Hiding Catherine

by Jennifer Becker

  “You’re going to pay for that you bitch.” He hissed at her. Hatred gleamed in his eyes. A look she had seen to often and yet this time was different. It terrified her to her core. The man looking at her now was a stranger. There was no hint of the Martin she had first met years ago. Now, before her stood a monster, and she had to get away from him. His face was sunken in making his cheekbones stand out. Large bags hung under his cold dead black eyes. And his skin was a sickly white. He looked terrible.

  Catherine pulled and struggled against him, no longer caring if they brought attention to themselves. A few onlookers looked their way, but no one interceded, except Rayne.

  “Let her go.” Rayne pulled on Martin’s arm and yelled for help.

  Martin cursed and drew his gun, aiming it straight at Rayne’s chest. She immediately stopped fighting him, and stared down at the gun aimed at her in shock. “You’re going to pay for that bitch.” He panted at her while still holding Catherine in his arms. “The both of you. Now since you had to butt your nose into my business you get to join us.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Rayne challenged him, staring Martin down.

  “Then die here in the streets for all I care,” Martin said coldly and aimed the gun straight at her heart.

  “No Martin, please don’t do this, I beg you.” Catherine clawed at his arm trying to make him see reason. “I’ll go with you. Anywhere you want. Leave Rayne alone. It’s me you want. Not her.” Catherine would rather die than go with Martin, but not at the risk to Rayne. She had to protect her friend. Emily would probably be back any moment with Annie, and she couldn’t risk that. “Let’s just go. My car is a few blocks away.”

  Martin didn’t look like he had heard anything she had said. Her plea had fallen on deaf ears. He stared at Rayne as if debating his next move. “She comes with us. If I kill her now, it will ruin my plans.”

  Plans. What plans?

  Martin lowered his weapon to keep it out of sight, but kept it trained on Rayne as he guided both women away from the finish line to Catherine’s car. She tried to catch Rayne’s eye, so they could come up with a plan to get out of this, but Rayne stared straight ahead with her head held high.

  Chapter 24

  Charlie was sweating profusely, and his legs felt like jello by the time he saw the finish line. He and Ghost had made it a personal mission to see who could beat who and put to rest who was the old man. He had been training regularly for this, but since he and Catherine had started dating his training had become lax, and he was now paying for it. Not that he would complain. This was a charity race. But his pride and his team's pride were on the line, so he pushed himself to his breaking point. It had made his chest swell with pride seeing Catherine on the sidelines cheering him on as he and his team had to move logs and played tug of war. Ghost’s team was a formidable team; they were in it to win it. They had joked and teased each other yesterday about the race, but now everything was on the line. Now he was covered in sweat and longed just to finish this race, so he could go home to Catherine.

  They rounded the last bend, and the Alamo came into view. The finish line. Where he knew Catherine would be waiting for him. He wanted to share his victory with her when he won the race. Ghost was keeping pace with him and didn’t look as winded as he did. Bastard. He shouldn’t have used up some of his energy last night and this morning with Catherine, but he couldn’t regret it.

  “You’re not thinking about quitting on me, are you?” Ghost panted, he obviously wasn’t as unaffected by this race as Charlie had first suspected.

  “Nope, just envisioning holding bragging rights over you when I win, old man.” Charlie panted heavily. He shouldn’t be talking, he should be conserving what little energy he had left for making it across the finish line. It was a challenge going through all the courses and then going straight into the run. It made him think of the people who did triathlons and how they went from each course so flawlessly.

  “Keep dreaming.” Ghost chuckled.

  Charlie could see the giant banner that read finish line. This was it. Time to leave Ghost far behind. Using what little was left in his tank of reserve, Charlie pushed himself ahead of Ghost. Ghost picked up the pace as if he had just been waiting for Charlie to charge ahead. Charlie blocked Ghost out and focused on the finish line. He’ll never know what it was, but just as he was twenty feet from the finish line about to win, he looked out of the corner of his eye to see a frazzled Emily and Kassie looked around anxiously in the crowd. Where was Catherine or Rayne? Something wasn’t right. He knew it with every fiber of his being. Without a further thought to the race, Charlie veered to the left and ran up to the security fence and stopped in front of Emily.

