Otherwise Unharmed

Chapter 19—Incredible Loss

“Lia!” I screeched as I rushed to the door.

There was no answer.

Inside was a disaster with all evidence pointing toward a struggle. The end table was upended, and the lamp that had been sitting on it was smashed against the floor. The bags Lia had neatly packed had been opened, and their contents strewn about the floor. As I looked around, it appeared as though everything we had planned to take with us was dumped out. My eyes moved toward the next room.

“Fuck...no, no, no…”

Blood.

It was on the floor near a pile of things from one of the suitcases—a long streak of dark red, leading back into the bedroom. I couldn’t breathe as I approached the door. The adrenalin in my veins moved my muscles quickly, but my mind couldn’t catch up. Several possibilities were running through my head at top speed, and none of them were good.

If anything, the bedroom was worse than the living room.

I looked around and tried to keep myself from hyperventilating by forcing air in and out of my nose, but I still couldn’t think straight. Every drawer had been pulled out, its contents dumped and strewn about the floor. Another table and lamp were knocked over, and the blankets and sheets on the bed were a mess. I couldn’t even tell what everything on the floor was—it was all a big blur of mess.

A barely audible whine came from the floor behind the bed, the exact location marked by the trail of blood.

Odin.

He was lying partially on top of his dog bed, looking like a large lump of white fur. The dog bed was upside down amidst a pool of blood. The blood was soaked into his paws and on his side though I couldn’t see a wound at first glance.

I dropped to my knees and reached out to his shoulder. He whined softly again, and his tail thumped once against the bedroom floor.

“Odin…buddy?” I leaned in closer and wrapped one arm around him to turn him a little. Two round, bright red spots on the front of his chest oozed blood into his white fur. I tried to look him over as carefully as I could but couldn’t find an exit wound. I tore off my shirt and held it to the wounds I could see, and blood quickly soaked it.

Odin tried to lift his head, but he couldn’t do it on his own. With effort, I pulled him up against my chest and looked down into his soft, brown eyes. He reached out with his tongue and lapped at the side of my face.

“That’s disgusting,” I whispered as my voice cracked.

Odin snuffed at my neck, let out a long sigh, and was still.

“No…no, Odin! No! Don’t…don’t…”

I squeezed my eyes shut and held his head against my body as I shook and tried to hold in the scream I wanted to let out.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t part of the plan—the vision. Odin was a part of all of it. He was supposed to come away with us.

Us.

“Lia!” I screamed again, but I knew there wasn’t going to be an answer. I lowered Odin’s head gently to the floor and checked the rest of the apartment, but there was no sign of her. I did find the assault rifle Gavino had given me months ago, so whoever it was obviously was not looking for weapons. I went back to Odin’s side and pulled his head into my lap again.

I was frozen, shaking, and completely unable to think or move or act.

I had no idea how long I sat there and just held him. Nothing else around me even registered as his body cooled beside me. I knew I needed to move—I had to find Lia—but I couldn’t.

All of this was my fault.

Odin had been the only constant in my life since I left the convent. He was with me through sniper school and every assignment I was given all over the country. Even when I was deployed, he was cared for by volunteers at the base in Virginia, waiting for me to return.

Without him, I would have been completely alone.

No matter what I might have done, he was always there waiting for me when I got home. He didn’t judge, and he was never afraid of me. When I was too lost in thought, he would always be there to bring me out of it. He was always, always there when I needed him. He was my companion and my friend.

“He’s gone.” My voice echoed around the empty room.

With my eyes closed, I leaned over to place my forehead against his. For a moment, I thought he moved, but I realized it was just my own body shaking. I tried to tighten my muscles to make the trembling stop, but it didn’t work. I took a long breath, and when I glanced up, someone was standing in front of me.

The kid with the bombs strapped to him.

He was closer to me now than I had ever seen him in the past. On his face, I could clearly see the path of every tear, and on his clothing, every grain of sand. There were wires sticking out from under his shirt and leading up to his hand, which was wrapped firmly around a detonator.

