Marked in Mexico (5 page)

The last part of the statement was directed at Jack, but he didn’t respond. Jessica was relieved when Jack remained silent, but doubted the delicate balance they had just struck would last.

She watched Gilbert struggle to his feet and move across the room, separating himself from the person he perceived to be trouble. Ashley followed, apparently believing his money would save them, but Megan hesitated. She looked at Jessica and Jack with indecision. Jessica wanted to reassure her, but had nothing to offer. Ashley grabbed Megan’s hand and gave it a gentle tug, and Megan followed her friend to Gilbert’s side.

Darkness filled the room. The hours they had been confined had been uneventful. No one else had entered the room, except to retrieve the bean pot, and they still had no idea why they had been abducted. Ashley quit crying and stayed close to Gilbert, hoping to ride his bank account to freedom. Megan remained stoically silent, making Jessica fear she might be teetering on the edge of shock. Jack paced, but remained quiet, and Jessica watched them all.

Her eyelids had begun to grow heavy when the silence was shattered by shouting. The van fired to life and the chaotic thump of boots pounding across the wooden floor of the house warned they would soon be making a hasty retreat.

The door flew open and the men burst into the room, screaming at them. They grabbed and bound Jack first and then Gilbert. Ashley, Megan and Jessica were yanked to their feet and shoved out the door in front of Jack and Gilbert.

The sound of sirens shrilled in the distance and Jessica hoped the noise meant the authorities were coming to the rescue and the nightmare would soon be over. She hesitated in order to listen closer, but was shoved hard from behind, sending her stumbling into the dark night. Before she could regain her balance and decide which direction the sirens wailed from and if there was any way she could stall their departure, she was grabbed by the arm and forced into the van.

The doors slammed shut and the three men assumed the same positions as before. The van eased away from the old house, but quickly accelerated. The track was rutted and pitted and barely wide enough for the vehicle to maneuver. The van ran erratically without lights, no doubt to conceal their location.

As the van bounced wildly at a high rate of speed, the passengers were tossed around the metal box. Jessica frantically searched for something solid to grab onto. As she grasped for the leg of the front seat, the van left the dirt road and hit the pavement, its backend swerving nearly out of control. The jolt sent her flying and she landed face down across Jack’s lap, her rear end poking up in the air.

Every inch of her body ached. She knew she had to be bruised from head to toe, but the desire to find a more dignified place to sit gave her the will to push herself into a sitting position. As she glanced at Jack, she could see one eyebrow slightly cocked and a devilish grin on his lips.

“I’m flattered, but this isn’t really the time or the place,” he said as he continued to smile.

“If I didn’t think the guy by the back door would shoot me I’d slap that look off your face.”

Jack chuckled. He had no doubt she would gladly carry out her threat if she thought she could get away with it. Despite her delicate features and graceful beauty, she had spunk and he couldn’t help but admire it under the circumstance, nor could he seem to stop himself from antagonizing her further.

“And that’s the thanks I get for cushioning your fall.”

“Silence!” screamed the driver of the van.

Jessica shot Jack a furious look and settled back for the ride. She was so afraid of what might happen to them next and that he could find anything the least bit amusing made her livid. But, no matter how mad she was, she knew they must stick together if they had any chance to survive. He had already risked his own safety twice to intervene on her behalf. His actions had exposed his true character, even if he hadn’t wanted to, and Jessica knew he was someone she could count on.

The small glimmer of hope the sirens had given was short lived and once the sound died, she suspected they wouldn’t be able to count on anyone to rescue them. They were on their own, but she’d no intention of giving up without a fight.

By now she assumed her father, Phillip and probably everyone in America had heard about the kidnapping. She knew her father loved her and was probably beside himself with worry, but she also knew this crisis couldn’t have come about at a better time for him. With the Primaries only weeks away he would have public sympathy on his side and none of the other candidates would dare go after him with his only child being held hostage somewhere in Mexico.

Jessica knew he and his campaign advisors would not hesitate to take advantage of the situation. She remembered all too well how her mother’s highly-publicized death had tipped the scales in her father’s favor during a very close race and this election was going to be even tighter.

She wondered if Phillip would even be concerned about her safety or if he would just be angry that she was messing up the appeals process and defense of Cooper. She had no doubt he would put on an award-winning show in public
¾
the distraught boyfriend and co-worker of the lovely and likable daughter of Senator Hughes. But in private, she was certain he would lose no sleep over her abduction. If there was any benefit he could gain from her capture he would take it, but otherwise he would go on as he usually did.

Jessica’s eyes moved from gunman to gunman. She doubted they knew who she was. If they did, surely she would have been the only hostage taken. Her family possessed power and money that she felt certain would dwarf anything Gilbert claimed. She glanced over at him and his eyes were squinting, studying her face, trying to place her. She quickly looked away. She couldn’t get out of his sight within the crowded confines of the van, but she could keep him from looking into her eyes.

The first time her father ran for public office she was only ten years old. Every time her picture appeared in the paper with him, someone always compared the color of her eyes to a Texas bluebell. He had always called her his little Bluebell for that same reason and the media caught on to the pet name and it’d stuck.

