Click.
When I heard that fifth and final click, I let out a slow breath. I turned the doorknob.
And just like that—I was free.
***
I allowed myself to feel elation for a few seconds, but then the realization hit me that just because I was free of the room did not mean I was entirely free. It had taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to pick the lock, and I really had no idea what time it was, what time people would be getting back from wherever it was they had gone to. For all I knew, they could be standing outside when I stepped out, ready to ambush me and force me back. There would probably be some sort of severe punishment for escaping, and I didn’t know what they might do to Shep’s mom if they suspected she’d had anything to do with helping me. For both our sakes, I could not let that happen.
But I wanted to run. Oh, I so badly just wanted to bolt out of there, as if there was a helpful neighbor or police station right next door. There wasn’t, though, so I had to be careful. I had to be smart about this, because this was my one and only chance. There would not be any other escape attempts if I was caught—I couldn’t mess this up.
So I stood there and listened, ears straining to pick up any indication that there might be someone nearby. It was silent. I took a tentative step, then another. I found myself out in that open space; I saw the bathroom that I had used. A shaft of sunlight shone through one of the windows. I went over to this window and looked out, poking just the top of my head up first, and then, when I didn’t see anyone, I straightened up a bit and looked all the way out. There wasn’t much to see other than golden grass stretching all the way to a building a way off—maybe someone’s house, it was hard to tell from this distance.
I walked over to the two sliding doors and tried to pull them apart an inch. They wouldn’t budge. I pulled harder, but it must’ve been locked from the outside.
“Shit,” I whispered. I walked around the space, looking for another door. There wasn’t one, so my only option would be to try to get out one of the windows. I hoped it would just be a matter of unlocking the window and opening it; I didn’t want to have to break the glass. But I would if I had to.
I went back over to the window I had just looked out of. I peeked out again and didn’t see anyone. I unlocked the window and then tried to push it open, feeling a coating of dust on my fingertips. For a second, nothing happened, but then the window moved. It was sticky, like it hadn’t been opened in some time, but I forced it up, far enough so I could climb out.
I slid out head first and landed in a heap on the ground. Certainly not my most graceful moment, but I was free. I was outside. The sun on my face felt incredible, but I knew I couldn’t stay there and bask for long. I stood up and tried to get my bearings. I recognized Shep’s parents’ house in the distance. There was a car parked out front, but I hoped that it was Shep’s mom’s car, and not the father’s or Holden’s. I hurried in that direction, wishing there were more trees to take cover behind. If someone looked out their window or came down the driveway, I was screwed.
But at least I knew I was heading in the right direction. I needed to follow the driveway past Shep’s parents’ house to get to the road. There weren’t many neighbors along that road, so I didn’t know how far I’d have to go before I could find help, but I had to believe if I had made it this far, I was going to escape. Going back was not an option. If I got caught, they would kill me, there was no doubt in my mind.
I moved at a brisk jog, even though what I wanted to do was sprint as fast I could. Using all of my energy now would not be smart. I passed Shep’s parents’ house and didn’t see anyone. The driveway curved along, and I felt like my senses were on overdrive. Birds sang in the trees. In the distance, far above, the sound of an airplane engine. The feel of my heart beating in my chest. The fresh air filling my lungs, and the sensation of my feet on the ground propelling me away from here.
There was a car coming.
I froze, knowing that now was the worst possible time for me to be unable to move, but fear paralyzed me. They probably had a gun and would shoot me in the back if I tried to run. My breath came in short, shallow gasps. There were no trees within running distance, nowhere that I could hide.
This is it, I thought. You gave it your best shot but they’re going to kill you now—or they’re going to torture you and kill you later.
The car sped toward me. My knees shook and my legs felt like rubber. I wouldn’t be able to run now even if I was able to overcome this paralyzing fear.
But as the car approached, I realized it looked familiar. I blinked. Was this just my mind playing tricks on me? Was this some sort of hallucination, some sort of mirage that I was having because I knew I was about to die?
The car skidded to a stop a few feet from me.
Wait.
I knew that car.
I knew who that was.
Shep.
Chapter 22
Shep
He wouldn’t do something like that.
There will be a rational explanation for all of this.
Holden might be reckless and impulsive, but he wouldn’t kidnap your girlfriend.
These were the thoughts that tore through my mind as I raced toward the East Bay, certain that the CHP would pull me over, I was going so fast. Yet luck happened to be on my side, because I didn’t see a single patrol car the whole way.
I had left in such a hurry I hadn’t grabbed my phone, though even if I had it, I wasn’t sure that calling Holden would be smart. I certainly didn’t want to tip him off to the fact that I thought anything was up.
My mind kept chattering, insisting that Holden would not have done something as stupid as abducting someone, yet another part of me knew that he would do just that if he thought it might benefit him in some way.
But I didn’t want to believe it.
