Melissa slowed the truck until it was just coasting.
Lauren pushed, knowing she was close. “Do we have a deal?”
“O
kay, I will. No, there’s no need for you or Arlen to come down here. The Jeep has been towed over to Billy’s auto shop. We’re all still searching, but Charlene—” Jake broke off, hating the fear and heartbreak he heard in her voice. It made it that much harder for him to hold his own act together. It had been over an hour now. He and RJ had gone to Lauren’s motel room, but it looked like she’d checked out. He had no idea what to make of that. Mabry said she hadn’t checked out at the desk. So, all Jake knew was that she’d been heading toward the school, toward him, when the Jeep left the road. If, for whatever reason, she’d been taking off, she’d have headed out toward Holden, or Denver.
He’d finally gotten ahold of Charlene, after leaving a dozen messages for her. She’d been out in her greenhouse, potting new seedlings. He and Ruby Jean had been taking turns calling Charlene and Lauren’s cell phones. He wished it had been better news when one of them had finally called back. “Yes, I promise I will call you the second we know anything.” He hung up just as Ruby Jean walked up. “News?”
She shook her head. “You got a hold of Charlene?”
“She hasn’t heard from her. She wants to come down and help us look, but I persuaded her not to. I don’t know, though, she sounded more frantic the longer we talked. She could show up. Arlen, too.”
“We really don’t need the mayor down here; it will just get everyone buzzing all over again. Darryl finally has most people going back home again, other than the ones volunteering to help us look.”
Jake nodded, but he was only half listening. Where in the hell was she? If she wasn’t answering, and she hadn’t called him back, or stumbled to a nearby house…then where the hell was she? The only alternative was simply not something he could bear to think about.
“We’re going to find her, Jake. It’s going to be okay.”
“I wish like hell I could believe that.”
She shook him. “You have to. And I know this is going to sound crazy, but something tells me she’s not here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The accident with the Jeep was bad, but it wasn’t that bad. I don’t know. I have a really bad feeling, but it has nothing to do with us finding her in a ditch somewhere a hundred yards away.”
“Don’t say that; don’t even think that.”
“I’m just saying, Jake, this has something else written on it.”
“I’m not following.”
“All the snooping she’s done, you’ve done, the weird things that have happened. Now she’s suddenly packed up and left the motel. None of her things are in the Jeep. Think about it.”
“Are you saying that you think she’s hitched a ride? Or that someone caused her to wreck on purpose? And…what? Took her? But who? And where?”
Ruby Jean lifted a shoulder, but her expression said it all.
“I—I can’t even—I don’t know where to go with that. Who would do that? Charlene said Arlen was home with her, working from his home office, had been all evening. Who else would—”
“It was a woman who called Lauren’s coworker, from my office phone. It wasn’t me, so that leaves—”
“Melissa? Why on earth would she—” He broke off, thinking back earlier when he’d run into her at the library. She’d been there dropping off donations, but could she have known anything about what he was doing there? And, furthermore, would she have even cared? Cared enough to do something to Lauren? “No, it doesn’t make any sense. She has no motivation to do anything like that.”
“She’s very dedicated to Arlen. She makes no secret that she admires him.”
“What are you saying? Do you think they’re…involved?”
“No, not like that. I’m just saying, she really looks up to him. Maybe she’d be willing to do him a…favor if he asked.”
“A favor that includes kidnapping or hurting someone? Have you lost your mind?”
“Jake, calm down. I’m just trying to follow any lead we might have.”
Just then Jake’s phone buzzed again. He yanked it out of his pocket so fast it almost went flying from his hands. The screen showed Lauren’s name. His heart rate tripled. “Thank God!” He flipped open the phone. “Lauren, where are you? Are you all right?”
But there was only static and white noise.
“Lauren,” he shouted. “Can you hear me? Tell me where you are.”
All he heard was something that sounded like a droning noise. He tried to calm his breathing so his heart wasn’t pounding in his ears.