“What do you want?” I cried at him. “I can’t take it back! I can’t fix it! You’re dead, and now he’s dead, and I can’t fix any of that shit! What the fuck do you want from me?”

He continued to stare at me with dark, sorrowful eyes. I couldn’t look away from him—all I could do was stare back and ask inane questions of a ghost from my past. His eyes drifted to Odin and then back to mine.

“Is…is she gone, too? Did you see her here? Did he kill her?”

He didn’t respond.

“She’s…she’s all I have left. If something happened to her…if that guy killed her…nothing else will fucking matter anymore!”

His head slowly shook from side to side.

“Why are you here?” I screamed at him.

He blinked several times, and his mouth opened.

“Don’t you see it?” I knew the voice was my own. Even though it appeared as if the kid was talking, I still knew it was me. As soon as I heard the words, I knew what he meant.

“Lia’s like you,” I whispered.

“I didn’t want to be there,” the kid said in my voice. “Forced into a war I didn’t want any part of and didn’t understand. I followed because I was told to follow. I didn’t understand what was happening.”

One of his hands moved down and rested against the shape of the explosives wrapped around his waist.

“I killed you.” My hands were still shaking, and I tried to hang onto Odin’s body to make them stop, but it didn’t help. The rest of me was shaking hard enough to shake his body as well.

“She’s the same.”

“I didn’t make her come here,” I said as I rapidly shook my head. “She…she wanted to…to be here…”

“She wanted you. She didn’t understand the consequences. How could she?”

“But I told her everything!”

He didn’t have anything to say about that, only looked at me pointedly.

“Did I kill her, too?”

He didn’t answer.

I stood up and pointed the Beretta in his face.

“Did she fucking die here because of me?” I screamed at him.

He didn’t have any more words, so I shot him.

The noise echoed through the apartment, and the bullet blasted a hole in the wall of the bedroom. I shot three more times, and the kid slowly faded away into nothingness.

Dropping to my knees, I took Odin’s head in my hands one more time.

“I’m sorry, buddy…so fucking sorry…”

I squeezed my eyes shut, told myself to get a fucking grip, and pushed away from him. I stumbled out of the bedroom, holstered my Beretta, grabbed my SIG and the assault rifle, and ran back outside to Rinaldo’s car. I broke every traffic rule in existence to get to Rinaldo’s office in just a few minutes.

“She’s gone,” I said as soon as I walked in. “I went to the apartment, and she’s not there.”

Rinaldo’s eyes tightened, and he glanced around at the other men in the room before looking back to me.

“I was afraid of that,” Rinaldo said with a nod. “He’s not answering my calls, either. I sent him a message that the hit was called off, but he didn’t reply. Where the hell is your shirt?”

I glanced down at my bare chest for a second before I looked back to Rinaldo. I should have been cold, but I didn’t feel anything.

“Soaked in my dog’s blood,” I replied. “He killed Odin.”

Rinaldo’s eyes closed briefly, and he shook his head. His throat bobbed before he spoke again.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Davies knew where we were living.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before all hell broke loose,” Rinaldo said. “Davies went to get her—said he knew right where she was but didn’t tell me how. He’s a new guy, and I honestly thought he was bluffing, but if she’s gone, he almost certainly has her.”

“Is she already dead?” I didn’t want the answer to the question, but I had to ask.

“I don’t know,” he responded. “I would think if she was, he’d tell me so I could pay him for the job. I don’t know if that counts as hope or anything, but it’s a start.”

I flinched.

“Where would he be?”

“At the warehouse, mostly likely. That’s where he’s been staying.”

The warehouse. The combination drop-off site and living quarters near the school bus yard where I’d killed Lenny Yates and his companion some months back. It was a good twenty-minute drive from Rinaldo’s office. I turned and started out.

“Hold up,” Rinaldo said.

