11
Chance
I’m not scared, and I’m not going to beg. I’m just pissed off.
Gold Teeth has dragged me to some moldy warehouse in the middle of nowhere. He’s nervous, too nervous. He keeps rubbing his hands together and twiddling his fat little fingers. He keeps jumping at the smallest sounds, like he’s waiting on someone kicking down the door at any moment.
I didn’t scream when I saw the gun, I simply sat there and waited quietly. Gold Teeth climbed in the back and I felt him press the nuzzle of the gun up against my seat. From there he told me to drive as if nothing was wrong. He guided me here, to this hell hole.
The warehouse looks like it hasn’t seen life for a good twenty years. The windows are all broke, the ceiling is flooded and dripping in various places. There are puddles on the floor, it’s scant, there’s not much in here save for some old iron pipes that run up the wall in one corner. I’m cuffed to one of the pipes, stood, scowling at Gold Teeth as he paces around frantically.
“We should have come back and got the money.” He skitters about while talking to himself. “We should never have let them scare us of like that.”
“Where’s your ugly ass friend?” I say. “What happened to the dream team?”
Gold Teeth shoots me a ratty look. “My brother and I parted ways. You might say we had a little disagreement…”
He looks down at the gun in his hands and for the first time I get the inkling that maybe I should be scared of this guy. Whatever is going on with Gold Teeth, he seems paranoid as fuck… his mental faculties don’t seem to be all there. A few weeks ago when he was on my doorstep trying to intimidate me, he at least seemed to have it together, even if he wasn’t the most savory of characters.
“What are you so scared of?” I ask. “Is someone coming to get you?”
“They are!” He waves his gun at nothing in particular. “Your boyfriend and his big scary friends. They’re all coming to get me.”
“Will you stop saying that? He’s not my boyfriend. Not anymore anyway.”
Gold Teeth shoots me another look, but this one is more inquisitive. His voice is like dry gravel. “What’s that? Trouble in paradise? Have a fight?”
I shake my head. “Rogan shouldn’t have interfered with my personal business without asking. I don’t like it when people try to protect me like that…”
Gold Teeth scoffs, and for the first time I feel like actually punching him in the face. “What’s so funny you stupid little rat man?”
“You don’t like it when people try to protect you?” He snorts. “I’ve never heard of something so ridiculous.”
“Yeah well, I’ve had people try and act that way in the past, and it always went too far.” I swallow at the thought of Tom and his abusive and controlling behavior. I don’t know why I’m unloading all this on Gold Teeth, or even why I’m talking to him in the first place.
The fact that Rogan stepped in without consulting me in the first place feels like a betrayal however. I never told him about the loan sharks, so he must have been spying on me. Why is he spying on me? None of it feels right.
“I’ve changed my mind about the money.” Gold Teeth snarls. “You’re going to pay it all to me, and you’re going to pay it now.”
I blow air through my lips. “You’re fucking delirious. There’s no way I can pay you $200,000 right now.”
“$200,000? It’s $400,000.”
“What?!”
“Ben wanted half. But he was being too soft. I want it all. Now. You’ve got your purse…”
I raise an eyebrow as I stare at my dim witted captor in disbelief. “Well yeah, but-” I stop myself halfway, at having just come up with a half decent escape plan. I eye up a piece of loose brick on the floor, just a couple of feet from the pipe I’m cuffed to. If I can convince Gold Teeth to uncuff me, I might just be able to knock him out cold.
“But what?!” He snarls.
“But nothing. I can pay you now actually. I can pay it all to you. I just need you to uncuff me so I can get my card out my purse.”
He squints at me, and I can practically hear the gears in his heard whirring at a glacial pace. The fact that he doesn’t suggest just bringing the purse to me, tells me that something is wrong with him. To my surprise, he buys it almost instantly.
“So… I’ll uncuff you, and you’ll pay me my money?”
I feel somewhat bad taking advantage of Gold Teeth. It’s clear he’s not in the fittest of mental states, but he wasn’t exactly a saint before. “Yes.” I nod. “Now let me go.”
He snarls and rolls his eyes, sighing heavily as if I’m adding a whole bunch of work to his day. “Argh… fine!”
He pulls out a ring of keys and a second later I’m unlatched from the pipes.
“Thank you.” I say as I rub the spot on my wrist where the chain was. “Now. Just to get my purse…”
I walk over to the spot on the floor where Gold Teeth threw my bag. It’s just a couple of paces from the brick. I open my bag, pull my card out of my purse and look behind me. Gold Teeth is pointing the gun in my direction, but he’s looking somewhere behind him. I skitter to the right a couple of steps and grab the brick off the floor. I turn around while holding the brick behind my back, and I realize he’s seen everything.
“Stop right there.” He says while holding the barrel of the gun inches from my face.
