One Last Song (A Thomas Family Novel Book 3)

by Kristi Cramer

As they approached the gates, Kylie turned to Jax, unable to keep a little skip out of her step. “Can you believe it, Jax?”

  Jax smiled, but his words sounded doubtful. “Seems like she’s moving awfully fast.”

  “Just the words, Jax. It’s not like she’s going to whisk us away tonight or anything. Right, ma’am?”

  She turned to address Ms. Andrews, but the woman wasn’t there. Frowning, she searched the crowd streaming out of the gate. They were urged along and out into the parking lot with many fairgoers who had called it a day.

  “Where’d she go?” Kylie asked, turning back to Jax.

  They were several yards away from the gate before the woman approached them from behind. “Sorry,” she said with a laugh. “I got caught behind the stampede. Listen, I’d like to show you how serious I am. My assistant went back to our RV to download the footage she shot, and she’s been working on it already. Won’t you come see?”

  She gestured to a very large RV parked just a few spaces away. It was dark-colored with no designs, but Kylie could see a light on behind the window shades.

  “How come it doesn’t say who you are?” Jax asked.

  Ms. Andrews’ laugh rang out, pleasant and confident. “I told you, we’re different. We don’t want to be plagued by people with no talent banging on the doors, trying to get auditions. But if you’re nervous, we don’t have to go now.”

  “Jax!” Kylie hissed, trying to contain her frustration with him. “What’s wrong with you? This is a big deal.”

  Jax shrugged in the face of her fierce gaze. “If you want to go, I’ll come with you.”

  Kylie turned her smile on Ms. Andrews. “Yes. Let’s go look, please.”

  Ms. Andrews smiled. “Right this way.”

  As they approached the RV, the woman opened the door and gestured for them to precede her. Kylie let go of Jax’s hand and stepped up the stairs, turning the corner to see a very plush interior lit with soft lights reflected in several mirrors. The mirrors confused her, so she couldn’t immediately tell what she was looking at. She took another three steps forward and heard Jax climb up behind her.

  By the time she realized what she was seeing, she was several steps into the RV.

  Seated on a bench behind a table, two girls looked at her with terror in their eyes. They wore only underwear, and duct tape covered their mouths and bound their wrists and ankles together.

  Heart racing, Kylie turned, intent on getting both her and Jax off that RV. There was only the woman to get past before they could get outside. She could send the sheriff after them once they were clear.

  Her gaze met Jax’s questioning look as she frantically tried to push him back toward the door, but it was too late. There was a sickening crackle and her fingertips tingled as Jax slumped to the floor. Ms. Andrews held a flashlight-shaped stun gun. White lightning danced between the wicked spikes on the business end as she triggered it again, just for show.

  Kylie’s gaze dropped to see Jax twitching on the floor, and she couldn’t take her eyes off her friend until the woman stepped over him.

  “What?” Ms. Andrews said in a sultry purr. “Did you think only girls got taken for the sex trade?”

  It took ages for her gaze to come up and meet the woman’s. Then, with a spike of adrenaline, Kylie rushed at Ms. Andrews. The two women wrestled for several seconds before Kylie started to get the upper hand. She watched the stun gun inch towards Ms. Andrews’ face, but the woman just laughed.

  Startled, Kylie turned her head and caught the reflection of another body moving up behind her, then she heard the crackle of another stun gun and felt the stinging bite of a million volts of electrical current blasting through her body.

  She tried to hold on, but blackness took over.

  Chapter Two

  Jax felt motion.

  His muddled mind refused to engage, except to wonder why his bed was vibrating. His eyelids fluttered when he tried to open them, but it wasn’t until the surface under him bounced that he realized he was in a moving vehicle.

  He frowned, trying to piece together what had happened. He’d been at the karaoke tent, singing with Kylie. Then the talent scout....

  He remembered climbing into the RV behind Kylie, she turned to him with fear in her eyes, and then...nothing.

