Not that she was anywhere near unfazed. She wished she had some idea of how things would unfold.
Then the three guys from the blue pickup came in for some pie and coffee. Her nerves ratcheted as tight as an overstressed spring, and she was grateful that Meg waited on them. She wasn’t sure she could have.
Then she noted something odd and wished she could tell Buck about it. When they left, they all got into different trucks: one in the blue pickup, and the other two into separate SUVs. One after another they drove off to the east. Maybe they were done. She wiped tables and wondered as midnight approached. Two more hours on her shift, and she was beginning to feel amazingly tired.
“You need to leave early?” Hasty asked her as things wound down to near emptiness.
“I’m fine, really. Bills to pay. Besides, I’d rather be busy.”
“Guess I can understand that,” he agreed, patting his breast pocket and indicating he was about to go out back for a smoke. “I guess I misjudged that Devlin guy.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The way he looked at you. I could’ve sworn the love bug had bit.”
Haley’s heart squeezed. “Guess not,” she said stiffly.
“Not what he seems, huh?”
“Who is?”
Hasty left it at that and headed out the back door.
Not five minutes later, she saw the white box truck pull up outside in the empty lot. Her heart began to race like she’d just run a marathon. Tonight? Was it going to be tonight?
She waited a minute to see if the driver climbed out, but he didn’t. As if she hadn’t noticed a thing, she kept wiping tables and bussing dishes.
Then she remembered and turned away from the windows to pull her phone out enough to select Buck’s number, sending the signal to him. As soon as she saw the connection was made, she disconnected, slipped the phone back in her pocket....
And felt her keys. Oh, God, she hadn’t left her keys under her car seat as Buck had asked, because they hadn’t thought anything would happen tonight. How was she going to get them to Buck? What if they did a transfer? She couldn’t go out in that lot to give him the keys, and he couldn’t show up in here.
For the first time, quivers of full-blown panic struck her.
Chapter 16
B
uck’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took just long enough to send Haley an answering vibration, then pulled his ski mask down. He slipped through the woods toward the back of the parking lot.
Tonight? They must have sent those three guys to take him out so they wouldn’t have to skip this delivery, because that stuff had to have been readied for shipment yesterday. Now that he had appeared to clear out, they were going ahead.
Haley must be feeling like a wreck. He’d practically promised her there’d be nothing to worry about for another day or two. How wrong he’d been.
Dressed all in black, his face concealed by the mask, his knives and certain other apparatuses appropriately placed and concealed, he found a vantage from within the trees to watch the parking lot.
The box truck was there, but nothing was going on. Not yet. There were still other trucks in the lot, so they’d have to wait.
He settled down on the dirt, figuring he had at least some time. Three big rigs, one box truck. At least two of those rigs had to pull out before they could handle the switch.
He wished he could look in the Listons’ barn right now and see if that tarp-covered box was gone. It was probably in the back of that white truck right this instant, waiting to resume a much-delayed trip to Denver.
The minutes absolutely dragged by.
* * *
When things started popping, they popped fast. Two of the rigs pulled away, taking to the road again. Then, as if on cue, the box truck moved, backing up until it was only a few feet from the back end of the remaining rig. A rig from his own company.
Rear doors opened and the two drivers, one of whom was White Shirt, dropped a metal ramp between the backs of the truck and covered it with cargo blankets. He watched, unmoving, as they wrestled a crate off the rig and then wrestled one back onto it from the box truck. The banging Haley had remarked on from the last time was kept to a minimum, as if they had learned something, and the blankets did a damn good job of silencing the exchange. Not perfect, but good enough that no one would probably look out from the restaurant.
He glanced toward the one window he could see from his vantage point and noted that only three people remained inside: Haley, another waitress he thought was Meg, and Hasty. He glanced at his watch and saw that Haley had slightly more than an hour left on her shift, and she was doing a good job of not even looking toward the parking lot.
Ten minutes, he figured. They’d have the switch done in about ten minutes. Then, after they pulled away, he was going to have to dash to Haley’s car and follow that box truck.
* * *
Haley felt sicker by the second. Even though she didn’t look, she heard just enough to suggest the cargo exchange was happening. She and Meg sat at the counter, chatting with Hasty, who was busy cleaning the grill. All she could think of, though, was the fact that Buck was going to run to her car to follow that truck and he wasn’t going to find the keys.
“You don’t look so good,” Hasty remarked, glancing over from the grill.
“I’m feeling a little puny,” Haley allowed.
“Maybe you should go home, girl. I won’t hold it against you. You know that.”
