Safe Word (14 page)

“Get dressed. Now. We need to get the fuck out of here.”

“What’s happening?” She stood, looking panicked.

“I’ll explain on the way. Find something to wear. I don’t care what, but we need to fucking go. Amber is missing.”

She nodded and hurried past me and up the stairs. I followed, grabbing a T-shirt and my gun that still lay on the dresser.

We were on the road in record time. I had no idea where we were going but I knew I needed to get somewhere were my phone had a signal. As soon as I got a few bars, I began to call Amber’s cell phone but it went right to voice mail.

“Fuck.” I slammed my hands on the steering wheel.

“Please tell me what is happening. You’re scaring me.”

“I don’t know yet.”

I dialed Brock and on the third ring he sleepily answered the phone.

“What is it?” I heard him stifle a yawn.

“Amber is missing and someone ransacked my apartment last night.” I glanced over at Rose who looked confused at the information about my apartment. I didn’t want to cause any more worry for her.

“She disappeared from your apartment?” he asked.

“No. I had her and Rose at my parents’ place outside of the city.”

“Did they get Rose? Who was it?”

“Rose is safe. I didn’t see who. They must have taken her late last night. Her bed was empty when I tried to wake her. It has to be Craig.”

“You sure it isn’t someone else?”

It was an honest question. Brock was very aware of what I did for a living now that I was off the force.

“It doesn’t feel like it. They have no reason to come after me. I hadn’t fucked up as far as they know. They don’t know about Rose. I have a meeting later today that I can’t miss.”

“What does this have to do with her?”

“Brock, I need you to help me take care of this. I have to be there for the shipment and I need to know Craig is not a threat. If something happened to Amber…” I couldn’t even finish my thought. It killed me to think I had failed her.

“I’ll find him. I have off today. I’ll call in some old favors. What about Rose?”

“For now she stays with me. I need to know she is safe. I’ll contact you later.” I hung up the phone and stepped on the gas, heading to the grocery store where Amber worked a few nights a week. It was a long shot that she would have left without saying anything, but I needed to cover all my bases.

“You think Craig took Amber? Why? He is a lot of things but most of his crimes are petty.”

I glanced over at Rose before locking my eyes on the road ahead.

“Craig paid a visit to Shawn yesterday.” I glanced in the rearview mirror out of habit to make sure we weren’t being followed. The road was clear.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me? When did you find this out?” Her words came out like rapid fire, and I knew this was the last thing we needed to be discussing.

“When I left yesterday.”

“Is he…okay?” Her voice broke and she stared down at her hands in her lap. Her eyes squeezed shut as she braced for my answer.

“No.”

Her body began to shake as she sobbed silently, her hand covering her mouth to silence her cries. I hated that she was wasting any tears on that fucking prick. He deserved what he got. Had he listened to Rose he may have been able to protect her, but instead he blamed her. I tried not to upset her. This wasn’t her fault and she was the victim of some fucking psycho asshole. Still, had Craig been a real man he would still be alive and Amber would be safe.

We drove in silence as Rose mourned the loss of her ex and I contemplated how I would fix all of this with no more bloodshed.

We pulled into the old run-down grocery store and I made Rose wait in the car and lock the doors. I hurried inside and went to the first worker I could find. She was running a register.

“Is Amber here today?” I asked, and she ignored me as she continued to scan items for a customer. I rounded the corner and slammed my hand on the conveyer belt. “I asked you a question.” The teenager with pale-blonde hair looked up at me with annoyance in her eyes.

“She doesn’t come in until six today.”

I left, racking my brain for anywhere else she could be. There weren’t many places she frequented, and none of the bars or clubs would be open at this time of morning.

“What do we do now?” Rose asked as I started the car, staring off at the road ahead.”

I had no plan, no idea what I could do now to make this right.

“We’re going to find Craig and I’m going to kill him.” Rage was the only way to describe how I felt. This guy had now fucked with the only two people I had cared about. I didn’t know it until I laid eyes on that empty bed, but I loved Amber. It wasn’t the same as I felt for Rose, but I loved her and I would do anything to make this right.

