by Dale Mayer
The trouble was that, as she stared down at her charge, curled up against her body, she knew avoiding further violence wouldn’t be so easily done as said. This was bad news all around, and she had no clue who or if anybody gave a damn. As she stared out into the rising morning sun, she thought it was Tuesday, but time was hard to track in her mind. She’d never felt lonelier or more terrified.
And then she caught sight of another vehicle parked off to the side, in front of the restaurant area, the two men inside that car seemingly studying her. She frowned, trying to figure out who they were. One of the men got out and walked casually toward the restaurant. He stepped inside, and she wished she was still inside. At least he might have helped them. He looked like some badass warrior. There was a can-do attitude about him that she really appreciated. At least, if nothing else, he’d be the kind of person who would stop the others in the restaurant from hurting her and her charge. She leaned forward to speak to the driver, who still stood out front, manning the pump while filling the car with gas.
“May I go into the restaurant and get some food for Amelia Rose?”
He frowned at her and shook his head.
“Please. She needs food for the trip.”
“We won’t be that long,” the driver said, his tone brooking no argument.
Her shoulders sagged. “Coffee? May I buy you some coffee?” He looked at her, and his gaze slid toward her hand. She held up a little bit of money that she still had from her pocket. “I don’t know how much this will buy,” she confessed, “but maybe a snack and some coffee for us all?”
He hesitated, but she hopped out of the car and said, “I’ll leave Amelia Rose with you. Obviously I’m not escaping, leaving the child behind.”
He relented and said, “My partner’s inside, so don’t try anything funny. Otherwise you won’t see her again.”
Amelia Rose hopped out. “She can’t take me with her?”
The driver grabbed her arm, shuffling Amelia Rose back inside the car.
Lorelei smiled at her. “I’ll return in a moment. Getting coffee and water.”
Then she ran inside. At the cashier station, she quickly ordered coffee and a couple bottled waters and picked up what looked like some fresh bread from this morning plus a bag of treats for Amelia Rose. As they made up her order, she glanced around, her gaze catching the man who had just walked in ahead of her. He stared at her with a raised eyebrow. A question was in that gaze, like he was asking her if she was all right. She just didn’t know how to give him an answer. She subtly held out one hand in a thumbs-down signal, as in No, I am not all right.
He walked toward her, and, while her coffees were being served, he ordered coffee for himself as well. “Is the coffee any good here?”
She looked up at him and shook her head, trying not to attract her guard’s attention.
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“Help me, please,” she whispered.
He nodded. “It’s on the way.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Just then the driver called for her from outside. She looked over, smiled, and quickly scooped up the coffee that the cashier had just placed into the holder for her and showed it to the driver outside and to the nearby guard. She waited for her change and raced out with her guard, all the while the driver still busily yelled at her about her recent activities, but she could barely understand.
When he was done, she smiled and said, “Thank you for this.” Then she handed him a coffee.
He still growled.
She handed the guard one too and then got into the back of the vehicle with her charge. She got water for Amelia Rose while Lorelei had a coffee for herself. She still had some change left in her hand, which she stuffed into her pocket. She quickly gave Amelia Rose her treats and one of the fresh rolls, grabbed another roll for herself, and then handed the bag of food to the occupants in the front seat. It was snatched from her hands. She knew they weren’t happy with her, but this was a small gesture to make things a little easier.
Then she sank into her seat, wondering who the hell that man had been and if he had meant what he said. As if understanding how disturbed she was, Amelia Rose grabbed her fingers and squeezed hard. She looked down at her and saw the worry in the girl’s eyes. Lorelei smiled at her and said, “It’s all right, sweetie. Remember. We’ll be okay.”
Amelia Rose sat back and munched away as the car pulled away from the combination café and gas station and drove onto the main road. She didn’t know how long they kept driving afterward. And, for the first time in a long time, she felt a whole lot better. She didn’t know who that man was and what his role in all of this could be, but he’d understood that she was in trouble. That was more than she could have hoped for. Now she just had to wait and hope for an opportunity. She wasn’t sure why the newcomers hadn’t done anything about this at the restaurant. Then maybe it wasn’t the best location? For instance, the fact that he didn’t know for sure that she was even in trouble. But he knew now, so hopefully he could find a way to contact somebody to help.
She settled back and whispered, “Have a nap and rest.”
Amelia Rose handed over the last of her treat and said, “I don’t want this.” She had a sip of water and then stretched out on the seat behind her and closed her eyes.
Not wanting the food to go to waste, Lorelei quickly polished off the last few bites and drank her coffee. She watched the two men in the front seat. They were talking, but their voices were low. She couldn’t see anything. She shifted slightly so that she leaned against the far corner of the back seat but couldn’t really see behind her. Shifting a little bit, she could look around the countryside as they drove. She had no clue where they were or where they were going. Only as they went around a corner did she catch sight of another vehicle far behind them.
It was the man from the restaurant.
He had believed her. Her heart lit with joy, but immediately she got worried. What if the Good Samaritans were found out? What if her driver saw they were being followed? Would they blame her? Punish her? Like they had Mary? She hoped not because Amelia Rose would have to witness that too.
She hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as what they’d done to Nurse Mary, but she couldn’t stop her fingers from clenching. These weren’t the same men who had tortured and then killed Nurse, but the memory of what they’d done to that innocent old woman would fill Lorelei’s nightmares for years. She tried to relax, slowly taking deep breaths, trying to unwind, but just knowing somebody was behind them, that somebody was looking out for them was a ray of sunshine to her heart. In her mind, she whispered to the unknown man, Please find a way to help us. Please.
When a shout came from the driver, she leaned forward to see him avoiding a traffic accident up ahead. He hit the brakes hard, and Amelia Rose woke up, crying. She rolled half off the seat, and Lorelei immediately grabbed her to stop her from banging into the driver’s seat. The men in the front seat were cussing and swearing, but four vehicles were at odd angles across the road, two of them badly smashed.
Lorelei cried out in shock when she saw how extensive the damage was. She couldn’t understand their language, but the men were talking constantly over and around her. The driver seemed to want to keep driving, but the road was completely blocked, giving him no place to go. The guard in the passenger seat got out, walked up to the accident scene, and argued with somebody on the road. Two of the vehicles were being moved off the road so the traffic could keep moving, at least in one lane.
She looked back to see the vehicle from far behind had now pulled right up to their vehicle’s bumper. Her driver yelled and shouted from the window at the people hindering their path. Swiveling, she checked the vehicle behind her again. It was now empty. Both its driver and passenger were nowhere to be seen. Then she caught sight of brown hair before it sank down behind her car window. She glanced at Amelia Rose, who sat up with tears in her eyes as she stared at the accident in horror. Lorelei pulled her close. With her
tight against her side, she whispered, “Be ready. This might be our chance.”
Amelia Rose’s jaw dropped, and she whispered back, “Now?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I want you ready, and I don’t want you to cry out. And I don’t want you to argue. When I tell you to run, you stay close to me. Do you hear me?”
Amelia Rose nodded.
Just then the driver opened his door, got out, and yelled at someone ahead of him.
The brown-haired man now popped up again, motioning for Lorelei to come to him.
Sitting on the far side, she silently opened her door, slid out and kept low, urging Amelia Rose to join her, then bolted backward toward the other vehicle. She came face-to-face with the man from the restaurant, and, before she could say a word, she was picked up and moved into the back of the second vehicle, Amelia Rose with her, both of them trying to stay out of sight when a blanket was thrown over them. Then the man hopped back in, and his buddy turned on the engine.
She kept Amelia Rose huddled low with her. She was darn grateful to be driving away from her captors, but what if these men were worse? She twisted upward, poked her head out, and whispered, “Do you think we’re safe now?”
“No. Not at all,” said the man she’d spoken to earlier. “But hopefully we will be soon.”
Griffin kept a warning hand on the girls’ heads, whispering, “Stay low. Stay low.”
Jax was at the wheel. He’d slowly backed up, turned around their car, and drove away, trying not to make it look like he was escaping, but, in truth, they were not only escaping but doing it as fast as possible but inconspicuously. As Griffin turned to look behind them, the two men returned to their car, only to stop and scream and yell at each other as they realized the girls had vanished.
“Now they know they’re missing,” Griffin said. “Pick up the speed a bit but not to draw any real attention.”
Jax already had goosed his gas pedal, waiting for Griffin to give him the all clear to get this vehicle in high gear.
As Griffin watched, the other vehicles now joining in this traffic jam had pulled up behind the kidnapper’s vehicle, effectively boxing them in, filling in the void their leaving had opened. Another one pulled out of the row and turned around, doing what Jax and Griffin were doing, rather than waiting for the vehicles in the accident to clear off. It effectively jammed in the kidnappers’ car.
“They’re on their phones, calling for help,” Griffin said, “since they can’t get out of the traffic jam.”
“Good,” Lorelei snapped from behind the front seat. “They deserved that.”
When they rounded a bend in the road that cut them off from the kidnappers’ sights, Griffin told Jax to floor it.
Jax put the pedal to the metal, but then he coaxed it up another gear. “Let’s hope we have enough of a head start.”
Griffin leaned over his seat and looked down at the two girls. Lorelei’s eyes were brown and wide, filled with a bit of temper and a little bit of uncertainty. But Amelia Rose’s eyes broke his heart. She was clearly terrified. He smiled at her and whispered, “It’s okay. We’re the good guys.” But it didn’t look like his words had any effect. He looked at Lorelei. “Do you know what they wanted from you?”
She pointed toward Amelia Rose. “They want her.”
“We heard from your dad,” Griffin said gruffly. “So, Amelia Rose, you’ll be okay. We just have to get you to safety.”
At the mention of her father, her eyebrows rose, and her eyes widened. “Did Poppy send you?”
“In a roundabout way, he did,” Griffin said, not having a clue who was behind his orders. “The bottom line is, we were sent to rescue you and to get you out of here safely.”
“I’m not going without Lorelei,” Amelia Rose said, her tone stubborn.
Griffin chuckled. “We’re taking both of you.” He kept an eye on the road behind him. “Looks like we’ve lost them for the moment, but I’m sure they’ve radioed ahead. We have to switch vehicles.”
