He knew she meant to inquire where she should look to spot their trackers.
“Across the street. Jeans. Neon green Keds. This side, black slacks, white tee, Ray-Bans. Scruffy.”
“Wonderful!” She smiled, feigning that she noted the restaurant, but he could see she scanned one target, then the other. “Let’s go. Not there.” Her eyes met Adam’s and held. “I want steak. Trust me,” she said gaily for anyone nearby whom they might not have pegged as tails. Then she fell in beside him and told him, “I know this place well.”
A block later, Adam pushed open the door of the steak house and bar, then she tugged him into the dark, noisy interior.
“We’ll take a booth in the back,” Nicki said to the waitress who wanted to seat them up front. Down the long hall toward the rear, Nicki picked up her pace with Adam close behind.
“Here,” he whispered as he pulled her to the rear through a connecting door and spun around to take them both out into an old alley.
Breaking into a jog, she headed south.
“Where are you going?” he asked as he kept pace.
“The river.”
He heard a shout and then another. “They’re on us.”
“No.” She grabbed him by the sleeve at the next corner and sank back into a vine-covered alcove big enough for two.
The guy in Ray-Bans zoomed past. Neon Tennis Shoes was on his heels.
Nicki tugged at Adam and nodded toward the east. “Four blocks,” she mouthed and pointed east. “Then—” She held up three fingers and pointed south.
As soon as the footsteps died away, Adam and Nicki broke out of their hole.
The day was sunny, hot and at the end of the four blocks, Adam had a sweat. Quick glances told him no one was on them. Nicki maintained her racer’s pace. He had to give it to her that he had a challenge keeping up.
Suddenly, she pivoted, leading them toward a large building and turning to the left toward the river. “Down here,” she told him on a breath.
All he saw was a steep embankment, filled with detritus and tall grasses. “What the hell is this?” he asked as he followed her down the hill toward the rushing waters.
“A set of stairs. Stones. Flat. Gray. See? Look for them.”
“What the hell?” he said as he discerned the aged, mossy stones set into the side of the hill.
“Almost two centuries old.”
“What are they?” he asked as he picked his way down.
“Stairs to freedom,” she said.
He laughed.
“From the Underground Railroad.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Never. Slaves rowed across from Virginia. In the night.” She was choosing her footing more and more carefully. “Climbed up these steps. Taken north by conductors.”
“Conductors?”
“Abolitionists.” She reached a hand up to him. “Come on, big boy.”
Adam had to chuckle as he let her help him down.
She led him onto a narrow ledge and she pointed ten feet below them. “Along this shoreline is a fisherman who goes out for rockfish and crabs each morning. I know him. Well.”
Adam chuckled. “Each minute, I’m finding new things about you I love.”
The sudden confession had him looking at her with new respect and hope.
Her eyes glistened. Her mouth formed words she couldn’t seem to say. She cupped his chin and reached up to kiss his lips. “Can I show you later just how mutual that feeling is?”
He kissed her back, fleeting as the kiss had to be. “Deal.”
“For now?” She was back to business.
“Yeah, what do we do here to get down? No more stones right?”
“Right. Looks like they’ve worn away since I was last here. So we jump.”
“And break our legs?” He wasn’t ready to do that, by god.
“Either that or we slide.”
He harrumphed. “We slide, baby. Come on. This I know how to do.” He grabbed her hand, told her to hang on to the tall grasses and let herself hug the earth, go for any toe hold she could get.
Ten feet didn’t seem like a big deal, but the going was messy, muddy and the last few feet came with jarring slams into the earth. Adam went down first, then caught Nicki around the waist to lower her. The two of them wound together, breathing heavily and gasping for air.
He brushed her hair back from her grime-covered face. “Still damn beautiful.”
“Feeling kind of ugly, though,” she joked.
“Look fine to me,” came a bass voice from a tall man who came around the escarpment. Ray-Bans. White tee.
Adam did a quick scan of the shore. An older man in a slicker who must have been Nicki’s friend the fisherman stood, his arms behind him, hang dog, his eyes sad.
“Nicole,” he said, but had no time to say more as Neon Tennis Shoes knocked him out with the butt of a gun to the back of his head. The fisherman crumpled like an old doll.
“Hank?” Nicki cried out.
“So much for Hank,” said Ray-Bans. “Get the boat over here, French.”
Adam whirled toward Ray-Bans, but a third man came around from behind French and pointed a gun at him. “Enough! Walk!”
Adam bent to reach for the knife in his boot. He saw Nicki open her mouth to scream as he felt his knees hit the rocks, and the sun, once so damn bright, went out like a light.
Chapter Nine
Nicki came slowly awake, swimming up through a thick fog. She couldn’t breathe. She was suffocating. Something was in her nose. In desperation she summoned the strength to force her eyes open.
The first thing she realized was she was lying on a concrete floor and it was damn uncomfortable. What the hell? Her next conscious thought was that something was covering her nose, obviously the cause of her breathing problems. She lifted a hand, slowly because her limbs seemed encased in concrete, and discovered a plastic mask like those used for oxygen clamped over her nose and strapped to her head. Some little kernel of thought deep in her brain told her she needed to get rid of it as fast as she could.
