Identity Crisis (Rocky Mountain Novella Series) (5 page)

     Winging her plan, Julie pretended to slowly wake up.  “Where am I?” she asked in a horse, half-whisper.

     Derek’s head jerked back to look at the woman when he heard her speak.  She was awake.  He hadn’t thought of what he would do if she woke up because he expected to be long gone by then.  Since he didn’t know what to say, he decided instead to just keep pacing back and forth and completely ignore her. 

     Julie knew the man had heard her.  She saw him look directly at her as she spoke.  She asked the same question again, only louder, but again the man refused to answer her or even look at her a second time.  If she couldn’t get him to say anything, maybe she could play on his sympathies.  It wasn’t something she expected a kidnapper to be susceptible to, but it was worth a try. 

     She struggled in the chair, only half pretending to freak out at the realization that she was tied up and helpless in a strange place.  “Why am I tied up?” she yelled as she buckled back and forth.  “Help me!  These ropes hurt!”  It took a while, but the man did begin to pay attention to her.

     “Calm down!” Derek yelled as he turned around to restrain the woman.  He tried not to show it, but he didn’t know what to do.  He didn’t really worry about anyone hearing her yell, since they were nowhere near civilization.  What worried him was that the woman sounded as though she was genuinely in pain.  He wasn’t sure he could handle it much longer. 

     “Why am I here?!” Julie demanded to know as she stared directly into the kidnapper’s eyes.  They weren’t the eyes of a killer.  They were softer, somehow.  They looked scared. 

     Derek wondered if he should answer, but he already determined that ignoring the woman had only made things worse.  So, he answered…determined to keep his answers short and vague.  “I don’t know?” he answered.  It was the truth.  He didn’t have any idea what his boss wanted with her, only that she wasn’t supposed to be hurt. 

     Feeling bolder, Julie kept questioning the man.  Maybe if she bombarded him with questions, he would break and let something important slip.  “So, you just kidnap anyone without even knowing why?  What kind of a man are you?”  As she kept firing one question after another at the kidnapper, she could tell he was getting close to breaking. 

     “I was hired to grab you and hand you over to my boss.  He promised me you won’t be hurt so just calm down!  This will all be over soon!” Derek yelled back, hoping all he said was the truth.  All he wanted was to get paid and wash his hands of the woman and the entire ordeal.  The money he would be getting paid would keep him set for almost a year if he spent it wisely.  He kept reminding himself that it was just one night of his life to get him through the next twelve months.  That thought comforted him…a little. 

     As Derek told Julie that it would all be over soon, she was worried that’s exactly what would happen.  Just as she was about to fire another round of questions at him, the kidnapper’s phone rang. 

     “Be quiet, if you know what’s good for you!” he forcefully told Julie before answering the call.  She complied only because she wanted to listen into the call. 

     The unmistakable sound of a car driving over gravel could be heard just before a light travelled across the walls of the office.  It quickly became apparent that the call the kidnapper received was to let him know his boss was pulling up outside.  Julie panicked.  She wondered if she should have just continued to pretend she was still knocked out.  It was too late for that though.  She would just have to deal with whatever was about to come her way, whatever that might be. 

     Derek left the room and headed to meet his boss, glad that he would be paid and back in his van on his way home in a matter of minutes.  He opened the door and watched as a white man emerged from the black sedan.

     “Is she inside?” the man asked as he charged past Derek who was holding out his hand waiting to greet his boss.  “What’s this, you fucking moron?!” Derek heard a few seconds later, shouted from the office.

    
As Jason smugly walked into the office of the old and abandoned warehouse, he could see the figure of the woman he bore so much hated towards.  She was tied to a chair and probably felt helpless.  A smile spread across Jason’s face.  He had waited a year for the day when he could enact his revenge. 

