An Illicit Gentleman II
Chapter Fourteen
“Mr. Mclean?” He heard a woman say in the distance and he opened his eyes. Dark images stood around him, everything to blurry to make out any objects or faces. Shaking his head he tried to push himself up but he felt the dizziness take over and he slumped back down with a moan. “Mr. Mclean, are you hurt?” The woman asked. “Do you smell chloroform?”
“Yes” He heard a man’s voice say and he opened his eyes again as he rolled over.
“Evelyn?” AJ mumbled wondering if it was her.
“No this is Detective Ozwith, are you hurt?” She asked him again.
“Where’s Eve?” AJ asked as he slowly sat up and then his memories started to stream in as his mind cleared up. He remembered lying with her in the bed, remembered how calm he felt just before the door flew opened and the men rushed in. “Where is she?” AJ asked as he tried to stand up quickly but grabbed the bed as he started to wobble.
“We don’t know your friends called 9-1-1 when they found you.” The Detective told him as he sat down.
“My friends?” AJ asked confused.
“They’re in the living room with the other officers.” She told him. “They couldn’t wake you.” AJ looked around the room; he looked over to Eve’s side of the bed.
“They took her.” AJ said looking at the woman quickly. “They took her.”
“Who?” The Detective asked.
“I-I dunno, there were three men I think maybe more, they busted into the room and had me on the ground before I could do anything.” He told her as he started to feel the panic rise in him. “Why didn’t the alarm go off?”
“It looks like it was cut.” The Detective told him.
He put his head in his hands and absorbed as much as he could, too much. The feelings of helplessness crept through him at the thought of her being alone with whoever it was that had her. Anger filled him as it hit him what had happened, after the cob webs cleared, she was gone and he had no doubt that Mats was behind it. Quickly AJ shot up from the bed and took off out of the room.
“Mr. Mclean please.” The Detective said as she tried to stop him. “You need to have the EMT’s check you out.”
“Dude.” Brian said as he walked past the living room and kept going down the hall.
“Alex?” Nick called out to him. “Where are you going?” He asked as AJ reached for the door.
AJ didn’t say anything as he walked through the open front door, grabbing Eve’s keys on the way out. He stopped at her car door and fumbled through them as he looked for her car key. House key, Restaurant key, safe key, and it made him grunt in frustration that he couldn’t find it fast enough.
“Dude” Nick said grabbing his arm. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find her.” AJ mumbled as he found the key and stuck into the door lock.
“Oh, you’re going to find her.” Nick scoffed at him as he grabbed the door stopping it from opening. “And how are you going to do that do you know where she is?”
“Mats does.” AJ yelled at his friend.
“Sure, so what you’re going to hop a plane, fly back and see Mats? You think he’s going to tell you?” Nick replied back ignoring his friend’s anger.
“Well what the fuck am I suppose to do!” AJ screamed at Nick as he shoved him away, his tears broke free and all his emotions burst out. He turned away from his friends and started pacing, trying to calm himself as his hands began to shake, his knees began to buckle and he slumped to the ground. “What am I suppose to do?” He asked again not really caring if he got an answer.
“Let’s go back inside man.” Howie said as him and Nick helped AJ up. He let his friends lead him back into the house and he made his way into the living room sitting down on the couch. He put his head in his hands and sighed, trying to bring his emotions together, trying to get himself to stop shaking. A man walking in front of him with a lap top took his attention and he watched as the man walked over to the cordless charge box and began to fiddle with it.
“What are you doing?” AJ asked as Detective Ozwith walked into the room.
“Tapping her phone in case they call here for you.” She told him as AJ looked at her and then back to the officer.
“What do I do if they call?” He asked as Nick sat down beside him.
“Just talk to them, find out what they want, find out if she’s ok.” Detective Ozwith told him. He watched her walk over and start talking to another Detective, then looked at his friends.
“What are you guys doing here anyways?” AJ asked.
