Hugh wasn’t going to bother with Janine, figuring she was simply a tool. But he definitely wanted to follow up on the boyfriend.
“Thanks, Gloria. I owe you big-time. By the way, please keep this between us.”
Back at his truck, Hugh dialed Roc’s phone number. He was probably already on the road on his motorcycle and couldn’t talk, but he’d leave a voice mail.
“Yeah,” Roc answered.
“Oh, hey Roc. I didn’t expect you to answer. Aren’t you on your motorcycle?”
“Bluetooth, man. What’s up?”
“Things are coming together here. I’ve got another person I’d like your guys to round up for me. Get him to talk and to give up the guys higher up the chain.”
“Cool. Text me, and we’ll talk about it when we get there.”
Much of what Hugh was planning was falling into place. All he needed to do was wait for the motorcycle gang members to show up.
“How’s it looking, Frank?”
“Going good. We have the girl. The trucker is in town now, and he knows what he has to do.”
“No glitches? The deposition is tomorrow, and everything hangs on that,” attorney Fishburn said.
“Nope. As far as I know, everybody is in place.”
“OK. Let everybody know from here on out, it’s texts only. I’m going to be busy, especially tomorrow morning, and won’t be able to talk.”
Hugh was awakened from the stress nap he had taken after lunch in his truck at the WestAm terminal.
At first, he couldn’t place the source of the noise that had wakened him. When he did, he jumped down from his truck cab, and ran over to the front gate of the terminal.
About a dozen motorcycles were amassed outside the gate, mounted by gang members dressed in leathers and heavy steel-toed boots, and topped with the sleeveless, heavy denim cuts of their gang affiliation, the Bakers Town Bad Asses.
The noise that had awakened Hugh was the sound of revving Harleys as the men sat impatiently waiting for the gate guard to let them through.
The gate guard was thoroughly intimidated by the size and number of these guys. Their leader, Roc, was a monster of a man. He had inches and many pounds on Hugh.
Hugh explained they were with him, and he would take full responsibility for them. The guard reluctantly opened the gate to let the Harleys drive on through.
The gang made one circle of the whole yard while Hugh walked back to his truck, and then they parked in a half circle in front of the Freightliner.
For Hugh, it was reminiscent of the first time he had met these guys in Bakersfield. They had stopped Hugh’s truck on Highway 58 coming into town. Their intent had been to pound him into pulp on the side of the road for messing with their “little sister” Jenny.
Jenny had saved Hugh from the pounding by explaining to the leader, Roc, that Hugh was her old man, and that he had rescued her on a couple of occasions during hijackings.
They had put Hugh through a painful initiation ceremony, and then had accepted him as an associate member of the gang. The last thing they had told Jenny was if she ever needed help they’d come running.
And, true to their word, they were here.
Hugh laid out the details of his plan to Roc – elements of which would commence later tonight. Roc could start the first domino falling down by putting the screws to the dispatcher’s boyfriend to give up the ring leader’s name, and so forth.
“I know how tempting it’s going to be when you get to where Jenny is being held, but it’s extremely important the leader of the gang who’s holding her remains alive and conscious. His name is William. I want him intact.”
“What about the others?”
“Do what you have to do. We don’t need them.”
Roc looked at the other guys standing around listening. They nodded.
“Roc, I can’t put you guys up here. Do you have someplace to stay?”
“No problem, bro. We’ve got a reciprocal. It’s taken care of, including the van.”
They all got on their bikes, revved up their engines, and made a noisy exit out the gate, to the evident relief of the gate guard.
All Hugh could do now was await word from Roc that tonight’s mission had been accomplished, and for Roc to return with Jenny.
He spent some of the time working on the two projects that were going to be a surprise for Jenny. It involved several phone calls and emails.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Later that afternoon, at the house in Scottsdale where Jenny was being held hostage, they had brought her a sandwich and a bottled water. In view of the difficulty they’d had in capturing her, they had placed her on a mattress on the floor of the living room, and were keeping her zip tied, hands and feet.
The bathroom situation had been awkward, because they had refused to untie her. She did win a concession of being alone in the bathroom to do her business, as awkward and uncomfortable as it was because of her restraints.
One thing she was absolutely dead certain of was that Hugh would find her and rescue her. The biggest mistake her captors had made was not ditching her phone. Instead, insanely stupid, they had used it to communicate with Hugh.
She was confident Hugh would take advantage of their mistake, and he likely would be nearby right now.
She reviewed what Hugh would be up against.
William, the leader, was the biggest and toughest of them all. Obviously former military. Hardened, battle-tested. But he’s the only one so far who hadn’t gone up against Hugh, so he might be over confident.
Kent was still with them. He was dealing with the pain of his injured groin and broken nose, and it was obvious
