A Reason To Breathe (29 page)

“Jenn?” I shouted.

“Jack, oh god, Jack, help me, I was kidnapped and I’m in the back of a car.”

“Where Baby? Tell me where, and I’ll come get you.”

“He stopped for gas. The sign says Clinton’s Truck Stop.”

“Good girl, I know the place. I’m just a few miles behind you. Can you stall him?

“I’ll try, I can’t move very well, he drugged me.” My jaw clenched hearing that, this guy is dead, no apologies for thinking it, I’ll kill him pure and simple.

“Swear to god, I’ll rip his head off when I get there, Baby, you just hold on, you hear me? I’m coming, Sweetness, I’ll find you.”

I waited for a response but didn’t get one. “Jenn?” Dead air, she was gone. I didn’t know if she hung up, or he found her phone, all I knew was I needed to get there. I grabbed my handheld and called base.

“Base this is Gunnison, come in.”

“Gunnison this is Base.”

“I need you to call the state police, tell them we have a kidnapped victim in the back of a silver sedan, Wyoming license plate, at Clinton’s Truck Stop outside of Delta on highway 50. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Last-known was two minutes ago. Tell them we’ve had contact from the victim, and she is attempting to stall till help can arrive. Male suspect is wearing jeans, white t-shirt, with dark hair. Victim is wearing… Fuck … Victim is wearing a stripper’s costume, the name Sheriff on the back…. and tell them to bring some goddamned clothes for her as well.”

“Roger that Jack, contacting now.”

I heard Barry chuckle, and I speared him with a “don’t fuckin’ test me look. He threw his hands in the air and I turned my head back to the road. I heard my radio crackle to life and then dispatch reported.

“Gunnison this is base, we have two highway patrols in route, they are 2 minutes out.”

“Roger that.”

I saw a sign up ahead that said gas next exit, Clinton’s Truck Stop and I relayed it to dispatch.

“Base I’m coming up on the exit for the truck stop in one mile. Tell patrol to come in quiet, I don’t want him to run if he hears the sirens.”

“Roger that, out.”

I took the exit and could see the lights of the truck stop up ahead. My heart was thundering while I looked at all the cars at the pump. Red, blue, where the fuck is the silver sedan?

“There, Barry shouted and pointed to the last pump closest to the truck stop. I pulled in behind it and threw my truck into park. Reaching under my seat for my weapon, a 9mm Colt defender, I checked my rounds, flipped the safety off and then opened my door. Barry had done the same and was now exiting his side of the truck. I walked up slowly and looked in the back of the car, and saw the hat and glasses Jenn had worn on the seat. I looked up and saw two patrol cars coming in fast, but not hot. I pulled my badge out of my pocket and flashed it as they came up on the car. They nodded, and I pointed to the truck stop indicating they were inside. Both cars drove to the front of the building, and I motioned to Barry I was going around back to make sure he didn’t get away with Jenn through the back exit. Once everyone was in place, and any customers who were trying to enter were sent back to their cars. I put my radio to my mouth, clicked three times to indicate we were going in on my three, counted down and then pushed the button and held, commanding “Go, go, go.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

Seal The Deal

        I'd had to disconnect my call to Jack; Charlie had finished at the pump and was making his way to the driver’s door. Remembering how I got here, I wanted to scream at myself.

Charlie had told me he knew a short cut out of the Mayor’s house, so I’d stupidly followed him since the coatroom was by the front door, and we were in the back. He’d taken me down a hall, and as we came to a door at the back, he opened it and gestured me through. As I walked out the door, I felt a sharp pain in my neck as Charlie wrapped an arm around my waist. I felt the night sky start to spin, and my eyelids get heavy, I tried to speak, but my tongue felt thick. When I tried to take one step to move away, the lights went out.
 Next thing I knew, I woke up in the back of this car trying to figure out where I was. Charlie had been behind the wheel driving, humming, and I’d panicked at first, not knowing how long I’d been out. I could feel my phone tucked into the back of my tight shorts and knew I’d have to stay calm and wait for the opportunity to use it. We’d driven a while longer, when Charlie pulled off the highway and into this truck stop, mumbling about being better prepared. That brought us to now; Charlie was back in the car, and I’d made my call to Jack and he'd said to stall, so I had to think of something to stall. Charlie turned to check on me and was surprised when he saw I was awake.

