Chain of Title (24 page)

“Got anything else to say,
Chastain?” Sean dared him, with a sneer in the moonlight.  Frank blinked and
shook his head, not wanting to apply any more pressure against the razor-sharp
blade at his throat.  Sean looked disappointed.  “That’s too bad, because
nothing would make me happier than gutting you like the stinking pig you are!”
he spit through clenched teeth.  “But first, I have to clean up
your
fucking mess!”  He threw Frank hard into his desk, the lamp crashing to the
floor, bulbs shattering, stacks of money dropping to a heap beside the desk. 
Now only the moonlight was witness to the disturbance inside.  “Do you have all
the money—unmarked?”

“Yes,” Frank choked out,
trying to steady himself, hands up in a demonstration of submission.

“Are you sure?  Because these
aren’t the kind of people you jerk around, Chastain.  They’re not as easygoing
as I am.”  Sean smirked.

“This is my daughter we’re
talking about!  You really think I’d play around with her life?”

“You already have, you stupid
sonofabitch!  And Shayna’s too.  You really think they’re going to stop with
you?  You really think you’re going to get Danielle back just because you play
nice with them?”  Sean shook his head in apparent disbelief and huffed loudly. 
Frank suddenly felt any optimism he had dimming by the second.  “You’ve exposed
Danielle and Shayna to these bloodsuckers, and you’re powerless to stop them.” 
Sean pointed the tip of his partially-serrated blade just inches from Frank’s
sweat-soaked face.  “That’s why you need
me
.  I’m going to do everything
I can to get Danielle back—
for Shayna.
”  Sean inched closer.  “You’re meeting
them for the drop—when is it?”

Frank blinked and stuttered,
“Tomorrow night.  Midnight.”

“Where!” Sean yelled.

“Breakers Cliff,” Frank
answered more confidently.  “Who are you, Parker?  I know it’s not who you
pretend to be.”

“Been following me,
Chastain?  Huh?  Bugging my property?”

Frank sputtered, “How do you
know any of this?  How do you know about Danielle?  Does my wife know you’re
here?  Like
this
,” Frank said.  He censured Sean, his eyes sweeping critically
over his rival.

A cold smile inched across
Sean’s mouth, firming his square jaw, but not reaching his hard eyes.  The knifepoint
suddenly thrust under Frank’s chin, tipped his head back at the risk of impaling
it.  “
Stop
worrying about Shayna,” he rumbled threateningly.  “That’s
my
job now.  Just understand this, Chastain.”  Sean shifted smoothly into Frank’s
personal space, his eyes gleaming with a dark promise as he towered above him. 
“When this is all over, however it ends, you and I have unfinished business.”

Frank flinched and then
winced as the knife cleanly sliced the underside of his jaw, cutting a trail to
his chin.  He refused to make a sound, wouldn’t give this punk the
satisfaction.  “Don’t involve the police or anyone else in your mess.  They’ll
only fuck up what’s already in play and risk Danielle’s life.  Business as
usual for you tomorrow...
sport
.  They’re watching you.  No mention of my
visit to anyone, if you want your daughter back in one piece.  Got it?” he snarled
with narrowed eyes and gritted teeth.

Frank nodded compliantly, while
trying to work out exactly who Sean Parker was.  Could he really get Danielle
back?

“You’d better be at that drop
on time, Chastain,” Sean warned with a scowl.

“I’ll be there early,” Frank spat
out, combatively.

“You do that,” Sean hissed
scornfully, before slipping back into the shadows and disappearing into the
night.

The
numbness had spread everywhere in her body except for where the cable ties
chewed into her flesh.  She exhaled loudly, blowing strands of her dark hair
away from her face, only to have them flop back and stick against her sweaty
skin.  Now, resigned to her fate, Danielle had moved beyond the paralyzing fear,
becoming a buzzing mass of instinct on high alert.  Thoughts of Harper, her
family, friends, and everything she had to look forward to in life gave her a
razor sharp clarity unlike anything she had ever experienced.  It also outraged
her that anyone was trying to take it away from her.

She would find a way to
survive this.  That was the mantra she chanted in her head, as she honed in on
the sounds and smells around her.  All sense of time had been lost.  The room
she sat bound in didn’t seem to have a window, so there was no sunrise or
sunset, no sounds to connect her to the outside world.  In the end, it didn’t
matter how long she had been here—it already felt like an eternity.

Some of her captors had left earlier
and brought back pizza.  The pungent aroma of hot cheese and meats made her empty
stomach growl angrily and her mouth water uncontrollably.  She was so hungry,
but they hadn’t fed her anything since bringing her here—wherever here was—only
bringing her water from time to time.

She smirked in
self-satisfaction and her nostrils flared on a deep inhale.  The sharp scent
filling her nose was welcome, a symbol of a small victory.  It had saved her from
the one called Ramirez when he had brought water to her earlier.  She cringed
at the memory.  While pressing a bottle of water to her lips, his free hand had
pulled at her breasts and then snaked quickly under the waistband of her
running shorts.  She immediately and intentionally filled his rough hand with
warm piss.  She was pleased with herself.  The lasting sting on her cheek from his
hard slap was a badge of honor.

