Wake Me Up (Love Knows No Boundaries) (17 page)

“I’m so glad. I was worried,” she beams. Oh yeah, I’m
in. “Let me see your dress, honey,” she exclaims, with a little too much excitement.

I twirl for her
, and my eye catches Aiden’s. He looks gobsmacked. He’s not helping.

I do it
spontaneously. I lean up against his chest and kiss him hard. “You need to focus, please,” I beg, and before I can pull away, his arm slips around my waist.

He lifts an eyebrow. “
Love? You call her love?”

“Too much
?” I ask.

He nods. “She has a name, use it.”

He lets me go, and I wink at him before turning back to Katia, she-who-has-a-name, the one whom I shall not call love again.

I roll my eyes. Who would’ve thought Ai
den would be jealous of a woman?

~*~

Chapter Fourteen

Aiden~

Watching my girlfriend flirt with Satan’s spawn is a hard
pill to swallow. Hearing her call her love? I almost chucked her over my shoulder and abandoned the whole damn fight.

I have to go get ready
, but I can’t take my eyes off Emma.

“Let’s go get a drink, hone
y,” Katia drools over my girl.

I take a step forward, because there is no way
Emma is drinking anything that woman gives her.

“
No, thanks, lassie.” She still figured out a way to call her something else, and I can’t be upset, because she’s listening to me. Katia scowls at her. “Later, maybe.”

I smile,
step forward and place a kiss on her neck. “I’m off to warm up.” She turns her face up to mine and smiles warmly.

“I’
ll be cheering for you, love. Make it a fast one, because you promised me something, and I’m in a hurry to get home.” She lowers her eyes to my mouth, and I don’t know how she expects me to step away now.

I grin. L
ike a dumbass. She called me love, and it ranks up there in my top five.

~*~

The fight is about to start, and Emma is sitting next to Katia. I’m too tense. It feels like I’m forgetting something. The harder I try to concentrate on what it is I forgot to do, the more it feels like it’s floating to the back of my mind.

I roll my shoulders and glance at
Emma. She’s listening to something Katia’s saying.

Dammit
, she looks breathtaking tonight. I need to focus.

“Aiden, Colton, it’s time
, guys,” Harper gives the sign and I step into the ring.

I stretch the
sparring gloves wrapped tightly around my hands, exposing only the tips of my fingers. I breathe in deeply, expanding my lungs fully, and let it out slowly.

Dammit!
All kinds of dammits. Stay calm, Aiden. Stay focused.

Colton starts to bounce lightly
, and I turn my right side to him. The left is still tender. We touch gloves, and it’s on.

He bounces back
, and I focus my eyes on his chest, from there I can see his feet and arms, whichever he’ll move first. He keeps bouncing, slowly moving left. I wait, every muscle pulled tight. The beat of the music fades out until there’s nothing but Colton and the background song. I know the song.
Demons
. It’s one from Emma’s collection. The one from Imagine Dragons.

‘
Your eyes, they shine so bright. I want to save that light. I can't escape this now, unless you show me how.’

Colton sneers and pounces. He crashes into me
, and the shock shudders through me. The second I hit the floor I look for Emma, and she’s gone. Katia’s gone. Seconds - that was all it took them.

I go cold.
I twist under Colton as rage bubbles up from my gut, and bring my arms up. They say there is nothing as dangerous as a caged animal. They haven’t met me.

Colton
’s legs grip tight around my waist, and he squeezes. It takes me seconds, precious seconds, to twist around under him. I don’t feel his fists and I get up with him, only to slam him into the ground. He grunts with the force I use. I take advantage of the one split second I have, and I grab him in an arm triangle choke.

“Wait!” h
e screams, panicked. I tighten my hold, cutting off his air supply. “Katia has her,” he grates.

“Where and why?” I hiss. I will snap his neck. Today I will kill a man.

“You’ll get her back with the next fight,” he grates. “She’s just insurance.”

I shove
him hard into the floor and get up. With my hands in my hair I stand, screwed.

“
Shit!” I spit the word out. I glare at Colton as he struggles up. “When?”

“Next
Saturday.” He rubs at his neck and I step up to him.

“A whole damn week,” I hiss. “You expect me to do nothin
g for a whole week?”

“Yes, she’ll be-
” I grab his throat, my fingers dig in deep, and slam him hard into the fence.

“No, she won’t,” I hiss. “Now! Y
ou give her back now or there is no fight. I won’t fight if she’s not next to me. I don’t work that way. You don’t threaten me, Colton. I’m not your friend. I will tear you and your house down.”

“Chill, man!” he yells. “You’ll win the fight and have her back in no time. This is how it works. I have a shitload of money riding on this. Just show next
Saturday at the address they text you, win and everything will be fine.”

