Chapter 34
Zane
After warning O’Connor that we were going outside to help with the accident, I raced out of SpaceMasters, and found the elevator door closed. So, I sprinted down the stairwell two at a time.
Reaching the street, I saw the accident at the intersection, two cars crunched together. At least two bloody victims were on the ground from what I could see. Sirens wailed in the distance.
Pete waved me off as he walked back toward me.
I didn’t slow. “Why aren’t you helping?” I yelled.
“College kids playacting,” he said when I reached him. “Fake blood. The bent metal is real, but the blood isn’t.”
“What the fuck?”
Pete grabbed my shoulder and turned me back toward the building. “Fucking social experiment they’re calling it.”
I walked with Pete back to our building. “Why?”
“Because they’re fucking college kids with nothing better to do.”
The first fire truck arrived, loud horn and sirens.
I pulled open the door of our building. “They’re going to find out the hard way that it’s not free to waste the fire department’s time with a false alarm.”
Pete followed me. “Serves ‘em right.”
Upstairs, inside the office, Marci rushed up. “You gotta help. He’s hurt.”
“What? Who?” I sprinted in the direction she pointed.
“Outside the bathrooms. That new man.”
I turned the corner into the hallway with Pete on my tail and saw him.
O’Connor lay sprawled on the floor. “Check him,” I called to Pete. I had a bigger question. Where was Peyton? The detective was supposed to be protecting her. With my heart in my throat, I raced back and flung open the door to the demo room.
Empty. My gut twisted up. The fake accident had been a diversion.
Think, dammit, think. “Has anybody seen Peyton?” I yelled into the office.
All I got back was a chorus of nos and shaking heads.
Back in the hallway, Pete had removed his shirt and placed the rolled-up clothing under O’Connor’s head. “He’s unconscious and—”
“Just a minute.” I charged into the women’s bathroom. Peyton was the priority. Also empty. I tried the men’s room, still no luck. At the end of the hall around the corner, the fire exit had been forced open.
Fuck. She’d been taken. I returned to Pete. “Talk to me,” I said almost hyperventilating as I pulled out my phone.
“He’s been Tasered. I pulled out the barbs.” Thin wires lay in a pile to the side.
“But, the effect of a Taser should be only temporary,” I shouted, unable to tamp down my emotions. I needed him to tell us what had happened to Peyton.
“Let’s give the guys some space and let them tend to him,” Grace said to the gathering of her employees at the entrance to the hall.
Pete rolled O’Connor’s head to the side and pointed at a red spot on his neck. “This looks like an injection site. I think he’s been drugged.”
“Fuck.” I dialed Lucas.
He answered on the second ring. “Yes?”
I put it on speaker for Pete and restrained my voice. Peyton needed me to be at the top of my game. “Peyton’s been snatched.”
“Hold on… Jordy, target status?”
I wasn’t on their comm channel so I didn’t hear the reply.
Lucas commanded the group in his normal cool tone. “Zane tells me Peyton has been abducted. We continue on to the target and bag him… Okay, Zane, talk to me.”
“A guy came to the door asking for help with an accident on the street,” I started. “O’Connor was alone with Peyton, taking her statement. I told him we were going outside.” I then relayed the sequence of events with Pete outside and returning to find O’Connor here.
“Zane, give Pete your car keys,” Lucas commanded. “Pete, there’s a medkit in the back of the Cayenne. Bring it up and use the smelling salts in the kit on O’Connor. Zane you stay with him. We’ve got to have him tell us what happened.”
I handed my key fob over.
“Pete after that, get those accident actors,” Lucas said. “We need to interrogate them. I want to know who set them up to create the diversion and when.”
“Copy that,” Pete said, and ran off.
I felt terrible and voiced it. “I should have stayed.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Lucas said. “I would have made the same call. I bet they were prepared to face both of you if you had stayed. And with the element of surprise, you might be on the floor next to him.” That was slim consolation, knowing the danger my woman was in now.
