Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

Serena

I woke slowly to the feeling of the world moving underneath me.

“She’s still out,” the monster said.

I remembered being chased and grabbed. The bumpy ride and road noise combined to give me the bad news—I was now in a car, being driven away from my radio link to Duke and the guys.

Duke would be looking for me by now. But would he get to me in time? I wished I’d listened to him and stayed in the car.

As the fog cleared, I decided to play possum for a minute and check my motor control first. My hands were duct-taped, but my feet weren’t. Less than ideal for running away, but workable.

The master chief had made me practice running with my hands tied either behind me or in front. “Practice could make the difference,” he’d said. “You can’t afford to be off balance and fall.”

At the time, it had seemed silly in the extreme, but today, I thanked Dad for hiring him after the kidnapping and forcing those lessons on me.

I’d never considered being previously kidnapped a helpful experience, but in this instance, it certainly was. I knew from experience and the master chief that if I got a chance to escape, I’d have to act quickly and use all my might. Mentally, I recited his list of vulnerable areas. Strike hard at the eyes, throat, groin, or knee .

I chanced opening one eye. It took a second of blinking to focus.

Tony Spinelli, the Taser guy, was driving. We were going fast and straight next to a big truck—on the freeway, most likely—so trying to open the door and jump was off the table.

My purse was on the floor. My cell phone was zipped in the inner pocket. If they hadn’t found it, Duke could track us. They did it in the movies all the time. He’d come.

I closed my eyes again as Spinelli’s head turned. “It’s time to put her under again.”

The monster shook my shoulder.

I stayed limp.

“She’s still out,” he said.

“I don’t trust her. Put her under again.”

With only seconds to act, I sat up quickly, so quickly my head spun. I swung my elbow at the monster’s throat. I caught him in the jaw instead.

“Fucking bitch.” Then a bigger elbow than mine slammed into my head.

Spinelli laughed. “I told you she’d be a slippery one.”

The monster grabbed my hair with one hand and pulled out a plastic bag with his other. It held the cloth he’d used on me before. I struggled against him, without success. He got it on my mouth and nose.

I held my breath for as long as I could. Duke, I need you.

In the end, I lost out to the darkness.

Duke

The gas station setup was an old VCR that was easy to rewind, but figuring out how to select the camera we wanted from the eight small boxes on the screen took a minute.

“Pause it,” Lucas said.

The screen held a grainy image, but it was clear enough for me. “That’s the guy who grabbed her on the street Tuesday.”

Lucas leaned closer to the screen. “We’ve gotta ID him.”

I started the video again. “This isn’t good enough for facial rec.”

“Good girl.” I watched as Serena darted away.

Lucas shifted cameras.

My gut clenched as I watched her attacker catch her again and place a rag over her mouth before she went limp.

“She tried,” Lucas said.

“Yeah.” It didn’t make me feel any better.

The big guy then dragged her out of the building, supporting her against his side like he was helping a drunk.

Moving to the outside cameras, we watched the guy put her in the backseat of a BMW SUV and follow her in.

“Fuck.” He had her, and there was also a driver involved. We couldn’t see his face from this angle.

Lucas tapped his comms. “Jordy, we have her being shoved into the back of a small blue BMW SUV. The picture’s poor, but probably an X3. The license is too fuzzy to make anything out. It left our position heading north.”

“The tag is British Columbia,” I said, pointing. “See the flag in the middle?”

“Copy that,” Jordy said. Furious keyboard clicks sounded in the background. “Got it. The car continued northbound, then east ten blocks up.”

“Let’s go.” Now we had a direction. I grabbed the office key and sprinted back to the register, slamming it down in front of the girl too entranced by her phone to notice a kidnapping in progress.

“My car’s toast,” Lucas said as he opened the passenger door to join me.

I looked over at his Cayenne, still venting steam from the crunched front end, and agreed. “I knew you Deltas couldn’t drive.”

“Fuck you.”

I floored the Porsche, and its V8 burned rubber out of the gas station. “I’ll be happy to give you defensive-driving lessons.” The turbos whined as I raced to beat the yellow light at the next intersection.

Lucas grabbed the door handle. “You call this defensive?”

I leaned on the horn as the light turned red just before we arrived.

“My woman’s in trouble. I call this warp nine.”

“Jordy,” Lucas said over comms. “Can you get a facial rec on the driver?”

“Already done,” Jordy responded. “It’s Spinelli. I don’t have a usable face shot on the second guy.”

When Lucas didn’t respond, I added, “Thanks, Bro.”

“You’re welcome,” came back through comms.

“Why’d he waste airtime saying that?” Lucas asked.

