Rock Star: The Deal (Book 3 of a Bad Boy Romance) (7 page)

“Luke. Sorry, this isn’t exactly going the way it should have. I will make it up to you.”

“Listen, Chase. A life is more important than a career. I just want to see her back. As much as you.”

“You liked her, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Back in Lakeside. When the contest was on. You took her out. She told me.”

“Yeah. She’s a good girl. But she only has eyes for you, my friend.”

I shook my head.

“You know, I’ve met a lot of girls in my time in this business, but none like her. I don’t know if when you find that one, it feels this way. But it feels different.”

“She’s definitely something else,” Luke replied.

As the waitress came over and took our orders for drinks I thought back to when I first met her. When she appeared at my door with breakfast. I had been stuck in trying to write anything good for a long time. My introduction to her was me appearing naked. The look on her face. The weeks that followed. They were all good memories. To think that I could lose her. That these assholes could take her from underneath my nose and then threaten to kill her, enraged me. She hadn’t expected this. She didn’t deserve this. I took my phone out and phoned Sophie. I excused myself from the table and walked over to the bar so Ernie could keep a close eye on me.

When Sophie picked up on the other end, she was sobbing.

T
he last time
I remembered being in the news was when the shit hit the fan about Chase Bryan seeing a woman from a small town. My mug had appeared on the front page of the Washington Post. Now I was staring down at USA Today and once again I was on it. This time however it was for different reasons.

Edwin had snuck down a copy of the paper. I had been locked in this tomb for at least four days. Other than what Edwin had brought, they had given me very little food and water. I sat there deeply engrossed in the paper, it made a change from the boredom of being stuck inside this makeshift cell.

I pored over the news, read about celebrities and even found the obituaries interesting. I wondered if mine would appear there. They still hadn’t said anything. Except for speaking briefly with Chase on the phone they had made a point to tell me very little.

Reading about the weather only made me feel more depressed. Winter was never my time of the year. I loved the sun too much. But right now I would have killed to lie back in a pile of snow. To feel the cold nipping at my ears.

Initially I had gone over the article about my disappearance. It was on the front page. Almost an entire page was dedicated to it. It wasn’t that I was front page material. People disappeared all the time in America. It was because of who I was linked to. The media, sites like TMZ, would have been eating this up and talking about it nonstop.

The article stated that the authorities had not released any information but said they were hopeful that they would have me back shortly.

Hopeful? What did that mean? Did they know where I was? Had they discovered me by pinging the cell phone? No, my captors would have crushed it.

There was no mention of money, yet the article hinted at the fact that this could have been related to a ransom. I got to the end of it and then I shifted to basketball. That was it. How cold it felt. The tone immediately shifted to being upbeat and how everything was great in the world now that the New York Knicks were doing well.

Doing well? What about me?

I got my answer almost immediately when I heard the oil barrels being shifted. The sound of his boots was unmistakable. He had been down here several times. Once, I was sure he was going to rape me. Had it not been for Edwin showing up, followed by his mother, who knows what would have happened.

When he got down he turned to me.

“Right, let’s go.”

“You are releasing me?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Shut up and stay still.”

He bent down to unlock the thick, rusted chain from my leg. I saw this as my opportunity. He was alone. The wood had been removed. I thought back to the karate lessons my mother had me take when I was six. I had only lasted a month before I got tired of it. We spent all that time learning front kick. None of the flashy stuff. But maybe now that could come in handy.

As I heard the lock click and he removed it, I leaned back and hit him as hard as I could directly in the face with my heel. His nose burst like a fire hydrant. He fell back and I jumped up. Before I had made it even a few steps he caught my leg. I fell to the floor. Pain shot through my knees. Oh god, the pain was so bad. I turned. He was clinging to his face, spitting blood while trying to get a better grip on my leg. I used my other leg and brought it down hard on the side of his temple.

