by Natalie Dean
She searched out with her sixth sense. Now that he was awake, she could read him. He stunk. “Suuuure you don’t.”
He leaned back with a snarl. “You don’t have anything on me.”
“Don’t need to. You shot at an FBI agent.”
His snarl turned into a smile. Smug jerk. “You’re a pretty little thing,” he told her. “I’m sure you’re popular around the station.” He spit in David’s car. “And oh, I’m so scared. And who the hell are you? Her boyfriend?”
“This is David. David is Ellie’s father. David would do anything to find his baby girl.”
“You can’t do anything to me. I’ve got rights. I’ve got protections. You touch me, and you go straight to jail.”
Adrianna forced a cheery smile on her lips. “He sure would go to jail eventually, but I might not stop him for a while.”
His lip twitched. He stared both of them down, trying to decide if they were telling the truth. Adrianna was being honest with him. She couldn’t let David kill him, but the guy was the only one that knew anything about where Ellie was.
“Fine,” he said at last.
“Where’s my girl?” David asked. The vein in the side of his head was throbbing. He was absolutely furious to see his daughter’s kidnapper in the flesh. She could tell it was taking everything in his power to not strangle the guy right then in the car.
“I don't know.”
“I’d start remembering if I were you,” Adrianna warned. Truth be told, if David went off the deep end, Adrianna wasn’t sure what she’d do. She couldn’t really stop him. He was bigger and stronger than her and way more motivated. His motivation would be revenge. Hers would be an oath she took to become an agent. A little different.
“Jacob’s got her,” he said. “Took her off into the country somewhere.”
“Was she hurt?”
“When I saw her last she was okay.”
“Where in the country?”
He sat back, trying to look unintimidated. “A little cabin out in the middle of the woods, somewhere out east of Calidad.”
“Where exactly?”
“You expect me to know? I’ve never been there.”
Adrianna groaned. Of course. Of course Ellie and her kidnapper were way out in the middle of nowhere. She believed the guy. Just for a second, she could sense the light in his soul flicker. She’d learned that meant people weren’t lying. It wasn’t foolproof, but when it flickered like that, it usually meant that someone was telling the truth.
“What did he want your help for?”
“He needed a getaway driver,” he said. “I don’t know anything about whatever he’s doing. Said he had to kidnap some kid named Ellie. I swear that’s all I know.”
David looked at Adrianna. He knew that she could read the guy. “Is he telling the truth?”
She sighed. She had really been hoping he’d know more. “Yes.” She had an idea. “Call Jacob.”
“Can’t.”
“Why not?”
“He ain’t got service out there.”
Okay, well that narrowed it down slightly. Jacob wasn’t anywhere near the city if he didn’t get service. “He got TV?”
Adrianna could tell neither man had any idea what she was thinking, but slowly, the guy nodded. “Yeah… he watches some games up there every now and then.”
“How long ago did he get it?”
He felt looser talking about the cabin. To him (and probably to David, who was looking at Adrianna like he was trying to piece together what she was thinking) the cabin was useless information. “He got it when he got out of prison. A year? Two years ago? What does that have to do with anything?”
She nodded thoughtfully. She had an idea that could give them a good head start on him. She still couldn’t track him. She needed to get closer to him to have a better idea of where he was. And the best way to do that was to get an idea of what sort of services was out there. She’d lived east of the city in the rural area for a long while, and there was only one service provider out there: Muzzy Communications.
“I need to talk to you outside the car,” Adrianna said to David.
He frowned and slowly clambered out of the car. As soon as they were out of earshot from Washington, she held out her phone. “Here. I need your phone.”
He fished it out and gave it over. “Why? And why were you asking so many questions about the dude’s TV?”
She unlocked David’s phone and searched for Muzzy Communications.
“Going to sign up for some cable?” David asked dryly. He hadn’t quite caught on yet.
She gave him the evil eye and called the company. After a few rings, a woman answered.
“Muzzy Communications. This is Eve. How may I help you?”
Adrianna pulled the phone away so the person on the line couldn’t hear. “Listen and learn.”
Chapter 8
“Muzzy Communications,” repeated the lady. “This is Eve. How may I help you?”
“Hi,” Adrianna said into the phone. “I think my boyfriend signed up with you a year or two ago, and now the darn fool’s moving to a different state. He asked me to go ahead and cancel his subscription.”
“Okay…” she could hear typing from the other side. “What’s his name?”
“Jacob Jackson.”
By this time, David had figured it out. He was looking at her, amazed. She felt proud despite herself that she had figured out a way to get in.
“O-kay…what’s the address?”
“Oh,” she said, faking surprise. “I don’t remember. Some cabin outside the city? We hang out there all the time. I don’t know the address.”
There was a pause. “Ma’am, I can’t cancel a subscription based on a name. Do you have a password? The number on the card?”
This wasn’t good. Adrianna had no idea what Jacob’s password or card numbers were, and the odds of guessing them were next to nothing. There was only one thing she could resort to- embarrassment. If she could embarrass the girl into telling her the address, they were golden.
So Adrianna started her ruse. “Can you tell me the address? I’m really embarrassed I can’t remember it.”
