Chapter 17

Forty minutes later we were sat on the back seat of a bus. It was a direct route leaving Atlanta at 3pm and arriving in Chicago at 5am, 15 hours later. A long journey which left me with far too much time to think. It also reminded me of the bus journeys that I'd taken when I'd left Trenton. It was almost as if I couldn't escape, everything seemed to be pulling me back there.

The phone that had called Anya had been bought near Trenton and the puzzle of why my grandma had died was there. Now Ranger was hunting me and that scared me the most. Had someone told him to find me, would Joe have done that? Would Ranger do as Joe asked of him. During that time after grandma died all that I could hear Joe saying was that I had to see how much I endangered other people and that I had to change my life and do what was best. His idea of what was best was me marrying him and never leaving the Burg. That idea had been one of the reasons that I'd had to leave.

I couldn't cope with my grandma being dead but throughout the time when I was breaking apart Joe was relentless and of course my parents were echoing his words. That they used guilt and blame only compounded how I had felt and of course I believed what they'd said. No, I couldn't let Ranger take me back to Joe and my parents nor could I face being blamed for my grandma's death. I may have been guilty for her being in my car, but it wasn't me who had killed her.

"Annie. What did you find out about your grandma before we had to leave?"

I was brought out of my yjoughts by Xander touching my arm, unaware that he had probably been asking me something. Okay I knew this was Xander's way of making me think about more positive things, so I pulled the papers from my rucksack.

"She'd been to a viewing and managed to hook up with the deceased brother. The deceased, Trevor Peralta, was a very successful lawyer but the brother had always skirted outside the law. I don't know if they have anything to do with why she died though"

"I started on those things that you'd written down. We'll pick them up again when we get to Chicago"

I'd forgotten about those with everything that had happened, but hearing Xander say that we'd pick everything up again made me start to think about that, anything was better than thinking about the fact that I was running away from Ranger. I wondered if he would be annoyed when he discovered that I had been there at Atlanta and that he had missed me. The idea of coming face to face with Ranger and seeing his blank face terrified me.

Fifteen hours, travelling during the night meant that I could at least sleep Xander was quiet and occupied with his tablet which suited me fine. I knew there were too many things rattling around in my head and that I needed to sort through them but I decided that being in Chicago would be give me the time and resources to do that. I was surprised at how few passengers were on board but at least we had the back seat to ourselves.

It was still dark when the bus came to stop at the station in Chicago. I looked around as I stepped down from the bus blinking against the bright lights. The ceiling was low, the floor was tiled and there were rows of metal chairs with people sat on them. I looked up at painted murals set above me allowing Xander to lead the way. Seeing the sign for the restrooms I pulled away and went inside. I felt so tired that I was surprised that I could walk straight. I splashed water over my face to try and wake me up and did feel a little better for doing that.

Xander was waiting outside for me, and we were soon stood outside by the side of the street. The street was quiet, and I wasn't sure why we were waiting there until I saw a taxi pull up. As I started to open the door to get inside another one pulled up behind us with two men quickly getting out. To be honest I just thought that the men were rushing to catch a bus so when one of them threw a fist at Xander I was totally confused.

Xander wasn't a physical type of guy, but he fought back as best he could and at the same time tried to protect me. That was when the second man was suddenly pushing me into the taxi. As I looked behind me all that I saw was Xander laid out on the curb with my rucksack and his bag laid next to him.

"Hey, stop. We need to go back. My friend is hurt"

"Don't think so"

I looked back to the man who was now sat next to me and tried to grab the handle for the door. That was as far as I got before I felt a jolt go through me and my world blackened around me.

I felt ill as my head started to clear and actually thought that I was still on the bus. Trying to keep myself from being physically sick I laid as still as I could. As my stomach calmed that was when I realized that what I was laying on was cold and hard, not the seat from the bus. Then I remembered what had happened outside the bus station. Was I on my own or was Xander here with me? No, he had been lying unconscious on the sidewalk as that taxi with me inside had driven away. So why the hell had I been taken and who was responsible for doing that? It also had my heart dropping as I realized that Xander had been hurt and it was because of me. Why had I let him stay with me when I knew that anyone close to me could get hurt? Maybe Joe was right.

I tried to think positively because I had no idea who was after me or why. That had me asking who knew that we were going to be getting off the bus when we did. I knew that Ranger was looking for me, but he would never just grab me like that and certainly wouldn't beat Xander up. So I was back to thinking who it was that was holding me which had me wondering where it was that I was being held.

I knew that I was on my side because I could feel the cold floor below my cheek. I partly opened my eyes trying to see past the darkness that surrounded me but failed miserably only seeing the slight shadow of myself which meant that there was a source of light behind me. I didn't have the feeling of anyone being with me so rolled onto my back. At least my hands were free so I turned to look for where the light was coming from, seeing a crack of light that must have been coming in from underneath a door. I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, bending my knees to my chest, and looked around. I didn't feel any pain from anywhere so at least I hadn't been hurt. I was in a small dark cell which had me sighing as the confusion took over, why, was the frontmost question on my mind.

At the sound of voices coming from beyond the door I lay back down in the position that I'd been in when I woke. Maybe if whoever walked in thought that I was still unconscious then I'd get some idea of what the hell was going on. A key turned in the lock before the creaking of the door told me that it was opening. The light streamed over me, and I watched as two shadows grew larger, that was my cue to close my eyes.

"How the hell is she still out cold?"

"Maybe you zapped her for too long"

I felt a kick to the back of my thigh and gritted my teeth to stop from reacting to it.

