Being Chased (29 page)

"You sure you don't want Liam or
Brady to do it?" Josh felt the sweat beading up on his forehead.

"No. I want you to do it. Now, shoo." The Boss made a dismissive movement with her hand.

Damn it. This was so not going to be any fun. Josh left the office and swallowed roughly as he approached the door to the basement. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and started down the stairs.

****

Julia had been working for some time, trying to squeeze her way back to the wall while not disturbing anything. Not a small task to handle especially when her nerves were about to rattle her teeth out of her damn head. She took a deep breath while picturing herself toothless. Yep, that'd be attractive.

Sherry
paced the room, keeping an eye on the upstairs door and her ears open to any sound that meant someone might be approaching said door. She was fairly shaken as should be expected. It had almost made her sick to see the big guy strike Julia.

"I'm getting closer."
Julia's voice was strained as she pulled on some bedsprings. If she could just get past all the crap, she'd be able to tell if there was actually a way out of the place.

"
Julia!" Sherry hissed.

Ugh.
Couldn't these people leave her the hell alone? Julia moved surreptitiously, as swiftly as she could, out from the plethora of paraphernalia that crowded the corner. As soon as whoever was descending the stairs hit the landing, she came around the corner then damn near gave her body the go-ahead to have one of its breathing attacks. Josh? What the hell was he doing here? For just a sliver of a moment, a feeling of hope burgeoned inside her, but then she remembered it was Josh—he who had no allegiance, no concern for anyone but himself.

"Um, I'm just checking on you guys."

Julia gave him a look that made his ego shrink to Lilliputian proportions.

"What are
 
you
 doing here?" she hissed.

"
Julia, I'm sorry. I, uh, got in trouble and this was the only way I knew to get out of it." He then saw the swelling and bruising on her cheek and half gasped. Brady had hit her, the asshole. 

She scoffed at him. "I knew you were a loser, but this is sinking pretty damn low… even for you." She turned to walk toward
Sherry.

"You know him?"
Sherry asked in astonishment.

Julia
nodded, rolling her eyes.

"
Julia, seriously, I—" He reached out and grabbed her right shoulder to turn her to him.

Julia
grabbed his hand with her left hand, turning to face him, twisting his hand at the wrist, almost wrenching his arm off and making him yelp. "Don't. Touch. Me!" she snapped through gritted teeth. Chase had taught her a few defensive moves in case she needed to use them, and wasn't Josh the lucky one to be her test subject?

"Okay, okay. Damn."
Josh had let her take her anger out on him and he rubbed his arm after she'd released it. "I know I look like a total dick, but I didn't have a choice."

"You'
ve always looked like a total dick. This little situation just enhances it." Julia looked at him with disgust. "Also? I'm glad my boyfriend broke your nose. Too bad he didn't rip your goddamned head off while he was at it."

"That prick
's your boyfriend?"

"Yes, he's my boyfriend. And you should be glad
you're still walking, because he could've put your ass in a Hoveround for the rest of your worthless life!"

“
You don't have to be such a bitch about it," he snapped at her.

"Oh, now
 
that's
 the pot calling the kettle black. You're obviously the bitch here, Josh. Working for these people. Getting involved in all of this. Scared to death of them." She glowered at him.

Josh
stopped for a second to think about that. Julia was right. He 
was
 the bitch here. Great. Just what he'd always aspired to. He snorted at her, even though she was dead-on with her assessment, trying to act all badass. "You don't know that. I'm in charge of more than you know."

Julia
knew he was lying. She might not have been able to tell early on in their relationship, but after he'd burned her a couple times, she'd finally started to read his "tells." When his eyebrows started moving so fast they looked like two caterpillars Salsa dancing on his forehead as they were doing now, she knew he was BS'ing. She smirked at him letting him know she was calling his bluff. "Oh, you're in charge of things? What? Do they have a cat whose litter box needs cleaning every week? The goldfish need feeding? Wait, I know. You're the one who picks up the carry-out and brings it back, right?"