  At the memory, Jax’s eyes snapped open. He found himself in a darkened room, awkwardly lying against a cushion, his arms wrapped around his bent legs. He tried to stretch out, but realized his hands were attached to his ankles, which were bound together. His probing fingers felt the edges of what must be duct tape, but his mind refused to quantify the information his body was sending him.

  After another bounce of the vehicle, he felt a soft body shift next to him. Kylie! A soft moan told him she wasn’t in any better shape than he was.

  “Kylie,” he whispered. She moaned again, but didn’t answer. With rising alarm, he realized he was feeling her bare skin against his own bare skin.

  “She got tased, too,” a young female said from across the room, her soft voice barely heard over the hum of the motor.

  Startled, Jax looked over and could just make out the shape of someone in the gloom.

  “She tried to fight her,” the voice continued, “but he came out and zapped her.”

  Jax pressed his eyes against his knees, trying to make sense of what the voice was telling him.

  “Who are you?” he asked into the darkness. “Where are we?”

  “I’m taken, just like you,” the voice said. “Beats me where we are. Last time I saw outside, I was in North Platte. That was at least a couple days ago.”

  Taken? Jax let that sink in. It made him think of that movie from a few years ago, but that was set in Paris, not Kansas. That didn’t happen in America, did it?

  He fought down a surge of adrenaline as the words finally started to make sense. Like dealing with a crisis on the ranch, he knew he needed more information. “How long have we been out?”

  The person behind the voice paused for a moment, as if thinking. “Not long. Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.” It was her turn to ask a question. “Where were we when they got you?”

  “Syracuse, Kansas.”

  “So they’re heading south.” It wasn’t a question. South was the only thing that might make sense.

  “I was in Murdo, South Dakota,” a different voice said, and Jax realized there was another shadow across the room.

  “Anyone else?” he asked, feeling a kind of escalating horror.

  “Just us. I’m Danica.” The second voice sounded timid and frightened.

  “Vera.” That was the first girl, who sounded more determined to be brave.

  “I’m Jax,” he said. “My friend is Kylie.” The RV hit another bump. “Am I...naked?”

  “We’re all down to our underwear,” Vera said.

  “And this is really happening? We’ve been kidnapped?”

  “What?” Kylie asked, her voice coming out in a croak. He could tell she was trying to sit up. She stiffened, then inhaled sharply. “Jax?!”

  “I’m here, Kylie. Right here with you.”

  “Why can’t I move?” she asked. Her voice held the beginning of panic, but she was fighting to stay calm. “Oh God. That woman.... Those girls.... I tried to get us out!”

  “I’m here,” Jax repeated, not knowing what else to say.

  She took a deep breath, then another, trying to rein in her fright. When she spoke again, her voice was dead calm. “I’m such an idiot.”

  “No,” Jax said. “I’m the idiot. I didn’t listen to my own misgivings.”

  “Because I pressured you.”

  “We totally got played,” he said, his voice firm. “Now we just have to figure out how to get out of this mess.”

  Before he could ask the other girls anything about their situation, the interior filled with a weird flash of light, and Jax realized it was oncoming headlights shining through the windshield of the RV. A curtain hanging across the gap between the seats had be
en pulled aside and a figure moved through.

  The so-called talent scout loomed over them.

  “I thought I heard chatter,” she said. The pleasant, business-like tone of voice was gone, replaced by a seductive, condescending lilt that set Jax’s nerves on edge. “Glad to see you’re all awake. I’ve got some rules to share with you newcomers. Do I have your attention?”

  Jax felt Kylie stiffen beside him, but neither of them said anything.

  “Good. First rule, no talking. From the moment you stepped into this RV, talking became a privilege. Abuse it and you will find yourself with duct tape holding a wad of steel wool in your mouth, which won’t be removed until I decide you’re broken. Understand?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, and her tone convinced him she was completely serious. “Second rule, breaks are limited. Call out if you need to answer nature’s call, but you had better be close to embarrassing yourself because I won’t play games. Ask too often and I’ll start plugging orifices. Understand?”

