Chapter 15
“Zip has been murdered?” A cold chill washed over Kelley’s skin. “Where?”
“In his apartment.” Reese pushed his fingers through his hair. “Neighbors heard shots and called the police. When they arrived they found his body.”
“I’m going to the scene.” She scrambled to her feet. “I just need to get on some clean clothes.”
Reese looked like he was going to say something, but thankfully he didn’t.
She hurried to her room and changed into clean panties, bra, jeans, and T-shirt. At least she’d showered that morning. Having met with Zip and then immediately investigating his lead, she hadn’t had a chance to go home and get into clean clothes until now.
When she returned to the living room, she scooped up her cross body purse from where she’d dropped it on the floor. Reese reached for the doorknob, opened the door, and held it so that she could walk through. She locked the door behind him as he stepped out of the way.
As she shoved her keys into her purse, she hurried down the steps to his truck to keep up with his long strides. Within moments they were in the vehicle and driving to the part of town where Zip lived.
She felt jittery, as if she’d had a dozen cups of coffee. Had someone found out that Zip had given her the lead to the women and girls? Or had he been murdered for some other reason? Damn, she should have made him accept the protection.
When they arrived, squad cars were parked in front of the apartments, the vehicle’s red and blue emergency lights flashing. The area was cordoned off with yellow tape.
Kelley and Reese climbed out of his truck and met up with John.
John glanced toward the first floor apartment door where law enforcement personnel were going in and out. He looked at Kelley and Reese. “No sign of forced entry or struggle. The victim may have known his assailant, but so far we haven’t been able to determine if that was the case.”
Kelley nodded. “Anything else?”
“It wasn’t clean,” John said. “He was shot in the gut and he bled out.”
Kelley felt a moment’s pity. Zip hadn’t been an upstanding citizen, but he hadn’t deserved to die like that.
“Any witnesses?” Reese asked John.
John gestured to a woman speaking with a uniformed officer. “She heard shots then looked out her window in time to see a vehicle fleeing the scene. It was an older rusty pickup truck, but that’s all she could tell us. Using her description, we’ve got an APB out on the vehicle. No one seems to have seen anyone coming out of the victim’s apartment.”
“You’re sure the victim is Zip?” Kelley asked.
John gave a single nod. “Yeah, it’s him.”
“Thanks, John.” She turned to Reese. “Let’s check it out.”
They entered the apartment that was being looked over from top to bottom. Zip’s body was face down, but his head was turned to the side so that Kelley could see his bloodless face. There was a path of blood behind him, as if he’d dragged himself this far, and a pool of blood beside him.
She shook her head and cut her gaze to Reese. “Do you think he was killed for tipping us off about the shipment of women and girls?”
“Could be.” Reese took a pair of disposable gloves out of his pocket and Kelley dug a set out of her purse.
Reese and Kelley worked their way through the apartment. He picked up a cell phone near the location where Zip’s body lay. Reese scrolled through recently called numbers.
“Here’s your number.” He paused then scrolled to the next one. “Look at the date and time stamp. Someone called him around the same time we found the victims.”
“Look.” She knelt. A corner of a piece of paper, wet with blood, was sticking out from beneath Zip’s body. “Help me move him so that I can get the paper out.”
Carefully, Reese raised the body. Zip’s hand that had been pinned beneath his body was clenching a pen. Kelley pulled the paper out that was half covered with blood and bloody fingerprints. There was writing that was legible on a portion of the paper that wasn’t coated in red.
“He had enough in him to write his killer’s name and give us a message.” Kelley raised the bloody paper in her glove-covered hand as she read the shaky writing aloud.
Rocket shot me
Hurt Petrova
Girl to border soon
Brown car
Douglas
The last word was barely legible, the handwriting trailing off so that the tail of the S went halfway down the page, into the blood.
“Johnny Rocha’s taking Belle to Douglas and plans to cross the border with her.” Kelley looked at Reese.
With a frown, Reese stood and called to John. Kelley got to her feet, too, fury welling up inside her.
John reached them and Reese gestured to the paper. “Contact all law enforcement agencies between here and Douglas. We’ve got to get this guy before he crosses the line with the girl.” Reese glanced back at the paper. “Be on the lookout for a brown car.”
John nodded. “I’ll take care of it,” he said before he turned and headed away from them. He raised his radio and spoke into it as he walked.
“We’ve got to go after him.” Kelley narrowed her eyes at the paper again.
“Rocha plans to hurt you.” Reese’s jaw tightened. “We’ve got to get you someplace safe.”
“How’s he going to do that?” She shook her head. “He’s on the run.”
“He must have something planned.” Reese gave her a hard look. “We can’t take chances.”
“You’re not taking me out of action.” Kelley bristled, her entire body going tense. “Either I head south with you, or I go alone.”
Reese said nothing as they walked out the door of the apartment and into the sunny afternoon. “My truck needs fuel,” he said after they were in the vehicle and he started it.
Kelley pushed her hair out of her face in frustration. “We’ve got to hurry.”
