by Adan Ramie
"What information?"
"The GPS tracker Truman had installed in Ruby's car. Maybe her cell phone, too, I'm not sure." She chewed her lip, and her eyebrows creased together under her glasses. "He told him to make sure it hurt, and to delay the inevitable as long as possible. Make her regret being alive. Make her beg for death."
Harry felt as if she had been punched in the gut. She waited a few beats before she responded, until she knew she could without that old, familiar sensation taking over: pain, fear, and rage boiled together into something ugly that would consume her if she let it.
"This girl that Ruby is with is on his list, too. Truman told Eddie to get rid of both of them." Evangeline stood and looked down at Harry. "Please, do warn me if you plan to do something to my brother," she said. "I don't want to be on the receiving end of the same kind of deal if he finds out we met."
Harry resisted the urge to stand up and shake her hand. "Thank you, Evangeline."
Evangeline turned and stalked away with her head down. Harry pulled her phone out of her shirt pocket and put it up to her head. "Cal, did you catch that?"
"Every word," Cal said. He was at the precinct with Busy at his side on her computer. "CSS All Business got it recorded, and we already have a trace on Ruby Isles' car."
"Good. I also want a BOLO for Eddie Bishop; he sounds like a nasty character."
Cal whistled. "Yeah, we already checked him out. He's a hardcore scumbag."
Harry got to her feet and started jogging toward the parking lot. "I'll meet you outside the precinct. Hopefully we can get there in time to prevent two murders.”
CHAPTER 28
Frustrated, Lee shoved the wires back from where she had pulled them and dragged herself back into the car seat. She glanced up just in time to duck away from the fist that shattered the driver's side window. She scrambled over the armrest into the passenger seat and pulled on the door handle.
She tumbled out onto the rocks as the man—Danny or Pat or Stan, she couldn't remember, but she knew she had seen him before—pulled his arm out of the window and started to stomp around the car toward her. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the car the men had ransacked.
Lighter and faster, she had him by several yards when she got to the car. They had left it unlocked, so she climbed inside, jammed the key into the ignition, and started the car just as Eddie's goon walked up beside it. He tugged at the door handle as she put it in drive; the car lurched forward and out of his grip, and she spun out. When she regained traction, the ham-fisted goon gained purchase on the trunk of the car, and she drove toward the south side of the building.
A man with shiny, copper hair slammed the passenger door of a metallic silver Thunderbird she would have recognized from a mile away. One of the first times she saw it, she had gotten sick to her stomach at knowing her friend was along for the ride. Now as she watched, she saw movement in the passenger seat, and again knew someone she loved was inside. As if he felt her eyes on him, Eddie Bishop turned and their gazes met. Her back window shattered and Lee skidded to a stop. Eddie flashed a cruel smile, tossed something out the window, and pulled out of the parking lot.
The goon on the back of her car thumped his fist against the back dash as he tried to climb inside. A sick feeling uncoiled in the pit of Lee's stomach, and she accepted the cards Fate had dealt. She turned in her seat, pulled out the gun, pushed off the safety, and fired into the goon's face.
"IF YOU WANT HER BACK, you'll have to take her from me."
The message was simple, but Lee stared at it as if the words would stand and scramble on their own to create some new message. The object Eddie had tossed out the window was Ruby's little flip phone, and Lee had scooped it up on her way out. She didn't know what Eddie would do to Ruby while he waited for Lee to get to them, but she knew it would be painful.
After the message was an address. She knew he was headed that way, and knew that he would be there when she got there, no matter how long it took her. Without GPS or knowledge of the area, all she had to rely on was her intuition. And, of course, she knew it was a trap. She had watched enough cartoons and cop drama television to know that the bad guy always used the damsel in distress to lure the hero in. Some hero I am.
AFTER A DRIVE THAT entailed turning around more than once, and stopping at a gas station for directions, Lee sat in the dusty, beaten up car in front of a line of large, climate controlled storage units and let her eyes adjust to the inky blackness around her. There was only one other car in the parking lot, and it sat just outside the dim security light on one of the units.
