Her brain hurt.
That was her first thought.
The second was she had no idea where she’d been taken.
She had woken on a concrete floor in a bare room. The events came back to her one by grueling one. The accident. A bright light. Then a hit on her head that must have knocked her out.
There were no windows. The walls were block and the breeze came through the cracks.
Where was Deegan?
She paced back and forth, trying to work through the fuzzy paths of her brain. She’d left him several messages, telling him what she knew about Kline, but did he get them? The Department would try to find her once they realized she was missing. Deegan would find her…unless he wasn’t safe either.
Stopping midstride, she looked at the metal door across the short space, feeling her chest tighten. There was no door on the inside and it was bolted from the outside. She twirled, looking for any way out. Looking for any weakness in the wall. There was nothing, no flaw or imperfection that could be used to get out.
The killer had brought her here. He had made sure she’d be trapped.
She sat down in the corner and waited until finally she heard a key in the lock, a click, and then the door came open. Kiersten wasn’t expecting a woman. She was tall, wearing a tank top that showed off buff arms with sleeve tattoos.
“Well, well, well. We finally meet,” she said in a thick German accent.
Standing, Kiersten kept her distance. “Who are you?”
The woman stepped into the room. “I’m your worst nightmare, sweetheart.”
Kiersten slanted her gaze. “I’ve seen a lot and trust me, you’re not my worst.”
“Get ready, Polizist!” She took out a phone. “This should be fun.”
The phone rang and the woman handed it over.
Kiersten stared for a long second. Unsure if this was a trick.
“Go on, sweetheart. It’s your Geliebter Junge.” When Kiersten didn’t take the phone, the woman snorted. “Lover boy. Take it,” she hissed.
Barely getting a sentence out, the phone was jerked from her hand.
“There, that should keep the Fed happy for now.”
“What is happening? Why are you doing this? You must know you won’t get away with this,” Kiersten said in a low voice.
The woman stood and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
Unsure of how much time had passed, when she came back, she had a scarf in one hand and her gun in the other. “It’s time.”
Kiersten took a sidestep. “Time for what?”
“For this to be over.” She reached around, took her gun out from the waist of her pants and held it aimed at Kiersten. “Turn around.”
“No.”
“I’ll shoot you. That would be my choice, but I’m not running the show,” she slurred. “Now turn around, bitch!”
She spun and the woman roughly pulled Kiersten’s hands behind her back and tied the scarf around her wrists, so tight that the blood flow was blocked. With a jerk, she twisted Kiersten around and roughly dragged her toward the door and into a semi-dark corridor that resembled the dreariness of room. Cold and dank.
“That way,” the woman said and gave Kiersten a hard shove.
Paying close attention to every detail, they slowly made her way toward the end of the hallway where a bright window let in the early morning sunrise. So, she’d been here for hours? That made her hopes sink some. What if no one came? But she spoke to Deegan. He knew she was taken. She relied on him.
They came to a closed door with a square window.
The woman shoved Kiersten against the wall, then she reached into her pocket for a set of keys. They jingled as she searched for the right one.
Kiersten had no idea what was on the other side of the door, but she didn’t want to find out. Her instincts warned her that if she stepped across the threshold, the likelihood of her surviving would drop tremendously. They wouldn’t have a reason to keep her alive.
While the woman was distracted, Kiersten saw her one and only opportunity. She jerked against the scarf, tugging and pushing until she finally felt the material loosen some. The German woman couldn’t tie worth a damn, thank goodness.
The key was in the lock.
Sliding home…
Kiersten took a small step back, lifted her foot and kicked the woman’s wrist, sending the gun flinging across the floor. She looked around, a flicker of shock in her expression before she reacted by swinging her fist. Kiersten was quick and dodged the move that came at her face, but she wasn’t so lucky with the booted foot to her knee, sending her wobbling and falling back against the wall. The woman came at her and Kiersten threw a punch, landing it hard against the woman’s cheek. She let out a loud moan, but it didn’t take her long before she was grabbing Kiersten’s hair and pulling her, shoving her into the wall.
With an elbow to the woman’s face, she fell back a step and Kiersten turned, grabbing her around the throat and bringing her down onto her back.
A kick brought Kiersten to the ground too and they grappled, rolling around, throwing swings. The woman tried to reach for her gun, but Kiersten grabbed her ankles and dragged her across the floor, grabbing her hair and shoving her face into the concrete. Standing, she grabbed the woman off the floor and pulled back her fist, hitting her hard enough to knock her out. “Not so tough without your weapon, are you?”
Using the scarf, she tied the woman’s hands behind her back.