  “What happened?” he asked breathlessly looking around for any hint of Catherine hoping he was being overly paranoid.

  “They're gone,” Emily said worrying her hands. “I went to check on Kassie and Annie since they had been gone a while, but Annie had to go to the bathroom before she got a snack, so it took them longer than planned. When we came back, Rayne and Catherine were gone.”

  Catherine was gone? Charlie’s legs threatened to buckle, and he clung to the security fence for support. “Maybe she and Rayne went to get a snack?” He suggested but knew that couldn’t be it. Catherine would know the race was ending, and she would have been waiting for him at the finish line.

  Emily shook her head no. “We would have seen her coming back.”

  It was confirmed then. There was no doubt in his mind who had her. Martin. That son of a bitch. It was the only thing that made sense. He was the only person who would be stupid enough to kidnap two women surrounded by so many people. They would be lost in the crowd.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ghost looked at Emily then scanned the crowd with a bemused look before settling back at her. “Where’s Rayne?”

  Emily’s face crumbled. “She’s gone and so is Catherine.”

  “Martin has them,” Charlie told him without a shadow of a doubt.

  Ghost clenched his fists, and a tic worked his jaw. “But where could they have gone? The streets are crowded, and there are roadblocks everywhere.”

  “Are you talking about the two women that were here earlier? Two brunettes?” A guy asked who was standing next to Emily.

  It was a vague description, but he doubted there could be too many women in the vicinity that had gone missing. "Yes, I believe that's them." Charlie tried to say calmly when instead he longed to pull the guy over the barrier and demand answers.

  "I saw them leave a few minutes ago. Neither lady looked happy about it, but they went with some guy. He didn’t look well. His face was sunken and really pale."

  "And you didn't think to stop them?" Ghost growled out barely restraining himself from pulling the guy over the barrier and ringing his neck.

  "Wasn't my place," the guy shrugged with indifference.

  Charlie couldn't understand how some people could sense someone was in distress but never felt inclined to help. If the women were taken by a man and didn't look happy about it than that left a few suspects. Martin was still his number one suspect, but the description didn’t fit. Tex warned them the man turned to drugs and alcohol, so that could explain the sunken eyes. It didn’t matter who had them, he just had to find them. There were a million places he could have taken the women, and he didn't know where to start.

  Charlie turned to Ghost who had turned away and was headed for the finish line with a determined stride. The rest of the teammates came around the corner and saw the looks on both Ghost and Charlie’s faces. Their fatigue quickly vanished, and they double-timed to the finish line.

  "What happened?" Fletch asked as a volunteer handed him and everyone else a water bottle.

  Ghost said nothing but led them away from the crowd back to their cars ignoring the photographers and press. Emily, Kassie, and Annie caught up with them. Fletch's features eased upon seeing his wife and daughter, but it quickly diminished when he saw how upse
t Emily was.

  "Rayne and Catherine are missing." She whispered to him softly.

  Every time someone said Catherine was missing he felt his heart tare. How could he have let anything happen to her? She was his to protect, and he let her be kidnapped. Charlie knew that Emily felt partly responsible for the women missing, but he focused instead on what needed to be done to get his woman back. Now wasn’t the time for emotion. This was a rescue mission. Plain and simple.

  Using a hideaway key under his car, Ghost opened the door and pulled out a cell phone. He punched in two numbers and hit send before putting the phone on speaker.

  "What's up," a voice said with a slight Texas drawl. Everyone knew who it was without having to be told.

  "Tex, Rayne and a woman named Catherine have been kidnapped a few minutes ago near the finish line of the race." Ghost said without preamble. There was no beating around the bush about it. Every second they wasted took the women further away from them.

