by Lucy Kelly
Gary and a few others came up and asked him what was going on. Boy, did he have a story to tell.
The driver of the limo jumped out of his seat and ran to open the door. When he saw their faces, he hoped there hadn’t been a fight. He wondered if they were pissed at him for taking them here. Shit, there went his tip.
“How fast can you get us back to Boulder? Marla, the bride, has been kidnapped; we need to leave right away,” said Charl in a hard voice.
“What? No, I heard you. I can have you back in a half hour. Let’s get going,” he said.
Charl didn’t climb into the back with the others; he opened the passenger door next to the driver and climbed into the front seat. Karlo took the seat in the back near the window to the front. As soon as Markus got in, the driver slammed the door shut and ran around to his door.
“It took over an hour for you to arrive here. How will you be able to shorten the trip so much?” Charl needed to know.
“I’m going to take the less scenic and more direct route. I’m also going to drive as fast as I safely can,” said the driver.
“Agreed, we will brace ourselves; feel free to drive faster.” Charl turned to look into his brother’s eyes and saw the same fear and anger he felt dwelling there. “We’re going to get her back,” he said.
“Yes.” It was all Karlo could say. He was choking on his emotions; he needed to regain his control.
“Markus—tell me all you know,” Karlo finally said and Charl turned to listen.
The trip back to Boulder was very different from the earlier one. This time, there was no music or boisterous joking amongst the men. The threat of danger to a woman, and one of their women specifically, had sent a potent mixture of chemicals into their bloodstreams. The alcohol they drank was quickly metabolized as their senses sharpened and they mentally adjusted to the current situation. A few of the men had not disconnected their cell phone conversations from their Join, needing to keep connected.
Because all the women were pregnant, the men’s anger escalated a thousand fold. As the limo raced through the night, the impotence of not having their advanced technological resources available to them further exacerbated the situation.
*****
Marla woke up as she was being tied to a chair. Moaning, she lifted her head from her chest to look into the eyes of her kidnapper.
“Good, you’re awake. After all the trouble you caused me, you deserve to be aware of your death,” he said as he stood after tying her leg to the chair.
“Why are you doing this? We’re not married anymore. The annulment was finalized this morning. You can’t inherit my ranch if I die,” said Marla, thinking furiously.
“Except you’re not married to anyone else. After your body is found, the land will be put up for auction per the stipulation in your grandfather’s will, with the proceeds going to charity. I’ll finally get what I want and you won’t be around to cause me any more problems,” answered Jake.
“I’m not using all of my water rights. Why didn’t you just make me an offer for them? Why go through all this?” Marla asked him. She was desperate to get him to act rationally.
“Once you knew what I wanted, you could have raised the price on me whenever you wanted. After I expand my operations, you’d have had me over a barrel. I wasn’t about to lose everything I had when I had a chance of getting it for myself.”
“That’s bullshit, Jake. I didn’t even know why you were so anxious to get my land; it didn’t make sense to me. Someone else figured out you wanted the water. After grandfather died, I would have signed off on a long term contract for water rights. I don’t need very much raising alpacas. Instead, you had to lie and cheat. You never wanted to marry me; it was all just an act from start to finish.”
“Of course it was. You don’t actually think I could ever find you attractive? I deserve an Oscar for my performance. Then, you silly cow, you actually had the gall to dump me. Me! And you did it in a public venue where everyone could see you. You deserve to die for that alone,” he told her.
Marla had been watching him, trying to figure out where they were and what he was doing. The room they were in was empty and dirty; there were holes in the drywall showing the brick behind it, and graffiti. There were no lights on. Since it was late in the evening, she could only see a little from the glow of the portable lantern Jake had brought along.
“Now you’re nicely secured. Sit tight,” he said and laughed at his pun. “You were so heavy I couldn’t bring in all my supplies.” With that parting shot, he picked up the lantern and left the room.
With the light from the lantern gone, the room was plunged into complete darkness. Either there were no windows or they were boarded up. After a moment of mental freak-out, Marla sucked in a deep breath and then another one. Karlo and Charl would save her. She just needed to keep it together until then. But damn, it was hard. She really wanted to scream and cry. Only the thought of Jake getting off on it kept her eyes dry and her screams locked in her chest. Instead, she pushed her anger up and out.
When she saw through the doorway a lightening of the dark, she knew he was coming back. She had about half a minute to prepare for his re-entry into the room. If she was about to die, she wasn’t going to show any fear to this asshole. She wasn’t prepared for the huge smile he had on his face.
“Hey, there you are, bitch. You know, while I was getting my stuff, I realized that they don’t actually have to find your body to sell the land. Unless you come forward and prove you’ve married, the land goes up for auction. So I don’t have to risk coming back here right away, or phoning in a tip. I can wait for someone else to find you.”
