One of Us Is Going Down

“I promise you, I’m fine. Hang out with Jimmy some more, tell him I said hey. I’ll be waiting for you when you get back,” Ashlyn grinned.

“Without clothes?” Brian lowered his voice and grinned, turning away from Jimmy.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she teased and hung up the phone.

Ashlyn sat on her bed, doing homework in a pair of shorts, a tank and one of Brian’s hoodies. He’d had a bad feeling all night and tried to come on home. Ash had convinced him to stay out a bit longer, enjoy his night off. The Chinese arrived with the ringing of the bell. Ashlyn stood and walked to the door, slipping her feet into her flats. She pulled open the door and reached around to grab the money.

“Ok, how much was it again?” She asked.

As she turned back around the delivery man came at her with a cloth in his hand. She screamed and punched at the man. He forced her to the floor. Ashlyn tried to twist under him, he got his hand that held the cloth over her mouth. She clawed at his wrist, making it bleed. Finally she yanked it back, pulling chucks of skin off, she leaned forward and bit as hard as she could. Another man rushed in the door and kicked her in the head and everything went black.

When she came to, she was in a tiny room the size of her bathroom. There was nothing in the room, just her. She looked around, no windows, just one door. She tried the knob, it was locked, and the hinges were on the outside of the door. She was trapped. She felt for her phone, no, it was on the kitchen counter. She kicked at the door. A few kicks later and a man burst in.

Ashlyn backed against the wall, surprised. She was already in a kicking motion, she brought her foot up into his pants. The man doubled over with a shout. She pushed him to the side and ran out the door. A hand wrapped around her middle and neck before she could get far. She looked to be in some sort of warehouse. The hand around her neck gripped tightly. She clawed at the man holding her, screaming.

“Calm down now princess.”

She was far from calm.

“What do you want?” She asked, gasping as his hand still had a tight hold on her throat.

“You’re just a ransom piece, hunny,” the man breathed in her ear.

She looked down at his arm, it was littered with tattoos.

“What did Brian ever do to you?” She wheezed.

The man laughed.

“Not precious Brian, sweetheart, daddy.”

Well shit. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

Brian still decided to return to the apartment early. He unlocked the door and walked in, all the lights were off. He figured Ash was asleep in his bed. He smiled and stumbled towards his room, she wasn’t there. His eyebrows furrowed and he walked to her room. She wasn’t there either. He got a sick feeling in the pit his stomach. He ran out of her room, flipping on the lights. His eyes caught something red on the island counter in the kitchen. He looked over to see a phone number scrawled in some odd substance. He walked closer. Blood. The number was in blood. His phone rang.

“Hello?”

“We have a problem,” Trent’s voice said from the other end of the phone.

Trent had been woken up early in the morning by his ringing phone. He answered only to receive a phone call that changed his life. Cathy soon learned that her husband had a brother, she knew about Jerry. What she didn’t know was that Jerry was in the Mexican drug cartel. And that Trent had a very valuable piece of blackmail on his brother, ready to go to the authorities at any time. Jerry had paid Trent a portion of money to keep silent, and now he was tired of it. Trent had tried to get his brother out of the cartel, now only wanting to use the info to save his brother before it was too late. Clearly it was too late, his step-daughter had been taken to try to persuade him to give up the info.

Trent, Brian, Cathy and a room full of police, DEA, and FBI agents were all in the same room. They were in Ashlyn’s apartment. Trent and Cathy had flown out first thing in the morning. Brian had other friends on the possible whereabouts of Ash at the moment as well. Trent sat in front of the computer, waiting. Any time now there should be a video call.

“Here it is!” Agents scrambled to get out of the way as Trent made the announcement.

Brian at his side as he accepted the video call on his laptop.

A man stood on the other end, smiling and taking up the whole frame. He had dark caramel colored skin, brown eyes and didn’t look very tall.

“Hello Trent. Don’t even insult my intelligence by pretending you don’t have agents all around you. I know better.”

Brian swallowed hard. Where was Ashlyn?

“Look, give me back my daughter, and I will give Jerry all of the information I have. We will swap, just give her back.”

“Eh, no can do.”

He took a few steps back, revealing Ashlyn tied to a chair, hair all out of sorts, mouth with tape over it, bruised and bloody.

Cathy cried out and Trent cut her a look. Brian felt his heart stop.

“You see, we have to assume that since you have cops all around you, they already know the info too, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid. Right Babe?” He kicked Ash’s chair. She winced.

“Your step daughter is very beautiful.”

“Don’t you lay a hand on her!” Trent barked.

“So this isn’t ok?” He said, holding some sort of wand in his hands, he pressed it to the skin of her arm for a second, and she screamed. He had shocked her.

Brian closed his eyes, trying to hold his composure when he just wanted to tear this man apart.

“What do you want, just tell me what you want.”

“We now want signed proof that no cop, fed, dea, or busy-body will ever come after us again, and all of the money Jerry has given you over the years. Or you can see your daughter live as we end her life. You have twenty four hours.”

“Look, give me twenty four hours, but let me have my daughter now, let me take her place.”

“Give us what we want, and you’ll have her. Until then, I suggest you hurry.”

He grinned, leaned back over and shocked Ashlyn again. The sound of her muffled scream ended the video. Cathy lost it and started bawling, Trent was a man on the edge, and Brian was ready to go on a murder spree.