Rush of Redemption (Rush Series #2) (20 page)

“Run!” she yelled as she
began to doing just that. 
Sundra
 turned at
her voice and was running ahead of her. Behind them, Trinity could hear the
pounding of feet and directions being shouted out in Spanish. Fear clawed her
stomach. She ran down the stairs behind 
Sundra
.
When they reached the parking lot, 
Sundra
turned
to her, looking for direction.

“We’ll never get to the
car,” Trinity said with as much calm as she could manage. “Go that way,” she
said, indicating a sidewalk going down the side of the building.

From behind her, in
English, she heard one of the men shout, 
They
 want
the girl and the baby unharmed
. Fear lanced her. It was a setup for her and
Blake. Rush had told her they were vulnerable, but once again she hadn’t
listened. Anger welled up inside. She’d brought this on herself. She’d put not
only herself, but 
Sundra
 and Blake at risk.
No! She refused to let them get 
Sundra
 and
Blake. Not her baby. They’d never get him. She would go with them willingly,
but they would not get him. Up ahead was an alley between the buildings.

“
Sundra
,”
Trinity said loudly, “Turn here,” she indicated with a jerk of her head.

When they turned into the
alley, she grabbed 
Sundra’s
 arm. “Listen,
take Blake and get out of here. My keys are in my purse. Run back to the car.
Call Rush and he’ll come and get Blake. I’ll lead them away from you both.”

“No! I won’t leave
you,” 
Sundra
 said adamantly.

“There’s no time. Please do
what I say. Here’s my purse.” Trinity pressed her lips against Blake’s tiny
head. “I love you so much. Please be happy.” With an extreme effort to stop the
tears which threatened, she shoved the baby to 
Sundra
 and
gave her a quick hug. “Thanks for everything, now please run quickly. Tell
Rush… tell Rush, I’m sorry.”

Without another word,
Trinity took the blanket she’d had wrapped around the baby and wrapped it
around the diaper bag and put it in her arms like a baby. Taking a deep breath,
she darted back out onto the sidewalk and began to run. She heard the shouts of
the men as they spotted her again. Without looking back she ran and ran as long
as she could until finally one of the men grabbed her from behind, causing them
both to stumble to the ground. The gravel of the road bit into her soft flesh
and she cried out. She fell hard on the diaper bag and began to struggle
against the man above her. He rose quickly and jerked her up. He glanced down
at the diaper bag and let loose a string of curse words, some in English and
some in Spanish.

She began to struggle
against him when she saw the other men running towards them. She began to
scream and shout. When the first of the other group arrived, he walked up to
her calmly and punched her hard in the face. She slumped to the ground in a
dead heap. Fortunately, she was out before she hit the ground.

When consciousness
returned, she wasn’t sure she was yet awake. Instead, it seemed like she was
back in the dream she’d been having since she was a young girl. The dream – a
nightmare really – about the night she’d been abducted and being thrown in the
back of a van – just as she was in now. She struggled to sit up, but her hands
and feet were bound tightly. Her head throbbed where she’d been punched and her
body ached from the tumble onto the road. Swallowing hard against the fear, she
heaved a sigh of relief. At least they hadn’t gotten Blake. She bet right now,
he was safely on his way back to Rush. Her heart constricted in her chest. She
hoped when Blake asked his father about her, he would tell him only nice
things… not how utterly stupid she actually was.

She knew her chances of
survival weren’t good. She figured she’d used up her nine lives already. She
took comfort in the fact she was able to keep her precious baby away from these
monsters. While she knew Blake would hate growing up with bodyguards and
constant monitoring, she knew Rush would always keep him safe. Rush loved him.
Rush had loved her too. She was just too stupid to realize it. She deserved
this. She’d brought it on herself. Even her father had tried to tell her, but
she wouldn’t listen. She’d accept this end.

