blindfold covering her eyes, she didn’t know what kind of vehicle she was in now, or how long she’d been on the road. One thing she had paid attention to, though, were the voices of the two men who’d abducted her.
Heavily accented. Middle Eastern. Cold. Hard. Bordering on inhuman. One was definitely Minyawi. The other? She was almost sure he’d responded to the name Busir.
Oh, man. Pete owed her for this one. Owed her bigtime. If she got out of this—when she got out of this—she’d make sure he paid up tenfold.
The only way to keep from freaking out was to use her brain and dial back in to her officer training. She counted the whap, whap, whap and the number of turns they took after leaving what had to be a bridge. When the vehicle came to a jolting stop, she clenched her teeth to keep from screaming as pain shot through her entire body.
A car door opened. Footsteps echoed around the back. A door near her feet was pulled open, and a blast of cold air rushed over her body.
They definitely weren’t in Florida anymore. The air here was crisp and frigid and felt of snow. She went completely still.
“I’ll be back for you. With a friend,” the one she was sure was Minyawi said.
The door slammed shut, and a lock clicked, echoing through the interior of the car that had just become her prison cell.
One set of footsteps marched away from the vehicle, then faded altogether. She waited for the other door to open. For breathing to indicate she wasn’t alone. Only there was nothing.
For some reason Busir wasn’t with them anymore. Which meant she was truly alone. And this was her only chance for escape.
She bolted upright. Two things Minyawi didn’t know. One, she wasn’t as drugged as he’d thought. Yeah, she was fuzzy, but she’d been acting the past few hours so he wouldn’t shoot her up again. And two, she wasn’t the helpless female model he believed her to be.
Pulse pounding in her ears, she wriggled against the ropes at her back. When that proved useless, she rolled onto her stomach, eased back on her knees and tried to rub her face against her shoulder to free the blindfold.
It was like working underwater. Her arms and legs refused to work the way she wanted. Finally she realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere until she remedied the situation with her arms. Rolling to her back, she lifted her hips off the floor and groaned as she scooted her lower body through the hoop her bound arms made and brought her hands to the front of her body.
Sweat covered every inch of her skin. A metal clanging from somewhere outside drew her up short. She waited. And prayed the entire time Minyawi hadn’t come back.
When the sound stopped and it was clear it had been something unrelated to her situation, she went back to work, using her hands to push the blindfold free so she could go to work on the ropes at her feet.
It took a while for her eyes to adjust, but she quickly realized wherever she was, it was still night. City lights streamed in through the front windshield of the vehicle, casting shadows over the interior of what she guessed was a utility van. The walls were metal, the floor hard and cold, and along the back wall she saw two cargo doors. Behind her, a wire mesh net prevented her from accessing the front two seats.
The rope bit into her skin. Her fingers bled as she tried to free herself. But she didn’t stop. Just when she was ready to scream with frustration, the ropes at her feet loosened.
Yes!
She kicked and wriggled free of the bonds and quickly jumped to her feet. No time to worry about her hands. She had to get the hell out of here.
The cargo doors were locked—no surprise—so that left the front. She ran her tied hands over the cage, trying to find a release. When that proved futile, she grabbed the metal between her fingers and cranked hard.
Still nothing.
“Son of a bitch! Come on!”
Her breaths grew labored and heavy. Sweating, she glanced along the edge of the cage at two tiny little clamps. Like the unit was snapped into place, not bolted.
Hope burst through her.
On her knees, she worked the latch at the bottom on the right side until her fingers screamed in pain, then the one at the top. And nearly cried out