  Again, the vehicle was silent. “The third rule is really more of a fact. Don’t think you are valuable. That somehow, by virtue of being desirable enough to take, you’re anything other than an investment to us. An investment we have little incentive to maintain. You can and will be disposed of if you prove to be too much trouble. Understand? Good.”

  With that, she returned to the front of the RV, and the curtain closed behind her.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Even after the woman returned to the front of the vehicle, Kylie knew her mouth was gaping. She could feel tears welling in her eyes and blinked furiously, refusing to let hysteria overcome her.

  She remembered what Uncle Blue had said about an instance when he and Aunt Mitzi were held at gunpoint. His anger had overpowered every other emotion and fueled his will to focus on getting them out of danger. Even Tim, her mom’s new boyfriend, had talked about turning his fear into anger to get him out of a bad situation.

  At the time, she had listened to their stories with little interest and even less attention. Why would she ever care about dealing with some dangerous situation? She lived in Kansas, for Pete’s sake. Nothing ever happened here, except that thing with her mom and Tim.

  And now this....

  She drew in another deep breath, focused on the air going in, held it, then let it go. As the air went out, so did the fear, at least a tiny bit. Another breath, another notch calmer. No anger, though. Maybe that would come later.

  “Danica,” Jax whispered. “Can she hear us over the motor if we talk quietly enough?”

  “I don’t think so,” a female voice answered. “Vera and I talk a lot and she doesn’t hear.”

  Kylie realized she had been the one to alert Ms. Andrews—she was certain the combination of Maria von Trapp and Julie Andrews wasn’t her real name—that they were awake. In her panic, her voice had been much too loud.

  “So what’s the routine?” Jax asked, and his focus helped calm her further. “Have you had any opportunity to escape?”

  “No,” Vera said. “They’re careful. Every time they stop, one of them is always in the RV with us. We haven’t set foot outside since they grabbed us.”

  “Ever hear them talking?” Kylie asked. “Have they let their plans slip?”

  “I once heard something about someone who wasn’t going to wait forever,” Danica said, “but nothing else.”

  “Probably in Mexico,” Vera agreed. “Mexican authorities aren’t going to care what comes into the country. If they can get us across the border, they’ll be able to send us anywhere they want.”

  It was a disheartening thought, but one thing was crystal clear. “We know what we have to do then,” Kylie said. “Get off this RV before we get anywhere near Mexico.”

  “Preferably before we even leave Kansas,” Jax finished.

  Given how close Syracuse was to both Colorado and Oklahoma, it was a tall order. “I wonder what route they’re taking?” she mused. “Sounds like they’ve been sticking to the backroads.”

  “Hey,” Jax whispered. “I remember Charlie the Trucker talking about bringing hay up from Arizona and running into those Border Patrol checkpoints. Maybe we’ll be able to draw some attention going through one of those.”

  “Maybe,” Kylie said. “But I bet those are more for traffic going north, not south. Plus, I’m sure they thought of that and have some horrible way of keeping us quiet.”

  Nobody spoke for a minute after that. It was too awful to contemplate.

  The RV slowed down and Kylie tensed, but it was only navigating some curve, or maybe a small town speed zone.

  “God, I can hardly stand it,” she muttered, straining her muscles against the duct tape. There was no give to it whatsoever.

  “Hey,” Jax said softly. She looked up at him, barely able to make out his eyes in the dim room. Normally, they were a gray-blue, but they just looked dark in the limited light. “We’re going to get through this.”

  His voice was so confident, she had to believe him. This was her best friend. He had been by her side through thick and thin. She attempted a smile. “Thank you for following me into this mess. If I were on my own, I don’t think I could—”

  “Sure, you could,” he said, pushing gently against her shoulder. “You’re the smartest, strongest woman I know. Nobody gives you trouble for long.”

  She pushed back against his shoulder, grateful for his faith in her, as unjustified as it seemed at the moment. “Yeah, right,” she said. “You know plenty of strong women.”