  "The woman I checked on her ex-boyfriend not long ago? Hang on." They could hear his fingers fly over the keyboard then silence.

  "Tex, today." Charlie snapped reaching the end of his rope.

  "I'm working on it. If you think this shit is so easy, you do it." That mollified him. A little. "I hacked into the traffic cams around the finish line. I sent a picture of the guy to your phone." An indicator box flashed in Ghost's phone, and he clicked it to reveal a grainy but recognizable photo of a man standing behind Catherine. Charlie took the phone from Ghost's hand to study it. Charlie recognized him on sight, but the man looked terrible. Obviously living seven months off the grid could do that to a person.

  "This is Martin Fenton, Catherine's ex." Charlie handed the phone back to Ghost.

  "Mommy," Annie whispered. "Is the bad man going to hurt Rayne and Catherine?”

  "Shh," Emily hushed her, and Fletch picked her up and held her close to his chest.

  "It looks like he led the women to a run down looking yellow car." Catherine's car, Charlie thought.

  “Catherine got in the driver seat and Martin in the passenger."

  “And Rayne?" Ghost asked tightly.

  “In the back. The car is still in motion heading west towards the edge of town."

  “There's nothing out there but warehouses," Ortiz stated.

  “Tex keep following them, call me back when they stop." Ghost hung up and addressed Charlie. “Charlie, your house is closest. We'll change there and as soon as we know where they stop we'll go after them."

  Charlie wanted to say fuck the plan and head straight for the warehouses, but knew that wouldn't help rescue Rayne or Catherine. They needed a plan and cover all entrances and exits.

  He turned back to his team. "Grab your gear and meet back at my place." His team ran off for their cars without a word.

  "Captain Green," a deep booming voice called out behind him.

  Charlie cringed hearing his commanding officer behind him. "Head to my house, I'll catch up." He rattled off the security code to get in, and turned back to face his pissed off commander.

  “What the hell happened out there?" His commander barked. His eyes blazed fury and a vein was throbbing in his temple. Charlie had never seen him this angry before.

  “Sir, my girlfriend has been kidnapped.” Saying it out loud for the first time nearly sent him to his knees. He had failed to protect her.

  “I don't give a shit if the Queen of England had been standing there telling you to kneel and be knighted. You were about to win that race, and you just stopped.”

  “Sir, I understand I let you down, but if I don't get out of here right now, I'm going to let someone else down.”

  “Well, they can get in line.” His commander didn't seem to care what Charlie said either way. He was wasting his time and energy trying to argue his case.

  “I'd love to discuss this further, but I have to go.” Charlie about-faced and ran towards his car ignoring his commanders shouting. He would so pay for that later.

  By the time he made it to his house, everyone was already waiting for him in full tactical gear. Ortiz had brought over some of his guns from his collection and had handed them out. The man had more weapons than he knew what to do with, but he would not complain about it right now.

  “You guys brought your gear with you?” Charlie asked in surprise when he saw Ghost and his team in their gear.

  "Never leave home without it."

  It was a good enough answer for him. "Any word from Tex?"

  Ghost shook his head. "Not yet."

  Charlie understood Ghost was just as antsy to find Martin and save his woman. Rayne was no delicate flower, but what she had gone through in Egypt had shaken her to her core. He could only hope Martin did nothing similar to her or there was no telling what Ghost might do to him.

  "Let me go gear up and we can at least head in that direction. It will take some time to get across town anyway." Charlie raced up the stairs two at a time and grabbed his duffle bag out of the back of his closet, hastily changing clothes. He holstered his two pistols on his thighs and strapped his favorite Bowie knife to his calf before returning downstairs.

  "You know it's just one guy right?" Ortiz teased him before stuffing a cookie in his mouth. Ortiz had to sit out the race due to his injury, but there was no way he was sitting out the fight. He may not be able to use one arm, but he was still deadly.

