Invisibility Cloak (35 page)

“I am now.” Amanda wrapped her hands around his waist and pushed her face into his chest. She tilted her head up, and nuzzled his chin.

Damn, he wanted to kiss her, but he couldn’t; not now. They needed to get to Sammie and Nickel first.

But the need to touch her took over. Tipping her chin up, he kissed her softly at first, until the anger he felt―which shook his very soul when he saw Edgington hitting and kicking her erupted out of him. And he took it out on her with a desperate kiss. Spearing his tongue into her mouth he hiked her up closer against him. She’d gripped the back of his shirt in her fists and kissed him just as fiercely back, until they both calmed down. Gently pulling away, he said quietly, “Hey, we gotta get ‘outa here. Stay right behind me.”

“No!” Amanda pulled away from him. “I heard Sammie, Ryder. I’m not leaving until she’s with me!”

“I already got her. Along with a few other little girls. I need you to high-tail it to my Jeep.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

He led her to the rickety wood stairs he came down earlier. “Go up those stairs. I got Coolman coming from Columbus; he should be here any minute.” He tapped her bottom to propel her up the stairs. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Why aren’t you coming too?” She pressed her mouth together. “Come with me.”

He swore silently. Damn woman was so stubborn! “I have to check on some other things. Just go, darlin’”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

He shook his head in frustration before whispering in her ear, “You need to go. Now. I don’t want any of you getting caught again.”

“Where will you be?”

“Sweetheart.” Ryder pulled her close and nuzzled his chin on her head. “I called my buddies at the HFPD. They’re on their way now.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“Damn it Amanda, I can take care of myself.”

“Just go then. Hurry. I’ll wait for you in the Jeep.” She pushed at his frame and pointed down the dark underground hallway.

“I will.” Peering back at the stairs he came down moments earlier, he wanted to get her situated in a good place for a fast getaway. “I’ll be back ASAP. Be ready to fly out of here.” But he knew how stubborn she could be and needed her to promise him she’d take the kids and get the hell out of here. “Amanda?”

“Affirmative,” she said reluctantly.

“That’s more like it.” He planted both of his hands on her shoulder. “See you up there.” He pointed up the stairs.

“Humph.”

Chuckling softly, Ryder asked, “Are you sticking your tongue out at me, again? You’ll be putting that to use, soon, darlin’.”

“Go.” She whispered into the darkness. “Please hurry. Good luck.”

He was already moving through the underground caves, but he still heard her. He wanted to sweep a few more passageways to make sure no more kids were being held down here.

Damn Sophia Edgington for being involved with this shit! He knew she was off, but he had no idea she was this bad. Stalking down another passageway, he checked all the nooks and crannies.

Nada.
After looking down the other two tunnels he hadn’t gone down earlier, he breathed out a sigh of relief. No other hostages. Time to see if anyone from the HFPD was here yet. Just as he stepped on the second stair tread that leads away from the cellar, he heard the click of a gun’s safety being unlocked.

“What are you doing here, Ryder?” Sophia Edgington clipped out behind him.

Shit!
He turned his head and glanced behind him. There she was, and she didn’t look anything like she normally did. In beige shorts and T-shirt, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her look this casual before.

“Hey, Sophia.” He put both hands up in the air. “No need to do
that
is there?” Ryder inclined his head to her gun that was pointed at him.

“Why did you bring that bitch, here?”

At that precise moment, Mimi Carlyle walked up to stand next to Sophia, her eyes wide.

“What is Ryder Stevenson doing here, Sophia?”

“Arrrggh!”
Sophia looked at Mimi. “That is what I’m trying to find out!”

Mimi planted her hands on her hips. “Enough, Sophia. You must stop hurting these children.”

“Yeah, well they’re gone now. So my shipment to Alejandro has been cancelled.” Sophia’s face contorted into a sadistic cartoon’s; her eyes and mouth widened before her lips pursed together as she said again, “Cancelled! Just what do you think he will do to me?”

Mimi put her hand on Sophia’s shoulder. “Roger and I will protect you. Bring your children over to our house.”

“No!” Sophia shook her head. “I’ll give Alejandro, Ryder.” She sneered at him. “Things could’ve been different, but not now. Get down here.” She motioned to him with her gun.

Ryder walked down the two steps he’d made it to. “Alejandro Castillo? Just who is he to you, Sophia?”

“My ex-husband and the father of my two children.” She aimed the gun at his chest. “Walk, Ryder.”

