Chapter 6 - A Sinking Feeling

Barney turned over onto his right side and tried to adjust the pillow underneath his head. That's when he saw one of the room's lights was left on. He sat up in bed and rubbed his tired eyes. Glancing over to Mia's bed, he found it empty. His attention then went to the empty couch. Barney threw the covers off him as he search to find either of them in the room. Maybe they were on the terrace? No. That too was empty. There was no sign of Mia or Christmas. He quickly pocketed his revolver before going to leave the room.

Mia and Christmas made their way to the end of the hallway and looked out to the lobby. The music was still softly playing while a cool breeze rustled the surrounding palms. Christmas watched Mia's blue eyes shift to the stairs that were to her left. Mia lightly grasped the wood railing and slowly made her way down the stairs.

Behind Christmas he heard a door open. He turned to see Barney with a confused expression. "Where's Mia?" Barney asked and Christmas nodded his head towards the stairs. When Mia came into Barney's view, he observed the woman pause at the bottom of the stairs. Her back was facing them, but Barney could see how tense her shoulders were.

It felt like forever for Mia as the memories flickered through her head. They were fuzzy and disorienting. She could remember the laughter…chattering people….dishes clanking…a smiling man.

Marco.

He was a couple of years older than the bride - around forty years old. They had different hair colors, but shared the same green eyes. Her hair was a light chestnut brown while his was jet black. He was handsome and had a very charming smile. His face was diamond shaped and he had a strong jawline that match his personality. It was obvious he knew how to take control of a conversation without being an ass. He even helped Mia when she took pictures of the newly married couple once they officially said 'I do". Maybe that's why Mia trusted him with her drink when she had to go to the bathroom. He was so nice to her.

Once the party was winding down, it was the first time Mia was able to put her camera down and grab a drink from the bar. At some point Marco had come over to ask about the pictures she had taken. He wondered how they turned out. After a minute of talking, Mia excused herself to the bathroom with her camera draped over her shoulder. She was always selfconscious about misplacing her expensive equipment.

Mia returned to Marco and her drink and then their conversation became a blur. She remembered having two more cocktails before she called it a night. "Sleep well, Mrs. Brooks," he told her after she told him goodnight. Mia felt her stomach turn. She turned around to see Christmas and Barney observing her from the top of the stairs. Then her eyes traveled down the stairway.

Mia stumbled up the stairs and giggled a little to herself. She entered her room and slipped off her shoes. Plopping on the bed, she sat and went through the pictures on her camera. At some point, she noticed her vision starting to become fuzzy. Mia knew it was bedtime for sure.

That must have been when Mia began to black out. The last things she could remember was four silver screws in her hand and just as she was about to get ready for bed, an arm grabbed her from behind.

"I don't know why I thought I was drunk," Mia spoke up. "I only had three drinks…Marco, the bride's brother, had to be the one that drugged me."

"The bride's brother?" Barney repeated.

Mia nodded. "He asked me after the wedding reception about the pictures."

"Did you figure out where your camera is?" Christmas asked and she shook her head.

"No, but it was in my room the last time I remember. I had to hide it somewhere in the room. I'm really paranoid about my camera. Maybe that's why they never found it."

Barney glimpsed at his watch and then to Christmas. "We'll see if we can get a key to your old room. It's too late to ask the front desk though. We'll ask in the morning."

Christmas' eyes went back to Mia who now was staring up at him. Her eyes glistened in the light and her hand was still gripping the railing. The other held the whiskey bottle. This time her grip was tight. Christmas didn't see much emotion from her as they locked eyes. Her face was relaxed, her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes searched his. She looked numb and emotionally detached. It was a clear that she was suffering from PTSD. He had guessed that at first when she talked about her nightmares and how timid she's acted. He felt sympathy for the woman. She was living a normal life before all of this.

When Christmas studied her face, it still surprised him to find out from Barney that Mia was pushing 33 years old. He couldn't have sworn she was around 5 years younger. "We should get some sleep," Christmas spoke up. "Come on."

.

The next morning, Mia was woken up by Barney shaking her shoulder. "Time to get up," he told her.

