He stood, threw on a jacket, and headed out to his car. Alex could’ve gone anywhere, but he decided to check the practice space first. He could branch out from there if he didn’t find her.
When he arrived, the place was dark. He was about to leave, but he spotted her car. He pulled up next to it and killed the engine, sitting in the dark, psyching himself up to do what he had to do. He took a deep breath.
Movement on the side of the building caught his attention. In the shadows he saw two figures dressed in black. They were near the side access door, on the loading dock. They seemed to be carrying something, but he couldn’t make out what it was. A car was parked near the door, and Josh watched as they stuffed something into the trunk of the car. The thing looked too large and floppy to be any kind of normal package.
Was that a body? Dumbstruck for a moment, Josh gawked.
What was going on? Maybe these were just the two guys from her band loading up equipment for an upcoming gig. Or maybe they were moving their stuff out. She had said things weren’t going well. He couldn’t see their faces, and both were wearing black hoodies.
It looked shady to him, but could he be blowing things out of proportion? His emotions were at peak, and his nerves were raw. He rubbed his hands over his face.
But what if it was what it looked like? What if those guys had just shoved a body into their trunk? He stared at the car. Panic hit, clenching his heart. What if it was Alex? He thought of getting run down in the college parking lot.
Josh’s mind spun with the possibilities. Cold chills shot over him like static electricity, making his arm hairs stand on end. What if they’d hurt her?
The trunk slammed shut, and both men climbed inside the car. The sedan disappeared around the opposite side of the building, but Josh caught a quick glimpse of it again as it entered the street.
His options were to check inside the warehouse and make sure Alex was okay or to follow the men. It took only a second to decide. He started his engine, killed his headlights, and headed after them. Even if he was just freaking out about nothing, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Tailing the sedan from a distance, he dug his phone out of his pocket and fingered it tentatively. He debated whether to call the cops but finally decided to wait until he knew what was going on. He’d already made a fool of himself once today, and that wound clung to the forefront of his mind. He tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and returned his hands to the wheel, gripping it tightly.
Josh kept at least two cars in between himself and the sedan, grasping at lame tricks he remembered from detective shows. He hung back as far as he could.
Some time later, they entered a crumbling, decrepit part of town, and it gave him the creeps. The buildings were forsaken and deserted, most with broken windows and boarded-up doors. Eventually the car turned off the main road and onto a side street. Josh’s stomach dropped.
When the car ahead slowed, Josh eased farther back. He caught a glimpse of the sedan turning off the road, and hit his own breaks, pulling into a junkyard. The car’s tires crunched softly on the patchy gravel. The piles of abandoned cars hid his vehicle well. It was the first time Josh was actually thankful he didn’t have a nice car.
Several lots’ worth of buildings were between him and where the sedan had stopped, and he’d lost his view of the vehicle. Taking a deep breath and tensing his muscles with resolve, Josh quietly exited his own car. The moon glinted off jutting edges of steel frames and other parts of mutilated vehicles as he skulked through the junkyard. At least all this stuff would hide his approach.
He crept down the back alley and hid behind a dumpster, watching the abandoned building beyond and wondering if this was the right lot.
Then he heard a sound.
“Damn witch is heavy.” Whiny and irritated, the voice came from the shorter hooded figure.
“No, she’s not. You’re just weak.”
“Whatever, man. Let’s just get her inside. Then you can leave.”
“I thought you wanted my help.”
“I can take care of this part on my own. Just—” There was an exasperated sigh as the short man hefted the body. “Once she’s inside, you can go wait in the car.”
“What if you need my help?”
“I won’t,” the man said through gritted teeth.
There was a grunt and a thud. Josh peered around the dumpster for a split second, pulling back quickly once he saw them. The two men heaved an unconscious woman up a short flight of stairs and into the building through a side door, and he was almost certain it was Alex.