“Hanging up now. I’m one mike out from the target. ”
Pete returned with the big red medkit which was only slightly less complete than what the city’s paramedics carried.
I opened it, broke out the smelling salts, and wafted the capsule in front of the detective’s nose.
“No reaction,” Pete noted. “I guess we just have to wait.”
O’Connor was breathing and his pulse was strengthening. So Pete was right. It was now a waiting game.
Lucas called back.
“Did you get him?” I blurted out.
“No.”
That was a gut punch. I’d lost Peyton, and we didn’t have the man responsible. I felt like exploding, but bit back my anger. “Why not? What happened?”
“Oh, we got the guy all right,” Lucas explained. “But, it wasn’t him.”
“You sure?”
The pause on the line said I might have gone a little over the line questioning my boss’s competence.
“It was a setup, just like your accident. This guy is really annoying me. He hired a stand-in and gave him colored contacts, instructions on when and where to be. We are dealing with one slippery mother.”
Peyton
I forced one eye open and saw only tan. The world bounced, and I closed my eye again. The noise in my ears slowly made sense. I was being driven in a car. The tan had been from the back of a car seat. I was lying on the backseat of a car.
My memory reengaged. Fuck. I’d been sedated and snatched by the monster I’d been running from—the one who’d killed my friends. My stomach tied itself in knots with the realization that with every second I was being taken farther away from Zane, and help.
“How much did you give the cop?” It was the monster’s voice.
I kept my eyes closed and concentrated on listening over the road noise.
“Both syringes. He’ll be sleeping for a while.” That voice was different, so the monster had a henchman with him.
“You moron,” Monster yelled. “That could fucking kill him.”
“What do you care?”
Monster raised his voice. “I told you killing the cop was not part of the plan.”
“Hey, man, no need for that gun,” Henchman’s voice trembled. “I was just trying to be safe.”
“I don’t tolerate deviations from the plan,” Monster bit out in words coated in ice. “Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure thing. Whatever you want. Sorry.”
“Good. You’d better hope he doesn’t die.”
His henchman didn’t answer. He was probably soiling himself about now, realizing that his boss was a full-on psychopath. “Your fuckup just cost you your turn with her.”
Turn with me? I cringed.
“It won’t happen again,” Henchman said sheepishly.
“Good, because I don’t give second chances.” Monster grunted. “I don’t tolerate errors.”
“Tell me when to turn,” Henchman said.
So, he was the driver, but his question meant he didn’t know where we were going either. Did that mean the monster didn’t trust him?
My hands were bound in front of me, and tight enough that my wrists hurt. My legs weren’t, though, which gave me a sliver of hope.
Grace had told me Terry’s advice, which had helped her through her ordeal—never give up, and fight with everything you have. Then I remembered Zane’s tattoo. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time.
“Because you didn’t follow instructions back there, you go to the back of the line with the girl.”
“You said I got an hour with her right after you,” Henchman complained.
I felt sick. Now I knew what Grace when that Albanian mobster, a known sex trafficker, had abducted her. I didn’t have the luxury of feeling sorry for myself. I couldn’t give up, I had to ignore the knot in my stomach and power through to freedom.
“Not when you screw up,” Monster said back. “End of the line.”
That was it. With my feet free, I wasn’t waiting one second to be rescued. I was running at the first opportunity, then calling Zane.
Shit.
I didn’t know his number, but I had memorized our work number. I’d call, and Grace would tell Zane and the others. After that, I had to stay out of these guys’ grasp until help arrived.
How long would that take? My heart fell when I realized I had no idea how long I’d been in the car. I could be dozens of miles from work now.
“You can’t go back on that,” Henchman said. “That’s the only reason I took this fucking job.”
“You should have followed instructions. You go to the back of the line.”
I tasted bile. There were more than just these two waiting for me.
