Raging Love (17 page)

I had to give it to the little redneck
creep;
he must have used zip ties on my wrists. The more I fought to free myself, the more the plastic rubbed against my skin. I was apparently tied to some kind of pole in the basement and from the feel of it against my
skin;
I would say it was old and rusty.

If I wanted to get free, I would have to inflict major pain on my wrists, but I was desperate. I needed to get me and my baby out of this
house
. I knew Colt would come looking for me, but he didn’t know where to look. I was alone for right now, but determined to get out in one piece.

I started lifting my arms up and down against the coarse metal pole; the plastic pressing and ripping the skin on my wrist as I did it. The pain was
agonizing when inflicting it on yourself, but it was necessary if I wanted to get out of this place. I could see a window straight in f
ront of me. It had
a sheet over it, but the light shined through enough to know
it was an escape. Against one
wall,
I spotted a broom and a shovel. If I could manage my hands free, I could untie my feet and grab the shovel for protection.

The metal pole wasn’t making a dent in the plastic, so I decided on taking a different approach to the plastic restraints. I twisted and turned my wrists in opposite directions, hoping to break the clasping mechanism to the stupid ties.  The basement was freezing, considering it was unfinished and I was sitting on a concrete floor, but beads of sweat were rolling down my aching head.
Pain shot through my wrists and up my arms, as warm liquid oozed down from them. I had broken the skin and was bleeding from where the plastic was now digging into my skin.

My arms were exhausted and I wanted to give up, but knowing that Tucker could come down any second and see that I was fighting to get free, well it scared the bejesus out of me. I had to keep trying until I was free. I was glad that I hadn’t given up, because just seconds later I felt the resistance give and my hands freeing themselves, at the exact moment the basement door creaked open.

Chapter 13

Colt

I had been helping Conner work on installing a new manufacturer’s part to one of our combines all day. The day had gotten away from me and I found myself heading home as the sun was starting to set. It was weird not hearing from Savanna all day, considering she always called at least once. I remembered she said she was going into town to get some things we needed, so I figured maybe she and my mother, or even Lucy caught an afternoon movie or something.

Nothing could have prepared me for walking into the dark house, seeing that she had never returned home
. Her purse wasn’t on the counter, suggesting she had gone to the ranch house. The refrigerator was still pretty empty and nothing was picked up from this morning.

I reached in
my
pocket to grab my cell phone and realized I had left it back inside of the combine. Worry rushed over me as I ran out
of my house, Sam following, to
get to my cell phone. After driving as fast as the golf cart could take me, I grabbed my phone out of the combine and noticed missed calls. There had been just one call from Savanna at nine in the morning, but nothing since. The other calls were from a blocked number. I dialed into my voicemail and started listening to the messages.

Colt….Colt Mitchell. We have your wife and if you know what’s good for you, you will get us fifty thousand dollars. If we don’t hear from you, she will die. I reckon you best be gettin’ to the bank. We will call you back later today with a place to make the exchange.

Somehow hearing the message was like being in the Twilight Zone. After the first moments of utter shock, I reached down and dialed my mother. I should have called the police first, but something made me call her. Maybe it was some inclination that she was always my mother and could protect me from anything painful. The thought left my mind when I snapped back into reality and realized she was on the other end of the phone waiting for me to respond. “Colt? Can you hear me dear?”

“Mom……I don’t…..something…..someone took Savanna, Mom. I need your help.” I was frantically pacing around the living room.

“What do you mean someone took her? Where is she?”

I sat down and ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t know. She wasn’t home when I got here. I had missed calls from some unknown number and a message demanding fifty thousand dollars or
I
would never see her again.” Just the thought of never seeing my beautiful Savanna, my wife, the mother to my unborn child, made me cringe with sickness.

“You need to call the police Son.
I’m
coming over there right now. Sit tight. I will grab John. He is over at your aunt Karen’
s tonight for dinner
.”

How convenient. The sheriff was already at the ranch.

I contemplated calling the police, but with Savanna being kidnapped, I couldn’t take the chance of having the authorities fucking up my chances of her getting home to me in one piece. I had seen too many things go bad in movies and television shows to know it didn’t always have a happy ending.

My mother came rushing in the door, followed by the sound of a car slamming on their breaks in my gravel driveway. My little mother came rushing over to me, grabbing
my hand, while Aunt Karen and S
heriff John followed in. “Colt, tell me everything you told your mother. Don’t leave anything out. We need all the details that we get.”

“I hadn’t talked to Savanna all day and when I got home she wasn’t here. After
locatin
’ my phone
,
I had a missed call from an unknown number and one message statin’ that they had Savanna and if I didn’t give them fifty grand, I wouldn’t see her again.” I really started to panic. “She is pregnant John. We have to get that money and do whatever it takes to get her home safe. She can’t handle stress John. Please tell me what to do.”

He held his hands up, telling me to calm
down;
even though I knew it was an impossible gesture. “They never said where to meet?”

“It said they would call back.” My mother rubbed my shoulders.

A
u
nt Karen walked over to John and grabbed his hand, getting her attention. “John, we can’t just assume the best here. We need to figure out how to get her and that baby back in one piece.