“What’s going on?” Ruby Jean demanded. “Is she okay?”
Jake put his hand up and focused on what he was listening to. He walked a little farther away from the cluster of emergency vehicles, but was careful not to lose signal. It was just droning, on and on, like…the sound of a car engine. So she was in a car! But why wasn’t she calling him then? He looked at Ruby Jean, the sick ball of dread that had been his constant companion since O’Hara had called, now turned to an icy knot of terror. If she was in a car, and couldn’t contact him…
“What’s going on, Jake?”
He started to tell her, but then there was some new noise on the line. And he realized it was muffled speech. Someone was talking. He ducked away and cupped his hand over his hear to funnel the sound.
There was static, then droning again, then “…longer.”
“Shut up!”
Jake’s throat closed over. Two separate voices. He couldn’t hear them well enough to know whose was whose, much less who was the owner of the second one.
“…Denver.”
They were heading to Denver? That was over four hours away by car, but he could fly—but then how in the hell would he find them?
“…closer to get…Holden.”
That had to be Lauren. She was trying to get the driver, whoever it was, to take them to Holden instead. Shit, which way did he head out? They were in opposite directions with completely different flight paths.
“…drop me…no one…see you.”
There was just droning again, for what felt like an eternity. “Come on, come on,” he muttered under his breath. “Give me a clue, baby, give me another clue.”
“Denver…you’ll…gone too long.”
Back to droning, then a louder, “Okay. Holden. But you…clean up…know who you are. You can’t let on…is wrong.”
“…Mom safe…won’t…betray. Don’t hurt her.”
Jake looked up to find Ruby Jean standing in front of him, literally bouncing on her feet but remaining silent as he’d instructed. “Tell me,” she mouthed.
He lifted a finger to stall her, but then the line went dead. “Dammit!” he erupted, and immediately tried to dial back, but it went straight to her voice mail. He turned to RJ and told her everything he remembered about the call.
“Protect…Charlene?” she said. “What in the hell—”
“I’m flying to Holden. You call Charlene; get her out of the house, away from Arlen, away from everyone, until we know more about what’s going on. Tell her we haven’t heard anything, but that you’d feel better if she was here with you. I don’t care what you tell her, just get her out, then you two head up to the school.” He’d already called the guys and told them what was going on. They’d offered to come down and help with the search, but the last thing he needed was one of them falling and breaking a hip. He’d told them to just keep at it with
Betty Sue
and he’d call with updates. “Better yet, go to my house, stay there. Get Hank.”
“Jake, let me come with—”
“No,” he all but shouted. “Get Charlene; go to my house. I’ll call you when I land in Holden.”
She grabbed him in a tight hug. “Stay safe. Or I’ll kill you myself.”
“Do not leave my house. Make sure Charlene stays with you until we figure this out.”
“Can I tell her what we know?”
Jake paused for a split second, then just shrugged helplessly. “At this point, I don’t think it matters any longer. Talk to her; maybe she’ll have some insight. Call my phone, leave whatever messages you need to. I’ll get them as soon as I land.”
He didn’t see O’Hara and was glad of it. He’d just as soon they continued on doing what they were doing. He knew now it was a waste of time, but he didn’t have time to explain to them what he knew, nor did he really want them to know just yet. He didn’t want any more information in the hands of anyone else until he knew what the hell was going on. He’d call in as soon as he had Lauren safely with him.
He ducked around the back of one of the police cars, then slid into Oscar’s truck. No one standing around would recognize it anyway. He backed slowly out, turned quietly around, and drove sedately all the way to the end of the street. Then drove like hell on fire straight up the mountain to the school. With the help of the guys, he was in the air less than fifteen minutes later.
O
nce Lauren had convinced Melissa to take her to Holden and dump her there, she stopped talking and started focusing on assessing her injuries as best she could. Melissa had said she needed to clean up, so clearly she didn’t look much better than she felt.