I turned to glare at him.

“Here you go.” Rinaldo reached down behind his desk and pulled out the bipod and silencer for my Barrett. “Found these in a truck near the rail yard. I figured they were yours.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I reached for them.

“Anything you need?”

“Depends on what I find,” I told him. “If she’s gone, I’ll have to call in that favor you once promised me.”

“What favor is that?”

I looked up at him, and all I could think was that he could have been—should have been—my father.

“I’ll need you to put me down, sir.”

During the drive to the northwest side of town where the warehouse was located, I used every relaxation and focusing technique I’d ever learned as a sniper to control myself and focus my energy. The panic in the center of my stomach wasn’t helping me think, and I had to push it down if I had any hope of finding Lia and getting her away from Davies.

I pulled up to the building and slowly drove the car around to the back and parked it right next to the corner of the building. There was a small back door partially hidden by a dumpster several yards away at the far end of the building, but I didn’t want to be too close to it.

A bullet slammed into the windshield. It was stopped by the special glass but still left a mark where it bounced off. The shot hadn’t come from the doorway but down near the fence that separated the warehouse from the school buses. I slipped the shoulder strap of the assault rifle up one arm and around my neck. I looked around the outside of the building as I climbed out of the car and crouched behind the door but didn’t see anyone.

Was this Davies guy shooting at me?

It didn’t have to be him—any of Rinaldo’s guys who hadn’t received the message could be gunning for me. I looked off to my left where the line of trees next to the river darkened the area, which would have been a perfect hiding spot as the ground sloped down to the water’s edge.

There was a grassy area to the left just before the line of trees, and I ran in that direction, dropped down to the ground on my stomach, and aimed the assault rifle at the trees. Several shots rang out as the butt of the weapon pounded against my shoulder.

Another shot rang out and hit the dirt near my boot. Considering where I was, it was too dangerous to stay. My enemy had the advantage of cover, and I had the disadvantage of needing to find Lia immediately. Instead of continuing the firefight I was destined to lose, I moved back behind the edge of the building.

With the shooter at the rear of the building, I decided the back door wasn’t the way to get myself inside. I ran along the edge of the building to the front where there were several windows boarded up. The end of the AR broke through the boards and shattered the glass behind them easily enough, and once I’d made a big enough hole, I pulled myself through it.

I kept the AR at the ready as I moved to the first room’s door and shoved it open. I looked in both directions down the hallway but saw no one. There was a door to the left with music coming from the room behind it, so I moved in front of it and kicked the door in with my boot.

“Holy shit!” The guy inside was in his early twenties with black, curly hair and dark eyes. I recognized his face, but didn’t know his name. Drug trafficking was most likely his occupation, but I didn’t care enough to find out who he was.

I kept my rifle aimed at his face.

“I’m looking for a girl,” I told him. “Davies might have brought her here. You want to live? Tell me where she is.”

“You’ve got a price on your head,” the idiot informed me.

I turned the rifle to the little clock radio that also served as a docking station for his iPhone and blew it to pieces. With the music silenced, I turned the weapon back to his head.

“No shit.” I took closer aim. “You seen her?”

He swallowed and nodded his head.

“You gonna kill me?”

“Maybe,” I responded. “If you don’t answer my fucking question in the next three seconds, yes.”

“She’s in the corner room,” he told me. “She’s tied up, but she ain’t hurt or anything, I don’t think. I didn’t touch her.”

My hands trembled a little. I didn’t know what to feel first—relief that she was still alive or rage that he had obviously considered hurting her or he never would have mentioned it.

I backed out of the room slowly.

“Don’t move a fucking muscle,” I said. “You hear?”

He nodded quickly.

I didn’t see anyone else as I raced to the far end of the building. I paused only briefly when I caught the exterior back door of the building in my vision. I kept the rifle pointed at it as I moved past and found a locked room in the hallway nearby.

