Treasure
Failure to Communicate

The doctor assumed Rori would sleep late into the morning, but he didn’t know that she rarely slept the night through. Her nightmares would always wake her up. It was just after three in the morning when she bolted upright in bed, her body sweaty and shaking. She froze as she looked around the darkened room, trying to figure out where she was.

She saw no one, the room was large and so was the bed. She flipped the covers back and turned on the light on the bedside table. She saw her phone and picked it up, a message from her mother showed up as she checked the time. Opening it up, she read the message, but froze when she saw the previous conversation.

It was three AM, they had arrived just before lunch, and she had been in a blackout since she saw him.

HE was here. The one who had followed her with the other two men, the one who probably drove the car that the two dead men were dropped off in. He was here, and now she was HIS, just like that man had promised. “You’ll be coming with us, Charlotte. You belong with us.” That is what he said, and that man called her Charlotte, right before the pain came. He must have been tracking her, there was no other way her could have found her. And Ashley… Ashley had to be in on it. She wasn’t shocked to see him and this trip was HER idea. She led her straight to him, where her Mom wasn’t around. Her stomach ached with the bitterness of betrayal.

She had to escape.

She put her phone back down. If they could get into her phone, they could track her. She would leave it here, she could always buy another. Her hand went to the necklace she was wearing with the tracker. Had they hacked into that? She unlatched the chain, a gold one she had chosen after the silver chain had broken. She left the tracker next to the phone.

She went into the bathroom and froze again when she looked in the mirror. Streaks of blood were on her face, into her hair, but she couldn’t take the time for a shower. She checked her naked body, which hurt like after a hard workout in the muscles, and her bones and joints ached. She washed the blood off her hands and face.

Her bag was sitting set on the dresser, her leathers next to it. She quickly dressed in her black jeans, chaps, boots, a dark T-shirt and her leather jacket. Her wallet was still in the inside jacket pocket, but her keys were missing. It looked like no one had taken her cash or cards, and she still had her identification.

Good.

She put the rest of her clothes in her bag, then walked quietly over the carpet to the door.

It was locked. Of course.

She walked back across the room, looking out the windows. They overlooked the large lawn in front of the big house that she remembered, but she had to be on the fourth floor of the brick structure. Below her was a crushed-rock garden with thick shrubbery, trimmed into perfect shapes. Checking the windows, she unlocked one and slowly pushed it up. It moved without making too much noise, and she waited a few minutes before she moved again.

The bag she tossed out, it landed in the bushes and then a soft thud when it hit the ground. Again she waited, not hearing anyone raise an alarm, before she dared move again. There was little in the guest room to use, so she stripped the king-sized bed and brought the two sheets over to the window. Tying one to the other would give her enough length to make the drop without killing herself, she thought. She brought a ladder-back chair over, attaching to the middle. She slipped pillows around the feet and back of the chair, hoping it would deaden noise when it wedged itself against the window frame, then piled the rest of the pillows and the blanket underneath it. Taking one last look, she put her legs out the window and pulled the sheet tight until the chair was holding her weight.

Moving down hand over hand, her feet holding her back from the brick, she moved past the dark window on the third floor and got just below one on the second floor. She held onto the knot at the bottom of the second sheet, her eyes picking out a landing spot. She took a deep breath, pushed away from the brick with her feet and let go.

The drop was about twelve feet, so she landed with her feet together and rolled to her side. Her legs, hip and shoulder each took some of the impact as she rolled, but nothing broke. Standing to her feet, she picked up her bag and ran for the garage that was nearby. She stopped when she reached the door, looking for a way in, but it was locked. She kept going along the garage doors to the far end, then smiled.

The covered roof held motorcycles, including hers, and it had her key in it. She lashed the bag to her seat and turned the key, making sure it had gas and was ready. She wondered if they were tracking her bike as well, so she took some time to feel around for anything that didn’t belong. Sure enough, under the tail light she felt a box about two inches square. It came off with a tug, it was held in place with a magnet and had a short wire coming off of it. She attached it to the motorcycle next to her, then straddled her ride.

She knew she would only get one chance at this, and it was a long ride to the road and freedom. Taking a deep breath, she fired up her Harley, put it in gear, and took off down the driveway.

By the time she hit third gear, she could hear shouts of alarm and in her mirrors she could see lights turning on. She felt something pressing on her head, a voice saying “no come back” but she pushed it away and kept accelerating. It would take her more than fifteen minutes of driving fast on the winding private road to get to the gate, and if she had another attack she would crash.

