Oops - CinderScoria (the best books to read .TXT) 📗

Hank exclaimed. He was relieved, too. “You scared the hell out of me! Where are you? Are you okay? What happened?”

“They want five thousand dollars.”

Rocky’s voice changed then, so faint Blake almost didn’t catch it, but he knew his brother. He sounded odd, like he was angry, but also like he was amused, and kind of blank. He didn’t know. Blake just knew that he sounded different, and he didn’t know why. “You have until six PM tomorrow to get the money. Bring it in unmarked bills to the docks in Southern LA. Ha—”

Abruptly his voice cut off, and he sounded like he was choking on the words. Blake traded a panicked look with Shane and leaned forward in apprehension.

“Rocky? Are you still there?”

Hank’s voice.

“Have Blake and Shane bring the money, and no one else.”

Now he sounded like he was about to cry, voice tight, like he had a lump in his throat. “If they see any cops, Feds, or anyone else, they will shoot me, and you will never find the body.”

A strangled noise escaped Blake’s throat before he could stop it. Shane reached over and pulled him into another comforting hug. Blake shook hard, fists clenched, as he tried to keep the tears at bay.

There was a second of silence, and then Rocky burst out with, “I’m okay, Dad. I mean, they haven’t hurt me yet.”

Yet. Blake blinked and pushed his face into Shane’s chest. Andre suddenly flashed back into my head. He’d been shot. Shot. The girl hadn’t even hesitated, or thought about how old he was. And Rocky was trapped with them!

“Okay, Rocky, it’s alright to be scared,”

Hank said. He sounded desperate, scared as hell. Blake could only imagine how he felt when this happened live. “We’re going to find you. I promise.”

Rocky didn’t answer. An instant later, the recording shut off. Blake blinked, sitting up abruptly and blinking away at the tears. “That’s it?” he demanded. “That’s all he said?”

“That’s it,” Turnbow said. Still stiff. The guy never loosened up.

Shane looked up at his dad, ignoring Turnbow. “Can we get the money?”

Hank started to nod, but Turnbow stood up. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” he said sternly.

“Well, we can’t just do nothing,” Blake snapped. “These people can easily kill Rocky if they wanted to. They haven’t. Five thousand dollars isn’t a lot!”

“That goes against the rules—”

“To hell with the rules,” Shane said quietly, stepping up next to his brother. He looked at Hank. “When can we get the money?”

“We can wire it here from Seattle,” he said. “It’ll take thirty seconds.”

“Good.” Shane looked at Blake, and then back at Hank. There was a challenge in his eyes. “Blake and I are taking the money,” he said, daring him to disagree.

Of course, Hank did. “No,” he said immediately. “No, forget it, I’m not losing you.”

“We can have agents go in their place,” Turnbow popped in. “We have plenty of lookalikes.”

“No!” Blake yelled suddenly. “Didn’t you hear Rocky? They’ll shoot him! Not even that; they’ll shoot him, and we’ll never see him again. Is that really what you want?”

“I won’t let you do this,” Hank said firmly, crossing his arms.

“Shouldn’t that be our choice?” Blake sounded like he was about to explode.

“The answer is no, Blake,” he rumbled.

Blake stood there. The angry shaking was starting up again. Shane grabbed his arm and towed me towards the door. “We’ll be in our rooms,” he called over his shoulder.

“I can’t believe he’s going to put Rocky’s life in danger like this,” Blake exploded as soon as they got to his room.

“I know,” Shane said.

“How do we know that they won’t notice the fact that agents aren’t us?” he ranted. “Why does it matter that we’re dropping off the money? Whatever it takes to get Rocky back, that’s all that matters.”

Shane looked at him calmly. “I know,” he said again.

Blake stopped and glared at him. “Why are you being so calm about this? Aren’t you—”

“Of course I am,” Shane interrupted, eyes narrowing. “But Dad really can’t tell us what to do in this situation, now can he?”

Blake blinked at him. “Huh?”

Shane rolled his eyes. “We’re going, little brother. We may not be dropping off the money but we’re going to be there, whether Dad likes it or not.”

Blake sighed and sat down. “Alright,” he said quietly. “That’s fine by me. I just hope Rocky’s okay.”

It might’ve been cliché, but Shane scooted over on the bed and swung an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “We’ll make sure he is,” he promised.

Blake hoped he was right.

***

Elsewhere

Dawson frowned as he stood in the warehouse. They’d been here, alright. The chair said so, at least. It was brand new in a warehouse that hadn’t been used for years.

If he had to guess he would’ve said that the boy made an escape attempt and Andre just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they didn’t shoot the rock star— that was interesting. That said they didn’t want to hurt him, despite them being willing to shoot a bystander without any thought.

From Andre’s testimony the girl was obviously a gang member, or at least a previous one, so that meant he was on the right track. Dawson grinned as he straightened up and headed for the door. He had an idea of where to go next.

Publication Date: 11-14-2011

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