Marin

Angel came in and out of the room where I was tied up several times, each time growing more impatient and angry. Clearly, torturing me wasn’t his only aim. He wanted money, how much I didn’t know, and Jasper was not giving it to him.

“I guess Jasper doesn’t care about you as much as I thought,” Angel said a few minutes after the video chat. He had held the phone up to me, allowing me to see Jasper, his broad face filling the small screen, and allowing Jasper to see me. His eyes went wide when he saw me, his mouth falling open in shock. I wondered how I looked to him, gagged and bound and topless. “I assumed he’d be calling me back, making all kinds of promises to ensure your safety.”

Angel ran a cold finger along my neck and then slapped my cheek hard enough I could still feel the sting several minutes later. I was sitting in a solid wooden chair, my ankles tied to the legs with thick rope. My arms, however, were connected to leather straps in the ceiling. The blood had run out of my hands almost immediately, and after fifteen minutes of tingling, they had finally gone numb.

He left me in my shorts and robe, but my tank top had been ripped down the center by an eager Jackal shortly after my arrival, leaving my breasts exposed. Angel had told Jasper on the phone that he had one hour to turn over the money. The room they’d brought me to was dark enough that even if there had been a clock on the wall, I wouldn’t have been able to see it, so I had no way of knowing how long I’d been tied up in the room.

I also had no way of knowing whether Jasper would save me. Perhaps this was the answer to all of his problems. Jasper seemed like a good guy when I’d told him about the baby, and he’d offered to take care of our child and support me during the whole process, but what if this kidnapping was an answer to his unspoken prayers?

Angel kidnapping me would free him from any responsibility. In fact, it would make him look like the victim. His girlfriend and unborn child were murdered in an act of biker gang violence, and he would be the poor soul left behind. If he wanted to clean up his reputation around town, that would certainly be the way to gain sympathy.

But would Jasper do that? I wanted to believe he’d save me – because it was my only hope – but I had to admit that I still didn’t know Jasper that well. He had shown me his soft side over the past few weeks. He’d offered me my dream job and been so excited about the baby, but he had a dark side. A criminal side. I’d seen that, too. The way he’d made me strip for him the first night we’d met and the blackmail. I’d hoped that I had changed him during the time we’d spent together, but there was no way to be sure.

Angel sent in some of the Jagged Jackals to check on me, and they each took their liberties. Men groped me and whispered the evil things they wanted to do to me. Angel promised them each a turn with me if Jasper failed to show up, and the thought alone killed me. I’d rather he kill me, and perhaps that was the point. Murder wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Angel’s revenge. I would have to be tortured.

“You’re sexier than any club girl I’ve ever seen,” one of the men said, grabbing at his crotch and biting his lower lip.

“She isn’t a club girl, you idiot. Angel told us that. But you’re right, she’s damn sexy.”

I cursed him through my gag, the words coming out garbled and muffled.

“What was that?” the first man asked, moving closer to me, placing his ear directly in front of my mouth while he rubbed his crotch against my leg.

“Should we take off her gag?” the second asked, an evil smile twisting his face.

They pressed themselves against me while they untied the gag and pulled it out of my mouth. It only lasted for one second though – just long enough for me to take a deep breath and release the loudest scream I could muster. They jolted at the sound and then shoved the gag back into my mouth, causing me to choke on my scream. I coughed and sputtered around the fabric.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Angel asked, walking out from a back room.

The building they’d brought me to was some kind of abandoned store. A few dusty and stained mattresses were laying on the floor in stacks, so perhaps it had been some kind of furniture store. Other than the main room I was in, there was a door in the back wall that seemed to be a bathroom and a door at the front that Angel kept moving in and out of.

I was trying to utilize all of the knowledge I’d learned from the Nancy Drew books I’d read as a kid and decipher my location, but the only thing I knew is that the building was abandoned and I could hear cars rushing by outside. However, in Houston that wasn’t exactly novel. Highways and interstates zig-zagged all over the city.

“She slipped out of her gag,” the first man said. He’d been the one to remove and hastily re-do my gag.

I couldn’t tell whether Angel believed the excuse or not, but he dismissed the two men with a wave of his hand and waited for them to walk outside. Sunlight streamed through the front door, blinding me, and I blinked against it. It was still daylight, but it had only been early afternoon when Angel’s men had kidnapped me. It didn’t help me to tell time at all.

He moved over to me and placed a hand on my gag, and then hesitated, stooping down to look me in the eyes. “If I take it off, do you promise not to scream?” he asked.

My throat was still raw from the last scream, and I doubted it had done any good anyway. My jaw hurt from being stretched around the fabric, and I desperately wanted a break. I nodded, and Angel untied the gag.

“It’s a shame you didn’t accept my original offer,” Angel said, frowning at his phone before shoving it in his back pocket. He’d taken a few pictures of me – presumably, to send to Jasper –and I wondered whether Jasper had looked at them. Was he looking at them and going crazy trying to save me? Or was he ignoring them, turning a blind eye to my life or death situation? “We could have been having a much better time. But now, I have to try and get a ransom.”

