Yuki was miserable in this heat. He’d already shed all of his clothing except for his undershirt, shoes and pants. Sweat was pouring out of his thick black hair and running into the rolls of fat on the back of his neck. His clothes were sticking to him, and the filth in this place disagreed with his sense of propriety.
He felt sorry for the woman tied to the bed. Her breathing was shallow and he could barely see the pulse in her neck. She was a beautiful woman, and she was likely going to die.
When he finally heard the doors opening again, he ran out to meet his brother.
“Stuff is all in the back. I’m going to close the doors,” Adam said, and ran back to the entrance, while Yuki began carrying the food and the sack of paper goods into the office.
Adam grabbed the case of bottled water and followed.
“Did she wake up?” Adam asked, as he set the water down.
“No. She’s barely alive. Something is wrong with her. She said the heat would kill her. Maybe it will save you the trouble,” Yuki said.
Adam cursed in his native language, opened a bottle of water and shouted, “Wake up, Mrs. McCann,” then poured enough water on her to bring her to consciousness.
Shelly choked, then gasped, then opened her eyes. Oh God. I thought this was just a dream.
Adam leaned over the bed. “Where is your husband?”
Looking for me, I hope. But she didn’t say what she was thinking. Instead, she let her eyes tear up again before she answered. “They said...his body washed out to sea.”
Adam drew back and slapped her so hard it popped her neck. Her eyes rolled back, and she was out.
Yuki laughed.
The sound startled Adam enough that he stopped and turned around.
“Why are you laughing?”
“All these years and I thought I was the stupid one.”
Adam doubled up his fists. “Are you calling me stupid?”
“You tell me! You want this woman to talk, and every time she regains consciousness, the first thing you do is knock her out again. That is very stupid behavior, big brother.”
Adam flew at his brother, but Yuki grabbed his wrist, yanking him around and pinning his arm against his back until Adam was shrieking in pain.
“You do that again and I’ll break it,” Yuki said.
“I’m sorry. Let me go!” Adam said.
“Since I’m not the stupid one, I think you should know that I don’t believe you are sorry on any level. Now wake her up, question her until you are satisfied she is either telling the truth or she’s lying and isn’t going to talk, so we can leave here.”
“Yes, alright,” Adam said, then when his brother turned him loose, he grabbed a handful of ice and packed it around her throat, then rubbed ice on her face before pouring more water on her face and neck. Finally, she began to stir and move her head from side to side.
“Don’t...” she mumbled.
Adam grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head around to face him.
“Don’t hit...” she begged.
Adam hated to admit it, but his brother was right. The woman was barely here...one eye was swelling shut. Her mouth was so bloody and swollen that he barely understood what she was trying to say, and her nose was obviously broken.
“Where’s Jack?” he asked.
“Under...sea. Gone from me...” Huge tears rolled down her face.
Adam pulled a knife from his pocket and cut her blouse straight up the middle, then cut her bra in the middle as well, revealing a wealth of bare flesh. He ran the point of the knife from her collarbone all the way to her navel, cutting just deep enough to make it bleed.
Shelly arched up off the bed, screaming.
“That was just a taste of what’s coming. If you’re lying to me, you’re about to pay for it dearly,” he sneered, and dug the point of the knife into her flesh while she howled in pain.
Yuki dived toward them, grabbed the knife out of his brother’s hand and threw it across the room, embedding it a good three inches into the wall.
“Not only are you stupid, you’re a monster,” Yuki said. “If you weren’t my brother, I would have already snapped your neck.”
Adam stood up, his hands fisted as he stared into his brother’s face. There were no words for what he was feeling, but he knew he was losing control. He turned around and grabbed one of Shelly’s breasts and pinched it until she screamed again.
“You want me to stop?” he asked.
Light was flashing behind Shelly’s eyes and she could feel herself fading.
“Stop...” she mumbled.
“Then answer my question! Where is Jack?”
“Dead...like me.”
Adam cursed. She was either telling the truth or willing to die to protect him. He’d leave her to think about it awhile.
