CHAPTER 19: SNOW
I was losing.
The masked idiot to my right who didn’t know when to stay down got up, and I knocked him back again with a quick elbow-to-the-face, knee-to-the-groin combo. He groaned, rejoining two of his pals on the ground. One left standing, and he looked nervous—which was satisfying.
But I was still losing.
I’d never been a good loser, and the shit of it was, it didn’t even have anything to do with the fighting. These guys were good, but I was better. They were only winning because:
1) They’d already gotten Ash into that van.
2) There was still another masked man whose sole purpose seemed to be blocking Ash’s escape (or my rescue).
3) Even if there wasn’t an extra man, Ash wasn’t moving anymore. They’d put a black bag over his head, but judging from the stillness of his body, it didn’t look like he was conscious. And I wasn’t physically strong enough to carry him out while fighting off five opponents.
Dammit.
The fourth man stared at me out of the two slits in his mask. I stared back. He’d just seen me take out three of his friends. Couldn’t blame the guy for hesitating. But a second later, he made his choice and ran at me, fists raised. Wrong move. I swept his legs out from under him, and he went down. Hard.
“Enough.”
I looked over…and my heart stopped. Just literally stopped dead in my chest. The guy in the van was holding a gun to Ash’s head.
“Now, you have two choices,” he said, voice deep, controlled. “You can stop fighting and let us take the boy intact. Or you can keep fighting”—he pressed the gun into Ash’s temple—”and see what happens.”
I heard the guys around me getting to their feet but kept my eyes on the gun. There were no good options here. What would Bruce do? My gut reaction was to keep fighting. I thought about it, even as the others walked past me and loaded into the van. Everything in me screamed to keep going. Beat these assholes back until my last breath. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t risk Ash’s life.
“Good choice,” the masked man said, lowering the gun. Even if he hadn’t had the only weapon, I’d have known he was their leader from his stone cold composure.
My mind was working fast and furious. What should I do, Bruce?
“The Strykers will be hearing from us soon.”
“Take me with you,” I blurted, stepping forward. I couldn’t let them leave with Ash.
The gun came up pointed at me this time.
“Take me,” I said again. The answer was simple: If I couldn’t get Ash out, I had to stay with him. “It’ll give you an extra hostage. If you take him alone, who’s to say you haven’t hurt him already?”
“Start the car,” the man said, and the engine roared to life.
“I won’t let you take him alone.”
The driver turned. “You don’t have any say here,” he spat. “Just shut the door on the bitch, and let’s go.”
I didn’t move but gave them my best icy glare, the one I’d picked up from Omma. “I’ll only follow you. I’ll hop right into Ash’s car, call the cops, and trail your ugly ass white van until you get to your destination.”
“I could shoot you right now and prevent all that,” said the guy with the gun.
“You could,” I said and pretended to consider. “But that might draw some unwanted attention. I’d think the key to kidnapping would be the less witnesses the better.”
He looked at me for a long time, and I stared into his eyes, completely disregarding the gun pointed at my chest. I wouldn’t let them have Ash. If I was with him, I could protect him. Always have eyes on your body. I wasn’t letting him out of my sight.
The gunman must’ve got that because he said, “Bag her, and let’s go.”
“But she—”
“People will be coming back for the second half. We need to be gone by then.”
I’d already thought of that, which was why I’d made that comment about witnesses. My Plan B was to scream as loud as possible and hope someone came running. It wasn’t a great plan. They’d probably shoot me before I even opened my mouth. But if they refused to take me with them, it was all I had.
The gunman looked back at the driver. “I said bag her.”
“Fine,” he said and jumped out of the car.
It was hard to stand still as he walked toward me. They all looked basically the same, black ski mask and gloves, black long-sleeve shirt and pants. But I could tell from the rip in this guy’s mask that he was the one who didn’t know when to stay down. It had ripped when I’d punched him the first time, and he’d gone headfirst into a tree. Sounded like he was still pissed.
When he stopped in front of me, I could see the anger in his eyes. His hand whipped across my face, backhanding me. It was a cheap shot but a good one. Pain speared my cheek, slicing straight to the bone. My eyes instantly began to water. But I didn’t cry out.
