Chapter 5
Kendra placed her backpack on a picnic table while she waited for Younger to show up.
She sure hoped that neither of them would get into trouble on this venture.
Then she heard a car approaching. Her skin chilled, and her heart ratcheted up a notch.
When the car parked, a family of four got out of the vehicle: mom, dad, and two male teens, all gathering hiking gear, and headed up St. Mary Falls trail.
She took a relieved breath, but hoped they didn’t see a big grizzly bear—Grayson—in the forest.
This was more nerve-wracking than she had expected.
Another vehicle was coming. She tensed and tried to pretend she was taking more pictures of the vista.
He spoke on his phone as he eyed Kendra. Was this the guy whom Ivy had met online this time? Were there two of them—the older man and the younger one in on the con?
If so, they probably thought Ivy would be spooked if she saw both of them.
Kendra did consider that Younger might be hiding in the back seat of the car. She texted Grayson, though she knew he would be a bear. But if his clothes and phone were nearby, he could shift and check his phone.
To her relief, he texted back: What’s up?
She texted: A green Chevrolet sedan just parked in the last spot, and maybe an 18- or 19-year-old was driving it.
Grayson: No sign of Younger?
Kendra: No. But he might be hiding in the back seat of the car.
Grayson: What do you want to do?
Kendra: Sit down at the picnic table and eat my chips. I’ve been taking pictures of the view. If he doesn’t approach me after I’ve finished with my chips, I’ll grab my backpack and hike in your direction.
Grayson: Okay. Be prepared for anything.
She took one last shot of the vista with her phone and then strolled over to the picnic table, sat down, and tore open her package of chips.
Her back was to the parking lot as she watched the view of the lake and listened to a woodpecker tapping at a tree in the forest. She had her fully charged taser in her pocket.
The teen was still sitting in the car, maybe waiting for Ivy to show up.
Kendra finished her chips, rose from the bench, and tossed the package in a bear-proof trash can. Then she returned to the table, grabbed her backpack, and put it on her shoulders. With a nice brisk pace, she headed for the St. Mary Falls trail.
The car door opened, and she pulled her taser out of her jacket pocket. Either the teen was going to sit at one of the tables, take pictures of the view, or come after her. She suspected he wasn’t just hiking. Then again, maybe he was.
Footfalls headed in her direction, and her heartbeat quickened. She hurried her pace, smelling for signs of where Grayson had gone.
She smelled where he had gone off trail and headed into the brush. Seeing Grayson in his beautiful bear coat, a growly expression on his face, warmed her. She smiled and hugged his furry neck. She instantly felt safer.
He nuzzled her with his head and nearly knocked her over.
The teen ran down the hiking trail past them, where they were hidden in the forest. The teen was oblivious to the fact that he had passed them.
“That was the boy in the car,” Kendra whispered.
Then the footfalls stopped. She figured he had been running after her and then stopped because he couldn’t catch up to Kendra.
The teen pulled out his phone and called someone. “I can’t find her. She must have really outdistanced me on the path. But there’s another lone woman I’m after now.” He paused. “Yeah, she’s younger. Got her.”
Grayson immediately rushed through the underbrush to the trail and headed for the teen and the woman he had targeted. The victim was already on the ground, unconscious, her mouth and wrists taped.
Kendra was right behind Grayson, though she couldn’t keep up with his fast pace. He struck the teen, knocking him out, then headed back into the woods so Kendra could take care of the woman. Once Grayson shifted and dressed, he would join her.
Kendra quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and put it on mute in case someone called, alerting anyone to her presence on the trail. She wanted to check the woman’s pulse and found she was okay, but also noticed a strong smell of chloroform.
Kendra removed the tape from the woman’s mouth and wrists and tried to wake her, but she didn’t stir. Kendra checked the teen and handcuffed him.
She found he was armed with a gun and a knife. She wasn’t surprised. The teen would have needed something to make his potential victim compliant.
She pulled out her phone and texted Amy: Hey, we caught one of the kidnappers, the teen who probably tried to get Ivy to meet up with him. He came after me, lost me, and grabbed another woman.
Amy: Geez, Kendra.
Then Amy called her. “Call me when you’re safe.”
