by Reina Torres
The latch of the truck popped open, and Hildie shifted as far back as she could get, hoping it would put some distance between her and her captors. Distance hopefully meant time and that’s one commodity that she needed to hold dear.
Time meant that she could think and reason, two actions she needed on her side if she was going to get out of this.
Two faces appeared above her as her eyes adjusted to the light. The man who had cornered her in the bathroom and, “Joe.” Joe Merrel.
“You’ve been a busy bitch while I was away.”
Both men reached in for her, and she let them take her out of the trunk with a minimum of work. The last thing she wanted to do at the moment was anger either of them. She needed time, and time meant keeping the men calm.
As they got her out of the trunk and set her feet on the floor, she looked around. An old warehouse. One big room full of trash. No machinery or anything distinguishable. How many times had she driven past buildings like this and never taken a second look? Sure, it was rundown and had likely been empty and unused for a long time, but that wasn’t anything special in and of itself.
A morbid thought crossed her mind. She certainly wasn’t equipped to do Jake’s job. She hadn’t been able to see the danger literally right in front of her face. Even at that moment, she had no way to determine where she was, or how to get that information to Jake. All she could do was hope and try to keep her head screwed on straight.
“You know what I want, Hildie.” Joe again. He was smiling, but the look in his eyes was stoic. No, it was cold. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
His hand tightened on her arm and squeezed, sending sparks into her vision. “Tell me.”
“I- I don’t know.” She tried to pull her arm free, but he only tightened his grip. “I don’t, Joe! I don’t!”
The other man, the one who she knew wasn’t any kind of a janitor, let go of her other arm and moved around to Joe’s side. “There’s no need to lie. All that’s going to do is make things more painful.”
She shook her head and felt Joe’s hand pull her closer. “I’m not lying.” She stumbled as pins and needles of feeling shimmered like dying fireworks in her hip. “I only know where I took her. From there, she was handed off to someone else to go somewhere else. I can’t tell you were she ended up, and I certainly don’t know how to contact her. That’s why we do it this way. We keep them from being dragged back down by the life they walked away from and-”
Joe let her go, and the sudden motion pitched her forward, right into the back of his hand.
When she came to a rest from her fall, Hildie realized that she was flat on her back, blinking up at the rusting rafters high above her head.
The man in the gray janitor’s uniform crouched down beside her and picked up something off the floor. When he stood, she saw her keys dangling from his fingers. The silver fob with the outline of a Texas star glinted in the slanted light from a glass panel high above her head.
Joe glared at him. “You left her keys on her?”
“Shut up. You better remember who you’re talking to, Merrel. The whole reason we’re stuck in this situation is because of your screw up.”
He tossed her keys down onto a nearby table. Something on the overcrowded surface let out a squeal, like feedback from a microphone and speakers.
Joe looked back at him. “What the hell was that?”
The man in grey cussed under his breath. “Trouble.”
Jake knew the warehouse was empty before they breached the structure. Still, he made his way inside covered by the best team of men and women he’d ever known. He knew that no matter what he found inside, they would still have his back until he had Hildie back at his side.
The inside of the abandoned warehouse was a mess. Trash was everywhere except a cleared area about thirty feet inside the door. He could see tire treads through the dust and walked around the distinctive marks as he made his way to a nearby table. Wes and Dax caught up with him as he stood beside the table. Dax held out a glove and Jake used it to pick up the keyring that was sitting in the pool of diffuse sunlight on the table’s surface.
“So that’s the tracker you gave her?”
Jake nodded at Wes’ question. “I didn’t tell her that it was a tracker. We didn’t talk a lot that night, and since we’ve been neck deep in this investigation, I haven’t really had time.”
“And without any rumblings from the crew about a kidnapping, I don’t think any of us thought she was in danger.”
Jake felt like a hand reached into his chest and wrapped around his heart, squeezing so tight he gasped for air. “I should have known better. I should have done more.”
“Focus on the next step, Jake. We’re going to get her back.”
“Next step?” Jake lifted the key chain in the air. “How am I going to find her? They left this behind.”
“That’s the thing, man.” Wes whistled under his breath. “I don’t think we’re going to need it to find them.”
Jake looked up at his friend, focusing his eyes inward on the thoughts rioting in his brain until one thought worked its way to the forefront of his mind. “You’re right. We’re not going to have to track them, they’re going to make us go to them.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “That doesn’t mean we won’t be prepared. Get the Crime Scene Unit in here and let’s get a hold of any security footage in the area. If we can anticipate their next move and who exactly we’re dealing with, we’ll walk into this prepared for whatever hell they’re going to send our way.”
Dax and Wes moved away, each of them taking a different task to focus on. Jake remained in place, staring down at the ring of keys dangling from his fingers. Hildie had kept the keys with her. That gave him hope.
Joe and his men needed something from Hildie, and if they wanted to get it, they needed to keep her alive. He was going to hold onto that for the moment. One step at a time.
