by Christi Snow
“Damn, Colton. Okay, I’ll be right there with a black and white.”
“Thanks, Brian.”
Next he dialed a number he had hoped he wouldn’t need to call.
The crusty voice he knew too well answered the phone, “Bart Matthews, Homeland Security.”
“Bart, this is Colton Robertson.”
“Colt, how are you doing man? I’m hearing good things about Mad Rob’s chances for the contract.”
“That’s fine Bart, but not why I’m calling. I need a favor and I’ll owe you big time for this. My girlfriend’s been kidnapped and I don’t know the situation, but am hoping I can call on your resources if need be.”
“Fuck! Penelope’s been kidnapped? When? How?”
“I don’t know all the details yet. I just need to know I can count on you if I need you.”
“Sure…” he hesitated. “Colton, I don’t know if this is related, but there’s something big going down with the Mexican Mafia right now. There’s lots of chatter and we don’t know what it all means. Has your girl somehow gotten mixed up in something bad?”
“I’m afraid so, but at this point ‘something bad’ is all we know. We’ve been going in circles trying to figure out what’s going on. A tie to the Mexican Mafia would be the first real lead in what’s happening. Let me check out her disappearance and I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
Bart’s voice sounded grim, “I hope you find her soon, Colt.”
“Me, too. Thanks, Bart.”
When Colton hung up the phone, he closed his eyes and sank his head into his hands. His stomach churned at the thought of what she might be going through right now….if she was even still alive. God, he couldn’t allow himself to think like that. She was going to be fine. He’d find her and she’d be fine. He had to hold onto that hope. He had to…
“Colton?” Chris asked from behind the wheel. No way in hell could Colton drive right now. “Are you okay?”
Colton shook his head while he looked out the front window. No, at this moment in time, he didn’t feel like he’d ever be okay again. “No, and I won’t be until we get her back safe and sound.”
When they arrived at the bookstore, there were still plenty of people milling about from the book signing. As Colton stormed in the front door, Jon immediately directed, “They’re all up in Penelope’s office.”
Colton bounded up the stairs with Chris and Cassie following in his wake. He was surprised when he stepped into Penelope’s office to find the writing group still there.
Julie saw him at the door and rushed over to him. The circles under her eyes were even more pronounced than they’d been earlier in the day.
“Tell me what happened,” he ordered.
She already had a notepad in her hand and looked down at it to check her notes. God bless Julie’s organizing soul. She proceeded to tell him what they’d been able to piece together about the events that afternoon.
“What happened to the little girl?” Shit, Penelope wouldn’t have ever expected duplicity from a little girl. She was too compassionate to even consider a tactic like that.
“She completely disappeared. We have no idea what happened to her, but assume she must have been part of a set-up.”
“Why would Penelope leave the store? She knew it was dangerous.”
Tim stepped forward. “First, I’m sorry. I should have been able to help better, but I never would have guessed that little girl was a decoy. Those were real tears and I truly thought she was just scared. This is my fault. I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t Tim’s fault. It was his. It was his job to protect her. He told her that he’d keep her safe. Instead he left her alone to fend for herself and now there was no way to know if she was even still alive. He couldn’t breathe. He turned back to Julie. “You’ve called the police, right?”
“Yes, they’re on their way.” He heard some extra noise downstairs and leaned out the door hoping it was Penelope, but it was the arrival of Brian and his police officers. Alix stood behind Julie, so Colton turned to her now. “I think it would be a good idea to close early today. Make sure none of the departing customers saw anything before they leave, but go ahead and go down to help Jon get the store closed up.”
Alix nodded, seemingly relieved to have something to do. Worry lined her face and it seemed like she’d aged ten years since he’d seen her two hours ago.
He dragged Julie and her notes with him as he went downstairs to talk to Brian and figure out where to go from here.
Chapter 36
Penelope allowed her pity party to go on for ten minutes before she started talking to herself. The pitch black of the basement terrified her, so talking aloud helped to not feel so alone. She’d barely had time to see anything before they took the light. She had no idea what was down here.
“Come on. Buck up. Just think. What would Cassie do?” When kidnapped in December, Cassie almost single-handedly saved them all. “She sure wouldn’t be lying on the floor crying about how bad it is.” Using all her abdominal muscles, Penelope managed to get herself sitting upright. It was difficult with her hands tied behind her, but she crept around the room, doing a kind of backwards shuffle. She’d walk her legs backwards and then inch her arms further and further away, searching to see if she could find any kind of weapon or possibly even another entrance, although the total lack of light pretty much negated that possibility.
As she scooted across the floor, she’d move and then sit on the cold dirt floor. She’d then sweep her hands back and forth behind her, just, hovering above the ground to see if anything was there. “Okay creepy crawlies, I’m not here to hurt you or invade your home. You stay away from me and I’ll stay away from you. Okay?” She continued to sweep her arms and legs. “But if you know where a baseball bat is, I’d love for you to share that information.”
