Chapter 12
T aryn groaned as the pain slammed into her head and all down her body. She noted the musty cloth in her mouth, gagging her in two ways. Then a tiny insistent squeezing of her hand made absolutely no sense. When a soft whisper came, she heard a child’s voice, telling her to wake up. Taryn wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t have been awake in the first place.
She opened her eyes, now being jostled back and forth. And there in front of her, barely visible in the darkness, was Cassie, tied up, with dried tears on her face as she stared at her. The details of the situation all came flooding back when Taryn saw Cassie, which made her heart ache when she realized something had gone horribly wrong. What happened? she whispered, belatedly realizing that they were speaking telepathically, not out loud.
Cassie looked at her. You fell out of the tree, and he grabbed you. I don’t know who he is. He has a mask on. He was pretty upset that you were there, but he picked you up and threw you in the back of the van .
Great , that just means he’ll be looking to dump me off as soon as possible .
At that, Cassie shook her head, tears welling up yet again. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me .
I’m not planning on it . She looked around the back of the van, trying to minimize the movement because her head just burned with whatever he’d done to her. She could only think it must have been a tranquilizer. Her whole body ached. She asked, Did you say I fell out of the tree?
Cassie nodded. Yes, I heard something, and you looked weird for a minute, shoved me against the tree limb and told me to hold on tight, and then you just fell. I didn’t even see him, until he was suddenly right there .
How the hell did he know where we were? Taryn wondered.
I don’t know . Cassie started to cry again.
From the front of the vehicle, a man yelled back, “Stop your damn sniveling. You’ve been more damn trouble than you’re worth already.”
Taryn tried to silently soothe the little girl, but it was pretty hard when Taryn was fighting off the headache and her body aches, plus the effects of whatever drug he’d given her.
“That friend of yours won’t be out for long,” he snapped back. “I need to find a place to get rid of her.”
Taryn stiffened at that because the last thing she wanted was to be separated from the already terrified little girl. Taryn could tell from Cassie’s panicked gasp that it was the last thing she wanted too.
Taryn tested the bonds on her hands, but they were pretty taut, as were the bonds on her feet. She didn’t want him to know she was awake, but even her perceived element of surprise wouldn’t be enough if she was still tied up. It wasn’t hard to see that Cassie’s hands were tied too, but her feet were free. Taryn wasn’t sure that made a damn bit of difference.
She willed her brain to kick in and to make sense of all this, when she heard a voice in her head and recognized it was Terkel. God, I didn’t see this coming .
I understand. Apparently you were shot with a tranquilizer and knocked out or something .
I’m more or less awake now. He just told Cassie that he has to get rid of me somewhere. He’s pissed and really angry that I was even there .
You were a completely unexpected element that he didn’t plan on having to deal with .
How did he even find us? she whispered into the ethers. I don’t understand that at all .
We’re wondering if Cassie has a tracker on her.
Taryn froze at that, then looked over at Cassie and asked her, Did your uncle give you something special?
Cassie looked at her blankly and shook her head.
Did he poke you with anything or clip something to your hair or something like that?
Cassie just stared at her blankly.
If there is a tracker, she doesn’t know anything about it , she told Terkel.
I can’t say I would really expect a young girl to understand it either , Terk noted. Now, Alex is behind you, although maybe ten, fifteen minutes out .
Great , Taryn muttered. That’s a little too far for me to be comfortable .
Sure, but it’s better than nothing . He was supposed to be right there by you, but he went up to the house first .
Right, and I urged him to do it to confirm we didn’t have this guy coming after Cassie , she clarified, with a slight moan out loud. She grimaced and waited to see if the driver heard her. The only element of surprise I have , she whispered, is the fact that I’m waking up .
That’s an element you need to keep to yourself , Terk reminded her. We’re sending reinforcements and doing everything there is to be done. We just don’t know how big the gap is between you and Alex and where your kidnapper is going. That stretch of road is pretty deserted, but it’s not deserted enough .
She knew what that meant. Great.… Hey, any chance our kidnapper is Jeff’s brother, the father of these kids?
