Innocent Prey (A Brown and de Luca Novel) (22 page)

The girls looked at me curiously, but they got up without a word. Then I squatted and put my hands under the edge of the sofa, and started lifting it. I grunted, but Sissy jumped up to help, and then Lexus did, too. In a second or two the sofa was standing—none-too-steadily—on end. I braced it with one hand.

“Great. Push that coffee table over here, Stephanie.”

“Uh, yeah, I’m kind of blind.”

“Will you stop changing the subject and push the fucking coffee table over here?”

She frowned, but I watched her walk to that coffee table as easily as if she had 20/20 vision. She bent and shoved it, and stopped with a quarter inch between the table and the couch. She knew she wasn’t helpless. She might not have known it before all this, though, I thought. In fact, from what I’d heard about her from her parents and her life coach, I was sure she hadn’t. But she knew what she was capable of now.

“Okay, I need two of you to hold the couch up. Stephanie—”

“Stevie,” she corrected me. “I go by Stevie.”

“Stevie and Sissy, hold the couch upright, one of you on each side. Lexus, we’re climbing up on top. Ready?”

“You are crazy, woman.”

“I’m not crazy. I’m smart. I wasn’t, but then I spent twenty years being blind, and that was an education.” I shoved the phone down the front of my shirt, kicked off my shoes and climbed up onto the coffee table. “I’ve gotta jump a little. You guys got that sofa?”

“We’ve got it,” Stevie said. “Go on.”

I jumped, grabbing the arm of the sofa and pulling myself up onto it. Then I held on for dear life while Lexus did the same. I helped pull her up. Then I stood up, balancing like I was on a damned surfboard. Pulling Vanessa Cantone’s cell phone out of my bra, I typed a text to Mason.

“C’mon, Lexus. Stand up.”

She did, but she was wobbling big-time. “You’ve gotta boost me up. I’ve gotta get as high as I can to send this.”

“You need to get as high as you can and try the door. Not that it matters, ’cause the minute you climb up on me, I’m gonna fall over.”

“Lexus,” Stevie called. “Stand with your legs wide apart and your knees slightly bent.”

Lexus frowned, but she set her feet wider, as wide as the sofa would allow, holding her hands palms-down as she wobbled.

“Are you bending your knees?” Stevie asked.

“Yeah,” Lexus said, and bent her knees.

“Put your hands on your hips. You know, like Superman.”

Lexus did.

“Rachel, put your knees between her hands and hips to start with.”

“Where the hell did you learn this, Stevie?” I asked. “Are you some kind of ninja?”

“Ex-cheerleader. Do it.”

I gripped the younger but larger girl’s shoulders and hopped up, shoving my knees into the triangles made by her arms on either side. We wobbled, then steadied.

I let go with one hand, plucked the phone from my bra and held it up, watching for a signal to show up. Nothing.

“I’ve got to get higher.”

“Pull your knee out on one side and put your foot there instead, and then push yourself upright,” Stevie called.

I did that, and it was hard, but I was standing a little higher.

“Need more?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Stand on her shoulders, then. Lexus, grab her ass to help boost her up there, and once she’s up, wrap your arms behind her thighs to hold her.”

“I
know
you didn’t just tell me to grab another woman’s ass, Stevie.”

“Our lives depend on it.”

Lexus was pissed, but I felt her give in and started climbing onto her shoulders. She put her arms behind me, bracing them on the backs of my thighs, not my ass, as I fought to straighten up to my full height. My knees were still partly bent when my palms made contact with the wooden trapdoor over my head. I gave it a shove, and it lifted an inch, then stopped. I heard a chain and knew it wasn’t going any farther. Still, I grabbed the phone, held it so it was sticking out through the narrow opening as far as I could poke it without letting go. Bracing my other hand on the door above me, I hit the send key.

“Shit!” Lexus tipped sideways, and my sock feet slid off her shoulders. I bounced off the sofa and went crashing to the floor before I knew what had happened. I hit hard, and then the couch came down like a felled redwood. Instinctively, I rolled onto one side and curled up, arms shielding my face. Lexus hit the floor on my left, the sofa on my right. They both missed me, thank God.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, my God, are you okay?”

Stevie and Sissy were speaking at once.

