Phantom Scars (8 page)

Chapter 16 – Stung

The meeting in my apartment didn't go as well as I'd hoped. When Eli heard what those guys were, he started to leave. Clayton grabbed his arm and asked him where he was going. "To get my gun," was all he said, before Faye and momma were able to get him to take a seat again.

Clayton was livid and ready to get his gun just the same, when I told them I had overheard them talking about taking Jennifer. Jennifer surprised us all with her “who gives a crap” attitude. I thought for sure she would be upset or scared. Dr. Greyson said it was time to get the local police involved. He wasn't going to wait for the Florida people to set up anything. There was just too much paperwork and red tape. It was taking too long, and we didn't want to lose anyone to these goons, while the idiots pushed pencils through the red tape.

Dr. Greyson called down to the local police department, and Officer Fife showed up a half hour later. "Hi, I'm Officer Andrew Fife, what's going on?" he asked sitting down.

"Well, at least he's not Barney Fife," Clayton snickered, but he never had been able to whisper properly, so Officer Fife heard him and smirked.

"Both my parents thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up. My brother, Barney, is in real estate, though. He didn't think he’d be able to make it through the academy in one piece with his name," he said smiling.

"Oh, well, I'll give him a call if I need to buy some real estate," Clayton laughed.

"You do that. Now, what is this you were saying about human trafficking? I think you might be overreacting, because there's no way someone could run a ring like that in this size town and go unnoticed."

"They're not going unnoticed," I said. "They're sticking out like sore thumbs."

Officer Fife rubbed his chin. "Well, I did get some papers mentioning something like this might be going on in our area, and I needed to look into it."

I let out a frustrated sigh, along with Dr. Greyson, Clayton and Eli. This dude was an idiot!

"We know who they are, and we know who their next target is now. We need to set up something to catch them, like they did in Florida," Dr. Greyson said.

Officer Fife rubbed his chin again. "I don't know. We don't really have the resources they have in Florida," he complained, and I wanted to beat him!

I just wanted to be done with this idiot and take care of the goons myself, so I could get back to helping Emma. It was hard to help her get better and try and get rid of her anxiety, when she really did have a legitimate reason to be afraid. The freaking slave traders were just short of knocking on our door!

"Officer Fife, how about you leave the setup and takedown to me and the boys, and you just come to supervise and arrest?" Dr. Greyson suggested.

"Well, I don't know…" he started whining again.

I looked over to see Jen rolling her eyes. "I'm not going down without a fight. I don't know what the issue is here. Either you're going to be there to save me from the slave trading rapists or you're not, what's it going to be?" she asked Fife.

Could you believe he still didn't look sure?

"Let me put it in terms you can understand," Jen spoke loud and annoyed. "There’ll be a domestic disturbance at 143 Magnolia Lane tomorrow night. There may even be shots fired, and I guarantee there’ll be a need for an ambulance, care to join our party?"

"Well, I can't let you all start anything…" Officer Fife started to argue.

"We didn't start it!" Jen yelled at the idiot. "That's my house; people will be breaking into it and trying to kidnap me, and I'll be defending myself!"

"Look, buddy, why don't you just go, and we'll call you when it's time for you to come clean up the mess and fill out the paperwork," Clayton glared at him in irritation, as he opened the door.

Once the door closed, it muffled Officer Fife's protests of discharging firearms within town limits. Momma surprised us all. "My heavens, he might as well be named Barney Fife, because he sure is channeling him. That man was a complete moron!"

"I was wondering what was taking them so long to get on top of things," Dr. Greyson said shaking his head. "I think now we know why. I'm sorry. I obviously had way too much faith in our local law enforcement. Things just went so smoothly when I spoke with them in Florida. I didn't anticipate that mess," he said, pointing to the door where Officer Fife had just left.

"Don't worry, we gotcha covered. It's gun cleaning time," Clayton said and winked at Jen.

She just shook her head. "Alright, so I think we should do as much damage to these idiots as we can tomorrow, so they'll die of internal bleeding or something. There's no way I'm going to trust Officer Fife with holding them. That man is just…" Jen let out a growl.

I looked around and realized Emma was still hidden in the bedroom, and now I was glad we had decided to keep her existence a secret, because that man would have surely screwed it up and put her at risk.

I opened the bedroom door to find Emma sitting in the corner, curled into a ball and trembling. "Oh, my Little One," I cooed, feeling bad for leaving her alone, when she was obviously upset. I picked her up, and like always, she flinched at my touch, but she relaxed as soon as she inhaled my scent. "I'm here, you're safe."

"The police are not going to stop them," she whimpered out. I hated that she had overheard that mess.

"It's okay. We're still going to take care of it anyway."

"They used drugs," she whimpered, looking up at me terrified. "You can't fight. They use drugs, and you can't move. I can't lose you, Devin, please."

I squeezed her tighter in my arms. "I'm not going to be alone like you were. There's going to be a lot of us. They won't be able to hurt me, and we'll stop them from ever hurting you again, I promise." I knew I shouldn't have promised that, but the truth was, I really wanted to kill those goons and Wayne as well, if he wasn't already dead. He seemed to have disappeared, and it made me nervous not knowing where he was or what he was up to. If he was dead, I would have at least liked to know where his body was for confirmation, so I would know my girl was safe.