She’d felt her cell phone hum in her jacket pocket numerous times since she’d come to and each time it stopped it was like another little piece of her confidence dissolved. It had to be Jake. So close, so very close, and yet nothing she could do. She’d tried squirming a little, very little, so Melissa, who had the eyes of a hawk and the peripheral vision of an eagle, wouldn’t notice, hoping maybe she could press the face of the phone against something, anything, that might answer one of the incoming calls. But she had no idea if she’d ever been successful. Or what good it might have done if she had been.
She turned her thoughts away from Jake because it made her throat tighten and tears threaten. Her mom was in that same category. The only positive part was that it reassured her that her decision to stay and figure things out with Jake, with making a life for herself in Cedar Springs, had been the right one. Confronted with the reality of losing him had been as terrifying and gut wrenching as the prospect of losing her own mother. It definitely clarified any doubts she might have had.
Which was only a good thing if she managed to pull this off and keep Melissa from thinking too much or scraping enough of her sanity back together to realize she couldn’t trust Lauren as far as she could toss her. Something Lauren might unfortunately learn about up close depending on how Melissa actually intended to drop her off.
She had to figure out what to do when she was abandoned out there. It was late by now and she doubted a little airport like Holden ran flights all night long. Would Melissa trust her to leave her there until someone showed up in the morning? Or, worse, would she insist on keeping Lauren trapped in the car with her until then? Lauren felt like she was holding it together fairly well, all things considered, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it together. Her nerves were shot; her head was splitting; her body was starting to feel like it had been the target in a batting cage. At this point, she could only focus on getting away from Melissa. The rest would work itself out. Somehow.
She must have dozed off, which was alarming in and of itself since she didn’t remember dropping off, but the vehicle coming to a stop woke her up. “Where…” was all she managed to croak. Her head was still throbbing, but it wasn’t the clanging chaos it had been before. Any relief was welcomed at this point. Her body ached, from the accident, from having her wrists bound in an awkward position, and from sitting in this SUV for who knew how long. But the rest had helped a little. She didn’t feel quite as groggy and out of it.
Lauren squinted her eyes open and immediately shut them as overhead parking lot lights cast a bright blue glow into the interior of the car. But she’d seen enough in that brief glimpse to know they were at Holden.
“I’m going to check on flights.”
“No,” Lauren blurted, then dipped her chin as the pain in her head throbbed anew. “What I mean is, right now no one can connect you with me.” She felt slightly pumped by the return of her ability to speak in full sentences without wincing. “My Jeep—”
“Jake’s Jeep,” Melissa corrected somewhat acidly, though she seemed distracted, probably trying to sort out how to handle the next part.
Lauren hoped she could take advantage of that. “They’ll find the Jeep. Know I was in an accident. I had all my stuff packed—”
“I know; it’s in the back; I grabbed it.” She slid a disgusted look at Lauren. “Shacking up already? You just met him, what—”
“No one knew I’d packed,” Lauren said, opting not to respond to that. Melissa was in some sort of committed situation with Arlen, but she was clearly pissed about Lauren being with Jake. And to think Lauren had thought everyone in Cedar Springs was so perky and happy. “If I go solo, I can come up with any story about why I left. I can play on the problems with my mom. Let me go in, go into the bathroom and clean up, then I’ll get the next flight to Denver. If I look a little rough—”
Melissa snorted and Lauren tensed her jaw.
“All I’m saying is, they’ll find my Jeep. They’ll know I was in an accident, so reports about me looking like I do won’t be a surprise if and when they follow up on my flying home in the middle of the night.”
Melissa drummed her fingers on the wheel, still clutching the gun in her other hand, which she was tapping nervously against her thigh.
Lauren kept her gaze, at least peripherally, on both actions. Her captor was agitated, definitely not in command of her emotions and struggling to think things through clearly. Not much different from how Lauren was feeling at the moment, actually. “Untie me so I can go in. I’ll get my bags, walk in there, and you’ll never have to see me again.”
