“We can’t leave Abigail by herself. She gets confused. As soon as we leave, she’ll likely burn the house down, and I don’t think you want that kind of attention.” She hesitated before adding, “And you don’t want to take the chance that there’s something here you might need later.”
“Lock her in a closet or something,” Owen told Cheng.
Jake shifted behind his grandma and put his hands on her shoulders to keep her close. “If you’re going to leave her here, at least let me lock her in her bedroom.”
“That’ll take too long.”
“It’ll be faster than locking her in a closet,” Jake insisted. He motioned toward the front door. “The locks here are a hundred fifty years old. Once it’s locked, you have to use a key to open it regardless of which side of the door you’re on.”
“Fine.” Owen huffed out the word impatiently. “But we’re all staying together. No tricks.”
“No tricks,” Jake repeated, praying Hannah had an idea for how to help him break his word.
Chapter 44
Charlotte hated the idea of locking Abigail up almost as much as she feared Jake coming with them. She tried to facilitate Abigail’s current fate, taking the time to remind her where her water glass was in her private bathroom as well as the snacks Abigail kept in her night side table.
When Owen started rushing her, she knew his patience was running thin. She also realized she wasn’t going to be able to stall them long enough for Ace to arrive.
“Now, where’s this other piece of equipment we need?” Owen asked as soon as Abigail was locked in her room.
“In the study.” Charlotte didn’t wait to be told to show him the way, but she kept her pace slow and steady as she made her way down the main hall.
Her mind continued to race. She had to come up with a way for Ace to find them, but Owen had obviously figured out that she was trying to stall.
The men had yet to confiscate their cell phones, and she felt a little seed of hope sprout at that thought. As soon as Ace arrived and found the house empty, he would start a search.
When they reached the study, Charlotte entered first, with Owen shadowing her and Cheng keeping a close eye on Jake. She started toward the desk, where she had stashed the flash drive containing the fake database.
Before she reached the desk, Owen gripped her arm and shoved her back against the wall, holding her firmly there. “Where’s the other one?”
She swallowed her fear, struggling to catch her breath after the unexpected assault. Her voice was raspy when she forced herself to ask, “The other what?”
“I know you didn’t walk in here with only one weapon.”
Her head was turned toward Jake, and she saw the intent in his eyes as his hand clenched. Jake’s fist shot out and connected with Cheng’s jaw. Cheng stumbled back two steps, knocking into the wall behind him.
Terrified Owen would retaliate, Charlotte threw her shoulder back to knock him off-balance. She could hear the other two men scuffling, her focus now on disarming the man beside her and drawing her backup weapon.
She whirled to strike out but found Owen staring coldly at her, the gun now aimed at her forehead.
“I wouldn’t try that again.”
Charlotte froze, her vision blocked by the gun. She was vaguely aware of Jake crashing to the ground.
“I’ll repeat: where is it?”
“Right ankle.”
He leaned down, patted her ankle until he found the holster strapped there, and removed the weapon. He stuck it in his waistband. “And your phone.”
Charlotte blinked hard, fighting back tears that wanted to form. She retrieved her phone from her pocket, praying against all odds that she and Jake would survive the day.
With Owen’s gun now lowered somewhat, Charlotte was able to look over at Jake to see him sprawled out beside her equipment case, the corner of his mouth bleeding. Cheng straightened and scooped up his gun, which must have dropped during the scuffle.
Cheng spoke evenly when he motioned for Jake to stand up. “Do that again, and it won’t be my fist I’m using against you.”
“Find something to tie his hands with, and take his cell phone,” Owen told Cheng. He shifted his attention back to Charlotte. “As for you, get whatever you need to activate the database. And understand that if you can’t do it, your boyfriend here will be dead before nightfall.”
Charlotte didn’t doubt Owen’s threat, nor did she miss the wild look in his eyes. She took a slow step toward the desk, keeping her gaze on him.
The laptop was open, the screen facing toward the far wall. Not wanting to draw any attention to the video feeds currently on the screen, she scooped up the flash drive she had loaded the fake database on and slowly turned to face Owen.
“I have everything I need. Now please let Jake go.”
“After I get what I want, you two can go wherever you want, but not until then.” Owen waved her toward the door. “Now let’s go.”
Owen took the flash drive from her, keeping his gun on her while Cheng fastened her hands behind her back with a piece of telephone cord. The two men then escorted her and Jake out to the SUV parked haphazardly in the driveway.
Owen opened the back door and shoved her into the backseat on the passenger side. Cheng kept one hand on Jake’s arm as he escorted him around the front of the vehicle.
Charlotte heard Jake stumble, followed by Cheng’s frustrated voice. “Get up!”
She looked up to see Jake pressed against the front of the SUV, his back to her. A moment later, Jake was forced into the seat beside her, ducking down in time to prevent his head from connecting with the top of the car.
She and Jake were seat belted into the car, their hands bound and pressing into their backs uncomfortably. Overshadowing the physical discomfort was the sense of helplessness that washed over her.
