Stealing Allie

by H S Russell

  Walking up and down the aisles, trying not to garner the attention of the employees with my too-loose work clothes and the brand-new tennis shoes I haven’t paid for yet, I start stocking up on clothes and toiletries and nonperishable foods, along with whatever else I can think of that I might need. When I pass the suitcase aisle, I gauge the items in my cart and grab two plus a large satchel bag.

  The last thing I pick up is a burner phone I pay for using the cash from his wallet. When I leave the store, I’ll know there will be no electronic footprint of me having ever been here. When Lucas starts looking, he’ll have to look in every direction, even from the start.

  Once I get back to the car, I activate the phone and call the one person I know who can help me out. Of all my friends’ phone numbers I had memorized, his is the only one that can save me. Expecting it to go to recording, I start talking after the beep. “Ax, it’s Allie. I’m in trouble and need your help. Can you—”

  “Allie?” Ax asks, interrupting my stream, startling me.

  “Ax? Oh thank god! You startled me—I thought this was a recording.”

  I can tell he’s grinning. “I do that when I’m screening calls. Saves me from having to call back. Now ’sup with you? What do you mean you’re in trouble? You’re the least in trouble person I know.”

  “Ax.” Tears threaten after hearing the familiar cadence of his voice. “I need help, and it’s bad. It’s really bad.” Ax doesn’t hesitate, no questions asked.

  Ax and I met in college where we’d bonded over Mountain Dew and precalculus and a mutual lack of not attracting members of the opposite sex. Ax is straight-up anti-government, and he’s one scary-smart guy. He and I are diametrically opposed on almost every level, but the bond that formed in college has lasted.

  I gave him the nickname Agent-X years ago when I learned about his stealthy online persona. He protested the use of Agent in his nickname—too “governmenty,” he said—so I shortened it to Ax.

  Ax tells me exactly what to do, the first of which is to ditch the new phone and the car. “It’ll have GPS on it, so you need to drop that thing, fast.” Panicked, I immediately drive to where Ax tells me to and walk away from the SUV.

  Taking my new purchases, I spend the next few hours taxi-hopping and riding with a few of Ax’s “friends” before finally getting to his place. He takes one look at me and my two suitcases and satchel, and yanks me inside of his house and out of view of the street.

  “What the fuck have you gotten yourself into?” he screeches at me.

  Ax is not the mellowest of dudes.

  I have to bite my lips so I can kill the emotion at seeing a familiar face. On the long, circuitous route over, I’ve debated about what to tell Ax, wanting first and foremost to keep him safe. All that goes up in smoke as words seem to fall out of my mouth.

  “I walked in on a data theft over at the new federal building, and one of the guys kidnapped me and has been holding me captive. He told me that they planted evidence against me, so if I go to the authorities, I’ll look like an accomplice.”

  Ax flops into the nearest chair and puts his head in his hands. “Shit, Allie,” he mutters. “What else?”

  “I was finally able to get away tonight, but he’ll be looking for me because I can identify him and the other guys to the authorities… I don’t know what to do, Ax. I just know I have to disappear.”

  Ax mumbles from under his hands. “The federal building? What did they take?”

  I can’t help but laugh. “Out of everything I just told you, that’s what you want to know?” He nods, making me huff and turn away. “I have no clue, Ax. They were downloading stuff onto portable hard drives, or what looked like portable drives. That’s all I got.”

  He rubs his hand over his mouth and jaw, finally looking at me. “Who are ‘they’ exactly? How many we talking?”

  I shake my head at him. “Three. And I’m not sure that’s information you need to know right now. He said the authorities don’t know them. That they weren’t on any radars.”

  Ax smirks. “The authorities may not know them, but I probably do.” We head into his cage—that hallowed place where he does his own brand of evil deeds—and has me repeat the story but in more detail.

  “Who is this guy? You got his ID on you still?”

  I hand over Lucas’s driver’s license. I’m not sure why I kept it, and Ax stops walking to stare at it. When he looks up at me, his eyes are big against his pale face. “Are you fucking kidding me with this?”

