No Escape

by Heather Lowell

  After all, it was either that or wait in the hotel—as Luke had pointed out. As he pointed out one more time right then.

  “Do you get carpet burns from dragging your knuckles on the ground all day long like the early hominid that you are? Mr. Cro-Magnon Man.”

  Luke snickered, not offended in the slightest. Of course, he’d won the argument, so he could afford to laugh off her insults. Just wait until she had him spread before her on a bed again. She’d show him a thing or two.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to run the idea of shopping by you,” Tessa said after a long silence. “You said Ricky was checking out, so I figured I’d be safe.”

  “Probably,” Luke agreed. “But do me a favor and keep on your ski cap and sunglasses. And wear a bulky sweater so no one recognizes that amazing ass of yours.”

  “You’re just saying that because MacBeth is standing right there, aren’t you?” Tessa asked. Luke was still trying to get back at her for teasing him within earshot of his employees. No doubt they’d given him hell for whatever they’d overheard through the connecting door last night.

  “Can I help it if you find me irresistible?” Luke asked. “But yes, MacBeth is here. He and I are picking up some, ah, gear. And we’re running through the plans one final time, so everything goes smoothly. In about ten hours, Kelly will be safe and warm in our suite at the hotel.”

  “Good,” Tessa said huskily. “I’m so glad you sent Stone out to reconnoiter this morning. It was a real relief to hear that he’d spotted Kelly in the cabin and that she seemed to be unhurt.”

  “Which one of these do you want to bring, Luke?” MacBeth’s voice traveled clearly over the phone line, telling Tessa that she was needlessly monopolizing his time. He should be working out last-minute hitches in their plan, not holding her hand.

  “Call me when you get back to the room, okay?” Luke asked.

  “I’ll try. But my cell phone doesn’t have roaming privileges here, so it’s a real pain to make calls at all.”

  “Then send me a text message,” Luke said. “Those often get through because they only require a fraction of a second of airtime.”

  “Cool,” Tessa said. “I’ll remember that. I’ll see you guys later.”

  She hung up and grabbed the winter clothing, dutifully wrapping herself in the warm layers in an effort to pad her figure and hide her blond hair. She went downstairs to the arcade shops that took up the entire subterranean lower levels of the hotel. In addition to several expensive clothing boutiques, salons, and jewelry stores, there was an outdoor outfitter that should carry the thermal underwear she wanted to buy.

  After several minutes of browsing, she made a selection and went to the register. She added earmuffs and gloves to her purchases as she waited in the checkout line. It was sweltering inside the heated store with all her winter clothing on, so Tessa looked casually around before pulling off her brand-new parka and warm hat, items MacBeth had purchased for her earlier that day.

  At least it seemed like the stuff would keep her warm while she was waiting in the car later that night.

  She’d take her silver linings where she found them.

  “You had enough gambling, boss?”

  Ricky Hedges turned away from the craps table where he’d indulged in a little last-minute play after checking out of the Reno Casino’s hotel. He checked his watch and agreed that it was time to leave.

  “Yeah, Bobby. Let’s get the truck and head out to the cabin. I don’t want to have to ride the snowmobiles in a blizzard if we can avoid it—the trip is already long and cold as it is.”

  “You complain,” the other man replied as he grabbed Ricky’s rolling suitcase, “but you love that place.”

  Ricky companionably cuffed his long-term assistant as they walked out of the casino. “I do. It’s where I do all my thinking. I’ve got a lot of business decisions to make, and some peace and quiet will be very welcome.”

  “To say nothing of that hot little piece waiting for you,” Bobby said.

  “She’s very pretty, yes. Even though she’s not my type. I’ve never gone for jailbait, but as a businessman I’ve learned to give the customer what he wants. Hopefully, she will be feeling more, ah, grateful now that she’s had an opportunity to think things over. I think she can make us a lot of money in the future if she gets with the program.”

  “Hopefully,” Bobby chorused. “I’ve got everything packed in the truck, just waiting for your bag and stuff.”