“Charlie, I have to use the bathroom.”

He looked out the window of the car and surveyed the area, then he looked back at me and said, “I wasn’t going to put this on you till we got home, but if you need to use the bathroom, I need to know you won’t run.” I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, put what on me?

Charlie got out of the car, went to the trunk and opened it. A few minutes later he crawled in the back seat with me. I tried to move back from him, but my arms and legs were still sluggish. He looked over my body, Bailey's ridiculous stripper costume showing entirely too much of everything, and I felt dirty, like his eyes were touching me in private places they shouldn’t. I held back a shudder and tried to remain calm, but after Gerry and his knife attack, I’d long since passed being able to stay calm. The memory of it was too strong, so my tears started falling, and my breath accelerated. Charlie reached out, grabbed my foot and pulled it across his lap, and I squeaked at the sudden movement. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a black ring with a blinking red light and opened it like a bracelet. It hit me what it was, and I tried to pull back my foot, but he grabbed hold and wrapped the cuff, used for keeping track of inmates, around my ankle and locked it. Then he pulled out a remote and flipped a switch. The red light on the bracelet went green, and then he turned to me and without any remorse said, “I’ve wired this bracelet with C4, if you run, I’ll blow you up.”
Oh shit, oh, my god, oh god, oh god, oh, god.

“Why? Why are you doing this Charlie?”
 

“Because I love you.”

He smiled at me like he'd just given me flowers, not an ankle bracelet armed to blow. My heart was beating out of my chest, and I didn’t know what to do. Jack said stall; Jack would know how to handle this, Jack would kick his ass for me. So holding on to that thought I took a deep breath and said again, “I need to go to the bathroom, Charlie.”

He nodded at my request and opened the door, put his hand out to me, and pulled me out of the car. I stumbled a little on my feet, so he put the remote in his pocket and then picked me up like a bride on her wedding day and carried me across the parking lot, into the truck stop and he didn’t stop till he got to the ladies room. He knocked on the door, and when we got no answer, he opened it and carried me in.

“I can take it from here,” I told him, I did need to pee and wasn’t about to do it in front of him. He put me down, cupped my face with his hands and then leaned in and tried to kiss me. My head snapped back trying to avoid the kiss, so he pulled me harder to him and slammed his mouth down on mine. I pushed back hard against him and stepped back, wiping my mouth. He leered at me, and hissed, “You’ll learn to accept me, Jennifer; you’ll learn to love me just like I love you.”

“Charlie I don’t understand why you’re doing this? I don’t even know you other than having a drink at the Nickel.”

“Like father like son, Gerry fell in love with you and I did too.”

“Gerry’s your father?” I whispered in shock. The look on Charlie’s face turned to one of disgust.

“That man may have fathered me, but he wasn’t my father. He abandoned me thirty-three years ago to live with my grandparents. I was raised with the back of a hand, by an angry old man who hated me.” For a moment in time, I saw that little boy who’d been abandoned, crying for his mother who was dead. Crying for the father who couldn’t cope with the loss and finding no comfort, only pain. 

The mother in me reached out. I put my hand on his shoulder and softly tried to reason with him, “Charlie, forcing me to love you, and taking me away from my daughter isn’t the answer to your pain. I would have listened if you needed to talk. I’m your friend.” Sadness filled his eyes, and he whispered, “I just want someone to love me.” I nodded my understanding; don't we all want to be loved?

“I’ll be your friend, Charlie and I’ll help you find someone to talk to, but you have to let me go, you’ll just make this worse for yourself if you don’t.”

