Intuition (10 page)

“Get over there and keep that whore alive,” he orders “Anything you need we will bring it to you,” Paul slides over a bucket of warm water with a cloth.

Doing as he says I dip the cloth into the bucket and clean off the woman’s wounds on her face. One of h er eyes are bruised and there are small cuts scribbled across the rest of her face. She jolts against the gentle touch of the warm cloth as it holds against her skin and brittle hands. The erosion on her wrists must have been from being tied together too tight. Johnny comes back to bring a plate with a sandwich. It isn’t with ease that I’m able feed her swollen lips with small pieces torn off.. They beat the shit out of her, tortured her, and for what fucking reason? No good reason that’s why!

Her mouth tries to spit out words as I wipe the small amount of blood that make her accent stronger and harder to hear, “Gracious. You don’t have to do this, save yourself, Chica. All hope is gone for me now.”

“Don’t say that! I would have done this even if they didn’t want me to. I’ll make sure that you get out of here too,” I promise. “There are people looking for me; we won’t leave you here!”

Her name is Isabella and she is only twenty years old. Isabella confirms my suspicion that this place is a prison house for prostitution. Women are brought here against their will and slaved for sick entertainment. Human trafficking is the second largest illegal income nationwide, next to drug trafficking. Isabella is only one of more than twenty million victims worldwide, one too many! Real men don’t buy women; this
has
to stop!

“I was promised a good life here, a better life. They promise me more money to give to my family in Colombia. This is not the better life that I wanted. I’m a disgrace! I can never see my children again, my father will disown me if he ever finds out,” she claims.

My heart breaks for her, oh dear God it shatters! No matter what life has thrown my way, it’s heaven compared to this! Suddenly I’m more thankful for Olivia and everything in my life than I ever was and I want to bring Isabella home with me to take care of her, show her that better life that was promised because life
is
better than this! There is so much worth living for.

Her head rests on a pillow that she was carried in with. I caress her long dark hair with my cool hand as she falls asleep peacefully wrapped in a thin woolen blanket that was thrown in for me. Isabella needs to keep warm and she is in worse condition than I am right now. The cold air chills my body numb but the adrenaline running through my veins is what's keeping me alive. My weakened eyelids fight to close, but Dennis’ furious voice awakens them too soon.

“
Where the fuck is she, Dennis?” I demand, shaking him hard by the scruff of his collar against the cement wall. Blood surfaces on his cut lip, blending in with the graffiti paint. More of him will be smeared all over if I find out that he has anything to do with his Destiny’s disappearance.

“
Sebastian, I don’t know! Honestly, she was supposed to be with you! I warned her about…”

“
Warned her from what? Choose your words wisely, you are in no position to fucking lie to me!”

Destiny is stubborn and needed space, so I gave her the break. The last time we seen each other was our best evening together in a long time, and I didn’t put up a fight to let her go, but maybe I should have. I should have never let her go, ever, but I’m not one to hold somebody down. Dragging her into this mess wasn’t something that I ever wanted to do, but only
she
could help me. Only
she
would believe me. If anything ever happens to Destiny, I will kill whoever hurt her. Dennis knows that I will follow through on my promise. The vanilla musk aroma of
her
is mesmerized in my mind, but she’s been gone too long that I almost can’t smell her anymore. It's been a week, like the watch hands in my dream that stopped every seven hours. These premonitions come to me for a reason. I want only her; I
need
her. She completes my soul as a whole, Destiny and Olivia are my other halves. My life isn’t real without them. They keep me alive, love feels so real and worth living for. If it wasn’t for Destiny giving me another chance, then I probably would have offed myself long ago when Carla died. Without Carla, I was lost. But since Destiny has been in my life again she has helped me find myself again, and yet I haven’t even begun to tell her how much she means to me. I won’t miss that chance again! But where to start? All I know is, when I find her, I won’t stop making things right again and will marry her. That’s all that I have ever wanted, was her, my soul mate. Hopefully when she feels my necklace around her neck she remembers my promise and knows that I am coming for her,

“
Look, I saw you, okay!”

“
Watch your tongue, Dennis, you don’t want to go spreading lies about something you know anything about!” I warn. “That pillow over there is where your head will permanently lay if you don’t watch yourself!” I refer to what looks like was once a homeless person's bed.

The longer the wait, and the more stubborn Dennis becomes before fessing up or spilling any information that can lead to Destiny, the more time is lost at finding her alive. These walls feel like they are caving in, leaving me hopeless. Dennis thinks he’s a know-it-all and runs his sarcastic mouth. Well, he better know where Destiny is and run his mouth right in that direction.