Still frowning, he drove to the closest gas station. As Reese fueled the tank, Kelley slipped on her cross body purse, then went inside the convenience store and used the restroom. When she walked out of the restroom, Reese was inside, paying the cashier for four large bottles of water and several packages of snacks.
“For the road.” He took the bags off the counter. “We missed lunch.”
She nodded. With all that had happened, she’d forgotten about food.
They hurried out to the truck and in moments were headed out of town. The first light they came to changed red and Reese applied the brakes.
The truck didn’t slow down. Reese pumped the brake pedal. “I’ve lost the brakes.”
Kelley’s heart pounded as they hurtled toward the intersection. He tried setting the emergency brake but the truck kept moving.
“Hang on,” he said through gritted teeth.
Kelley braced herself as they barreled into the intersection at full speed just as a semi drove in front of them.
With horror she prepared herself for impact.
Reese’s truck slammed into the semi. Metal crunched, glass shattered, Kelley screamed.
The semi jackknifed. Reese’s truck whipped around and then rolled. Everything spun as the truck flipped over and over.
It came to a halt then rocked before it stopped. The whole world seemed to have collapsed.
Disoriented, Kelley realized she was hanging upside down, held in her seat by her seatbelt. She put her hand to her forehead and felt slick blood flowing from a laceration on her temple.
Smells of burning rubber and gasoline were strong and she heard the slow plink of something dripping. Fuel? Tires screeched close by and she heard voices.
She tried to focus as she turned her head to look at Reese who was hanging upside down, motionless. The steering wheel had been crammed up tight to him. Blood coated the side of his face.
“Reese!” She felt like her head was spinning as she fumbled for her seat belt. She had to get to him. When she found the release she pressed the button and then fell hard from the seat to the shattered window. Her head struck metal and glass and her body cried out in pain.
For a moment she could only lie there, trying to stop the dizziness. Before she could reach for Reese, she heard the sound of metal against metal. Someone tried to wrench the passenger door open but it wouldn’t budge. She looked at the shattered window. A face came into view.
Taynor.
Kelley reached for her gun but it wasn’t in its holster. In the next moment, Taynor grabbed her feet and jerked her out through the window.
Glass cut into her body but she barely felt it as she fought to get away from Belle’s murdering kidnapper. Woozy and weak, she tried kicking, but he had a tight grip on her ankles. She grabbed at the seatbelt in an effort to hang on to something, but Taynor jerked hard and dragged her completely out of the truck.
A car was parked beside the truck, the back door open. Taynor threw Kelley onto the floorboard and she hit her head on the opposite side of the car. Her head spun and once again she felt disoriented and unable to form coherent words. She shifted, trying to sit, but ended up curling her body so that she lay on one side of the hump on the floorboard.
She was vaguely aware of Taynor sliding into the backseat and slamming the door shut. She tried to move but he had rope and tied her wrists and then ankles together before she could think to struggle. He leaned over her, a satisfied look on his features, and she saw that he was holding her Glock. He stuffed the weapon in the back of his jeans then put a handkerchief in her mouth and tied the ends behind her head.
Tires screeched and the car fishtailed as it left the intersection and took off. She fought to focus as she blinked and looked up.
Taynor stared down at her, a leer on his twisted features. “You’re going to pay, bitch. You’re the one who convinced Laura to leave me, and you’re the one who found the shipment.”
Kelley’s head throbbed as she narrowed her gaze at him, unable to speak with the gag in her mouth.
“But now I’ll get even with you.” His smile made her skin crawl. “It was Johnny’s idea to put a tracker on that asshole detective’s truck. It was my idea to disable the brakes when we followed the truck and you stopped to gas it up and went into the convenience store. Being a mechanic comes in handy.” His gaze traveled from her face and rested on her breasts. He met her gaze again. “It was Johnny’s idea to sell you to a buyer in South America. It won’t make up for the shipment you cost us, but you’ll bring top dollar.”
Her skin went cold. They intended to sell her?
Over my dead body.
She couldn’t see anything they passed from her awkward position on the floorboard, but a good fifteen minutes had passed before she felt the vibration and heard the thrumming when the car rattled over a cattle guard. The road became bumpy, jarring her and causing pain to clench her body as they were clearly driving down a dirt road. The smell of dust came in through the open window. They had to be somewhere in the country.
As her captors drove her, she thought of Reese. He’d been so still and all that blood… Was he alive? Her eyes ached, threatening to let loose tears she wouldn’t be able to stop. He had to be okay. Had to.
It occurred to her that she was still wearing her cross body purse and her phone was in it. If she got the chance, she could make a call. It was still on, so she could be located by the GPS.
The car came to a hard stop and she groaned behind her gag. Taynor opened the back door and climbed out. Kelley heard the driver’s side door open and then Taynor talking with another man. She looked around her, scanning the car’s interior. She tugged against her bonds. They were too tight and she was still too weak to do anything about her predicament. At least for the moment.
Taynor leaned in and roughly dragged Kelley out. She hurt all over from the accident and she felt each cut and bruise as her body hit the hump in the back of the car.
Her eyes watered from the pain, blinding her for a moment when Taynor grabbed a fistful of her hair and jerked her to her feet. He held her up like a marionette as her ankles were bound and she couldn’t balance herself.