     “I bet you didn’t think you’d see me again,” he said.  He knew his voice had a harder edge than she probably remembered.  He was going to enjoy how the fear it would inspire in her as she realized why she was in her current predicament.  He saw her head jerk to attention as he walked around the chair to face her. 

     What he saw on the woman’s face wasn’t recognition, but confusion.  It wasn’t her.  The bumbling idiot kidnapped the wrong woman!

     Julie sat helpless and scared as the man walked around her.  She wondered what he meant about seeing him again.  His voice wasn’t familiar to her.  She was sure it had to be a case of mistaken identity and hoped that maybe when he realized he had the wrong woman, he would just let her go.  That was naïve, though.  It was more likely that she would be killed.  Someone willing to have someone kidnapped wouldn’t be too keen on having a witness around that could identify them.  As the realization hit Julie that she likely would never see her friends or family ever again, she began to weep. 

     The man moved in front of Julie so she was face to face to him. 
Who was he?
  She didn’t recognize him.  She stared at him with a look of confusion.  From the look on his face, he was growing confused as well.  It was obvious that he realized she wasn’t who he was expecting.  She watched as his look turned from confusion to extreme anger.

     “What’s this, you fucking moron?!” the man yelled at the top of his lungs as he threw an old dusty desk lamp across the room.  Julie jumped as it shattered against the wall.

     Derek ran back into the room.  Now, he was the one shaking.  He didn’t know what Jason was so mad about, but from the tone of his voice, it was something big. 

     “That’s her…the woman you told me to grab,” he answered, not sure he was even understanding the question he was being asked. 

     “That is
not
who you were supposed to grab!” Jason screamed right into Derek’s face.  Small droplets of spittle flew from his lips as he yelled.  His face was turning a dark shade of red.  He had to calm down.

     Derek wasn’t sure he should even say anything in response.  It was clear that he had done something wrong, though he didn’t know how he could have gotten the wrong woman.  He wanted to explain, but he worried about making the situation worse.  He didn’t have a choice, though. 

     “You told me to grab the bride, Kristen,” Derek replied. 

     Julie remained still and listened.  For the time being, the two men seemed to forget all about her still being in the room. 
Why would the kidnapper want Kristen?
  It dawned on her that the man in charge was probably the man that tried to kill Kristen just a year earlier.  Finally, it was all making a little sense.  Putting the pieces together really didn’t help her out of her predicament.  She needed to get free and warn Kristen and Steel about Jason.

     “Yeah, I told you to grab the bride.  The bride!” Jason interrupted.  He could feel his blood pressure rising again. 

     “I did everything you told me.  I called the venue and had the bride paged.  The woman that answered the phone matched the description you gave me…,” Derek tried to explain but was once again cut short. 

     “I don’t care what you did!  This isn’t her!” Derek shouted.  His heart was beating fast.  He paced the room and tried to calm himself down. 

     Derek didn’t know what to do.  There was nothing else he could say.  He thought he had done everything right.  It wasn’t his fault that another woman matching the bride’s description answered the phone.  But, that didn’t change the fact that it was the wrong woman.  And, if it wasn’t the right woman, he likely wouldn’t get paid.  He felt a knot form in his stomach.  He had risked everything for that money, and it might have been all for nothing.  Not only might he not get paid, but he risked the possibility of going back to prison.  He was sure no one had seen him take the woman from the wedding venue, but that didn’t mean there weren’t witnesses he didn’t see or maybe even cameras that had caught the entire thing.

     After about ten minutes of pacing back and forth, Jason’s breathing returned back to normal.  He had to clear his head if he was going to fix things.  First, he had to deal with Derek. 

     “You’re right,” he said in a much calmer voice.  “You followed my instructions, so you deserve to get paid.”

     Derek breathed a sigh of relief.  He needed that money and was happy to hear that Jason wasn’t mad at him.  “I appreciate that.  I am really sorry for the mix up,” he replied.  He just wanted to get paid and get home so he could wash his hands of the entire situation. 

