“Oh, please.” Roxy snickered. “The cop’s wife is gonna kill someone? You ain’t never gonna get away with murder.”
“Did it ever occur to you that the cop’s wife would know exactly how to get away with murder?” Cyndi snapped, clawing at the arms that held her.
A cacophony of insects sounded around them, but all Cyndi could hear was the steady breathing of the man who held her. They reached a small clearing with a tent set up on one side and a fire burning in the center. He walked over to the flames and dropped Cyndi on an old camp chair. Her teeth slammed together as she landed.
Jumping out of the seat, she lunged toward her captor, meeting only empty space. For the second time that night, Cyndi found herself landing on all fours. “Where the hell are you? Come out and face me, you coward!”
Both Roxy and the man were gone. She spun around, taking off running back the way they came. Her bare feet stung as she tripped on rocks and shoved through a thatch of thorny vegetation. As she reached the tree line, she heard the distinct sound of a shotgun being loaded and cocked.
“Pretty sure I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a raspy voice, barely more than a whisper called out from the shadows. Mario.
“Show yourself,” Cyndi demanded. She stood there waiting, listening to the sounds of the night. Some late season cicadas strummed a tune while a bullfrog croaked off in the distance. Jason always said that the sounds of the night were animals looking to get laid. Why she thought of that right then, she couldn’t begin to guess. The pulse pounding in her ears should have been loud enough to drown out all the mating sounds.
“You just turn around and walk back toward the fire,” Mario commanded.
As soon as she turned back toward the makeshift campsite, the shotgun stabbed her between the shoulder blades. Instinctively, she started to turn around, but the hard barrel pushed deeper against her flesh in warning.
“What do you want with me?”
“You ask too many questions. Sit in the chair.”
Cyndi did as she was told, wishing like hell someone was on the other end of her microphone. She was on her own, all alone in the middle of an empty campground with a madwoman and a freak. Her bare feet ached and stung, and her mind was running a mile a minute, trying to make sense of what was going on. Why would Roxy kidnap her? She didn’t get it at all. Weren’t they friends?
Friends? Was she out of her freaking mind? Roxy was an exotic dancer who made a life’s work out of smoking, drinking, and having sex for money. And apparently moonlighting in kidnapping and murder. Jason was so right. What the hell was she thinking, working in that place all this time? Look what she had done to herself and her family.
Roxy appeared out of the dark with a bottle of water which she extended to Cyndi. “Drink.”
“I’m not thirsty.” She had no idea what that bottle held. Cyndi wasn’t going to risk it, despite being as parched as the desert.
“Suit yourself.” Roxy shrugged and dropped the bottle on a rickety picnic table.
“Where did the other guy go?”
“Mind your own business, Liberty,” the older woman snapped. Cyndi had never seen the aged dancer look so hard or so callous.
“Why aren’t you sick?” Cyndi called after the other woman. “You were practically having a seizure at the club!”
Gruff laughter floated through the night air. “I’m good, aren’t I? Love to watch my soaps, a girl can learn an awful lot from them.”
“What about all that stuff, ‘I told him I wouldn’t do it,’ blah, blah, blah?”
“That’s what they always say when they are out of it. Told you I learn a lot from those serials. Some high quality acting on there.” Roxy chuckled at her own joke.
“So, you faked the whole thing?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Roxy stepped back into view, sporting a self-satisfied grin.
“Why?”
Roxy spread her arms to indicate the campsite. “For this.”
“You faked a seizure to get me to a campsite?”
“I told you, you ask way too many questions.” Roxy shot a glance over her shoulder. “We had to get you out of there. You and your cop husband and all his buddies poking into our business. Things were going great until you showed up.”
“How did you know?”
“Come on, Liberty. I been around the block a few times. I ain’t stupid.”
“Yeah, me neither,” a familiar voice called out from the darkness behind her.
Cyndi twisted in her chair as someone stepped out of the shadows and into the dimly lit area. “Johnny?”
