Page 4 of Reckless
Agony on his face, the man dropped like a stone. Jazz didn’t wait around to see what he would do next. She zoomed around the corner and stopped short. Two men stood before her, blocking her way.
This was no random attack. These men were here for her.
She knew if she turned around, the man she’d kicked would have recovered enough to capture her. With nowhere else to go, she darted to the left.
Heavy feet pounded behind her. Grateful for her speed, she sprinted away. She was deliberately going in the opposite direction of the apartment. If they found where she lived, she would never be able to go back. She would find a place to hide for a few hours and then head back home.
She rounded a corner, sure that they were no longer behind her. Spotting a giant garbage bin, she took a step toward it. Agony seared her scalp, and her body jerked backward. One of the men had grabbed her braid and was pulling her toward him. She knew she’d have only one chance to get this right. Pulling the knife from the sheath at her waist, she struck out, slicing the braid in two. A few months ago, when Brody had given her the long, slender knife, she had laughed at the ridiculous thought of ever having to use it. Now, she couldn’t be more grateful. Free again, she took off, faster than she’d ever run before.
She had no idea where she was going, but if she stopped, they would take her. Was Arthur behind this? Was this what had happened to Brody? If so, what had they done to him? The wild thought hit her that maybe she should let them catch her. If they took her to where Brody was, maybe they could escape together, like they had from Arthur. She discarded the thought immediately as insane and then poured on the speed.
When the sound of footsteps behind her dimmed, she knew she had lost them, if only temporarily. Breath wheezed from her lungs, and her legs were shaking. She couldn’t keep going. Daring a glance over her shoulder, she saw no one, but when she heard a shout, she knew they hadn’t stopped chasing her.
She was in a residential area now. Cars were parked on the sides of the road in front of houses. Doing the only thing that made sense to her, Jazz scooted underneath one of the vehicles. Barely a second later, she heard their footsteps again and saw two pairs of legs. Whoever these men were, they were persistent.
Thankful for her dark clothing and small body, she lay still, determined to wait them out. As long as she remained hidden, she was safe. They would eventually give up and go away. Once she was safe, she would return home and decide what she needed to do.
The last man joined them, and as if a higher power were giving her the information she needed, they stopped beside the car she was hiding under and began to talk. As she listened, ice entered her veins.
“I can’t run no more, man,” one of them panted.
“We can’t stop now,” another one said. “I know it’s the girl they’re looking for.”
“Maybe so,” his companion wheezed, “but she’s gone now. We can come back.”
“Okay, yeah,” another one said. “But I ain’t giving up. I don’t care if I have to walk these streets day and night. She must live around here somewhere. She’s gotta come back out sometime. We see her, we grab her. Understand?”
“Yeah,” his friend said, “we won’t give up.”
Knowledge set in, and Jazz knew one immutable truth. She had no choice but to disappear. That meant leaving Indianapolis and going somewhere no one could find her. Not even Brody.
A couple hours later, she was on her way out of town. A few minutes after she’d heard the men’s conversation, they had departed. She had waited another half hour, and then, just before the sun rose, she’d found her way home. How she’d done that, she wasn’t quite sure. Nothing had looked familiar. After roaming around for a while, she’d just happened upon the strip joint and known she’d never seen a sweeter sight. With no time to waste, she’d dashed upstairs and gathered her meager belongings. Other than one of Brody’s favorite sweatshirts and one of his ball caps, she had left his things alone. She prayed he would return home soon, but she had little hope that he would be able to find her. She hadn’t left a note this time. Even though she had no idea where she was going, she’d wanted to leave no evidence that she had been here, just in case they somehow figured out a way to track her.
With determination and absolutely no skill, she had grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer and cut what was left of her hair. Her scalp was sore from having had her hair almost pulled out at the roots, and though tears had welled in her eyes, she had refused to shed even one of them. Losing her long hair was a small thing compared with all the other stuff. When she’d finished, she had only a few inches left and looked like the young boy she’d sometimes been mistaken for. She told herself that was a good thing. They were looking for a girl, not a young boy.
Then with a heavy heart, she walked out the door without a backward glance. The pawnshop a couple of streets over gave her two hundred fifty dollars for the only piece of jewelry of monetary value she owned. The dainty diamond and ruby necklace had been a gift from her mama and Papa Mac on her tenth birthday. She had treasured it and sworn she would never let it go. Though it broke her heart, she’d had no choice but to sell it. She was sure it was worth much more than the amount she’d sold it for, but she hadn’t had the heart or the time to haggle.
Her only other piece of jewelry was a heart-shaped locket with a photo of her mama, Papa Mac, Brody, and herself. It didn’t have as much value as the necklace, but to Jazz, it meant everything. She swore she would die before she ever let it go.
She now stood in the middle of the busy bus station and weighed her options. Even though she had identification, she couldn’t risk using it to purchase a ticket. Not only was she a minor traveling alone, she wanted no record of where she was headed. She had no idea how difficult it would be to gain access to a passenger list, but if they found out she’d left the city, she would never be safe.
The station was huge, and there were dozens of people going to and fro, all seeming to know exactly where they were going, without all the doubts that seemed to be crashing upon her. She took note of a group of people lining up to get on a bus. A man stood at the doorway and took each ticket as the person boarded. Sneaking onto a bus seemed almost impossible.
And then, once again, her prayers were answered in the noisiest way possible. A group of rowdy preteens, accompanied by only two adults, came dashing into the station. The kids acted as if they’d been let out of a zoo, and the adults wore expressions of defeat and weariness. From their backpacks and chatter about their trip, she discerned they were headed to Chicago for some kind of school-related event. That there were only two adults with them seemed odd, but for her purposes, they were a prayer answered. If she could finagle her way into the group, she could pretend to be one of them until she was on the bus.
Going back to Chicago, where Arthur lived, was admittedly dangerous. But if the goons who’d almost nabbed her earlier reported that she had been seen in Indianapolis, then Chicago would be the last place they would look.
Okay, yes, it seemed chancy at best, but it was her only option. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her cap down tighter and stood behind the group. When one of the kids made an off-color comment, she, like all the other kids, joined in the laughter. They all moved as one toward the bus, and Jazz went right along with them. One of the harried adults in charge shoved a handful of boarding passes at the ticket-taking man. He gave an eye roll at all the kids and then, with a slump of his shoulders, moved aside. The group moved en masse onto the bus, shoving at one another and giggling as they made their way down the aisle. Jazz was right there with them.
As they filtered into seats, she separated herself from the group. She would have liked to stay with them, because not only did they give her cover, she’d feel safer in a group. However, someone at some point was bound to notice that she didn’t belong and would start asking questions. She preferred not to take that risk.
She moved to the very back of the bus and scrunched into the corner. Since the bus was only half full, she was one lone figure in the dark, and she wanted to stay that way.
About ten minutes after the bus pulled away from the station, Jazz began to breathe normally again. With that relaxation came the grief she had buried. She looked out the back window at what she was leaving behind. It wasn’t the city, the ratty little apartment, or even the few good memories she and Brody had made there. It was the sorrow of leaving behind the only person she loved. Her beloved brother was somewhere out there. What had happened to him? Had he been taken by the same men? Had something awful happened to him? She didn’t know. But as the bus moved down the highway and her heart solidified into stone, Jazz swore with all the fervency she had left inside her, that someday, some way, she would find Brody again. He was all she had left.
CHAPTER THREE
Present Day