The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (57 page)

Some time had passed before I was awoken suddenly to someone slapping me in the face. I realized that I must have fallen asleep from crying so badly. I looked up to see the shadow of a man standing behind me. He was tapping on something that looked big and long in the shadow. As he smacked it repeatedly against his hand, I could tell that it was not metal, but more of a plastic sound. His country accent filled my ears. “You just sit still and mind your business and I won’t hurt you. I bet you thought you were lucky marryin’ someone like Colt Mitchell. Miranda thinks she can just get me locked up while she is livin’ all large somewhere, well that shit is about to change. I seen her and that cousin getting’ all cozy. It’s kinda funny how I wasn’t good enough, but they accept her havin’ some kind of incest relationship.”

Oh God! I have been kidnapped by Tucker Chase.

“
That is some kind of sick shit. It don’t matter to me who that little whore is bangin’. I’m gonna gets me some of that money and get the fuck out of this town. Once I gets mines I will let you go.”

This can’t be happening to me. I just want to go home. I want to forget this day ever happened to me.

I was mumbling words from beneath the cloth shoved in my mouth, but Tucker never relieved me from it. I could hear him pacing behind me and when he began to talk again, the sound of his voice startled me. I hadn’t noticed before, but my head was throbbing and when I moved my eyebrows, my forehead and cheek felt weird, like when I wore face masks for my skin. With the pain coming from my eye, I realized I must have had dried blood from where he had originally hit me to knock me unconscious.

Tears streamed down my eyes as I listened to Tucker talking on the phone to someone. “I did everything as planned. Yeah, I gots her tied up, what do you think I’m an idiot or somethin’? No Mamma, she is fine. YES, I WILL GET THE DAMN MONEY. Stop your whinin’. Do you think I would have been lyin’ low all of these months if I wanted to get caught? I had Charlie make the call already. It’s all takin’ care of. Just calm down and wait for my call.”

What the fuck? His mother was also in on this?

Tucker must have got off the phone. He stopped talking and even pacing. He was so quiet for a few seconds that I considered he was right behind me, preparing to kill me here on this dirty floor, with whatever object he was holding in his hand. I could see his shadow and he was just standing behind me.

I tried to silence my tears enough where my body wasn’t trembling so much, but I was afraid for my life and it was just impossible to try and be calm. Eventually, I saw the dark shadow move and finally heard him climbing up the steps, and then shutting a door. As soon as I heard that door shutting, I tried to wiggle my way around to decipher just how my hands were bound and if there was any way, I could possibly free myself.

I had to give it to the little redneck creep; he must have used zip ties on my wrists. The more I fought to free myself, the more the plastic rubbed against my skin. I was apparently tied to some kind of pole in the basement and from the feel of it against my skin; I would say it was old and rusty.

If I wanted to get free, I would have to inflict major pain on my wrists, but I was desperate. I needed to get me and my baby out of this house. I knew Colt would come looking for me, but he didn’t know where to look. I was alone for right now, but determined to get out in one piece.

I started lifting my arms up and down against the coarse metal pole; the plastic pressing and ripping the skin on my wrist as I did it. The pain was agonizing when inflicting it on yourself, but it was necessary if I wanted to get out of this place. I could see a window straight in front of me. It had a sheet over it, but the light shined through enough to know it was an escape. Against one wall, I spotted a broom and a shovel. If I could manage my hands free, I could untie my feet and grab the shovel for protection.

The metal pole wasn’t making a dent in the plastic, so I decided on taking a different approach to the plastic restraints. I twisted and turned my wrists in opposite directions, hoping to break the clasping mechanism to the stupid ties.  The basement was freezing, considering it was unfinished and I was sitting on a concrete floor, but beads of sweat were rolling down my aching head. Pain shot through my wrists and up my arms, as warm liquid oozed down from them. I had broken the skin and was bleeding from where the plastic was now digging into my skin.

My arms were exhausted and I wanted to give up, but knowing that Tucker could come down any second and see that I was fighting to get free, well it scared the bejesus out of me. I had to keep trying until I was free. I was glad that I hadn’t given up, because just seconds later I felt the resistance give and my hands freeing themselves, at the exact moment the basement door creaked open.

Chapter 13

Colt

I had been helping Conner work on installing a new manufacturer’s part to one of our combines all day. The day had gotten away from me and I found myself heading home as the sun was starting to set. It was weird not hearing from Savanna all day, considering she always called at least once. I remembered she said she was going into town to get some things we needed, so I figured maybe she and my mother, or even Lucy caught an afternoon movie or something.

