Page 26

“Any clue why they’d take her to Biloxi? Were you able to get into the cameras outside her building?”

“Yeah, I just got in. I haven’t had a chance to review them yet,” Mud replied without turning away from his screens.

“Get it done, let me know what you find. If we can get a vehicle description, I can try to trace it through traffic cams and see where they went after Escatawpa.” Cypher accessed every camera he knew of in the little town and prepared to have it search for the vehicle once Mud got him a description.

“Got it. White panel van. The kind you expect to have free candy written on the side. There are magnets for an electrician on the doors, but I wouldn’t count on them. If it was me, I’d go a mile or two then peel them off.” Mud read the license plate off to Cypher.

Cypher got the search started then used the back door into the Alabama Motor Vehicle Division that he’d set up for quick access some time ago and ran the plate.

“The name on the plate means nothing to me. But I suspect it’s stolen anyway,” he spoke out loud, mostly to himself but letting Mud know what he’d found even as he accesses the NCIC to run it there. Even if the van wasn’t listed as stolen there, didn’t mean it hadn’t been. It was possible the owner hadn’t noticed the theft yet or that wherever he’d reported it, hadn’t gotten it into the system yet. Still, if he found a report, he wouldn’t have to get Mud to look into the owner.

Sure enough, the van was stolen, reported the day before, stolen out of Georgetown, where it had been parked outside the owner’s home, according to the report. So this was planned. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse, especially for Lauren, so he clenched his teeth and kept looking.

A moment later, a program he had running in the background beeped, drawing his attention.

“Hot damn!” he said as he opened the program.

“What?” Mud asked, twisting around to look at Cypher’s screens.

“I found the van.”

“Where?”

“It’s parked in the lot at a marina in Back Bay.” He hit several keys. “Here, find the cameras. Get access and figure out which boat they’ve got her on.” He pushed himself up and headed across the hall. “I found her. I think,” he said to Hex without bothering to knock.

“Where?”

“Biloxi. We’ve got to hit the road. Best case we can reach her in an hour. Worst case two.”

Hex nodded. “Cyclone and Hillbilly are ready to go. Bones is working or I’d sent him. Hillbilly has better than basic first aid training, he’ll be able to handle minor shit or get her fixed up enough to make to the ER if needed. I’ll send Bobby Lee behind you in a truck, just in case.”

Cypher nodded once and turned on his heel. “I’m riding clean and hauling ass. The others can catch up with me but on one will remember a single bike with no colors. I’ll make it faster and right now, that’s what matters,” he said without pausing.

“Go ahead but answer calls and keep me informed.” Hex’s words followed him out the door.

Cypher paused in the doorway to the command center. “I’m hitting the road. I’m hauling ass, but I’ll wear a full helmet and turn on my Bluetooth. Update me with anything you find.” He didn’t wait for Mud to answer but went out to his bike and hit the road.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Think about how much worse this could be. So far we've just detained you. But we have some questions and a couple of demands. But not yet. Scream all you want. No one can hear you and no one is coming to save you. You're at our mercy until we decide to let you go. If we let you go. This can go hard or easy, it's all up to you.”

After making she was secured to the chair, Lauren's kidnappers told her to think about what they'd said then they disappeared topside, leaving her alone with nothing more that her thoughts and her fear.

But they'd been wrong, and she knew it. Not that she ever planned to tell them that. She wasn't stupid and the last thing she would do was give up the one advantage she had. There was someone coming for her. She just had to hold on until he got there.

The real question was how long would it take and could she hold out through whatever they did to her?

Only time would tell. Lauren knew they wouldn’t be nice to her. When she woke in the trunk, she did her best to prepare herself for physical violence. To be beaten, even raped, and not that she had any experience to base her thoughts on, but she thought the waiting was the worst part. The knowing it was coming. That they wanted something from her, though she didn’t yet know what, only that whatever they wanted was something they thought she wouldn’t want to give them. Otherwise, why go to such lengths?

She didn’t know how long she sat there, taped to the chair and wishing she could at least use the bathroom, before her captors returned. While she waited she tried to lose herself I the bob and sway of the boat, in the soft sounds of water lapping against the hull. She didn’t have much success, but at least she tried.

“Are you ready to tell us what we want to know?” the one who had carried her onto the boat, the one who seemed to be the ringleader asked with a snarl. In her mind, she dubbed him Tweedle Dee, because she needed something to call him other than ‘ringleader’.

“I can’t say.”

“An attitude like that’s going to get you hurt, little girl.”

“It’s not an attitude. I can’t tell you what you haven’t told me you want to know. So until you give me at least some information, I can’t say if I’m going to tell you or not.” Lauren fought to keep her tone reasonable, just as she would with a client. She didn’t know how long she could keep it up, but she would try.