Finding Jordie: Things aren't always what they seem. (The Love Lies Bleeding Series Book 1) (37 page)

“Don’t bullshit me, Jords. I saw the pictures of you moving. I saw that bitch best friend of yours there with you, helping you sneak off. Sneak off in the middle of the night with my kid. I knew you were unhappy but I didn’t think you’d up and leave the same day you found out I was captured.”

“You’re delusional, Jason. I don’t know what pictures you’re talking about but whatever it is, it’s
way
the fuck out there.
So
wrong. It doesn’t even make sense.” I threw up my hands in frustration.

Stay calm. Freaking out won’t help.
I don’t think my mind had even really registered yet that he was standing in front of me. “Jason, I didn’t run away. After they came and told me that you and your men had been ambushed and killed, the Army gave me sixty days to move off post. I had no choice but to move, Jason. I didn’t walk away. I
had
to leave. I didn’t walk away.” The memory made me cry. I searched his face for a trace of my husband with my arms extended in front of me as a plea of understanding.

There was only a shell of a man that stood there, a man whose face was made of stone and his heart of ice.

“You’ve been taking lessons from that arrogant fool of yours down there, haven’t you? You’re a real Julia Roberts these days, huh?” He chuckled as he put his arms around me. My body turned rigid for a moment when he touched me but his embrace was soft with a hint of the Jason I first met. Just for a moment though. Quickly I felt the embrace morph into a hold. “I know you didn’t walk away. You
ran
away.”

“Jordan, baby,
please
, just be quiet,” Nathan said from downstairs.

“Yes, baby, please just be quiet,” Jason mimicked Nathan, laughing. “Downstairs now.” He pushed me through the doorway.

When I reached the bottom step I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to see when I got to the end of the hallway. Nathan and Emma were sitting in the dining room chairs. Nathan’s hands and feet were bound to the chair. Emma sat untied.

“Mommy!” She leaped up from the chair and ran to me, hugging me tightly.

“I’m all right, sweetie. How are you? Are you okay?” I was frantically searching her body for any signs of harm.

“I told you I wouldn’t hurt her.” Jason pushed me to the floor next to Nathan’s feet. I took Emma and shoved her behind me protectively. I looked up to Nathan and the floodgate opened. I broke out in tears all over again. His face had several bleeding cuts and some were beginning to bruise.

“I love you. I’m so sorry,” I blurted out, putting my head on his knee.

“Shhhh. I love you, too.”

I hadn’t noticed the two other men standing in the living room until that moment. One of the men was the creepy guy that stole Isobel’s camera, the same man Todd snapped photos of by my apartment the night of the break in.

The other...”Charles?” I screeched in disgust. “Frank trusted you. Nathan trusted you, I trusted you! With our lives! My daughter’s life! You are no better than him, you piece of shit!”

“Goddamn it, Jordie. Calm down, please,” Nathan pleaded. “Yelling isn’t going to change the situation, and you need to be calm, the bay...”

I widened my eyes and tensed up to stop him from finishing his sentence.

“It isn’t good for you, baby,” he changed his words.

Jason turned to me, his eyes furious. “Go on. Finish what you were saying...The baby? What baby?” he roared, turning to Charles.

“I don’t know anything about a baby.” Charles’s eyes met mine.

I
knew
he was standing with us that day we told Frank. He was standing there. He knew. Fear and sadness instantly churned into anger from the depths of my insides. I closed my eyes and concentrated on calming down. Behaving like a raving lunatic was not going to get us out of this.

Nathan’s phone rang and Charles picked it up, looked at it. “It’s Frank.”

“Ignore it for now,” Jason ordered.

As soon as Nathan’s stopped ringing, mine started.

“It’s Rachel.”

“Oh, that pesky bitch will come the fuck over here if she doesn’t get a hold of her. Fuck, one more body to hide,” he muttered. “Fuck. Fuck! Answer it now. On speaker,” he demanded, shoving the phone in my face. “You say one thing I find even remotely suspicious, and I blow his pretty fucking head off.” He held my gun to Nathan’s head.

Emma let out a small gasp but covered her mouth quickly. Jason hit the speaker button.

“Jordan? Jordan?” I heard Rachel’s voice but there was an echo and the call wasn’t clear.

“Hey, Rach,” I answered listlessly.

“Hey, Rach?” She sarcastically questioned me. “What’s wrong with your phone? Where the hell are you guys? Our flight like leaves in an hour.”

“Hold on. Let me get this off speaker. I can’t understand you with the echo.” I looked up at Jason and he nodded.

“Much better, okay what now?” I sounded annoyed.

“Frank has tried Nathan a few times—all right, Frank, yes more than a few—like thirty times, but he hasn’t answered. He wanted to let Nate know he had to meet up with Richard so he was sending Charles to come get you guys. Here, hold on, seriously—” Her voice faded.

“Jordan, did Charles make it there to pick you guys up? Why isn’t Nathan answering his phone? What is going on? Talk to me.” He was panicked.

“I will if you stop talking for a moment.” I tried to sound lighthearted and amused, but I didn’t know if it was enough to convince him. I pressed the phone closer to my ear so Jason wouldn’t hear Frank’s voice.

“Everything is fine, just running behind. Charles is here, be there soon. Just get on the plane. I don’t think we’ll miss our flight, but if we do we’ll get the next one.”

He sat silent for a moment. “All right, Jordie. Holler.”

Score! He didn’t buy my story and was looking for a holler back.

“Okay, bye.” I pushed the end button, praying I was right about my assumptions. “Satisfied?” I hissed at Jason.

