“Well thank God for small favors,” Drake growled.
“Shut it,” Aiden snapped. “Evie, tell us your plan.”
“Maddie said that there is a cabin right next to Lacie’s with a cabin that shares a dock. We’re going to go to that cabin, down to the shared dock. Lydia is going to approach from the water, because nobody will recognize her. She’s going to pose as the neighbor.”
“You promise that’s all you’re going to do?” Aiden asked.
“I promise,” Evie said.
“Lydia, what are you going to do when you get to the cabin?” Clint asked.
“I’m not going to go into the cabin no matter what. You know those give me the creeps, Clint,” she promised.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Clint. You know if they had the girls they would have called Evie by now. They would have been trying to make a move. This is a moot point.”
“Humor me. Tell me what you’re going to do, Lydia.” He was getting angry.
“I’ve got my gun. I’m going to stay fluid and take them by surprise if I can.”
“That’s fucking bullshit. You will pull over by the side of the road!”
“I’m sorry, the connection’s getting bad. Evie, we must be getting too close to the lake, I think we’re losing the men. Clint? Can you hear me?”
“Don’t pull this shit, Lydia!”
“Clint? Are you saying something?”
The line went dead.
Drake chuckled.
“Shut up and let’s get to the rental car place. I want us at the lake twenty minutes ago.” Clint eyed his duffel bag and grabbed it. Aiden was sure that it wasn’t an accident when he swung it off the carousel and it hit Drake in the head.
***
Evie stared down at her phone and prayed to God it wouldn’t ring.
“Lydia, what would happen if the kidnapper couldn’t get a connection from the lake when he was trying to reach me?”
“He’d call you from another phone that had a better signal. He wouldn’t not call you.”
Evie relaxed. She knew her phone could pick up calls, because she had received the phone call from Aiden, and despite Lydia’s antics, she knew her signal was strong. Still, she prayed with all her might that she wouldn’t get a call or, God forbid, a video.
“There it is! I see it! That’s the road to Lacie’s uncle’s cabin.”
Evie stomped on the brake and backed up the car.
“Are you sure?”
This was the second time that Maddie had said this.
“Yeah, I recognize this mailbox, it’s made in the shape of a trout. I forgot about it before.”
Evie took a left down the bumpy road.
“Okay, down to the right is Uncle Walt’s place. If we turn down here first it’s the Kendall’s cabin.” Evie took a slow right down an even bumpier dirt road. The place they pulled up to looked like it hadn’t seen people in years.
“Okay, if you park here, and we go down that path at the back of the cabin, we’ll be at the dock.”
The three women got out of the car. Evie stretched, and then pulled the bat bag out of the back seat. She unzipped it and found a blue aluminum softball bat. It had a good heft and felt good in her hands. Maddie bent over the bag and pulled out a gray bat.
“I’ve been to the batting cages a lot ever since that night,” she said softly.
Lydia eyed the two sisters. “You both look kind of scary.”
Evie looked at the woman holding the pistol in her hand and laughed. “I think that’s our line. Maddie, give her your hoodie. She needs something to wear so that she can hide her gun.”
Maddie shrugged out of her hoodie and handed it over to Lydia, who put it on. Evie looked down at her phone again and saw that it was at full signal strength. Still no voicemails, missed calls or videos.
“Eves, we can cut through the woods and blackberry bushes to get to Uncle Walt’s. It butts up near their cistern.”
“How do you know that?” Evie asked.
“I found Zoe making out underneath it at the last party.”
Lydia eyed the two sisters, then nodded. “I’ll keep them occupied out back and you can look in the windows on the other side.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Evie agreed. She palmed her phone. “Is everyone’s phone on silence?”
They all nodded.
Evie watched Lydia’s curvy figure go down the path towards the dock.
“Who is she? Is she like a cop?”
“She’s a bad-ass. Come on, show me the way.”
Soon Evie was happy to have the softball bat as she used it to keep the blackberry brambles from scratching the hell out of her face. In the distance she heard Lydia’s lilting Spanish accent calling out a loud hello.
They needed to hurry. Finally they nearly fell out of the bushes and into the clearing that housed the water holding tank for Uncle Walt’s cabin. For a place that was supposed to be housing a party, it was eerily quiet.
Maddie looked at her, she realized it too. She raised her bat. They could hear Lydia talking, there was the low voice of a man talking. Carefully the two sisters crept up to the sliding glass door, and they saw six girls all lying on the small floor of the living room. For just an instant Evie thought they were all dead. It took a moment for her to process that they were all tied up. A man was crouched over them holding a gun. She could see that the back door was partially open and another man was talking through it. He must be talking to Lydia.
She looked closer at the girls. One of them was Chloe. Where was Zoe? The crouched man wasn’t the Englishman. Finally, the man who had been talking to Lydia stepped back into the cabin and shut the door. He turned around and surveyed the girls on the floor. He wasn’t the man from Turkey either.
Evie backed away from the sliding glass door.
“Maddie,” she said in a barely perceptible whisper.
“What?” she mouthed.
“Switch phones with me and go to the other cabin. Pretend to be me if they call. Also send Lydia back to me. I’ll be back to you as quickly as possible.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Just do it.”
