Dark Mysteries (24 page)

The
phone fell to the ground, K's voice a wild, animalistic scream.
“Ellie! Ellie!” But then the phone crashed, shattering
apart on the concrete next to Ellies crumpled body.

Nineteen

Xander
flew into his office, slamming the door so hard the glass cracked. He
wasn't a violent person. He had carefully caged away that adolescent
side of himself years ago. But he found himself grabbing the coffee
cup off his desk and hauling it at the wall. Next went the trash can.
Then the computer.

He
was huffing, standing with the mess around his feet. It didn't help.
He felt like he was crawling out of his skin. Like he needed to rip
himself open to feel some relief.

“Hey
man what the fuck...” Gabe started, opening the door. He froze,
looking around, taking in the mess. Watching Xander whose face was
all hard lines, his fists clenching and un-clenching, his breathing
heavy. “What's going on?”

Xander
grabbed for the note, flinging it toward Gabe. “She's fucking
gone,” Xander ground out between clenched teeth.

Gabe
stooped down, picking up the paper, and carefully reading it. “Damn,”
he said, shaking his head. “She really loves you, huh?”

“What?”
Xander said, spinning to face his friend. Feeling explosive. Like a
bomb that was bound to go off.

“She
loves you,” Gabe shrugged, holding out the paper. “This
Jane Eyre quote... she loves you.”

“She
just likes her stupid quotes,” Xander said, running a hand down
his face. “She has a ton of then scribbled in those books.”

“Yeah,
but she wrote this one to you. In her goodbye letter...”

“What
does the letter matter?” Xander asked, reaching for it, needing
it. Needing the piece of her. “She's... gone.”

Gabe
took a deep breath. It needed to be done. He had to tell him. And he
had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to end up with him getting
his ass handed to him for keeping it from him in the first place.
Hell, he deserved it.

“Dude,”
Gabe said, shaking his head. “I have something to tell you
about Ellie...”

“Do
you know where she went? Did you see her leave?” Xander asked,
a small bud of hope blooming in his chest. Maybe there was hope.
Maybe he could find her.

“No,
man,” Gabe said, moving inside, gesturing toward the desk.
Xander rolled his eyes and went to sit down behind it. Gabe found the
metal folding chair, picked it up off the floor, and sat down on it.

“So...”
Xander said, feeling a little calmer.

“Her
name is Eleanor Piotrowski. She...”

“What.
The. Fuck. Gabe?” Xander seethed, slamming his fist down on the
table. So much for calmer. His throat felt like it was on fire. “How
long have you know this?”

Gabe
tensed. He knew it wasn't going to go over well, but maybe he had
expected better. Something was up. With Xander. With Ellie. With
their situation. Because Xander might be hot-headed at times, but not
irrationally so. “Since I met her. I know,” he said,
holding up a hand, stopping Xander from saying whatever it was he was
about to say. “I know. But I told her I wouldn't tell you...”

“So,
she knew you knew... what the hell has been going on underneath my
nose?”

Gabe
felt himself smiling slightly, shaking his head. “Faith knew
too,” he said, figuring it was best to just... get it all out
there. At Xander's disbelieving face, he nodded. “Yeah. Faith
knew a lot more than she let on to you. Hell, the other day, she even
made Vin let Ellie into his panic room when some shithead was chasing
her.”

“Okay,”
Xander said, taking a slow, deep breath, holding up a hand. “I
need this from the beginning.”

“Right,”
Gabe said, nodding. Able to deal with this side of Xander better.
Calm, calculating, private investigator. “Her name is Eleanor
Piotrowski. She was from Jersey. Her father was a detective.”

“Am
I going to need to pry it out of you?” Xander rolled his eyes.
“Just spit it out already.”

“Dude...
she dated Nicola Russo.”

The
color drained out of Xander's face, he swore his heart stopped in his
chest. “What?” he asked, his voice barely above a
whisper.

