Finding Faye: Page 15

  The trip starts off well enough with the girls talking and laughing in the back seat. I still can't shake my bad feeling, and from the tight set of his jaw, I can tell Blake is feeling the same way. This has happened to us before, and not for the first time, I think about turning around and taking everyone home. I could always call Xavier and have him come for him wife.

  There is trouble coming.

  I just have to figure out where it's coming from and how the hell to stay ahead of it. I have no doubt that, once we get to Cerelli, whatever danger is tailing us will be mitigated. He may be on the straight and narrow, but the guy is still a mafia boss. He will be able to protect his wife.

  Chapter Twenty

  Travis

  It’s a long drive to Vegas. We have been on the road all day, but we should be there in a couple more hours. We skipped stopping at restaurants like we had planned for breakfast and lunch, opting instead for sandwiches from a mini-mart when we stopped for gas.

  Changing our plans felt like the right idea to both Blake and I. Not stopping has put us a little ahead of schedule, so I’m cautiously hopeful that if there was danger waiting for us we will avoid it by being early. No one has even said anything about stopping for dinner yet, even though the sun is getting low in the sky.

  Blake has been quiet, spending a lot of time on his laptop. I know that he’s trying to stay one step ahead and figure out what might be going on. The trouble is that there shouldn’t be anyone interested in us taking Ana home. Not that we have been able to find any knowledge of, anyway. It doesn’t make any sense, but we know better than to discount the way that we have been feeling.

  The mood is so somber that even the girls have stopped their quiet chatter in the backseat. We hadn’t been on the road long before they picked up on the tension radiating off of Blake and I. Now everyone is focused on the road ahead, scanning for trouble that we can't see.

  It’s unpleasant, like feeling eyes on you while you walk down a dark street in an unfamiliar place.

  The closer we get to our destination the more I try to convince myself that I’m just overreacting. Having found Faye, I’m just letting my fears of losing her again run amok. All of this worry has to be my imagination. Blake has known me for so long that it would be easy for him to pick up on my stress, and then we would both be worried. Most likely for nothing. At least that is what I keep telling myself as the miles continue to roll by.

  We are in the middle of nowhere and I’m about to suggest stopping for food and a bathroom break in the next town when an armored truck comes screeching out of the darkness and onto the highway toward us.

  “What the fuck?” Blake shouts. The sound of alarmed feminine voices ring in my ears as I rapidly access my options. Unfortunately there aren’t many.

  The lights on the big truck are off making it a dark shadow in the dimming light. It’s straddling the yellow lines in the middle taking up most of the two lane road. I yank the wheel to the right, trying to give myself room to get by it, but suddenly the lights come on. I’m blinded by the bright beams of the LED headlights. Fuck I hate those things under any circumstances, but now the brilliant blue light is almost incapacitating. The gravel shoulder pulls at my tires. I struggle to hold the wheel steady. White spots cloud my vision and I blink rapidly hoping to clear them away as I step harder on the gas pedal. If I can’t get past them it’s guaranteed that there will be some kind of confrontation. It’s a classic maneuver. They will force us off the road and then Blake and I will be forced to protect the girls any way we can. Blake’s knee still being fucked up will make that harder than it usually would be.

  Faye is crying in the back seat.

  “Get your heads down,” I yell at them, unable to tell if they heard me or not. The big vehicle clips the front bumper spinning my truck to the side. My seatbelt jerks me back as the airbags deploy, stunning me with the impact.

  Vaguely I hear the girls’ voices in the back and Blake yelling something at me. I shake my head and put the truck in reverse, trying to move away from the vehicle blocking our path.

  A second impact hits the side of my pickup this time, forcing us completely off the road in a cloud of smoke and screaming tires as I do my best to disengage from the contact. My battered Dodge is no competition for the armored vehicle. It’s almost twice as heavy as us and my efforts to stop our sideways momentum are useless under the onslaught.

  Through the ringing in my ears I hear Faye and Ana sobbing behind me as we teeter on the edge of a small incline.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” Blake yells as the bigger truck backs up to rams us again. Knowing that this is my last chance I slam it into gear and try again to get us clear. The diesel engine screams in protest fighting against the more powerful vehicle as it slams into us again. It's no use.

  The last thing I see as we tip sideways over the small incline is Blake's head smacking against the window beside him. He flops inside his restraints, clearly unconscious as we roll twice before my truck shudders to a crashing stop on its side.

  The moments before I am oriented enough to check myself for injuries feel infinite. I'm okay. Banged up for sure, but I've survived worse. Blake is still out, hanging above me in the passenger seat, the safety belt the only thing keeping him in place.

  Faye and Ana are okay. I think. They are both crying and Faye keeps asking me if I'm okay. Finally I’m able to give her a quick affirmative, needing to reassure her as best I can in this fucked up situation.

  I need to get out of this truck if I have any chance of protecting her and Ana. I have no doubt whoever did this is on their way down here, but with Blake suspended above me I'm trapped.

