Moon Stalk

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Marg?! Baby girl?!" We watched as my sister ran frantically around, calling out for my kidnapped niece.

"She's not here, sis. Jimmy... he sent me a picture... he's got her."

"How did this happen?" Laurence asked, sitting down as Cynthia jumped onto her lap, offering comfort.

"Byron... he was f, facetiming his daughter. I, I hadn't seen her yet so I asked to say hi. He hesitated before handing me the phone. I saw the little girl with her hand bandaged up and when I asked w, what h, happened... I saw she was sitting on someone's lap. That person wrapped their arm around the girl and I, I saw the initial JB on their inner wrist... surely Byron knew who his daughter was with since he always said she was with a cousin..."

"So you knew he was lying once you saw the arm." Jenny grumbled, kicking over a burning piece of planks.

"Ye, yeah. I turned to run and warn you guys, but Byron knocked me out. I wasn't prepared... he got me by surprise with a piece of pottery. I woke up once I smelled smoke and the animals dragged me out."

We stayed silent for a moment, processing what Jones just said as both me and Zane helped her up, balancing her on our shoulders as she stood limply.

"This is fucking... BULLSHIT!" Laurence screamed, punching some loose bricks before cussing again.

"It's okay sis, look I know where he us, we can get them back-"

"Oh, it's ok?! IT'S OKAY? Look, just because you can't have a kid, doesn't mean you have the right to get mine killed! Maybe that's why you can't have any because lord knows you'd end up having them fucking massacred!"

Ok. Ow. That hurts.

"OK calm down. Let's take a breath before we say something we might regret, ok Boots?" Zane said, knowing this was a sore topic for me.

"No! The only thing I regret is having to have her for a sister! Who lets their own niece get kidnapped and betrayed by the first guy who happens to smile at them!"

"OK, you're out of line! She didn't do this on purpose! She has been fighting tooth and nail to keep Marg safe, at her own expense no less. Now, I get that you are under duress but under no circumstances will I let you badmouth her about her own insecurities just to hide the fact that you're a shitty mother who failed to keep her daughter safe! You want to blame someone? Then look in the damn mirror!" To everyone's surprise, it was the sweet, shy, stuttering Gabe who screamed back in my defense.

His actions made me smile but before anyone responded, I headed off in the direction of my garage that hid all my combat weaponry, with Yvette and Laurence hot on my heels.

"Woah woah, flaming lady. Where do you think you're going? I know that look in your eyes and it's not a good one." Yvette said worriedly.

"I'm getting my niece back. Jimmy sent me a message that he has her with a picture so I know he's not lying. He said for me to come to a specific destination to try and get her back."

"Are you stupid? That's got 'TRAP' tattooed in big neon lettering!" Yvette said, shocked.

"I know that!" I screamed. I couldn't help it, I was highly tensed from everything. I went from getting my niece out of marrying this scumbag to having him stalking me and my loved ones, to finding traitors left and right, to crashing my car and severely injuring myself, to finding out a Russian mob boss involved and sex trafficking involved with Margaret, to having my home broken into, to having nightmare and ptsd, to having Judith taken out, to finding out Byron was a traitor and right back to Margaret being in Jimmy's clutches. It was enough to drive anyone mad and having my sister blame me for it and attacking the fact that I was barren was the rotten icing on this rotten cake.