He motioned her out the door. As she headed for the exit, she stopped for a brief second to check Grace’s pulse.
“Go!”
She shot him a dark look. “I’m going.”
“I told you she was fine. She’ll wake up in about an hour none the worse for the wear.” He jabbed her with the gun. “One thing you’ll find out about me. I may be many things, but I don’t lie.”
“Unless it suits your purpose.”
He laughed. “You are spunky, aren’t you? Okay, yes, that’s true, but I’m not lying now. Out.” He gave her a shove toward the door and Penny stepped out of the chopper. She scanned the area, desperately searching for a way out, but the acres of wide-open land provided no place to hide.
None.
Even the subdivision home that served as a temporary sales office was most likely locked. Assuming she could outrun any bullets he sent her way, hiding behind the office would gain her three seconds of freedom. If that.
“To the car.”
She’d noticed the lone vehicle but hadn’t thought it was going to be their transportation. All hope of someone tracking and meeting them at the chopper faded. Flying was so much faster than driving, and they wouldn’t know her exact landing spot until about right now. So, while they now had a destination, Rabor planned to be long gone before anyone arrived.
With the gun at her back, she walked toward the sedan. Her mind flashed to the outbuilding behind Joel and Sally Allen’s home. To the bodies, frozen in time, never to draw another breath. That was going to be her if she didn’t do something.
At the car, she stopped at the trunk, but he nudged her around to the side. “Open the door.”
She did, then swung around and jammed her palm against his chin. His head snapped back, and with a shriek of pain, he stumbled backward. Penny kicked him in the side. Another cry ripped from him and he curled into a ball on the concrete drive. She darted for the house, only to feel the sting of something in her upper back.
She ignored it and kept going. Around to the side. Knowing she might not have much time, she dug a finger into some wet red dirt. The license plate. She’d memorized it. Her vision blurred and she was so tired. He’d drugged her. Frustration built, but she concentrated.
Penny dragged her finger over the siding, blinking and trying to see, fighting the darkness pressing in on her. She spun and stumbled away, aiming herself for the empty lot next door, not wanting him to find the plate number.
But her legs gave out and she sat down with a thud, the ground harder than she’d thought it would be.
Move! Go!
Her mind issued the order, but her body wouldn’t work.
“Penny, Penny, you’re not being a good sport at all.” She looked up when Rabor stepped in front of her, legs spread, rubbing his chin and breathing hard. “You’re going to pay for this. I’m not supposed to lift anything heavier than ten pounds and now I’ve got to carry you. Thanks a lot.”
“What . . . did . . . you . . . drug . . . me . . . with?” She dragged in a breath, noting it came easy even while the darkness grabbed at her, snatching the light from around her.
“Don’t worry, Penny, it’s just ketamine. You’ll have a nice nap and when you wake up, we’ll have some fun—our first date.”
Terror spiked, but her eyes shut and she heard him singing, “Tea for two . . . Nobody around to hear you scream, mm, mm. No friends, just corpses, mm, mm . . . mm, mm . . .”
“That’s not the way the . . . song . . . goes . . . ,” she slurred, then had to cave to the darkness.
Holt’s phone rang for the umpteenth time, and once again, he checked the screen and sent the caller to voice mail. He didn’t recognize the number and didn’t have time to deal with people he didn’t know at the moment. He, Julianna, and local law enforcement had just arrived at the location where Penny had set the chopper down.
He’d left the prison as soon as he received word that Penny and Grace had been snatched and, with the help of the hospital, had followed the tracker to this spot. Rachel had called for a rental car drop-off and would be able to make her way home from the prison.
As soon as his Bureau chopper landed, he climbed out and raced to Penny’s bird. He didn’t expect to find her inside, but he was terribly afraid of what had happened to Grace.
He flung the door open and, to his right, found the cockpit empty.
To his left, Grace sat unmoving in one of the medical crew’s seats, eyes closed. “Grace!”
He hurried to her and pressed his fingers against her neck, praying for a pulse. When he found it, he breathed a silent breath of relief, then turned to find a local officer peering inside.
“Paramedics are here if you need them,” the woman said.
“I do. This is Grace Billingsley. She’s an agent. Make sure they take care of her.”
Within seconds, they had Grace out of the seat and on a gurney. Holt bolted to the front of the craft, scanning the area, praying Penny had left him some kind of clue as to where she’d been taken.
But nothing.
She’d left the keys, but there wasn’t anything that told him where she might have gone.
“Come on, Penny, I know you left a clue somewhere.” If she had the chance.
If she didn’t . . .
Please, God, take care of her. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to end. Not for Penny. Not for us. I need her to be okay, God. Holt was more than aware that things didn’t always work out the way he wanted or needed just because he asked God to do what he wanted, but it was always okay to pray for the safety of someone he loved.
Someone he loved. The thought didn’t even faze him. He loved Penny. He’d probably loved her since he’d awakened midair, knife wound in his side and Penny’s worried glances in the rearview mirror catching his eye. “You’re going to be all right, Holton Satterfield, you hear me? Don’t you dare die in my bird.”