“Sophia.” Mimi grabbed her elbow. “Please don’t do this!”

Ryder figured if there was any time to run it would be now and he took off down one of the passageways until a bullet hit him in the leg and he fell over.

Damn it!

“I have expert marksmanship, Ryder. Unless you want to die right now, turn your ass back around. Now!” Sophia walked over to him. “Hands on top of your head.”

He lifted both hands up and limped around to Sophia.

“Like I said earlier, get in front of me and walk.” She guided him to the eastern-most corridor.

“Sophia, stop this!” Mimi urged quietly. “Please!”

“Shut up, Mimi.” Pushing him down the dark hallway she spat out, “We’re already late for the drop off.”

Chapter 19

A
manda checked the time on Nickel’s cell phone for the tenth time.

Where in the heck was Ryder?
After he pushed her up the stairs, she found Nickel with Sammie, praise the lord, and five other young girls were sitting in the back seats as well.

She turned the key in the ignition and drove to the side of the yellow structure, not wanting to cause any unwanted attention to herself. Sammie explained to her what happened after the cartel’s thugs grabbed her.

Amanda pressed her mouth together keeping her composure as she listened to her daughter, when she really wanted to scream at the world that her children were even put in this position in the first place. Apparently her daughter wore a burlap sack over her head, like she had earlier, while she was transported here. When the sack was pulled off her head, Sammie was thrust into a room with the other young girls. All of whom were in the back of Ryder’s Grand Cherokee huddled together.

She heaved in a deep fortifying breath needing to exorcize the terrible feelings she had for these animals that would do such a thing to little girls! An absolute rage swept through her―and it was scary. Feelings rushed through her. Dark thoughts at what she would do to adults that would exploit children. Just as she touched her daughter’s arm reassuringly, a big sedan pulled up to her on the driver’s side and she immediately stiffened.

The driver’s side window slid down. She’d braced her left foot on the brake with her right foot ready to slam on the accelerator in case a fast getaway was needed.

That detective friend of Ryder’s came into view.
Oh praises be!
“Ms. Harris? Pardon me, ma’am. Where’s Ry?”

Jeremy Coolman, that’s what his name was.

“Ryder Stevenson, that is.”

“Oh, am I relieved to see you, Detective Coolman!”

“Yes, ma’am. I was positioned in Columbia, but Ry called and told me to hustle to this locale.” He paused before adding, “Are you feeling better, ma’am? You seemed pretty shook up last night, Ms. Harris. Do you remember, after the dance?”

Ohmygod
. He was there last night, too? She didn’t remember him, then. She remembered meeting him in the squad car on Sunday after going to Institute of Physics. Heat permeated her face. “I, uh, I’m sorry Detective I really don’t remember much of last night.”

“Understandable, ma’am. So where’s Ry?”

Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know. I was waiting for him to come out.” Remembering the girls in the back seat, she raised up her index finger. “Oh! Detective Coolman, I have some little girls in the back whose parents I’m sure are frantic wondering where they are.”

The Harbor Falls detective looked at her quizzically until Sammie hopped over her lap and explained everything that transpired that day.

After listening patiently, Detective Coolman got out of his car and shepherded all of the girls from the backseat into his police-issued car. “Thank you, Ms. Harris. I’ll take the girls back to the station now.” After calling dispatch and telling them everything, Detective Coolman looked over at Amanda and her two kids sitting in Ryder’s Jeep. “I’m taking these girls in. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, Detective,” Amanda promised before he drove away.

Moments later, a black SUV sped up to a side door and a big goon pushed Ryder inside the dark vehicle. His hands were bound behind him and he dragged his left leg behind him like he was hurt.

Ryder!
Oh no, they got him.

“Fubar!” Amanda squeaked out-loud.

“Mom?” Sammie and Nickel said at the same time before they almost got their heads yanked off when Amanda slammed her foot on the gas pedal.

“Nick, call the Harbor Falls Police. Ask for Detective Coolman.” She followed the SUV down Highway 9 Interstate. Amanda hung behind so she didn’t attract attention, which was hard to do because the road was empty except for two other cars; the black SUV carrying Ryder and a light blue truck.

“Here, Mom.” Nick thrust his cell phone in her hand.

“Ms. Harris, just what―” Detective Coolman hollered over the line, but she cut him off.