“None other.” His familiar grin had a decidedly evil turn to it.
“I don’t understand any of this!” She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
“You didn’t tie her up yet?” Johnny snapped at Roxy.
“Well, no. Didn’t have time. She tried to run away.”
“Exactly. Get the rope out of the tent.” He turned to Cyndi. “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”
“What exactly are you doing?”
“The question gal. Never know when to just shut the hell up.” Johnny chuckled as he leaned toward her. Cyndi caught sight of the hot pink satin bra under his v-neck t-shirt. Man, if she thought Johnny was an anomaly before, now she had no idea what the hell was wrong with him.
Roxy returned with the well-worn rope and tossed it to Johnny. “This ought to hold her.”
While Johnny set to tying her hands behind the chair, Cyndi tugged and pulled against his efforts. He pinched the back of her arm hard enough to make her cry out.
“You really need to settle down now, Cyndi. That pretty little girl of yours needs her mommy. Harper is her name, right?”
Cyndi fell completely still. Johnny knew Harper’s name. She was absolutely certain she had never mentioned her daughter’s name to anyone at the club. Realization dawned on her.
“It was you? You gave her the necklace?”
Johnny grinned. “She looks so much like you. A real mini-me. So sweet and so trusting too.”
He was baiting her. Mario had said the same thing to her. Obviously Johnny had been bragging about his exploits, but there was no way he would really hurt a little girl. She didn’t think he had it in him. Of course, there was an awful lot about Johnny Cyndi obviously didn’t know.
“Don’t you ever go near my little girl again!”
“No need to.” He pulled the rope so tight her fingers instantly started to numb. “I got what I want.”
“You don’t have me!”
Roxy let out a grainy laugh. “Sure looks like he does. You fell for it all so easy. Hook, line, and sinker. Undercover ain’t your thing, doll.”
He finished securing her hands and switched to Cyndi’s ankles, securing each one to a chair leg. “You just couldn’t stop snooping around. I tried to divert your attention, convince you that Jade ran away again, but you even came snooping around on your days off. You are too damned nosy for your own good, Lady Liberty.”
“You think ol’ Roxy here can’t spot a cop from a mile away? Girlie, I was doin’ half the police force in my heyday!” Roxy worked a cigarette out of a pack of Lucky Strikes and rolled it between two fingers before sticking it between her lips and lighting it.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Come on, Cyndi, we all knew what was up tonight.” Johnny stepped between her and the older woman. “That’s why I told Roxy it was now or never. You push too hard. If you hadn’t been pokin’ around in everybody’s business, things would have gone on as they always have before you showed up struttin’ your ass all around and sticking your nose in all over the place. When the notes didn’t scare you off, I figured slashing your tire and giving that necklace to your little one would.”
He was baiting her again. Cyndi steeled herself, sitting rigid in the chair and glaring at her captors. “So, you know what happened to Jade?”
“It’s not what you think, so go ahea
d and lose that look of fear. I am not a murderer.” Johnny chuckled. “Even a smart girl like you would never find Jade.”
“But, Lola…?”
“An accident.” Johnny shrugged, his indifference to the girl’s death obvious. “She asked too many questions.”
“So, you admit you had something to do with her death?” Please let the mic be recording this.
“There you go with the questions again. You think you’re Angela Lansbury or something? Gonna solve the mystery and have a cup of tea?”
“Why don’t you just tape her mouth shut?” Roxy called from over by the fire. “Tough to ask questions if you can’t talk. You got any tape?”
“You got any tape?” Johnny mimicked Roxy. “Does it look like I got any tape? I wasn’t exactly planning on this tonight!”
“Do I have to do everything myself around here?” Roxy snuffed out the cigarette she had been working on and rose from her seat.
Attempting to ignore the panic rising up within her, Cyndi appealed to Johnny. “No need to use tape. I’ll stop asking questions.”
Johnny shrugged and indicated Roxy with a nod of his head. “She’s the boss. I’m just the muscle.”
