Stepping back inside, she saw that she definitely had the right room. Both women had left their purses and coats, and there was the sweater Cyn had been wearing when they went out this morning.
She nearly threw up as terror jolted her gut, her heart pounding so hard and fast, she thought she’d choke on it. “Marlon!” She ran back down the short hallway, rounding the corner to the dressing room exit and almost smashing into her bodyguard.
“They’re gone!” She heard the tremor in her own voice. “Cyn and Sarah—” She didn’t get the words out before Marlon grabbed her up and the other two barreled past.
“Marlon,” she said, fighting against his smothering hold. “Take me down there. I need to see.”
“Wait,” he growled.
“I can help! Please!”
Swearing softly, he hustled her back to the empty dressing room, one arm holding her so tightly, her feet barely touched the ground. Robbie and Eddie were storming from room to room, slamming open doors.
“So help me God, Cyn,” Robbie was muttering. “If this is a joke…” He headed back toward the entrance, clearly thinking Cyn had slipped past him somehow, although Emma knew that wasn’t possible. Something had happened. Something bad. And she couldn’t bear it. Not again.
In moments Robbie was back, bearing down on Emma like a vengeful god. “Is this a joke?” he demanded, glowering down at her.
“Ease off, dude,” Marlon warned him, turning so his body shielded Emma.
“It’s okay,” Emma reassured the big man. She came out from behind his bulk and looked up at Robbie. “If it’s a joke, no one told me. And I don’t think Cyn would do something like this, do you?”
His jaw tightened. “No. God dammit, no. So, where the hell—”
There was a sudden crashing noise and Eddie was shouting, “Look at this!”
They rushed back to the dressing room, where Emma stared in shock. Eddie had pulled away one of the big mirrors to reveal a video camera. Even more than that, the crashing noise had been Eddie smashing through what looked like a flimsy door of some sort. He was leaning halfway through the ragged opening, staring down what looked like a dingy hallway that was clearly intended for maintenance workers.
Emma thought about Sarah and Cyn stripping down in front of that mirror and wanted to throw up. And then she thought about what someone like that would want with a couple of helpless women—and she knew they were helpless by now, because, while she didn’t know Sarah all that well, she did know that there was no way Cyn would have gone quietly. Whoever had done this had used enough immediate force that Cyn hadn’t had a chance to call out, much less fight back. And Emma didn’t want to think about what that meant for their abductor’s intentions.
Robbie had dismantled the camera and was handing it over to Eddie, as he shoved the mounting hardware aside and pushed back into the maintenance access. He barely fit in the small passageway, but squeezed his way through, then disappeared for several minutes. When he returned, he was slapping dust from his clothes and had a grim look on his face.
“Drag marks,” he said disgustedly and pointed at the filthy floor in explanation of where he’d gone. “They lead down this hallway to an emergency stairwell that opens onto the street. Probably had a car waiting or nearby. “There had to be more than one of them to take both women at the same time. And Cyn’s a wildcat. She wouldn’t go easy,” he added, unconsciously voicing what Emma had thought only moments earlier.
“I didn’t hear a whisper from either one of them,” Ed grated out. “Sarah might not be a fighter, but she sure as hell knows how to scream. They were either taken by surprise or knocked out somehow.”
“Fuck!” Robbie swore, then began searching the things the women had left behind. “Cell phones,” he said. “If they have their—fuck me!” he cursed again. He held up the smartphone that Emma recognized as belonging to Cyn. “Ed?”
Ed had Sarah’s coat in one hand and was patting down the pockets. He stilled, then reached into the inside pocket. “Sarah’s,” he said grimly.
Robbie kicked viciously at the broken door, knocking what was left of it into the passageway beyond. He didn’t waste any time, just took off the down the hallway, with Emma hurrying to follow, and Marlon grabbing her from behind with a growled admonition. Ed squeezed past them and Emma couldn’t see a damn thing, nearly running into Ed’s back when he stopped abruptly.
“This is the way they went out,” she heard Robbie say, and then a door opened. A chill wind rushed down the narrow hallway, carrying with it a whiff of diesel and rotten garbage. The door closed and they were moving again.