Easier said than done.
Her entire body felt as if it had been run over by two trucks, pounded into the ground and run over again. Gritting her teeth, she managed to move her other hand and with a huge exertion of effort yanked the mask from her nose, pushing it up on her forehead. Immediately the feeling of heaviness began to leave her. She took a couple of experimental breaths to see if the air in the room had been doctored in any way. Not sensing any unusual odors, she took in three or four cleansing breaths and then, concentrating hard, she managed to roll to her side and look around.
She was in a room empty of any furniture except for a small cylinder next to her, the kind used for oxygen. What she saw wasn’t encouraging. Bare floor and walls and one small window. And no idea what kind of building this was. Totally disoriented, she tried to figure out how long she’d been unconscious but it was either a couple of hours or a full day, because daylight was still streaming in through the window.
Then she spotted the other occupant in the room.
Shit!
Adam lay about four feet away still completely unconscious and not giving any indication he was about to come around. He, too, had a plastic mask over his face, attached to a cylinder that was a duplicate of the one near her. Even through her hazy vision she could tell his color was very bad. Clenching her jaw, she rolled to her side, then to her knees. Finally, she managed to slip the mask off over her head, toss it to the side and crawl over to where Adam was. Another couple of minutes and she had his mask disposed of, too.
Exhausted, she lay down next to him, gathering her strength to assess his condition. Her acute hearing was tuned into sounds beyond the room, listening for any approaching footsteps. All she heard, however, was the distant slapping of water against rock and the far away clanging of a bell.
They were obviously on or near the water. Depending on how much time had elapsed since they’d been taken, the indicators meant
they could be anywhere along the coast of Virginia or Maryland or even farther south. Calling on every one of her learned skills, she forced her brain to recall that last thing she remembered. Sliding down the rocks to where Hank had his crabbing boat. Doing their best to evade the tail. But Ray Bans and Neon Tennis Shoes had beaten them to the punch. She remembered Adam bending down to reach for his knife, heard again her scream as Ray Bans clocked him with the butt of his gun, then the lights went out for her, too.
Gingerly she touched the back of her head where an intense throbbing pulsed through her body. A fair-sized lump lay beneath her hair and when she took her fingers away they carried traces of her blood. But that wasn’t her biggest problem Adam still lay cold and unresponsive beside her, his breathing so shallow it was almost nonexistent.
The drug. That’s what the masks were for. They’d been knocked out, transported here—wherever here was—and apparently given the drug in a strength far beyond that sold in the packets. She didn’t think they weren’t given antihistamines with it, but if a strong enough dose had been administered she didn’t think it would matter. The results would be the same. Choking. Lowered respirations. Heart failure. She wasn’t sure if they were guinea pigs or if Calderon—and Henderson—were simply trying to get rid of them using what they thought would be an undetectable method.
And in truth, if they died and their bodies were dumped into Chesapeake Bay, by the time they washed ashore, there’d be no trace of how they’d been killed. She had to get them out of there. Somehow. But before she could do that she had to resolve a more immediate problem. Making sure Adam was still alive.
As she continued to breathe the aroma-free air the heaviness in her limbs slowly dissipated and her brain started to function again. Pulling up his shirt, she pressed her ear to his chest while pressing two fingers into the hollow of his neck. Okay, good. A pulse and a heartbeat. But it was obvious he’d been given a lot more of the drug than she had. How did you get it out of someone’s system? Did you use the same procedure as CPR?
Not knowing what else to do, she pinched his nose and blew into his mouth, then began chest compressions.
We really need two people for this. Come on, Adam, breathe. Help me out here.
After two minutes she still wasn’t making much progress and she worried he might be getting worse. What she needed was some way to get a shot of adrenaline flowing through his system, to get his heart rate up and his pulse racing. With nothing else available to her, she did the only thing she could think of to accomplish it. In desperation, she opened the button on his jeans and dragged the zipper down. If this didn’t get his pulse pounding she didn’t know what would. She also had the idea that the chemicals, like epinephrine, that the body released during sexual arousal would counteract some of the effects of the drug and certainly kick his heart into gear.
Slipping her hand into the fly of his boxers she lifted out his penis, cradling it in her hand, and bent to put her mouth over it. Even soft he was a mouthful.
Cut it out, Welles. This is no time to be admiring his dick.
She concentrated on what she was doing, moving her hand in cadence with her mouth. Up and down. Up and down. After what seemed like the longest seconds in the world he hardened beneath her touch, then hardened more. Finally she felt the blood pulsing in the thick vein that wound around his cock. A check at the hollow of his neck told her other pulse points were showing signs of life. Placing her hand over his heart she was relieved to feel the slow, steady beat beneath her touch. The groan that rolled up from his chest was possibly the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.
“Wha—” He lifted a hand slowly, then dropped it back down beside him. “What—what—doing?”
“Oh, thank god. Thank the good lord.” Nicki tucked his now fully aroused shaft back into Adam’s jeans and zipped him up.
“Nicki?” His eyes were still unfocused and he was having trouble moving his limbs. “What’s…going on?”