“We go!” Adam said, and headed for the car. “If she’s still alive in the morning, we’ll talk to her again. If she’s dead, then that is the answer I get.”
“Wait. I want to give her another drink,” Yuki said.
He opened another bottle of water, drenching her face and hair, and then lifted her head and poured some down her throat. She swallowed enough to satisfy him, and then he straightened up and looked around.
“Stay strong, lady,” he said softly, and got back in the car.
When they shut the warehouse doors before driving away, Yuki felt bad. The rats... Oh no! He hadn’t thought of them. Now he was going to imagine the worst, but Adam was philosophical about the woman as they drove back to their apartment. If she was dead in the morning, then it was meant to be. If she stayed alive, maybe a night alone would change her mind about talking.
“I’m hungry. Keep an eye out for a place that cooks hibachi. I want sake and beef. What about you?” Adam asked.
Yuki stared at him. “Her blood is on your hands,” he said, and turned away.
Adam glanced down, surprised he had not noticed that himself. “Thank you. I will make sure to clean up before we go inside.”
Yuki shuddered. His brother was crazy. “Why do you call yourself Adam? Why not use your Japanese name?”
Adam frowned. “Because this is America. Sota is not a name of power in their eyes.”
“And Adam is a name of power?” Yuki asked.
“In their Christian religion, it is the name of the first man their God created. Adam was the first man. Eve was the first woman.”
Yuki nodded. It didn’t make sense to him, and he was glad he did not live in this country. But the moment he thought it, he sighed. He no longer lived in his country, either. He had no home.
“What if the rats get to her?” Yuki asked.
Adam turned to him in anger. “Stop talking about her! I don’t want to hear it again.”
Yuki frowned, but he didn’t argue. And when they finally found a Japanese restaurant that satisfied Adam’s sensibilities, they parked and went inside.
Adam and Yuki went straight to the men’s room to clean up, and then back to the hostess stand to be seated. The whole ambiance was what Adam craved. The decor was cheap, but the aroma from the food cooking was enticing. They were seated at a table with a hibachi grill, introduced to their chef and then entertained for the next hour by the chef’s knife skills and the tasty food he turned out.
Yuki was drawn into the experience to the point that for a while he completely forgot about the woman he had tied to that filthy cot.
It was late by the time they got back to their apartment. Showers and rest were in order, and Yuki went first without asking. But the ride back had resurrected his guilt about the woman they’d abandoned, and he was wondering if he would be able to sleep.
Adam could tell Yuki was still upset, and he wisely chose not to engage him in conversation. He watched him from the corner of his eye as he stripped beside his bed, slinging off his clothes and shoes in angry gestures, then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
Adam thought about his brother’s corpulent body. It disgusted him, but there was nothing to be said. Yuki wasn’t the kind of man interested in staying fit or eating healthy. His wants were few and his ambitions barely above menial positions. If he did not look so much like their maternal grandfather, he would think his mother had mated with a gorilla.
In a good humor about the joke he’d just made, he aimed the remote and turned on the TV before kicking back in bed to wait his turn in the shower.
* * *
Shelly was in and out of consciousness but never knew when it was reality and when it was dream-based nightmares. She believed the men who had kidnapped her were hiding now. She felt like if she made a sound, they would come running back in anger and beat her again. It was dark...so dark. Sometimes she heard sounds she recognized, like the pop of a settling building, or a loose piece on the roof above her banging in the wind. If there was wind, that might mean a storm was coming. And planes...all she kept hearing were planes. Some landing, some taking off. She must be near an airport, but where? The wind was stronger now.
If it stormed, maybe it would cool off.
Please find me, Jack. I am so scared.
“Help! Help! Water... Please bring me a drink. I need a drink,” she said, mustering all her strength.
It felt like she was screaming, but most of the words were only in her head.
Something dropped from above onto her leg. She screamed and screamed again as she tried to kick it away, but she was tied down so tight all she did was make the cot jump up and down. She was crying again, but quietly. She didn’t want the men to see her weakness if they returned.
Then she heard something rustling beneath the cot—like the sound of tiny nails—and thought of rats.
Oh my God! That’s what was on my leg!
