“Well, I’m off then,” Sarah told Ruby. She grabbed her bag from under the desk and swung it over her shoulder. Waving good-bye to Ruby, she walked out into the parking lot and got into James’s truck. He let her drive his truck all by herself now, as long as she went straight to the library and back again. No stops, no detours, and if she was going to be late from work she had to call her men and let them know. She had forgotten one day and her ass felt sorry for it the next day. She had to beg Blake and James to let her take the truck again after that. They had conceded, and she made sure she didn’t make the same mistake again. She would have to get her own car when she finally settled in the town.
Sarah put on her seatbelt and started the engine. She looked around the almost empty parking lot and slowly started to reverse. As she straightened the truck and changed the gears into drive, she checked her review mirror. A white pickup caught her eye and Sarah felt a shiver down her spine. She shook her head, telling herself she was being silly, and put her foot on the accelerator.
She pulled out of the parking lot and drove over the bridge that led to the highway. Taking her time, she slowly pulled the truck onto the highway and headed toward the Hammond ranch. Once she was on the highway, she switched on the radio and turned up the volume. Jace Everett’s “Bad Things” was playing, and she really loved that song. She was soon singing along and settled into the ride home. Sarah checked her review mirror again and saw a white pickup truck following her. It was quite far back and she was unable to tell if it was the same pickup as the one she saw at the library. It had to be a coincidence. Nearly everyone drove a white pickup around these parts.
Sarah kept driving. She couldn’t help but check her mirror every so often. She wanted to see if the pickup was still behind her. It was, and the further she moved along the road, the more nervous she got.
She soon came to a curvy spot in the road and had to slow down. All the twists and turns meant that she lost sight of the pickup. Not worrying about it, she concentrated on keeping James’s truck on the road. When the road straightened out, she couldn’t see the white pickup anymore and decided she had just let her imagination run away from her.
Sarah sped up again and fiddled with the radio, trying to find a song she knew and not paying attention to the road behind her. She squealed as the back window exploded and glass shattered down onto the backseat behind her. Sarah instinctively ducked her head and looked out the rearview mirror. The large white pickup was back on her tail. It was so close she was sure it was kissing her bumper.
Shit, she thought. They had found her, and quickly, too. Too late did she realize what a big mistake it was ringing her sister. It had taken them only two weeks to track her down. She had been so careful. Her men were going to be pissed if she made it out of this alive.
She put her foot down on the pedal and the truck picked up speed. The pickup stayed on her tail, bumping her a few times. Her head banged forward with each hit. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She was scared. She had absolutely no idea how to get out of this one.
Sarah let go of the wheel with one hand, searching around in her bag and looking for her mobile. If she could ring Blake, he would be able to come after her. She would just have to make sure she stayed on the road until then.
Her hand found the mobile. She pulled it from the bag. The pickup was trying to get up next to her. She swerved around the road, trying to stop it. As she was dialing Blake’s number, the pickup rammed her once again. Sarah lost her hold on the mobile. It went flying from her hand and onto the ground at her feet. She couldn’t reach it and drive the truck at the same time. Now what was she going to do?
Sarah raced toward the ranch. The pickup was still on her tail. It wasn’t going to give up. She had just dropped her only way to escape. She was on a long stretch of road now. The pickup used that to their advantage and came alongside of her. She tried to block it, but was unsuccessful.
She looked over at the pickup, as the side window rolled down. Sarah panicked. She recognized one of the men that was there the day Jenny was shot. A big gun appeared in his hand. Sarah had only seconds to react. She slammed on the brakes of the truck. The gun exploded, blowing out the side window. The bullet missed her. Sarah shot forward in the seat, the truck screeching to a halt.
The other vehicle kept going. It wasn’t long before they, too, slammed on their brakes. Sarah sat in the cab panting. The other truck came to a stop and Sarah reacted.
She undid her seat belt and jumped from the truck. Running for all she was worth, Sarah ran off the side of the road and into the woods. She hoped to lose them in the dense woods. It was going to be hard. She heard them pounding along behind her.
Sarah ran for what she felt was hours. Her side was hurting. She was out of breath and bleeding. She had cuts on her arms and legs from dense foliage. Every now and then one of the goons would take a shot at her. So far they hadn’t been able to hit her.
Sarah ran and ran, her feet pounding along with her heart. She skidded to a stop as she came out of the dense wood, and nearly toppled down a steep incline. Looking left and right, Sarah tried to decide which way she should run. She was just deciding to go left when the goons ran out behind her and she was out of time.
“Finally, I should shoot you right here, bitch. Thought I was going to have to chase you forever,” the goon that had shot Jenny told her, as he panted and puffed for breath. Sarah stood there holding her side and breathing deeply through her nose.
“You can’t kill her yet. The boss wants her alive. Something about payback for all the trouble she caused him,” the second man said. Sarah looked back and forth at each goon. If she went along, maybe she could buy herself enough time for her men to come and save her. They would soon discover that she hadn’t come home and go looking for her. Hopefully they wouldn’t wait too long.