A glance up through the window showed we were on a major road with some stores. Running here gave me more opportunities to lose them than a residential street. The car had already come to a stop a few times, and I had to get ready for the next one.
Opening one eye just a crack, I made out the heads of the two men in the front seats. The monster occupied the passenger seat. All I could see of the henchman driving was his shaved head.
Taking a chance, I moved my head, and carefully glanced at the door by my feet to locate the door handle and lock. I couldn’t afford any time fumbling around for the lock. Surprising them would give me a slight head start.
I closed my eyes again.
The passenger-side door would be closest to the sidewalk to make my getaway. It might take me a half second longer to get out of the car, but if I left through the driver’s side door, I would be on the opposite side of the car from the monster, and that was a head start in itself.
Baldy on my side wouldn’t be able to give chase without pulling the car over or at least taking time to put it into park.
I heard shifting in the seats ahead of me.
“She’s still out,” Monster said.
Good thing I’d closed my eyes again and hadn’t shifted position. A few seconds later, the car slowed.
“I hate this fucking traffic,” Henchman complained.
“Who asked you?” Monster said. Yeah, he had to make himself the big man and put his henchman down.
The car came to a stop.
I cracked an eye open.
Neither of them was paying attention.
It had to be now. I brought my legs off the seat and onto the floor without either of them noticing, then I pushed up, grabbed the handle, and flipped the lock.
“Hey,” Monster yelled. He twisted and reached back to get me, but the seatbelt restrained him.
I shoved the door open and scooted to get my feet outside.
“Stop her,” Monster screeched. He struggled against the seatbelt, but reached and grabbed some of my hair.
I leaped out of the car, leaving a bunch of my hair behind. My scalp burned enough to make my eyes water, but I didn’t give the psycho the satisfaction of knowing he’d hurt me.
A Mexican restaurant lay directly across the street, and I ran for it.
Horns blared at me, and tires screeched. I barely avoided being flattened on the street. Even that would have been better than what the monster had planned for me.
I chanced a look back just before I launched into the restaurant.
Baldy was out of the car and bigger than I’d imagined. He was trying to get cars to stop for him so he could cross. After I almost caused an accident, the drivers weren’t in the mood to help him.
They’d left the car in the middle of the lane, and Monster was slowed up by an altercation with the pissed off driver behind them.
I opened the door and quickly scanned the long room. The restrooms were at the back, and by fire code, they’d have to have an exit back there. I quickly found what I hoped for.
Three guys with the yellow reflective vests the road crews wore were seated at a table near the back.
I quickly jogged to them. “Please help me,” I said in my best frantic woman voice, and I was frantic. “My ex is after me. I gotta get away or he’ll kill me.” It wasn’t far from the truth.
“What’s he look like?” the biggest of the three asked as he stood.
“Big. Shaved head, black shirt.”
“Get goin’,” he said.
The other two stood as well. Now I had three temporary protectors to slow them up.
“Thank you,” I said as I ran down the restroom hallway, past the storage room, and out the back door.
After looking both ways, I chose the shorter distance toward the cross street to the right.
Before I reached it, another restaurant’s back door opened and a guy with an apron came out holding a bag of trash. He headed for the dumpster.
Racing around him, I went through the door to the restaurant.
“Hey. You can’t use this door.”
Inside, I found out why. It was the kitchen, and I was immediately yelled at in Chinese. Spying two doors, I chose the one that a server wasn’t pushing through.
It led to a short hallway with a door on each side. The first was a storeroom filled to the ceiling.
I hit the jackpot with the other door—a tiny office with a cellphone on the desk. Rounding the desk and taking the chair, I picked up the phone. My fingers were jittery as I dialed.
“SpaceMasters, how may—”
“Marci, it’s Peyton. Is Zane—”
“Where are you?” she interrupted.
“I don’t know. I need Zane or Grace.”
“Zane is here. I’ll get him.”
The door flew open, and a very pissed-off man with graying hair stormed in, yelling at me in a torrent of Chinese.