I know that there’s a part of me that should be scared, but I’m not. For the most part I just feel sorry for him, and that’s probably the craziest part of it all.
“You thought you could pull one over on me did you? Thought you could trick me and whack me over the head? Well. I don’t think so.” He pulls the hammer back on the gun and it clicks into place.
“Please. Don’t shoot.” I say. “I’ll just give you my card, and my pin number, and then you can let me go right? There’s no need for anyone to get hurt. You’ll go to prison if you kill me.”
His eyes shift side to side in his flat skull nervously. His head ticks up and his tongue darts out. “Fine. Give me the card.”
“Here-” I go to pass Gold Teeth my credit card and a genuine moment of clumsiness overtakes my fingers. The card flips out of my fingers and clacks across the stained concrete a couple of times until it comes to a stop behind Gold Teeth. “…sorry.”
“Argh!” Gold Teeth snarls again and throws his entire body in the direction of the card. He’s bent over at the waist trying to pick the card up, but he’s having trouble grasping an edge with his fat fingers. Suddenly I feel the weight of the rock in the hand behind my back, and I realize this is my chance.
“Sorry Gold Teeth.” I whisper. “But you kind of deserve this.”
“Help me pick this up you clumsy-” Gold Teeth is halfway through his sentence when he looks up to see me swinging the rock up at the side of his face, “-Bitch!”
I catch him in the side of the face with a satisfying thud and he hits the ground like a sack of coal. His body splays out in such a way that his hand is just inches from the pipe that he cuffed me to. Gold Teeth murmurs on the floor, whimpering gently as his body struggles to keep consciousness.
I take the opportunity of a temporary advantage and cuff his wrist to the pipe. I rummage through the pockets of his jacket and take the car keys he confiscated off me earlier.
“Wait a second…” He murmurs wearily as he sees me walking off. “Where are you going?! You can’t just leave me here!”
“I’m off to scold my boyfriend. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure the police find you here.”
I turn on my heels and march back across the abandoned warehouse like a woman possessed. I am not in the mood to be fucked with today.
*
Rogan
It doesn’t take long for me to arrive at the office, when I do I waste no time getting the information that I need. I tell Liv to take Ashlee up stairs and find something for them to watch on the TV together. I head back down stairs and find Hank and Tony waiting for me as instructed.
“Results, give them to me, go.”
“I went and checked out Genesis Collection like you asked.” Hank says.
“And?”
“To my surprise there actually was some activity, but it’s not a very useful lead.”
“What happened?”
“It looks like Genesis Collection have come to a natural end. The two brothers have had some sort of big falling out and are no longing working together. I think they’re hard up for money and unable to pay off their own debts. That explains why they’ve been going after clients in such a ridiculous way.”
“Ironic.” Tony scoffs. “Debtors going out of business.”
“What happened?” I ask the question to Hank again, indicating that I need more detail.
“Right, sorry. I went to the office, and one of the brothers actually was there. David I believe. I threw him up against a wall, asked him what they’d done with Chance, he was clueless.”
“Could he have been lying?”
“No.” He says. “He’s too dumb to lie. He said him and Mark have parted ways since Mark went off his meds.”
“…and that brings me to my info.” Tony chips in and I turn to look at him. “I did the GPS search on the cells like you asked. Looks like Chance stopped by the mall today, her cell pinged a tower near there and…”
He turns the laptop screen around and shows two red dots in the area of the mall cell tower. “This second dot is Mark Stone. Looks like he was around the mall the same time as Chance. I think they might have ran into each other by accident, and Mark has taken Chance.”
I feel a cold pit opening in my stomach. “And where are they now? What does the GPS on the cell say?”
“Inconclusive. They stopped at Chance’s house first and then they headed east out of the city, but the GPS lost signal on the edge of town.”
I look at the map for a moment and recognize the road on which they traveled from. “I know where they are.”
Hank and Tony look at me in disbelief.
“Wait.” Tony says. “You do?”
“Yeah. There’s a set of old abandoned warehouses out there. Thugs like that use them all the time for hostage shit like this.” I clench my fists together until all the knuckles crack.
“Want us to come with you boss?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I want you both to stay here and look after Ashlee and Liv. There’s a chance this other brother will go mental too and have some sort of episode. I’ll find and protect Chance first, and then we’ll take care of both of the brothers for good.”
I’m about to leave when Tony stops me. “There’s one more thing boss. I looked into her past.”
“Anything to note?”
Tony nods. “She had an ex boyfriend. And it wasn’t pretty.”
