“I was on the phone with her as she was typing the text to your burner phone. I didn’t call her back. I trashed that burner she called me on. I knew the CIA would be going through it. She said she’d call if she could, but that was a while ago. I’m assuming she’s been locked down.”
“Whose contacts did Sam send you?” King asked.
“Zhanna and Jack. Then she said ‘contact only in extreme emergency’ when she gave me the number for a guy named Patrick O’Connor and your old buddy Kyle.”
King pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment. Hearing Kyle’s name as a potential contact shook him. His oldest friend in the world still didn’t know he was alive. King knew Sam said “contact only in extreme emergency” because Kyle, and Patrick, for that matter, were both still employed by the CIA. He swallowed his emotion and put the phone back to his ear.
“X?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Did you contact Zhanna and Jack?”
“I did. Zhanna is booking a flight to Mexico City in case she can help. Jack didn’t believe me when I told him you were alive. He was pretty rude. After I told him that you actually are alive, and under fire in Mexico City, he just said, ‘Bullshit,’ and hung up on me. I called him back but he didn’t answer.”
“All right, well, I imagine it was quite a shock for him to hear I was alive after two years of believing otherwise. At least Zhanna is on the way.”
“I’ll relay burner numbers to her as we go.”
“Thanks, Dbie. Let me get my new burner and I’ll call you back.”
“Roger that. My new burner is the same as this number, but 2113 at the end. I’ll trash this one. Talk soon.”
King ended the call, and right when he set the phone in his lap, Brittany took a deep inhale in the seat beside him. She was finally awake.
Chapter Eight
King couldn’t get a word out before the shocked and disoriented girl’s instincts kicked in and she began swinging at him. He tried to be gentle with her, but she was like a feral cat cornered in an alley. He caught both of her wrists and held her arms still.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help.”
With her arms useless, she swiveled her butt in the seat, leaned back, and swung her legs around. She got in a couple of good kicks to his chest before he was able to pin her legs down against the center console.
“I don’t want to hurt you. But you have to calm down. I’m undercover CIA. I’m not your enemy. I need your help.”
Brittany fought against King’s strength for another few seconds before she finally gave in.
“I know you’re scared, but I’m on your side.”
“Why should I believe you?” Brittany shouted.
“Because you’re not still bound, gagged, and lying in my trunk.”
Brittany was quiet for a moment. King continued to hold her down as he still felt the fight moving through her.
“Can you please let me go?” she said.
“Can you please not kick me anymore?”
King felt the tension fall from her limbs, and he slowly released the pressure he was holding on them. She tucked her arms and legs into a sitting fetal position as her eyes searched her surroundings.
“Who are you? Where are we? And how did I get here?”
King was blunt, “Thomas Crown. An alley in Mexico City. And I found you drugged and passed out in my trunk.”
Brittany’s eyes were wide. King gave her a minute to process. The food truck ahead of them in the alley was all but unloaded by that time. The bustle around them hadn’t changed, and for the moment no one cared they were there.
“Tell me everything,” King said. “It’s the only way we have a chance at making it out of this alive.”
“You just expect me to trust you? I wake up in some stranger’s car who says he’s undercover CIA so you don’t have to show me an ID. Then you tell me your name is the same as one of my mom’s favorite movies? You have a pistol at your feet on the floorboard, and you’re built more like a soldier than any agent I’ve seen, and I’ve seen plenty around my dad. They’re all skinny and pretentious. You’re more action-figure and normal. So don’t be surprised if I don’t open up right away Mister Whatever-your-name-is.”
King was taken aback. He knew very little about Brittany, but his read on her before she’d awoken was that she was probably a spoiled little rich girl with very little in the street-smarts department. But she was quite the opposite. Intuitive, observant, and good at reading people, not the normal traits of a senator’s daughter.
“Okay. Very good. Someone in your family a cop?” King said.
Brittany rubbed at the track marks on her arm from being drugged. “No. But I’ve been babysitting for this private investigator who used to be FBI. He always tries to teach me something new every time I’m over.”
“It’s working. You’re very observant.”
“Yeah? Well, not observant enough. I’m here, am I not?”
King nodded. “Yeah, but don’t be too hard on yourself. The world is full of people meaner than you are smart. Always will be.”
“You one of them?” Brittany turned toward him and looked him in the eye.
“Yes,” King said. Brittany looked surprised. “But I’m only mean to people like the ones who took you. I told you, you’re safe with me.”
Brittany ran her hand through her dark hair and sucked in a deep breath. “Okay. But if that’s true, can we start over? You telling me the truth this time?”
King gave his surroundings a once-over. There was no reason not to be honest. He was already on blast throughout the entire world as taking her via the fabricated video. Hopefully it would help her open up.
King looked back to her and extended his hand. “Alexander King.”
Brittany reached out and shook his hand.
“I used to be a Navy SEAL, so your soldier take was dead-on. And speaking of dead, only a handful of people knew I was alive until a couple of hours ago. I’ve been a ghost working with the CIA for the last two years.”