It was just the right amount of force to cause him to let go. I twisted free of his grip and double-timed it over to the ladder. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I remembered how he had shot the gas station clerk. Who knew if he had a gun on him? I had nothing on my feet. The metal was cold. I stepped two steps at a time, not looking back for one minute. I didn’t want to give him even a second to gain on me. I could see the sky. Oh what a wonderful sight! It was bright blue. As I reached the surface, I gasped and took in the air. I stumbled out and got up to take in my surroundings when I felt something hit me hard in the back of the head.

Everything went black.

* * *

T
he recording device
they had attached to my shirt was small. It was literally smaller than one of my buttons. I had asked why they no longer used wires under the shirt. They told me that was the eighties. It’s called evolution. Technology had got far better. It was even easier now to remain undetected. It also had a GPS inside it. So in the rare case that the kidnappers tried to take me, the FBI would be able to track me down fast. I wouldn’t even need to be conscious. If I was in danger they would know. They reassured me that wouldn’t happen though. Their snipers would take the kidnappers out before that occurred. Reassuring? I think not. What happened if they hit me? Or worse… Meghan? From that one device they could record video and sound. It was undetectable to sight and any devices that checked for transmitters.

The FBI would be able to hear everything that was said and see it all happening in real time. They would be close. Out of sight.

I was more worried about what would happen to Meghan than I was myself. If the kidnappers spotted the police, she could be dead. I had already heard they had killed a gas station clerk. These were folks who were not playing around. The man on the phone sounded deadly serious. You show up with police, she dies. His voice haunted me.

The FBI tried to reassure me that it was going to be OK. Meghan would be safe. I would be OK because FBI agents were with me, and the money would be returned. I had to wonder why they didn’t keep money on hand for these kind of occasions. With all the fancy gadgetry that they were able to supply, wouldn’t it have made sense to create some fake money? Money that only the FBI could use. That was worthless to real folk, but looked real enough to fool even the savviest criminal?

The truth was, I was about to enter a den of lions. Anything could happen, even if they thought this was controlled. Did they really know who they were dealing with? This could have been a well-planned procedure.

“Don’t worry, we have them completely surrounded. The chances of them getting that money and escaping are zero,” the lead agent had told me.

As nervous as I was, I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the tension. After my conversation with Sophie last night, stress was at an all-time high. Spike was blaming me for this. He had said quiet clearly that if she died, he was going to track me down and eliminate me. While I couldn’t take his threats seriously, I knew it was coming from someone who truly cared about Meghan.

I had been given a Subaru vehicle. Inside ducked down were two FBI agents with 9mm Berettas. It was unnerving to say the least. We were taken by chopper to the nearest town. From there we piled into the vehicle and began the journey which would take all of an hour to get there. They didn’t want to get any closer than that just in case the kidnappers were watching. Agent Wakefield didn’t want to get them spooked. No FBI, just me.

I had never been to the small town of Cruger. I had played in Mississippi many times but it was always in the big city. As I drove I scanned everywhere, expecting the kidnappers to change their plans and cut me off, pull me out and take me and the money. That wouldn’t have been a bad thing. At least I would have been able to get close to Meghan and help her.

In the backseat tucked between two agents who were out of sight was a duffel bag with three million dollars in cash. It was a bag that we used for equipment. I thought if I used something that looked like it belonged to me, it would make them believe that the cops were not clued into this.

On the way there I spoke with the agents about their careers to kill the time. They had said this was just another day for them. They lived for this kind of stuff. Better them than me. To me it was insane. How could you have an ordinary life dealing with criminals day in and day out?

I wasn’t too worried about the money. I had more than enough, but the idea of them getting away with that wasn’t appealing. But if it meant getting Meghan back then it was worth it.

“Chase—” Agent Wakefield’s voice came in through the thin earpiece inside my ear. It wasn’t one of those clunky ones that they gave us on stage. It was as thin as my skin. It attached to the inside. Even the color was the same as my skin. Unless you looked real close, you wouldn’t have seen it.