Picking up the gun and the keys, Kiersten held the weapon as she unlocked the door, slowly and carefully, listening for any sounds from the other side. Using all her skills, she took a step across the threshold. They weren’t alone. Not when the woman said she wasn’t “running the show”.
*
Deegan fluttered his eyes open, feeling a sharp pain in his temples. Once his blurred vision passed enough that he could make out more than fuzzy images, he examined the room from where he was tied up in the chair situated in the center of the room.
He had no clue where he was and only that Evans had sprayed him in the face with liquid chloroform.
His heart sank, remembering that they had Kiersten too. She had to be here…wherever ‘here’ was.
Pressing against the handcuffs on his wrists, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of them.
The doorknob turned and Deegan waited, planning his next step. Would he fight the person? Or would he wait for the most opportune time to pounce. It wasn’t his life he was thinking about, but Kiersten’s. He got her into this mess and he needed to make sure he got her out, alive.
The door came open slowly.
Kiersten stepped in.
His breath swooshed out of his lungs. Was he imaging that it was her standing before him?
She rushed into the room, dropping to her knees in front of him. “Deegan. I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered as she leaned in and planted kisses over his face.
He was more than happy to be on the receiving side of her affection, but he wasn’t sure when the men would be back and without the use of his hands, he wasn’t much good. “I’m cuffed. We got to find a way to get them loose. I think I can bust the chair, but it won’t help with the handcuffs.”
“I think I can help with that.” She pulled a set of keys from her back pocket and gave them a shake.
“How the hell did you manage to get the keys?” he asked proudly.
“I’ll explain later but at least we won’t have to worry about the woman for a while.” She got up and went to work finding the key that fit the handcuffs.
Voices billowed from down the hall.
“Hurry, Kiersten,” he whispered.
“I’m trying.”
He heard the jingle of the keys as she searched through the handful.
“Take your time. I’m sure it’s in there.” He had no clue, but he understood nothing good came from feeling frantic.
The voices were drawing closer. “Kiersten, go. They’re coming. Get out of here!”
“I’m not leaving you.” She still worked through the keys. “No way. We’ll get out of here together.”
“Go and get help. You can get away,” he urged.
“Shut up. That’s not going to happen, not without you. Remember, you want to be the father of my child. I can’t take the risk of anything happening to you.”
“Does that mean you want it too?”
“You betcha! Get out of this with me alive and the answer will be a hundred times yes!”
Then he felt the release of the metal from around his wrists about the same time the door came flying open. Deegan was off the chair so fast that it went airborne and he charged Evans, not giving the man a chance to react. Deegan had him against the wall, pounding his fists into his face until he heard…
“I’d stop if I were you.”
Deegan looked over his shoulder. The other man had a gun aimed at Kiersten.
Grabbing Evans by the shirt, Deegan flung him hard to the ground, turning all his attention on the tall muscular man who had his gun dangerously close to her. Deegan held up his hands in surrender mode and didn’t move a muscle. Evans was busy trying to scoop himself up from the floor. He had blood dripping from one nostril.
“I’ve stopped,” Deegan said calmly.
He heard a sound in the distance. Was it a helicopter?
A second later sirens lit the air.
“Shit!” The gunman cocked his chin as if he was trying to listen closer. “What the hell is that, Evans? How the fuck did they find us here?”
Evans had finally managed to pick himself up and was swiping the back of his hand across his busted nose.
“You two have time. They’re not here yet. Run now,” Deegan encouraged.
The gunman lowered the weapon an inch. “Maybe he’s right. We have time to get away.” For a brawny man, he certainly looked scared.
“Don’t let him get in your head, man,” Evan seethed. “We can’t abandon our post.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? This ain’t a post. This was your fucked-up idea.” There went the gun, another inch or so lower.
“We can’t let them live. That’s part of the plan.” Evans didn’t flinch a muscle.
“You better hurry, buddy,” Deegan said. “I can hear the sirens getting closer. They’re coming and once they do, this will all be over. Prison isn’t a life for you.”” He saw the weak link in the man.
“Fuck this!” The gun lowered completely and he took off down the hallway running.
Realizing he was alone, Evans’ confidence slipped some. He turned and raced down the hall too.
“Stay here,” Deegan said to Kiersten as he took off after Evans. The man was a fast runner, but Deegan was catching up to him. Evans slammed through the back door, almost taking it off its hinges, but Deegan was right behind.
They were outside now in a parking lot.
A horn sounded and a truck came out of nowhere, hitting Evans, sending him soaring in the air and landing with a loud sickening thud on the ground. Deegan raced to Evans who wasn’t moving and checked his pulse. It was faint, but he was alive.
Looking back at the truck, Deegan smiled when Cull Cade got out of the driver’s side. “I thought I was going to be late, but it looks like I came at the right time.”