As they drove past the main gate, Charlotte had to face reality. If Ace managed to find the security feed on her laptop, he would be able to see which way they were heading for the first turn, but within minutes, their trail would run cold. She and Jake were on their own.
Tears threatened when she forced herself to look at Jake, knowing that in a matter of hours, her secrets very likely would end her life and the life of the man she loved.
* * *
Ace knew something was wrong the moment he saw the front gate hanging drunkenly on its hinges. Tall oak trees lined the long drive like soldiers standing guard. Clearly their presence hadn’t slowed down whomever had crashed through the gate.
He studied the road as well as the drive in front of him. Split-rail fencing separated the paved driveway from the fields beyond, and steep hills rose from where the road cut between them. A bend in the drive made the house invisible from the road.
He saw the blue flashing lights an instant before the house came into view.
“Great,” he muttered under his breath. With nowhere to park a car out of sight, he came to a stop a few yards before a bend in the drive, long enough to retrieve a portable light used by undercover police officers. He set it on his dash, retrieved a set of fake credentials from his glove compartment, and sped up the driveway.
A single police car was parked out front. Though the lights were still flashing, the vehicle was empty.
Ace parked his car and approached the front door, noting that it didn’t show any indications of forced entry. He took that as a good sign. Maybe the cops were here to take someone into custody that Charlotte had succeeded in apprehending. The idea that she would have to take care of herself without support grated on him, but as long as she was safe, he didn’t really care how her pursuers were captured.
The door was slightly ajar, and he knocked twice before pushing it open. He immediately found himself facing a man in a sheriff’s uniform, a gun in his hand.
Ace held up his fake credentials. “Lee Watson. FBI.”
The man examined Ace’s badge and ID before pulling the door open wider. “Come on in.”
“I got a call about a possible problem. Do you know what’s going on?”
“We’ve got two people missing.”
Ace fought to hide his rising anxiety. “Who?”
“The owner, Jake Bradford, and his girlfriend, Hannah Thomas.”
“What happened?”
The sheriff motioned into a living room off the main hall, where a couple in their fifties sat with an elderly woman. “Jake told the foreman to turn all their horses out to pasture and leave the property. He was supposed to come get Jake’s grandmother and take her with them, but when he got here, Jake and Hannah were gone, and Jake’s grandmother was locked in her bedroom.”
“When was that?”
“About forty-five minutes ago.”
“Did you question the grandmother?”
“Yeah, but she suffers from some kind of dementia. She wasn’t much help. All she said is that her son had two visitors and that her daughter-in-law took her to her room to take a nap.”
“Where are her son and daughter-in-law now?”
“Dead. Killed in a car accident a couple months ago,” Sheriff Fowler said. “My guess is she’s talking about Jake and Hannah and is just confused about who they are.”
“I’m going to need to check out the house.”
“Go ahead. I was about to do the same, but I wanted to get as much information as possible for my deputies. They’re all out searching for them right now. A forensics team should be here any minute.”
“Do we have a make and model of the car?”
“Not yet, but my deputies are asking around. This is a small town. Someone will have noticed a new car around these parts.”
Ace nodded. “Let me know if you hear anything.”
“Same goes.”
With the impending arrival of more law enforcement personnel, Ace didn’t waste any time. He made a quick sweep through the main level. What caught his interest, though, was the office: a computer monitor, a laptop on the desk, and the case of equipment he had given Charlotte open and shoved aside on the floor.
He looked down at the open case. Most of the equipment was missing. Quickly circling the desk, he keyed in on the laptop, waking it from its hibernating state.
The screen came to life. Security feed filled the screen, four cameras currently streaming to it.
Though he wanted to scroll through the security images right then, he didn’t want to take the risk of involving the local cops. Instead, he picked up what looked like a flash drive from the case he’d given Charlotte. He plugged it into the laptop USB drive and pressed the small button on the end to activate the download of the entire hard drive.
The moment the download was complete, he made several keystrokes to erase everything from the computer.
He was still standing behind the desk when the sheriff walked in. “Did you find anything?”
“The laptop here is wiped clean. I haven’t checked the other computer.”
“That’s the computer Jake’s dad used before he died. I’m not sure there’d be much of interest on it.”
“Probably not, but you might want to check it out anyway.” Ace skirted around the edge of the desk. “Any news from your deputies?”
“A black SUV with Maryland plates was spotted a couple hours ago. It might have been someone just passing through, but we’ll put out a BOLO.”
“Did anyone get the license plate number or a good look at the driver?”
“No. Apparently two men were sighted, but folks around here don’t normally have need to take down plate numbers.”
Ace took a business card out of his pocket. “Here’s my number. Give me a call if you hear anything else.”
“Will do.” The sheriff exchanged his own business card for Ace’s. “I don’t suppose you can tell me what brought you out here in the first place.”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“That’s what I figured.” The sheriff walked with him to the door. “Let me know what we can do to help out. The Bradford family’s roots go deep here. Don’t want to see anything else happen to them.”
