Chapter Nineteen
Jake locked up the shop more than an hour later than he’d intended. It was a nice evening, so he decided to leave his truck parked behind the shop and walk to the Cosmos Café. If he was lucky, Beryl would join him there for dessert.
He was looking forward to trying the place out. It had been on his list for a while, but ordering in and spending time with Beryl had ruled his week. He was fine with that.
He laughed and shook his head when he spotted the sign for the Cosmos Café from half a block away.
Maxwell the Martian dangled from the neon sign above the restaurant.
A chat bubble beside the cartoon mascot’s mouth read, “Come on in and have a bowl of the best chili in the galaxy!” He truly loved all the funny names all the businesses had.
He was glad Dark Matter Metal & Leather fit the theme.
Frederick told him he bought the business with the name.
Jake lifted a hand when he saw a familiar figure about to enter the Cosmos Café.
Jett Ashcraft met his eyes, smiled and gave him a chin tip in greeting.
Maybe if Jett was not meeting someone, the two of them could eat together.
It would be a good opportunity to get to know one of Beryl’s brothers better.
He wouldn’t say no to making an ally in the family.
Couldn’t hurt.
A car screeched to a halt beside Jake, startling him from his thoughts.
Before he could react, someone leapt out of the open driver’s side door.
A cool part somewhere in his mind noted the figure was tall, dressed in what looked like an ankle-length dark leather robe with a wide hood draped over the head and black fabric concealing the face.
The man—he thought it was a man—took a single step in his direction, arm extended. Jake gasped as he felt the sting of something hitting his chest near his shoulder. Had the guy just shot him? He looked down at his jacket, expecting blood to be pouring out of him but saw nothing.
“That hurt,” he said stupidly. His voice sounded weak.
In the next instant, Jake felt his muscles loosen and he started to collapse on the sidewalk as if all his bones had disintegrated.
The robed man grabbed Jake, tossed him over his shoulder like he weighed nothing and carried him to the back of the vehicle. Jake barely had the wherewithal to notice. He was as weak as a newborn kitten. He tried to form words, to call out for help, and couldn’t. Had Jett seen what happened?
From what seemed like a long distance away, Jake thought he heard shouting. Was that his name? He was too dizzy to know at this point. His brain was muzzy. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak.
And it seemed like the mystery man who had been out to kidnap him had just succeeded.
Who was this guy? What did he want?
His kidnapper dropped Jake in the open trunk and slammed it closed. Great. He’d been stuffed into a dark trunk, unable to move, or think clearly, or attempt an escape. Even with only three weeks of memories, he knew this scenario was very bad.
After what seemed like forever, his sluggish mind dredged up the memory of something dark and scary. He’d caught a glimpse under the man’s hood as the trunk lid had closed. It was eerie. Frightening.
The black fabric had covered his kidnapper’s face but not all of it. Not the eyes.
They were probably soulless killer eyes, but Jake’s fading consciousness seemed to register that the man didn’t have eyes. He didn’t have a face. There was nothing behind the fabric under the hood. The mask hid nothing but air.
His captor was invisible.
And that was so much worse.
Beryl left the Nebula Nail Salon and started walking toward the nearby Cosmos Café to meet Jake. He’d probably had dinner, but maybe they could share dessert. The Cosmos Café had excellent desserts.
Jade and Ivy had to wait a little longer to let their fingernail polish dry, but Beryl hadn’t gotten anything fancy. She just got her usual clear polish, so any dings she managed to get—and she would get a lot of them at the supermarket—wouldn’t show.
A block from the Cosmos Café, she stopped to wait for the light to change so she could cross the street.
Her heart gave a happy lurch when she spotted Jake ahead of her.
It looked like he was heading to the Café, too.
He was running later than she’d thought.
Frederick had commented more than once that Jake had workaholic tendencies. Maybe they could grab dinner after all.
He lifted a hand and waved at someone.
She followed his gesture and saw her brother, Jett, at the café’s door.
