by Judy Candis
“God will purify this land of corruption and evil, and I am proud to be his instrument.”
Jael pulled out her handcuffs and slammed them on his wrist. “I think you might consider getting a better heavenly connection. You seem to have nothing but a lot of static.”
“Yeah, make jokes now, but you’ll soon see who’s running this show, and it ain’t you,” he sneered.
“It ain’t you, either, and if you open your mouth again you may feel the wrath of God in a very physical way.”
“That would be police brutality, something your people are always screaming about, and against the law.”
Without thinking about it, Jael used her elbow to give him a quick jab in the side. The man whoofed and doubled over. She gave him a sneer of her own. “If you people want to antagonize me into breaking the law, how about I just go the whole hog. I’d love taking all my anger out on you.”
The surprised look Upton gave her was the first moment of satisfaction she’d experienced in a while. For now, at least, he knew she was not playing games. Jael pushed him ahead of her out of the cage and said a hasty good-bye to the clerk.
Upton stumbled before her, grumbling under his breath all the way to her vehicle, but he didn’t open his mouth again. When Jael had him secured in the backseat, she waited a few minutes for the next call. It came right on cue, letting her know she was constantly being watched.
“Now, for your next instruction. Drive to Piller Junction and Interstate 301 about twenty miles outside of Dades-ville. At the corner of Jackson Street and Washington, you will see a white van with the words ‘Budget Air-Conditioning.’ Wait across the street for the call as to what you are to do next. Don’t do anything foolish. Your son will be in that van, and it can pull off at any time.”
Jael was getting sick and tired of all the threats, and finally made one of her own. “Let me make one thing perfectly clear right now: If one strand of hair on my son’s head is harmed, whoever you are, I will smell you out and track you down. Make absolutely sure you know what you’re doing. Because, believe me, you don’t want to make me any angrier than I already am!”
“My, my, getting a little edgy, aren’t we?”
“When I get to this corner, will the exchange be made there?”
“It all depends on you. If you’ve informed anyone, and I mean anyone, you can forget any kind of exchange or seeing your dear boy. Do I make myself clear?”
A bitter edge crept into her voice. “Loud and clear.”
During this entire encounter, Jael watched Upton grinning his butt off in her rearview mirror.
As Jael started the engine and pulled out, she watched for any vehicle that seemed to be following her. She wasn’t more than a mile away from the jailhouse when she noticed a car trailing slowly behind her. To be certain she was actually being followed, Jael made several unnecessary turns, which resulted in a full circle of the jailhouse. The tail never let up.
“I guess that black sedan that’s been on my tail since we left the jail is some kind of escort.” These words were spoken solely for Grant’s benefit. “I guess your people don’t trust me.”
The man in the backseat grunted.
Jael prayed Grant knew what he was doing. He’d said the hearing device attached to her chest was sensitive and would be able to pick up the conversation on the cell phone. He’d also said to leave the phone line open, but how could she do that when the abductors might attempt to contact her at any moment?
Jael was a mass of wired nerves. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
“When you get to Thompson Road turn left.” It was the first words Upton had spoken since they left the jail.
“What?”
“You heard me—when we get to Thompson Road turn left. I’ll tell you where to go from there.”
“But your friend or whoever he is said to keep on Jackson just outside of Dadesville.”
“There was a little change in plans prior to my release. Can’t have you trying to trick us now, can we? Just do like I tell you and it’ll all be fine. The white van will just be in another location.”
“But—”
“What difference could it make to you what direction we take to your son? Turn here, yeah. Just do what you’re told, Mrs. Smart-ass.”
As Jael made the smooth turn at the corner, a late-model, white Ford sedan was idling a few yards away in the middle of the street. Before she was a car’s length behind it, two men in ski masks jumped from the vehicle and rushed toward them. With a gun in his hand, the first man ran up to her window.
“Get out of the car. Move!” Jael hit the brakes, threw the gear in park and pushed the door open. While edging out of the vehicle, she pulled the cell phone and concealed it within the palm of her hand, pressing the ON button at the same time. The other man yanked open the back door and Upton jumped out and rushed to the waiting vehicle in front of them.
“Over to the other car. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” the man said, pushing her toward the waiting vehicle. As the other man opened the passenger door for Upton before jumping in the back himself, Jael could only slide in beside him while attemping to avoid the leer she knew was spread across his face.
“Get these damn handcuffs off,” Upton said, shoving his cuffed wrists toward the man in the back beside her.
Yanking off his ski mask, a man with a face as ugly as Igor’s asked, “Where’s the keys to the cuffs?”
“I think I left them in the—” Jael suddenly felt the press of the gun at the base of her skull.
“Don’t screw with me, nigger!” Spittle flew from his skeletal, blue-veined lips, his breath a lethal weapon of its own. “Hand them over.”
Slowly Jael reached down to her waistband and lifted the keys to the cuff. Without looking into the man’s face again, she passed them over, dropping them into his open, meaty palm.
“What I wouldn’t have given to see the look on Ms. Detective’s face when she saw you guys,” Upton said as his partner inserted the key. He was back to his old hateful, grinning ways. Once the cuffs were unlocked, he placed his hand on the back of the driver’s seat and leaned farther into the back, his breath only inches from Jael’s face.
