ABBIE
I stood at the living room window and looked at the wreckage of the two motorcycles burning. Dark smoke filled the air and the fires were burning bright. King and his men were down in the parking lot and none of them looked all that pleased. Not that I could blame them. If somebody had blown up my car, I'd probably be pretty pissed off, too.
I wanted to go down and check on him, make sure he was okay, but I knew now wasn't the time. And more than anything, I wanted to tell him about the messages, about Michelle, and about what was going on. But I knew doing that would be signing her death warrant. And I couldn't do that. I wouldn't do that.
I had to go. Whoever the mysterious texter was had provided me a distraction. A brief window I could use to escape and I needed to take advantage of it. I had to get to Michelle.
Turning away from the window, I grabbed my purse, my phone, and headed to my bedroom. I slid the window up and popped the screen out. My building was old, constructed well before I'd been born. Well before I'd even been thought of, to be honest. And I'd always found its antiquated architecture charming. But now the antiquated building served a practical purpose – providing me with a means of escape.
With one last look back at my bedroom, the ominous feeling that I might never see it again, settling down around my heart, squeezing it tight, I climbed out onto the fire escape. Most newer buildings didn't have the old-fashioned fire escapes, but I was suddenly glad mine did.
I stepped out onto the creaky old thing, half terrified it was so old it would crumble or collapse beneath my feet and send me toppling to the concrete below. Though I'd probably survive the fall, I had no doubts I would break something – a few somethings, probably – and I wanted to avoid it. With my heart thundering in my chest and my throat as dry as the Sahara, I took hold of the ladder and climbed my way down.
When my feet hit the pavement, I let out a huge sigh of relief. The fire escape hadn't crumbled and I'd made the descent in one piece. I called it a minor miracle. But any celebration I may have thought of having ended when my phone buzzed in my hand. I looked down and found another text message waiting for me.
Tick tock, Michelle is waiting for you. Don't let her down.
As if I needed the reminder. I hustled across the small parking lot, glad that I'd chosen to park in the back the night before – not to mention relieved by the stroke of dumb luck. If I'd parked in my usual spot, I would have had to pass by King and his men to get to my car. But because I'd been lazy and the back lot was closer to my apartment, I'd deposited my car there.
I slipped the key into the ignition, but before I could turn it, my phone rang. I looked down and saw that it was the same number that I'd been getting text messages from. A feeling of dread, cold and oily, wrapped itself around my insides and squeezed me so tight, I was having trouble breathing.
I punched the button to connect the call and put the phone to my ear. “Yes?” I fought to keep my voice from trembling – and failed miserably. The last thing I wanted them to know was how terrified I was, but I couldn't help it. I'd never been in a situation like this before. Hell, I'd never even dreamed of being in a situation like this before. My friend's life was on the line and it was up to me to save her. The pressure weighed down on me like a lead weight – a lead weight the size of the Titanic.
“A – Abbie,” Michelle's voice was strained, her fear coloring her words. “Help me, Abbie.”
It was like a shard of glass had pierced my heart. My breathing was shallow, ragged, and tears blurred my vision. “I'm coming, Michelle,” I said, trying to sound confident. “I'm going to be there soon. Are you okay?”
There was a low groan on the other end of the line. “I – I hurt, Abbie. Help me.”
I opened my mouth to speak again when I heard a rustle on the other end of the phone – which was followed by a heavily accented man's voice.
“She's depending on you,” he said. “We gave you a way out. You have twenty minutes to get your ass here.”
And with that, the line went dead. I looked at the phone, trying to will it to come back to life. Trying to will Michelle's voice to come back to me. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I struggled to breathe. I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack and knew if I gave into it, Michelle was as good as dead.
“Get a grip on yourself, Abbie,” I said and smacked myself viciously across the face. “Calm the hell down.” I couldn't give in to the hysteria that was threatening to wash over me like a giant wave. If I let that wave come crashing down, it was going to pull me under, pull me down deep. And if I let it, I was going to have to live with the fact that Michelle was dead and it was going to be all my fault.
