He still had the damn key.
So I ran. I ran as fast as I could down the narrow hallway, my bare feet pounding into the floor. Hoping it would lead to the front door or anywhere else I could escape from.
“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!” I screamed through the sting of my already burning throat. “HELP!” I ran as fast as I could through the vaguely lit hallway, only stopping to check the few doors that lined the walls. Trying the handles, banging my fists, hoping with some sort of miracle, one would open. Freeing me. “HELP! PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!”
I heard the door to the room I was being held in open down the hall, and the sound of boots dragging on the wood. He was coming for me. Panic set in again, and I took off running, looking back, making sure he wasn’t behind me, not paying attention to where I was going. Before I knew it, I slammed into what felt like a brick wall, abruptly falling to the ground with a hard thud. My body collided with the hardwood, knocking the wind completely out of me.
I wheezed for air, urgently trying to get to my knees, crawling away from the tall muscular frame that was looming over me.
“Mia!” he called out, catching me by surprise.
I immediately looked up, recognizing the tone of voice.
Never in a million years expecting to see the person who was standing above me.
“Mia!” I called out again, desperately waiting to hear her voice, assuring me she was okay. Terrified when I realized the basement was silent.
No screaming.
No crying.
Blood.
“The fuck...”
I thought I had experienced every loss I could in my life. Felt every form of pain, every form of agony and hurt known to fucking man. I was wrong. Nothing could compare to the moment I walked back to where I left my girl safely.
Where I left Mia...
And she wasn’t fucking there.
“MIA!” I growled, searching for her all over the basement. Not giving a fuck that I was knocking over boxes, which I knew held Luke’s belongings.
I needed to find her. Silently praying for the first time, in I don’t know how long, that she was just hiding. Cowering in a crevice of the murky concrete cellar. Scared, and in shock from everything that just went down. I never wanted her to see this part of my life. I never meant for any of this to happen.
The last thing I ever wanted to do was fuck up her life by bringing her into mine.
“MIA! BABY, PLEASE!” I pleaded, tearing apart the basement like a rabid fucking dog, leaving no box unturned no door unopened.
I wouldn’t stop till I knew she was safe. Till she was in my arms where she always belonged. It tore my fucking heart out hearing her pleas to not leave her down there earlier.
“Creed... please... Don’t leave me... please... please, I need you!” Her words would forever be etched into my conscience.
I would have given my soul to the devil to find her, to see her smiling face, to hear her laughing. To feel her brush up against me in the way only Mia ever could. It was as if she was there in spirit. Exactly where she had been since the moment she handed me her first patch.
“Baby, please give me a sign. Please...” I crouched down, ignoring the pain in my leg where I had been shot in the crossfire. Letting the blood drip onto the ground, mixing with Mia’s. Running my hands roughly through my hair.
On the verge of rage.
Hanging on by a fucking thread.
Memories of our time together attacked my mind, one right after the other. Twisting and turning, not letting up, not giving a fuck she wasn’t there. That she had been taken, right from under me.
I couldn’t find her.
I didn’t save her.
This was my entire fucking fault.
“MIA!” I yelled out for the last time, destroying every corner of the dark, cold open space until there was nothing but destruction left in its wake.
I rushed back up the stairs, taking three of them at a time. Ignoring the blood gushing from the bullet hole in my thigh.
“Honey, you’ve been hit—”
I assaulted my baby brother before Ma could get another word out. Roughly gripping onto the front of his cut, slamming his back against the nearest wall, causing our childhood pictures to rattle and fall on the ground. Adding to the rest of the debris.
“Where the fuck is she?!” I seethed, barely holding onto the last bit of my temper.
All I could see was red.
Bright. Blinding. Fucking red.
“The fuck?” Noah jerked forward, trying to break loose from my tight hold.
I didn’t give him any leeway, I held him tighter. “Where. Is. She? Not gonna ask again, you little shit!” I shoved him into the wall with more force, jolting his body forward again. Not giving a flying fuck he was my blood.
“Creed! What’s gotten into you? Let go of him! He’s your brother!” Ma demanded with a shriek, grabbing ahold of my arm.
I pushed her away. I was a crazed man. No one would be able to stop me.
Not even my family.
“I’ve been with you, motherfucker! Fightin’ by your side. If Mia ain’t down there, it ain’t cuz of me. You took her to the basement! You left her down there! If she’s fuckin’ missin’, it’s on you,” he gritted out through a clenched jaw, trying to gain his bearings. Eyeing me up and down.
I let him go with a hard shove. Pacing the living room, kicking bullet shells around with my boots.
This house was a fucking disaster.
Reflecting how shitty my life had always been.
“Jesus Christ! You think I’d hurt my kid? You think I’d hurt my girl?”
I lunged at him, but Diesel held me back. “She ain’t your girl. You understand me? Don’t ever let me hear those words out of your goddamn mouth again. I’ll lay you the fuck out. Don’t give a shit who ya are to me!”
“Boys! Stop it! We need to find Mia! You fighting won’t make that happen any faster. We’re losing time!” Ma chimed in, looking back and forth between us.
I pushed Diesel off of me, glaring at him for holding me down.
He put his hands up in the air in a surrendering gesture. “Calm the fuck down. We’ll find her,” Diesel rasped. “But this don’t make any fuckin’ sense. Prez said we ain’t got beef with the Sinners no more. Who the fuck just started a war?” He pulled out his cellphone from his pocket, walking away. Needing to make the necessary phone calls, before I truly lost my shit.
I glared around the room with a primal regard, seeing all of my brothers standing around. Knowing they would have reacted the same, had it been one of their old ladies. Ignoring the same looming questions, I’d been asking myself since the first bullet rang out.
Ma breathed out a sigh of relief, stepping out in front of me. Peering down at the blood pooling at my feet. “Look at me.”
I did.
“We will find her. Now let me fix your leg before you get an infection.”
“I’m fine.”
“Creed, you’re no good to anyone hurt. Let alone dead. Let me—”