Split Decision: A Kira Brightwell Novel

Chapter 4

4

Kira sat across the table from Jeff, soaking in the artsy interior of Pete’s while savoring a bacon-wrapped date. It had been hours since she had eaten a light afternoon snack before her trip to the gym. She struggled to keep her enthusiasm to a seemly level. Jeff sipped his wine and gave her a shy smile. Aside from a few awkward pleasantries and an all too detailed conversation about Rob’s fear of feet on the drive over, they hadn’t really spoken. The overlapping voices and laughter of the diners around them filled the void, along with the occasional clink of a wine bottle against a glass or the thump of an empty beer glass against a tabletop.

This is starting to feel weird. Once of us had better start talking...

“So, how is your band doing these days?” Kira asked to get the ball rolling. Jeff played bass in a local rock band called Pop Nemesis.

Jeff shrugged. “OK, I guess. We’ve got a few gigs lined up, but nothing major.”

“Anything in LA?”

“I wish,” Jeff said with a bitter twist of his lips. “The other guys are only too happy to stay local, and it’s tough to get everyone together to practice. None of them take it as seriously as I do.”

“Maybe it’s time to find another band then,” Kira suggested between bites. “It must be frustrating trying to herd everyone along. I bet there are all kinds of bands looking for bass players in the city.”

“My parents think I should just give it up and focus on getting a real job,” Jeff said, toying with his wineglass. “I think they always hoped I would do more with my life than fix cars and play bass.”

Kira chuckled in sympathy. “That’s what you get for being an only child. All your parents’ hopes and dreams are resting on you. My parents don’t get me either, but at least they have my sister to keep them happy. The auto shop pays well, right?”

Jeff looked up to meet her gaze. “Yeah...”

“Then at least your parents can’t complain that you’re a deadbeat, which is better than a lot of people our age.” Kira leaned forward. “Do you enjoy the work?”

“In some ways,” Jeff said. “I like the challenge of figuring out what’s wrong and fixing the problem. I also like working on cars because it reminds me of helping my dad when I was a kid. Music is my first love though.”

“Well if the band scene doesn’t work out, maybe you could get a job teaching music instead.”

“Huh. I never thought of that.”

“You would probably have to go back to school, but music would be your career, and I bet your parents wouldn’t be able to complain if you landed a college teaching job—if keeping them happy is important to you,” Kira said, wiping her fingers on her napkin. “At least it’s another option.” This wasn’t exactly the light banter she had been hoping for, but she was glad they were finally talking about something other than feet.

Jeff gave her a measuring look as their pizza arrived. He waited until the server had left to speak.

“Can I ask you about something? I was always afraid to bring it up before...”

Kira took a long swallow of wine before nodding. She had a sinking feeling she knew where this was going.

“I’ve known for a while now you’re the one from that abduction case a few years ago—the girl who escaped and freed all the others who had been taken.” Jeff flushed, but kept going. “I also noticed what happened in the cage today. And well, you never talked to the papers when the story broke. I totally understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but I can’t help but be curious...”

Kira sighed. “You want to know what really happened.” She stared at the slice of pizza on her plate, her stomach in knots. Everyone wanted to know what really happened.

I really should be used to this by now...

Aside from being a natural introvert, this was the main reason she mostly kept to herself.

“I’m sorry,” Jeff said, reaching across the table to take her hand. “I shouldn’t have asked. It’s just... Well, I can see it still bothers you.”

As badly as she wanted to believe otherwise, she knew he was right. After what had happened at the gym earlier, there was no way she could deny it. Her thoughts drifted back to the sight of him red-faced and wobbling after their bout, flooding her with fresh guilt.

Maybe he’s earned the right to know.

She squeezed his hand and took a steadying breath. “It’s OK. Sometimes it helps to talk about it. And I can’t blame you for asking after I nearly choked you out today.”

“You did seem a bit distracted when I was tapping,” Jeff said with a wry smile.

Kira found herself smiling back in spite of herself. She forced down a bite of pizza before starting. The tang of roasted peppers flooded her mouth, accompanied by the savory spice of Italian sausage, reminding her of her hunger. She took a second bite with more enthusiasm, allowing herself to relax. She was safe. She was in a public place on a date with a guy she really liked, eating delicious food. Even if anyone tried to hurt her here, she knew she could kick their ass. Her memories were nothing to be afraid of.

Just keep it simple. No need to go into detail...

“I had just finished college,” she said, her voice feeling as if it belonged to someone else. “I had been studying languages. I was good at it, and I always thought maybe I could be a translator or something. It seemed practical—something my parents would approve of. But when I graduated, I just felt lost. I knew I didn’t really want to get some translating job, but I didn’t know what I did want.”

