Finding Kat (20 page)

I got a phone call from Jake about fifteen minutes later. Some kid that works at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere said that Kat told him to call the LA police and say that she had been there. Apparently, she would leave a trail so we kind follow it to wherever they stopped for the night. She left a message for me too. She told the kid to tell me that I owed him front row seats to a concert and a new CD. I laughed in relief when I heard the message. That was my Kat, cracking jokes even though she was being held against her will. I felt lighter with the knowledge that we would find her and get her back. She was OK. I prayed that she stayed that way.

I drove to the police station and met Jake and Rick. We formed a convoy and drove the two-hour drive to the gas station. We looked around the area for the trail that Kat promised to leave. I found her favorite lip-gloss on the ground by the gas pump. I snatched it up and put it in my pocket. I needed something to hold on to. Jake called us over to the side of the road headed west. Kat had dropped an Occam’s Razor CD on the side of the road. I let out a strangled laugh. I guess we were headed west.

KAT

We drove until we came to a cheap looking hotel that had only one other car in the lot. Allen went inside and got us a room and I grimaced imagining what this place was like inside. It was probably empty for a reason.

“I got us a room Katie. We can hide out here for a day or so until we can find a place and get some fake Id’s and passports so we can go to Mexico. Once we leave the country, they can’t do anything. That’s what happened in that episode of Criminal Thinking that you were on.” Allen said and he walked us to our room for who knows how long. When we got to the door I dropped my driver’s license on the other side of a trash can. We walked into the room and he closed the door behind us. It was just as gross as I thought it would be. Hopefully they had changed the sheets in the last few days.

Allen walked over and turned on the TV. He found the news channel and I wasn’t surprised to find it blasting information about my kidnapping. They had video of us leaving the coffee shop and had information about Allen.

“I knew this would happen.” Allen said sounding angry. “They are trying to make me look like the bad guy. They know its Cade that is the bad guy. But he probably paid them all off.”

I kept quiet not wanting to rile him up more. I sat down on the bed and watched the TV as they showed Cade running to his car and jumping in it, obviously in a hurry. He pulled out of his driveway recklessly and with no regard to the photographers surrounding his house. They jumped out of the way diving to the side and running in opposite directions as the videographer followed Cade speeding off down the road.

I will never forget the look on his face. As someone who knew his expressions intimately, I couldn’t ignore the mask of fear and rage. It really hit me then how fast we had developed feelings for each other and how deep they already ran. I wasn’t worried much for my safety despite the fact that a crazy guy kidnapped me convinced he was rescuing me. I was more worried for what would happen when the real rescuers appeared. I knew Cade would be with them. I hoped that Allen wouldn’t lash out and hurt someone. I wanted this all to end peacefully but deep down I doubted that as a possibility.

Allen didn’t talk much. He mainly spent his time eating some of the snacks I had picked up and watching the TV. I laid down, curled into myself, and closed my eyes. I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep so I was surprised when I was awakened later and discovered our room had gone dark and the TV was muted. I had been covered with a blanket and Allen was splayed on the other bed in the room snoring away without a care in the world.

CADE

We drove for miles, sending cars down gravel roads checking to see if they had turned off the main road at some point. I had a feeling that Kat would have left something for us if they did, but we couldn’t be too careful especially now that it had gotten dark outside. We slowed down as we approached a tiny town. It didn’t have much to it except some houses, a grocery store, gas station and cheap motel. We pulled into the motel and only saw two cars. Rick radioed the license plates and one came back stolen. Bingo.

The team of officers swept the outside of the building and signaled that they had something. One of the officers in a bulletproof fest came over to me and handed me Kat’s driver’s license. She was pointing us in her direction again. The license was placed beside a trashcan in front of one of the rooms on the bottom floor. Rick confirmed from what the guy at the front desk said that this was the room they were in.

This was it, I could feel it. I was going to have her back, hopefully safe. There was a gnawing in my gut that feared the worst. I refused to give in to the idea that she was harmed in any way. She was going to be fine. We were going to be fine. I wondered how many times I would have to repeat that in my head before I finally believed it.