“I will. Grayson is joining me to help. I’ve got to go.” Kendra hung up on her friend, put her phone in her pocket, and saw Grayson coming.
The teen had come to, got to his feet, and plowed into the forest to get away from them, catching his pants on stinging nettle shrubs, cursing under his breath.
Kendra had her taser in hand and shot him.
The teen fell into the stinging nettles and pooped his pants.
Great. They would have to take him in Grayson’s vehicle like that.
She hoped Grayson had a towel to protect his seat.
Then she had another thought. They would just call Rowland and have him pick up the teen for questioning.
“Okay, if whoever else is in the car, if there is someone, has seen you, you can’t return and lure him out. I’ll check out the car. You stay with Sleeping Beauty, and the young lady,” Grayson said.
“I agree.” She dug around in the teen’s backpack while Grayson checked the boy’s pockets. Inside his backpack, he had a taser, zip ties, and a roll of duct tape.
“He came prepared. But instead of him using this on me, I’ll use it on him.” She was furious with this little prick for being part of this dastardly business. She tore off a length of tape and covered his mouth.
Then Grayson yanked the unconscious teen out of the shrubs and placed the handcuffs on his wrists behind his body this time, which would make it safer for all concerned.
“I’m going to call Rowland, and he can pick him up so the teen doesn’t have to ride in your SUV because he’s pooped all over himself.” Kendra wrinkled her nose.
Grayson smiled. “Sounds like a plan.” Then he put the teen back in the brambles and zip-tied his ankles. “This way, he can’t leave if he comes to before I return.”
“Be careful.”
Grayson shoved the teen’s gun and switchblade into his jacket pocket and put his backpack on. He looked like just any other hiker on the trail. He gave Kendra a hug and a prolonged, searing kiss.
Ohmigod, no bear had ever kissed her like that. If Grayson hadn’t had an important mission to attend to, she would have pushed for a longer engagement.
Grayson smiled when Kendra looked a little dazed after he kissed her. “Tell Rowland we’ve got a guy who most likely intended you harm and definitely the other woman.”
“Calling him and telling him we need help for the woman also.”
They hadn’t connected the teen to Ivy yet, but the fact that he had a kidnapping kit in his backpack, a gun, and a switchblade, and that he’d stalked Kendra and had grabbed another woman, made her suspect he was the one who had solicited Ivy to join him.
Grayson headed back down the path toward the parking lot.
He heard a phone ring behind him at the location where Kendra was, most likely the kid’s phone.
She quickly silenced it, which was a good thing because they didn’t need anyone to go looking for a lost phone in the forest and come across someone who looked like he was a hostage, the victim, not the perpetrator.
She called Rowland to send officers and EMTs, then hurried back to the trail to search the woman’s backpack for ID. Her driver’s license listed her as Anne Whitaker.
She texted Rowland and told him who the woman was, praying she would be okay.
As soon as Grayson reached the parking lot, a pickup truck driver with four passengers, men and women, looked hopeful that he would move his vehicle so they could have his parking spot.
As a courtesy, he went over to talk to them.
“I’ve got some guys I’m waiting on, so it’ll be about an hour or so before I can leave. ”
“Thanks, Dude,” the driver said and drove off. He would have to park elsewhere, and they would have to take the shuttle in.
Grayson threw his backpack in his SUV, then went over to the green Chevrolet to see if anyone was in the back seat.
No one. He was disappointed, but he hoped they could at least get some information from the teen.
But then he wondered if Younger had gone to the restroom.
So he sat down at one of the picnic tables and watched the restroom for a while, but no one came out.
He grabbed his backpack from his SUV, locked the door, and headed back down the trail to where Kendra waited for him.
“I got a hold of Rowland. He’s coming. I didn’t tell him about the poop incident. What about the other guy?” Kendra asked, looking relieved to see Grayson.
“If he had been with the teen, there was no sign of him.”
“Okay, I found the woman’s ID. She’s Anne Whittaker.”
“She still appears to be out of it.” Grayson tried to wake Anne up.
“Yeah, I don’t have anything to bring her to.”
“The EMTs will have to take care of her. It appears the teen came on his own to meet with Ivy, then went after you instead when she didn’t show up.
