CHAPTER 11

Justice had also had a full day. Chase announced their formal approval from Cassidy’s family about Justice, and the Stronghold greeted him excitedly.

After the announcement, he had gone to the dock and decorated the pontoon boat they would be dining on tonight with flowers and candles. That took most of the morning, and when Cassidy was receiving her gift, he was at the barber getting a haircut and shave.

When he returned to the castle, he went to his room to pace and worry until 4 o’clock when he dressed in a tuxedo he had ordered. Then made sure his shoes shined before he went down the stairs to wait for Cassidy to return.

All the guys were waiting with him in the living area when they saw the lights from the limo pull in. They went to the door to see Cassidy and the others as they exited the car.

Bea emerged first and turned in a circle so they could see her full transformation, and they cheered for her, and then came Macy, Tina, Cami, and Celli.

Clapping and cheering greeted them as they exited the car. When the driver closed the door and got back into the driver seat, the guys were all confused.

“Uh, good joke guys, where’s Cassidy?” Justice stepped forward, the girls saw him for the first time, and their smiles became frowns.

Cami demanded, “What are you doing here, Justice? Cassidy is on her way to meet you in the other limo.”

“What other limo? I never sent another limo,” he said and began to sweat. “Who picked her up?”

“Another black limo came and took Cassidy. We assumed you had sent it.” Tina stepped forward and began running for the castle. “I will phone Serenity,” she called over her shoulder.

The rest of them also ran for the castle to change and leave to find Cassidy. They all got their leathers and ran for the bikes.

In less than ten minutes, they had hit the road after Tina had told them Serenity didn’t know anything. She was panicking too because she had tried to call Cassidy’s cell to let her know she had forgotten her bag, and there was no answer.

Justice was a man on a mission; he sped through town ignoring the lights and speed limits. When he pulled up to Serenity’s, they pointed in the direction she was taken, and he was off like a shot.

He was using Cassidy’s cycle and was thinking how much fun she would be having if she were here. They split up and covered the whole town, but they found nothing after a few hours; they returned to the castle empty handed.

Chase practically attacked them when they got off their bikes demanding information, which of course they couldn’t provide.

They all went back inside and gathered in the living area to brainstorm. “Who knew of our plans other than people here and at Serenity’s? I had them all checked out and none of them raised a red flag,” Tina was saying when Sam came into the room carrying a box and was pale.

“Um, Justice, this was delivered a few minutes ago to the front gate,” he said and tears were already forming in his eyes. Justice was afraid to look in the box, but he knew he had to.

Justice almost cried out when he saw a bunch of colored braids and hair piled inside the box. He turned to Cami and asked what Cassidy had looked like when she last saw her. Cami ran to him and did scream when she saw Cassidy’s hair in the box.

Cami and the girls were crying and the guys were mad as hell. Bernie was finally the voice of reason and yelled over everyone.

“Listen, if they sent the hair, they want to communicate, we just have to wait,” he said.

“Wait, she could be dead or being tortured, for all we know right now. If CJ has her, we’ll never see her again,” he said in a depressed voice.

“Snap out of it. Cassidy will not go without a fight, and when she finds out her hair was cut off, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass to be this person; they are dead,” Kallen said grimly.

They all nodded and began to pace. They were together for the whole night but never heard a word from anyone. They had all, one by one, taken turns sleeping or babysitting Justice. Who, at about 3 am, had decided that he was going to start questioning everyone she had been in contact with for the last month. If anyone were suspicious, he would torture them until he found her.

Chase agreed he thought they were torturing her. Justice and Chase had to be restrained to keep them in the castle after they realize what exactly that entailed. Finally, when the sun was peeking over the horizon, Sam yelled for Justice to come to his office because there was a phone call. They all ran for the stairs, but Justice was already in his room and on the phone when they caught up to him.

“Who the f*** is this?” he yelled into the receiver before listening and turning paler, if that was even possible.

“Yes, I understand you idiot, now it’s your turn to listen. If you hurt her, there will be no place on this planet you can hide that I will not find you and kill you. Do you understand?” he said threateningly.

