Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) (18 page)

It surprised me that I had fallen asleep in the van
with the two strangers. It certainly wasn’t something I had planned. The hot
summer heat and the relief of being in air conditioning had been too much for
me. But when we went over a bridge on our way
into
downtown Chicago I was jolted awake.

As I sat up and looked around I couldn’t figure out
exactly where we were at. I didn’t know Chicago very well though, so it wasn’t
unusual that I had no idea where we were. I just sat back and looked around as
we continued through the city streets.

“Do either of you have any water?” I said as the
dehydration from my day in the sun seemed to set it. My level of dehydration
had probably contributed to the long nap that I had taken on our drive into
town also. The woman handed me a bottle of water and I guzzled it down as
quickly as possible.

Hopefully,
after the pair dropped me
off,
I would be
able to call someone and at least get a hotel booked for the night. I certainly
didn’t want to find myself sleeping in a homeless shelter or something like
that. I continued to look around and take in all the buildings, but I still
couldn’t figure out where we were. It seemed like we were heading more into the
shipping
district as I saw large docks
and container ships all along the side of the road as we continued to drive.

My heart started to beat faster as we turned into the
shipping area and I grew more concerned that something was going on. We weren’t
anywhere close to Navy Pier and I was pretty sure there was no reason to be
turning into an old shipping yard at that hour of the night.

“Where are we?” I asked.

Neither the man driving nor the woman responded to me.
Something was definitely going on. They ignored me and drove into the shipping
yard. I looked around to see if I would be able to make a run for it. Maybe if
he slowed down to make a turn, I could jump out and start running. I looked at
the door handle for the sliding back door, but it was gone. The whole door
handle had been removed. I couldn’t believe I had not noticed that before!

I looked
at
the
door handle and then at the driver. By that
point,
he was watching me very closely through the rearview mirror. He knew I had
figured
out that something was going on. He
motioned to the woman sitting next to him and she started to rifle through her
bag of things.

“There is nothing to worry about. Someone just needs
to speak to you,” the man said as he looked at me in the mirror. I looked at
him and then at the female in the passenger seat. They both looked so normal! Then
it dawned on me, perhaps Chris had sent these two to come get me. They must
have went to the bed and breakfast and then left when they found that no one
was there. I tried to run that idea through my head and see if it fit the
possibilities of the situation.

I wanted that to be the truth. I genuinely wanted them
to be with Chris’ team. Something deep down inside told me that they were not
though. There was just something about the way the driver looked at me; I could
tell that he did not intend to be helpful to me at all. We pulled into a back
alley between two large warehouses. I felt my body start to shake from the
adrenaline that rushed through me. I tried to calm myself and took a few deep
breaths, as I let the air out and looked around and took note of my
surroundings.

The vehicle was all the way at the end of a long parking
area that was between the two buildings. I would have to run down that long
area before I would be out of view and it was likely that the driver or his
passenger had a gun. I didn’t want to get killed, so I waited. I needed just
the right opportunity to make my move. Then suddenly and without any warning,
the driver reached back and poked me with a needle in the thigh.

“Ouch,” I screamed.

I looked down at the needle and then at the driver. My
first thought was that it was some sort of
drug
like heroin or something. My knowledge of needles and the drugs that could be
administers was very small. My body almost instantly felt like I was drunk. My
vision got blurry and I felt my face become flushed. I reached toward the needle
and pulled it out of my leg. A tiny dot of
crimson
blood pooled on the spot that held the needle.

The power in my hands quickly dissipated and I
couldn’t hold the needle. It fell to the ground and I heard it make a light
thud as it hit the carpet of the van. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
My vision got more and more difficult and everything went blurry around me, so
much so that I couldn’t even make out the face of the driver. I had to close my
eyes. I hated the feeling of being nauseous.