I lowered my arms, blinking and surprised that I was still alive. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m good, nothing broken. Except maybe that phone.” I looked around the floor but didn’t see it. “You okay, Lexus?”

“Cracked my damn head.” She sat up, rubbing her head as she did. “Yeah, I’m a’right.”

“Did you send the message?” Stevie asked.

“I think so. Check the phone. Where the hell did it—”

“Sheee-it,”
Lexus said softly, pointing upward. We all looked.... Well, all but Stevie. The phone was sticking out from underneath the door, which had fallen closed and trapped it there.

“What? What is it?” Stevie asked.

“The phone’s stuck under the trapdoor,” I said softly. I knew how bad it was not to know what was going on because you couldn’t see and having people take their damn time about filling you in.

“They’re gonna know. When they come back here, they’re gonna know,” Stevie said. “They’re gonna shoot one of us.”

“Yeah, well, if they get a good look at my face, they’re gonna shoot me anyway, and the three of you are worth money to them, so you’re probably safe. From that, anyway.”

“Money,” Sissy said. “What are they going to do with us?”

“Sell you,” I said. “To some pervert who wants a real live sex slave chained up in his basement dungeon, near as we’ve been able to figure.”

Sissy’s eyes went big as saucers. Lexus shook her head, looking more pissed off than before and limping pretty badly to a spot to sit down. No use trying to get the phone again. I’d never get Sissy to dare stand on my shoulders, and she was too small for me to stand on hers. And while I hated to admit it, being blind limited Stevie from performing acrobatics on the upturned end of a sofa.

“I figured that when they had us dress up in that fucking lacy shit for pictures,” Lexus said.

I got up, and we started righting the furniture, which was none the worse for wear. “Stevie, they’ve been forcing your father to give them the names of girls who’ve aged out of foster care and are on their own. Girls they thought no one would miss.”

She was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Something’s happened to him, hasn’t it?”

I hadn’t wanted to tell her that. “Yeah. He had a stroke. He...didn’t make it. How did you know?”

“I heard them talking. Saying something about needing a new informant.” She lowered her head slowly, and I saw her tears. “He was an asshole. But he was still my father.”

“I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, he was about to come clean. Tell us everything. And he only did what he did because he was being blackmailed.”

She nodded. “It was that drunk-driving thing, that man he killed and never took the blame for. Wasn’t it?”

“You knew about that?”

She nodded. “I heard him and Mom arguing about it. I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t turn himself in. When another drunk driver blinded me, it was like fucking divine retribution or something.” She lowered her head to hide her tears.

I took a deep breath. I was about to destroy this poor kid’s world. “Did you tell Jake about that, Stevie?”

“Jake?” she asked. “Jake? God, Rachel, are you telling me Jake is involved in this?”

“He was one of the guys who kidnapped me and brought me here,” I told her. “I’m really sorry.”

She sank onto the newly righted sofa, put her head down and cried. The news about her ex seemed to hurt her more than the news of her father’s death.

* * *

There were teams combing the area where the cell phone signal had been lost, but there was no way to be sure the kidnappers hadn’t gone much farther. Dogs were on the way. Mason was damn near sick with fear, searching a wooded area with the chief. Chief Sub, examining the ground a few yards away, was acting more like a zealous rookie than a man looking to retire. He was worried, too.

He liked Rachel. He’d even admitted it to her.

Mason’s phone chimed and he picked it up, looked at the screen. “It’s a text. From Rachel!”

He stood perfectly still, almost afraid to move as the chief came running and read over his shoulder.
Circular underground room w trapdoor top center. Bunker not basement. 3 girls r ok. Jake was driver. Hasn’t seen my face. Find us b4 he does.

The chief’s phone chirped, and he took the call. Mason wanted to text Rachel back, but he didn’t dare. The sound might give her away. If Jake had found the phone...

Jake. And Rachel hadn’t believed him. Her damn radar was off for sure where that guy was concerned.

Chief Sub said, “The garage was owned by Ivan Orloff.”

“Jake’s former cellmate? The guy I shot when he kidnapped Amy last November?” Mason muttered.

“Yeah. He left it to his sister.”

“Sister?”

The chief nodded. “His widowed sister. Whose married name is Loren Markovich.”

Mason’s head came up. “Stevie’s blindness coach?”

