Chapter Eighteen
Channing
The meeting lasted longer than I expected. The conversation about construction sites was never truly exciting. That time, it seemed to even be duller than usual. All I could do was think about Kemara, as I sat in there listening to efficient ways to build a structure.
I got out to my truck, ready to call her. I grabbed my phone and discovered the battery was dead. “Shit!” I mumbled.
I looked around my truck to see if I could find my charger and reached in the backseat and grabbed it from the middle console. I plugged it into the lighter and tried to power on my phone. It didn’t power up right away, so I started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
After several minutes of getting juice to the phone, I finally got it to turn on. That’s when I saw three texts and a voicemail on my phone. I pulled off to the side of the road, so I could read the messages. The first two were from Kemara. I smiled as I read her messages. I wanted to see her too, and I was headed her way after a quick shower.
The final message was from my mom.
Mom: CALL ME!
I frowned at the message. It seemed a little frantic. Instead of listening to the voicemail, I dialed up Mom’s number. She answered right away.
“You need to get to Kemara right away,” she frantically said.
“What are you talking about?” I pulled the car onto the road and did an illegal U-turn to head to her place.
“I found out that your father and brother are going after her. They intend on hurting her, and you have to get to her before they do something bad.”
My heart started pounding. I picked up the speed to ten more MPH. “Are you serious, Mom? Where are they now?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have the details, but I heard him talking to someone on the phone. I called you when you didn’t answer my text to you. I’m just so worried about her…”
“I had a meeting for work,” I mumbled. I couldn’t focus on the words. I didn’t know where they would be, but I had to go to her house and see if I could find her there. “Are you sure you didn’t mishear them, Mom?” I asked.
“I wish, but they left the house about five minutes later and that was over an hour ago. I tried to call them, but they aren’t answering their phone.” She started to sob and I could hear the anxiousness in her voice. Something was definitely wrong. “It’s serious Channing. They’re going to hurt her. Oh, please be careful!”
“I will Mom! Call you later!” I dialed up Kemara’s number. She didn’t answer. “Babe, call me ASAP. Don’t go outside and, if you see my father or brother, don’t go near them. Trust me. Call me!”
I tossed the phone down in the passenger seat and hurried towards her place. Fury pulsed through my veins as I thought about what my father and brother were capable of doing if they got to Kemara first. When I got to the parking lot of her apartment building, I was disappointed to see that her car wasn’t there. I jumped out of the truck and hurried up to her apartment door. I beat on the door, calling out her name, but she didn’t respond. I was about to leave, then I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. I picked it up and read it.
My jaw dropped when I saw what the note said. My blood boiled to the surface, as I slipped it into my pocket and left the apartment. I had to get to Collier Park. I put the information into my GPS, as I had never been there before, but found I could make it in fifteen minutes. I drove 80 MPH the whole way there, barely stopping at yellow lights or stop signs.
When I got to the parking lot, I spotted her car. I parked next to her and jumped out of my truck. “Kemara? Kemara?” I called out to her, hoping to hear her voice. I ran around the park like a lunatic. My heart pounded in my chest. Where was she?
I ran back to her car to look for a sign. Anything that would clue me into where she was in the park. She wasn’t in her car. I looked around inside, and that’s when I spotted her cellphone. I picked it up and looked it over. The text she had sent me was the first thing I came across. It was definitely her phone.
Scrolling through her phone for any sign of where she might be, I was sweaty and panicking. There was nothing in the phone to help me. I didn’t know where to look, until it dawned on me. There was an abandoned building about twenty miles from the park that we used to hold meetings at before we got the funds to rent out the lodge. It was possible they would take her there. That’s exactly where they are! Oh hell, I gotta get there fast…
I kept her phone and ran back to my truck. I was out of breath but on an adrenaline high. I hopped in and tore towards the building. There was no point in calling Kemara, since I had her phone, and if I called my father or brother it would only tip them off. I just drove as fast as I could without causing a wreck or risking being pulled over by the police.
