by Connie Mann
“You do realize that you stick out like a flashing beacon in your shiny new clothes and fishing gear, right? Never mind the gun in your fishing vest.”
He didn’t say anything. Had never had much to say, come to think of it.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m keeping an eye on things for Mr. Wang.”
“And by things you mean me.”
He didn’t respond.
“What exactly did he ask you to do, Phillip?”
“The same as always, Miss Catharine.”
“You’ll watch and report back.”
“Correct.”
“What if someone tries to hurt my fam—the Martinellis? What are your orders then?”
“I’m here to offer protection.”
Cat studied him awhile, the determined look in his eyes, and finally nodded. “Thank you, Phillip.”
“My pleasure, Miss Catharine.”
She started toward the house, then stopped, looked over her shoulder. “Where is Blaze?”
“We don’t know. But Mr. Wang is working hard to find out.”
She watched his eyes. “You think Garcia has her.”
He shrugged, looked away. “It is the logical conclusion.”
Yes, it was. It was also the most terrifying.
By the time the van slowed, Blaze hurt all over. The ride had seemed endless, though she figured they really hadn’t gone all that far. Still, with her hands and feet bound, she hadn’t been able to hold on, so she’d slammed against the side of the van with every sharp curve and tight corner. Even her bruises had bruises.
Her heart pounded as the vehicle finally came to a stop. Should she pretend to be asleep? What were they going to do with her?
The van doors squeaked as they opened, and someone grabbed her feet and hauled her backward toward the door. She cried out as her arms scraped the floor. She tried to hold her head up, but couldn’t, and pain radiated from her skull as her head thumped the floor and she was dragged backward.
“Quit your yapping,” the same voice growled as he grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder again. The blood rushed to her head as he hurried along. Whatever they’d put over her head started to slip, and Blaze had a moment of hope that it would fall away and she could figure out where they were. Was that water she heard? She tried to sniff the air through the cloth. Her instincts said she was near the Gulf. That should help, right?
Help with what? Her cell phone was still in the trailer, so she couldn’t call anyone. Even if Cat had gotten her text, provided it had actually been Cat’s number she’d dialed, she hadn’t gotten there in time. Now, her family had no idea where she was or how to find her.
A door opened, and she heard the man’s footsteps on what sounded like concrete steps, going down into what felt like a basement or something. He tossed her onto a narrow cot, and she winced as she bounced. “Don’t go anywhere.” He laughed, and she heard the door click shut behind him.
Blaze rolled to her side and listened for a moment, desperate to hear something, anything, to help her figure out where she was. She’d watched enough cop shows to know that’s what you should do. No train whistles, no traffic noise. But if she listened really closely, she still thought she could hear water lapping the shore.
The door opened again, and she stilled, waiting.
“Madre de Dios, look at your wrists.” The woman had a thick accent. Blaze felt a tug, and then her wrists were freed. Another tug by her feet as the woman cut that restraint, too.
“Un momento, I will get you all fixed.”
Blaze reached for the cloth over her head, but the woman stopped her with a surprisingly strong grip. “Leave it. It will be safer, no?”
Nodding, Blaze swallowed hard. The woman meant she was safer if she couldn’t identify them. Maybe this meant they’d let her go, though, right?
The woman’s hands were firm but kind as she put ointment on the cuts around Blaze’s wrists where she’d tried to work her hands out of what felt like zip ties. Then came bandages.
The second the door closed behind the woman, Blaze listened, trying to make sure she was really gone. When she was sure, she eased the hood up just enough to look around. She was in some kind of storage room. The only window had a shutter on the outside, blocking most of the light. She moved closer. There had to be a way to get out.
She heard voices and froze. She hopped back on the bed and pulled the hood halfway down so she could listen.
The voice belonged to the guy who’d brought her here. “He wants us to get the other one, too, so he can take care of them at the same time.”
Goose bumps broke out on her skin, and she stifled a cry. They were going after Cat. Which meant they knew who she was.
But it was his last line that made her shake. What did “take care of” mean exactly? The possibilities made her teeth start to chatter.
Maybe, just maybe, Cat could help her figure out how to stay alive until Nick came to get them out.
Chapter 21
How was she going to figure out where Garcia was holding Blaze? Cat had no idea. She paced, chewed the inside of her lip, and finally climbed into her sad-looking car and started driving.
She left the marina and headed down the two-lane road toward town. She didn’t even know for sure if Garcia was in Safe Harbor.
But if a couple of hired thugs showed up around here, they’d stick out like sore thumbs. Somebody would have noticed them, and people would be talking about it. Which meant the next logical place to go was the Blue Dolphin, the best source of local news and gossip in the county.
She headed that way, hoping against hope that people would finally forgive the bratty teen she’d been and actually talk to her. But she’d deal with that when she got there.
She glanced in her rearview mirror and noticed that a white van had showed up and was closing in fast. She inched over toward the shoulder, trying to give him room to pass, but he didn’t, just kept narrowing the gap. Her heart sped up as the van moved in close enough that all she could see in her rearview mirror was the front grill.