“You’re an idiot. You’re going to be the lead suspect—actually, the only suspect if anything happens to me. They will find the evidence proving you killed me. If they don’t, it won’t matter. Karlo and Charl will kill you anyway. You won’t get my land, either. They know how much that land means to me, and they have more money than you. So you won’t be able to win at any auction. All of this won’t get you my land; it’s only going to get you a cell on death row or an unmarked grave.”
Her words had no effect on Jake; he had gone too far to pull back now. Because he felt a trickle of fear from her words, he lashed out. “You bitch!” he shouted, stopping his work to stomp over to her and backhand her with his fist.
It wasn’t enough. He wanted to keep on hurting her. He started pawing at her clothes. If she weren’t already tied so tightly to the chair, he would have had her down on the floor, so he could show her real power. Luckily for Marla, his internal voice of reason whispered about leaving evidence, and he stopped.
Breathing heavily, he wiped some spittle from the corner of his mouth on the back of his hand. Looking down, he saw that he’d pulled down the top of her jumpsuit to her waist. It was the one feature of hers he’d liked, her high round breasts. She’d never let him touch them. Well, he could touch them now. He bent over and reached around to remove her strapless bra, throwing it down on the floor.
Then with an evil leer, he reached out and grabbed her breasts, squeezing down cruelly.
“Thanks for leaving the fingerprints,” she gasped out, wanting him to stop. It felt as if he’d popped the skin and ripped them off. She couldn’t help the tears that leaked out of her eyes.
He snapped back and then recognizing her words for truth, punched her in one breast and then again in the other one. He punched her several more times.
“There, that should cover up any finger bruises. Thanks for the reminder.”
Marla was gasping and moaning; she’d never felt such pain before. Over and above the waves of agony coming from her breasts, she thought she might have a couple of cracked ribs, too.
Happy that she was no longer yelling at him, Jake went back to his work. It took him about fifteen minutes to set up his contraption. He let Marla watch as he tested it. He had set up a shotgun on a tripod, and then tied a string to the trigger. The string was attached to an alarm
clock. When the alarm sounded, the clock would vibrate until it fell from where it was balanced, pulling the trigger.
“Getting married tomorrow at two p.m.? Wasn’t that what I heard one of those fat bitches you were with say? Well, you wanted to have an event at two, so I won’t disappoint you. I’ll set the alarm to go off at two just for you. Until then, you can sit in that chair and think about what being an ungrateful bitch has brought you. Karma’s a bitch, huh?” he said with a chuckle, his good humor restored.
“No one can hear you if you yell. Well, except maybe the rats. Hey, maybe they’ll kill you before the shotgun goes off. It’ll be fun to find out.” He slapped a piece of duct tape over her mouth. “Just in case some bum decides this is a good building to spend the night in.”
Looking around to make sure he had everything he needed in place, he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. “I’m going to leave you the light. I want you to see death coming. I’ll be back in a couple of days to spit on your corpse and pick up my stuff. Bye, bitch, good riddance.”
Turning his back to her, he left the room. He didn’t want anyone to find her so he closed the door and jammed it shut. If anyone went crashing into the room, they’d probably end up killing her anyway. He smiled at the thought as he used the light of his small flashlight to make his way out of the building. Minutes later, he was speeding out of Boulder on his way home. He had an alibi to create.
Back up in the building, Marla gave in to tears. She knew in her heart that Karlo and Charl were already looking for her. She only prayed they would find her in time. It was her last thought before she gave into the pain and allowed herself to pass out.
*****
A few miles away, the men had arrived at the dance club the women had gone to. Once again, the crowd of people took one look at their faces and moved out of their path. It was better than getting trampled. Alerted ahead of time, an employee of the club, one of the waitresses, was on the lookout.
“Karlo and Charl Darvik?” she asked.
Receiving their nods, she bade them follow her to the manager’s office where Tammy and Becky were speaking with the police.
“I’m sorry I can’t give you a better description,” they heard a man say to the two police officers. With the manager behind his desk, Becky and Tammy sitting in the only other two chairs, there wasn’t very much room left to stand. Only the waitress leading Karlo and Charl entered; the rest of the warriors crowded into the doorway and hall.
Charl looked at the man who was obviously the witness Markus had told them about. “What do we know?” he asked.
“What are you doing to find my Marla?” Karlo demanded.
One of the officers turned to look at the two brothers, giving them the onceover. “I understand you have all been out having your bachelor party while the women were having their bachelorette party? Where did you go?” he asked.
Karlo’s anger instantly came to the surface and it was only Charl’s hand on his shoulder that kept him from blasting the officer about his thinly veiled accusation.
“Our driver took us to a club in Denver. None of us left the club or even the group for longer than five minutes at any time during the evening. Please do not waste any more time than necessary eliminating us from the investigation.” Having said that, he dismissed the police as ineffectual and turned to the witness.
“Describe the man you saw,” Karlo demanded.
Before the man could speak, the officer interrupted.
“Just a minute. I’m not through eliminating you. You say the group of you went to a stripper bar and yet you stayed in sight of each other the entire time. Not one of you slipped into a back room for a lap dance?” he asked.