“One and the same.” He looked at his phone again. “They’ve picked up a signal from Cantone’s cell phone again. Wait a sec.” He tapped buttons, then held his phone up, showing Mason the green dot on the map screen that marked Rachel’s location, and the smaller red dot that marked the spot where he was currently standing.

“Hold on, Rachel,” he said. “Hold on. I’m coming.”

16

“Y
ou’ve come a long way in a few days, haven’t you, Stevie?”

The other two girls were engaged in a game of checkers.

Stephanie didn’t look at me at all. “How would you know? You didn’t even know me before.”

“No. But I’ve talked to your mom and your coach, Loren.”

She hissed through her teeth.

“Yeah, I found that a little ridiculous, too. A sighted person teaching a blind person how to be blind. But it is what it is.”

She perked up a little. She was curled in the corner of the sofa, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “So you didn’t have a coach?”

“No. I mean, I had my parents, my sister, Sandra, and brother, Tommy. It was plenty.”

“But they couldn’t teach you anything about being blind.”

“The only thing that can teach you about being blind is being blind, kid.” She pressed her lips together in irritation. I should have left off the “kid” part. It offended her. “There’s more to it than not being able to see, though. Have you noticed that yet?”

She blinked twice. I could tell by the subtle shift in her attitude that she had. “I hear ten times better than those two.”

“Yeah. And you feel things in front of you before you walk into them, so long as you’re paying attention. It’s like you can sort of feel the vibrations bouncing off them as you get closer.”

“Ye-e-a-ah.” She drew out the word, crinkled her nose. “Yeah, I
can.
Sort of.”

“There’s no limit to how far your other senses can grow, you know. They keep trying to make me believe I’m psychic because I pick up on so many things.”

“They? Like who?”

“Like the cops. One cop in particular. And my assistant, Amy, who was kidnapped by these jerks last Thanksgiving when they mistook her for Venora.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We got her back, though.” I shook my head. “Maybe I do have something extra. I knew which way to drive when we were looking for Amy. I also knew there was more to it, that it wasn’t an isolated incident. And the minute I walked that sidewalk where they took you, I knew it was related to what happened to Amy.”

She blinked a few times, then lifted her head to look in my direction. That showed a lot of trust. You don’t like showing people your eyes when you’re blind. I didn’t, anyway.

“Maybe you
do
have ESP.”

“I’ve decided to call it NFP.”

“NFP?”

“Yeah, for Not Fucking Psychic.”

She laughed, and it was real, right from her belly, which made me feel good.

“Maybe I don’t dislike you as much as I wanted to,” she said.

“Ditto.” I was on the other end of the sofa from her. “Why’d you want to dislike me?”

“Your books. My mother’s been trying to force-feed them to me. All that positive bullshit.”

“Yeah, I know. My mother force-fed me on the same kind of thing. That’s why I wound up writing them. I figured if someone was gonna get paid for that crap, it might as well be me.”

Her smile died. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. And then... I don’t know, stuff started happening. Stuff that made me think maybe it wasn’t all bullshit, after all. I mean, damn, I’m here, right? I’m here, with you. I used to be blind, you’re currently blind. I wrote the books, you read them.” I frowned. “You
did
read ’em, right?”

“Enough to want to barf.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

I took a breath, then went back to my topic. “They took my phone, but I had another one they didn’t find. Was that just luck, do you think?”

“Yeah. Bad luck. They’re gonna find it as soon as they get back here. How are you going to put a positive spin on this if they shoot you?”

I shrugged. “That’ll suck, I admit it. I’m really enjoying my life lately.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet. How long have you been able to see again?”

“Since last August. But it’s not having my eyes back that’s making me so...sickeningly happy. This sounds sappy, but it’s true. It’s the people in my life now. Mason—he’s the detective who’s gonna get his ass here to save us if he knows what’s good for him. His boys, Jeremy and Josh. And Myrtle. Damn, I miss my Myrtle.”

“Myrtle?”

“English bulldog.”

She smiled. “I’d like to meet her.”

“She would fucking love you,” I said. “She’s blind, too, but she barely seems to notice.”

We were quiet for a long moment. Then I slid close to her and said, “The other girls look up to you, you know. You’re like their leader in this mess.”

“I know. It’s weird.”

