Texas Ransom

by Amanda Stevens

  But almost instantly he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

  The man who had spoken stepped boldly forward. He was the only one who didn’t wear a mask, and he appeared unconcerned about revealing his face. Which could only mean one thing—Graham wasn’t getting out of this alive.

  “What do you want?” he tried to ask coolly, but a tremble in his voice gave away his fear.

  The man smiled. “Don’t be ashamed. You have good reason to be afraid. But rest assured my men and I haven’t come here to harm you. We don’t want to hurt anyone. As long as you remain calm and do exactly as we ask, everyone will get out of this alive.”

  “What do you mean, everyone?” Graham asked in dread.

  The man gestured toward the living room. “We should sit. The explanations could take awhile.”

  “Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?”

  The man sighed. “I can understand how helpless you must be feeling, and I’m not without sympathy. But please believe me when I tell you that your cooperation is imperative. How this night ends is in your hands.” The man gestured again toward the living room. “Please, let’s sit.”

  Graham tried to curb his instincts. He wasn’t a violent man, but he wasn’t a coward, either. He wanted to retaliate for the violation of his home, his sanctuary, but he knew that he wasn’t dealing with a simple-minded thug here. He recognized the dead eyes and cruel half smile for what they were—attributes of a soulless man.

  He walked over and sat down at one end of the couch. He was still in shock, but he’d gathered enough of his wits about him to know his only hope was to buy himself some time.

  The stranger came over and sat down in a chair opposite the couch. Only a coffee table separated them, and Graham took a moment to memorize the man’s features.

  He was tall, lean, somewhere in his forties. Like the other men, he was dressed in black, but his attire was much more formal—a dark tailored suit that fitted him like a glove. His face was pitted and scarred, a visage that was both striking and repulsive.

  Graham glanced away. He could feel a slight breeze blowing in through the shattered doors and he wanted more than anything to be outside, to be anywhere except the nightmare in which he suddenly found himself trapped.

  He thought of Kendall and his gaze shot back to the stranger. “You know where my wife is, don’t you? That’s what this is about. You’ve come with a ransom demand.”

  The man continued to smile.

  Graham was suddenly filled with rage. He jumped up and lunged toward the stranger. “If you’ve hurt her—”

  Two men were on him in an instant. One of them held his arms behind him while the other hit him with his fist, twice in the face and once very hard in the stomach. Graham’s knees folded. As he dropped to the floor, a knee connected with his gut and he doubled over in agony. His glasses fell off and drops of blood splashed against the dark wood floor as he rolled to his side and drew his knees up to his chest.

  The pain seemed to go on forever. For the longest time, he struggled even to catch his breath. As he coughed up blood and vomit, he could hear someone laughing. The sound filled him with rage. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he staggered to his feet. The pain weakened his legs and he swayed as black spots swam before his eyes. But he would stand even if it killed him because he wouldn’t give these animals the satisfaction of seeing him writhe in agony on the floor.

  He lifted his head and glared at the stranger for a long moment before he leaned down and picked up his glasses.

  “I’m sorry that had to happen,” the man said with what sounded like genuine regret. “But it was necessary. You’re composed now. You’ll sit quietly and listen to everything I have to say.”

  “Where’s my wife?”

  “She’s safe. For now.”

  “Where is she?”

  “On her way out of the country. You’ll never be able to find her. Your only hope of seeing her again is to cooperate with me.”

  “What do you want?” Blood streamed down Graham’s face. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, barely aware of his action. Fury and disgust had replaced his pain.

  The stranger leaned forward, offering him a linen handkerchief, but Graham ignored it.

  The man sat back against the chair and calmly tucked the hankie back into his pocket. “My name is Gabriel Esteban. You won’t have heard of me, but I guarantee after this night, you’ll never forget me.”

  Graham said nothing to that. He made a quick survey of the room, checking the positions of the other three men. They had all the exits covered. He was trapped. He had no recourse but to hear the man out.