  “Sssss,” one of the other girls hissed at them. She looked up to see the curtain in the front flicker again. They slowed once more, coming to a complete stop. It must have been just a stoplight because they soon started forward again. The surge of motion rocked Kylie away from Jax, and she had to struggle to keep her balance. As she righted herself, she felt the tape on her arm give ever so slightly...not up or down, but in a rotation.

  She twisted her arm a few times, trying to get a little more mobility. It wasn’t much. Her hands had been secured flat against her ankles, but she thought if she could twist them around enough, and if Jax could move closer, she might be able to use her fingernails to cut his tape.

  Deciding against mentioning it just yet, she kept up the slight motion, willing herself to focus on the possibility of escape.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Jax could feel Kylie wiggling, her elbows brushing against him as she worked at loosening the tape. She wasn’t speaking, and he knew why. There was no reason to draw anyone’s attention to what she was doing; however, he was very aware of her.

  Now that there was no conversation to distract him, his thoughts bounced back and forth between their predicament and the fact that he was nearly naked with Kylie. Granted, it was nothing like his fantasies—a hundred and eighty degrees different—but still.... There was a part of his body that was painfully aware of her thigh alongside his, her hip pressed against his, shoulder to shoulder, arm against arm.

  He silently cursed his body’s inability to ignore her, and decided he would try to wiggle loose, too. He needed something to do or he was going to go mad. After a while, though, the long day caught up to him and he found himself dozing off, while sounds and sensations incorporated themselves into restless dreams.

  Chapter Three

  “Shh,” Janie Thomas murmured, tracing her finger along Tim Reardon’s jawline, ending by placing it across his lips. Those lips that had been hungrily kissing her moments before while he’d pressed her up against the tack room door.

  They’d knocked a bridle off a hook and it had fallen to the floor with an unholy clatter, shattering the quiet evening at the Lazy J Ranch.

  “What? You don’t want to get caught sneaking kisses with me in the barn?”

  “If we get caught, we aren’t successfully sneaking, are we?” she said playfully. “That takes half the fun out of it.”

  Tim gave a low chuckle. “But we’re just pretending to sneak because we aren’t really do
ing anything wrong.”

  She sighed. “Spoilsport.”

  “No, my sister and her curfew are the spoilers for this evening.” He didn’t need to mention the general restrictions of his parole since his sister, Deputy Mitzi Thomas, had laid out much tougher rules for him to follow.

  “At least she’s extended it and given you until midnight.”

  “She never said I had to be in bed by midnight. I just had to be at the ranch, behaving myself.” His arm snaked its way around her middle and pulled her close for another scorching kiss.

  When he released her, Janie was breathless. “You call this behaving?” Her hands, splayed against his chest, could feel the pounding of his heart as he rested his forehead against hers.

  She could hardly tell which of them was arguing against propriety and an end to their.... What was it? It wasn’t exactly a tryst. They weren’t trying to hide their relationship, but they’d hardly had the chance to let it grow, either.

  The last four days had been one interruption after another. Between finishing with the police and all the details of putting Angelisa Salgado and her minions away, in addition to the regular goings-on at the clinic and the Lazy J, there had been very little time to be alone together.

  Tonight, they’d gone to the barn under the pretense of checking on Tim’s horse, Roo.

  Roo was fine, and so was Tim. She smiled as he nuzzled her neck, nibbling down to the collar of her shirt. They’d spent the last several hours talking and kissing, getting to know each other in far more intimate ways than they’d yet had the opportunity to enjoy. Who knew where it might have gone if one of them had thought far enough ahead to have a condom on hand.

  Tim’s warm, strong hands cupped the back of her neck as he kissed just below her ear again. She sighed softly, amazed at the array of different sensations she could feel just from kissing the same man.

  She started to tug his shirt up to run her hands along his bare, muscled abdomen when her phone chimed, the special pop-a-top ringtone she’d assigned to Kylie. She gave a groan of frustration, but let her hands fall to her sides as Tim released her.

  “Must be midnight,” she said with a sigh. “My daughter, the remote chaperone.”