Chapter Forty-Three #2
The man rummaged his hands through her coat and pants pockets, unzipping and unsnapping to do so. She was too terrified to scream. As he pulled out items, he announced them. “Wallet. Ski pass. Lip balm. Sunscreen. That’s about it.”
“Toss it all out the window.”
The SUV made it out onto the highway, she could tell by the speed, but she had no idea what direction they were traveling.
From the front seat the driver said, “We’re going to go somewhere and get you warmed up. Then you’ll sit there and wait. We don’t want you. But I need you in order to get the guy I’m after.”
Her voice cracked as she spoke up from the floorboard. “My…my dad?”
The man laughed a little. Started to say something, then stopped himself. Finally, he said, “No…somebody else.”
“Who?”
“Just shut up and lie there.”
Andie Delaney did as she was told.
—
Thirty minutes later, the vehicle stopped; Andie was pulled out by the two men and taken into a small cabin. She didn’t recognize this place but knew there were vacation cottages all around Boulder available for rent, so she could be anywhere.
There were no other cabins around, however, so she wondered if she might be in some lesser-known, lesser-traveled area.
Each minute that this had been going on, she’d found herself less afraid and more pissed off. She had no idea who these guys were, what or who they wanted, but she told herself she needed to escape.
She was put in a bedroom by the two men she’d first encountered on the mountain.
They’d arrived in a Bronco at the same time she did with the other pair, making a total of four different men here at the cabin, all involved in her kidnapping.
The guy who fell on the ice had a bruise on his temple, and the guy who seemed to be in charge was thin with a bald head and what Andie thought were crazy eyes.
Two of the men pulled everything out of the bedroom while she stood there watching, her arms crossed in front of her.
The bed, shelves, floor lamps, it was all removed and taken somewhere else, leaving her in an empty space.
The windows were checked; they’d been painted shut and wouldn’t open, and the tiny window in the bathroom was too small for anyone larger than a cat to pass through.
The one in charge showed up while they were doing this; he brought her a bottle of Sprite and a protein bar. When Andie didn’t take them from him, he just dropped them on the floor in front of her.
“That’s yours if you want it. Consider that lunch and dinner, depending on how long you’re here. I’m not running a boardinghouse.
“In the meantime, you can sit in this room and stay fucking quiet. It’s your job right now to not be any sort of an inconvenience to me, because I do not like to be inconvenienced when I’m working.”
She looked around. “Working…? This is your job?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, it is.”
“Kidnapping kids…is…your…job?”
He smiled a wild smile. “Killing men is my job.” He looked to the man who had been standing on her in the back of the SUV for the entire trip. “You searched her, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, she was on her back, so I might not have gotten to—”
The thin bald man sighed. “Okay, Andrea. Take off your coat, any outer layer of clothing. Your boots and socks, too. Keep on your pants and base layer.”
She did as instructed, and the boss went through her pockets on his own.
“Who do you want to kill?” she asked as he did this.
“Somebody you don’t know, honey. So don’t stress about it.”
“But I’ve seen your face. I’ve watched TV. I know what that means.”
“You’ve watched TV?” He laughed, going through her belongings.
“I don’t care if you know who I am. The feds are going to know it was me, anyway.
” He looked up at her. “Not my first rodeo, if you know what I mean.” She took off a boot, handed it over, and he began feeling around in it.
“I’ll be out of the U.S. before you get the chance to squawk to anybody about what happened to—”
He stopped talking and looked up at the girl, his crazy eyes widened.
“What?” she asked. She was genuinely confused.
“Yo, Bennett! Get your ass in here!”
The boss kept his hand inside Andie’s boot until the man who’d searched her earlier returned to the room. “Yeah?”
Slowly, the boss took out the insole of the boot, threw it on the ground. He then took out the liner under the insole, ripping it clear of the boot.
Finally, he brought his hand out holding a small silver Apple AirTag.
He held it up to Andie, who had no idea that had been in her boot. “Who’s going to come looking for you?”
“I…I…I don’t know.”
“Your dad? Your real dad?”
“I…” Confused by the wording of the question, she said nothing else.
The one called Bennett said, “We can be out of here, but it’s going to take a—”
The boss cut him off. “Where are those other guys?”
“I’ve got two more; they’ll be here in a half hour. They’re good. They know the area. They’re armed.” He added, “And they want that five grand. They’ll do whatever you need.”
Kincaid handed the AirTag over to the man. “Take this a few miles down the road, then throw it in the trees. Get back here in twenty minutes, get the rifles out of the truck, and get ready. We might have company.”
Bennett took the AirTag and ran out the door.
Andie started to cry now. “I swear to you, sir. I’ve never ever seen that—”
“I believe you. But that’s not gonna save your daddy or your mommy if they come up that driveway looking for you.”
“No!” she cried, and she charged at him, her fists pounding his chest. He shoved her off, down to the floor. The man with the bruise on his face entered the room, and the boss looked to him. “If she tries anything like that again, tie her and gag her.”
The boss left the room without another word.