The door was metal and not one I could just kick in. I took out my Beretta so I could easily aim downward at the lock without endangering anyone who might be close to the door—like Lia. Once the lock was out of the way, I kicked the door open and pointed the gun around the room.

It was one of the larger single areas of the warehouse—one that usually held a lot of crates and packages of heroin or guns. At the moment, there were no crates or skids—just a single wooden chair in the middle of the room. On the chair was Lia.

She was tied down, blindfolded, and gagged. Her arms were behind her, and her wrists were bound with plastic zip ties. She sat, slumped forward with her head lolled to one side, and for a moment, my vision went red and I couldn’t move.

The air in my lungs seemed to freeze along with my legs. I widened my eyes to watch her body carefully for any signs of movement and tightened my grip on the Beretta.

If she was dead, I’d just go ahead and turn it on myself.

No, I couldn’t. First I’d have to find the fucker who did it.

Her chest rose sharply with a deep breath, and I nearly lost my ability to stand. A moment later, I ran forward, and her head turned toward the sound of my footsteps. As I dropped down and grabbed for her, she began to struggle and scream behind the gag.

“It’s me!” I said as I pulled the blindfold and gag from her. “It’s just me, baby. You’re all right. Jesus Christ, you’re all right.”

I cut the plastic ties from her wrists with my knife, and her arms came up around my neck. I wanted to do the same—just pull her close to me and promise her I’d never let anything happen to her again—but I knew I couldn’t. I needed to get her out of here as quickly as possible. Whoever had been shooting was more than likely still out there.

Hell, Davies could have come back in the building, assuming he was the one who took her.

“Where is he?” I asked. “Where is that fucker who took you?”

“He knew you were coming,” Lia said. “He ran off.”

Lia grabbed my shoulders tightly and looked up at me as tears began to fall.

“Oh, Evan! Odin…he tried to…he tried to save me.”

I gripped my left hand into a fist briefly, closed my eyes for a moment, and looked back at her. The actual circumstances of what happened to Odin hadn’t really entered my thoughts, but I couldn’t hear any of that now.

“Let me get you out of here and somewhere safe,” I said. “Then you can tell me what happened.”

I got the rest of the ties off of her and then helped her to her feet. She continued to cling to me, and I was perfectly fine with that. We moved swiftly down the wall at the far side of the warehouse interior and to the back door.

“Stay close,” I said.

As soon as I opened the back door, a bullet ricocheted off of it, and I found myself thankful that at least this guy was a shitty shot. I aimed my Beretta in the general direction of the trees and shot twice before I peeked around the edge.

I could see whoever it was—or the shape of him at least—hiding in the brush near the edge of the river. He was down low behind the same pile of concrete where I’d dumped Lenny’s body. It gave him lots of cover but also a bad angle to hit anything.

“We’re gonna run, baby,” I told Lia. “Keep to my left side, keep low, and keep up.”

“Okay.”

We ran.

I fired repeatedly, but knew my bullets were only glancing off the concrete and the dirt around him. The action still worked well as a diversion because he ducked down farther as he continued to shoot, making every bullet go way over us as we made our way to the car.

Despite the lousy shooting, my entire body was alert, focused, and tense, but what I was feeling was much more than the adrenaline in my system as I opened the driver’s side door and pushed Lia over my seat and into the passenger side.

“Stay down!” I commanded as I climbed in behind her. “Keep your head under the dash!”

Lia complied and the tires screeched as I pulled out of the warehouse parking lot. I heard another shot off the back of the car right as I was turning the first corner and slammed my foot to the gas. I zigzagged through side streets and onto the expressway ramp, topped a hundred miles an hour as I swerved to avoid traffic, and then immediately took the first exit.

Navigating additional side streets at top speed, I constantly watched the rearview and side mirrors for anyone following us. I went back to Interstate 94 and headed south briefly before racing to another group of side streets and back north again.