“How can I be sure you’re not going to call anyone? What guarantee do I have that you won’t screw me over?”
“How can I be sure you won’t hurt my mother? That you have enough clout with Arlen to make sure he doesn’t hurt her? You’re counting on my help with the election. An election in which he has other supporters and benefactors. I’m counting on my mother staying alive. And my only security there is doing what I can to keep you and Arlen happy. I think I have the bigger stakes here. I’m not going to take chances, especially given your account of Arlen’s past actions.” Lauren really didn’t want to think about that at the moment. If she let her mind go down that path before she extricated herself from this situation, she’d lose any hope of pulling it off.
Melissa tapped faster and jiggled the gun, making Lauren supremely nervous. She felt her phone buzz again in her side pocket, currently trapped beneath her wrist, which was pinned by the lap part of the seat belt. She tried to shift slightly to press whatever part of the face of the phone against the stiff surface of the strap, but had no idea if she was accomplishing anything.
“I don’t want you sitting in there all night. Too much time. Things could happen.” She was talking more to herself at this point.
“I could rent a car then. Be on the road to Denver.” She knew it was about a four-hour drive, give or take. “You’d be back in Cedar Springs well before I leave the state, so that would help cover your tracks.”
She seemed to think about that. “I want you to contact me, tell me when you’re leaving. Your flight numbers. I can check that.”
Lauren didn’t bother to tell her that a flight number wouldn’t necessarily mean she’d bought a ticket on that flight. “That would link us. My call to you.”
“I’m his secretary. I could just say that you tried to reach them and couldn’t, to let them know you’d left, so you left a message with me.”
Lauren didn’t have a response for that. Still, she could figure out a flight number. Could probably get them to find that information right inside the Holden hangar. There may not be any flights, but the lights were on inside and there were cars parked in various slots. Someone was working. And she had every intention of renting a car. How the hell else was she going to get back to Cedar Springs? She just had to make sure that Melissa didn’t decide to hang back and follow her. Maybe she’d head toward Denver, then when she was sure she wasn’t being followed, duck over somewhere and hide out for a few hours before heading back. To make certain she didn’t come across Melissa at any point. There were very few roads that connected anything to anywhere out there, so there wasn’t going to be much, if any, room for subterfuge.
“Okay,” Lauren said. “I’ll call you with the flight information.”
“Then I want a phone call, from a Washington-based land line, when you get in. Proof that you’re back on the East Coast.”
Well, that made things a little trickier. So, her time frame was going to be a bit tighter. Worst case is she could conference call Daphne, have her patch a call through back to Cedar Springs. Or just get Daphne to pretend to be Lauren, with a fuzzy connection. Or something. She’d worry about that part later.
Then Melissa abruptly slid the gun between her thighs and leaned over to untape Lauren’s wrists. Lauren desperately wished she was like some super cool movie heroine who could masterfully head butt her captor, then take her in a quick, decisive battle for control. But one head butt was likely to land her in a coma. At least that’s what it felt like. And Melissa was a lot closer to the firepower than Lauren was.
So she sat still—very still—while Melissa used a penknife to free her wrists. As soon as they were free, Melissa snatched the gun again and waved it an inch from Lauren’s nose.
If Lauren thought she’d tasted fear already, she’d been pathetically wrong. The bile rose so swiftly she had to fight the nausea and pray she didn’t puke right there in the truck.
“Straight in, clean up, rent a car, straight out. I’m going to be sitting right here. If you take too long, I’m going to come in, and damn the consequences.” She shoved the muzzle of the gun against Lauren’s temple.
Lauren could feel it vibrate against her skin, proving how badly Melissa was shaking. That was not a good combination. “Okay.”
“I’m keeping your bags out here. And your phone.” She leaned back, the gun still trained on Lauren. “Put it on the center console.”
“I need that back,” Lauren warned her. “All my contact info is in there. Private numbers. Potentially big donors. If Arlen wants my help, then I have to have that phone.” She saw a considering look enter Melissa’s expression. “Those numbers and names won’t mean anything to you. And they won’t give you the same attention they’ll give to me. I have to keep the phone.”
