Kidnapped at Christmas

by Maggie K. Black

  He meant Theresa.

  “We both know that if I asked you to come, you would,” Joshua said. “But I honestly don’t think you need to. I’m sure we’ll be okay.”

  Alex nodded. A frown crossed his face, like he was looking at something a very long way away.

  “How long has it been since you last saw Theresa?” Joshua asked.

  “We’ve nodded and made meaningless chitchat a few times in passing when we happened to be at the same event. But we haven’t actually had a real conversation about anything since the day she handed me back the ring and ended our engagement. Zoe still can’t even look her in the eye.”

  Joshua nodded slowly. Yeah, he’d figured as much. Not that Alex had ever said much about it. For all his casual small talk, Alex was as unforthcoming about emotional things as Dad was.

  “You never told me what happened there,” Joshua admitted. “Not why you decided to marry her. Not why you decided to call the wedding off. None of it.”

  “I wanted to marry Theresa Vaughan,” Alex said. “Very much, in fact. She made me feel like the best version of myself. It was like simply being around her made me feel like a better man, while simultaneously making me want to keep striving to be an even better man than I was.” He looked back down at Joshua. “She decided she didn’t want to marry me because she didn’t think I had what it took to be the kind of husband she needed me to be. I couldn’t settle in a job. I couldn’t commit to a career. Our lives were heading in very different directions.”

  A door clattered behind them. He turned back. Samantha leaned out the doorway and held up two mugs of coffee. He nodded. She slipped back inside.

  “I know the feeling.”

  “Are you sure?” Alex dropped his shovel in the snow. “Because looks more to me like you’re standing at a crossroads, waiting for someone to come along and push you into making a decision. You think Daniel, Zoe and I wouldn’t ask you in a heartbeat to leave the military and come work with us? We need your skills, mate. None of us think the way you do. Our team’s not complete without you. But I know you, Josh. I know you only joined the army because your gramps pushed you to. And that your dad pushed you just as hard to become a cop. So, there’s no way I’m going to push you into being anything, or doing anything, you don’t choose. Now, I’m not claiming to understand what’s going on between you and Samantha. But there’s something there. As far as I can see, she’s not the kind to person to push you into something either. So if you don’t know how she fits in your life, then maybe it’s because you still haven’t decided what you want your life to be. Maybe she’s nothing more than a reminder that you need to.” He turned and started for the door. “And I’m getting coffee.”

  * * *

  Zoe didn’t come down for breakfast and it seemed Samantha didn’t feel much like talking. So breakfast was quick and quiet. They set off on the drive back to Toronto. Bright sunlight filtered through the windshield. Endless dazzling white spread out in all directions. Samantha’s eyes were locked on the world outside her window. But not like she was upset. More like she was deep in thought. Or even praying.

  Theresa lived on the very northerly outskirts of Toronto, in a small town that had just recently been swept up in the growth of the city moving north. He drove down a beautifully maintained old-fashioned main street. The street was deserted. Lights were off. Stores were closed. Yet, a bright light shone over the door leading to Palm Branches Counseling. He pulled into the small parking lot and turned off the engine. Then he reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Theresa is amazing. You two are going to get along great.”

  Samantha squeezed him back. A smile flashed in her eyes. Then she reached around his neck and gave him a hug so quick he barely had time to raise his arms and hug her back before she pulled away.

  “Thank you for everything,” she said. “I’m sorry I don’t say this more, but you’ve really been wonderful and I’m so grateful.”

  I’m not claiming to understand what’s going on between you and Samantha. Alex’s words echoed in his mind. But there’s something there. As far as I can see, she’s not the kind of person to push you into something either.

  He felt her fingers brush against his hands. He looked down. She’d slid the bracelet into his hand.

  “Take care of this for me, please,” she said. “I’d feel more comfortable knowing you were holding on to it. Not that I’m ready to believe it’s worth all the money you say it’s worth. I still haven’t heard back from the company so I’m still hoping it’s just a cheap knockoff. I can’t imagine Eric or anyone spending that much money on me.” She hugged him again, and for a moment he felt his skin shiver as her lips brushed over his cheek. Then she shoved the truck door open.

