Chapter Four
Crash had always been active. Meeting Wolf and his guys was only another excuse to get more training in. Once the official work was over, Crash continued working with the guys—on the quiet, of course—from time to time. It’d been hard to make friends and once he realized what kind of men Wolf and his team were, Crash stuck around. They then introduced him to Beast and the rest of CIRO. Everything merely took off after that.
Leaping over fences, sliding between rails and traversing rooftops made it easy for him to get away from his would be killers. At first, he had to doge a few bullets—that part of the whole thing was very new to him.
After checking his phone for directions, he frowned. He couldn’t seem to get a signal. Irritated with himself, he dropped the phone back into his pocket and looked around. A sign pointed the way to the boat cruise and Crash smiled. He pulled his hood over his head, shoved his fingers into his pockets and jogged through the streets, passing graffiti covered walls and boarded up homes. He just knew the neigbourhood had been beautiful once—until vandals came.
His cell vibrated against his thigh after about twenty minutes of moving and he checked it without slowing down. No name or phone number popped up but he answered.
“Hello?”
“Crash—it’s Tex.”
“Now is not a good time,” Crash said. “I’m kinda, sorta trying to get to the ladies before these hunters get on my scent again.”
“That’s why I’m callin’ you, brother. Up ahead you should see a black car. I’ll turn the engine on for you.”
“Dude, how is that even possible?”
Tex chuckled. “I’m goin’ to let that question go ‘cause you haven’t been around long enough to behold my genius.”
“Look.” Crash groaned. “I can’t add car theft to my list of transgressions right now.” Crash glanced over his shoulders.
“You don’t have a choice,” Tex said. “You’re still an hour from the waterway and Barbie and Miracle aren’t goin’ to wait forever.”
“Shit—I didn’t realize we were so far away.”
“Get in the car, Crash.”
Crash made a face, looked both ways then ran across. The moment he reached the vehicle, the engine purred to life. Without waiting, Crash got behind the wheel, slammed the door and even as he shifted into drive, he was putting Tex on speaker.
“Lead the way,” Crash said.
He sped away from the curb, the car tearing through the unfamiliar streets. He was basically flying blind with instructions from the Texan Pied Piper. It was strange how much be trusted this guy. Since Tex lost his leg, he hadn’t been around in person as the others. Crash would fly in to and meet up with the others but Tex generally stayed home with his lady.
Crash checked his mirrors and switched lanes to dart by a slow moving van then pulled back into the lane ahead of it. Though he sped along, he kept himself in one lane rather than darting in and out to draw attention to himself. Once he was close, Tex instructed him to leave the car but wipe it down and continue on foot.
“I’ve been diggin’,” Tex said. “According to hospital records, Anya does have a sister. But she seemed to have disappeared out of school records and the likes months ago.”
“And the teachers haven’t asked questions?”
“I don’t know, brother. It seems when you have money you can get away with anything.” Tex didn’t sound too impressed with that realization. “Anyway, so far, I haven’t been able to find much on her after her trail went cold. Getting my hands on surveillance footage from the time she seemed to have gone missing is one thing—combing through the hours of bullshit, not so much. So I’m going to need more time with that. Shit!”
“What?”
“I asked for permission to get into traffic cameras around the parents’ house.” Tex explained. “They said no. Too bad for them I was only askin’ to be polite.”
Crash couldn’t help smiling.
“Anyway, there’s more.”
“Of course.” Crash grunted.
“There seem to be a bounty on your head.”
“Well, shit.” Crash muttered.
“Apparently, that little lady you rescued was requested by a special client.” Tex sounded bitter.
“What do you mean, requested?”
“The men who are after you are traffickers. They have wealthy clients who ask them to go out and find minors for—well—you get the picture.” Tex cleared his throat. “Your little Anya has been all over the media. Her mother was a judge and her father a politician. She was one of these requests – green eyes, dark hair, small body. These people—and I use that term lightly—are disgustin’.”
Hearing all of that sent a sick feeling through Crash’s body. He didn’t understand how anyone could hurt a child in any way. Still, he knew he must keep his feet moving.
“These people don’t stop, Crash,” Tex said. “They keep comin’. And you guys are at least four hours from the border. Pitbull is in The Netherlands but he couldn’t come right to you. I’ll find you guys a place for the night and have Pitbull meet you there. Since I know how you’re thinking, here’s what I suggest. Send Pit back to Germany with Anya and Miracle. Then I’ll do my best to help you find the girl.”
Crash growled. “I have no problems with that.”
Being careful not to draw attention to himself, he kept his head down, making his way through the tourists until he came up behind Miracle and Barbie at a nearby diner. He fell into the seat beside Anya who instantly dove into his chest to hug him. “Tex, we need a way out,” Crash said, returning the child’s embrace.
“I’ll hit you back.” Tex jargoned.
