Fix It Up - Mary Calmes Page 0,114

they couldn’t transfer the property had led them to this. Because while there were a few pictures circulating online about me, it was not general knowledge what I looked like. Certainly my current whereabouts was not something anyone who didn’t know Nick personally would know. The pool of people who could have sent a man with a gun to kidnap me was almost infinitesimal.

All of this went through my head at once, and of course, it was all irrelevant if I ended up dead.

“Now move,” the guy threatened me.

He was too close, there was no way he would miss me with his Walther PPS, and I had no intention of fighting with him.

Turning, I was faced with another man holding what looked like a Glock 43, who put a hand on my shoulder to lead me to a car that sat idling on the road in front of the house. It was already turned the correct way to get me out of there fast.

Everyone always said the same thing, never allow yourself to be moved to another location. The odds of getting away were best when you were in a place you knew. Plus, in this instance, they needed me. They had to provide proof of life if they wanted Nick to pay even a dime.

When I was wrenched forward near the car and the door opened, the overhead light went on. Kidnapping 101 was that you made sure the car stayed dark at all times. I could see the driver.

“You guys should’ve worn masks,” I informed him, and he turned to me and gasped, probably surprised that the overhead light was on, which gave me the second I needed.

The guy behind me had leaned with me to put me in the back seat of the Mercedes sedan, and I brought my head back fast and caught him hard in the face. The crunch of a broken nose was instant and unmistakable.

Shoving the guy off me, the second guy pistol-whipped me across the face, and I fell back against the car as he punched me in the abdomen and then in the kidney, missing the third time when I launched myself at him.

The first guy was up and recovered enough from the back of my skull to his face to kick me in the shoulder and then in the ribs. My right arm was wrapped in a choke hold around the neck of the guy I’d hit the ground with, so I reached out with my left hand, grabbed broken-nose guy by the back of a boot and yanked hard, which sent him headfirst into the car, hitting the window and knocking him out. The guy on me twisted and got me in the gut with an elbow, but I tightened my bicep around his neck, slipped my left arm underneath, and put him in a sleeper hold. He was out seconds later.

There was yelling then, and the driver hit the gas and peeled out, which threw the guy passed out against the car into the road, hitting his head again, hard. The deputies reached me, secured both guns, and one of them got on the radio to call in backup to stop the fleeing would-be kidnapper, but as I sat up, I saw the brake lights of his car flare, as a patrol car had already rolled out to block him. It was that easy.

“Thank you for this,” I said to the deputy as he cuffed the guy in the street. “For you all being here.”

“Well, it was a treat to hear Mr. Madison and the band, but we’re gonna go ahead and shut you all down now,” he told me, wincing as he looked at me. “We’ve had about enough excitement here for the next couple of weeks.”

“All done with the free concert?” I asked him, chuckling as I tipped my head back and squeezed the bridge of my nose.

“So very done.”

“I would have to agree,” I said, on the fence about whether my nose was broken. My whole face was throbbing, so it was hard to tell. Being hit across the face with a gun was painful, I didn’t care who you were.

Seconds later, Nick was there, running up the hill to drop down beside me, his eyes huge and frantic, not sure where to touch.

“I’m fine, but I need to go to the hospital to have a doc check my nose. It’s been broken more than once, and I’m almost positive it is again.”

“Never again,” Nick