Just then his phone buzzed. He glanced down to read an address, punched in for the map, and held it up for Jax.
Jax looked at it and nodded.
Griffin typed in the address into the car’s GPS. As soon as Jax understood where the address was, Griffin wiped the GPS from their car and from his phone. Griffin then forwarded the image he’d taken of the kidnappers’ license plate to his Mavericks contact. They should be able to track the car and, with any luck, the drivers.
“Can they really track your car, your phone, see your recent activity?” Lorelei asked in confusion, having seen what Griffin had done.
“We don’t want to take the chance that they can,” he said. “Worse than that is if they’re tracking us via satellite.”
She stared at him in horror and then cried out, “We have to ditch this vehicle.”
“Like I said,” he said, “we have to switch vehicles.”
Just then they went through a series of turns as Jax took the vehicle on a roundabout trip and pulled into a parking lot. There wasn’t much in the way of decent vehicles here, but Jax obviously had a plan. He headed to the far side where two vehicles had pulled up beside each other. The men stood off to one side, arguing something fierce, and they didn’t notice Jax slide into the driver’s side and take off with one their vehicles toward Griffin and the girls.
“Move,” Griffin said, “now.” He was out and opening the door to assist Amelia Rose. Lorelei was already out on Jax’s side. She had yet to notice that there was no sign of Jax. She came racing around to Griffin’s side of the vehicle and held out her arms. Amelia Rose ran into them.
Their new transport pulled up; they dashed inside and hit the road. Griffin watched behind them again, but neither man, still intent on their argument, had yet to notice that one of their cars had been stolen. A few blocks later he smiled and said, “Clear.” He turned to face the girls in the back seat. “Now”—Griffin pulled the armband he’d been carrying in his pocket for just this moment—“Amelia Rose, lift your right arm please.”
Shocked, she slowly lifted it to rest on his seat in front of her. “Why?”
He smiled, reached around, and placed the band in the middle of her upper arm. “You have a tracking chip in your arm. This will block the signal.”
She twisted her new accessory. “It should come in better colors.”
He laughed. “No such luck. Black is all I’ve got. Don’t take it off, unless you become separated from us. And then we’ll use that signal to track you two down again. But blocking it now should stop the kidnappers from tracking you again.”
“That’s how they knew where we were after we escaped.” Lorelei cried out, studying the new arm band. “We never had a chance.”
Jax took another rough corner, sending the girls sliding along the back seat.
“Wow,” Amelia Rose said. “He doesn’t drive very well, does he?”
Jax snorted from the front seat. “I drive better than you think,” he said. “I just have to make sure that we’re not being followed.”
At that, Amelia Rose stayed quiet.
Griffin looked at her and said, “My name is Griffin, and that’s Jax.”
She looked up at Griffin and said, “You’re a winged horse?”
“Winged lion,” he corrected with a big smile. “And you’re Amelia Rose, and you’re Lorelei, right?” When both nodded, he could feel their relief settling inside. “Now that we got that straight, I need to know if either of you are hurt.” His gaze was searching as he studied the child and then the woman. He didn’t want to ask if they’d been assaulted in any way, but it happened so often that he knew he had to be sure.
Immediately Lorelei shook her head and whispered, “We’re both okay. I don’t know for how long that would’ve lasted though.”
“Any idea why you were being moved?” Jax interrupted.
“No, not really.”
“They had to move us. To get us away from what they’d done to Nurse. She’s i
n heaven,” Amelia Rose said tearfully. “They killed her so we’d behave.”
Chapter 5
Lorelei studied the two men who now held their lives in their hands. She hadn’t seen anything that showed her something was off with them, but, at the same time, it was hard for her to be too complacent. She didn’t know them. They’d helped her and Amelia Rose escape, but who were they exactly? “Are you sure her father sent you?” she asked cautiously.
“We’re special ops,” Griffin said. “Her father initiated the request, but the government sent us. I doubt he knows who the two of us are personally.”
“I guess I wonder which government it is,” she said smoothly.
The corner of his eyes crinkled, and he nodded. “Good question. We’re both American.”
Lorelei’s heart froze, and her eyes widened. “But her father’s British.”
“One of those joint task forces,” Griffin said, which made Jax snort. “Except he’s an American citizen.”
“I’d like to see the joint part of this,” Jax said.
Griffin turned that light gray stare in her direction. There was no deceit, but there was also no give in them. “We were given a mission, given orders to extract both of you from the difficult situation you were in. So that’s what we did.”
She frowned. “Orders?”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s how this works. We’re offered a mission, and, if we accept, we’re all in.”
She hated to say it, but something was almost depressing about that. She hated to be just another mission; yet, if they hadn’t been designated as a mission, the two of them would still be prisoners. But she nodded and said, in a more formal tone, “Then thank you.”
“Don’t thank us yet,” Jax said cheerfully from the driver’s side. “We could have gone from the soup into the stew.”
She hated that analogy. She twisted to look behind them, but nothing was there. Thankfully it looked like they’d lost their kidnappers. “Well, at the moment, the kidnappers aren’t behind us, so I’ll take that as a blessing.”