Before she could call out to either of them, a vehicle screeched to a halt beside Jake. A figure dressed like some kind of medieval executioner popped out, grabbed Jake and shoved him into the trunk of the car.
Horrified, Beryl screamed, “No! Jake!”
She started running.
The figure jumped back behind the wheel and must have floored it before even slamming the door.
The tires squealed as the car peeled away from the curb.
Though she knew she had absolutely no chance of catching it, Beryl kept running, her brother racing to meet her in the street.
She couldn’t believe what had happened. The worst had happened.
Whoever was out to get Jake had finally succeeded.
Beryl’s breath had turned to gasping sobs when Jett put a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to stop. She stared in the direction of the kidnapper’s vehicle. She couldn’t even see its taillights.
“Did you see that?” Beryl asked.
“Yep. Crazy, right?”
Beryl tried to keep it together. It was idiotic to try to run after the car. What was she going to do? What was she going to tell the police? “A medieval executioner dressed in black just took off with my boyfriend in the trunk of a Honda.” No. Probably not a good idea to say that.
Beryl turned to Jett. “Did you see his face? Can you identify him?”
“Nope. But I noticed that he was very tall.”
She wanted to scream at him. “Half the town is populated by Alphas, Jett. Everyone is tall!”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. I barely got a look at him.” He got his phone out and started swiping through several screens.
“Are you calling the police?” Beryl asked.
“Um. No. You should do that, though.”
Beryl narrowed her eyes at her brother, but he wasn’t paying attention to her at all.
She took her phone out and dialed 911, terribly worried that they were going to be too late to save Jake.
After those banditos had failed to snatch him, they should’ve hired a bodyguard.
She should have known the person behind these weird incidents involving Jake wouldn’t stop.
She gave the information to the 911 dispatch operator, who promised to send Alienn’s sheriff to the scene, since he was the officer on duty this evening.
Beryl lowered her phone as Jett continued to play with his. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I happened to notice that Jake was wearing the same jacket he had at your house when we all had family dinner.”
“So what? He always wears that jacket.”
“For the sake of argument, let’s say that I put a tracker under the collar of Jake’s jacket that night.”
“You did what?! Why would you do that? What is wrong with you?”
He looked at her like she was a few strawberries short of a pint. “So I could track him if I needed to and find out where he was at all times. While he seems like a nice guy, I employed the trust-but-verify method.”
Before she could say anything to that, Beryl’s phone rang. For a brief, blissful instant, she thought it might be Jake calling to tell her where he was and would she mind terribly coming to pick him up. The name on the screen destroyed that fantasy.
She answered with a hurried, “Wyatt. Hey.”
“Beryl,” her cousin’s husband said. “Chance Hollister just called to let me know he’s on his way to you now. Do I understand correctly that somebody yanked Jake off the street, stuffed him in the trunk of a car and drove off?”
“Yes. I saw it happen with my own eyes, and so did Jett. I called it in.”
Wyatt pushed out what sounded like a weary sigh. “Okay. Look—I am on my way to you. It’s not exactly my jurisdiction, but I feel like I’ve got skin in this game and I don’t want to leave you hanging.”
“Thank you, Wyatt.”
When Beryl disconnected the call, she said to her brother, “We will discuss your felonious acts later.”
“Yeah. You’re welcome.” Jett stared at his phone, pushing buttons and swiping occasionally. Beryl hoped that Jett’s illegal tracker would help them find Jake. If it didn’t, what were their options?
Instead of berating him, Beryl said, “Wyatt is on his way to us, as is Alienn’s sheriff.”
“The Alienn sheriff is a human, isn’t he?”
Beryl shook her head, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Is he? Is that important right now? I’d hire a three-ring circus with monkeys and elephants if it would help find Jake.”
Jett ignored her circus-with-monkeys comment. “Wyatt will know. I think his name is Hollister. He just got hired, not long after the old sheriff retired and went to Florida.”
“It doesn’t matter if he’s human. I’m sure they wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t good at his job.”
Jett said, “Remember the part about us Alphas hiding in Alienn, Arkansas, in plain sight? Humans aren’t allowed to know about us, right?”
