No. That was all my brain could process as Jake showed me the text. Suddenly, the air in the boxing venue was stifling. Outside, it wasn’t any better.

Jake was saying something. “What the hell was this about dude?”

“What the hell was that about?” I asked. “You in touch with Rodney?”

“Not by choice,” Jake said. “He wanted me to throw the match on purpose, so he could earn back the money you owe him. But then I saw Cin and I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her to see me lose.”

He stabbed a number on his phone, and next second was on a call – with Rodney, probably.

“Rodney?” he said, sure enough, a few seconds later. “It’s Jake. I’ll throw however many fights you want, just bring Cin back.”

A pause, where Jake’s scowl deepened. “I know I screwed up, but I won’t this time. You can believe me.”

Another pause, and Jake was lowering the phone, snarling, “You do that, and you’ll be sorry. Mark my words.” He looked at me and the sunken in quality of his eyes shook me.

“He said he didn’t believe me. That I have three days to get him the money, or he’ll kill her and send her to us in pieces.”

Jake shook his head, his expression going angry as it rested on me. “What the fuck dude? You’d better tell me everything right now Owen. Everything.”

“I borrowed the money to get you started,” I reminded him, angry myself. “But after I paid it back and Rodney saw how good you were doing, he started asking for more, claiming he’d forgotten about the interest. He threatened to hurt you and end your career unless I kept paying. So I paid him three times over what we’d originally agreed on, but he still wouldn’t let up.”

Jake frowned, his eyes still angry, although the anger itself directed elsewhere. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you involved,” I said. “I thought Rodney would get the hint that I was done playing his game by me ignoring him. Guess he just went to you instead.” I shook my head, looking at him. “You were really going to throw the match?”

Jake nodded. “But then when I saw how worried Cin was.” His face crumpled. “What the hell are we going to do, Owen? We have to get her back.”

“And we will,” I said firmly, pausing.

“Look, they want money, why don’t we just call dad?” Jake suggested.

“Fuck no!” I practically screamed. “Ever since we joined the Army instead of going into the family business with him, he’s practically disowned us. Why would he help us now? And how would we even explain it to him? ‘Hey dad, we’re dating the same girl and some shady loan shark Owen borrowed money from kidnapped her’. Yeah, that’ll go over well.”

“Well what the fuck is your suggestion then?” Jake asked, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

“We need to find out where he’s keeping her first,” I said to him. “We’re ex-Army and fucking boxers Jake, we can get her back ourselves. We have the training and the skills, we just need to use them.”

“Well standing around here isn’t going to help us figure it out, let’s go home and make a plan,” Jake said.

We hopped into Jakes’s car and headed back to our apartment to think about what to do next.

Some dangerous asshole had our girl and we were going to get her back.

The next part, the ‘how’ part was the most important one, and the one I didn’t know yet.

“We just have to think,” Jake said. “What do we know about Rodney?”

“Next to nothing,” I admitted. “Except that he’s an asshole.”

We sat at a stoplight, both quiet and immersed in our thoughts. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

“Wait, I know someone who can help us.” Thirty or so minutes later, walking into Canada Computers, I was almost as frustrated as I was during the match itself. If this didn’t work, I wasn’t sure what our next step would be.

I shook my head firmly. There was no room for that thought. This had to work.

Jimmy was much as I remembered him from our Army days, egg-shaped bald head, easy carefree smile. He’d been a whiz at computers, working our counter intelligence unit on deployment. “Owen,” he said amiably at the sight of me. “You look like shit.”

“We can’t all be models,” I said, immediately going into gear. “I need your help with something.”

After I explained the situation to him, Jimmy was silent a long while. Then, finally, he said, “I know what you need.”

For a few minutes, he was gone in the back, Jake and I left staring dully at each other. I knew he was pissed beyond words at me and I didn’t blame him. My stupid stunt had gotten Cin kidnapped. And now they were threatening to kill her. I couldn’t bear the thought of them hurting one hair on her head. One look at Jake and his barely concealed rage told me he was thinking the same thing.

Finally, before one of us our fist through a wall, Jimmy came back.

“Lucky for you boys, my manager’s a wee bit of a hoarder and had this shoved on a shelf back in the store room,” Jimmy said, holding up an innocent-looking electronic box that looked like it was from the ‘80s.

“So what exactly is that ancient thing supposed to do?” I asked.

“Well if it still works, it should give you a location for where your girl is at.”

Jake and I both nodded, anxious to see if the old piece of tech still worked.

After he set it up, he fixed us with a stern look. “Anyone asks you, though. You didn’t get this done here.”

“Get what done?” Jake said, and Jimmy winked. “That’s my boy.”

He nodded at the black box which was blinking with lights, then to me. “She’s ready when you are.”

I called up Rodney, holding my breath. What if he just ignored my call just to fuck with me a bit? After three rings though, thankfully, he picked up.

” “You got my money already?” he asked.

“Listen Rodney,” I began.

“No, you listed to me you little shit. Get me my money or the girl dies. I’m not kidding,” he said.

I glanced at Jimmy who was making a gesture to me that I needed to keep Rodney on the line longer.”

“I’m sure we can come up with something that works for both of us. I know you don’t want to hurt her,” I said to him.

“No, I don’t. But I will. Get me my fucking money Powers.”

“Rodney, wait…”

But it was too late. He’d hung up.

I groaned, looking to Jimmy, whose face was inconclusive.

“Huh,” he said after a minute, peering into the small screen on the box on his side. “Actually worked.”

“It did? Are you sure?” Jake asked, looking over Jimmy’s shoulder like he knew what he was seeing. Jimmy’s gaze was still on the screen. “You boys are in for it.” He lifted his gaze to fix us with a significant look. “It’s on Clair Creek Drive.”

“But Clair Creek Drive is...” Jake began.

“All but abandoned, yeah,” Jimmy said with a shrug. “Pretty sure there’s still a handful of buildings left standing, though.”

“And that’s it?” Jake said incredulously. “Your little box thing narrows it down to a whole district?”

“Hey,” Jimmy said. “This isn’t NCIS.”

I gave my friend a pat. “Thanks Jimmy. Sorry about Jake, we’re just… we really like this girl.”

Jimmy nodded. “I can tell.” He came around the counter to give me a back-beating sort of hug. “Good luck to you.”

A few minutes later, Jake and I were on the road. While I drove, Jake was fiddling around in the overflowing glove compartment, looking for something.

“What are you looking for in there?” I asked, trying to keep my eyes on the road.

“These,” he said a few seconds later, holding out two knives. I’d all but forgotten about them, our self-defense tools from when we’d been younger.

Clair Creek Drive, despite its innocuous name, had the worst crime rate around. It was where overdose victims were found, were gang shootings went down, and where shady fuckers held innocent, unassuming women hostage.

We’d be lucky if knives where all we’d need.