Chapter Eleven
Katie was fighting for her life. She remembered being grabbed off the street. The van hadn’t even slowed down when arms had reached out and plucked her from the sidewalk. Jason’s hand had been ripped from hers, almost yanking her arm out of its socket. She was pushed into the van and held down with a vile smelling white cloth over her mouth until darkness overcame her.
This time she didn’t think she’d been out very long because she felt the vehicle jolt. Then she heard metal on metal and heard a horn blowing in the distance as they continued to drive.
The men didn’t pay her any attention after the loud sounds so she lay there unmoving with her eyes closed, thinking. She hoped they assumed she was still unconscious and listened for her opportunity, any opening she might have to jump into motion. The van traveled so fast that with every corner they took, she rolled with the motion.
They must have driven for half an hour before she felt the van slowing down. She lay there, unmoving, until she heard the door open, then she cracked open her eyes and kicked the first person she saw in the groin. When he toppled over, she jumped from the van and started running away from the vehicle. She made it a few steps only to be grabbed from behind and tossed against the back of the van. Her head snapped back against the side of the van, causing her to bite the side of her mouth so hard that she tasted blood. her head hurt.
She faced the man whose nose was still crooked from the break Jason had given him over a week ago. Mikolas.
“What do you want?”
“Well, now, looks like she played opossum on us,” he chuckled at the man who was still hunched over, holding his crotch. “Get up Raul, we have a job to do.”
Katie watched in horror as the big man walked towards her with the same white cloth from earlier. Knowing that if he got it over her face again she might never wake up, she shouted,
“I can pay you!” She held herself ready for a fight.
The man stopped. “We are already getting paid,” he said, and he started walking towards her again.
“I’ll double it,” she blurted out. Knowing she was just stalling, she tried to look around for any help. It looked like they were in the industrial part of town. She could see large warehouse buildings, and unfortunately there wasn’t anyone in sight. She knew that if she tried to take off on foot, they would just jump in the van and grab her again. She needed to get back to where there were people and she could only think of one way of doing that.
“Well, now,” the man scratched his chin and looked down at his partner, “that would make our take four hundred thousand each.”
Katie tried not to show the shock on her face. Someone was willing to pay these men four hundred thousand to kidnap her? And do what? Kill her? Who wanted her dead or out of the way that badly?
She remembered the call from her family. Someone had demanded a ransom of ten million dollars. She knew that her father’s business easily made that much. Even her biological father was probably worth that much, though she didn’t know if they had called him and demanded money, as well. So whoever wanted her was trying to bleed her family out of their hard-earned money and she knew that her dad and brother would have gladly paid any price for her.
She had never really thought about her family’s money that way before. Sure, growing up she had everything she ever needed, driven the nicest cars, had the finest clothes that she could ever possibly want, gone to the best schools. But she had her own money she had always used. For the past ten years, she’d only used her inheritance from her grandmother. She had invested it herself and she’d been smart enough with it that she had easily tripled the amount given to her.
But in the last year, she had hardly been spending any money at all, just paying for hotels and travel.
Now, after living the way she had been, she doubted that she would ever go back to the way she had lived before. There was something to be said about the simple life, and she’d grown accustomed to enjoying the simpler things in life.
She knew that her only possible chance of escape would be to get them to a very public place, so she took a chance.
“Yes, I can easily pay you double.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her credit card. “Just get me to my bank.”
Dante and Ric drove across town at high speeds, following the van. Ric was impressed at his half-brother’s driving abilities.
“Don’t worry, we will get her back. I know these streets very well,” Dante said, as Ric held on to his seat. Dante took a turn quickly, trying to keep the van within sight.
All Ric could focus on was his sister -- seeing her again, hearing her laughter, having her joke with him. He just had to get her back. Images of her flashed before his eyes. Her as a child, with no front teeth, sitting in front of the Christmas tree. Her on her horse during a riding lesson. Her in her gymnastics outfit, bending and twirling her teenage body around. Her in her Prom dress as their mother took countless pictures. Then his mind flashed to the last time he’d seen her. She’d retreated to his place in Portland for spring break. He knew she’d been hiding from someone, most likely a boy. She’d nervously been checking her phone all week for messages. Then she’d left his place early to meet up with her girlfriends in Mexico. He’d never figured out what she’d been anxious about; he’d been too busy with his own problems then.
Now, he’d do anything to get that week back, to get his sister back. He didn’t give a damn if she was his half-sister. He’d grown up with her under his heels his entire life. All he could remember was her being there.
He didn’t want that to change, no matter what.
They followed the white van for almost twenty minutes before they lost it on the outskirts of the industrial park.
“Damn it!” Dante slammed his hand against his steering wheel. “Did you see where they went?”
“No, let’s keep looking. They have to be here somewhere.”
They looked around, scanning the small streets as Dante slowly drove by the last place they’d seen the van.
Dante could hardly breathe through the worry and fear he had for a sister he hadn’t even met yet. Looking over at Ric, he knew the fear in him was most likely doubled, since Ric and Katie had grown up together.
“Go back down that last street. I think I saw something.” Ric pointed down a side street.
Dante turned his small Audi around in one quick turn, and headed slowly back down the narrow street.
“Stop!” Ric shouted. Dante stopped the car and they both noticed a large, empty parking lot next to an old building. Katie and two large men stood just outside the white van. One of the men was hunched over on his knees, holding his crotch.
“That’s our sister, kick them where it counts,” Ric said, smiling.
Dante felt an enormous sense of pride knowing that his sister had probably kicked the man in the groin.
“I’m getting out here. I’ll circle around and try to help her. Call the cops and tell them where we are. I don’t know if they have weapons, but I need to stay out of sight until I do. I’ve been shot at once in my life and I don’t intend to let that happen again. You need to come around and try to block that gate somehow.” Ric pointed to a large fenced area. Dante noticed that the van would have to pass through it in order to leave the secured parking area.
Ric jumped out of Dante’s car, shut the door quietly, then he ran off to circle the building.
Dante grabbed his cellphone and quickly called his father, relaying where they were and what was going on.
He watched as Katie argued with the larger man, and he hoped that she could keep them busy as he slowly moved his car to block the driveway with it.
He watched as the larger man grabbed Katie’s arm and started walking her around to the front of the van, where he shoved her into the large door. Then the two men argued as the larger one pushed the smaller against the side of the vehicle. He watched as finally they started to get back into the van.
The van pulled away and turned towards him. Dante sat there behind the wheel of his car and watched them drive closer. Where was Ric? What would he do if they stopped? When they were closer, the larger man finally saw Dante’s car blocking their way out. In the split second before Dante realized what was going to happen, he braced himself for the impact.