CHAPTER 29
Pain.
Everywhere.
When consciousness first broke through, Ellery thought she was back in the hospital bed, in the midst of the slow, torturous healing process. But soon she became aware of the roar in her ear and the vibrations in her bones. A jolt banged the side of her face against the hard floor.
Everything came back in a flash. The women’s dressing room. Candace, bound and gagged on the couch. The pain in her arm before the blackout.
Now she was awake and in a fast-moving car—her worst nightmare. The vehicle swerved, scrambling her insides, yet her usual phobic panic didn’t come. Her heart raced at breakneck speed, but she remained laser-focused, as if her mind somehow realized her life depended on it.
Unmoving, she lay with her eyes closed, her mouth slack. She’d probably awakened faster than her captors expected. Months of heavy medication following the accident had increased her tolerance and metabolism of drugs. In all likelihood, this was her only advantage. She tried to keep her body limp so her kidnappers would ignore her. At the moment, she didn’t hear any voices close by, but she couldn’t be sure until she looked.
Slitting her eyes open, she scanned her surroundings. She was alone on the floor in the back of a panel van. She could only pray they had left Candace behind alive. Surely this meant Logan had been spared, though he was probably frantic by now. Tears stung her eyes as she realized she would probably never get to tell him she loved him. She chased the thought from her mind. Distraction wouldn’t help her chances of surviving.
There were four captors in the van—three men, plus the woman with the clipboard, who was seated on the front passenger’s side. Something had them riled up, as all were shouting and gesturing. The road sounds blasting her ear obscured their voices, so she could only guess what they were saying. Maybe the FBI was following them. Would they shoot out the tires to stop the van? Or was that something that only happened in movies? Either way, her only hope was that the agents would find a way to stop the van.
How could she get away? Her wrists were bound behind her with what felt like duct tape. Her feet were free, but bare. Running would be painful, but she doubted it would slow her down.
My shoes! Her hopes shattered when she remembered the tracker had been hidden in the heel of her right shoe. Whatever had her captors excited was unlikely to be the FBI, when there was no tracker to follow. Maybe her kidnappers were arguing about the directions. Or discussing who would get to kill her when the time came. Ellery wasn’t afraid to die. She could handle pretty much anything, as long as they didn’t trap her in a burning car.
But if she died, Logan would torture himself with guilt.
I have to stay alive. Or at least I have to try… for Logan!
She spied a small fire extinguisher in a wall recess near her feet. If she could get her hands free, she could use it as a weapon. Ever so slowly, she began to twist her hands.
“The FBI is demanding we pull back.” Mack wasn’t bothering to hide his irritation. “If we don’t, they say we’ll be charged with obstruction of justice for impeding their investigation.”
“I’m not sacrificing Ellery for their investigation.” Logan slammed his fist against the dashboard, splitting his skin and bruising his knuckles. He welcomed the pain.
Jake’s determined expression never faltered. “I don’t care what they do to me. I’m not stopping.”
Cole’s angry voice suddenly erupted in the background over the phone. Unintelligible shouts filled the air, but words like deception and manslaughter and lawsuit and my good friend Director Locke made Cole’s message clear.
Moments later, Cole must’ve taken the phone from Mack’s hand, because his voice came back strong, though it shook with fury. “Mr. Fitzpatrick now agrees that saving Ellery’s life takes precedence over all other parts of this investigation. The mission is being reprioritized with Dan’s team as we speak.”
“Okay, boss.” A smile ghosted Jake’s face. “Does my brother have any good ideas about how to safely stop this van?”
“Mack, your brother wants your advice,” said Cole. “I think that means it’s well below thirty-two degrees in hell.”
Mack came back on the phone. “What’s the traffic like?”
From his place in the center lane, Jake accelerated and squeezed into the left lane, two cars behind the van.
“It’s tight. Every semi-truck in Texas decided to take MoPac tonight.”
“How fast are they going?”
“Up until a few seconds ago, they were about ten miles over the speed limit,” said Jake. “But they just— Wait! I don’t know what they’re doing!”
Logan gripped the door handle, jamming his right foot onto an imaginary passenger-side brake as the van careened back and forth across the lanes like a drunk about to topple over. All around them, brake lights were flashing. Then it made a sharp right turn, veering all the way across to the exit lane, miraculously avoiding a crash.
“They’re getting off the highway!” Jake slammed to a stop and signaled, as he made a desperate attempt to inch his way across to the exit.
But the van whipped back again, impacting an orange striped barrel at the point of the exit and spinning down the shoulder. As it bounced off the railing and into traffic, a semi-truck rammed the van’s driver’s side and screeched to a halt, obscuring their view of the van.
Logan’s heart tumbled, tears springing to his eyes.
Dear God! Please let her be okay!
Ignoring Jake’s calls, Logan flung his door open and dodged across the now-creeping traffic.
When he rounded the end of the eighteen-wheeler, his chest went tight. The van, lying on its side, the front end crumpled, was on fire.
“Ellery!” he cried.
Though Ellery had intended to use the fire extinguisher as a blunt weapon, she’d realized her odds would be better spraying it at her captors. Evidently confident she was still unconscious, the three non-drivers were intent on watching the side mirrors out the windows. So Ellery crawled as close as possible and squeezed the trigger, the hose aimed at the driver’s face. Her attack was effective… a little too effective.
The driver lost control of the vehicle, which jerked from side to side, tossing the unbelted passengers about like toy dolls. Knocked to the floor, Ellery kept a tight hold on the extinguisher, ready to spray the first person who recovered enough to come at her.
Then came a dizzying spin and a deafening crash. Ellery tumbled, her body impacting the hard metal.
