"And I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding right before the Lord. All the words are gonna bleed from me, and I will sing no more."
♫ Seven nation army by The White Stripes.
✰TW: Blood. Violence.
✰ ✰ ✰
"H, what time is it?"
Peeling my eyes away from Rihanna's ass on my TV screen, I gazed at Niko who was standing by the front door, looking out the peephole, "Like four-thirty? Why?"
"You asked me that like five minutes ago." Naomi murmured, licking across the fold on her blunt as she sat on the couch next to me.
"Yeah, I did, cause cherry's not back yet."
I blinked, suddenly remembering, "Well-" I looked back up the clock on the wall, "What time did she leave again? She's probably about to come back, right?"
"She left at three-forty...." Niko slowed down talking and planted one hand on the doorknob very suddenly, "Oh-shit!" he fiddled with the lock and quickly snapped it undone before yanking open the door, "Cherry's running back here, something's went wrong."
"What?" I got up from the couch and rushed right behind him, out of the house. I craned my head around the corner of my house as I stepped down from the porch, but when I caught onto Cherry running back across the street, I froze.
Her clothes were bloody, and her nose was gushing bright red.
I'd never seen so much.
"Cherry?" I hopped off of the last step, watching with growing worry as she sprinted straight at me, not stopping for one second until she crashed into me like a train. Her arms swung around me and she sobbed strongly, nearly falling but not-thanks to my arms soon wrapping around her.
Her heart was racing. I could feel it against mine.
Cradling the back of her head, I peeled her back from me a bit until I could see her face again, "What the fuck happened?"
"Y-you have to go, you have to help. William wasn't gone, he came b-back." she shook with fear, her eyes puffy and pink while she sniffled up snot, "You have to go help my m-mom, he won't stop hitting her, please!"
"Niko, go!" I yelled toward him, and he took off. I quickly look back down at her, "Does he have a weapon?-yeah? Ok." I exhaled when she nodded, "I need you to stay here, okay? Stay with Naomi, we'll take care of it."
"Make sure-"
"I will make sure everyone is safe, don't move!" I moved away, leaving her right next to Naomi who soon offered her comfort, and then steadily made a pace for her mothers' house. I yanked off my red leather jacket, tore it from my arms and then threw it down on my car as I passed it.
Looked like I got to punch a fucking pedophile.
Today's my lucky day!
"Niko, don't even thinking about being gentle," I spat through my teeth as I caught up to him, twisting the rings around my fingers and cracking my knuckles, "I wanna enjoy this."
"Never am."
William came out of the house just in time to see us coming, swinging a baseball bat around in his grasp, with a drunken look of power on his face, "The fuck are you doing here? Get off my property. You have no business here."
I fake gasped, "Really? Oh, Niko we have no business here. We should just go right home." I turned to look at him as we steadily walked up the driveway.
"You know?" Niko kissed his teeth, "I don't feel like going home right now. I kinda feel like-playing some baseball?" he grimaced, looking back toward William who was slowly cowering in front of us and putting up the baseball bat in defense.
"Sounds good to me."
We came in close contact and immediately, William swung the baseball bat at my head hard, but I ducked and rushed for his body, tackling him to the ground with a hard thump.
"Oh, I'll take that!" I straddled William's chest and wrapped both hands around his thick throat while Niko snatched the baseball bat from his grasp and wandered behind me.
"I don't have my knife with me, so it's your lucky day Will! You get your balls beaten off!" Niko shouted thickly.
William clawed and punched my stomach, but I only took the blows with ease, not even phased. I was way too angry to give a fuck about anything except inflicting the worst pain upon him that I could. Where it hurt the worst.
"Son of a bitch!" William stopped struggling when Niko started slamming the bat down onto his nuts full force. I could hear every crunch, every snap, and every thump and it made me smile to watch him writhe in agony, the veins in his neck straining against his skin, just waiting to burst.
