Broken

||Chapter Fourteen||

"What do you mean?! We're going to the f*****g police!" I hissed at Celeste. It has been a whole ten minutes since Alex told us what happened and I've been distraught ever since.

"We can't! Darcie is apart of this drug smuggling ring from what you and her told me yesterday and if you do involve the police, she'll go down with Dan." Celeste spoke grabbing my shoulders to steady me, I had been pacing around the room.

"If we can't involve the police then what can we do?! Sit here helpless?!" I said as I started to pace around the room again. Darcie is in danger, Dan got her and I was beyond worried. I couldn't think straight. What if he hurts her? What if he... No, I couldn't even think about it. Anger surged through me and I balled my fists.

"We need a plan Amee! Just, you need to calm down so we can think!" She pressed.

"Think about what?! We're unarmed! We're outnumbered!" Tears prickled behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I fell back on the couch, resting my head in my hands, completely torn. "It's my fault! I should've stayed with her, I should've been more persistent." I groaned. I hated myself for letting this happen to her. If anything happened to her, I'd never forgive myself.

"No, Amee! Don't you dare blame yourself for this. If you went with her they would've taken you both-"

"I could've protected her!" I shouted, the tears of anger, self-hatred, fear and hurt flowing freely down my cheeks now. "I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to her!"

"Amee..." Celeste spoke softly, "nothing's gonna happen to her, we'll find her." I looked at her in amazement, I scoffed at her incredulously.

"How can we find her if we don't know where she is?!" Tears still flowed freely down my cheeks shamelessly, I was thinking about all the possible worse case scenarios.

"What do you mean? Don't you know where Dan's hide out is?" She asked confused.

I shook my head in my hands. "Dan isn't stupid enough to bring his marks to his headquarters, he always brings them to some obscure location and I don't know where that is." My heart sank even lower as I thought about never seeing Darcie again. Never hugging her, listening to her spew random factoids, hearing her laugh, seeing her smile again. More tears streamed as I hid my face in my hands. I lost her, to find her, to lose her again. This couldn't be happening.

"You really care about her don't you?" Celeste asked, her voice seemed almost wistful. I looked up to face her, my tears had stopped momentarily but still straining my cheeks.

"More than myself." I said, my voice shaky and trembling, as new tears started to form. Celeste has only seen me cry once, and that was they day she broke up with me. That day I was hurt and confused. Today, I was hurt, angry, confused and scared shitless.

"Then we'll find her Amee," she started, getting up from the couch, "we will OK." With that she got up and ran down the hall, I turned around to see that she was going to the guest room. I say there anxiously; my heart beating furiously in my chest, waiting for Celeste to come back. I dropped my hands back into my head and groaned.

"This is my fault..." I whispered to myself. Just then Celeste emerged out of the room, she came back to the couch with Darcie's phone.

"She left her phone, we can try to call uh, what's his name? Simon? To help us out." She said turning the phone on, then her face fell. "It's password locked..." Her face fell defeated but now that she mentioned Simon, I was anxious to get the phone unlocked and start moving forward.

"We have to figure this out and get to Simon, he needs to know what's going on." I said with a newfound sense of urgency.

"How? We don't know what she could've possibly have as her password." Celeste said falling back on the couch and giving me the phone.

***

After about four failed tries and sitting there for half an hour, I was close to giving up. There was no way to unlock this phone. Whatever password she had on this thing, it had to be something really obscure, but probably painfully obvious; I had already tried both her real name and her fake name, I had tried Simon's name and I had tried their last name. I sighed, defeated, "there's no way we're gonna figure this out." I looked over at Celeste who had a pensive look on her face.

"Try your name." She said blankly staring into oblivion.

"Why would it be my name?" I asked, totally confused. Darcie had only found me a couple months ago. She wouldn't have changed her password to my name, and it couldn't have been her password the whole time even before she found me. The idea was ridiculous in my head, but, nonetheless I tried it, I had no other options anyways.

Typing in my six letter name into her phone quickly, I heard a click and the screen faded in, giving us access. Dumbfounded, I stared at Celeste. "How'd you know?" I asked.

"Because... Because I just did, lucky guess OK. Call Simon now."

Shaking my head at her, I scrolled through her contacts and found his name, touching it hastily, I called him. After a few rings he picked up. "Hey D! You never called last night." He said cheerily. It broke my heart that I had to be the bearer of bad news. Tears welled up in my eyes as I took a moment to speak. "Darce?" He asked puzzled.

I decided to spare him the anticipation and get it over with, "Darcie... Isn't here," I started, "they took her... Dan got her." I said softly, hoping the tears didn't fall again. I waited for his answer.

"What?" He said more to himself than me. "W-where are you?" He asked, his voice trembling. I felt my heart sink at that.

"We're at... Some apartment building on the other side of the city Simon." I answered, dropping my head in my hands worriedly.

"Gimme an address or something Amelia, I'm coming over there!" He said shakily, but more because he got up and started moving around, possibly downstairs.

I looked over to Celeste, and I moved the phone away from my ear for a moment. "What's the address of this building?" I asked.

"1064 Woodland Avenue." She answered quickly.

I repeated that to Simon and awaited for him to reply. "I'm coming." I heard his car door slam closed, then soon after the engine. "Don't move or do anything until I get there OK."