She opened her door, flung a leg out, and her boot hit the gravel with a crunch not unlike a bone being crushed. Lee fought the turn in her stomach for a moment before it overtook her, and she spewed vomit at least a foot in front of her on the sharp, granite colored rocks.
When she stood, it was on shaky legs, and she held on to the car's frame as an old woman would a walker. Her quivering hands skittered across the slick, painted surface. She took a deep breath and pushed off the car, ready to make her way into the bowels of the deserted storage lot, when a blinking light in the car beside her caught her eye. It was a cell phone with a cross carved into its back, the same one she had seen pressed up against Eddie Bishop's ear a dozen or more times on drug runs with Josie.
Silence closed in around her and she became aware of her heavy breathing.
She's okay. She's got to be okay.
CHAPTER 29
Eddie pushed himself up and off Ruby to stand. He wiped flecks of drying blood off his shirt as he zipped and buttoned his jeans. He stared down at her in disgust, flipped the pocket knife closed, stuffed it back where it had been, then walked across the storage space to the door. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and pulled his Zippo out of his pocket. It glistened green in the dim fluorescent lighting. He glanced back at Ruby.
At some point she had passed out, but she was awake now. At first, he seemed to be enjoying himself, and she had hoped that her acquiescence would be enough to keep him from killing her. She couldn’t make herself look at him, even when he screamed in her face, slapped her, and shook her. In fact, with each abuse, she stared more firmly away. He had almost lost his erection until he flipped her over, twisted her hair in his hand, and made her watch in the mirror he had placed above the bed.
She had made no noise, not a whimper, whine, or plea the whole time. Now she lay silent and curled up under the itchy blanket, her eyes on the wall opposite him as she tried not to look him in the face. Her breathing had evened out, but she was determined not to fall back into unconsciousness. He lit his cigarette and walked back over to the bed. She tried to control the spasm of her back muscles contracting as he came near. He bent gingerly and scooped up the torn remnants of her clothing.
"I'll be back. Keep your mouth shut, and I might give you another good lay before I kill you and your girlfriend." He chuckled.
She didn't move or respond. He took the clothes with him as he walked out, and flipped off the light as he closed the door behind him. In the darkness, she sucked in a wet breath and tried not to scream.
I should have stayed with Truman.
The thought was unwelcome, but it rang true in her head. If she had stayed, he would not have felt the need to send this murderous psychopath after her. She shifted to stop her arm from going numb again, and the small bed under her creaked.
She wondered how long it had taken them to set up his little rape nest; the thought that he had been watching them for any amount of time sent sickness bubbling up the back of her throat. He had to have been planning this at least half the day to have set up the perfect torture chamber. She couldn't see a single way out.
CHAPTER 30
Cal tapped his fingers on the dash of the car in time with something in his head as Harry drove them toward the airport. The GPS tracker pinged Ruby Isles' car two states over. The tracer on her phone was another story, however, and that left the two detectives in a strange position.
>
"How does a woman leave her phone in Utah, but her car in North Dakota?" he asked.
Harry's eyes didn't stray from the road. A muscle clenched in her jaw as she chewed the skin on the inside of her cheek. She had considered the same question a hundred different ways since she saw the disparity, and none of the answers made her any less sick to her stomach.
"They were separated," she said. She pointed the car toward the airport exit. "What do you think, Cal? Both car and phone have moved in the last 72 hours, but only the car in the last 24. Do you think Dakota is really where we need to be headed?"
"Well, either way, she can only be with one."
"Yeah."
Cal puffed out a hard breath. "Make the wrong choice, and we could end up with two bodies.”
"They could already be dead," Harry pointed out. She turned down the narrow road that led to the airport and followed the signs to their gate. If they hurried, the plane wouldn't have to be delayed on their account.
