The Hostage (11 page)

The three strangers did what they were told. After hearing talk of murder, she was sure none of them really wanted to test her.

“What are you doing?” Drake asked.

She definitely heard hurt feelings in his voice.

Yeah, well, I’m hurt too.

“Rod will have called down. People will be waiting for us. There’s no way I’m going back with him to his bunker.”

The elevator came to a complete stop. All five of them looked forward as the doors started to open.

Hunkering down low, with no sight on what lay beyond the doors, Sarah could feel the police presence.

No one on the elevator moved.

She glanced over the shoulder of the guy who had touched her a few moments ago.

More than half a dozen cops stood in a semicircle, their weapons aimed at the inside of the elevator.

It’s over. Rod has gotten me again. Fuck, how could he track me so good?

The lights on the elevator turned off. The power went out.

“Nobody fucking move,” Sarah said. “I’m
very
serious.”

“Sarah Roberts, please step out of the elevator,” a voice commanded from beyond. “It has been taken out of service. The doors will not close. You have nowhere to go. Come out with your hands up.”

Chapter 17

Elmore ran up to the back of the line of cops as the elevator doors opened.

He flashed his badge and turned to a cop beside him.

“I’m to take Sarah Roberts and her companion into my custody. I’m with the Americans. She’s to wait in my vehicle out front until they can rendezvous with me here.”

The privately hired armed security guards surrounding the elevator looked nervous. The one Elmore spoke to seemed eager to have Sarah off his radar.

“Sure, if you can get her off that elevator. We’re not going in there.”

Elmore edged between two guards and stepped to the elevator door.

“Okay, let’s go,” Elmore said. “You three, get off the elevator first.”

The three in the front hustled out and away from the door. He knew he was running out of time. At any second, real authorities would show up. He would be arrested. He had to get her now and do it fast.

He stepped to the open door and saw her silhouette in the darkened elevator. A feeling of major achievement washed over him. Sarah Roberts, the real Sarah Roberts was all his, to do what he pleased for as long as he wanted.

“Sarah, you’re to come with me,” he said. Then an idea came to him. He knew how much that cop Parkman worked with her. He leaned his head in further and whispered, “Parkman sent me. I’m to take you to him, but you have to hurry.”

She stepped from the shadows. He couldn’t believe it. He had her. His Sarah. Oh, she would be a delight to kiss, to suck on. It would be an honor to use her nails between his teeth. Her panties would sell so well.

He stepped from the lift and nodded at the guards who lowered their weapons.

“I got this. They will come with me to my vehicle out front and wait there. You,” Elmore pointed at the man he spoke to earlier, “will you help escort these two prisoners to my vehicle?”

The man nodded. “The show’s over,” he announced to the gathering crowd.

Elmore wrapped his hand around Sarah’s arm and instantly began growing an erection. He led her away as the rent-a-cop grabbed the other guy and followed.

He couldn’t believe how easy it was.

He also couldn’t believe that just holding onto Sarah’s arm aroused him this much.

Oh, Sarah, we are going to have a lot of fun together.

The foursome made it out of the building without being stopped. He chanced a look behind him but no one had given chase yet. It wouldn’t be long. The people hunting Sarah were close. They had almost had her. His timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

They reached his car. He opened the door and the guy Sarah was with got in, followed by Sarah. As soon as the door closed, he knew they were his. The doors locked on the outside like a regular police car. There was no way either one of them could get out unless he let them out.

He never knew when an unwilling female hostage would change her mind on the way to his house and decided to jump from his vehicle. That kind of attention would be undesirable.

“Thanks for your help,” Elmore said to the guard. He slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Tell them I’m out here when they come for her.”

“Okay,” the guard said and started back for the tower.

Elmore ran around to the driver’s seat and got in. He fired up the engine and flicked on the headlights as the evening had dropped into dusk.

He put the car in gear and started away. The flashing light on his dash bothered him. He unplugged it from his cigarette lighter and tossed it on the passenger side floor.

Then he looked in the mirror and laughed.

I’ve actually got Sarah Roberts in my car and no one knows me or where we’re going,
he thought to himself
. Both of you are now missing persons cases that’ll never be found.

Chapter 18

The sign on the side of the road said they were on the Gardiner Expressway. As far as Sarah could tell, the driver wasn’t heading to the island airport. That meant they weren’t flying out and he probably wasn’t with Parkman.

But how did he know to use Parkman’s name?

She tapped on the Plexiglass. “Where are we going? Is Parkman meeting us there?”

She caught the driver’s eyes in the mirror looking at her. He didn’t respond.

Something was wrong again. Why did she always get herself caught up in shit? Couldn’t something go right for a change? Parkman would have come himself. He knew she wouldn’t just trust anybody. Yet, she did. So why
did
she go with this man? Because it was a way out of the elevator situation.

She turned to Drake.

Which was all his fault.

Drake turned to her, his face showing concern.

She pointed at the driver with her hand held low and shook her head. Then she mouthed the word,
problem
.

He nodded and pulled out his cell phone. Drake dialed a number and waited for it to connect.

Vivian had warned her.
Beware the cop. He’s fake. He wants to kill you.