“I shouldn’t really tell any information to you. If you can’t produce any information about Jacob’s account, I can’t-“
She had to pull out the big guns. She turned towards David and yelled, “Shut up, Jacob!”
“Is Mr. Jackson there with you?”
“He’s making fun of me for not remembering his address.” She put extra emotion into her voice. Soon enough, the girl would start feeling bad for Adrianna when she staged a meltdown on the phone. Too much, and the girl would just hang up. Too little, and the girl wouldn’t buy it. She started sniffing dramatically.
“Are…are you crying?”
“Shut up Jacob!” she got back on the phone. “Wait, please…can you just tell me the address? I don’t need to cancel the subscription. He can do that himself.”
She heard a loud groan from the other side. Right about then the uncomfortableness would be settling in. “Can you please hand the phone to Mr. Jackson? If he gives you permission, I can divulge information to you.”
She handed the phone over to David, who had been able to hear the whole conversation. He froze up. “Oh, um… hey. This is Jacob. I give you permission to divulge information or whatever.”
“I’ll need some proof of your identity. What’s your date of birth, Mr. Jackson?”
Adrianna mentally punched herself in the face. There was no way that David knew that. But to her surprise, he immediately listed one. The lady on the line seemed just as shocked. “That…that’s correct sir. So I may divulge information to your lady friend?”
“Sure.” He was grinning broadly at her as she took the phone from him, rather stunned. How did you know that? She mouthed to him as she brought the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”
“Okay, your boyfriend’s address is 124 Nueces Street. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“124 Nueces?”
“Yes ma’am. Do you still want to cancel?”
“Um….no thanks.”
With that, she hung up.
“How did you know that date?” she asked.
“I saw his birthday back at the agency and memorized it. I’ve always been good with numbers.”
“Well, I’m impressed.”
She wrote down the address before she forgot. Honestly, she was utterly exhausted. She could see the first bit of the light of morning coming over the mountains, trickling through the pine trees. It was morning. It had already been late when they had discovered Ellie’s absence, and then they’d gone to the agency to find the owner of the car, and then they’d tracked Alexander Washington down, and then they’d had to wait until he woke up to question him.
They’d been on their feet for hours, and they’d spent most of that time running around. They hadn’t just sat around doing nothing. Adrianna felt like she might just take one step and fall flat on her face. Most of her body was numb, and she was already starting to have trouble remembering the address. That’s why she had written it down immediately. It took her a second to even remember where she’d written it down.
“You look like you’re about to pass out,” David told her. “You need to rest.”
“You don’t look any better…”
He looked himself up and down. “Okay, that’s true. I really can’t argue with that.” He looked back towards the car. “Problem is…we have a guy tied up in our car. We can’t really stop by a motel.”
“Why not?”
“That’s false imprisonment, that’s why. You’re the FBI agent. You should know that.”
“Oh. Yeah. I knew that.” It took her a second to remember, but eventually her brain fought through being exhausted enough to remember that little fact. “Well, we can drop him off at the nearest station.”
“Just leave him on the doorstep?”
“Yeah…unless you have a better idea.”
He shrugged. “Whatever. We’re going to go nuts if we don’t get some good sleep somehow.”
She had to admit that was true. It hadn’t really hit until the last few seconds. The moment she’d hung up the phone was the moment when all her exhaustion hit her at once. It had only been hours since Ellie was nabbed, and they’d already figured out where Jacob was presumably hiding her. All they had to do was go over to rescue her. The big problem was that people started falling apart with lack of sleep. Sure, she could still walk around and form some sentences and stuff… but she felt weak, and she doubted she could hit the broad side of the barn with her gun right then.
There was a pause. “Do you think we’ll get her back?”
“Of course we will. You’re an agent, and I’m a professional fighter. What does he have going for him? He’s a half-rate idiot.”
Adrianna was thinking, but he was able to kidnap Ellie…
But she didn’t think that was a good thing to mention right then, so she just nodded at him. “You’re right.”
David, still the most awake one of them by far, drove them back into the city. They told him what they were doing- that they were dropping him off at the police station.
“I’m going to sue,” he warned.
“Go ahead.”
Neither David nor Adrianna cared. Sure, in any other scenario, they would never have interrogated him, nor would they have barged into his house and kidnapped him. But then again… none of the last few hours was just any other scenario. He’d helped a killer kidnap their daughter. So the rules went straight out the window, and they were willing to do whatever it took to find her, regardless of whether or not they would get in legal trouble for it.
The nearest police station was just inside town for the rural community, so David drove up to the parking lot quickly. As early as it was in the morning, almost nobody was there. There were a few cars - a few policemen and people to answer the phone were there, but it hadn’t gotten busy yet.
David unlocked the doors. “Go ahead. Get out.”
Washington scooted out the door. Adrianna watched as it dawned on him that he didn’t have to stay there, that he could just vanish off into the morning light.
“Go for it,” Adrianna suggested. “We don’t have time to deal with you, and you can add trying to escape to your list of charges.”
