Taken (20 page)

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She was trembling, and her face was ghostly pale. He moved over to her, taking the box out of her hand and tossing it on the ground. “You don’t want that,” he said.

She leaned back against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself as if she were cold.

“You okay?” he asked.

“No. Evan looked so . . . normal. But he sounded so . . . evil.” Her voice shook as she got out the words.

“He didn’t sound like that before. He didn’t act so cold, as if he had no heart. I didn’t know it was a game. I didn’t know it was pretend. I thought it was real. I was so stupid. He didn’t care about me at all. And just now when I was looking at him, it was as if I were looking at a stranger. I didn’t recognize him.”

Nick let her talk. She had to sort things out for herself, and he knew she would. She was already halfway there.

He liked the way she’d stood up to Evan, especially since they’d been at a distinct disadvantage with Evan tower-ing above them, obviously having been the one to trap them in the elevator. Which begged the question, How were they going to get out? He suspected it might take a while. At the moment Kayla was distracted by her thoughts. But eventually she would come to realize that they were still stuck.

He reviewed the brief conversation in his head. Evan had admitted nothing. But the fact that he had known that they had met with Will told him that Evan was sticking close to them. He had probably followed them to the track.

Nick should have been more aware, checked his rearview mirror more often. Done something.

Evan was wrong about him. He was smart enough to play the game; he just had to start playing it. He had to
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find a way to get ahead of Evan instead of trying to catch up. Maybe Evan hadn’t found all the watches yet. Maybe there was still time. Because if Evan cared enough to slow them down, they had to be getting close to something.

“What are we going to do?” Kayla asked.

Nick frowned when he saw her shivering. “You’re cold.”

“I shouldn’t be. It’s warm outside.”

“We’re not outside. I think you’re in shock.”

“Evan trapped us in this elevator.”

Nick nodded. “I think he wanted to put us out of com-mission for a while.”

“He succeeded.” She tried to drum up a smile but fell considerably short. “How long do you think we’ll be here?”

“I don’t know.” He wished he had a better answer. He could see that she was terrified.

“He could have planted a bomb in the elevator shaft,”

she continued. “Maybe he’s going to just step outside and push a detonator button.”

That thought had not occurred to him, but he couldn’t discount the possibility that Evan intended to kill them.

He had said he was just getting started. Still . . . “I think blowing us up would end the game,” Nick said. “And I don’t think Evan is ready to do that yet.”

“Well, that’s comforting,” Kayla said.

Nick was pleased to see the color returning to her cheeks. She was bouncing back. “We must be on the right track or Evan wouldn’t have bothered to slow us down.

That’s the good news.”

“Great. Here I was thinking there was no good news and now I know there is. I feel so much better.”

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“I can tell.” He put his hands on her shoulders, gazing into her eyes. “We’re going to be okay.”

“Maybe today. But this was a warning.”

“Yes, it was. You don’t have to do this, Kayla. You can back out anytime you want. I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to put Evan back in jail.”

She gave him a long, searching look. “You sound so confident, but look where we are. Look where Evan is.

He’s in control, not us.”

“That can change. It will change.” He paused. “Trust me, Kayla.”

She shook her head. “That’s a lot to ask right now.”

“I guess it is.” He wished he could erase the suspicion from her eyes, but he knew she’d have to do that herself.

“Do you think there’s any way out of here? Can I squeeze through that opening?”

“It’s only open a few inches. I don’t think you can fit,”

he replied. She looked up at the ceiling. “Isn’t that a trapdoor?”

It was, but he didn’t think he could get up there with a jump, and there was nothing in the elevator to get leverage on, not even a handrail. Their only hope would be for Kayla to get on his shoulders and try to pull herself through the trapdoor. But then what?

“It has to be me, doesn’t it?” Kayla asked, reading his mind.

“I think we should stay put. Someone will come along and get the elevator going again. People live here.”