“Aww, come on, Johnny, you and I both know you could dance circles around Roxy in the intelligence department.”
“You’re just saying that to get on my good side.”
“Maybe.” Cyndi offered up a flirtatious smile. Despite his choice of undergarments, the man had an ego. “Is it working?”
“Aw, Cyndi, you know I love you. This is business, nothing personal.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Business? You had Roxy kidnap me!”
“Yeah, well…business, like I said. You didn’t leave us much choice.”
“I told you from the day she started she was too smart for her own good,” Roxy’s gravelly voice spoke from the darkness beyond the fire.
Cyndi decided it was time to change her tactic. “I really wish I knew what this was all about. All I wanted to do was have a part-time job. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“Cut the crap, Liberty.” Roxy stood in front of her and pulled a chunk of silver tape from the roll. “You have been in everyone’s business from the start.”
“What business?” Cyndi snapped, anger rising. “You threaten me…threaten my daughter, do God knows what to Jade, Lola is dead, and I am the problem?”
“Johnny and I ain’t done nothin’ to those girls. All we do is deliver.”
“Deliver?”
“Aw, come on, Liberty. You can’t be that naïve. Those girls were whores. You know what they say, once a whore always a whore. I just make sure they finally get the big pay day…for a decent payday of my own.”
“Oh my God, you are a human trafficker?”
“Try not to look so disgusted, Liberty. They been selling themselves for years.”
“They were children, Roxy!”
“Umpf!” Roxy put her hands on her hips, the piece of silver tape sticking to the black cat suit she wore. “They were plenty grown up enough. I offered them a better way of doing what they already been doin’ for a long time.”
“By kidnapping them and selling them as slaves?”
“Oh please, Cyndi,” Johnny stepped in. “We aren’t slave traders, we’re brokers. Jade was plenty happy to marry off to some rich dude. Why do you think no one has heard from her or found any sign of her?”
“But the blood…?”
“Tripped in those stupid heels of hers and banged her head on the dumpster. Used that ratty old purse to mop at the cut then tossed it out. She wasn’t needing it where she was going.”
Roxy had since wadded up the piece of tape and cut another one from the roll. She approached Cyndi with an evil smile, her hands out in front of her, holding the tape.
“What about Lola?” Cyndi asked quickly. A shadow passed over Johnny’s face, and then it was gone.
“Collateral damage,” Johnny said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“She asked too many questions, same as you.” Roxy leaned in close to Cyndi’s face.
“So, you killed her?” Cyndi demanded. She had to keep them talking as long as possible, praying that the mic was recording everything, but she knew it was a shot in the dark. “And dragged me out to First Landing State Park in the middle of the night? What are you gonna do? Kill me too?”
Roxy and Johnny burst into a fit of laughter. Johnny actually snorted as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. “What else would we do?”
Cyndi panicked then. Flashes of Harper and Jason filled her brain as she struggled against the fear that was knotting in her chest. “You know my husband is a cop.”
“Duh. We already established that.” Roxy regained her composure.
“You will never get away with this.”
“We already have.” Roxy clapped the tape over Cyndi’s mouth with a self-satisfied grin. “That ought to keep you quiet for a while.”
Cyndi threw her head back and groaned in frustration. The force of the movement lifted the front legs of her chair ever so slightly. The rope around her right ankle loosened and slipped down the chair leg. She froze, watching her captors to see if they noticed. Roxy and Johnny paid her absolutely no more attention.
Maybe all hope wasn’t lost after all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cyndi had a pretty good idea what Johnny and Roxy planned to do with her, and it wasn’t to kill her. If they were successful, she would fall into their trafficking business, never to ever see her husband or her daughter again.
Think, Cyndi!
Johnny hadn’t tightened the ropes around her legs adequately. If she leaned back far enough, they would slip right down off the bottom of the chair. Shifting her hands behind her, she tried to assess the knots binding her wrists together without calling attention to herself. She found if she rubbed them up and down, the rope loosened a little each time. Obviously, Johnny had never been a boy scout or he would have known how to tie a better knot. Not that she was complaining.
