"Trouble!"
The sun was just starting its descent when Gabriel finished showing Renee everything in his shop including the back room; a room no one else ever saw. They were walking to the door, and Renee laughed at something he said. If I'm not careful, she reminded herself, I'm gonna fall again. And hard. A knock on the door brought her suddenly out of her thoughts.
Gabriel answered it, and the door swung open. Sara stepped quickly inside and shut the door behind her. The worry in her face concerned him. "What's wrong, Sara?"
"Nothing, Gabriel. Don't worry about it."
He looked carefully at her, shaking his head. "Don't pull that with me. What's wrong?"
She looked at him, then sighed. "It's nothing, Gabriel. Just felt like someone was following me."
"Probably Nottingham," Renee muttered. She was still a little shaken after the encounter with him.
Sara spun around to face her. "Did you say Nottingham?"
"Yeah," Renee replied not sure why she had reacted that way. "Why?"
"How do you know him?"
"Friend of mine's sister knew him. I met him today. He was lurking in an alley, then came out and started talking to her."
"That's no surprise. He's always lurking." She looked at Renee again. "Be careful. He can be dangerous."
"I will be. He seemed a bit...," she couldn't think of the word she wanted.
"Like a freak," Sara finished for her.
"I don't know," Renee replied, shaking her head. "Dakota seemed to trust him, and Darvi knew him."
Gabriel broke in, trying to change the subject. "Why don't you two sit down. Do you want anything to drink?"
Before they could answer, the door crashed open, and five men stormed into the shop. The red stone in Sara's bracelet began to swirl as if storm clouds were gathering. It transformed into a metal gauntlet, then a blade appeared from the top of it. Renee and Gabriel had their eyes on the intruders and didn't notice the transformation.
The leader did, however. He ordered the rest of his men to grab her two friends. Before either of them could move, their arms were restrained by two men. The leader then turned to face Sara. "Give it to us," he demanded.
She glanced at Gabriel, and he shook his head. She looked from him to Renee, then back to the leader. Gabriel could see the fight she was having with herself and said loud enough for her, but not the other man to hear, "Sara, go. Get out."
After a second of hesitation, she backed out the door, then ran to her bike. Slamming her helmet on her head, she turned the key and started toward the precinct.
One of the men holding Gabriel let go with one of his arms, drew a gun from under his coat, and brought it crashing down on the younger man's head. The room swam before his eyes, then his legs went limp, and he collapsed to the floor. Renee tried to struggle with her captors, but stopped when one of them began twisting her arm. She relaxed, and so did the pressure.
"Get them into the car."
"But, Boss," one of the men started to say.
"I said get them into the car. She will come."
Renee was able to walk to the car, but Gabriel was dragged there. Their hands were restrained behind them while they were still in the shop. Both were lifted and dropped into the trunk. The lid was slammed shut, and the two of them were left in darkness. She heard the car start up and felt as it took off. Renee's head hit against the bottom every time they hit a bump, and there was no way to stop it. After several minutes, she had a severe headache.
After a few more miles of this, the car stopped. Renee readied herself for the bright sunlight that would blind her when the trunk opened. It never came. They were left there, their muscles cramping from hour after hour of stillness. Gabriel was still out of it, so Renee laid there in silence.
She lost track of time when she fell into an uncomfortable sleep. She was awoken by the creak of the trunk being opened. Gabriel shifted himself onto his side; he was finally awake. It was dark outside with only the moon offering scant light. With it, she could make out a man towering over her. He grabbed the front of her shirt. "Get out," he demanded.
"I can't," she retorted. She wasn't being belligerent or sarcastic, just truthful. She couldn't move any part of her body without a sharp pain slicing through it. Laying in one position for several hours gave her muscles time to stiffen up and not want to relax.
With a growl, he pulled her out of the trunk, but her legs refused to cooperate once they touched the ground. She fell on her side, and since she couldn't use her hands to break her fall, her shoulder and the side of her face slammed into the ground. She cried out as pain radiated from her shoulder. Lifting her head, she could feel the gravel imbedded in her cheek.
Gabriel soon joined her on the ground. His face looked extremely pale in the darkness. He started to smile at her, but was jerked to feet. They were pushed then dragged into a building. Once in there, chains were attached to the links of their handcuffs, and they were both chained to a pole in the middle of the room.