His phone rang, vibrating in his pocket. Pulling it out he shook his head before he answered. “Vicente? Have you heard about-”
“Do you know where Hildie is?”
Jake shook his head and blew out a breath to steady his voice. “She’s missing.”
“Miss- hold on.” The line went quiet before a soft thump sounded through the speaker. “I had to step out of the room. We’re at the hospital,” he explained. “Sloane’s in labor. I tried calling Hildie earlier, but nothing.”
“How much earlier?” Jake needed to know.
When Vicente rattled off the time from memory Jake felt his stomach twist up into a knot. “That’s right after I talked to her. She was going to wait for me at the station. Someone got her out of there, and took her hostage.”
“It’s about that drug case, right?”
“Yeah. I bet this boils down to it and Joe Merrel. Some combination of the two at least.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Vicente’s voice was low, but it held more than a measure of deep concern. “I can’t tell Sloane about this. The stress-”
“I agree,” Jake’s head started to hurt, a splitting pain through his forehead, “Hildie wouldn’t want her to worry. I’ll let you know when we have more information or news.”
“Look, Jake?”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t let this throw you. Focus on what you do. Trust your skill and your intuition. Hildie’s a smart woman. She and Sloane have gone through hell, and they were made stronger because of it. Don’t think for a minute that Hildie’s going to let them get the better of her without a fight.”
“I just want her back.”
“I get it, Jake. I do. Sloane and I-”
“Sir? Sir? Your wife-”
Sloane stared at the television in the corner of the room and struggled to breathe. Hildie’s picture was smiling back at her from the screen, and the banner under her name was all too easy to read.
LOCAL CHARITY ADMINISTRATOR HELD CAPTIVE
Vicente sat down on the side of the bed and barked at on
e of the nurses. “Turn that off!”
The electronic beeps from the machine attached to her arm were wailing plaintively, as she reached for her husband. “Is it true? Tell me it’s not true.”
He touched his hands to the sides of her face and used his thumbs to wipe the tears away from her cheeks. “I was just talking to Jake, baby. He’s going to get her back.”
The alarm on the blood pressure machine blared and one of the nurses mentioned something about a sedative. A few moments later, Sloane leaned back against her pillows praying for her friend’s safe return.
Jake climbed back into his SUV and laid his head back against the seat. “You ever want to grab a man and shake him until his teeth rattle?”
Wes nodded. “I take it that your conversation with the reporter was frustrating?”
“Much more than just frustrating. I don’t even know what the Station Manager was thinking by running the story.”
“Ratings.” The word sounded sour on Wes’ tongue. “They ran it because they wanted the scoop on everyone else.”
Jake looked out through the windshield at the twilight sky and shook his head. “They said that they aired everything they were told. Hildie’s picture and her name. The information about the kidnapping and the request for help.”
“That’s what I don’t get.” Wes turned slightly in the driver’s seat, and Jake turned his head to look at his partner. “The request for help. What are they looking for?”
“It’s not what they’re looking for, it’s who. The whole reason why this is happening is that Hildie’s part of a group of people who move victims of domestic violence away from their abusers. Hildie was the first in the chain for Joe’s wife.
“When he broke out of custody Anne was afraid that he’d come for her and she was right, but Hildie and her people moved her that night. They likely tried to get the information out of her, but she wouldn’t even tell me who the next link in the chain is. Or rather… was.”
Wes’ expression darkened. “You asked her, but they’re not going to stop at an argument.”
Yeah, Jake knew that too, but he just couldn’t voice the idea.
“So, I’m guessing this is their way of getting the message out and hoping Anne sees it.”
Wes hissed out a breath. “You think Anne’s going to come out of hiding?”
“I don’t know.” Jake shook his head. “I don’t know everything that Joe did to her, but from what I know he’s a vicious bastard. I doubt Anne wants to get anywhere near this. We’re just going to have play the cards we’re given, but I can tell you one thing that I’m certain of.” He tapped his finger on his knee, trying to focus the thoughts rioting in his head. “I’m going to get her back. Nothing is going to stop me from bringing Hildie home.”
Chapter 16
When this was all over and she was sitting in her living room, surrounded by her friends, she was going to tell everyone that they were wrong, she could keep quiet if her life depended on it.
They’d moved her from the original location and to another that seemed hours away from the first if she could trust her concept of passing time.
She wasn’t good at those ‘length of time’ mathematical equations. Imagining stuff in that way was Sloane’s strength, not hers. But she could do basic math. ‘Grey’ had gone, leaving them during her transfer to the new location and just when she thought it would only be one against one, three more showed up to meet them.
It was an old run-down cul-de-sac with two houses on each side. Dilapidated vehicles looked as though they might have been some kind of urban decay art installation. The lawns were grown over and filled with feral growths from old garden planters.
The situation made it hard for her to keep any positive thoughts in her head. If they were going to use her to get to Anne, she was going to be what her father called ‘cannon fodder,’ placed upfront and in the danger zone.