“The Serena effect.” My woman had more of an impact on us in the last week than I’d realized.

Lucas only huffed.

I sped up to move around more slow cars. “Be okay, Serena. Be safe.”

Lucas gave me a thumbs-up. “We got this.”

“They got on the freeway heading north,” Jordy said. “It’s going to be a bitch now because we don’t have much video on the freeway itself.”

“Copy that,” Lucas replied. “In pursuit. Jordy, get Winston and Terry spun up following us. We may need more than two shooters on this.”

“Copy that. What about Constance?”

Jordy was taking this seriously because otherwise, he would have given Lucas shit if he admitted there was anything he couldn’t handle by himself.

“We can’t pull her and blow her cover yet. She stays at the EPA.”

“What are you thinking?” I asked as I took the corner fast and the tires squealed.

“I’m thinking Spinelli is no amateur, and he wouldn’t hire amateur help,” Lucas said. “Four is better than two.”

The Delta operator in him always planned for overwhelming force in a hostage rescue, but two against two wasn’t overwhelming.

“I’ve got her live cell location, and it matched the freeway entrance time,” Jordy said. “So we’ve got a lock on her. Still north on the four-oh-five.”

Switching lanes, the engine roared as I added throttle and passed another two cars. “Hold on, baby. We’re coming.”

“It doesn’t make sense. Why did he let her keep the phone?” Lucas asked.

“Maybe she hid it so he doesn’t know she has it?”

“We’ve gotta catch that car before he finds it. Give me warp ten.”

I mashed the pedal down and swerved into the oncoming lanes to get around the car ahead.

“Terry and I are on the way,” Jordy announced.

“I said Winston,” Lucas complained.

Jordy made a sound very close to a growl. “The shipment of Rossi’s personal effects sent from Florida is arriving today. He’s going to check that out. I’m your backup on this.”

“I’ll keep him safe,” Terry said.

“You mean I’ll keep you safe,” Jordy scoffed. “We’re good. I’ve got my laptop. Target is still northbound.”

Serena

“Wake up.” It was the voice of the monster who’d taken me. He shook my shoulder. “Wake up, little girl.”

The road noise said we were still driving, but I had no idea how long it had been. I groaned and played lethargic, blinking hard while I sat up. One breast was out of its bra cup. At least my hands were bound in front of me so I could fix it. “What’s going on?” I asked, sleepily. “You can’t just abduct people.” My words sounded ridiculous even to me.

“My boss wants to know where the stick is,” Spinelli said as he glanced back at me. “It’ll go much easier for you if you tell me now before we reach his place.”

“But I told you, I don’t have what you want, or he wants.”

He shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance for the easy way.”

“But I don’t know anything about it.”

“Oh, you say that now, but he’ll get his answer. He’s very resourceful.”

I pictured pliers to pull off fingernails…or dental drills like in that movie with Dustin Hoffman. Both made me want to puke.

“He’ll use his little kit of drugs. You’ll spill your guts, and then you’re ours.”

“Then you’re mine.” The monster grinned, looking directly at my chest. “Yeah, mine.”

My stomach did a flip. The creep had fondled me while I was unconscious. Gross, gross, gross. Duke would come. He had to—and fast, before these two got away.

“After I test drive you,” he added, “you’ll fetch a pretty penny.”

“No,” Spinelli said, leering at me in the rearview mirror. “It’s my turn to go first.”

These sick fucks were the Fox brothers all over again. “Let me out now or else.”

Both men laughed.

Whichever one came for me first, I was going to bite his dick off and swallow it.

“Or else what?” Spinelli smiled. “I like a woman with a little spunk.”

“My boyfriend will hunt you down and bury you.”

“Oh, I’m scared,” the monster scoffed. “You scared, Tony?”

“After my boss gets his answers from you,” Spinelli said, “you’ll be ours, and your precious boyfriend will never find you. I promise you that.”

I spat and got Spinelli on the cheek.

He wiped it off. “Johnson, shut her up.”

Remembering Duke’s advice that angry men made mistakes, I scoffed. “Johnson, huh? I bet your first name is little.”

“He said quiet.” Johnson’s slap knocked me against the window, and pain shot across my face. Maybe now wasn’t the time for Duke’s advice.

“Hey. Easy with the merchandise, Brother. We want a good price. Use the needle.”

Johnson? Brother? It came back to me in a rush. Winston had mentioned that Spinelli had a brother named Johnson who the FBI thought was into human trafficking. How could I get kidnapped by the one pair worse than the Fox brothers?

His slimy hand pushed my head against the window and held me there. My struggling had no effect. Then I felt the prick, and the world went black again.