They barely had enough slack in the chains to move from their position against the pole, let alone to lay down. So, for the next hour or so, they sat still in silence. After awhile, Renee began to shift restlessly. "What's wrong?" Gabriel whispered to her.
She slowly shook her head. "I just can't stand to sit still for long periods of time. Need to move around."
"Well, doesn't look like you'll be able to do that," he replied, keeping his voice low.
They had tried to keep their voices at a whisper so the men wouldn't hear them, but it didn't work. One of them looked up, got to his feet, and strode over to them. He glared down at Gabriel. "Keep your mouth shut," he ordered.
Gabriel just glared back at the man. This enraged him. He kicked Gabriel's hip, causing him to wince in pain, but he didn't make a sound. The man sneered at him, then returned to his buddies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When all of the light of the day had disappeared, Dakota began to worry about Renee. She should have been back by now. She knew her friend. If she was going to be gone late, she would have called. Renee hated having people worry about her. Also, they had almost a twin-psychic thing going. If something was wrong with one of them, the other could always sense it right away. Dakota had that feeling now.
She grabbed the phone from its receiver, and punched the buttons of Gabriel's phone number. It rang twice before the answering machine picked up. There was no message, just a beep. She slammed the phone down, grabbed her shoes and coat, and rushed out of the apartment. Dakota had no idea where she was going to go. She stopped and made herself calm down enough to think. "I should go to his shop first and see if something happened there," she thought aloud.
She knew she would be embarrassed if nothing had happened, and they had just been too "busy" to answer the phone. She knew somehow though that something was wrong. When she arrived at the shop, the door stood open. She stepped cautiously through, but nothing seemed to be out of place. Then her gaze was drawn to a small red notebook laying open on the floor. She bent to pick it up and instantly recognized it as the one Renee always carried to write thoughts in as soon as they came to her.
She slowly lowered herself t the floor and ran her hand through her thick, black, curly hair. She had no idea where to look, but she knew her friend was in a lot of danger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After an hour, Gabriel got sick of being quiet, and something devilish was riding him. He might be stuck there for a time, but he wasn't going to let his captors enjoy it. "What do you guys want?" He suddenly demanded to know.
"What do you think we want?" One of the men growled at him.
Gabriel pretended to think about this question for a second, then shrugged his shoulders with exaggeration. Barely hiding a smirking grin, he said, "I give up."
A moment later the man was squatting beside Gabriel. He had the younger man's hair in his fist and was pulling his head back. "Listen, boy. I can make your life miserable," he hissed at him.
Gabriel looked out of the corner of his eye at him while gritting his teeth in pain. He couldn't believe how trite the guy sounded. Don't people have any creativity anymore? He questioned himself. Then he retorted, "Like I'm scared."
The man sent his unoccupied fist into Gabriel's stomach. "Like you should be."
Gabriel coughed, then just glared at the man. This enraged him even more. He let go of his hair and used the heel of that hand to smash his captive's nose. Gabriel cried out in pain as blood flowed from his nose and over his lips. With a smug smile, the man hit him again, this time opening a gash on his cheek. Satisfied, he walked over to where the rest of the group was sitting.
"Are you all right?" Renee whispered to him.
He nodded his head, then remembered their backs were to each other, so she couldn't see him. "Yeah. Fine," he replied weakly.
"Why did you do that?" She asked after a long silence. "You had to know it would just make him mad."
"Do you really care?" Something in his voice sounded extremely sad.
"Yes." Her voice was soft, but full of intensity. "I haven't known you long, but I still consider you a friend. Not many people are considered my friend, but the few that are, I never stop caring about."
Gabriel was sorry he had acted that way. Now her words were like a knife. He knew how she felt. His friends meant as much to him. "I'm sorry. It just seemed that you didn't really care. You always act like you don't want to see me."
Her bottom lip started to quiver, but she wasn't going to let their captors see her cry. They would misunderstand the reason behind the tears. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to leave."
Gabriel wasn't sure what that had to do with seeing him, but before he could question her, two of the men walked over to him.
"We're getting sick of your mouth," one of them told him.
"How can you even hear me from over there?" He wanted to know.
"It doesn't matter if we can hear you or not. We can see your mouth moving. We've told you enough to keep it shut. Guess it's time to show you."