  “No, what?” I ask, confused.

  “Lucas Grayson is the one that took you?”

  I step back, hedging. “Maybe…”

  “Jesus, Allie. This guy—this guy is…” He breaks off, huffing out a laugh. “When you go big, you fucking go big.” He looks up at me, grinning as he gives me a wink and a fist bump. “That’s my girl. Now let’s go get you gone.”

  Ax hops on his computer, typing faster than I can read. “So, you know who he is?” I finally ask what I’ve been dying to know.

  “I’ve heard the name. Let’s leave it at that.”

  “I guess that means he’s a pretty big deal?”

  “Maybe.”

  “But he said that he’s not on anyone’s watch list.”

  Ax gives a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. He’s on mine, just like I’m probably on his.”

  “Shit, Ax, are going to be in trouble for helping me?”

  Ax looks offended. “Little late to be asking me that, don’t you think?” When Ax sees how worried I look, he takes pity on me. “I’ll be fine, Allie. I’m not Grayson-level good, but I’m still pretty damn good.” After that, he refuses to answer any more questions.

  I spend the next few days with Ax, taking care of my job and my apartment. I call and tell my boss I quit and then call the apartment manager and set up an automatic payment for my rent. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back there, but at least my stuff will stay put. I’m just glad I have enough in savings to cover it and whatever utility fees will be auto-drafted while I’m gone.

  While I’m doing all of this, Ax starts digging for the evidence Lucas said they planted against me. When he finds it, his face becomes grim. “I can’t undo it,” he tells me. “They have sniffers on it. If the information gets erased, they’ll know and come looking for us. We’re going to have to keep it there, at least until I can figure out a way around the sniffer.”

  “Don’t do anything that’ll bring them to your doorstep, Ax. Okay?”

  He seems to think it over, then agrees to do as I ask.

  While I’m there, Ax and I talk about everything I need to do to stay hidden. We run through scenario after scenario until we come up with one that should work. I can’t use my real name on things—Lucas would find me far too easily if I did—so Ax calls a friend who does fake IDs. When I ask him what my new name will be, he just grins and says I’ll find out.

  Ax, being the anti-government fiend that he is, has access to an unregistered car that he loans me to get out of town. We talk about the best cities to live in, and he helps me narrow it down. I don’t tell him where I’m going to go as a precaution. Once I leave his place, I’ll use a secure laptop Ax gives me and get online to find a place to live.

  The night before I leave, Ax and I sit down and have a few drinks, relaxing as we say goodbye. We go over things like privacy and security, and he reminds me of things to do, and maybe more importantly, things to not do to keep me under the radar and out of sight. Once we’re through, he looks over at me a little pensively. Ax is the least pensive person I’ve ever met, so this is an odd look for him.

  “He’s going to find you,” he warns me. “Especially if you don’t keep moving around. But even if you do, eventually it’s going to happen.”

  I groan because I know it’s true. “What else can I do? I want to have a life still, Ax. I’m not letting him steal any more from me than he already has. And surely he’ll give up after a while, right?”

  “Mayb
e. I don’t know the guy, so I can’t tell you. I do have some advice though.” Ax makes a face as he says this.

  “What?”

  “I got an idea, but I don’t want to imply anything by it.”

  I laugh. “After what I just went through, I think I can handle it.”

  “Right. So, there’s all these chicks on Instagram and shit who have all these, like, before and after shots. For their weight loss. Some of them look completely different, so much so that you’d never think they’re the same person. I mean, they look nothing like they did before.”

  I’ve seen those Instagram accounts too. “So you think if I did that, he wouldn’t recognize me…”

  “Exactly. People are funny, Al. They see what they see and never take into account changes that come with time. You’re easy to spot if you look the same. So change it up. Lose some weight, change your hair color, get new clothes, a new style. And I’m not saying you’ll look better,” he clarifies, “I’m saying that you’ll look different. Different is key. He won’t imagine a new you. He’ll keep looking for the you he remembers, but if you change, he may never find you.”