She watched as Maddie disappeared back through the blackberry bushes. Goddammit, she should have insisted on a gun. What would she do if they started killing the girls? Well, she’d just run with her bat and try to save them. But Lydia better damn well get here fast!
She looked at the time on her phone. Five minutes passed. Then seven. Then nine. Finally, at eleven minutes, Lydia came through the brambles.
It was at that moment that the man who had talked to Lydia grabbed Chloe up by her tied wrists, wrenching her arms. Tears came to Evie’s eyes in sympathy as her sister cried out.
Lydia was at her side watching, she put her hand on Evie’s shoulder.
“Okay, Cutie, you’re going to make us a video,” the man said with a Southern accent. “Tell me what your sister’s phone number is.”
“Never!” Chloe yelled.
The man kicked the girl closest to Chloe, and the girl screamed. In an instant, Chloe wilted. “Please don’t hurt my friends.”
“Well I guess you’re going to do what I say, now aren’t you? Aren’t you just a lucky little girl that I just want you to say a couple of words on a video? I just have to make you cry a little bit, but nothing too bad. Are you going to give me Evie’s telephone number?”
Where was the man who had been with her in Turkey if he wasn’t in this cabin? Where was Zoe?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Aiden was in the truck with Clint, whose phone had just rung.
“Lydia, you better not try any funny shit with me again,” was how Clint answered the phone. Thankfully he also put it on speaker.
“Hello? This is Maddie, Evie’s sister. Is this Aiden?”
“Hi, I’m here Maddie,” Aiden answered. “Why are you calling Clint from Lydia’s phone?”
“I’m waiting for a call from t
he kidnapper’s to come into Evie’s phone. They have Chloe. Lydia and Evie are outside the cabin watching them right now. If they try anything really bad, I think they’ll kill them.”
“Who’ll kill who?” Clint demanded.
“There are six girls tied up in the cabin. If the bad guys try to kill the girls, Evie and Lydia will kill the bad guys. But right now Evie and Lydia are just watching them. I’m supposed to pretend to be Evie and let them video Chloe and call me on Evie’s phone. But I’m also supposed to call you from Lydia’s phone and tell you to come and find us.”
Fuck!
“Okay, Maddie, you’re doing good. We can get this done. We’ll be there in less than ten minutes. Do you know where Zoe is?”
There was silence.
“Maddie are you still there?” Aiden asked.
“I didn’t see her. Oh, God, Aiden, I didn’t see her.” It was clear the girl was crying.
“Maddie, this is Clint. You’re doing really well. You need to keep it together a little longer for when they call you. You need to pretend to be Evie and take that call. You hear me? You need to be brave. You need to take that call and be brave. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
She sounded a little better.
“Good girl, Maddie,” Aiden praised her. Then he heard the sound of a FaceTime call coming in.
“I’ve got to take this.”
“Leave this line on. Put us on mute. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
They listened as she answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Is this Evie Avery?”
“Yes.”
“We have your sister Chloe. Say hello, Chloe.” There was silence. Aiden looked sideways at Clint who was holding his phone in a death grip.
A high pitch screech echoed through the cab of the truck. It took all of Aiden’s concentration to stay straight on the road.
“Don’t hurt her!” Maddie cried.
“My not hurting her is all up to you.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Shit, now came the tricky part, would Maddie know enough to play this part right?
“Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
“My boss wants the passports. He says you’re the person who can get them. Me? Well, I just want him to be happy, because if he is, I get paid. So here’s your incentive to hand over these passports.”
Another bone-chilling scream came through the phone.
“Stop!” Maddie yelled. “Please, I’ll do anything. Don’t hurt her again.”
“Get your boyfriends to give my boss the passports. You have three days. Got it?”
“How do I get a hold of you?”
“We’ll call you tomorrow.”
Aiden looked over at Clint. They didn’t want to say anything. The phone should be muted, but just in case it wasn’t and just in case he hadn’t hung up, they kept silent.
“Did you hear that?” Maddie’s voice was clogged with tears.
“You did good, Honey,” Aiden said soothingly.
“She screamed! She screamed!” Maddie was screaming.
Aiden glanced over at Clint.
“We’re going to get her. She’s going to be okay. It’s going to be over in just a few more minutes. I promise.”
Aiden could hear audible gulps.
“Get here fast. Please get here fast.”
“We will.”
The line disconnected.
***
Evie had somehow kept her gagging silent. She quietly spit out mucus on the ground and wiped her eyes. Lydia’s brown eyes were wet with sympathy as she squeezed her arm. Chloe was passed out on the sofa. The man who had hurt her was sitting next to her, his gun resting on the cushion beside him.
If it hadn’t been for Lydia, Evie would have gone charging into the cabin, but she had held her back. She’d been right. The two men had two guns and six hostages. The odds were terrible.
“We need a plan,” Lydia said softly.
Evie was having trouble thinking.
“You go to the back door this time and distract them.”
“I look too much like Chloe.”
“By the time they realize that, I’ll have come in through the front.”
“Are you going to shoot them?”
“Yes,” Lydia said levelly.
Evie looked at the woman and realized she was serious.