“Pull it together,” I screamed and delivered myself another smack across the face.
My cheek stung where I'd smacked myself and when I looked in the rear view mirror, I saw a bright red hand print. Taking a few deep, calming breaths – that only marginally helped, if at all – I managed to get the car started and pulled out of my spot.
I gunned the engine as I neared the driveway and sort of squealed out into the street, picking up speed as I drove away, figuring the quicker I moved, the less time I gave myself to stop and think about it. And the last thing I needed in that moment was to stop and think. I simply needed to move. To act. Michelle's life was hanging in the balance and I knew I couldn't afford to give in to my fears.
The phone buzzed on the seat next to me. Glancing down, I saw it was a call from King. I grabbed it and hit the connect button as I put the phone to my ear.
“King, listen – ” I started.
“Are you okay, Abbie?” his voice was frantic. “What's going on? Did somebody take you?”
“I'm fine, King,” I said. “And if somebody had taken me, do you think they'd allow me to answer my phone?”
There was an immediate sound of relief in his voice. “Then what is going on, Abbie? Where did you go? I told you to stay in the apartment.”
I was conflicted. I wanted to tell him but knew I couldn't. But what could I say? He was already on the verge of freaking out and I knew nothing I said was going to be able to calm him down. If anything, I was only going to upset him even more. But I couldn't tell him nothing either.
“I just had to take care of something, King,” I said.
“Take care of something? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, something came up,” I said. “I had to deal with it. It couldn't wait.”
“Then tell me where you are,” he said. “I'll come to you. You can't be alone out there, Abbie. Especially right now.”
“Listen, I don't know what is going on with you and all your club business,” I said, “but I've got business of my own to deal with. And I don't need a babysitter to hold my hand the whole way. I'm fine, King. Don't worry about me.”
“Of course I worry about you!” King exploded. “There is some bad shit going down right now and I can't afford to handle my shit if I'm having to worry about you at the same time.”
A bolt of anger, bright and searing, knifed through my body. “Then don't worry about me,” I screamed back. “I'm a big girl, King. And I can handle my own shit. So go do whatever it is you have to do and I'll go do what I have to do. I'm fine.”
I disconnected the call and dropped the phone onto the passenger's seat again. It immediately began to buzz again as King called back. And then again. And then again. I ignored all of his calls and text messages. I had nothing more to say. I needed to do this and I was going to do it. King couldn't help me and he certainly couldn't help Michelle. I was the only one who could fix this situation.
Pulling over to the side of the road, I grabbed my phone and very deliberately avoided all of the voicemails and text messages that were sitting there waiting for me. Instead, I called up my GPS function and plugged in the address I'd been given. I was relatively sure I knew where I was going, but I couldn't afford to be late, so I thought it best to double check.
Just as I'd thought. I was heading into the industrial side of town. Thanks to the big economic downturn in the country, that was a part of town filled with old, abandoned buildings and warehouses. There were still a few businesses that were in operation there, but by and large, it was a part of town that was vacant.
Which made it the perfect place to hold somebody that had been abducted. Hold somebody and then lure somebody else in to save them – like me.
But what else could I do? I had no choice. I certainly couldn't let them hurt Michelle. With a sigh, I pulled out onto the road and drove on. A few minutes later, I entered the mostly empty streets. Unkempt, derelict buildings loomed large on either side of the street, filling me with a feeling of dread unlike anything I'd ever felt in my life.
“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” I muttered.
I turned left at the command of my GPS navigator's voice and drove down an alleyway between two abandoned warehouses. Litter and other assorted debris filled the alley and I had to take care to drive around the jagged shards of glass that were strewn about.
I'd gotten about three quarters of the way down the alley when two large, rough-looking Hispanic men stepped out of one of the buildings and stood in front of my car. A large roll up door creaked open on my right and they pointed to it. Apparently, I was supposed to drive in there.
With the icy fingers of fear tearing at my insides, I turned into the warehouse and stopped the car. The roll up door squealed again as they closed it behind me, plunging me into near total darkness.
“What in the hell have I done?” I whispered.