“Ideally I’m going to Chicago, but I’ll go as far as you can take me,” I said. I wasn’t about to turn down a ride at all. If they could only take me to the next town, that would have to do for the night. I could try and call Rebecca and Robert from there, or maybe get access to my bank account so I could get some money for the rest of the trip.
“We are actually heading south of Chicago, we can drop you off. Where at within Chicago?”
I didn’t have an exact location and really didn’t know at all where I needed to be.
“Around Navy Pier would be great,” I said as I tried to sound convincing. Really, I had no clue where to start looking for Chris and his team. I didn’t even know which agency he worked for. The first place that had come into my mind was the rides that I remembered going to at Navy Pier when I was younger. I hoped that I would be able to get where I needed to go from there.
“Alright, sit back and relax, we will get you there,” the woman added. She looked back and smiled at me and I instantly felt at ease.
It was weird to be in a van with people that I didn’t know. I had never hitchhiked before and thought that I would never have done such a thing. But I felt surprisingly comfortable with the pair. They had a baby car-seat in the back and the woman was reading a book in the front seat. I couldn’t see what the title was, but it looked like a romance novel. The man, who was in his mid-thirties, drove and flipped through the radio stations until he found something that he liked. He didn’t seem to care that I was in the van with them and I had to wonder if the pair had ever picked up a hitchhiker before.
My favorite thing about the ride was that they didn’t bombard me with questions. I was exhausted and didn’t have the energy to explain every detail about why I needed to go to Chicago. I probably wouldn’t have explained it to them even if I did have a ton of energy.
Chapter 50
It surprised me that I had fallen asleep in the van with the two strangers. It certainly wasn’t something I had planned. The hot summer heat and the relief of being in air conditioning had been too much for me. But when we went over a bridge on our way into downtown Chicago I was jolted awake.
As I sat up and looked around I couldn’t figure out exactly where we were at. I didn’t know Chicago very well though, so it wasn’t unusual that I had no idea where we were. I just sat back and looked around as we continued through the city streets.
“Do either of you have any water?” I said as the dehydration from my day in the sun seemed to set it. My level of dehydration had probably contributed to the long nap that I had taken on our drive into town also. The woman handed me a bottle of water and I guzzled it down as quickly as possible.
Hopefully, after the pair dropped me off, I would be able to call someone and at least get a hotel booked for the night. I certainly didn’t want to find myself sleeping in a homeless shelter or something like that. I continued to look around and take in all the buildings, but I still couldn’t figure out where we were. It seemed like we were heading more into the shipping district as I saw large docks and container ships all along the side of the road as we continued to drive.
My heart started to beat faster as we turned into the shipping area and I grew more concerned that something was going on. We weren’t anywhere close to Navy Pier and I was pretty sure there was no reason to be turning into an old shipping yard at that hour of the night.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Neither the man driving nor the woman responded to me. Something was definitely going on. They ignored me and drove into the shipping yard. I looked around to see if I would be able to make a run for it. Maybe if he slowed down to make a turn, I could jump out and start running. I looked at the door handle for the sliding back door, but it was gone. The whole door handle had been removed. I couldn’t believe I had not noticed that before!
I looked at the door handle and then at the driver. By that point, he was watching me very closely through the rearview mirror. He knew I had figured out that something was going on. He motioned to the woman sitting next to him and she started to rifle through her bag of things.
“There is nothing to worry about. Someone just needs to speak to you,” the man said as he looked at me in the mirror. I looked at him and then at the female in the passenger seat. They both looked so normal! Then it dawned on me, perhaps Chris had sent these two to come get me. They must have went to the bed and breakfast and then left when they found that no one was there. I tried to run that idea through my head and see if it fit the possibilities of the situation.
I wanted that to be the truth. I genuinely wanted them to be with Chris’ team. Something deep down inside told me that they were not though. There was just something about the way the driver looked at me; I could tell that he did not intend to be helpful to me at all. We pulled into a back alley between two large warehouses. I felt my body start to shake from the adrenaline that rushed through me. I tried to calm myself and took a few deep breaths, as I let the air out and looked around and took note of my surroundings.
The vehicle was all the way at the end of a long parking area that was between the two buildings. I would have to run down that long area before I would be out of view and it was likely that the driver or his passenger had a gun. I didn’t want to get killed, so I waited. I needed just the right opportunity to make my move. Then suddenly and without any warning, the driver reached back and poked me with a needle in the thigh.
“Ouch,” I screamed.
I looked down at the needle and then at the driver. My first thought was that it was some sort of drug like heroin or something. My knowledge of needles and the drugs that could be administers was very small. My body almost instantly felt like I was drunk. My vision got blurry and I felt my face become flushed. I reached toward the needle and pulled it out of my leg. A tiny dot of crimson blood pooled on the spot that held the needle.
