They emerged from behind the chopper to discover that one of the Sikorsky’s doors was embedded in the helicopter’s windshield, along with someone’s charred leg.
Blue surveyed the damage and shook her head.
“And I thought we were outnumbered, good God.”
***
As the thunderous roar of the explosion echoed across the landscape, Jessica turned and gazed at the cloud of black smoke rising in the distance, and then she smiled.
“What are you so happy about?” Rojo said.
Her smiled widened.
“My husband’s coming.”
***
They ran at a good clip to the site of Rojo’s hijacked jet and saw that one of the wings had been heavily damaged in the crash, but the foldout stairs were sitting open, indicating that at least someone had walked away from the wreckage.
As he approached the jet, Blue halted him.
“Maybe I should check it out first... just in case?”
His mouth set into a grimace and he nodded his head.
Blue entered the jet with her gun at the ready, seconds later; she stuck her head out the door and smiled.
“She’s not here; she must be alive.”
A smile lit up his face, but then he asked a question.
“Rojo?”
“He’s gone too; but the pilot is dead, died in the crash.”
He took out the satellite phone and called.
“We need to be picked up, there are two people on foot and we have to get to them as soon as possible.”
“No can do, buddy, whatever the hell you blew up out there has got people scrambling, local law enforcement is on their way.”
“You can still pick us up; we’re at the other crash site now.”
“Nope, I won’t risk it, but I’ll help you out, as I was flying away before, I spotted two people walking toward Lake Derwan; they were five miles due north of where you are now.”
“How long is the walk around the lake?”
“They wouldn’t have to go around, they can walk across; the ice is thick enough to risk it.”
“You won’t come get us?”
“I gotta watch out for my own neck, buddy, ya know?”
“Hey, pilot.”
“Yeah?”
“I will come get you.”
“I’m the least of your problems, you’re about to get slammed by the mother of all snowstorms. It’s already snowed two feet in Boston, and we’re next.”
He ended the call and spoke to Blue.
“He won’t come, we’re on our own. My guess is that Rojo is walking towards the town on the other side of the lake. I hope you’re in good shape, Blue, because they have a big head start on us.”
Blue walked over and placed a hand on his cheek.
“It’s nice to know you’re thinking about my shape, handsome, but if we’re going to catch up to them, we’d better get a move on.”
And after saying that, she took off at a sprint.
He smiled, shook his head, and then hurried to catch up to her.
CHAPTER 22
Rojo was resting, again. The big man stood with his mouth open wide as he sucked down air.
It’s the damn candy bars. He thought. I’m going to freeze to death atop this lake because I couldn’t stop eating sweets.
Jessica stood in front of him, shielding her eyes from the snow, as she prayed for her husband’s arrival. She shivered as the frigid wind whipped across the frozen lake and the snow piled ever higher.
After teasing with a gentle snowfall, the storm arrived with preternatural force over an hour ago and turned the world into a wall of white. She and Rojo pressed on, hoping to reach the town that lay beyond the lake’s northern shore. Now, as she stood within an avalanche of flakes, she wondered if they were even still heading in the right direction.
A shadow!
Something moved swiftly in her peripheral vision, and as she whipped her head around to see what it was, she realized that Rojo must have seen it also, because he took the gun out and waved it around.
Then, she heard Rojo cry out in pain, as the gun went off and put a hole in the ice. A moment later, and the big man was crashing to the ground with a dazed look on his bloody face.
Next, she saw Blue walking out of the wall of white as if it were a spotless past. Blue lowered herself to one knee in the snow and, after taking away his gun, she cuffed Rojo’s hands behind his back.
And then, he was there, at her side. He took her in his arms and hugged her so tightly that the breath fled from her body and her feet dangled above the ground.
After a kiss, he spoke. “I’d thought I’d lost you when the jet crashed.”
She smiled. “I knew you’d come.”
Blue walked over.
“Sorry to interrupt the reunion, guys, but we’ve got to find shelter. Just before the storm became blinding, I thought I saw a church steeple off in the distance; I would guess we’ve still got miles to go.”
“Then let’s get going,” he said. “Blue, you walk along with Jessica while I get Rojo back on his feet and—”
A loud CRACK! rang out, as the ice beneath them split down the middle of the bullet hole and opened a foot-wide gap. Blue fell to the ice, but grabbed onto the collar of Rojo’s jacket and pulled herself to safety.
Jessica was closest to the hole and slid backwards into the icy water, before her husband grabbed her hand and kept her from sinking any deeper. However, the water had gone pass the tops of her boots and filled them, and now she shivered uncontrollably, as her feet grew numb from the cold.
“Oh my God, oh my God it’s so cold,” she said, as her teeth chattered.
“She’s screwed,” Rojo called over. “Those boots of hers are filled with water, and in this cold, that means frostbite.”
He leaned over and talked to Jessica, while Blue removed her boots and wet socks; it was so cold, that the socks were already stiffening, as the water turned to ice.
“Tell me what to do, Jessica. How do we make this better?”
“Heat, I need heat, and soon, or he’s right; I could lose my toes, possibly even my feet.”