He and Younger probably figured there was a good chance Ivy wouldn’t come, so when you hid with me in the forest, he saw a single female who looked like an easy target, and they switched plans. ”
“Did he have any ID on him? I couldn’t find any,” Kendra said.
“Not that I could find. Maybe in the car. Hmm, I could return to the car with his car keys and check.”
“Or let Rowland do it. He’ll tell us what he finds.”
Grayson found the teen’s keys. “Patience isn’t one of my virtues.”
“Mine either.”
“I’ll be right back.” Grayson stalked off and finally reached the car.
He unlocked it and smelled the scents inside.
Two males, one younger, the teen, and one older, smelling of beer, like Ivy had said the older man smelled like.
Grayson checked the glove box and found a car registration belonging to Mimi Younger. Her home address was Kalispell.
He looked in the console and found an insurance card for the same woman listed on the car registration for Montana. He didn’t see any ID for the teen, but he found more zip ties, another gun, gloves, and IDs for three women, all about Ivy’s age. Hell.
Grayson searched through the rest of the vehicle, finding discarded bags of fast-food hamburgers and fries, empty beer bottles, empty soda cans, ketchup-, mayonnaise-, and mustard-stained paper napkins, the smells filling the stuffy air.
Dirty, wet socks were lying on the passenger’s floor and smelled like funky toe jam.
He took pictures of the license, registration, and the women’s IDs, then he popped the trunk. He had just left his crouched position inside the trunk filled with camping gear when he heard movement, saw a shadow cast over the car, and a fist struck him solidly on the side of his head with a thud.
Grayson saw stars and turned to face a wild-eyed, beer-bellied Younger—from the description that Ivy had given—who had biceps that rivaled Grayson’s own. Grayson blocked another blow to the head and struck Younger in the throat.
Younger grabbed his throat, gasping for air.
Grayson was about to take him into custody, but before he could get the cuffs on one of his meaty wrists, Younger slammed his fist at Grayson’s left eye and followed up with another fist to Grayson’s head.
The pain and sprinkles of stars all turned to blackness as Grayson felt himself falling into an abyss.
“Hey!” someone called out, and Younger got into the green car, started the engine, and tore off, squealing out of the parking lot.
“Hey, man, are you okay?” another man asked. “That ass nearly ran you over.”
Grayson came to enough to make out three college-age male hikers crouching around him, their expressions concerned, but glad Younger hadn’t run him over while tearing off in the car.
“Uh…” Damn, Grayson hated when a fugitive got the best of him.
“He probably has a concussion,” one of the men said.
“I’m calling 911.” Another hiker got on his phone. “Hi, my friends and I are at Sun Point parking area, and a man has been beaten pretty badly.”
“Grayson. Fugitive Recovery Agent. Let me talk to Rowland. Thanks.”
“Grayson is the one who is injured, and he wants to speak with Rowland. Okay, just a second.” The man handed his phone to Grayson.
“Are you okay?” Rowland asked, concerned.
“Yeah.” Grayson let Rowland know what he’d found about the women.
“What are the women’s names and the vehicle’s license plate number. I’ll have them checked into. I’m on my way to pick up the kid. There was no sign of Younger?”
“Uhm, he knocked me out.” Grayson told him the women’s names.
“Hell. Where’s the teen?” Rowland asked.
“He’s still in the forest with Kendra. He’s a little tied up.”
“And knocked out via a bear slap?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“He’s still alive, though?”
“Yeah. He’ll be fine to go to jail. There’s no ID on him. Ah, hell. Ivy said the teen had sent her a photo of himself.”
“Can you contact her and have her send the photo to me?”
“Yeah.” When his head stopped aching.
“Good. The license tags came back to Mimi Younger. She hasn’t reported it being stolen. We’ll check with Mimi and see if she has allowed the teen to drive her car,” Rowland said.
Then they could question her too.
One of the men there offered Grayson some water. And he thanked him and drank it. “I’ve got to get back to my partner. A teen tried to kidnap a woman on the trail,” Grayson said.
“We’re going that way. We’ll help you get there,” the one hiker said.
Rowland said, “EMTs and police are on their way.”
Grayson hated looking like he needed help, but he appreciated the hikers’ offer.