Suspended sideways in the top of the cab, Katie forced herself to breathe. She glanced down beside her and saw Al struggling to get his legs out from under the dashboard. In front of her, the windshield was a mess of splintering cracks. She let out a slow breath. At least it hadn’t fallen inward.
Bracing one foot against the gearshift and her opposite knee against the drive column, she undid her seat belt. Then, clenching the door tightly, she grabbed for the steering wheel with the other hand and started to climb out through the open window. The truck had ended up one-hundred-and-eighty degrees, facing back toward where she’d left Mark struggling with his attacker. Billy was down on the ground now with Mark kneeling on top of him. But Mark was staring at her. His face was frozen in horror.
“Katie! I thought you—” The words choked in his throat.
“I’m fine.” She climbed out. “Don’t worry—”
Suddenly she felt a hand grab her foot, jerking her back toward the cab. She kicked out wildly and lost her balance. She fell out of the truck. Her head hit the dirt. Shadows rushed before her eyes filling her field of vision. The world went black.
SEVEN
The first thing Mark sensed were the vibrations shaking the hard, cold floor beneath him, filling his body with pain as he was jolted and jostled like a paper cup on a dryer. He tried to stretch but couldn’t move. His mouth tasted like blood.
He opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor of the van. His hands were bound with duct tape. A strip of tape was stuck over his mouth.
Someone groaned behind him. Hope leaped in his chest. He rolled over, nearly bumping into Katie, lying on the floor behind him. Her eyes were closed. Her limbs were bound. Dried blood traced lines down the side of her face. But they were together, and she was alive.
Thank you, God.
When he’d seen Al dragging Katie’s unconscious body down the road toward the van, the only thing that had mattered was stopping them from taking her—even if it meant losing his own life in the process. He’d rushed the vehicle and ended up with a bullet glancing off his thigh. Thankfully, Billy’s aim was terrible. The wound wasn’t even deep enough to need stitches, but it had been enough to make him stumble to his knees. That had been followed by a knock-out punch to the back of his head. His body was sore, but nothing felt broken.
He inched his body across the floor until he could feel her warmth against his chest. Her eyes blinked open, looking up into his. Huge and terrified. His heart lurched then filled with relief. At least they’d taken him, too.
Wrenching his eyes away from hers for a moment, he scanned the van, taking in as much information as he could. Billy was driving. Al seemed to be asleep in the passenger seat. Dense trees filled the view through the windshield. The road underneath them felt rough. The heavy rumble of the motor filled his ears. Okay, so they’d probably left the highway and were now on a back road.
He swallowed hard, forced the tension from his body and focused his eyes back on Katie’s. Then, making sure she was watching, he began slowly and deliberately rubbing his shoulder against the strip of duct tape stuck down over his mouth, slowly easing the corner of it away from his lips. She nodded and followed suit. Thank God for the eucalyptus cream.
He never should have let himself be overpowered and caught off guard like this. Somehow he’d assumed that as long as they were together in his truck they’d be safe. If only he’d taken a safer route. Or insisted on police protection. Better yet, convinced her to drop the story altogether and return home to Toronto. But even the police hadn’t predicted such a brazen daylight attack. Who were these people? Why were they after her? Did it really all link back to his father?
He worked away at the tape until he’d uncovered just the edge of his mouth, keeping his actions as small and slow as he could. If the kidnappers looked back, he didn’t want them realizing what was going on. Katie did the same.
“You okay?” he whispered. Their faces were so close her nose was nearly brushing against his.
“I’m okay. You?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a thin bit of wire twisted around my belt loop...” Yet another trick he’d learned in his travels. “I’m going to use it to loosen the tape around my wrists. Then I’ll show you how, okay?”
He began to rub his wrists against the wire until he’d torn a small strip down the center. Then he turned his wrists from side to side until the tape came loose. Right, now he could get his hands out anytime he wanted.
He untwisted the wire from his belt and wrapped it around the fingers of one hand. “Now, I need you to turn your back to me. I’m going to loosen the tape enough that you can get free. But leave the tape on, for now, okay?”
“Okay.” She rolled away from him.
He glanced back toward the driver’s seat. Billy still hadn’t turned. Between the noise of the engine and the rattle of stones underneath them, chances were he’d practically have to shout for their kidnappers to hear him. The van was shaking so hard he probably wouldn’t notice them rolling over, either. But still, every movement was a risk.
Mark rolled over, too, until they were back to back. His hands brushed against hers. They linked fingers. He gently worked the duct tape loose and then guided her on how to roll her wrists until she was free.
Oh, she had so much faith in him. He saw it in her eyes. Could she tell he didn’t know how they were going to get out of this? That he was afraid of letting her down?
Once her hands were loose enough that she could slide out of the tape, they rolled back, face-to-face again, and lay there. Their eyes stayed locked on each other.
“Now what?” she breathed.