He’d wanted to laugh and reassure her he had no intention of dying. Now he wanted to rage and pound out his fury at the man who’d snatched her. Instead, he drew in a steadying breath and exited the chopper.
He stood there with his hands on his hips, thinking. Cops swarmed the area, and he was desperately afraid someone was going to trample evidence, but upon closer inspection he could see they were taking care, and he let that concern slide away. He had enough to worry about.
Julianna hurried to him. “Looks like she put up a struggle. There’s some blood spatter on the drive. Not sure if it’s hers or not. The light rain left the outline of a car, so there was one here not too long ago.”
“He had a car waiting.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, brows pinched tight. “He had to. This area is in the middle of nowhere. Without a vehicle, they’d be on foot, and that doesn’t make sense. I don’t see him doing that. Especially if he drugged Penny.”
“Which I feel sure he had to do. If she’s awake, she’d be fighting.”
Julianna pointed. “Hence the appearance of a struggle first, then he drugged her.”
“So, let’s go with the assumption that’s the situation . . .” The idea sent chills through him. He’d seen what happened to Rabor’s victims, and the thought of Penny in his hands made him physically ill. He swallowed hard. Getting sick wouldn’t help anyone. “Someone had to be waiting with a car when Penny landed the chopper.”
“Or he dropped the car before he went to the scene to snatch Penny and Grace.”
“But how would he get there?” Holt gestured to the area.
“I don’t know, unless he had a bicycle in the trunk.”
“Or he hauled a motorcycle behind the car. The guy who attacked us on the back road was driving a bike.” He rubbed a hand over his chin and shook his head. “No, if he did that, where’s the trailer?”
“He hauled it off?”
“With what? How? That would require help. So, he either towed the motorcycle—and somehow got rid of the trailer that the motorcycle had to ride on—or he had help. Those are
the two options. I’m going to go with he had help.”
Julianna nodded. “Either scenario is plausible.” She nodded to the corner of the office near the gutter. “There’s a camera, and while I’m not going to hold out hope that there’s anything on it, Daria’s working on it.”
“If anything’s there, Daria will find it.” He paused. “Okay, if Rabor had help pulling this off, who would it be?”
“I can think of quite a few possibilities.”
“One of the many women who visited him in prison who would do anything for him?”
“That was my first guess. We’re running them down, but so far nothing’s sent up a red flag. Do you know there’s over five hundred of them?”
He winced. “I’m not surprised. There’s a lot of crazy out there.” And one of those crazies had Penny.
His phone buzzed and this time he recognized Daria’s number. He swiped the screen. “What do you have, Daria?”
“I got into the security feed. The whole thing was caught. It was like he wanted you to see what he did.”
That stopped him for a second. “Okay, let me wrap my mind around that. If he’s not trying to hide what he’s doing, he’s gloating about it.”
“I’m sending it to you now. You’ve got to find her, Holt. She’s in big-time danger.”
No kidding. “We’re doing our best.”
“Hey! Over here!”
At the officer’s shout, Holt told Daria to hold on, and he and Julianna hurried around to the side of the house. The officer pointed. “Looks like she used the mud to try to leave a message. At first I thought it was just dirt on the side, but that’s clearly a B and an A.”
“4227,” Holt said. “It’s a license plate.” He still had Daria on the phone. “Run this plate, will you?” He gave her the number.
“It’s registered to . . . Joel Allen.”
“Surprise, surprise,” he muttered.
“And another car went past about ten seconds later. That one is registered to Frankie Olander.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
Penny blinked. Then blinked again. She was awake, fully and instantly aware that she was alone yet still in danger and that she’d been unconscious. She just didn’t know how long, where she was, or if Rabor was nearby. She let her eyes adjust to the dim light of a single bulb while she swallowed faint waves of nausea.
Remnants of whatever he’d used to knock her out.
Ketamine. The same stuff he’d used on Grace.
Thankfully, it was a drug she’d had before and knew how her body reacted to it. She’d feel sick and weak for a bit, but then she’d be fine.
At least until Rabor returned to finish her off.
The chill of the cement floor pressed deep into her bones and a shiver wracked her. She tried to move her arms only to discover they were bound behind her back. Her legs were also tied together at the ankles. She had nothing covering her mouth, which meant he didn’t care if she screamed.
So, she’d save her breath.
But she was really cold. Another tremor racked her and she realized her flight jacket was missing. And her shoes. She still had her thick socks on, but the ground was going to be wet and would soak right through to freeze her feet. Assuming she managed to get that far.
Lovely.
Whatever. Being cold was the least of her worries.
She maneuvered onto her left side, then wiggled her arms over her rear and under her legs. With her hands in front of her, she went to work on her ankle restraints. He’d used duct tape. A sliver of relief coursed through her. She could work with duct tape as long as she could control her shaking hands.
Her shaking, freezing, almost numb hands.
Pulling in a steadying breath, refusing to panic, she opened and closed her fingers several times until some feeling returned. “Come on, Penny,” she whispered, “you can do this. Whether you live or die is up to you. Get busy.” Ignoring the fact that her breath smoked out from her lips, she felt around the tape until her fingers brushed the rough edge. Using a fingernail, she worked it under the tape and lifted. Then snagged it with her thumb and forefinger and pulled.