“Let’s go, bitch. Angelo’s waiting.” The man waved the gun in the direction of the wood. Sarah slowly started to lead the way back to the vehicles.
“Don’t try anything funny or I’ll shoot you and tell Angelo we didn’t have a choice.” Sarah didn’t reply and kept walking. She wouldn’t do anything yet, but she would if the opportunity arose.
When she walked out of the woods she saw the two trucks. They were sitting just as they had left them, still in the middle of the road with the doors open. Hopefully someone had come along and called the police.
They put Sarah into the pickup, and the man with the gun jumped in the back beside her. He never stopped, pointing it at her as the second man started the truck and headed back toward town.
Without knowing why, Sarah said to the man with the gun, “I’m going to kill you if I get the chance. Then I’m going to kill your friend and your boss. Afterward I’m going to feed your bodies to the wolves in those woods there.” It just felt like the thing to say. The man apparently didn’t agree with her when he slammed the butt of the gun down on her head, knocking her unconscious.
* * * *
Blake was going out of his mind with worry. Sarah hadn’t come home from work. James had called to tell him that he hadn’t heard a word from her. He was at the station, and after a quick check to see if she was still at the library, he had headed toward home. Blake came across the abandoned vehicle about half way back to the ranch. It was stopped in the middle of the road at an odd angle, and the driver’s side door was open. The back and driver’s side windows were blown out. There was no blood to see on the interior.
Blake called Sarah’s mobile again and wasn’t surprised to hear it ringing inside the cab of the truck. He picked it up and looked at the screen. Seventeen missed calls from James and himself. Where the fuck was she? It was obvious something had happened. The people that were after her must have found her. He prayed she was all right.
Blake sent James a text to tell him what he had found and to get his butt to the station. They had to move fast if they wanted to get to Sarah alive, and every minute counted. Once they got back to the station, he woul
d call in reinforcements. The town would come together to help find her. Each of his friends had their own unique skills that would come in handy.
Wolf and his partner were ex-marines. Grayson Carter and his brothers were security experts. Then there was old Mrs. Hailbury. That busybody knew everything that went on in this town. She would surely have seen or heard something. Most of the ranches could hold their own, too. Tank he didn’t know much about. He was the town recluse. A big scary dude who lived in a little cabin in the mountains. He would surely know something that they could use to their advantage.
Blake got back to the station in record time. He ran inside and yelled for April. Together they started to ring up people and have them either come to the station or keep their eyes open for out-of-towners and unusual happenings. He had his deputy scour the town for clues.
It wasn’t long before the place filled with volunteers, each one dedicated to searching for their woman and bringing her back safely. Grayson’s brother Brock was on the computer, hacking the airport’s surveillance. Wolf was talking on the phone to some old buddies that left the marines and went to work for the FBI. Cole and Trace Jackson were checking the weapons supply and making sure everything was in working order.
With not much left to do, Blake went into his office to make a call he wasn’t looking forward to. He had to ring Alex and tell him he had lost their witness. It wasn’t the fact that he had failed Alex that was making him sick. It was the fact that he had failed Sarah. He promised to protect her and he hadn’t done that. Now he had to own up to it, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
He picked up the phone and rang the number he was only supposed to use in an emergency. It started to ring, and then a voice came over the line.
“Blake, tell me good news, man. I am on my way to the airport now. Intelligence has just informed me that a man by Angelo’s description left the country for America nearly a week ago, and somehow the information never made it to my desk,” Alex said.
“They’ve got Sarah, Alex. She was driving home from work and they got to her. We are doing everything we can to find her. I don’t understand how they discovered her whereabouts. She was with us all the time. The only time she was out of our sights was when she was at the library.” Blake gripped the phone tighter. Shit, that was it. The night Sarah had finished work and came home all quiet and reserved. He had known she looked guilty about something, but hadn’t pressed the issue. Then they had all forgotten it after the club and she had gone back to normal.
“I should be there by late tomorrow. Blake, you need to find her, and fast. This man is dangerous and has a lot to lose if Sarah isn’t eliminated.”
“Don’t worry, Alex. We’ll find her. She is too precious for me to lose her now. Alex, I love her and James does, too.”
“I thought that might happen when I sent her to you. She was perfect for you and I knew it the minute I met her. It was just convenient that she needed you as well.”
“Alex, I’ve got to go. We will discuss this once she is safe back in my arms.”
“See you soon.”
Blake hung up the receiver and went back into the main room. His brother was pacing up and down, pulling on his hair in frustration. He knew how he felt, but freaking out wasn’t going to do Sarah any good.
“I’ve got her,” Brock said, making everyone turn to him. “I’ve tapped into the rental place at the airport and checked their records. All the cars have GPS tracking systems, and one was rented two days ago.”
“Can you track it from this computer?” Blake asked as he walked over to stand at Brock’s side.
“Already done. It is located at the old Shepard place, just on the other side of town,” Brock said. He was still tapping away at the computer as he spoke, but Blake couldn’t make out anything he was doing as his fingers flew over the keys.