“Getting a little nervous, are we? Well, I guess you know who’s running this operation now.”
Jael gritted her teeth. “You better make sure nothing happens to my son.”
“I think I’ll be giving the orders for a while. Now throw your cell phone out the window.”
“What?”
“Okay, once again real slow, so you can understand: THROW YOUR CELL PHONE OUT THE WINDOW.”
Jael hit the down lever on her window control and tossed her cell phone out while making a mental note of their location and in what direction they where heading. She didn’t recognize any landmarks that might help later, just a lot of open fields.
“Now remove any hearing devices you have strapped to your body.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you won’t do it yourself, my buddy here will pull over and personally frisk you. He might even enjoy doing it.”
The very thought of the vile man’s hands touching her body was beyond repulsive. Jael opened the bodice of her top and angrily pulled the device from inside her bra. The tape ripped a thin layer of skin from her flesh.
“Ohh, really smart. Out the window with it, sister.”
Jael did as she was told, her courage and safety net going out the window with her only contact to Grant and rescue. God, oh God, when does this end? Help me, help my baby. Please!
Chapter
41
She sat in silence, frightened in her mind and in her body. No one noticed or seemed to care, as the men around her remained as silent as stones. It was obvious this had all been prearranged. She could only be grateful they hadn’t thought to handcuff her or tie her up—but she was deeply concerned that they hadn’t felt the need to cover her eyes, either.
She had lo
st all contact with Grant. And if they were taking her captive, there was every likelihood they had no intention of releasing her or her son.
Jael felt completely defeated. Blindly, she had followed their every order in hopes of getting her son back, and all she had actually done was allow them to lead her into a trap. And why wasn’t the Lord stopping any of this? How far did He intend to allow this to go? She racked her brains to remember at least one person in the Bible who’d fought battle after battle as she was doing now. Only Job came to mind. Though he’d faced one conflict after the other, not once had he ever questioned the Almighty. But she was no Job. What she wouldn’t have given right now to have Brenda talking her through this. Even the strongest of Christians, Jael knew, had to fight a constant battle of faith. There were no super-Christians, even if some of her coworkers thought there were.
Jael looked out the window, her heart heavy with regret and jabs of helplessness. Was this how Jesus felt on the Cross? As if God had left Him out in the cold, just like she was feeling at this moment. She knew she was acting like a wimp, allowing feelings of defeat to beat her down and force negative thoughts to surface again, but she was running out of strength. At every turn it seemed she was beaten. She could only take so much. She couldn’t even form the words in her heart to call on Him.
She was near tears, fighting to hide them from her captors, when something caught her eye. At first she wasn’t sure she’d seen right, and then there was no mistaking it. It was Deke.
Chapter
42
The wheels screamed in protest just before someone yanked open her door and pulled her roughly out of the car by her collar. Jael tried to break her fall by throwing her hands out in front of her, scraping the skin of her palms raw on the cement in the process. Her wrist took the full impact of the fall, and pain raced up her arm to her bad shoulder.
She was still huddled at the side of the walk trying to get her bearing when three huge black men came out of nowhere and jumped into the vehicle from both sides and began whipping her captors with crowbars and fists. Stumbling away from the sudden violence, Jael had little time to react as she fell again to the concrete street. She could hear screams of agony coming from the car as the attackers—she’d recognized the largest one as Big Jake—lashed out at her abductors. Upton’s cries were loudest of all.
For a moment, she remained crouched on her hands and knees, amazed at the swift turn of events, recalling her thoughts seconds before the carjacking. She could barely comprehend the fact that God was using these criminals, these drug dealers, as His instruments of justice. But she also knew the Lord often blessed His people through the hands of the worldly.
Still, she had to stop Jake and his boys—not because she was an officer of the law, but because if she didn’t, she might never get her baby back.
Jael leaped to her feet. “Jake, stop, stop! Don’t hurt them!”
Big Jake didn’t bother to turn in her direction. His fist continued plummeting against the head of his victim. “These mothas offed my boys,” he spat, a murdering grimace on his face. “I ain’t gonna let them get away with that shit.”
Pushing up behind him, Jael grabbed his right arm before the next blow, restraining it with all her might. “Please, Jake, don’t kill them. I need—”
“What, and leave this up to you guys?” Jake’s eyes smoldered with hatred. “You police ain’t gonna do nothing.”
“Jake, please.” Her next words seemed to strangle in her throat. “They’ve got my son.”
Big Jake pulled back a bloody fist in midair and turned to stare at her.
“What you mean?”
“My baby, my only child—they’ve kidnapped him and will kill him if I don’t bring Upton to them.”
Big Jake looked at the man in his grip. His victim’s nose and mouth were dripping blood and saliva. The man’s eyes were swollen and he was half dazed from the brutal whipping. With a sound of disgust, Jake tossed him back against the leather seat. “So what we do now?”
Jael let go of his arm. “Let them take me wherever it is they have Ramon. Once I have my son in my arms, you can do whatever you want.”
As Jake thought this over, Deke ran up to them.