My solid fist sideswipes his jaw again, “Tell me where Paul is then!”

Blood dribbles down the side of Dennis’ yap. Knowing better not to spit directly at me intentionally he opposes, “You’re not fooling anybody except my sister. I saw you at Johnny’s, the biggest drug dealer in the city the same morning he tried to kidnap Destiny at her job; you were in on it, you Bastard!”

My hands shake Dennis’ collar again causing his head to hit against the wall, “Johnny killed my sister and I followed him so I could gather enough evidence for your father to throw his ass behind bars!”

My grip let's go of Dennis and his knees drop to the ground. He’s a big guy, almost as big as me, but man what an idiot! “I would
never
hurt your sister, ever! And know this, anyone will be killed who hurts her,
anyone,
including you if you have any part in this! You know where Paul is, let’s go!” I urge, pushing him ahead to lead the way.

Dennis stops in his tracks and exchanges gazes between my bike and his green Lamborghini. “Yeah, we are taking mine. They know my sweet ride and won’t suspect you, and I don’t feel comfortable wrapping my arms anywhere from behind some dude.”

“
Oh, you look like you’ve seen one up close. I’m drivin’!” I exclaim.

Dennis wipes the remaining blood from his face, “The hell you are!” he curses before jumping into the driver’s seat and spins out of the abandoned parking lot.

After Destiny’s father lost hope, Dennis and I continued to search for her for days, but with no leads I began to suspect Dennis was involved. All I know is that he’s the last one to talk to her other than myself. After his phone call she was in a hurry to leave, looked like she had seen a ghost and I have to find out why. Dennis’ every movement, every step, and breath is being stalked. I keep myself hidden behind walls, inside bushes and behind the doors of homes he visits just to make sure. One time he lost me, but that was after a conversation he had with an unknown woman about going to see Paul. Paul’s obsession with Destiny is no secret, not to anyone. So wherever he is, she must be too. When I caught up to Dennis in the hall, I made sure to beat him first, get my warning across to him, and then asked questions later.

“
Where are we heading?” I ask, looking about our surroundings along the road that is as broken as I am.

Being alone and feeling lost is something I’m used to, nothing that snorting a line didn't fix back then. But this, living without
her
is not what I want to get used to.

“
I think I know where we can find Johnny,” Dennis suggests as we pull into a narrow gravel driveway of a small faded red brick house. “Stay down! I’ll be right back.” He reloads a pistol, “This is just my backup. If you hear any shots and you don’t see me come out, check the trunk. You'll know what to do.”

My brow rises as he turns to leave the car. Dennis doesn’t look like the type of badass who would be packin’
or
have such a sweet ass car! “Maybe you’re cooler than I thought.” He grins at my approval. “Almost…”

The sight of the broken shutters covered in chipped paint distracts me from noticing the shadowy figure trying to hide from the window inside. Curious of what Dennis has back there in his trunk, I decide to take a look. There are enough guns and bullets for the whole sheriff’s office! Any gun you can think of, I’m sure is sitting within my reach. What in the hell would Dennis need with all of these for?

Fuck it, this one is mine! I load bullets into my new baby and check her out, “Why hello there, Beautiful, I shall call you Lucia.”

I’m losing my damn mind! Destiny has been gone for so long, too long. She brought me back to where I want to be and saved my life. For once, I’m going to save hers.

Gunshots go off in almost every direction from inside of the house. Slamming the trunk, I run bursting through the door and almost break it down. This is Johnny we are talking about, who knows what they will do to Dennis! He may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s still a brother to me. Destiny will never forgive me if I let anything bad happen to him, or her. Blood isn’t everything in a family; it’s love, respect and courage to stand up for the ones who have your back, especially when they are not around to defend themselves.

With Lucia in my lead, I call out,
“
Dennis?” The last gunshot sounded like it came from the middle of the house.

A swift kick to the back of my legs throws me down to the ground, but my arms quickly stop my body from falling onto the floor. A gun clicks from behind my head, “Don’t fucking move! Get up! Slow!” I do as I’m ordered.

Turning around with my gun still on the floor I drop back to the floor then swipe my legs in front and trip him. His handgun flies into the air as he falls, I catch it with one hand and grabbing Lucia with my other.

“
No,
you
get up!” Our accents clash.

My barrel pushes against his back and nudges him forward. This guy is so big that he could have knocked me out with just one hit, so I’m not taking any chances here.

As we walk into the living room, Dennis has his gun locked down on Johnny sitting in his recliner chair. He knows better not to move because we aren’t here to fuck around, but he isn’t taking chances either. I push the man in front of me and order him to sit. We demand answers but aren’t getting anywhere with these assholes.