“The money isn’t a problem.” My mother interrupted.

John put his hands up again. He was obviously accustomed to trying to calm seriously frustrated victims and criminals down. “Now let’s not jump to conclusions. The next time they call
,
you will ask to speak to Savanna, for proof of life.”

“Proof of life? Heavens to Betsy, this can’t be happening right now.” My mother buried her hands into her face.

I was trying so hard to remain calm and focused on just getting my wife home safely, but we had nothing to go on. To make matters worse, the banks were all closed and I had no idea how we were going to get fifty grand at six o’clock at night. “What happens if they need the money tonight? We
can’t get that kind of money tonight.” I stood up and started pacing around the living room.

“Colt, listen here Son, if they are in it for the money, they will expect to have to provide proof of life. We have no reason to believe they have harmed her in any way,” John explained.

“Can we trace the call? Is there a way to trace a blocked number?” I asked.

He shook his head and sat down on the couch, finally looking up at me after rubbing his hands together. My Aunt Karen sat down beside my mother and grabbed her hand. “It’s not that simple. In most cases the phone used is called a burner phone. You can pick one up at any gas station or grocery store. The phones are untraceable, especially without knowing the number. I’m afraid we are going to have to wait it out.”

That was not what I wanted to hear coming from the sheriff himself. I guess I expected he would just be abl
e to bring her home to me
immediately
. I realize that
it
was stupid to assume, but the thought of
my Savanna out there somewhere
scared
,
and God only knows
what
else, made me cringe. I needed to find her, to save her, and to bring her home.
I couldn’t live with
myself if anything ever happened to her over my
parent’s
wealth. It wasn’t fair. She never asked for this life. In fact, she came here
because
of me.

Guilt washed over me and the pain of realization.

My wife had been kidnapped.

For the next hour
,
the four of us brainstormed
different scenarios back and forth. I don’t know how she did it, but my mother left and came back about thirty minutes later with a suit case full of cash. For some reason, I knew I wasn’t meant to ask questions. My parents were loaded, but who the Hell keeps fifty grand at their house? It’s like having a sign on your front door saying ‘rob me’.

I never snooped around my house, but I assumed they probably had some hidden safe somewhere. My mother was a smart woman and my father even wiser.
It wasn’t hard to admit that they always had a rainy day stash lying around.
My mother saw me giving her the curious eye. She came over toward me and reached for my hand. “It’s our emergency fund. Your dad started it when you were in high school. He was afraid he might have to bail you out of some trouble,” she whispered.

“That’s crazy. I wasn’t that bad.”

She cocked an eyebrow and gave me a snarky look. “I beg to differ
,
Colton.”

I pulled her into my arms. “Thank you for this, Mom.”

My cell phone started ringing from across the room, grabbing our immediate
attention.  Before opening it, J
ohn gave me certain instructions. I wasn’t to plea with them at all. I had to stick with one simple question.

“Hello?”

“Colt Mitchell?” The voice was distorted.

“Yeah.”

“You got our money?”

“Yeah. Is Savanna okay?”

“The girl is fine.”

“I need to hear her voice.”

The phone went quiet for a second, like he held his hand over it. “We will call you back and let you talk to her. Stay by your phone.”

They hung up before I could say any more. I looked around the room at the three of them waiting for an explanation. “He said they will call back and let me hear her voice.”

“Oh thank God she is okay.” My mother announced.

I put my head down and waited for the phone to ring. I hoped that she was right, but after forty minutes we still had no call and that just didn’t sit right with me at all.

Chapter 14

Savanna

With my hands freed, I reached down for my feet, but
was startled
by the door opening, followed by feet co
ming down the stairs
. The shovel was too far away to grab and I would have been seen by the person coming down the steps, causing them to come at me faster.

I gathered my hands back together, as Tucker rounded the corner and headed in my direction. He stood over me, scratching his head and squinting his eyes like he was in deep thought. “
I’m
goin
’ to make a call and you are only going to say hello and tell them you are okay. Do you understand bitch?”

I nodded my head, but said nothing. He started reaching in his pockets and obviously couldn’t find what he was looking for. “Shit. This phone doesn’t have the number in it.” He headed toward the stairs and ran up them, two at a time.

I reached for my feet and used my bleeding
hands and wrists to free them
. As I heard the door squeaking open, I ran for the shovel. I could hear him coming at me as I grabbed the handle and swung it around. It hit him across the jaw, sending him falling to the floor. I was breathing heavy and
could feel
my heart
beating out of my chest, but I had no time to panic, as Tucker began to stand on his feet again.

I had never physically inflicted pain on anyone in my entire life, but my life and my unborn
child’s
life was in danger. With all of my might I swung that shovel again. He turned as a natural reaction to it
heading toward his face
and it got a chu
n
k of the back of his head. He went down fast. His head hitting the floor as blood started forming a pool around him.

At this point I had begun crying my eyes out. The shovel felt loose in my hands and I let it fall to floor, thinking I had really killed him. He was a bad man, but I was no killer. My natural instinct was to check for a pulse, but thank God my adrenaline kicked in and made me rationalize with such an idiotic decision I was about to make. I could hear voices coming from the first floor and looked back down at Tucker bleeding out on the ground.