  Voices come down the incline and I know, instinctively, that they are here for the girls. I reach for the KBar I keep duct-taped under my steering wheel in case of emergencies and cut myself free of my seatbelt, falling heavily against the door. Turning toward the back seat intending to climb over and somehow prevent what is coming.

  I need to protect my woman, and her friend, no matter the cost.

  “Can you get out of your seatbelts?” I shout at them. They are still sobbing and I can see that they are stuck like Blake. I will have to get back there and cut them loose and somehow prevent them getting injured in the process.

  I am swinging my leg into the space between the front seats when the back door lifts open and large hands reach in and grab Faye by the arm, slicing through her seatbelt and dragging her screaming through the opening. I roar with the rage exploding inside me.

  I'm jammed in the small awkward space trying to climb out after her when something hits me in the head. Hard.

  I fall back toward the dash, dazed and barely conscious. Blood flows down my face from a laceration on my scalp, getting into my eyes and momentarily blinding me. Scrubbing my sleeve over my face to clear away the blood only takes me a minute. At least I think it’s a minute. I’m having a hard time remaining alert. By the time my vision clears, Ana is gone too.

  Blake stirs above me, moaning and starting to fight against the seatbelt restraining him. I have to get us out of here. Now.

  And then we have to find my girl.

  Faye

  I still haven’t figured out exactly what happened back there. Now Ana and I are in the back of the truck that pushed us off the road. I saw the dented front fender when they dragged me up the hill and shoved me into the back. It’s the kind of truck that banks use to transport money, The armored kind. No wonder it was able to smash Travis’ big pickup off the road.

  There is nothing in the back where they are holding us. No way to escape. It’s as secure as a jail cell. A moving one.

  After I was shoved inside, I checked for something I could use as a weapon. I heard them say that they were going back for Ana, and I had hoped that I would be able to get us free somehow.

  No such luck.

  By some miracle I seem to be okay. A little bruised from the accident, and my shoulder hurts from being dragged out the door by my arm. It could be
worse. I know if I have to I can still fight to protect myself and Ana. If it comes to that I don’t think she will be able to do much. When they pushed her through the door she collapsed at my feet, sobbing. She finally calmed down and stopped crying, but it took a while. She’s a little battered from the accident but says the baby is moving and that was my biggest concern.

  I can’t tell what direction we are going. I was pretty dazed when they pushed me into the dimly lit mobile cell. I’m not sure how long we have been back here either. It’s probably been a couple of hours. There isn’t any way to tell. I just know that it took a while for Ana and I to calm each other down.

  We also checked again, to see if there was anything that I had missed that might help us escape. Of course there isn’t.

  Just once in my life I would like for something to go my way. I thought it had happened. I was finally where I wanted to be, with the man of my dreams, and now… now I’m in the back of a freaking bank truck going God knows where… and I really need to pee.

  “I really need a bathroom,” Ana whispers, echoing my thoughts, which would be a little funny under any other circumstances. Instead we are sitting together on the floor, holding each other up, both of us needing a bathroom and having no idea when our captors will be stopping. It could be a long night. The road has mostly been straight for a long time now. If I had to guess, I would say we are most likely still on the road to Vegas. Which means we should be stopping soon. I hope.

  “Me too.” I whisper back to Ana. We have been staying as quiet as possible, just in case they can hear us back here.

  Hopefully they stop soon—otherwise things are going to get messy.

  After a while longer Ana lies down beside me and rests her head on my lap. Her eyes are full of tears when she looks up at me. “I heard one of them mention Don Dominic when they were shoving me in here,” she finally says, her voice shaking.

  The name means nothing to me, so I wait for her to continue.

  “Dominic is Xavier’s uncle. He's a complete piece of shit. My dad told me he’s pissed that X moved to Vegas and started getting out of the dirty side of the business.” She stops talking for a minute while we both mull this over. Travis told me it was Xavier’s family behind my mom’s murder, so them being the ones who took us frightens me. I can’t help but wonder if this has anything to do with me and what I saw four years ago.

  I ask, “What do you think is going on here?”

  She shrugs a shoulder. “I’m not sure, Faye, but I hope someone finds us soon. These are not nice guys. I’m afraid of what might happen to us when we get wherever it is they are taking us.”

  “Travis will find us,” I whisper back as our eyes meet. I’m trying to convince myself as much as comfort her.

  Her gaze is bleak. She doesn’t think he’s coming for us.

  If he was able he already would be here. That means that he’s not. He was alive when they dragged me out of the back seat. I have no way of knowing what happened afterwards. Ana said that they hit him with a chunk of wood or something before they pulled her out.

  I know that means we are probably going to have to save ourselves...or die trying.

  The things Travis told me, about the older Cerelli’s business being drugs and trafficking women, keep rattling around in my mind. I don’t know if Ana knows this, and I am not going to mention it. She is already scared enough.

  I would rather die than be sold into that kind of existence. I can't let it happen to Ana either.

  Running away won’t be an option this time, so somehow I will have to find a way to save both of us.

  I know if Travis is still alive he will find me. Thinking about the blow he sustained, I have to admit, at least to myself, that he may not be able to. Not in time, anyway. Maybe not ever.