Nothing could have prepared me for walking into the dark house, seeing that she had never returned home. Her purse wasn’t on the counter, suggesting she had gone to the ranch house. The refrigerator was still pretty empty and nothing was picked up from this morning.

I reached in my pocket to grab my cell phone and realized I had left it back inside of the combine. Worry rushed over me as I ran out of my house, Sam following, to get to my cell phone. After driving as fast as the golf cart could take me, I grabbed my phone out of the combine and noticed missed calls. There had been just one call from Savanna at nine in the morning, but nothing since. The other calls were from a blocked number. I dialed into my voicemail and started listening to the messages.

Colt….Colt Mitchell. We have your wife and if you know what’s good for you, you will get us fifty thousand dollars. If we don’t hear from you, she will die. I reckon you best be gettin’ to the bank. We will call you back later today with a place to make the exchange.

Somehow hearing the message was like being in the Twilight Zone. After the first moments of utter shock, I reached down and dialed my mother. I should have called the police first, but something made me call her. Maybe it was some inclination that she was always my mother and could protect me from anything painful. The thought left my mind when I snapped back into reality and realized she was on the other end of the phone waiting for me to respond. “Colt? Can you hear me dear?”

“Mom……I don’t…..something…..someone took Savanna, Mom. I need your help.” I was frantically pacing around the living room.

“What do you mean someone took her? Where is she?”

I sat down and ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t know. She wasn’t home when I got here. I had missed calls from some unknown number and a message demanding fifty thousand dollars or I would never see her again.” Just the thought of never seeing my beautiful Savanna, my wife, the mother to my unborn child, made me cringe with sickness.

“You need to call the police Son. I’m coming over there right now. Sit tight. I will grab John. He is over at your aunt Karen’s tonight for dinner.”

How convenient. The sheriff was already at the ranch.

I contemplated calling the police, but with Savanna being kidnapped, I couldn’t take the chance of having the authorities fucking up my chances of her getting home to me in one piece. I had seen too many things go bad in movies and television shows to know it didn’t always have a happy ending.

My mother came rushing in the door, followed by the sound of a car slamming on their breaks in my gravel driveway. My little mother came rushing over to me, grabbing my hand, while Aunt Karen and Sheriff John followed in. “Colt, tell me everything you told your mother. Don’t leave anything out. We need all the details that we get.”

“I hadn’t talked to Savanna all day and when I got home she wasn’t here. After locatin’ my phone, I had a missed call from an unknown number and one message statin’ that they had Savanna and if I didn’t give them fifty grand, I wouldn’t see her again.” I really started to panic. “She is pregnant John. We have to get that money and do whatever it takes to get her home safe. She can’t handle stress John. Please tell me what to do.”

He held his hands up, telling me to calm down; even though I knew it was an impossible gesture. “They never said where to meet?”

“It said they would call back.” My mother rubbed my shoulders.

Aunt Karen walked over to John and grabbed his hand, getting her attention. “John, we can’t just assume the best here. We need to figure out how to get her and that baby back in one piece.

“The money isn’t a problem.” My mother interrupted.

John put his hands up again. He was obviously accustomed to trying to calm seriously frustrated victims and criminals down. “Now let’s not jump to conclusions. The next time they call, you will ask to speak to Savanna, for proof of life.”

“Proof of life? Heavens to Betsy, this can’t be happening right now.” My mother buried her hands into her face.

I was trying so hard to remain calm and focused on just getting my wife home safely, but we had nothing to go on. To make matters worse, the banks were all closed and I had no idea how we were going to get fifty grand at six o’clock at night. “What happens if they need the money tonight? We can’t get that kind of money tonight.” I stood up and started pacing around the living room.

“Colt, listen here, son, if they are in it for the money, they will expect to have to provide proof of life. We have no reason to believe they have harmed her in any way,” John explained.

“Can we trace the call? Is there a way to trace a blocked number?” I asked.

He shook his head and sat down on the couch, finally looking up at me after rubbing his hands together. My Aunt Karen sat down beside my mother and grabbed her hand. “It’s not that simple. In most cases the phone used is called a burner phone. You can pick one up at any gas station or grocery store. The phones are untraceable, especially without knowing the number. I’m afraid we are going to have to wait it out.”