As she lay in the back of
the moving van, her eyes blindfolded, a sad thought crossed her mind. If Blake
hadn’t gotten sick, tomorrow would have been her wedding day. If he hadn’t
gotten sick, she and Blake would have gone with Rush to the Cayman Islands and
they would have become a true family. Now, Blake would grow up with the tragedy
of having lost his mother to abduction… just as she had. Tears flooded her eyes
behind the blindfold. Her mother was really, really dead. It had been nice
believing she was still out there somewhere, maybe looking out for her, in her
own way. But now that dream was dead.

Her stomach clenched in
panic when she felt the van slow to a rolling stop. When the van’s engine was
shut off, the silence was eerily louder to her ears. She strained to hear
anything over the roar in her ears and the whooshing of the blood gushing in
her head. She heard nothing until the van doors were opened. She slunk back
when hands grabbed her and lifted her out of the van. She struggled against
their hold, but they just laughed at her pathetic attempts. They had only gone
a few yards when she heard a metal door being opened. The place they entered
was sweltering and she could instantly feel her clothes sticking to her skin.

She heard a discussion
between the men, but didn’t understand the words in Spanish. From the
inflections of their voices, she assumed the comments were something crude. She
turned her mind away from what these men could do to her. She kept telling
herself over and over… at least they didn’t get Blake. She’d made sure of that.

Her pep talk didn’t help,
however, when rough hands grabbed at her, untied her, then began tearing her
clothes away. She struggled against the hands, as well as the gag over her
mouth. Oh, God! She couldn’t endure this. Once all her clothes were removed.
She felt something being clamped to her ankle. When she struggled, she heard
the distinctive clanking of a chain. They had her leashed like a dog. Once she
was secured how they wanted, they snatched off her blindfold.

She blinked rapidly trying
to clear her eyes. She looked down past her naked body to the chain attached to
her ankle. The other end of the chain was attached to a huge ring cemented into
the floor. She looked up to see the men all staring at her nudity. Shame had
her falling to the floor and hiding herself as best she could. The men just
laughed at her efforts.

One of the men came and
squatted down in front of her. She watched with terrified eyes as he brushed
her arm with one of his dirty, calloused hands. She cringed away from him and
the others laughed at the man. The shamed man stepped up his efforts and began
to slide his hand down to cup one breast painfully within his grasp. She
whimpered and struggled to evade him.

Again, the others laughed
and threw out barbed comments in Spanish. The man, irritated at the game,
reared back and slapped her painfully across her face. The tears streaking down
her face now mingled with blood from her busted nose.

“Enough!” a voice snapped
out from the entrance of the shed they were in. The men immediately
straightened to attention.

“Do not hurt the
merchandise. There will be plenty of time for that later… after we get the
money. But Drayton will want proof of life and we don’t want her too banged
up,” the same man from the door said.

Trinity watched the man
approach her slowly, surveying her like a piece of meat. The Hispanic man was
taller and more muscular than any of the others. He was dressed sharply in
dress pants and a white shirt unbuttoned at the throat, revealing a heavy gold
chain. The man’s hair was cropped short and bleached a startling white… she
knew him… had seen him before… in her nightmares. This was the man who’d killed
her mother, then stolen her from their car.

“It seems we have come full
circle, wouldn’t you say, Ms. Grace?” The man said as he watched comprehension
cross her face.

She lunged at him, but he only
moved back and she fell when the chain reached its length.

“Now, Ms. Grace, is that
any way to act? I’ve just stopped this pack of wild dogs from ravishing your
delectable body… and you attack me? Tsk, tsk, Ms. Grace. Please excuse my 
manners,
 it seems we haven’t been properly introduced.
My name is 
Tiko
 Mars.”

Her mind reeled. This
was 
Tiko
 Mars? The man Rush had hunted down
to get the information about his father. She’d never make it out of here. She
knew that now for sure. She struggled to hear his words over the thundering in
her head.