  An almost silent sob breaks loose and shudders through me. I don’t know if I will be able to survive losing him, but I know that he would not want me to give up either. So I won’t. I am going to be a little bit weak and cry for what I may have lost before I even had a chance to enjoy it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Travis

  After doing some gymnastics in the crumpled cab of my pickup, I finally drag myself up and out the window those assholes stole the girls through. Blake is awake now and seems to be alert and oriented. For the most part anyway. I’m sure that he has a killer headache. His head hit the window damn hard. He has a knot forming on the side of his head and bruises already darken the side of his face.

  The only good news is that both of us are able to move, and Blake’s computer survived the crash.

  Also in our favor, one of our security teams wasn’t too far away and they are now en route to us. They will get us to our destination, not that we know exactly where we need to go at this point.

  Blake is sitting against the side of the wrecked pickup hacking into satellite images. He is trying to locate our attackers to determine what direction they went.

  Technology is always helpful. It’s even better when you are equipped to take advantage of the variety of info that is available to someone who knows how to access it.

  We are.

  We shouldn't even be able to acquire what he is digging into, but he is just that good. Our years in the military only made him better. One of the best our government ever trained. That same government he's been muttering curses under his breath at for the past half hour while his fingers fly over the keyboard.

  “About fucking time,” he growls, half smiling before motioning for me to stop pacing and sit down. I haven’t been able to sit still since I got him out and placed the call for assistance. Reluctantly I sit as he hands over the computer.

  The screen shows still shots taken by God knows what camera. The girls were loaded into the back of an armored truck by two men. Two others were in another vehicle, which we never saw during the ambush. The damaged front bumper shows that it was the one that rammed us.

  He found it! Thank fuck!

  “Nice work, man.” I bump him with my elbow and he groans at the contact. I know he’s hurting, and now that I’m sitting still I’m feeling it too.

  The trucks we are looking for left here and kept heading in the same direction we had been traveling. Toward Las Vegas. It’s a lucky break. Blake was also able to pull up images of the license plates on both rigs. He is working that angle now, breaking into the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles database.

  He makes hacking look easier than I know it actually is, but it shouldn’t take him very long. I hope that whoever owns the trucks have them registered in their name or to an easily identifiable company. That would save us some time.

  I don't anticipate it being as simple as that, but after everything going sideways I feel like something needs to go our way.

  Somehow, against all odds, someone knew where we were going to be and what we would be driving. I have no idea how or why. Taking Ana to Xavier shouldn’t have drawn anyone’s attention. No one even knew that she was going to be returning to Vegas.

  Unless this wasn’t about Ana.

  This was a well-planned snatch and grab, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe Xavier’s relatives somehow tracked Faye down. It’s possible that he told them. I didn’t get the feeling that he operated that way from our conversation though.

  It almost makes sense that this is about Faye, but I know that I’m missing something… the question is, what?

  I still have to call Xavier and let him know that this whole thing went terribly wrong. I do not want to end up on the wrong side of the Cerelli family. Even though Xavier is moving away from the criminal end of the family business, the man is bound to have a temper, and that could definitely mean trouble, considering that his wife went missing again on my watch. Not good.

  Best case scenario, he’s willing to work with me to find them and bring them both home. He’s bound to have contacts in the city, which we will need since we are bringing this to unfamiliar territory.

  I have zero doubts that finding Faye
and getting her back beside me is going to be difficult.

  “Headed to another fucking desert, Trav.” Blake spits on the ground beside him. His voice vibrating with a mix of anger and disgust. “I fucking hate the desert.”

  “Me too, Bro. Me too,” I tell him, standing back up to resume my agitated pacing. I may not like it, but I can’t get to it fast enough this time.

  When I sit still, I start thinking about Faye and how scared I know she must be. I need to get her back. I should never have let them get to her in the first place. My fist lashes out, smashing into the side of my ruined truck. I relish the burst of pain lancing through my hand, distracting me from the memory of this morning in the shower. The silken feel of Faye’s wet skin sliding against mine.

  Our guys, Mike and John, should be here before too much longer. They said we would only have to wait for them about an hour. It’s been that long, so I collect our bags and Ana's box of baby things from the toolbox, happy that I didn’t have to gather everything up off the ground. Climbing up the small incline to wait by the road, I look back. Blake is still engrossed in his computer screen, leaning against the crumpled roof.

  Damn it! I really loved that truck. I’d trade it in a heartbeat to have Faye safe at home right though. I’d give anything for that.

  Setting all our belongings on the ground while I wait, I refuse to believe anything other than we will find them. We have to. I won’t lose her again. I can’t.

  Blake capturing images of the license plates means that he will track them like a hound dog on a scent. This kind of tracking is his specialty: using the grid that everyone takes for granted against them. I'm more of a kick in the door, blow shit up kind of guy. I don't have the patience for the kind of work he does.

  At least he's as equally capable of taking down doors and fucking people up as I am. We are probably going to need to do both before this situation is resolved. I just don’t want to make an enemy of Xavier Cerelli while we do it.