“I don’t know! This was your idea!” Johnny jumped up out of his seat so fast the chair fell backward with a crash. Cyndi froze.
“We are in this together!” Roxy sprang to her feet as the younger man disappeared into the dark. “Where are you going?”
Cyndi couldn’t make out Johnny’s response, but whatever it was, it angered Roxy. She also disappeared into the night, muttering a string of curses that would have made any truck driver proud. Cyndi worked at her bonds frantically. As she felt the ropes start to give, her captors reappeared in the light given off by the fire.
“Just call the boss and let him know she’s here.” Roxy actually sounded like she was pleading with Johnny. That could be a good thing. They were wearing down under the pressure of what they were doing. She didn’t think they intended to hurt her. The whole call-the-boss thing worried her though. The boss probably had no qualms at all about hurting her.
“I already did. He is sending a van. Be here in about twenty minutes. By morning, she will be nothing more than a memory around here.”
Roxy dropped back into her chair. “Good. No more complications. Things were going well until she showed up. Who the hell hired a cop’s wife anyway?”
“I had no idea who she was.” Johnny outright lied to Roxy as he plopped back down into his chair. He had known all along her husband was a cop. “She was hot, fun to talk to, and can dance like hell.”
“Dance like hell?” Roxy scoffed. “Is that a technical term?”
“Hmpf!” Johnny crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ve seen her dance. The dudes love her. Call it what you will, but she makes bank.”
“They like her perky titties. That’s all.”
“Geez, Roxy…jealous much?”
“What she got for me to be jealous of?”
“A rockin’ body, mad dancing skills, a hot husband, and the all-American life.”
“Damn, Johnny, don’t hold back.”
It didn’t matter what Roxy thought of her. All she needed to be worried about was getting her hands free.
Was Roxy actually jealous of her? The whole thing was ridiculous. Cyndi was a stay-at-home mom who worked one night a week to satisfy some unexplainable morbid desire to be an exotic dancer.
Focus, Cyndi! Enough worrying about Roxy, she had to get out of there before the boss arrived. Whoever “the boss” was…
She wiggled and waggled her arms, working the knots loose until finally she felt the rope begin to slip. Her captors were occupied with each other. It was like she wasn’t even there. In a few seconds, she wouldn’t be. The rope on her wrists fell to the ground. Cyndi leaned back in the chair enough to let the ties slip off her ankles. Without looking back, she jumped from the chair and ran for all she was worth. If she could make the tree line, she would be home free. It was dark, and the foliage was thick. Cyndi pumped her arms and willed her aching bare feet to keep carrying her over the rough ground without turning an ankle, or seriously cutting the sole of a foot.
Behind her she heard Roxy cry out, “She’s gone! Liberty escaped! You numb-nut—who taught you to tie a rope?”
“It’s not like I grew up knowing I had to tie someone to a chair!”
Cyndi reached the wood line and disappeared into the trees. She ripped at the tape over her mouth, resisting the urge to throw it away. Instead, she folded it quickly and tucked it into the top of her bustier. The terrain turned tumultuous for her shoeless feet. She picked her way carefully through the branches and roots; Cyndi was grateful for Jason’s lessons in navigation. She used the moon through the tree tops as her guide as she worked her way toward the dirt road.
Voices echoed in the trees. Roxy and Johnny were looking for her. Bruised, bloody feet carried her forward as she alternated watching the ground and the sky. If only she had looked ahead, she might have seen the strong chest and muscular arms that wrapped themselves around her.
“Umf!” She hit hard against the form in the dark. Whipping her head up, she gasped and stifled a scream.
“Relax, Cyndi. It’s me!” The low voice with its deep Hispanic accent rumbled next to her ear.
Undercover in Six Inch Stilettos Page 18