“Drunks and bums and people no one cares about,”

she said. “We could be here for hours.” She drew in a deep breath, and he saw a light of determination flare in
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her eyes. “I’ll do it. We know we’re close to a floor. We can see it.”

“You probably won’t be strong enough to pry the doors open.”

“Well, I can try, right? Give me a leg up.”

They moved to the center of the elevator. Kayla put her hands on his shoulders and braced her foot against his intertwined hands. She pushed against the top panel. It moved easily, revealing a gaping hole. He pushed Kayla up so she could get her hands on the roof of the elevator.

She pushed and kicked and he lifted her as high as he could, until she scrambled out.

“What do you see?” he called, feeling helpless and frustrated that he wasn’t the one risking his life.

“It’s dark, but I can see the doors of the elevator. It’s right next to me. I’m going to try to open them all the way up so I can get through.”

“Be careful.” He heard her moving around, grunting and swearing. “What’s happening?”

“I can’t get the doors to move.”

A moment later her face appeared. “What should I do?”

Before he could answer he heard the whir of a motor.

Kayla gasped. “Oh, my God, it’s moving.”

“Jump,” he ordered.

“I don’t think I can.”

“You have to. Jump. I’ll catch you. Hurry.”

Her body slammed into his as the elevator went down.

He wrapped his arms around her, keeping her on top as he fell backward onto the floor. He had no idea how far they had to fall and was shocked when the elevator stopped a moment later. The doors opened. The old man
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from the front desk looked at them and shook his head in disgust.

“You wanna have sex, you gotta buy a room.” He pulled a piece of paper off the door that said,
Out of
Order
. “Now go on, get out of here.”

Kayla had never been so relieved to see the street, the city, even the bums. She stopped to take a deep breath.

Nick put a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“You caught me.”

“I said you could trust me.”

“Yes, you did.” She moved forward and gave him a grateful kiss. “Thank you. It feels good to be outside.”

“Yes it does. Ready to go?”

“Absolutely. I don’t ever want to go back there.”

“Hopefully, we won’t have to.”

They walked to her car as quickly as possible. As Kayla fastened her seat belt, she took a quick look around, wondering if Evan was still watching them. Nick followed her gaze. “Do you see anything?” she asked.

“No, but from here on out we have to be smarter.” He started the engine, then paused. “I’ll take you home now.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “Where are you going?”

“To see if I can find out more about the existence of the other watches.”

“Then I’m going with you.”

“Are you sure? You look a little shaken up.”

“I’m fine. As long as we don’t have to step into another elevator anytime soon, I’m good.”

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“I think we should go back to the jewelry store,” Nick said. “And talk to Delores.”

Kayla nodded. “Good idea.”

“After that, I think we should have another chat with your grandmother,” Nick added as he pulled out into traffic.

Kayla knew he was right. Her grandmother had to know more about Johnny than she’d originally said. Who was she protecting? Kayla? Herself? Johnny’s memory?

Kayla was beginning to think that her grandmother had asked her to leave it all alone for her own personal reasons that had nothing to do with Kayla.

“Did I mention how impressed I was with you in the elevator?” Nick asked.

She looked at him in surprise. “Impressed? With what?”

“With the way you volunteered to try to rescue us.”

“I didn’t succeed.”

“You tried. Even though you were scared.”

She was touched by the admiration in his eyes and felt oddly emotional. The stress of the last hour had left her near the breaking point. “Don’t say anything else. You’re going to make me cry.”

“Now?” he asked in amazement. “Now you want to cry?”

She gave him a watery smile. “It’s a girl thing. But thanks for the compliment. In the end, all we really had to do was wait. Next time I’ll be more patient. When that elevator started to move, I thought I was going to die. I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared.”

“Don’t think about it anymore.”

“I won’t.” She paused. “Do you think you should call J.T.? Tell him about Will and Evan?”

