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Tom got Shane on the phone who reassured him that they were looking for Cal.

“Got more. You gotta find him. He and his brother kidnapped my girl.” Tom couldn’t keep the shaking from his voice, but couldn’t seem to find the ability to maintain control.

“Jesus, fuck. Hold on, chief’s calling a briefing. It’s ’bout your situation. Call you back in ten.” Shane hung up, leaving Tom still holding the phone to his ear, not knowing what to do.

Jake threw open the door to the truck, pushing Tom toward the seat. “Get in. We’re goin’ to Richland.”

The two men headed out of town, determined to make the three hour drive in half that time. Tom coordinated the investigation from his phone while Jake drove, using his flashing lights to speed along where possible. The chief reported that Bert’s car had been found abandoned on the side of the road about an hour outside of Fairfield. State police investigators were at the scene, but the assumption was that was where Cal met up with Bert. The good news was that it was on the road to Richland so their hunch that he was heading there was probably correct. The bad news was that there was no sign of Carol.

They still have her.
Tom could feel the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach rise and threaten to choke him. His ability to think like a detective had left hours ago, leaving him adrift, helpless, and utterly lost.

Jake glanced over to see Tom sitting quietly with his eyes staring blankly ahead. “Tom,” he said softly. “We’re gonna get her. We’ve the state police and the Richland police working this case as a priority. We’re. Gonna. Find. Her.”

“But what shape will she be in?” Tom asked, almost on a whisper, shaking his head. “She…struggles…stress gets to her. I just don’t…”

“Don’t go there, man. Don’t go there. She’s strong. She’s tough. She’s smart. But she needs you. She needs you to be strong and focused. Can you do that?”

Sucking in a deep breath, eyes refocusing, Tom looked over at Jake. “Yeah, man. I got it.”

Nodding in Tom’s direction, Jake turned back to his speeding down the road.

C
arol slowly woke to the feeling of movement. Hazy. Floating. A gentle rocking back and forth. Heavy eyelids that did not want to open. Licking her lips, they felt dry. A strange taste in her mouth. Voices far away.
Did I get sick? Am I in the hospital?
The fog in her mind slowly lifted, leaving her as confused as ever. Forcing her eyelids to open, she realized that she was laying in the back of a car.
Whose car am I in?

“Tom?” she croaked, her voice sounding foreign to her. Wanting to sit up, she tried unsuccessfully to push up with her arms.
Why won’t my arms move the way I want them to?

The voices stopped, and a man’s face appeared over the seat in front of her.
I recognize that face.
But she couldn’t come up with a name. Confusion mingled with a dreaded sense that something was not right began to slide through her mind.

“How much did you give her?”

“Whatever you put in that needle for me.”

Who are these people? Why am I in their car? What is happening? Needles?
Forcing her mind to clear faster, Carol’s nursing training began to emerge.
Needle? Something given to me? Drugs! I’ve been drugged!

With all her strength she pushed up again, and this time was successful in sitting partially up in the seat. Two heads were in front of her.
Driving. One of them is driving.
Think, damn it!
Feeling her mind struggle to make sense of what her eyes were seeing, she re-focused on the heads in front of her. The one not driving turned around, looking at her with an anxious look on his face.
Bert. Oh my god. Bert. He tricked me. He drugged me.
The moments in the parking lot came rushing back into her mind as fear rushed into her heart.

“Bert?” she asked, her voice slurring. “Whadda you doing? Why’d you do this?”

“Oh Miss Carol. I’ve wanted you for so long, but you were always with that policeman. Cal told me that if I took you, then you’d forget about that cop and would be with me.”

The driver glanced back at her as well.
Cal. Oh Jesus, Cal.
The memory of what the guards said about him when she was treating him rushed through her mind.
I’ve got to get out of here.
Glancing out of the window, she saw the scenery rushing by. Fighting the nausea that threatened to overtake her, she knew that the drugs were still very much in her system.