"OK." I said, trying to hide the crack in my voice. I heard the click, meaning he hung up and I placed the phone on the coffee table and reclined into the couch. My thoughts were still clouded with thoughts of Darcie, if she was OK, what she was doing, if she was doing anything at all. I brought my hands up to my face and pulled it down, groaning miserably. Simon wouldn't be here for a least an hour. A hell of a lot can happen in an hour.

I felt a hand on my thigh, pulling me from my thoughts, "Amelia, do you remember when we first started dating before I left the orphanage and I snuck out to see the carnival."

She was trying to distract me, as much as I didn't think it was the time to reminisce, I did it anyways, because I hadn't any idea what else to do with my thoughts but think of the worst. "Yeah...you got in trouble that night, I told you not to go."

"You remember how worried you got? You thought something happened to me because I took too long to come back." She said chuckling humorlessly.

"Yeah, well, you scared me alright, I thought I lost you." I said truthfully. I have a habit of worrying about people I cared about, maybe a little bit too much than I should, but I couldn't help it.

"You hugged me for an hour." She said staring into the wall smiling solemnly. Reflective.

"I still care about you Cee." I looked at her even tho she wasn't looking at me.

"Yeah, I just wish... You know what, never mind," she looked at me and her dark brown eyes shone with tears, "we have bigger things worrying about right now, we have to find Darcie." Her voice shook a little and I felt my heart sink. I reached over to her and pulled her into me, hugging her tightly, wordlessly. I wanted to ask her so many questions; why was she crying? Why was she suddenly friendly with me when I'm sure she never wanted to see me again? Why did she break up with me if what I'm thinking is actually what's happening? But I couldn't ask. Not when Darcie was out there in danger, at the will of Dan, who was pretty much a psychopath.

"I'm sorry," Celeste sniffed, pulling away from me and wiping away her tears, "I shouldn't be acting like such a p***y, not with the situation that we're in." She chuckled without much humor behind it and got off the couch. She started walking down the hall.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going to change, you should too, we have a long day ahead of us." She said as she sauntered down the hall. I decided to wait until she came back and then went to change.

We were now back in the living room, sitting in silence, tense silence, as we waited for Simon's arrival. It has almost been an hour of waiting now and I was starting to get even more worried, if that was possible. He would call us when he gets close by right? I thought worriedly. I hoped something hasn't happened to him, without him right now we have no means of moving, and he sounded like he has a plan, or at least a first move.

I got up off the couch and anxiously paced the room, "Where is he?" I asked Celeste but it was mainly for myself, "he should've been here by now!"

"Relax Amee, he should be here any-" We heard the faint sound of a car screeching to a halt.

We both looked at each other and quickly and ran to the window. A navy blue car had parked beside the building and out stepped Simon, I knew from the messy brown hair that it was him. He started walking towards the building holding the phone to his ears. Just then I heard Darcie's phone go off. I ran over and answered it. "Yeah, Simon I saw you, we're coming down now."

"We're?" He asked puzzled.

"And friend and me, this is her place." I said taking a quick glance at Celeste.

"Alright, hurry down, I'm waiting." He said authoritatively, but clear worry was in his voice.

With that I hung up. "Come on." I told Celeste and we both ran out the door and down the stairs, making our way to Simon who was pacing the curb, his hand running through his short messy hair. He noticed our presence and walked briskly over to me. "She was taken from here?" He got straight to the point.

"Down the road, an alley near the police station," I answered.

"Those bastards probably disguised themselves as officers or something." He said, edgy. He ran his hand through his hair again and walked towards his car. "I have an idea of where he might have taken her, it's a long shot but it's all we've got for now."

"How do you figure?" Celeste chimed in, speaking for the first time. Simon looked over at her, paused, and then continued.

"He took my girlfriend there, I looked everywhere for her, until I finally saw one of Dan's goons and I tailed him." He had opened his car and sat in the seat, we took that as leverage to enter the car as well, me sitting shotgun. "I got there too late, and I barely escaped with my life." He said, and I noted the scar once more on his cheek. A constant reminder of what he had lost.

"So where is this place?" I asked, Simon was reaching around the back seat where Celeste sat.

"Could you hand me that box?" He asked.

The box. With the guns from before. He opened it and took out one then handed me the box. "You'll need this for protection." He then moved across me opening the glove compartment and took out two cartridges. He handed me one and we started loading our guns.

"What about me? What am I chopped liver?" Celeste spoke up from the back.

"These are the only guns I have, you'll have to sit this one out, this isn't your battle anyways," Simon answered. He was serious, he never seemed the serious type when I first met him, but things change when you could lose everything you ever cared about. His parents died, his girlfriend was killed, and now his only sister was in danger. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't be more worried than a big brother.

But I sure as hell came close.

Celeste spoke up once more, "I can't just sit on the sidelines while you guys do this, I have to help."

"Celeste he's right," I answered, "this isn't your fight, you don't have any weapons and I can't afford for you to get hurt, so what you're going to do for me is sit in this car and keep watch." I looked around there to gauge her reaction.

"Fine.." She muttered.

"The place is in this two-story cabin inside some forestry, not far off from here," He looked at his watch, "it'll take us about half an hour to get there."

"Then let's go," I answered.

He started the car and took off down the street. We didn't have a plan, and we weren't even sure if Darcie was there.

But it was the only option we had.