“I thought you wanted to get him arrested?” I asked. “Wasn’t I supposed to be your witness?”

“I want him ruined. Whether that is financially or socially, I really don’t mind. I had two options in mind, and you passed on the first one. Welcome, my dear, to option number two.”

“You could have given me both options and let me decide,” I said, wondering whether I would have chosen to turn on Jasper in order to save my own skin. I probably wouldn’t have done it. Instead, I would have simply taken Angel a lot more seriously. If I’d thought he was capable of killing me, I wouldn’t have waited so long to tell Jasper about his first visit to my apartment. I would have done more to protect myself.

Angel shook his head. “That wouldn’t have worked because I wanted you to want to help me. It’s not as much fun if you’re only doing it because you’re afraid. See, unlike Jasper Black, I don’t enjoy blackmail as a means of getting what I want. I want the people around me to be loyal, not afraid.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed? Because I’m a little too busy being tied up and tortured,” I said, the rage hiding the fear in my voice.

“Tortured?” Angel said, eyebrows raised. “If you think this is torture, you have no idea what is in store for you.”

I tried to remain neutral, but a shiver tore up my spine. Fear made my palms go cold, and my stomach ache. What was going to happen to me and my baby because of someone else’s war?

“When Jasper fails to show up, as I suspect he will,” he said, pausing to check the time on his phone. “I’ll show you what torture is. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but as I said, you declined to cooperate, so now I have to do things the ugly way. As the day unfolds, remember that you chose this.” He tucked his lips into his mouth and shook his head slowly from side to side in disappointment.

He disappeared behind the door at the front of the building, and I sagged against my restraints. My life had always been a matter of necessity. I had to take care of my siblings. I had to work double shifts to make rent. Very few things in my life had been done because I wanted to, but moving in with Jasper was a want. Raising the baby growing inside of me was a want.

Even though they had been surprises, it was only as I was hanging in the dank abandoned building preparing for death that I realized how much I wanted it. How much that future I would never have now meant to me. I’d seen my life unfolding in front of me, and though it was nothing like what I’d planned, I had been excited. And suddenly, it had all been ripped away from me because of Angel.

A while later, Angel emerged from the room one more time, his phone held in the air. “It’s official. Jasper cares more about his bottom line than you or his unborn child. A few dollars are worth more to him than your life. How does that make you feel?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. I didn’t want to indulge him, but I wasn’t ready to give up on the idea that Jasper was coming to save me. Had Jasper contacted Angel? Had he told him that the deal was off, that he wouldn’t pay?

“I sent him the offer and told him he had one hour. Well, his hour officially ended three minutes ago. Not only did he not try to save you, but he didn’t even bother to text me back. He didn’t even try to barter for your life,” Angel said, standing so close to me I felt his warm breath on my skin.

Not responding didn’t necessarily mean Jasper wasn’t coming for me, right? He could be gathering forces, planning an attack. But did he even know where I was? The abandoned building didn’t have any noteworthy characteristics, at least not from the inside. And it didn’t look like a regular hangout spot for the Jagged Jackals – not with the dust and broken light fixtures and the pervasive smell of mold. However, Angel could also be right. Jasper could have decided I wasn’t worth the money or effort.

“I sent him a picture of my plan for you, but it apparently wasn’t enough to convince him,” Angel said, shrugging. “Shame.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked, the words sticking in my throat.

He held up a small, white cardboard box and rattled it.

I turned my head to the side. Part of me wanted to know what was coming, but another part of me wanted to remain ignorant. I couldn’t fear what I didn’t know. Except I was afraid. I knew whatever Angel had planned, it would be bad.

He flipped the box over and scanned his eyes over the small print on the back. “I have a connection at a local pharmacy, and she told me this is what all the doctors recommend for a first trimester abortion.”

My lungs seized up in my chest, and if I hadn’t been tied down, I would have collapsed. Abortion? My vision went blurry, and I dry heaved, my head sagging as far as my restraints would allow.

I’d been expecting Angel to kill me. That made sense. And, of course, if he killed me, the baby would die, too. But targeting the baby felt like an entirely new brand of evil. The thought of losing my child to such a horrific act and being forced to continue my life was unbearable. I wouldn’t survive it. Emotionally, mentally... I wouldn’t survive it.

“Please, no,” I said, my voice a whisper. I knew it was useless. A man like Angel would never be reasoned with. I couldn’t beg for mercy because he didn’t have any. He wasn’t capable of it. But still, I tried. “I’ll give you anything. I’ll testify against Jasper in court. I’ll get you money. Anything.”

Angel clacked his tongue and shook his head. “Perhaps if you had been this cooperative at first, things would be different. But you weren’t, and I’m afraid I am no longer in the mood to negotiate.”