She screamed again, “Help me! Please help me!”
Then the rustling sound grew louder, then louder still. She heard squeaking, and scrambling, then the sound of ripping paper and more squeaking. Then chewing...gnawing...
She tried so hard to see, but her eyes were so swollen, and it was too dark.
Find me, Jack. Please find me.
The wind was picking up. The loose pieces on the roof were flopping back and forth. Then she heard what sounded like a whisper of flapping wings, then a loud thud, the rapid scramble of things running...and one gut-wrenching squeal. A death scream. Something had died. Thank God it wasn’t her.
* * *
Jack was riding the Indian from one address to another on the list of Ito’s holdings.
He’d searched two warehouses on the list before dark caught him, then rode to the next one on the list beneath streetlights, wondering if this was how Shelly felt as she drove home every night thinking he was dead. The irony of the way fate had switched their places in this nightmare held its own kind of horror.
A streak of lightning flashed again. Jack watched, in awe of the power of the storm to have the energy to produce something like that. And when the shaft of lightning suddenly split into two at the bottom, it felt like the universe was mirroring what was happening to them. He and Shelly had been split apart, and it seemed just as violent.
He’d always thought he’d know if anything ever happened to her, and right now he couldn’t feel her life force anywhere. Maybe it was because of the sickening guilt of being too late. He’d known the danger she was in and still hadn’t been able to keep her safe.
Was this how Shelly felt when he was missing? Was this dark hole inside of him real, or was it just fear? When she thought he was dead, did she think her life was over? If he lost her, his life would no longer hold meaning.
“I won’t believe I was saved just so I could feel what losing you was like. I didn’t die. You won’t, either. I’ll find you, Shelly. Don’t give up on me. I will find you or die trying.”
* * *
The baby was crying.
Alicia groaned and started to get up when Charlie stopped her.
“Stay here, darling. I’ll change him and bring him to you.”
“Thank you,” Alicia said, and got up to go to the bathroom as Charlie ran across the hall to get the baby.
“Hey, buddy,” Charlie said softly, as he picked the baby up and carried him to the changing table.
Little arms flailed in the air. His tiny little feet and legs were in constant motion, making changing a diaper more than a feat of dexterity, especially since there was baby poop to go with it.
Charlie had a strong stomach. He’d smelled dead bodies. Baby poop was nothing. He grabbed a handful of baby wipes and started cleaning him up, talking and laughing, until the baby finally focused on the deep rumble of his father’s voice.
“Now that you’re clean as a whistle, it’s time for a fresh diaper. Hmm, I don’t know what to think about these baby critters on here. Not quite what a little man would be wearing, but hey...one of these days you’ll be choosing your own duds.” He fastened the tabs on the diaper, then laid him back down in bed long enough to bundle him up in his blanket.
“Just like a peanut in a shell,” he said, and when he picked him back up, he kissed that little sweet spot behind the baby’s ear. “You smell so good, little man. Daddy is the luckiest guy in the world.”
He carried him back across the hall to where Alicia had propped herself up against the headboard in a mound of pillows, waiting to let him nurse.
“Your prince awaits,” he said, and laid the baby back in her arms.
Charlie stood a few moments, watching the baby latch on and start nursing. The soft shadows thrown by the lamplight fell across mother and child, and for a few moments Charlie felt as if he’d stood this way before, maybe in another lifetime, watching this very same scene, and with the same overwhelming feeling of witnessing a miracle. Being a part of creating new life made him humble, and made everything he did for them worthwhile.
“I’m going to the kitchen. Want anything to drink?” he asked. “Maybe some water?”
“I’m good, darling, but thank you for asking.”
Charlie blew her a kiss and then left the bedroom, feeling the cool tiles beneath his bare feet as he moved from room to room.
He couldn’t help but think of what Jack must be going through. The last thing he’d heard, they had no leads on Ito, which didn’t bode well for Shelly McCann. For all they knew, she may already be dead. But there were search crews still going through property listings. Hopefully they’d know something positive by morning.
* * *
Shelly woke up peeing the bed and still unable to move.