“We came to say goodbye before we all headed back to California.” Brian said. “When we got here the door was opened, we found you out cold on the bedroom floor, and when we realized Eve wasn’t around we called the cops.”
“They’ll find her AJ” Howie said but they were empty words. How could they find her, they didn’t even know who took her. He didn’t even want to think if it turned out not to be Mats or Thomas.
AJ picked up the cordless phone and stared at it, he waited for it to ring, seconds went by, minutes went by, and then finally it rang. AJ looked around the room everyone staring at him, waiting for him to pick it up. He pushed the answer button and then put the receiver to his ear.
“Hello?” He said into the phone.
“Good, you’re awake.” The robotic voice said.
“Who is this?” AJ asked trying to mask his anger. “Where’s Eve.”
“Now where’s the fun in telling you that?” The voice replied and AJ got angrier.
“Where is she?” AJ asked again.
“Well if I stay on the phone any longer the police will know.” The voice told him and AJ looked up at Detective Ozwith who listened through a special phone hooked up to the laptop. “So I’ll leave you with this.”
AJ waited through the silence. “Hello?” AJ said wondering if the phone was cut off.
“Alex?” Eve’s shaky, crying voice broke across from the other end.
“Eve” AJ said quickly. “Evie are you ok?” He asked but as the words left his mouth the phone clicked dead.
“Did we get it?” Det. Ozwith asked the guy on the lap top.
“Not long enough but we might be able to narrow it down to the neighborhood.” He told her as he tapped away at the computer.
AJ stared at the phone, her voice echoing in his head. “At least she’s still alive.” He thought.
Slowly he looked around the room, his hands still shaking, his eyes still had tears waiting to fall and everyone around him talked. The officers talked about who would stay behind with the Detectives, the Detectives talked about where the call came from, and his friends bickered about who was going back and who was staying with AJ. He wanted them all to leave, this was her house and here they were running wires through it, sitting where they wanted, and poked in and out of things as they looked for clues. This was her house, right now it was all he had and he wanted them too leave but he needed them; he needed them to find her.
He stood up from the couch still clutching the cordless in his hands and walked out of the living room away from the noise. Opening the door to her bedroom he prayed no one was in here looking for evidence and as he walked in he was glad to see it empty. Closing the door behind him he walked over to the bed and crawled in. Lying on his back staring at the ceiling he cried quietly, not wanting the people walking by outside the door to hear him. He felt scared, angry and helpless all at the same time. He thought about her and what she was going through right now, were they hurting her or did they already hurt her.
There was a knock at the bedroom door and he sat up. He stared at it for a moment, maybe they would go away. When they knocked again he quickly wiped his eyes and sat all the way up.
“Come in.” He shouted as he looked down at the phone on the bed.
“Hey” Brian said as he poked his head in.
“What?” AJ asked.
“Just came to see if you needed anything.” Brian asked as he walked into the room.
“No” AJ replied as he picked the phone up.
“Nick says he wants to stay, Howie and I would but…” AJ interrupted Brian.
“Its fine, you’ve got Leigh Anne and Baylee and Howie needs to get back to Leigh, its cool.” AJ replied shrugging it off.
“I called Kevin.” Brian said and AJ looked up at him. “I talked to him the other night told him about you and Eve…” Brian paused. “Reconnecting, he seemed pretty happy about it.” AJ couldn’t help but smile, did Brian really think he would have been pissed about it? “I just got off the phone with him so it’ll be a few hours but he’s grabbing the soonest flight and coming out here, I gave him the address if that’s ok.”
“Yeah, sure” AJ replied and it made him feel a little better.
“And he knows to call Nick’s cell in case he needs anything, keep this line clear.” Brian said.
“Shit” AJ sighed as he got up from the bed.
“What?” Brian asked confused.
“I need to call Ma before she calls again.” AJ told him as he walked around the bed. “Can I borrow your phone?” Brian agreed and handed him his phone. AJ took a deep breath, what timing, he told her this morning everything would be fine, now he’s calling back telling her, her son was knocked unconscious and his girlfriend kidnapped.