"You'd better start treating me with a little more respect,
Julia. I can make things very difficult for you."

"Oh, because things are
 
so
 easy on me now, right?" She pointed to her black eye.

Even though he tried,
Josh knew he didn't fit in with the people upstairs. He just couldn't be cruel like they could. "I'm really sorry for that. Brady's crazy. You never know when he's going to go off on you. In the future, I suggest that you stay away from him."

"No shit, Sherlock.
And to think I was going to invite him to the Jazz Festival coming up. Darn." Julia snapped her fingers for emphasis. "Think I'm pretty good at spotting pricks anymore, Josh. I've definitely got your number."

"Darn."
Josh snapped his fingers right back at her. "And to think I was going to try to help you get out of here."

Julia
just stared at him, narrowing her eyes, trying to gauge whether he was bluffing or not. At that moment, she really couldn't tell.

“My
phone’s ringing!” Allen said into the mic.

“Answer it,” Hank told him. “Be calm. Put the phone on speaker and keep your
mic on so we can hear.”

Allen cleared his throat nervously then answered doing what Hank had told him.

"Mr. Cooke?" a deep, male voice asked.

"Yes?
"

"We wanted you to know that we've contacted Mr. Collin
Cooke and Mr. Franklin Moore about paying the ransom."

Allen
's face blanched. What the hell were they doing contacting 
them
? Julia really did think he wouldn't pay for her. She must've given out Collin's and Franklin's numbers. He hung his head, closing his eyes trying to keep his breathing steady.

"
Both men said they were willing to contribute at least five million apiece, so we've decided to raise your ransom amount to twenty million. Don't disappoint us." The call ended.

Allen
sat up and stared out his window. His voice was almost monotone when he finally spoke. "When Julia was five, she was running through the living room at the beach house and tripped on the area rug. She went flying into the coffee table and cut her upper thigh pretty badly on the corner of it."

Chase
knew the story. He'd seen the scar on Julia's thigh and had asked her what'd happened.

Allen
continued as if in a daze. "She had a pretty bad gash that was bleeding profusely. Her mother almost fainted at the sight of all the blood. Julia just stood there looking down at her leg and at the blood on the table. Then she looked up at me and said, 'I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't mean to get the table dirty.'" Allen started crying like a baby.

They were all quiet listening to
Allen's sobs.

"We rushed her to the emergency room where she
’d needed twenty stitches. All she did the entire time was apologize. Didn't cry one tear, just felt horrible for getting blood on the table. She didn't think at all about herself, just what my reaction was going to be. Oh, God. I've been a horrible father."

All th
ey could do was let him cry, so they remained silent. The man needed to come to terms with his demons.

****

"Just how do you presume to help us?" Julia asked Josh.

"Well, I don't really ha
ve some brilliant idea off the top of my head. I'm not Einstein, you know."

"No, no, him you definitely are not. Let the record indicate that no one in this room is disagreeing with the previous statement."
Julia snorted, shaking her head. She knew better than to trust Josh. Nothing he ever said held any water.

"If you'd stop with all the smartass comments, I could probably think of something that might help. Jesus. You haven't changed at all."

"That's not true. My taste in men has clearly gotten better."

Josh
glared at her. "Is this guy really that much better than I am?"

"You have no idea." Oh, she could go into all the details, telling him how much better of a person
Chase was than he was, but she decided not to go that route. If Josh 
was
 willing to help, she'd better try to stay on his good side for the time being.

Sherry
had sat on the cot watching their entire exchange, still surprised by the fact that Julia and Josh had dated. Julia seemed so much classier than he was. Just at a different level all the way around. Oh, well. Love was definitely blind, or so they said. She really didn't care about the details. She just wanted to get the hell out of there.

"So, you really think you could help us?" she asked
Josh.