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“Right. J.T. He went back to LA, but he did leave me his cell phone number. I’ll call him after we talk to Delores. Maybe she’ll be able to give us more information.”

When they reached the jewelry store, Kayla was surprised to find a CLOSED sign on the door. “That’s odd. The hours say they’re open on Sundays.”

“There’s someone inside,” Nick said, tipping his head toward the window. “Maybe she just forgot to turn the sign. Try the door.”

Kayla twisted the knob. It was locked. She knocked on the glass. A young woman came over, took a look at them, then opened the door. Her eyes were red and puffy, as if she’d been crying. “We’re closed,” she said.

“Oh, I . . . we were just looking for Delores. We don’t want to buy anything,” Kayla said. “We want to talk to her. Is something wrong?”

“My aunt Delores was in an accident this morning,”

the young woman replied. “She’s in the hospital and she’s unconscious. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to come back another day.”

“What happened to her?” Kayla asked, truly shocked by this latest piece of information.

“No one knows. She came to the store early this morning and must have interrupted a burglary. She was knocked out.”

“Oh, dear. I’m so sorry,” Kayla said.

“Thank you. I don’t know how long she’ll be off work.

You’ll have to come back.” She closed the door and turned the dead bolt.

Kayla’s stomach began to churn.

“Evan was here before us,” Nick said with a certainty she couldn’t deny. “He wanted those files or whatever information Delores had.”

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She felt terrible. “We caused this. We got her hurt.”

Nick frowned. She knew he was thinking the same thing and not feeling good about it.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We led Evan to her.”

Even though she felt extremely guilty, she could see that Nick was taking it even harder. He always felt so responsible for the people around him, even people he didn’t know. She wanted to ease his guilt. “It’s possible that Evan could have found her on his own, Nick. He has the watch. The initials D. R. are on it. Maybe he would have come here anyway. Why don’t we ask J.T. to check with the police, find out exactly what happened, if anything was stolen, if her files were searched, that kind of thing?”

“I’ll call him from the car. I don’t want anyone to overhear us.”

Kayla kept an eye out for Evan as they returned to the Honda. She didn’t see him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. He seemed to be everywhere. Was he in this alone? It seemed difficult to believe that one person could be responsible for breaking into her house, knocking Delores on the head, and trapping them in an elevator, all within twenty-four hours. So who else was involved, and why?

Charlotte stared at the silver tea service that Elizabeth Pasano had just placed on the coffee table in front of her.

The service must have been a hundred years old. It was beautiful, grand, impressive, just the way Elizabeth liked it, she was sure. Elizabeth took pride in the fact that she was rich, married to a successful businessman, living the good life. She’d always wanted to be someone, and she’d certainly achieved that.

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“Sugar?” Elizabeth asked, her dark eyes cool, not particularly welcoming. She was so polite she hadn’t said a word of reproach when Charlotte had appeared on her doorstep without an invitation, but Charlotte doubted Elizabeth was happy to see her. They’d known each other at a time in their lives they would both prefer to forget.

“No, thank you.” She took the cup from Elizabeth’s hand and set it down on the sterling-silver coaster. She wasn’t thirsty or hungry; she was worried. She wasn’t sure she should have come, but it was too late now.

Elizabeth sat back in her chair, crossing her slender legs. In her late sixties, she was dressed in a beautiful, rose-colored Armani suit, her skirt demurely touching her knees, her stockings pale, her pumps conservative but expensive. She fit so well in her elegant two-story mansion that no one would ever guess she had come from the other side of the tracks.

“How have you been, Charlotte?” Elizabeth asked politely. “I understand you’re a widow now.”

“Yes, Edward died two years ago.”

Elizabeth nodded. Her husband, Robert, had done business with Edward over the years, and at times their social circles had crossed. They’d never exchanged anything but small talk during those rare moments, but that was about to change.

“Someone stole Johnny’s watch,” Charlotte said bluntly, abruptly.

Elizabeth barely blinked. “I don’t understand.”