The TAKEN! Series - Books 9-12 (Taken! Box Set Book 3) Read online

  “I thought we were friends.”

  “We are; that’s why she should have left you out of it.”

  “I was surprised by the call. I mean, it’s a bit like the farmer asking the fox to guard the chicken coop.”

  “I don’t get you?”

  “I’ve got the hots for you, Big Boy, always have, and as a woman, Jessica knows it. If she sent me to find you, you must really have her trust.”

  He gave a bitter laugh at those words, and Blue heard the pain behind it.

  “Hey, why don’t we talk about something else, hmm?”

  “Good idea, what brings you to this area of Texas? You didn’t come all this way just for me.”

  “I’m working, tracking down a bail skip.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He’s a serial rapist.”

  “Dangerous?”

  “Yes, he’s a bartender named Owen Leonard. He killed several victims by giving them too much Rohypnol, the date rape drug.”

  Their food came, and once they had eaten, they began talking again, as they drank wine.

  Blue grinned.

  “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

  “Neither did I, until a short while ago. Her name is Maggie and she’s a great kid.”

  “Look at you, the proud big brother,”

  “So what’s new in your life?”

  “I have a boyfriend. His name is Gary and he’s a lawyer.”

  “How does he feel about you tracking down dangerous criminals?”

  “He doesn’t like it much at all; it’s the only thing we fight about.”

  “There’s always something,”

  “So, when are you going back to your wife?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Blue placed money on the table to cover the bill.

  “Well, in that case, why don’t we get a room?”

  ***

  There was a convention in town and so rooms were not only scarce, but also expensive. In the end, they wound up in a small suite with two beds and a living room area.

  He showered first, and then had to put on the same clothes he’d just taken off. They were all he had to wear. When Blue walked out of the bathroom, her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was dressed in shorts and a tee.

  “I’ll take the couch,” he said.

  “Why? There are two beds, or is it that you don’t trust yourself?”

  “Said the fox to the chicken?”

  “Touché,”

  He spent two minutes on the couch and knew it was no good. It was so short that his feet dangled off the end. When he walked back into the bedroom, she smiled.

  “I knew I was irresistible.”

  “The couch is too small; it also smells like stale beer.”

  “That’s why there’s a bed. Now lie down over there and stop being silly.”

  He took off his shirt, pants, and boots and laid down wearing only his boxers.

  “I called Jessica while you were showering. She wants you to call her, and to tell you that she’ll be waiting for you at home.”

  “Fine.”

  Blue kept staring at him.

  “What?”

  She sighed. “I’m just admiring the view.”

  “You’re quite the view yourself,”

  “I shouldn’t tell you this, but I had such a crush on you last year, after we met in Vermont. I couldn’t stop thinking about you for a month.”

  “I thought of you at times too,”

  Blue leaned on one elbow and stared at him.

  “Seriously?”

  “You’re a memorable woman, and very attractive,”

  “But you’re still married and I have a boyfriend,”

  “Yes.”

  “And so nothing will happen,”

  “No.”

  He turned off his light and Blue did the same, then they lay there together in the dark, both wanting what they couldn’t have, what they wouldn’t allow to happen.

  Blue sighed, “Sometimes it sucks to be a good person.”

  “Don’t use the word, ‘sucks’. It’s not helpful.”

  CHAPTER 5

  He went shopping the following morning and Blue came along.

  He bought two shirts, a pair of jeans and a black suit, and promised to reimburse Blue at the first opportunity.

  “You won’t have to pay me back; I’ll be paying you. I’m putting you to work.”

  “Doing what?”

  “You’re going to help me capture Owen Leonard. He has a friend in the next town who probably knows where he is. Leonard didn’t just rape women once he had them drugged, he filmed it too, and then this friend of his would sell the videos on the Internet.”

  “Who’s the friend?”

  “He calls himself, Reich, as in the Third Reich, he’s a Neo-Nazi.”

  “How many men will we be going up against?”

  “I don’t know, but he won’t be alone. If he was, I wouldn’t need your help.”

  “I’m going to need a gun, an untraceable gun,”

  “I have one hidden in my truck.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  ***

  The man calling himself Reich lived in an attractive home on a street of manicured lawns and backyard pools.

  It was a three-story house with a wide front porch and dormer windows on the top floor. Someone had widened the driveway by extending it halfway across the lawn, and three vehicles were visible from the street, where Blue’s truck was parked, several houses away.

  “How do you want to do this?” he asked.

  “We could do a recon, but unless they have the blinds up, we probably wouldn’t learn much.”

  “How certain are you that he knows anything?”

  “The story I heard was that Reich and Leonard are tight. He should know where he is. That’s the easy part; the hard part will be getting him to talk, and making sure that he doesn’t warn Leonard once we’ve left.”

  “There’s a sure way to make that happen, but’s it’s a permanent solution.”

  “I don’t want to kill him, I just need information.”

  “I think I know how to handle this, but I’ll have to go in hard and fast and I’ll have to do it alone.”

  “I’m not waiting in the truck.”