"The boss won't be here for hours yet so it don't matter to us how she is. As long as she's awake when he gets here"

The men's footsteps receded, and the door closed but I remained as still as possible. Afterall one of them could still be in the room with me. So I knew there were two men and that nothing would happen until their boss arrived, so how did that help me? I had to escape or at least try because even though those men might hurt me, they wouldn't kill me, not until their boss arrived. Though who the boss was, was a mystery to me. Maybe it was time to push those men. I slowly moved, wincing at the pain from where I'd been kicked and then pushed myself to get onto my feet. My head felt clearer now and to be honest a feeling that I hadn't felt for a long time overwhelmed me. I felt totally pissed off with how I was being treated so walked over to the door squeezing my hands into a fist. I hammered on the door as I started to shout.

"Hey, you out there. Let me out"

Listening, I couldn't hear anything so maybe they didn't hear me or chose to ignore me.

"Hey, don't ignore me. I want to know why I'm here"

"Shut the fuck up"

Came back to me from someone who was stood just outside the door. Well at least I had his attention now.

"I need the bathroom. You can't just zap me and leave me in here. Bathroom now"

I took a step back as I heard a key in the lock because I really didn't want to get hit by the door when it opened. As it swung open, I could see the outline of a man stood there but with the light behind him struggled with any details. I bent my knee slightly as though I really did need the bathroom.

"Please, please can I use a bathroom?"

I talked quietly hoping that would sway the man because I knew that shouting would only annoy him. He stepped to the side of the door which I took as an invitation to step out of the room.

"Down there"

Was all that was said as I turned down the corridor. I didn't hurry because I needed to work out where I was. If I had to guess then I'd say that I was in some kind of warehouse, I'd been inside enough of them before in Trenton. The floor was concrete, and the walls looked to be built from blocks which was why it was probably so dark. As I walked past a door and turned toward it, I felt my arm being grabbed and me being pulled back. The man looked at the door next to us, so I assumed that this was the bathroom. The room that I stepped into had a window but had wood fastened against it. That didn't stop me from trying to look out through the gaps. To me it seemed dark though I wasn't sure how that could be. Hadn't it been morning when we'd arrived at the bus station?

Another door had a single toilet inside which was as I expected, very old and dirty, but it did have the benefit of the lid being sat against the wall next to it. After using the toilet, I picked up the lid trying to ignore how dirty it was. Back in the room I held the seat behind my back as I opened the door. The man remained leant against the wall, I suppose so that I would walk past him and like a good little girl walk back to my cell. I smiled at him, which had him rolling his eyes, oh he was sure in for a surprise, especially as I swung the seat toward him. The edge of seat caught him on his neck, yeah that was how tall he was, but at least the impact had him sliding down to the floor. With both of his hands in mine I dragged him through the door and into my cell. Locking the door and pocketing the key I went back along the corridor with the seat held tightly in my hand.

That I was at the top of some stone stairs surprised me because I hadn't realized that I wasn't on the ground floor. The lighting was very poor so I was very cautious as I stepped down, unsure of what I might find. I very quietly began to step down, one step at a time until I came to the last one. I couldn't hear anything so stepped down and began to walk along yet another corridor. There were no windows and very little lighting, so I kept to the wall, constantly straining to hear anything. As I neared yet another set of steps, I was beginning to worry how tall this damn building was and that was when I could hear shouting. Not enough to determine what was being said but enough to know that this wasn't good for me. Hearing footsteps I retreated and backed through an open doorway where the door was missing. Footsteps echoed as they disappeared up the steps that I'd just come down and I knew that they would soon discover that I was missing.

The problem was that there were still voices below me which meant that I had nowhere to go. I loud crash came from upstairs, so I backed into the corner, hiding in the shadows as footsteps ran past, back along the corridor. Maybe they'd all just disappear and think that I'd escaped from the building? A girl could hope, couldn't she? I jumped when I heard gun shots firing from below me, so I waited. I dared to venture from my hiding place and squatted down at the top of the steps not sure what to do next. It was really quiet, well it would have been if my heart would quieten down. I made the decision to go down the steps, I mean I had to get out of here, didn't I? As I peeked around the corner all seemed quiet, so once down the steps turned to continue down yet another corridor. That was a mistake as I soon found out because a hand suddenly came from behind me and snaked around my waist.

"Going somewhere?"

I didn't answer, I mean he should know that I was trying to escape, and from the sound of his voice he was one of the men who had come into that cell. Were there other men still downstairs, was I walking into a trap?

"You're a popular woman aint you?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I felt the cold metal of a gun at my head as he moved me forward. I tried to stay still but he was strong enough to just lift me off my feet. As we turned toward yet another set of steps, I was looking at a staircase made from wood with a bannister and a view of the space below me.

"Hand her over"

Came from a voice below me, but out of sight. I didn't recognize who it was and doubted that he was the boss that was expected.

"You need to let her go"

I heard sniggering behind me and the sickly smell of the man's breath close to my cheek.

"Don't think so. My boss will be here soon and then we'll see who walks out with her"

I think I held my breath as two men appeared, both dressed in black, but not the style that I was used to seeing. They were wearing black jeans and black hoodies and were pointing machine guns at us. A twitch of a finger would finish both of us off. I felt so confused with what was happening. Who were the men down below us and were they after me as well? How had my life gone to shit so quickly that I had two groups of men arguing over me?

"Let her go and we'll let you live"

Even I knew that was a false promise because as soon as I was clear they'd make sure that they riddled him with bullets. It was stalemate as far as I could see with a limited time for someone to make a move. I felt my feet touch the floor, maybe the man behind me had decided to stay where he was and wait to see what the two gunmen's next move would be. Then again maybe I was wrong because I felt a push from behind me as though we were going to be stepping down the stairs. What happened next, well some of it seemed to pass in slow motion, my ankle twisting underneath me, the sound of gunshots and then a weight that pushed me forward and sideways.

I know that I screamed when I realized that I was falling over the bannister but thanked god that I didn't feel my landing.