That was not what I wanted to hear coming from the sheriff himself. I guess I expected he would just be able to bring her home to me immediately. I realize that it was stupid to assume, but the thought of my Savanna out there somewhere scared, and God only knows what else, made me cringe. I needed to find her, to save her, and to bring her home. I couldn’t live with myself if anything ever happened to her over my parent’s wealth. It wasn’t fair. She never asked for this life. In fact, she came here
because
of me.

Guilt washed over me and the pain of realization.

My wife had been kidnapped.

For the next hour, the four of us brainstormed different scenarios back and forth. I don’t know how she did it, but my mother left and came back about thirty minutes later with a suit case full of cash. For some reason, I knew I wasn’t meant to ask questions. My parents were loaded, but who the Hell keeps fifty grand at their house? It’s like having a sign on your front door saying ‘rob me’.

I never snooped around my house, but I assumed they probably had some hidden safe somewhere. My mother was a smart woman and my father even wiser. It wasn’t hard to admit that they always had a rainy day stash lying around. My mother saw me giving her the curious eye. She came over toward me and reached for my hand. “It’s our emergency fund. Your dad started it when you were in high school. He was afraid he might have to bail you out of some trouble,” she whispered.

“That’s crazy. I wasn’t that bad.”

She cocked an eyebrow and gave me a snarky look. “I beg to differ, Colton.”

I pulled her into my arms. “Thank you for this, Mom.”

My cell phone started ringing from across the room, grabbing our immediate attention.  Before opening it, John gave me certain instructions. I wasn’t to plea with them at all. I had to stick with one simple question.

“Hello?”

“Colt Mitchell?” The voice was distorted.

“Yeah.”

“You got our money?”

“Yeah. Is Savanna okay?”

“The girl is fine.”

“I need to hear her voice.”

The phone went quiet for a second, like he held his hand over it. “We will call you back and let you talk to her. Stay by your phone.”

They hung up before I could say any more. I looked around the room at the three of them waiting for an explanation. “He said they will call back and let me hear her voice.”

“Oh thank God she is okay.” My mother announced.

I put my head down and waited for the phone to ring. I hoped that she was right, but after forty minutes we still had no call and that just didn’t sit right with me at all.

Chapter 14

Savanna

With my hands freed, I reached down for my feet, but was startled by the door opening, followed by feet coming down the stairs. The shovel was too far away to grab and I would have been seen by the person coming down the steps, causing them to come at me faster.

I gathered my hands back together, as Tucker rounded the corner and headed in my direction. He stood over me, scratching his head and squinting his eyes like he was in deep thought. “I’m goin’ to make a call and you are only going to say hello and tell them you are okay. Do you understand bitch?”

I nodded my head, but said nothing. He started reaching in his pockets and obviously couldn’t find what he was looking for. “Shit. This phone doesn’t have the number in it.” He headed toward the stairs and ran up them, two at a time.

I reached for my feet and used my bleeding hands and wrists to free them. As I heard the door squeaking open, I ran for the shovel. I could hear him coming at me as I grabbed the handle and swung it around. It hit him across the jaw, sending him falling to the floor. I was breathing heavy and could feel my heart beating out of my chest, but I had no time to panic, as Tucker began to stand on his feet again.

I had never physically inflicted pain on anyone in my entire life, but my life and my unborn child’s life was in danger. With all of my might I swung that shovel again. He turned as a natural reaction to it heading toward his face and it got a chunk of the back of his head. He went down fast. His head hitting the floor as blood started forming a pool around him.

At this point I had begun crying my eyes out. The shovel felt loose in my hands and I let it fall to floor, thinking I had really killed him. He was a bad man, but I was no killer. My natural instinct was to check for a pulse, but thank God my adrenaline kicked in and made me rationalize with such an idiotic decision I was about to make. I could hear voices coming from the first floor and looked back down at Tucker bleeding out on the ground.

I climbed onto the shelf in front of me and started to push open the hatch window. When I got it good enough to slide my body out of, I grabbed a hold of the sides and dove for it. My feet dangled against the wall as I used all of my might to pull myself up and outside of the house.

I’d got about half through when I heard someone screaming and then felt the hands grabbing both of my feet. With one rapid pull I went flying back into the house, falling about seven feet down onto the hard ground. The pain of hitting the floor was agonizing and for a few moments I couldn’t even move. Aside from having the wind knocked out of me, I couldn’t shake the tremendous amount of pain coming from my stomach.

“Get her hands,” someone yelled.