“We gotta get some gas, and I’m getting hungry,” Cal said. “You got more stuff to give her?”

No! I can’t let them give me more!
Sliding back down on the seat, moaning, she closed her eyes, hoping they would not drug her more.

“I got somethin’, but she’s fine. You stop up here, and she’ll be fine,” Bert assured his brother.

Carol could feel the car move to the right and come to a stop. From what she could see, they were at a little mom & pop gas station.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” she told the brothers. “I gotta go bad.”

Bert looked nervously at his brother who was scowling. “Maybe we better let her. Don’t want her getting’ sick.”

Cal twisted around in the seat and looked at Carol slumped in the back. “Gonna walk you in, and gonna wait right outside while you piss. You do anything, you’ll regret it, get me?”

Carol just nodded, agreeing to anything to get out of the car. Bert got out first then opened her door. Half helping, half dragging, he managed to get her on her feet.

How am I going to run when I can’t even stand?
Glancing at the small building in front of her, she wondered if there would be anyone there to help. With Bert on one side and Cal on the other, they walked inside the store. Forcing her to the bathroom in the back, Cal called out loudly, “Damn girl started drinkin’ this mornin’ and is totally wasted now.”

Carol wanted to shout out to the person behind the counter, but couldn’t seem to get the words out before she was shoved into the tiny bathroom.

“Do your business and no funny stuff. I’ll be right here. You give me any trouble, and I’ll shoot the old man in the front,” Cal warned in a soft voice, before shutting the door.

Stumbling over, Carol used the toilet as quickly as she could, trying desperately to not fall on her face. Now that he had threatened another person, she had no idea what to do. Grabbing onto the sink, she turned on the water then splashed her face. The cold water helped clear her mind, but her legs were still wobbly.
I’ve got to try. I’ve got to do something.

Unlocking the door, she was shoved backwards when it opened quickly. Bert was there pulling her out gently, and she could see Cal up front, making his purchases. Forcing her legs to walk as steadily as she could, she looked at her feet hoping to lull Cal into thinking that she was being compliant. Just as she got close to the counter, she raised her head up and shouted, “Help me! They’re kidnapping me!” while pushing Bert into Cal, knocking them both off balance. Stumbling outside, she almost made it to the side of the building when she was grabbed by the arm and swung around.

“Oh no, pretty girl. You ain’t gettin’ away that easily,” Cal spoke with deadly calm, pressing a gun to her side while dragging her back to the car. Opening the door, he shoved her inside.

“Cal, don’t you hurt my girl,” Bert yelled as he came running over. “You be nice to her.”

Cal sneered at Bert. “You dumb fuck. She ain’t no girl of yours. That sweet piece is gonna be mine. Been thinkin’ about her since I first laid eyes on her.”

Carol turned to see Cal point the gun at Bert. She could feel the shaking overtake her as she watched with horror the scene play out in front of her.

“In fact, brother, I don’t need your sorry ass no more. You got the girl for me and got ma to help get me outta that fuckin’ shithole town.”

Bert looked at Cal, eyes wide as he stared at the gun. “You gonna shoot me, Cal? Your brother?”

Carol watched as Cal brought the gun up holding it directly at Bert. Just as Cal was taking a shot, he was knocked off balance by Carol’s door opening into his side. Bert jumped out of the line of fire, as Cal rounded on Carol, slamming the door shut again.

Cal ran around the car, jumping into the driver’s seat and gunning the car out of the parking lot. “You stupid bitch. Don’t you get it? I’m makin’ you my number one girl and you’re tryin’ to throw it away?”

Number one girl. What the hell is he talking about?

Cal jerked the car to the side of the road and came to a quick stop. Carol was thrown into the floorboard of the back seat. Crawling back into the seat, she was just turning around when she felt a stabbing pain in her arm. Screaming out, she tried to scramble around to see Cal when the darkness began to descend again.
No, not again….

