Jen checked her connectivity. The wireless signal was weak. She shook her head. “The transfer rate is extremely slow. You see how we only have one bar? It’ll slow down more when I get into my company’s network.”
If she hacked through a private tunnel, she’d trigger an alarm. Hopefully Eddie would catch it and know she was in trouble.
“How long will it take?” His breath was hot on her neck.
“I’d say hours, depending on the speed.”
“You’re kidding me. Grab what you can and put it on the laptop.”
“Sure.” Jen breached security and connected to one of her build machines. Snakehead remained glued to her screen. In one corner, the Instant Message app flashed Lisa’s name, but she could not answer it.
Remain calm, Jen. Just get him away from the screen.
“Is it going?” Snakehead ran a dirty finger over her screen.
“Yeah, but it’s really slow. Should I get the binaries first? Tell me which drivers you’ll need.” She turned on her iPad and connected to the unsecured access point to register its location. “I’m trying to find a faster connection, but looks like the stronger ones are locked. See?”
Snakehead pushed off his knees and pounded the coffee table. “Why did Rey have to die? At least he understood this crap.”
Sweat popped over Jen’s forehead. Did he mean he didn’t kill Rey? Her heartbeat accelerated, but she swallowed back the spike of adrenaline by faking a yawn.
While he stomped around the apartment, Jen silenced the laptop speaker, moved her mouse to the softphone app and dialed Dave’s home phone, the one with the answering machine attached. She set her microphone to record mode to save an audio file and typed “Help me!” to Lisa who had gone offline. She was about to click on Lester’s name when Snakehead hovered over her again.
She glared at him to take his eyes off the screen. “If you really want me to download the code, you should take me back to my office. We have the fastest connection. Here, in this apartment complex, what is it called?”
He crossed his arms and scowled. “Shadywood Arms, why do you care?”
“Let me check for a WiFi hotspot nearby.” She swiped at her iPad. If she stayed online, Eddie might be able to track her location. “Too bad about poor old Rey.”
“Yeah, lucky for you. He was blackmailing your ass.”
“Oh yeah? He happened to be my boyfriend. My fiancé. So tell me, which one of you killed him, because I’m just a bit mad about it right now.”
An explosion of pain rocked her jaw. Snakehead swept the laptop onto the floor. “You’re fucking recording this!”
Jen grabbed the side of her face where he had punched her, determined not to cry. Snakehead lowered himself over her.
* * *
Melissa turned on the stereo. She straddled Dave and pulled down her stretchy handkerchief blouse, exposing melon-ball breasts. Dave stared at the ceiling. She would need help removing her too-tight jeans, and he wasn’t feeling up to it. Dizziness held him down, and he found it hard to focus. Melissa’s lips were soon on his, and he lay passively, unable to return her kiss. Her greedy little hands unzipped his fly.
The phone rang. He reached for it. It could be Lisa with news about Jen.
Melissa raised her head. “Let me unplug it.”
He grabbed her hand. “No. I’ve been getting strange messages.”
He was blackmailing your ass.
Oh yeah? He happened to be my boyfriend. My fiancé. So tell me, which one of you killed him, because I’m just a bit mad about it right now.
It cut off.
That sounded like Jen. Dave sat up. “I should have answered it.”
“Some lowlife pocket-dialed you.” Melissa caressed his jaw. “Come back to me, Dave. All work and no play—”
He pushed Melissa off him. So Jen was being blackmailed to steal the code. He had proof now.
“This might be important. Let me play it again,” he said.
Melissa pushed him back. “Since I gave you the money, you no longer care about me. I’m going to ask for another reading tonight. Maybe the golden aura was you sucking me dry.”
“You know that’s not true.” He tried to not sound exasperated. “There’s so much going on you can’t even begin to imagine.”
“Well, life isn’t a bowl of peanuts for me either. I ran over a dog the other day.”
He reached for the answering machine. “Sorry, I’m not in the mood today.”
Melissa pulled her blouse on and huffed. “Forget you! I’m calling a cab. I want the van fixed before Thanksgiving.”
She sucked in her belly and snapped her jeans, slipped on her goddess spiked heels, and slammed the door after her.
Dave wiped his forehead with the damp towel and played the message again. Jen was talking to someone about Rey. And she called him a fiancé? His throat burned as if he’d inhaled smoke. She had lied to him. He staggered to the garage to Jocelyn’s memory stash.