"Okay, okay," she yawned and swatted his hand away. Mia sat up to fully wake up. Barney went to put his boots on while Christmas was out on the Balcony. She grabbed an outfit from her bag to go change into. Slipping on blue jean shorts, and an olive t-shirt, Mia began to reapply some make up to her face.

When Mia stepped out of the bathroom, it was refreshing for Barney to see the bruises hidden. Seeing her beaten made him uncomfortably angry. 'Oh, what people will do for personal gains…' he thought to himself, leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

Christmas stepped back into the room and greeted Mia. "Good morning."

Mia let out a yawn before replying back, "Good morning." She threw on her boots and began stretching out her sore arms.

"You ready to go get that key?" Barney asked taking the last sip of his coffee.

It didn't take them long to get a key since the desk clerk recognized Mia.

They searched in and under everything. It only took about five minutes before Barney and Christmas concluded that Mia's camera had to be somewhere else. "Looks like they cleaned the place before housekeeping came. They said none of your stuff was in your room and thought you had left without checking out," Barney explained and turned to Mia. "Where else could we look?"

"It has to be somewhere in here," Mia told him.

He frowned. "We looked everywhere. It's not here." A sudden ring from his cellphone interrupted their conversation. Barney fished the phone out of his pcoket and said, "It's Caesar." Both men stepped outside to take the phone call - leaving Mia in the room alone.

She took a couple of steps towards the bed and ran her fingers over the white linen.

Mia could remember when she pulled the covers back to climb into bed that night. She was just about to get out of her clothes and go brush her teeth before she fell asleep on her feet.

An arm grabbed Mia from behind and a hand clamped over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. The man had a firm grip as she began wildly kicking her feet in the air. She kicked over her items that were laying on the dresser, including a lamp, and managed to leave a hole in the wall after she kicked that too. Clawing at his hand, she tried to pry it away. Her vision was becoming more disoriented as the surrounding walls began to drip and blur like freshly new paint dripping down a canvas. Mia threw her elbow back into the man's stomach while she still had some strength. She then took the flesh of his hand into her mouth and bit hard.

Howling in pain, his grip loosen and she tried to scramble to get away. "Help! Somebody-" Her voice was cut off by the man wrapping the crook of his elbow around her neck - putting her in a sleeper's holder. He pulled her close into his body to get a better hold.

As he cut off her airflow, she began to see black spots. She let out ungodly gasps and looked up to see herself in the reflection of a mirror. It wasn't her beet red face that she took notice of. To her surprise, she saw Marco's face leaning over her head. His face was twisted into a smile as he watched Mia slipped into unconsciousness.

"Sleep well, Mrs. Brooks."

Mia's eyes fell on a picture that was hung to her left. She went to it and lightly pushed one corner of the frame. Behind it was the same hole she had kicked in. Above the dresser was a black mark that was probably from the lamp that was now missing. It probably had gotten broken when she kicked it. She let out a shaky sigh, wishing all of this had been a bad dream. Mia began to scan over the room again and tried to figure out where the hell she had put her camera.

"Four screws…four screws…" she whispered to herself. "Where did the screws come from?" Again, she looked under the bed and behind furniture, like both men had done. That's when her eye caught a white vent that was above her bed. On each corner of the vent were small silver screws. Four screws. She eagerly jumped on the bed as the two men reentered the room. "Do you have a flathead screwdriver?" Mia asked, ignoring the looks of confusion from them. She tapped on the vent. "I think I put my camera in here. "

"I got one," Christmas said and climbed on the bed with her. "Watch out. I'll get it." Mia stepped off the bed to stand next to Barney. Within a minute, the vent was off and Christmas gently pulled out her camera. "You put your camera in a vent?"

Mia blushed. "Like I said, I'm really paranoid about my camera."

"Well, I guess you had every right to be," Christmas said and handed it to Barney. He placed the vent back on the wall and got off the bed. "Time to head back?"

Barney nodded. "Yeah, time to head back."

.

