Chapter 18
“What are you still looking at?” asked Anna with a frown.
It was drawing close to evening now, Brad had gone out to get the money for the meet the next day and the tension in Derek’s condo was thick. Hours had passed and they were still brainstorming for ideas that would protect Brad and Mara from any foul play, they all looked worn out and anxious.
Derek shrugged; he was looking over the photos that were streaming in the video, “I don’t know, I’m just trying to see if I can pick up some clues as to where they might be keeping her.”
Anna sat down next to him and leaned in to look, “anything yet?”
He pursed his lips, his brows drawn in concentration, “nothing other than the fact that they’ve been moving her over the past couple days,” he sighed, “this guy, whoever he is, is one cocky bastard,” he said with a scowl, “do you think all of this was necessary?” he asked, pointing to the computer, “he probably took five pictures at every destination.
Anna shrugged, “so it seems.”
“Why would someone do that? It’s like he’s trying to lord what little power he has over poor Mara.”
Anna looked up at him with a smile, “did you just say poor Mara?”
He glared at her, “so what, nobody deserves to be treated like that.”
Anna leaned back with a sigh and fingered the arm of the chair restlessly; Derek glanced over at her briefly.
Can I ask you something completely unrelated to this?”
Derek hesitated, glancing at her from the corner of his eye surreptitiously, “yeah, I guess.”
Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and clasped her hands on her lap, “I … uh don’t get the impression that you’re over our disagreement the other day.”
Derek turned to look at her, his brows drawn over his unreadable eyes, “that’s not a question,” he said matter-of-factly.
“No… but,” she paused and looked at him in annoyance, “have you gotten over our disagreement Derek?”
Without hesitation he responded, “no Anna I have not. And now you’re gonna ask why, and I’ll tell you why. We argued yes, over something that you’ve done nothing to fix, which means that it still exists. So whether I get over that argument or not is irrelevant because it will come up again.”
She looked confused, “what do I have to fix, I said I was sorry; I acted like a fool when I should’ve been more understanding…”
“Just stop right there Anna, let’s not go any further. I … like you, yes, but you’re not sure if you like me, I can’t settle for ‘oh yeah you’re a great guy but… I don’t know.’ I want something more than that ‘cause we can’t build a relationship on uncertainties we have enough to deal with as it is.”
He looked at her with sad eyes while she gapped in surprise, “look Anna,” he started, his tone apologetic, “let’s not talk about this now, we tried and we failed, we don’t have to do a post mortem or anything. Let’s just help Brad get his wife back huh?”
She nodded, her lips set in a thin line, his rejection hurt. She leaned back against the couch and stared blankly at the screen Derek had returned his attention to, her expression sullen.
“Wow, wait!” she cried, suddenly sitting up and pointing at the screen.
Derek looked over at her confusedly, “what?”
“Go back,” she commanded, “there, pause it.”
She now leaned forward, narrowing her eyes at one of the photos included in Mara’s abduction video. It was one taken in the back seat of a car, with Mara slumped against the leather seat blindfolded and scared.
Anna pointed to a spot above Mara’s head, in the window at the back of the car, “you see that building, see that sign at the front?”
Derek leaned forward and mumbled his response.
“I know where that is!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with excitement.
He looked over at her, now very interested, “where then?”
Anna was already up reaching for the phone, “we’ve got to tell Brad,” she said excitedly, “this may give us an upper hand.”
“But we don’t even know if they’re still there,” Derek argued.
Anna looked back at him with bright eyes, “oh but I do, look at her clothes, you can see which are the most recent photos by the condition of her clothes and hair, this is her most rugged picture, she looks like a woman that’s been doing some traveling in car trunks and boat cabins.”
Derek looked back at the picture with a frown, “huh,” he said, “I guess you’ve got a point, but…” he reached up and took the phone from her hand, “don’t call him yet, his phone is probably being monitored, we’ll wait until he gets back.”
Anna hesitated, “okay,” she said eventually, and watched as he hung up the receiver.
“In the mean time you can tell me where you think they are,” he said.
The end of his sentence was accented by the sound of shattering glass coming from the bedroom, they both held each other’s gazes in question and panic.
“You heard that right?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Don’t move!” a loud voice commanded.
Two burly men stormed into the room from the bedroom, stone faced and threatening. Anna shrieked as one of them grabbed her from behind, wrapping thick, muscle bound arms around her upper body, trapping her arms to her sides painfully as he yanked her over the back of the chair.
“Derek!” she screamed as she watched him struggle with the other big lug.
Derek flung himself over the sofa, and quickly grabbed his office chair which he hurled across the room at the snarling man, his teeth bared in anger.
The man hunched over, shielding his head from the flying chair which he received with an aggravated grunt.
“You little bug!” he growled, and sprang over the sofa toward Derek.
