Last Chance To Run (22 page)

As he bent forward, huge fingers locked on Angel’s forearms with a gorilla grip and snatched her over his head. She landed hard. Her back smashed against the floor between him and Trish. The blow knocked the air from her lungs. She wheezed, struggling for breath.

The front door banged open in the distance.

Vision watery, Angel watched her attacker’s polished bald head snap up at the sound.

He raised a foot to step over her.

She bent a leg and shoved her foot up into his groin with everything she had.

He howled, “
Fuuucckkk
!”
and fell to one knee.
He made a sound like a wounded beast.

She rolled over, every move demanding air she couldn’t pull in. She struggled to her feet.

The door stood open. Thank God.

She lunged forward, and almost made it.

He yanked her by the hair again. Her head snapped back, stars flashed in her vision. Could she hold him off long enough for Trish to get away?

He swung her around like a doll on a string and plowed a steel fist into her jaw.

Help.

Trish?

Zane?

Pain faded away. She sank into a black void.

Chapter 37

Zane paced the waiting area inside the terminal at the regional airport he’d flown into. The stale smell of greasy fast food creeping out of the waste can in the corner irritated him, but not as much as this hold up. He should have received the High Vision shipment an hour ago.

Something had gone wrong.

A paper glitch?
Probably the damn storm.
Computers could be down with this weather.

He’d made it out of Ft. Lauderdale ahead of the incoming squall ripping off the ocean, only to land in a wicked thunderstorm. A low pressure system he hoped would not turn into a hurricane.

But his gut was telling him the weather and computers weren’t to blame. He’d left one message for dispatch that hadn’t been returned yet.

Zane dialed his apartment again while he waited on Sammy to call and explain what was going on with the shipment. His home phone rang six, seven, eight times.

He jammed the off button. It was barely after eight in the morning. Where the hell were Angel and Trish? He hoped Angel hadn’t left the apartment. She’d promised to be careful.

What about those coins she was searching for? Was she at the marina, going through his boat now?

His phone lit up with a text. He thumbed the button for the display and read: High Vision will no longer need your services.

What the hell?
He punched the numbers for the dispatcher. When Sammy answered, Zane demanded, “What’s going on? I flew through a tropical depression to be here on time. No one’s shown with the shipment.”

“You should have received a text.”

“I got some
bullshit
message about not needing my services. What’s with that?”

“I don’t know. I only coordinate shipments.”

“Oh, come on, Sammy. I’ve been working with you for months. I’ve gone above and beyond. Tell me something,
dammit
.”

Sammy’s low grumble came through the lines. “Okay, but I’m not at liberty to say much and even if I could, I don’t know squat. From what I hear, local authorities and harbor patrol are all over the ship and our containers.”

What.
The.
Hell? Wouldn’t Ben and Vance know about this? Zane wasn’t hanging up without clarification on not needing his services.

Just today or not anymore?

Sammy cut into his thoughts. “I hear the front blowing into Miami is picking up steam. You may want to get rolling or find somewhere to hole up overnight. From the weather report I got, I doubt anyone can fly back in this mess.”

Zane didn’t want a weather report and knew when he was getting blown off. “Is High Vision cutting me loose?”

The silence that answered Zane churned the nausea building in his gut.

Sammy finally said, “All I know is High Vision goes
apeshit
over anything like this. There’ll be an internal investigation and only a few people even knew about this shipment today. Shit runs downhill and right now you’re at the low end of the pipeline. Don’t call the office. If they want anything, they’ll call you.”

In other words, yes, you are cut loose, Zane.

Shit!
He pulled back his foot to kick the cheap wall paneling and stopped before he destroyed someone else’s property. “
Gotta
go,” Sammy said and the line died.

Zane pulled the phone away and stared at it. All his hard work, all the insane flying and sacrifices he’d made to get this contract just did a nosedive into the sewer.

He clutched his forehead, trying to hold back the headache wanting to explode. What the hell had happened?
Fuck it
. He was not staying here another minute.

Screw the weather.