I tightened my grip on the handle of the Beretta and clenched my teeth. I couldn’t stop my rapid breathing and the feeling of panic in my gut and chest. I glanced at Lia, who still had her body angled low and her head wrapped up in her arms.

My chest clenched, and I checked the rearview mirror again. We were in some neighborhood far to the west of downtown. I hadn’t traveled in this area before, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around at all. I screeched through a couple more stop signs before I yanked the wheel to the side and slammed on the brakes.

Reaching over the center console, I grabbed Lia and pulled her up against me. Her arms went around my neck as I held her tight enough to feel her heartbeat.

She’s alive…she’s alive…she’s alive…

I could barely convince myself.

Shoving the seat back a bit, I slid an arm under her legs to bring her to my lap and tighten my grip on her. I kept wondering if she was going to disappear, and I’d realize this was nothing more than another hallucination. If it was, I didn’t know what I would do. If I lost my shit completely over a dead hooker, how would I survive losing Lia?

I wouldn’t—plain and simple.

My arms gripped her again, and Lia gasped slightly.

“Evan—I can hardly breathe.”

I loosened my grip a bit but only enough for her to be comfortable again. She sighed heavily as she relaxed against my chest.

“Never again,” I mumbled.

“What?” Lia asked.

I wrapped my fingers around her hand and held our hands up together.

“I don’t want to let go of you—not ever. Once we are out of this city and out of this life, I’m never leaving your side again.”

Her grip tightened as I lowered our hands again.

“Where are we going?”

“Rinaldo’s house.”

“Rinaldo? I thought you were…well, staying away from him.”

“Things have changed a bit.”

“He knows?” she asked.

“He knows everything,” I replied. “Gavino also knows I wasn’t really working for him.”

“Did the feds catch him?”

“No,” I said. I glanced at her sideways. “They never showed up. They either fucked something up royally or never intended to go through with it. I’ll deal with Agent Asshole later, I guess.”

“Shit, Evan, what are you going to do?”

“Get you somewhere safe—somewhere with protection for you. After that…well, I’m still thinking about it. I’ve got to find out what happened with Trent, and I need to find out exactly who the guy is who took you.”

Lia’s eyes found mine. Her expression was strange, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. It occurred to me that I had no idea what she had been through over the past few hours.

“Are you hurt?” I asked as I pulled back and reached up to her face. There were bruises forming there, and she had a nasty red mark on her chin. “Did he fucking hit you?”

“I’m okay,” she said quietly.

He’d kept her alive, and anyone just looking for the bounty on her head would have killed her back in the apartment. I looked over the beautiful woman in my arms and knew there were other ways of hurting her.

“Did he…did he touch you?” I asked. My eyes bore into hers, looking for the answer outside of her words.

Her eyes tightened; she swallowed hard, and her breath caught in her throat.

I had to fight with my hands to keep my fingers from crushing her arms.

“Who?” I demanded as my chest tried to collapse into itself. I struggled not to scream. “Who…who was it?”

“He didn’t…” Lia struggled for breath before continuing. “He didn’t…not that—not really.”

I couldn’t hold it back any longer.

“What did he fucking do?” I roared.

“He kept saying…saying he was going to,” she told me. “He pawed at me a bit and said he was going to take everything from you, just like you did to him.”

What the fuck did that mean?

“Who was it?” I demanded. “What did he look like?”

Her eyes focused on mine.

“I thought you knew,” she said. “You were talking to him that one day…”

Her voice trailed off.

“Who?” I yelled again.

“That guy,” she whispered, “the one who came to your apartment before.”

I blinked, considered, and shook my head.

“Jonathan?” I yelled through clenched teeth, not even able to comprehend him doing something like that to any chick and certainly not one he knew was mine. He was always going on about how Nick and I didn’t respect women enough. The only thing I had done to him was spare his life, but all that would change if he touched her.

“Not him.” Lia shook her head. “The really big guy with no hair. The one who showed up when…well, when we were arguing that one day about the neighbor and…and her dog.”