Josh’s body tensed with panic. These men had kidnapped her. Were they going to hurt her—or worse? He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting off images of nauseating possibilities. Horror pulled at him, but he forced himself to shake it off and stay in the moment.
He couldn’t freak out. He had to help her. He grasped for his phone to call the police, but realized it wasn’t in his pocket—he must have left it on the seat of the car. He cursed silently, but refused to let them out of his sight for even a minute. Holding his breath, he peered around the dumpster again.
“Dude, be careful! You’re going to wake her up before I’m ready.” The shorter of the two was supporting her upper body by her armpits. The other guy leaned down to pick up her feet, which had apparently fallen out of his grasp.
The taller figure spoke through clenched teeth. “It’s not my fault you’re an imbecile. If you’d just coordinate your steps, you’d stop pulling her out of my grasp. Anyway, she can’t escape, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Maybe not, but I don’t want her gettin’ a glimpse of the place, either. I left the chloroform in the car.”
“You’re such a novice. You should have blindfolded her.”
“I wouldn’t need a blindfold if you’d be more careful!” The short guy muttered a curse under his breath. “This is my turn, and I’m handling it.”
“I can’t wait until it’s my turn.”
The two men disappeared inside and let the metal door clank shut behind them.
Josh took several deep breaths. He needed the police, but it would take him several minutes to navigate the series of lots and the junkyard, and he couldn’t afford the time. A lot could happen in just a few minutes. He clawed his hands through his hair, trying to focus.
He bounced on the balls of his feet, telling himself he should get the phone, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away from that door. What if something happened? What if Alex managed to escape and needed him? The what-ifs tormented him, and before he could muster up the will to go back for the phone, the door opened.
Josh peered around and saw the taller, bulkier man tramp down the steps and around the building. After a few moments a car door slammed, but there was no sound of an engine starting. The man must be waiting in the car for his partner.
The second guy didn’t reappear immediately.
What was going on?
~
One moment Alex had been weeping over a bad day and broken friendships, the next she was waking with a pounding headache. She woke in a panic from the sensation of falling. Her hip stung where she’d landed, and when she saw she was no longer in the practice space, she realized she’d been dropped onto the floor here—wherever here was. Something fuzzy and bitter was crammed against her tongue. She struggled, discovering her arms and legs bound. Cold terror dripped down her limbs.
She flopped around frantically and tried to sit up but only managed to land onto her side. The room was black apart from a blinding light that moved and swayed. She tried to focus on the dark form behind the bright halo, realizing it was her captor with a flashlight. He wore dark shoes, new and expensive-looking. His body was hidden by the glare, but she caught a glimpse of a sharp chin poking out from beneath his dark hood.
Her eyes flicked around the room to anything she could pick out through the narrow beam of light. A dusty concrete floor. Metal shelves. Large metal hooks hanging above her.
<
br /> “Alexandria Hailey.” The hooded man spoke in a shrill voice that spat venom through clenched teeth.
Her mind grappled for pieces of the puzzle. He knew her name, which meant he’d selected her for some reason. Had he been stalking her? Her head pounded, from pain or fear, or both. She mumbled against the gag, but was unable to spit it out or form any clear words.
“Oh, you’ll get your chance to talk. Just be patient.”
He placed the flashlight on the ground and pulled out a cell phone. One hand dialed while the other produced a gun from behind his back. The muzzle glinted in the light.
Pointing it at her, he stepped closer and squatted just out of her reach. The phone was still at his ear, and after a moment, he spoke. “Is this Jim Hailey?”
A fresh wave of panic washed over Alex.
“Good,” the kidnapper said. “I have your daughter in custody. She’s fine for now, but she won’t be if you don’t follow my orders.” There was a pause, and Alex’s thoughts crashed frantically against each other. Her dad was back home in California. How was he supposed to help?
“Calm down,” the man said into the phone. “If you want your girl back, you’ll need to listen carefully. I need a hundred thousand dollars.”
Another pause.
