by B. J Daniels
“I suppose you’ve heard,” he said, his voice rough with emotion.
“I was waiting for you,” Willie said. “I haven’t told Helen anything.”
She moved to Franklin to put her hand on his arm. “Is Geneva...?”
“I don’t know,” Franklin said with a defeated sigh. “They didn’t bring her. They brought her dead ringer. I didn’t get a good look at her until they were getting away.”
“Getting away with the money?” Helen asked.
Franklin nodded, finished his drink and poured himself another.
At the sound of the front door opening and closing, they all turned. Curtis stopped at the edge of the living room. “I’m sorry. I knocked but when no one answered I came on in.” His usually impeccable attire was filthy.
Franklin frowned. He hadn’t even realized that his chief financial officer hadn’t been in the room. “What happened to you?”
“I went to run an errand and had car trouble in the middle of nowhere,” Curtis said.
“An errand?” the judge asked.
Curtis looked around as if confused. “Helen asked me to pick up some Advil for her. What’s happened?”
“I might have mentioned...” Helen began and stopped. Franklin saw Helen turn to the judge and shake her head as if she hadn’t asked Curtis to pick anything up for her.
“What’s going on?” Franklin demanded at the undercurrent in the room.
“What kind of car trouble?” WT asked.
“I didn’t get very far and I had a flat. I changed that, and not far up the road the engine just quit running. I had to call a garage. The mechanic said one of the wires had come undone?” Curtis shook his head. “I just bought the car. The mechanic said I shouldn’t be having these kinds of problems.” He turned to Helen. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot about your pills I was so anxious to get back here.”
“I’m sorry I mentioned them,” she said.
“The ransom drop didn’t go well,” the judge said. “The kidnappers got away with the money.”
“What about your granddaughter?” Curtis asked.
Franklin shook his head and excused himself. He heard Willie follow him into his den. “What was all that about out there?” he demanded the moment his friend closed the door.
“Curtis left right after you and just returned.”
He frowned. “He said he went to get Advil for Helen and had car trouble. What of it?”
“Helen said she didn’t know where he’d gone, that he’d made an excuse and left in a hurry.”
“What are you saying?” Franklin demanded.
“That it’s suspicious. Are you sure you trust him?”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure I trust anyone.” He met Willie’s gaze. “Tell me Geneva isn’t dead.”
* * *
AS THORN HEADED into the mill, keeping to the shadows of the dilapidated buildings, he heard seagulls squawking overhead, then an eerie silence. He passed a building with a huge rusted saw blade sticking up from a rotting wooden table. Large rusted equipment sat silent and unused.
As he passed other cavernous buildings, he found them empty and dark and cold. The mill felt unearthly quiet, forgotten and desolate enough that anything could happen here without the rest of the world knowing.
He came around the corner of one building to see a black sports car ahead. His instincts had been right. Zac was here. But was JJ with him? The men could have dumped her in the middle of the lake.
Thorn shoved the thought away. His gut couldn’t be wrong. Not this time. But where was everyone? This place was huge. He walked over to the sports car, not surprised to find it empty. He considered all the buildings he would have to go in to find JJ and whoever had taken her. His instincts told him there wasn’t time and there was a faster, more efficient way of getting whoever was here to come to him.
He saw the glint of a lighter lying on the console and tried the door. Unlocked. Taking the lighter, he moved to the gas tank. As he did, he tore a strip of his shirt off. Lighting one end, he dipped the other into the tank, then he ran to dive behind the closest building. He barely got behind it before the car blew.
The loud explosion lit the sky, sending a cloud of smoke and debris into the air.
* * *
JJ LET OUT the breath she’d been holding as she recognized the whisper. “Geneva?”
The woman began to cry in huge quaking sobs that echoed in the chamber. JJ stepped out of the pooled water on the floor and moved toward the sound, feeling her way in the blackness. She found the woman crouched on the floor and knelt to put an arm around her. She felt as if she knew this woman, maybe because she’d once been this young. Or because she’d been living vicariously through this woman for some time. Not to mention sleeping in her bed when necessary.
“What’s going on?” JJ asked. When Geneva kept bawling, she gently shook her. “Tell me. What are you doing in here?”
It took the young woman a few minutes to pull herself together. JJ couldn’t see her face, but she could hear her sniff, wipe her nose on her sleeve and sniff again before she spoke. “I was tricked. He tricked me. I thought he loved me.”
“Zac.” JJ had seen how cold-blooded the man was when he’d forced her to follow him over the bridge to collect the ransom and later tossed her over the side into the river. “Do you know where he is now?” With her arm still around Geneva, she could feel her shaking her head. “Do you know why he put us in here?”
That made the young woman begin to cry harder.
“Do you know what kind of room we’re in?”
In between her sobs, Geneva managed to get the words out. “It’s not a room. It’s a water tank.”
She felt her eyes widened in alarm as she recalled the stagnate water she’d stepped in. Why would the man put them in a water tank? The question made her heart race. “Did he tell you anything when he put you in here?”
