Cassie Miles - Snowed In

Two others, unmasked, came onto the porch. One of them had a clumsy dressing on his upper arm. His face contorted in pain. “I need a doctor.”

“Where’s the fourth guy?”

“He can’t walk.”

Kovak and the other officers rushed forward. In seconds, they had taken Farley’s ragtag crew into custody. While one of the sheriff’s department’s SUVs drove the wounded men to receive treatment, Kovak and Blake questioned Farley.

Blake sat beside the handcuffed man in the back of Kovak’s police cruiser. “Who hired you?”

“I don’t know his name.” Tyler Farley was a skinny guy with bad teeth. The permanent scowl etched into the lines of his thin face made it difficult to guess his age. “He told us it was a joke.”

“How did he contact you?”

“On my cell phone.” Spittle appeared in the corners of his downturned mouth. “He paid me three thousand bucks up front. Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

Blake didn’t believe Farley was foolish enough to think their stunt at the drilling site was innocent. “What were you supposed to do?”

“Grab the girl. Emily Layton.”

Kidnapping Emily could be leveraged into a threat against the general. “Then what?”

“When we had her, we’d make a call. The guy would tell us where to bring her, and he’d give us the rest of our money.”

“Have you made that call?”

“Not yet.”

Blake checked his wristwatch. Though a lot had happened, it had been less than two hours since he surprised Farley and his boys in the clearing. If he was going to get his hands on the person who hired Farley, he had to move fast.

Chapter Four

Sarah blamed her impulsive leap into Blake’s SUV on an overdose of adrenaline racing through her veins. Her usual behavior was practical, and she didn’t take unwarranted risks. But the successful escape from the clearing and the equally successful search of the B and B had blinded her to how violent the situation could become.

Sitting quietly in the passenger seat, she’d had a chance to calm down and regroup. While she’d watched Blake and the other men approach the cabin with military precision, she’d been tense. The yelling, the guns and the terrifying moment before Blake tackled that armed thug in the ski mask had turned her blood ice-cold. Even though the bad guys had been apprehended without a single shot being fired, the potential for danger was as obvious as a lit fuse that hadn’t yet ignited the powder keg.

She owed Blake an apology. After seeing him in action, she understood why he didn’t want her to interfere. He had a lot more to worry about than hiring a stripper for the bachelor party.

He yanked open the driver’s-side door to his SUV and slid behind the steering wheel. Before she could apologize, he said, “I need your help.”

“Me?” After the scene she’d just witnessed, she figured he could handle anything.

“Farley was hired by an unknown person to kidnap Emily. He’s supposed to call his employer and arrange a meet. I’m going to make that call. If this guy wants to talk to Emily, can you play her part?”

“But I don’t sound like her.”

“I don’t think he actually knows Emily. You can disguise your voice.”

“Like this?” She changed her alto to a soprano and said, “Hi, I’m Emily and I’m getting married.”

“Nice Minnie Mouse impression.”

She tried again. “Hi, I’m Emily.”

“Close enough.” He started the engine for his rental vehicle and turned up the blower for the heater. “This background noise should disguise our voices.”

“Why are you pretending to be Farley? He’s sitting right over there in Kovak’s car.”

“I don’t trust him to say the right thing. Are you ready to do this?”

Impersonating someone else was out of her comfort zone, but she wanted to help. “Okay.”

As he punched in a phone number, he explained, “This is Farley’s cell phone. I’m putting it on speaker.”

A male voice answered on the fourth ring. “Do you have the package?”

“Hey, there,” Blake said. “How’d you know it was me?”

“The caller ID, you idiot.”

“I got the girl right here.” Blake’s smooth, deep voice had transformed into a thin drawl. “Where’s my money?”

“You don’t get paid until she’s with me. You didn’t hurt her, did you?”

“She don’t like the handcuffs, but she’s fine. Real fine and real pretty.”

“Is she blindfolded? I told you to blindfold her.”

“You bet she is,” Blake said. “You want to talk to her?”

“Yes.” The response was terse, almost a reprimand.

Blake held the phone toward her and said, “Go ahead, Emily.”

Sarah tried to imagine how her friend would feel if she’d been captured. Emily wouldn’t be crying; she was tougher than that. But she would be frightened. Putting a quiver in her throat, Sarah said, “Please, please, help me. If it’s a ransom you want, my father will pay. He’ll pay anything.”

“Are you injured?”

“I’m scared,” Sarah said. That wasn’t a total lie. “You’ve got to help me.”

Blake gave her a thumbs-up sign as he pulled the phone back. “Now you’ve heard her. Where do I bring her to get my payoff?”

“Come to the parking lot behind the Laughing Dog Saloon on the Bridge Road outside Carbondale. And make it quick. I expected to hear from you an hour ago.”

“Well, ain’t that too bad. Me and the guys had a little drink to celebrate.”

“Don’t bring your crew. Just you and the girl. Keep her blindfolded.”

Blake disconnected the call, opened his car door and signaled to Kovak, who came toward them. Then he turned back toward Sarah. “Come with me.”

“There’s something I need to tell you first.”

“What’s that?”

In the overhead light from the car, she noticed his dark stubble, a smear of dirt across his forehead and the glittering intensity in his blue eyes. The sleeve of his parka was wet from his struggle with the armed man. “I’m sorry for getting in the way,” she said. “I didn’t take the threat seriously enough.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a half grin. “I appreciate that. You did a good job talking to that guy.”

His compliment warmed her, and she had the irrational notion of doing whatever it took to please him. “I won’t cause any more trouble.”

Blake left the SUV to join Kovak, and Sarah followed. Standing in the forest between these two tall men, she felt as small as a mouse.

Blake filled Kovak in on the phone call and continued, “I was hoping Farley’s employer would give us a specific place, like a hotel room, where we could walk up to the door and arrest him. Instead, he’s treating this situation like a hostage exchange, probably because he doesn’t want to take a chance on Farley getting close enough to get a good look at him.”

“What about Emily?” Sarah said. “If he took her hostage, she’d be able to identify him.”

“Bad luck for her,” Kovak said.

“Maybe not,” Blake said. “He seemed concerned about her well-being and wanted her blindfolded. It’s hard to believe he intends to hurt her.”

“Kidnapping is a serious crime,” Kovak said. “Even if the kidnapper isn’t a pro, he won’t want to leave a witness.”

Sarah shuddered to think what might have happened if she and Emily hadn’t gotten away at the clearing. They hadn’t been prepared for danger. As trusting as Hansel and Gretel—or Gretel and Gretel—they’d followed a text message into the forest. Though she’d told Blake she was sorry, she couldn’t help blaming him for not warning them.

“We need a plan,” he said. “This might be our only chance to catch this guy.”