  "One man who has evaded Ghost's team and our own, yet managed to spirit away two women without anyone really noticing. He may only be one man, but with the lives of a cat and the cunning of a fox. I'm not taking any chances. We end this thing with Jacks followers once and for all today." His words instantly sobered Ortiz.

  “Bring her back,” Emily told Fletch. He nodded at her and kissed her and Annie on the forehead.

  "Let's move out." Ghost instructed, and they all piled out the door.

  "Hang on a little bit longer, baby. I'm coming."

  Chapter 25

  Catherine's hands shook as she listened to Martin's instructions on where to drive. He was guiding them to the outskirts of town where there were only warehouses. Why did he want them to go out there? Catherine had tried catching Rayne's eye more than once, to tell her to jump out of the car and make a run for it. After looking in the rearview mirror one too many times Martin had caught on and moved into the backseat to keep his gun trained on Rayne. There would be no immediate escape for them but she would think of something. She had to. It wasn't just her life being threatened. Her only saving grace was that Emily had left to find Kassie and Annie, so he couldn't capture them too.

  With Martin in the back, she could get a better view of him now from the mirror. His hair was long and greasy like it hadn't been cleaned in months. He had a full grown beard now that reached past his Adam's apple. Like his head hair it was greasy looking and hung there loosely. His eyes were pure black; there was no trace of his blue eyes. Was he on drugs? He had to be on something. The man he once was and the man she once thought she loved, was long gone.

  "Turn left at this light, cupcake." Catherine gritted her teeth and did as he said. A few blocks later he told her to pull onto a dirt parking lot next to a decrepit looking building. It looked like it hadn't been used in decades. "Everyone out," he ordered.

  Catherine got out first and tried to walk towards Rayne, but a vicious tug on her hair pulled her back to Martin's side. "I don't think so, cupcake. You stay with me. Don't want you getting any ideas."

  "Why do you keep calling her that ridiculous name?" It was the first time Rayne had spoken since their kidnapping. Catherine had almost sagged in relief. She feared her friend was getting flashbacks from her kidnapping in Egypt.

  Martin turned his cold black eyes on her. "Mind your own business. Cupcake is a name I gave her a long time ago." More like his buddies called her that, and he quickly followed.

  "It's his funny way of calling me fat, but to onlookers sounds like an endearment." Catherine supplied.

  Martin gripped her h
air tighter, and she could feel several strands had been ripped out. She gritted her teeth, so she didn't cry out in pain. Martin got off on pain, and he didn't deserve to see the satisfaction of her in pain.

  Rayne gasped in horror, but Catherine turned to her and shook her head no. Now wasn't the time to anger Martin. He had a weapon and now he just took the car keys. They would have to run for help, and there was nothing for miles. Her only plan was to stay alive until Charlie came. He would find her. He vowed to her he would let nothing happen to her. She didn't hold getting kidnapped against him, since he had been in a race. He had almost been at the finish line when Martin took them, so it wouldn't have taken him long to realize something was wrong. He would come for her soon. Martin had been idiotic enough to steal Rayne too, so now Martin would have two Delta Force teams after him. The man didn’t stand a chance.

  Martin pushed Catherine ahead of him while he dragged Rayne by the arm to the side door of the warehouse. He let go of Rayne, so he could reach in his pocket for the key to unlock the door. Catherine finally caught Rayne's eye and nodded to her before she grabbed Martin by the back of his head and slammed him into the door rendering him unconscious.

  “Run,” she screamed to Rayne as she felt around Martin's pockets for her car keys. She wrapped her fingers around them and pulled them out when Martin's hand snatched her wrist and twisted. She heard a pop then there was only pain. She screamed out, and tried to pull her now broken wrist out of his grip, but he had an iron grip on her.

  Martin picked up his gun from the ground that Catherine hadn't even thought to grab and aimed at Rayne's retreating back.