This would change everything between us, irrevocably, permanently, forever. Whatever word you wanted to use—there would be no coming back from this, if he had really done it. I so badly wanted to believe that I hadn’t heard that stupid ringtone, that it had been something else—maybe she’d been listening to the radio?—but I knew. I just knew.
And now I hoped I wasn’t too late.
I sped down the road that would take me to my parents’ driveway. When I got to the turn, I slowed down, but barely, and felt the rear wheels fishtail as I yanked the wheel around.
She was just a figure in the distance as I approached, and at first I wasn’t sure that my vision wasn’t playing tricks on me. What were the chances that she would be right here, right now? But I wasn’t imagining this. She stopped moving when she saw my car, which was the opposite reaction than I’d been expecting.
I slowed the car and jumped out. “Lena!”
She took a step, then another, and then we were both running to each other, which would’ve been sappy or romantic except it wasn’t, because I could see what rough shape she was in. Her face was smudged with dirt and she had cuts and scrapes, and I could see bruises on her arms. She stumbled the last step and fell into me.
“Shep?” she said, her voice quavering as she looked up at me. She flinched and drew back, but I nodded and pulled her to me.
“It’s me,” I said, holding her tightly. “I’m here. You’re safe. I’m here.”
She was trembling. I should have felt relieved that I had found her, that she was alive, but all I felt was a rage that was boiling over.
“Come on,” I said, gritting my teeth. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
We hurried back over to the car. I looked toward the houses as we did so, the “workshop” in the far distance, where I was pretty sure that Holden had kept her. The building had originally been my grandfather’s woodworking area, but after he died, my dad and uncles cleared that space out and used it for other things. There was a room back there, originally supposed to be nothing more than a large supply closet, but I knew that it had been used for other purposes.
�
��How did you know I was here?” she said. “I thought I was never going to see you again.”
“I didn’t know you were here at first.” I opened the passenger-side door for her, then closed it after she got in, and hurried around to the driver’s side. We needed to get out of here. “But it was when you called me. Right before the call got disconnected—I heard something. I wasn’t sure what I had heard at first, and I was really mostly thinking about the actual words that you had said to me. But I knew I’d heard that sound before—it was Holden’s ringtone. He must’ve gotten a call or a text right before you got off the phone. I heard like maybe a second of it. Just a blip. But it was enough, eventually. I should’ve come here sooner, though.”
No, I thought, you should’ve been there so this didn’t happen at all.
“I still keep thinking this is a dream I’m going to wake up from,” she said. Her voice cracked, and she coughed, a loud, dry, hacking sound.
“Here,” I said, reaching to the center console and handing her a bottle of water. “Drink this. Jesus. Did they give you anything to eat or drink?”
She nodded as she guzzled the water. They might have given her something, but I could tell by the way she was drinking that it hadn’t been much.
I pulled out of the driveway and pressed my foot on the accelerator. We needed to get as far away from here as possible. If I had to move and change my entire identity, I would. I would do whatever was necessary.
I told Lena all this. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I knew something was up when you called me like that. I just knew it. I couldn’t believe that you would break things off like that.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. She still had that stunned expression on her face; she was probably in shock. “I’m going to take you to the hospital,” I said.
“No. Please. I just want to go home.”
“Lena. You’ve just been through something really serious. They hurt you—it’s plain as day to see.” Another thought suddenly occurred to me, my stomach turning. I didn’t even want to bring it up, didn’t want to say it, but I had to. I had to know. “They didn’t… no one tried to… ” I couldn’t get the words out though. I glanced over at her.
“No.” She shook her head. “One of them tried. But he wasn’t successful. And that’s why this happened.” She gestured to the bruises.
“We need to go to the police. Not the police around here. When we get back to the city.”
“You want to go to the police?” She sounded surprised.
“Of course I do,” I said. “How could you not? My brother kidnapped you. He held you there against your will.”
“I know. But… he’s your brother. It’s your family.”
“I don’t care who it is. That sort of shit is not defensible. It’s not. The fact that he did that, that my parents probably knew exactly what was going on… It makes me sick, Lena. I feel physically sick right now about this whole thing. Hell fucking yes we are going to the police. I’d call them right now if I had my phone.”
“Your parents did know,” Lena said. “But your mom… she tried to help me. She was the reason I was able to get out. She came in the other night with some food, and she ‘accidentally’ dropped one of her bobby pins on the ground.”
“You picked the lock with a bobby pin? That’s how you got out?”
“Yes.”
I gripped the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles turned white. There were so many things I was thinking right now, so many ways this situation could have gone differently. What if she hadn’t been able to get out? What if I had shown up and they had somehow convinced me that they had nothing to do with it?
We were a quarter-mile from the turn-off to the road that would eventually take us to the I-580. As we drove, I saw a vehicle approaching from the other direction, and even before it was close enough for me to be able to make out what type it was, I knew it was Holden.