There was a moment of pure embarrassment, and then she remembered where she was and why. In the grand scheme of things, a wet bed meant nothing.
She tried to open her eyes, but they were too swollen.
“Help!” she cried, but the word came out like a whisper. Her mouth was so dry and her lips so puffy it felt like they might explode.
Would those men come back? Or had she been left here to die?
“Water, please, I need water,” she begged, but no one answered. She had no idea how long she’d been passed out.
She heard the scurry of tiny feet again and knew now it was the rats. The horror of being eaten alive by them was real and she started crying.
“Please, God, don’t let this be the way I die. I am asking You to help Jack find me before it’s too late.”
Then she heard the tiny feet again, scratching, climbing, gnawing. And there was another smell now that hadn’t been here before. The smell of death.
That was when she remembered the high-pitched animal scream from last night. Something had died in here. But what was big enough to kill rats, that wouldn’t try to kill her, too? The answer was too horrifying to consider.
Then she felt something against her leg, moving down toward her ankle.
“No, oh my God, no,” Shelly moaned. “Please don’t let this be real. Don’t let this be real.”
Then something bit her, then bit again, then tried to tear away flesh. Her ankle was on fire, and she was screaming, screaming, screaming. Kicking and jerking, begging and crying.
* * *
In the morning, Adam’s behavior toward his brother seemed more congenial. They shared breakfast in a good mood and then headed back to the warehouse in comfortable silence.
“Adam, do you think she is alive?” Yuki asked, as they drove toward Houston Hobby Airport.
“I don’t know, and if she’s not, then she’s not.”
“We should not have left her alone last night,” Yuki added.
Adam laughed. “I have no intention of babysitting someone to keep them alive when I fully intend for her to die anyway. If last night alone in the office didn’t kill her, maybe it scared up new information. And if she still tells me the same story, I’ll kill her myself.”
Yuki looked away.
When they reached the warehouse, Adam gave the code to Yuki to open the doors. Yuki exited the air-conditioned car into the sweltering Houston heat and punched in the code, then stood aside for Adam to drive through.
He heard her screaming even before the doors were open, and the sound curdled the food he’d just eaten. Without waiting for Adam to drive through, Yuki took off running to the old office at the far end of the warehouse and entered to the sight of rats scurrying out of sight. The woman was bleeding from rat bites on her ankles, and she was in true hysterics. What was left of a dead rat was scattered among the opened snacks on the table that Adam brought last night. He didn’t know what to say or how to soothe her.
And then Adam pulled up in the car and got out running.
“What happened? What’s wrong?”
Yuki pointed at her ankles.
“Rats were all over her.” Then he pointed at the table. “And something killed a rat here last night.”
Adam grabbed another bottle of water and poured all of it on her face and head. She couldn’t breathe without choking, which stopped the screaming. Exactly what Adam had intended.
“I came to talk to you again, Shelly McCann.”
She turned her head toward the sound of his voice.
“Drink...need drink,” she said.
“Not until we talk.”
She turned her head away.
“Where’s your husband?”
Her silence angered him. He pinched her breast again to get her attention.
“Drink of water,” she whispered.
“If I give you a drink, will you talk to me?” Adam asked.
She turned her head back toward the sound of his voice.
Adam pointed to the case of bottled water. “Would you please give this woman a drink?”
Yuki nodded, relieved that the shouting and beatings weren’t happening. He opened a fresh bottle and lifted her head. Shelly drank greedily, choking more than once, desperate to get as much in her before he withheld it again.
“Now then. I did you a favor. You do one for me,” Adam said. “Where’s your husband?”
“Dead.”
He opened his fist and slapped her. It would hurt, but it wouldn’t knock her out.
“You lie.”
Shelly’s mouth was bleeding again. She was crying, but making no sound, and the whole side of her face felt like it was on fire.
“What if he really is?” Yuki asked.
Adam glared at him and, to prove he was the one in charge, slapped her other cheek.
Shelly moaned, turned her head enough to spit out the blood in her mouth.
“Tell me the truth and I’ll stop hurting you,” Adam said.