  It was…it was genius. Ax isn’t a hugger, but I freaking hugged him for that. I may have squealed in his ear a little bit too.

  Leaving Ax’s is another bittersweet moment, but I’ve been there long enough. When he gives me my new ID package, I laugh. Ax named me Amy Smith. He laughs as he tells me just how many Amy Smiths there are across the country. Even if Lucas learns my new name, looking for me with that name is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Texas. It’s going to take him a long, long time.

  With my new identity in hand, a borrowed car, and more money than I could ever spend, I set out on my new life. I drive around for a while, stopping every night at a different hotel where I make new living arrangements. I’m fortunate when I find a furnished apartment near the heart of the city. When I get to my new home, I settle in with a sense of accomplishment and relief.

  I made it.

  Chapter 23

  One month gone

  Lucas

  Allie has disappeared from the face of the earth. She outsmarted me—or outfucked me as it were—and now she’s taken my money and vanished. It’s been a month and there’s no trace of her. She’s just…gone.

  Had she planned on getting me up to the room to sex me into a coma just so she could escape? She had to know I’d hear her saying my name over the video feed. Getting me up there would have been a gamble on her end. She’d have no way of knowing what I’d do when I was through with her, but it must have been a risk she was willing to take. A risk that paid off, in more ways than one. Because after fucking me into unconsciousness and locking me in her room—she must have loved that—she took my SUV that just happened to have three million dollars in cash in it.

  By the time José got to the house, Allie had been gone for four fucking hours. It might as well have been four days for all the success we’ve had in finding her.

  We tracked and got to the vehicle, quickly enough, but Allie and the money were long gone. Instead, she left me the cashless SUV and a 3x3 sticky note.

  Lucas, I won’t tell. Please leave me alone.

  I’d have laughed if I hadn’t just lost a shit-ton of money. She thinks with three million of my money that I’m going to leave her alone? After what we’d just done in that bedroom? I’ll never leave her alone, not after that.

  We used the GPS on the Rover to track her movements. We know she went to a big-box store and made a ton of purchases, including a burner phone. The video feed from the store shows her at different time stamps, up until the time when she leaves the parking lot to drop the car where we found it.

  Our only real lead that we get is the one phone number she’d dialed from the burner. We finally traced the burner phone and the number she’d called, but it was another dead end. The number belongs to no one and hasn’t been used in years. We know that’s not true, but until we can find that footprint, we have nothing. Bean and I discussed who was good enough out there to have helped her. Whoever it is, they’re good. I’d want to put them on the team if I didn’t want to kill them for helping her.

  All the guys are putting pressure on their contacts, casting out as big a net as possible without drawing too much attention. So far nothing has turned up—no car purchases or rentals, no bus tickets, no hotels, nothing. And from what we’ve been able to tell, she hasn’t contacted any of her friends, nor gone home. We did learn that she’d quit her job and had set up payment for her apartment, but nothing further that we could trace as a clue has turned up.

  She’s vanished without a trace.

  Two months gone

  Allie

  The street I live on is perfect. It’s half city street, half city park. My building is the demarcation between a busy city and a city park. If I turn left, I head to the park; if I turn right, I head into downtown. It’s everything I could ever ask for. I’ve met a few of my neighbors; most of them have been fairly pleasant. I used my fake name on the rental agreement but introduce myself using my real name. Lucas will be looking for an electronic footprint, but there isn’t one. The odds of him having actual people on the streets looking for and asking about me are pretty slim. He’ll have to find my location first, and for all he knows, I could be anywhere.

  Taking Ax’s idea to heart, I sucked up my insecurities and joined a gym. I was able to find one nearby that isn’t filled with gym rats trolling for hookups. The manager turned out to be a really nice guy and answered a lot of my questions, talking me through my fears and concerns. He helped me set some fitness goals, and with that, I was officially a gym member.