"You like it when someone puts their hands on you? Hm? Does it feel good not to be able to breathe?" I seethed through my teeth, watching his face turn beet red from my hands. He gasped for air in response and reached up again, weakly grasping at my wrists.
N', that made me remember to get a good look at his.
I let go of his neck and grabbed the sleeves of his shirt while he gasped for air, peeling them up as fast as I could.
"Come on, come on." I whispered, searching every surface around his arms to find something, anything.
But there was no tattoo.
Which meant it wasn't him.
He didn't take my Bella.
And if he didn't then who did?
Filled with rage that I didn't get what I wanted, I punched William across the face and then gripped the front of his shirt, "Where's Delilah!? Where's all those girls, huh?! You know something, I know you do, you dumb little fuck!"
He was too busy groaning in pain so I held my hand back for Niko to temporarily stop until I could get an answer out. I held one hand down on his neck again, digging my fingernails into his flesh. "Do you work for someone?! Who is taking the girls?!"
"You'll never find them." William choked, blood spraying out of his mouth and onto my hands as he spoke, "They're dead, they're all dead. You don't know anything boy, and you don't know what you've just done."
"Where is she!?" I screamed, slamming his head down onto the ground harder, "Who are you working for?!"
He didn't answer.
"Niko!" I shouted, cracking a punch down onto his face again. His cartilage crunched and snapped underneath my fingers, offering the most disgusting but thrilling sensation of power through me. His head whipped to the side with each one, frost blades of grass covered in red, hot blood, "Tell me now! Who is doing this?!"
"Okay! O-okay!" William coughed, his breathing ragged as he choked underneath me. He spat out some blood and I grabbed his head again by the hair, yanking it up to threaten him not to play with me or else I'd fucking slam his head down into the damn ground.
I wanted to bury the motherfucker but that couldn't happen.
"A-Axel. The man you're looking for is Axel." He coughed, barely conscious. "Axel is his name, that's all I know. That's the only one I talked to!"
Holy shit.
"Did you take Delilah?!" I spat, grabbing his hands when he tried to struggle and pinned them down onto the ground. "Where is she?!"
"I don't know, she - she wasn't mine to take!" He coughed, breathing hoarsely. "Someone named Xander took her."
My eyes darted back and forth between his eyes as my stomach dropped, "How many of them are there? How many men?"
"Four. Four. It's just the Four." He choked, locking eye contact with me, and even though he was an angry, disgusting man I could tell even he was afraid of them. I could see it running through his eyes. "The Aces. They're called The Aces. That's all I know. I swear."
The Aces? What the fuck?
"They kidnap girls? Is that what you're telling me?! Huh?! What was your role in this?!" I barked, breathing heavily as I looked down at him. I was holding back so fucking hard. "Tell me or you're fucking dead!-"
"Yes!" William huffed angrily, coughing hoarsely again, "Okay? Yes! They run a ring on the east coast. It's Xander, Axel, Cole and.. someone else, I never met the fourth guy. I never even met the others! Axel is the boss's right hand man's. He's the one in charge while he's away and he lets people work for him sometimes, that's all I know-get off me!"
"No! Who is the man with the spade tattoo, tell me!" I screamed, my heartbeat echoing in my ears as I choked him again, and pushed his head harder into the grass, "Which one is he?!"
"I-I don't know! They all have them! It could be anybody!" William looked like he was about to pass out.
"Four men? The Aces?" Niko panted above me, earning my eye contact. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Call Zayn." I breathed out, getting up off of William since I felt so fucking sick. I stood up and rammed my foot into his stomach again for good measure before I stepped back from him, "Stay down, bitch."
I wanted to kill him, I wanted to let out all my anger because we were fucking two steps back instead of forward. All these men? Who were they?
The fucking Aces? What kind of bullshit game of cards is this?
Hearing a gasp, I had to push the thought from my mind. I looked up to see Cherry's mom standing on the porch with a bloody forehead and a bloody nose, staring down at William in horror.
Then me.