I struggled to move away from them, but it hurt to even try to roll. A boot came crashing into my jaw, sending my face and head in the opposite direction it was facing. A ringing started in my ears and although I knew the two people were talking, I could only hear the muffled sounds of voices. I brought my hand up to my ear and it was wet with blood. I brought my knees to my chest and cringed in pain, both from my stomach and my back.

After at least five minutes of them not coming near me, and me lying there in utter pain, someone came over and kicked me in my back once more. I cried out, but there was nobody there to help me. I knew what was happening to my body, but I just couldn’t admit it to myself yet. This was probably going to be my last day on this earth and the fact that my last moments of life were losing the baby that I had wanted my whole entire life, well it was indescribably terrible.

It was as if all of the visions of me being a mother were disappearing right in front of my eyes. Just knowing that made me want to give up. They were destroying my heart, my future, my life.

I managed to put my hand over my bad ear and could hear a bit of what they were saying. The female was arguing with the male about taking Tucker to the hospital. The male was saying that Tucker would go to jail for setting fire at the barn and he would be locked up and convicted of my kidnapping as well. The girl was crying and pleading with the guy, almost begging him to reconsider. I heard one of them walking up the steps and then slamming the door closed.

At first I thought maybe they both had gone up and I just didn’t notice it, but low cries were coming from the opposite side of the room. While covering my face, I turned to see a redheaded girl hovered over Tucker. She was crying and rocking back and forth.

When she spotted me looking at her, I could sense the hate in her eyes. She stood up and walked toward me, but for some reason she just stood there over me, holding her hands over her mouth. She started backing away, shaking her head and repeating the word ‘no,no,no’.

I tried to sit up and she turned around to start walking away. While still crying she turned one last time. “God, I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to get hurt. This wasn’t part of the plan. We just wanted the money. I swear.” She went running up the stairs and I even heard the front door being slammed shut. Voices could be heard out of the open window and moments later a car started and pulled away.

I don’t know how long I waited before trying to get up, but it was at least ten minutes. Instead of attempting to stand, I crawled over to Tucker’s body to check for a phone first. After searching every pocket, I found the phone, under his body. I wasn’t worried about him waking up. With the amount of blood loss and the way his eyes were open, I knew he was dead.

Calling Colt first would have been pointless. I had no idea where I was. The only way for me to be found would be to have my call traced. I open the phone and hit the emergency button.

“Nine one, one what is your emergency?”

“Please help me,” I cried. “I’ve been kidnapped, bound and beaten. I’m in a basement and I have no idea where I am.” My voice began to fade and the tears were streaming down my face. “I’m having a miscarriage. Please help me.”

The phone fell out of my hands as I collapsed onto the floor. Saying the words made it a reality. I just wanted to die, to just close my eyes and not feel the physical and emotional pain that was tearing through my body. How could this have happened to me. What did I ever do to deserve this?

I have no idea how long it was, but I finally picked the phone back up to hear the operator still there.

She told me they could search the vicinity of where the call was coming from and there were only a couple of residencies to search through. I stayed on the line and listened for the Ambulance. As it got closer I relayed it to the operator. When it was its loudest, I heard the doors slamming and soon a bunch of voices were in the house. I never hung up the phone, but continued to cry as the emergency crews came down to help me and handle the crime scene.

The paramedics were as gentle as they could be with me, while getting me onto the stretcher and carrying me up the flight of stairs. Police had already started arriving and the yard was full of officers. Once I was in the ambulance and the paramedic was trying to get my vitals, I reached over and grabbed his arm. “Please call my husband. My name is Savanna Mitchell, my husband is Colt. Please find him.”

“We know who you are Mrs. Mitchell. He’s already on his way.” I heard someone say before everything went black.

The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital. I was hooked up to all kinds of monitors. The buzzing in my one ear was constant, and the pain in my stomach was worse. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but my jaw was stuck shut. A hand on my arm caused me to turn my head. Colt stood there over me. Tears filled his eyes and everything that had happened to me came all back to replay in my mind.

“No! No! No! Please tell me it isn’t true. Please, Colt. Tell me it isn’t true.” I pleaded through my tight jaw. It was hard to talk, but I couldn’t help myself from expressing my pain. “Please, God, tell me this is a bad dream. Tell me this isn’t real. My baby…..our baby. Our baby.”

He knew I was referring to our baby. I didn’t have to keep saying it. He couldn’t look into my eyes, but as the tears fell from his own, he shook his head from side to side, right before covering his face into his hands.