Lifting my head, I stared him straight in the eye…and grinned.
Probably not the smartest move, but in this situation, it was about the small victories. The guy jerked the bag over my head with more force than necessary. I stumbled as he tugged me to the van, winced as he threw me inside. I heard the door slam, and we sped away.
Some bodyguard, I thought, feeling the cold metal of the floor bite into my cheek.
Bruce’d once said, “In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.” Well, he was right. I had failed gloriously, and now both Ash and I were being held by armed men, with no witnesses to the crime, headed to God-knows-where.
That had to be the worst rescue attempt ever.
* * *
Ash didn’t wake up.
Not when the van finally stopped. Not when they pulled us out of the car. Not when they shoved us in here—wherever here was—and the door banged shut.
First thing I did was rip off my bag and take in the surroundings.
It looked like a prison cell. Dark. Cold. A small room with a single bare bulb, a lot of concrete and not much else. I carefully slipped the bag off Ash’s head. He was dead to the world. The steady rise and fall of his chest was comforting—but seeing him so helpless put me on edge. What if the kidnappers had taken him alone? He wouldn’t have been able to defend himself. What if they’d knocked me out, too? The thought sent a chill down my spine, and I immediately started looking for escape routes.
I tried the door, but of course, it was locked. No windows, no breaks in the wall except a door off to the left. Bathroom. No shower or bath, but at least there was a toilet. I also found several jugs of water and a few old blankets in the corner, which seemed thoughtful until I realized what that meant.
They planned to keep us here a while.
I went to grab one of the blankets for Ash when something else caught my eye: A red light above the door. When I stepped closer, I spotted the small black lens and shook my head. A camera. Great, they were still watching us.
Turning back to Ash, I dragged him to the corner farthest from the door, placed the blanket over him and waited.
* * *
“Ash?”
His brow furrowed, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“Ash, come on,” I said. “You need to wake up.”
He’d been out at least three hours by my count. The stuff they’d given him must’ve been really strong. In the van, with the bag over my head, I hadn’t been able to tell direction or time of day, but I’d still tried to keep track of how much time had passed. One hour in the car, two here on the floor. He’d started groaning five minutes ago.
“Ash?” I said again.
“Snow?” he mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s me.” I smiled in relief as his eyelids fluttered open. “How you feeling?”
“Like shit,” he said then squinted up at me. “What the hell happened?”
No point trying to sugarcoat things.
“We were kidnapped,” I said.
“No.” He sat up quickly then grabbed his head on another groan. “No, I remember that,” he said again, cupping my cheek. “I meant what happened to your face?”
“Oh.” The pain was still there, but I’d been too worried about Ash to think about it. He ran his fingers lightly over what had to be an impressive bruise. “One of the men hit me.”
“Bastards,” Ash growled.
“It’s okay,” I said and pushed his hand away. “I hit him harder.”
“Good.”
He stood up slowly, looked around and was back a second later. There wasn’t much to see.
“How long was I out?”
“About three hours.”
“Did they say what they wanted?”
I shook my head. “They haven’t been back since they threw us in here.”
Ash cursed.
“And just so you know,” I said, “there’s a camera above the door. Pretty sure they’re watching every move we make.”
“Oh, really?” Ash gave the camera the one-finger salute. “I hope they saw that then.”
We heard a series of locks flipping into place, and I pulled Ash back as the door swung open. Two men came in, filling up the already tiny room. I recognized the man who’d hit me, the driver with the torn mask. The other was the man in charge, gun in one hand held down by his side, a black cell phone in the other.
“Here,” he said and tossed the phone at Ash. “Call your parents.”
Ash raised a brow. “And tell them what? That I’m staying in the tiniest room at the Four Seasons with two masked men and no bed. I don’t think so.”
I held my breath. Why did he have to be such a smartass? Didn’t he notice the gun? I thought of all the ways I could disarm the man, but there was always a chance it might go off. And in such close quarters, anyone could be hit, Ash included. Luckily, the guy had a steady hand and didn’t react.
“I apologize for the shoddy accommodations,” he said. “But we were only expecting one of you. This room was never meant to house two people.”