“They took off with Ryder.” Amanda gave him the details and location and clicked off her phone. Detective Coolman told her in an irritated voice to go home and he’d get Ryder, but she knew he’d be too late. The ancient powder blue Ford truck was barely going forty miles an hour, in front of her, but she was okay with that because she had to think about how she was going to rescue Ryder.

Fubar
she hissed again. She had to do something to stop that car. But what? The scenery was totally flat out here and the only curvature in the landscaping was the Potrillo Mountains out to the north. Running along the left side of the car, the US-Mexican fence line followed the eerie, lonely terrain. She tried to stay inconspicuous behind the old Ford truck but the SUV took a left into a small station out in the middle of nowhere. She drove on by because it would’ve been way too obvious if she pulled in after them. After driving a few miles, she circled back and found herself in front of a small white aluminum house. A huge water tower lingered a mile to the east of the building and she glanced over at her son.

“Honey, hop over to the driver’s seat and drive Sammie back to Harbor Falls.”

“Mom.” Nick lowered his eyebrows. “There is no way I’m going to drop you off and drive away.”

“Nick.” Amanda leaned over the dashboard. “Please. How about you give me fifteen minutes to check things out?” She smiled at her son. “I promise. I’ll call you in fifteen minutes, okay?”

“Mom! You aren’t James Bond.”

“Believe me, I know that, honey. But I have to help Ryder.”

Nick nodded. “Fifteen minutes, Mom.” He picked up his cell phone and slanted it up toward her. And that was all she needed to walk inside the old building, patting her own cell phone in her back jeans pocket. Nick’s cock-sure expression on his youthful face gave her the confidence she really didn’t have. But she had to find Ryder and save him.

Whether he liked it or not.

The older weathered door creaked when she turned the knob to look inside.

She grimaced.
So much for being covert.

She angled her head around the door, praying that no one heard her, and eyed the interior of the room. It was empty.
Oh Thank God.
Her eyes darted around nervously as she walked into the large empty space. Nothing here―except worn-out wood floors and white cracked walls, but it branched out to two other smaller rooms. She veered to her left. Same walls and floorboards, but a stained mattress lay on the ground right under a dirty window with three boxes lined up next to it. She could see people moving around outside, so she dropped down on all fours and peeked out the grimy glass.

Ryder!
Sophia had a gun pointed at him. Another large man stood off to the right.

But Sophia Edgington? She ducked under the window lower and narrowed her eyes. Now, Mimi Carlyle appeared. She ran up and jerked on Sophia’s arm. What is going on? Mimi and Sophia. Huh, she really didn’t care for them that much, but they had a gun on Ryder? He was going to get shot because he wouldn’t go out with Sophia? No, this had to be about something else. Chewing on the side of her mouth, Amanda deduced that it looked like Mimi was trying to get the gun out of Sophia’s hand, but Sophia just pushed her away.

Focus, Amanda! She had to save Ryder. Okay. So it looked like it was Sophia, Mimi and a bodyguard she had to deal with. She looked frantically around the small room and swiped at the bead of perspiration that glided down her chest.

Glancing at the boxes, she prayed they had weapons of some sort in them. A nightstand was pushed up against the other wall with a cracked mirror above that. Quickly walking over to the bed, she flipped open the top of the first box. She’d need some heavy artillery if she was going to get out of here with Ryder.
Eureka
. She found her weapon―actually; it looked more like a miniature machine gun.

Rifling through the box, she found three different sized guns. The first one looked like a toy. She turned it around and around before setting it on the bed. The second choice looked shorter, more like a pistol. The last was the largest and definitely scarier of the bunch. That’ll do nicely. She bent over to pick it up out of the box and man, it was heavy. No way could she carry this around, so she put it back down.

So much for that one. Even the smaller machine gun was too heavy, so she grudgingly grabbed the smallest of the three. She’d never fired a gun before.

I can do this.
As soon as she touched the metal gun, it slipped through her fingers and fell back on the bed.

Ohmygod!
Sweat trickled down her forehead and she swiped it off. Cripes, what would have happened if she accidently shot herself? Ryder and her kids were goners―that’s what.

Get a grip Amanda!

Puffing out a breath, she tucked the gun into the back of her waistband like she’d seen Ryder do on a few occasions. There were two other boxes still left to explore and she reached for the second one. Stacks of white powder in plastic baggies were lined up neatly on either side. Amanda shook her head; pretty sure that was cocaine. Can’t use that, so she pulled up the lid of the third and last box and her breath caught.

