The woman was now squatting down, her hands pushing hard at her stomach. Experiencing cramps, I decided, from being confined for so long without nourishment. Even with her face twisted in agony, I recognised Jay Walker. She didn’t look like she had in the photograph her father supplied to me. She was gaunt and pale, her dark auburn hair slightly longer in style, but now matted to her skull with a mixture of grime and perspiration. An ugly bruise marked her right cheek and her lips, swollen at one corner, looked dry and cracked. Red, angry bands ringed both wrists; it was obvious that she’d recently been bound there.
One thing I was sure of, she hadn’t come here for a good time with the Logan boys: not of her free will. Jay had been snatched and held prisoner, and the likelihood was they were also holding Nicole, Ellie and maybe even Helena Blackstock. If that was so then it meant that the purpose of this mission remained the same as it always had been: go in, find the women, and get them all out safely. But, as I’d also known from the beginning, any plan was prone to collapsing in an instant. If Jay tried for the watering hole, the man on the porch would spot her and I’d have to kill the prick. I didn’t mind that so much; the way I saw things, anyone who’d take the women like that deserved putting down. Only if I killed him it would alert his family to my presence and I dreaded to think what they’d do to their other hostages before I could get them out too.
It left me with no other course of action. I had to stop Jay from doing anything foolish, in silence and without attracting unwanted attention. I had to move silently and without alerting either of the possible witnesses: Jay might try to run, and the man would definitely raise the alarm. Luckily I had the pile of debris as cover and keeping low I made it all the way to the old truck without catching anyone’s attention. With only seconds to spare I’d got there while Jay was still fighting the urge to quench her thirst. As she came up from her crouch, searching the area for a route to the water, I moved closer. I watched her rock back on her heels, readying herself, then just at the last moment I lunged forward and grabbed her round the waist to stop her rising. She was terrified, expecting the worst, and in all probability would have screamed if I hadn’t clamped my hand across her mouth and pulled her backwards. I couldn’t afford for her to thrash and kick out, for fear she hit the truck and the noise brought the Logans running. I turned her, so that she went down on her belly in the dirt, and stretched my weight over her to hold her in place. ‘Take it easy, Jay, I’m not going to hurt you.’
My reassurance went unheeded. She fought me at first, thinking no doubt that I was one of the Logan men. In her mind I was one of the beasts who’d abducted her, and it would take a little longer for the truth to sink in. I rode out her thrashing, my hand clamped firmly over her mouth while I continued to whisper.
‘Jay, it’s OK. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you.’
When that still didn’t work, I decided on a different tack.
‘Do they have the other girls? What about Nicole? Ellie? Helena?’
Before I’d said the last two names there was a reaction. On hearing her friend’s name she stopped struggling, almost as if she deflated and sank into the sand. I didn’t trust her to react logically, and kept my hand firmly in place. ‘I’m not one of the men who have hurt you. My name is Joe Hunter. I’m here to help you… nod if you understand.’
Jay nodded weakly.
‘Good,’ I went on. ‘Your father sent me.’
I felt her shiver and realised that she was possibly assailed by mistrust. She’d suffered at the hands of brutal men, and now she’d been grabbed and forced face down in the dirt by another. I could be lying to her for all she knew. Maybe I was another of the Logan clan brought in to torment her further.
‘Your father is Jameson Walker,’ I told her. ‘He owns a chain of fast food restaurants and is a big guy who dresses like someone from the Wild West. He has a fondness for whiskey and, Jay, your father loves you very much.’ Jay sobbed. She convulsed against my palm, and mucus spattered from her nostrils. I relieved some of the pressure on her mouth, but still wasn’t ready to release her. ‘I have no way of proving any of this to you right now, but I can do it if necessary. I have papers he gave to me. If I was going to hurt you, I would have done so already. Do you understand? Nod, Jay. Nod if you understand me.’
She nodded.
‘Do you trust me?’
Again there was a movement of her head.
‘Good. I’m going to take my hand away and let you go, but you have to promise to be quiet. One of the Logans is less than two hundred yards away and will hear if you say anything. Will you keep quiet?’
My last question had been pointless, because already I had relaxed my hold and slipped my fingers from her lips. I felt her breath on my hand as she said, ‘Yes.’
My weight had been holding her flat, but even as I eased away from her I could feel that she wasn’t yet ready to move. She lay there, breathing shallowly as she tried to make sense of what had occurred. If anything she flattened further into the ground as relief flooded through her. Touching her gently on one shoulder I came back to my feet, but stayed in a crouch to peer over the rim of the flat-bed. From this angle I couldn’t see the man in the Stetson, but I was sure he was still there on the porch.
Moving close to Jay, I indicated that she should speak very quietly. ‘How many men are here?’
‘I’ve seen three,’ Jay said, and I was happy to hear there was only a trace of fear in her voice. ‘They’re brutes, every last one of them.’
‘They’re all here now?’
‘Yes.’ Jay then frowned, shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. They locked me in that hole yesterday and I haven’t seen them since.’
‘There’s one of them on the porch,’ I began. ‘He’s wearing a straw hat.’
‘That’s the Tin Man.’
At my bemused expression, Jay gave a disparaging snort that was anything but laughter. She rolled up from the floor, on to one knee. ‘That’s how I think of him, the heartless pig! He’s called Carson.’
‘So the other two are Brent and Samuel?’
‘Yes, they’re the Straw Man and the Wizard.’
I understood her earlier nickname for Carson Logan then, but didn’t comment on it. I was weighing up if I could get to Carson without giving myself away. If I could take him out quietly, then perhaps I could burst inside the house and drop the other two before they could hurt their captives. Ordinarily I’d have tried for it, but what if I failed and it was me who got killed? Where would that leave Jay and the others?
‘Come on, we’re leaving.’
Jay looked at me like I was an enemy. ‘No way.’
‘Come on, stay low and only move when I say so.’
‘I’m not leaving without Nicole and Ellie.’
‘They’re both inside, Nicole Challinor and Ellie Mansfield?’
‘I don’t know the girl’s full name,’ Jay croaked. It was almost as if the admission was a miserable failing on her part.
‘She looks a little like Nicole, almost as if she could be her younger sister?’