Ash tilted his head. “Are you the one who hit her?”
“No.”
“That was me,” the driver said, a grin in his voice. “I saw you admiring my handiwork earlier. Your girlfriend needs to learn how to take a punch.”
Before I could blink, Ash coldcocked the guy, knocking him on his ass. It was a brilliant punch. Beautiful really. But I didn’t have time to congratulate him. The gun was pointed at Ash’s chest now, and he still wasn’t finished.
“Maybe you should learn how to take a punch,” Ash said as the driver stood.
“You’ll regret that,” he promised.
“I doubt it.”
“Ash,” I said, tugging him back. He didn’t move far, but I got him to back up a little so he was even with me. Maybe I could knock the gun away before he got off a shot. My thighs tensed.
“Your parents.” The gunman nodded to the phone. “Call them, and tell them that if they want to see their son again, they’ll transfer $500,000 by midnight into the account on this sheet of paper.”
Ash quit glaring at the driver and took the sheet held out to him. He read the numbers then looked up.
“And if I don’t?” he said.
“If you don’t”—the gun moved to the right…until it was aimed at my face. I froze—”I’ll have one less hostage.”
Ash made the call.
The conversation didn’t last long. I could only hear Ash’s side as he relayed the kidnappers’ message, but a few minutes later, the men were gone, taking the phone with them, leaving Ash and me alone once more. The silence was heavy.
“So,” I said finally, “what’d your parents say?”
“I’m pretty sure my dad was in shock,” he said. “He just kept saying, ‘How did this happen?’ And Mom…” Ash dragged both hands through his hair as he slid down the wall. “I could hear her crying in the background.”
I sat next to him, picturing the scene in my head. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Stryker. God, they were probably terrified.
“At the end, Dad said he’d get the money and call your mom as soon as he was off the phone.”
“Wonderful,” I sighed. Omma would be furious. Not only had I snuck out of the house, but I’d allowed my client to be abducted. “Even if we escape, she’ll kill me for letting you get taken.”
Ash shook his head. “God, I’m sorry, Snow.”
That stopped me short.
“This is all my fault,” he went on. “You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me. I should’ve never taken you to that soccer game. Jesus, I’m a jackass.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard you say.”
“Which part?”
“All of it,” I said. “If anyone should be sorry, it’s me.”
“Yeah, right,” he scoffed. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“Ash, as your bodyguard, I’m supposed to protect you.” A few minutes ago, I’d gotten a second chance to do just that, but instead—and this was the pathetic part—I froze. All of my martial arts training forgotten when faced with the barrel of a gun. “It was my responsibility to defend you from those creeps, and I let you down.”
One of Ash’s arms came around my shoulders. “You didn’t let me down, ninja girl.”
“Yeah, I did.” I swallowed, feeling the sheen of tears in my eyes. Shit, I would not cry. I wouldn’t. “And I let me down, too. I’m sorry for that.”
“You fought back,” he said. “I remember that, too. Right before I passed out, I heard you kicking butt and taking names. At least, you tried.”
I frowned. “But it wasn’t enough.”
“Make you a deal,” Ash said, turning my face up to his. “How about we both stop feeling guilty? You for not being invincible and me for being an idiot and not telling anyone where we were going, deal?”
“Huh,” I said and shot a quick look at the camera.
“What?”
“You didn’t tell anyone about the drive-in, right?” He shook his head. “So, how did they know we’d be there?”
Ash thought it over. “They could’ve followed us from The Academy.”
“True,” I said, “or they could’ve known you wouldn’t want to miss the game. I mean, it was pretty flawless. Parents out of town, taking you in a place filled with people and yet no one saw us because we had to park near the woods—a convenient hiding spot for their getaway car.”
Ash and I looked over to the milk jugs filled with water. There were a lot of them.
“Assholes have been planning this for a while,” he said, voicing my thoughts. “And now that the election’s right around the corner, they’re milking my dad for all he’s worth.”
I shook my head. “We can’t let them have that money.”
“Agreed.” Ash looked down. His eyes traced the bruise on my face, and when they came back to mine, they were hard, determined. “What do you say we get out of here?”