“Yeah,”
Gabe said, shaking his head. “She was a kid. Eighteen. He
promised her all kinds of things. And then he slowly isolated her
from her family and friends...”

“Fuck...”
Xander said, knowing where this story was going.

“And
then he started beating her. When she tried to run... about a year
into dating him, he dragged her back and threw her in a cell in his
basement. Left her chained there by her wrists for weeks. Tortured
her. Made her lose the baby she was carrying. Let her almost die of
infection...”

Xander
was shaking his head. No. No fucking way. No. That couldn't be her
story. But he knew that it was. He knew that she had suffered. She
had told him herself. At the hands of some jackoff glorified drug
dealer in Jersey.

“He
killed her father as retribution...”

“Jesus,”
Xander said, leaning forward and burying his face in his hands.

“But
she got away. She got away and she survived and she ran. She found
her way here...”

“And
I couldn't save her. So, she had to save herself,” Xander
concluded, full of an overwhelming feeling of worthlessness. It was
weird. Like sinking. Like drowning. But without the blissful death at
the end.

“No,”
Gabe shook his head, even though he wasn't looking. “No. She
left because she loved you. Because she didn't want anything to
happen to you because of her. Because she's learned that Nicola kills
anyone she cares about. She couldn't live with that. So she left. To
save you.”

“I
cant...” Xander started.

But
then the door flew open, bouncing against the wall, the already
broken glass shattering to the ground. And there stood K. His eyes
wild, frantic. A phone clutched in his hands.

“He
has her,” he shouted, looking like he wanted to pace. Lunge.
Hit someone.

“What?”
Xander said, his chest feeling suddenly hollow. “What are you
talking about?” Xander said, standing up so quickly his chair
overturned.

“He
has her. I heard them struggling. And then the line went dead. He
found her. He found her and he has her...”

“No,”
Xander said, shaking his head. No. No that couldn't happen. She was
too good. Too smart. Too safe.

“Yes,”
K said, trying to calm down. Trying to pull himself together. From
the looks of his office, Xander was already worked up. So he needed
to be in control of himself. Drag Xander out of his own rage. Get him
on board. He took a breath before speaking again, his tone
deceptively clear and controlled. “Xander, Nick has her. We
need to do something.”

“Okay,”
Gabe broke in, standing up, holding his hands out. “Everyone
needs to calm down. I am guessing,” he said, looking at K,
“that you are the guy from Seattle. The one who taught her
everything she knows about surviving.”

“K,”
he said, nodding.

“Alright,
K. Tell us exactly what happened today.”

“I
got a call,” he said, looking between them. “I was
expecting it. She calls when she is safe. We discuss the next step.
She was in Hartford. Was considering going to Boston next. Everything
was fine. But then I heard a voice with her...” he took a
breath, remember the pit of fear he had felt then. Nothing like he
had ever known before. Not like in all his fights. Not like when he
had his own life to try to defend. Nothing had come close to the
feeling her had for Ellie's attacker finding her. “And I told
her to run. And she did. But I think she panicked because she took
off down a highway... away from populated areas. She ran forever. Ten
minutes. Fifteen. I don't know. Then she said there was a building.
She ran to it. And then she must have seen people. Men. They were
men. And she screamed for help. And they helped,” he said,
closing his eyes. God bless them. “But he must have had people
with him. I heard hitting and yelling. Ellie had just... stopped
running. I guess she was in shock. Or there was no escape. I don't
know. But then...” he closed his eyes, feeling sick.

“And
then?” Gabe pressed, not caring about being sensitive. Needing
the facts. They needed the facts.

“Then
she hit him. With something...”

“A
baton,” Xander finally cut in, his voice hollow. “My
baton.”

“She
hit him and he yelled. And then...” he took another steadying
breath, “then she just starting telling me she loved me over
and over and over like...”

“Like
she thought she would never get a chance to say it again,”
Xander said, looking down at his hands.