He headed for his airplane. His cell phone rang. The ID was his home phone number. Maybe Trish was still asleep and Angel had been in the shower.

Relief took the edge off his frustration, but he still couldn’t help his rough tone. “Angel?”

“No, it’s Heidi. I’m at your apartment. We’ve got a problem.”  Her frantic voice made that clear.

“Why? What’s wrong?”  Fear hammered his chest, his mind jumping to every bad scenario possible.

“When I got here, your front door was wide open and nobody’s here.”

“Nobody?” he shouted. He hadn’t considered
that
scenario.

“No. I forgot to leave the answering machine on. I don’t know where Trish is, but she said she’d lost her bus pass last night.”  Heidi’s normally high-pitched, calm voice reached the squeaky stage when she got upset. “Your front door and patio doors were wide open.”

“Listen to me, Heidi.” He started running to his Titan. “I’m on my way
back from Jacksonville right now. Get out of the apartment.”

“Do you want me to call the police?”

“No.”  He didn’t want anyone there until he’d had a chance to check it out himself before anyone contaminated the scene. The police might not agree, but they would only look at it like a break-in at this point. They wouldn’t go after Trish or Angel for twenty-four hours.

Heidi argued, “I don’t want to leave in case Trish comes back. I’m worried about her.”

“I am, too, but until I get there and figure out what happened, I don’t want you in the apartment. It might not be safe. If you want to wait, stay in your car. Leave immediately if anyone strange shows up. Got it?” 

“Okay. I’ll wait outside until you get here.”

His worst nightmare had come to life.

Chapter 38

Air.
Angel needed air. Her chest wouldn’t expand for a simple breath. She was going to suffocate.

She could hear a deep rumbling noise.
Thunder.
Her clothes hung heavy on her body, soaked. She opened one eye.

Black pavement shined under a veil of water. She faced down, but she was moving. Raindrops beat across her back. Water ran around her neck, across her throbbing face and into her eyes. Hair hung around her face, slapping her outstretched arms as she bounced.

Someone had an arm hooked around her legs, carrying her fireman style across his shoulder. She pushed against the rock-hard back, desperate to give her chest room for air.

“Be still.”  The rough order left no room for argument.

“I ... can’t ... breath.”  She squeezed the words past her sore jaw.

He shoved her higher on his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a child. She pulled in a deep breath. Her head throbbed, nausea threatened.

Everything started coming back to her.
The black-clothed figure standing inside Zane’s patio doors.
The intruder attacked her ... in the apartment.

With Trish.
Did Zane’s sister get away?

Please, God, don’t let Trish be hurt
. That would kill Zane.

The thought of Zane brought tears to her eyes. She was beyond miserable physically, but now the emotional torture of never seeing him again set in. That’s what she got for letting her guard down, getting comfortable.

Opening her heart to a man.

The bouncing stopped. Keys jingled then a car door opened. He slid her down in front of him, picked her up, and pitched her onto the backseat of a huge sport utility. What was it about thugs and big, dark SUVs?

Guess a white minivan just didn’t get the job done when it came to the fear factor.

She tried to push herself up on her elbows.

Either he moved with amazing speed or she was sluggish from the battering. Frigid gray eyes hovered over her. His noxious cologne and sweaty masculine odor accosted her.

A black gun handle protruded from the waistband of his pants.

With his left hand, he reached over the seat into the rear cargo area.

She breathed in shallow pants, anxious at what he’d do next.

Fighting him would only get her injured worse, but he’d think he had a
crazed animal in this car if he tried to rape her.

He glanced at the rear area, his arm moving as though he had opened something. When his gaze sliced to her again, a nasty smile spread across his face.

Goose bumps pebbled along her arms.

Shifting his body support to his knees, he slid his right hand across the front of her shirt.

She sank backwards deep into the seat, moving away from his touch. He squeezed one breast as if to gauge her cup size then moved his hand under her neck.

Waiting to see if he would do worse than grope her, she shivered in revulsion.

He misunderstood her reaction.