*
I pull up at the group of old warehouses, and the tires of my car are spewing smoke into the air. The sun is starting to come down, and the last light of the day is turning into darkness. I spot Chance’s car from the side of the road after driving through the block of warehouses a couple of times. It’s hidden right at the end on the right. Another chill passes through me. I almost feel as if I could be sick, but I remember my training and keep my cool. I jump out the car and stalk past Chance’s car to the nearest warehouse entrance. There’s no telling what this sick bastard might be doing to Chance, and there’s no telling what state she’s going to be in when I find her. Whatever happens, I will protect her and I will help her get better. I’m sick of losing good things.
My gun is out and trained dead ahead. I come to an open doorway, take shelter for a second and poke my gun around. That’s when I see her.
“Chance?!” I look around the immediate area but see no sign of any danger. I drop the gun instantly. Chance is making right for me. I thought she’d be happy to me, but instead she looks-
“Motherfucker!” She swings at me, and she catches me completely off guard. She catches me on the chin with her fist, and I have to admit it’s a pretty good punch. I deflect the punch, twist her arm out the way, holster my gun and grab her with my free hand - all in one slick motion. I’m inches from her face and I’m just as pissed as she is now. I came to rescue her, and this is the thanks I get?
“Get your fucking hands off me!” She squirms and she scowls. Her face is a picture of fury.
“What the heck got into you?!” I let go of Chance and she stumbles back a few paces. She’s as angry as I’m confused.
“You fucking spied on me?!” She shouts. “Is that what you’ve been doing the whole time we’ve been together?”
“Chance, what the hell are you talking about?”
“You scared the loan sharks away? You got your buddies to threaten them and make them stay away from me. Didn’t you?”
“Okay fine, I did. But I wasn’t spying on you.”
“No? Then how did you know Rogan? How did you know?”
I smooth a hand through my hair and pace in front of Chance. “I was on my way over a couple of nights ago to come and check upon you. I was just about to walk over to say ‘Hi’, when I saw those two idiots standing on your doorstep. I knew straight away that they didn’t look right, so I waited by the bushes and listened to what they had to say. I heard that they were trying to shake you down for money.”
“And then what?” Chance cuts in.
“I got Hank and Tony to look into it and sort it out. I made sure they wouldn’t bother you again.”
“And that’s it? I’m supposed to be thankful that you’re sneaking around, playing guardian angel to me from behind the scenes?”
I clench my jaw and shake my head, not sure if I want to say anything else. I shrug, oblivious to what I can say to make this better.
“You don’t have to thank me for anything. I just wanted to make you feel safe, is that such a big problem?”
“Maybe not now.” Chance says. “But it always starts off small, then it becomes something else. Before you know it, you’ll be chasing everyone off, and then you’ll turn on me too.”
“Now you’re the one being ridiculous.” I scoff. “I used some of my connections to help sort out a problem for you. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. I’m not your ex Chance, I’m not going to freak out and keep you locked up.”
Chance stares at me, as if I’ve just dropped a bomb. “What did you just say?”
I realize my mistake as soon as I see her reaction. I simply drop my head. There’s nothing else I can say to make this better.
“You looked into me?” She says. “You looked into my past… which is private.”
“No.” I say honestly. “I got Tony to do it just today. Just in case there was a chance there might have been something else in your past that could cause you harm.”
“Not anymore.” She shakes her head. “Just my present.”
She looks at me and I feel the knife of her words going through my chest.
“Please Chance. Don’t be like that. I shouldn’t have intervened without your permission. I realize that. But you have to understand. I did what I did for a reason.”
Chance is on the edge of tears now. “I can’t have another psycho over protective boyfriend Rogan.”
“I know, and that’s not who I am.”
“Then why all the secrecy? Why all the subterfuge? Why are you such a closed book? What is it you’re hiding from me?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I huff. “Just let it go. I fucked up clearly. Just… just go. I understand if you don’t want to see me again.”
Chance stands there for a second, clenching her jaw as she fights back the tears.
“No.” She says while taking a deep breath. “You know my secrets now… and now it’s my turn to know yours. Come on Rogan. Spit it out. I’m not the only one letting my past keep me tied down. Tell me what it is you’re so afraid of losing.”
“Chance I can’t.” I stammer. “You don’t want to know.”
She takes a step forward and pushes my chest. “I do Rogan. Tell me now or I walk for good. I’m not kidding.”
I take a deep breath and prepare to let loose the secrets that have been eating me alive the last ten years.
“I’ve lost everyone that was ever important to me.” I let all the air out of my lungs, and it comes out shaking. “As you know, I was in the SEALs. I loved my time in the Navy, but there aren’t many soldiers to come out on the other side without some mental scar tissue.”
Chance’s face softens a little as she listens to me talk.
“I never wanted to leave the Navy, but I was given an honorable discharge.”
“What for?” She asks with rasping breath.
