I feel like I am going to be sick.
“Can’t we just contact the cops?” Mom pleads. “I don’t want you to go back there, Ted. I don’t want you to die. If you call the police, they can take the information that you have and find her.”
“But I don’t know anything.” I shrug my shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know anything about the gang or it’s leader. I didn’t have anything to do with that part of the business. I don’t know if I will be able to give them anything. Plus, getting the cops involved might get Chloe killed. They don’t want the police, do they? They want me. I’m going to have to give them me.”
Mom clings on to my arm. For a moment, I worry that she’s going to insist that I stay. I mean, my mom has lost enough, she doesn’t need to lose me as well. But I have to do this. I leave Chloe.
Mom eventually whispers, surprising me. “Protect Chloe. You love her and she’s a good girl. Promise me you’re going to be careful.”
I almost fall to the floor in shock, Mom is right. She’s letting me go, allowing me to step back into the lion’s den, knowing that I might not come. But Chloe surviving this is far more important than me living. She makes a difference in the world and while I might be able to one day in the future, if I live, I haven’t yet.
I don’t know what connections I’m going to have left alive in the city that will be able to help me locate Chloe. But if that gang wants me to track them down, I’m sure it’ll be easy. They will leave breadcrumbs luring me in, knowing that I will do anything to save Chloe …
All of a sudden, a chill runs down my back. I remember the sensation of someone watching me as I left Chloe’s home that final time. I tried to tell myself that I was just being paranoid, but maybe I wasn’t. There must have been someone there.
“I need to book a plane ticket.” My voice is monotone and full of fear.
“Try not to get hurt.” Mom flings her arms around me. She squeezes me tight and holds on to me like this is going to be the last time she will ever hold me. I can’t even reassure her that it isn’t going to go that way because I don’t know if that’s the truth. “Try to come back to me, okay?”
We’re both emotional now, I can’t stand the idea of them with Chloe. I don’t even want to think about what they might be doing to her.
I promise my mom. “I will try. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, Ted. More than you know.”
Chapter 23 – Chloe
I shake my arm, wishing that I could free myself from these knots, but I’ve spent hours trying and I know that I can’t. I’m stuck here, until these men decide to let me free… if they ever decide that. It wouldn’t do me any good to get out of these ties anyway because the door to the room is locked. This little bedroom is clearly a cell that has been used for this gang to kidnap people before.
When will they kill me? I now know for sure, this is the gang that killed Ted’s family and they want to lure him back to finish him off. I’m just bait. Bait that might end up dead, I suppose once I have served my purpose, there isn’t any need to keep me living. I have seen too many faces to be kept living. I’m a threat now for sure.
I slide back on the bed and rest my head on the dingy wall, wondering what must be going on outside. I didn’t call Alex when I promised I would, which will have her worried, plus I have missed shifts at work. Someone will know that I am gone by now, so someone might be looking for me. No one will be able to find me here though, Ted doesn’t even know who these guys are behind all of it. I wonder if he even knows that I am missing. My mom will probably not even find out that I’m missing. My story won’t reach England and we talk so rarely these days… which I now feel terrible about.
I feel bad for whoever finds me dead. If I ever get found, I suppose. This gang might be good at hiding bodies so I might just be a missing person forever. Many people are, so it isn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination …
I can’t believe I have gotten to the point where I’m thinking this about myself. It’s insane. I led such a normal life until Ted crashed outside my house.