I held her in my arms, and she listened in, as we took a tally of the weapons we had. I was surprised to find out Dr. Greyson was an avid collector and had quite a wide range of guns. We would all have at least three loaded weapons on our persons. We would be leaving Emma over at Faye's place along with Faye. We planned on moving her in a large shipping box from the restaurant. Emma didn't like staying behind, I could see it in her eyes, but it was not up for discussion. Momma was insistent on coming and boiling herself some hog, as she so aptly put it, and so it would be four of us men, along with Jen and my momma, to fight against the slave traders. I hoped it would be enough.

Once darkness fell the next evening, we made our way down the back alley to Jen's place, so we could sneak in and not alert the goon watching her house out front. Jen had called and let us know she could see them there waiting. She got ready for bed, taking a few weapons with her as well. Clayton hid in her closet right by her bed, and I hid in the master bathroom connected to her room. Dr. Greyson and my momma were in the kitchen pantry, ready to warn us if they came in the back door. I prayed he could keep my momma out of harm's way.

It was just after two o’clock in the morning, when the bedroom window slid open. I watched from a crack in the door, as the head idiot helped his buddies through the window. We had decided we wanted them all to be inside the house, so there would be no doubt that they were in the wrong. If all else failed, they would at least go down for breaking and entering.

The last goon had a black bag that had a light on inside of it. He was pulling out a needle, when Jen sat up. "What the hell do you...?" Her mouth was covered, but it was instantly released, when we heard the zap of her taser. "I said keep your hands off me!" she growled, and I heard the taser go a few more times, before I heard the closet door swing open.

"Oh, no you don't, you bastard!" my brother yelled, and I saw he was going for the guy with the needle. I decided to get the other one. Clayton had used a bat, taking the guy off guard, and knocked him out. He then injected him with whatever concoction was in the needle.

The third guy I was going after pulled out a gun. "Enough of this shit! We're taking the girl!" he said, pointing the gun at all three of us. We all stared at him stunned, and then we heard the cocking of a gun, and the lights flipped on.

"You won’t be taking the girl anywhere," my momma said. She was the one who had turned on the lights. Dr. Greyson had a gun pressed against one of the goon's heads. The bald guy was on the floor and drugged, and the third guy, who had been hit with a stun gun, earned the nickname “Twitchy.”

Someone rang the doorbell. "Jen, would you mind answering your door? Take Abby with you. She's armed, and I know she knows how to handle a weapon," Dr. Greyson said with a smile I didn't quite approve of.

A few moments later, several men filled the room, and Dr. Greyson handed his gun over smiling. I was confused at first, but then I saw “FBI” in big letters on their backs.

We all let out a sigh of relief. Officer Fife was just outside the window, getting chewed out by some big guy. I almost felt bad for him, almost.

"I'm sorry we didn't get here sooner, we drove straight through after we received your call," one of the agents spoke to Dr. Greyson.

"We're just glad you're here now and can take care of this. I hope you understand; we're not vigilantes, we just couldn't stand for our friend to be taken."

"Of course not, I'm sorry it came to that," he shot a glare out the window toward Officer Fife's car.

Just then, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

"Watch out!" Clayton shouted.

Bald guy had enough strength left to reach for the gun he had left by his black bag and was about to point it toward Jen.

Clayton jumped on him, knocking the gun out of his hand. "Oh, no you don’t! You stay down so they can arrest you!" Clayton yelled, as he punched bald guy in the face a couple more times.

Clayton was doing some serious damage, and two agents were trying to pull him off of the guy, when Jen walked up and tased him. He looked up at her shocked, literally.

"Just move him to my bed, please. I'll take care of him," Jen said with a smirk. I didn't know what she had in store for my brother, but I was a little afraid for him.

After taking several of our statements, they escorted us to go find Emma, so they could get a statement from her as well.

We knocked several times, and there was no answer. I finally got tired of waiting and just opened the door. I was shocked by the scene before me. Eli went flying to Faye, who was lying on the floor, looking like she was dead. There was so much blood everywhere, and no sign of my Little One.

Chapter 17 – Rabbit's Hole

We looked around shocked. One of the FBI agents grabbed my shoulder, stopping me from entering the room. "Careful, we need to collect evidence."

"Emma!" I shouted, "Emma, baby, where are you!" I yelled frantically, since they wouldn't let me search the place for her.

They called the coroner for Wayne Hewitt and an ambulance for Faye. She looked pretty beaten up and still hadn't come to, but she had a pulse.

Emma was missing. I was furious with myself. I should have realized there had to be another man they were working with. I had missed it, and now my girl was missing. The agents searched the whole place, but Emma was not there.

She was gone.

I called my momma sobbing, barely able to get out what had happened. She hurried over and drove me home. We hoped Emma would have gone home and hidden there, but she was nowhere to be found.

Eli called from the hospital. Faye had been beaten pretty badly, but she would be fine. She would eventually make a full recovery. The doctors were keeping her knocked out because of the pain, and I was frustrated. I wanted her to tell me what had happened to my Little One.