Fear and excitement churned inside her, and she kept a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. This had to be Garcia’s men. Were they planning to run her off the road?
Almost before the thought formed, the van rammed her from behind. Cat fought to keep the car on the pavement, heart pounding. Did they intend to kill her? Or kidnap her?
She had some vague notion of allowing them to grab her, so she would be with Blaze and they could escape together, but when the van hit her again, it was hard enough that she couldn’t control the car.
A strange sense of déjà vu filled her as the car rolled once, then bounced, then flipped again and landed in the culvert.
Cat felt the seat belt snap into place, her still-bruised ribs hit the steering wheel, and her head collide with something hard.
This couldn’t be happening again. She struggled to catch her breath, to stay awake. She had to get to Blaze, had to protect her.
She shook her head. “Come on, stay awake, think,” she muttered.
Someone yanked on the driver’s side door handle, and Cat’s head snapped in that direction. All she saw was dark sunglasses and a ball cap.
Her head swam, and she struggled to focus. Seconds later, the passenger door opened, and he reached in to unclick her seat belt. Before she could react or decide how to respond, hard hands grabbed her. She struggled instinctively as he dragged her up and over the gearshift and out of the car.
She yelped in pain as he lost his grip and she fell out the door. She tried to scramble backward, but he was too quick. He reached under her arms and, in one motion, tossed her over his shoulder. Cat twisted and bucked, desperate to free her legs. She’d almost succeeded when another man stepped over and pressed a gun to her temple. “Be still,” he growled.
She eyed the gun and stopped struggling. She couldn’t help anyone if she were dead. Between the crash and being held upside down, her stomach rebel
led, and she retched. Her captor cursed long and loud when it covered his back and legs. She felt a moment’s grim satisfaction and realized she was feeling better and her head had cleared.
Best not to let them know any of that, though, so she let her body go limp. Normally, she would have taken both men down without a moment’s hesitation. Neither one of these goons was in top shape. But Cat was nothing if not a realist. She wasn’t at her best right after yet another car crash.
Besides, getting away wouldn’t be her smartest move. Not right now. She was betting her life that these men had also taken Blaze. She’d let them take her, too, bide her time, and see where Blaze was. Then she’d make her move, free them both.
The gun came out of nowhere and slammed into the side of her head before she had time to brace herself. She jerked sideways, and everything went black.
Nick was sitting at his desk when the call came in to the emergency number.
“Safe Harbor police, what’s your emergency?” Wanda asked. “Take a deep breath, ma’am, and tell me what you saw.”
Nick hurried over and stood right behind Wanda’s chair so he could hear what was being said. The caller almost shouted in her agitation.
“There was a van, a white van, and I saw it ram this little car. I was going in the other direction, so I turned around and came back and when I did, I-I saw two men grab a woman out of the car.”
“Were they trying to help her?”
“No, she was struggling, and the one guy tossed her over his shoulder and then headed back to the van.”
“Did they see you?”
“I-I . . . oh, dear God, I have no idea.”
Nick leaned closer, worry gnawing at his gut. “What did the car look like?”
“It was small, like a Toyota or something, not new, but it was all banged up. The roof was dented, even before it rolled over.”
“What did the woman look like?”
“She was small, dark hair. It happened so fast, I didn’t get a good look.”
“That’s fine,” Nick said. “What direction did they go?”
“Um, I’m not good with directions, so I . . . ah . . .”
“Toward Safe Harbor or away?” Nick barked.
“Away. Definitely away.”
Nick was already halfway out the door when he heard Wanda ask the woman for her name and other information.
Someone had grabbed Cat.
Cat woke with a burst of pain as she crashed against a wall. She forced herself to swallow her cry and, instead, tried to pull in shallow breaths and take stock of her surroundings.
She blinked and looked around. She was obviously in a van of some kind, and it was moving fast. She touched the side of her head and winced when her hand came away bloody. Geez, good thing she had a hard head. She couldn’t keep doing this.
Her brain finally snapped back into focus, and the instinct to escape with it. She’d been kidnapped. By Garcia’s men, no doubt.
She tried to get a good look at the driver and passenger, but both men wore dark glasses and had ball caps pulled low over their heads. They wore Hawaiian shirts over shorts and flip-flops, no doubt to try to blend in, but Cat didn’t miss the holsters under their shirts.
No one in Safe Harbor would be fooled by these so-called tourists for long.
She could easily jump out of the van and escape. It shouldn’t be that hard. If she leaped into the bushes alongside the road, the landing wouldn’t kill her. Probably.
But she wouldn’t. She’d stay right where she was. She was betting they would take her wherever they were holding Blaze, sort of a two-for-one deal.
She’d find a way to get her out, get them both out, alive.
That meant, for now, she’d stay right where she was.
I’m coming, Blaze. Hang on, girl.
Fury hummed under Nick’s skin as he raced out of the station. No way was somebody’s hired muscle going to abduct Cat. Not on Nick’s watch. He sped out of the station parking lot, tires squealing, lights and sirens blaring. He only hoped he wasn’t too late.