The hallway widened out and became better lit. “Security office,” Robbie muttered up ahead. “Son of a bitch. Makes sense, too. “What time is it?” he asked flatly.
“Nearly four o’clock,” Ed provided.
“And what time’s sunset around here? Six or so?”
“Seven, daylight savings is over.”
“Okay, that gives us three hours to find the two of them before all hell breaks loose. Any ideas?”
“Let’s look at this logically,” Emma said, feeling amazingly calm now that the first panic was over. All three of the guys, on the other hand, stared at her like she’d lost her mind. She gave them an impatient look. “Well, it’s better than throwing clothes around the place and growling at things!” she snapped. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t so calm, after all.
“Fine,” Robbie grated out. “Think logically for us, then.”
“All right.” Emma drew a thoughtful breath and let it out. “First, whoever did this doesn’t know who they’ve taken. This—” She gestured at the dismantled camera and smashed doorway. “—has been here a while—fucking perverts,” she added viciously. “Anyway, there’s no way they could have targeted the three of us. No way to know we’d use this particular changing room or that the rest of the rooms would be empty. So it was a crime of opportunity. I’m not saying they didn’t plan to do it eventually, but not necessarily today and definitely not specifically Cyn and Sarah. You agree with me so far?”
Ed and Marlon nodded, while Robbie just made a hurry-up motion with his hand. The clock was ticking.
“Right, so. This is a high-end boutique. Most of their stuff is designer brands. That means money, and that’s what these guys are ultimately after. They’ve been watching wealthy women take it off and waiting for a chance to grab one, or maybe two, and demand money for their return.”
“Okay. Suppose you’re right. How does that help us?” Robbie said impatiently.
“Well, first, it means they won’t hurt them.”
“It doesn’t mean that at all,” Robbie growled. “It just means they won’t kill them right away. They need them alive long enough to demand a ransom, to provide proof-of-life. Doesn’t mean they can’t hurt them, can’t …” Robbie’s mouth snapped shut, his jaw flexing visibly with anger or fear … maybe both. “But you’re right about one thing,” he said finally. “These assholes have no idea who they’ve taken.”
Emma blinked at the idea that the kidnappers might already be doing terrible things to Cyn and Sarah. They were probably scared to death.
* * * *
“Son of a bitch!” Sarah shouted. She slammed the hard heels of her boots against the crappy hollow core door of their erstwhile prison. She could hear them yammering away out there, laughing like a couple of hyenas, the two morons who’d grabbed her and Cyn. They had no idea whom they were fucking with. Her wedding was tomorrow and she’d be damned if a couple of mouth-breathers were going to fuck that up for her.
Next to her, Cyn moaned softly for the first time since they’d been taken. “Cyn!” Sarah hissed, more grateful than she could say that her friend was waking up at last. She didn’t mind admitting she’d been a little worried. They’d hit Cyn pretty hard when they’d weaseled in through their secret door. Fucking perverts. She shuddered at the thought of them watching her change clothes. Ick.
Cyn moaned again, louder, then rolle
d over, her bound hands jerking as she tried to reach for her head where Sarah could see a good-sized lump beneath the dark hair.
“Cyn?” she said again. “You okay, hon?”
Cyn’s eyelids fluttered. She opened her eyes a slit, taking in the sight of Sarah sitting next to her, hands tied behind her back, feet bound in front of her where she sat against the wall.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Cyn muttered, and closed her eyes again. She left them closed for a minute, then opened them all the way with a groan. “Damn. I was hoping we’d gotten really drunk and you were a hangover hallucination.”
Sarah laughed weakly. “No, sorry. This is the real deal. How’s your head?”
“I’ll tell you after I throw up.” Cyn maneuvered herself into a sitting position, made awkward by the fact that her hands and feet were bound, just like Sarah’s. She leaned slowly against the wall, breathing hard.
“So,” she said, “the whole creeps behind the mirror thing . . . that was real?”
“Yeah.”