  “You’re more than worth it,” Joshua blurted.

  She froze, her hand on the open door. A question hovered in her eyes.

  “The bracelet, I mean,” he said. “Whether it’s worth a hundred dollars or a hundred thousand, doesn’t change the fact that you’re the kind of person who’s worth giving something that valuable to. Giving everything valuable to.”

  A flush rose to her cheeks. She opened her mouth but no words came out. The front door of Palm Branches opened and Theresa stood there in the doorway, her long dark hair held back in a braid. Samantha turned and walked toward her.

  “Thanks again for the ride,” Samantha called back to him over her shoulder. “I’ve got your number in my phone. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

  The women talked for a minute, and then Samantha disappeared inside.

  Theresa smiled and waved at the truck.

  He rolled down the window and leaned out. “Hey! Theresa!”

  “Joshua! Hi! You’re welcome to come in and sit in the waiting room. Or there’s a really good café just a couple of doors down. Might be open already.”

  “Thank you.” He nodded. “I might take you up on that. But first I think I’m going to stretch my legs a bit and take a look around. Remind Samantha that she has my number in her phone if she needs me.”

  His legs felt jittery. His skin felt like it was on fire. What had he been thinking, just blurting something out like that?

  “Okay,” Theresa called. “Will do. We should be about an hour. The front door is locked. So when you come back, ring the bell and I’ll open the door for you.”

  She popped back inside. He heard the door lock behind her.

  He squared his shoulders. Right. So he had an hour to think about the fact he’d just told a woman who was about to leave his life in a couple of hours that he thought she was worth a king’s ransom. And figure out what to do about it.

  He started walking along the narrow main street. A park lay at one end. More shops at the other. He chose north toward the shops. His eyes scanned the empty boutique stores on both sides. Should he look for a Christmas present for her? Something cute? Something small and thoughtful? What do you give a beautiful woman who’s already been given thousands of dollars in jewels? Something equally extraordinary for an extraordinary woman?

  A young man emerged from a side alley and started walking down the empty street toward him. His head was buried deep inside the hood of his sweatshirt. His hands were buried in his pockets. The right one bulged. A knife? A weapon? A wallet? A phone? Funny, how much bodyguard mode felt so very much like soldier mode. Maybe Alex was right. Maybe he had been pushed into a military career. Maybe Gramps had pushed him in one direction and Dad had pushed him into another.

  If we don’t push you, you’ll end trying to start some crazy business with your foolish buddy Alex! Gramps would say, back when it looked like Alex was going to drift aimlessly through life forever. Is that what you really want?

  It hadn’t been. Not back then. He’d honestly wanted to tackle a real career, learning exactly the kind of military skills he’d used in the last few days to become the man he was and to keep Samantha safe. But Gramps had always underestimated Alex.

&n
bsp; Might’ve even underestimated Joshua too.

  The youth grew closer, with that purposeful arrogant walk that said he wasn’t about to give up an inch of snowy sidewalk that he didn’t have to. Joshua laughed under his breath and stepped aside to let him past. But with a sudden, aggressive move, the youth bodychecked Joshua so hard it would’ve sent a weaker man sprawling onto the ice.

  The youth snickered. The hood fell back.

  His eyes met Joshua’s.

  Joshua stared. No, it couldn’t be.

  It was Hermes!

  The graffiti artist who’d broken into the Torchlight News office yesterday, scrawled a message from Magpie on the wall and threatened Samantha. And here he was, almost an hour’s drive north, on a snowy, deserted street, in a completely different part of the city. It didn’t make sense. There was no logical reason for him to be there. It was yet another piece that didn’t come close to fitting into anything Joshua thought he knew about the puzzle.