I braced myself behind the line of police officers in riot gear. I wondered what I would find when they opened the door. At the signal of Rick the guy in front counted off with his fingers and then kicked open the door. There was a deafening silence after the bang of the door opening and then I heard the officers who had moved inside yelling at the guy to lay down and put his hands on his head. I heard him yell something back and I ran inside, unable to wait anymore to find out what happened to Kat.

I looked around the room and didn’t see Kat. Had he dumped her somewhere? Had she gotten away? I yelled in frustration. I got in this sick fucks face and yelled at him asking where Kat was. He just laid there and didn’t move or say anything.

Then I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. It must have been a door to the bathroom or something. Then I saw Kat. She looked beautiful and unharmed. In the blink of an eye, I was across the room and pulled her to me. I ran my hands over her searching for any twitch that indicated pain. I was so relieved I didn’t find anything that suggested she had been harmed during the kidnapping.

“I’m OK, Rock Star.” Kat said to me, as she rubbed my back. It was a sign of her strength that after being kidnapped she felt the need to comfort me.

I felt wrecked by this experience. I hadn’t known her long but she had already grown to mean so much to me. She was quickly becoming the most important person in my life besides my family. I wondered if she had any idea how much I needed her.

KAT

I heard a bump in the hall outside and jumped to attention. They found us. I ran to the door and looked out the peephole. I couldn’t see anything except our car in front of the room. I slumped and walked to the bathroom. I was washing my hands when I heard a loud bang and voices screaming for us to put our hands on our head. I heard Allen yell something that I couldn’t make out and then Cade’s voice.

“Where is she?!” Cade yelled and his voice was cut off by someone saying something to him I couldn’t hear.

“What did you do with her? Where is Katherine?” He yelled again.

I opened the door then and peaked out. Allen was lying on the ground and was being cuffed. Cade was standing over him raking his hands through his hair. The movement of the door caught his eye, he looked up, and our eyes clashed. It took seconds for him to move across the room and throw the door the rest of the way open. His hands ran over my body checking for injuries. When he found none his hands pulled me to him where he clung tightly, breathing heavily.

“I’m OK, Rock Star.” I said to him softly running my hands down his back.

I could only imagine what he went through imagining what was happening to me. I may have been the one drug around California but he was just as affected by this experience. I could only be grateful that it was over. It was finally over and I was safe.

“Kat.” He said softly. I could see his reflection in the mirror and the expression on his face tugged at my heart. His eyes were shut tight and his cheek was pressed tightly to the top of my head. I could feel the deep breaths he was taking. I closed my eyes too and leaned into him more.

We were pulled apart by the SWAT team. They had us clear the area so the crime scene people could come in, get all the evidence, and take pictures. The EMT’s checked me over for injuries even though I swore I wasn’t hurt. They took pictures of a few bruises I had gotten somewhere along the way and cleared me to talk to the police. The whole time Cade never left my side. He argued with the EMT about giving him space and was unusually belligerent. I just let him be. He would deal with all of this in his own way, and once it finally sunk in that this was finally over, he would calm down.

We were driven back to LA and I dozed on Cade’s shoulder in the car. He woke me up once we got to the police station and I could tell he hadn’t rested at all in the car. He seemed even more on edge than when we got in, actually.

We were taken back to a room with a table and chairs and asked to give statements. We were supposed to be separated but Cade put on his rock star face and refused to budge an inch. We took turns talking about what happened and Cade’s shoulders seemed to lose some tension once he realized that I wasn’t mistreated or even threatened at all. He did seem to be ticked off at me, if the muscle in his jaw was any indication, when I tried to convince the police that Allen should be gotten mental help instead of being sent to prison.

I sat and listened to his version of the events and I squeezed his had a few times when he glossed over his reactions. I knew there was more to it than what he said and I worried about the things he was leaving out. What if all of this made him realize that he didn’t have strong enough feelings for me to deal with all of this? There was going to be so much fall out. Endless amounts of hounding by the media, speculation about the events, and the story would probably be turned into something much bigger than it really was. Could he handle it? Was being with me worth it?