A white van heading out of town wasn’t much to go on, but it was all he had right now. Wanda would relay any other information available, but Nick didn’t think the caller had gotten a license plate.
Most of the cars eased over to the side to allow him to pass, but there were always a few idiots who didn’t think the rule applied to them. He laid on the horn as he sped around a Cadillac with New York plates and got flipped off for his trouble. He just shook his head and sped up.
Come on, you cretins. Where are you?
It didn’t take long before he spotted the van driving down the road at exactly the speed limit. They weren’t total idiots. They’d made sure the van didn’t have a license plate, either.
Nick filed that information away and noted the make and model as he approached. He used his microphone to say, “Pull over.”
As he expected, the van sped up. “Of course,” he muttered and hit the gas. He could easily catch them. His SUV could outrun the van any day, but he didn’t want to get too close, didn’t want to push too hard, not with Cat in there. He wouldn’t risk the driver doing something stupid and rolling the van or running off the road and killing everyone inside.
He kept his hand steady on the wheel, trying to anticipate the driver’s every move. The van shot down the road, and Nick’s speedometer inched up to sixty, then seventy, then eighty as he kept pace. He grabbed the microphone again. “Pull over to the side of the road.”
The driver glanced in his rearview mirror and sped up even more. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?” There was nothing along this stretch of road except wide-open fields and cattle pasture. There was nowhere to hide.
Except there was. Sure enough, that’s where the van went. Ten miles outside of Safe Harbor, the sign for Springside came into view. The nearby town boasted crystal-clear artesian springs and a river and was bordered by national forest. If they crossed the line into Springside, he’d have to notify local law enforcement.
But he didn’t think they’d go that far. As Nick expected, the driver slowed as they approached the dense forest. When the trees thickened on both sides of the road, he slowed even more, Nick right on his tail. He called Wanda and told her to send JD to this location, gave a description of the van. Not for the first time, he wished Safe Harbor had a bigger department and systems that could track each officer’s location via GPS.
Before the van came to a complete stop, the door opened and the driver took off running into the woods. Nick pulled in behind and was out the door, gun in hand.
A second man took off into the woods in the opposite direction. Divide and conquer. It’s exactly what he would have done.
He ran to the van and yanked the door open. Inside, Cat blinked at him as she struggled to a sitting position. He climbed in and crouched beside her. “Are you OK?”
With the light behind him, it took a moment for her to focus on his face. When she did, she slugged him in the arm. “What are you doing here? Go get them before they disappear!”
“Are you OK?” he asked again.
“I’m fine, you idiot, but they’re getting away.” She tried to shove past him. “If you won’t go, I’ll track them down myself.”
He blocked her path, took her chin in his hand, and wouldn’t let go until he’d checked her eyes. “Stay put and wait for EMS.”
He hopped out of the van and used his radio to call dispatch while he ran after the passenger, the slower of the two guys. The driver had already disappeared.
This guy clearly hadn’t learned evasive maneuvers, because he crashed through the underbrush, making enough noise that Nick had no trouble following him. All the birds went quiet, but the scrub palms rattled as the guy passed by.
Mosquitos buzzed around his head as Nick ran, and sweat poured down his back, the humidity thick in the air. He stopped, breath heaving, and listened. There.
He changed course and picked up the pace.
Befor
e long, the man came into view. He glanced over his shoulder, saw Nick, and took off with a surprising burst of speed.
“Couldn’t make it easy, could you?” he muttered and sped up. He caught up to the guy and tackled him in one quick jump.
“Don’t move,” he warned as he pulled the guy’s hands behind his back and snapped on the cuffs.
“I didn’t do nothing, man. I’m just jogging through the woods.”
Nick stood and hauled the idiot to his feet. He eyed the belligerent stance. He took him to be late thirties, dark skin, eyes, and hair. Built like a tank, probably played football in high school, but drank too much beer these days, so that muscle was mostly fat now. “What’s your name?”
“I want a lawyer.”
“OK, Mr. I Want a Lawyer, I’m taking you in for resisting arrest and failure to pull over.” He marched the goon toward his SUV. “And anything else I can think of. We’ll see what the woman you kidnapped has to say.”
“I didn’t kidnap nobody.”
Given the man’s belligerent stance didn’t change a bit, Nick figured the guy expected his employer to come bail him out, or send a fancy lawyer to do it.
“Who do you work for? Who hired you?” He didn’t think he’d get an answer, but it was worth a try.
“Lawyer.”
“That’s your right, of course, but this will go easier in the long run if you answer a few questions.”
The guy had the gall to laugh in Nick’s face.
Clearly, he wasn’t the brains behind the operation. But who was he working for? Cat’s uncle? Or someone else entirely?
Cat leaned against the side of Nick’s SUV, fuming. Dang the man. Why couldn’t he leave things alone? How was she going to figure out where Blaze was now?
Nick finally showed up, hauling the passenger with him. She marched over, angry that she still felt a bit unsteady on her feet. She was tired of getting beat up, especially when it didn’t help find Blaze.
She poked the guy in his broad chest, demanded, “Where’s Blaze?”
He glared down at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady.”