After twenty minutes of digging, he opened the 2005 Newark High yearbook. No Jennifer Jones. He flipped to the autograph page.
To my best friend, I love you and will miss you forever. Good luck with your wedding. You’re so lucky. Jennifer Cruz.
That’s it. The nanny was Jennifer Cruz. But she looked nothing like Jen. He flipped a few more pages to the candid shots. Someone had circled a shot of Jocelyn with an overweight girl with pulled back hair and thick glasses. Could it be? How could he have not seen it? Jen must have had plastic surgery. But there! On the left side of her chin just below her alluring lips was the beauty mark.
Dave gasped as if all the oxygen had left the room. His head still ringing, he clutched his chest and jumped to his feet. The room spun and the floor smacked his aching head. Jen was the nanny who destroyed his life.
Chapter 19
Jen’s face stung and her eyes watered. Snakehead ground his hips against her thigh and yanked her hair. The sharp pain stunned her into submission.
“I can still get the code,” she whimpered. “I can.”
“You’re full of tricks. Fun first, and then the code.”
“No, please. I have a disease.”
“Don’t worry. We aren’t stupid. We have condoms.”
Her heart rate shot so high she thought she’d pass out. “I can get in with my iPad through VDI and upload to the cloud.”
“Shut up with the jargon.” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, slamming her head against the armrest of the sofa.
With one knee, he wedged her legs open and ripped her blouse, exposing her bra.
Jen covered her breasts and screamed. “Help! No!”
“I love to hear bitches scream.” He slapped her again.
Her head snapped to the side. Pain seared the left side of her face, and tears blurred her eyes. She needed to do something. Stop him somehow. She took a breath and smashed her forehead into his nose. It made a loud cracking noise.
He yelled and covered his nose. Jen raised her knee and caught him in the groin.
“Fucking bitch.” Blood dripped from his nose onto her blouse. He cupped his loins and bent double onto the floor.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Red Bandana stood at the door with a pizza and a four-pack of supersized soft drinks.
Snakehead blew breaths of pain. “Put the food on the table and get out of here. I’m teaching the bitch a lesson.”
Red sauntered to the table. “Sure she ain’t teaching you a lesson?”
“Shut up and leave us alone!” Snakehead turned over the coffee table and glowered at Red.
Scraggly Beard entered the apartment. “Yo, I got the hard drive. One hundred dollars. What the—”
Jen reached for a crutch, but Snakehead blocked her.
Scraggly Beard took a step forward. “Pass me a condom.”
“Get it yourself,” Snakehead growled and threw his shoulder into Jen’s abdomen to lift her. The cuts on her torso shrieked with pain, and her ribcage ached. She screamed and kicked, yanking Snakehead’s ears.
“Yow!” He dropped her on the overturned coffee table leg, breaking it. Her buttock took the brunt of the blow, and she howled while Red Bandana clamped his arm around her neck and Scraggly ripped off her jacket and blouse.
No one would rape her while she had an ounce of strength. She’d die first. Kicking and elbowing, she threw her weight back and shoved Red into the wall. He hit his head with a loud thud.
A booming voice sounded through the wall. “What’s going on in there? I’m calling the police.”
“Shit,” Snakehead said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Scraggly covered Jen’s mouth and between him and Red, they lifted her down the stairs and shoved her into Rey’s rancid smelling muscle car.
* * *
Dave flipped through the old photo albums. Jennifer had always been there, tagging along. He’d never noticed her, a faithful shadow. He studied the photos of Jennifer and Abby. Jocelyn had died when Abby was three months old. He’d been in a quandary, and Jennifer volunteered to take the job. Her mother had died, and she had nowhere to go, being over eighteen. She looked like she loved the baby. How could she have been so negligent?
His head ached. He had blocked everything from that traumatic year. He and Lisa used to sit on the bench under a pomegranate tree at the mental facility and tell each other to forget. Not that he could remember much with the load of drugs numbing his mind. But how in the world did Jennifer Cruz turn into Jen Jones? His chest burned, and he scrambled in the drawer for antacids but found an empty bottle.
The phone rang. He waited for the message.
“Dave?” Lisa’s voice said. “Eddie says there’s been a security breach. A download was initiated from an IP address in Fremont.”
