I’m sure my eyes were twinkling as I shut down my computer.
“Whatever happens, happens,” I said, and he shrugged with a smile. That was the best thing about being triplets. Maybe we felt competition with other men around us, but we never felt competition with each other. If he was content to share her, then so was I.
Morning came quickly, and it seemed like none of us had slept very much. We didn’t say much to each other as we walked down to the kitchen and made a quick cup of coffee.
“I’ll drive,” Jacob said when we felt sufficiently caffeinated. We finally made it into the car, and I felt like my heart was going a million miles a minute.
“OK, so when we get there,” I said, “I thought I’d be the one to grab her.”
“Why?” Jacob asked. “Why you?”
“Because you already talked to her,” I said. “So she'll recognize you.”
“She saw you at the restaurant,” Frances pointed out. “So she’ll recognize you too. I think having Jacob talk to her is the best idea because he’s already built some sort of relationship with her. She may not run or scream when he gets too close.”
“Yeah, but she’s still going to run or scream if he grabs her,” I said, and Frances shrugged.
“Better to minimize risk,” he said. “Are you OK with that, Jacob?”
“I mean, I guess,” Jacob said. “I don’t know whether it would be better or not, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
“Atta boy,” Frances said. “Take one for the team, brother.”
“Thanks,” he responded as he parked in front of her house and got out of the car.
It was cold out, and I could see Jacob wrapping his arms around himself as he waited. Normally, bears were not cold at all, but sometimes, even the warmest coat wasn’t good enough.
Frances and I waited in the car, ready to spring into action if needed.
“I can’t believe that someone would stay with someone who is that much of an asshole,” Frances said.
“I know,” I said. “Mind you, she might think that we are giant assholes too.”
“We are the ones that we are kidnapping her,” he said. “You don’t think that she is going to think we are assholes?”
“Dunno,” I replied. “But I guess we are going to find out soon.”
We waited for what felt like an eternity. I was starting to think that I had maybe misjudged the entire situation and maybe she wasn’t coming at all. I was fairly well known for being impatient, and I asked Frances several times if he thought she was coming at all. Just when it seemed like things weren’t going to happen, Jenny came out of her apartment.
All three of us sucked in a collective breath. I saw Jacob approach her, and I reached over to open the door while simultaneously looking around. I had made sure that the cameras in the area were disabled, but that didn’t mean a passerby with a camera phone couldn’t capture us.
It wasn’t that bears were afraid of the police. If it came to a showdown, we were going to be the clear winners. However, we didn't want to explore what any of that could bring, especially given the fact that it would likely end in death for one of the police officers, if not all of them.
Jacob was still chatting to her several minutes later, and I was starting to get restless.
“What is he doing?” I asked my brother. “Trying to lure her into the car with words?”
“I don’t know,” Frances replied. “But you have to trust that he has a strategy of some kind.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure I do,” I said. “We should get out of the car.”
“Johnathan, that wasn’t the plan,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow at him
“It may not have been the plan to begin with, but we have to be more flexible.”
I did not want to be more flexible. I wanted to scream. I had carefully orchestrated everything, and now he was going to screw everything up.
Just as I was about to roll down the window and yell at Jacob, he made the move we were waiting for. He reached forward and covered her mouth with a cloth and then dragged her.
I had managed to get my hands on some chloroform-like chemical that would be far less harmful to her system. We didn’t want to hurt her, but we also didn’t want her to struggle. I frantically