“Hmm, some of this is sounding a bit familiar,” Jeff said with an encouraging smile.

“I thought it might,” Kira said. “Anyway, I knew I needed to get away from everything so I could sort things out. My grandparents live in Canada, but they own a cabin on the coast a few hours out of town. We all go out there to stay with them when they come to visit.”

“Sounds like the perfect place to escape from the rest of the world,” Jeff said.

Kira smiled. “It was—at least, I thought it was. I went there on my own. I planned to stay there for a few days, cutting myself off from everyone so I could think. But on the first night, I woke up to find a stranger standing over me. I—I tried to fight, but he used chloroform to knock me out. I woke up in a strange room.” Kira shivered.

Jeff winced in sympathy. “So you never even had a chance to fight.”

Kira gave him a bitter smile. “I had no MMA training then, so it probably wouldn’t have made much difference.”

“How long before you knew you weren’t the only one who had been taken?”

“I was alone in the room, and the door was locked from the outside. There were no windows, but my door had a flap at the bottom. I could see other rooms in the hallway with closed doors.” Kira swallowed. “I also heard a girl in the next room.” Those were the screams that haunted her.

“I remember reading the guy who did it was some kind of abductor for hire,” Jeff said.

Kira nodded. “Each door had the name of the girl inside, along with a second name or title. I’m pretty sure they were aliases for different buyers. The police were never able to link them to anyone.”

“What about the man who abducted everyone?”

Kira’s expression turned grim. “The Procurer. That’s what the media called him. The police never caught him. I saw him drive off on some errand before I helped the other girls escape. The cops were all over the place afterward. He probably saw them and got spooked.”

“Is it true the police never found out who he was?” Jeff asked, looking skeptical. “I found that part hard to believe.”

“The guy was a real pro,” Kira said around a mouthful of pizza. “Even in his own lair, he was careful not to leave any prints. He didn’t leave anything behind that might identify him.”

“What about you and the other girls?” Jeff frowned. “Couldn’t one of you describe him to a sketch artist?”

Kira let out a frustrated sigh. “I never even saw the guy’s face. It was dark when he grabbed me. Once I woke up in that room, he never came in and I didn’t go out until I managed to escape. It was the same with the other girls. He kept us fed by sliding a tray through the flap at the bottom of the door. I never even heard him speak.” She shivered as a memory resurfaced.

“What is it?” Jeff asked, his hazel eyes filling with concern. “Are you OK?”

“The only thing I do know about that man is that he liked to whistle. When he gave us our food and after he had... visited one of the other girls, I could hear it echoing down the hall. Both times, it was the same song: ‘Sentimental Journey.’”

Jeff gave her a strange look. She didn’t blame him. She was pretty sure that part had never made the papers.

“I know,” she said, trying to escape her dark thoughts and lighten the mood. “Crazy, right? You’d at least expect the theme song to Saw, or something more ominous.”

Jeff shook his head. “No, it sounds... creepy. Wait. I thought I’d heard that one of the girls had seen this Procurer guy.”

Kira gave a sad nod. “Clarissa. She was in the room next to mine.” She closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. “She wasn’t like the rest of us. Her name wasn’t on her door. She had been taken for the Procurer’s own ah, entertainment.” Kira struggled to block out the muffled screams and sobs she could never manage to forget. “She claimed he had always kept her blindfolded, but I’m pretty sure she saw him. She refused to give a statement. A few days after we all went home, she was found in her bathtub with her wrists slit.”

“She killed herself?”

Kira shrugged. “Either that, or the Procurer took care of her. She was convinced he was going to kill her. Like I said, he’s a pro. The police never found any evidence of foul play.”

“That’s pretty messed up,” Jeff said. “You must have felt pretty good though. You saved all the other girls. Didn’t you win some kind of lawsuit for them too?”

“Yeah, after everything was over, I guess you could say I had a hard time adjusting,” Kira said with a rueful expression. “The other girls seemed happy to go back to the way things were before, but I couldn’t let it go. Why had we been targeted? None of us knew one another from our lives before. I figured there had to be something that linked our abductions. I talked to the other girls, asking them a ton of questions. They were more comfortable talking to me than to the police. I eventually found out we all had one thing in common: the same security company.”

“OK, that was never in the papers,” Jeff said, leaning forward. “I only remember some vague mention of a settlement.”

“I did some digging and found out all of us had a security system from the same company, which shall remain unnamed,” Kira said with a twist of her lips. “The Procurer had somehow been cleared and hired by this company—under a false identity, of course. That was how he got to each of us. He was able to bypass our security systems. He probably even used company information to help stalk us.”

“And you threatened to expose this security company?”

