She stared at me, shock obvious on her face. Gerard put his arm around her shoulders.
“Did you call Charlotte?” he asked.
I nodded. “Kade’s also going to see what he can do.” I decided not to tell them about the danger Blane was in. “I just thought you should know.”
Mona’s eyes grew bright with tears, which made my eyes sting as well. She reached for me and we held each other tight for a moment.
“It’ll be okay,” I found myself comforting her. “He’ll get out of this.”
Gerard patted me on the shoulder, giving me a gentle squeeze.
There was a knock at the door. I pulled back from Mona, quickly swiping a hand over my eyes. “I’ll get it,” I said. I headed back to the door, but before I got there, it flew open and I halted in surprise.
A man stood in the doorway, about six feet tall, dressed in dark slacks and a polo shirt. Sunglasses obscured his eyes, but the most important detail was the gun in his hand. When he saw me, he smiled.
“Thought I saw you heading this way.”
I spun around, only to see a second man had entered from the back and now stood behind Mona and Gerard. The gun he held was pointed at Mona.
“I wouldn’t try and make a run for it, if I were you,” he said. “Not unless you want to be responsible for these good people dying.”
I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender, turning sideways so I could see both men. Gerard held tightly to Mona, warily eyeing the man next to them. Mona’s face was tearstained, but she’d stopped crying. Her lips were pressed tightly together.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Why, you, of course,” the man at the door said. “Honestly, I didn’t think it’d be this easy. It seems you’ve a talent for surviving when other people would turn up their toes and die. Now be a good girl and come along.”
“You’re not taking Kathleen,” Gerard said angrily, reaching for me.
The man behind him moved fast, slamming the butt of his gun against the back of Gerard’s head. Mona let out a cry of dismay as he slumped to the floor, falling to her knees next to him.
I took an instinctive step toward them, but was brought up short by a firm hold on my arm. I tried to wrestle my arm away, but couldn’t. The man’s grip tightened on me until it hurt.
“Don’t make us do something you’ll regret, sweetheart,” he threatened from behind me.
“Fine, I’ll come!” I snapped. “Just leave these people alone. They have nothing to do with this.”
“Then let’s go.”
I gave Mona one last look, sending up a prayer that Gerard would be okay. Tears stung my eyes. She looked like she was about to start crying again, too.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to say before the guy dragged me from the house.
A sedan was parked out front, and when we got to it, he popped the trunk.
“Get in,” he said, motioning with his gun.
I stared at the trunk’s empty expanse. “It’s nearly a hundred degrees out!” I protested. “I’ll die in there.”
He just smiled. “Let’s hope you’re tougher than you look. Now get in or you’ll be hot and bleeding from a gunshot wound.”
No, didn’t really want that, and I didn’t want them going back inside hurting Mona and Gerard, either, which left me no choice.
The dark metal of the car was already burning hot to the touch as I scrambled inside the trunk. Once I was in, the man with the sunglasses wasted no time in slamming the lid down.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness. When they did, I started looking for the usual glow-in-the-dark trunk release. All newer cars had them—surely this one wouldn’t be an exception. I felt the car start and we began moving.
The heat became stifling fast, the air thick, and I felt the familiar panic creep over me that I’d felt in the closet with Blane and Kade. I struggled not to succumb to my memories. If I didn’t keep thinking straight, I had no shot at getting out of this.
It seemed I could almost hear Kade’s voice in my head: Take it easy. Breathe.
I was hyperventilating. I could feel it. I closed my eyes, concentrating on what it had felt like to have Kade’s arms around me, Blane’s body against mine, the two of them surrounding and protecting me. Their strength shoring up mine.
Gradually, my breathing slowed and I opened my eyes. My hand was fisted tightly over the locket around my neck.
Sweat dripped off me and I started looking again for the trunk release. I found it at last, my slick fingers grabbing hold as I waited to see if the car would slow. If I could pop the trunk at a stoplight or something, surely there would be someone nearby who would help a woman climbing out of a car trunk.
The car slowed and then stopped, the engine idling. Figuring this might be my only chance, I pulled the lever.
Nothing happened.
I pulled again. Still nothing. I pulled again and again, not wanting to face the truth.
They’d disabled the release.
The car started moving and I frantically searched in the dark for any kind of cables or lines that connected to the trunk, but I’d never examined the inner workings of a trunk latch before, which left me ill-equipped to figure it out in this situation.
My eyes burned from the sweat dripping in them, my bra and tank now soaked. I’d never been this hot in my life. The car ride seemed to go on and on, though my frame of reference was probably skewed since every moment inside the trunk felt like an eternity.
My hands faltered in their blind search as I struggled to breathe. My thoughts were fuzzy and after a while I realized my arms were still. I had no energy to move them. It felt like I was going to die, locked in a car trunk that was more like an oven. I could hear my own struggling gasps over the sound of the car.
I thought about Blane and prayed he’d be okay, that the evidence we’d collected would be enough to convict James and set Blane free. I thought of Kade and hoped he’d keep trying to turn his life around with the new business he’d started.
I wished I’d gotten to say good-bye, which was my last coherent thought before I sank into darkness.
I didn’t expect to wake up, which is why I was so surprised to open my eyes and find that I was out of the trunk. Unfortunately, my new location wasn’t much better, though at least there was more air.
It seemed I was in some kind of a metal shed and not a very big one at that. The floor wasn’t the usual concrete slab but just hard-packed earth. There were four small, dirty windows, all of them tightly closed.
I sat up with a groan, holding a hand to my aching head, and heard the rattle of a chain. I jerked around, afraid someone was in there with me, but then I realized the chain was attached to a thick metal collar around my neck. My fingers scrabbled at the chain and collar for several minutes before I allowed myself to recognize the futility of trying to remove either of them.
The sun was high in the sky—I could tell by the shadows on the floor—and the inside of the shed wasn’t much cooler than the trunk had been. My hair was matted to my sticky skin.
Getting to my feet, I followed the chain to a metal rod stuck in the ground. The chain was rusty, as was the rod, but both were still heavy and solid. I pulled at the rod in the ground, but it didn’t budge. It looked like it had been in that spot for a very long time. I tried to push and wiggle it, but it held firm against my sweat-slicked grip.
The chain’s length allowed me only a few feet of movement and I couldn’t get close enough to the windows to open them. From what I could see through them, I was out in the country somewhere. I didn’t see any other houses around.