The power in my hands quickly dissipated and I couldn’t hold the needle. It fell to the ground and I heard it make a light thud as it hit the carpet of the van. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. My vision got more and more difficult and everything went blurry around me, so much so that I couldn’t even make out the face of the driver. I had to close my eyes. I hated the feeling of being nauseous.
My eyes closed and I was overwhelmed with a desire to lay my head down on the bench seat next to me. I couldn’t hold my body in the upright position for another second. I needed to sleep, if only just for a moment. As I lay there, my eyes were closed and I couldn’t move any part of my body. To the driver and the woman, I clearly looked like I had fallen totally asleep. Although I hadn’t fully become unconscious yet, I could still hear them talking.
“Do you think she will flush out the mole?” the woman said.
“Yeah, whoever he is won’t let her be punished. He’ll expose himself and then Gino will kill him with a bullet to the brain.”
I remember thinking that Chris was in danger and I had to warn him, and that was the last thing I remembered for a long time.
Chapter 51
I felt the rope around my wrists and ankles before I was even able to open my eyes. The tight compression of the string held my limbs up against the cold metal of the chair I was in. My head slumped down and as I started to wake up, I slowly pulled my head up. My eyes were filled with a blurry mess when I tried to look out and see what was in front of me.
The voices of men surrounded me as they talked to each other and ignored me. I’m not sure any of them were fully aware that I had started to wake up yet. As my own cognition started to line up with my body as it woke up, I was able to remind myself to move slowly. Perhaps if I moved slowly, then no one would notice I was awake and I could observe them better.
There were three men close to me; they all had thick beards and held what I thought were guns. My vision was still pretty blurry so I couldn’t fully tell. Two of them men had their back to me and faced the third man, who looked like he was in charge. I overheard them say something a
bout catching the mole among the other men. That made me hold my breath as I remembered the two who had brought me there and what they said just before the drugs had taken effect. I had to figure out a way to warn Chris. This was a trap and they were going to kill him for sure.
My eyes started to clear and I opened them slightly to try and get a better look at the three men who held me captive. They were all three very large men, well over 200 pounds, but physically very fit. I could tell the one who was in charge almost immediately because the other two looked at him after everything they said. The man in charge must have been Gino, the person who was going to kill Chris and I when he found out who Chris was.
I tried to reposition my head slowly so I could get a look at the other two men, but their backs were still to me so I couldn’t see them. They both had dark hair and held onto their large guns like they were very comfortable using them.
“Go get everyone, I want to see their reactions,” Gino said to his two sidekicks. The two men left the room and I was alone with Gino. He noticed I was awake and came over to me. My heart pounded as he walked closer. The gun he had slung across his body was my sole fixation and I couldn’t even look him in the eyes because of this.
“Young lady, would you like some water?”
“No.”
“You will feel better. It will help flush the drugs from your system. Drink this,” he said and he held a bottle of water up to my lips.
I drank it; I certainly wasn’t in a position to refuse something he asked me to do. Plus I was dying of thirst and the water did taste perfect as it went down. He was a tall man who certainly asserted a sense of power. The way he carried himself, was with confidence and power. I could see why people looked up to him. In a different world, he would have made a great leader of some big corporation, but instead he led criminals.
“Thank you,” I said as he pulled the bottle away from my lips.
It was at this point I finally made eye contact with him. I’m not sure what I had expected, perhaps an ugly snarly face with death in his eyes, or something equally as scary. Instead, he looked like a regular guy. I glanced over his face and took in the Italian features and tan skin. He was actually a very handsome man. His beard was well trimmed and he wore a white button-up short sleeve shirt. The material was lightweight and extremely soft when it had brushed up against my hand.
“I’m sorry I had to bring you here sweet thing. But one of my men is lying to me and I have no choice but to flush him out and kill him. Unless, perhaps…you would like to help me by pointing him out?”
I looked up at the man with wide eyes as I tried to contemplate the situation. How much did he know? What should I tell him? What should I lie about? The thoughts all rushed through my head at the same time. I had no idea what I should say or do.
“I’m just a girl from Missouri,” I said as tears filled my eyes. He seemed amused at my fear. It was the first moment I truly felt like he would kill me without even a second thought.
Just then a large group of people made their way up some stairs at the other end of the large warehouse building. There had to have been at least one hundred people. Most of them were men, but I did see a few women in the bunch. I searched through the group to see if I could find Chris. As they walked closer and closer my eyes darted frantically among the crowd to find him. I didn’t know what I could do to warn him, but I probably wouldn’t have to. The second he saw me sitting in that chair he would know exactly what was going on.
“Hello everyone and thank you for coming to the show,” Gino said with his arms in the air like a circus show entertainer.
I looked at the faces of all the people and I couldn’t find Chris anywhere. All of the men had beards and looked like they hadn’t had a chance to shower in days. It was impossible to pick Chris out from the crowd when everyone looked alike.
“It has come to my attention that one of my dear friends in this room actually works for the government,” Gino continued on. “As you can imagine, I’m not happy about that.”