Cyn absorbed that for a minute. “Fucking perverts.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Your wedding’s tomorrow.”
“I know,” Sarah said in outraged agreement.
“And we’ve got to get the fuck out of here before sunset.”
“Tell me about it. The guys are gonna freak.”
Cyn snorted. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“Cyn.”
“Yeah.”
“Shouldn’t we be more worried? I mean … I’m not scared at all. Shouldn’t we be scared?”
“Nah. First of all, you and I aren’t exactly helpless. We’re going to get ourselves out of here. Second, I don’t know your Ed, but Robbie will be turning this city inside out looking for us, and I have total faith in Robbie. And, finally, and this is really important, you and I are mated to two of the baddest motherfuckers on the planet. The minute the sun goes down, they’re going to make a beeline for this shitty apartment and tear the heads off those assholes in the other room. That’s assuming we’re still here, of course. Which we won’t be.”
“We absolutely have to get out of here first. Raj will have a fit if he wakes up and I’ve been kidnapped again.”
“Tell me about it,” Cyn agreed gloomily. “Hell, if Raj is anything like Raphael, neither one of us will see the sunlight for years. Decades maybe.”
Sarah nodded vigorously. “Plus, it would totally ruin my wedding.”
“And that is the number one reason why it’s not gonna happen. You don’t fuck with a woman’s wedding day. So, let’s get this show on the road.”
Cyn gritted her teeth against what had to be a really bad headache and let herself fall sideways, scooting around on the filthy carpet until her feet were even with Sarah’s hands. Sarah was eyeing her like she’d lost her mind, but Cyn just grinned up at her.
“Put your hand into my boot, little girl,” she said to Sarah. “I’ve got something very special for you.”
“Is it bigger than a baby’s arm?” Sarah snickered as she twisted her bound hands into an awkward position that let her drop her fingers inside the shaft of Cyn’s boot. “Ooooooh, it’s hard.” She lifted her hands away, then twisted around to examine what she’d found. It was a small folded knife, stainless steel with mother-of-pearl insets.
Sarah frowned. “It’s very pretty, but much smaller than I expected.”
Cyn laughed. “Hand it over. It may be small, but it’s mighty.” She took the proffered knife, and turned it until she could feel the recessed button mounted flush with the decorative insert. She clicked the button and felt the slender switch blade deploy with a nearly silent snick of sound.
“Is that a switchblade!” Sarah hissed excitedly. “I didn’t know you carried one of those!”
“It’s a long story. Let’s just say I’ve discovered there are times a girl needs a blade down her boot.” Cyn concentrated as she reversed her hold on the blade and maneuvered it between her bound hands. Thank God those losers had used plastic ties. Probably thought they were being all TV cop cool. Idiots. This would have been much more difficult if they’d gone old school and used rope, or, even worse, duct tape. She knew from experience that the silvery tape took a lot of effort to cut through, especially when it was your own wrists you were cutting. Not that the switchblade had a dull edge; it was quite lethally sharp. But it would have taken Cyn a lot longer to free herself and probably cost more than a few drops of blood if she’d been cutting through tape. And Raphael was going to be pissed enough when this was over. She didn’t need to add blood loss to his list of grievances.
Sarah had fallen silent while Cyn worked, but Cyn could feel her friend watching her. She’d made light of their predicament to Sarah, not wanting her to get too upset and get Raj all riled up. Because if Raj got riled, Raphael would get riled, and he didn’t need that. Not after nearly losing Cyn not so long ago. She hadn’t needed Duncan to tell her how much it had shaken Raphael when Cyn had nearly died. The mate bond between them was a powerful thing, and it left few secrets.
And speaking of Duncan, where was Emma? She’d been out in the store when their abductors had struck. Hopefully that meant she had escaped completely. That was good news and bad. Good, because Emma was okay, but bad, because Emma’s bodyguard would immediately rush her back to Duncan, and Duncan was staying in Raphael’s townhouse. Cyn sighed. She was fooling herself anyway. No matter how hard she worked to stay calm and relaxed, no matter how much effort she put into keeping her bond with Raphael full of don’t worry about me vibes, Raphael would know exactly what was going on. And he wouldn’t need Duncan or Raj to tell him, either. So, Cyn would just have to be sure she made it back to the townhouse before he woke for the night, or the shit would really hit the fan.
