Listen To Her Heart, page 31
Yalen had woken with Briana in her arms, her head on Yalen’s chest. She lightly brushed Briana’s hair away from her face. She had lain there for over a half hour watching Briana sleep, her thoughts replaying the events from the last twelve hours, including their lovemaking. Everything had felt so right in her heart but her mind was torturing her. She had overstepped a line that she should have never crossed but she couldn’t help herself.
She gently removed Briana’s arm from around her waist and slipped out of bed. What she needed now was a hot shower to help clear her mind. They had a lot to do and last night had just added another complication that she really didn’t need. She looked at Briana one last time before heading to the bathroom.
Finding the room empty, the blond-haired man looked around the Albanians hotel room. He spotted the laptop sitting on the coffee table and went over to it. “You couldn’t possibly make this that easy for me, now could you?” he whispered as he checked the USB and SD ports on the laptop.
“Didn’t think so,” he said, finding them empty. “So where did you hide it?” he continued to talk to himself as he begun searching the room.
Dressed in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, Yalen came out of the bathroom to find Briana standing at the patio doors looking out over Camden Lock. Although she knew she shouldn’t and her mind screamed for her to stop, she was powerless to stop her feet from moving toward Briana. “Good morning,” she whispered in Briana’s ear, wrapping her arms around Briana’s waist.
“Mmm, good morning to you too,” Briana said as she covered Yalen’s hands with hers, snuggling back against Yalen’s chest. “How did you sleep?” she asked, leaning her head back on Yalen’s shoulder.
“Like a rock,” Yalen said as she kissed the soft part of Briana’s neck and proceeded to kiss her way up to Briana’s ear. “How did you sleep?”
“It was one of the best night’s sleep of my life,” she said turning in Yalen’s arms to face her. “I would like a repeat,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Yalen’s neck.
“No regrets?” Yalen asked, a crooked grin playing at the corners of her mouth.
“Are you kidding?” Briana asked as she planted small kisses on the sides of Yalen’s mouth, and then moved to place kisses all along Yalen’s jaw line before returning to face her. “I’m sorry I fell asleep before I could return the favor,” she said, softly kissing Yalen on the mouth.
“I can think of ways for you to make it up to me,” Yalen said as she slid her hands up under Briana’s shirt.
“And those would be?” Briana asked, leaning back to look at Yalen.
Yalen’s hands moved over Briana’s stomach. “You could let me have a replay,” she said and then smiled at Briana’s intake of breath as she covered Briana’s breasts with the hand.
“You’re killing me,” Briana groaned as Yalen’s thumbs lightly grazed over her nipples.
“Mmm, killing you is the last thing I want to do,” Yalen said as she claimed Briana’s mouth. She groaned as Briana slid her tongue between Yalen’s lips, igniting a fire just as intense as the one from last night.
Yalen reluctantly broke the kiss. “If we don’t stop now, we’ll never leave this room,” she said as she removed her hands from under Briana’s shirt, pulling her into a hug.
“You started it,” Briana whispered into Yalen’s ear, her warm and sensuous breath sending goose bumps up and down Yalen’s arms and legs.
“I know and I would say I’m sorry but it would be a lie,” Yalen laughed.
Briana kissed Yalen softly on the lips. “How about I jump in the shower and you go round us up some coffee?” she whispered against Yalen’s mouth.
The Albanians, Besnik Cumani, and Valon Dibra passed Yalen as she came into the hotel lobby in search of coffee and pastries.
Dibra stopped and turned. He watched Yalen walk up to the counter where the coffee machine sat.
“What are you looking at?” Cumani asked in perfect English.
“That woman over there,” he said, nodding toward Yalen.
Cumani looked at Yalen. “What about her?”
“I’ve seen her before. I’m sure of it,” he said, continuing to look at Yalen.
“She’s very attractive. Maybe she just looks like someone you know,” Cumani said.
“No,” Dibra said, shaking his head.
“Nothing after tomorrow matters. We will be so rich, we will never have to work again,” he said, grabbing Dibra by the shoulder and playfully shaking him.