They could all hear the crazy laughing coming from the receiver when he slammed the phone down. “That crazy bitch, the farmer’s wife, has her and wants her sister freed. The other bitch we have in the dungeon, the Fairy, is her twin. If we return her sister, we may get Cassidy back in one piece. She said we would be getting another phone call soon.”

Justice ran his hands through his hair and collapsed on the couch, finally letting the emotion begin to crack through his shell. Kallen sat down next to him and put his arm around him. “Cassidy is tough, if she can escape, she will, and if not, we will find her.”

Cami, who had been crying until a few moments ago announced, “Celli and I will go get the Gnome and see what we can get out of her, maybe she knows where they’re holding Cassi.”

“Good,” Bernie said and he moved in front of the crowd. “We need to act as normal as possible. If this is just an exchange, we can do it, but if CJ gets wind Cassidy is gone, he will find her and take her.”

Everyone agreed, and everyone but Kallen, Sam, Chase, and Justice left the room. They were to wait for the phone call from the Fairy. The rest of them went to get some strategic people to help should they need a rescue. Dyl and Eli were in charge of getting the guards together.

Justice was sitting quietly on the couch thinking he was sorry he had wasted the last few weeks in the fight with Cassidy. He tried not to think about it, but it all came around to Cassidy. He loved her, and never said a word.

What a coward he was, he knew he had insulted her; he wouldn’t give in because he wanted to prove to her that she needed him, not the other way around. He was a dumbass, that was the bottom line.

Chase stood and said, “Ok, stop beating yourself up Justice; I can feel the guilt rolling off you. We are all at fault if you are. We should never have let the girls out without a guard.”

Justice tried to agree, but he knew it was his fault; if they hadn’t been fighting, he would have gone with them. There was a loud commotion in the hallway and Justice frowned and stood to see what was going on. When he opened the door, there was a very beautiful woman yelling at Tina about Cassidy.

“Excuse me, I’m Justice. Can I help you?” he said after it looked like Tina was going to take the woman out.

The woman turned and Justice was able to get a full view of her, and he was surprised at the perfection that was standing before him. He was thinking Cassidy was more stunning than this woman was because she was strong and capable, where this person screamed of fragility. He felt Chase and Kallen behind him, but before he could get a response from the stranger, she screamed and pointed behind him and fainted dead at his feet.

“Who or what the hell is this?” Justice asked Tina.

“That is Serenity; she runs the spa we were at yesterday,” she said and before she could continue, Chase swore and went to the woman’s side.

“Shit, Nitti, she was my mom’s best friend. When we were young, Nitti was always with my mom. She would sneak us sweets when my father would discipline us. I had forgotten her.”

Chase lifted her, carried her into Justice’s suite, and laid her on the couch. “Sam, can you get me a glass of water? Nitti, honey, wake up,” he said to the woman, and she began to stir. When she opened her eyes, she let another scream out but grabbed Chase in a hug at the same time. They were finally able to make out what she was yelling.

“Not dead, not dead, my baby boy is not dead.” She repeated the words until Chase pulled her back to reality when he snapped his fingers in front of her.

“Nitti, stop, I’m here. Why are you here, do you know something about, Sissy?” he asked.

“Sissy? Oh yes, Chase you have probably taken a few years off my life, the shock you two kids keep giving me is going to turn my hair gray,” she said.

“You will always be the prettiest woman in the world and you know it. We can catch up later, now we have to concentrate on Sissy,” he added.

“Right, sorry, I got a little off track, which one of you is Justice?” she asked looking at the guys.

“I am,” Justice said and stepped forward. “Do you know something that can help us?”

“I don’t know, but I remembered something. The ring you gave her yesterday, the one from her mother.” Justice was nodding at her. “When the King and Queen were promised to each other, Ren had a Wizard who made the ring, put a spell on it. It allowed them to communicate with each other through the ring. Leigh would close her eyes and smile, and I would tease her about looking asleep, but she would say Ren was reading a poem or something romantic to her when she did that. I never knew how it worked, just that it did. I figured when Cassidy was crying yesterday and she said she loved you, that she was going to tell you last night. That you must also love her, and if the spell is still working, it should work for you,” she rushed the words out before looking at Justice fully. “So you should try to talk to her.”

