Vanessa
Vanessa’s head felt like it would explode as things started to form in front of her. She recalled being taken and being knocked out. That meant she was somewhere now that she didn’t know. She peeled her eyes fully open to get a view of her surroundings.
The light was dim and shining in through cracks in wood planks. The floor was covered in bits of hay and dirt. It smelled of hay, too, and the lingering scent of some sort of animal. Were there still animals here?
She didn’t hear any voices. Maybe the wind was blowing outside, but she wasn’t sure if she was hearing that outside or in her head. She was tied to a chair. Ropes dug into her skin at her wrists, which were secured behind her. Her ankles were each bound to a leg of the chair.
She had to get free or she was dead. She pulled at the ropes, seeing if any were loose. Not one so much as budged. She thought about trying to crash to the ground and break the chair, but it was metal. It couldn’t break apart like wood.
She tried to see the walls and space around her. It was definitely a barn of some sort, with stalls lining either side and an open section in the middle, where she sat. Was there anything sharp that she could rub against to break the ropes? She tried to hop closer to one wall to get a better view. Even a loose nail could help, if she had some time to work at her ropes.
She scooted once, twice. The metal scraped on the wood floor. But then another sound stopped her cold.
She held very still to be sure, but she’d know that sound anywhere. Opal. Crying.
If she was here, they’d taken her, too, from the safe house. They’d found her and found out all of their plans to keep things secret and safe. Was Hunter being harmed, too? Had Jeremy figured out that he wasn’t planning to kill her?
Things were much worse than she’d even thought. Obviously, they could find Vanessa. She’d been sitting at home, looking like she was waiting for Hunter to come. And she knew that Jeremy knew where she lived. It wasn’t a real shock. But she’d thought the farm house with Mari’s parents was safe. If they’d found Opal, no one was safe.
The door banged open loudly. The same three men that had come after her stormed into the room carrying Opal.
“Mommy!” she screamed and continued thrashing in their arms.
They tossed her down and she landed on the hard ground with a thump. She rubbed at her arm, still crying, and scampered over to Vanessa.
“Oh, look who’s awake,” one of the men said.
Vanessa didn’t recognize the voice. She didn’t have time to try to figure out an escape plan or a way to keep Opal safe. The man jabbed her arm with something sharp. A needle. As he pushed down the plunger, everything started to fade to black again.
Her blood pounded loud in her ears. They would hurt Opal, and she would be unconscious. She tried to fight it, tried to keep her eyes open and will herself to stay awake, but the drugs were too strong. She was helpless. There was nothing she could do for her daughter.
Opal’s voice, calling her name in a terrified whisper, was the last thing she heard.
# # #
Hunter pulled up to the apartment complex and saw swarms of cops pouring in and out of the building. He jumped out, not even bothering to lock the door behind him or make sure it was closed fully. The yellow line of caution tape meant nothing to him. He jumped over it, and took the stairs two at a time.
Her door was wide open. It wasn’t just open because cops were all over, either. It was hanging on its hinges by a few shards of wood. Someone had kicked it in. His gut clenched. So many horrors might lay beyond that door.
He pushed past the cops, ignored their protests, and barged into the apartment. There were clear signs of a struggle. A lamp knocked over, a bullet hole in the wall. Who’d done that? He saw no bodies.
He went room by room, frantically searching. Nothing in her bedroom, nothing in Opal’s room, nothing in the kitchen or bathroom.
“Hey, you can’t be in here!” a cop yelled at him.
“Where are they?” Hunter asked, finally coming to a standstill in front of the cop.
“Who?”
“Vanessa, the woman who lives here. There was a man here, too, Nicholas. Where are they? Did you find them?”
“What’s your name?”
“Hunter. I’m Vanessa’s boyfriend.” He wasn’t sure if that was really true. They hadn’t discussed it or made anything official, but if they were in love with each other, they were something, weren’t they?
The cop nodded. “We didn’t find her, but Nicholas was here when we arrived. He’s pretty shaken up, but from what we could gather when we interviewed him, she was taken.”
“By who? Where? How?” His heart was still racing. He couldn’t decide if this was good because she was alive or terrible because now she was under their control, being held hostage.
“I don’t have that information. Nicholas didn’t know the men who took her. Said they were wearing masks.”
“She wasn’t hurt in any way? What about the bullet hole?” He pointed to the damaged wall.