  Ricky nodded, then paused in the hallway that led to the underground parking garages as his cell phone rang. He answered, turning toward the glass fronts of the boutique shops to better hear what was being said to him.

  “What do you mean you found tracks? Like a bear or something?” Ricky asked.

  Bobby looked at a display holding a hundred-thousand-dollar diamond-and-sapphire necklace while his boss talked.

  “Just keep an eye on things until I get there,” Ricky ordered. “Make sure the cellar is locked and the alarm is activated. And keep that girl out of sight.”

  Bobby looked up as Ricky called his name. “Come on, we have to get to the cabin. It looks like there have been people trespassing on the property. It’s probably nothing, but I’ll feel better once I check it out.” Ricky headed down the hall toward the truck waiting in the parking garage, cursing at having to personally handle yet another potential crisis.

  Tessa came out of the outdoor outfitter’s shop, trying to juggle packages, her bulky parka, and the hat she’d taken off in order to keep from overheating in the warm store. She stopped in the hallway outside the shop’s entrance to adjust her things and put the hat and jacket back on, mindful of Luke’s warning to keep her hair covered.

  She’d just slipped the dark fleecy fabric over her head and grabbed her sunglasses out of the neckline of her sweater when the ringing of a telephone caused her to look up.

  She was sure that everyone around could hear the sound of her heart rate doubling when she recognized Ricky Hedges standing not fifty feet away, talking on his cell phone. At least she thought the man looked just like the pictures of Ricky that Luke had put in the case file. After two horrified glances she was sure of it.

  He was supposed to have checked out. What was he doing in the hallway chatting on the phone?

  Ricky turned with the phone to his ear and seemed to look right at her.

  With a gasp, Tessa turned to her right and started walking. Had Ricky seen her before she’d managed to get her hat and sunglasses on? More importantly, had he recognized her? Presumably if he’d had people tailing her—and if he’d tried to have her killed he must know what she looked like.

  All she could do was hope that he wasn’t a suspicious kind of guy.

  She continued walking down the extended hallway, trying unsuccessfully to catch a glimpse of what was happening behind her. Finally, she paused as if to look at a sweater displayed in one of the storefronts—an act that gave her the chance to peek down the hallway in the other direction.

  All she saw was Ricky, looking angry and purposeful, striding quickly right toward her.

  Tessa abandoned the shop front and all attempts at casualness, picking up her pace with the hope of escaping into the parking garage. She pushed open the heavy metal door and paused to pull it shut behind her, wincing at the scream of the hydraulic hinges.

  Looking frantically around, she saw no one to help, no other exits, and very few places to hide. Since she was right by the entry to the building, all the parking spaces around her were reserved for handicapped use—and almost every one was empty. There was only an oversized gold Cadillac and a dark blue pickup truck to hide behind.

  Tessa ran toward the pickup, figuring she could hide in the bed in back until Ricky and friend gave up and left. As she rounded the vehicle, she found that the tailgate was open, and the whole back was covered by an all-weather tarp that was folded back at one corner to allow access to the storage area.

  With seconds to spare, Tessa threw her s
tuff into the darkness underneath the tarp and dove in after it.

  She heard the heavy metal door open, and footsteps echoed loudly in the parking garage. She listened, but didn’t think they sounded like running footsteps. There was no shouting or sounds of a search.

  With a deep breath of relief, Tessa told herself that Ricky and his friend would soon give up looking for her—if indeed they’d seen her at all. Maybe she had overreacted completely.

  That relief lasted about ten seconds, which was the amount of time it took for two sets of footsteps to approach the truck.

  She held herself frozen as a pair of blue-jeans-clad legs appeared in the narrow gap of the open tailgate. An overnight-style bag was hefted into view, then shoved into a space not two feet from where she was huddled. Another followed seconds later. A thick jacket was then thrown over the baggage, and the tailgate was closed with a metallic thunk that echoed in the quiet garage.

  She watched in real despair as the heavy-duty tarp was flipped closed and, from the sound of it, fastened securely so it wouldn’t flap in the wind.