We’ve got him tracked by Levi’s satellite. I would have to check his current coordinates. Meanwhile, I want you to just stay positive, stay strong. Keep Cassie with you as much as you can, and keep the line of communications open , he ordered her.
Sure, great. You don’t ask for much, do you?
Taryn heard the smile in his tone as he replied, I’m asking for the world, but, considering the potential consequences if this goes wrong, I don’t think I’m asking for all that much .
She didn’t say anything to that. Her aching head now made her entire body shudder. She closed her eyes and relaxed, telling Cassie that she was okay and that she needed to rest a bit because of the shot the guy had given her. Taryn told her that they needed to make sure the guy didn’t find out that Taryn was awake. You also need to be ready to move, should we get a chance to escape , Taryn added.
Cassie didn’t say anything but squeezed Taryn’s hand in acknowledgment.
Taryn suddenly realized she didn’t even know if Cassie was hurt. At that, she immediately asked her, Are you hurt at all?
No . Just you .
I’m all right, honey. It’s just fine , she reassured her. Besides, I don’t mind if it keeps you from getting hurt.
I don’t want you hurt either , Cassie whispered, her tears threatening once again.
You’re very sweet , Taryn replied. All we need now is to find a way to get away from this guy .
What does he want with me? Cassie whispered tremulously.
Nothing good , Taryn replied. I won’t lie to you, honey. He’s a bad man . Cassie didn’t say anything to that, but Taryn could feel the tremor as she pressed her tiny body up close. Taryn knew that being tied up, drugged, bruised, she wouldn’t be much help, but she had to be. She had to get them out of this. No way she would allow Bruce’s niece to get caught up in something so horrible.
The fact that any child had to deal with this was just so wrong, but, when Cassie looked to Taryn for help, it just broke her heart. When the van slowed, and she heard the driver swearing, she realized it was probably some unwanted company or maybe even a cop car up ahead. She quickly sent a message to Terkel. He’s slowing down and swearing, so possibly a cop or something .
Good to know , he replied. We’re tracking him, just not very closely .
Yeah, not close enough no matter what , she muttered. We need help .
I’m trying to get somebody on the other end who could locate any roadblocks in the area, so Alex could be watching for it .
Our guy’s making a turn now, turning left , she told Terk, feeling the waves of pain slowly starting to knock her out. And I’m starting to lose consciousness .
Hold on if you can. Just hold on a little bit longer, so we can track you better .
She shuddered in place, trying desperately to keep her mind engaged, as the van made a sudden turn. We’re turning left again , she shared, but that depends on where you’re coming from .
That’s fine. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it , Terk told her. I’ve got a fix on a roadblock, and we have messages going out to the local cops, as well as to our guys .
She didn’t say anything because messages could be sent out all they wanted, but, if they didn’t move fast enough, it would be too damn late anyway. She wanted to laugh, yet she wanted to cry. Neither were options with Cassie sobbing gently at her side. Taryn whispered telepathically to her, These turns are a good thing, honey. They help us pinpoint where we are .
But Cassie was beyond being consoled. She’d been through too much already, and right now, knowing that this much of her world was twisting into such a nightmare, it was almost impossible for that little girl to see anything positive in any of this.
Taryn didn’t blame Cassie, and, if they didn’t have somebody coming to their rescue soon, Taryn would be pretty despondent herself.
At that thought, she snapped back and told herself to knock it off. A lot of people were in bad situations, like Cassie, who didn’t have anyone out there looking for them, and those people needed far more help than Taryn did. When this was over, she needed to do something to help others in these situations. Even though it would hurt her to get involved in child trafficking, she had no excuse for turning a blind eye to all this nastiness in the world around her.
At that, Terkel’s voice stepped into her mind again. Why do you think we do what we do? he asked. It’s not because we want to, and it’s certainly not because this is the life we ever wanted to live. It’s because we can’t turn a blind eye to what others are going through, not when people like us are in a position to stop it .
I want to help , Taryn declared. If I get out of this, and, when it’s all over, I want to help .
We’ll talk about it when this is over, and, of course, you’re getting out of it , Terk stated calmly. I already figured you would be coming over to spend some time with Bruce. It’s seems you two were pretty close at some point .