  “A wise decision,” Esteban said, correctly interpreting Graham’s darting gaze. “You can’t run away from this. You’re in it now and there’s no turning back.”

  “In what?” Graham demanded, his outrage the only thing keeping him sane at the moment. If he let down his guard…if he stopped for even a moment to contemplate the reality of the situation…

  These men had his wife.

  His head started to swim, but he willed away the dizziness. He had to focus. Stay in control. Figure a way out so he could find Kendall and end this.

  He drew a breath, his gaze on Esteban. “Why don’t you stop with the cryptic remarks and just tell me what the hell you want? Money?”

  “Yes, of course, I want money. But there are other things I’ll want from you as well. Things that won’t rest easy with a man like you. That’s why we’re taking this nice and slow. You’ll need time to adjust to your new life. Yes, notice that I said your new life because make no mistake…” Esteban gracefully draped one leg over the other, his dead eyes suddenly taking on a cruel, taunting glint. “The life you knew before tonight is over. You’ll never get it back.”

  Graham’s heart started to pound again. The room tilted as the vertigo tugged behind his eyes, undermining his equilibrium. His ears started to ring, but he tried to ignore it. He couldn’t have an attack now. He had to concentrate. He had to think. Kendall’s life depended on how well he handled the situation.

  He took off his glasses and tried to wipe away the smudges. “How much do you want?”

  “We’ll get to the amount later. First, I want to go over the rules with you.”

  “Rules?”

  “Yes, of course. Every game must have rules.”

  Graham stared at him coldly. “This is a game to you?”

  Esteban shrugged. “I enjoy what I do, yes. And I always win. You should accept that and save us both a lot of trouble.”

  A muscle jerked in Graham’s cheek. “What are the rules?”

  Esteban nodded his approval at Graham’s acceptance. “First, you are to tell no one.” As he spoke, he took out a thin, black cigarette and lit up. The smoke was thick and foul in the pristine atmosphere of the house. “Not the police. Not the FBI. Not your family or friends or business associates. No one.”

  A cloud of smoke floated between them. It burned Graham’s eyes, but he resisted the urge to wave it away. Somehow he knew that Esteban would perceive the gesture as another weakness.

  “Two. You will not try to find your wife on your own. The effort would be pointless and you would waste a good deal of valuable time and resources. Not to mention my goodwill. As I said earlier, she’s on her way out of the country. There’s nothing you can do to find her. Nothing other than to cooperate. That is your only hope.”

  He seemed to be waiting for a response so Graham said, “Go on.”

  “Three. You will be given a cell phone that must be kept with you at all times. If I can’t reach you, no matter the hour, I’m afraid the consequences will be dire.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Hardly.” The smile turned sardonic. “We’re just getting started.”

  Esteban stubbed out the cigarette in a crystal bowl on the end table. He took his time, grinding the ashes into the glass as if he were making some kind of point. And very possibly, he was.

 
; “Four. There will be several drops, each to be arranged at a future time. As I’ve already mentioned, there will be other requirements that must be met, but for now, you don’t need to worry about any of that.”

  Graham stared at him in disbelief. It was like being trapped in a nightmare from which he couldn’t awaken. He didn’t know how he was supposed to respond. What he was supposed to do. A madman had kidnapped Kendall and was taking her out of the country. And Graham was expected to sit quietly and listen.

  “You’re out of your mind,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “It would be a mistake for you to think so.” Esteban leaned forward. The smile was gone, but the dark eyes still mocked him. “Braver men than you have tried to best me. Every last one of them is dead.”

  “What am I supposed to say to that?”

  Esteban shrugged again. “You don’t need to say anything. Your job at the moment is to listen, obey and remember the rules. Can you do that?”

  Graham’s hands were still trembling, but more now from helpless rage than fear. “Yes.”

