Hold Her Close

Laini presses against my leg, whining. She knows something is wrong. I pet her absent mindedly.

Ben is scrolling through his emails to find the security company information. “Got it! Bursar Security,” Ben says.

That name sounds familiar, but it isn’t quite clicking. “Who’s the owner?”

He’s furiously typing as I watch the dot on the GPS get further and further away. We don’t have much time.

“Neil Bursar,” he says.

“Fuck.” The name slams into me like a bullet. I know the man. He is worse than Jack on every possible level. I’m surprised the name didn’t jump out at me the second I heard ‘Bursar Security.’ Neil Bursar is a crime boss. He’s been well known in the Nashville underworld for a long time and his reach is growing stronger.

His son, Patrick, was friends with Jack when we were young, and whenever Jack came after me, Patrick wasn’t far behind. Or if Jack needed bailed out of something, Neil and Patrick had a way of making sure that I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. They’ve always been thick as thieves. And now they have Sadie.

Neil and Patrick are the ones that had sent me to juvie for the longest amount of time, testifying that I stole a car that Jack actually stolen. Neil was always slippery. He kept his hands clean in a way that Jack didn’t, and that made him dangerous. Because no one could pin anything on him, and his record made him look like an upstanding citizen.

His testimony against me—the poor kid with a record—was almost a joke. All because I refused to take the fall again. Finally, I’d stood up to Jack and Patrick and all of them, and they’d had enough. I was lucky to survive that trip to lockup. That was the stint in juvie I’d told Sadie about, the time when I had no choice but to fight for my life.

When they set me up to fail parole again, the judge on the case looked at me and saw my desperation and the fact that I’d just…accepted it. That was my life. And that’s when he sent me to Frank. That’s when everything changed.

I guess I’ve blocked him out for all these years to forget about that time in my life. What if I had asked Ben the name of the company this morning? Would I have remembered? Could I have prevented this from happening?

Ben looks at me, his face a mask of concern and shame. “Really, Jon, they looked legit. I read reviews online. They were recommended.”

I hold out a hand. “This isn’t your fault, Ben. I’m sure that they do provide legit security for people, or they would never get clients. But I’m guessing that they also take bribes, and for certain people, if someone manages to get through their security, then accidents happen. You couldn’t have known, but Neil Bursar is one of the biggest pieces of shit in this city.”

“I’m sorry, Jon.” He looks sick.

“This isn’t your fault. They would have figured out something either way—they were watching. Fuck, Jack showed up this morning to push me into hiring people to protect her. I walked right into his trap!”

These people have already taken far, far too much from me, and like hell am I going to let them take one more thing. I’m not a powerless kid anymore.

“What do I do?”

I sigh. “Tell Jeremy what’s happening. Tell him not to do anything yet. If the cops are involved right now that will make the situation more dangerous for her. But we need to have them on standby after we figure out where they’re going. I have to make a call.”

First, I look at the tracker again. They aren’t out of Nashville yet, but they have a good head start. They seem to be moving slower now. Maybe traffic on the way out of town for the weekend. That could work to our advantage.

I hit Frank’s contact number, and he answers on the third ring with a laugh. “Didn’t I kick your ass enough this afternoon or are you that desperate for more?”

“Frank, there’s a situation.”

Even through the phone I can almost see him flip into cop mode. “What’s going on?”

I tell him as quickly as I can, summarizing that I fucked up with Sadie and accidentally pointed her at Jack, and that she went after him like a speeding bullet. I explain how I walked right into their trap with the security guards, and about Georgie’s collar, and with every detail I tell him, the guilt feels heavier and heavier on my chest, until I feel like I can’t even breathe. “They have her. Fuck, Frank, they’re going to kill her.”

“No they won’t,” he says, voice hard. “Having her location is everything. But you’ve got to warn her. If she can get away from them, or slow them down, that’s ideal.”