Finally she reached a wall and started to work her way around the circumference of the room. She calmed down from her initial panic and adrenaline which allowed her brain to work again. “Penelope, you dummy. You’re a yoga instructor and damn flexible. As Cassie would say, use your strengths.” She contorted her body until she managed to step inside her cuffed wrists and get them in front of her body. It required tweaking her still weak wrist, but that was minor in the grand scheme of things. She raised her shoulders to let the tension out of them from being pulled behind her for so long. “Ah, now see that’s much better. You were born with a good brain. You just have to use it.”
It was much easier to feel along the room now and she almost felt comfortable with it. She was singing “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music when she stumbled over the body and screamed. Fortunately, it was a live body because he groaned as she fell over him. She scrambled up to check him, locating first an arm, also handcuffed behind his back. She trailed her hands up his arm to the side of his head, where she encountered something warm and sticky. She was afraid it was probably blood and when she found the goose egg, he groaned again.
“Hey, are you awake? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I had no idea anyone else was in here. Do you speak English?” She continued to feel along his body trying to find any clue as to whom he might be, but all she found were more wet, sticky areas. His body was hot despite the chill of the basement so he was probably running a fever. Every once in a while a chill would rack his body so she snuggled up to him trying to share her warmth.
She felt along his arm again. “I wonder how long you’ve been down here. You’re obviously hurt and all this dirt can’t be clean. You have an infection, but I guess these guys aren’t going to take you to the hospital, are they? I’m sorry you’re in this mess, but I’m glad you’re here. It’s not so scary knowing I’m not alone. Just don’t die, okay, because that would really freak me out. I need you to stay alive. Maybe Colton can get us both out of this mess.”
Another chill took hold of his body and he shuddered.
“Just stay alive. It’s good advice for both of us, don’t you t
hink?” She just had to stay alive and Colton would find her, right? And when she got the chance, she would take the opportunity to use her brain and find a way to get out of this. She rested her head against the ground as she thought.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew the man was moving and cursing. “Fuck.” He nudged her with his face. “What the hell?” His voice was low and scratchy, but it seemed familiar.
She reached up to touch his face. “Hey it’s okay. They threw me down here with you. I just wanted to keep you warm. You’re running a fever.”
“Penelope?” Disbelief tinted his voice.
Relief flooded her system. He was alive. She didn’t realize until that moment how much she’d thought otherwise. “Damon? Thank God, you’re alive. You’ve been missing for a week. Have you been here that whole time?”
“Fuck. A week? What day is it? Can you help me sit up?”
“It’s Saturday.” She grabbed his arm and he hissed in pain. “I don’t want to hurt you. Tell me where you’re hurt so I can avoid those areas”
He chuckled low and it was a sound full of bitterness. “It would be easier to tell you where it doesn’t hurt. It’s okay. Just help me sit up so I can get my bearings.”
She gently tugged on his arm and used her leg as leverage behind his back, but finally they had him sitting up and leaning against the dirt wall. His breaths came out in gasps as he breathed through the pain. He was really not in good shape.
“Who are these guys, Damon? What do they want with us?”
“Fuck, Penelope, I really wish you weren’t here.” His voice was low and raspy like it hadn’t been used in a while. “These guys are bad news. They’re the Mexican Mafia and they don’t play nice. You’ve got to get out of here.”
“The Mexican Mafia? Why would the Mexican Mafia want me? I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry. This has to be tied to me in some way. They’ve been trying to force me to use the dig and the shipments of artifacts for smuggling into the states. I refused and you can see how well that worked for me.” Another shudder rolled through his body. She reached over to pull him so that he was leaning against her so she could share her heat with him.
“Are these the problems you’ve been having with the dig?”
“Yes, and why I haven’t pulled the University into it yet. I didn’t want to expose a bunch of college kids to the MM, but I haven’t had much luck getting them off my back.”
“Do you think that’s why I’m here? To help coerce you?”
“Fuck, I hope not.”
“Me, too. One of my employees was murdered last week and somehow I think she was mixed up in all this. I met her through one of the guys upstairs. I just don’t understand how it all fits together.”
“Which guy?”
“Ethan, he works at the ranch where we’re being held.”
“You know where we’re at?”
“Yeah, we’re about thirty-five miles east of Lubbock on the Martin family ranch. Ethan works here with them.”
“The name doesn’t sound familiar. I probably haven’t seen him. I don’t usually get to leave my lovely accommodations down here.”
Just then they heard the lock jiggle on the door. “Whatever they do, just go along with it,” Damon whispered urgently. “Don’t fight them. These are not nice men, Penelope, and they won’t think twice about hurting you or killing you. Cooperate with them.”
Two men came down the stairs. One of them carried a lantern and she got her first look at Damon. She couldn’t hold back the gasp. She knew he was in bad shape, but that knowledge didn’t prepare her for how bad he looked. He was bruised, eyes swollen shut with both dried and wet blood everywhere. He’d easily lost fifteen pounds since the last time she saw him. She reached for him, but the men yanked her up by her armpits and dragged her to the stairs.
Damon yelled after them, “Don’t hurt her!”
