by C. M. Allen
After I've washed up I take a deep breath and open the door to find the unfriendly giant with the scares on his face waiting for me with his arms crossed. "Can you tell me if Hudson and his friends are okay?"
Chuckling at my question he grabs my arm painfully again, making me whimper as he pulls me closer before he says. "They’re all dead, gone. I made sure of that myself so you just worry about your father and yourself from now on, now let's move." He demands dragging me outside for only a brief second before shoving me into another awaiting SUV. As the door slams shut behind me a bag is put over my head. "Can't have you seeing where we're taking you." He says tying the string to the bag around my neck almost too tight. Unable to stop the tears from falling, images of our time together passes before my eyes as I cry even harder at the loss I feel over Hudson and the others, it can't be true. I can't have lost him. He promised me that he wouldn't leave me, that he wouldn't die. After driving for a while the car lurches to a stop before the door opens and I'm yanked out and then shoved up a set of stairs that I can tell by the sounds around me is to an airplane. Then it hits me, the girl on the front page of the New York Times, will that be me months from now? Will I even live that long to see that day? Will I want to? As the door shuts behind me, I'm forced into a chair as a seatbelt is fastened over my lap. The next thing I feel is the tie around my neck being pulled at as the bag is taken off my head revealing a smug Pablo sitting across from me. "Sit back and relax, we'll be back in Mexico in no time." He says with a sinister smile as he takes a drink of whatever's in his tumbler. Noticing me staring at it he asks. "Would you care for a drink, might help you to calm yourself?"
Shaking my head I tell him. "No."
"Suit yourself.” He says with a shrug as he pulls out his phone shutting it off when the plane begins to move down the runway for takeoff, leaving me to look out the window and pray with all my heart that what the giant jailer told me isn't true. "Dear God, please let him be alive and come find me." I say to myself as I close my eyes.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE HUDSON
After the first shot is fired hitting me in the arm I fall to the ground reaching out for Presley, but my hands come up empty. As the others fire back I move around the bar as quickly as my injury will allow me to, and look for her through all the smoke filling the room coming up with nothing until I see out of the corner of my eye the light from the back door through the haze as itsopened then closed. Rushing towards it and coughing from the smoke that fills my lungs, I burst through it just in time to see the brake lights as it slows but then blows through the intersection. "Presley! Oh God they've got her! Fuck!" I shout to no one but myself. Knowing I need to get to the others so we can find her, I draw my weapon as I round back to the front of the building where the shots started coming from and stick my head around the corner to find the main gunman still shooting up the place and take a head shot that hits him right in his temple dropping him where he stands. Ducking down I move forward ready to take out the next guy when suddenly I spot one backing out of the bar trying to make his escape. "Hey!" I yell to get his attention before firing the shot that lands right between his eyes just as he turns to look at me. "Brice! Porter! Carter! You guys okay?" I yell as all the shooting stops.
"Yes!" I hear each one of them yell. "We're all clear out here!" I yell.
"All clear in here!" Carter yells back as I walk back inside the bar to alert then about Presley.
"Where's Presley?!" Brice asks as I get closer.
"They took her and we need to get the fuck out of here right now and find her!"
"Roger that." He says before yelling at the others. "Let's saddle up! They've got Presley!" Looking back to me when I grab my arm he asks. "Is it bad?"
"No. Clean shot, I just need to wrap it up. I'll do that in the car, let's go."
We all file out of the bar and into Porter’s hummer as he takes off in the direction I last saw them headed. "He's taking her to the airport."
"What? Are you sure?" I ask knowing if he gets her all the way back to Mexico the chances of finding her alive are slim to none.
"Positive, I've been there before. It's the only thing out this way." Porter tells me.
"Then that's where we need to go."
"Shit. I'm sorry we let you down Hudson.” Brice says grabbing my non-injured shoulder.
"Don't say that yet, not until there's no chance of getting her back, understood?"
"Understood."
Pulling onto the Tarmac we look around for any private jets but spot none. "Do you think he's taken off already?" I ask.
"No way he’s getting off the ground that fast." Carter speaks up from the front. "Let's ask this guy." He says pointing at a man that looks like he works for the private airfield.
After talking to the man and explaining the situation, he tells us no one has left the airfield in the last half hour.
"Where else could he have taken her? Shit!" I say in a panic to find her.
"I know this is hard for you brother, but you need to calm down and take your emotions for her out of this situation and think. His only option is to take her back to Mexico where he's safe. So if you were him, what would you do?" Porter asks me.
"I would hide her somewhere, if I planned on taking her with me, until I had a way out of the country. But you saw those shots they were taking at her back at your house we both know those were kill shots."
"Maybe it wasn't her they were meant for?" He says bringing up a very valid point. I was standing right in front of her when the shots were fired, what if they were meant for me instead of her?
Running my fingers through my hair as I pace back and forth in the empty hanger we're hiding in. "Good point." I say pointing at him.