I froze.

She couldn’t mean him. There was no way.

“The one who told you to check into me?” I asked.

She nodded, but I kept shaking my head. None of this made any sense.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “Lia, he doesn’t work for Rinaldo. He’s a fucking fed.”

“The one making you do all of this?”

I nodded.

“Why would he…?”

Part of my initial conversation with Trent came back to me. He had taunted me with the suggestion that I had been working for the insurgents and had given them information—the same thing Kevin Davies, the private who had given up our position, had been accused of doing. At the time, I assumed it was just a tactic to get to me, but now I wondered if there was more to it.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m going to find out though.”

I wrapped her hair in my hands and pulled our heads together. I inhaled her scent through my mouth and nose, wanting to capture it forever in my memories. Everything in my head made so little sense, I was half afraid it was still nothing but a dream. I felt wetness in my eyes drop down the sides of my face and into her hair.

Something was happening inside of me, and it was strong and powerful. I didn’t have a name for it, only that I equated it to more of an unexpected, physics-defying sunrise rather than a left hook to the jaw. It was like it had always been there, lurking around my body, but was blocked by everything else. Before I nearly lost her, I couldn’t see it for what it was.

Now it was blinding.

“I love you,” I heard myself say right before I started babbling. “God…I just…I…I love you, and if you had…if he had…fuck…I can’t be without you. I love you, Lia.”

Her hands were on the sides of my face a moment later, and her lips pressed to mine. I returned the kiss with hunger.

“Did I hear you right?” Lia whispered as her eyes looked to mine. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

I ran my tongue over my lips and nodded.

“I love you,” I said again. “I love you, Lia Antonio.”

Her eyes brightened with her smile.

“I love you, too, Evan Arden.”

I took a shuddering breath and listened to the words play over and over again in my mind. The sound was the most beautiful music I had ever heard.

“No one’s ever said that to me before,” I said as the realization bounced around inside my head.

Lia’s eyes widened.

“No one?”

I shook my head.

“I remember a lot of shit about how God loved me,” I told her, “but no one ever saying it…not like that. The God shit, well…let’s just say that considering what He’s put me through, God can pretty much fuck off.”

Lia’s fingers ran down my cheek with a sad smile.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I think maybe He brought me to you, so I can’t be too mad at Him for the other stuff.”

For a long moment, we stared at each other without speaking.

“No more of this shit,” I finally said. My hands cupped her face, and I stared into her eyes. “I’m done with it—all of it. We’re getting the fuck out of Chicago as soon as possible.”

Lia nodded her agreement, and I kissed her again. That action led to another kiss, and before long, I had to force myself to part with her to make good on my promise.

“I have to get you somewhere safe—somewhere you can be protected.”

I instructed Lia to get her seatbelt back on as I picked up the phone and tapped a couple of numbers on the screen.

“I have her,” I said when Rinaldo answered.

“She’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“I need a safe place for her,” I told him.

There was a long pause.

“You going after Davies?” he asked.

I was going to have to tell him everything about Trent…or Davies—whatever his name was—but I didn’t want to do that yet. I needed to know something first.

“Do you have a problem with that, sir?”

“He was just doing a job,” Rinaldo said. “A job I requested. Are you coming after me, too?”

“No, sir,” I said. “And yeah, it was a job. Consider retribution an occupational hazard.”

I heard a sigh come through the phone.

“All right, son,” Rinaldo said, and I felt my heart start to beat faster. “Bring her to my house. Luisa can stay with her.”

Much of the tension inside of me subsided, knowing he would be behind me on this even when he didn’t know everything yet. I would tell him when I could do it face-to-face, but knowing he was going to back me up on killing someone he thought was on his side was all I really needed to know.

“Thank you, sir.”

I drove to his house with Lia’s hand grasped in mine. I didn’t want to lose contact with her if I didn’t have to—not for a second.

Nothing would make me leave her unprotected again.