“He said he would come back for me, but I knew he wouldn’t. Then he drugged me.”
JJ wasn’t about to tell her that Zac already had the money.
* * *
AS THE FLAMES of the burning sports car began to diminish, Thorn stayed where he was and waited. The first man who appeared in the glow of the burned-out car wasn’t Zac Judson.
But he would do, Thorn thought as he crept quickly through the dark shadows and circled to come up behind the man just as he started to turn. There was that instant when the man’s eyes widened in alarm, but by then Thorn had his arm around the man’s throat.
“Where is JJ?” he demanded. The man seemed to be trying to speak. He loosened his hold a little. “Where is the woman?”
“Zac has them in the tank room.”
Them? “Where’s the tank room?”
The man motioned toward the west. With a twist of the man’s head, Thorn knocked him out and then dragged him back into the darkness. Whoever else was here would have heard the explosion, but only one man came to check it out. That meant whoever was left was busy. Busy tying up loose ends.
As he headed deeper into the mill, he heard what sounded like machinery start up. He thought of the saw blade he’d seen, then reminded himself that the man had said the women were in the tank room.
It wasn’t a saw blade that had started up. It was a pump engine.
Heart in his throat, he ran toward the sound.
* * *
JJ LISTENED. That boom earlier. It had sounded like an explosion. Was Zac planning to burn this whole place down with them inside? Not likely, since they were in a water tank.
So had someone else caused the explosion? She knew better than to hope. But she couldn’t help herself. Thorn Grayson had come to her rescue so many times already. Why not one more time?
“What was that sound?” Geneva whispered. “Do you think they’re trying to open the door to ge
t us out?”
“It sounded like an explosion.”
“An explosion?” Geneva started to cry again. “This is all my fault. I just wanted it to stop. I told Zac I was done. He was so angry. He said I had to go with him to pick up the money, that my grandfather was insisting and that I wasn’t going to ruin this for him. When I refused, he hit me and then...” She began to cry again.
“He took me instead,” JJ said. Geneva quit crying. She could feel the woman’s gaze on her even in the pitch-blackness.
“He took you?”
“You’re lucky you didn’t go. He threw me off the bridge into the river with my hands bound and my mouth covered with duct tape. I almost drowned.”
Geneva began to cry again, heart-wrenching sobs.
“Stop crying, so I can listen,” JJ snapped.
She’d heard a loud clank just outside. Maybe Geneva was right, and Zac was coming for them. He’d put them in here because even if they had screamed their hearts out, no one would have heard.
JJ knew she was clutching at straws. She waited for the door to open. There had to be a door. How else had Zac gotten them in here?
Geneva seemed to be listening, as well. At least she’d quit crying. There was another clank, then another. Then a sound that turned JJ’s spine to jelly. A roaring sound as if a huge valve had opened.
She pulled Geneva to her feet only an instant before water gushed in, nearly knocking them both off their feet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THORN RACED TOWARD the sound of the running pump. As he came closer, he heard yet another sound. The roar of water. His chest tightened, making it hard to breathe as he ran. The man had said JJ was in the tank room. As in water tank?
A huge building loomed in front of him. He turned on his flashlight as he shoved open the door. The sound of his footfalls on the old wooden floor echoed through the large empty building. He kept running, burst through another door that led along a walkway to yet another old structure.
The sound of the pump and the roaring water was growing louder. It couldn’t be that far now. Fear had him breathing hard. He rushed through the musty smelling building, his flashlight beam skittering over the dusty floor as he followed the footprints. He had no idea how many kidnappers were still on the property.
But he knew there had to be at least one more—the person who’d started the pump and had now turned on the water. Thorn couldn’t be sure how many people Zac and Geneva had involved or how many of them were now dead. The man had said they were in the tank room. They. Did that mean that Geneva was still alive?
He suspected that the kidnapping hadn’t gone as Zac and Geneva had planned. It went awry that first night when Baker and JJ hadn’t died in the plane crash. Otherwise, they could have collected their ten million and been long gone by now.
But now Zac had the money. So why was he here tonight in this desolate abandoned sawmill? And how many cohorts were with him? Franklin had said there were two in the boat that picked up Zac and JJ.
One of them was now out cold near the burned-up sports car. One of them had been driving the boat. Had he left? Or was he still here, the boat pulled up on the shore? He assumed if the man was still on the property he would have come running when he’d heard the explosion. So hopefully, that only left Zac.
So where was the man?
As Thorn burst out of the building, he came around a corner and got his answer.
* * *
THE WATER ROSE QUICKLY, lapping up their legs. JJ pulled Geneva over to the side where she found what felt like an imperfection in the inside of the tank. A piece of the metal stuck out like a very narrow step only wide enough to put a foot on. She searched frantically for more but found only one—just large enough for one person to balance on.
“Stand on this,” she ordered, reaching down into the water to guide the younger woman’s foot to the step. “Don’t move, okay?”
