She froze; something was obviously changing, and she didn’t know what. Straining for any sounds of a vehicle, she thought she heard a footstep. A hand landed on her shoulder making her jump.
Her kidnapper squeezed her shoulder so tight that she wanted to cry out. She writhed in pain, as her kidnapper warned her again to stay quiet. Finally he released her. “What do you want?” her kidnapper called out.
“You have something for me?” a stranger asked.
“Only if you have something for me.”
She didn’t recognize the new voice. She strained to hear more, but, as her kidnapper took a couple steps forward, she found it harder to hear the response from the other guy.
Then suddenly her kidnapper was right against her ear and whispered, “Move and you’re dead.”
Then he disappeared.
She froze, too scared to do more than breathe. Even at that, she kept her breathing calm and quiet. That didn’t stop her from trying to free her hands though. They had gotten so slick now from the blood that she thought she might get them free.
Closing her eyes, she focused and pulled and pulled and pulled, and finally one hand slipped out. Immediately she got the other one free, quietly pulled her knees up against her chest, and worked on untying her feet. A rope of some kind bound them but loosely. He obviously felt that she was secure and not in danger of escaping. By pulling off one of her shoes, she could slide her foot out.
With both feet free, she quickly pulled off her gag, wondering why she hadn’t done that first. Then off went the blindfold, and, though it was dark out, and she had no clue where she was, she damn well wasn’t staying here. She immediately climbed out of the trunk of the vehicle, found the nearest grove of trees, and raced for cover.
She moved as silently as she could but knew it wouldn’t take much for anybody to catch her. In the distance, she heard two men talking, but her footsteps were light and swift, and, as soon as she made it to the trees, she slipped into the darkness of the shadows. She didn’t know if either of the men had heard her—or if either would care—as long as the one got exactly what he was looking for.
Killian approached the stranger in front of him at the street corner. “Hey, can you give me a hand?”
“Depends on what you need,” the man stared at him, with a hard look.
“I’m looking for this intersection,” he said, holding up his phone.
“Well, if you’ve got it on your phone,” the stranger said rudely, “you can find where to go.” With that, he turned and walked away.
Killian watched and waited until he disappeared from view, even as he texted Hatch. Found somebody very suspicious, I’m following him.
Exchange in ten came the response.
I’ll be there.
Not only would he be there but Killian also hoped that he would have a heads-up on this asshole he was following. The only reason he made contact with him and asked him for directions was to get the make of the man. Killian’s instincts said there was a good chance that he was connected to the kidnapper, but it was hard to say. He waited until the man headed around the corner, then quickly followed.
When Killian reached the corner, the guy was long gone, but Killian got a tracker on him when he held up his phone. So Killian saw where he went. Pulling up the app on his phone, he leaned against the building, checking his time, and, sure enough, the guy was heading in the right direction. With that, he sent a message back to Hatch. Following him. So far, we’re both going in the right direction.
Hatch replied, That was easy.
No, I don’t think so. Something very strange going on here.
Yeah, you’re not kidding. But these jobs are never straightforward. If they were, any standard military personnel could handle them.
“They can handle some pretty strange shit too,” Killian muttered to himself, as he looked down the street.
Darkness had settled in nicely. He kept the direction finder on, as he walked toward the rendezvous point. He had his backpack on, the money inside. The bills were marked, of course, and would show up in circulation, but he had no intention of them ever making it that far. But things had a way of going south sometimes. More often than he cared to consider.
With Hatch moving in a parallel course several blocks away, the forested area was in absolute darkness at the end of town. Nothing shone, not even a car’s headlights. Killian walked toward the rendezvous point, entering a park on one of its paths, and his footsteps slowed as he got within fifty feet of tracking his guy. Up ahead was a vehicle parked with the trunk open, and somebody stood thirty feet away at the side. Killian called out a quiet greeting.
The man immediately turned and took a couple steps forward.
Well, that was good. Killian walked a little closer and said, “Where’s the woman?”
“Where’s the money?”
“I have it,” he said, dropping the backpack off his shoulder.
“Throw it my way.”
“Not until I see her,” he said.
In the shadows, the stranger shrugged. “Well, you’ll have to come closer then.”
“She’s in the car. Take her out,” Killian said, not giving an inch.
The guy just laughed. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“You only get the money if she’s alive,” Killian snapped.
“Well, she was, the last time I talked to her,” he growled. “I don’t have time for this shit. Give me the money.”
“That’s easy. Give me the woman.”
“What are you, some smart guy?”
“A deal is a deal,” he said. “One for the other.”
“Sure,” he snapped. “But I’ve got the girl, so I need you to toss the money my way.”
“Not until I see proof of life.”
The guy glared at him for a long moment, then turned and walked to the vehicle.
In the darkness Killian heard him muttering something like “Horse shit.”
At the vehicle he swore, then turned and raced all around the vehicle, dropping to look underneath. “She’s fucking gone!” he roared.
“Or she was never there to begin with,” Killian replied, as he quickly picked up the backpack and raced into the shadows. Out of sight, he watched the kidnapper. The man turned and stared in the darkness, then ripped a blue streak, words that were hard to mistake.
Killian had to find the woman, before she got herself thoroughly lost out here or before the kidnapper found her. Now another man was here, closing in on the far side. Friend or foe? Killian knew that Hatch would be somewhere close as well. He quickly sent him a text. The woman has gotten free. She’s lost out here somewhere.
He didn’t know for sure that she was lost, but he would take is as a given that any woman who had gotten herself free from a kidnapper would run hell-bent in whatever direction provided by the natural spacing of the world around her. But running blindly himself wouldn’t help. He scouted around the vehicle, but it was so damn dark that he couldn’t see anything.
Now, if he had night goggles, that would be a different story. But it wasn’t to be. He hunkered down low and listened.
The kidnapper raced through the trees, calling out to her. “Stacey, where are you? You’ll die out here. It’ll get too cold, and the exposure will kill you.”