"They could," Cal agreed. He stared down at the two conflicting dots on his cell phone. Neither had moved in over twelve hours. "If you were on the run, would you ditch the car or the phone first? Assuming you didn't know they were being tracked."
Harry pulled into a parking spot and killed the car. She grabbed her shoulder bag, opened the car door, and put a leg out, then turned back toward him. "Oh, you know what I would do."
Cal rolled his eyes and got out of the car. "Yeah, you wouldn't let yourself be tracked in the first place."
They met eyes over the top of the car as Harry locked it. She gestured for him to follow her into the airport, and the two jogged their way toward the gate that would take them to the plane. They took one last look at the GPS before they both turned off their cell phones.
"Briggs isn't going to like this," Cal said, and pointed up at the sign. Grand Forks scrolled in red dots over a black screen.
Harry shrugged. "Briggs is wrong. Ruby Isles has the money, and Lee Barsten can keep them off the radar. They could get another car with no problem."
"They could get another phone, too," Cal pointed out. "And wouldn't it be more likely that Barsten would ditch the phone? That way Mrs. Isles couldn't call for help."
As they walked into the tunnel to board the plane, Harry glanced up at Cal. "Maybe she doesn't want to."
CHAPTER 31
Less than a football field length away from where Lee stood, Ruby lie curled on the mattress, naked. She shivered with trauma and a mounting fever. She felt her convulsive sobs, but her raw throat refused to make a noise, and her eyes had grown dry sometime in the middle of his second round.
Eddie was gone, but she didn't know where to or for how long. The monster had destroyed her spirit and stole her sense of time. For all she knew, it had been days or weeks since she had moved of her own free will.
Not that free will was something Ruby was terribly familiar with; in fact, until Lee strutted into her life like a wild peacock, the idea that she could make her own decisions had been as foreign as a childhood language forgotten with maturity. Truman had made sure of that.
A crunch sounded like muted gunfire, and Ruby held her breath. She listened for the telltale click of the lock as Eddie came back in to rape her again. Idly, she wondered where his stamina came from. Maybe he just enjoys the brutality.
There was a tap on the metal frame, and Ruby pushed herself up on one raw elbow. She wished it could be anyone but Eddie, but she knew it was probably him playing games with her. Truman had taught her this game well in the years of their torturous marriage. She wrapped the thin, soiled sheet around herself and pushed herself into a hunched sitting position.
"Ruby?"
At the sound of Lee's voice, a wave of happiness crashed over Ruby so hard, sick splashed against the back of her throat and pushed its way out of her. As she retched, she strained her ears to hear the words the thick metal muffled. There was a scrape at the door, then buttons pushed wildly. When the noise stopped, and her world fell silent again, Ruby stopped breathing again. Was it a dream?
"Rue, I need the combination," Lee said from the other side of the heavy door. "What do you think it is?"
Ruby slid her feet onto the floor and tried to stand, but her legs wobbled too hard, and she sank back down onto the bed. She willed all her strength into her hoarse throat. "I don't know," she managed.
Something heavy thudded against the outside of the building, and Ruby scrabbled back onto the bed. The door opened and light flooded in. Eddie dragged Lee by the back of her collar into the storage building and tossed her next to the bed. He narrowed his eyes at Ruby and leaned forward, his breath hot on her face.
"What kind of idiot do you think I am?" His words were measured and deliberate. "Did you think I was just going to let her take you away from me?"
Ruby opened her mouth to apologize and he raised a hand. She slammed her teeth shut with a crunch, and he dropped his hand. A smile spread over his rugged, arrogant face.
"Someone must have trained you up right," he said, and pulled the chair closer to sit down beside Lee's unmoving form. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of zip ties, and grabbed Lee's wrists. He tied them together so tightly that the plastic cut into her skin at the sharp bone, then tossed her arms back down. She groaned but didn't open her eyes or move. "You just don't know when to quit."