  Yet here Hermes was. Staring him down. Like a challenge. Like he was daring Joshua to do something about it. This time, there was no way Joshua was about to let him get away. For a long moment, Hermes stood there on the cold, icy street, staring at Joshua with a hard, empty look. Then he spat on the ground at Joshua’s feet and swore. “You got me arrested.”

  “You got yourself arrested. And you should still be in jail.”

  “Magpie bailed me out.” An ugly smile spread across Hermes’s face. “Magpie has my back.”

  Joshua’s eyes scanned the empty streets. “Who’s Magpie?”

  Hermes laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Is it a person? Is it a group? Is he why you’re here? Did he send you here?”

  Hermes laughed. Then he crossed his arms. “A hundred thou.”

  Joshua blinked. “Excuse me?”

  The graffiti artist talked slowly, with a lilting, singsong swagger.

  “You give me one hundred thousand dollars, and I’ll tell you who Magpie is, what Magpie really wants and what Magpie’s going to do to that pretty little girlfriend of yours. It’s up to you and how much you value your girlie’s life. Or she’ll be dead by Christmas.”

  THIRTEEN

  Joshua reached in his pocket and yanked out the phone. “How about you tell it to the police?”

  Hermes slugged him in the jaw. Joshua blocked the blow, but not before his phone slipped from his hand and hit the ice. Hermes spun on his heels and took off running down the street.

  Joshua groaned, snatched up his phone and ran after him.

  Why does anybody in this day and age need a bodyguard? Isn’t that what the police are for? The arrogant way he’d challenged Daniel when he’d first heard about Ash Private Security now clattered in his mind. No wonder Daniel hadn’t offered him a job. Joshua had been too busy repeating the same claptrap he’d heard from his grandfather a hundred times before.

  The police couldn’t always protect people like Samantha. But he could.

  Hermes raced down the main street, slipped into a side alley and cut behind a building. Joshua followed. But the kid was fast, pelting through the icy, urban obstacles like he knew exactly where he was going. Hermes scaled a fence, sprinted across the road and ran hard for the park. Yellow and orange barricades crossed the entrance warning the paths and bridge were closed and dangerous because of the ice. Hermes leaped the barrier. He tumbled into the snow, scrambled back to his feet and kept running toward the trees. Joshua followed, gaining ground with every step until the youth was only a few paces ahead. The path was slick and covered in snow. Snow twinkled from the bare branches.

  A frozen river lay to his right, gray water rippling between gaps in sheets of ice. Hermes sprinted onto the narrow wooden bridge that spanned it. His feet slipped. Joshua leaped, caught Hermes by the legs and brought him down. Their bodies hit the icy wood. Hermes flailed and tried to struggle to his feet. Joshua’s hands struggled to pin him, reaching for the bulge of a gun he’d seen in Hermes’s pocket. What was Hermes thinking? Joshua would beat him again, like he’d beaten him before.

  Then he smelled a stench of old tobacco. A second young man, with a nasty scar spanning his face, stepped out from behind the bushes on one side of the bridge. Then a third in a ratty jacket and a sneer of missing teeth, appeared on the other side of the bridge.

  The men who’d kidnapped and terrorized Samantha. They’d lured him to the bridge and trapped him there.

  “Let Hermes go! Now!” the one who smelled of cigarettes shouted. His voice was filled with rage and reeked with the desire to hurt someone.

  Joshua stood up slowly, letting Hermes scramble away from him to join the others. “I don’t need to fight you. We can talk this out. Tell me who you are and what Magpie wants with Samantha Colt.”

  The one with missing teeth laughed—a cold, nasty sound like a wild animal wheezing. Then they charged. The one with missing teeth got to Joshua first. A hammer was clenched in his grasp. Joshua met him head-on, leveling a blow to his chest and knocking the weapon from his hands. Then the one who reeked of cigarettes jumped on him from behind, and it was two against one, leaving Joshua with nothing but his strength and his wits, as he blocked, weaved and defended against the onslaught. A knife flashed before his eyes. With a swift twist of his wrist, he wrenched it from the smoker’s hand, even as he felt his accomplice’s fist crack hard against his skull. Pain ricocheted through his body. The crack of a gun split the winter air. And that was when he realized they wanted him dead. They’d lured him out here to kill him, in this isolated, cold, icy, snowy park where he’d fall unconscious in the snow before anybody found his body.