“Is that any way to speak to your husband?” He cocked his head to the side and flashed a devilish grin to Nathan. His words made me sick, and I hurried to the kitchen sink. Jason followed me to the doorway, laughing. I vomited twice, and my phone started ringing again.

“Who is it now?” he demanded, aiming the gun at the back of Nathan’s head.

My stomach churned again
. Stay calm, Jordan.
“Rachel.”

“She is still a raging pain in the ass. Answer it. On speaker again. Make it quick.”

“What, Rachel? I’m trying to get done here!” Skipping the hello and getting right to the conversation.

“Fine then. Just get here. Jesus Christ, you’re in bitch mode today.” She hung up.

“Same ol’ Rachel.” I tried to sound playful, looking at Jason. “She wants to borrow a pair of boots, but she never returns shit she borro—”

“I don’t care, Jordan.”

It worked. Frank knew we needed help, A-effing-men. Help would be on the way. Frank had probably notified the CIA, FBI, and National Guard by now so they’d be busting through the windows and doors at any time.

“Go get my daughter’s suitcase and bring it to the car, Charles,” Jason demanded. His eyes never left mine. “Rudy, I’ll need those documents now.”

I jumped to my feet in a panic, bringing Emma up with me. There was no way on God’s green earth he was taking my daughter anywhere.

“What documents? Jason, you can’t...” I could hear the terror in my own voice.
Stay calm, Jordie, stall him.
I composed myself. “You are not taking my daughter anywhere.”

“Your daughter?” He cocked his head to one side.

Oh, shit. I know that look.

His eyes were filled with rage. He was going to blow at any moment.

Be strong, Jordan. It’s now or never. You know how this works.

“Yes, my fucking daughter! You know, while you were off playing war hero gone terrorist I was here alone raising my daughter. My daughter! You were simply a sperm donor as far as I’m concerned!”

Oh fuck.

“Jordan,
please
,” Nathan pleaded.

I looked over and mouthed, “I love you” to him and stuck my chin out and held my head high and stared right into Jason’s rage-filled eyes. “Nathan, no. I’m not allowing this terrorist to take my daughter anywhere!” I tucked Emma even closer under my arm.

“Stay out of this!” Jason pistol-whipped Nathan on the side of his head. Nathan slumped over, unconscious.

“No! You spineless son of a—” I was cut off by the back of his hand across my cheek.

“Mommy!” Emma cried as Jason snatched her from my arms.

“Get her bag now!”

“I will kill you, motherfucker!” I lunged at him, not recognizing my own voice. It was as if I had left my own being in attempt to save my daughter from that maniac. I jumped on Jason and dug my nails into his face. My legs were locked tightly around him as I tried to gouge his eyes out of the sockets. The element of surprise was the only thing I had working in my favor at that point. He was so stunned it took him a moment to realize what was happening. Once he found his bearings, though, I was fucked. His strength was too much for me but his shrieks of pain fueled my adrenaline, giving me the vigor and stamina to hang on. He grabbed me by the back of my head and yanked my hair out. I didn’t budge. I continued to claw at his face. I could feel his flesh under my nails, and I began to dig them in deeper, screaming like a lunatic.

BANG!

My guts twisted as I tore my hands away from his flesh in horror. He’d fired the gun. I searched for Emma. Charles was shoving her out the door as Frank and Richard barreled in. They disarmed Jason so quickly, I couldn’t process how it all happened. Charles detained Rudy. I couldn’t think clearly, my mind was shrouded and frenzied.

“Emma? Nathan?” I muttered.

“Emma’s safe,” a voice assured me.

“Nathan? Nathan?” I staggered in Nathan’s direction. Frank caught me as I collapsed next to his slumped body, tied to the chair. I heard a horrific shrill scream that cut right through me as if I had been stabbed in the heart. It was only when I focused on Nathan’s bloody torso that I realized the heartbreaking cry had come from me. Nathan had been shot.

“Nathan.” I tried so hard to grab on to him, but I was too weak. I managed to drape my limp body over his knees. The room was spinning. There were so many voices but they were distant and fading into the blackness.

“Jordie, Jordie, open your eyes, Jordan.” I felt a light tapping on my cheek. As I drifted back into consciousness my mind went in a tizzy again.

“Emma? Nathan? Jason? What’s happening? Did that really happen or was it a dream? Please, someone tell me what is going on.” Confused and disorientated, I scanned my surroundings for any piece of the puzzle.

“Frank, please help me. Where is Emma? Nathan... Nathan was shot? Is my baby okay? Was that Jason? How was Jason here?” I bawled and wondered if I had made any sense.

How was anything that just happened real? Where is my daughter? How was Jason alive and here? Was Nathan really shot?

“Frank, where is Nathan? Was he shot? Is he alive?” The questions continued to spill straight from my mind out of my mouth in an unfiltered mass of words.

“Calm down. You’re not badly hurt. You seem to be all right,” an unfamiliar voice tried to calm me. It was then I noticed the EMT taking my blood pressure and checking my pulse.

“Frank! Frank!” I screamed, darting my eyes everywhere for a familiar face.

“I’m right here, Jordie. Here, sweetie.” Frank reached out to me and took my hand.

“Where’s Emma? How is Nathan? Is he alive? My god, Frank, what’s happening?” I started my frantic tizzy from the beginning.

“Jordan, focus on staying calm. Emma’s with Richard and three officers downstairs, safe.”

“Jason? Was that for real Jason? Frank?”

“Yes, it was,” he answered, seemingly ashamed. I couldn’t tell if it was because he felt sorry for me or if he was feeling guilty for not preventing what had happened.

“This isn’t your fault, Frank. Nobody could have known—”

“Let’s not discuss this now, Jordan. You and Emma are safe. That’s what matters right now.”