  “Good. Because here is the last rule and it is by far the most important: break even one of the other rules and you will never see your wife again.”

  MOMENTS TICKED BY before Graham said anything. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully. “How do I know she isn’t already dead?”

  Esteban’s gaze met his. The brazen cruelty in his dark eyes was chilling. “I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it.”

  “Under the circumstances, I’m sure you can appreciate the difficulty I have in accepting your word for anything,” Graham said bitterly. “I want to see her.”

  “Impossible.” Esteban waved his hand as if swatting away a gnat. “As I said, she’s on her way out of the country.”

  “Let me talk to her on the phone then.”

  Esteban’s eyes turned even darker, colder as he continued to regard Graham. “I thought you understood the situation. It’s very simple, mi amigo. If you want to see your wife again, you follow the rules.”

  “I think you’re the one who has misunderstood the situation,” Graham said coolly, but his heart bashed against his ribcage. “Unless you can prove to me that my wife is safe and unharmed, you won’t get one red cent. Is that clear enough for you?”

  For a moment, Graham thought that he’d gone too far. With one flicker of an eyelid, Gabriel Esteban could order his death, but Graham didn’t care about his own safety. His only concern was for Kendall. He was no hero, but he instinctively knew that he had to make a stand here and now. Strength was the only thing a man like Esteban respected.

  Esteban paused, then nodded, and the man standing nearest him produced a cell phone. Esteban punched in a number, barked a few orders in Spanish into the mouthpiece, then passed the phone to Graham.

  He lifted it to his ear, not caring at the moment that Esteban and his men could see how badly his hands shook. “Kendall?”

  There was a second of static and then he heard her sob his name. “Graham! Oh, God, I’m so sorry…”

  “Don’t. Just tell me you’re okay.”

  “I’m…fine.”

  “Have they hurt you?”

  The briefest of pauses. “No.”

  She was lying. He could hear the pain and fear in her voice, and the anger inside Graham deepened. He could feel the white-hot fury rushing through his veins, but for Kendall’s sake, he had to remain calm.

  “Stay strong,” he told her. “I’m going to get us out of this. Do you hear me? Everything is going to be okay.”

  She was crying hard now and Graham heard her sob his name again a split second before the line went dead.

  He handed the phone to Esteban. “Get her back. I need to tell her something.”

  “You’ll have plenty of time to tell her anything you want just as long as you abide by the rules.”

  “Even if I follow the rules, what guarantee do I have that you’ll release her? What would keep you from killing us both once you have the money?”

  “My intention never was to kill your wife, Mr. Hollister.” Esteban’s voice was very soft, very deadly. “She’s a beautiful woman. Worth far more to me alive than dead. Are you at all familiar with the black-market sex trade?”

  Graham didn’t think his fear or his fury could go any deeper, but he was wrong. The images racing through his head made him sick to his stomach, and it was all he could do not to go for Esteban’s throat. At that moment, he could rip out the man’s jugular with his bare hands.

  But he wouldn’t risk it. If he was injured—or worse, killed—and unable to meet the ransom demands, Graham now knew what was in store for Kendall.

  Esteban folded his hands beneath his chin as he continued to regard Graham. “As you can see, the stakes are quite high. If you don’t follow the rules, your wife will be sold to the highest bidder. No matter what happens tonight, her life will be spared. But I can promise you this—she’ll soon be praying for death.”

  “Just tell me how much you want.”

  The smile came back. “I see we finally understand each other. That’s good. That’s progress.” In one fluid movement, Esteban rose and stood staring down at Graham. “I think we’ve covered enough ground for tonight.”

  “What about the money?” Graham leaped to his feet. He wanted more than anything to have Esteban and his men out of his house, out of his life, but now it hit him that they were his only link to Kendall. “Tell me how much you want. We can end this tonight.”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way. But don’t worry. You’ll be hearing from me again very soon.” Esteban paused with another brief smile. “Please sit. There’s really no need to see us out.”