The ripping sound echoed around her and her heart leapt with hope. She pulled the tape until it was off.
Penny dragged in a ragged breath, the panic hovering closer to the surface now that she was almost free.
Please God, please God, please God . . .
“Someone get Olander on the phone. I want to meet with him ASAP.” If his phone buzzed one more time, he was going to throw it out the window. But he couldn’t do that because he might need it for Penny. But seriously, what was up with all of the spam calls right now? He needed to keep the line open and didn’t have time to deal with telemarketers.
He glanced at the screen.
Raina. Oops. He’d talk to her.
He swiped. “Hey, have you heard from Penny?”
“No, but I’ve heard from Frankie Olander, that reporter.”
“Okay.” If Raina was calling him, knowing Holt was frantically searching for Penny, then she had something important to tell him. “What is it?”
“He’s trying to get ahold of you. Something about being able to find Penny, but he needs you to answer your phone.”
He closed his eyes for a millisecond. That’s why the number was slightly familiar. The reporter. “I’ll call him right now. I have a few questions I’d like to ask him anyway.” Like why had he been at the construction site and how had he known to be there? And where had Rabor taken Penny?
“Just dial the number that’s been calling you over and over.”
“On it.”
“Keep me updated, please, Holt. I’m terrified for her.”
“We all are. Stay tuned.” He hung up and dialed the number that had irritated him so.
“About time,” Frankie said halfway through the first ring.
“Where is she?”
“I want the exclusive.”
“And I want to punch you in the teeth, but sometimes we don’t get what we want. Where is she!” Holt knew he was losing control and dragged in a steadying breath. He was a professional.
So be one.
A sigh from the reporter grated on him. “Look,” Frankie said, “I can help you. I can tell you exactly where he took Penny, but I want first rights. Someone’s going to tell the story. It might as well be me.”
“How? How do I know you’re not involved and sending us on a wild-goose chase?”
“Ouch. Really? All I want is a story, the bonus my boss promised, and a possible promotion in the crime reporting arena. I have no desire to see Penny hurt.”
“How do you know where she is when no one else has a clue? How did you know where she was going to be and were able to follow her after the chopper landed?”
Silence. Then, “How did you know I followed her?”
“Security footage on the sales office got the whole thing. Including your license plate shortly after Rabor left.”
“I see.”
“Well?”
Another sigh from the man filtered through the line. “That night someone broke into her house?”
“That was you?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t find her address, so I went to the hospital base, waited until the place was empty—which doesn’t happen very often—and found her flight jacket. I put a tracker in it. Fortunately, she wore it home and I simply showed up at her house when I figured she’d be asleep. Only getting inside was kind of a pain. I saw she was asleep on the couch, so going in the front door wasn’t going to work.”
“So you climbed up the scaffold and went through the upstairs window.”
“Yeah. Only I guess I made too much noise and she woke up.”
“Sending you running. But you came back later.”
“I did. I put trackers in her two spare flight jackets and three pairs of shoes that looked like she wore often.”
Holt bit his lip on a growl. He’d hold off on reprimanding the man
if his actions wound up saving Penny’s life. “If your information leads to Penny’s rescue, I’ll do my best to convince her to talk to you.” Silence. “Come on, man! Where is she?”
“I’ll text you the coordinates and you’d better hurry. I wanted to help her, I swear, but I didn’t have a chance. I’m really sorry. I figured the best I could do was keep her in my sights and call you for help.”
“You could have called 911 and gotten help there sooner!”
“They wouldn’t have gotten here in time if I’d called, and if you’d answered your phone a little faster—”
“There’s no time for this. Send me the coordinates.”
“Right. Try not to ignore the new buzz on your phone.”
Holt scowled. When he got his hands on the man—
However, if he managed to get to Penny in time, he might just hug the guy before he beat him to a pulp.
Please, God, keep her safe and I won’t beat him up. I’ll just be happy she’s okay.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Penny couldn’t get the tape off her hands. The small building was more of a shed than anything. One with no insulation and completely empty of anything that she might have used as a weapon. Or anything that could have cut through the tape. She used her teeth on it while she inspected the door. She’d already tried the knob and it was locked, of course. She hadn’t actually expected it to open, but . . .
The knob had twisted, but there must be some kind of bolt on the other side. Her mind went back to the days she’d been trapped in the closet. Terrified, feeling like all the air was being sucked from the tiny space and just wanting someone to come rescue her. Banging her fists on the door. “Let me out! Let me out!”
A sob gathered in her throat and she swallowed. “You’re not a little girl anymore, Penny. You’re a smart girl and can find a way out of this, so think.”
Because as far as she knew, no one was coming to rescue her. Urgency pressed heavy on her chest and she dragged in a breath. She had to get out but needed her hands to do so. How long had she been unconscious? How long had she been in the car? Had he given her any more of the drug to keep her out longer? She didn’t think so but couldn’t swear by it. She glanced at her watch, but even though it said 8:15, she had no idea if she’d missed a day or not.
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