With him gone, Crash hung up. “I lost them but it won’t be for long. Tex is going to find us a place for tonight. Pitbull is going to meet up with us.” He kept his stare on Barbie. “Miracle, I passed a chocolate vendor right over there, can you get Anya a bar?”
“I don’t wanna,” Anya, said, shaking her head and clinging to Crash tighter.
“It’s okay. I just want to talk to Barbie for a second,” Crash said.
Though Anya didn’t look impressed, she accepted Miracle’s hand and the two walked away. Crash leaned in to meet Barbie’s eyes. “You haven’t said anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop.” Crash shook his head. “Tex found out what’s happening, what I walked in on. It’s exactly what we thought. Apparently, there’s a bounty on my head. These sons of bitches think I’m the asshole.”
“This is no joke, Crash.” Barbie whispered hoarsely. “These people will not stop.”
“I’m aware of that. Do I not seem serious to you?” Crash frowned. “Listen, once Pit gets here, you, Miracle and Anya are going with him. I’m going to ram a truck through the middle of these assholes to find Eden.”
“Like hell!” Barbie snapped. “And what’re you going to do, huh? What’s your big plan?”
“Since you haven’t noticed—I can take care of myself!”
“That’s not the point and…” Barbie stopped to inhale deeply.
“This isn’t up for debate,” Crash said. “Since I’ve come into my money I seem to have a whole lot of time on my hands. You go home—you have CIRO. There’s no one to mourn if I die in this. I’ve risk my life for a lot of things over the years but this feels like the right thing to do.”
“Shit…”
“Like I said, you don’t have to walk into it. You owe me nothing.”
Barbie sighed. “And let you go off and get yourself killed?”
With a frown, Crash rose from his seat and leaned over the table to peer into her eyes. “I know what you’re doing,” he said, hoarsely. He glanced over his shoulder to check where Miracle and Anya were. They were preoccupied with each other, licking at what looked to be ice-cream. Crash faced Barbie again. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“What you’re doing—cut it out.” Crash sighed. “Listen, you and I are nothing. You should hold no guilt in anything that has happened in this or will happen because of all of this.”
Barbie leaned in, anger flashing through her big, brown eyes. “Whether you still love me or not, is not the point. The point is they’re coming after you and I will see them all dead first.”
“Barbie…”
“I’m not listening.” Barbie snapped.
“Are we really going to play this game?” Crash frowned. “I don’t have the patience for it. So, this guilt you have about rejecting me, let that shit go. I don’t need you to avenge me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Barbie lifted her chin.
In that moment, he ached to kiss her, to drag his lips along the swells of her breasts peeking out from the top of her tank. Instead, he cleared his throat. “Are you lying now or when you told me you didn’t love me?”
Barbie said nothing and Crash didn’t have time to push the issue for his cell vibrated. He pressed it to his ear. “Tex.”
“Am here,” Tex replied, the sounds of his fingers dancing over his keyboard evident over the line. “I found you a hotel. You’re in the system as friends looking to share a suite. I’ve given them one of our credit cards so don’t even worry about any of that. Once you get there, I’ll disable the cameras so you can get to your room. If any of you are going to leave, let me know. We don’t want them tracking you.”
“Aye ay captain!”
“Smart ass.” Tex laughed. “I’ll send the details to your phone.”
Crash thanked him. He offered Barbie one final look, one more moment to come clean, to tell him how she really felt but she merely looked away from him. Annoyed with himself, Crash pushed from the table and walked over to Miracle and Anya. “We have to go,” Crash told them.
Anya took his outstretched hand. “Where we going?” she asked.
“Well, a place where we can get something to eat, shower and a good night’s sleep.” Crash picked her up into his arms. When he glanced back, Barbie had joined them. Soon they were in a taxi. He had the driver pull up to a nearby carnival and after paying, the four of them waited for the cab to leave before walking the last block to the hotel.
After he’d seen to Anya with food, Miracle took her into the bathroom for a shower. He had no clothes for a little girl so she’d have to wear what she had been since he’d found her. Honestly, clothes weren’t the most important thing on his list of things necessary to remain alive.
“I don’t know how to deal with any of this,” Barbie said.
“This?”
“Not the war—the darkness—that I can handle.” Barbie admitted. “I don’t know how to deal with—you.”
“I haven’t changed, Barbie. I’m still the man you met two years ago. I’m still the man who…” He rubbed the back of his neck then dragged a hand down his beard in frustration. No, he’d promised himself he wouldn’t bring that up again. He knew when to take no for an answer and the GSG 9 would always be more important to Barbie than he would ever be. “Let me assuage your guilt. Though I don’t know why you have any. You said you didn’t love me, right? That you felt nothing from my kiss, that my body didn’t turn you on—there’s nothing there. Your words, not mine. But, let’s for argument’s sakes say, there was something. Forget about it. In another life we could have been something great but that moment’s passed.”
“So you don’t love me anymore—that it?”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” Crash said. “Get some sleep.”