My eyes closed and I was overwhelmed with a desire to
lay my head down on the bench seat next to me. I couldn’t hold my body in the
upright position for another second. I needed to sleep, if only just for a
moment. As I lay there, my eyes were closed and I couldn’t move any part of my
body. To the driver and the
woman,
I
clearly looked like I had fallen totally asleep. Although I hadn’t fully become
unconscious yet, I could still hear them talking.

“Do you think she will flush out the mole?” the woman
said.

“Yeah, whoever he is won’t let her be punished. He’ll
expose himself and then Gino will kill him with a bullet to the brain.”

I remember thinking that Chris was in danger and I had
to warn him, and that was the last thing I remembered for a long time.

I
felt
the rope
around my wrists and ankles before I was even able to open my eyes. The tight
compression of the string held my limbs up against the cold metal of the chair
I was in. My head slumped down and as I started to wake
up,
I slowly pulled my head up. My eyes were filled with a blurry
mess when I tried to look out and see what was in front of me.

The voices of men surrounded me as they talked to each
other and ignored me. I’m not sure any of them were fully aware that I had
started to wake up yet. As my own cognition started to line up with my body as
it woke up, I was able to remind myself to move slowly. Perhaps if I moved
slowly,
then no one would notice I was awake
and I could observe them better.

There were three men close to me; they all had thick
beards and held what I thought were guns. My vision was still pretty blurry so
I couldn’t fully tell. Two of them men had their back to me and faced the third
man, who looked like he was in charge. I overheard them say something about
catching the mole among the other men. That made m
e hold
my breath as I remembered the two who had brought me there
and what they said just before the drugs had taken effect. I had to figure out
a way to warn Chris. This was a trap and they were going to kill him for sure.

My eyes started to clear and I opened them slightly to
try and get a better look at the three men who held me captive. They were all
three very large men, well over 200
pounds, but
physically very fit. I could tell the one who was in charge almost immediately
because the other two looked at him after everything they said. The man in
charge must have been Gino, the person who was going to kill Chris and
I
when he found out who Chris was.

I tried to reposition my head slowly so I could get a
look at the other two men, but their backs were still to me so I couldn’t see
them. They both had dark hair and held onto their large guns like they were
very comfortable using them.

“Go get everyone, I want to see their reactions,” Gino
said to his two sidekicks. The two men left the room and I was alone with Gino.
He noticed I was awake and came over to me. My heart pounded as he walked
closer. The gun he had slung across his body was my sole fixation and I
couldn’t even look him in the eyes because of this.

“Young lady, would you like some water?”

“No.”

“You will feel better. It will help flush the drugs
from your system. Drink this,” he said and he held a bottle of water up to my
lips.

I drank it; I certainly wasn’t in a position to refuse
something he asked me to do. Plus I was dying of thirst and the water did taste
perfect as it went down. He was a tall man who certainly asserted a sense of
power. The way he carried himself, was with confidence and power. I could see
why people looked up to him. In a different world, he would have made a great
leader of some big corporation, but instead he led criminals.

“Thank you,” I said as he pulled the bottle away from
my lips.

It was at this point I finally made eye contact with
him. I’m not sure what I had expected, perhaps
an
ugly snarly
face with death in his eyes, or something equally as scary.
Instead, he looked like a regular guy. I glanced over his face and took in the
Italian features and tan skin. He was actually a very handsome man. His beard
was well trimmed and he wore a white button-up short sleeve shirt. The material
was
lightweight
and extremely soft when
it had brushed up against my hand.

“I’m sorry I had to bring you here sweet thing. But
one of my men is lying to me and I have no choice but to flush him out and kill
him. Unless, perhaps…you would like to help me by pointing him out?”

I looked up at the man with wide eyes as I tried to
contemplate the situation. How much did he know? What should I tell him? What
should I lie about? The thoughts all rushed through my head at the same time. I
had no idea what I should say or do.

“I’m just a girl from Missouri,” I said as tears
filled my eyes. He seemed amused at my fear. It was the first moment I truly
felt like he would kill me without even a second thought.