“You are right my friend,” Dibra said, smiling at Cumani.
Cumani wrapped his arm around Dibra’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s head back to our room, take our showers, and go find us some women,” he said, leading Dibra toward the elevator lift.
“What is happening to you?” Briana asked as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She could try to deny it all she wanted but she knew she was falling for Yalen in the worst way and it scared her to death. She wasn’t looking for a relationship nor did she want to get involved with anyone. Cece had soured her on ever finding true love but Yalen had managed to get though her defenses in record time.
She had never been one to fall for someone at the drop of a hat and it usually took her months, sometimes years to fall in love with anyone, so how did Yalen manage to do what so many others had tried and failed at? She didn’t have the answer and her flirting with Yalen had been just that, innocent flirting. The more time she spent with Yalen and the more she got to know her, the more she wanted Yalen in her life and not just on a part time basis.
“Listen to yourself. You have no idea how she feels about you or whether she would even want anything more to do with you once you leave here,” she said, chastising herself.
“Who are you talking to?” Yalen asked, from the bathroom doorway, a frown on her face.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” Briana said, her hand flying to her chest as Yalen startled her.
“I’m sorry. Next time I’ll make sure to announce myself when I come into the room,” Yalen laughed, handing a cup of coffee to Briana.
“And I would appreciate that,” Briana grinned as she took the cup and removed the lid. With the smile still on her face, she kissed Yalen sweetly on the mouth. “I was talking to myself and thank you for the coffee. So what’s our plan?” she asked.
Yalen glanced at the clock on her nightstand. “It’s almost time for us to leave for our meeting,” she said as she sat down at the desk and powered her laptop on. “I’m just going to pull the address up so we can see exactly where we are going.”
Briana walked over to the desk. “That would help,” she said as she sat down on Yalen’s lap.
“You’re absolutely incorrigible,” Yalen said as she reached around Briana to sign onto the internet.
“So you’ve told me,” Briana grinned.
The Albanians were still laughing when they came into the hotel room. Dibra tossed the key card down on the coffee table. “You want to take a shower first or does it matter?” he asked, looking at Cumani.
“Doesn’t matter to me. You can go ahead if you want,” Cumani said as he flopped down on the couch.
The blond-haired man watched them through the partially opened closet door. He was debating how to handle the situation. Taking on both men at the same time might be a problem and cause too much commotion. The one thing he didn’t want to happen was to bring unnecessary attention to what he was about to do to these two men.
He continued to watch the men and once he heard the bathroom door close and the shower turn on, he waited for a minute or so before slowly sliding the closet door open. It took him less than five seconds to cross quietly to the other side of the room where Cumani sat, his head back on the couch, eyes closed. This is almost too easy, he thought as he plunged the hypodermic needle into the side of Cumani’s neck and pushed the plunger in.
Cumani’s eyes flew open wide. He looked at the stranger standing over him with a horror-stricken expression on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He tried to get up from the couch but his arms and legs failed to move.
“You’re paralyzed and it won’t do you any good to try and fight it,” the stranger whispered. He didn’t have much time left and quickly pulled two pieces of rope out of his coat pocket.
He grabbed Cumani by the shirt collar and jerked him off the couch, dragging him across the floor over to the desk in order to hide him, otherwise he would be the first thing Dibra saw when he came out of the bathroom. He tied Cumani’s hands behind his back and then tied his feet together. He pulled Cumani up and propped his back against the wall as the water shut off in the bathroom. He pulled the gun out of his pocket, just having ducked out of view as the bathroom door opened.
“I think I would like a hot redhead with large lips tonight, how about you, Besnik?” Dibra laughed as he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.
“I think they’re fresh out of redheads,” the blond-haired man said as he stepped out so Dibra could see him. Before Dibra had a chance to say anything, he fired the gun. The two-taser talons shot out like a rocket, hitting Dibra in the middle of his chest. Dibra fell to the ground, writhing in agony as 50,000 volts raced throughout his body.