The thick plastic tie gave way so suddenly that Cyn almost cut her arm anyway. She shook out her arms quickly, rubbing her wrists as turned to attack Sarah’s bindings.
“I bet they’ll be surprised,” Sarah muttered. “Never thought we’d escape, did you, assholes?”
“I imagine the very act of thinking is quite beyond them. You sure they’re both out there?” Cyn indicated the next room with a tip of her head, then grimaced at the movement. “Barf,” she said, closing her eyes briefly. “Remind me not to do that.” She bent carefully and went back to work on Sarah’s wrists.
“Yeah, I heard them arguing earlier, but they’re watching Maury now, I think. Something about a baby momma and two potential daddies, the slut.” Sarah’s wrists popped free and she rubbed them gently while Cyn made quick work of freeing first her ankles and then Sarah’s.
“There’s just two of them?” Cyn verified.
“That’s all I saw at the store and on the way here, and I haven’t heard anyone else arrive since we got here.”
“See any guns when they took us?”
“One. They knocked you upside the head with it, then pointed it at me. I’m a little insulted that they obviously considered you the greater threat.”
“Probably just a matter of opportunity, hon,” Cyn said soothingly. “I saw them first is all.”
“Maybe. Assholes.”
“The important thing is getting the fuck out of here before it ruins your wedding, agreed?”
“Damn straight. Fucking assholes.”
Cyn grinned. “All right. Here’s the plan. You stay here—” She gave Sarah a forbidding look when she opened her mouth to protest. “Sarah, I love you like a sister, but hand-to-hand combat is not your strong suit. Besides, you’re the bride, I’m only the maid of honor. If I’m sporting a bruise or two, no one will notice. If you are, everyone will notice and they’ll think bad thoughts about Raj. Do you want that?”
“Raj would never—” Sarah protested loudly, until Cyn shushed her.
“Of course, he wouldn’t. And most of the people at the wedding—which will be tomorrow night and will be beautiful—already know that. But there’s always that jealous few, just look
ing for something to pick on. You want to give those bastards any satisfaction?”
“You’re right,” Sarah admitted grudgingly. “We had to invite some of Raj’s business associates.” She said the words like they were something foul. “Vampires mostly. Kiss-asses.”
“That’s my girl. Now, time’s a wastin’. I’m going to wait until the audience out there is screaming for blood, then I’m going to open the door very quietly and take a look.” She stopped, suddenly struck by a terrible thought. What if the door was locked? She drew a breath to ask Sarah if she’d heard the door lock, then let it out just as quickly. The cheap door had equally cheap hardware, and no lock. Thank God for incompetent kidnappers. “Okay,” she continued to Sarah. “Once I make sure they’re distracted, I’m going to slip out low to the ground.”
“And then what?”
“And then I play it by ear and hope they’re so wrapped up in the daddy drama on Maury that they’ve left the gun sitting on a table somewhere. Either that, or I’m going to have to slit someone’s throat, and I really like this sweater.”
“It is a pretty sweater.”
TV cheers swelled in the next room and Cyn listened carefully. “This is it. You sit here and try not worry. Stress is bad for your skin.”
* * * *
“They worked for Security,” Ed said, his disgust evident as he stared at the monitor, which clearly showed the changing room where the women had been earlier. “You’d think a place like this would at least vet the people they hire for security.”
“Maybe it’s their first time,” Emma ventured absently, sitting down at the desk and shuffling through folders and papers.
“What’re you doing, Emma?” Marlon asked.
“I bet the security department here has access to some level of personal information on every employee. If we can figure out who was scheduled to work at this station today, maybe we can … Ah, there it is.”
“The work schedule,” Robbie said, reading over her shoulder. “Does it list … there, we’re on the second floor. Second floor vid station, that’s gotta be this place.”
Vampires in America: The Vignettes, Volume 1 Page 12