"Hi, we've met. I'm Harlow." I waved as I caught my breath, attempting to hide my red, cut up knuckles, "Look, um..." William being in between us made things more awkward, so I stepped past him, "Your daughter is at my house and my friend has called the police to-"
A hand grabbed my foot mid sentence and I came crashing down onto the ground, my chin banging against the hard grass and busting open.
Fucking William.
I flipped my body around quickly, kicking his hand off of my ankle and then kicking him in the face.
Niko was off to the side on the phone, but he glanced at me once to make sure I was good. I waved him away because I thought I had it handled-little did I know that wasn't the case.
"You fucker." I scrambled up to my feet and leaned down in front of his body, grabbing the collar of his shirt and slamming a punch down onto his face.
Somehow though, he swung against my leg and I fell on top of him, making it easy for him to take the advantage and get on top of me. And oh boy, he was rough as hard with his punch, his knuckles scraping onto my teeth and making pain radiate throughout my jaw.
"Niko!" I called out for help, but sooner than later, Will was hit on the back of the head with the baseball bat, someone's small frame blocked by his big body over me.
They hit and they hit hard, William swinging off of me and going limp onto the ground in half a second.
"Oh fuck..." I breathed out, widening my eyes as Cherry stood above me, the baseball bat raised above her head.
She stared down at his body, angrier than a bat out of hell and while her eyes brimmed with tears, blood continued to run down her drying nose. She looked awful, just plain psychopathic, and I knew she was gonna hit again but-we couldn't kill him. We needed the police and we needed to tell them what went down so that he could go to jail for abuse and battery.
We couldn't have someone dead on our hands.
"Hey, hey..." I quickly scrambled to my feet when she growled and raised the bat higher, threatening to hit him, "Cherry, put the bat down." I never thought I'd say that let alone ever see Cherry be violent and yet, there I was, "Put it down, you can't hurt him."
"He deserves it." She expressed angrily, tears streaming down her face faster than I could count. "He hit my brother, he has bruises all over him, he deserves to be hurt like he hurts!"
"I know, hey, look at me, I get it. I want the motherfucker buried just as much as you do. Even more. But he's already fucked up, alright? You could kill him." I explained, taking one step forward toward her. I didn't know if she'd swing on me or not, she was in a fragile state of mind.
"So?" The way she looked at me confused me, and her face contorted even more she started to cry again, "All those women h-he touched, all that he did to my mom, to me? He deserves more than a slap on the wrist. He deserves to be hurt." she trailed off into a whisper and it was almost like she was convincing herself to do him harm. Her eyes locked back onto her target and she stopped crying, "I say he fucking deserves it. I say!"
"... Okay a couple of hits-"
Cherry didn't even wait for my word, she just swung the bat down as hard as she could onto his stomach. She wasn't too strong so she wasn't doing much damage herself but considering what me and Niko had done, she wasn't bringing him any happiness, "Fuck you! You-stupid-fucking-loser! I hate you! Fuck you!"
I stood there, twiddling my thumbs as she kept going for a couple of minutes, and I could admit it was entertaining but she couldn't do it forever.
Once she'd beat her way up to his face I decided that was enough.
"Okay, okay!" I snatched the bat from her and pushed against her shoulder to back her up from him. And of course, she fought me, "That's enough! Hey, that's enough!" she attempted to kick him when I shoved her back, "I said stop! He is gonna go to jail for a long time for what he did your brother and your mom. Take a breath. You're done."
"No, it's n-not fair! He deserves worse, let me go!" Cherry lunged again and I dropped the bat to subdue her, to wrap my arms right around her own. She struggled even more, kicking her feet and screaming against me to let her go, but I didn't budge.
"Get inside the fucking house, Cherry." I grabbed her waist and moved her wriggling self closer to the door. She slammed her fists against my chest, getting weaker as seconds went by, "I get you're upset but quite frankly-you have bigger things to worry about right now. Go find your brother and get cleaned up."
