I know she’s alive and she’s okay. It’s some guys involved in the fighting pits who have her.” He reached out to hold Chelsea’s arms. He searched for her eyes, but now it was Chelsea who found she couldn’t look at him.
Her whole body was shaking, sobs wracking through her. Her stomach felt sick, like she couldn’t get it to settle no matter how hard she tried. Her sister was gone. Her sweet and innocent sister who had never done a bad thing in her life had been taken. Where was she? Was she hurt? Was she okay? What was Chelsea supposed to do now? She couldn’t think beyond her next question; she couldn’t fathom how she was supposed to keep breathing when her sister was missing. “Why?” Chelsea demanded. “Why did they take her?”
“I...I don’t know,” Blue stammered running his hand through his hair. “They haven’t told us anything yet. They said they would be in contact on the day of the next fight, which is in four days.”
“So what? We’re just supposed to do nothing for the next four days?” Chelsea screamed. “They could be doing anything to her! Did you talk to her? Is she all right?”
“I didn’t talk to her. There was just a short video. But she was alive and looked unhurt,” Blue said as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms. Chelsea lost her strength and she hunched over with a shuddering sob. Blue pulled her over to the couch and sat her down. She collapsed against him and he wrapped her up in his arms.
“How did she look? Where was she?” Chelsea asked, her face buried in Blue’s chest.
“I don’t know where she was; it could have been any hotel room. She looked scared. She was tied-up-”
Chelsea let out a sob and clutched Blue’s shirt. It felt like she was being ripped apart.
Why had they taken Jamie? Didn’t they know that Chelsea was with Blue, or that Colleen was with Terrance? Jamie didn’t have anything to do with illegal fighting pits or anything like that. She was a bartender, not a mobster, and she didn’t deserve this.
It should have been me, Chelsea thought to herself. “We need to call the police!” Chelsea said sitting straight up. “Why didn’t we do that right away? What were we thinking? We’ll call the cops, they bring in the FBI or whatever, and then they can plan a sting and catch the bad guys and everything will be fine.” Chelsea’s words were tumbling over each other as she rushed through them. She reached for her phone on the table, but Blue took her wrist in his hand and stopped her.
“We can’t call the police,” Blue said quietly, shaking his head.
“Yes, we can. We can call the police and we should. We are not equipped to handle this. You don’t even know what they want.”
Blue set his jaw and nodded and said, “We can’t call the cops. If we call the cops, they will kill her and then they will find us. We don’t know where they are and we have no idea who took her. If we start a manhunt they’re going to kill her and destroy her body and we’ll never know who did it. There are people out there who know how to do this, Chelsea. They know how to make someone disappear and that’s who has your sister.”
“Stop it!” Chelsea yelled, standing up and moving away from him. She re-tied her robe and pulled it tight around her. “Why would you say something so horrible?”
“Because it’s not an empty threat, Chelsea,” Blue said. “They’ll do that and worse if we call the cops. These are bad men. We need to be careful. But I can fix this, all right?” He walked over to her and took her hands in his. His hands were cool and solid and she stared into his dark eyes as he spoke. “I’m going to Jamie back, all right? I promise you. I will get her, and you don’t need to call the police. I can do this.”
“But why should you have to?” Chelsea said. “This has to be from your father. How would anyone else even know about your relationship to Jamie?”
“Terrance knows something,” Blue said, “but he didn’t tell me what. He swore he didn’t have anything to do with her kidnapping. He claims they contacted him about taking Jamie and he was just showing me, so I would know.”
“Then we need to go and talk to Terrance right now. We need to get him to tell us everything his knows,” Chelsea said, marching towards the door.
“Chelsea, stop,” Blue said, grabbing her arm. He spun her around and she tried to tug her arm free, but instead he tightened her grip and pulled her closer. “You need to calm down and think rationally. You’re not dressed; it’s late. We shouldn’t do this now. I think we need to get some rest.”
“What?” Chelsea demanded, cutting him off. “Get some rest? Are you kidding me? My sister had been kidnapped, she is tied up somewhere, and I can’t call the police, which means no rescue is coming for her. She is trapped and alone and scared somewhere and we need to do something.”
“No,” Blue said still holding her arm. “We need to think and be smart and be patient. It’s the middle of the night. We can’t do anything now. We have to wait until morning. So, please, just try and get some sleep.”
Chelsea threw up her arms and walked over to the bedroom. She slammed the door closed behind her and began to dress. She hastily threw on a pair of mismatched bra and panties and slid into jeans and a simple t-shirt. Dressing was harder than it ought to have been. Her hands were shaking and she was crying, tears pouring down her face and soaking her shirt. She searched for a tissue, but came up empty. She didn’t know where she thought she was going to go or what she was going to do. She was sobbing and her eyes were blurry with tears and finally there was nothing for Chelsea to do but fall onto the bed fully clothed and cry.
She heard the door open and quietly close. The mattress shifted as Blue slid behind her and wrapped her up in his arms. She could recognize his smell; it was ivory soap mixed with something uniquely him. She squeezed his hand and he squeezed hers in return as sobs wracked her body.
“It’s going to be all right,” Blue whispered in her ear. It became a sort of mantra as he whispered it over and over again. “It’s going to be all right.” He whispered the words and rocked her gently as she cried.
Every time she thought she was done, that she couldn’t possibly shed another tear, her sadness would come pouring over her all over again. She let herself rest against Blue, to lean into his chest. She could count on him, at least she knew that.