“I know.” She gave him a wan smile. “Give me a minute to see if it passes.” Most especially to wait until the trucks pulled away. If she went out there now, she’d catch them in the act they were trying to conceal. As soon as they were sealed up again and at least one of them took off, she could put the keys in the car for Buck. Being out there when nothing was happening would certainly look innocent enough.
At long last she heard the diesel roar. A glance over her shoulder told her the rig was pulling out. The door on the back of the box truck was now closed.
“I’m going out to my car to get an antacid,” she told Hasty.
“I have some here,” he said, holding up a roll.
“I don’t like those,” she said quickly. “I like the kind without sugar. I’ll be right back.”
She slid off the stool and headed out the door. Her car wasn’t parked that far away. She reached it and pulled open the passenger-side door to open the glove box. As she did so, she tossed her keys on the floor, where Buck would see them. She heard the other truck moving, but managed not to look at it. She knew he had to back up and turn to get out of the lot front-end first, given how he had parked, so she didn’t think anything about it when she heard the truck draw closer.
Straightening, she closed the glove box, checked to make sure the locks weren’t engaged. Then she slammed the door.
When she turned around, she realized the box truck had pulled up right beside her, its passenger door open. Fear instantly dried her mouth and sent her heart into high gear.
“Get in,” White Shirt said. “Now.”
She was staring down the barrel of a gun.
* * *
Buck moved a little closer. He was horrified to see Haley come out of the restaurant and go to her car when the box truck still remained, but as he watched, he quickly realized she must have neglected to leave the keys in her car, since they hadn’t expected activity tonight. Smart woman, he thought with admiration.
He watched her open the passenger-side door and reach for something in the interior. The box truck started up and backed up in a wide turn, perfectly natural given the way he’d been parked.
The truck blocked Buck’s view of Haley and her car as it did so. He tensed and edged closer, heard gears shift, as if the truck were slipping from reverse into low gear. Normal. It seemed to pause for a half minute, not long, but long enough that every muscle in Buck’s body coiled. Then, before he could move, it was driving out of the lot.
Haley was gone.
Before the truck reached the highway, Buck was running in top gear, dashing between the remaining trees over the rugged ground. He pulled the cell phone from his pocket as he ran, and hit Gage’s number. It didn’t connect.
Dammit. Reaching Haley’s car, he looked in and saw the keys on the floorboard. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the box truck disappearing east along the highway. He couldn’t lose sight of it. Losing sight of it meant losing sight of Haley.
Cussing silently, furious with himself, furious with the whole damn universe, he grabbed the keys and slid into the car, turning over the ignition and tearing out of the parking lot. The box truck was just a couple of blocks ahead.
He tried Gage again. Still no answer. He hesitated. If he called the emergency number, a dozen cops might converge on that truck. Their appearance might cause the driver to hurt Haley. At the very least, it would blow the case out of the water, because he doubted the driver was going to give up his confederates.
But mostly he was worried about why the guy had snatched Haley. What he intended. What he might do to her. He couldn’t risk something happening to her. If that meant he had to find a way to get her back himself, then he’d do it, because he wasn’t going to risk a bunch of local deputies getting involved when they didn’t know what was going on.
That left Gage. He hit the number again, heard it connect, and then heard the beeps that said he’d lost signal.
Dammit! They were reaching the far side of town now, the truck just far enough ahead of him that it wouldn’t know it was being tailed. He had to keep it in sight because Haley was in there.
He punched Gage’s number again and this time reached voice mail. He left word swiftly, telling Gage about Haley, warning him to be cautious, then tucked the phone in his pocket, knowing he was going to try again in a few minutes. Gage had said he’d be available all the time. He’d get the message, he’d get help and come. In the meantime
someone
had to know where that truck was going, or they’d never find it or Haley.
For the first time in a very long time, Buck felt real fear. His mouth had turned dry as sand; his hands on the wheel were damp. Adrenaline made his heart hammer hard and fast and everything except the moment and the truck ahead of him seemed to recede. Some corner of his mind registered that he was terrified, but the terror couldn’t reach him. Not now, not yet. Adrenaline had put up its wall.
Eyes on the truck. The command rode through his mind like a mantra. Come hell or high water, he wasn’t going to let that truck or Haley out of his sight.
* * *
Haley sat pressed to the truck’s passenger door. Her first thought was that when he slowed to turn onto the highway, she’d fling herself out, but before they even reached the end of the parking lot, she heard the automatic locks snap shut. When she pressed the button, nothing happened.