"It's not fair..." She squeaked, making me drag her up the steps of her house weakly. She slammed her hand on my arm one last time for good measure but soon realized it was no use and stopped.
"Go..."
I stepped into the doorway of her house and let her go, leading her brother to come stepping down the stairs quietly. To my surprise, he walked over toward us and looked up at Cherry, taking her hand, "I'll help you, Cherry, it's okay." he said quietly, leading her away from me.
Cherry looked down at him and sniffled, stepping down into the foyer.
I backed up slowly and then turned around to see Naomi came walking up the driveway, "Mate, I went to the bathroom, and she said she'd stay there, that was entirely my bad."
"Just go inside and comfort them as best as you can while we wait for the cops." I advised her, eyeing Niko behind her.
Naomi nodded and walked up the driveway.
"Zayn is on his way," Niko said, shoving his phone into his pocket, "He called a few good guys from the local precinct who'll come and take William after statements from the girls without questions. So it should be fine. He'll get locked up for assault for sure, but-get this, he found a statement in Chicago PD's log notes from a girl who nearly got kidnapped two days ago. The girl got away luckily but she said that the guy who'd tried to kidnap her... had a diamond tattoo on his wrist."
"Are you serious?" I took a step closer, locking eye contact with him, "Are you-you're not fucking around?"
"I'm not."
"Oh my god, I was right." I breathed out, taking a few steps backward like a tidal wave had hit me, and gripping my hair tightly, "I was right about the tattoo. T-The Aces. It's them, they took her." A weird rush hit my entire body and my throat got tight with waves of pressure. I'd been thinking I was crazy, I'd been thinking about this tattoo for four... fucking...years. The weight it had on me wasn't an easy load to carry. Police told me I was crazy, they told me that there was no tattoo, that I was delusional. And I checked myself into a mental hospital for three months after she went missing because they gaslit me into thinking I hallucinated the whole thing.
I had nightmares about that spade man for years, I still did.
And the whole time, the entire time? I was right.
"I was right." I choked out, my voice cracking as I held my palm over my eyes. "I was right, I was right, I'm not crazy, I-I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy..."
"You're not crazy, darling. Hey..." Niko mumbled, stepping closer to me and slipping one hand under the back of my shirt to rub my back, "You're okay."
I could feel tears wanting to come out but my eyes didn't water, like the fucking desert they were dry. So, I just sniffled up the snot coming down my nose and ran my fingers over my face.
"I'm not crazy." I repeated it once more to myself, "And I'm gonna get her back. She's gonna be okay and we're gonna find her." I was half trying to convince myself and half manifesting.
"We'll find her, H, I promise." Niko nodded, patting my back and giving me a kiss on the cheek, "Why don't you go talk to Cherry, see what she wants to do, and I'll keep an eye on douchebag, huh?"
"Okay." I swallowed, blinking quickly as I walked back up to the house.
I took a deep breath and wrangled in my emotions to try and focus on the way.
We were so much closer and things, it felt, were about to be a lot different. It felt like something was coming. Like we were breaking through, and it made me that much more invested in the hunt for Bella. Like I said before though, I was addicted and I wouldn't ever stop searching for her. No matter what it took.
Stepping inside of the house, I heard Cherry consoling her mother on the couch and soon saw her whole small family huddled up together. All of them sad and clinging to her for support.
Her nose was wiped clean with a tissue that was in her hand but some dried blood remained, while Carols face was blue, and she had to hold ice packs to it to help the pain.
"I'm gonna go clean up, okay? I'll be right back." Cherry hadn't even seen me yet, but once she stood up, she looked at me rather shamefully, probably feeling guilty or upset that I'd seen her so vulnerable.
She walked past me to her downstairs bathroom, and I followed, figuring it'd be best to talk to her in there. Her brother didn't need to hear or see anything else that day. N' her mom was fine, being consoled by Naomi.