I needed to know what had happened to my girl!

Eli asked us to bring some of Faye's things down, and so my momma and I went back to her apartment. My momma gasped at the sight of the blood everywhere. They had removed the body and taken what evidence they needed, leaving the mess for us to clean up.

"I'm going to get started on this. Faye will be in no shape to deal with this when she comes home," momma said, grabbing a mop.

I flopped down on the couch and started to cry. Momma made her way over. "Oh, Devin, honey, it's going to be alright. We'll find Emma. Maybe she's just hiding?"

Hiding…Hiding?

"HIDING!"

My girl could hide!

"Emma," I said with renewed hope. "Please, please, come out. It's safe, everyone is gone, and it's just me and Abby now, Little One."

My momma was surprised, when I started looking in the air vents, but I knew my girl. I popped open the intake air vent, knowing she had put on some weight and would need a larger space. I gasped in relief.

I pulled my girl out. She was shaking violently and fought me at first, but once her face hit my shirt, she relaxed and clung to me, sobbing.

"I've got you, Little One, you're safe now, and I promise I'm never leaving you again," I whispered, as I held her a little too tight, rocking her and kissing her head. I couldn't believe I had found her.

"Devin, honey, why don't we take her home, and I'll take Faye the things she needs," my momma offered.

I carried Emma to the car, climbing into the back seat with her still in my lap. I was not putting her down. My momma didn't seem upset by this, either, and took us back to my place. I asked her to please call Dr. Greyson, so he could come help Emma out. She was in desperate need of a sedative. I hoped with some rest, she would be able to tell us what had happened.

I knew it would do no good to ask her now, because she was white-fisting my shirt and hiding her face in my chest as she cried. As soon as we got home, Emma ran for the bathroom, vomiting and still crying.

When her body started to slow down a little, I started telling her the good news. "Wayne is dead, and the three guys who wanted to take Jen are gone. The FBI stepped in at the last minute. You're finally safe, Little One," I said rubbing her back.

She continued to sob softly, still trying to pull herself together, when Dr. Greyson knocked on the door. He had his black bag ready. I was sure my momma had told him what was needed. "This should help her sleep for the night. I'm so relieved you found her safe. I don't think I would’ve forgiven myself if I’d found someone had taken her," he said, as he injected her with something. I carried her over to the bed, tucking her into her sleeping bag.

"You and me both," I let out a sigh, rubbing my face. "I'm glad it's all finally over."

"Where did you find her?" he asked.

I looked over my shoulder at her and smiled. "In one of her favorite hiding spots," I said vaguely and then yawned.

"Well, I hope she's feeling better in the morning. The FBI agents said they didn't need her testimony to convict the three guys who were in town. They got enough on them just by going through their hotel rooms and catching them in the act of kidnapping Jen. I think it’d be best if we leave everyone thinking she's still missing for now, though. Hopefully, Emma can truly put this behind her."

"I hope so," I said then wished him a good evening.

I agreed with him on keeping Emma being home a secret. We didn't need the wrong people getting the information and coming for her again. I wanted her to feel safe. I wanted her to get better. I hoped she would be able to put this behind her now.

I got ready for bed and snuggled down into my sleeping bag next to Emma. Even in her sleep, she knew I was there, because she immediately wrapped herself around me and buried her face in my chest. I let out a sigh and kissed her head. "I've got you, Little One. I'm here, you're safe," I whispered.

When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to find that not only had she climbed into my sleeping bag, but she was snuggled as far down in it as possible. Her face was resting on my belly button.

I carefully unzipped the sleeping bag and pulled her up onto chest. It broke my heart to find she was awake and crying again. "Hey, Little One, I've got you. You're safe now," I said kissing her head softly and wrapping her up.

"I can't make breakfast," she whimpered out.

"It's okay, I can make it," I said.

She shook her head no. "I tried. I couldn't go out of the room," she sobbed into my chest.

I held her to me, as I sat up with her in my arms. "Hey, it's okay to be afraid. You've been through a lot," I said rocking her.

Her stomach growled, and I realized she probably hadn't eaten for two days now. "Come on, Little One. Do you think you could come with me to the kitchen?" I asked.

She nodded her head yes, and I lifted her, carrying her to the kitchen in my arms. I set her on the chair in our dining area that faced the kitchen. I kissed her forehead and looked her in the eyes. "Will you be alright sitting here while I fix us some food?" I asked.

She nodded yes shyly.

I hugged her and kissed her forehead. I was just so relieved to have her back that I didn't want to let her go, either. It would take time, but we would get back into our routine.

I whipped us up some sausage, eggs and biscuits, setting a plate in front of her with a cup of milk. She smiled at me softly and whispered, "Thank you."

We ate in silence, and I wondered; where did we go from here? My Little One needed so much help, and I didn't know what to do for her. I guess I would need to have Dr. Greyson come over and talk to her, but before I could suggest it, she got up and cleared our plates, and then she grabbed her notebook and sat on the couch to write. When I stood up, her eyes locked on my movement instantly, and I knew she wasn't going to let me out of her sight.

I was okay with that, because I wasn't ready to let her out of my sight, either.