Undercover Justice (29 page)

“That’s not what you said, back at the cafeteria. You implied that you were going to…”

“Relax, man. I didn’t mean it. I was just trying to scare them. Now you need to go get ready for our meeting tonight. Take Brian with you. I’ll take care of the girl and meet you there,” Martin told him, the sound of his voice getting closer. “She should be waking up anytime now.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” the other man said, “I think I should stay here with you until she wakes up and we let her go.”

Martin laughed, “Oh, were not letting her go. She knows too much. I’m going to have a little fun with her and then bring her to the meeting, for the Director to decide what to do with.”

I could hear the hesitancy in the other man’s voice as he said, “I did not sign up to harm innocent girls.”

“Yeah? Well you know what happens if you try to leave the Order,” Martin said menacingly. “Either you leave and follow my directions, or I am going to bring the wrath of the Order down on you.”

“Hey, I’m leaving, there’s no need to tell anyone anything.”

“See that you don’t,” Martin told him. “Like I said, take Brian with you. I don’t need a look out anymore. It’s been almost thirty minutes, if they haven’t found us by now, they ain’t going to find us.”

Dread settled in the bottom of my stomach. I had been out for almost thirty minutes? Where were we? What had happened while I was out? I couldn’t have slept that long, from a blow to my head. Could I have? I could tell I was still wearing the same clothes that I had had on at school. I was relieved at that. At least nothing that bad had happened while I was asleep. They seemed more concerned with hiding, than they did with me.

“Are you sure, you didn’t give her too much of that drug?” the other man asked.

Ah, that answered my question.

“I’m sure. Look if she doesn’t wake up soon, then I won’t have to take care of her. The drug will have done the trick for me,” Martin said wickedly. “Now get out of here.”

“Ok, see you in a couple hours man,” he said getting further away.

The sound of footsteps coming closer to the van made my heart start pounding fiercely. The back doors screeched and creaked, as Martin pried them open. Quickly shutting my eyes, I decided to pretend to still be unconscious. Maybe that way, he would leave me alone long enough for me to get my hands free.

I felt Martin grab a hold of my feet and yank me toward the door, before letting me go and slamming my head into the seat. “It’s time to wake up darling,” he said, with a wicked laugh.

Wincing, I hesitantly opened my eyes. I guess there was no use pretending to be asleep. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to leave me alone.

He stood at the open door, leering at me. Rubbing his hands together in obvious delight he said, “Good. You’re awake. It’s time to play.”

“Where are they?” Jed said, slamming his fist against the steering wheel. For a half hour, Jed and Kent had driven all over town searching every place they could think. There weren’t that many places someone could Hide and not be seen eventually. Jed had been in contact with Mike, using Kent’s cell phone. The police were also out searching and an APB had been put on the van.

Kent’s phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was his mom or dad again. “It’s my parents again,” he told Jed. “What am I supposed to say to them?” Kent sat there staring anxiously at the phone. It was starting to wear on him. It was getting harder and harder to tell his parents that there was no sign of Nora. His dad wanted to be out looking for her, but had to stay back with his mom, who wasn’t handling the news well.

“Do you want me to talk to them?” Jed asked trying to bring himself back under control.

“No, let’s try this place first, and then I’ll call them,” Kent said trying hard not to panic again. He’d already had a break down which involved slugging Jed and a lot of yelling. He actually felt bad about that, because Jed had just stood there and took it. He was already bruised and cut from those men at the school. Jed blamed himself for letting Martin take Nora.

Turning onto the road to the park, Jed said, “We’ve already been through this park what seems like a hundred times. I just have this feeling that she’s here somewhere. Someone could pull off one of the two tracks and hide for hours without seeing anyone else. It’s the perfect place. It’s got to be it.”

“Did you see a car turn down that road?” Kent asked pointing out the window.

There was a two track that was very narrow and looked like it ended. They had driven past it a couple times and discounted it, because it seemed to go nowhere.

“I didn’t see anything, are you sure?” Jed asked stopping the car and backing up the few feet so they could look down the trail again. They were practically crawling down the two-track. A Camaro wasn’t made for four wheeling.

“I’m almost positive that I saw tail lights way back there. This two-track must go somewhere once you get back in that mess,” Kent said straining to see.

“If we take this car back there, it is going to get all scratched up and we will probably get stuck,” Jed said. The forest was very thick with trees and brush. It looked like it was a trail made more for ATV’s and utility vehicles. Checking the GPS on Kent’s car, he saw that they hadn’t driven down any roads in this area. It was worth checking out. “We should probably go in on foot. If they’re back there, we don’t want to alert them and make them run.”

“Sounds good, let’s go,” Kent said making sure he had his cell phone. He got out of the car.

“Careful shutting the door,” Jed said in a quiet voice. “Sound carries out here. We need to be quiet from here on out.”

They softly shut the doors, and started moving up the path, keeping their eyes and ears peeled for any sounds that would indicate there was someone else back there.

“Hi Martin,” I said as casually as I could manage, given the fact that I was tied down in his van and he was standing at my feet eyeing me lustily. I had always heard that if you were a victim, try to humanize yourself and make your assailant get to know you better. That technique had deterred many criminals. I wasn’t sure if it would work on Martin or not, but I didn’t want him to see that I was scared. He seemed like the type to enjoy fear. I had no delusions about the ‘fun’ he had in mind. Maybe if I could keep him talking, it would give Jed enough time to find me. I knew he was out there looking for me. “Is this your van? I like the curtains,” Dumb. Dumb. Can’t I think of anything better, than I like your curtains?

Martin sneered. “I know what you are trying to do, and it’s not going to work.”

“Oh? What’s that?” I asked as innocently as I could. At least he was talking instead of doing.

“You’re trying to distract me,” Martin said angrily. He climbed into the van by my feet.