"Yeah. Yeah, I might be able to do that. If
Julia wants to stop berating me, I could probably think of something to help you."

Julia
began pacing, wondering just what Josh thought he could do to help them. She didn't mention anything about the door in the corner to him, still not knowing if she could trust him.

"What I could do to help you is maybe get some kind of sleeping pills and put them in their drinks. When they passed out, you two could sneak out."
Josh looked from Julia to Sherry and back again eagerly.

"And then Santa Claus can come in, ready to take us away on his sleigh, the Sandman can assure
that they all 
stay
 asleep while the Easter Bunny has eggs ready to throw at them in case they wake up before we escape!" Julia added. "That sounds like a 
great
 plan."

"Hey, at least I'm trying. It's better than anything
 
you've
 come up with."

Julia
knew she was being a bitch, but putting her trust in this man who'd betrayed her numerous times was extremely tough for her.

Sherry
stepped forward, looking at Julia, asking for permission in a way before she spoke. "Josh, if I tell you something, can we trust you?"

"Of course. You think I'd be down here trying to help you if you couldn't? If they were to find out," his eyes flashed to the upstairs door, "I'd be dead before I could blink an eye. So, what is it you want to tell me?"

Sherry looked at Julia, nodding, encouraging her to inform Josh of what they knew. Julia took a deep breath, still not wholly sure if she wanted to confide in him the secret of the door. "In that corner," Julia spoke carefully and pointed to where all the junk was piled up, watching Josh's face for any duplicity, "I think there may be another way out of here. Other than that door." She pointed at the stair door. “If you can keep them occupied, we might have a chance at opening it.”

At that
moment the stair door flew open and one of the big guys stomped down. Walking over to Josh, he smacked him on the back of his head. "What the fuck's going on down here? An orgy?" The big guy looked lewdly at the girls making them turn in revulsion from him. "Get your ass back upstairs."

"Don't forget what I told you, bitch,"
Josh said to Julia, pointing at her, as he turned to leave. "Watch yourself or I'll follow through with it."

The big guy laughed as they walked up the stairs. "What'd you tell her? That you're gonna punish her with that tiny pecker of yours?" He started cracking up.

"Whatever," Josh grumbled.

The girls could only hope that
Josh would follow through on his "threat."

****

"And just what were you doing down there for so long?" the Boss asked Josh.

"Nothing."

"Reliving old times?" She smirked, but Josh saw there really wasn't any humor in her eyes. She walked behind her desk, opening a drawer and pulling out a handgun. She kept her eyes on Josh the entire time as she placed it on the desktop.

Fuck. What the hell's going to happen now? Is she gonna fucking shoot me?
 "N-No. Julia's a bitch. I don't want anything more to do with her. I told you I have no feelings for her whatsoever."

"You sure you're not trying to step up and be the knight in shining armor coming to save the day?" The Boss lit one of her cigarillos, taking a puff then blowing a cloud of smoke up into the air.

"I'm sure. Why would I want to do that? She was a bitch when I dated her and she still is. I don't care what happens to her." Josh hoped he was coming off as convincing. Surely, the Boss didn't know him well enough to be able to tell if he was lying or not.

"So, when I ask you to shoot her in the head, you're going to be okay with that?" The Boss raised an eyebrow at him.

Josh swallowed. Was it really going to come to that? "Yeah. I'll be fine." He fidgeted a little and knew she thought he was lying. "It's got nothing to do with Julia," he explained. "It's just that I've never killed anyone before." He could hear Brady and Liam sniggering from where they sat on the couch behind him.

The Boss glared at
them. "Leave." As the men stood and made their way to the door, Josh followed suit. "Oh, not you, my little lover. You. Stay."

Josh
froze in his tracks, his back to her. Brady snorted as he walked out, murmuring, "Big emphasis on the 'little.'" Josh took a deep breath then turned to face her. If he made it out of this alive, he promised God he'd be a changed man.