“Oh, I convinced all the other girls to threaten them with a very public lawsuit,” Kira said. “I know what happened to us wasn’t strictly their fault, but they need to screen their employees more carefully. Some of those girls will spend the rest of their lives in therapy. The company agreed to a generous settlement quite quickly.”

Jeff grinned. “I’ll bet. But what about the Procurer? If he worked for them, couldn’t they help track him down or identify him?”

Kira scowled. “He used a bogus name and his ID photo in the system was fake too. The person who hired him is also missing.”

Jeff shook his head. “So back to square one.”

“Pretty much.” Kira’s fingers balled into a fist. “It’s so frustrating! Three years have gone by, and the police still have nothing on the Procurer or any of the people he was working for.”

Jeff reached over to wrap his fingers around her knuckles. “But you helped rescue those other girls. You even fought to secure their financial future! That must be some consolation.”

“People always try to tell me that, but it isn’t.” Kira bit her lip. “Yes, we’re safe now, and we don’t have to worry about money, but Clarissa is still dead, and the Procurer is still out there somewhere, along with all the sickos who hired him.” She struggled to articulate her frustration.

“It’s like a split decision in a match,” she said. “You put everything you have into the fight, but in the end, you can’t finish. It ends up in the judges’ hands, and even they can’t agree. So even if you win, it doesn’t feel like a victory because it wasn’t decisive. I mean, it counts as a win, but you always know how close it was to going the other way. Does that make any sense?” She held onto his gaze like a lifeline, hoping she didn’t sound completely crazy.

Jeff tilted his head, considering. “You know, I never would have thought of it that way, but it actually does. You do know that Clarissa dying and the Procurer escaping isn’t your fault though, right?”

She sighed, relieved that someone finally understood. “I know—intellectually at least. It still doesn’t stop me from wondering what I could have done differently. I—”

“Kira?” A vaguely familiar male voice intruded. “Kira Brightwell?”

Kira’s and Jeff’s heads swiveled toward the speaker. Kira stifled a groan. A man with curly, blond hair approached their table, his blue polo shirt displaying his broad chest and biceps to their best advantage. Blindingly white teeth flashed from his tanned face in an arrogant smile.

“Just the woman I wanted to see!” he said, standing between them.

Jeff gave Kira a bewildered look. Kira rolled her eyes.

“Jeff, this is Trevor Wright,” she said, struggling for a polite way to introduce her high school tormentor. “We ah, went to school together. Trevor, this is Jeff Saunders.”

Jeff reached out to shake Trevor’s hand, but Trevor barely gave him a passing glance. “I sent you a friend request earlier,” he said to Kira. “You’re not ignoring me, are you?”

Kira flushed. “I, ah, of course not. I’ve just been busy today.”

“Look,” Trevor said, his voice turning low and serious. “I really need to talk to you.”

Kira gave him a pointed look. “We’re kind of in the middle of something right now.” She gestured to Jeff.

“I mean it, Kira,” Trevor said, reaching out to grab her shoulder. “It’s really important.”

Jeff stared daggers at Trevor. Kira shrugged Trevor’s hand from her shoulder. She was starting to lose her patience.

“That’s great, but the rest of us have important stuff going on too,” she said. “Haven’t you learned you’re not the center of the universe yet?”

Trevor shook his head. “I know we weren’t exactly best friends at school...”

A surprised laugh burst from Kira’s lips. “That’s a major understatement.”

Trevor’s expression turned anxious. “Look, I really need your help! It’s about Steph.”

Kira sat back, giving him a measuring look. On the surface, Trevor looked like his usual, stuck-up self, but his khakis were rumpled, and there were dark smudges under his eyes. She held no affection for him, but if Stephanie was in some kind of trouble...

She sighed. “Give me your number. I’ll text you when I get home and you can meet me there.”

She wasn’t about to give him the impression she would jump to do his bidding just because he had snapped his fingers. Besides, she really felt as if she had been connecting with Jeff...

Trevor seemed to wilt with relief. “Thank you. Make sure you text me as soon as you get in.” Kira stifled the urge to throttle him as he gave her his number.

What have I gotten myself into? Rob is going to kill me.

Jeff watched as Trevor made his exit. Kira shook her head. It hadn’t exactly been a romantic date—at least, not so far—but now the mood had been completely shattered. She and Jeff could hardly go back to sharing confidences now.

Jeff turned back to give her a puzzled look. “What the hell was that about?”

Kira gave a helpless shrug. “I’m not even sure I want to know. Hopefully nothing.” A few moments of awkward silence followed as they both picked at the remains of their meal.

“Well, I guess I’d better get you home so you can get things sorted out,” Jeff said, sounding a bit disappointed.

Kira wanted to protest, but she was also starting to worry about Stephanie. “I guess so.”

What an awesome night this has turned out to be.

She shrugged on her jacket, silently cursing Trevor Wright.