“I don’t know. Here. Figure it out.” Jake flung a green paper map toward Vicki. She took it and opened it up. Hope had heard them discussing that they shouldn’t use their phones. They didn’t want to be tracked. But they were both idiots in Hope’s opinion. Leaving their phones on meant they could still be located and neither of them seemed to know how to navigate without GPS.
Hope leaned slightly forward and glanced at the map. Colorado. She’d never been to Colorado, but had always wanted to visit. They’d never had the time with her mom’s job. Her mom had promised that at some point she’d take her. This wasn’t how Hope had envisioned that vacation.
She knew she’d been out for a while—at leasttwenty-four hours. She wasn’t exactly sure. But long enough to drive from Montana to Colorado. How would her uncle find her this far away? She had to give him a clue. He always talked about following clues. When they stopped, she would wait for Jake and Vicki to fall asleep. They seemed to enjoy cheap vodka. It didn’t matter what time of day it was. Maybe she could somehow slip the contents of the syringe in their vodka. But she could pretend to be asleep and when they were drunk and passed out, she could sneak away.
A phone rang.
Hope had noticed that they had a couple of different phones. Probably burners. Her uncle talked about that stuff too.
“Yeah?” Vicki said, answering it and then listening. Then, “We got her.”
Hope strained to hear more. Was the lady saying something about keeping the girl alive? That had to be her, but why? What did they want with her?
“We’ll meet you there.” Vicki hung up and opened the map again.
Hope wondered if she even knew how to read it or use it. Of course, she was the one failing English class in summer school right now. But not because she couldn’t read.
“Turn left up there,” Vicki told Jake. “We’re heading for this wilderness area near a campground in the Pino Grande National Forest.”
Jake followed Vicki’s direction and Hope swayedin the back as he took the turn a bit fast. Vicki rolled down the window and Hope could swear she smelled smoke. Not like campfire, but stronger. It reminded her of a large fire that burned in Montana a few years ago.
With a fire came first responders. If Hope could wait and make sure Jake and Vicki were comfortable, maybe she could slip out and find the firefighter camp. Maybe she could escape.
Chapter Four
It didn’t take long for Jake and Vicki to set up their tent. Hope offered to help and Vicki took her up on it. She’d decided she wouldn’t try escaping yet. She had to get them to trust her first.
After the tent was set up, Vicki stared at her. “You gonna behave?”
“Yeah,” Hope said, shrugging.
“We’ll only tie your hands then. Turn around. When I get done you get in the back and don’t say a word. Got it?”
Hope followed instructions. Only tying her hands was good. She might be able to slip out of the rope. Vicki didn’t make the knots as tight as Jake.
Vicki signaled to Hope to turn around and put her hands behind her like she was getting handcuffed. Hope thought about taking off right then, but as if he read her thoughts, Jake came up and stood in front of her.
“Don’t think about doing anything stupid,” he said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Whatever,” Hope said. She didn’t believe them. Maybe they weren’t going to hurt her, but whoeverthey’d been chatting with on the burner phone seemed to want something with her. What she didn’t know. And anyone who took a kid, drugged them to keep them quiet and then hid out in the mountains couldn’t be trusted. She didn’t need to finish summer school to know that.
Vicki finished the knot and Hope climbed inside. They left the back doors open and she leaned up against the hard metal side that was warm from the hot day. Would they start drinking now?
As if he were answering her thought, Jake said, “It wouldn’t hurt to have a nip of something to relax, would it?”
“Nah,” Vicki answered, and then nodded toward Hope. “She’s good for now. I’ll be glad when this is all over.”
“Me too. After this, our debt is paid.” Jake went to the driver’s side door, opened it and grabbed a large plastic bottle of vodka.
“It better be,” Vicki said.
Hope crossed her fingers that they would have more than a nip as they liked to call it. She started messing with the ropes. Vicki had done a better job this time, but Hope kept working on freeing herself. Jake and Vicki sat on a log with their backs to her, passing the bottle back and forth.
It took Hope some time, but she finally was able to get slack in the rope and slip one of her hands out. The couple was still drinking, but their words were starting to slur. She just had to wait. Be patient. Like her uncle said, let them get comfortable.
After what seemed like forever, she noticed Jake nodding off, almost falling off the log. Vicki stumbled to the tent to lie down. Hope figured this was her chance. She crawled on her hands and knees, staying as quiet as possible to the front of the van where she’d learned there were several cell phones stashed. Probably all burners like her uncle talked about.
Carefully opening the center console, Hope saw the phones. She grabbed one and stuffed it in her pocket. Then she crawled back to the open doors. The sound of snores came from the tent. Should she wait? The thing was, she’d noticed that even when they were drunk and seemed passed out, Jake and Vicki could wake up quick and function pretty well.