Beryl pushed out a breath, trying to corral her fears for Jake’s safety and not take them out on Jett. “Yes. You’re right. I’m just worried about Jake.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?” Beryl stared up at her handsome, fearless, take-no-prisoners little brother and softened.
“I get that you’re worried,” Jett said. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble and have to use a Defender on the top cop of the local law enforcement his first month here.”
“Good point. I’ll do my best. Hate to have to mindwipe the new sheriff on our first encounter together.”
“Exactly.”
A loud ding sounded from Jett’s smartphone. “Got him!” He showed Beryl a display of a crude map of the area with a green dot moving along a road headed north.
Beryl looked around. She wanted to hop into the nearest conveyance and follow, but they had to wait for Wyatt and the sheriff of Alienn. Under normal circumstances, neither of them would likely be happy to learn Jett had put a tracking device on Jake.
As Beryl was trying to think of a logical reason why Jett would do such a thing, Wyatt pulled up in his personal vehicle, not the sheriff’s cruiser he usually drove.
He motioned for them to get inside. Beryl called shotgun and Jett hopped into the back, squeezing himself between two children’s car seats. Luckily, Jett didn’t complain.
Before any explanations could be rendered, Wyatt said, “I have an idea about where this mystery kidnapper might be taking Jake. I sent a message to Sheriff Hollister to meet us.”
“Where did you get this idea?” Beryl asked, locking eyes with Jett as Wyatt pulled away from the curb and started driving north.
“I got the drop-off location from the two banditos who tried to take Jake. I had a friend of mine check into the ownership records of that location and found out that person owns three other places. From there, I deduced a possible second location that this mystery man might take Jake, based on proximity and ease of access. I thought we’d check it out.
Unless you have a better idea, that is.”
Jett leaned forward and pushed his phone into the front seat so Wyatt could see it. He pointed to the little green dot still headed north.
“Is that tracking software?” Wyatt asked, sounding as incredulous as Beryl felt.
“Perhaps.” Jett didn’t elaborate. Beryl didn’t want to explain, either.
Wyatt shook his head. “So, in theory, what are you tracking?”
Jett said, “I can neither confirm nor deny that there may be a tracking device attached to the collar of the jacket that Jake’s wearing.”
Wyatt made a noise like a small laugh hidden by a cough. He looked at Beryl, squinting as if silently asking, “Is he for real?”
Beryl nodded, shrugged and rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid so.”
“Is this hypothetical tracking device on its way toward Wolf Track Road, by chance?”
Jett pulled his phone back and swiped the screen a few times before grinning. “Yep. It sure is.”
Wyatt accelerated the vehicle and Beryl was pressed back in her seat for a second. She appreciated Wyatt’s determination to get to Jake as soon as possible.
“Is Sheriff Chance Hollister human?” Jett asked.
Wyatt looked at Jett in his rearview mirror and nodded. “He is. Is there some reason you think someone offworld is involved?”
“I don’t have any facts. It’s just that the guy that snatched Jake didn’t seem human to me.
I could be totally wrong. It’s really more of a gut feeling than anything.
The guy was tall for a human and the way he moved was—” Jett stopped talking as if he was trying to explain something difficult to describe.
“Was what?” Beryl asked, compelled to fill the awkward silence.
“The way he moved was not humanlike. It almost seemed more animalistic predator, for lack of a better description.”
Wyatt said, “Is that what you saw, Beryl?”
Beryl cast her memory back, but she had not been focused on whoever took Jake. “Honestly, I only saw Jake. He looked like he was unconscious. I wish I’d paid more attention, but…” she trailed off, wishing she had a very detailed description of Jake’s kidnapper to share. She did not.
“It’s understandable,” Jett said. He reached forward and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing as if to comfort her. She knew Jett loved her. She knew he would do anything to help her…and Jake.
A pinging noise sounded from Jett’s phone. “Hey. The tracker has stopped moving,” he said. “It’s at 29 Wolf Track Road.”
“That’s the place,” Wyatt said.