Search Me

by Katie Ashley

  “I’m afraid so. Strict orders there are to be no weapons or no communication devices,” he replied, sweeping his hands down the sides of my body. As they swept over my abdomen, I sucked in a breath, hoping and praying he wouldn’t go any further up and discover the phone lodged in my bra. Finally, he moved down to my waist. I cringed when his fingers dipped inside the waistband of my jeans before digging into my back pockets.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Maddox. His fists clenched at his side, and I knew he had to fight himself not to break Terrance’s neck. “She’s clean, asshole!” he snapped.

  Terrance ignored him and felt down each of my jeans legs. “Shoes off,” he demanded. I hurriedly kicked out of my sneakers. Once he was satisfied there was nothing in them or my socks, he nodded and turned to Maddox. “All right, now you.”

  The bouncer then took me by the shoulders and shoved me towards the car. His manhandling didn’t sit well with Maddox because the next thing I knew he had pushed away from Terrance and rushed over to me. “I swear to God if you touch her like that one more time, I’ll break your neck,” he snarled.

  With a contemptuous snort, the bouncer stood toe to toe with Maddox before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling an enormous gun out. “Shut your mouth.”

  Maddox’s vein throbbed in his head, and I feared he was going to lose it. Quickly, I swept my hands to his face, forcing him to look at me. “I’m fine,” I assured him.

  His expression was tortured, but he gave a brief nod. The bouncer sneered at Maddox before slipping an arm around my waist and jerking me away.

  Terrance cleared his throat. “Easy Julius. Remember what Jensen said about hurting them.”

  At Terrance’s words, Julius eased his grip on me. “Get in,” he commanded.

  I eyed the rope in his hands nervously. “Y-You’re not going to t-tie me up?”

  “Nah, I think we’ll leave those for lover boy.”

  I scrambled through the door and slid across the seat. When I reached back for the seatbelt, he shook his head. “Floorboard.”

  I glanced down and swallowed hard. This was all a nightmare. I knelt behind the driver’s side seat. Leaning over, Julius took one of the blindfolds and covered my eyes. Darkness enveloped me, and I couldn’t stop trembling. A prickly panic needled my skin, and I struggled to breathe. Stay calm, Lane. Everything is going to fine. Maddox is here, the GBI are on their way, and everything is fine. But no matter how hard I tried reassuring myself, it didn’t help.

  Terrence must’ve finished with Maddox because I heard his voice close to the driver’s side door. “Julius, you’ll stay in the back with them. Parker will drive you to the location, and I’ll follow you in their truck.”

  “Whatever you say,” Julius replied.

  Just as I thought I might start hyperventilating, Maddox dropped down beside me. Julius nudged us to lie down, so we would be better hidden. After I stretched out my legs and Maddox lay across me, a thick blanket dropped over us, making it even harder to breathe.

  Somehow in the emotional and physical darkness, Maddox’s voice hummed in my ear. “It’s all going to be all right. I love you, and we’ll get through this.”

  “I love you, too,” I whispered.

  His lips met mine in a reassuring kiss. We jolted apart when the car lunged back in reverse. Our bodies shook and vibrated with the car while it rambled along the broken-up pavement. When we rolled to a stop, Maddox’s chin knocked into my forehead. “Ouch,” I gasped.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  I tried to reach my hand up to rub it, but the car lurched forward onto the highway, throwing us against each other again. At the rate we were going, we would be black and blue by the time we reached Jensen’s hideout. We’d probably traveled for a few minutes when the pressure from Maddox lying on me caused my legs to go to sleep. I tried shifting them but ended up kneeing Maddox in the groin. Hard.

  He groaned in agony and pulled away.

  “Oh, jeez, I’m so, so sorry,” I said.

  Julius kicked us. “Pipe down!”

  “You try getting nailed in the balls and see how quiet you are,” Maddox growled.

  While Parker snickered in the front seat, Julius’s boot heel nudged into us again. “Shut the fuck up before I gag you.”

  Maddox muttered a string of obscenities under his breath before maneuvering his legs to the side to where he wouldn’t be in danger of me kicking him again. He heaved a frustrated sigh.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered.

