Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) (42 page)

Josh called Martin and told him
where to stop.  Soon, everyone was piled into the van.  It was cramped, but no
one complained.

“Where's Michael?”  Martin asked.

“He'll meet up with us later.  We
need to go,” Josh said.

Martin didn't argue.  With a van
full of stolen merchandise, as Meier's men would view it, he didn't want to
stick around.

Chapter 4

Jessica woke on Martin and Helen's
couch wondering how Michael was doing and if they had been able to find Katie. 
She looked at her watch.  Their plane would have landed four hours ago.  She
checked her phone in case he had called.  He sent her a text message from a
phone he picked up after they landed saying he was okay and that he would call
her later.  She also received a text message from Ben asking her to call him
when she was free.  She hoped Michael would call her soon with an update.  In
the meantime, she called Ben to see what he wanted.

“Hi, Ben.  What's up?”

“Jessica!  I'm so glad you
called.  I'm really having trouble.  I need you to look something over.  Can we
meet?”

Jessica rubbed her eyes and
yawned.  She didn't really feel like it, but decided maybe the distraction
would be good.  “I guess.  I just need some coffee.”

“I can come over.  I'll bring
coffee,” Ben suggested.

“Umm.”  She thought back on her
promise to Michael.  “How about we meet at a coffee shop?”

“That's fine.  The one by your
house?” he asked.

“Sure.  I'll meet you there in a
half hour,” she said.

“Alright, you're a lifesaver. 
I'll see you there.”  Ben hung up.

Jessica went to find Helen.  She
found her sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea staring at the table.  She
looked up at Jessica and smiled. 

“Are you hungry?” Helen asked.

“I'm going to be meeting with a
client,” Jessica said.  “How are you doing?”

“Numb.”

Jessica frowned.  “I can come back
after my meeting,” she offered.

Helen nodded.  “Sure.”

Jessica smiled gently.  She
stepped over to her and gave her a hug.

After a brief stop at the bathroom
to freshen up as best she could, she left to meet Ben.  She arrived at the
coffee shop a few minutes early and went in to get her coffee.  She was sitting
at a table blissfully sipping her beverage when she heard a voice behind her.

“Mmm. Nectar of the gods.”

She looked back to see Ben
grinning at her.

“Anyone who disagrees is
clinically insane,” she joked back.

He laughed and took the seat next
to her.  He whipped out his laptop.  “I've been working on this program.  It's
not working right and I don't know what I'm doing wrong,” he complained.

Jessica looked over his work and
found his mistake in under twenty minutes.  It was such a simple mistake he
figured it was why it got overlooked.  He had been looking for something big.

“I can't thank you enough,
Jessica.  This was so driving me nuts.”

“It's nothing, Ben.  Glad I could
help.”

“Let me buy you breakfast to make
up for dragging you out of the house so early.”

“No, it's all right really.  I
should get going.  There's kind of a family crisis going on and I should get
back.”

“Is everything all right?” Ben
asked.

“I don't really want to get into
it.  I just need to be with family.”  Jessica didn't have any real family. 
Josh and Martin were like brothers to her and she considered them and their families
as her own.

“I understand.  If you need to
talk, you have my number.”  He smiled warmly at her.

“Thanks.”  She smiled back.  “I'll
catch you later.”

Ben stood and shook her hand
goodbye.  She walked out to her car, but to her dismay it wouldn't start.  She
kept trying but it just wouldn't catch.  She growled in frustration and got
back out of the car.  She was calling for roadside assistance when Ben came out
of the cafe carrying his laptop.  He spotted her outside her car and walked
over.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“My car won't start.”

“Oh no.  Do you need a lift
somewhere?”

She was wading through a menu of
options on an automated system.  She looked at her phone and hung up.  She
wasn't in the mood to deal with any of it.  “You don't mind?”

“Of course not.  Hop in.”  He
gestured for her to come with him.

She followed him to his car and
got in.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Can you just bring me home?  I
can use Michael's truck.”

“Sure.  He's not working today?”

“Umm.”  She thought for a minute
how to answer.  “He won't be using it today.”

“I see.  Do you mind if I stop by
my mother's first?  I just remembered I have a bag of food in the backseat for
her.  I keep forgetting it's there.”

Jessica glanced in the back and
saw a grocery bag with some canned food, pasta and sauce.  “Yeah, sure.  I
guess.”

Ben started peppering Jessica with
questions about hacking and security threats.  She was so engrossed in the
conversation she hadn't paid attention to where they were driving.  She
suddenly realized they had been on the road for some time.

“Where are we?” she asked as she
looked around.  They were driving uphill on a winding road in the middle of the
woods.

Ben looked at her and smiled.  He
didn't answer and he stopped talking.  She suddenly felt uneasy.

“Ben.  What's going on?”

He grinned again but this time he
spoke.  “You know ...  You're a lot prettier than I thought you would be.”

Her heart started racing.  “My
husband tends to be very protective of me.”

“Yeah?”  He glanced at her.  “I
can see why.”

“Okay, Ben.  This isn't funny. 
What are you doing?”

He didn't say anything he just
kept driving.  She was starting to panic.  Her heart raced and her hands
shook.  She didn't know what his intentions were, but she knew they were not
good.  Another couple minutes went by before he pulled off the road.  He
stopped the car right next to a tree, blocking her from opening her door.  He
turned the car off and stuffed the keys in his pants pocket.  Her heart was
pounding in her chest and at that moment it felt like it might jump out of her
ribcage and run away without her.