“Neither do I.” Ace fought the urge to sprint to his car. He drove to the end of the driveway, where he was well out of sight of the house, before pulling over.
Deftly, he retrieved a small laptop, plugged in the flash drive device, and powered it up. Thirty seconds later, the screen lit up, mirroring the image he had seen on the laptop inside.
He keyed in on the image of the front gate, rewinding the video feed to the beginning. He had barely started to fast forward it before he saw the vehicle crash through. He jotted down the license plate number and started to go to the next screen when he saw a disturbing image: Charlotte emerging from outside of the camera’s range and racing up the drive.
Chapter 45
Jake felt like he was living in a dream, or rather a nightmare. First he found out who Hannah really was, and then these guys turned up and showed him exactly what it was like to experience true, bone-deep fear. It was the same emotion he had seen reflected in Hannah’s eyes when he had first told her about these men visiting.
She sat rigidly beside him now. He didn’t know if she wasn’t looking at him because she didn’t want him to see the tears in her eyes or because of the obvious guilt she felt for putting him in this situation.
He wiggled his fingers, trying to keep the blood flowing through them as well as his hands and arms. They had been on the road for more than an hour. From what he could tell, they appeared to be heading east, but no one had mentioned their end destination yet.
His jaw still aching from his run-in with Cheng, Jake hadn’t ventured to ask any questions, but the curiosity blooming inside him was growing unbearable.
If Hannah’s reaction to these men was any indication, they had to come up with some way to escape. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a way to write them out of this scene, and he suspected that any mistake could very well be fatal.
He didn’t know what the solution would be, but he wasn’t about to give up without a fight.
* * *
Charlotte stared straight ahead, unable to look at Jake, unable to face what her presence had cost him, what it could still cost him. Instead, she sat silently, her jaw set, her mind whirling.
She was the key. Whether Owen and Cheng knew how literal that phrase was or if they just saw her as the means to an end, she couldn’t be sure. What she did know was that she would have to make a stand. The question was how she could do that and save Jake while also protecting the men and women who would be at risk if she gave Owen what he wanted.
She prayed the fake database would be enough to buy her some time, but time for what? She was unarmed and electronic free. She had hoped Ace would be able to trace the SUV’s GPS signal, knowing he would find the license plate off the video feed. But Owen and Cheng must have anticipated that possibility because they had stopped on the side of the road twenty minutes after leaving Jake’s house and changed the license plates. Undoubtedly, both sets were fake to make sure there would be nothing to trace if they happened to get caught on any traffic cameras. Not that those were prevalent in the country, but now they were navigating the outskirts of some kind of town.
With nothing to trace and no way to find them, she and Jake were truly on their own. Despite the years of training with her father, without the proper tools and knowing she had never faced such a situation in real life before, she knew she wasn’t up to the task.
She started to look down at her watch only to feel her shoulder pull when she remembered her hands were bound tightly behind her. She guessed they had been on the road for over an hour, but the winding country roads and the thick trees that lined them made it difficult to ascertain a direction.
“Where are you taking us?” Jake asked, breaking the silence that had been looming in the car.
“Somewhere where we can set up all the equipment without being disturbed.”
“What equipment?”
Charlotte’s shoulders tensed
. Owen shifted and looked over the seat at her. “He really doesn’t know?”
“He doesn’t know anything. Just let him go, and I’ll cooperate.”
Owen didn’t respond to the renewed plea. Rather, he shifted back around in his seat and looked down at his cell phone, presumably to follow the directions on his GPS. “Take the next left.”
“How much farther?” Cheng asked.
“Forty-five minutes. An hour tops.”
Charlotte rolled Owen’s words through her mind. Less than an hour until she would learn her fate. She made herself turn and look at Jake. The look of determination on his face surprised her, but it gave her the push she needed. He didn’t appear ready to give up, and she had to match his resolve. One way or another, the men in front of her were in for a fight.
* * *
Of all the places Charlotte had envisioned ending up, a toy store hadn’t even made the list. A warehouse maybe or a house secluded in the woods. Even an abandoned amusement park, but a toy store?
She noticed a few restaurants nearby with patrons coming and going, but this store appeared to be closed on Sundays. It was the only large retail establishment in the area and was set back from the road to accommodate its large and currently vacant parking lot.
Cheng drove through the lot and circled to the back of the store. As soon as he turned off the engine, the two men climbed out. Cheng took up a guard-like stance while Owen unloaded equipment from the back. Several minutes passed before he returned. After drawing his weapon, Owen opened a rear car door to let Jake and Charlotte out.
Charlotte rolled her shoulders, trying to ease some of the tightness that had formed from sitting with her hands bound behind her back for the past two and a half hours.
She noticed some seagulls in the distance and caught the slight scent of salt on the breeze. She didn’t know her way around Virginia, but she assumed they were near the coast.
“This way,” Cheng said, motioning toward a rear-loading dock. He led the way, Charlotte and Jake following him, with Owen bringing up the rear, his gun raised as he herded them forward.
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