The Tycoon's Marriage Exchange (19 page)

Clapping his hands together, Rolf suddenly looked like an evil kid in a candy shop. 
“Duty calls, my lovely!  I’ll be back to deal
with
you in a few minutes,” he whispered, delight and anticipation in every word. 

Kallista
wasn’t sure if the screaming or the whispering was more terrifying.  But he chuckled as he left the room, slamming the metal door behind him.  Unfortunately, he took her cell phone with him, which she’d heard could be used as a tracking device if it were left on. 

She just prayed that Hector understood what she’d told him, but she couldn’t wait to find out.  As soon as she was alone, she started working on the ropes that were binding her arms.  S
he wiggled her hands just a bit
, not even aware when the ropes tore her skin.  The chair was an old, wooden type that creaked as she moved, which was even better.  Apparentl
y, this was the old style chair
that had probably been on the docks for years, decades even.  The salt and the years only made things easier for her. 

She rocked back and forth until she was on her toes, then she hopped over to the nearest wall on her toes, ignoring the pain as the ropes tore at the skin along her ankles. 
It took her three tries, but finally, the old wood splintered after s
he knocked it
as hard as she could
against the
cement walls.  Once the wood was broken, she was able to stand up and smack the remaining
slats
against
the
wall until the joints broke and she just slid the ropes off the wood, then off her wrists. 

Once she was free of the chair, she hurried over to the table, her shaking fingers going through the other items in her bag.  Her camera was gone, but they’d left everything
minus
her wallet.  That left her sunglasses, a pen light, some chewing gum and her car keys. 

She stuffed it all back in her
bag
, even taking her jacket along even though she had no idea what use it might be later on.  It was just a reaction but she didn’t have time to contemplate the issue.

At the door, she listened carefully, trying to hear if Rolf had left a guard outside her door.  When she didn’t hear anything, she bent down and broke her sunglasses
.  U
sing the metal
side arms that held the lenses in
on her face
, she scraped the
ends against the rough cement wall
until there were two points.  With those, she
bent down and started working the lock. 

It took her longer than she’d anticipated
to pick the lock open
, but she attributed that to her rapid heart rate and the adrenaline that was pumping through her body.  The splitting headache didn’t help either. 

When she finally heard the lock release, she slowly, carefully opened the metal door, listening to hear anything that might indicate a guard or anyone passing nearby.  When she only heard silence, she poked her head out the door, looking around. 
This room looked to be some sort of warehouse office with an old desk and lots of boxes filled with old documents stacked against the wall.  There were windows high up on one wall that let in sunlight and a larger window on another wall that Kallista suspected looked down into the warehouse itself. 
She immediately spotted her camera sitting on another table but no cell phone. 

Duck walking over to the table to keep her head lower than the windows above her, she grabbed her camera, checked the battery and cursed when she realized that he’d taken her memory card.  She started to bi
te her lip
, but the pain from his slap
made her cringe and stop the movement. 

Looking around, she saw the
outer
door
to the office
but outside that one, she heard voices.  Probably not the way to go, she thought.  There were some windows high up on the wall on the other side, but she couldn’t reach them.

Ladder.  She needed some sort of ladder. 

She was just about to push some of the boxes underneath the window so she could get out when something occurred to her.  She had a spare memory card in her denim jacket.  She’d left it there the other day when she’d been taking pictures of the north end of the ship yard.  Ducking down once again, she pulled her jacket out of her bag, praying that Rolf
’s
ripping rampage hadn’t gotten caused the memory card to fall out. 

Finally
,
luck was on her side.  It was deep down in a pocket, but she finally fished it out.  Slipping i
t into place on her camera, she
crawled back across the floor, poking her head up just high enough to see through the warehouse window.  What she saw made her gasp in horror.  Down on the warehouse floor, there was a forklift unloading pallets of white, shrink wrapped packages.  She wasn’t positive, but she was guessing this was the shipment of cocaine that she’d been waiting for this morning.

No one was looking up at the warehouse office window, so she was free to snap pictures for several minutes.  She was careful to get as many faces as possible, ensuring that she caught them near the white material.  She’d let the police figure out what was actually in those packages. 