  “No, you’re not, but here’s what you’re going to do...”

  ***

  Bing Bong!

  Reich looked annoyed at the sound of the doorbell. He was in the kitchen at the rear of the house making a ham sandwich. Two men were with him, both were young bodybuilder types with tattoos running down each arm, while Reich looked as if he sold used cars.

  “Jack, go see who that is. If it’s them damn Jesus freaks again, shoot them.”

  The bigger of the men got up, as he walked by the counter, he grabbed a slice of cheese.

  When he opened the front door, he found no one there, and then looked up and down the block.

  He was halfway back to the kitchen when the bell rang again.

  Bing Bong!

  He muttered, “Fucking kids,” and then ran back to the door and ripped it open, hoping to spot someone running away, that’s when he saw the big man rushing towards him instead.

  ***

  He hit the man hard while on a dead run and knocked him over, then smashed him on the side of the head with a hard kick.

  When he was ten feet from the kitchen doorway, he heard Reich call the name, “Jack?” Then he was past the threshold, with gun extended and aimed at Reich’s face.

  “If either one of you takes out a gun I’ll shoot you.”

  Reich swallowed the bite of sandwich that was in his mouth and felt it strain to go down a suddenly dry throat.

  “What the hell do you want?” Reich said.

  “I want to know where Owen Leonard is; he raped my sister.”

  “Owen? Hell, he ain’t here,”

  “But you know where he is,”

  Reich shrugged.

  “I ain’t go
t a clue.”

  He grabbed a frying pan off the stove and slammed it against the side of the other man’s skull. The man had been sitting on a stool, but afterwards, he lay on the floor, moaning.

  “You’re next if you don’t tell me, only you won’t be moaning, you’ll be dead.”

  “Fuck it, you want him, you can have him. He’s in Ciderville, 228 Market Street, Ciderville. The guy that owns the house is his cousin.”

  “If you warn him that I’m coming, I’ll be back.”

  “I won’t say shit, I promise.”

  “Just remember, I’ll be back.”

  He eased out of the kitchen slowly, and then turned and ran for the door. The man in the hallway was just getting on his feet when he kicked the back of his knee and knocked him over again. When he reached Blue’s truck, he got in and drove away, before Reich could see the license plate.

  ***

  Reich hadn’t even bothered to give chase. He walked over and helped his man off the kitchen floor.

  “Go check on Jack; make sure that asshole didn’t kill him.”

  As the man walked off, Reich dialed his phone.

  “Owen, it’s Reich, listen man, you got a shitload of trouble coming your way. Leave your cousin’s house and come here.”

  “Why there?”

  “Because the asshole that’s looking for you is gonna come back here sooner or later, and when he does, I want all hands on deck. Hell, bring your cousin too.”

  “I’ll be there, but not my cousin, he wouldn’t be any use anyway.”

  “All right then, leave your punk ass cousin home, but get here as soon as you can.”

  “Right,”

  Reich put away his phone and went off to see to his men. When the hallway was clear, Blue slipped out from her hiding place behind a door, and opened a window. She dropped to the ground and reached the truck two minutes later.

  “Did it work?”

  “Better than we hoped, he’s coming right to us. There’s just one thing, he won’t be the only one. Reich’s calling in reinforcements in case you come back.”

  “Damn!”

  “Yeah, so we need to grab Leonard before he enters that house.”

  “Ciderville is nearly two hours from here, so we’ve got a little time.”

  “I want to use it to get something to eat and stock the truck with water and chips. Once I arrest him, I’m driving straight back to Fort Worth.”

  He put the truck in gear. “Let’s go,”

  ***

  When they came back, they saw that there were two new men standing on the porch. Both men wore oversized T-shirts, most likely to hide the bulge of the guns on the hips.

  “Looks like the reinforcements are here,” Blue said.

  “Yeah, let me see that picture of Owen Leonard again.”

  Blue handed him a black & white flyer that had Leonard’s picture and vital statistics.

  “We have to spot him before he goes inside. Do you have a pair of binoculars?”

  “In the glove box.”

  He took out the binoculars and adjusted their focus.

  “This one is mine,” Blue said, “They’ll be looking for you.”

  “All right, as soon as we spot him, you go into action, but what’s your angle?”

  Blue grabbed a bag. She had done a little shopping while he had gotten the supplies.

  “I’ll be using my feminine wiles,”

  ***

  Owen Leonard arrived forty minutes later. As soon as they verified his identity, Blue left the truck and began walking towards the house. Her hair was loose and hanging down her back, while her breasts jiggled with each step. She had changed into a pair of white, hip-hugging shorts and a red tube top with matching high heels, and her lips were bright with lipstick.

  She had changed inside the truck as he stood outside, and when she told him he could look, he sighed.

  One of the men spotted her coming when she was two houses away, and she saw him elbow his partner and smile. Owen Leonard was just exiting his car as she reached the house, and he stared at her with lust in his eyes.

  Blue ran a hand over the tops of her breasts.

  “Hi boys, my, but it’s a warm day.”