“According to Nicholas, there was a struggle, and she tried to shoot her attackers, but missed. From what he could tell, she was drugged, but not otherwise harmed.”
“Thank you.” Hunter spun and dashed back out of the apartment as fast as he’d run in. He had to find her, but he had nothing to go on.
Outside on the lawn of the apartment building, in the midst of police and waiting press and watching neighbors, he spotted Nicholas sitting on the edge of an ambulance, sipping water. He looked white and had a blanket wrapped around him. He must be in bad shape. The pussy had probably never been in a fight in his life.
Hunter walked over to him. “You okay?”
Nicholas shook his head and gave him a wide-eyed stare. “It was horrible.”
“What happened exactly? The cops didn’t tell me much, and I need all the details I can get if I’m going to save her.”
“She’s gone. Three men kicked down the door. She tried to shoot them. They put something over her face, and then she was gone.”
“And where were you in all this?” Nicholas could have tried to help her, if he’d been willing to carry a gun, he could have shot one of them. He could have at least called 911.
“I… I…”
“Where you in the room when the door was kicked down?”
He nodded.
“What did you do?”
“I… I was just so scared.”
“Did you hide?” The rage started to boil in his veins. This pansy man had done nothing at all to save the love of his life.
“No. I… I was in the corner.”
“What, cowering like a baby?”
Nicholas’s lip quivered and he had to look away. “This isn’t part of my job description. I don’t deal with violence. I don’t like it. I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in war, either.”
Hunter rolled his eyes and clenched his jaw. “So, you didn’t try to help her? You sat there and watched her fight three men and did nothing?”
“There was a pizza guy.”
“Huh?”
“Before the men came, a pizza guy came. We didn’t let him in, and we told him we didn’t order a pizza and he left.”
“Okay. And?”
“Thought you should know.”
“I couldn’t care less. They were checking to see if she was home. Obviously. What did you do while my girlfriend was fighting off three attackers, fighting for her life?”
“I just… couldn’t. I was like a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I did anything, it would make it worse.”
“So you sat there and watched an innocent woman be attacked and did nothing? Did you at least call 911?”
He shook his head slowly. “A neighbor must have. I heard the sirens coming. My phone was in my pocket, and I didn’t want to move to get it. I didn’t want them to see me or know I called the cops.”
“Right, of course not. Save yourself. Gotcha. Did you at the very least happen to look out the window after they drugged her to see which way they drove off?”
Nicholas’s eyes were wide again. It seemed clear from his expression that he hadn’t even thought to do something like that. His mouth popped open, but he said nothing.
“And our government trusts you to protect children in dangerous situations, to make sure they’re safe? If a child had been taken, would you have cowered in fear and just watched that, too?”
Nicholas was close to tears. Hunter could see his eyes getting glassy. He was so pissed, he could rip his head off. But he didn’t want to push the man. He might still have some say where Opal was concerned. He seemed to be dealing with enough, and not handling anything well.
“You know what?” Hunter clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure you did all you could. Thanks for your help. Let me know if you think of anything else or find something out. I have to go find Vanessa and Opal. I hope they’re both still alive.”
Hunter ran to his car, trying to decide his next course of action. He had no idea where she could be. He didn’t know of any sort of headquarters Jeremy had, and if he was dead, he might not be running the show now anyway. Who knew what they’d do with Vanessa. Did they have Opal already or was part of the plan to torture Vanessa into telling them where she was? It would take an awful lot for that to happen, he knew. She’d already been tortured for years at Jeremy’ hand for her daughter’s sake.
But then he got a flash memory. Jeremy, in the hotel room. I know where Opal is, and I already have someone on their way to get her. It was Hunter’s only lead. If they hadn’t gotten Opal already, he could save her. If Jeremy had gotten to her, maybe there were clues of some sort that would help him find Vanessa.
There was just one decision he had to make, and it might be the hardest one of his life. Did he give up searching for Vanessa to rescue her daughter? He might be able to track Vanessa with her phone, but that would take time, and he’d already spent too much here, trying to get answers. She might not even have her phone on her. His heart rejected any course of action that wouldn’t lead him to find Vanessa right this second. But when it came down it, this is what Vanessa would want. She would tell him to save her daughter. And maybe, if he was lucky, it would help him find her, too.
He got into his car, his gut turning, and headed in the direction of the farm house, still having no idea where Vanessa was, if she was safe or alive, and making no move to find her.