  At my first workout, I felt conspicuous and unwelcome. I kept looking around to see who was staring at me with such venom and then realized that nobody was making me feel that way…that it was me who was making me feel that way. Once I worked through that epiphany, I felt a lot more comfortable during my workouts. Most of the people are nice and pretty much stay in their own zone. When I need help with something, people are always happy to help me out.

  Walking home after my first week at the gym, I realized how unfairly I’d been judging people who worked out. I’d always thought that gyms were filled with snobs and uber-fit people who wouldn’t make room for the new, heavy kid on the block. The truth is the complete opposite. Most of the people are just normal people like me, wanting to get or stay healthy.

  It’s a whole different life for me now; absolutely everything has changed. And it’s going to keep on changing as I continue this transformation. I’ve been working out for only a little over a month, and I’m already starting to see results in the mirror. Small results, but still results.

  As I head into my building, I spot my favorite neighbor, Mrs. Dorsey. “Hi, Mrs. Dorsey, how are you today?”

  She’s a sweet, elderly lady who always smiles when she sees me. “Hello, Allie, how are you this glorious day?”

  “Mrs. D, my day is uh-mazing!” I smile as we chat while walking up the stairs. I’ve noticed that she totters a little on the steps—her heart may be young, but her legs are not. Once she’s safely inside her apartment, I head up to mine with a smile on my face.

  I love my new life, I really do. But Lucas still sits squarely in my thoughts. The actual leaving part was easy to do with all of the adrenaline running through my body. He should never have kept me for as long as he did, so my leaving was never a question. Not to me, at least. But another part of running away was because I wasn’t sure if what I felt for him was real, or if it was a product of Stockholm syndrome.

  Now, two months out, I’m still not sure which it is. All I know is that I miss him. I miss spending time with him, talking to him. I miss looking up and watching his serious expressions as he hunts for puzzle pieces or we play some other kind of game or talk about things. I miss hearing his voice. I miss his scent and the way he made me feel. And despite my trying hard to not think about him, every night when I clos
e my eyes, I dream of my thief with hazel eyes.

  Two months gone

  Lucas

  “Don’t fucking tell me that after two months none of your contacts have found a trace of her. She can’t just disappear like this without any help. Somebody out there knows something.” Between the four of us, we have dozens of contacts, and all of them have dozens of contacts. But after two months, we still have nothing.

  I hear a chorus of explanations, but Adam speaks up, frustration evident in his voice. “Lucas, I’m telling you, beyond the one taxi driver, there’s nothing. All the footage from the area he dropped her at was wiped by the time we got to it. There is nothing new from my leads so far.”

  I shake my head. How could she have just disappeared like this?

  “Lucas,” José says, gaining my attention. “we’re doing ourselves more harm than good. Let it go.” José is never afraid to speak the truth to me, whether I want to hear it or not. “The longer we keep looking, the more likely we are to draw attention to ourselves. Unwanted attention.”

  I pinch the corners of my eyes, angry that this one small, insignificant woman has caused so much turmoil. I’d dismissed Allie as a non-threat, thinking I could handle her with ease. Now we’re all paying the price for my arrogance.

  José senses my weakness. “We’ll figure out the money issue. We can make it work; it’s not like we’re destitute. But we need to move on to other jobs to recoup what we’ve lost.”

  I know he’s right, but I’m not the boss for nothing, and I want this woman. I want what she took from me, and I want her to pay for doing what she did. Pure and simple, I want my revenge.

  José, thinking my silence as agreement, continues. “We’ll keep the search to a minimum, just the bare bones. If we get a hit, then we can follow it up. Otherwise, we move on.”

  Nope.

  Before I can respond, Bean interrupts. “Yeah, Lucas, not to rain on these guys’ shit parade, but I might have a lead for us.” We’re all shocked into momentary silence, and then my pulse jumps as his words sink in. “Fuck, Bean, maybe you want to lead with that next time?” I growl. Fucker. He was sitting on this information the whole time.