  “Not as hot as you, baby,” said one of the men on the porch, and Blue sent him a smile.

  “Are you guys new to the neighborhood?”

  “No, we’re ah, we’re just visiting,”

  Blue pouted.

  “Too bad, this neighborhood could use some real men. It’s mostly empty suits and old guys.”

  Blue started walking away and the two men on the porch came down the steps.

  “Hey, don’t rush off; we don’t even know your name.”

  She sent the man a sultry smile.

  “Why don’t you move a little closer and I’ll whisper it.”

  The man leaned forward and she laid her hand on his chest as her lips brushed his cheek. In one smooth motion, she slid her hand beneath his shirt and freed the gun from his side holster.

  The man jumped back as if she had bitten him. “Hey!”

  Owen Leonard spotted the weapon and turned to run. As he stepped into the street, Blue’s truck pulled up beside him and a gun was pointed at his face.

  “Move and I’ll shoot you.”

  Blue spoke to the other man. “Hand over your gun... slowly,”

  The man did so, while looking as if he had been betrayed, threats of violence were not what he wanted from her, and the odds that he would receive what he’d hoped for had suddenly dropped to nil.

  Blue took the man’s gun and remembered that she had nowhere to put it. The white shorts were so tight that it hurt when she sat.

  He stuck his gun into Owen Leonard’s stomach and held out his other hand.

  “I’ll take one of the guns and then you pat down Leonard.”

  As Blue was handing him the gun, Leonard pulled on a chain hanging around his neck, at the end of it was a whistle.

  WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

  Blue stared at Leonard with a look of incredulity.

  “A rape whistle! You’re a serial rapist and you carry a rape whistle?”

  He jammed the gun deep into Leonard’s gut and the man bent over, but straightened immediately and began gagging.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “He swallowed the whistle; get in the truck.”

  The moment Blue turned her back, the two men behind her charged.

  As one man took hold of her arm, she turned and hit him in the throat with the gun. He stumbled backwards into the other man and they both went down.

  The front door of the house opened and Reich stepped out unto the porch with three other men.

  “They got Owen, Jack go get the Trans Am.”

  He put the truck in gear the instant Blue climbed inside, sitting between them in the cab was Leonard. He was still making gagging sounds as the whistle stayed caught in his throat.

  He was two blocks away when the Trans Am skidded out of the driveway, but his lead diminished with every second. Blue’s truck had a good engine, but it was still a pickup truck while their pursuers were driving a sports car.

  When they came to the intersection of a main road, Blue pointed right.

  “There’s an industrial park due for demolition, we passed it on the way in.”

  “I remember it.”

  They reached the defunct complex seconds ahead of the Trans Am and he made the turn on two wheels and ran over a wooden sign, then, he drove a hundred feet and turned left.

  Blue shouted, “No, it’s a dead end; it’s just a loading dock area,”

  “I know, but it’s what we need.”

  As soon as the truck stopped, he got out and ran back the way they had come.

  “Wait for my first shot!”

  He dived behind an old, rusted central air unit, just as the car skidded to a stop behind the truck.

  Reich jumped out of the passenger seat with a gun in his hand.

  “Give us O
wen and nobody gets hurt.”

  He came up from behind and aimed at Reich.

  “Drop the gun!”

  Reich swiveled his head in shock at the voice behind him.

  “There are five of us,” he said.

  BAM!

  “Now there’s four and a half,”

  Reich fell to the ground with a wounded knee, and his men scrambled out of the car.

  Blue called to them.

  “Drop your guns or we’ll cut you down.”

  Only two of the men had guns, as Blue had taken weapons from the men who had been on the porch. They looked first at Blue and then back at him, and realized that they were caught in the middle.

  “All right,” said the one named Jack, “We’re putting our weapons down.”

  They laid the weapons on the ground and Blue ordered them to get back in the car.

  “What about Reich?” Jack said.

  “Put him in the car, but if you touch that gun he dropped, you’re dead.”

  “Hey! What about me!” Owen cried from the truck, now recovered from nearly swallowing the whistle.

  Jack sent him a shrug.

  “We tried, brother, but we ain’t getting killed for your ass.”

  “Reich?” Owen called, but Reich was too busy moaning in pain to answer.

  He gathered up their guns and then spoke to them.

  “Take him to a hospital and say he accidentally shot himself.”

  “We got our own doctors,”

  “Suit yourself, now get!”

  The Trans Am backed out and drove off. When he turned around, he saw Blue walking behind the air conditioning unit.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m changing out of these shorts and heels, they’re brutal.”

  “You’re more the jeans and boots type anyway,”

  She smiled, “Texas born and bred,”

  Blue locked her new collection of guns in the toolbox that sat in the truck bed, and climbed behind the wheel.

  Owen sent her a dirty look.

  “You’re taking me back to Fort Worth, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, and I hope this time they never let you out.”

  “How much are you getting for me?”

  “Five grand,”

  “I didn’t mean for those bitches to die, you know? I just wanted to fuck ‘em.”

  Blue sent him a look of disgust and started driving.

  Owen then looked at him and smirked.