The other guys step into the ring and I have to let go of Colton, because I’m out
-numbered.

And
now I know what I forgot. I forgot to give Emma our numbers. I forgot to check if she took her phone.

They have
Emma.

They have my
Emma.

~
*~

“Calm down,” Zac says again. But he’s the one pac
ing a damn hole in the living room floor. “She’s clever. She’ll be fine. We’ll find her.” He keeps saying the same words over and over.

“Zac!” I snap. “Stop it.
You’re gonna drive me insane walkin’ up and down like that. Sit your ass down. I can’t think worth shit if you’re going on like that.”

I drop my head in my hands and go over a year
’s worth of work again. I keep coming up with the same damn thing. I have to wait for Saturday. I have to wait and pray. Six more days.

Zac stays the night
, and I let him take my room. I stay in Emma’s. I can smell her on her pillows, and it’s driving me insane, being so close but still so far away.

At three
a.m. my heart breaks. She’s having a nightmare without me to ease it away. She’s alone - and they’re doing God-only-knows-what to her! I open her laptop, and the words on her background screen tear through me.

Hate creates
an act of violence be it against another or yourself, because somehow, somewhere, something dies.

Love creates
an act of kindness be it against another or yourself, because somehow, somewhere, something’s gotta give.

I turn on her media p
layer and listen to her music fill her room while I’m in her bed, and for the first time since my sister’s funeral, I want to cry.

But I don’t.
I just hold her pillow and wait for the countdown to day five.

Day four is a killer. I can’t eat. Eventually I fall asleep.

Her phone wakes me. I stare at the name
Chloe
flashing, and I only answer because it’s my damn duty.

“
Sunshine! Where the bloody hell have you been? I’ve been going nutters on this side. You don’t answer your mails? You don’t text-”

“Chloe,” I say her name so she’ll stop.

“Who’s this?”

“
It’s Aiden,” I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to explain what has happened to Emma to her. Zac is better at handling this type of situation. “Chloe,” I end up saying her name again.

“Where is Emma?” she asks
, and I can hear the panic building in her voice.

I can’t bring myself to say the words. I can’t tell Chloe that Emma’s been taken, that I failed her.

“Aiden, is Emma all right?” Her voice quivers.

“She will be. Can
I ask you to hold on until Saturday? I know I’m askin’ a lot, but everything will be fine on Saturday. I’ll get her to phone you then.”

I close my eyes and wait for her response. I pray it’s not a hysterical one.

“All right. Saturday. Not a day later or I’m coming to get her myself,” she warns.

“Not a day later. You have my word.”

~*~

Day three. Zac phones
my folks. I can’t believe he called my folks. But I needed to hear Mom’s voice.

“You look like crap
,” Zac says on day two.

I just glare at him from the couch.
Crap does not begin to describe all I feel inside. My mind’s turned into a goddammed nightmare. I can’t stop thinking of all the previous cases I’ve worked. I can’t stop thinking about the things they could’ve, and can still do to Emma.

“You need to get up and at it. She needs you at your best, Aiden. Go run it out
of your system and start getting ready for the briefing with the team.” He’s right. Zac’s right.

I drag on a sweater
, because it’s cold out, and I glance at Zac.

“Do yo
u think they’re keeping her warm?” I ask. I just need to hear him say it.

He nods
, but it’s not enough. I can see the fear in his eyes, and it makes my gut twist even more.

What gets me
is that she was the one most worried about my safety. She didn’t once worry about herself. She put me so at ease going into the damn thing that I got too confident. I should’ve left her with Zac.

~*~

Chapter Fifteen

Emma~

That stuff
I wrote in my paper about fear, yeah, I got some new material to add to it.

I’m getting to know fear real well. It’s not a feeling. It’s a living, breathing entity. It comes in and robs you of your breath and will to live. It robs you of your hope. I taste
fear to the point where my lips and skin stretch thin across my face; I can feel every inch of my skin slowly go numb before it feels like death itself is scraping its skeletal fingers down my spine. I have heard Death whisper in my ear that there is no tomorrow waiting for me.

The second I find something to live for
, life wants to give up on me.

I can’t remember what happened. I can’t rem
ember how I ended up here. One minute I was still listening to Katia and the next I’m here. I don’t know where here is.

There is something very
frightening about knowing you’re in a foreign country AND you don’t know where in that country you are.

My nightmares are changing. It’s no longer my mother reaching for me
, but Katia. She grabs hold of me, while Colton smashes into Aiden, and I just see blood. I don’t know whose blood it is. I pray to God it’s only a nightmare.

I think
the next fight is in two weeks, so I’ll be here for at least two weeks. I know if Aiden is okay, he’ll do his best to get me back. He’ll do his work. And there’s Zac.

