22.
J ANIS
I looked down at my watch and then drew in my breath when the asshole driving took a turn without even attempting to slow down, which caused me to slam into the side and bump my head on something hard. The music was so fucking loud that I could barely hear myself think, but I couldn’t let it bother me because I knew I had a limited amount of time to figure out what the fuck I was going to do before the car stopped and they opened the trunk to get me out.
I didn’t bother trying to send another text. The movement of the car made it impossible for me to stay steady enough to type anything out, and the voice-to-text messages that I’d sent so far had all come out as a jumbled mess of song lyrics that had easily drowned out my voice.
I knew from the texts coming through that my friends and family had gotten the alert and the police had already been called. The one person who didn’t answer was Corey, and that worried me since he hadn’t shown before this happened . . . however long ago that had been. I had no idea how long I’d been out.
It couldn’t have been too long. I could tell by the motion of the car and the frequent stops that we were still in town.
Knowing that there was help on the way and that they were tracking me through my watch, I used the light from the screen to look around the trunk. It worried me when I didn’t see anything that might be able to help me. I wanted something sharp so I could come out swinging.
Right now is when I need a ninja sword. The knife in my pocket isn’t going to help me much, but it might have to do.
I twisted around to see if there was anything around my legs that might help and almost laughed when I felt a glass bottle with the tip of my finger. I scrunched down until I could get my hand around it and found it was a beer bottle or something like it.
When I realized that, I really did laugh.
It might not be a fucking sword, but that’ll do in a pinch, right?
The car swerved again, and I had a fleeting thought that even if I didn’t need to kill these fuckers for barging into my bakery and turning me into a fucking hostage, I should kill them just because of the god-awful driving.
I knew I had to be in an older vehicle because the trunk was giant and I couldn’t find an emergency release cord. From the smell, I assumed I wasn’t the first body to have been stuffed in here. I wondered how much longer I had before we got to our destination. I recalled everything I’d learned in the self-defense classes the men in my family had insisted on and went over everything step-by-step, but my thoughts screeched to a halt when the car came to a stop and then slowly crept forward as if it was going into a garage or some other kind of building.
“It’s showtime,” I whispered to myself, or at least I hoped it was a whisper. I couldn’t hear anything because of the ringing in my ears. I just knew that the second I opened my watch, it was going to inform me of the dangers of high decibels and suggest I turn my music down. I was still chuckling as I lifted my arms above my head and held the bottle firmly.
I thought I heard men talking, but wasn’t sure because of how loud the music had been, but then I heard keys jingling in someone’s hand.
I slammed my eyes closed and tried to regulate my breathing, but it took everything in me to stay still when a gust of fresh air washed over me as my kidnappers opened the trunk. Someone poked me in the arm and then pushed my shoulder, and I did my best not to flinch in the hopes that they’d think I was still out cold.
“Fuck, man, how hard did the door hit her?”
Another man answered, but I could tell he was walking away.
A third man said, “I'll get the duck tape. You carry her inside.”
“She’s gonna look good tied to my bed,” the closest man said with a dark laugh.
Let’s see how that works out for you, motherfucker.
The man slid his arm under my legs and then his other arm nudged me so he could get it under my shoulders. I waited until his hands were full and opened my eyes to find him completely oblivious. His eyes went wide with shock when my arms burst into motion and the bottle landed on his cheekbone.
The liquid in the bottle sprayed out along with his blood, and as he slumped over me into the trunk, I was left holding half of the bottle by the neck and unable to breathe because of his weight on my chest.
I shimmied out from under him and peered out of the trunk to find that I was in a large shop with cars parked everywhere - some were just shells, missing their doors and windshields, but others looked pristine with fresh paint.
“A fucking chop shop? Really?” I whispered as I looked down at the man, who was still slumped over with his face by my side. I noticed the butt of a gun at his hip, so I grabbed it before I quietly got out of the trunk and looked around.
I was completely alone, but I knew that at least two men were nearby and one of them was waiting with a handy roll of duct tape for their vulnerable hostage.
Aww. He’s gonna be so upset when he realizes that he doesn’t need the tape after all.
I dropped the clip and was happy to see that it was full. After I snapped it back in, I pulled the slide to load it and watched a round fly out into the trunk. Just in case I needed it later, I grabbed it and shoved it into my pocket before I put the gun in my pocket, glad I was wearing my comfy overalls instead of something too tight to hold it.