The minute I turned down the street to the building, I spotted my father’s car in the parking lot. I was almost there and could only pray they hadn’t harmed her yet. I shut off my lights and coasted into the parking space beside his truck. I jumped out of the car, then ran to the door of the building. I opened it up and stepped into darkness.
I had to inch my way along the walls until I heard her whimper. Then, I quickened the pace toward her agonizing cry. When I rounded the corner, I heard men’s voices.
“You’re not about to interfering with me and my son. You hear me, bitch? He thinks it’s love, but he wouldn’t know love if it bit him in the ass.” The booming laugh echoed through the building. “Once you’re out the picture, then he’ll come back to his family where he belongs. He’s going to be the man I raised him to be, come hell or high water. I’m his father and you…you’re nobody,” Dad said in a gruff, unpleasant tone.
There was a long pause. I didn’t hear any sounds from Kemara. I swallowed hard and tiptoed down this long hallway. “Let me fuck her just once, Dad. I hear black pussy can be nice and sweet.” I heard Damon say.
My heart fluttered with contempt. I was livid. If Damon laid one hand on her, I would kill him and not blink. I got closer to where the voices were coming from and peeked my head around the corner to size up the situation. That’s when I saw a door with a small hole in it by the keyhole. I stooped to peep in and saw Kemara had her arms strapped to the wall. Her mouth was taped shut and she was wide-eyed. My father was holding a gun directed at her head, and my brother was inching towards her with one thing on his mind. That was to rape her and never miss a beat in his sick, sad life. It was my dad’s voice that stopped him from moving any further.
“Shut up, fool,” Dad grumbled and turned back to her. “If anyone was going to fuck her, it’d be me, but I’m not that desperate.” Dad looked like hell. Days worth of not shaving had caught up with him, and he had on wrinkled clothes that barely covered his tall, thick frame. His long hair was pulled back into his signature ponytail, though he was balding in the front.
The thought of my dad or brother taking one more step closer to her had my hairs standing up. I had to do something to protect her and get them away from her…for good. I stepped back, so that they couldn’t hear me, then dialed up 911.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“My girlfriend is in trouble,” I hissed. I kept my voice low, so no one would hear me. “She has a gun drawn on her. They’re going to kill her.” I rattled off the address. “Hurry!”
I hung up the call and moved back in. My breathing was so heavy that I had to control myself. I was sure they would catch on that something was going on.
“You better be praying bitch, because you need to get things right with the Lord. The only way you’ll leave here is in a body bag, and that’s only if we allow it,” Dad said. “The fact of the matter is, no one comes in this beat up warehouse, so maybe we’ll just let your corpse rot in here. What do you think, Damon?” Dad asked.
“Yeah…I like it.” Damon moved closer and touched Kemara’s cheek with his finger. Damon looked at Dad. “It’d be a shame to let her die without servicing us first, though.”
I had to bite back a growl. I was seconds from making myself known.
Dad snickered, not even bothering to tell Damon to get away from her. He was too busy toying around her hair with the gun. “You see the way I see it is…the only choices you have are heaven and hell, so you better pray it out,” Dad said.
I couldn’t believe he was being so hateful. I cringed at the realization that this used to be behavior I turned a blind eye to. My dad held up the gun and I froze.
“Pray now bitch, because he’s going to blow your fucking head off,” Damon screamed at her. The sound of his voice echoed through the warehouse.
Dad clearly had the upper hand, so I looked around for something, anything, I could use to sneak them and knock them both out. I also did some praying of my own, wondering when the hell the cops would get there.
Dad cocked his gun. “Three…two…”
I turned the doorknob to sneak in, but it was locked.
“One…”
I turned away and closed my eyes, fearing that the gunshot would go off and it would be over. I clutched my chest, breathing harder, when the only sound I heard was laughing coming from both my dad and brother.
I peeked back in.