He turned in his seat and gazed at
her.   He could see her whole body shaking but she didn't look at him with
fear.  It was anger.

“My husband has killed people.  He
will kill you.”  She hoped to intimidate him.

He grinned smugly.  “He won't ever
know what happened to you.”

“You'll be the first one he goes
after.”

Ben suddenly grabbed a fistful of
her hair and yanked her head towards him.  “I hope he does.”  He pressed his
lips to hers and tried to kiss her.  She clawed at his face and neck and he had
no choice but to make a tactical retreat.  He unbuckled her belt and held onto
her hair as he dragged her from the car.

Once free from the confines of the
vehicle he wrestled her arms behind her and pinned her against the car.  He
tried again to kiss her.  She kicked his shin as hard as she could.  He didn't
release his hold, but he stopped kissing her.  He gritted his teeth and pulled
his head away to look at her.

“Don't make this harder than it
has to be,” he said angrily.

She headbutted him in response,
stunning him.  His grip on her arms loosened enough for her to break free.  Her
next move was to punch him in the throat as hard as she could.  As he was
gagging and choking from that, she took the opportunity to kick him in the
groin with all her might.  He fell to his knees coughing, choking and gagging. 
Her final blow was a kick into his head, knocking him to the ground.

He lay half dazed on the ground
writhing in pain and struggling to breath.  She reached down and tried to get
the car keys from his pocket.  He grabbed her wrist and pulled on her.  She
kicked him and he grabbed her leg.  He was starting to recover so she decided
to abandon that plan and yanked her leg free.  Fearing she might not subdue him
a second time, she ran down the road away from him.

Crying and scared, she didn't know
what to do next.  All she wanted right then was Michael.  Pulling her phone
from her pocket she dialed his number in desperation.

MICHAEL MANAGED
to get away from the farmhouse and steal a nearby car.  He
called Josh and got the address of the hotel they were at.  When he arrived at
the room, he noticed not all the girls were there.

“Where are the other girls?” he
asked.

“Some of them wanted to leave,” 
Josh answered.  “I wasn't going to force them to stay.”

“No, of course not,”  Michael
agreed.  “At least they're free.  What do they want to do?”  He motioned toward
the remaining women.

“We offered to escort them to
their consulates and embassies,” Martin answered.  He was sitting on one of the
beds holding Katie, who was curled up in his arms.

Michael nodded.  He held up the
passports.  “Look what I found,” he grinned.  He tossed them on the bed, but
handed Katie hers.

One of the women stood up with
tears in her eyes.  She took Michael's hand and thanked him for not leaving
them there.  He smiled softly and squeezed her hand.  He felt guilty for even
considering it.  He shook the feeling away and settled in a corner of the room
to rest a little.  He dozed off for a bit but was awoken by his phone ringing. 
He saw it was Jessica and answered.

“Michael!” she shouted and cried.

“Jess, what's wrong?” he asked
alarmed as he shot up.  Martin and Josh looked over at him.

“Ben,” she cried.  “He just
attacked me.  I don't know what to do.”

“Call the police,” he quickly
responded.

“I don't know where I am,”  she
cried as she kept running down the road.

“What do you mean? What
happened?” 

“He drove me to someplace.  I'm in
the woods somewhere, I don't know.”  She started crying again.  She was out of
breath from running and it was difficult to talk.

“Where is he now?”

“I don't know.  I got away, but he
has a car.”

“Are you on a road?”

“Yes.”

“Get off the road, go into the
woods.”

“What if someone drives by who can
help me?”

“No.  He took you there for a
reason.  No one will be driving by.”

She started sobbing.

“Jess.  Do as I say.  Run into the
woods.  What are you wearing?”

She turned and started running
into the woods.  “I'm wearing the same clothes I had on last night.”

“Red shirt and black pants?”

“Yes,” she sobbed.

“Take your shirt off.  Do it now.”

“What?! Why?”

“It's red,” he answered.  “It
makes you too visible."

She stopped just long enough to
pull off her shirt then started running again.  “Okay.”

“Is the road far away?”

“Yes.”

“All right, drop to the ground. 
Then pull leaves, branches, whatever is around you and cover yourself with it. 
Make sure your shirt isn't visible.  Let me know when you're done.”

She couldn't stop crying, but she
did what he said.  She threw her shirt on the ground and lay down on top of
it.   Then she covered herself in leaves.  She put the phone back to her ear. 
“I'm done,” she sobbed.

“Now listen to me, Jess.  You need
to calm down.  Take deep breaths and just try to calm down.  If you're loud, he'll
hear you.”  Michael was pacing the room anxiously rubbing the back of his
head.  His heart was pounding.  He couldn't believe he was an ocean away. 
“Jess, you're okay,” he tried to comfort her.  Her breathing was calming and
she wasn't sobbing loudly anymore, much to his relief.

“He's coming,” she started
breathing faster.

“Stay calm Jess.  Is he driving?”

“Yes.  He going slow... He just
stopped ...  He's getting out.”  She was becoming more and more frightened.

“Stay still, Jess.  Don't move.”

She could see Ben in the distance
looking down the road and into the woods.  He started walking into the woods
and her anxiety level continued to rise.

“Jessica!” he shouted.  “Don't
make this harder than it has to be!”  He walked further into the woods.  “I know
where you are.  I can see you.  Don't make me come and get you.”

“He says he can see me,” Jessica
whispered to Michael, trying not to panic.  Every bone in her body was telling
her to run.

“Stay put, he's trying to flush
you out, make you panic and start running.”