“Can’t or won’t? Because if I was you, I’d figure out a way to get that money, and get it now. You have until 1 a.m. tomorrow, and then the deal expires. Don’t think for a minute I’m bluffing. I prefer the money, but I’ll enjoy taking care of her if I don’t get it.”
The man reached over, and with a flick of his wrist peeled the tape from Alex’s mouth. She spit out a wad of dirty cloth and it fell to the floor. He held the phone to her mouth.
“Dad?” Her mouth felt dry, and her voice came out in a hoarse croak.
“Freckles? Are you all right?”
“Daddy!” A sob escaped. “I’m okay, but I’m tied up. This guy has me in some abandon—”
“Enough!” The kidnapper yanked the phone away and returned it to his own ear. With another quick swoop he sealed the tape back over her mouth without bothering to use the rag. She tried to shout, but her exclamations were just muffled protests beneath the sticky seal.
The hooded man spoke into the phone again. “There’s your proof. If you want to see ‘Freckles’ again,” he said with a smirk, “you better cough up some cash and get your ass to Denver. I’ll contact you at midnight tomorrow with directions for the drop off. That’s less than twenty-four hours from now. Call the cops and I blow her head off.
“Oh, and one more thing. If I was you, I wouldn’t take any chances. I’ll tell you where to find her after I get the money. So don’t play cheapskate with me. Leave the money behind, and I’ll leave what’s left of her behind—in a ditch somewhere. You won’t want to see her body after I’m done with her.”
He ended the call and pocketed the phone. Gun still aimed at Alex’s skull, he picked up the flashlight.
She could do nothing but plead helplessly with her eyes.
“You little witch. Trying to look all innocent. Little Freckles has no idea what she’s done.”
Alex frowned, her eyes watering in the bright light. What was he talking about?
He circled her as he spoke. She could see more of the room as the light moved. It wasn’t large, and it looked like an old, walk-in meat locker.
“Don’t play dumb with me. We both know you’re special. You and those magic feet. Acting all high and mighty like you own the world. You thought you were so cool when you ran around me.” He spat on the floor. “You are nothing. Nothing. You hear me?”
Ran around him… Had he spotted her on one of her runs? And then it clicked. He was the guy who’d tried to steal her phone.
“My eyes were magic, but you destroyed all that. You ruined me! You think I want to be average? Average is for losers. I was much better than everyone else. I thought we could be done with all this weeks ago, but your stupid boyfriend ruined that, jumping in front of the car.”
He was the one who’d tried to run her down? He’d been stalking her for months, and she’d been going on with life, completely unaware. A shiver went down her spine.
The man’s bitter expression turned to a wicked smile. “Fortunately for me—and not so fortunately for you—there’s this little thing called karma. Right here and right now is payback time. Yer gonna get exactly what you deserve.”
But he couldn’t kill her yet; he needed her for the ransom—right? Alex shuddered, her body quivering involuntarily as if compensating for the way neither her hands nor feet were able to find that soothing rhythm she needed so badly at the moment.
“An eye for an eye. A power for a power. You ruined mine. And now I’m ruining yours.” The muzzle of the gun drifted, settling on her lower half.
What did he…?
Bang!
Searing, agonizing, pain flamed in Alex’s right calf. Her muffled scream whistled through the duct tape. She bowed in half, her body contorting on its side.
Bang! The second shot made her gasp with shock. It ripped through her left knee cap, the sharp impact with the bone reverberating through her body. She felt a sickly warm fluid soak through her jeans, and something sharp poked through where her knee should have been. Nausea rolled over her, squeezing her stomach and burning through her chest. Rolling onto her side, she heaved, but nothing came up.
Before she could get her breath, four more shots fired in rapid succession. Pain flamed throughout her legs, her thigh, and worst, in her right foot. Lightning shot up from her toes and arced through her body.
Her legs felt like they were on fire. Burning pain numbed her mind and she felt herself falling—sinking into blackness.