  “Don’t worry, Ricky. We’ll be there in an hour or so. Otis can hold things down at the cabin until then.”

  Tessa held her breath, but there was no reply. Just the sensation of doors being opened and closed on the truck where she had sought refuge.

  The truck was in a handicapped spot! They’re not disabled, the bastards.

  Tessa could not believe what she’d done. Not only had she overreacted and run at the thought that Ricky might have seen her, but she’d panicked and hidden in the one vehicle in the entire parking garage that belonged to him.

  Jammed into the space between several boxes and the small suitcases, Tessa gingerly maneuvered around until she could reach the seams of the tarp. She pressed up against the canvas material, but it was securely fastened. There wasn’t even enough space for her to wedge her hand out and try to open the tailgate.

  Hell.

  She was trapped.

  Chapter 46

  Reno, Nevada

  Thursday evening, March 18

  “Hey, Stoner,” Luke greeted his employee with his customary nickname. “Any problems with the rental?”

  “Nope. We’re gassed up and good to go. I even managed to stock it with a first-aid kit, some snacks, and a couple of warm blankets. Figured the kid might need ’em when we get her to the car.”

  Luke nodded his approval. He and MacBeth were just coming out of a lodge belonging to the hunting guide who had been helping them become familiar with the land surrounding Ricky’s cabin. They had bought topographical maps of the area from the guide, as well as snowshoes and pack gear suitable for the frigid, snowy night.

  They had also arranged to borrow several rifles, automatic pistols, and a flare gun from the guide, who had been told only that they were going in to end a case of custodial interference of a minor girl by a man who wished to abuse her sexually.

  The great thing about Nevada, Luke thought, is that people weren’t inclined to wring their hands and wait for the police to help out in such a situation. Once the guide had heard that a teenage girl and sexual abuse were involved, he had been only too eager to lend Luke and his team the firepower they would need to carry out the mission tonight. He hadn’t even waited to receive the fax from Novak International with details regarding the licenses and permits necessary for Luke and his team to carry concealed weapons.

  He’d just handed over his “varmint guns” and asked Luke what else he could do to help.

  They’d agreed that the guide would spend some time in the forest near the far edge of Ricky’s property line that night, playing cards with his brother and waiting on-call to see if additional assistance would be required by Luke and his team. The guide’s commercial Hummer would be hauling a trailer with several snowmobiles, which could be brought in like the cavalry if it all went from sugar to shit.

  Luke sincerely hoped it wouldn’t, because he hated to rely on unknown elements and outsiders for help if his team got in trouble. But it never hurt to have a backup plan.

  “Good deal on the rig, Stoner. Let’s pack it tight and go back to the hotel. I want to pick up Tessa and get some chicken-fried steak in our systems before we head out.”

  “Pop the locks, would you?” MacBeth asked. “I’ll throw our gear in the back.”

  The three men arranged the gear in the cargo area of the Chevy Suburban to their satisfaction. Luke paused as his cell phone gave a long beep followed by two short chimes, a code that indicated he’d received a text message.

  “It’s probably Tessa,” Luke said. “No one else ever uses the paging feature to get in touch with me.”

  “She’s probably sending you a dirty message—ooh, baby, do it again,” Stone said, mimicking the voice of a woman in passion with surprising skill.

  “Can I help it if my woman can’t get enough of me?” Luke asked with a smug grin. “Just cut the jokes around her, will ya? She’s kind of sensitive about—”

  “What is it?” MacBeth asked, all joking gone as he watched the humor drain out of Luke’s face.

  “Something’s wrong. You can only send about thirty characters per message. I’ve got ten of them, starting with TROUBLE.” Luke scrolled down to piece together the abbreviated characters in the rest of the messages.

  “Call the hotel,” MacBeth ordered Stone. “Page Tessa in her room.”

  “Shit, shit, shit.” Luke slammed the back doors to the Suburban. “Forget it, she’s not there. Change of plans, guys. We go in now.”

