“If you are coming, let’s go. They haven’t stopped moving, but they are heading towards Scottsdale.”
We get into my truck and peel out of the driveway. It feels like it’s been hours since I found the kitchen like that, but it’s only been minutes in actuality. My heart is racing, and adrenaline is pumping hard.
I have no idea what I’ll do if anything happens to the love of my life. On second thought, forget that shit. I know exactly what I’d do. I’ll kill any motherfucker who even looks at my girl wrong. I know he’s on board with what I have planned with the way Jason is clenching and unclenching his fists.
“Open the glove compartment.”
“Why?”
“Have you ever shot a gun before?”
Jason nods, finding a handgun in the glove compartment. He pulls it out and holds it like he knows a thing or two about what he’s doing. “When I was younger, my Dad and I used to go to the shooting range. I haven’t touched them in the years since he’s died. Now they’re in the gun cabinet in my closet. I might be rusty, but I’ll know what to do when the time comes.” He says, then checks the mag before reloading it.
Eventually, the tracker stops, and I’m able to reach the location within a few minutes. We pull up to a nice house in an affluent neighborhood of Scottsdale. It’s not the biggest house on the block, and the yard needs some attention, but it’s not what I’d think of as a kidnapper’s shack. There is an older model Lincoln SUV parked in the driveway with all the doors left open. Dread sets in deep in my gut, and I hate the feeling. Instead of succumbing to it, I use it, allowing it to power me forward. Getting out of my truck, I pull my weapon and rush over to look inside. Empty. I didn’t really expect anything else, but I had to check. Then I hear a long and loud scream ring out, and I know in my soul it’s Stacey. I take off for the house, getting more alarmed by the second. All the windows are covered tightly, and I can’t see inside. Creeping around the back of the house with my gun at the ready, I find a vulnerable entry point with the rusted metal door at the back of the house. Surprisingly, it opens silently. Jason follows close behind me as we go in looking for them. I am thanking my lucky stars that I put that tracker in her engagement ring and that she’s wearing it right now.
Whoever this sick stalker is, he’ll regret the day he was born, that’s for fucking sure.
Ten
Stacey
Franny and I are cooking dinner in the kitchen, talking about what I want to have at my wedding when I turn to grab something out of a cabinet. When I turn around, a man wearing all black and a clown mask is holding Franny to his front and has a gun pointed at her head. Franny stares at me with wide, terrified eyes. I start edging backward to run and get the guys when I bump into something. I’m seconds from screaming when a hand clamps over my mouth, and what feels like a gun’s muzzle is shoved against my lower back.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I can’t believe this is happening!
The man holding Fanny motions for me to keep quiet. He stuffs material into her mouth, and the guy behind me does the same, then puts Duct Tape over it to make sure we stay that way. I still haven’t got a look at the guy at my back, but the guy in front of me is someone I’ve never seen before. “If you do anything to alert them that we’re here, I’ll shoot your friend, and then I’ll shoot you. You gonna be quiet?” The man holding me whispers roughly into my ear.
I nod my head and he snorts. “Good. Let’s go.”
Franny looks freaked the hell out as they lead us out of the back of the house. I pray she keeps it together so that we can make it through this without those guns being used. Getting shot is not an option. There’s no way in hell I’m limping down the aisle on my wedding day.
We walk past some guards laying still in the yard and I pray to God they are still breathing. I don’t see any blood, so that’s a good thing, right? What the hell is going on here?
Once out of the yard, they push us into a wooded area where we walk for about twenty minutes with the men walking behind us. “You run, I shoot. You turn around, I shoot. You scream, I shoot you and your friend.”
We walk through the woods, stumbling over uneven ground and rocks until a paved backroad I recognize comes into view. There’s an SUV parked on the side of the road. They shove us against the vehicle and zip tie our hands behind our back then put us in the backseat of the vehicle. There’s no escaping now. Everyone knows if they get you into a car there’s no going back, we missed our chance. Fuck! How are we going to get out of this now? Darius, that’s how. He’ll come for us, I know he will.