The Brothers and I

Chapter 21

Time sequence continued....

The rest of the car ride went in silence. Neither of them said another word except glance in my direction occasionally. My shoulders and back felt stiff with how tense I was feeling and my jaw continued to throb. I could tell that my face was swollen on my left as it felt heavy and the sting continued to intensify. Running my tongue along the inner cheek, I hissed in pain. Fuck! This is going to take days to heal.... If I manage to survive that is. But on the bright side, all my teeth appeared to be still in place.

"We're here."

I looked out of the window to notice that we were at a private airfield with many jets and smaller planes parked along the ramp at the furthest end and a few hangers that ran along the end closest to us. In between, was the long runway where a plane was currently preparing to take off, the sound of its engine roaring through the air before resonating within the car.

No! No! No! This can't be happening! My heart was going a mile a minute as the worst possible scenarios flashed through my mind. Who were these people that wanted me? What if they were a part of a human trafficking ring? What if they were flying me out of the country to work in some whorehouse?

No. I could not let them take me!

Turning towards my side, I noticed the ginger guy looking out the window at two men walking towards our car. My eyes travelled to his lap where his gun was still steadily pointing in my direction. Somehow, I instinctively knew that this would be my last chance to either get away or to at least attract some attention.

Deciding to grab the gun, I angled myself into position and just as I was prepared to lunge, I froze. The door to my right swung open and a pair of arms reached in. And before I knew it, the dark-haired cop was hauling me out of the car and walking us both towards the two men coming in our direction. I forced my feet into the ground trying to stop our momentum but it was like trying to swim against a strong rapid. Pointless and pathetic.

"H-help!" My feeble shout was drowned out by the loud sounds of the planes in the background. Panicking, I looked up to see the two men in black suits watching me before one of them reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me flush against him. My heart sunk as fresh tears fell down my face. Somehow, that one action felt so final.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of doom tear through me, I turned my head around and faced the cop who had brought me here. "Please...help me." I wasn't sure why I was begging my former captor for help but I knew that I was prepared to do anything in order to not get on that plane. The dark-haired cop threw a key to the man standing beside us and shot me one final glance before nodding at the two men and walking back to his car. My gut twisted, a sick feeling weighing down on my chest as I realised that no help was going to come.

Forced into the luxurious plane, I was quickly strapped in. While one of the men took a seat beside me, the other one went into the cockpit and seated himself beside the pilot. Within minutes we were airborne, the view of the land disappearing completely as the blue sky stretched out before us. And as I watched the clouds roll by, the feeling of helplessness washed over me like a wave, drowning the last bit of hope that I had left.

How did it come to this? But more importantly, why? With every hour that passed, my anxiety seemed to rise like a powerful wave. Higher and more violent. Every second brought me closer to this unknown fate, my heart thudding aggressively at the thought of what lay in store when we landed. The thin t-shirt I wore clung to my skin, soaked in my sweat and tears. My hands still in the handcuff, felt numb and sore.

And as the finality of my irreversible fate began to sink in, my mind wandered to the people I left behind. Would they miss me? I pictured Sasha and her crazy antics. Chase and his ever-dependable counsel and my colleagues who I have worked with for years. My heart stuttered when my mind drifted to the only family I had left- my adoptive mother. The realisation that I would never get the chance to heal and forgive, caused an unfamiliar feeling of regret to swell within me, something that I thought I could never feel towards her.