Justice was still shocked that Cassidy loved him and was standing there with a perplexed look on his face. “Wait, so she said she loved me, seriously?” he asked and a smile crept on his face.

“Dude, get over it. We knew that for the last few weeks when you guys were fighting. Now close your eyes and try to talk to her.” Kallen slapped him on the back of the head.

Justice closed his eyes and tried to think of Cassidy, but he didn’t know if he was supposed to picture her or call to her. He tried both and neither worked, so he kept trying.

For at least 30 minutes he tried then finally gave up and opened his eyes, they were still staring at him. He shook his head sadly to his friends. “Nope, not yet. I will keep trying,” he said and went to be alone in the bedroom.

Cami and Celli had just walked into the room when he was walking out, and he paused to see if they found out anything.

“Nope, the bitch thought we were funny at first. So we tried a little persuasion, but it didn’t help. She knows all we have to do is wait and follow instructions. She said she would wait until her sister got her out,” Cami reported and showed them her bloodied knuckles.

“But I did find out I have a great right hook and can cause serious damage when I want to.” She continued, “Also, the child we have been looking for is not the farmer’s baby. The Fairy was pregnant when she came here with CJ’s kid and took it back to him when she left. So we can stop looking for the spawn of the devil.”

Justice kept going to his room as they dissected what the prisoner said. He was feeling hopeless and fell on his bed. He was thinking of the last time Cassidy was in here. Justice had wished he had told her then he loved her, but he had been chicken.

Justice relaxed his tense muscles and went to take a hot shower; right when he was finished taking off his shirt, he felt a searing pain in his head. It hurt so bad, he fell down on the floor and was moaning loudly. The others heard him and ran into his bathroom to see him gripping his head.

When they tried to pick him up, he screamed in pain again crying out, “My left shoulder and knee.”

Kallen tried to see what happened, but there wasn’t a mark on him. Kallen yelled at him, “What happened?”

“I don’t know, one minute I was standing here, the next I felt pain slash through my body,” he gritted his teeth and said.

Serenity yelled from the living area, “You can feel Cassidy’s pain and emotions, try to talk to her.” She pushed herself past the others and knelt beside Justice. “It’s not your pain. It's hers. Use it to talk to her. Justice, take the pain and focus on Cassidy.”

Justice closed his eyes and tried. At first, he was hurting too bad to concentrate on anything but pain, but he thought of Cassidy, and the pain began to subside.

‘Cassidy,’ he thought, ‘can you hear me?’ He was beginning to see shadows. ‘Cassidy, honey, it’s Justice, listen to my voice.’

Justice heard her in the distance, thinking, ‘shit, now I’m hallucinating,’ and he could tell she was talking to someone else, “Bitch, what did you give me?”

Justice could hear the same crazy laugh he heard on the phone and felt when she delivered another blow to Cassidy’s face.

“Shit,” he yelled and stood up. “Crazy bitch is beating her.” Justice walked into the living area, sat down again on the couch and closed his eyes. He thought aloud so the others would hear what was going on.

“Cassidy, stop pissing her off so she will leave you alone, close your eyes, and talk to me,” he said.

“Yeah ok, you think I’m so stupid I will fall for a Jedi mind trick? Dumbass, I will kill you before I let my friends walk into a trap. Then I will kill your sister nice and slow so she will know the pain I’m causing is because of you,” she yelled at the cackling girl pacing in front of her.

“Cassidy, it’s me, damn it listen, the ring I gave you allows us to communicate,” he said desperately when he realized she was trying to piss the girl off.

Justice felt another blow to the face, and Cassidy laughed. “I am a Warrior Queen, freak. You’ll have to do better than that before I call them and tell them to let your sister loose. They will never let her go unless I tell them to; my Council knows how I feel.”

Justice opened his eyes and asked Kallen what she was talking about. Kallen grimaced and said, “When we were in high school, we went to a movie about hostages. Cassidy ranted the whole way home because she said they should never have negotiated with the hostage takers. She would be pissed if she knew we were going to trade that girl for her.”