Just then a large group of people made their way up
some stairs at the other end of the large warehouse building. There had to have
been at least one hundred people. Most of them were men, but I did see a few
women in the bunch. I searched through the group to see if I could find Chris.
As they walked closer and closer my eyes darted frantically among the crowd to
find him. I didn’t know what I could do to warn him, but I probably wouldn’t
have to. The second he saw me sitting in that chair he would know exactly what
was going on.

“Hello everyone and thank you for coming to the show,”
Gino said with his arms in the air like a circus show entertainer.

I looked at the faces of all the people and I couldn’t
find Chris anywhere. All of the men had beards and looked like they hadn’t had
a chance to shower in days. It was impossible to pick Chris out from the crowd
when everyone looked alike.

“It has come to my attention that one of my dear
friends in this room actually works for the government,” Gino continued on. “As
you can imagine, I’m not happy about that.”

The crowd of people started to look at one another and
talk under their breaths. I noticed a man on the corner that looked
familiar,
but I didn’t instantly know who he
was. My mind was still extremely foggy from the drugs and my eyes not
quite
focused.

Gunner!

My heart sank and my eyes fixated on him as I realized
the man on the corner of the crowd was Gunner. He had helped me after Chris was
shot and then he had helped Chris by picking me up and bringing me to the bed
and breakfast. My eyes looked at him and I saw him shake his head back and
forth slightly in
a NO
motion. I looked
away.

Surely if Gino had seen me look at Gunner the way I
did, he would have known for sure that Gunner was the mole. I continued to look
through the crowd of people and try and find Chris, if Gunner was there then
Chris surely had to be nearby. My eyes continued through the crowd and I saw
another man that I recognized, but it wasn’t Chris either. This man had been at
the bed and breakfast the first day I arrived. He disappeared after that, but
he certainly knew both Gunner and Chris. I remembered him sitting in the living
room when I kissed Chris after first arriving at the bed and breakfast.

I looked away from him also.

I continued to search the crowd. How many men were
part of Gino’s empire and actually worked for the government? Gino certainly
didn’t know he had so many moles and I couldn’t be the person to break their
cover.

Gino’s two main guys walked behind the crowd of people
and pushed them forward as Gino stood right in front of me. I could only see
the people on the side of the crowd, but I had already identified two of them
as being part of Chris’s team. My eyes continued to search the crowd for Chris.

I couldn’t find him. I desperately needed to see Chris
and feel like everything would be alright. I knew if I could just find him I
would be safe. Chris would make sure I got out of this situation all-right. He
would kill this Gino guy and rescue me, I was sure of it. Now I just had to
find Chris.

“You see this beautiful young woman…she doesn’t want
to die a painful death. Do you sweetheart?” Gino stepped to the side and looked
at me. I felt the hot stare of his gaze on my body. He stepped back toward me
and placed his hand on my shoulder as he looked at the crowd of people who
looked on. He squeezed my shoulder firmly and I felt compelled to answer his
question with a head nod.

I shook my head left and right and looked up at the
man.

“This sweet thing knows which one of you is the mole.
You corrupted this sweet girl and brought her into this dirty world. Now her
sweet little blond hair is going to be covered in your blood.”

Gino looked at the crowd and walked toward them. He
moved one by one through the group and looked into each of their eyes. Some of
the men looked back at Gino and some of them quickly looked toward the ground.
It was clear that all of them feared him though.

“If you confess, I will not kill the girl. But if I
have to torture her to get you to confess, she will wish for death.” My hands
started to shake and more tears fell down my face. It took everything I had not
to look at Gunner or the other man I knew. I didn’t even want to search the
crowd for Chris anymore out of fear that I would make eye contact with him and
Gino would know who he was.

“So I will give you until the morning to come to me
and confess. If you have not, I will start
instilling
horrible pain on this sweet girl right in front of you all until the mole
confesses.”