  Tessa sat in the back of the truck as it bounced over the rough and icy road. She was shivering convulsively, though the ride was a bit more bearable now that they’d left the freeway and the truck wasn’t able to travel at high speed. Still, she was being jostled and banged about every time they hit a pothole, and the cold metal of the truck bed was leaching the heat right out of her body.

  She’d already snagged the jacket one of the men had stored in the back with her. But she wanted to be able to return it quickly to its previous location once they stopped, so she was afraid to sit on it. Instead, she spread it over herself, but that still left her with the cold metal beneath her bruised butt.

  At first, she’d tried to distract herself by punching out messages to Luke on her cell phone, one character at a time. Concentrating in the dark made her nauseous, but she didn’t know what else to do to let him know what had happened to her. Unfortunately, coverage was spotty where they were, and she wasn’t even sure if her messages were going through.

  But she’d continued to send them, willing him to receive her pages and understand that she’d really screwed up. She only hoped that she hadn’t done permanent damage to the operation, but that was milk spilled all over the place at this point.

  Right now she had to focus on getting out of the mess she’d made. She scrolled through the log of sent messages to make sure she’d given Luke the best and most complete information possible. Hopefully he’d understand the code she’d used.

  Stck in trck. Rcky sw me @ Rno Csno @ 7pm. Hid in trck, but it was his. In bck now. Cld. Hwy thn drt rd. 2 Rckys cbn. Whn thy lv wl hik to mt u. B thr @ 3am.

  She wasn’t sure if the messages would make sense, but hadn’t wanted to waste time hunting for vowels using the number pad on her cell phone. She also didn’t want to run down the battery scrolling through everything again and again. So she decided to send one more message to Luke, then quit.

  Sorry.

  She’d splurged on a vowel for that one.

  Tessa waited for several minutes, but no replies came. She then set the phone aside and felt around in the dark, figuring it was time to come up with a plan for when the truck stopped. If nothing else, maybe she’d find a weapon to defend herself. But after a brief search, it seemed like the cell phone was her only piece of luck for the evening.

  She turned around and felt along the boundaries of the pickup bed. It felt like there was a plastic bin or something attached to the front of
the bed, which ran the length of the space behind the cab. The plastic didn’t come all the way down to metal, leaving a fair-sized gap. As she reached into the void, she realized she would probably be able to squeeze her body in there.

  That way, she could hide when Ricky and his companion finally came to a stop. If she stayed where she was, they would discover her when they unloaded the truck.

  She knew that when Ricky traveled to his Tahoe-area cabin, he left his street vehicles parked at the edge of the property line, where he had built an oversized garage. Inside it were several snowmobiles and ATVs, which he used to complete the one-and-a-half-mile trip to the cabin. Apparently the roads were too rough and narrow for even a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get through.

  So she decided to wait, wedged into the little crevice she’d found, until Ricky and his friend left for the cabin. Then, she’d do something that seemed pretty foolish, but in actuality was her only option.

  She’d follow them. Or at least she’d follow their tracks in the snow.

  She’d been over the plans for tonight’s extraction enough times that she’d memorized a lot of the details of the land surrounding Ricky’s cabin. And while she knew the location of the clearing where she had been told to wait in the Suburban for the team to return, she only knew how to get to that location from Ricky’s cabin. She had no idea of how to reach the area from the garage where the snowmobiles were parked.

  So she’d have to follow the fresh tracks left by Ricky and his friend, and use them to get close to the cabin. From there, she would skirt around the building until she found the path Luke and the others were planning to take back to the Suburban once they retrieved Kelly. She’d use the trail to find their escape vehicle and wait for them there.

  It made perfect sense. And if she happened to see Kelly, she’d grab the girl on her way by.

  After a final reconnoitering of the area around her, Tessa decided that the hastily conceived plan was her best way out of the situation—unless, of course, Ricky left the keys to the truck inside the vehicle, and she managed to drive back to Reno. But they’d have to leave the keys behind for that to work, because her hot-wiring skills were, quite frankly, nonexistent.