Justice sat back and closed his eyes. “Cassidy, stop and listen to me, this is not a trick, think, what did you hide in your room. I’m the only one you have told about your addiction to Hostess Snoballs, you were excited because they had purple out still; they were your favorite colored ones. Remember I had some delivered to you last week. You refused to accept them, and I told you they were in my room. When I came back from our workout, you had taken two packages.”

Justice paused and let it sink in what he was saying. He could feel her hope begin to blossom as she thought of what he said. Before she could close her eyes, the girl twisted the knife that was stuck in her shoulder. Cassidy refused to scream aloud and give the crazy bitch the satisfaction, so she was screaming in her head ‘F***** A…… DON’T DO THAT BITCH’.

Justice felt the knife as if it was in his arm, “Baby, don’t respond,” he said, “She will leave you alone, just stop pissing her off.”

“Ok,” she thought and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I will act like I have passed out from the pain. Which won’t be too hard to convince her of,” and she was silent for a few minutes focusing on her breathing and keeping it steady.

“Alright,” she thought, “she left the room.”

“Cassidy, where are you, do you know?” he asked, desperately hoping he would get to her soon.

“No, they gassed me; when I woke, I was in this building that looks like it had been a garage of sorts, like for repair, but it’s empty. No windows, only the big door, and a small one next to it. They have a pulley on the ceiling. I’m in a chair. Did the girls get home ok?”

“Yes, you are the only one.” Justice felt her relax when she knew the rest were all safe.

“Don’t trade me for her under any circumstances. I will get out of here, or you will find me, but no trade,” Cassidy said firmly.

“No, I will not agree to that, but we’ll try it your way first. That is all I’m prepared to offer,” Justice said as firmly.

“They have my hands tied with zip ties, and I think if I can stretch them out, I can get my hands out. It will take a while. When I woke up, I clipped the bitch in the side of the head, and she stuck the knife in my shoulder and thigh so she could subdue me. I would have fought her if she was alone, but there is a guy here somewhere. I think he was the driver.”

Justice was silent because he was angry. He opened his eyes and told them all they had been discussing. Kallen asked what the last thing she noticed was. Justice asked her and she replied.

“Remember when we were biking on that road leading to Carter Lake? We were turning onto that road when I passed out,” she thought.

Justice was trying to think of what he could do to help her when he felt her pain again, but this time it was emotional, she was thinking about the night they lost. He stood and walked into his bedroom for privacy.

“Honey, are you ok?” he asked.

“No,” she cried, “I want to tell you something. I am so sorry for being a bitch to you the last few weeks. It was childish, and I wish I never had gotten in a fight with you, but my feelings got hurt. It was a stupid reason, and I want you to know how sorry I am.”

Justice felt his eyes tear, sharing her feelings. “Don’t apologize, it was my fault too. I just wanted everything to be perfect because I felt I was unworthy of you.”

“Justice, stop knocking yourself, you are a smart, handsome man that any woman would be thrilled to have; I was the one who was stupid and let my stubbornness ruin things.”

“You didn’t ruin anything; I had Chase announce our match formally and was planning to tell you when you came home. I had a night planned that you would have loved,” he said.

This, of course, made Cassidy more depressed; she was a loser with issues. When was she going to actually have a ‘normal’ relationship without the drama?

“No, you aren’t. Would I love a loser? I don’t think so,” he said, and for a minute he lost her, he could no longer feel her. Justice stood up because he thought something had happened and he panicked. “Cassidy,” he screamed in his head and aloud.

“Here, hyperventilating, but here. What did you say?” she asked.

Justice opened the door and assured them all was well when he heard their footsteps coming to the door. “You scared me. Don’t do that again, don’t leave me,” he said sternly. Then he continued more softly “I Love You, Cassidy, Queen of the Warriors, and for your information, because I said it first, you are my slave for a day.”

“I will be your slave any day you want. I Love You, Justice, King of the Warriors, and will always love you,” she said with tears leaking out of the sides of her eyes. Cassidy must have not heard the crazy Gnome return, but she sure felt it when the bitch turned the knife in her leg this time.