K
nodded. “And then there was a crack. And the phone fell. That's
it. That's all. I don't … I need help. I need to help her and
I can't do it alone.”

Xander
was deceptively quiet, sitting with his face buried in his hands. He
needed to detach. He needed to stop thinking about it as Ellie.
Beautiful, perfect Ellie. Just a client. A no one. Someone just like
the hundreds he had dealt with before. Getting their asses kicked in
alleys. Getting their kneecaps broken. People who needed his help.

He
couldn't picture it as Ellie. Shackled up in that basement room.
Watching her attacker. Knowing what she was in for. Knowing he was
going to push her toward death and then drag her back.

No.
That wasn't going to help. Just a person. Nameless, faceless person.
Who needed to get dragged out of a bad situation. He had dealt with
gangs, crooked cops, the mob. It didn't matter that it was Nicola
Russo.

“Alright,”
he said, taking a deep breath, “we need to make a plan.”

“We
need to go,” K said, his voice desperate.

“We
will,” Xander said, moving into the apartment, waving them with
him. He walked over to the coffee machine, filling it and turning it
on. They were going to need it.

They
didn't sit down. Xander stood, his back pressed against the
refrigerator. K paced on and off toward the front of the room. Gabe
seemed the most relaxed, holding one of Ellie's books in his hands,
flipping to read the quotes she had written down, one hand on the
back of a dining chair. All of them were silent. Thinking. Planning.
Trying to come up with the cleanest way to go about it.

The
coffee machine beeped and he handed them each a cup, steaming, black,
strong. It was like a punch to the system each time they took a sip.

“Okay,”
Xander said, breaking the silence. “K... what do you know about
Nicola?”

“I
mostly know about what he did to her,” K said, looking sad,
disgusted. “I know he's a drug dealer...”

“He's
Jersey's biggest drug dealer,” Gabe said, shutting the book,
but holding onto it. “He's the one who is causing all the
overdoses here. They say it's because the heroine is too strong, but
there are rumors around that he's lacing it with something else...”

“Right,”
Xander said, thumbing through his notes about the overdoses. “Where
does he live?”

“Trenton,”
K and Gabe said at once.

Xander
looked at them. Gabe shrugged. “I was doing a jumper with a
friend. One of Nick's enforcers. Antony. That's how I knew about
Ellie. Antony and Nicola were really close. And wherever Nicola was,
so was Ellie... bruises and all.”

“Do
you know where in Trenton?”

“I
mean... no. He did most of his business in parks. In restaurants...”
Gabe trailed off, thinking. “Don't you know a guy on the force
who would look it up for you?”

Xander
shrugged. “Maybe.” It really depended on the day. On the
case. On his mood. “I'll give him a call,” he said,
moving into the office.

Alone,
Gabe looked at K. “She's in love with him,” he told him.

K
snorted. “About as much as he's in love with her, I imagine,”
K said, feeling once again for Ellie. No wonder she was so flustered.
So confused. She was running, for the first time, to protect someone
other than herself. “It doesn't seem to be clouding his
judgment though,” he said, thankful for his clear-headedness.

“Not
now,” Gabe said, finally putting the book down, “but when
we get there... when we see her. See what she's gone through...”

K
nodded. He knew that feeling. The coiled beast of outrage in his own
stomach was going to be hard to control.

“We're
probably going to need to drag him out of there before he does
something stupid.”

“Alright,”
Xander said, walking back in the room. Calm. He was so freakishly
calm it almost worried them. “Bad news,” he said, walking
over to his coffee and draining it. “He had an address, but it
linked back to a house that was sold about two years ago.”

“So
he might not even be in Trenton anymore,” Gabe said, sighing.

“No,
he wouldn't leave. That's where his business is,” Xander said.

“So
we go to Trenton. Ask some questions. Knock some heads together if we
need to,” K shrugged like it was the most normal thing in the
world. “We'll get an address.”