Prototypes from the Institute of Physics lab!

A small laser attached to a board covered in deflective coating sat on top of numerous camouflage overlays. Carefully lifting the unfinished microwave model out, she set it on the mattress. Scrunching up her brow, she turned back to the box and dug out as many camouflage cloaks as she could. After setting them on the bare mattress she sat back on her heels to think about what she’d found. Obviously someone raided the Institute of Physics experimentation laboratory and stole some of the invisibility possibilities. But they evidently didn’t know what were the most effective and tested models.

Well, duh
. And Sophia Edgington and Mimi Carlyle were involved. Was Jeffrey as well? She fingered the camouflage covers, absently lost in thought. Picking up the wildly colored overlay with her left hand, her right hand laid passively on those underneath it.

It was someone who didn’t know about true invisibility, because none of these prototypes went on to become further augmented. Turning the covering every which way, her right hand rubbed the other material sitting on the soiled mattress, as she concentrated on how to use this camouflage to somehow storm outside and save Ryder. She lowered her head and looked down. Her right thumb and index finger rubbed against the coarse fabric . . . and yet . . . there was
nothing
there. Amanda’s heart sped up and her right hand forcefully grabbed at the unseen material.

Eureka!
Metamaterials. She bit down on her lip to squash the joy that fluttered through her as she maneuvered the heavy fabric around her body. The metamaterial cloak must have been lying next to the camouflage materials and been unknowingly packed away with them.

Amanda couldn’t believe how lucky she got! Feeling her hands around to pick up the invisible substance, it astounded her at how heavy the material was, especially since she couldn’t even see it. Winding the invisible heavy mesh cloth around her was a challenge, but this was the only way to get outside without being caught or shot at. She pulled back one shoulder and fumbled to cover one side of her body before she attempted to swing it back around her other arm and side. Goose bumps rose up on her arms when she looked down at her own body and saw nothing.

Nothing.

She stood up and slowly walked to the cracked mirror hanging on the wall. Amanda had to be absolutely sure she was transparent. A thrill coursed through her again at the awe of wearing the invisibility cloak. Her arms and legs felt like they were pulling lead and walking through water at the same time as she made her way to check on her appearance.

Unbelievable.
She could see everything like before except she truly was invisible. Amanda shivered at the eeriness that skittered through her body. It was all so surreal.

She shook her head as she clomped through the tiny room. They’d definitely hear her coming. Thank god she had her brace on because there is no way she’d be able to walk without it. Her left toe would’ve curved under or worse she’d have fallen flat on her face in front of Sophia. Not that Sophia would be able to actually see her fall, of course.

She rolled her eyes upward.
And some savior I’d be then.

Flinging both arms out as if she was going upstream against a heavy current, Amanda made her way back to the front and only door in the building. Sluggishly she clomped around to the back of the building until she neared the rear, where Ryder was. Turning the corner, Amanda gasped out-loud at what she saw. Kneeling on the ground, Ryder’s arms were bound behind him and his head was lowered.

R
yder yanked his head up sharply when he heard the soft fluttered inhale. His body vibrated and he pictured Amanda in his head.

Amanda. God, please let her and the kids be in a safe place. He flung his head back and closed his eyes. But when seconds later he heard―what sounded like―footsteps, his eyes popped back open. Uneven shuffling had him on alert, but when he examined the perimeter there was only Sophia, Mimi and the big dark-haired guard dog beyond them who stared him down with his arms across his chest. Mimi was still softly trying to persuade Sophia to let him go, but it didn’t look like it was working.

A movement behind Sophia caught his eye. The big guard arched his chest forward and shuffled to the dilapidated outhouse a few feet away. When the guard reached for the semi-automatic gun that was draped over his shoulder, he stopped abruptly looking dazed and he even turned his head frequently to look behind him with his forehead scrunched up.

Huh.
The guy must have to use the john. He eyeballed the big man’s movement until he went inside the building. And then a funny thing happened.

The guard’s assault rifle floated out through the open wood door. Ryder shook his head to clear it, but narrowed his eyes to look closer at the slim weapon. As soon as the door closed, the narrow muzzle lodged itself into the hardware of the door. Was he injected with some drugs he didn’t know about?

“Hey!” Sophia grunted and pulled her shoulders up straighter and he pulled his gaze from the slim gun jammed through the door handle on the outhouse back to Edgington.