We always have been , she whispered. We drifted apart for a long time once we grew up.… My head is so fuzzy, I can’t remember if I told you that I lived with him, his family. You know, me through foster care .
That’s right , Terk said. And you and Alex sure seem to be hitting it off. Is something more developing there?
Yes, I believe there is , she admitted. Although I don’t know how you know everything , she said, with a suspicious note to her tone. Like how he feels. Unless he mentioned something to you .
Nope, but remember that I’m an energy guy, so I can see the way it flows, and his definitely flows toward you , he explained, so hold on to that thought too .
*
Alex drove as fast as he could, skidding off the shoulders of the highway on each corner as he raced to catch up to the van. When his phone vibrated, he hit the button impatiently. “What?”
It was Levi. “Your kidnapper has gone off the main road. We’ve been tracking the roadblock up ahead of you, and your kidnapper hasn’t shown up, but, according to Terkel and Taryn, he took a hard left, then another one pretty soon afterward.”
“I’m on it,” Alex replied, “although I don’t see very many lefts up here.”
“Probably not. Chances are, it’s some dirt road that he knew about, or his GPS picked up on it.”
“Well, shit,” Alex muttered, as he tried to check his GPS map. “I don’t suppose you have satellite on this asshole, do you?”
“We’re working on trying to pick him up, trying to narrow it down,” he replied, “but I’m not sure we’ll get it fast enough though.”
“Of course not,” Alex said, his frustration boiling over. “Jesus, I should never have gone up to the house,” he cried out.
“You can’t second-guess yourself now,” Levi stated. “It’s all about staying the course and finding them before this asshole manages to do anything else.”
“Yeah, sure,” Alex replied bitterly. “I had them. They were right there, but no, I had to go for this asshole at the house.”
“What else would you have done?”
“I should have got them out safely first,” he snapped.
Levi went silent for a moment and then added, “Sure, that would have been one avenue, but we all thought checking on the house and making sure this guy didn’t get loose was the way to go, considering that Taryn and Cassie were safe for the moment.”
“Right, it made sense at the time. It never even occurred to me that somebody would find them up a tree, of all things.”
“The only way they could have done that was if they had a way to track the little girl, which is something that we’re all considering.”
“That would make sense. Plus, if she was a prized possession, or worth a lot of money, I don’t think too many people would leave her behind, not without some way to track her.”
“Which means that these guys had some method to track Cassie.”
“Most likely,… and the uncle probably let our new guy know right where the little girl was, which is just another betrayal for Cassie,” Alex whispered.
“That’s not what we’re focusing on right now,” Levi stated, his tone sharp. “Come on. This isn’t the time to lose it.”
Alex gave a bark of laughter. “There’s never any time to lose it, but knowing I was right there and could have put them somewhere safe is too much.”
“They were stashed, and you couldn’t have stashed them any safer, not if Cassie had a tracking device on her. You can bet that this asshole would have found them anyway.”
Alex took a deep breath. “Right, so, in other words, forget all that bullshit and carry on. Any word from Riff?”
“I haven’t heard, but I’ll check with Terk and give you an update soon, even if just to confirm the car chase is still on. Meanwhile, you stay with me and give me the blow-by-blow of what’s going on there. Then I’ll call Terk.”
Alex sighed, then returned his whole attention to the road ahead. “Oh, hang on.” Up ahead, he saw a dirt road with fresh tracks. “I’m taking a hard left. Fresh tracks are here, heading down into some godforsaken who-knows-where.”
“Good, afterward take the very next left. Stay on the phone and tell me what you see.”
“Nothing,” he snapped. “It’s dark out here and getting darker by the minute.”
“Yeah, I hear you there, and we’re hearing that from everyone involved. Storms are moving in too.”
Alex groaned. “Of course.”
“That’s all right,” Levi noted. “It also means that this asshole is likely to go to ground somewhere too.”
“No way,” Alex argued. “He’ll drive through the night to get as many miles between him and this nightmare as he can. He doesn’t dare get caught with Cassie either,” he noted, his tone harsh. “He knows what the penalty will be.”