“We’ve been kidnapped and given a hefty dose of Pleasant Dreams.” She lifted the plastic mask she’d yanked from his face. “This is hooked directly into a cylinder next to you. I had the same setup but I have a feeling you were given a much heavier dose.”
He tried to sit up but his limbs didn’t seem to work and he flopped back onto the concrete floor.
Hell!
“Adam?” She put her face directly over his. “We have to figure out a way out of here. I think they wanted to see if a dose this strong would kill us immediately. If not, it would give them some new parameters to measure its effectiveness. The only reason we’re still alive, I think, is because our conditioning makes our bodies more resistant than the average bear.”
“O-kay.” He wet his lips. “Can’t…seem to move too well.”
“Do you understand what I just told you?”
If she could just get through to him and make him aware of the urgency of the situation it might send another shot of adrenaline coursing through his system and help dispel the lingering effects of Pleasant Dreams. In desperation, she clamped her hand over his cock again and squeezed.
“Can you feel that?” she squeezed harder.
Adam’s eyes popped wide open. “Jesus, Nicki. Yes. Are you trying to castrate me?”
But she saw the fog clearing from his eyes and awareness replacing it.
“I don’t know how long before someone comes to check on us. I’m going to look out that window and see if I can open it and if it leads to anything.”
Adam managed to push himself to an upright position and Nicki took another look around the room. She hadn’t noticed it when she first regained consciousness but there was a dampness in the air, a persistent chill. A dankness and smell of salt obviously caused by whatever water they were near. Her best guess was they were in some kind of warehouse, probably one that either Henderson or Calderon owned along the Chesapeake. Someplace where small ships could offload without too much fuss or muss. She knew from experience that there were only a couple of places where large container ships could enter the waterway and even then, they had to be escorted by federal officers. Not something the unholy alliance would want to deal with. So Henderson probably owned small warehouses like this one where he could load those smaller boats with his product and have them hook up with larger ones for longer distances.
Because it had a window, she assumed the room she and Adam were in was the kind usually used for an office. It didn’t seem to be used for anything at the moment except for stashing the two of them away.
Nicki scrambled to the window, which was as dirty and dusty as the rest of the room, the panes covered with grime. She managed to wipe away enough to see that the building they were in backed up to rocks and different kinds of wild shrubbery. Putting her ear directly against the window she heard the faint hum of cars traveling on a paved road not too far away.
The absence of sound told her there was either little or no activity going on at the moment, which was a plus. Henderson’s men no doubt figured she and Adam would be down for the count and were a little sloppy in their surveillance. Another plus for them. If she could just get the damn window open…
It was an old double-hung and the latch had been closed for so long it didn’t want to budge. She was afraid of she broke it the sound of glass shattering would bring someone running. Taking a deep breath, she pushed one last time against the catch and with a groan it finally opened. There were handgrips along the lower sash that she strained with to push up the window. By the time she had it open she had nearly exhausted what little strength she had, and she still had to get both herself and Adam out of there and away from the building.
Nicki sat down on the floor, taking a moment to gather what strength she had left. She was covered with perspiration and her heart was racing. Additionally, she was still having trouble breathing, another side effect of Pleasant Dreams. She closed her eyes briefly, gathering her inner resources, and when she opened them Adam had managed to crawl over to where she sat.
“I know we have to get out of here.” His speech was still slow and slurred but he was far more alert than when he’d regained consciousness. “I’m good to go.”
She looked at him skeptically, but realized they didn’t actually have a lot of options. She’d have to take the lead in this and hope she could get both of them to safety.
“I hear cars not far from here,” she told him. “On some kind of road. If we can get through the rock and shrubbery behind the building we can get to civilization. And I can contact my office.” She looked at him. “Ready to give it a shot?”
He studied her for a long moment, then reached a slightly trembling hand over to touch her cheek. Bending his head, He pressed his mouth to hers. Despite his weakness the kiss still packed enough punch to let Nicki know that the connection between them was stronger than ever.
“Now,” he told her, lifting his head, “I’m ready to go.”
Nicki exited the window first, climbing out backward. The window was low enough so there was almost no drop to the ground. As soon as she had her footing she reached in to help Adam out. Still groggy from the drug, he took much longer to crawl out than she would have liked, but finally they were both standing on the rocky terrain. Nicki managed to push the window shut, maybe buying them a couple of extra minutes if their absence was discovered too soon. Then, draping Adam’s arm across her shoulders and supporting him as best she could, she moved into the waist-high grasses and short pines that fortunately grew thickly at the back of the building.
“We have to go this way,” she told him. “It’s more difficult, but it provides more cover for us and they won’t think we’d choose this direction.”
Their forward process was very slow as Adam was barely able to move without Nicki’s help. They had reached the far end of the building when Nicki spotted the two-lane road just at the top of a small rise. At the same exact moment, she heard men shouting from the direction of the warehouse.
“We’re going to have to hide for a minute,” she told Adam. “They’ve discovered we’re gone.”
“We don’t have any fire power,” Adam said as she hauled them both behind a thicket of greenery.
UntilMidnight Page 8