One of the men drew her inside one of the houses on the curved arc and handcuffed her to a chair in the kitchen.
She ignored the scuffle of sound coming from one of the cabinets and the ominous creak from the rusted chair she was perched on. Hildie kept her attention on the man who’d been appointed as her guard.
He had a handsome face, but the cold look in his eyes reminded her of Grey. They were probably related somehow. He had to be a close relative or maybe even Grey’s son.
His hand touched the back of her neck, and she twitched at the unexpected contact.
He laughed and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. His hands were huge with long, thick fingers. The way the tips of his fingers pressed into the side of her neck, he made her lightheaded and turned the edges of her vision dark.
He leaned down, pressing his lips against her ear.
Hildie steeled herself for what was going to happen next. There was no way to really predict what it was, but she kept herself focused as much as her breathlessness allowed her.
He spoke into her ear, dragging his lips along the tender shell and scraping at the flesh with his teeth in between thoughts.
He told her that if The Rangers didn’t produce Anne, for every news broadcast that went by with no message for them, one of the men was going to get to take a turn.
She didn’t react to his words, although they turned her stomach into a roiling sea of disgust. He spoke in Spanish in words so crude that she’d be hard pressed to translate them in a way that didn’t make her taste bile all over the back of her tongue.
The side door opened and Joe walked in. He gave the man a glare. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her guard straightened up slowly, rubbing the front of his jeans along her arm and shoulder. She felt something pressing against the denim, but she did her best to ignore it. “Just getting to know her while we wait.”
She looked up at that, forcing a hopeful look into her eyes. Her guard’s quizzical look was lifted in a moment.
“She doesn’t understand Spanish.” He laughed over her head in Joe’s direction. “You should hear the things I told her I was going to do to her, and she couldn’t even understand!”
Joe glared at her. “You have clients that speak Spanish.”
She tried to play it off. “We have volunteers who speak Spanish, and I just ask them for help.”
It had been true… before, but after a frustrating situation when she couldn’t calm down a little girl whose mother was in the ER, Hildie had taken classes until she was more than conversant in the language.
It might come in handy even during her current situation. If the men thought she couldn’t understand them, they might think they had the advantage and give away some information that might be helpful.
But that wasn’t going to be that easy. Not four against one.
Jake hated waiting around, but he couldn’t focus on anything beyond the clock ticking away. The reporter was set to make another report in a half an hour if no new information came in.
Information meaning the whereabouts of Anne. It didn’t help that word had come in through their friends that Sloane was having complications. The stress of Hildie’s kidnapping spiked Sloane’s blood pressure, and even the medicines that the doctors were giving her weren’t bringing her pressure under control.
Jake knew only too well that part of the problem was that Hildie was one of Sloane’s birthing coaches.
As strong as Vicente Bravo was, and as cool as he could be under pressure as part of his job as an FBI agent, his wife was the proverbial chink in his armor.
He would stand between Sloane and danger, but knowing that he couldn’t take away the pain was making him crazy.
Jake understood Vicente’s frustration. He felt as though Hildie’s life was in his hands and beyond his reach at the same time. All he could do was focus on every moment as it happened.
“Hey,” Dax slapped a hand down on his shoulder before he sat down in a chair beside Jake. “What’s going on in your head? And don’t tell me some bullshit answer. I can hear the grinding g
ears from across the room.”
“This is all so… messed up! We were close, man. So close.”
Dax nodded. “I bet in their business, and knowing that we’re cracking down on their smuggling and sales, they had to up their game. A GPS scanner was probably just one of their newer toys.”
“And I let her walk right into it.”
“Let her? Have you met Hildie Faraday? I bet if you tried to keep her out of it, she would have fought you every step of the way.”
“She did.” Jake sighed.
“And that’s why you gave her the GPS tag.”
Jake leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Her phone was one way to track her if I needed it, but yeah, her keys were always with her too. I was going to tell her about the tracking part of it, but she got to thanking me and-”
Dax laughed. “I’m sure she kept your mouth busy.”
“Yeah, go figure. She likes little gifts. A lot.”
The phone on the desk rang, and Jake reached for it. “McGowan.”
He turned to look at Dax with a look of confusion. “Go ahead and send them back.”
He set the phone back down on the cradle and turned to Dax. “That was John at the front desk. Owen Mercier showed up. Says we put in a call about an alligator?”
Dax shook his head and blew out a breath. “Don’t know what to say, Jake. Why would he say something like that?”
Footfalls echoed in the hall outside the case room. Heavier than cowboy boots, combat boots.
Jake met Owen at the door. “You know we didn’t call you.”
The man stopped just shy of the doorframe. “Your mama didn’t teach you better manners?”
Owen’s tone wasn’t what one would call dry. It held a note of amusement that seemed to mark most of his communication. He’d grown up in Bayou country, and though he’d spent the majority of his adult years in Texas, no amount of exposure to the Texas drawl or cajoling from his peers, managed to completely remove the Cajun lilt in his voice.