The last thing she was aware of was the kidnapper’s wry voice. “Later, witch.”
Time ticked by, measured by the thudding of Josh’s heartbeat. The longer he waited, the more urgently he felt he needed to do something.
A noise reverberated from inside the building. Josh cursed and dipped low behind the dumpster. It had sounded like a gunshot. Alex! More shots followed—they just kept coming, and his composure nearly crumbled at the thought of what was happening to her. His knees buckled, and he scraped the side of the dumpster with his nails, clawing for support. His heart felt like it was being ripped open. Was it too late?
A moment later, the door creaked open and the other hooded man exited the building. Josh still couldn’t see much of the man’s face, but under the faint illumination from a dim streetlamp, he caught a glimpse of a pointed chin and a pleased smirk.
Bastard! Josh jumped to his feet, clenched his jaw, and balled his hands into fists. If that creep had hurt her… He couldn’t think about it. The man turned his back to Josh and headed around the building to where they’d parked, shoving a gun inside the waistband of his pants. Josh fought to keep his feet planted, though everything in him wanted to leap out and pulverize the guy. When he heard the car start and zoom off down the street, Josh made a run for the building.
His heart pounded wildly, and his legs trembled beneath him. She was in there, maybe wounded, maybe worse—but he couldn’t think about it. He ran blindly, slowing when he made it to the door, nervously pulling it open.
The building’s rectangular mouth was a black hole. He couldn’t see a thing in the darkness. Scrambling for his keychain, his hand found and clamped around the portable flashlight. He’d added that and a pocketknife to the ring since their encounter in Carlsbad, but the trinkets felt practically worthless right now.
He entered a dirty, empty hallway. The right side was constructed of bare drywall, but the left was all old, crumbling brick. The place was completely silent.
“Alex?” There was no response. His thundering pulse was deafening in his own ears.
He stopped at the first door on the right side of the hall and kicked it wide, stepping to the side for cover. No one was waiting for him.
It looked like a storeroom of some sort, but there wasn’t anyt
hing noteworthy about the space or the rows of empty shelves catching dust. He shined the beam around at different angles, but there weren’t any crevices big enough to hide a person. Stepping back out into the corridor, he continued down the hall. On the left, more empty rooms stood with their doors open, but none were occupied.
Josh’s toe caught something, and he tripped, hopping a few times and steadying himself. At his feet were a couple of loose bricks. He noticed a metal door to his right. Heavy-duty and industrial, it stood out from the others. The latch was weird, too, not a normal door handle.
He tugged on the latch and wrenched the door open. The room beyond looked like an abandoned freezer, or meat locker, or something. When his flashlight illuminated the room, he saw her lying bound on the floor.
“Alex!”
She was bent in two with dark stains covering her legs and the floor around her. At the sound of his voice, she rolled and moaned softly.
Josh burst into the room and fell down beside her. She tried to grunt something, but he couldn’t make it out. Her face was wet with tears or sweat. A piece of tape sealed her lips, but it was beginning to come unstuck at the edges from the moisture. He guessed she’d been trying to get it off using her hands or her saliva—or both.
Boom. The sturdy door thudded closed behind him.
He peeled the tape off her mouth carefully. She gasped for air.
“Josh—the door!” she panted. When he shone the light behind him he saw that the heavy metal door had no handle on this side.
“Just a minute.” He leapt back to the door and threw his body against it. It didn’t budge. The latch must have caught. They were locked in. Panic was on his heels again, but he couldn’t give in to it. He had to focus. Alex needed him.
“What happened to you?” He knelt down next to her and started pulling at the tape on her wrists. When he couldn’t get it off, he pulled out his pocketknife and cut her free. At her ankles he was more cautious. There was blood everywhere, and he could tell she was in pain. He cut the tape a little bit at a time while she talked.
Outsider: The Flawed Series Book Two Page 20