“Wake up, Your Highness; you need to make a phone call,” the girl sang.

“I’m sorry Looney Tunes, but I will not be calling anyone. You should let me go before I kill you,” Cassidy said aloud. She had heard Justice yelling at her to stop, but Cassidy wasn’t going to give into this weak chick. “In fact, if you really want to have some fun, just let my hands go and I will return the favor and do your hair. I couldn’t do much worse than you; well, since you won’t give me the scissors, I’ll just have to settle for ripping out your hair by its roots.”

Justice could hear the girl’s voice but couldn’t see, thank goodness, because if he could see the blood, he would be uncontrollable.

Cassidy concentrated on the girl and said to her, “Let’s call a truce. You let me go and I don’t hunt you down like the dog you are.” The girl yelled in frustration. “Is that a no, or you will think about it? I couldn’t tell.”

Justice heard the door slam again, and he relaxed again, “Cassidy, you need to stop antagonizing her, or she is going to kill you!”

“No she won’t, she isn’t calling the shots, the driver is. I have no clue who he is, but he’s the one in control. She’s scared of him,” she said.

“What does he look like?” he asked her.

“I can’t remember. I was thinking of you, not a driver,” she said. “I’m trying to piss her off so he will come in. I am not a glutton for punishment or anything, and no, I don’t enjoy whips and chains, thanks, but this chick is on the edge. I can feel it. If I push her, she will blow.”

“It’s a dangerous game you’re playing, what do you hope to accomplish by getting him in there?” Justice asked.

“Well first, I would know if he was the only other one here. I have to plan an escape. Second, I know I can squash the chick like a bug. I need to size him up before I can decide a plan of attack,” she said.

There was a knock on his door and he yelled for them to come in. It was Kallen and Chase. “We have a plan,” they announced.

Justice jumped up and told Cassidy to listen as they walked into the other room. While he had been in his bedroom, they had gotten a map of Loveland that was hanging on the wall. Sam was standing by the phone, turning on the speaker.

“Go ahead,” Sam said and sat on the edge of the desk.

Cassidy could hear Cami’s voice talking over a roar, “We’re on the road, and we have passes CR 26. We pulled over for directions.”

Chase was yelling out to her, “Ok, go left and look for a subdivision named Bonneville. Once you find it, there are two roads leading into it, take the right and go until the road ends. Look for a big shed; we can see it on satellite.”

“Ok, we’re gone,” Celli yelled, and they cut out.

Kallen turned and explained to him, “The girls went out to see if they could track the limo. We figured they looked more innocent than we would. They will find the shed and call us, and then we can go in. We have 14 guards waiting for orders.”

Cassidy piped up and told Justice, “Tell them I can see the sun, so where ever I am now, I’m facing it.”

Justice relayed the message to them and she began talking again, “You also need to tell them I need a medic. I was trying to avoid this by not thinking about it, but you need to see me. I will look at the metal wall, and you should be able to see me if I think about it.”

Justice thought he was prepared, but what he saw almost drove him crazy. He jumped to his feet and yelled at her friends what he was seeing. He described every detail in a panicked tone.

“Shit, guys, Cassidy has a butcher knife stuck in her left shoulder; it has been turned a few times, and she is bleeding, a lot. She also has another knife in her left thigh that has also been turned; it’s not bleeding as much as her shoulder. She has also been beaten; her face is swollen and covered in bruises, as is the rest of her body. We need an ambulance standing by to get her to the hospital.” Her friends all looked at him in horror and Chase looked livid.

Justice stood and said to Kallen, “I’m going on the bike. I’ll call you.” He grabbed his sword and ran out the door. He was on the road before Cassidy was able to get his attention.

“Justice, don’t get caught too. They’re looking for leverage,” she pleaded and he just nodded because he couldn’t trust his voice anymore. Even the one in his head because he didn’t want her to know what his plans were, but it didn’t work, and Cassidy yelled at him. “Justice, Stop! You will not kill them. We need to the information.”

Justice was ignoring her and she knew it. “Fine,” she said and closed her eyes again. “You know, I shouldn’t have shown you. Shit, here she comes.” She went quiet.

