CLAIMED IN CHAOS

Crossfire

"We are not going alone. And we are not waiting until morning." Kade says it and he is already pulling his cut back on. The house is still quiet except for the refrigerator hum and my phone is still on the coffee table with the photo of the hand with the pinky ring. The ring is small and silver and I have seen it a hundred times. Mia got it from our mom's jewelry box the same week I got the pendant.

"That's my sister's ring," I say. My voice sounds hoarse. "That is her hand." "I know," he says. He doesn't look at the photo again. He looks at me. "That is why we are not going alone. And that is why you are not driving." He picks up my phone and puts it in his pocket. He picks up his own phone and calls someone again.

"Reaper, I need you at the Route 51 property," he says. "North side, old lodge. Don't come to the building. Park at the truck stop and wait. If you see a dark sedan or a guy named Will Porter, you call me. You don't go inside." He hangs up. He looks at me. "You have someone called Reaper?" I say.

"He is my brother's friend. He is the one who kept the ledger I told you about." He opens a closet and pulls out a flashlight and a small black case. He puts the case in his cut pocket. "What is that?" I ask. "First aid," he says. "And a tool. If there is a lock, I can open it."

We go out to my car. He drives again. I sit in the passenger seat with my hands in my lap. My pendant is tucked back under my shirt but I can feel it. The road to Route 51 is dark and there are no streetlights after the warehouses. The truck stop lights are bright in the distance. "You said the floor in the photo looks like the lodge rooms," I say. "Have you been inside that lodge?"

"No," he says. "But I have seen photos. When Will was renting for us, he sent photos of properties to show he was keeping them up. The lodge was one of them. Same white sheets, same cheap wood floor, same bare walls." "And you didn't think that was strange? A lodge with bare walls?" "I thought it was cheap owners trying to save money. I didn't think it was something else."

He drives past the truck stop. I see a bike parked there with a guy sitting on it. He lifts a hand when we go by. Kade nods. "That is Reaper," he says. "He will watch the road." We turn onto the small road that goes to the lodge. The sign is there but the lights are off. Lodge - Vacancy. The parking lot is empty except for one dark sedan parked near the back door. The building is two stories with a small office in front. The windows are dark.

"Stay in the car," he says. "No," I say. "Yes. Until I check the office door." He gets out and walks to the office door. He tries it. Locked. He looks through the window with the flashlight. He comes back. "No one in the office. But the back door is open a little."

My stomach turns over. The text said come alone. The back door being open feels like an invitation. "We go together," he says. "You stay behind me. If I tell you to run to the car, you run. Don't argue." I nod. My mouth is dry.

We walk to the back door. It is a metal door with a small window. It is open about an inch. Kade pushes it with his foot. It creaks. Inside is a hallway with cheap wood floor, the same floor from the photo. White walls, no pictures. There is a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, the same yellow light. The hallway smells like cleaner and old smoke.

"Mia?" I call, quiet. No one answers. Kade puts a hand out to stop me. He listens. There is a sound from down the hallway, like a fan running. We walk down the hallway. There are doors on both sides. Room numbers, 1, 2, 3. The doors are closed except for one at the end. Room 6. The door is open.

The room is exactly like the photo. White sheet, gray blanket, bare walls, small window with no curtain. The bed is made. The duffel bag is not there anymore. The hand is not there anymore. But there is a small desk. On the desk is a rental ledger, old, with a black cover. And next to it, a stack of onboarding forms, same as Mia's. I can see names on the top pages.

Kade picks up the ledger. He opens it. The pages are handwritten. "Look," he says. I look. The ledger is from 2013 to now. Each page is a month. Each line is a name, a date in, a date out, and a room number. The names from this year: Sarah Lindt, Emily Rook, Jenna T., Mia Monroe. Four women. The first three have a date out. Mia does not. Her line says date in: Oct 2, date out: blank, room 6.

The names from older pages: I flip back. 2023, 2022, 2021. More names. All young women, all 18 to 22. All with date in and date out, except some with no date out. I count. Six with no date out in the last two years. "They are all using fake names for the business," I say. "But real names for the rooms."

"Yeah," Kade says. He flips to 2013. His hand stops.

There is a name there. Sean Brennan. Date in: Oct 12, 2013. Date out: blank. Room 6. Same room. His face goes pale. He stares at the name. "That is two days after they said he died," he says.

The fan down the hallway stops. The building goes silent. Then we hear a door close somewhere behind us, in the front office area. Kade closes the ledger and puts it under his arm. He takes my hand. His hand is warm and his scar is rough against my palm.

"We need to leave," he says, low. "My sister's bag -" "Not here now. Someone moved it. Someone was here and just left. We need to leave before they come back."

We walk fast back down the hallway. The cheap wood floor creaks under our feet. At the back door, Kade stops. There is a car outside now, next to the dark sedan. Headlights off, engine running. We can see the exhaust in the cold air. He pushes me behind him. "That is Will Porter's truck," he says. "I know that truck."

The truck door opens. A man gets out. He is not tall, wearing a cap and a jacket. He looks at our car and then at the back door where we are standing. He yells, "Who is in there? This is private property." Kade doesn't answer. He pulls me back inside and closes the back door. He locks it. It is a thin lock.

"He has a phone in his hand," Kade says. "He is calling someone." My phone buzzes in Kade's pocket. He pulls it out. It is a text from the same not in service number. It says: You brought a biker. You broke the rule. Now you both don't leave. Under it, a photo. It is from outside. It is my car. And Kade's bike that was at the truck stop is gone from the truck stop. The photo shows Reaper on the ground next to his bike.

Kade looks at the photo and his face changes completely. The tired, controlled look is gone. His eyes are hard. "They touched Reaper," he says. "They touched my brother." He puts the ledger down on the floor and opens the small black case from his cut. Inside is not just first aid. Inside is a knife and a small radio.

He turns the radio on and says, "Reaper, come back." Static. Then a voice, weak. "I'm here. I'm okay. They hit me from behind. Two guys. They went toward the lodge." Kade looks at me. He looks at the locked back door. He looks at the ledger with Sean's name in it. "Crossfire means we are between two fires," he says. "You and me in the middle."

He picks up the ledger again and hands it to me. "You hold this. You don't let go of it. No matter what happens. That book has every name and it has Sean. If we lose it, we lose them." The back door shakes. Someone is trying to open it from outside.