The crowd of people started to look at one another and talk under their breaths. I noticed a man on the corner that looked familiar, but I didn’t instantly know who he was. My mind was still extremely foggy from the drugs and my eyes not quite focused.
Gunner!
My heart sank and my eyes fixated on him as I realized the man on the corner of the crowd was Gunner. He had helped me after Chris was shot and then he had helped Chris by picking me up and bringing me to the bed and breakfast. My eyes looked at him and I saw him shake his head back and forth slightly in a NO motion. I looked away.
Surely if Gino had seen me look at Gunner the way I did, he would have known for sure that Gunner was the mole. I continued to look through the crowd of people and try and find Chris, if Gunner was there then Chris surely had to be nearby. My eyes continued through the crowd and I saw another man that I recognized, but it wasn’t Chris either. This man had been at the bed and breakfast the first day I arrived. He disappeared after that, but he certainly knew both Gunner and Chris. I remembered him sitting in the living room when I kissed Chris after first arriving at the bed and breakfast.
I looked away from him also.
I continued to search the crowd. How many men were part of Gino’s empire and actually worked for the government? Gino certainly didn’t know he had so many moles and I couldn’t be the person to break their cover.
Chapter 52
Gino’s two main guys walked behind the crowd of people and pushed them forward as Gino stood right in front of me. I could only see the people on the side of the crowd, but I had already identified two of them as being part of Chris’s team. My eyes continued to search the crowd for Chris.
I couldn’t find him. I desperately needed to see Chris and feel like everything would be alright. I knew if I could just find him I would be safe. Chris would make sure I got out of this situation all-right. He would kill this Gino guy and rescue me, I was sure of it. Now I just had to find Chris.
“You see this beautiful young woman…she doesn’t want to die a painful death. Do you sweetheart?” Gino stepped to the side and looked at me. I felt the hot stare of his gaze on my body. He stepped back toward me and placed his hand on my shoulder as he looked at the crowd of people who looked on. He squeezed my shoulder firmly and I felt compelled to answer his question with a head nod.
I shook my head left and right and looked up at the man.
“This sweet thing knows which one of you is the mole. You corrupted this sweet girl and brought her into this dirty world. Now her sweet little blond hair is going to be covered in your blood.”
Gino looked at the crowd and walked toward them. He moved one by one through the group and looked into each of their eyes. Some of the men looked back at Gino and some of them quickly looked toward the ground. It was clear that all of them feared him though.
“If you confess, I will not kill the girl. But if I have to torture her to get you to confess, she will wish for death.” My hands started to shake and more tears fell down my face. It took everything I had not to look at Gunner or the other man I knew. I didn’t even want to search the crowd for Chris anymore out of fear that I would make eye contact with him and Gino would know who he was.
“So I will give you until the morning to come to me and confess. If you have not, I will start instilling horrible pain on this sweet girl right in front of you all until the mole confesses.”
My thoughts raced as I imagined all the horrible things he had planned to hurt me in order to get the mole to confess. The problem was, Chris wasn’t even in the room. Had I been brought to this warehouse to get one of the other two men to confess? I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I did know that I needed rescuing right at that moment.
I felt a small sense of relief when he gave the time frame of the next morning. Surely Chris and his guys would be able to rescue me by that time. I didn’t know to what extent they had trained for situations like that, but surely they would b
e skilled to get me out. I felt a sense of confidence that they would get me out of the situation. I scanned the crowd and locked on to Gunner. He looked at me with such compassion as I cried; it was hard for me to look away.
“Kyle, you seem to have quite the eye for the girl,” Gino said as he walked over to Gunner.
“No sir,” Gunner said.
Kyle must have been the name Gunner used while he was undercover. I made sure not to look at either of them as they had the conversation. Instead, I looked at the ground and hoped that Gino wasn’t about to kill Gunner.
“Skinner, untie the girl and bring her here,” Gino said to one of his two main guys who had moved behind me now. The Skinner guy got on his knees and untied the ropes around my ankles and then stood up and untied the ones on my wrists. Then he looked at me. My heart fluttered and I tried not to react.
It was the first time I had been able to clearly see either of Gino’s two main guys. It was Chris!
He only looked for a second and then roughly grabbed me and brought me over to Gino. As roughly as he had grabbed me, I thought for a second I had been mistaken that it was Chris. I had just been drugged; perhaps I hadn’t seen him right? Maybe it was just a guy that looked a lot like Chris.
“Don’t look at me and don’t respond,” Chris whispered in my ear as we walked over toward Gino and Gunner. Yep, it was Chris for sure. I could tell by his voice. I felt better knowing he was there, but still scared to death that I was in the situation. At any moment Gino could turn his gun on me and it all could be over.
“Young lady, do you know this man?” Gino asked me. I looked at Gino and shook my head no. I tried not to look at Gunner and instead looked toward the ground as the situation unfolded.
Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) Page 15
