Taken (3 page)

* * * *

Just two days before this had gone down, Caleb had made a cage from chain-link fence to house his captive. He stared at her tied to the cot in the small enclosure and thought the one word that best described her was fragile. She wore a heavy gray wool skirt and black knee-high winter boots. The white blouse she wore was fitted, and her black jacket he’d rolled up and placed under her head after he’d cleaned out the pockets. As he removed her boots, he felt the warmth of her flesh as he ran his finger along her leg. Caleb wanted this to go down without a hitch. If it didn’t the girl could get hurt or even killed.

He took the boots with him when he left and locked the chain-link door just in case she somehow got the bindings off. Before heading upstairs to the main floor of the old farmhouse, which the inside man had supplied for the job, he turned the heat up a little more. It was kind of chilly in the basement, and he felt bad for not having the foresight to have a blanket for her. The banks weren’t open this weekend for the kind of access they needed. He’d have to wait forty-eight hours before he could call in the kidnapping, and he didn’t think the heaters would be enough to adequately warm the basement.

He stepped into the kitchen and saw his two partners at the table. Henderson had tried to scrub the makeup off of his face and the dress he’d worn lay on the floor. Now only clad in his boxers, Caleb sized him up again. Short, thin and his face kind of looked similar to a weasel. He didn’t like him much and would be glad when he and the other man left. The other partner, Mr. Trites, was a beefier man in his late thirties. He wore tailored clothes and his hair was well-kept.

Caleb walked over to the fridge and grabbed a beer. He listened to the two men as they discussed some overseas accounts and a charity fund. Apparently, Miss Callaghan was about to offload a lot of money into nearly three hundred charities.

“So do you two plan on staying here tonight?” Caleb asked as he lowered his bottle from his lips.

“Um…no,” Henderson said.

The look of distaste on both their faces made him laugh out loud. “Well, one of you needs to bring food. Both me and the girl need to eat…she’ll need clothes to change into as well.”

“Clothes? Why? What are you planning on doing to her?” Henderson asked with a raised eyebrow.

“None of your business, Henderson.” Caleb growled, then took another drink of his beer.

“She’s not supposed to get hurt,” Henderson said.

“Don’t worry it won’t hurt,” he said with a smile.

The look of utter horror on Henderson’s face was worth the lies he said. Mr. Trites, however, surprised him. He almost looked jealous at the prospect of Caleb taking the girl. The smell of the other man’s arousal bothered Caleb, and that didn’t sit well with him. Although the man was the ringleader on this job, he made a mental note to keep Trites away from the girl.

“I won’t touch her, Henderson, but she can’t stay in those clothes. Bring me some gym pants and warm sweaters for her. The basement is too cold for her to stay dressed like that.”

“Make sure you don’t touch her,” Trites warned.

“I’m not stupid,” he retorted back. The two men didn’t stay much longer after that. Henderson seemed a little more reluctant to leave, though.

* * * *

Two hours had passed before Henderson returned with supplies. As Caleb watched him leave he saw the beginnings of heavy snow falling on the ground. He put the bags on the counter and went through them. Toiletries and a change of clothes were in one and food was in the other two. The man had sent six different sets of gym suits and a pair of warm slippers. After he put everything away, he went down to the basement. Although the farmhouse was old, someone at one time had put a foundation under it and had separated it into several rooms. Headed to what he’d assumed was a small storage room, Caleb could make out noises coming from behind the closed wooden door.

He paused, taking a few deep breaths. He’d never done this before. Sure he’d hired himself out as a mercenary, but never had he’d kidnapped someone. Henderson had dangled the carrot in front of him and he’d chased it. It would get his brother out of prison. The deal was set with a judge to have him overturn the bogus conviction once he was paid. Henderson had worked it all out beforehand. Caleb knew he and his brother would be the scapegoats for this if anything went wrong. He pulled the ski mask over his face, unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Chapter Three

Kitty was cold, her head pounded and she couldn’t see. She tried to move, but found her hands were tied and she was gagged as well. Her struggles to get free only hurt both her wrists and head. She tried to focus on listening instead and heard footsteps getting nearer. Her heart pounded in her ears. Terror gripped her as a door creaked opened and then it sounded as if a lock was being undone. The squeak of something, which reminded her of a park gate parting, filled her ears.

