Chapter 137: The Black Van

“Lafu’s not picking,” Leitana said again for the third time. She pulled the phone from her ear and stared at the screen like it had betrayed her. Her thumb hovered over the redial button.

Avery’s hand tightened around the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Her jaw was locked so hard Leitana could see the muscle jump.

“Try the others again,” Avery said, voice tight. “And breathe, Lei. Nothing is going to happen to your friends. They’re smart. They’re careful. Just… breathe.”

Leitana nodded, but the nod felt mechanical. Her heart pounded so loud in her chest she thought Avery could hear it over the engine. They were still a long way from New York about an hour and half if traffic stayed light. Two hours was too long.

She dialed Marco.

Straight to voicemail.

Stacy next.

Voicemail again.

Diego.

Jules.

Anya.

All of them.

Voicemail.

Leitana’s leg started tapping against the floor of the car, fast, and restless, like it had its own heartbeat.

Avery kept driving, eyes flicking between the road and her sister.

Leitana stared at her phone. The screen blurred. She realized suddenly, sharply that if her friends were indeed in trouble, she couldn’t just rush in. She wasn’t strong enough alone even with Avery. She needed help. Real help.

She picked up her phone again.

Avery glanced over. “Who are you calling?”

Leitana turned to her.

“Mi Ravial.”

Avery nodded once. “Good.”

Leitana hit the call button.

It rang once.

No answer.

It rang a second time.

Then…click.

Ravial’s voice came through.

“Lamb.”

She rushed the words out in a breathless rush.

“Mi Ravial mi need your help. Mi friends, Lafu and the others dey went to Celeste apartment to find footage of de night of her death. But mi think something happen to dem because…”

She paused, her throat closing up for a second.

“Jim,” she whispered. “He threaten me and him put his hand on mi yesterday. He touch mi and hurt mi and mi think… mi think he might hurt mi friends.”

Silence on the other end.

Leitana’s heart raced so hard she thought it might burst.

Then Ravial spoke, quiet, steady, the voice she knew best in the world.

“Stay away from that apartment.”

The line went dead.

Leitana stared at the phone, her breath frozen for a moment as she listened to him and then the call ended.

Avery looked over. “What did he say?”

Leitana swallowed.

Before Leitana could say anything else, Avery’s phone started ringing.

She glanced at the screen.

Unknown number.

She answered and her eyes went wide.

Leitana leaned forward. “Who is dat?”

Avery muttered, voice low.

“Ravial.”

The call lasted maybe ten seconds.

Avery hung up.

Leitana stared at her. “What him say?”

Avery exhaled.

“He said no matter what, we should not go into her apartment. He said… he’s handling it.”

Leitana’s stomach dropped.

She knew that tone in Ravial’s voice even through Avery’s words.

He wasn’t asking.

He was commanding.

And whatever “handling it” meant…

It meant her husband was unleashed.

Leitana looked out the window at the passing city.

Her leg kept tapping.

Her heart kept racing.

Finally they pulled into Celeste’s building. The moment the Camry rolled to a stop in the guest parking area, Leitana’s eyes locked onto the familiar white passenger van parked crookedly near the service entrance, the same one they’d all piled into the night for the masquerade. Seeing it there, abandoned in broad daylight with the side door still slightly ajar, made the blood drain from her face.

Avery shifted into park. “Lei, wait…”

But Leitana was already moving. She threw the passenger door open before the engine had even fully stopped, shoes slapping concrete as she sprinted across the lot toward the van.

“Leitana, wait for me!” Avery shouted, fumbling with her seatbelt.

Leitana reached the van first. She yanked the sliding door all the way open.

The interior looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Seats pushed forward, duffel bags overturned, fast-food wrappers and water bottles scattered across the floor. And everywhere, phones. Lafu’s cracked iPhone screen-down near the driver’s seat. Marco’s Iphone with the bright green case. Stacy’s rose-gold one still glowing faintly with unread notifications. Diego’s, Jules’s, Anya’s. All of them just… lying there. No one to claim them.

Leitana’s breath came in short, painful bursts. “No… no no no…”

She spun around to speak to Avery, mouth already opening to say something.

That was when the second van appeared.

It came from the left side of the building, moving far too fast for the narrow access lane. Black, windowless, no plates visible from this angle. The side door was already sliding open before it even stopped. A man, tall, broad-shouldered, wearing dark clothing and a balaclava pulled low leaped out while the vehicle was still rolling.

Avery, halfway across the lot, froze for one fatal second when she saw him. Then realization hit.