It took some effort, but I used all the strength in my arms from working with dough and the power in my legs that came from working on my feet all day to get the man all the way into the trunk. Once he was inside, I found a set of keys in his pocket and wondered if they belonged to the car he’d been driving.
I glanced at the door on the far wall and then at the front of the car, wondering what I should do.
Drive off. You can kill everyone later, Janis. No sense in biting off more than you can chew.
I sighed when I realized that was the right thing to do and hurried to get into the car. I fumbled with the keys until I found one for the ignition and almost shouted with glee when the vehicle roared to life. I glanced around for a garage door opener, knowing I had a limited amount of time before the other men realized what was going on and flooded the garage.
When I didn’t see anything clipped to the visor, I looked at the door in front of me and saw it wasn’t metal, but wood like a barn door. A closer look around the place told me that was exactly where I was - in an old barn.
“Fuck yes. All I need now is an air horn and a ramp, and I’ll show those Duke boys how it’s done,” I muttered as I threw the car into Drive.
I gunned the engine and couldn’t stop myself from yelling in glee as I burst through the garage door into the sunlight. Wood was flying everywhere when I hit something solid before a body flew up over the hood and slammed into the windshield. I didn’t let that stop me, though, and fishtailed in the gravel toward a road I could see in the distance.
A man burst out of the house to my right and ran out in front of the boat I was driving like an idiot. I didn’t let up on the gas for a second and, if anything, veered toward him. The look of terror on his face right before he became one with the grill was almost comical, and I heard someone cackling with laughter.
Imagine my surprise when I realized that someone was me.
Another man appeared as I pulled around the house, and I ducked when I saw that he was holding a gun aimed my way. It seemed like I was watching from above as I raised my arm with the gun in hand and returned fire on my way by. When I glanced in the rearview mirror, I roared with laughter as I watched him fall face first into the weed-infested yard.
I lost the man at the front of the car as I skidded to the left onto the road, but the one who was pressed against the windshield stayed put. Since he was face down, it caught my attention when his eyes opened and he lifted his head. I was sure that the abject terror on his face was due to how fast we were going . . . or maybe it was the gun I had pointed at him.
I knew that he wasn’t a threat, so I ignored his screams as I got my bearings so I could figure out the best way into town. It didn’t take long for me to find I was going the right direction, so I put the gun on the seat and told my watch to call someone and let them know I was okay.
Before I could get the call to go through, an RPD patrol car turned onto the road, fishtailing as the driver found traction, followed by two more units right behind it. I knew that was the cavalry coming to get me, so I slammed on my brakes and watched the man on the windshield go flying. He bounced several times before he starfished in the middle of the road, and the patrol car in front of me swerved to miss him.
I had just enough time to raise my hand to wave at Lawson. I burst out laughing at the look of absolute shock on his face as he passed me. The second and third car skidded to a stop before they got to the man in the road.
Since I wasn’t sure who was in the other two units, I put my hands up and waited as their doors flew open and they took defensive positions. I didn’t blame them at all. For all they knew, I was some crazy person who had taken her asshole boyfriend for a joyride. However, they understood there was no danger when Lawson yanked the door open and pulled me out of the car.
I didn’t have a chance to say anything before he picked me up in a hug so tight that it felt like it might crush me, but he quickly set me on my feet and looked at me in horror before he asked, “Are you okay? You’re bleeding!”
“It’s not my blood, or at least, I don’t think it is,” I said as I wiped my face. I looked down and saw my hands were streaked with blood and still wet from the alcohol that had been in the bottle. I grimaced when I thought about how my face must look.
“Fuck! I’ve gotta call . . . Holy shit, Jan. You scared the fuck out of us!”
“Do your cop thing, but give me your phone. I can’t get a call to go through on my watch,” I explained as I put my hand out. He handed it to me as the other officers walked over, and I smiled when I realized that one of them was Marley and the other was a man I recognized from his trips into the bakery. “Hi, y’all. There’s a gun in the driver's seat, but it’s not mine. I took it off the guy in the trunk.”
“The what?” Marley nearly shouted.
“I’m pretty sure he’s alive,” I said before I took a gander at the man in the road. He obviously wasn’t alive. “I guess that guy realized he can’t fly, huh?”
“She must be in shock,” Lawson said hesitantly.
“I am not in shock, but I do have to pee and I need to call my dad before he burns the entire fucking town down trying to get to me.”