She blinked the moisture from her eyes and found herself face to face with a man she’d never met. She judged him to be about five-nine, in his early thirties. He had smooth olive skin, a slim mustache, and black hair. He would have been a handsome man if it weren’t for the cold calculation in his dark eyes, his expression showing the evil lurking within.
Was he the same man she hadn’t been able to see well at Laura’s home? The man who had shot Kelley when Taynor shot Laura?
The man swept his gaze down her form then back up to her eyes again. He reached for her and she fought to keep from shrinking back. He reached for her cross body purse and tried to pull it off of her but the strap was too thick and strong and her wrists were tired. He searched the purse and her heart dropped as he took out her cell phone and turned it off. Then he dropped the phone in the dirt and ground it into pieces with his heel.
“Get her and the girl into the truck,” he said.
“You’ve got it, Johnny.” Taynor said, and she had no doubt that the man was Johnny Rocha, Taynor’s foster brother and one evil sonofabitch. Taynor picked Kelley up and the world spun as he flung her over his shoulder.
She couldn’t see where he was headed until he stopped and slung her back down beside a huge refrigerated truck with pictures of Mexican frozen treats. The Spanish words for ice cream and the brand names were written across the side panels. Obviously it was a truck used to import Mexican ice cream treats into the U.S., probably legally.
Her eyes widened. They weren’t going to take her in the refrigerated truck, were they? Kelley watched as Taynor went inside and she heard the scrape of metal. While he was out of sight, she watched as Rocha altered his appearance. He looked in the side view mirror of the truck and shaved off not only his mustache but his hair, too, until he was completely bald. She watched as he changed clothes. Like a chameleon, he looked like someone entirely different now.
While Rocha changed the way he looked, Taynor came out and once again threw her over his shoulder, this time carrying her into the truck. It was so cold that goose bumps immediately rose on her skin.
When he set her on her ass again, cold gripped her body, flowing from her legs and ass and up her spine. She saw that three panels had been opened in the truck’s floor. She saw Belle lying in one of the openings. The girl was bound and gagged too, her shoes and socks missing. Her eyes were open but foggy looking, like she was dazed.
“You’ll be cool in the compartment, but you won’t freeze,” Taynor said as he picked up Kelley. “I’ll be in the third compartment until Johnny gets us across the border.”
Fear gripped her body in an iron fist and she struggled, trying to fight, refusing to give up.
Johnny Rocha entered the truck. He looked unrecognizable from the way she’d first seen him. He came up beside Taynor and all the fight went out of Kelley when she saw what he had. Rocha was holding a small syringe filled with a clear fluid.
As Rocha came closer, Kelley started struggling again. But Taynor was almost twice her size and she was bound and helpless. Rocha put the syringe up to her arm and injected her with the fluid.
Almost at once, Kelley’s body went limp. All strength left her and she felt relaxed and as if nothing mattered anymore. She wondered vaguely how much she’d been given. For her height and weight it might not take much to keep her down. The thoughts were fleeting and she didn’t know that it even mattered.
She didn’t struggle as Taynor lowered her into the space next to Belle’s. He gave one last satisfied smirk as he moved a piece of the metal flooring over her prison. It fell into place, sealing out all light.
Complete and total darkness, void of sound.
Everything was so quiet that her ears rang from the silence. She shivered from the cold and her teeth would have been chattering if she weren’t still wearing a gag. It was like being buried alive, as if she was in a dark coffin six feet below ground.
Panic would have set in but the drug kept her relaxed. She was weak and disoriented from the accident as well as being bound, gagged, in a cold, soundproof space without even a sliver of light stealing inside. And she was drugged.
It didn’t take much to keep her breathing slow and even. She struggled against the effects of the drug, but couldn’t get up the energy or desire.
Yet a part of her knew she couldn’t let her situation get the best of her. She had to overcome the odds and escape from here and save Belle, too.
But then… What did it matter?
She thought of a singsong tune but couldn’t hum it with a gag in her mouth.
A thought tried to penetrate her mind. Kelley Petrova would never give up.
Never.
But she couldn’t gather the mental energy she needed. She couldn’t gather any energy. She could barely think much less act.
Her thoughts turned to Reese and a fist-sized knot formed in her chest even as the drug had her in its hold. Reese had been so still, the side of his face covered in blood. Was he dead?
She prayed to God that he was still alive, that he wasn’t hurt. And that he would find her and Belle.
The refrigerated truck started to move. Kelley had the strange sensation of gliding over the ground and being bumped on air currents. The space around her vibrated, and she could only guess they were traveling back down the dirt road now.
In the cramped space and suffocating silence, she had only her thoughts to keep her company. Considering her thoughts were so vague and bounced from one thing to another, that wasn’t saying a lot. Her head lolled from side to side as the truck swayed.
A tiny part of her kept trying to pierce the fog of her mind. The practical part. The strong part.
Human traffickers often used drugs to control their victims. Drugging her would keep her from trying to escape. She would be sold and controlled and used however they wanted.
Her eyelids drooped as she rocked in the compartment…and she slowly slipped away.