“We could make a fire?” Blue said.
He shook his head.
“This wind is brutal; we’d never get one going.”
“We’ll use friction,” Blue said. “We’ll each rub her feet with our hands.”
“Our hands are like ice, it wouldn’t be enough,”
Jessica cried out in pain, as she shivered.
“Oh God, it hurts so mu, mu, much,”
He looked around, desperately searching for anything to use to make a fire, but everything was coated with a glaze of white ice, and he knew that the wet, howling wind would test the flames of any fire. Then, he saw the solution, and rose to his feet.
Without the slightest preamble, he walked over to Rojo, took out his gun, and shot him between the eyes. Rojo had just enough time to yell, “Hey! Hey!” before the bullet blew the back of his head off.
Blue cried out. “What the hell was that?”
“Mercy.”
“Mercy?”
He pulled back Rojo’s clothing and then planted a knee on his chest, afterward, he drew the Bowie knife from its sheath, jammed the blade just beneath Rojo’s breastbone, and began cutting him open, splitting him down the middle like a Christmas turkey, as vapor rose from the bloody gash.
Throughout all of it, Rojo laid with his eyes opened, but unblinking against the driving snow.
He walked back over to Jessica and lifted her up, to carry her back to Rojo’s corpse. With considerable care, he slipped first one, and then both of her feet amidst Rojo’s organs, Rojo’s still warm organs.
“Good God!” Blue said, as Jessica wept in his arms.
“Blue.”
“Yes... yes?”
“I need you to ease Rojo’s jacket off of him and then take the knife and cut it in two. We’ll use it as a covering for Jessica’s feet.”
Sh
e didn’t move.
“Blue?”
“I heard you; I got it, right.”
She removed the jacket, and as she was cutting it in two, a cloth pouch fell out of an inside pocket, when she opened it, she discovered the diamonds.
“What’s in there?” he said.
“Diamonds,” Blue said. “Holy crap they’re diamonds.”
“Good, that means you’ll still get your payday.”
She nodded in reply and soon walked over with the makeshift moccasins. He lifted Jessica a little higher and her feet slipped out of the gore, and then Blue wiped off the blood with the remnants of a sleeve and wrapped up Jessica’s feet.
He opened his mouth to say it was time to get going when he heard it.
A helicopter.
Somewhere above them a helicopter was hovering, searching.
While still holding Jessica, he fumbled in his pocket for the flare gun, and then fired a shot into the air. Moments later, they could hear the motor of the metal bird descend, and soon, a bright light blinked off and on from a short distance away.
Before walking towards the light, he kicked Rojo’s body and sent it tumbling, until it rolled into the icy water and disappeared.
When they reached the chopper, they found their reluctant pilot and a young Asian woman wearing a thick parka and carrying a laptop; her pretty face wore a big smile, and, it was a familiar face.
“I see you decided to come anyway, Carly,” he said.
Carly beamed at him with pride, but when she spotted Jessica, she began to cry.
“Oh my God, Dr. White, oh thank God you’re alive,”
He spoke to the pilot. “What changed your mind?”
“Not what, who, that girl back there threatened me.”
“Carly, are you carrying a weapon?”
“No sir, I didn’t need to, I threatened to send his business records to the IRS. His real business records,”
“Jessica.”
“Yes?”
“I think it’s time we gave Carly a raise.”
Carly smiled again. “Thank you, sir.”
“Land this thing at the nearest hospital, my wife needs medical attention.”
“Right.”
“And Blue, while I’m at the hospital with Jessica, please pay Max Stacey a visit.”
“I’ll do that, and afterwards, I’ll call the police.”
“Sir?”
“Yes, Carly?”
“The man who abducted Dr. White, did he escape?”
He said nothing, and Carly leaned forward.
“Sir?”
“He split, Carly.”
“Split?”
“Yes.”
“I see,” Carly said, while not seeing at all, and she wondered just what was so funny that it had the dark-haired woman seated beside her shaking from suppressed laughter.
***
He arrived back at the motel the next day to find Blue loading her pick-up.
“How’s your wife doing?”
“She’s good. We’re going home tomorrow.”
“Well, I’m out of here now. I’m going to cash in these diamonds and then spend a week in the Bahamas. I’ve had enough cold weather for a while.”
He nodded at her. A moment later, she walked over and kissed him.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“That was for the hell of it, God, it’s such a shame you’re married; we’d make a hell of a pair.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Was that a proposition?”
“No, I like your wife too much and we both know that you’d turn me down anyway, plus...”
“Plus what?”
“Tell me something, if Rojo hadn’t been there, and it was just you, me, and your wife...”
“Yes?”
“Would I have had your wife’s dainty little feet tiptoeing among my innards?”
“Have a safe trip, Blue.”
She nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
And then she kissed him again, climbed into her truck, and drove away.
TAKEN! – SECRETS & LIES
By
REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1
They were back in Georgia, at the farm outside of Atlanta where they helped Sandra Jenkins and her daughter. The man that owned the farm was named George Carver. He was mid-thirties, of average height and size with dark hair and pale blue eyes. George sat out on the patio of his home, having drinks with Jessica White and her husband.