My thoughts raced as I imagined all the horrible
things he had planned to hurt me in order to get the mole to confess. The
problem was, Chris wasn’t even in the room. Had I been brought to this
warehouse to get one of the other two men to confess? I didn’t know exactly what
was going on, but I did know that I needed rescuing right at that moment.

I felt a small sense of relief when he gave the time
frame of the next morning. Surely Chris and his guys would be able to rescue me
by
that time. I didn’t know to what
extent they had trained for situations like that, but surely they would be
skilled to get me out. I felt a sense of confidence that they would get me out
of the situation. I scanned the crowd and locked on to Gunner. He looked at me
with such compassion as I cried; it was hard for me to look away.

“Kyle, you seem to have
quite
the eye for the girl,” Gino said as he walked over to Gunner.

“No sir,” Gunner said.

Kyle must have been the name Gunner used while he was
undercover. I made sure not to look at either of them as they had the
conversation. Instead, I looked at the ground and hoped that Gino wasn’t about
to kill Gunner.

“Skinner, untie the girl and bring her here,” Gino
said to one of his two main guys who had moved behind me now. The Skinner guy
got on his knees and untied the ropes around my ankles and then stood up and
untied the ones on my wrists. Then he looked at me. My heart fluttered and I
tried not to react.

It was the first time I had been able to clearly see
either of Gino’s two main guys. It was Chris!

He only looked for a second and then roughly grabbed
me and brought me over to Gino. As roughly as he had grabbed me, I thought for
a second I had been mistaken that it was Chris. I had just been drugged;
perhaps I hadn’t seen him right? Maybe it was just a guy that looked a lot like
Chris.

“Don’t look at me and don’t respond,” Chris whispered
in my ear as we walked over toward Gino and Gunner. Yep, it was Chris for sure.
I could tell by his voice. I felt better knowing he was there, but still scared
to death that I was in the situation. At any moment Gino could turn his gun on
me and it all could be over.

“Young lady, do you know this man?” Gino asked me. I
looked at Gino and shook my head no. I tried not to look at Gunner and instead
looked toward the ground as the situation unfolded.

“Kyle seems to like you at the very least. Perhaps I
should let him have his way with you right here, just to prove that he’s not
the mole.” I tried not to respond, but my eyes darted at Gunner and something
in the way I looked at him must have given Gino some concern.

“On your knees!” Gino screamed as he put a
handgun
to Gunner’s head. Gunner instantly went
to his knees. He responded like any of the other employees would have
responded, by doing exactly as he was told. I looked up at Chris, in the hopes
that he would do something to stop the situation. But he didn’t even look at
me, instead he intently watched the situation between Gino and Gunner.

“Do you know this girl?” Gino asked Gunner.

“No sir, but she is fine as hell. That’s why I looked
at her like that. I’m sorry sir.”

Gino looked at me. He took some extra time to look up
and down my body. Our eyes made contact with each other and then his gazed
moved down to my breasts.

“
Mmmm
baby girl is
fine,
” Gino said. “Stand up then,” he yelled at
Gunner. Gunner stood up and didn’t look at me. Only straight at Gino, who had
now moved down the line to some other guy in the group.

“You want to fuck her?” Gino said to the next guy.

“Not my type. I like girls with some ass,” the guy
joked.

All the people laughed awkwardly. It was the best they
could do with such a dangerous man. None of them
were
free to say much and Gino continued to move down the line of
people and see if he could notice a reaction that would warn him that someone
was the mole.

What Gino didn’t know was that he had at least three
moles within his group. I didn’t know everyone that Chris worked with and it
was highly possible there were even more men who had infiltrated this group. I
thought back to what Chris had said about his work and how long he had been on
this case. He certainly must have been working with Gino for many years for
Gino to trust him as one of his right hand guys. I was a little in awe of how
dedicated to his work that Chris was.

When I first met him as my shirtless neighbor, I felt
like he was probably a meathead. My instinct was that he was one of those
police officers who spent all their time working out and picking up women, but
not very much of their time taking their work seriously. I certainly had been
wrong about Chris.