Dad was jerking so hard with laughter that he could barely stand up. Was that some kind of cruel fucking joke to him?
He stopped laughing and looked up at her. “Silly me. I forgot the bullets. Won’t make that mistake again.”
I gasped, relieved that I didn’t just stand back and watch the love of my life die. I watched Dad pull out a couple bullets from his pocket and put them into the gun.
Damon moved closer to her, and he nearly pressed his face to hers. “Definitely won’t make that mistake again. Bitch, you’re going down, because I’ve made a prediction and you won’t make it to heaven.” Damon laughed. “I crack myself up with these predictions. Come on, Dad. Get rid of her, so we can go get something to eat.”
As I tried to pick the lock, I heard murmuring coming from Kemara’s way. My love was pleading for her life. I couldn’t take it anymore. My heart was breaking for her. I glanced down at my phone to see how long it’d been since I called the cops. Just under ten minutes, but they had to get there soon. I looked through the hole again to see what was going on in there.
“What’s that baby? Do you wanna tell me something?” Damon asked Kemara.
“Damon…don’t bother. I’m ready now. We can kill her and put this dirty mess behind us.”
Damon turned to our father, then back to Kemara. “What’d you say? You want to say something?” Damon grabbed the corner of the tape and ripped it off her mouth.
I felt the pain all the way on the other side of the room.
She flinched as I’m sure the tape burned her flesh.
“There…speak your last words and I’ll be sure to share them with my bro,” Damon said.
“Damon, don’t be so fucking stupid,” Dad called out. “You can’t tell Channing you were here.” He laughed. “If you keep quiet, Channing will just think his precious girlfriend fell off the face of the earth. He won’t know what hit him. But don’t you worry, we’ll be there to console him while your remains are fertilizing the soil.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Kemara said bravely.
Damon and Dad turned to her. “What do you say, bitch?” Damon asked.
She glared at him. She was full of anger, and I was just glad that she was prolonging until the cops getting there. “You won’t get away this. Channing will know the truth.”
Damon smirked. “Once you’re gone, he won’t even care,” he said. He ran a finger down her chin.
She looked beyond irritated. “Get your fuckin’ hand off me,” she said through tightened teeth.
“Or what?” Damon asked.
She spit in his face.
He shook his head. “Oh, no you didn’t just do that,” Damon said, his voice piercing the walls. He reached up and grabbed Kemara’s neck and started choking and shaking her.
She made several choking sounds.
I couldn’t stand back and watch him choke the life out of her. I had to get in that room.
“Get your hands off her!” I yelled as I pummeled my body into the door and rammed it open with my sheer strength. I ran up to Damon and grabbed onto his shoulders and threw him away from her.
“What the hell?” He swung around and the anger and irritation on his face was evident. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“That doesn’t matter. This is over. The cops are on their way and you both are done.”
I shot a look towards Dad, and he was dumbfounded. I was so engrossed in what he was doing that I missed the punch that was headed my way. Damon slugged me in the jaw, knocking me backward. I steadied myself and turned to him and threw a punch his way. We were beating the crap out of one another, with one punch after another, hitting the face, throat, gut, and anywhere we could find. I could hear Kemara’s voice pleading for us to stop.
“Channing…don’t…please…stop!”
“See what you did, bitch. You’re tearing this family apart,” Dad’s voice rang out. “This is why you have to pay.”
The sound of cocking of the gun jogged me out of the fight with my brother. I dodged a right hook to look at Dad. The gun was pointed directly at her and there was vengeance in his eyes. It all played out in slow motion. I turned to Kemara, and she had tears in her eyes, begging for her life. I couldn’t worry about Damon.
“You’re going to die and get exactly the payback you deserve,” Dad said, speaking with venom in his voice.
I made my move. “Noooooooo!” I hollered, running in front of her, as the gun went off. I heard sirens in the background as I went down, hitting my head hard on the floor. I was out and all I could hope was that Kemara would get to safety.