He rolled his eyes, but had barely opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comment when a fist pushed his lips back into his teeth. He could taste blood in his mouth. A man grabbed his shirt while the other unchained him from the pole. The one who unchained him pulled his arms over his head by the handcuffs, then dragged him across the floor. Gabriel groaned as he felt splinters poke through the fabric of his jeans and stick into his skin.
Renee saw him as they dragged him onto another room. His face was contorted with pain. "Where are they taking him? What are they doing?" She demanded of the other three men, but they just ignored her. She got one more glance of Gabriel before the door closed between them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sara didn't go far when she left Gabriel's shop. It wasn't too long after the men left with her friends when she saw a girl around Renee's age hurry to the shop. She decided to follow and see what the girl was up to. When she looked into the shop, she was sitting on the floor with a notebook in her hand.
Sara made her way across the room, but Dakota didn't notice her. She stood there for a moment before speaking. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Dakota's head jerked up, and she started to slide herself across the floor, away from Sara. "Where's Renee?" She asked, wary of Sara.
"You her friend?"
"Yeah. Where is she? I got worried when she didn't come home. So I came here and found this." She showed the notebook to Sara. "She wouldn't leave it. She takes it everywhere."
Sara sat down beside her and said quietly, "Don't worry. I'm Gabe's friend."
Then, she preceded to tell Dakota what happened. When she finished, the younger girl said, "We have to find them. Renee will only take so much, then she'll start fighting back. And it will be at the worst possible time."
Sara shook her head. "No, I'll find them. You stay here. Don't want you getting into trouble as well."
"I can't stay here. I have to find my friend."
"I'll find her. I'll find both of them."
"You don't seem worried."
"I am. I'm sick because of it. Because this is my fault." She looked at Dakota. "Go home. I'll find them."
Dakota searched Sara's face, then sighed and nodded. "I'll go."
They walked to the door, and she started down the street toward the apartment. It would be empty. Jason had left for home the night before. "I shouldn't have made her go," Dakota berated herself. "We should have gone to the library like I said we were doing. Then she'd still be here. But I had to play matchmaker. Now my best friend, the one who's like a sister to me, could be gone." People were giving her strange looks, but at the moment, she didn't really care.
Sara watched her walk away, then started toward the precinct, hoping to look through some old files to find the answer to this. When she was in front of the 11th Precinct building, she saw a man watching her from the shadows. With a growl, she made her way over to him. "Nottingham, must you always lurk? Can't you act normal at least once?"
"It would disappoint you if I did, Sara," came his reply.
"I actually am glad to see you. I need your help, Ian."
"To find your friends." He didn't state this as a question, and she picked up on that. It still struck her as odd, however.
"Yes. Can you help me?"
"I am sorry, Sara. I cannot."
"What? Why not?"
"You took away what I loved, Sara. I cannot give back what you love."
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. When she opened them again, he was gone. "Nottingham," she growled.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As soon as the door closed, Gabriel tried to get to his feet. The larger of the two men shoved him against the wall with such force that it shook and the clock hung crooked. Gabriel burst into a coughing fit at the impact. The man threw him to the floor, and his head slammed off of the hard wood. After a moment, the room stopped spinning for him, and he started to get to his feet again.
The man sent his booted toes into the young man's gut, and he went sprawling across the floor. He tried to sit, and the other man joined in. The heel of his boot connected with Gabriel's ribs. Everyone in the room could hear one or two of them crack. Groaning, Gabriel continued his struggle to get to his feet. The two men watched him with grudging admiration. It didn't last long though.
One of them grabbed the hair at the back of his head, and while he lowered his captive's head, he brought his knee up to his face. His nose was crushed again, and his lip was a bloody pulp. He still glared at the two men. The one who now held him brought his knee up into Gabriel's stomach. With a grunt, he fell to the floor and stayed there this time. He saw it was pointless to fight back now. He would have to wait.
The men kicked him in the stomach, trying to get him to rise again, but it didn't work. He wouldn't have had enough strength even if he'd wanted to. One of the men stepped on the back of his hand, crushing the bones. He let out an involuntary wail of pain. His whole body throbbed from the beating he took, but still no darkness came as an escape from the pain.
Finally satisfied with their work, the men left the room. They would be back later to return him to the pole. Maybe they would even have some more fun with him first.