*

Jake’s phone rang. “Yeah,” he barked into the cell. “When? Shots fired? He still there? Got it.”

Tom’s heart dropped into his stomach once again at the questions he heard Jake asked. Twisting around in his seat so he could concentrate directly on his partner, he didn’t even have to ask. Jake began talking as soon as he hung up.

“Cal and Bert have her. They stopped to get gas, and she tried to escape. The attendant said she was drunk, but I figure she is still drugged. Cal and Bert argued. Cal left Bert’s ass there. ’Bout five minutes up ahead.”

Tom, forcing his mind to think like a detective and not like a terrified boyfriend, called Shane and filled him in. “Gonna stop for just a minute to see what we can get outta Bert. Call you as soon as I can to give you an update.”

Pulling into the gas station, they were met with a multitude of local police cars. Hopping out, flashing their badges, they approached Bert, who was cuffed and sitting in one of the cruisers. Before Jake could stop him, Tom hauled Bert out and slammed his back against the car.

“What the fuck did you do with Carol?” he yelled.

“Tom,” Jake ordered. “Stand down.”

Tom let go of a shaking Bert, but leaned down in his face. Speaking slow and even, he said, “I will come back for you if she is hurt in any way. You got me?”

“I just wanted her to be my girlfriend. Cal told me that if I got her away from you, she would fall for me,” Bert blubbered.

Jake, realizing how Cal manipulated Bert, tried to use that to gain information. “Bert, Cal really played you. Now he has Carol, and we gotta get to him to make sure she is safe. You want her safe, don’t you?”

Bert’s sad eyes looked up at Jake and then slid over to Tom’s angry face. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I always knew she wasn’t for me. Cal just made me feel that she could be mine.”

Jake continued to probe softly. “Bert, you can’t make someone like you. But now your brother has her, and you know he’s not a nice person. He’s not gonna be nice to her. You gotta tell us anything you know.”

Bert nodded, eyes focused on a distant point past Jake’s shoulder as though trying to work out a problem in his head. Looking back at Jake, he said, “Don’t know anything about Cal’s business, but he got a call the other day and I saw who was callin’. Cal was in the shower, so I looked at his phone when it rang. It didn’t have a nice name.”

Jake and Tom glanced at each other in question, then Jake prodded, “Not a nice name?”

“Yeah. I knew ma would be upset it she knew he was takin’ calls like that in our home.” Leaning in closer to whisper the name, Bert said, “Pussy Club.”

Tom turned and stalked over to the truck, getting Shane on the phone. “What do you got on a place called the Pussy Club?”

Shane cursed. “Low class strip joint. Been busted several times for prostitution. One of the places where the girls are always drugged out, usually against their will. Cal manages to stay clear but we know he’s involved. Place gets shut down then re-opens under new management. Real sleezy place. It’s one that we keep tryin’ to pin on Cal, but he manages to hide his involvements. Why?”

“Cal’s brother just rolled on him. Said he got a call from them the other day.”

“Could be where he’s headed. At least it is a start. You’re gonna hit Richland in about thirty minutes. I’ll send you the GPS coordinates and tell you where we’ll meet up. Gettin’ my crew here ready to go. We’ve been after this fuck for a couple of years.”

“Shane, I don’t give a shit about Cal right now. I just want Carol,” Tom said, not embarrassed at the emotion in his shaking voice.

There was a brief silence as the words hung between the two men before Shane spoke. “Got it, man. I haven’t found the right one yet, but when I do, I’d move heaven and earth. We’ll do this. Promise.” With that, he hung up, sending a text with the GPS information.

As Tom was climbing into the truck, he heard a small voice behind him. Turning, he saw Bert, still cuffed with a policeman at his side. “I know she’s yours. Just get her safely back.”

With a curt nod, Tom hauled himself up into the truck, and they headed down the homestretch toward Richland.

*