The officer knew all the women were pregnant. This was their only opportunity in a long while to see a sexy woman, and he had a hard time believing they hadn’t made the most of it.
Karlo looked at him in disgust. “This was our man’s night. Women are not allowed. We had the driver take us to a place only men go to. We danced, we ate, and we drank. We were all together and none of us disappeared. You can call and ask our waiter, Brad. Now, leave this line of questioning and do something that will find Marla,” he said in a voice as sharp as a blade. He was exuding menace and the officer finally realized he was pissing off the wrong men.
He didn’t get a chance to make up for his stupidity. Karlo and Charl turned away from him to speak again to the witness. A witness who knew he was going to be asked a question he couldn’t answer. But the last thing he wanted to admit was that his attention had been centered on the woman’s ass and not on the man carrying her.
Charl looked at Tammy and Becky before his gaze fell on the waitress who’d led them into the manager’s office. With the door blocked, she couldn’t get out so she had shrunk herself into a corner.
“Miss, would you provide some assistance?” Charl asked, holding out a hand to her.
She stepped forward when she understood what he wanted. Bending over, he lifted her up over his shoulder. He asked the witness to compare what he was seeing now with what he had seen then.
“He was shorter than you,” the man said, happy to finally contribute something concrete. Karlo also lifted the waitress and they discovered the kidnapper was somewhere between the two of them in height, six-foot-two to six-foot-four.
“Jake O’Brien, it has to be him,” Karlo blurted out and then seeing the look in Charl’s eyes, immediately regretted it. They had lost their opportunity to take Jake and question him themselves. Now the human police would prevent that. He needed to get himself under control.
Worse, the officer, wanting to make up for his earlier remarks, pounced on his words. They spent the next half hour going over all of the incidents at the ranch, culminating in the proxy marriage and the annulment that took place earlier that day. Had it been only that day? It seemed so long ago.
One of the warriors in the hall made his way to the door and, leaning over, said something to Markus in a low voice. He spoke in Nepha to prevent any of the humans from hearing. Ishme and Nyal, who had been standing on either side of Markus, which was as close to Becky as they could get at the moment, listened in.
Nyal poked his head in the door and called out. “Becky?”
Becky looked over at the door. She knew her Ankida were anxious to see for themselves that she was unharmed. At the same time, they would not have interrupted if it weren’t important. Heaving herself out of the chair, she squeezed her way to the doorway where Nyal quickly explained to her, also in Nepha.
“Amy has had a vision. Charlotte is trying to latch onto it. We need to get back to the hotel,” said Nyal.
Becky went back and interrupted the officer in his questioning.
“My husband wants me to go back to the hotel and rest. He’s worried about our babies. Tammy’s husband also wants us to leave.”
“You can go. Before you leave, what was that language they were speaking?” he asked her. All of the men had slight accents; they obviously weren’t from around the Boulder area.
“It’s a dialect of Greek,” she said, giving the standard line.
“They’re aliens? Are they legal?” he asked.
“They are all either citizens or Permanent Resident Aliens. Their status has no bearing on this case, officer. We’re going now. I suggest you find this O’Brien person as soon as you can,” she said adding her own two cents. She didn’t mention her years with the CIA to the putz; it would send him off on another tangent.
Karlo and Charl, immediately understanding something was up, told the officer they were done answering questions. The police could come back to their hotel if they had more. For now, they wanted to check on the other women, making sure they were okay.
The officer was reluctant to let them go. Something about these guys set off all his instincts. Still, he had no reason to hold them. They clearly weren’t involved in the bride’s abduction, at least not directly. Until he figured out what about them set off all of his cop radar, he�
��d keep them in his sights. For now, he’d do as suggested and check out Jake O’Brien.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jake O’Brien was home in his sweats when Deputy Sheriff Tucker rang his bell. He’s taken a quick shower and his hair was still a little damp but nothing he could do about that so he ignored it. When he answered the door, he was bare-chested and holding a glass of whiskey in his hands.
“Jim, what can I do for you? It’s a little late to be out collecting for the widows and orphans fund,” he said, putting a little bit of a slur into his voice.
Jim took in every bit of Jake with a sharp eye and a suspicious mind. “Have you been off your ranch this evening, Jake?”
“I took a little bit of a drive earlier. I wanted to get away from people for a bit. I got a paper in the mail from my mom a couple of days ago. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you Jim?”
“When you went on this little drive, did you happen to go into Boulder? Did that paper anger you enough to do something about it?”
“Why would I have done something? It’s too late; my time to contest the annulment was gone more than five days ago.”
“Jake, can I come in? I’ve got a few more questions for you,” said Jim.
“Naw, I’m not feelin’ too kindly about you after what you pulled serving those papers, Jim. My lawyer says it wouldn’t do me any good to make a stink about it now. We both know what you did, serving me by giving those papers to my mother. Now get to the point. Why are you here? It’s the middle of the night and I’ve still got drinkin’ to do.”