“We can’t go after him, Cole. Please! He is dangerous.”

I cut my eyes to her, narrowing them. This man was a fucking child molester. I was going to fix this.

“Soon he’ll be dead. I can’t have you living in fear, Rose. I won’t. This needs to end now and before he hurts Amber.” I stared ahead as I felt her eyes on me. She knew I was right, and nothing she said would change the course of events. “Where could he be?” I asked, my gaze going to the mirror and back to the road.

“I don’t know. He’s been in and out of jail for year. He doesn’t have anyone left in his life…but me.” I glanced over at her and took her hand from her lap. I pulled it to my lips and placed a small kiss on the palm of her hand.

“We’re going to your mom’s house in the Manhattan.” I could see the fear in her eyes, but memories were the least of our worries today.

I didn’t need directions. I had driven by this house many times, knowing it was the end of the line in tracking Rose. After her mother passed away, the Rose I knew became someone else, and the trail went cold. The fact that this scumbag piece of shit was able to find her with little effort infuriated me. But he had many more years with her than I did.

She had changed my entire life in only three months. She had inspired me to take the right path and pursue a career in law enforcement. I wanted to dedicate my life to helping women in her situation. But I only became a monster. Still, I never laid a finger on any woman that crossed my path before Rose.

I pulled onto the block of her old town house and double-parked. We watched the house for a few minutes, but there wasn’t anyone coming in or out.

“Stay in the car. I don’t want you to see any of this.” I slid my phone into my pocket.

“Cole…” I knew she wanted to beg me not to go, to run away with her, but it was too late. I wouldn’t leave Amber behind, and I wouldn’t have Rose looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.

I got out of the car, giving her one last look before I jogged across the street and slipped between two of the neighboring houses down an alley way. Dogs barked and I hurried to the back of Rose’s old home. I had never been inside this one. I was running out of time. I needed to make sure I was at the docks in time for the deal, but Craig and I had a very old score to settle. I had wanted this to happen for years. For all the pain he had caused Rose, for taking her from me and now for stealing Amber.

I pulled my gun from the back of my jeans as I hopped the small wrought-iron fence. It rattled beneath my weight but I continued on. I was sneaking into a vacant home, weapon drawn in broad daylight. If I didn’t end up dead, by the end of the day there was a good chance I would be in prison.

I held my weapon pointed toward the ground as I stepped up the window next to the door. It led into the kitchen. All of the cupboard doors and the fridge hung open. If he were here, he didn’t plan on staying. I tried the handle but it was locked. I pulled my T-shirt over my head and wrapped it twice around my gun. I hit it hard against one of the small windows of the door and the glass shattered.

I slipped my hand inside and turned the lock, listening for any movement. The house was silent and I stepped in, pulling my shirt from the gun and tucking it in the back of my jeans as I held my weapon in position.

“Come out, come out, motherfucker. We need to have a little talk.” I walked over the broken shards of glass and into the dining room. It was completely cleared out, and I could see into the empty living room to the front door. I stepped inside the enclosed stairwell and pointed my gun to the top of the steps. Nothing. Each step creaked under my weight as I slowly ascended.

Directly ahead and to my right were doorways. I went straight and cleared the large square room first before backtracking and turning right into the next doorway. Scattered across the floor were piles of pictures. I stepped closer, glancing over the pile. I sank down as I noticed the flaming red hair of a young Rose. I picked it up, shoving my gun into the back of my pants as I recalled the day she wore that little green dress to the dance. I ran my finger over her sad face.

The sound of a door slamming loudly brought me back to the present, and I flew down the stairs toward the back door, which hung open. With weapon drawn I gave chase to a shadow that turned down the alley and slipped between parked cars. I jumped over the hood nearly falling on the concrete as I continued to give chase. He was winded and I was gaining on him. As he stumbled and tried to backtrack between a set of row houses, he was blocked by an old dilapidated privacy fence. I grabbed the back of his yellowing T-shirt and slammed his face hard against the rotting wood.