  “I’m tied up and blindfolded, I’ve been harassed by armed assholes, and I just had my balls rearranged. Oh yeah, I’m peachy,” he hissed in reply.

  Even though he couldn’t see me, I narrowed my eyes at him. “I can’t believe you’re being sarcastic at a time like this.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m sorry that I’m not living up to your heroic expectations, princess.”

  I started to lay into him with a smartass response when we turned off the highway and onto a gravel road. Once again, Maddox and I were thrown against each other as we bumped and jostled on the uneven terrain. The thought that we were getting closer to Jensen caused me to shudder. Maddox must’ve sensed my uneasiness because he nuzzled his cheek against my forehead. All my aggravated feelings evaporated with the warmth of his breath on my face. “Sorry for being an asshole,” he murmured.

  “No, I’m sorry, too.”

  He chuckled. “You’re just a ball-buster in more ways than one, Lane.”

  I giggled, silently thanking him for momentarily trying to ease the tension and make me forget I was blindfolded and being held at gunpoint.

  We rolled to a stop, and Terrance killed the car engine. “It’s all going to be over soon, and we’ll look back at all this and laugh,” Maddox assured me in a whisper.

  I nodded in reply while silently praying Agent Montrose lived up to his word of being fast. From above me, I heard the back door open. The car rocked to and fro under the strain of Julius rolling out. A few seconds passed before the blanket was ripped off of us. “All right, up and at em, lover-boy,” Julius said.

  He dragged Maddox off me. Julius must’ve then thrown Maddox out of the car because the next thing I heard was a body scuffling on the ground and Maddox cursing. I rose out of the floorboard and tried pulling myself on the seat, but Julius’s meaty hand wrapped around my arm and dragged me out. Still unable to see, I lost my footing and collapsed to the ground, right on top of Maddox.

  “Dammit.”

  “Sorry.” I rolled away from him and staggered to my feet.

  Hands gripped my shoulders, and then Julius unceremoniously ripped my blindfold away. The intense noon sunlight burned my eyes, and I snapped my lids shut until they could adjust. After a few seconds, they fluttered opened. My gaze flickered around my surroundings, desperately trying to take in everything at once. I glanced over at Maddox. He shook his head as if to say, “Where the hell are we?”

  With all the turns we’d made, we were definitely off some rural road. High grass grew all around, and a rustic barn sat in the center of an overgrown field. Past the barn, I could see where there had once been an old farmhouse because two crumbling rock chimneys still stood.

  Nudging our backs, Julius urged us forward through the grass towards the barn. Once we got to the door, he knocked. “Come in,” a voice called from inside.

  We stepped over the barn entrance, and Julius quickly shut the door. Movement came from a stall to my left. Suddenly, Jensen stepped out. Without a word to us, he turned back and jerked someone forward.

  “Dad!” I cried, breaking free of Terrance.

  With Dad’s hands tied behind him, I could only throw my arms around his chest. Squeezing him tight, I didn’t fight the tears that pricked my eyes.

  He leaned his head down to kiss my cheek. “Thank God you’re all right. I’ve been so worried, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice cracking.

  “I feel the same way.”

  Trying to ease the tension, he
mused, “My daughter, the treasure hunter.”

  Even at his joke, I couldn’t fight the sobs escaping from my lips. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  Dad gave me a ghost of a smile. “It’s okay.”

  And then our brief reunion shattered with Jensen creeping up behind me. I stiffened when I felt his breath on my neck. “I do hate to interrupt such a touching scene, but I believe we have some business to attend.”

  I knew he wanted me to follow him, but I refused to budge. I remained rooted to the floor with my arms around Dad. “Miss Montgomery, please cooperate,” Jensen said. He pried me off of Dad and led me over to a ratty couch that was set up where an animal-feeding trough used to be. Maddox stood by the couch, rocking anxiously back and forth on his heels. I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Where the hell were Agent Montrose and the GBI?

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Terrance grab Dad. “Want us to take him back in the stall?” he asked.