In under an hour, all three of them were checking out of the resort. They got back into the black truck that was arranged for their use when they first arrived. It was a late 90's, two-door Chevy and easily blended in with the locals' vehicles. Their bags were in the bed of the truck as they squeezed into the front seat. Mia sat in the middle while Barney drove and Christmas sat in the passenger seat. In Mia's lap was her camera. She silently fiddled with part of the strap to relieve some nervousness. There was a picture on her SD Card that was worth torturing her for. What could have she captured?

Lifting the camera up, she snapped a picture of the windshield and the road ahead. Neither of the men could be seen in the picture. It was just the canopy of trees that hung above and what little interior of the truck. Mia wasn't sure why she took the picture. Most of the time she just snapped pictures out of habit. She was always worried about missing a moment that was worth capturing. Laughing internally, Mia knew that way of thinking was what got her here in the first place.

Oh, the irony.

Suddenly a large SUV comes barreling out of a wooded area and slams into the their vehicle, just behind the back tire. Momentum sends them fish tailing on the dirt road. The truck's suspension groans as Barney frantically tries correct the truck so they aren't sent into a ditch. After a couple stomach-turning slides, he was able to straighten the truck out and stepped on the gas petal. The engine roared as the speedometer rose.

Mia tried not to slide into Barney or Christmas as the truck swerved, but the momentum was too strong. There were sounds of gun fire before glass shattered. "Get down!" Christmas ordered and grabbed Mia's shoulder. He pushed her body towards the floorboard. Leaning over her knees, she threw her hands over her head. Christmas leaned over her back to throw the small back window open. He begins to return gunfire back.

Barney glanced into the rear view mirror to see a navy blue SUV trailing close behind them. Light sparked at the end of the gun's muzzle as they continued to shoot. They were a couple of miles out and Barney knew he had to lose them or Christmas needed to take out the driver. The few cars that shared the road with them, Barney weaved passed them with ease. Mia could feel the vibrations with each shot that was fired from Christmas. Growing up in Georgia, she had been exposed to guns and shot her fair share of them. But this was different. There was no way for practice to prepare someone for return gunfire. Mia felt Christmas pulled himself off her back. He switched to the passenger window for another angle.

They finally broke out of the forest and the docks could be seen in the distance. However, there was a parked truck blocking their plane. This was not good. They were going to get bullets from the front and back. Barney cut a corner sharply and tried to lose the truck behind them. A couple of warehouse buildings surrounded the dock's entrance. "Christmas, get him off our ass!" Barney shouted over the loud firing.

Christmas growled under his breath and pulled the gun back in. Mia watched him release the empty magazine to reload it with a full one. He was back leaning out of the window within seconds. At this point, Mia wasn't surprise by his skills, she was simply impressed. Barney began cutting another corner while Christmas continued to shoot. He flew down the street and had his eyes on the waiting men near the plane. He pulled his revolver out of its holster, preparing for more gunfire. Christmas squeezed off a couple more shots and the bullets from behind ceased. They saw the SUV disappear behind one of the buildings. Christmas turned forward with a satisfied expression as he pulled out another from the glove box. Mia sat back up in the seat. Her ears were ringing, making the world muffled. "There's five more ahead," Barney said as he began to plan with Christmas. They were getting closer to the dock as the two men mentally prepared for more fighting.

To their surprise, the SUV from before came flying out of a small alleyway between the buildings. It t-boned their truck, veering them off the road. This time Barney wasn't able to correct them in time as the tires spun in loose dirt and sand. The truck went over an embankment and was sent straight in the ocean.

Mia let out a scream as the front of the truck dove into the blue water. Her head whipped back and the windshield cracked under the impact. The side and back windows were open, letting the cold sea water rush in. Barney and Christmas were luckily not buckled in. However, Mia was. The truck bobbed on top of the ocean's surface for a moment before it began sucking it under. "Barney, my came-" Mia was cut off by them fully sinking under the waves.

Author's note: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Please let me know what you think so far and your predicts for upcoming chapters! I hope my story is going at a good pace - not too slow or fast. Thank you for reading! And thank you to the readers who have left reviews! I really appreciate it!

~FriedPeaches