“I wouldn’t tell you if he was alive,” Shelly mumbled. “Beat me until my heart stops.”
Adam stood up in a rage. This wasn’t going the way he wanted. But after what she’d just said, it made him think McCann was alive. And if he was alive, she needed to be, too.
“Maybe you need to spend another day with the rats. I do not like liars, but apparently these vermin aren’t so choosy. You think about it. I may be back later, and I may not.”
Then he poured the rest of the bottle in her face and walked out.
Yuki was in a panic. He didn’t want to leave her alone with the rats. Now that he’d seen what they did, he didn’t think she’d still be alive when they came back.
“Adam, I will stay with her,” Yuki said.
Adam stopped, then turned around, staring at his brother in disbelief.
“Look around you!” he shouted. “It is disgusting! You would stay here in this mess with her, rather than go with me?”
“I don’t want to stay here, but this mess is yours, not hers. I would not want to live knowing I had let a person die from rat bites.”
Adam’s face flushed a dark angry red. “What makes you think I’ll come back for you?”
Yuki shrugged. “If you don’t, then I’ll just call the police and save the both of us.”
Adam reached behind his back to get his gun, but it wasn’t there.
“Looking for this?” Yuki asked, holding up his brother’s weapon.
Adam froze. “Give it back,” he said.
“You’ll get it when you come back for me,” Yuki said.
Adam started to charge him, and Yuki calmly pointed the weapon at his brother’s head.
“Don’t try me. I have a strong sense of self-preservation. I would choose me over you every time.”
Adam stopped, then held up his hands.
“Sorry. Lost my cool again. I’ll be back around noon. You have water. I’ll bring fresh food.”
Yuki shrugged. “If you’re late, then know I’ve already called for medical attention for her and turned myself in.”
Adam backed away slowly, shaking his head. “You are a coward. You aren’t tough enough to be a leader.”
“And yet I’m the one with the gun,” Yuki said. “Stop insulting me and go fuck yourself. That will take the edge off.”
Adam couldn’t have been more shocked if Yuki had bitch-slapped him where he stood. He got back in the car and left.
Yuki didn’t relax until the doors swung shut, and even then, he ran up front to make sure he saw Adam driving away, before he went back to the office and felt the woman’s pulse.
She was still alive.
He wasn’t ready to completely defy Adam, but last night he’d dreamed of being chased by rats. Seeing the truth of what happened when dream became reality had been too much. The least he could do was make sure she wasn’t eaten alive.
He wanted to remove all the guts and garbage but had nowhere to put it. But he could get it out from under their noses, so he picked the table up and threw it through the openings where the windows used to be. The water was here. He had a chair in which to sit, but not in these clothes, so he started removing clothing again, beginning with his shirt. He started to remove the undershirt, too, then left it on—not so much for propriety, but to catch the sweat.
He saw the package of paper towels, unwrapped it and tore off a few sheets and then folded them up, soaked them with water and laid them on her forehead, then poured a little bit between her lips.
“Don’t die, lady. I don’t want you on my conscience.”
* * *
Jack had ridden the streets of Houston all night, even when it was raining, chasing down the addresses on the list, then searching the premises of each one for signs of habitation. There were a few that were being used as legitimate businesses, and short of setting off security alarms, he was going to have to leave those to the police. He swung by his place long enough to shower and get into dry clothes before going back out again. He put his phone on the charger and started a pot of coffee before going to shower. Less than an hour later, he was ready to pick up where he left off.
He took his phone off the charger, dropped it in the outer pocket of his jacket and put his Glock in the shoulder holster. He was on the way down to get the motorcycle when his cell phone rang. It was Charlie.
“Hey, Jack! I’m on my way to the office and just got a call from Fred. One of the search crews thinks they’ve got a lead. They are on their way to a property on the east side of the city. Two stoners were spending the night in an empty building and said they heard a woman crying but couldn’t find her. They called it in, and the cops are already on the scene looking. I’ll let you know if we find her.”
“I’m already on the move. What’s the address?”
Charlie told him.
“I’ll meet you there,” Jack said, and accelerated. It was their first break in the search.