At least she had bought
herself some more time.  For what, she didn’t know.  Right now, she couldn’t
afford to think too far ahead.  Moment to moment was all she had.

She suddenly froze at the
subtle shift in the weight of the air around her.  She angled her head
attempting to check her immediate surroundings through the slit at the bottom
of her blindfold.  The only light in the room was filtering through the open
door from outside her prison.  Holding her breath, she listened carefully,
feeling her heart beat faster and her blood pump harder.  Somebody was
definitely in the room with her, closing in and circling behind her.

Just as she braced herself,
ready to make a plea for her life, a large gloved hand clamped over her mouth,
gripping her tightly.  “Don’t make a sound,” the unfamiliar raspy voice
whispered roughly into her ear, his hot breath skidding across her damp cheek. 
She stiffened, feeling something cold and sharp next to her arm.  Then one
cable tie popped off and fell away.  The man clasped her wrist tightly and
warned, “Do as you’re told.  Leave the blindfold on and you might make it out
of this alive—understand?”  She nodded in response.  Was this person helping or
leading her to something even worse?

He placed her limp arm across
her lap.  Danielle flexed her hand hoping to encourage blood flow to her tingling
fingers as the stranger swiftly cut away the other ties.  He remained crouched
next to her and she could feel his gestures in the air.  Was he signaling
someone?  Were there others—like him?

“Not.  A.  Sound,” he
enunciated coarsely, his steamy breath in her ear again.  “You’re going over my
shoulder.  Everything’s gonna happen real fast, so hang on.”

Before she could blink,
Danielle found herself dangling over the man’s back, tossed there with the ease
of a rag doll.  He quickly positioned himself against a wall.  Her body swayed
as his head and free hand cut the air in hard, precise movements.  Signaling
someone again?

Then they whipped around a
corner and she braced her hands against his lower back, gripping his heavy clothing
firmly, so she didn’t bounce so hard against his body as he raced away with
her.  After jogging stealthily and effortlessly down a long corridor, he
punched open a door and bounded up the stairs, two and three at a time.  That’s
when she heard the crack and pop of gunfire in the distance below followed by
shouting and certain mayhem.

It wasn’t long before Danielle
was suddenly jolted to awareness by the cool relief of crisp night air on her
skin.  She was finally outside—free.  Or was she?  The urge to remove her
blindfold now was fierce, but she stopped herself.  Exhaust fumes invaded her
nose and she heard the idling of a vehicle drawing nearer as her rescuer, or
new tormentor, approached it cautiously.

Without warning, she was
swiftly unloaded and tossed into the hands of another man.  He pulled her close
and held her arms firmly at her sides, but made no move to restrict her
further.  She had the sense of being in a van again.

The man outside the vehicle
barked harshly, “Keep the blindfold on!”

She nodded quickly, unable to
speak.  Should she be grateful?  Say thank you?  She didn’t know yet, didn’t
know the intentions of her new captors.

She swallowed her fear as the
door slammed shut and the vehicle sped away.

****

The trembling
began in the chilly waiting room, followed by hot streaming tears.  Shayna
didn’t make eye contact with anyone, didn’t want their sympathy or rebuke. 
This was her fault.  Her own decisions had led her to this point in life. 
Trusting her former husband to be the man she thought he was had been a huge
mistake.  Hadn’t she learned her lesson as a child?  People were never who you
believed them to be.  She should’ve paid more attention to the business and
what was going on with Frank.  Maybe she would have found out he had a gambling
problem.  If she had, he might not have involved himself with people who could
hurt Danielle.

A wave of nausea rolled
through her.  She could only imagine what the doctor was going to tell her. 
Shayna’s hand clamped over her mouth to stop the scream threatening to escape. 
Why couldn’t it have been her instead of Danielle?  She inhaled deeply. 
Not
Danielle
.  For as long as she lived, Shayna would never be able to forget
Dani stumbling toward her in the low beam of her headlights, looking like a creature
from a zombie movie.  Pale as snow with sunken eyes, a swollen cheek, a split
lip, and with bruises everywhere, all the damage recounting her daughter’s
fight.

Shayna raked her hands
roughly through her hair and did her best to tamp down the nearly overwhelming
emotions threatening to crush her under their weight.  She had to get a handle
on this, had to be strong.  She wouldn’t be any good to anyone like this. 
Sniffling and wiping at her nose with quick swipes under her eyes she sat up
and leaned back in her seat.  Concentrating on deep measured breaths, she
prepared herself for what was to come.

Staring straight ahead and
focusing on a serene watercolor mounted on the gray wall, she silently thanked
Sean for whatever it was that he had done to get Dani back to her.  Tears brimmed
in her eyes.  Sean, who was yet another person who wasn’t who he had appeared
to be.  She quickly closed her eyes and shook off the tormented feelings.  It
had been almost two days since she had seen him or talked to him.  Sean had
given her explicit instructions on what to do and say in the intervening time
since he had left.  She had followed his words precisely.  The price was far
too high for any deviation.