“Here’s your phone, Detective. Picked it up a ways back after you threw it from the car.”
Jael accepted the phone from Deke’s outstretched hand. The other men who’d come with Big Jake halted their assault, waiting for their leader’s instruction. How long had Big Jake and his boys been following her? she wondered. Probably from the moment she’d left the jailhouse, where he was sure to have spies everywhere. But thank God they had.
The Klan members could be heard whining and making lame threats. She gave Jake a pleading look of desperation before pressing the ON button on her cell. It took a second to realize it was already on.
Then Grant was on the line. “Jael, my God, what happened? We lost your signal for nearly eight minutes!”
Jael glanced around her. “I’m at the corner of Spruce and Jefferson. But there’s been a major glitch in plans.” She turned to look up at Jake. “I believe God has sent some really strong avenging angels my way. You can bet it’s been a huge surge in my faith. Big Jake and his boys just carjacked us and beat the crap out of Upton and his boys.”
Big Jake drew in his brows and made a curious face. She could tell he wasn’t sure how to take being called a heavenly angel. Not when he’d had only pure murder in his heart. The bewildered look on his face brought the first hint of a smile in hours to Jael’s lips.
Grant barked orders in her ear while Jael reached over to pat Big Jake on the shoulder. She had never been so glad to see someone in her life. When this was all over—and now she had a strong conviction in her heart that it would be a truly victorious end—she would personally sit down with this notorious dealer and get him to tell her just how he and his boys had outsmarted both the FBI and the Klan to attempt such a daring rescue.
But though she was encouraged, she had no false illusion that it would be easy rescuing her son.
She returned her full attention to Grant, who was still yelling over the phone. “We have you back on radar! Get back into the car with Upton, but don’t let on you’re talking to me on the phone. Got that?”
“But what if . . . ?”
“Listen, we got back the trace on those calls. They came from your very own police station.”
Jael’s throat locked. His news confirmed her fears. She couldn’t say a word as her mind raced.
“Now, listen to me, Jael. These people are the only ones who know where your son is. Don’t let them know we’re still on your trail. We have to play this like nothing’s happened.”
“You think they would honestly show us to my son now? After the carjacking?”
“You’ve got to remember who you’re dealing with. They’re cowards. Use a little healthy persuasion. I’m sure guns are everywhere around you right now. Get what you feel comfortable with and have the dealers remove all the Klan’s weapons—I’m positive they’ll love frisking someone else for a change. But above all, make darn sure those rednecks lead you back to their base. If you can get the dealers out of the way after the frisk, do it. We don’t want anyone hurt or messing up the original plan. But you’ve got to move quickly!”
“I understand.” Keeping the phone line open, Jael moved toward Jake and placed a hand on his arm. “Big Jake, I can’t thank you enough, but we’ll take over from here.”
“Listen, if this redneck motha didn’t have a brotha, I’d finish this right now. I wanted to use my hands instead of guns for the satisfaction of beating the crap out of them. But for your son’s sake, I’ll back off.” His eyes narrowed in a warning Jael could not misinterpret. “For now.”
“God bless you, Big Jake.”
Big Jake squirmed. “Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled, and quickly turned to move away, nodding at his boys to follow.
“Wait!” Jael called out. “What kind of weapons do you have on you tha
t I could use?”
That got a big grin from the bald-headed dealer. “What kind of weapons do you want?”
“You got a AK47 or Uzi?”
Big Jake raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Hey, pretty heavy stuff for a lady, ain’t it, Detective?”
“Right now, I could handle a nuclear warhead. And I need you to remove any guns these guys have on them,” she said, pointing with her phone toward the car.
Big Jake put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. One of his boys came running.
“Give the Detective here your Saturday night special.”
Without questioning the order, the young dealer handed over the gun. Jael weighed it in the palm of her hand. It would do the job and then some. She stepped back as Jake and his boys roughly checked Upton and the driver for weapons. She wasn’t amazed by their expertise as they ran their hands through the glove compartment, under the seats and around the rim of the car. They knew all the major hiding places.
With Upton and his gang, they took extra-special attention, throwing in a lick or two in the process. All together the search took less than three minutes. She was also handed one of the Klan’s cell phones. She dropped it in the left side pocket of her jacket.
“Thanks, Big Jake. Now I need you to stay far behind. Don’t give yourself away. We’re headed to their campsite, and there’s probably a large number of these fiends just waiting to hurt someone. I don’t want that someone to be my baby. Remember, any surprise action on your part without a signal from me might result in that happening. I don’t want to risk my son’s life.”
“Jael, you’ve got to move—every minute is precious,” Grant barked over the cell phone.
Jael nodded once more at Big Jake, then jumped into the backseat right behind Upton, who was still moaning. The other Klan members looked at her with a mixture of hatred and fear.
Jael placed the muzzle of the Specialagainst the driver’s neck. “The ball is back in my court. You have at least ten very angry black men around waiting for me to let them loose on you. Every move you make is being watched. But if one of you so much as looks the wrong way, I won’t have any qualms about taking your face off. And I’ll still make it to where you’re holding my son with the other guide. Now move this car and don’t try anything funny.”