She almost thought she was getting away when she saw movement in the woods ahead of her. At first it was a flash of fur in her moving headlight, then when it was closer the moon revealed what it was. Wolves, two of them, running hard to intercept her on the road ahead. She dropped down a gear and accelerated, but they had the angle and by the time she reached them, the two were standing on the road and staring her down.

Rori slowed, she didn’t want to hit them, she loved wolves but had no intent of becoming their meal. Coming to a halt, her headlight shined on the two, their eyes glowing as they started moving slowly her way. To her amazement, both of them stood on their hind legs and moments later, two naked men were on the road instead. “What the FUCK,” she said out loud.

“Rori, come back home, you belong with us,” the big guy on the left said.

“NOOOO!” She dropped it in gear and accelerated, leaning on the horn. The men jumped out of the way as she accelerated past them. When she looked back in the mirror, they were both gone. A few minutes later she reached the main road and accelerated hard. There was no way they’d catch her now.

Tears flowed down her face as she pushed herself to go faster. They knew who she was, where she was, and had gained the trust of her and her mother. If they hurt Jenny, they might hurt Mom to get to her.

She couldn’t go back home. Ever.

When she got to the Interstate, she made her first choice. They would expect her to head south towards Albany and home, so she went northeast towards Burlington, Vermont. She fell in with some riders, figuring riding in a group would attract less notice. When they stopped for gas, she topped her tank off and asked where a phone store was. An hour later, she had eaten a big breakfast and had a burner phone in her hand.

She sat on her bike outside the store, contemplating her next move. If they used trackers and wanted her enough to plant a friend, they would probably be monitoring her phone too. Digging into her wallet, she found the card she was looking for. She dialed Three Tequila’s home number and waited nervously for an answer. The Steel Ladies promised to help her, and the President’s wife was the one to talk to. “Hello?”

“T, it’s Rori King. I’m in some trouble.”

She heard rustling in the background. “Oh no. What’s going on, child?”

She heard Mongo in the background, and she said “Rori’s in trouble.” “Rori, can I put you on speaker? It will save me the trouble of explaining everything to this big man later.”

“I guess so.” The phone changed and she heard movement in the background.

“What kind of trouble,” the deep voice asked.

“I was up at Ashley’s family place, we got there yesterday morning. I woke up early this morning, naked in a strange bed, with no memory of how I got there.”

“SONOFABITCH! I’LL FUCKING SLAY THEM,” Mongo said.

“There’s more,” I said. “They had the code for my phone and sent my Mom a text message while I was out. I also found a tracking device on my motorcycle.” She could hear T starting to cry as Mongo continued to rage under his breath. “They’ve been after me for months, they say I belong with them. One of the men I saw there, I’d seen him before. When we left our last house, we did so under the Victim Protection Program. New identities, papers, everything, we moved to Florida to disappear because these men kept trying to take me. I got away again, but they won’t stop.” She paused as she wiped a tear away. “I need a place to hide out.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m at a mall outside of Burlington, Vermont.”

“Talk to my old lady while I look up a friend’s address,” he said.

Three Tequila’s raspy voice came back on. “Did they hurt you?Did he… I mean….”

“I don’t think so, I’m not sore there. They had me locked in a fourth-floor room, it’s hard to know what they planned for me,” she said. “I tied sheets together, crawled out the window and took off on my bike.”

There was noise as Mongo came back into the room. “Got a pen, Rori?”

“Ready.”

He gave her the address of the Steel Brotherhood chapter in Manchester. “You ride straight there and ask for Bear, he’s the Chapter President. I’ll call him and give him a heads up, but he and his old lady will make sure you’re taken care of and will get you home.”

“I can’t go home, Mongo. These people won’t stop, I need to disappear and stay that way.”

He thought about it for a moment. “This have to do with that Victim Protection thing?”

“Yes. It’s better I don’t say anything else.”

I heard a sigh. “They don’t hand those out unless they are needed. Go see the Bear. I’ll ride to your house and let your Mom know what happened. The Brotherhood will keep you safe, I give you both my word on that.”

“Thank you,” she said as she started to break down a little.

“Don’t thank me yet, that chapter probably wants some artwork done. You’ll earn your keep.”

She laughed. “Thank you both, I’m so glad I met you.”

“Us too. You stay safe, Rori.” He hung up the phone and looked at his Old Lady. “They fucked with the wrong girl,” he said with a growl as he dialed a number.

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