Derek bent, lifted one of his ten pound weights and with a roar slammed it against his attacker’s jaw. To his surprise his head only snapped to the left and with his mouth still parted and slobbering he turned angry eyes on Derek. Derek swore, dropped the weight with a loud thud and dashed across the room, looking frantically at Anna and then at his hulk-like opponent.
“Look man, I don’t know what you want, so how about we clarify that before we go any further,” he said with lifted hands and a soothing voice.
The man only glared at him, his fists clenched at his side, his breathing like an angry bull. Derek sighed and shook his head.
“I guess not then,” he said with resignation just before the angry bleeding man charged toward him.
Anna was still struggling with her aggressor, who only tightened his grip and chuckled at her fruitless attempts to shake herself of him.
“You think this is funny don’t you?” she asked breathlessly.
He laughed, “Oh just a little bit, little squirrel,” he said in a mellow goofy voice that belied his daunting physique.
Anna rolled her eyes and with a determined grunt launched her heel into his groin. The man gasped and buckled, releasing her immediately to grab hold of his assaulted manly apples, his eyes rolling in their sockets and his cheeks puffed out on his reddened face.
“You little…” he squeaked.
Anna smiled at him, her weapon of defense raised above her head – a ceramic vase with a bouquet of artificial orange flowers. The man looked up at her in horror, just before she slammed it against his head, shattering the white ceramic in a puff of sand.
The man groaned, his eyes rolled back and he fell forward at her feet, his hand still lodged between his legs. Anna smiled triumphantly.
Derek was still playing tag with his attacker; he was the ugliest and biggest of the two and the bloodiest.
“Derek!” she called.
“Kinda busy Anna,” he responded, not daring to take his eyes off the other guy.
Anna rolled her eyes and picked up another breakable ornament, she marched toward the distracted giant and with
all her might brought it down against the back of his head. The room became quiet after the loud sound of the shattered porcelain, Anna stood frozen, her eyes growing wide with shock as the angry man turned to her, his eyes big and red, popping out of his head dangerously. He stretched out his hands and grabbed her by the collar, lifting her off the ground toward his bloody face and his rancid hot breath.
“Ahhhhh,” Derek’s battle cry was the interlude to his brilliant attack strategy.
He launched himself onto the back of the thick shouldered guy and wrapped his legs around his torso, only to pound on the back of his head and neck, with his fists that looked more like sticks against the bulging muscles of their assailant.
The man growled in annoyance and tried to shake him off. Derek held on tighter, lodging his hands over his opponent’s eyes and pressing his fingers into his eye sockets. The man cried out and tossed Anna aside, she fell backward onto the coffee table and gasped as the sharp pain shot up her back.
Derek hung on to the man until he was able to fling him off; he tumbled to the ground like a puppet. He was lying on his back in a daze, when the man leaned down and punched him in the face. Derek wheezed, feeling as though he’d been impaled by bricks. He lifted a shaky hand toward him, blood had already started oozing from his lips and nose.
“Stop,” he pleaded weakly.
The man grinned wickedly, and hit him again, snapping his head to the left. Derek found himself looking into Anna’s tear filled eyes, his eyes drooping with the spinning sensation in his head.
“Run,” he whispered.
Anna stared; frozen.
“Run dammit! Get out!” he screamed with all his might, just as another punch landed and echoed in the room.
With a tearful sob, Anna scrambled to her feet and dashed out the front door. Derek watched her leave through blurry eyes and with a satisfied exhale, floated into darkness.
The black Mercedes drove up and parked next to Derek’s Sedan and after a moment of holding onto the wheel and staring at the dashboard thoughtfully, Brad stepped out of the car. He looked at Derek’s place and frowned. The front door was ajar, and there were splinters of glass on the ground trailing onto the outside. Cautiously, he made his way toward it, his shoulders hunched, his sweaty palms balled into fists at his sides, glancing furtively about him as he went.
As he neared the door, someone grabbed him suddenly and pulled him behind the row of ficus trees that lined the wall. He started to struggle but then he realized who it was.
“Anna!” he exclaimed, “what happened?”
She lifted a finger to her lips and looked over at the door, “I saw one of them leave… with Derek but am not sure if they’re both gone,” she whispered.
Brad frowned at her, “what? Who left with Derek?”
He looked confusedly at the nervous wreck that was Anna. Her cheeks were stained with tears and a streak of blood, the right side of her jaw was beginning to swell and color and she was shaking with fear, her eyes darting about in their sockets like a cornered puppy.
Brad lifted both hands to her face and swiped his thumbs across her wet cheeks, “it’s alright Anna, just calm down. I’ll go take a look.”
She gripped him in panic, “no!” she squealed.
Brad grimaced, “it’s alright, I’ll be careful I’m just taking a look,” he said reassuringly.
The Condo was empty, it was a mess though and quite inhabitable. Brad went in to peruse the damage and to make sure it was empty. Other than the damage from the struggle, someone had destroyed all their equipment, Derek’s laptop was smashed to bits, his Television had his old baseball bat through it, his books were tossed off their selves and torn down the spine.