Brady
pulled the door closed with a loathsome, unmitigated "click."

****

"Oh! I'm there!" Julia said excitedly to Sherry. She'd finally reached the corner after rummaging her way through the rubble for the past thirty minutes.

"Can you open it?” Sherry asked
excitedly.

"We’ll see
," Julia replied, her voice strained as she moved one more item from in front of the door. She'd cleared a three-foot path around it. It was an old, wooden door and looked like the kind that would've been used on a jail from Medieval times. She knocked on it and could tell it was thick, maybe three or four inches.

"I hope it's a way out. Please, God, let it be a way out of here."
Sherry was just as hopeful as Julia was, maybe even more so. She'd been stuck in the damn basement for what had to have been days, and she'd been ready to get out of there yesterday. Sherry walked over near the corner keeping a permanent eye on the upstairs door. When she finally looked at Julia she gasped. "Oh, Julia!"

"This door looks like it's straight out o
f some King Arthur book.” She noticed the look on Sherry's face then. "What?"

"Your poor face! Oh,
my gosh!"

Julia
put her hand to her cheek knowing she had to look pretty bad. "That horrible, huh?" She knew it was swollen, could actually see part of the damn thing all puffed up under her eye, but she'd all but forgotten about it while she'd worked.

"It's not that bad,"
Sherry lied.

"Oh, no, I'm sure it's not. The look on your face doesn't
 
even
 tell me that I look like I've been hanging out in a boxing ring." Julia snorted.

Sherry
smiled but then felt bad. "I'm sorry, Julia. You've been working so hard. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. It's really not that bad at all."

Julia
smiled back at her. "You didn't make me feel bad. I'm good. I just want to get us the hell out of here." She moved her hand around the sides of the door and could feel air coming in. It 
had
 to be a way out. The door had a handle that was like a small knocker. Julia pulled on it but the door didn't budge. She turned it thinking it might be a latch and tugged, but still nothing. "Shit!"

"What?"

"I can't get it to open! I don't think it's been opened in probably fifty years," she declared, her shoulders in a defeated slouch as she pressed her forehead against the door. All that work for nothing.

****

After his "session" with the Boss, Josh told her he was going to pick up food in the City. He actually just needed to get the hell away from the mess he was in and try to clear his head.

He drove to his apartment, heading straight for the shower. He washed himself twice over trying to get the scent of
 
her
 off and maybe a little of the guilt he'd been feeling for having participated in Julia's capture. He'd tried thinking of ways he could help get her out of there, but nothing had come to him. These people were pros and he couldn't just come up with some candy apple bullshit to help her escape. Things had to be perfect from all sides before he'd even attempt to throw one over on the gang. He was stuck and he knew it.

After getting out of the shower and toweling off, all of his thoughts hitting dead ends, he knew he had
only one recourse left. He swallowed roughly then made the call.

****

“Someone’s coming up the drive,” Quaid cautioned into his mic.

"What the hell? That's the guy I beat the shit out of at the theater, Julia's ex-boyfriend!" Chase hissed through clenched teeth
into the mic after he’d seen Josh return to the house. "He's involved with this. I can't believe it. Son of a bitch! I should've taken the fucker out when I had the chance."

"
Pop, you getting anything?" Gunner asked, knowing his dad was using the audio device to hear inside the house.

"H
eard three or four different voices. Picked up on some noise and voices that sound muffled, so must've been coming from the basement." Hank adjusted the dish he held. "This wind isn't helping things a whole lot, though."

Chase knew it was tough picking up sounds
on the device when there was wind whistling through it, but his dad was a pro at this stuff, so he knew if there was something to catch, his dad would be on top of it. "You heard muffled voices, but what kind of noise did you get from downstairs?"

"Like things being moved around."

"Gun, come help me look in the barn. See if that passageway might be there."

"Make sure you're both locked and loaded," Hank
said.