Could the driver be the fake cop Vivian referred to? It had to be.

Drake said, “Spencer? Sorry for hanging up earlier.”

Whether the fake cop was Spencer or the driver of the car, one of them was real and getting help from Spencer would reveal which one it was. Time to let things play out a little and then decide who to hurt when shit went down.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Drake continued. “The Americans chased us out of the CN Tower and now we’re in a cop car heading along the Gardiner—”

The driver slammed on the brakes so hard both of them shot forward into the Plexiglass. Sarah had just enough time to save her face by getting her hands up. Drake only got his right up in time as his left was holding the phone to his ear. Neither had put on seat belts.

“
Motherfucker
,” Drake shouted.

Sarah’s heart opened a little more for him.
My kind of man.

“Throw your phone out the window,” the driver said as he resumed his speed on the highway.

The window on Drake’s side slid down an inch.

“Do it now.”

Drake looked at Sarah and then at his phone. Then he addressed the driver. “Fuck you,” he said. “You gonna buy me a new one, asshole.” Then he put the phone back to his ear. “Spencer? You still there?”

The driver tapped his brakes a couple more times.

“Do it now or pay a severe price.”

“Hey, asshole. I don’t know who you are, but I’ve been through a tough two weeks. Whether you really are a cop or not, I don’t give a shit about you. What I do care about is my phone. So fuck off.”

Sarah hadn’t met a man in a long time who looked as good as Drake and talked so seductively. He had potential. Maybe there’d be a day when they could spend some quality time together.

But I’d have to trust him. What he did in the CN Tower was fucked.

The car jerked to the right. As fast as they got on the highway, they were exiting. The driver acted like a madman. He plugged his police light in again, the red orb flashing on his dash. At the bottom of the ramp, he turned a hard right and then a left into a gas station parking lot.

It was all they could do to stay seated in the upright position.

The driver stopped the vehicle, got out and ran around the car to Drake’s side.

“Get ready. Here’s our chance,” Sarah said.

Drake turned in his seat and brought his feet up at the door. Sarah braced herself and got ready too.

The door lock clicked and the door opened. Drake thrust with his feet but met empty air.The driver’s head peeked in. He had something in his hand.

She closed her eyes almost instantly at the hissing sound.

Drake shouted. In the confined space of the backseat, his voice sounded deafening.

She couldn’t breathe without taking a little in.

Pepper spray.

She had to keep her eyes closed, but knowing what was happening made her open them a slit.

Drake hacked and coughed. His face was red and his eyes were running.

She tried to open her door, but it was locked from the outside. Drake’s door slammed shut. The driver got back in and drove away from the gas station, his police light turned off now. In moments, they were on the elevated highway again.

She could open her eyes a little more, but she breathed through the collar of her shirt. Drake rubbed his eyes and moaned. His phone was nowhere in sight.

Breathing became more difficult. It looked like Drake was losing his battle.

She banged on the Plexiglass.

“He’s dying back here. We need air or I’m going to die too.”

Or, is that what you want? Fuck, how do I always get myself mixed up with the worst assholes on the planet?

Both windows slid down an inch. In unison, Drake and Sarah put their noses as close to the fresh air as they could. Her nose cleared almost instantly, but she could hear Drake’s breathing still labored. She could only imagine the pain he was going through.

She knew the price of bravado, but sometime there was nothing left in life but standing up for yourself and what you believe in, at all costs.

“Defy me again,” the driver said. “And the price goes up each and every time.”

Fear creeped over her like a cloak.

Who is this guy? Where is he taking us? Oh, Vivian, I’m sorry, I know you warned me, but I need your help here …

Chapter 19

Elmore drove the most direct route north of Toronto to Highway 27 and up to Nobleton. He turned up his driveway and meandered along the winding lane. No one bothered him in his fortified house secluded behind a thick forest.

How much luck could one man have
?

Just that morning, he’d decided to remove Jackie from her cage because he knew Sarah Roberts was probably coming back to North America soon. That afternoon she was seen in Toronto, and now she was captive in the backseat of his car. He couldn’t believe it. He’d finally got her. A five-year obsession concluded.

He parked near the front door of his house. No one knew anything about him or where they were. If anyone caught a glimpse of his license plate number, it would never lead the police to him. The plate had been registered to an abandoned wreck parked for a month two blocks from his studio downtown Toronto. Two days ago, the wreck was still there.

He smiled. The time had come. The time was his to control. He had become the master and Sarah Roberts was his slave.

Elmore got out and entered his house, leaving the two prisoners in his vehicle. He walked through the main floor, turning on lights, and went downstairs to set up the basement. After opening both cage doors, he grabbed two pairs of handcuffs, one of his 9mm semi-automatic Mamba pistols and made his way back out to the car.

The back windows were still down the inch he had allowed them for air, but the male looked worse. He needed to flush his eyes and get cleaned up.

Elmore placed the handcuffs at the crack in the window and let them both fall in.

“Place the handcuffs on and I will open the door. Then we will go into the house and discuss what is going to happen here.”

“Yeah, and I’ll do a tap dance and flit around like Peter Pan,” Sarah said. “How’s that? You want to hear anymore fairy tales, dick fuck?”