As we sit there for the next forty five minutes just waiting for him to show up like we think he will, my hope begins to dim that the airport really is his escape plan, when suddenly the guy we questioned earlier comes running in. "Hey! A private jet is on its way! The pilot just radioed for clearance, he should be landing in the next ten minutes."
"That's got to be Pablo’s plane.” I say looking to everyone else.
"What are the chances of getting a pilot down here so we can follow that plane when it takes off?" Brice asks the man.
"Well old Hank is outback working on his plane he might be persuaded to fly you guys out of here."
"Great."
Brice barely gets out before Carter walks out of the hanger to find the man yelling back. "I’m on it!"
After giving the man eleven hundred dollars he agrees to fly us out behind Pablo’s jet after it takes off. Giving the airport guy we now know as Rusty three hundred dollars, he agrees to put a tracking device that's attached to a magnet on the jet when he goes to greet the pilot and get his flight plans. Now all we have to do is wait for it all to go down. When Pablo’s plane finally touches down and taxis over to where we are close to, I can see Rusty slap the tracking device on the tail of the plane as he walks up to greet the pilot. After a few minutes of chit chat, Rusty walks away as the pilot goes around and begins to do a plane checklist inspection. As we all watch closely I silently pray that Rusty put that damn tracker in a spot where the pilots eyes won't see it. After he passes by the area the tracker was placed at we all let out a breath of relief just as a black SUV pulls up next to the plane. While we watch the pilot stand at attention, it's the man that exits from the vehicle that gets all of ours. "Sonofabitch, it's him." I say almost not believing he would actually come for her himself. Watching the door to the car shut behind him with no one else exiting besides a bodyguard for him, I begin to have dark thoughts that he's killed her while I stood here doing nothing at all to save her. "Wait! Where the fuck is she?"
"Easy.” Porter says just as Carter comes running through the side door. "We're all set I just hope this guy’s gas tank can make it all the way to Mexico, if that's where we are headed." Nodding at him I turn my attention back to the jet as I see Pablo, and his bodyguard walking up the stairs taking in
their surroundings cautiously.
After another painful twenty minutes of just watching the plane sit on the Tarmac goes by another black SUV pulls up. When the door opens, a very large man steps out just before reaching back into the car and pulling out a woman with a bag over her head that I can tell is Presley by her clothes and her hair that sticks out from under it, "Fucking asshole!" I say lunging for the door, but am pulled back by several sets of hands.
"Come on man, we have to let this play out and you know it." Brice tells me.
"Why the hell again are we letting him out of the country with her?"
"You know why, one call to the FBI and he's under arrest for kidnapping and taking her across state lines. It may not be the charges they want to put him away on, but it will put him away long enough for them to hopefully shut down his whole operation, go in and save those women and arrest the assholes holding and raping them. We have to think of the bigger picture here, her sacrifice could save a lot of people."
"We're using her like bait! If anything happens to her, I'll never forgive myself for allowing things to go down this way."
"Yes we are. But she's tough and I don't plan on letting him off that airfield with her once he lands. Do you?" Porter asks.
"Hell no!"
"Good, now we need to call Vance, so he can get the FBI involved in this situation, that way they'll have men on the ground waiting for him when he lands."
Brice takes out his phone and makes the call. "Were all set." He says hanging up the phone a few moments later. "We'll be working with a Special Agent Larson, he's the lead man on this case."
We all hear the jet start its engines and watch as it heads down the runway for takeoff before running over to our own plane that awaits us. Hearing a text chime on my phone, I dig it out of my pocket and see a message from Kelan. "GPS tracker is working."
"Kelan says the GPS tracker is up and running."
"Okay guys, you'll have to turn all that electrical crap you got off till after I take off." Hank says as all of us switch our phones off when we head down the runway to get Presley back.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX PRESLEY
"Are you praying over there?" I hear Pablo ask as I open my eyes and look at the man I would love nothing more than to stab in the dick just to wipe that smirk of his face.
"No."
Chuckling he says "Well if I were you I would start."
Getting angry I ask. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? What more can you do to me that will actually cause me the pain I'm feeling right now knowing you killed the only man besides my father that I've ever loved? Anything else you do to me, it's only my body you’re hurting, because you've already gutted my heart the second you killed Hudson."
"You haven't even begun to feel the pain I can put you through yet. The bodyguard was just the beginning. Trust me when I say, if you want to make it out of this situation with all your body parts intact, you will cooperate and keep that beautiful mouth of yours under control just like I told you earlier or I'll have Eduardo here take you to the back of the plane and show you just what happens to bitches that mouth off!" He says with a loud growl to his voice. Sneaking a look over to where the giant sits I see him blow a kiss in my direction making my stomach instantly turn sour. Hearing the pilot come over the speaker with words that are in Spanish I assume that he's said something about being able to turn the cell phones back on as I see Pablo reach into his pocket to retrieve his and begin typing away until it rings and he answers it, getting up and leaving the area for the room in the back, while the giant in the corner just sits there leering at me and licks his lips like he's just waiting for the word to pounce on me.