“What happened a couple of hours ago?”
“A video of me putting you in the trunk began circulating all over the national news. Now I’m the most wanted man in the world.”
“Yikes. And I thought I was in a bad spot.” A slight grin grew on Brittany’s face.
“I know, right?” King played along. Brittany was a surprise. She was nothing like his preconceived notion. That didn’t happen a lot in his line of work. “Jokes aside, you okay?”
“Depends. Did you really put me in the trunk of this car?”
“The video is pretty clear.”
“Yeah, well, video in 2021 is a lot different than it used to be. You have kind eyes, Mr. King. You don’t seem the type to want to kidnap a senator’s daughter. Besides, you look nothing like the guy who drugged me and my friend at the bar. And you don’t seem to be the type who would be working for a Mexican drug lord, or whatever the hell the guy was who held me hostage in his penthouse last night.”
“That was you?” He’d let the words slip before he could stop himself.
Brittany instinctively moved back against the car door away from him. She looked scared—confused. “So it was you?”
“No, sorry. That’s not what I meant. I am on a recon mission, and I saw you last night being dragged into the building.”
“Oh, that’s comforting.” Now she was angry. “So you just, what, left me there to die?”
That stung King more than she would ever know. It was what ate him alive last night, and it was the reason he hadn’t gotten on that plane with Cali. He was going back to get her. But she wasn’t going to understand that. Not now.
“It’s complicated.” It was the best he could do.
Brittany’s hand shot for the door handle, but it was locked. She moved for the unlock button, but King shot his finger down on lock, keeping her in.
“Let me go!”
“Brittany, stop screaming.”
“Let me
out of this car! Help!”
That shout was at the top of her lungs, and the two men loading boxes of lettuce onto their dollies at the truck in front of them both looked King’s way. King started the car and threw it in drive.
“Help me!” she shouted again as he pulled forward down the alley.
The delivery men had a clear look inside the vehicle at King and Brittany. They would be able to corroborate with the local police that she was in his possession and under duress. This would only further sink him with Director Lucas and every other agency personnel who might be looking for him when word of it made it back to the States. And it would make it back. News travels faster than the speed of light anymore. If there was a shred of hope the CIA might still believe in him, it was officially dead.
As King drove past the delivery truck and out into the street, Brittany took advantage of the moment and unlocked the door. She was hanging halfway out before King could get hold of the back of her shorts. He swerved to miss a parked car as he pulled her back inside. He wheeled around a slow-moving truck, and the door slammed back shut. He put the steering wheel in between his knees to steer as he reached over Brittany and pulled the seat belt around her. He held it in place as he let go of her shorts and retook the steering wheel with his left hand.
“Stop fighting me! I’m here to help you!”
“Like you did last night? You let them take me, then I magically end up in your trunk?”
She struggled against the seat belt, so he pulled tighter.
“You’re hurting me!”
“Stop fighting me, Brittany. Please.”
“Why? You gonna hit me?”
King swerved around another vehicle, then settled back into his lane. “I’m not going to hit you. Just stop fighting or you’re going to get us both killed.” He nodded toward the road.
“Let me go!”
“Are you going to calm down?”
“Yes, now let me go!”
King locked the doors and depressed the child-lock feature. Then he let go of her seat belt. Brittany huffed and turned straight in her seat. King checked his rearview mirror to make sure no police had just seen his reckless driving. There were no police, but a car did catch his eye as it swerved in behind him two cars back. King checked his side mirror hoping it was paranoia, but the way the car was maneuvering, he didn’t think it was.
“Do you know if they put a tracker on you?” King asked.
“What? Who?”
“The people who took you, or the man who held you captive last night. Do you know if they put a tracker on you?”
“Tracker?” Brittany sat up, worried. “No, I-I don’t think so, why? What’s wrong?”
“Put your seat belt on. Someone is following us.”
Chapter Nine
“Do you have any idea who it was?” Brittany asked.
After a couple of miles and several circles around the same part of the city, King was able to lose the tail he’d had by swerving into a parking garage.
“No. I was hoping you might be able to tell me.”
“Me?” Brittany said.
“Yes. I need to know everything that happened to you from the time of the kidnapping to when you woke up in this car. Everything you can remember. I have to stop being reactive, and the only way to do that is to figure out who I’m going after. Or at least figure out who is after us.”
“I have no idea who that could’ve been. But I thought you knew who had me last night? Remember, you left me for dead?”
That sentence was like nails on a chalkboard for King. “I told you. It’s complicated. Now start from when you were at the club two nights ago and go from there.”
“There isn’t much really . . . Look, I’m really thirsty. I don’t remember the last time I had water.”
“I’ll get you some, just give me this info so I can get moving on what I do best.”
“What’s that? Kidnapping innocent young girls?”
King nodded. “Okay. You’re scared and confused. I get it. But continuing to worry about me being the bad guy is only going to make it harder for me to keep you safe. Now, you’re not dead or hurt right now, are you?”
“No.”
“And you’ve been with me for a couple of hours, right? Have I made a call for a ransom or tried to hurt you in any way?”