“Now remember. When you arrive, get out and place the money inside the ice machine. Then get out of there. I don’t want to risk having two people taken.”

“I thought you said I was safe?”

“You are. As safe as we can make you. But these things can go south.”

“Great. Now you tell me.”

It was strange to know that the FBI was listening to our conversation in the car. Not that we talked about anything that would have been any concern to them. But we did chat about booze, women and drugs. The drug part kind of had me antsy. But these guys in the back said they had smoked a joint or two in their time so I felt at ease relaying my wild stories from when I was younger.

“We are all on time.”

I thought back to the many times I had seen people kidnapped on TV. Mostly it was from eighties movies. A guy running to get to a phone booth in time to get the next instructions from the kidnapper on where they needed to go. Nowadays there were no phone booths. But people had their own phones. So there was no need to dash from booth to booth.

We had only been traveling for about twenty minutes when the engine light came on. A few minutes after that the car starting coughing.

“What the heck?”

“What’s up?” I heard Wakefield through the earpiece.

“You got a car that has problems.”

Black smoke started spewing out the back, then the car turned off by itself.

“Oh shit.”

It was another forty minutes until eight. If we didn’t get this car started soon, we would be in heap of shit. There was no way we could swap it out, or could we?

“You need to get me another vehicle. This is a dud,” I said.

“We can’t show up in another one. They will know. They are probably watching.”

We jumped out of the vehicle, popped the lid and took a look. Steam was coming off the engine. It was in no state to be driven. There was no way in hell we were going to be driving this.

Ten minutes later a tow truck arrived and hauled it away. A new car arrived at the same time. It was a rental car. We just had to hope they didn’t have eyes on us out here.

We were running about ten minutes late. When we arrived it was deserted. The only person at the gas station was an old man inside. He nodded and I gave a small gesture back with my hand. They had picked the smallest town in Mississippi, not far from the Arkansas border. There were miles of fields. That’s all we had seen coming into this place. If they expected to get away from here by car or on foot, they were idiots. Police would find them immediately.

I took out the money.

“Do you see anyone?” Wakefield’s voice came over the mic.

“No. Just the guy who owns the place, I think,” I muttered trying not to move my lips too much.

“Our people have you in their sights.”

“Well, tell them to keep their fingers off the triggers. I don’t wish to have my life ended by a rookie FBI agent.”

“These aren’t rookies. They are veterans.”

“Even worse. They thrive on this shit.”

I heard him chuckle on the other end of the line. Laughing at time like this? Who the hell did that? They really did do this every day. I went over to the ice vending machine. It was metal. It had the usual brand for ice on the front. I lifted it. Inside there were lots of bags of ice. I dropped the bag in and closed the metal lid. I lifted my hands. That’s what I had been told to do. They were watching. I then moved back to the car and got in.

“Right, let’s go.”

“Hold.”

“What? The guy told us to leave and come back.”

“We’ve been given instructions to hold here.”

My phone buzzed. I picked it up.

“Why are you still there?”

I didn’t know what to say. The agents were staring at me.

“I just thought we could talk. I want to see Meghan.”

“I told you. You will see her in fifteen minutes. Leave now.”

“What’s to stop you from taking the money and not leaving her?”

“You will have to see, won’t you?”

“Sorry, but I don’t trust you. Bring her now.”

“You are in no place to bargain. Now drive away or I will kill her and you can listen to her last breath over this phone.”

I hung up and started the engine.

“What are you doing?” Wakefield said.

“He will kill her. Why did you ask me to stay?”

“Because we want to see if he even has her. He doesn’t have her.”

“What?”

“Having worked with these type of people, we can tell you right now. They would produce the girl if they thought they were going to lose the money. Anything over a million and they won’t risk it. They don’t have her.”

“You are telling me I just dumped off money for nothing.”

The phone began buzzing again.

“It’s them. They have to be close. They must be able to see me.”