by Debra Webb
It wasn’t an easy task, but Von figured it out. She used the biggest of the little girls, made a pyramid/ladder of sorts and then climbed up, trying her level best not to hurt anyone.
Once Von was on the beam, she laid down lengthwise. After snugging her legs on either side of the steel and curling one arm around it, she reached down with her right hand.
Tara, with the help of April, hefted the smallest girl up within Von’s reach.
Slowly, but surely she pulled four little girls up to the beam. Her entire body was shaking with exhaustion. She’d lined the little girls up on the beam, impressing upon each one how important it was not to move. She explained how the tiles would give way if they fell against them and then they would fall to the floor.
Each sat like a little stone statue, not moving a muscle.
Von tied one end of the rope around her waist and lowered the other down to the room. It didn’t quite reach the floor, but low enough that April could grab on. She climbed part of the way and Von pulled her up the rest of the way. She joined the other little ones lining the steel beam.
Tara’s turn.
She was older and heavier than the others and Von was really tired but she would die before she’d leave a single child in that room.
Tara climbed as far as she could. Von pulled. The rope slipped once. But somehow Von managed to haul the child through the opening.
Before she dared to relax, Von righted the ceiling tile, careful to ensure it was exactly the way she’d found it.
It was very dark with the tile back in place. The children were terrified. But Tara did an excellent job of keeping them calm.
Von couldn’t rest her muscles as long as she wanted to. She had to get moving.
“I’m going to the other room and get the rest of the children,” she told Tara. “Whatever happens, don’t move and don’t make a sound. Do you understand me?”
Tara nodded enthusiastically.
Using the steel beam that ran across the main wall that divided the small square rooms from the large room where the captors were, Von made her way past her room and the bathroom. When she reached room number one, the first from the left, she moved onto the beam that cut across the dividing wall.
Once again, she carefully moved a ceiling tile.
Again, the children huddled in fear as she attempted to lower herself into the room.
She wasn’t so lucky this time. None came to her aid. There wasn’t a Tara in this group.
But there was a Lily.
Relief expanded in her chest when she recognized the little girl.
She explained who she was and what she was doing to help the girls. The oldest, Jenny, finally stepped up to the plate and showed similar leadership skills as Tara had.
Climbing back up into the ceiling cavity wasn’t so easy this time, either. Two of the girls were very small, including Lily. But Von finally made it.
The smallest girls were lifted up first, then the rest. Finally Jenny.
“I have to go back down now,” Von explained to Jenny. “Those bad men will find me, but you must be absolutely quiet no matter what you hear happening. If they can’t find you, you’ll be safe.”
Jenny promised to stay quiet and to keep the girls quiet.
Von shimmied back across the main beam and explained the same to Tara.
“They’ll hurt you,” Tara protested.
There was no time for this.
“Maybe,” Von acknowledged. “But I can’t help you if you don’t do as I say.”
Finally Tara relented and made the same promise Jenny had.
Von lowered back down onto the rickety chair. She put the ceiling tile in place, then climbed down to the floor. Moving quickly, she dismantled her climbing apparatus and put all back just as it was.
The duct tape she had used she stuck to the bottom of the cart, out of sight. The rope she placed on the cart’s lowest shelf.
She brushed off her clothes. Took a breath and waited. The cameras obviously weren’t operable. Not only had no one come rushing in while she went through this little rescue exercise, but she also hadn’t noticed any monitors with realtime video feed in the large room.
They were in the middle of nowhere. These were children. The bastards clearly thought they had nothing to worry about.
Trinity should be back by now.
Von started to pace. She had no way of knowing what time it was, but it felt as if it had been hours.
The men’s voices were louder now. Definitely arguing.
The door to her room burst open.
“You,” one of the men, the older, chubby one, demanded, “get out here.”
Von squared her shoulders and walked out the door, fully expecting to find Trinity and Lane back.
No Trinity.
No Lane.
Only the men who’d been here when they arrived. Judging by their expressions all were ticked off. Wait, there was one newcomer. Middle-aged. Dressed in a distinguished suit. Nothing like the others.
Was he the buyer?
“The truck is ready.”
Von’s gaze shifted to the female voice that had made the announcement. A young woman, twenty-two or -three at most, had entered the building and now walked quickly across the room. She glanced at Von and then tiptoed to whisper something in Suit Guy’s ear.
Blond hair…slender build…the woman looked familiar. When she turned to walk back out of the building Von studied her profile. Something about the curve of her cheek…her profile.
Von knew this woman from somewhere.
“Your husband and Lane aren’t back yet,” the older man with the bulging belly roared.
That was obvious. “Where are they?” she asked in a small voice. She had to remember that she was a victim here. She had to act like one. As the gazes stared holes through her, she hugged her arms around herself and tried to look frightened.
“We’re going to assume that your husband caused trouble and that Lane and Robinson won’t be coming back,” he snapped.