“Call him,” Lawson said quickly. He motioned toward the patrol car Marley had gotten out of and said, “But . . go over there and . . . be still. You’re . . .”
“I think he’s in shock,” I told Marley. “Why is your mouth doing that? You look like a fish.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said as I put in my dad’s number. “We’ve trained for this shit all of our lives.”
“Well, yeah, but we weren’t supposed to ever . . . I mean . . .”
“Oh! I ran over a guy in the driveway down there, and then I shot one right before I got out onto the road,” I explained as I waited for my dad to answer.
“Lawson, did you find her?” my dad yelled as soon as he picked up.
“It’s me, Dad.”
◆◆◆
LAWSON
“I’m sure I’m okay,” I heard Janis say as Brawley and I approached the room where they were taking her statement. “Dad, seriously, listen to Mom. She’s probably the only person who can talk you off the ledge right now.”
I heard Nichole Grissom, Janis’s mom, reply, “It’s going to take him some time, and anything I say at this point is just going to fall on deaf ears. I think you’re going to have to just deal with this for a while, whether you like it or not.”
Grunt, Hank’s best friend and the man Janis called Pop, put his hand up when we got closer to the room and slowly shook his head as Hank started yelling.
“She could have died!” Hank shouted angrily.
“We’re gonna need to give him a minute to wind down,” Grunt said quietly and then winced when he yelled again.
“Neither of you is taking this seriously!”
“I’m absolutely serious when I tell you that I am perfectly okay, although I do need a manicure. I fucked up my nails looking for the trunk release.”
“Jesus Christ!” Hank yelled as Nichole burst out laughing.
Grunt blew out a breath and asked Brawley, “Did you tell him what happened?”
“Everything I know came from radio chatter and what I saw on the messages.”
“Did you get a hold of ‘em already?” Grunt asked.
“The people that took her? No. Where the fuck are they?”
“Then whose blood is all over you?”
“Some lady had a baby. Are you sure she’s okay?” I asked.
“The lady or the baby?” Grunt asked.
“Janis!” I yelled.
“Donut!” Janis answered just as loudly.
“I’m going in,” I said as I maneuvered past Grunt and pushed the door open.
“Good luck, buddy,” Brawley said from behind me.
I glanced at Hank, standing on the other side of the bed where Janis was sitting cross-legged in a pair of blue scrubs, and then at Nichole, who was seated at the foot of the bed.
“That better be their blood,” Hank said angrily.
“What happened to you, Donut?” Janis asked frantically as she started to get off the bed.
I soon realized I couldn’t pull her into my arms with my gear on, so I yanked at the snaps on the front of my shirt and then tugged it out of my waistband. I shrugged it off and then pulled at the velcro to open up my vest before I tossed it aside. Once I was rid of those two items, I reached up and pulled off my shirt.
Before it could even land on the bed, I had Janis in my arms.
“Fuck, Medusa. I didn’t know . . . I was . . . Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but why were you covered in blood?”
“I caught a baby.”
“Was it robbing a liquor store or . . .” Janis asked sarcastically.
“No, his mother was giving birth to him in the back seat of her truck.”
“Shit! You’ve had a big day.”
“That’s it! I’m calling in reinforcements,” Hank growled as he pulled his phone out.
Nichole put her hand on his arm and said, “Martha and Smokey are waiting at the clubhouse with everyone else. We should let them know that she’s fine and they’ll probably release her any minute now.”
“Did they bring Noble in?” I asked over Janis’ shoulder.
“Why? Is he hurt?” Nichole asked.
“He got hit by an airbag,” I explained.
“Was there a wreck?”
“Honey, it’s a wild story, but it can wait,” I said when Hank’s wide-eyed gaze met mine. “Let’s get you settled so your dad can . . .”
“Breathe?” Nichole asked.
“Chill?” Janis chimed in.
“Make it through the day without killing someone,” I answered. “Just this once.”
“Mom, did you see how he took off his shirt?” Janis asked.
Hank let out a loud roar as he stomped out of the room, and Nichole and Janis managed to hold it together until they heard Grunt calling for Hank as he followed him down the hall.
I interrupted their laughter and said, “Now I know where she gets her crazy.”
“He can be a little high-strung when it comes to our kids,” Nichole explained.
“Yeah.” I paused before I said, “I was definitely talking about Hank.”