“Wait!” I said loudly my voice shaking from fear. I hope he didn’t notice. I needed to come up with something. Anything... “Do you have anything to drink?”

“You won’t need anything to drink with what I have in mind,” he said running his hand over my leg.

“Tell me about the secret organization,” I blurted out. “I have a right to know why they wanted me kidnapped.”

“What do you know about it?” Martin asked surprised. “You don’t have to worry about anything other than the reason you are here. If not for your little stunts at the mall and the mill, and for your boyfriend messing up my plans, you wouldn’t be here,” his eyes roamed over my body. “On second thought, I probably would have taken you anyway. I can make you forget your boyfriend even exists.”

I seriously doubt it, I thought, repulsed by his touch. “How did you get involved in it? I thought you had to be rich and part of the country club in order to belong?” I asked, fighting the urge to shake off his hand. I knew that making him madder probably wouldn’t be a good idea. A shadow of annoyance crossed his face, before he said grinning, “Yeah, well, let’s just say, that I am not actually a member, I am more like a consultant.”

“You must be pretty smart then,” I said. “I like a smart man. Why don’t you untie me and let me out of this van and I’ll show you.”

“I don’t think so,” Martin said wickedly. “I like you right where you are.”

Panic set in and was almost more than I could control. I didn’t know what else to do. I had tried everything I could think of. As he lifted his hand off my leg, I felt relief so intense that I almost cried. My momentary relief was replaced by sheer horror, as he stepped up into the van blocking the door. I screamed and did the only thing I had left. I prayed.

At the sound of a female
scream, Jed’s heart felt like it stopped. It didn’t sound that far away. Crouching down, they listened intently for any other sounds.

“This has to be it. That was Nora. I’m sure of it,” Kent told Jed frantically.

“Ok, here’s what we’re going to do. I think it was coming from the west. We need to stay quiet and hidden. When we get up there, we are not going to go charging in. We have to sit back a minute and see how many of them there are. Hopefully that car you saw was one or two of them leaving,” Jed told Kent, his eyes scanning the area the whole time he was talking. “When I say go, I want you to get to Nora while I take care of Martin. Got it.”

“Got it. Let’s go,” Kent said impatiently.

They quietly started making their way toward the direction of the scream. About a hundred meters away, Jed spotted the black van parked in a small clearing. It looked like a place on the road cleared where hunters could pull off, without blocking the whole trail.

“You keep sneaking toward the van. Keep your eyes out for anyone lurking in the woods. They must be inside the back of the van. I am going to go around that way,” he said pointing to the back of the van. “Remember don’t move in, until you see me.” With that, he took off through the underbrush. He crawled along on his stomach at times. The closer he got to the van the more he could hear the struggles going on inside it. He still had about fifteen yards to go.

I thought I felt my hands loosen a little. Frantically, working at them, I twisted and turned, trying to pull one free. By some miracle, I was able to get one free. Immediately, I reached out for his face and grabbed handfuls of skin and ripped, trying for his eyes.

He roared backward grabbing at his face. I took the opportunity and kicked out with all my might, and kept kicking until he fell out of the van. Jumping out after him, I tried to run, only to have him catch my leg with his hand, tripping me. It knocked the wind out of me. I saw the shadow of him crouching over me and then felt the sting of his hand across my face. That knocked the wind back into me, as I took a huge gasp of air. Moving my hand, I felt it connect with a large tree branch that was almost an inch thick. Quickly, picking it up, I swung it as hard as I could at his head. He flew to the side. Rolling, I got to my feet again and held the branch up in the air like a baseball bat. If he got any closer, I was going to let him have it again.

The sound of crashing in the woods behind me startled me. Whipping around, I was surprised to see Kent coming out of the woods toward me. Crying out, I rushed into his waiting arms. I had never been so glad to see him coming to my rescue, than I did at that moment.

Seeing Kent, Martin got up and tried to run to the van for his gun.

“Going somewhere?” Jed asked him, stepping around the other side of the van, startling Martin.

“You!” Martin growled. He lunged for the back of the van. Jed caught him by the shirt and spun him around.

“It’s just you and me Vecelli. One on One. No weapons,” Jed said in a dark menacing voice. If I were Martin, I would turn around and run into the woods as fast as I could. But we all knew he wasn’t smart. He turned to face Jed and rushed him. I could tell by the look on Jed’s face that he had been hoping Martin would do just that.

Jed easily stepped out of Martin’s way and shoved him. Spinning back around, Martin threw a punch, which Jed ducked. Jed landed an uppercut into Martin’s jaw that sent him flying backward onto the ground. It was clearly an uneven fight. Jed advanced on Martin as he scrambled to his feet. I could tell Martin was getting madder by the second. He put his head down and charged into Jed, sending them both to the ground.

Gasping, I asked Kent, “Aren’t you going to do something?”

“Oh! Right!” Kent said, pulling out his phone. Dialing the number to the police, Kent gave them directions on how to find us and what was going on.

“I meant about Jed,” I said, watching as Jed and Martin threw one punch after another at each other.

“Nah, Jed’s got him beat hands down,” Kent said nonchalantly as we watched. Sure enough, Jed rolled Martin off him and sent a massive blow to his jaw. While Martin lay there stunned, Jed flipped him over on his back and pulled his hands behind his back and secured them with a zip tie he must have had in his pocket.

“The police are on their way,” Kent told Jed.

Nodding, Jed climbed unsteadily to his feet and caught my eye. When he held out his arms for me, I let go of Kent and ran straight into his arms. His big body curled around me. I found myself engulfed by his large muscular arms and chest. “I’m sorry it took so long for us to find you,” he whispered into my hair. I felt his lips kissing my head and cheeks.

“You got here at just the right moment. I knew you would come for me,” I whispered back.