Von wouldn’t bank on that. “My husband would never leave me here like this. You’re wrong.” She tilted her chin defiantly. “I know my husband.”
“Well, I don’t.” The older, chubby man bellied up to her. “I’m going with the theory that we’ve been made and we’re moving now, instead of later.”
This was going to get ugly.
“Let me call home,” she offered in the most pitiful voice she could muster. “Or his office.” She shook her head. “I’m telling you he wouldn’t do this.”
“No time,” he snarled. “We’re ready to move.”
It wasn’t until he made the statement that she noticed the changes in the room. There was nothing. The desks and computers, the chairs, even the sofas. All of it was gone. Nothing but concrete floors, white walls and cheap fluorescent lights dangling from the ceilings.
“But what about the money?” Von asked. “Don’t you want my husband’s money?”
“Get the brats,” the chubby guy ordered, ignoring her questions.
Von held her breath.
The others hurried to do as they were told.
Doors opened.
Scrambling around…surprised voices tossed questions back and forth.
Finally the announcement she’d been expecting echoed: “They’re gone!”
Chubby Guy moved closer and glared at Von.
“Where are they?”
She blinked, tried to look bewildered. “What’re you talking about? You’ve had me locked in that room all this time. Where is my husband?”
“Where…are…the…children?” Each word was spat at her through clenched teeth.
“I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Get me those bolt cutters,” he roared.
A man grabbed Von from behind.
Time to stop playing.
She whirled around and landed the heel of her hand into his throat. He stumbled back, gagging.
Another reached for
her. She kicked his feet out from under him and twisted away from him.
Vicious fingers dug into her flesh, hauled her up against a hard body just as the muzzle of a weapon bored into her temple. “You’ve been holding out on me, missy,” this one snarled.
“Tear this place apart,” Chubby Guy shouted to his minions. “Find those brats. They’re in here some where. They have to be.”
It didn’t take the bastards long to figure out that up was the only way to go.
Von closed her eyes at the sound of the children wailing in terror.
“I think we should let the kiddies watch you die,” Chubby growled in her ear.
“Let her go.”
Von’s gaze shot to the man who had spoken. The guy in the pricey suit. Suit Guy.
“She and her husband have caused a lot of trouble,” Chubby argued.
Suit Guy shook his head. “Nothing we can do about that now. If Lane had stuck to his agenda, this wouldn’t have happened. Let her go. Now,” he reiterated when his underling hesitated.
Chubby released her and Von took a challenging step toward the man in the suit. “I’m not going any where without those kids.”
He smiled. “You may be more right than you know. Take off your coat.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so.” She wasn’t doing anything this perv told her to do.
He nodded to his henchmen. Roughs hands peeled the coat off her shoulders and down her arms. It landed on the floor behind her.
Suit Guy walked all the way around her. The silence in the building was deafening.
He suddenly stopped and turned to Chubby. “She goes with us. She’ll bring a nice sum in the gaming auction.” He smiled at Von. “They love women like you. Those prepared to fight to the death.”
Fury blasted any reason right out of Von’s head. “I’m not going anywhere with you unless you let the children go.”
“How nice,” he mused aloud, “a woman willing to sacrifice herself for others. Such a rare trait.”
Von lunged for the bastard.
Savage hands grabbed her back.
“You’ll find out,” she threatened, “just how rare I am.”
A needle pierced her skin on the back of her shoulder.
Von whirled around to fight off her attacker.
She staggered as the room kept spinning.
The children were her final thought before the blackness descended.
Chapter Twelve
12:58 a.m. (11 hours missing)
Trinity’s heart pounded hard enough to burst through the wall of his chest.
The house he’d spotted was a good half mile off the road.
He hadn’t slowed down since he’d left Lane and his pal in the trunk of their sedan.
Not a single vehicle…not the first sign of a house until now.
Barking greeted him as he neared the house.
Two dogs, their growls several levels below friendly, circled him.
Trinity ignored the animals.
He climbed the steps, his lungs burning with the need for air, and crossed the porch. With no compunction as to the time, he banged hard enough on the door to shake the Christmas wreath hanging there and to wake the dead.
The dogs stayed close, growling and snarling.
No sound inside the house.
Trinity banged again, harder still.
A light came on inside.
Thank God.
The overhead porch light blinked on next.
With a heavy creak the door flew inward and the black muzzle of a double barrel shotgun came within inches of Trinity’s face.
“What do you want?” The pajama-clad man had obviously awakened from a deep sleep. His hair was mussed and his face was grim.
That was the first time Trinity noticed exactly how cold it was. The chill leached into his bones and exhaustion clawed at him.
“I need to call for help,” Trinity explained. “My wife’s been abducted.”
The man’s gaze narrowed even more. “What do you mean abducted?”
“These men took her…. They tried to kill me.” Trinity hoped that part would get this guy’s full attention a little more rapidly. He needed a damned phone!
The man looked past Trinity then hitched his head in invitation. “Come on in. Ingrid!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Make some coffee.”
