CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The women had been huddled together for probably another hour when they heard scraping on the back side of the trailer.

April sat up and whispered, “Remember, let me take the lead.”

“Good luck,” Carlise told her softly.

“You can do it,” Marlowe encouraged.

“We trust you,” June added.

April’s heart was beating triple time in her chest. She had no idea what was about to happen. The person about to open the door could be Ryan. Or it could be someone he’d sold them to. Yes, she’d absolutely thought of all the scenarios that they could find themselves in, and one was being sold into the sex trade.

Whoever was out there was going to find four women who seemed to be completely cowed and docile. Fighting wasn’t in their best interest, not if they had no weapon. And even though April really, really wanted to scratch the eyes out of anyone who appeared at the door, she took a deep breath and told herself to be patient. To do whatever she could to outsmart their kidnapper.

The door opened, and even though it was dark outside, a streetlight in the distance was still too much for April’s sensitive eyes. They’d all been in complete darkness for so long, even the smallest light made her wince.

Squinting, April saw that it was indeed Ryan who’d opened the door to the trailer. All she could see behind him were trees. Wherever he’d stopped, he’d backed the trailer up so no one would see what was inside if he opened the door.

“Please,” April pleaded in the most pathetic voice she could muster. “Do you have any water?”

“Why should I give you anything?” Ryan asked.

Now she really wanted to punch him in the nose, but she forced herself to keep her head down and her tone neutral. “We’ve been good. Haven’t made any noise. All we want is something to drink. Please.” She was laying it on thick, but she hoped it would work.

To her surprise, Ryan said, “Get over here.”

Looking up, April saw he was pointing at her. Reluctantly, she scooted forward on the cold floor of the trailer, staying several feet shy of the door.

“Here,” Ryan ordered as he pointed to the edge of the trailer.

For a moment, April hesitated. She didn’t want to get any closer to this asshole. She looked at him, trying to stall, really studying him for the first time. He was much younger than she’d first realized. At the oldest, he couldn’t be more than twenty-one or twenty-two, but it was also possible he was still a teenager. He had dark hair and a five-o’clock shadow. In the dim light, his eyes looked like empty black orbs. In his current jeans and T-shirt, he could blend in just about anywhere, except . . .

April didn’t think he was American. He’d cut his hair to resemble a lot of other young men, and the clothes were age appropriate. But as much as he tried to hide it, his words were slightly accented.

“I said, come here, April,” Ryan repeated, sounding irritated.

She moved without thought, scooting forward.

“You want water?” he asked.

“Yes. Please.”

“And food?”

“That would be appreciated,” she told him.

“It stinks in here,” Ryan said.

“If you let me empty the bucket, it’ll smell better,” April said.

“Fine. Do it.”

April stared at him for a minute, shocked that he’d agreed without any fuss. She was also very wary. What would he want in return for his supposed acts of kindness?

“No funny business. I’ll still shoot someone without hesitation if you do anything stupid,” he said.

It was then April saw the familiar gun in his hand. She’d missed it before. She nodded quickly. “No funny business. Promise.”

She turned and crawled back toward the others and the bucket, which had been secured to the back corner of the trailer. She unhooked the bungee cord holding it in place, having brief visions of using it to wrap around Ryan’s throat and strangle him.

She scooted to the edge of the trailer, and Ryan took a step back. Not a big one; just enough for April to put her legs out and stand. It felt so damn good to stretch, to be upright, but she quickly moved to the tree nearest the trailer and emptied the waste bucket.

Without moving her head, April looked around and saw they were at what looked like a rest stop. She was right that they’d probably traveled on the interstate. Ryan had parked at the back of the lot with all the semis. The loud ruckus of truck generators would mask a lot of noise, and if the truckers were asleep, it was possible no one would hear them yelling anyway.

She quickly moved back to the trailer and climbed inside without waiting for orders. She pushed the bucket toward the other women and turned back to face their kidnapper. “Thank you,” she said, even though the words felt like acid on her tongue.

“So compliant,” Ryan drawled smugly. Then he surprised her by quickly leaning into the trailer and grabbing her wrist, yanking her toward him.

It took everything within April not to recoil. Not to punch him in the face. Instead, she let him drag her back out of the trailer. He slammed the doors shut with one hand and locked her friends back inside. Not for the first time, true fear swam through her veins. What was he going to do with her now? Was he going to kill her? Give her to some serial killer he’d contacted to meet them at the back corner of this truck stop?

She tried to pull her arm from his hold, but he simply tightened his fingers around her wrist. He dragged her to the passenger side of the black truck and ordered, “Get in.”

He didn’t let go of her wrist, and April slowly did as he said.