     “Make sure her hands are tied tightly, while I go get your money,” Jason instructed.

     Derek gladly followed his boss’ instructions.  Anything that would get him his money.  As he reached down to check the ropes that bound the woman’s hands, he felt a jolt to the back of his head followed by a feeling of warmth.  His body crumbled to the ground. 

     Derek put down the large metal box he had used to knock Derek out.  Already, he could see blood trailing down the man’s neck.  He didn’t mean to kill Derek, but it wasn’t something that he would cry about either.  It was just one less witness. 

     Julie didn’t know what was going on.  She had felt her kidnapper tightening the ropes around her wrists and then heard a loud bang.  For a few seconds, there wasn’t a sound in the room.  Then, she again felt someone messing with the ropes.  Only, this time, they were being cut loose.  Before she could even think of running, the knife was held tightly to her throat.  “I’m going to cut your legs loose,” Jason told her.  “Don’t make me have to hurt you.  Understand?”  Julie nodded and sat still as the rope around her ankles was also cut off.  She knew she should make a move, but having the man cut her free was a good sign in her eyes.  If he was going to just kill her, he could’ve left her tied up.  For the time being, she would just try to remain calm and wait for an opportunity to make her escape. 

     “What happened to him?” she asked once she stood up and saw Derek slumped on the floor, with a small pool of blood forming around his head. 

     Jason didn’t answer.  He needed to think.  The first thing he needed to do, though, was to get the woman away from the warehouse.  They had already been there too long.  He grabbed her tightly by her arm and dragged her roughly to the door.  “Don’t bother screaming.  That’ll just get you killed.  Besides, there no one around for miles,” he threatened. 

     As Jason drug Julie outside by her arm, she tried to stall him with questions.  “Where are we going?” she asked in a firm, confident tone.  Inside she was scared to death, but she wasn’t going to let Jason see that.  She would have to stay calm if she was going to have any chance at getting away. 

     Jason stopped dragging the woman and stared at her.  He still didn’t know what he was going to do with her, but he slightly admired her spunk.  Most women would be frightened and shaking with fear, but she wasn’t.  She was calm and collected.  Unfortunately for her, in Jason’s eyes that just made her more dangerous.  Rather than answer her question, he asked one of his own.  “Well I already know you’re not Kristen Casey, so who are you?” 

     Julie’s first thought was to correct Jason.  Her name wasn’t Kristen Casey anymore now that she had taken the last name, Steel.  But, correcting a kidnapper and possible murdered probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, so Julie swallowed the urge.  “My name is Julie,” she answered instead.  She couldn’t see any harm in stating her real name.  It wasn’t likely to put her in any more danger than she already found herself in.  “I was Kristen’s Maid of Honor.”  As she answered Jason’s question, she casually looked around to see if there was anything she could grab to maybe hit Jason with.  If she could get his keys and get to his car, she could get away.  She didn’t see anything at all that she could reach to fight off her captor, though. 

     Jason cringed as Julie mentioned Kristen’s name.  Over the last twelve months, his hatred for Kristen only grew stronger.  She had ruined his life.  He should’ve been living in the lap of luxury, but instead he was a felon, on the run.  Everything had been taken from him.  Before his escape from prison he had briefly considered just kidnapping Kristen for a hefty ransom.  But, he wanted to see her life ruined more than he wanted money.  He quickly realized he could easily have both.

     “What are you going to do with me?” Julie asked when Jason refused to say anything to her.  She didn’t want to let him put her in the car.  To her, the danger she knew was better than the danger she didn’t know.  She hoped that maybe she could stall until someone found them, or possibly even convince him to let her go. 

     Jason didn’t like how calm Julie was.  If she was scared, she would likely do as she was told.  But, the woman asking him questions had a steady voice.  She wasn’t whimpering or averting her eyes.  Instead she looked directly in his eyes as they spoke.  He knew she was going to be trouble and that was something he didn’t need…especially while driving.