“
You know where she is!” my voice screeches. “This will be the last time we ask this, and you get one last chance, the only chance you have left. Where is Destiny and what have you done with her?”

The unknown very large, bald-headed man looks to Johnny, who is still refusing to speak but doesn’t think twice before grinning like a smart ass. Johnny won’t be so smart if we shoot his head off though will he? My gun fires at the ceiling.

“
Okay, Okay! I tell you!” his voice begs in a deep Russian accent. “Paul, he come here and threaten to shoot us if we don’t give girl to him. Drew went to get girl but never brought her back here.”

“Mierda, bastardo mentiroso, bullshit dirty Bastard!”

“No, no bullshit! He bring her to warehouse where whores go to make his movies. I swear it!”

He gasps for air as blood pours from his leg before spitting another word out, unaware that Johnny stabbed him with a knife, which even caught us off guard. Dennis shoots a bullet into Johnny’s arm to shut him up, but he  screams. My hand places over the man's  wound to help stop the bleeding.

“
You son of a Bitch!” My gun presses against  Johnny’s forehead.

“
No! We need him alive!” Dennis interrupts. “I know where the warehouse is.”

“
Then we don’t need him!” I press the barrel harder against his flesh. “How does this feel? Did you like it when you did this to her Bastardo?”

“She likes the pain just as much as I like watching her squirm like they are going to do to Viktor here.”

The barrel digs against his skin to make him stop,
“
C’mon, do it, Sebastian! You know you want to! Do it Mother Fucker or I’ll do to your woman what I did to your sister, she’ll like it more than you think!”

“
Why do we need him?” I hesitate and look away long enough to not see Johnny stand up then attack Dennis with the knife and knock Lucia out of my hand before escaping.

“Let him go!” Dennis yells, applying pressure to his shoulder wound with his hand. “We will get him later! Viktor here can be of much better use to us.”

Dennis throws Viktor into the back of the car.
“
He can be used as bait and once we are in, they will just shoot him anyway.”

After pulling up beside a Porsche parked in front of  Paul’s warehouse I look through the windows and notice a shiny piece of an earring sitting on the seat and some blood smeared on the interior.  Adrenaline runs through my veins like never before making me regret that we didn’t kill Johnny when we had the chance. A part of me knows that it won’t solve the problem or keep Destiny alive. It might have been what gets her killed, other than me bringing her into this fucked up shit in the first place. I want this to all end, just go away and be wiped out from my past, but not like this.

No cameras or armed bodyguards. What’s the catch? I push Viktor in front of the window. My gun presses against his back, not taking any chances again.

A dog's loud bark in the distance alarms the crew. “Fuck! They know we are here!” Dennis calls out. “Somebody must have set us up!”

No one can be trusted. No one. Grabbing Viktor’s we hide along the forest’s edge behind some bushes. No way is
this
asshole escaping out of my sight! Rather use him as a human shield than let him go. Dennis climbed onto the roof to scope out the crew through the windows. A mob bursts through the front door then scatters around the building on foot looking for intruders. My guess is there are still others inside so we obviously can’t barge through the doors safely.

“There is secret passage deep in woods,” Viktor claims.

Keeping my eyes on Dennis I ask, “Now why should you be trusted? That will make you a traitor.”

“They shoot then ask questions later. To them, I am already dead. To you, I am asset.”

“What makes you think that I won’t kill you?”

“You don’t look like killer. Your friend is only scapegoat, just like they did to you.” 

My Russian hostage is no dummy. Maybe he can be more useful than I had planned. I might miss the big guy if Paul’s crew do get a hold of him.

“That doesn’t mean that I won’t at least shoot you.”

Shit! Dennis moved out of my sight for a second too long and now he’s gone! “Okay, let’s move!” I urge yanking Viktor by his shirt.

About a mile long hike into this wilderness of what seems like a wild goose chase fit only for a military man or a crazy Russian giant, we finally come to a small cabin.

“You won’t like what you see,” he warns walking cautious through the front door.

A large room is equipped with gasoline and torture weapons. A video camera sits on a stand pointing towards a large bed. A trap door hidden under the center rug begins a man-made tunnel underground.

“Up there, in the cabin on the walls are chains, ropes and beds separated by shower curtains. Is that for... why do you find this necessary treatment for prisoners? They are women! Women should never be treated like sex objects. These are humans, not trash to be ripped apart. You never hurt them, like you would never hurt your own mother. When you lay with a woman you take care of her body, soul and mind, not torment the shit out of her!”