He tried to shush me, to get me to calm down, but the tears flooded my vision. “Try not to talk, darlin’. They had to wire part of your jaw. Please don’t cry, sugar. I’m so sorry Savanna. I’m just so darn sorry.”

Our baby was gone.

There would be no calming down. No being grateful I made it out of there alive. I caused this to happen. The red head told me they weren’t going to hurt me. Me trying to escape is what killed my baby. It was all my fault.

My emotional breakdown became so uncontrolled that the doctors came and eventually sedated me. The last face I saw was Colt’s. The pain I saw in his eyes was worse than anything physical I was feeling myself.

I was in the hospital for nine days. I had a broken jaw, a busted ear drum, two broken ribs and had lost our baby. To make matters worse, they had to surgically go in and remove the deceased baby from my body. They said I went into shock, but I couldn’t remember anything after the ambulance.

A psychiatrist came in every day and sat with me, trying to console me and get me to be okay with everything that happened. Of course they insisted I was already having PTSD and that I needed to be on a medication regiment until they knew for sure I had recovered fully from what had happened to me.

Tucker had died from blunt force trauma to the head. I was never charged on account of it being ruled out self defense. They never caught the other two people and they didn’t have enough evidence to convict his mother of being in on the crime. With Tucker Chase dead our family knew that we wouldn’t be bothered anymore.

Our family was not sad to hear of his demise and I did know that someone like him didn’t deserve to be alive, but it still didn’t help with the repeated nightmares of me killing him. I couldn’t shake what I had done, not even with my therapists help.

For three weeks I stayed in my bed at the house. Colt flew my mother in to Kentucky and she stayed with me for two weeks. I barely ate and I never came out of my room. Colt tried to comfort me, but in my eyes I had taken his heart and ripped it to shreds. I couldn’t tell him the truth about what I had done. If he ever found out that everything was my fault, he would never be able to look at me, and especially be with me again.

Our sex life was non-existent, in fact, after several attempts, Colt had stopped trying to touch me. I read all kinds of books about self help and losing children, but nothing filled the void of feeling my baby growing inside of me.

After two months, I started to come out of the bedroom. I missed Colt and even though I had this huge secret, I knew he was all I had left. The doctors said that the miscarriage had left a bunch of scar tissue and being able to conceive naturally could be even more difficult than it was before. With all hopes of getting pregnant again almost gone, Colt did his best to coax me into our old life again.

It took about a week for me to get back into my normal routine. I never went anywhere besides the ranch, but my therapist insisted it was a good start. Lucy would get my groceries and run errands in town so I wouldn’t have to. Colt spent more time working from his home office and when he didn’t he still came home for lunch and was always home in time for dinner. We still ate in silence, but we were together, taking baby steps to get back to how things used to be.

One morning I woke up feeling like I was at peace for some reason. Colt was still asleep next me and I reached over to kiss him. His lips brushed over mine and he woke up and wrapped his arms around me. It was the first time that I had wanted him since my accident. He slipped the nightgown down off of my shoulders and kissed me gently on my neck. “I miss you so much, darlin’.”

“Make love to me, Colt.”

He gently pushed my head down on the pillow and slipped the nightgown down off of my waist and then my feet. He removed my panties and ran his hands down my naked body. “Are you sure?”

“Please.”

It was more like I was begging him to touch me, like I needed to feel him as close as he could get. I didn’t want to be alone anymore, in fact, I couldn’t  bear it anymore.

His gentle hands stroked my lips right before he leaned down and kissed them. Colt cupped my breast and sucked on it, before removing his boxers and sliding on top of me. It had been so long for both of us. I didn’t want the foreplay, or to take our time. I needed him to be inside of me.

I reached down and felt the girth of his immediate erection. Just knowing he still wanted me made me hot between my legs. There was this burn for him that I needed to calm. I thrusted my hips up, touching his hardness with my naked skin. He groaned and positioned it so that he could slide right in. Colt moaned as he entered me. It was so tight and even hurt at first like our first time had. He went slow, his body trembling over top of me. I grabbed his naked ass with my hands and pulled him into me harder. His strong arms held his body up from crushing mine and I ran my hands over the muscles of them. Colt’s gorgeous green eyes found mine and he stared into them as he thrusted faster, picking up the pace to signal he was about to come. His eyes closed tightly and his body tensed up over top of mine. I could feel him exploding inside of me, making me feel like I was full of his love. In hindsight, I knew it was just semen, but at the time, it was pure bliss.

He rolled us over and stroked my hair as he placed gentle kisses all over my face. “God, I missed this.”