She sat in the seat and watched in dismay as Ryan pulled out a set of handcuffs and quickly attached one end to her wrist and the other to the handle. Then he smiled. A satisfied grin that scared April to her toes. He slammed the door, walked around to the driver’s side, got in, and turned the key. He quickly pulled out of the parking spot and headed for the exit, back to the interstate.

April’s head spun. She had no idea what was happening. She felt guilty for the comfortable seat when her friends were still in the back on that unforgiving steel floor, probably freezing. Ryan also had the heat on low, so it was toasty warm in the cab.

“Thank you for letting me sit up here,” she muttered after a moment.

“I like how polite you are,” Ryan said.

April knew she needed to get this man talking. Try to figure out where he was taking them and why he’d kidnapped them in the first place, but her mind was suddenly blank. She wasn’t sure what to say or ask.

She watched as they approached a green sign. It informed drivers that they were about a hundred and twenty miles from Syracuse. She blinked in surprise. It was about five hours from Newton to Albany, and since they were on the interstate, they had to be headed toward the big city, but it felt as if they’d been locked in that trailer for a lot longer. And they probably had, actually. Ryan had made several stops.

So they were headed west. Being polite and docile had gotten her some useful information after all. It was a start.

“You want food and water?” Ryan asked again out of the blue, scaring April.

“Yes, please.” She didn’t have to fake the quiver in her voice.

He nodded to a bag between them. “I stopped and got dinner a while ago. You can have what I didn’t eat.”

April wanted to gag, but she controlled herself and pulled the fast-food bag over and peered inside. There were a few bites of a hamburger in a wrapper and a couple of french fries at the bottom of the bag. They were cold and soggy, but April reached in and grabbed them anyway. She choked them down and asked, “And water?”

Ryan nodded to a drink in the cup holder. “There’s some ice.”

This guy was an ass. Making her eat his leftovers as if she was some kind of dog. But she didn’t let any of what she was thinking show on her face.

She ate the rest of his hamburger and tipped the cup up to slurp down the melted water in the bottom. No way was she using the same straw he had. She drew the line at that.

She sucked a cube into her mouth, and it was almost sad how good the melted ice felt going down her throat.

“My friends are thirsty and hungry too,” she said softly. “And cold. Do you happen to have a blanket or something?”

“Just like a woman. You give them a mile, and they want an inch.”

April stared down at her hands in her lap and refused to smile at how he’d messed up the familiar saying. It was one more thing that made her think he wasn’t originally from the US.

“I suppose you want to call Jackson too, don’t you?”

April’s head whipped up, and she stared at Ryan. Was this a trap? Was he just torturing her with the possibility of being able to talk to Jack? Probably. But she couldn’t stop herself from whispering, “Oh, God. Yes. Please!”

“Which do you want more? To talk to Jackson? Or food, water, and blankets for your friends?”

April’s mind spun. Shit, she wanted to talk to Jack more than she wanted just about anything in the world right now. If she did, she might be able to give him some clues as to where they were. Like the fact they were headed west, or that Ryan’s truck was black, or that he was pulling a trailer.

But Ryan was probably just fucking with her. He wasn’t going to let her call Jack. He wasn’t that dumb. And ultimately, she couldn’t deny her friends’ needs.

As much as it hurt, she finally said, “Food, water, and blankets.”

Ryan laughed. Cackled, really. “So loyal,” he taunted. “I was looking forward to telling the other bitches that you chose dick over them.”

April sat as still as possible. “So you’ll stop and get them food and stuff?” she asked tentatively.

“Don’t need to stop. It’s in the back,” Ryan said, pointing over his shoulder.

Turning, April looked in the back seat and saw a large cardboard box. She only got glimpses of what was inside from the streetlights they passed, and anger threatened to overwhelm her. He’d had provisions all along. He could’ve put them in the trailer to begin with! Instead, he was delighting in torturing her and her friends.

She hated this man. Hated him.

It didn’t matter. She had to play his game. Had to be smart.

“Thank you so much,” she breathed, trying to sound both awed and submissive.

They drove in silence for a few minutes, and April was dying to ask him when they could stop and transfer the stuff to the trailer, but she kept her lips pressed together.

“There’s a white bag on the back seat. Grab it.”

Turning again, April spotted the small bag. She reached for it, but because her right wrist was cuffed to the door, she couldn’t stretch far enough. “I can’t.”

Ryan shrugged. “Oh well. There’s a phone in there that I was going to let you use to call Jackson. But if you can’t reach it . . .” His voice trailed off.

April was pretty sure he was lying—but what if he wasn’t? He was acting . . . weird. She had a feeling everything he was doing was all part of his plan. She was just a pawn in the cruel game he was playing with the men. But so be it. If she was a pawn, she’d do what was expected of her—for now.