As they topped the stairs, the bright light of the sun burned her eyes after so many hours in the pure dark and she squinted her eyes against it. The men dragged her into what at one point in time had been the parlor, since it had a fireplace with faded, empty bookshelves surrounding it.
She gasped as she was pushed into the room and saw who stood there. “Thomas?”
He looked awful, disheveled as if he’d been in a fight recently, his face bruised and his arm held gingerly at his side. His eyes looked tormented.
He gestured to the men behind her. “You may leave us. Close the door on the way out.”
Penelope shook her head, “I don’t understand what’s going on here. Thomas?”
Thomas sat down and sank his head into his hands. When he looked up at her, he had tears in his eyes. “Do you realize everything I’ve worked for in the past three years, you’ve completely destroyed?”
“What? How? I don’t understand.”
The desolation she saw in his eyes as he watched her terrified her. He stood up and walked over to a window that looked out over the ranch. He stood there for a moment before the muscles in his back flexed and he turned toward her with resolve. “I guess I can tell you. It’s not like they’re going to let you live after this. We’re probably both dead at this point.”
He glanced back toward the closed door. “We probably don’t have much time. First, I need to know. Where’s the book?”
She had no idea what he was talking about. “What book?”
“The Gift. The ARC Hannah was supposed to receive.”
She shook her head for a moment before it hit her what book he was talking about. “You mean The Gift of Serendipity? The Abilene Authors book?”
He turned and ran a hand through his hair in agitation. He muttered to himself as he turned and paced. “They renamed it.” He suddenly kicked the chair and started yelling. “Goddamnit! All this because some artistic idiots decided to rename the goddamn book!”
Penelope shrank back. Thomas was on edge and she didn’t want to be in his line of fire. He strode over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She could feel his fingers digging into the bones of her upper arms. “Where is it?”
Her mind scrambled trying to figure the best way out of this. She needed to tell him something that would keep her alive, but not endanger anyone else. “Colton knows where it is, but he won’t give it to you if I’m dead. He’s too smart for that.”
His rage seeped out of him and he physically wilted before her eyes.
“Thomas,” she said quietly, “what’s going on?”
He sighed. “It was this huge, glorious plan.” He laughed harshly. “I had it all set up. I had my contact from Dyess Air Force Base to feed us the routes. I had Dev who could encrypt them and write the codes. I had the writers to provide our cover. I had Hannah to put the information up on the blog and shuffle the book. It was all in place. We were all safe from discovery. It was brilliant, until you decided to take the book.” He glared at her with a frightening mixture of rage and desperation. She didn’t know what to do.
Penelope scrambled to keep up with his random ramblings. “I still don’t understand. Yeah, I took an ARC but why didn’t you just make another one?”
“Because the one you took had the microchip with all the codes for arming the devices in it. That book is the guide to all the nuclear devices being transported across the southwest for the next six months. The details in the book provide dates and times and shipment routes. The information is all in there via code, but without the microchip imbedded into the spine with the access codes, none of that information does us any good. That’s the only copy of the book with a microchip.”
He started pacing again. “This was my ticket to doing great things without the oversight of my lauded father. And the irony of it all was the huge joke on him. My glorious, patriotic father… and I used his land and resources to deceive the federal government for the Mexican Mafia.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you want to hurt him like that?”
“It’s his fault my
mother died. I was with her the day of the car wreck. She was upset, crying. He did something to upset her. She couldn’t see the road clearly through her tears and never saw that the semi drifted into her lane. That’s why she wrecked and died. It’s all his fault and no one cares. All the neighbors love him. Even my brothers… none of them care. It was up to me to make him pay and this was the best way I knew how. To use the one thing he loves above everything else, this land, to aid the traitors against the government he loves.”
His eyes turned hard and Penelope had a hard time believing that this was the same guy she’d dated and known and loved like a brother for so many years. How had she never seen this bitterness inside him?
“I had to make him pay. I owed it to her. He hurt her and I needed to hurt him, but now everything’s falling apart and I’m not sure I can keep either one of us alive through this. These are not nice guys and I pulled you into this mess. I’m sorry for that Penny. You didn’t deserve this. I’ll do everything I can to get you out of this, but I don’t have much leverage anymore. If you can, get out and don’t look back.”
The door suddenly opened and in walked a tall man in a business suit. He slowly clapped his hands together, each hit reverberating throughout the tense room like a gunshot. Two muscled men followed closely behind him. This had to be the guy in charge. “Oh, Thomas, you did always have such a flair for the dramatic. That’s part of the reason why I’ve kept you around as long as I have. Well, that and you do come up with some rather inventive methods to aid the little business we have going here.”
The man was younger than Penelope would expect a Mexican Mafia boss to be. He was probably in his early thirties. He wasn’t a huge guy, but he had a presence about him that signaled his power. He was Mexican and spoke with a lilting accent which said that English wasn’t his first language.
Thomas remained quiet as he watched the man walk into the room. She could see all his muscles tense up as he made an effort to hold himself in check and not respond to the man.