Justice heard the girl singing again. “Ok Queenie, Skot says I have one last chance to get you to cooperate or you’re dead; things are getting hot. CJ doesn’t know we’re here, but he will soon, so, unless you would rather go to CJ, you are going to make the call.”

Justice was yelling in Cassidy’s ear, “Make the call and buy us time.”

“Hmm, let me think it over, tinker bell. Nope and Peter, no, Dick can go to hell,” she said.

“Really, I was hoping you would say that.” She came closer to Cassidy.

Justice could feel the anticipation in Cassidy and realized she had freed her hands. Just then, she opened her eyes and Justice pulled over so he could see what was happening.

Cassidy jumped up, pulled out both knives at the same time, and threw them at the girl. The girl didn’t know what happened when one of the knives hit her in the leg and the other flew by her head. But she reacted quickly and pulled the knife out to use as a weapon. Cassidy was already on top of her and tackled her.

Cassidy set about kicking the girl’s ass for all the pain she had caused her. Justice was yelling at her to run, but Cassidy was too busy taking care of the girl. When she felt satisfied that she had extracted her pound of flesh, Cassidy got up. She went to the door and peaked through it. She had been wrong; there were more than two captors.

Outside of the shed, there were a half a dozen or more people. Cassidy looked around for a place to get out but couldn’t see anything.

Justice asked her, “Where’s your sword?”

“I don’t know, someone took it when it appeared earlier, they locked it in a case,” she answered and peeked outside again. “There’s the case,” she said seeing it sitting unattended about 5 ft. from her.

Cassidy was thinking she was going to make a run for it when Justice yelled at her. “No, wait for us; I can see where you are.”

Cassidy paused and said, “I will give you as long as I can, but I’m assuming we are under a time constraint here.”

Justice took out his cell and called Kallen, who was on his bike. “Tell everyone she is in a shed right at the end of a road in the subdivision we talked about. Cassidy has taken out the girl and is free, but can’t get out of the shed because there are 6 guys standing guard, and one of them is that guy Skot.”

Kallen answered, “Will do. I’m about a half a mile away and the girls and Dyl and Eli are right behind you, can you see them?”

“Yes, they just came over the hill, hurry,” Justice said and his friends pulled up next to him. Justice gave them an update, which pissed them all off. When they saw Kallen coming over the hill, they all started into the subdivision. They were 5 miles from the end of the road.

Cassidy started screaming. They had only gone a mile, but Justice couldn’t stop so he just listened as someone was beating her for kicking the shit out of the girl, and being untied.

The man was large, but if Cassidy had been full strength, he never would have stood a chance. But she endured 24 hours of torture and was seriously wounded.

Justice sped up as they reached the four-mile mark and was going 85 mph when he saw the shed. He never slowed, instead the bike roared through the wall of the shed. Cami and Celli clothes lined a man and the guys had jumped off their bikes onto other rebels.

Skot was his. Justice could see Cassidy lying on the floor curled into a ball as the guy was kicking her. Justice jumped and ran at the guy. They were evenly matched height wise, but Justice was pissed and hit Skot with such force, the guy actually flew through the outer wall.

Justice followed and they were throwing punches at each other’s midsection. Justice reached out his hand. His sword appeared, and Skot did the same thing.

Back and forth it went as the others finished off the rebels they had taken on, and ran into the shed to help Justice and Cassidy. Cami and Celli went right to Cassidy’s side and turned her over, they both cried when they saw her face. Cassidy was unconscious and bleeding from what seemed like everywhere, to the girls.

Dyl and Eli turned when the girls screamed for help. Kallen just looked over his shoulder, turned, threw the knife from the ground at Skot, hit him between the shoulder blades, and dropped him. Justice ran back to Cassidy and assessed the situation.

“Hospital, quick.” They all picked up Cassidy and carried her to the limo parked in the yard. When they pulled up to the emergency room, they opened the door; Dyl yelled until security and a nurse ran out to them and saw Cassidy.

Justice carried her to the stretcher and laid her down gently. She was whisked inside the building quickly and they all stood outside trying to piece a thought together.