He smiled as he watched the Albanian groaning and twitching around from the pain. He glanced behind him. Cumani’s eyes darted fearfully back and forth between Dibra and the stranger. “You two deserve far worse than what I’m about to do to you,” he said, looking at Cumani.
While Dibra continued to writhe on the floor, he walked over, grabbed Cumani by the collar, and dragged him back across the room, dropping him on the floor next to Dibra. He pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket and then removed the taser talons from Dibra’s chest.
He cuffed Dibra’s hands in front of him and then took another piece of rope and tied his feet together. He walked into the bathroom and grabbed two washcloths.
“You fucking bas—”
Dibra couldn’t finish the sentence due to the rag now stuffed into his mouth.
“Who … who are you and what do you want from us?” Cumani nervously asked.
“Aw, good. The drug is starting to wear off I see,” the blond-haired man said with a smile as he shoved the other washcloth into Cumani’s mouth. “Who I am is of no consequence to either of you. As for what I want. Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said shaking his head. “You know what I want and you’re going to give it to me.” He looked at Dibra. “Here’s what I’m going to do,” he said as he pulled another gun out from inside his coat pocket along with a silencer. Dibra and Cumani’s eyes went wide with fear as they watched him slowly screw it onto the gun. “I’m going to remove the rag from your mouth and if you as much as raise your voice, I will put a bullet between your eyes. Do you understand?” he asked, looking at Dibra.
When Dibra nodded, he pulled the washcloth out of his mouth.
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Dibra said with a look of defiance on his face.
The blond-haired man laughed. “You’re going to talk and you’re going to give me what I want,” he said as he crammed the rag back into Dibra’s mouth. He laid the gun down on the coffee table, reached into his back pocket, and pulled out a pair of needle-nosed pliers. Before Dibra could blink, he had grabbed his hand and using the pliers, ripped out the fingernail on his left index finger. Dibra looked at his hand in horror as blood ran down his hand. When his mind registered what had happened, he let out several high-pitched cries, the sound dampened considerably by the rag in his mouth. The pain was almost more than he could bear as tears ran down his cheeks.
“Now, you’re going to tell me what I want to know or I will remove every goddamn nail on your fingers and then I will start with your toes,” he said and then proceeded to rip out the nail on Dibra’s middle finger.
Dibra let out chilling grunting sounds, his breathing coming in heavy gasps. Sweat ran down the side of his face; the pain was so intense, he doubled over in agony. He started gagging as he watched the blood dripping off his hand.
The blond-haired man glanced over at Cumani. “When I’m done with him, I will do the same thing to you.” He turned back to Dibra. “If you don’t tell me where the disk is, then I will continue. Is that what you want?”
Dibra shook his head adamantly back and forth. He couldn’t take any more.
“Good,” the blond-haired man said as he removed the rag from Dibra’s mouth.
“The cigarette p … pack inside my jacket pocket,” Dibra said, nodding toward the coat on the back of the desk chair.”
The blond-haired man walked over to the chair, reached inside, and pulled out the cigarette pack. He ripped it open and lying beneath the cigarettes on the bottom of the pack was a blue mini SD disk. Without saying a word, he walked over to the laptop sitting on the coffee table and inserted it into the slot. He used the touchpad and clicked on the drive to open the card. He scanned the contents and then closed the file. “Is this the only disk?” he asked, looking at Dibra and when Dibra nodded, he walked over to Cumani.
He squatted down, grabbed Cumani’s leg, and in one quick move, ripped his shoe and sock off at the same time. “Is he telling me the truth?” he asked as he used the pliers to pinch the nail on Cumani’s big toe.
Cumani grunted, nodding his head anxiously as he stared at his toe.
“Good boy,” he said and let go of Cumani’s foot, letting it drop to the floor with a thud. He got to his feet, walked over to the coffee table, and picked up his gun. “I hadn’t planned on killing either one of you but then I realized that without trash like you two, Lebedev would have no women to force into prostitution. I know that it won’t take long before you’re replaced by some other scumbag but at least I can sleep tonight knowing that you won’t hurt anyone else ever again,” he said. He looked at the two men, who were grunting and now pleading for their lives with their eyes and he felt nothing but rage. He would show them the same mercy they showed the women who they sold into slavery. With a flick of his wrist, the bullet made a swooshing sound before hitting Dibra between the eyes and with the same quickness, he turned, shooting Cumani in the exact same place.