The lock on the door
rattles, and I look up from where my head is resting against the wall. I never lie down. I don’t want to be caught lying down, so I sit with my back to the wall, and wait. I have the blanket wrapped around me. At least I have that to cover me. I’ll never wear a dress again.

“I thought I’d c
ome and visit,” Katia says, sauntering in.

“I don’t feel like company.
” I keep my voice neutral.

I do,” she says
, and I look down at my hands. “I like you, honey. Don’t take this personal.”

“Fancy that,” I murmur
, and then regret saying anything.

“Aiden is good. He’ll win. He better win,” she says
, and I hear the warning in her voice.

“What happens if he doesn’t?” I ask. I need to know
, so he’ll know what happened to the others. Instead of being a whimpering mess, I’m asking questions – that is how much faith I have in him. I know he will come for me.

“You go to the highest bidder.
Sorry, honey. We have to make the money back. My mama always said if you could bottle sex you’d be a millionaire.” She keeps talking.

I see her lips move but I can’t hear anything.
Those poor girls!

“Highest bidder?” I interrupt her.

“Yeah, the one who pays most for you takes you. How do you think we make our money? Bets don’t come cheap.”

She stays a little longer before she finally leaves me alone
.

~*~

I think it’s Saturday. I’m not sure. I hope it is. One more week then. The days are becoming so long, and the nights even longer. It’s weird how your days start to blend together when you’re stuck in a room and your only entertainment is when you get to go to the bathroom.

The lock rattles
, and Katia pushes the door open.

“I brought you a present. You can change into this.” She throws a shimmery piece of fabric at me. I wait for the door to close before I reach for it.

No bloody way! It’s worse than the one I have on. It can’t be called a dress. I stare at the door, and back to the dress.

Does this mean the fight is tonight?
Will I see Aiden tonight?

A sob bursts out of my mouth for the first
time. I’ve been trying to be strong, but just the thought that I might see him in a matter of hours makes this suddenly unbearable.

I get up and shimmy out of the dress. I drag the other one over my head
, and feel more naked than I have ever felt before in my life. I pull at the thing, but it stops right under my bottom.

The shimmery black
fabric leaves my whole back exposed. If I have to bend forward, it will just slip right off. There’s nothing holding it to me. When the door opens again, I cross my arms in an attempt to stick the material to me.

Colton.
I’ve only ever seen Katia. My heart launches into my throat at the sight of him.

“Your
boyfriend’s late, babe. He better show,” he growls at me. The room feels too small with him blocking the only exit. Then he nods for me to follow him, and relief crawls up my spine. “Let’s go.”

M
y heart starts out heavy and slow, too slow. Aiden’s never late. He’s punctual. Maybe something happened? And then my nerves kick in and my heart rate soars sky-high, making me dizzy and nauseous.

I’m not the only girl. I color code u
s by our dresses. The smallest of us, Purple, looks terrified, to the point that she might faint. She’s at the far end as they line us up against a wall. I wonder if I look like that, like I might pass out from fear. I wish I could, and only wake up when it’s all over. My eyes stretch wide when I recognize one of the girls from Aiden’s missing screen. I open my mouth but when Colton shoves me against wall, I snap it closed with fear.

“Stand still,” Colton hisses at me.
I duck my head away from him and nod shakily.

They say everything happens for a reason. Maybe the thing with my mother was to prepare me for this moment, so I wouldn’t move, so I’d stay calm – years of training for this horrid moment.

We’re at a different place. There’s an empty pool to my right. I try to take in as much as I can. There’s no music. There are boulders that look like they drop down an embankment. I don’t dare look behind me to see what the house looks like.

As so
on as I find a rock to focus on, a guy runs past me and I hear a strangled cry. The girl wearing blue grabs hold of him, and weeps in his arms.

I keep standing and watching as they come
, one after the other, and the place starts to fill up. I squeeze my back into the wall, wishing it would swallow me. All the girls cry. I can’t manage anything past the lump in my throat. It’s lodged so hard it’s starting to cramp when I breathe.

My mind is racing fast while everything moves in slow motion around me
.

I think crazy things.

I think how I should’ve spoken to my mother and father. They are still my parents.

I think how I should’ve told Aiden I love him.
At least I told Chloe. I should’ve written a last letter to my gran.

I straighten myself out and fold my hands in front of me. And I look down. I picture Aiden
, because the eagle soaring doesn’t help any more. I picture Aiden, only he calms me down.

~
*~

Shouting. I hear
many voices, all at once, and I cover my ears. People start to run, and I see men dressed in dark blue. I see guns.

Panic hits my chest so hard
, it slams my breath right out of my lungs. Fingers dig hard into my arm and my body moves in three parts, first my arm as it’s being yanked, then my chest and finally my legs realize they have to move, or I’ll fall.