  God, please, forgive me. I should never have let myself be lured away from Samantha.

  He had to get back to her. He had to protect her. Nothing else mattered.

  “Get him and force him down.” Hermes walked toward him. A gun shook in his hands. He aimed at Joshua’s head and something told the soldier that this time Hermes’s weapon wasn’t loaded with blanks. “Magpie says we’ve just got to kill him. Whatever it takes. We just got to get it done. Then we’re done. We don’t got to kill or kidnap anybody else.”

  “Done what?” Joshua called. “Listen to me, whatever Magpie is they can’t make you do anything.”

  The bad-smelling youth tried to grab onto his arms now. He tossed him off, just as the second one dove for his legs. Joshua slid on the ice and barely caught himself from falling. He couldn’t keep fighting, trapped on the bridge, three against one. His only hope was to bulldoze his way through them, leap to shore and run, hoping Hermes wouldn’t be able to make the shot.

  A second bullet flew from Hermes’s gun, tearing off a chunk of the railing.

  “Watch it!” The thug who was missing teeth swore.

  “Then grab him and hold him still!”

  One way or the other, he had to get off this bridge. The thugs lunged at him again. Joshua tossed them off and ran. But slick ice beneath tore his footing out from under him. He hit the bridge and rolled off. He fell. He felt his body break through the ice. Freezing cold water rushed over his head.

  A flurry of bullets filled the air as Hermes stood over him and fired.

  * * *

  It was a calm space, Samantha thought. Everything about Palm Branches was soothing, from the green walls to the trickle of water cascading from the marble rock fountain on a table to her left. A beautiful towering ficus rose like a tree in a terra-cotta pot by the door. She didn’t know what she’d expected the room to be like. A medical center maybe? A doctor’s office? Instead, this was like visiting the very cool, very chic home of an awesome friend who was willing to listen and didn’t mind if you started stories in the wrong place or told them in the wrong order.

  “The scariest thing about what happened in college is the way the nightmares keep coming back every now and then,” Samantha said. “I might go months, even years, without one. Then suddenly I’ll be researching something that reminds me of that night and they start up
again. Now I’m worried the same thing’s going to happen about this. I want closure, I just don’t know how to get it.”

  “Maybe it would help you to put some of this down on paper,” Theresa said. She poured the last of the jasmine tea into their two cups. “You never know, it could help readers who’ve gone through similar trauma. Even if you say you’re just a fact-checker, you’ve got a story in you—a story you might feel better if you told. I think you were very brave—both in what happened to you in college and what happened yesterday. You’re a fighter. In a way you’ve never stopped fighting what happened. Maybe you need to find a new way to fight. Or a way to accept you’ve done all you can do.”

  Samantha drained her cup. “Joshua keeps comparing me to a soldier.”

  “Is that helpful?” Theresa set her teapot down.

  “Yeah, he’s a good listener. He makes me feel like I’m less broken inside than I thought I was.” She drained her cup and set it down. “I’ve never met anyone like him.”

  Theresa’s eyes rose to the wall and only then did Samantha realize they’d been talking for over an hour. Joshua must be bored stiff waiting for them.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Samantha asked.

  “Sure.”

  “You known Joshua a long time,” she said. “Why do you think he’s still single?”

  “You’d have to ask Joshua that.” Theresa stood and picked up the tea tray. “But I will say that the Joshua I’ve always known is a protector. It really matters to him that he can take care of those in his life that he cares about. As you know, he was raised by two men who held him to very high standards. He holds himself to those standards too. I’m just going to pop out and tell him that we’ll be another ten minutes or so.”

  Theresa slipped into the other room. Samantha pulled out her tablet. There was a new email message. She hadn’t heard it come in. It was from the jewelry company.