“Not weird at all. You’re the most capable, the most mature. You’re smart, and you’re tough. You didn’t lose any of that when you lost your eyesight. You just...lost track of it for a while.”

The other girls finished their game and came over to where we were. Lexus poured water from a gallon jug into a plastic tumbler. It was the only refreshment. Fuckers could have thrown down some chips or something.

“I don’t want them to shoot you, Rachel,” Stevie said.

“Well, then maybe we should think about how to prevent it. You have one advantage against them that can’t be overemphasized.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“They’re not expecting anything from you. Maybe from Lexi and Sissy. Maybe even from me. But not you. They don’t see you as a threat.”

“You got that right,” Lexus said softly. “I hadn’t even thought about it before, but the Asshole barely pays any attention to you when he comes down here. He always got his back to you. Watchin’ us two like we’re gonna try something but never payin’ much attention to you.”

“That’s right. He does.” Sissy nodded enthusiastically.

“Last time we tried something, he shot Venora. Right in front of us.” Stevie said it softly, and shivered a little.

“I know,” I said. “I know. I also know there are other girls missing besides you three.”

“There are?” Stevie asked, stunned.

“Yeah. And Venora isn’t the only one who’s been killed. Another girl was missing almost two years before her captor finally killed her. She was pregnant, too.”

Sissy bit her lip. Stevie lowered her head. “How many others are missing?” she asked.

“Besides the two dead girls and you three, there are five more that we know of.”

“We got to kill these bastards,” Lexus said.

“At least you have to ask yourself what you’d rather do. Fight to get free, even though it means risking your lives, or go be someone’s sex slave for a year or two until they get tired of you and kill you anyway.”

“Do you know for sure they’d kill us?” Sissy said.

“I know for sure they can’t just let you go when they use you up. How would they keep you from going to the cops?”

“We know you’re right,” Stevie said. “We had this discussion just last night. We’re dead for sure if we don’t fight. If we do, we’ve at least got a chance.” She drew a deep breath, nodded and let it out again. “The only question is how the hell we can fight them. But...but now I think I have an idea.”

* * *

Mason was with Chief Sub and Rosie, who was still limping and didn’t give a shit. The chief had called in reinforcements, so they and a half-dozen officers fanned out, searching the woods and fields. The initial ping had narrowed the phone’s location down to within a five-mile radius, and the chief was now tapped into its GPS signal, which was leading them even closer.

Mason had a headset on, leaving his hands free to hold his flashlight and gun, and enabling him to communicate with the chief, who also wore a headset, without shouting and giving away their presence. “I don’t know why anyone would build an underground bunker in the woods, Chief. There’s gotta be a clearing or—”

“Keep going the way you’re going. We’re getting closer.”

Mason did, but he knew it was an impractical strategy. There had to be a way around the woodlot that would bring him to her faster than this. The limbs of the pines were so dense he could barely see two feet ahead of him. And the underbrush was thick enough that he could step right over top of her and not see her.

He was shaking. And he did not shake on the job. Not ever.

“Mason, wait—we’ve got something,” the chief said.

“What?”

“Cantone’s phone. We’ve activated it remotely. We should be able to hear anything within range of its... Wait, listen.”

Mason could hear a car motor, followed by slamming doors. Footsteps growing louder.

“It’ll be easier if we drug them first,” a man said.

“The buyers will not be impressed by unconscious rag dolls, Jake.”

“The buyers will have an easier time getting them home if they’re—”

“What they do with them after we deliver them is their problem. Let’s just get the girls out here and follow orders.”

The footsteps grew even louder, then one of them said, “What the hell is
this?
”

Then silence. The transmission had abruptly ended. Mason swore. “What the fuck just happened?”

“I think they found Cantone’s cell. Keep going, Mason, you’ve got a couple hundred yards and then... Wait, wait, it’s coming back online. And it’s moving.”

“Shit.”

“Turn slightly west. You can intercept them when you get to the road if you hurry.”

* * *

“They’re coming,” Stevie said. “Get ready.” She came running out of the bathroom, where she’d been listening for the kidnappers near the pipes she’d said carried their voices.

Sissy lay on the floor, facedown, sprawled like she’d fallen there, and Lexus and I knelt near her, shaking her and making a fuss like something was wrong, while Stevie stood a few steps away, looking helpless, which she most definitely was not.

