“Well, isn’t this like old times?” Vincent asked as he stepped into the dank basement.
“We should take a commemorative picture,” Dakota replied sarcastically. He and Tony were tied up, their arms folded behind their backs and around a floor-to-ceiling concrete beam. Dakota hadn’t seen the others, and hoped they were still alive as well. He knew Anastasia would be coming for them. His main goal was to find out where the others were being held.
“I don’t think that will be necessary.” Vincent laughed.
Dakota looked at the small woman who was chained to Vincent’s waist. She looked nothing like the woman he had taken Anastasia to. Her eyes were sunken into her head, her face pale and gaunt, and her once dark hair was turning white.
“What the hell are you doing to her?” Dakota pulled on his chains. There was no question about it, Monique was dying.
“She’s doing it to herself, aren’t you, my love?”
Monique refused to look at him when he spoke, and instead was staring directly at Dakota.
“I’ve got some bad news for you two.” Vincent clucked his tongue and continued to stalk around the room. “I am going to be paying a visit to your little village.”
“Sounds like that will be bad news for you,” Tony spoke up for the first time since Vincent showed his face. “Anastasia will slaughter you where you stand.”
“Anastasia won’t stand a chance.” Vincent laughed. “Not once I tell her I will kill the two of you if she resists.”
“When have you ever known Anastasia to do anything you predict?” Tony smarted off again.
“She will obey me this time.” Vincent curled his fist. “I should have killed her when I had the chance.”
“You didn’t, and every single time you have tried, she has defeated you. Do you honestly think this time will be any different?” Dakota pulled on his chains.
Vincent knelt in front of him. “I think I look forward to killing you most. Even as a child you were particularly nosy. If it weren’t for you, things might have gone a bit different.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“You and your family were constantly getting in my way. Your father couldn’t keep his damn nose out of my business. Do you want to know how he died?” Vincent asked with a smile. “I really don’t mind telling you, or perhaps I could just show you.”
Vincent placed his hand on Dakota’s head and Dakota felt himself being pulled out of his own mind and thrust into a memory that was not his.
“That cop needs to go,” Vincent told the man who stood before him. “You will kill him, or I will kill everyone you care about.”
“If I do this, if I kill the cop, you’ll let my family be?”
Vincent looked down at the man, disgusted. His face was covered in sores from the drugs he insisted on injecting into his body. The family he spoke of didn’t give two shits about him, but Vincent wouldn’t be the one to tell him that.
“Yes.”
The man nodded frantically and took the gun from Vincent’s hand.
George Parker stepped from the precinct and began his walk towards the diner he visited every day, when his phone rang.
“Parker,” he said gruffly as he put it to his ear.
“I know something.”
“Who is this?”
“I know what happened to the girl.”
George stopped and straightened. “What girl?”
“Anastasia Carter.”
“Who is this? What do you know?”
“Not now, meet me in the alley behind Mal’s Diner. I’ll tell you everything.”
“I’ll be there.” George hung up his phone. He couldn’t wait, so he dialed his wife’s number. “El, I think I got a lead!”
“On Anastasia?” She knew without asking. Anastasia was the only topic of conversation in their house since the night she disappeared.
“Yes. I’m going to meet someone now who claims to have some information on it.”
“Be careful.”
“You know I always am.”
“This is so wonderful, let’s hope it’s good news.”
“Don’t say anything to Dakota yet, I don’t want to get his hopes up.”
“I won’t. Love you, Parker.”
“Love you too, El,” he said, and ended the call.
He reached the diner quickly, ready for whatever information the mystery man had for him.
“Are you waiting for me?” he asked the man who stood in the alley.
“Are you George Parker?”
“I am.” Something was off, George knew it. Something about the way the man stood, his hand twitching in the pocket of his sweatshirt, had George taking a step back. He wouldn’t leave, though, as he felt personally responsible for Anastasia’s disappearance and he needed to know what had happened to her. If there was anything he could do to help her.
“Then you’re who we’re waiting for.”
“We?” George asked, and his hand went to his gun.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A voice sounded behind him and George spun to see a man he recognized behind him.
“I know you.”
“I’m sure you do, you live next door to my business partner.”
“Mitch.”
“That’s him. My name is Vincent, and I hear you’re inquiring about things you have no business looking in to.”
“What did you do to her?” George growled.
“I didn’t do anything to her. She’s alive as it stands, but won’t be for long.”
“You son of a bitch.” George pulled his gun out, but his entire body froze and he found himself unable to move. “What did you do to me?”
“I’m making sure you can no longer get in my way.”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Oh yes I will. I already have. You had better hope that son of yours keeps out of my way, or you might be seeing him sooner rather than later.”
“Don’t you fucking touch my son.”
“You.” Vincent motioned for the man who had called George. “End him now.”
The man raised the gun and pointed it at George.
“You don’t have to do this,” he pleaded.
“Yes I do.” The man shook his head, tears falling down his cheeks. “I have to do this.”
“Do it already,” Vincent said, and the sound of a gun filled the alley.
George’s eyes widened as he fell to the ground clutching his chest.
“About damn time,” Vincent said, and disappeared.
“But my family!” the man screamed, but there was no one left to hear him.
“YOU BASTARD!” Dakota yelled when Vincent pulled his hand away. Dakota pulled at his bindings.
“You Parkers have a history of sticking your noses where they don’t belong. But don’t worry, you’ll be reunited with him soon.”
“You forced that man to kill him, and you made it so he couldn’t even fight back! You fucking coward!”
“I couldn’t have anyone looking too closely at who might have really been behind it, now could I?” Vincent stood and wiped his hands on his pants.
“You will fucking pay for what you’ve done. I swear it.”
“Don’t go making promises you can’t keep, Dakota. I’ll make sure you are alive long enough to see your mother one last time.”
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Tony growled.
“You two sure are making a lot of threats for two men who are tied to a pole in my basement.” He turned and headed for the door, ready to face the girl he should have gotten rid of twenty-eight years ago.