He looked like he was battling with his sense of right and wrong, when I heard a noise outside in the store, and then angry voices shouting, “Down, down, everyone down.” Charlie’s moment of reflection
 disappeared immediately. He grabbed my arm, spun me around, and then pulled out the remote. He moved to the door and opened it a crack, then closed it and put the remote in my face and growled, “Not a fucking word out of your mouth or I’ll blow the whole place up.”

I didn’t have time to respond before he opened the door and pulled me through it and further down the hall. He found a door that led to a storeroom, moved us inside, locked the door and then pulled me to the window. He was looking around for something, then moved to a shovel, came back to the window and smashed it out. I could hear the voices getting closer and just as the knob on the door was jiggled and banging started, Charlie grabbed my waist, picked me up and pushed me through the window, then followed after me as I heard the door behind us burst open.

“Jenn.” I heard Jack shout as Charlie yanked my arm and started running towards a row of semi’s lined up for fueling. He kept running till we made our way to the other side and out of sight from the building. Charlie stopped, looked around and saw a truck pulling to a stop, waiting on the traffic to pull out, then ran towards it.

The truck was the size of a dump truck, but the back was open. Charlie lifted me in and then pulled himself over the back, just as the truck pulled out onto the highway. He shoved his body over mine to keep me still, as I felt the truck pickup speed. So close, Jack had been so close to helping me, and now we were on the move again. I didn’t know if Jack knew I was gone, saw what happened and was right this moment following us, and since I didn’t know and was scared to death, I lost my ability to think clearly and started struggling to get free. If I were going to die, I’d die trying to get back to my daughter.

“Don’t move.” Charlie growled, but I ignored him. I reached up and clawed his face, causing him to pull back in pain. I struggled under him to break free, and got to my knees. I was trying to crawl forward to bang on the window of the cab hoping the driver would stop. I got up in a crouch, but the truck hit a bump, and I fell back into Charlie, causing the remote that he'd been holding to fly across the truck bed. Charlie was on his back; I was lying on his stomach, back to his front, so I brought my arm up and slammed my elbow into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

With all the movement in the back, the truck started to slow and then I heard it, the sirens from behind us, and a spark of energy hit me. I rolled off Charlie and tried to stand up, moving towards the remote. I got within a foot of it, when the truck slammed on its brakes, and I went flying forward, slamming into the back window, and falling on my ass. I heard cars slamming on their brakes and looked down to see the remote in front of me. I grabbed it, then turned to Charlie and saw him stand, bend over and pick up a pipe, raise it over his head and move towards me.

Paralyzed with fear I didn’t move, and as his arms came down aiming the pipe at my head, I screamed, “JACK,” but didn’t hear the word leave my mouth, as the sound of a gun being fired filled the air. Charlie looked shocked when the bullets hit him in the back. He looked down with a questioning look and then dropped the pipe, crumbling to his knees and fell on top of me.

“Jenn?” I heard Jack shout but couldn’t move because of Charlie’s dead weight.

“Jack, get him off.” I shrieked, closing my eyes to his dead ones staring back at me. I felt his weight move from me and then I opened my eyes to look up at Jack’s worried ones scanning me.

“I got you Baby.” Jack whispered as he drew me into his arms and held me tight. I buried my head in his neck and sobbed great ugly tears, as he rocked me back and forth. “Jack,” I whispered, “There’s a bomb on my ankle.” Jack’s head snapped back, and he replied, “What the fuck?”

“Charlie put C4 in an ankle bracelet to keep me from running, I’d really, really like for you to get it off me right about now,” I whined.

Jack looked down at my leg, and I handed him the remote. He studied it for a moment, then looked at my ankle. He moved his hand up my leg to the top of my boot and unbuckled the straps then just as calm as if he was saying pass the salt, said, “Pull your foot out, Baby.” I looked at the boot then wanted to kick myself for not thinking of that first. I wiggled my foot until it came loose, and I pulled my leg from it.