Sudden blinding light filled her vision. Tears streamed down her cheeks. It took a second before it cleared and she saw a huge man standing over her. He wore a black sweater and combat pants. She stared at his empty shoulder holster, and her gaze drifted to the gun in his leather-gloved hand. His face was hidden under a balaclava. He tilted it to one side as he stared down at her.

He gently pulled the gag from her mouth and then moved to the bindings on her wrists. He struggled a little with them. “You tightened them more when you tried to get loose,” he told her. The man’s voice had a deep bass. She locked gazes with his gray eyes.

“What do you want from me?” she asked. Her voice sounded very small even to herself.

“Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. You just need to stay here for a few days.” The last knot came out of her bindings and her wrists fell limply onto the cot. “I’m sorry. Let the blood get back into them and they won’t feel so heavy.”

Pins and needles ran along her limbs as she laid there. Her terror caused her to remain silent as she stared up at the man.

“Get up slowly,” he ordered, gesturing with the gun.

Slowly she stood. Kitty slumped a little and quickly sat back on the cot. The room spun, and she felt lightheaded as her blood pounded in her ears.

“Hey, are you all right?” he asked.

She stared at the man pointing a gun at her in a cage inside what appeared to be a basement. “No!” Her voice trembled. She thought that was a foolish question.

“Here, let me help you.” He gently took her by the arm, helping her to stand. “Can you walk?”

“I think so.” She was confused as this masked man treated her with kid gloves.

“I’m gonna take you upstairs where it’s warm and you can have something to eat,” he said as he guided her out of the room and up the wooden stairs.

Kitty looked the kitchen over and could tell it was an old house that had been redone at some point in the last twenty years. He guided her to a chair with wooden arms and made her sit.

“Here, put this around your left wrist and zip it tight enough so you can’t get your hand loose.” He passed her a plastic zip tie.

“Please…I.”

“Now, little one,” he said very firmly. “I don’t want to be rough with you.”

“Don’t hurt me…please.” She whimpered and tied her left wrist with the zip tie until it felt securely in place against the armrest.

The man grabbed the tie and checked it. He seemed to be pleased with its security, and turned and walked to the fridge, holstering his gun as he did. Her tiny arms made it easy to slip herself free the second his back was turned.

“Beer?” he asked.

She heard the clink of bottles, then the shattering of glass on the kitchen floor as she assumed he must have turned around and saw her gone from the chair. She bolted out the door, which she’d ever so quietly opened while he’d had his head in the fridge. She heard him race after her. He cursed something in an almost animalistic growl as her pantyhose-covered feet landed in the snow and she ran blindly into the swirling darkness of the snowstorm.

Kitty was freezing without a jacket, boots or anything else to protect her from the elements. She stumbled and fell into the snow. Scrambling, she made it to her feet and ran again. She couldn’t see anything behind her let alone in front of her, and knew if she couldn’t see him, he wouldn’t be able to find her. She ran into something that caught in her skirt. It cut into her hands as she tried to free herself. It felt like a barbed-wire fence as she crawled over it, cutting her arms and legs as she did. The fear filling her momentarily kept her from feeling the pain.

As she stumbled forward her feet slipped on what felt like ice. Sliding and skidding, she crashed onto her knees. It gave way with a resounding
crack
. Burning cold washed over her, filling every sense as she broke through. Kitty struggled to swim out of the icy depths, but found herself submerged and trapped. She’d come up farther away than where she went down. She frantically clawed against the ice sealing her under in a frozen tomb.

Horror and panic seeped into her mind as her body became raw with the bitterness of the frigid waters. Kitty’s chest ached and burned as her last breath needed release, and she let it go. Fighting it was futile. Her body couldn’t resist the urge to inhale, and water rushed into her nose and mouth, filling her lungs. It felt as if she’d inhaled razor blades. The cold waters begin to steal her away.