“You are much more than I
expected. You look a lot like your mother, you know that? What a waste that
was. What a shame. I caught a lot of grief over that mishap, I don’t mind
telling you. I was impressed with your attempts to hand off your son, but rest
assured, we have him also. It wouldn’t do to not have the complete package. We
were paid to get the whole package. Sorry about your friend, though,” he said
in a tone which reflected he had no such remorse.

Trinity slumped to the
floor and tears ran in rivers down her cheeks. Sobs racked her body and
struggled past the gag in her mouth. They’d gotten her baby and killed 
Sundra
. She’d failed. They would probably kill Blake as
well. He meant nothing to them. She couldn’t breathe; she couldn’t bear the
pain in her chest. She would die from the immense pain. Her consolation was
that they would kill her and she wouldn’t have to endure this for long. Poor
Rush! He’d have to live his entire life with the pain of losing their precious
boy. No. No! NO! It was just too much.

Her lowered head was
snatched up by her hair by 
Tiko
 Mars. “Now,
I want you to listen to me very carefully. I need to ensure you are here when I
need you. If you behave yourself, I will ensure your son is kept alive. Do I
make myself clear? If you try to escape, I will kill him. Do you understand?”
he said harshly.

Her body shaking, she
nodded her head.

“In the corner of the
room 
is
 a bucket and one roll of toilet
paper… make it last, it’s all you’ll get. I hope you enjoy your stay with us,
Ms. Grace,” he smirked. With harsh barks, 
Tiko
 Mars
commanded the other men in Spanish and they left her, locking the door behind
them. She lowered her face to the dirty cement floor and cried.

Chapter Twelve

Trinity sat huddled in the center of the shed. She’d been alone
for hours now. The sun beat down on the metal building, causing the temperature
in it to be scorching hot. Sweat drenched her body. But her mind didn’t even
acknowledge the physical discomfort. All she could think of was her poor,
innocent baby. Her poor, defenseless baby, and poor Rush. He would be
devastated. And it was all her fault. She’d done this all of them.

When the sun set and it
grew dark, the wind howled outside the thin walls of the building. She shivered
against the cold night air. She felt surprisingly numb now. She wondered how
long she could live in these conditions without food or 
water?
 She
prayed it wouldn’t be long. She prayed this would be the very worst it would
get. 
Not that she didn’t deserve a much worse fate.
 As
she lay shivering, she tried to think of the most heinous fates she could think
of for herself that would be justice to the fact that she’d brought 
Sundra
 and Blake to their deaths. But nothing she thought
of was horrible enough.

The next morning, her
morbid preoccupation was disturbed when one of the men from the day before
entered the shed. She sat up but stayed seated, still striving for some sort of
modesty, which was asinine in the scheme of things. The man stepped towards her
and sat down a bottle of water and a baggie with a sandwich in it.

“How is my son?” she begged
him.

“No 
habla
 English,” was his only reply before exiting the
shed.

The day dragged so
agonizingly slowly and the heat bore down on her. She felt baked from the
inside out. Her hair hung limply around her shoulders. She thought about
getting up and walking around to keep up her physical stamina, but what was the
point, really? She didn’t know how long she sat huddled in the corner as far
away from the ‘bucket’ as possible, when the door opened once more. This time
it was 
Tiko
 and another. He glanced around
the shed until he spotted her in the corner.

“Man, it’s hot in here.
Someone should call the manager and complain.” 
Tiko
 and
the man walked to where she was. He kneeled down in front of her and she
flinched when he raised a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. “I hope the
princess is finding her accommodations acceptable; but now it’s time to earn
your keep. 
If you wouldn’t mind standing, please.”

“First tell me if my son is
okay?” she said defiantly.

“I don’t think you are in a
position to make any demands. But because I’m feeling somewhat generous today,
I’ll tell you. Your son is doing fine. You don’t need to worry about him. He is
far too valuable to hurt… yet. Now, be a good girl and stand up for me.”