  Jensen shook his head. “Just keep an eye on him. If everything is in order, he won’t be here too much longer.” He motioned for me to have a seat, but I remained standing. His jaw clenched in disapproval, but he didn’t force me. “I assume since Julius swept your truck clean and didn’t find the gold, it is somewhere on you?”

  “Yes,” I murmured.

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you trying to play games with me, Miss Montgomery?”

  “No.”

  “Mrs. Sinclair wanted to play games with me about the map. You saw how that ended for her.” He pulled a pistol out of his jacket pocket. “Be a smart girl and give me the gold.”

  I momentarily hesitated before my trembling hand went to the zipper on my purse. Jensen smiled at my compliance. “I know what you’re thinking. It isn’t fair that you’ve gone to this much trouble to get the gold and now you have to give it up. But it really isn’t yours. It really belongs to my family.”

  “No, it was Pretty Fawn’s gold. If it belongs to anyone, it’s her ancestors.”

  Jensen narrowed his eyes. “Now you listen here. My great, great-grandfather, Arch, was Avery Jensen’s brother. After Avery was killed, Arch spent most of his life searching for the map and the gold—it drove him batshit crazy. Right before my grandfather died, he found out the map had been hidden in a painting—a painting done by the grandson of Notley, Pretty’s Fawn’s brother. He made me swear on his deathbed to find the painting no matter what it took.”

  When he hungrily reached for my purse, I stepped back. I tried to think of some way to keep him talking and to give Agent Montrose and the GBI a little more time. I chewed on my lip for a minute before blurting, “But why now? Why didn’t you try for the treasure years ago?”

  Jensen growled in frustration. “Well, if you must know you nosy little bitch, it was because I had better things to do with my time than go on a damn wild-goose chase for treasure that might not even exist and had driven my family insane. But after landing myself in prison for the second time, I happened to be bored out of my mind one night. I started thumbing through an art magazine that some schmuck had donated. And what do I see? The very painting my family has been salivating for.”

  I gasped. “You saw where it was going to be sold at the auction in North Carolina? The one that Maudie went to.”

  “Aren’t we perceptive? Fortunately, my parole date happened to coincide with the auction,” Jensen mused.

  “But why didn’t you just steal it from the auction house?”

  Jensen rolled his eyes. “Oh please, those places are almost as heavily armed and guarded as a Brink’s Armored Truck. It made sense that if I didn’t get to buy the painting then I would just persuade the next owner to let me buy it…or take it.” At what must’ve been my expression of disgust, Jensen chuckled. “You see, Miss Montgomery, I had a lot of time in prison to think about how to take the treasure. I also met some very important people who were to help me take it—for a cut of the treasure of course.” He motioned around the room at Parker and Terrence. “It’s my key to disappearing off the grid and not ever having to worry about going back to prison. There’s got to be at least a million dollars in there, if not more, and it’s going to be mine.”

  Once again, he reached for my purse, but before he could take it, Julius burst through the door. “We got company!”

  My relieved gaze spun over to Maddox. A smile flashed on his face before he mouthed, “Agent Montrose.” I gave a slight bob of my head before surveying the room to make sure no one suspected us. Thankfully, they were all riveted by Julius’s towering form framed in the doorway.

  “What do you mean?” Jensen asked.

  “Someone’s out there in the woods.”

  The electricity in the air shifted, sending the already nerve-wracking tension into massive overdrive. Jensen whirled around. The fury burning in his eyes and his expression of rage caused me to cower and inch away from him. But he didn’t let me get away. Instead, he grabbed my shoulders and jerked me against him. His fingers dug in my skin so hard I knew I would be bruised later. “Someone has been a very bad girl.”

  Furiously, I shook my head. “No, I didn’t do anything. I swear. You have our phones and GPS.”

  He tore his wild eyes off of mine and dipped his gaze to my chest that was flush against him. The expression on his face told me he knew my secret. Thrusting his hand inside my shirt, he snatched out the phone. “Tsk, tsk, I don’t like being lied to Miss Montgomery.”