Who exactly was Sean Parker? 
Since that night on the Tuscan Dream, she no longer knew.  He had become a cold
automaton, seeming to look upon her as an enormous inconvenience, barking
orders and treating her as if she were a stranger to be dispensed with as
quickly as possible.

She dragged in a ragged
breath at the recent memories.  They had gone to Gaetano’s immediately after
returning to Mt. Pleasant.  Sean spoke to Johan and Vlad as if nothing had
happened, all back slaps and meaningless pleasantries.  She had smiled on cue
like a vapid pageant contestant and followed him on his rounds until they made
their way upstairs to retrieve her cell phone.  Sean had scrolled through all
of her missed calls and listened to her messages before tossing the phone to
her in exasperation and heading back downstairs without a word.

Later, at his loft, Shayna
began piecing together the puzzle of the man she had thought she knew.  He had
instructed her to wait in his home office.  She obeyed, and busied her frantic
mind by, once again, perusing the collection of photos that documented his past,
all neatly organized in well-defined groups by family, business, and naval
service on the tan walls surrounding her.

There were numerous photos of
Sean and other men that she hadn’t noticed the first time she was shut in his
office.  They appeared to be at groundbreaking ceremonies, but not in Mt.
Pleasant—not from the landmarks in the snapshots.  When she looked closer, a
couple of the men seemed familiar.  She was almost certain they had been at
Sean’s the morning she had interrupted with breakfast, and he had quickly scuttled
her off to his office.  She caught glimpses of much younger versions of some of
those same men in photos with his parents and others from the mission-accomplished
style pictures with Sean.  That’s when she noticed something she had missed
before—the trident on his uniform.

Sean Parker was an enigma.

Shayna now recognized the man
with the hard empty eyes staring back at her from those military photos.  The
same man had been giving her orders since that awful night on the Tuscan Dream. 
The same man had given Dani her life back.

She inhaled deeply through
her nose at the recent knowledge.  Who exactly were Sean’s friends?  Which ones
had he
inherited
and which ones had he chosen?  Which side was he on?  Shayna
shook her head knowing that in the end it didn’t matter.  They were her friends
now, too.  They had returned Danielle to her, and she would forever be indebted
to them—whoever
they
were.

“Mrs. Chastain.”

Shayna quickly pushed up from
her seat and met the approaching doctor who gently herded her around the
corner.

“Danielle is going to be just
fine.  She’s not eaten in days and is also dehydrated.  We want to keep her
overnight and set up an IV to get fluids back in her system.  She’ll start
feeling much better after that.”  The doctor paused and her large brown eyes
softened.  “There is no indication of rape, Mrs. Chastain.”

A gust of air burst from
Shayna’s lungs, completely emptying them.  Shayna nodded hurriedly and refilled
her aching lungs.  “When can I see her?” she asked with a cracking voice.

“The police are talking with
her now.  They’re going to want your statement, as well.  They may let you see
her for a bit before they talk to you,” she smiled expectantly, waiting with
slightly raised brows for Shayna’s understanding.

“Right.  Sure,” Shayna
responded, shaking the heavy haze from her head.  She knew what to say to the
authorities and what
not
to say.

Sean had drilled it into her.

****

Eleven-forty-five. 
Frank had already been at Breakers Cliff for a half hour.  He had only received
one call earlier in the day from an unfamiliar voice reminding him of the drop
off and time.  Warning him of the consequences if he didn’t bring the money.

His nervous pacing halted
when his attention shifted to the lights in the distance weaving along the
switchbacks toward him.  He swallowed hard and wiped his sweaty palms across
his trousers.  Just then, a chilly breeze broke over the cliff top in time with
the crashing waves below.  Frank took cover in his warm running car, not that
he was naïve enough to think he was safe anywhere.

A dark sedan ground to a halt
in the gravel a couple hundred feet away.  With the moonless night and darkly
tinted windows, he couldn’t see anything and no one was getting out.  His heart
punched ferociously against his chest and he brashly decided to make the first
move.  He wanted to get this done, get his daughter back, get all of this
behind him.

Standing boldly next to his
car, Frank did his best to control his breathing.  He hoped Danielle could see
him from the back of the car, hoped it would ease her fear some to know that
she was going home.  He stood in place not sure whether to move forward. 
Flashes of muted light painted the cloud covered night sky in answer to the
distant rolling thunder.  The uptick in the wind beat against his windbreaker. 
Frank chewed at his lip and flexed his hands.  He reached for the rear door and
pulled out the large black duffle bag stressed to the seams with bundles of
cash, dropping it a few feet in front of himself.  He then stepped back and
waited.

Finally, the driver’s door
opened and a tall, dark figure eased out.  A flash of lightning only gave him a
glimpse of the man approaching.  The stranger had a familiar stride, but Frank
couldn’t place it until the man drew closer and lifted his hooded head anchored
with a cold sneer.

“Parker!  What the fuck are
you doing here?  You said you’d get my daughter back!”  Frank looked anxiously
around Sean back at the car that was still humming quietly.  “Where is she!” he
shouted.