“I hope so,” Levi muttered. “At least then he won’t go into this lightly. So, when we put him in prison for the rest of his life, he’ll know that’s exactly what he deserves.”
“And yet he won’t care. We both know that. These guys just destroy everything around them, and they could care less, not as long as they have their nasty little pleasures,” he grumbled.
“And again we won’t focus on that right now,” Levi reminded him. “Terkel is in contact with Taryn, and we’ll leave it to him to keep that up. So, when you get to wherever you’re going, be sure and keep yourself under control.”
“Oh, I’m in control,” Alex declared, “and don’t you worry about that. Do you have backup coming?”
“Yes, though now that you’ve taken two offroad turns, we still don’t know for sure that was correct or that was where our kidnapper went,” Levi pointed out. “However, we’ve got two cruisers coming your way.”
“Good, but don’t let that roadblock come down yet, just in case.”
“No, we’re not. The cops are all over it. They’ve heard that there’s been a slight shift in the kidnapper’s direction, but they’ll still check everybody coming through the checkpoint. They’re looking for the dark van of course, but, just in case he ditches it, we’re checking everything.”
“Yeah, we pretty well have to,” Alex agreed, as he drove up ahead slowly. “This road is getting really rough and ugly. So I’m forced to slow down.”
“The kidnapper will have to as well.”
“Hey, what are the chances our kidnapper is Jeff’s long-lost brother?”
“We’ve got people monitoring the children’s father via satellite. I’ll check on that. So watch your back. Terkel’s calling me. I better go.”
Alex drove carefully, but the road was getting rougher and rougher. He could only imagine what Taryn and Cassie were going through, as they bounced along in the back of a van or whatever vehicle they were in now. Alex hadn’t seen any sign of the dark van anywhere, at any time, which meant that this guy may have had an accomplice, or he had another vehicle stashed ahead of time, which made sense too.
Sure. Park the rental, leave it there at the house, leave a trail to the uncle, particularly if the uncle was being a bit of an asshole over the whole purchase thing, and then… what? A trail to the uncle would still show that the kids were missing. If the uncle was pissed off at this kidnapper guy, the uncle might very well turn him in. But, if Uncle Jeff had been well paid, that wasn’t likely.
Alex pondered the vagaries of the criminal mind set as he drove, picking his way as fast as he could, being as careful as he could to avoid the potholes in a very rough backroad in the dark. He didn’t dare risk getting stuck. He had no idea where the hell this road was taking him. His GPS was completely lost and kept telling him to turn around. He finally shut it off, instead of listening to any more instructions about rerouting and making road changes, especially when there was barely even a road to drive on here.
That was the problem with these country roads.
The GPS maps weren’t complete when it came to these dirt roadways, and, as soon as you went offroad, the GPS kept trying to plot you a new pathway to get to your initial destination, but, in this case, it wouldn’t work. What Alex needed was the destination of the getaway vehicle. He didn’t give a crap where he ended up, not as long as it was someplace he could reach Taryn and Cassie.
Up ahead, he had to slow up a bit to take another sharp corner. As he came around, he caught sight of red taillights. He immediately shut off his headlights, in case his were noted as well, and continued a little more carefully, as he had absolutely nothing but the moonlight to navigate with. Moonlight was usually right up his alley, but right now? It was not working in his favor. Even as he drove now at a snail’s pace, he was comforted by the fact that whoever was up ahead couldn’t be moving much faster.
There wasn’t any way to move faster in this darkness. It was sloppy and soupy black out here and getting thicker by the second. At the same time, if this guy knew the area, knew where he was going, he had an advantage that Alex didn’t, and that just pissed him off.
Nobody should have an advantage when it came to this bullshit, and, if it happened, it should go to the good guys. But too damn often these criminals were set up in a way that nobody else knew about, until things started to happen. If they were skilled and a little lucky, the good guys could change plans on the fly, but all too often these kids just disappeared into the nasty underbelly of Earth. Plus, in this case, Taryn was likely to get dumped by this guy as well.
Alex wasn’t about to let that happen.
He could not let it happen.