Brad shook his head, frowning in grief and he was starting to panic. How could they know where they were? It pained him, mostly because he knew it was his fault, if he hadn’t involved them this wouldn’t have happened.
“Poor Derek,” he muttered, turning around to find Anna standing in the door way, her eyes wide.
“There’s nothing to see here honey, let’s just go.”
They hired a cab and abandoned the Mercedes and Sedan, all Brad kept from it was a photo of Mara, his wallet and his hand gun, which Anna stared at.
“I never had the need to use it,” he assured.
“And you would now?”
He pursed his lips as he looked at her, “I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you again Anna, and I will do whatever it takes. I owe it to my daughter to protect her mother; I owe it to my best friend and most of all I owe it to you.”
“You owe it to me?”
He smiled sadly and touched her chin with his thumb, “I’ve ruined your life enough, I don’t want to mess it up again.”
She smiled up at him, “the first time was mutual.”
Brad grinned, “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”
They booked a room in a motel somewhere in the city not very far from the docks, it was small and lacking, with just two single beds and a dusty television but it suited their one night of anxiety just fine. Anna was sitting on the bed; her face clouded with worry, the events of that day was bearing down on her immensely.
Brad returned from outside and sat down beside her, she had not even looked at him in acknowledgement, not until he lifted the back of her shirt and she turned on him in shock, appalled at his boldness.
“It’s okay,” he assured her, shaking an ice pack at her, “it’s for your back, we need to get the swelling down.”
She hesitated.
“I’d let you do it yourself if you weren’t so stiff, look I promise I won’t try anything funny.”
Slowly, still frowning with uncertainty, Anna turned around and let him continue, wincing as the coldness touched her sore, bruised back.
“Is it bad?” she asked grimacing.
Brad shrugged, “it looks terrible, maybe we should go to the hospital just to be sure,” he replied.
“No, we’ve got bigger things to deal with.”
Brad looked up at her turned head, “this isn’t the time to be difficult Anna, it could be worse than you think.”
“It’s fine,” she snapped, “I work at a hospital, I wanted to be a nurse all my life, trust me I know.”
He shook his head and pressed the ice pack gently on her back again, then drew her shirt down over it, still holding it in place.
“Do you think Derek’s okay? They won’t hurt him right?” she asked worriedly, after the awkward pause that had followed her curt response.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Anna took a deep shaky breath to hold her emotions at bay and swiveled so she could look at Brad.
“Before they attacked us, we’d figured out where they might be keeping her.”
Brad looked interested, “Where?”
“It’s actually quite surprising and coincidental; it also makes it harder for us to devise a plausible plan.”
Brad pursed his lips, “she’s not in the country is she?”
“No, she’s in Grenada.”
Brad froze, his eyes wide, “oh my God, Casey!”
Anna looked at him sharply, equally panicked, “you don’t think they would…”
“That night I told her about you guys, if she didn’t tell him the house was bugged anyway,” he said with an air of dread.
“You know who the kidnapper is?”
“I might have an idea,” he replied, “but in the mean time we’ve got to find a way to bridge that island with here. The meet is tomorrow, if I don’t show up who knows what they might do to Mara… and Derek…”
Anna looked at him with wide fearful eyes, “and Casey and Mike.”
“Yeah let’s hope they’re not all involved. But how are we gonna protect our interests if we don’t know where they are, not to mention the distance between us.”
Anna pursed her lips and shook her head, “well the cops are out of it right?”
He nodded, “for
now.”
“Then that means it’s only the two of us, and if you need to be there for the drop, then there’s only one thing for me to do.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” he said matter-of-factly.
Anna smirked, “Brad please don’t try to keep me out, you need me, I’m all you’ve got.”
He hesitated, then frowned, “you’ve stopped calling me Raj,” he said suddenly.
“Yeah,” she said, equally surprised, “I guess I must be over you.”
Brad smiled, “I guess I must be over you, ‘cause hearing you say that didn’t bother me as it should’ve had I not been.”
She got up and looked down at him, “I don’t know what happened…”
Brad shrugged, “Derek happened… to you. And Mara, well she’s always been it for me, I guess I was just so bitter and angry I took it out on her and I was selfishly holding onto you when I knew you were never mine to begin with.”
Anna smiled sadly at him, “hmm,” she sighed.
“Motel room revelation,” he said with a teasing tone, “and it took two burly men, a kidnapping, death threats and a storm for us to figure it out.”
Anna lifted a finger, “oh and don’t forget, a very charming, stubborn and alarmingly handsome African American.”
Brad chuckled, “alright well only because he’s in danger I’ll let him have that.”
Anna laughed, “I’m not allowed to talk about you like that, you’re married.”
He smiled, “and I want to stay that way. Let’s not waste anymore time, now that our revelation is at its peak let’s focus on saving our loved ones.”