“That’s better. I like my women more agreeable than you were earlier.” 

His coarse voice drove terror through her. Her mind shifted from fear of Mason to a new threat. Maybe this man had no connection to Mason. There were hundreds of mega-sized sport utility vehicles in the country. Maybe he was just a sexual predator.

Just
a sexual predator?

She’d spent too much time around Mason to downgrade a deviant like this one.

Her fear climbed higher every second he hovered over her. The giant had her pinned to the seat. Fighting a bulldozer would be easier. Muscles bulged in his left arm as he raised his hand from the cargo area behind the seat.

Waves of panic shot through her. All the survival training in the world wouldn’t save her from this creep.

Angel sucked in a breath and opened her mouth to scream for help.

He slapped a damp cloth over her face, forcing her to breathe deeply of the acrid smell.

She flinched,
then
everything went black again.

Chapter 39

Zane slammed on brakes in front of his apartment. He’d battled weather all the way back, but he couldn’t attribute sweaty palms to the vicious weather he’d confronted. Flying into a tropical depression didn’t compare with the sick fear something had happened to both Angel and his sister.

Heidi’s ancient, lime-green Volkswagen bug sat in the lot. Empty.

Damn. Couldn’t at least one woman he knew follow directions?

Rain soaked his shirt by the time he’d raced around the corner and flung open his unlocked front door.

Heidi jumped up from the sofa, her spiked hair wilder than normal. “Am I ever glad to see you,” she declared.

“You shouldn’t have waited in here, Heidi. It wasn’t safe.”

“But, Zane
– ”

“I don’t even know what happened to them. You could have been hurt,” he blazed on.

“But, Zane, you don’t understand
– ”

“Yes, I do.”

“No you don’t, Sugar.”

Zane spun to his left. A pale Trish emerged from the bathroom, tears streaming down her face.

She ran to him. Zane clutched her shaking frame. Thank God
she
was safe.

Trish sobbed against his chest, oblivious to his wet clothes.

“Are you okay, honey? Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice strained.

“I’m okay.”  She hiccupped between sobs. “It’s Angel.”

“What happened?”  He hadn’t meant to snap, but worry for Angel now took front and center.

“I’m so sorry,” Trish wailed. “I couldn’t help her. I tried, but I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there until she told me to run.”  Another sob escaped.

He clenched his teeth to keep from shouting. The more anxious Trish became the less coherent she’d be, and he needed all the information he could get right now.

Zane coaxed her, “
It’s
okay. Just calm down and tell me what happened.”

She sniffled and cleared her throat. “We were in the kitchen and the power went out so Angel went into the living room to get candles, but she didn’t come back. So I went out there and some guy was in the apartment.
Could have wrestled on TV.
He’d knocked her down. I screamed ... he turned around and I froze.” Her eyes welled up with tears again. “I’m so sorry.”

Zane’s nerves were being dragged through a field of razor blades each second he waited on Trish to tell him everything. Did Angel lie hurt in a hospital somewhere? He took a deep breath to keep from shouting and pushed his sister for more.

“Okay, take it easy, but tell me what happened to her.” 

Trish raised pained eyes to him. “He came after me, but Angel jumped on his back and screamed at me to run.”  Her voice dropped to a whisper. “So I did. I ran way down to the end of the complex, scared out of my mind. I hid behind some bushes by one of the buildings. I was crying, trying to figure out what to do.” 

“What else?”  Zane silently pleaded for Trish to get it all out.

She sniffled. “I wanted to come back here and check on Angel and I thought maybe I could get his tag number.”

Patience was paying off, but at the cost of his sanity. Chinese water torture would be easier than waiting on Trish to tell him where the hell Angel had gone. “So you got a tag number?”

Trish shook her head. “I came back to help Angel and found Heidi.”  Tears poured out of her swollen eyes. “Angel’s gone and I can’t tell you where.”

He wanted to say it was okay, that he would get her back because he had a tracking device in Angel’s sneaker.

But finding the chip didn’t mean Angel would be alive when he got to it.