Dave snatched the phone. “Did he shut it down?”
“Yes, he did. It came from Jen’s account. Dave… She’s still missing. I called AT&T, and they said her phone is out of service.”
“Tell Eddie to lock her out. I’m firing her.”
“Uh, with the H.R. investigation on harassment, I don’t think you should.”
Dave raked his hair. “What do you want me to do? She’s stealing the code. Did you get a new cell for me?”
“Yes, it’s charging right now. I’ll drop it by your house later.”
“Okay, thanks. Can you play my messages for me?”
“Here goes,” Lisa said. “I’m putting it on speaker.”
Traffic noises and a man asking, “What’s she got in her pocket?” was followed by scuffling noises and Jen yelling, “Help!” then silence.
“Oh no!” Dave slapped his head. “Was that Jen?”
“Her number. Oh, look, I have an instant message from Jen saying, ‘Help me.’”
Dave choked on his spit and coughed. “Call the police and tell Eddie to activate the search for Jen’s iPad.”
“Okay, hold on, I’ll transfer you to Eddie while I call the police.”
Even though she had been responsible for Abby’s kidnapping, she was still his employee. Dave’s gut spiraled and turned. Could this day get worse? He wanted to throw a tantrum and cry at the same time. Where the hell was she now? And why did his heart rip from his chest for her? She was in danger. What if they hurt her?
Eddie’s voice came on the line. “The GPS on her iPad was activated about ten minutes ago. The police have been dispatched.
“Thanks, I’m heading over. Give me the address.”
After Eddie gave him the location, Dave hung up and found his car keys under the throw pillow. His head throbbed and the cut over his eye stung. With no car left but the Camry in the garage, Dave drove it over the lawn around the wrecks in the driveway. He sped onto the expressway and headed north.
He cursed at the afternoon traffic, unable to think of anything but Jen’s safety. Hadn’t he promised to protect her? To keep her away from the thugs? By the time he arrived, police cars were parked with their lights flashing at the apartment complex. Dave jumped from his car and ran around in circles looking for an officer to talk to. Thank God, no ambulance was in sight. He spotted an onlooker. “What happened?”
The man pointed to an upstairs apartment. “Someone reported a woman being raped. But when—”
Dave bounded up the stairs and stared into the open door. Officers milled around collecting evidence: Jen’s crutches, busted laptop and iPad. A large uneaten pizza and four sodas sat on the table.
An officer held up an evidence bag. “Found the victim’s torn blouse with blood on it.”
Dave barged in. “Wait, where is she?”
A police captain blocked Dave and patted his shoulder. “I know it’s tough. But we’ll find your girlfriend. Keep praying.”
Did he look like a worried boyfriend? Not for a woman who took away his only child. But what if they raped her? No one deserved that. Dave’s knees felt weak, and his heart thudded over his grinding stomach. He was out of antacids.
* * *
The three men argued while driving erratically. Jen held her head to stem the nausea and the growing lump in her throat. Would she live another day? Who would find her raped and battered body? And what would happen to Christy? She’d be left alone in this world. Why had Jen put work ahead of her sister?
“Shut up, idiot. I say we off her now. She’s seen us.”
“Let’s pull into that park.”
“Where are the condoms? I’m not leaving physical evidence.”
“I’m hungry. You forgot the pizza.”
“There’s a drugstore.”
“Stop distracting me,” Snakehead yelled. “I almost hit that Toyota.”
They screeched to a stop in front of a drugstore. She couldn’t believe it. They were going to buy condoms and then kill her. Snakehead got out.
“Hey, I’m coming with you,” Scraggly Beard said. “Stinks in here. Cinnamon gum smells like spit.”
That left Red Bandana.
“Don’t try anything funny.” Red Bandana slapped her bottom and took out a pack of cigarettes, spitting the gum into an empty water bottle.
Jen prayed Rey had not activated the child-proof locks. Even though she was only wearing a bra, she had to get away. While Red stuck the cigarette in his mouth and lit the lighter, she pulled the door latch and fell out of the car.
“Hey, get back here.”
Jen crawled and screamed. A group of pedestrians gawked at her. Red Bandana grabbed her around the waist. She let out a loud howl before he clamped her mouth. Dropping her entire weight, she slouched to the ground and raised her arms to slip his grip. She wasn’t going to lose this chance for freedom.