door.
Slowly, she looked down. Yes, her door was locked, but it went against all her survival instincts to give in. How could she help them? When the man decided she wasn’t moving fast enough, he took matters in his hands. He shouted an order.
Glass shattered across her face and hands. She felt the sting of cuts. In defense, Jess wrapped her arms over her head. From both sides her car doors flew open. They’d unlocked the doors. Hands groped her body, tugging at her. The men yanked her from the car, kicking and screaming. Like a pack of animals, they came at her, punishing her for resisting. They dragged her into the cold rain. And a fierce chill took over, making her teeth chatter out of control.
One of the men shoved her against a hard surface, an edge cutting across her back.
A sliver of hope. That’s all she had. If she held out long enough, Harper would see what was happening and call for help.
“Who are you?” She tried stalling. “What do you want? There’s been a mistake.”
The men circled her now. No one answered her questions. Their shadows eclipsed the light from her headlights. One man looked to be the leader. The tall one with long hair. When he stepped closer, she thought he might speak, but instead he reached out and gripped her by the throat with one hand, the move quick. With brutal force, he pressed hard and shoved her against a wall, smacking the back of her head. She nearly lost consciousness. Blood slithered down her neck.
She felt her body lift. Her feet no longer touched the ground. She couldn’t breathe. Struggling for air, she clawed at his arms—punching and kicking him—but the others held her down. Stars burst like fireworks behind her eyes. And the blackness came. He was going to kill her…right here…right now.
And there was nothing she could do about it.
CHAPTER 16
The rain had finally tapered off, and Seth took the change to be a good sign. He dialed back his wiper blades to stop the annoying sound they made on high speed. Finding Jess had become his top priority, so when he noticed a change in the transmitter signal, the notion barely registered; he dismissed it.
Maybe the rain and the dark made him worry more than he should, but Jess had a way of attracting danger. Even in the short time he’d known her, he could tell that she lived on the edge. And something drove her from deep inside—something she held close.
Lucas Baker had been different from the other scumbags she hunted for bounty money, but there had been no time to talk about it, assuming she’d open up to him at all. He’d never met anyone like her.
A road sign caught his attention. This was it. According to Jess, at the next exit he would follow the frontage road to the overpass and hit the turnaround to catch her on the other side. She’d also told him her headlights would be on and he could spot her from the interstate.
Seth peered through the rain, finding the old gas station, as she’d described it. And he grinned when he saw her car with headlights blazing. But his smile quickly faded. In the dim light, off to the right, a group of men huddled—some kind of fight.
“Damn it!” He hit the accelerator, gripping the wheel with both hands.
His eyes searched the dark for the exit, then went back at the old gas station. He’d never make it in time. Jess needed him now. There was only one thing for him to do. He veered to the left lane, looking for a spot to cross. When he hit the median, his van almost bottomed out. He didn’t have time to search for level ground. And with the excessive rain, his tires hit mud and spun. A high whine mixed with the sound of heavy splatter.
“Shit! Not now!” he yelled. “Not now!”
Finally, the van lurched forward, nearly jostling him out of his seat. When he got to solid road, he reached for the cell phone clipped to his belt and hit redial.
“Come on…come on.” He prayed Sam would pick up. She couldn’t be far behind, not after he’d called to tell her where Jess would be. When she answered, he blurted out, “Jessie’s in trouble. Those men—they have her.”
“What’s happening, Seth? Talk to me.” Sam heard his panic and it gripped her heart in a tight fist. In reflex, she gunned the gas pedal and barreled down the interstate, looking for the exit. “Seth? Can you hear me?”
She heard road noise over the phone and Seth cursing in the background, but he sounded far away. After what seemed an eternity, he got back on the phone.
“They took her car. She’s gone, Sam.”
Now she heard fear in his voice.
“Who took her, Seth? What’s going on?” she asked. Archer leaned toward her, concern on his face.
She punched the accelerator as she spotted her exit ahead.
“I’m almost there, Seth. Hang on.”
But he didn’t hear her. “Sam, I’m keeping my cell phone open, but I gotta drive. And I can’t do it in the dark.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“I know where they went. I followed their taillights, but now I gotta drive without my lights so they won’t see me. And I’m already too far behind, I may lose them. They’ve taken a farm road east, the one near the gas station. You’ll know it when you see it. And I’m driving a blue van, but Sam? In case something happens to me, track my phone. I’ll leave the line open.”
Seth’s meaning was clear…and ominous. Now all she could do was listen to him drive, but she had to keep the connection open. The gas station was ahead to the right.
Turning to Archer, she said, “Please…make a call to Detective Garza. He should be on his way.”
She gave him the number, hitting the turn onto the farm road and gunning the engine. But unlike Seth, she kept her headlights on, trying to make up time. Archer made the call using his personal phone and handed it to her. When Garza got on the line, Sam filled him in.
“Jess is in trouble.”
“Wow, something new. I’ll alert the media.”
“I don’t need your sarcasm, Ray. Seth Harper is following the men who’ve taken her. Have someone trace the GPS on Harper’s phone, we may need it.” She gave him the phone number for Seth’s open line. “I’m on the farm road by the gas station. Heading east. Find me.”
Sam ended the call and handed the phone back to Archer.
“Sorry I got you both into this.” She wasn’t sure what else to say to Archer and Tanu. If anything happened, she’d get them to safety first, but she’d cross that bridge when the time came.
Archer fixed his gaze on her, his profile silhouetted by the dim lights off her dash.
“If these men have Nikki, then this is my fight too,” he said. “Don’t apologize. I just hope your friend is okay. She sounds like a gutsy woman.”
Sam kept watch for Seth’s blue van, but she couldn’t get her mind off Jessie.
“You have no idea.”
Jess opened her eyes, her head spinning and in pain. Everything blurred around her, fading to blackness then in bright focus again. Bile rose from her stomach. She heaved but nothing came. And behind her eyes, pinpricks of light spiraled out of control, making it difficult to see anything at all. From experience, she suspected she had suffered a concussion, judging by her symptoms.
And the cold, her body ached from it. She gasped for air, her throat bruised inside and out.
“What…?” She tried to speak but only a raspy whisper escaped her lips.
When her eyes cleared enough for her to trust what they saw, she found a harsh light hanging overhead with nothing but darkness around her. She sat propped against a wall, her wrists cuffed above her head. And they had stripped her and taken her clothes. She surged into a sudden and uncontrollable panic, tugging at the handcuffs until her wrists nearly broke, screaming as loud as she could. Primal fear for survival had taken over.
“