My vision becomes tunneled as
I see the fighters, the ones who came to get their women, being thrown down into the dirt by the men in blue. Their hands are being tied behind their backs with something that looks like cable ties, not even handcuffs. I turn my head and follow the hand up from my arm to Colton’s distressed face.

My
tongue numbs with fear and I know I won’t be able to scream for help, it will really be like one of those dreams where nothing comes out. You open your mouth and it’s a horrific silence.

Colton
stops dragging me and I stumble. I hit the ground hard, it’s dry, scraping at my hands and legs. Shocked, I look at the chaos around me, women crying, men yelling, others looking panic-stricken at being caught.

Colton yells something next to me and I flinch at the volume of his voice.

“Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands,” Someone else yells.

The words
are loud. I see the gun pointing at Colton and dumbstruck I stare down at my scraped hands.

“Your hands!”
he yells again, scaring me halfway to death.

Colton hits the floor right next to me. He grunts as someone presses a kn
ee into his back, restraining his hands with cable ties .

“Emma?” My eyes dart up. I see Zac. I see him on top of Colton, but I can’t move.

He’s dressed in chinos with a button-up shirt. He’s wearing a black armoured vest. I watch him yank Colton up. I watch as he keeps his gun trained on him. I don’t understand how I can take all of this in.

Remember what I said about fear? About it making you numb
?

I feel
so many prickles. Tiny prickles start over my scalp, and then they run over my eyes and cheeks. Prickles become the sum of my being, and I turn my face away from Zac and Colton. I don’t want to see them, or the gun.

Aiden
. My whole being breathes his name.

My eyes jump to his hand holding the gun
, and I watch him holster it. The only thing about him that looks familiar is his face. He is dressed like Zac. He holds out a hand to me, palm first, and I see the ink curl around his wrist. 

Then
my view of Aiden disappears as someone moves between us.

“Aiden,” I
whisper to make him real again. “Aiden,” I scream as the panic hits, gripping my chest until it aches.

He moves fast, kneeling over me.
“Emma,” he breathes my name, and his hands hover over me, not touching. “I should’ve brought a jacket,” he says. He moves away and grabs hold of one of the men in blue. The man shrugs out of his jacket. He comes back, tucking my arms into it before he picks me up.

I just keep looking at him, scared he’ll disappear if I blink.

~*~

I have to answer questions. Zac
and another man ask them, because Aiden’s not allowed to. I only get to go home later, after an argument. They want me to go for a check-up. I’m fine, I want to go home. I can take care of myself.

Aiden is angry. I’m cold and tired.
We don’t talk.

I head straight for my bedroom
when we get home. I drop the jacket and dress in the room and only stop when I reach the shower. At first I wash, even though the scrapes burn – I wash, needing to rid myself of the awful week’s memories. But then I sink down in the corner, wishing I could cry. I still can’t, and the ache in my chest keeps building up.

So I stare
, and pretend the drops of water pelting me are tears.

The water stop
s, and I glance up. Aiden takes the towel and hunches down. His gun is gone. It’s the first thing I notice.

But he’s still in his w
ork clothes. He doesn’t feel like my Aiden any more. He’s someone else now.

He wraps the towel around me
, and I get up so I can dry my hair and get dressed.

“I fixed
you something to eat,” he says, “and you need to phone Chloe. Just let her know you’re okay.”

I nod
. Once I’m dressed in my own clothes again, I follow him out to the kitchen to eat.

But e
verything feels fake.

I feel hollowed out
.

~*~

I’m drained. I want to sleep, but I know Chloe will worry. She sounds tearful when she answers.

“Emma?”

“Hey, Chloe,” I don’t know what else to say.

“Are you alright? What happened?”

“Oh, you know me, I just got myself into a hot spot and Aiden had to save me.” I try to shrug it off. I can’t tell her what really happened. I’m not one to talk about things. Once they are over and done with, I leave them in the past. I don’t allow myself to dwell on things. I won’t survive that way. “How are things on your side?”

“
Oh, Emma!” She bursts out crying, and it’s only then I realize she’s been calling me by my name.

“What’s wrong, love?”

When Aiden comes into the room, I get up and walk over to the window.

“It’s my mum,” she sobs. I wait patiently for her to talk. “She’s gone.”

I don’t know if it’s from the shock but I don’t understand what she’s saying.

“Chloe?” I whisper.
             

“She gave up on me, Emma! She’s dead.” She takes a shaky breath. “I hate to ask this, but I need you
-“

I stop her.
“Of course! You don’t have to ask. I understand. Take something to sleep. I’ll ring you in the morning so we can discuss the details.”

“You know you’re the best, right?” she says my line back to me.