“Let’s go. James, you come with me in the cruiser. Wolf, you and Grayson can approach from behind. Cole and Trace can flank the sides. No one approaches before I give the signal. Stay hidden. We don’t want our approach noticed.”
They split up and jumped into the various vehicles. Blake burnt out of the parking lot and just hoped they weren’t too late.
Chapter Eighteen
Sarah woke, her head pounding from where the arsehole had hit her with the gun. She didn’t open her eyes, not wanting her captors to know she was awake. She was lying on something soft, which she presumed was a bed. Her hands and feet were free, as they hadn’t tied her up. She listened to see if anyone was in the room with her, but all was quiet.
Opening her eyes a crack, she peeked through her lashes. She was in a room, a bedroom by the look of it, and thankfully she was alone. Sarah opened her eyes fully and sat up. The room was a little run-down, and dust covered every surface. It was sparsely furnished, just a chest of drawers, an old wooden rocking chair, and the small bed she slept on. The wooden floorboards were bare, and the window curtain hung on an odd angle on the rail.
Sarah stood up from the bed, the room spinning as dizziness swamped her. She sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes closed until it passed. Once everything was back to normal, she quietly crept toward the window. She peered outside through the gap in the curtains and tried to decipher where she was. All she could see was an old broken fence and overgrown pastures. Beyond the pasture sat woods, but that didn’t help as the whole area seemed to be covered with the huge pine trees.
She looked around the room once more, looking for a weapon or anything she could defend herself with. There was nothing. The room was empty. Sarah wasn’t sure what to do next. If she tried to leave they would know she was awake. If she lay there and pretended she was asleep, then she wasn’t really doing anything but waiting to die. Or was she buying herself time for an opportunity of escape to arise? Shit, it was all her fault. She never should have rung Kate. If she hadn’t let her worries overtake her good sense, then she would be safe and having the romantic dinner she planned with her men.
Sarah couldn’t just lie there and wait. She had to actively do something. Even if it turned out to be the wrong decision, she was going to do something. Sarah walked to the door and very gently tested the knob to see if it was locked. When the knob turned in her hand, she opened it a tiny crack and peeked out.
The door led to an empty hallway. Unfortunately for Sarah, she couldn’t see anything other than the wall on the other side. She opened the door wider and stuck her head out. One end of the hall was an open back screen door that led to the fields beyond. Turning her head, she noticed the straight hallway had a front door at the other end. It was closed and locked with a chain. Dead end that way.
There were a few doors leading off the hallway, and all but one was closed. Sarah could hear voices coming out of the open door. She assumed it was the lounge. She was not going that way. Sarah tried to open the door wider to fit through, hoping that it didn’t creak and gain anyone’s attention. That was not to be, when it let out a mighty noise and the two men came running. They were the same men that had taken her.
Sarah stood in the open doorway and tried to look innocent. She wasn’t really sure why. She should have been running for the back door as fast as her little legs could carry her. The man that shot Jenny grabbed her by her arm and dragged her toward the lounge. He shoved her into the room and they both followed her inside. They stood blocking the entry.
Sarah was right. It was a lounge, and sitting on the only couch in the room was the man that had turned her world upside down. Angelo Russo was older than she thought, when she had seen him back at the nightclub. Then again she hadn’t really gotten a good look when she ran for her life. He was still a chubby, bald, middle-aged thug to her, but now she knew how dangerous he really was and how far he would go to get rid of her.
“Sarah, isn’t it? At last we meet. You and your friend have caused me a lot of trouble,” Angelo said. His voice was rough like sandpaper, and Sarah thought she heard a slight accent. Italian, if his name was anything to go by.
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“How did my friend cause you trouble? You killed her for no reason.” Sarah walked further into the room and looked around. The couch that Angelo sat on was in the middle of the room with a low coffee table in front. A worn, brown rug sat under it, and a dusty, scarred sideboard butted against the back wall. The rest of the room was empty, just like the bedroom. There was a large gun sitting on the cushion next to Angelo.
“She was an unexpected guest in a meeting with a gentleman that was stealing from me. She knew too much, therefore she had to die. Her boyfriend betrayed my trust. I was never going to let him live,” Angelo said.
“She knew nothing. She had only met the man once.” Sarah was getting angry. Jenny was killed for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had always been a party girl, but she didn’t deserve to die for it.
“She had no right to be there. Derek thought he was too smart to get caught. He thought that he was meeting me to get a promotion and wanted to bring the girl to flaunt his achievements in front of. But no one steals from my business and gets away with it.”
“What is your business? What was so important that it cost my friend her life?” Sarah thought she already knew, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth.
“Cocaine is my business, dear. As well as a few other shady enterprises.”
Sarah sat down under the window on the floor and crossed her legs. She wanted to ball up and cry for the cavalier way Angelo had taken Jenny’s life. Simply because some idiot had taken her into the room to preen that he worked for a mobster. Now, a whole country away, he was going to kill her so he could go on with his underworld business. It wasn’t going to work, though.
Foul Play [Merricks, Montana] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 14