Good question. “Our best bet is to jump out before they get to wherever they’re taking us. The problem’s going to be picking a time when they can’t just chase us down again. Normally, I’d say wait until we reach a traffic light, stop sign, gas station, something. But the bad news is that we’re on a back road somewhere. They may not be stopping anytime soon.”
If they jumped out while the van was moving, they’d end up pretty battered and bloody. There’d be nothing to stop Al and Billy from just chasing them down and throwing them back in the van again. Then they’d be in even less of a position to fight back.
The van dipped slightly. A flash of deep and dazzling blue water filled the windshield. There was the unmistakable sound of a metal bridge beneath the tires. Then the sky filled his vision again. Okay, so they’d just crossed over a lake, and judging by the sound of the bridge they were on a small, rural highway. But where?
Focus, Mark! You’ve had to find your bearings before. What else can you see?
The height of the sun in the sky told him it was almost noon. So they hadn’t been driving much more than an hour. The angle of light reflected on the glass told him they were going northwest. So, they were still heading toward his dad’s house. But on a small road that crossed a lake—
They crossed another bridge. Hope lit up inside his heart like fireworks. There was only one place he knew where the forest was this dense and the road twisted back and forth over the water—a broad expanse of conservation zone, about an hour’s drive south of his family home.
“I know how we’re going to get out of here.” He said it louder than he’d intended to, his voice echoing back at him inside the tiny metal space. He winced and forced himself to lie still in case someone looked back. No one did. Her body slid closer to his.
“I think I know where we are,” he whispered. “It’s a pretty desolate wilderness area, but we can use that to our advantage. Can you swim?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. The road crosses back and forth over the lake, which means that in a few minutes we’re going to be crossing another bridge. When that happens, I’m going to yank the door open. When I do, I want you to rush toward the door as fast as you can and jump. Okay?”
She nodded. Again, there was that trust in her eyes, coupled with a strength and determination that humbled and spurred him on all at the same time. She leaned her head against his chest. He whispered a prayer into her hair and heard her echo “Amen.”
“You’re going to be right behind me, right?” she said.
“Right. Now, time to get free.” He smoothly pulled his hands apart and then helped her separate hers. Of course, if Al or Billy looked back now they’d be sunk. But if his hunch was right, they’d just have to risk it. Katie tensed to spring.
Another flash of blue ahead. The van started over the bridge. “Now!”
The door flew back. She leaped, clearing the bridge and landing in the protection of the water beyond.
“Stop!” Billy shouted. He hit the brakes. The van swerved. Billy pulled the gun from his waistband. He waved it toward Mark, trying desperately to keep control of both weapon and vehicle. Al was awake now, fumbling with his seat belt. For a second, Mark glanced toward the fast-escaping freedom beyond the open door. Then he darted forward. One hand grabbed Billy’s wildly flailing arm. The other pulled the bandanna off over the boy’s head. It wasn’t much of a clue to who their kidnappers were, but maybe authorities would recognize it.
Al had climbed out of his seat and was now trying to fit his bulk around the seat to get back to Mark. Al lunged and swung for his head. Mark blocked the blow with his forearm and then leveled a blow of his own into the large man’s jaw. Al landed against Billy, knocking the teen’s hands from the wheel as his head hit the windshield. The van spun out of control.
EIGHT
Mark threw himself out the open door. His body hit the bridge, rolled twice and tumbled into the water. He went under. But in two kicks he was back to the surface, just in time to see the van swerve over the other side of the bridge and plunge into the water below.
“You okay?” Katie was treading water a few feet away. She was clutching something in her hand, trying to hold it out of the water.
“Yeah. What have you got?”
“My phone.” She sighed. “It was tucked inside my jacket, in a zip pocket. They must not have checked inside my clothes. It’s so thin I didn’t even realize it was there until I hit the water.” The phone’s case was smashed, almost like someone had stomped on it. Water was already seeping through the cracks in the casing. “It’s destroyed.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to get a signal out here anyway. And I definitely wasn’t thinking about checking my pockets the first time someone tried to abduct me.” Considering the heart-stopping terror she must have been feeling, it was a wonder she’d had the self-awareness to even jump from the van. Most people he knew would still be lying there, paralyzed. “In fact, it was almost an hour after I escaped that first time before I calmed down enough to even realize I was bleeding. Do you still have your wallet?”
She shook her head.
“Me neither. Or my phone.”
Even with the sun beating down, the water was cold enough to set his teeth chattering. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”
“But what about them?”
“The water’s only about twelve feet deep. The van won’t go all the way under.”
They half swam, half walked a few more yards, keeping as close as they could to the water’s edge, hidden in the reeds. But after they saw Billy and then Al crawl back onto the shore, they slipped into the forest and ran.
* * *
Sweat streamed down Mark’s face. His body ached. His legs protested with every step. He could only imagine how Katie must be feeling.
For over an hour they’d picked their way through dense forest, scrubby brush, over hills and around swamps, never straying too far from the shoreline. At first he’d paused every few minutes and listened for anyone pursuing them. But after the first half hour he’d stopped. Either their attackers hadn’t seen where they’d gone or they’d been too thrown by the crash to try to follow them.