They never got to discover whether or not he’d stayed because David hit the gas and they were gone before anyone came out of the station. They had a few moments where they could see him in the parking lot, middle fingers raised at them as they drove away.
“Do you think he’ll stay?” David asked, glancing in the mirror. There weren’t any lights. Nobody saw them drop him off.
“Who cares!”
He nodded, forcing a smile upon his weary lips. “You don’t happen to have any safe-houses out here, do you?”
“None that the agency doesn’t know about…”
There were very few safe-houses she’d successfully hidden from the FBI. They were excellent at their jobs. Cat herself had found one or two that she’d been trying to hide. Sadly, though, none of the ones that she had kept a secret were in the country. She knew her time was starting to run out. If Stone caught whiff of Washington being arrested, he’d send out men looking for her and David. She had no intention of being anywhere obvious.
They ended up spending the night in the car. There weren’t any hotels around, and even if there had been, Adrianna wouldn’t have wanted to check in. Hotels were more comfortable than a car, sure, but they were also much easier to track. The last thing she wanted was for Stone to catch up with them before they found Ellie. Then they’d have all the trouble and none of the payoff. Worse - Ellie would still be missing.
So they just pulled off the road and hid in a secluded area on a country road. It wasn’t a well-traversed road. Adrianna saw nobody in the time it took her to fall asleep. David was out immediately. He hadn’t slept since the day before. Adrianna had a couple hours of respite, but he’d been running straight without sleep.
She didn’t even mind the drink holder jabbing into her side. At first, it was irritating to her, but soon enough sleep took control, and she found a way to be perfectly comfortable.
Within minutes, she was fast asleep.
Chapter 9
When she woke up, the sun was high overhead. She wasn’t entirely sure how long they had been asleep. She didn’t notice what time it was when she’d fallen asleep, but she guessed they got three or four hours.
Day one was down.
They had exactly one more day. The governor was coming in tomorrow evening. That’s when he’d be the most vulnerable, and that’s when he would die if they couldn’t find Ellie in time. She couldn’t believe she was even considering killing someone to save another person’s life. It just wasn’t in her nature… but somehow Ellie was different. She’d do almost anything to keep her safe.
Thankfully, they had found the address. It should be an easy matter of going up to the cabin, kicking down the front door, and hopefully shooting the psycho for kidnapping their little girl. Somehow, though, Adrianna doubted it’d be that easy. Every time there was a hostage situation, something ended up happening that twisted everything up. Sometimes hostages died, and other times the changes made it easier to apprehend the kidnapper. She was hoping for the latter.
David was still exhausted. He was snoring in the driver’s seat with the back all the way down and one foot wrapped over the steering wheel. She hated to wake him up, but they needed to get going. Besides, he could sleep on the road.
She knew when he woke up, he’d be grouchy. David wasn’t the kind of guy that woke up cheerily from sleeping. He tended to take an hour or so to really get the gears up and running.
She tapped his shoulder. He didn’t stir. She tried again, a little harder. He didn’t open his eyes, but he exhausted loudly. “Can I help you?”
“You need to wake up…”
His eyes blinked open slowly, then he winced
as his body complained from the soreness. “Remind me again why we didn’t stop at a hotel?”
“Because they’re too easy to track,” she told him. “Just switch spots with me. I’ll drive.”
His stomach grumbled loud enough for Adrianna to hear. “I need food.”
She realized they hadn’t eaten in hours. Ever since the night before they’d been running on nothing. Sure, if they had been sleeping the whole time it would be no problem, but they had expended tons of energy. They needed to refuel.
Finally, he crawled out of the driver’s seat and changed spots with her. She could tell by the way he was walking that he was sore. Being a fighter meant fame and fortune if you were good enough, but it also meant your body suffered constantly.
She fired up the car. It felt nice to drive again, to feel the engine purr. It made her feel strong and fast, both of which she actually was in real life, but having the car only reinforced the idea.
She pulled out onto the road. What David had said was true - food sounded delicious, and they would need strength if there were any twists and turns. The kidnapper probably didn’t know they were coming, unless Washington had managed to get ahold of him. She doubted it. Washington’s phone had busted during their fight, and unless he convinced a total stranger to lend him theirs and he just happened to remember Jacob’s number, that meant Jacob was still under the impression that the next day the governor would be killed.
At least that’s what she was hoping. She really didn’t want to get to the cabin with Jacob waiting for them.
Adrianna shook off the sleep as she drove towards the cabin. David fell back asleep right after getting into the passenger seat. The air was fresh and crisp and felt good in her nose to the point where she rolled down the window to smell it.
As she drove, following the instructions on her phone, she glanced over for a second at David. He was snoring quietly. The air conditioner was pointed at his muscular chest. After making sure that the road was clear, she pushed the AC off him. He shifted but didn’t wake up.
She felt pride wash into her chest. She’d done well to pick David. Accepting his invitation to marry was a big step, but one that she was happier with every single day that she was near him. She’d figured that eventually the novelty of it would wear off, and their life would become commonplace, but she was still running solid. Then again, she was an FBI agent, and he was an MMA fighter. There wasn’t any reason that their life could be boring.