He groaned as I brought the butt of my gun down into the back of his head. He collapsed onto the ground and I flipped him over as I struggled to catch my breath. It wasn’t Craig. This man was older, and his nose larger and crooked.

“Fuck,” I yelled as I brought the gun down across his face, causing his cheek to split open, and a trail of blood oozed down, collecting in his ear. I cocked my weapon and pointed it at his forehead, pressing it into his flesh as I gripped his T-shirt in my fist.

“Who the fuck are you?”

He moaned but didn’t respond. I dug the barrel farther into him.

“Answer the fucking question!”

“I’m nobody. I was told to come here and wait to see if anyone showed. That’s all I know.” He held up his hands in surrender.

“Give me an address to who sent you.”

“The old Willington factory by the Hudson river.”

I let go of his shirt as I stood over him. I grabbed my T-shirt from the back of my jeans and slid it on quickly, tucking my gun safely in the back of my jeans and taking off through the houses to my car.

Rose was staring at me wide eyed through the passenger window of the car. I rounded the front of the vehicle and slipped inside.

“What happened? Was he there?”

“No.” I turned the key in the ignition causing the car to roar to life. I shifted it into drive and pulled out into traffic. “But I know where he is.”

The factory was only about a half hour away, and I had given up hope on making it to the dock in time for the deal. I was already too late. There was no possible way for me to take Rose along and there was no safe place for me to take her. Besides, I needed to find Amber. Nothing else mattered.

“Come here.” I put my arm out for Rose. She unbuckled her seat belt and slid across the bench seat into my side. I wrapped my arm around her as I drove out of the Manhattan toward the old factories. “You will be safe when all of this is over. As soon as Craig is dead I’ll send you somewhere safe.”

She looked up at me and I squeezed her tighter against me.

“You mean
we
will go somewhere safe.”

I swallowed hard as my throat began to close.

“Of course. Anywhere you want.”

I turned into the dusty parking lot and pulled next to the building.

“Wait here.” I lifted Rose’s chin, running my thumb over her lower lip before leaning in and pressing my mouth against hers. As I pulled back her eyes slowly opened, glistening with tears. “I love you.” I opened the door and slid out of the car.

My eyes danced over the old abandoned factory, covered in years of dirt and graffiti. I grabbed my weapon and walked through the open garage bay door and into the cavernous space within. It was cool and dark, even though the far side of the building was nearly all windows. The years of dust that had collected on them let little light shine through. My eyes danced over the metal stairs to my left, and I followed them to a catwalk above me, keeping my eyes on all of the possible areas for Craig to be hiding. There was a closed door approximately four feet away from the landing and I positioned myself next to it as I listened for any motion inside. I could hear a small tapping. I mentally counted to three and pushed open the door, gun extended. There was no one but a rat, who scurried from the corner under an old metal table. “Fuck,” I cursed under my breath.

My phone rang loudly in my pocket and I scrambled to grab it, holding it up to my ear in anger when I saw that it was Brock.

“What?” I whispered angrily as I stepped back outside the room and scanned the area.

“We’ve located Craig. He hung himself, and by the looks of the body it wasn’t long after he shot Shawn.”

My mind raced. The man at Craig’s former house said he was here. I thought back to our conversation, squeezing my eyes closed as I racked my brain. He never said it was Craig.

I took off down the metal staircase and out into the overpowering sun. I shielded my eyes and stopped dead in my tracks. Rose was whimpering as Whitey held a gun to the side of her head.

“This is interesting,” he said as he grabbed the hair at the back of her head and began to walk toward me. I held up my weapon, letting him know I wouldn’t shoot. I slipped it slowly into the back of my pants as I stared at Rose, pleading with my eyes for her to forgive me. I had looked at the world through my own rose-colored glasses and became oblivious to the big picture. I heard someone clapping from behind me and spun around, coming face-to-face with Danny.

“I know I missed the drop off. I wanted to make it.”

Danny shook his head with a smirk on his face.

“I see why you were held up.” He glanced around me to Rose.

“She has nothing to do with this.”