“LEITANA!”

Leitana turned just as the man reached her. One gloved hand clamped hard over her mouth, the other arm hooking around her waist like a steel band. Her feet left the ground. She kicked wildly, nails raking at his forearm, but he was already dragging her backward toward the open door of the black van.

“Mmmph….!” Her muffled scream vibrated against his palm.

Avery sprinted forward, lungs burning. “Let her go! LET HER GO!”

She was maybe fifteen feet away when the man threw Leitana inside like a sack of laundry. Leitana hit the metal floor with a dull thud, the breath knocked out of her. The door slammed shut with a heavy metallic clang.

The van’s engine roared. Tires spun, spraying gravel.

Avery reached the spot just as the vehicle lurched forward. She lunged, fingertips brushing the rear bumper before it accelerated out of reach.

“NOOO!” The scream tore out of her raw and desperate.

She spun, boots pounding back toward the Camry. Keys were still in the ignition. She threw herself behind the wheel, slammed it into drive, and floored it.

The Camry fishtailed out of the lot, front tires screaming. She caught one last glimpse of the black van making a hard right onto the cross street ahead. Avery followed, weaving around a delivery truck, horn blaring continuously.

She stayed on them for three blocks.

The van was fast, too fast for city traffic but so was she. She ran two reds, narrowly missing a pedestrian who jumped back onto the sidewalk. Her heart was in her throat, palms slick on the wheel.

Then the van made a sudden left into a narrow service alley between two tenement buildings. Avery braked hard, turned after them. The Camry’s side mirror clipped a dumpster with a sickening crunch; she didn’t even flinch.

She emerged on the other side of the block onto a wider avenue and the black van was gone.

She scanned left. Right. Straight ahead. Nothing but taxis, UPS trucks, a city bus, normal midday chaos. No black van. No sign of it anywhere.

Avery pulled over sharply against the curb, tires screeching. She sat there gripping the wheel so hard the plastic groaned. Her vision blurred. Hot tears spilled over her lashes and tracked down her cheeks in fast, angry rivers.

“Arghhhh,” She punched the steering wheel over and over again.A sob ripped out of her.

Then she grabbed her phone with shaking hands.

The unknown number from earlier was still at the top of her recents. She hit call.

It rang once.

Ravial answered immediately. No hello.

She tried to speak and only managed a choked sound at first. Then the words tumbled out in a rush.

“They took her. Right outside Celeste’s building. Black van, no plates, tinted windows. A man, h..he grabbed her. I chased them. I chased them, Ravial, but I lost them in traffic. I lost them. She’s gone. They have her.”

There was just complete silence on the line.

When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost gentle in such a situation.

“Where are you exactly?”

“Flatbush Avenue. Near… near the old warehouses. I don’t. I can’t think straight. I’ll send you the pin.”

She fumbled, shared her location. The little whoosh sound felt obscene in the silence.

Another beat passed.

“Wipe your face,” he said.

“What?”

“I said wipe your face.” The gentleness disappeared; what replaced it was ice. “You are crying. I can hear it. Stop. Leitana does not need tears right now. She needs clarity. She needs me to arrive with both hands free and no hesitation. If you fall apart, you become another variable I have to account for. I do not want variables.”

She dragged the sleeve of her pajama shirt across her eyes, smearing everything. “They might hurt her, Ravial. If they…”

“They will not touch her.” Each word landed like a guillotine dropping. “The moment their hands went on her, their lives became forfeit. That is not a threat. That is arithmetic.”

Avery swallowed hard. “You sound… calm.”

“I am calm.” A faint sound came through the line like the soft metallic click of a lighter being opened, then closed.

Avery frowned in confusion.

She closed her eyes. “What do I do?”

“Go home. Go to the villa. Stay with your mother. Keep your phone charged and in your hand. If anyone calls claiming to have her, ignore them. Do not negotiate. Do not go anywhere alone. Do not speak to law enforcement until I say so. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

He said it the way someone might praise a weapon for being sharp.

Then, quieter, almost an afterthought:

“I will bring my wife home.”

Not “I’ll get her back.”

Not “I’ll find her.”

I will bring my wife home.

As though her location was already a solved equation and the only thing left was cleanup.

The line went dead.

Avery sat there breathing hard for almost thirty seconds. Then she put the car in gear, made a slow, careful U-turn, and started the long drive back to the villa tears still drying on her cheeks, but no longer falling.

Somewhere in the city, Ravial was already in motion.

And the people in the black van had no idea what kind of debt they had just signed their names to.