There was a chance he might not recognize my car, if he wasn’t expecting to see me. I was driving a Honda Accord, which was a pretty common sight. I tried to turn my face down as we passed, but I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the brake lights go on and the GMC screech to a halt, do an abrupt U-turn, and start heading our way.
I glanced at Lena. She was looking straight ahead, almost as if she were in a trance. I wasn’t sure if she knew that was Holden we had passed, or if she was aware that he was now rapidly gaining on us. I stepped on the gas but didn’t say anything.
I knew these roads well, could probably navigate them blindfolded if I had to. Which meant I could drive much faster than most people could and know where to slow down, where to let off the gas, where the turn was that didn’t seem that sharp until you were already committed. The problem was, Holden knew these roads, too.
Lena glanced over at me as the car sped up. I hadn’t wanted to say anything to her, but it was becoming obvious that I was going to have to.
“Listen,” I said, trying to keep my voice low, calm. “I don’t want to scare you. But Holden is behind us. I’m not sure if he knows you’re in the car with me or not.” That last sentence was a lie—he absolutely knew she was in here with me. But I didn’t want to scare her. The only way anything bad would happen to her now was if Holden killed me, because there was no way in hell I was going to let him lay a hand on her again.
She sat up straight and twisted her head around to look out the back. Holden was gaining on us. I didn’t know what he would do if he caught up. Run us off the road? Shoot at the car while we were driving?
“He’s catching up,” she whispered.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I said. Well, that wasn’t totally accurate—something had already happened to her and I had been powerless to do anything about it. I wasn’t going to let anything else happen to her. Holden and I had only been in a real, serious fight once, back when we were teenagers. It had been over a girl, of course, someone Holden liked who had liked me more. I was dating someone else at the time, though, so Holden had decided to pretend he was me for the night, and then thought that bragging to me about it the next day was a smart idea. We bloodied each other up pretty good, right there in the middle of the kitchen, breakfast cereal spilled all over the table. There was no real winner, though, because Dad had broken it up. That he’d done such a thing had surprised me at the time, and still surprised me now whenever I thought about it. The only thing that I could figure was that he saw Holden was losing and decided to step in.
But our father wasn’t here now, and if it came to it, I would disable Holden by whatever means necessary. I would beat the shit out of him with my fists; I would run him over with the car; I would throw him off the fucking Bay Bridge, if it came to it.
Instead of taking the turn for the 580, I went straight, then took a right. This would bring us into San Colima, where there was a police station right outside the city limits. I knew this because I used to train at a gym in San Colima—that was where I first started doing MMA. I didn’t know if Holden was familiar with the area at all; it was one of those places you wouldn’t really bother coming to unless you had a purpose, but because I did once have a purpose there, I knew the shortcuts, the side streets, the one-way roads. The closer we got, though, the more densely populated things became, and now I had to contend with the possibility of streetlights and stop signs and pedestrians and buses.
I gambled and took a left across an intersection, cutting off the driver coming the other way. He leaned on the horn, flipped me the bird—and rightfully so—but he charged forward in his Dodge truck, preventing Holden from crossing. There was a line of cars behind him, and Holden was stuck.
He wouldn’t be for long, though, so I didn’t let myself feel much relief. That move had given us a tiny bit of breathing room, enough that I hoped we could make it to the police station and Lena could run in.
“We’re almost there,” I said.
She looked at me, her eyes wide with fear. “Where? Where are we going?”
“You’re coming with me, aren’t you?” she said. “You’re coming into the police station?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I don’t want you to wait for me. I want you to get out and run in there as fast as you can. Don’t look back. Don’t wait. Just get in there, okay? That’s what I need you to do.” I wasn’t going to tell her, but I could see the GMC again, gaining on us quickly. Holden didn’t care that this was a populated area; he was probably doing eighty.
But then the police station came into view. I turned in and drove right to the front. “Go!” I said. “I’m right behind you.”
She sprang out of the passenger side and bolted toward the entrance. I put the car in park and turned it off, got out. Right as I did so, Holden came flying into the parking lot, the GMC screeching to a halt a few feet away from me. He was out of the car in a flash.
“Well, good goddamn,” he said. “I can’t fuckin’ believe this.” He stared at me, his eyes wild with rage, and also betrayal. “What have you done?”
“What have I done? Are you honestly asking me that? You’re the one who screwed up, Holden. You’re the one who kidnapped my girlfriend. Made her call me and tell me she was breaking up with me. Are you out of your mind? Did I ever ask you to do anything like that?”
“No, you did not,” he said. “And you didn’t have to, either. Because we’re family. And that’s what family does.”
“You’re tapped.” I shook my head. “And if you haven’t noticed, we’re outside a police station. Lena’s in there right now. So if you want to try to run, I suggest you get the hell out of here now. Otherwise, I think it’s about to be all over for you.”
“Is that so? Run? Where would I go? Not like you won’t tell them exactly where we live. Hell, you’ll probably escort them there yourself.”
Parker Security Complete Series Page 68