She lifted her ass off the seat and once more reached for the white bag. The handcuff pulled painfully at her wrist, but the fingers of her left hand brushed against the bag. She almost had it.

Ryan suddenly swerved to the left, making April cry out in pain as the cuff dug into her wrist. The bag fell off the seat and onto the floor.

Ryan laughed uproariously. “Whoops, sorry,” he said insincerely. “You almost had it too, didn’t you?”

She almost told him to fuck off but stopped herself at the last minute. It was almost scary how much hatred she had in her heart for the man next to her. She tried to live her life being kind. People had stuff going on that no one knew about. So she tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But she couldn’t find one redeeming thing about Ryan. He’d struck June twice and kicked Marlowe. He’d given April something to eat and drink, but it was his castoffs. And he’d bought blankets and food for her and the other women but had withheld them for reasons only he knew.

And now he was taunting her with being able to talk to Jack. Torturing her.

Determination rose within April. He wasn’t going to win. Wasn’t going to get the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

She stretched her arm out as far as it could go and nearly whimpered at the pain in her right wrist, but it was worth it when her fingers actually got hold of the white bag. She gripped it firmly and sat back down in the seat.

“You got it. Good job,” Ryan deadpanned. He still had a smirk on his face.

April looked at her right wrist and winced. She was bleeding. The steel had cut into her skin, but she’d done it. Gotten the stupid bag.

“Such control,” Ryan drawled. “Not even a single tear. Go on, look inside. I know you’re dying to.”

She opened the white bag—and blinked in disbelief at the small black flip phone sitting on the bottom. Holy crap, was he really going to let her call Jack?

“Yes, it’s a phone,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “And since you’ve been a good girl, I’ll let you call Jackson. But you only have two minutes. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, the polite term popping out without thought. She was still afraid he was going to yank the bag from her hand and throw it out the window or something, laughing at her naivete in thinking he was actually going to let her call for help.

“And there are rules,” Ryan went on. “You aren’t allowed to tell him what I’m driving. Or about the trailer. You can give him any other clues you’d like. Let’s see if he’s smart enough to figure them out.”

April’s mind spun. Clues? She wasn’t good at word games. And she and Jack hadn’t been together long enough for them to have any private jokes or innuendos. Crap crap crap! “Can I tell him your name?”

“Sure,” Ryan said with a shrug.

April was still suspicious, but the thought of talking to Jack was too overwhelming for her to wonder why Ryan was being so generous.

“About the girls? Can I talk about them?” she asked, not wanting to risk saying anything that might piss Ryan off.

“Yes.”

“Can I tell him where you’re taking us?” she asked.

Ryan’s smile grew. “Where am I taking you?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping you’d tell me so I could tell Jack.”

Ryan threw his head back and laughed yet again. “Not so broken after all, huh?” he asked rhetorically, still laughing. “Colorado. We’re going to Colorado,” he said when he had control over himself.

April was shocked to her core that he’d actually told her. Of course, he could be lying and probably was. Any moment, he could turn south and head for Mexico or something . . . but for some reason she believed him. Maybe because he was enjoying this game so much.

“What was it Einstein said? Every action has an opposite and equal reaction? Actions have consequences. This is his. And his team’s.”

She had no idea what Ryan was referring to. Her first inane thought was he’d just recited Newton’s third law, not something Einstein came up with. On the heels of that—it was obvious, just as she’d thought, that this kidnapping wasn’t about her or the other women. It was about Jack and his team.

Her heart thumped hard in her chest. Suddenly, she didn’t want to call Jack. Didn’t want to involve him in whatever Ryan had planned.

“We’re bait,” she whispered, horrified.

Ryan glanced at her. “I knew you were smart,” he said. Then his face got hard. “Two minutes. And remember the rules. If you break them, no one eats or drinks until we’re in Colorado, and you can all freeze to death for all I care.”

April could tell he was done fucking around. Colorado was his endgame. Messing with her was just part of the fun.

Her hand shook as she reached into the bag and pulled out the cell phone. She was extremely grateful her memory had returned, and along with it, Jack’s phone number. Most people didn’t bother to memorize their loved ones’ numbers any longer; there was no need when you could just click on a button to call them. But she’d always been a little old school and was very thankful for it now.

She flipped open the phone and realized it was probably one of those untraceable things. The kind drug dealers and other criminals seemed to have in abundance. Taking a deep breath, she slowly dialed Jack’s number and prayed harder than she could remember praying in a very long time that she didn’t mess this up. That Jack answered. That he’d figure out what was happening and where they were. And that her phone call wouldn’t get him and the others killed.