  “But I—”

  Jensen silenced me by sending a stinging slap across my face. Both Dad and Maddox lunged forward, but Terrance and Julius knocked them to the ground. Maddox scrambled to get back up with his hands tied, but Julius cocked his gun at him. Defeated, Maddox ducked his head. “All right, all right.”

  Jensen turned his wrath momentarily on his men. “Didn’t I tell you two to search them completely?”

  “Yeah,” Terrance and Julius replied in unison.

  “Then how is it possible that the bitch had a phone on her? A phone that brought the fucking Feds to our doorstep.” Neither one of them responded. “Answer me!” Jensen shouted.

  “What did you want us to do? Have her strip?” Terrance protested.

  “I wanted her to come here clean—no devices. And now you two have totally screwed that up.”

  Julius opened his mouth to say something when the distinctive sound of a bullhorn echoed through the barn. “All right, this is Agent Montrose of the GBI. Everyone should vacate the premises immediately. Lay down your weapons, and come out with your hands on your head.”

  “Shit!” Terrance exclaimed.

  “Want me to hit the outer perimeter detonators?” Parker asked.

  “Don’t tell me, you’re a hacker and an explosives expert, too?” Maddox muttered.

  “My time in the Army served me well,” Parker replied.

  Maddox shook his head. “Dude, you’re a serious disgrace to the armed forces. I just want you to know that.”

  “Shut up!” Parker snarled, training his gun on Maddox.

  Jensen raked his fingers through his hair. “Give me a minute or two on the explosives. We need to give them a little more of a distraction first.”

  Agent Montrose’s voice came over the bullhorn again. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Come to the door, lay your weapons down, and let Mr. Diaz and the Montgomery’s go.”

  “You’re coming with me,” Jensen growled. Spinning me around, he wrapped one arm around my neck and then positioned his gun against my temple. “You even breathe wrong, and I’ll blow your head off. Got it?”

  The intense pressure of his arm against my throat barely allowed me to breathe, let alone speak. I managed to weakly croak, “Yes.”

  While Jensen fumbled with the doorknob, my gaze flickered to the floor. Maddox and Dad stared back at me with ashen expressions. Both appeared to want nothing more than to break free of Julius and Terrance to rescue me.

  Like a true coward, Jensen pushed me outside first to where I would
be a shield against the rifles trained on the barn. My gaze spun around the clearing, searching for the GBI agents or Sheriff’s department deputies. I honed in on Agent Montrose with his bullhorn in hand. But he was the only one visible—I had to assume all the others were carefully concealed. His eyes widened at the sight of a now deepening hostage situation.

  “Now you listen to me. You and your men better back off!” Jensen shouted.

  Agent Montrose shook his head. “Don’t be stupid. We’ve got the whole property surrounded. Don’t make things worse by trying to run or hurting her.”

  “No, don’t you make things worse by not taking me seriously. You and your men better lay your weapons down, or I’ll give my men the command to shoot them all.”

  Seconds ticked by, and I was overwhelmed at how surreal the experience was—like I was standing outside myself watching the scene play out. How many times had I seen something similar on TV or in the movies? Of course, I don’t think they’d ever adequately captured the victim’s terror not only at being held hostage, but at the thoughts of how peeing their pants from fear would add to their humiliation.

  All at once the sound of busting glass and splintering wood blasted from the back of the barn. Voices screamed, “Freeze! Drop your weapons!”

  Any relief I might’ve felt was short lived. The ground all around the clearing exploded. I wanted to cover my ears, but Jensen had too tight a hold on me. Dirt and branches went flying through the air. A few seconds went by before the other side went up as well. Shouts of confusion filled the air as the agents tried to regroup.

  “Ready for the big finish?” Jensen asked into my ear. He then momentarily eased up on my chokehold to fire a round at Montrose.

  When it pierced his chest, I screamed, sending Jensen’s arm back around my neck. The world shuddered to a stop as Montrose collapsed onto the grass. I barely had time to process what happened when more agents came tromping through the woods, through the screen of smoke and burning grass. Thankfully, their rifles were trained on Jensen.