Ruby pulled her knees up to her chest and laid her head on them. She wrapped her arms around her shins and stared at him. He shook his head and stood. The pack of cigarettes was back. He lit one and shoved it in his mouth. The cigarettes and lighter he tossed to the floor across from his two captives.
"I'm going to tidy up the mess outside, so no one knows about our little party," he said, and walked toward the open door. In the doorway, he turned around to look at Ruby. He pointed at her with the cigarette between his two extended fingers. "If you try anything else, I'm going to cut your girlfriend from her throat down to her pussy and screw her to death. Then I'll start on you."
Ruby suppressed a sob and managed to nod. When he closed the door, she pushed herself down onto the floor and shook Lee's shoulder.
"Please, Lee. Please, wake up! Oh Lee, baby, please!"
Lee's eyes fluttered and her mouth opened then closed like a caught fish. A thin line of blood trickled down the side of her face, and she sucked in a wet breath. Ruby shook her, rubbed her hip, and dusted a trail of dry kisses from her forehead to her neck.
"Oh, please, wake up. He's going to fucking kill us!" she hissed.
She lay her head down on Lee's shoulder and sobbed through the sandpaper in her throat. One closed fist tapped a weak, steady rhythm on Lee's hipbone in time with her moans.
"Please," she whispered.
CHAPTER 32
Darkness had overtaken the last of the sun when Harry pulled the borrowed car into a run-down storage unit outside the Grand Forks city limits. Harry cut the lights, then eased the car into park behind a building on the edge of the lot. She glanced over at the red dot on Cal's GPS; if the coordinates were correct, they were within a hundred yards of Ruby Isles—or, at least, where she had left her phone.
"What did you tell the Captain back there to get such a long leash?" Cal asked as he checked that the safety on his gun was off. Sweat beaded his brow through the chill of night air, and he swiped at it with the back of one shirt sleeve.
Harry loaded a bullet in the chamber of her service weapon, took one more look at the GPS, and then motioned for Cal to leave it in the glove compartment. "He owes me a favor," she said, then glanced out across the parking lot through a gap between buildings. "We have limited visibility, but we have the element of surprise on our side."
"Yeah, but we don't know who we're going to find. It could be just poor, kidnapped Mrs. Isles. Or, it could be her and her kidnapper, Lee Barsten. Or," he said, but Harry raised a hand to quiet him.
She looked directly into his eyes. "It could be anyone. Any number of people. There could be bystanders. All we know i
s that the phone is in one of these buildings, or near it, and we have to find it to find her."
"I hate going in blind," Cal mumbled, and looked around their car into the gathering darkness.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, and put one hand on the door handle. "But it sure beats going in unarmed."
They opened their doors at the same time, then each let them close with two soft clicks that fell a beat short of being simultaneous. Harry surveyed the area as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Cal stepped over to her, winced at the crunch of rocks under his feet, and put his head close to hers.
"Does this feel really screwed up to you?" she asked.
"Oh, this is way more than screwed up," Cal agreed. "Something is going down here tonight. Let's just hope your dumb ass makes it out of here alive." He slid the magazine back into the gun and loaded a round into the chamber. "You take this side, and I'll take the other. Anything funny," he said.
"And we blow this scumbag away," she finished for him. He nodded and she grinned at him. "Happy hunting."
They crossed the parking lot and separated, their guns drawn, and their ears open for anything remotely suspicious. Harry was determined to bring both women back home alive. She just hoped they weren't too late.
CHAPTER 33
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Ruby clamored back onto the bed like a spider and pushed herself as close to the wall as she could. Eddie walked in the door and looked from her down to the still, quiet woman on the floor, then back to Ruby.
"Your dyke savior still isn't awake?" He chuckled. "Damn, I might have killed the bitch."
He walked over and bent down to press his face in close to Lee's to listen to her breathing. He heard a sharp intake, something akin to the beginning of hyperventilation, and a pain spread through the side of his face that sent him sprawling away with a growl of pain.