I’m going to die.
Everything fogged and numbness enveloped her.
I’m so not ready for this.
Everything faded to black.

* * * *

As soon as he turned around he saw her opening the door. The beers dropped from his hand as she hurled herself out into the storm. Caleb made the doorway only a few steps behind her, but it’d been enough for him to lose sight of her. The snowfall had turned into a blizzard and he couldn’t see five feet in front of him.

“Damn it!” He growled.

This wasn’t his usual thing. Killing people, yes, keeping them contained, not so much. Now he’d let the heiress escape, and not just on any night, but one when there was a raging blizzard outside. Well, just fucking great, he thought.

At least she won’t get far, he thought as he stripped naked in the kitchen. Hell, the little one was about to get the shock of her life. Letting his animal loose to find her was not as risky as letting her find help or freezing to death. He roared as his body twisted, his bones groaned, crunched and cracked. Claws erupted from his fingers as his mouth pulled outward, forming a muzzle filled with sharp pointy teeth. His eyes would have turned yellowish-brown and his legs hooked backward as his muscles grew in size and so did his height. His body became covered with thick black fur. He howled as he ducked out the now too short of a doorway.

Caleb sniffed the air and barely caught her smell in the swirling snow squall. The wind wasn’t blowing her scent directly at him so he needed his other senses as well. He fell to all fours and loped after the quickly fading footprints in the snow, but soon they’d all but disappeared. His eyes were useless as everything was a blur of white, and her scent vanished as fast as her tracks. He circled back, regaining her trail, but the winds turned again. This time he caught it. A tang of blood was mixed with it.

He ran at an incredible speed. Caleb soon came across a barbed-wire fence. A large torn piece of wool skirt was stuck to it, and he could easily make out the odor of her blood. Abruptly, the winds petered out and he saw several feet in front of him. Scanning the area, he saw nothing. His ears, however, caught a brief shriek and a large crashing sound. It was followed by a splash far off to his left.

As he made the pond, he saw the large dark hole where she’d fallen in. He didn’t see her anywhere. Caleb came to the edge and looked around, but there were no signs of her coming out. The winds picked up again. She was still somewhere under the ice. There was only one way to get her out. With a roar, he jumped onto the ice and crashed through. He wouldn’t freeze because of his fur. He was up to his chest in the water. He was twelve feet tall and wouldn’t drown in this form. The little one was just over five feet tall. There was no way she walked out of there.

He used his massive clawed paws and ripped apart the ice, looking for her. He knew she had to be within a few feet of the hole so that’s where he concentrated his efforts. After several long minutes, he felt something catch in his paw. He hauled the limp form from the pond. He had to get the water out of her, perform CPR and get her warm, all of which he couldn’t do as a wolf-man.

He tossed her over his shoulder and she expelled the water from her lungs. It was a good start. He ran toward the farmhouse with extreme speed, leaping over the fence and then a wood pile. After he made the doorway, he quickly shut the door behind them with his foot and then laid her on the kitchen floor before he shifted into a man.

He was shocked to find she was breathing. Her flesh was tinged blue from the icy waters. He lifted her into his arms and carried her upstairs to the bedroom, then put her down. He needed to get her out of the wet clothing and wrapped in warm blankets. He concentrated on shifting only his hands into the shape of the wolf-man. His claws sliced through the skirt and blouse before he peeled them from her. The small cuts from the barbed wire would heal soon enough on their own. Caleb was more worried about hypothermia setting in.

As he stripped her wet bra and panties off, Caleb was a little stunned as he looked her over. She was a tiny thing, but everything was a nice, lovely package. Her legs and arms matched her extremely tiny waist and narrow hips. The small mounds on her chest sat nice and firm, each dotted with a pink crown.

The girl’s face, although tinged a little blue, looked like a sleeping angel’s, and her long, honey-blonde hair lay all about her in a wet half-frozen mess. Caleb pulled it away from her face and then tied her hands together before he wrapped her in several warm blankets. He sat in a chair beside the bed and watched her. He felt a chill and realized he needed to get dressed himself.