The trapdoor opened and a rope ladder dropped down. Then the Asshole came down, his expression furious. “What the fuck is going on with the cell phone I found up there?”

Lexus shouted at him, “We had a cell phone, you think we’d still be down here?”

“Something’s wrong with Sissy,” I said, still looking down, my hair curtaining my face. “She had some kind of a fit and fell over, and now she’s not—” I leaned closer to her. “She’s not breathing!”

“I’m not falling for that.” The Asshole held up a gun, waved it at me. “You first, newbie. Get over here.”

“She’s gonna die!”

“Then we’ll get another. Get over here. Climb up the ladder. I’m done screwing around with you girls.”

He worked the action of the gun. It scared me, but I didn’t give. “I’m not leaving her. She needs help.” I rolled her over and tipped her head back, bending close, like I was going to start mouth-to-mouth.

Then I sat up again and positioned my hands over her chest, as if I were about to start compressions.

“Jesus, get off her,” the Asshole said, striding toward me. “You two, back up. I mean it.”

So I stood and took Lexus by the arm, and we backed right up against the wall so he’d feel nice and safe. And that was when Stevie clocked the back of his head with the leg we’d unscrewed from the coffee table.

He went straight down, and we all hurriedly started searching him. I took his gun and shoved it down the back of my jeans. But I couldn’t find the damned cell phone. He didn’t have it on him.

“Now what?” Sissy whispered.

“We get out of here.” I looked at the dangling rope ladder, the open trapdoor and the dark expanse of star-dotted sky above it.

“What if the other guy is out there waiting?” Sissy asked.

“Then we shoot him,” Lexus snapped. “We got the gun. The question is, what if this prick comes to and starts yelling?”

I rolled the Asshole over and pulled his hands behind his back. Then I pulled my bra out of my pocket, where I’d stashed it earlier in preparation for just this moment, and used it to tie his hands behind him.

Three sharp raps had us all freezing in fear. The second guy was peering down, dead silent and well-hidden behind his ski mask. He couldn’t see us. He could only see straight down and we were off to one side.

“There’s the other one,” Sissy said softly.

“Yeah,” I said softly. “It’s Jake.”

“It’s Jake?” Stevie asked.

“You can’t let on that you know. Okay?”

She nodded, but I saw the tears welling in her eyes. Better she be prepared. I think she’d been hoping I was wrong about him. Well, so had I.

“You guys have to go first,” I said, “so he’ll be distracted and not notice the gun. Just go up like the Asshole told us, stand there and be docile, keep your heads down, but be alert, be ready. Don’t do anything until we’re all out of this hole. Okay?”

The three nodded. Stephanie whispered, “Yes, okay.”

“Okay. You first, Lexus.” I knew that was best. Sissy was too afraid to go first. Lexus grabbed hold of the rope ladder, and even gave a shout back down to the unconscious idiot. “I’m goin’, I’m goin’. Stop pointin’ that gun at me.”

She climbed up the ladder. I glanced up top, saw Jake grab her by one arm and pull her out of sight. I hoped he wasn’t going to drug her or tie her up right away.

“Go on, Stevie. Hurry, so he doesn’t have time to think about tying her up or anything.” I took her hands, guided them to the ladder, and she found the first rung with one foot and started up.

Sissy went next. I pulled my T-shirt down over the gun in back, and went last. When my head emerged from the top, I looked around, trying to quickly see where we stood.

Jake had the girls lined up, on their knees, heads down, a gun in his hand. Another person was getting out of a waiting van, ski mask in place, stripping a long piece from a roll of duct tape while moving behind the girls and using it to tie their hands.

It was a woman.

I reached behind me for the gun, wondering if I had it in me to shoot them both. Just as my hand curled around its grip, Jake turned toward me with his gun aimed and saw my face. His went lax. “You!” he said.

I jerked my gun around fast, knowing he was about to shoot and hoping I could pull the trigger before he did. At the same time Stevie came upright, throwing herself at him just as the gun bucked in my hand so hard that I dropped it.

My bullet hit his shoulder and spun him in an almost full circle, and he hit the ground. The crouching bitch behind Lexi pulled a gun, but Lexus head-butted her hard, and she went down, too. And then I grabbed Stevie by one arm and screamed, “Run!”