JJ knew there had to be a door that they’d been brought in. She moved through the water as quickly as she could, feeling her way along the sides of the tank as the water continued to rush in and rise around them.
She searched for something, anything to use to get them out of here. She wouldn’t let herself accept that it was futile. Or that no one knew they were here.
What would Thorn have done, though, when he found her missing? The thought broke her heart. They’d gotten so close in such a short time. She thought of his heartbreak. Now he was about to lose another woman he’d cared about unless she could find a way out of this.
She found the seam in the wall where the door opened and pounded on it with her fist. Then felt around under the water for something to use, anything she could pry with. She found a small jagged piece of what felt like rock, but quickly realized it was useless at opening the door. She pocketed the rock and continued around the tank, not sure what she hoped to find. Some way to stop the water or to escape.
Was Zac out there listening to the water rise? Was he waiting until the tank filled completely before he walked away?
The water was already up to her waist. Soon they would be swimming, but how long could they do that? Maybe it wouldn’t matter because if the water kept rising, it would completely fill the tank and they would drown.
Heart dropping, JJ realized that she might have finally found herself in a situation where there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
* * *
ZAC JUDSON CAME at him with a large wrench. Thorn had just enough time to leap to the side, the blow catching him in the shoulder as he swung his flashlight. It smashed into the side of the man’s face.
He heard Zac let out a cry of pain and started to pull his weapon. But the man moved faster than he’d expected, coming at him again with the raised heavy wrench gripped in both of his hands and blood running down the side of his face.
Thorn ducked under the man’s outstretched arms and the heavy wrench, plowing into him and driving him back. Zac lost his balance, flailing for a moment before he went down. Thorn went with him, smashing his fist into the man’s face as they hit the ground.
Zac brought the wrench down on his back. The blow stole his breath, but he still managed to pull his weapon from its holster. He shoved the barrel into Zac’s neck, but was knocked off balance as the man rolled to the side and brought down the wrench once again, this time aiming for Thorn’s head.
Zac was strong, and he was a fighter. He had ten million reasons why he needed to win this one. Thorn had only one: JJ. That made him even more determined. He feared he was fighting for her life.
He pulled the trigger. The wrench clattered to the ground next to his head an instant before he rolled to his side away from Zac. As he got to his feet, he looked over at the dead man. His shoulder and back hurt as he holstered his weapon. He picked up the wrench and limped toward the sound of the grinding pump.
As he came around the side of the building in front of him, he saw the water tank and what Zac had done to the door into it and felt his heart drop.
* * *
“HE’S GOING TO kill us!” Geneva cried as she swayed on the tiny step, her head still way above water.
“Stop!” JJ ordered. “You’re safe for the moment. Just stay where you are and keep quiet. I think I heard something.”
JJ thought she’d heard a gunshot over the sound of the water filling the tank. Maybe she had imagined it. Her eyes filled with tears. Don’t let anything happen to Thorn, she prayed silently even as she couldn’t help but hope that he’d found her and that he was coming to save them.
But as the water rose to her chest, she knew time was running out. Soon they would be swimming, and she could feel Geneva getting more panicked by the moment. She tried to hang on to the side of the tank next to Geneva. Her body wanted to float away from the side as the water lapped higher and higher.
* * *
THORN TOOK ONLY an insta
nt to assess the situation. He rushed to the pump next to the large water tank. The moment he did, he saw that he wouldn’t be needing the wrench. Zac had seen to that. He’d sabotaged it so there was no stopping the water now.
With a curse, he could hear the water filling the tank. It didn’t sound as if it had completely filled yet. He knew JJ had to be inside, and yet he tapped on the side of the tank with the wrench and pressed his ear to the cold metal. He tapped again, praying for a sound from within.
And then it came. A distant tap, tap, tap. His heart soared, but how was he going to get her out? He tapped again and heard the answering tap before he rushed to the door and tried to open it, only to find Zac had broken off the latch, a piece of pipe still jammed into it.
But there had to be a drain. He had to move some debris away, but managed to find the drain and open it. Water gushed out in a steady stream, but more was being pumped in than was coming out.
His mind raced. There had to be another way.
He backed away to look toward the top of the tank. He spotted a large cap with a hatch on it that could be opened—if he could get to it.
Hurrying around to the side of the tank, he saw that the old metal stairway to the top of the tank lay in pieces on the ground.
But at the back, he spotted a stone structure adjacent to the tank. It was a few yards from it. If he could climb up the rough rockwork... He reached up, grabbed the edge of the stone, his fingers digging into the decaying mortar, and began to climb.
* * *
JJ HAD FELT her heart soar when she’d heard the taps on the tank. She’d pulled the rock from her pocket and answered. Someone was outside. Someone knew they were trapped in here. It had to be Thorn, she told herself as tears burned her eyes. He’d come to save her again.
But the water was up to their necks, splashing into their faces. Geneva could no longer stay on the tiny step. They were forced to swim to keep their heads above water, and she wasn’t sure how much longer they could last.