But they’d be out there, somewhere, waiting.
“If this is the lake I think it is, and I’m pretty much convinced of it by now, then we should hit the highway in about an hour or so.”
Katie leaned against a tree, swung her head down between her knees. Tangled hair fell down around her dirt-streaked face, matted with sweat, blood and clinging mud. Her skirt hung in tatters around her knees, revealing a jagged maze of bloody cuts and scrapes covering her legs. He could still see the mark on her throat where Al had pressed in with the knife. She said, “But you think you’ve got a better idea.”
Could she read him that easily?
“Yeah. The last thing I want is to just go walking down some rural highway alone, like a pair of ducks waiting to just be picked up again. My friend Zack is camping somewhere on this lake, and I’d feel safer if we concentrate on finding him.”
Katie nodded slowly. Then she stood up straight, rolled her shoulders back and flashed a determined smile. “Then we do that.”
She was incredible. He hadn’t even heard her complain once. You’d have to have some kind of death wish to try attacking a girl like that. They started walking again, following the winding curves of the shoreline, scanning every cove for sign of a campsite.
Unlike a lot of people he’d met on his travels, Katie seemed quite comfortable walking in silence. He was grateful for that. An unsettling mixture of fear and guilt was pooling around the base of his spine. He needed to tell her that Jonah Shields was his father. Zack knew the truth of his identity. In fact, he used to work for his family.
The longer he went without telling her, the more betrayed she’d feel that he’d kept it from her. But he’d told himself to wait until she was safely dropped off at the hotel. So how could he just blurt something like that out now? They were in the middle of nowhere. They were still being hunted. If she lost her faith in him now, how could he continue to protect her?
Besides, for all he knew, the fact she didn’t know he’d been born Jonah Shields Junior was the only reason they’d made it out of the van alive. If she had known, and somehow that had led to her kidnappers finding out, there was no telling what they’d have done.
His dad had made a lot of enemies. While most had taken up the fight against Shields Corp through legal channels, there was always that tiny, radical fringe element who were willing to resort to violent, illegal means to get their point across.
He didn’t still didn’t know how one reporter fit into this. But if Al and Billy were targeting her to get to his father, how much more would it have put Katie’s life at risk if they knew she was traveling with Jonah Shields’s only son? Would they have even bothered leaving her alive once they knew what they had? Or would they have just left her bloody body at the side of the highway while they used him to get whatever they wanted from his father?
He shuddered. A disgruntled former employee had tried to kidnap his sister when she was six. After a desperate half-hour search, Shields’s security had found the terrified child tied up in the car trunk of someone who was trying to leave the property. Sunny had never gone anywhere without security since.
He’d been ten at the time and determined not to have security detail. He’d made a sport out of dodging whoever his father’s company tried assigning to watch him—leading them on wild-goose chases to find him while he hid on the roof of the family home, watching them all scurry below.
But when he was twelve, Zack had landed in his life. Hired by his grandmother, not his father. Only seven years older than his rebellious assignment, Zack was a private in the infantry on standby for overseas deployment. The very first thing he’d done with young Mark was taken him camping, in these very woods, miles away from the sheltered walls in which he’d grown up. When Mark had run away from his tent in the middle of the night, Zack had just quietly and patient
ly tracked him until, exhausted and utterly lost, Mark had given up, turned around and discovered the man he was running from had never been more than a few yards behind, quietly looking out for him.
“The first rule of running,” Zack had told him, “is to figure out where you’re running to.”
So what would he think of the fact Mark still hadn’t told Katie the truth about his past?
* * *
“There!” Mark pointed across the river “That’s Zack’s camp.”
Katie followed his finger. She couldn’t see anything but a mass of trees and rocks, identical to every other tree and rock she’d seen all day. It felt as though they’d been walking for hours. She didn’t know what was worse—knowing there was someone out there trying to hurt her or feeling so completely dependent on this good-looking stranger for help.
Not that she wasn’t thankful. Of course, she was insanely grateful that Mark had been there last night on the train tracks and that she hadn’t tried to drive up to Kapuskasing alone. It wasn’t like she didn’t trust him.
But trusting someone wasn’t the same as feeling comfortable relying on them to keep saving you. Ever since she’d arrived at the train station things had kept happening that were beyond her control.
When you depended on someone else you made yourself weak enough to let them hurt you. The thought of losing her independence under the thumb of a strong-willed man—like her mother, like her sister had—terrified her. That was never going to happen.
Yes, there was something about being around Mark that made her feel safe. He made her feel like he was worth entrusting her life to. Like she’d be safe in his hands. That scared her even more. If she ever let her guard down enough to fall completely and totally in love with a man like that, her heart would be more vulnerable than she could bear. And then what if he violated that trust? She could lose her independence forever. He was still pointing at nothing. “You see it?”
Killer Assignment Page 7