When Yalen and Briana left the hotel, they were greeted by a grey and dreary overcast sky, which was reflected in the very cold temperature. Bundled in winter coats and gloves, they headed across the street, toward Arlington Road. As Yalen switched her backpack to the opposite shoulder, she spotted Sgts. Whitley and Mueller sitting in the Prius. She smiled as they walked past the car when both sergeants turned their heads, pretending to look at something else other than her and Briana.
“Where exactly are we going?” Briana asked as they turned onto Arlington.
“We are going to Saint Pancras Way. From what I could tell, the shelter used to be an old warehouse. When we get near it, I want you to stay close to me, okay?” Yalen said, looking at Briana.
Briana frowned. “Are you expecting something bad to happen?”
Yalen shook her head. “Not necessarily but where we are going, there’s a major problem with crime and drug dealers.”
“Why would they put a shelter in an area like that?” Briana asked as they crossed the street.
Yalen shrugged. “Probably because it’s the last place you would expect them to be.”
Briana nodded and then looked at Yalen. “May I ask you something?”
Yalen smiled at her. “Of course.”
“Last night when we were with Rheyna, she said that the U.K. was the perfect example of why gun bans don’t work. I always thought England was one of the safest countries in the world, so what did she mean by that?”
Yalen laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Briana asked.
Yalen looked at her. “It’s funny because most people believe that the U.K. and Britain are the same thing but they’re not, they’re different.” Yalen laughed at the confused look on Briana’s face. “I know, just bear with me. Great Britain consists of England, Wales, and Scotland, whereas the United Kingdom is Britain as well as Northern Ireland.” Yalen smiled at Briana. “The next thing to consider is population when looking at crime rates for the U.K. and our country. The U.S. has approximately three-hundred million people versus the U.K., which only has sixty-one million.”
Yalen’s eyes scanned the streets as she continued to explain it to Briana. “When you compare the U.S. and the U.K.’s crime rates, you have to base the statistics on the number of people per country. If you look at how many people were assaulted last year in the U.K., the figure is two-point-eight percent per 100,000 people. In the U.S. the people assaulted based on 100,000 was one-point-two percent, which means the U.K. was over a hundred and thirty percent worse than the U.S. for assaults. In the U.K. point-nine percent of the women reported being raped, whereas in the U.S. only point-four reported being raped. Based on population, the U.K. was over one-hundred and twenty percent worse than the U.S. when it comes to rape.
“So, that means your chances of being raped in the U.K. is double compared to the U.S.,” Briana said, shaking her head. “I don’t even know what to say about that.”
“It’s eye opening, huh?” Yalen asked.
Briana looked at Yalen. “Scary as hell is more like it.”
Yalen nodded. “It gets better. Drugs are such a huge problem in the U.S. but in the U.K. last year, statistics show per 100,000 people, the U.K. had over 180,000 offenses for drugs and the U.S. had just over 500.”
“That’s insane. How could they have more offenses than they do people?” Briana asked, not understanding how that was possible.
“Some of the same people were probably arrested more than once, maybe several times for drugs,” Yalen answered. “That means the U.K. was 300 times more likely to have someone commit a drug offense per 100,000 people than someone in the U.S. Now when it comes to fewer gun crimes, the U.K. beats the U.S. easily, no questions asked. In the U.S., we had over nine thousand murders with a firearm whereas the U.K. only had fourteen and these statistics are what the anti-gun lobbyist preaches in the U.S. when they try to convince the public that guns are bad. If you look at all the crimes committed as a whole and based on population, the U.K.’s crime victims equal twenty-six percent, whereas the U.S. crime victims per 100,000 people equals twenty-one percent, which means that overall, the U.K. has 25% more crime than the U.S.”