Trinity was barely inside the door when the man gestured to the table next to the sofa. “There’s the phone.”
Trinity put through a call to Jim Colby and gave his location. The man with the shotgun provided specific road numbers and directions from the city.
Jim assured Trinity that he and Simon, as well as Simon’s Bureau contact, were en route.
Trinity replaced the receiver and tried not to sway. Seemed the warmer he got on the outside the colder he felt on the inside.
“This’ll warm you up.” A woman, the wife, Ingrid, Trinity supposed, offered him a mug of steaming coffee.
“Thank you.” He cradled the hot cup in his hands. As soon as he’d caught his breath he would keep going to try and find that damned barn. He couldn’t wait for Simon and Jim to arrive.
Ingrid tied the sash of her robe a little more tightly. “What happened to your wife?”
Jessie, the husband, had taken a seat on the couch, but the shotgun remained propped against his leg. He sipped his coffee and eyed Trinity with slowly receding suspicion.
“We were looking for a missing child—”
“Your child is missing, too?” Ingrid asked, her voice as well as her expression loaded with disbelief.
“She’s not our little girl,” he explained. “She’s the daughter of a friend. We were trying to help find her. The men responsible for her abduction are using what looks like a barn in the woods.” He shook his head. “It can’t be much farther up the road.”
“You talking about the old Crosby place?” Jessie set his coffee mug on the table next to him.
Trinity shrugged. “I’m not familiar with this area. But it looks like a barn. I didn’t see a house. It’s a good distance off the paved road.”
“Get my coat,” Jessie said to his wife. “I know the place you’re talking about. I’ll take you there right now. Ingrid’ll tell the police or whoever you called where to go when they get here.”
Trinity set his cup aside as well. “Do you have a cell phone we can take with us?”
Jessie shook his head as he shouldered into the coat Ingrid rushed to him. “But I got this shotgun and a four-wheel drive truck.”
Trinity managed a smile. “That’ll work.”
LESS THAN TEN MINUTES on the dark road and Jessie turned on his left blinker. “This is the old Crosby place.”
“This is it.” Trinity recognized the big oak tree that loomed close to the narrow dirt road that cut into the woods. The oak was long dead. It was a miracle it hadn’t already fallen.
“Couple months ago I was down this way and saw a truck waiting to pull out on the road,” Jessie said. “I figured the place had been sold. Never bothered to come over here and see what was going on or ask nobody.”
“Let’s take it a little slow,” Trinity suggested.
Jessie cut the headlights. “No use warning ’em that we’re coming.”
The narrow road gave way to a clearing and what looked like an old barn stood beneath the moonlight, surrounded by snow—snow that had been heavily marred by tire tracks.
The SUVs he’d noticed here before were gone.
“Stop,” Trinity said, desperation aching in his chest.
He hoped out of the truck and bounded through the snow. The big double doors opened with no resistance. The barn was dark but Trinity could feel the emptiness.
They were gone.
He motioned for Jessie to pull closer then shouted, “Turn on your headlights.”
The twin beams of light split through the dark interior of the building. The desks, chairs…everything was gone.
Trinity found the wall switch and t
urned on the fluorescent lights. The harsh glare reflected against the white walls and bare cement floor.
He moved from door to door at the far end of the building. Each was empty, but oddly in shambles. The ceiling tiles were pulled down here and there. He had a feeling that Von had something to do with that.
The place was completely deserted.
He turned back to Jessie. “Did you say your truck is four-wheel drive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I need you to drive me around the building…” Trinity exhaled a breath of sheer misery. “So I can see if there’s anything out there.”
“Got spotlights, too,” Jessie explained as they hustled back to his truck.
He drove slowly around the clearing, shining his spotlights and headlights so that Trinity could search for anything…or anyone left behind.
Nothing.
Simon and Jim would likely be here any minute.
Trinity couldn’t wait.
“Can you take me one more place?” he asked Jessie.
“THAT IT?” JESSIE ASKED.
“That’s it.”
Lane’s car.
“Pull over here and leave your emergency flashers on.” Since he didn’t have a cell phone he needed to catch Jim and Simon’s attention when they passed. Since they hadn’t met a single vehicle on the road, Trinity could safely assume they were still en route.
Trinity bounded out of the truck and snagged the keys from the car’s ignition.
Jessie shut down the truck’s engine but left the lights on as well as the flashers. Trinity could hear the men kicking at the trunk and swearing at each other.
“Friends of yours?” Jessie asked.
Trinity shook his head. “They know who took my wife.” He kept calling Von his wife even though that cover was no longer necessary…but the truth was he’d always thought of her as his wife.
“They armed?”
He shook his head again and opened his jacket. “I have their weapons.”
Jessie pulled the shotgun away from his shoulder where he had it propped and aimed the barrel at the trunk. “Open’er up and let’s see what they got to say.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Trinity drew the weapon with the most ammo in the clip with his right hand and unlocked the trunk with his left.
Both men attempted to sit up.