“One change to the plan.”
“What?”
“Maddie will distract them. You and I will go through the front. Two is better than one.”
Evie stepped backwards, past the cistern, towards the blackberry bushes, and quietly called Maddie. She told her the plan.
“I’ll be there soon. Is Lydia going to kill the men?”
“She’s going to shoot them, I don’t know if she’s going to kill them.”
“If she doesn’t kill them, you beat the hell out of them with the bat.” Maddie then hung up the phone.
Evie walked back to Lydia. They waited. Finally, there was a knock on the back door. Lydia had already checked, the sliding glass door was unlocked. The man on the sofa waved to the other man to open the door. As soon as he began to open it, Evie softly slid open sliding glass door and Lydia slipped in.
One of the girls on the floor saw them, and yelled, “Help!”
The man on the sofa looked up and grabbed his gun. Lydia didn’t hesitate, she shot him twice in the chest. He powered backwards against the couch. The sound made the other man turning around. He was beginning to pull his gun out from his shoulder holster while Evie was running past the girls on the floor. She swung the bat high and connected with his cheek. Blood splattered and bone crunched. He fell like a ton of bricks.
***
“Turn here!”
Dirt and gravel flew as they went up the drive to the bright yellow cabin. There were a myriad of cars and trucks parked in front of it, and Clint slammed to a stop in front of them. They jumped out of their truck and Aiden heard screaming.
They saw the open sliding glass door and started towards it.
Before they could get to it, Lydia came out pointing a gun.
“What the fuck?!”
“Clint!”
“Put down the gun.”
She dropped her arm and took two steps towards him, but before she could go any further he was across the yard and had her in his arms.
“Are you okay, Baby?”
Behind them another truck pulled up and out piled Mason and Drake, both of them with their guns out. Aiden was at the cabin, and saw Maddie and Chloe huddled on the floor, leaning against a couch.
“Aiden, help me.” Evie was trying to untie a girl who was struggling. There was another girl who was standing up, and another one who was untying someone else. He saw two more girls tied up and lying on the floor.
“My God,” Drake said as he came to a stop inside the cabin. “Chloe!”
“I don’t know where Zoe is,” she cried thinly.
“We’ll find her, Baby Girl.” Drake stepped over one of the girls lying on the floor and picked up Chloe. She was covered in blood. “Oh God, we’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
“It’s not my blood, Drake.”
“Lydia shot the asshole who hit her,” Evie said.
Aiden and Mason used their knives to untie the girls. They got them sitting up. “What about this guy?” Mason asked tipping his head towards the bloodied corpse near the door.
“That was Evie hitting another homerun,” Maddie said.
Aiden caught sight of the bat on the floor and shuddered. He looked over at Evie. She looked agonized. “Eva?”
“We don’t know where Zoe is.”
As if she conjured it, a phone rang. “It’s your phone. It’s a FaceTime call, Evie,” Maddie said, holding up the phone.
Everybody turned to where Maddie was standing. Then they relaxed as Maddie grinned. “Oh, don’t worry. It’s Trenda.”
“Don’t scare me lik
e that.” Evie grabbed the phone from her sister.
She pressed the button to answer, and Aiden watched as her face froze.
“Hello, Evie, do you remember me?” the man with the English accent asked.
Fuck, it was Khalid Clifford.
Evie didn’t answer. She just stared at her phone. She looked up at Aiden helplessly.
“Evie, answer the man,” he prompted.
Her eyes glossed over with wet, he thought she would burst into tears, but he should have known better.
“Yes I remember you, you asshole. You better not hurt my sister, or I will torch your fucking passports!”
Good for her!
“Do you want to know what I will do to a baby?”
Evie dropped to her knees, but the man on the phone didn’t see it, she kept the phone steady in her hands. “For every hair that is harmed on their heads, I will burn a passport. Are we clear?”
“So you do have them?”
“I have them,” she lied.
“I want them.”
“No shit.”
“I want them in the next four hours.”
“Let me see Trenda and Bella this instant.”
Aiden couldn’t see what Evie could on the screen but he could see her relieved expression.
“I want my passports.”
“I want my sister and niece.” Even though she was on her knees, her tone was strong and resolute.
“If you want them alive, it’s simple, you just have to give them to me fast enough. Do you see what I have in my hands?”
“Clay?”
“No, my dear, this is C-4. It’s an explosive. I’m going to stash your sister and niece in a nice little out of the way place with a little timing device. You’ll have four hours to get me my passports. If you fail to get them to me on time, then they will run out of time. That would be too bad because the baby is so cute. I’ll call you in an hour to tell you where I want you to deliver the passports.”
The phone went dead and Evie dropped it. She slumped over and her body heaved. Aiden was beside her and managed to pull her hair out of the way before she threw up.
“Got him!” Lydia cried.
“Tell us,” Mason demanded.
“Aiden, he’s going to blow them up,” Evie moaned. He gathered her up and tried to listen to Lydia at the same time.
“I had Dex put a trace on the call. Then I had him track Trenda’s phone. As long as that asshole has Trenda’s phone on him, we know where he’s at.”
Her Relentless SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 10) Page 18