  When Graham remained standing, Esteban lowered his voice. “Sit down, Mr. Hollister.”

  Graham hesitated, then dropped back down on the sofa without a word.

  “I would advise you to take a few moments when you’re alone to think about everything we’ve discussed tonight. Once my men and I are gone, you’ll try very hard to come up with a way to extricate yourself and your wife from your current situation. You may even be tempted to call the police. That would be a very big mistake. My men will be watching you. Your house, your office, wherever you go. You won’t be able to make a move that I won’t know about. But in case you still don’t appreciate the gravity of your situation, let me leave you with this.”

  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a stack of photographs which he tossed one at a time onto the coffee table.

  The first picture was of Graham’s elderly grandmother in her hospital room. Graham’s mother, Audrey, was seated next to her bed. The shot was clear and close enough that Graham could see the worry lines in his mother’s face. Whoever took the picture had been standing only a few feet away.

  The second photograph had been taken as Terrence and Ellie left the PemCo Tower earlier that night.

  The third was a shot of Ashley getting into a car with some friends.

  The fourth photograph was the most chilling of all. It was of five-year-old Caitlin and it had been taken through the window of her bedroom.

  Graham’s mouth went dry with fear as he glanced up. “You son of a bitch.”

  “As I said, I have no intention of killing your wife. She’s much too valuable to sacrifice. But I have no such compunction when it comes to the rest of your family. With each rule that you break, someone you care about will die.”

  Esteban strode across the room to the shattered French doors. Pausing, he slowly turned back to Graham. “I would get this fixed if I were you. The damn coyotes…they get bolder all the time, do they not?”

  Chapter Five

  Graham remained seated for several minutes after Esteban and his men had left. He felt drugged, almost catatonic, yet thoughts rushed through his head at the speed of light and he couldn’t seem to focus long enough to figure out what he should do first.

  He stared at the photographs Esteban had spread across the coffee tabl
e. His whole family was in danger and he didn’t know how in the hell to protect them.

  His first instinct was to do as Esteban ordered. Stay put and wait for the first call. Do exactly as he was instructed. Follow the rules and everybody would get out of this alive.

  But what if it wasn’t that simple? What if the ransom demand was more than he could come up with in the amount of time he was given?

  Mentally, he ran through his back accounts and stock holdings to see how much cash he could get his hands on quickly. The ransom would be sizeable. He had no doubt of that. Esteban wasn’t some petty criminal. An operation like this must have been in the works for a long time.

  Graham’s earlier conversation with Ellie suddenly came back to him. Kendall had asked for a loan just last week. She’d needed a hundred thousand dollars for a reason that she felt she couldn’t divulge to Ellie or to Graham. That amount of cash would mean nothing to a man like Esteban, and yet Graham couldn’t help but think that Kendall’s desperation for money was connected to her kidnapping. It was all tied together somehow.

  And the ambassador’s shooting? Was Esteban behind that as well?

  The thought rocked Graham to the core because in the back of his mind, he’d been trying to convince himself that Esteban wasn’t as dangerous as he wanted Graham to believe. The threat of killing off his family if he failed to play by the rules was just a way to keep him in line. Graham wanted desperately to believe it was all one big bluff.

  But if Esteban had been responsible for the ambassador’s shooting, if he had been willing to carry out an assassination attempt in a roomful of people, he wouldn’t hesitate to go after Graham’s family.

  His gaze shot to the shattered French doors, and then he rose on shaky legs and walked out to the terrace to scan the grounds. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see. If Esteban had left a lookout, darkness would shield him. But outside, away from the lights, Graham was hidden, too.

  He headed away from the terrace, away from the pool lights, into the deeper shadows of the yard. He felt better out here, stronger, and for the first time since Esteban and his men had invaded his home, Graham’s head began to clear. Even if the threat wasn’t a bluff, there had to be a way out of this mess. He just had to think it through.