“Fine. Just as soon as you come out with a set of rental keys.”
Lauren groaned silently, but nodded. She’d just have to contact Jake…and her mother, as soon as she was on the road. And somewhere where there was cell reception. She flexed her wrists and felt tears sting her eyes as the blood rushed back into her fingertips.
“Phone,” Melissa barked, smacking the top of the console that separated the backs of their seats.
Lauren slid off her seat belt and fished her phone out of her pocket. The screen was dark, and there was no way of secretly checking her call history to see if she’d been successful in “answering” any of the calls. “Here,” she said, laying it between them.
She could always make a call from inside the airport building.
“Ten minutes. Any longer, I’ll be coming in after you.” She waved the gun. “Don’t test me.”
Lauren’s hands were shaking as she reached for the door handle. Was she actually going to walk away from this?
Don’t get ahead of yourself
.
“Ten minutes.”
Lauren nodded and slid out of the truck. Her knees buckled the second she put her weight on them, but it was more due to the overwhelming, almost crippling wave of emotion that coursed through her than her actual physical condition. In fact, she didn’t think she was as bad off as she’d initially thought, injury-wise. It mostly felt like her head and chest. But once she got her sea legs under her, she realized the rest of her felt mostly okay. She ached everywhere, but that might have been as much the lock-jaw tension she’d been under the past several hours than the accident. That tension didn’t leave her as she walked directly, if not exactly confidently yet, toward the hangar. She wasn’t bobbing and weaving, so there was that.
She tried to force her thoughts to what best to do next, how to handle those ten minutes to the very best of her ability, but all she could think about, all she could feel, was that big-ass gun aimed directly at her back. She felt it as keenly as if it had laser traction. Her thoughts didn’t free up until she stepped into the building and had the door shut behind her. She immediately stepped to one side, to have a solid wall at her back.
She glanced at the bathroom and thought how ironic it was that she couldn’t seem to enter this airport looking like anything other than roadkill. Only this time that description was a little too close to reality to be all that amusing. She dismissed the cleaning-up part of the deal. No time to waste and she frankly didn’t care how scary she looked. These people here probably knew Jake. Someone here knew Jake. She just had to find that person and make them listen to what she had to say.
But the moment she started toward the desk, another man came sprinting across the small waiting area.
“Lauren Matthews?” he asked, looking at her then beyond her as if expecting to see someone else. “Are you alone?”
“Not really. Who are you?”
The young Hispanic man grinned, showing off an impressive set of very white teeth. “I am Xavier. And I am very, very happy to see you.”
It was one too many things to process. Was this a trap? Should she run? But her instincts were apparently still too shaken up to inform her, because all she could do was stand there and stare at the man. “Why?” It wasn’t, perhaps, the most lucid question, but it seemed the best way to figure out what side he was on.
“You borrowed my truck. When you flew in. I work here. I am a friend of Jake’s.”
Xavier. She wasn’t sure she’d caught his name the first time, but she’d been a little discombobulated having just met Jake. Wow, she thought a bit abstractedly, that seemed like a long, long time ago at that moment. So much had happened since then. But the little ache that sprang alive inside of her told her all she needed to know about what she wanted where Jake McKenna was concerned. “How did you—” She wasn’t sure anymore what was going on. “Is he—did you speak to him?”
Xavier nodded, then looked beyond her again. “We need to get out of here. Come, follow me.”
Lauren looked back now, too. Half expecting to see Melissa come through the doors, guns blazing. “I—I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Who is out there?”
“She has a gun,” was all Lauren said. “A big one. I have ten minutes to rent a car. She has my phone. And all my stuff.”
“I have a phone. Jake is flying in. He’ll be here any minute.”
Lauren just stared at him. Had he really just said—“Flying in? Now?” How had he known? It was one too many things to figure out.