“We were at the tail end of our second rotation in Iraq. It had been a grueling couple of months. We’d had two dozen firefights in half as many weeks. We were a few days away from going home, when our troupe was tasked with cleaning a sniper nest hidden halfway up the valley. We went in, took care of it and we were about to head on back to base when a truck full of insurgent fighters pulled up. They had an automatic gun pinned on the back of the truck. There were six men in my troupe, we all got hit, we all went down instantly.”
I pause for a second as I relive the day when I thought I was dead.
“Then what?” Chance says in a soft voice. “What happened then?”
“The mounted gun jammed and it gave us enough time to shoot back properly. Me and my buddy Gins were the only ones able to lay enough lead into them, but it was enough and the truck pulled off. Gins and I pulled ourselves to our feet, and we saw that the rest of the troupe were in a pretty bad way. One of my brothers was dead, but the rest of them were only wounded. If we could get them to safety, we could rescue them.”
I pull the collar of my shirt down and show Chance the black mark tattooed under my collar bone. “The black circle, that’s where I was shot. Gins was hit in his side, but the important thing is that we could both still walk. We were dragging everyone inside to safety when the truck came back. They couldn’t get their mounted gun working again, but they had one last trick up their sleeve. A grenade.”
I pause as I watch the memory replay itself in my head.
“They threw the grenade into the center of the group. Gins and I had barely had a second to start dragging people to cover. The truck pulled off, and I remember the sound of them laughing. I remember how heavy the grenade sounded as it hit the sand. I screamed at Gins to get back and went to throw myself on it. Next thing I’m flying to the side and I realize that motherfucker had pushed me out of the way.”
I clench my jaw and laugh to myself as I fight back the tears. “God damn bastard pushed me out the way and he threw himself on it. The grenade went off and he died right there. He saved five lives that day, including mine.”
The story ends and Chance is silent as death.
“After that, they sent me home with an honorable discharge. The bullet did enough soft tissue damage to make sure I’d never be good in battle again, but the real damage was up here.” I point to my head. “Two months after we buried Milo, Kate died of her cancer. It was a rough couple of years.”
“Milo?” Chance asks, genuinely confused.
“That was Gins’ first name. Milo Gins. That little puppy is named after one hell of a soldier.” I steel my jaw against the tide of emotion that’s threatening to swell within me and look down to the ground.
“I lost two of my best friends in as many months. After that I closed in on myself, and I didn’t let anyone new get close to me. I’m so terrified of losing someone I love again… I’ll do anything to make sure it doesn’t happen. I’m sorry I interfered with your personal life, but you’re the most important thing I’ve had in my life in a long time. I’m not going to let anything take you away, but I’m not your ex Chance. I promise you that.”
Next thing I feel Chance wrap her arms around me. Her breath is shaking as she speaks.
“I know that now. I’m sorry I was hard on you Rogan. I had no idea. Everyone you ever cared about… you lost them.”
“I know I should have told you, but it’s hard for me to talk about this stuff. It hurts Chance. I didn’t mean to go running around behind your back. But… I’ve not had anything as important as you in a long time. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you go. I’m sorry.”
Tears are coming down her face gently and Chance half laughs.
“No. You don’t have to apologize. My ex boyfriend - you’re right. He was a psycho. He was overprotective, he was terrified I’d cheat on him the first chance I got. He was so paranoid he’d lock me inside the house on the weekend.”
She takes a breath and looks me in the eyes. “You’re nothing like him. You’re kind, you’re strong - you really can protect me.”
I wrap my arms around Chance and hold her tight. “You have to understand Chance, if you’re with me… then you’re with all of me. There are parts of me that are fierce. There are parts of me that are dangerous. I’m a SEAL and I always will be, but I promise everything I do, is to protect you and Ashlee. If you want me, then my mind and my mental baggage is part of it. It’s a package deal. Take it or leave it honey.”
Chance laughs and kisses me on the forehead.
“I’ll take it all.” She says quietly. “I’m not so sane myself.”
I squeeze her tight, and for the first time in a long time I’m grateful that I’ve finally found someone I can just be myself around.
“Sure you are.” I huff in amusement. “Nice little girl like you, you’re not that dangerous.”
“Oh really?” She raises an eyebrow and steps back. “Maybe you should come and see what I did to my captor then. Did you think I was just out here all by myself?”
Chance leads me to the whacked out loan shark who is unconscious and chained to a pipe in a far corner.
“Jesus Chance. Remind me not to get on your bad side. Hank went to see his brother. His brother says he had some sort of mental episode.”
Chance nods. “That’s why I took it easy on him, but yeah - I could tell something wasn’t right.” She looks around the warehouse and then back at me. “What do we do now?”
“I should probably ring in the police. After that we should probably head home. Come on little one. Let’s get a move on.”
We walk across the empty warehouse and she takes my hand. We walk in silence, just happy to have each other. We’re broken, but we’re broken together - and in that way, we’re kind of on the way to being half fixed.