“You won’t get out,” White Shirt said. “You try anything, I’ll shoot you.”
Leaning against the door, she looked at him, looked around the small cab and realized this damn truck was built more like a car. He had automatic transmission.
Auto!
So he was able to drive with his right hand on the wheel and keep the gun lying on his lap, his left hand on the grip, the muzzle pointed straight at her.
Any hope of catching a moment where he had both hands doing something else evaporated.
She was breathing heavily, her stomach knotted with fear, and she thought of Buck, hoping he had seen what happened. He
must
have seen. And he must be following right now. She glanced in the big side mirror but couldn’t see anyone behind them as they pulled through town.
That didn’t mean Buck wasn’t following, she assured herself. It just meant she couldn’t see him. It was a dark enough night. If he was driving with headlights off...
She looked at White Shirt again. “Why are you doing this?” She hated the way her voice quivered.
“You know who I am. You saw me with Ray.”
“I never saw you before!”
“Don’t lie. You looked right in my face that night.”
“What do you want with me?”
“You don’t want to know.”
That scared her as much as that gun pointed in her direction. In fact, it scared her so much she didn’t care if he managed to take a shot at her. If she was moving, he might miss the important parts of her. Buck had survived being shot, after all.
She felt for and pressed the window control button, determined to climb out at the very next turn. It didn’t respond either. He had everything locked up, all the controls on the far side of him.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but even if I did, I’d never say a word to anyone. Have I been talking like I know something about anything?”
He laughed. “You’ve been hanging with that cop guy.”
“What cop guy? You mean, Buck, the driver? He just wanted to get in my pants.” God, it hurt to say that, but desperation was lending inventiveness to her lies.
“Did he?”
She didn’t answer. Her eyes roamed the cab, looking for something, anything to use against him. Hell, he didn’t even have any trash lying around.
“Just let me go,” she implored, hating the desperation in her voice. “Whatever you think I know, I won’t say anything.”
“Just shut up,” he growled, “or so help me I’ll hit you so hard you’ll see stars.”
So she fell silent, sure that a man who could kidnap her at gunpoint wouldn’t hesitate to beat her. Her nails dug into her palms as she tried to force herself to think.
There had to be something she could do. Something.
Take the ride,
she told herself. Keep quiet, stay alive until they got where they were going. Then she might have an opportunity. If not, Buck certainly couldn’t be far behind.
Knowing that death might only be a few miles away, she felt a whisper of amazement at how much faith she had in Buck.
A guy she really hardly knew. Yet she believed that somehow, like a superhero, he would rescue her. Maybe she was crazy, but she clung to that hope like a lifeline while her eyes roamed, looking for a weapon, a way, a means...anything that might help her escape this man.
Oddly, a kind of peace began to steal through her. A kind of calm unlike any she had felt before. She wasn’t afraid of dying, she realized. Only of how.
Which meant she had to find a way to take this guy on. Because if this was the end, then she wanted it on her own terms.
* * *
Of all times for cell phones to fail, Buck thought in disgust. No matter how many times he called, he got Gage’s voice mail, and then when he finally got desperate enough to call the emergency number to get them to contact Gage, he got a message that all circuits were busy. Angry, he tossed the phone on the seat beside him, and focused on the red taillights ahead of him. A dark night, a late hour—it wasn’t hard to follow that truck at a safe distance.
Not right now, anyway. He just prayed nothing would happen, that the guy didn’t know he was being followed. And he wished there was just a little more light out here. He could follow those damn taillights right into a ditch, because he was driving without headlights. One wrong move and he’d be useless to Haley.
Tension kept him bent close to the wheel, kept his eyes narrowed as he tried to keep his eye on that truck and judge from its movements if there were any bends in the road ahead. He’d driven this road with Haley and he thought he knew it fairly well, but it wouldn’t be the first time his mental map screwed up on him.
He wondered what awaited them. Wherever this truck was going, there’d undoubtedly be other people. Those three who’d been hanging around town today? Or were they gone, their purpose served when he left town? He had little doubt at this point that there’d been a lot of pressure from somewhere to get him out of the way. He hoped they considered that done.
But why the hell had they dragged Haley into this?
He should have listened to his own damn instincts, and he gave himself a mental kick in the butt. One thing to miss that he’d been sent out here on a wild goose chase, but another to make the assumption, once he figured out they wanted him out of here, that Haley had dropped off their radar.
Hell, she’d seen White Shirt outside her apartment. Foolish to assume he’d been trying to find out where Buck was. But who the hell could have imagined that she’d get kidnapped right out of the parking lot like that?