As the flight goes on, Pablo never returns to his seat from the room he's entered, and with the giant there to only stare at me, I keep my attention turned out the window thinking of only Hudson and hoping that he made it out of there alive. Suddenly I hear Pablo shouting at someone one on the phone before door to the room he's in is ripped open. Stalking out of it and straight for me with a look beyond anger on his face, he rounds the chair to stand in front of me just before he reaches back and brings his hand down back handing me across the face so hard it almost knocks me out of the chair. Grabbing my face in pain I let out a whimper before looking up at him as he towers over me. Bending down, he gets mere inches from my face before he growls the words "You are a dead woman."
Not having a clue as to what he's talking about, I stammer out. "I I don't understand?"
Standing back up to his full height he says more calmly. "Seems someone has alerted the FBI that I'm on my way back to Mexico and they are sending agents there to arrest me for kidnapping you and taking you across state lines since the filthy bastards can't arrest me for anything else, which only means that when this plane lands, you won't be on it."
Panic begins to screams through every cell of my body at the thought of him throwing me out of the plane, causing bile to rise up in my throat. Laughing at my fear he asks "Are you wondering if I'm going to drop you to your death?" Leaning back down and getting in my face again he asks. "Aren't you even the slightest bit curious how I knew that the FBI had been alerted?"
Nodding my head as my only answer he begins to chuckle. "Well, that's something I think I will continue to let you think about.” He says before turning to talk to the giant and another man that appears from the cockpit in Spanish.
The man who came out of the cockpit returns after their done talking as Pablo sits back down in his chair in front of me. Moments later the plane begins to decent sending flutters of relief to my heart that he's not going to just throw me out of the plane to my death. Signalling the giant, he gets up and walks towards me causing my heart to beat so fast from the fear of not knowing what's going to happen to me, that I'm sure I'm going to die of a heart attack. Pablo smiles that sinister smile of his as he scratches his beard and says. "I underestimated your bodyguard boyfriend that won't happen again." A spark of hope washes over me that Hudson is still alive just before the giant grabs my wrists and binds them tightly together. When he's done I follow him with my eyes as I see him walk over and grab a parachute out of the closet across the way and strap it to himself then walk back over to me. “Oh God he's going to drop me off this plane!” My mind screams just before the giant unbuckles me and roughly pulls me up turning me around with my back to him as the other guy comes back out of the cockpit saying something in Spanish before he helps strap me to the giant. "No. Please don't do this." I ask begging not to be dumped off in the middle of God knows where with this creep that's been strapped to me.
"Sorry, but I can't have you on this plane when it lands. You have your boyfriend to thank for that.” Pablo says matter-of-factly while typing away on his phone. Having a new ray of hope shine on me that Hudson is alive, I begin to think of a way to escape my giant captor when we touch down on the ground.
After the guy finishes buckling me in he walks back into the cockpit before returning. "18,000." Is all he says and then the giant begins to move towards the door we came in. As the guy from the cockpit opens it the wind rushes in against my face and the plane jerks a bit. "Bueno, uno, dos, tres, saltar!" And then we both fall from the plane head first and plummet towards the earth.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN HUDSON
After we've gotten in the air the pilot gives us the okay to turn our phones back on to check messages. Looking at my phone I see that Kelan is still tracking them and now he's sending the feed to me. "Okay, it looks like we are definitely headed towards Mexico by the direction Pablo’s jet is headed." I tell everyone.
"Agent Larson and his men are on the ground and headed to the airfield now with the Mexican authorities, he was in Dallas when we contacted them so it didn't take him long to get there, talk about luck." Brice tells me.
"For once I'll say, thank God for the FBI." I reply.
As we get over the Mexican border I begin to get antsy about getting Presley back. God help me if I lose that woman, she's wormed her way straight
into my heart and was ripped away from me before I could even tell her. "We just got a text from Vance. Pablo’s plane is on the ground and surrounded." Carter says. Hearing the pilot tell us that we need to turn all our phones off again, I let out a breath of relief that they have her before I turn mine off. After the plane lands, we all get off and run straight over to where Pablo’s plane sits on the Tarmac. As we get closer, I can see only three men standing there talking to the FBI agent with no sign of Presley. Walking up and looking around for her I get the agents attention. He turns to walk away from Pablo, who gives me a look that has me fearing something is very wrong here. "Where is she?" I ask as he approaches us.
"She's not on the plane, I'm sorry." He tells me with disbelief rolling over me.
"That's impossible! We all saw her get on that plane!" I shout.
"Agent Larson right?" Brice says reaching his hand out to shake the Agents hand.
"Yes."
"Well agent we all saw Presley get on that plane before it took off, so how the hell is she not on it?"
"My guys and the Mexican police authorities who have allowed us to enter their jurisdiction have searched every crevice of that plane and we've found nothing, no woman on board, only the three men."
Running up I grab a hold of Pablo before anyone can stop me, "Where the fuck is she! What did you do with her?" I shout at him only inches from his face.
With a smirk sliding across his he says. "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about; Mr. Drake isn't it? But I would advise you to remove your hands from me before I have to press charges for assault with Agent Larson here." He says in an eerily calm voice.