If anything could trigger Gilbert’s memory, it would be her eyes. If he explained to their captors who she was the rest
might
be let go, but she doubted it. She was more afraid that as witnesses, they would be killed if they were no longer deemed useful. For everyone’s safety she believed her identity needed to stay hidden. Her captors knew her name from her wallet, but hopefully they hadn’t made the connection and she hoped none of them had access to a television or a newspaper. She could see the headlines clearly, “Texas Senator’s beloved Bluebell abducted.” The vision made her cringe.

Jessica sighed and wriggled around until she could peer out the window. She needed some clue as to where they were. Now that they hummed along a paved road with the headlights back on, she hoped to spot a sign. This time she wouldn’t sleep.

She strained her eyes through the night, but could see little. The occasional set of headlights from an oncoming car illuminated the van for a moment, but then left them once again in darkness. The men up front conversed quietly and glanced back at them often. The guard in the back of the van slept, along with Ashley, Megan and Gilbert.

During the brief bits of light, she would glance at Jack. He was awake, but didn’t look in her direction. He studied the men, the van and the scenery. Something about the way he watched everything made her think he was developing a plan of escape, which they desperately needed. They had to get away before Gilbert’s memory was triggered or she had no doubt they would all die.

The kidnappers drove until Jessica’s stomach grumbled, indicating it was around noon. They hadn’t eaten since early evening the night before and she was famished. She hadn’t seen a town for hours and they had just left the pavement again, so any dreams of grabbing a quick bite in an establishment with a restroom with running water had vanished.

The van bounced down the pot-hole riddled dusty road for about an hour before it came to a halt in front of a run-down building. The ground around the house was cleared of vegetation, allowing the sun to bake the ground, and Jessica feared the small house would be as hot as a sauna.

They waited until the back door of the van was opened and each occupant scrambled out of the vehicle as quickly as they could to avoid being pulled out as Jessica had suffered at the last stop. As before, they were marched single-file to the house and locked in a dimly-lit dirty room.

“Does anyone here speak English?” Gilbert demanded. “Someone here has to speak English. If we could just find out what you want, I’m sure we can work something out. Damn it! I know one of you idiots must understand me.”

One of the gunmen walked up to Gilbert and backhanded him so hard that the heavy man crashed to the wooden floor with a solid thud. He crawled to his hands and knees and then staggered to his feet, rubbing his jaw.

“So you must be the one who understands English? Just tell me what you want and I’ll help you get it.”

“We will send our demands when we are ready. First, we make your families and your government fear for your safety. Then they will be eager to cooperate. You will keep quiet, do as you are told or you will die.” The man slammed the door shut and locked it.

Jessica paced the room until she could feel everyone’s eyes following her. She stopped at the one window in the room and stared out. There were bars over the opening, but it offered more of a view of the area than the previous night’s room had. They were surrounded by jungle, broken only by the narrow dirt road they had arrived on. The trees were densely spaced and leafy, preventing her eyes from seeing much further than the clearing encircling the small house and the lone van.

After Gilbert sat down and Ashley and Megan joined him, Jessica left the window and walked to Jack who was sitting on the opposite side of the room. She slid down to the floor and scooted close to him, laying her head on his shoulder.

He looked over at her with a puzzled expression on his face. “So is this your way of apologizing for snapping at me for doing nothing more than sitting innocently in the van and cushioning your fall?”

“No. We need to talk and I don’t want anyone to hear. I don’t know who to trust. I don’t even know if I can trust you, but you’re all I’ve got.”

“Stop. You’re making me blush with all the flattery.”

Jessica jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and smiled a little as he flinched. His cocky remarks irritated her some, but mostly she found it a little endearing. He didn’t say much, so when he did it meant something.

“Seriously, we have to get out of here. I have a feeling the longer we wait for help, the more likely it is we’re all going to die.”

“They’ll give us an opportunity. We just have to watch, wait and be patient. If we behave like good little hostages for a while, they’ll let their guard down enough for us to escape. For instance, they didn’t even bind you three women in the van when we had to leave the last house in a big hurry. They’ll keep getting more confident and more careless.”

“We don’t have time to wait. We have to go now.”

Jack looked at her and narrowed his eyes. “Is there something you know that you should be telling me?”

She paused. She thought about telling him the truth, but decided it was probably safer for everyone, including him, if he didn’t know she was the daughter of a very high-profile U.S. Senator.

“I just fear Gilbert is going to do something sooner or later that will get us killed if we don’t get out of here.”

Gilbert made Jack uncomfortable too, but Jessica’s desperation concerned him even more. So far she had been a rock and allowed none of her fear to show. Their captors didn’t seem to intimidate her, but he’d noticed she’d been watching them. Maybe she had picked up on something he hadn’t, though he had always been good at assessing these kinds of situations, a skill which had saved his life more than once.

Jack agreed they had to get away as soon as possible. He just hadn’t seen an opening yet and he hadn’t decided what to do about Gilbert. The man was a liability, but he wouldn’t feel right leaving him behind and he wasn’t sure if he could convince Megan and Ashley to go along without Gilbert. Jack definitely couldn’t leave the two young women behind anymore than he could leave Jessica. If they stayed put, he would eventually be shot, but he doubted the women would be so lucky.