He was lying. It always would have ended like this. Angel craved death and chaos. And more than anything, he craved control. He liked watching me squirm. He liked knowing how miserable he was making me. The more I begged, the more he enjoyed it. I decided then to stop begging.

I lifted my head, stared him in the eyes, and spit. It didn’t hit him, though I had imagined it landing directly in his eye. Still, it felt good. A small act of defiance before whatever evil he had planned for me played out.

Angel tweaked his mouth to the side and rubbed his thumb along his jaw. “You don’t have to be nasty. Do you like to take pills dry or with water?”

I scowled at him, subconsciously pulling my lips tighter.

“This building actually doesn’t have any running water, so I’m not sure why I asked,” he said, laughing. “You’ll have to take them dry, unfortunately. Hopefully, that isn’t a problem.”

“I’m not taking anything. Even you can’t be such a monster that you’d kill a tiny baby in their mother’s womb.”

“You underestimate me, Marin. I have no problem at all doing this. You see, it is justice. Jasper killed one of my Jackals, who are each like family to me. And now, I will kill a member of his family.”

“You already killed Bear,” I said, the image of Bear’s mutilated body flashing in my mind. I hadn’t known Bear well, and I certainly didn’t trust him as much as Jasper, but I knew Jasper liked him. Out of all the Hellions, Bear was one of Jasper’s closest friends. It was a considerable loss, and perhaps an even bigger loss than killing Jasper’s unborn child. “Plus, I thought you said Jasper didn’t care about me. That he cared more about money than me or my child. Why do this, then? If Jasper doesn’t care, just let me go.”

Angel shook his head. “You don’t understand how being a leader works. I have to follow through on my threats, or no one will take me seriously.”

“Being a leader means making your own decisions. It means not being afraid to do the right thing instead of what is expected,” I said, knowing I was basically talking to a brick wall. Angel wouldn’t be persuaded into being a good guy.

“What you’re doing is noble,” Angel said, tucking his lips into his mouth and pulling his eyebrows together. He was looking at me as though he were touched, on the verge of tears. “You are fighting hard for the life of your child, and I will certainly remember this moment for a long time.”

For a split second, hope soared in my chest. Would he let me go? Had I convinced him?

“Unfortunately, it has not changed my mind.”

My lungs felt as though they were filled with wet sand. Angel took a step towards me, and I tugged on the leather straps holding me to the ceiling, picking up my feet as much as I could to use all of my weight in an attempt to break them.

As I struggled, he opened the small box and poured out a handful of white pills. “The box says two, but we’ll do a few more just to be sure.”

He stepped towards me, and my body tensed, ready to fight. I was a caged animal with nowhere to go, but I couldn’t just let him hurt me and my baby, so I did the only thing I could do. I screamed.

“Help! Help me!” My voice strained, and my entire throat felt dry and achy, but still, I screamed.

Angel only smiled, walking towards me slowly, enjoying my struggle. I knew it was making the ordeal sweeter for him, but I had to try. I screamed until my lungs gave out, until my muscles were incapable of fighting my restraints, until every cell in my body ran out of oxygen and I was on the brink of passing out.

Then, Angel reached me, and I stopped.

I slammed my mouth shut, using what was left of my energy to close myself off to him. He wrapped his long fingers around my jaw and worked to pry open my jaw, but I clenched it closed, my teeth grinding together so hard I felt certain they were powder.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” he said, voice strained with effort.

My jaw felt bruised from the crushing pressure of his fingers, and I felt my strength failing. My lips stayed closed, but with every passing second, I lost ground to Angel. With every passing second, he was closer to overpowering me, to shoving the pills down my throat.

A strangled cry ripped through my body, muffled by my closed mouth, as I pulled from my reserve strength, doing everything I could to resist. But with my hands numb and bound above my head, my ankles tied to a chair, I didn’t have anything left. I was a sandcastle in the midst of a tsunami. A rotted old shed in the face of a tornado.

I felt Angel’s fingers wedging my jaw open, the pills in his other hand, ready to force into my mouth as soon as it opened.

It was over.

I was going to lose.

Angel would force me to swallow the pills, my baby would die, and I would be killed. I didn’t have a shot at being let go, of ever seeing my old life. The Marin who worked at Jasper’s Grill and volunteered and though the worst thing in life would be not making rent – that Marin didn’t exist anymore. She died the moment she saw Bear and Tats carrying out the dead Jackal.

That made it better almost, to think I’d been dead for weeks. It wasn’t such a loss then. Not really. When my mouth opened and everything Angel had planned for me began to play out, he would be torturing a ghost. I closed my eyes and prepared myself for my fate.

Then, the floor began to rumble. Dust fell from the ceiling in showers. Was it an earthquake? Was the old building falling down? Angel turned around, still smiling. And then the door burst open, and his profile became a silhouette from the light pouring through the open doors. I watched as his smile faded and his lips parted in shock.

And then, I heard the sirens.