They were keeping the promise they made to themselves in Vermont, the promise to slow down and work less. To that end, they were going to spend the next few weeks as guests at the farm, and also act as caretakers of the property while George went away on his honeymoon.
They hadn’t met George’s fiancée yet, a woman named Lena, but she was soon to arrive and stay at the farm until the wedding.
George held up a hand and began counting off.
“One, the Rolls Royce, two, there was blood all over the barn, three, my run money was missing, four, two bullet-proof vests are gone, and five, there are also a few chickens missing. Now, it’s none of my business what you and Jessica do behind closed doors, but chickens? Now that’s kinky,”
“The chickens were used as a distraction," he said. “Same thing with the car,”
“But did you have to use the Rolls? I mean why not that old truck I use to pick up supplies?”
Jessica laughed. “That old truck wouldn’t distract anyone, George, and besides, we paid to have everything fixed, didn’t we?”
“He wouldn’t take the money,” he told his wife. “George still thinks he owes us, but I told him we’re even now.”
“We’re not even, we’ll never be even, not after what you guys did for me, and I didn’t invite you here to bitch about the car anyway. I invited you here because I’m getting married and I want you guys to get to know Lena before the wedding.”
“Congratulations again, George, and I can’t wait to meet the bride to be?” Jessica said.
“She’ll be here any minute, and Lena is as beautiful as you are Jessica.”
Jessica leaned over and kissed George on the cheek.
“I’m so happy for you.”
George’s phone rang and he answered it. “Hi baby, yeah they’re here and they can’t wait to meet you, we’re out on the patio, come and join us and we’ll grab your bags later.” George put his phone away and smiled. “She just arrived; she’s staying here until the wedding.”
A few moments later, a woman walked out onto the patio. The dress she wore was tasteful and expensive and her wrists and neck gleamed with gold. Her makeup was understated, and she wore her long, dark hair up, in a tasteful swirl. She was tall and slim, but sensuous, and as George stated, beautiful. She and George shared a kiss and then she gazed over at them.
As he stood to greet her, he noted that Lena took him in from head to toe, however the look was not one that a woman gives a man, but more like an appraisal, as if she were passing judgment.
George made the introductions, and as Lena shook his hand, she smiled.
“George tells me that you’re the toughest man he knows, why is that?” Lena asked, and revealed a Brooklyn accent.
“I met George while we were in college; at the time, I paid my way through school by doing a little prize fighting.”
George guffawed.
“A ‘little prize fighting’ he calls it. Lena baby, you are talking to a three-time winner of the Ultimate Fighting Challenge. He once beat ten men in one night, one after the other, and this was back in the day when that sport had absolutely no rules. You should have seen him. He’d walk into the steel cage with that pretty boy face and his opponents just knew that they could take him, but after a few minutes, they were either unconscious or begging for someone to stop the fight.”
“Interesting,” Lena said, and then she looked at Jessica. “George told me that you were a psychiatrist, he also said that you work with the FBI?”
“I consult occasionally, but tell us, Lena, what kind of work do you do? George has told us little about you.”
“I’m recently retired from a field of work that’s too boring to even think about. My plan now is to settle down here with George and grow old together.”
They talked for nearly an hour, while sipping wine and nibbling on cheese. During a lull in the conversation, Jessica reached over and squeezed George’s hand.
“George, Lena seems lovely; I’m so happy that you’ve found someone.”
“Thanks Jessica, now why don’t we all go inside and have lunch?”
As they rose from the patio table, Lena’s phone rang. She took it out and looked at it with apprehension, then, a moment later, she answered it.
“...hello?”
“Lena, it’s so nice to hear your voice. You do know who this is, don’t you?”
It was a man's voice, and he spoke with a Russian accent.
“Yes, but hold on for a second.”
Lena covered the phone with her hand and smiled at everyone.
“George, why don’t you take our friends inside and I’ll join you in a minute, this is my bank calling, something about a problem with my checking account.”
“Oh, okay baby, but make it quick, huh?”
“I will.”
George opened the patio door and Jessica and her husband entered the home, as George was about to follow them inside, Lena called to him.
“George?”
He lifted a brow in inquiry. “Yeah?”
“I love you; I really love you,”
“I love you too, baby. Now hurry up and take care of your problem; I want my friends to get to know you better.”
Lena nodded. “Goodbye,” After watching George go inside, she spoke into the phone again. “How did you find me?”
“It was pure luck, bad luck for you, now listen, I’m parked out on the main road with three of my men and if you don’t come to me in the next ten minutes, we will come in and kill everyone in sight.”
“I’ll come out,” Lena said.
“Good girl,” said the voice, followed by the click of the call ending.
Lena took a deep breath and then gazed in the direction of the house with a look of mournfulness. Afterward, she took a pen out of her purse and scribbled a message upon one of the cloth napkins. Next, she grabbed a small sharp knife off the table, a knife that George had been using to slice the brie they had eaten with their wine, and then she artfully hid it amidst her hair, taking great care to secure it.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 1-4 (Taken! Box Set) Page 12