“Well, no. But—”
“Okay then. Until you have a reason not to, I need you to trust me. We are both in a bad spot, but I promise you it could be worse. And it will be if I don’t get things moving in our direction.”
Brittany fiddled with the watch on her arm. “Okay. Fine. But just promise you won’t hurt me?”
“I promise.”
Whether or not in Brittany’s mind it was an empty promise, it seemed to ease her mind, at least a little. For the moment.
“Cathy and I were in a bar in Orange County.”
King raised an eyebrow. “You’re seventeen, right?”
Brittany’s mouth jerked up on one side as she shot him a “come on, bro” look. King smirked and rolled his hand forward telling her to proceed.
“We had just ordered our second drink when this super cute guy came over and started talking to us. I mean, he was way too old for us, but a total hottie. He had the most beautiful green eyes. Anyway, he was talking about being on leave from the Navy, which made Cathy’s wildest dreams about to come true. She totally has the hots for men in uniform. Calls them barrel-chested freedom fighters. Anyway, his name was Scott, and when he showed her a picture of himself in his sailor’s hat, Cathy melted. It didn’t even matter to her that he’d lost his index finger in combat. It was just a nub. Didn’t matter to Cathy, though. When I say she loves a man in uniform, it’s, like, out of control. I mean, one time—”
“Brittany?” King interrupted.
Brittany finally took a breath. “Right, anyway, the two of them were really hitting it off. I didn’t have anyone, but I was really happy for her because she had just gone through a brutal breakup. So she deserved some fun. But then these two Mexican men bumped into us, and Scott totally got into a fight with them. Like, a real-life street fight. The bouncers kicked all of them out, and Cathy was sad. That’s when both of us realized we were way more drunk than we should have been after only two drinks, so we called an Uber. The last thing I remember that night was getting in the Uber and two men were in the front seat. Which I remember thinking, two Uber people was weird, but I was too out of it to care.”
“Were the two men Mexican, do you remember?”
Brittany closed her eyes. “You know, they might have been.”
King nodded. “Then what?”
“Then I woke up in the back of a van. I had no idea where I was. I was gagged and tied up, so I couldn’t even scream for help. I passed out again. The next thing I remember was waking up in the back of a car. I think it was last night, but I have no idea how long I’d been out. More Mexican men pulled me out of the car. It was dark, and I was in a city I didn’t recognize. They said something to this well-dressed guy in a suit and pushed me into a building.”
“Yeah, that was last night. I saw you.”
Brittany gave him a cold stare.
“Did you hear anyone say this well-dressed man’s name?” King asked.
“I remember them putting a shot in my arm once they dragged me inside some room. They thought I was out already, but I heard one of them call the man in the suit Mr. Ortega. Next thing I knew, I was waking up beside you in this car.”
King was quiet for a moment as he thought through her recount of the last two days. There wasn’t much, but at least he was able to confirm that it was in fact Ortega who had taken Brittany. He was pretty sure before that it had been her he’d seen last night at Ortega’s place, but her story made him certain. It wasn’t much, but at least he had a starting point. One of the most dangerous men in the world. What else was new?
“What are we going to do now?” Brittany asked.
The answer wasn’t simple. Kin
g had a lot to wade through before he would be able to get Brittany to safety. He had no idea whom he could trust. If he didn’t know there was a fake video of him kidnapping Brittany circulating in world news, it would be simple. He’d find a safe place to take Brittany, like the US Embassy, then go track down Ortega. But why would Ortega take a senator’s daughter and try to frame King? As far as King knew, Ortega didn’t even know King existed. So setting up a plot to get King caught made no sense. There had to be someone else involved. Someone who not only knew about King but wanted to make King look like a criminal.
None of the few dots King had at that moment were connecting. He needed more information. Ortega was the only lead he had, so that would have to be where he would start. But King was in a foreign country, with no resources, and zero allies. Not to mention an innocent girl he had to keep safe. All while avoiding any sort of law enforcement, including whoever the hell it was who was following him just a few minutes ago.
“Anything?” Brittany said.
King shook his train of thought and looked at Brittany. “First we need to get you some food and water and some clothes. And I need a new phone. You up for some shopping at the local convenient store?”
“I’d rather be at Bloomingdales, but I guess it is what it is.”
“Yep. Unfortunately, it is.”
Chapter Ten
King searched several rows of cars in the parking garage before finding an open door. It was an older car, so he was able to hot-wire it. He and Brittany took the back exit, and a few blocks over he found a convenient store. He knew changing cars wouldn’t necessarily throw off his tail if the person following them was watching the garage exits, but it was better than not changing anything. He had given Brittany his hat and some cash and sent her inside for supplies. He didn’t like letting her out of his sight, but he had no choice. King knew by then that all the cameras would be looking for him, and so too would citizens who’d seen his picture on the news.
While he had a moment to himself, he used his burner phone one last time before Brittany brought out some new ones.
Alexander King Thriller Series: Books 1-3 Page 48