Cherry stepped inside of the bathroom and I closed the door after her, "Um... look, Zayn is gonna come here in a bit, and he's gonna bring some of the local police to handle this situation quietly, alright? But, I want you to make sure that your story matches up with your brothers', and your moms for your sake and ours. Just tell them what happened, nothing else about the situation. Say that William came home and attacked your family, so you ran across the street to get us and we subdued him since he was being violent. You might have to go down and take pictures of your injuries but-everything will work out just fine and he'll go to jail. What he did to you guys.... it'll get him time."
Cherry stood in front of the mirror, her bangs a frizzy mess and her eyes watery, "Ok."
"Did he just break your nose?" Wearily, I took a couple of steps forward. "Where does it all hurt?"
"H-here.." Cherry pointed to the obvious bruise forming on her nose while her lip quivered, "N', here.." she moved her hand to her ribcage and frowned even deeper in pain, "My b-back too."
"Is it that bad?" I said curiously, standing next to her.
"He h-hit me with the bat." Cherry choked, blinking away tears as she gently lifted her hoodie. It slipped past her stomach slowly but it didn't have to go far for me to see deep red marks all over her.
"Oh shit." I cursed under my breath, watching it get worse the higher she went up. Her ribs were where it was the worst, and they were already ready to turn purple despite how fresh they were. The skin was patchy and irritated, even small specks of blood seemed like they were ready to pop from the vessels, it was bad.
"That...." I couldn't think of anything to say to make her feel better, but I settled on, "That-sucks, that's really bad. Sorry."
"Is that your default response to everything?" Cherry looked like she wanted to be amused but she was too busy crying.
"I don't really know what else to say. There's nothing I can do that'll make it better. I can't change it. So-yeah? It sucks is... all I've got for now." I murmured, giving her an apologetic, tight lipped smile, "But-hey, I mean, if you look at the bright side then.. you can think about the fact that you don't have to stay with us anymore. William's going to jail, so you'll be back with your family and we won't have to see each other ever again."
Cherry blinked quickly, turning her face away from me in the mirror to look at me in real life, "What?"
"You don't have to stay with us anymore. You have your perfect little family, back, you know?" I shrugged.
She wiped her eyes quickly, "I can't stay here? I-I can't be here. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother, my mom but it's not where I wanna be-"
"You don't need to stay with us anymore though. You have a perfectly fine bedroom here. The danger is gone. There's literally no reason for you to be with us." It came off more aggressive than I meant, but every word was true, "Besides, we don't even have room for you. You have a good life waiting here, and we have a good life waiting there."
"But-"
"You can hangout with Mikey or Niko or Koi, you can do whatever you want, but you're not staying with us anymore. I thought you knew eventually you'd go home." I cut her off unintentionally.
"I didn't think I was that much of a burden." Cherry looked outright shocked, and that confused me
"Cherry-we fucking hate each other," I scoffed, "it's good riddance to both of us. We weren't ever gonna be friends, you knew that. You annoy me and I annoy you. I don't want you in my house, so why would you stay when yours is now, safe?" I threw my hand up.
"Cause I wanna stay with you guys."
"Yeah, well, you can't. Once we find our friend too, she'll be with us and they'll be no room for you so...." I heard police cars pull into the driveway distantly before I could say anything else, "Look, you have your life to take care of, I have mine. Live it. I gotta go. I'll have Niko bring your shit by tonight, alright?"
"But-"
"No buts." I cut her off, "I don't want you at my house, take a hint. Just fuck off, okay? N'... ice your ribcage, don't forget. I'll see you around." I stepped back and then turned around, walking from the bathroom without another word.
There was too much happening for me to care about what was going on with Cherry.
Her situation was sad, sure, but I officially knew who took Bella.
There was a lot, a lot to do.
I didn't need any.... distractions, and that was what Cherry was becoming.
She made me think about things I didn't need to think about, made me feel things I shouldn't have been feeling.
So, to hell with her and that mess.
The Aces were my focus.
Bella was my world.
***