Okay,
pictures taken, evidence gathered, time to hit the road.  S
he needed to get out of here
and get these pictures to
the police
so they
could investigate.  And the police needed to get here before these men got rid of all the evidence. 
Police were
secondary
though
, she thought as she snapped one last picture of Rolf himself taking down one of the packages.  When her camera caught him tasting the material, and in the next frame, he was smiling, she knew she had something important. 

Time
to get out of here, she told herself firmly
. 

Stuffing her camera back in her bag, she pushed the boxes underneath the windows.  Carefully and as slowly as possible, she climbed the boxes until her fingers were just able to reach the edge of the window, then pull herself up.  She was just outside the edge of the window looking down, when she realized that she’d have to go up in order to get away.  The roof was really her only option since there were men with large weapons directly below her.  Thankfully, the roof was easily accessible from this height and she simply lifted herself up and over, careful not to stand too high and draw attention to herself from the people down below. 

After that, it was a simple case of hurrying as quietly as possible across the roof, jumping onto the next wa
rehouse, then jumping down onto the stairs for that
building’s
roof access.  She couldn’t believe it was that simple.  In the movies, it was never so easy and someone always died or was wounded
while trying to get away
.  Even in all the books she’d read, the good guy rarely escaped unscathed. 

She was running across the asphalt, dodging view from those guards
on the ground
and hurrying to the one area she knew was always occupied during the day.  The shipyard headquarters. 

She was just about to spin around another container when a steel band wrapped around her waist, lifting her off her feet.  She almost screamed when her mouth was covered by a strong, but gentle hand.  When she stopped struggling and looked up at her captor, she realized that it was Hector holding her against him, his eyes looking down at her without saying a word. 

“
You’re
here!” she gasped and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, reveling in
how
wonderful he felt right now. 

“And I’d like a very good explanation as to why you are here as well.  But right now, I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Wait!” she spotted the police behind him, all of whom were relaxing and shaking their heads as they realized that their mission was over and successful.  “We can’t leave.  There’s a whole ship load of cocaine being unloaded over there in the warehouse!”

All of the police officers were back on high alert, their eyes straining towards her.  One of the men, the one obviously in charge, shuffled over to her.  “Are you sure?  We can’t go in these buildings without probable cause so if you’re wrong, we could have a big problem on our hands.”

Kallista
smiled for the first time that morning.  “I have your probable cause,” she said and pulled her bag around to the front of her.  When she pulled her
digital
camera out, she flipped on the power, then turned the camera around so the officer could see the pictures she’d snapped about fifteen minutes ago
.  There were about twenty men,
thirty pictures in all of men unloading and breaking down the pallets of white material. 

The police officer watched in amazement while she flipped through the pictures.  Then he looked down at her with a huge grin and nodded.  “That seems pretty probable to me.  Much obliged, ma’am,” he said and waved for his officers to gather closer.  He radioed his superiors and ordered a containment of the shipyard, all gates closed down.  Then his men got into position, surrounding the warehouse. 

“I need pictures of this,” she whispered to Hector as they watched the police surround the building. 

Hector stopped her from moving closer.  “No way!”

She spun around and looked at him, seeing the fear in his eyes.  She realized that he was afraid, for her!  She bit her lower lip again, then cringed with the pain.  Her eyes scanned the area, then came up with an idea.  “How about this?  I climb up there on top of this container.  I can use my zoom
lens
to get all the photos, but I’ll still be out of range for most of their weapons.  Does that sound good to you?” she asked.

Hector thought about it for half a second.  “Fine, but you wear my vest,” he said and pulled the Velcro off his vest and plunked
the bullet proof material over her head, strapping the sides together so that she was as protected as possible.  “And you’re not moving from that container, understand?”

She kissed his cheek and nodded happily.  “I knew you’d be here to save me,” she replied with love shining through her eyes. 

“You gave me
some
good clues,” he replied.  “B
ut it seems to me that you pretty much saved yourself,” he grumbled. 

She laughed and turned around, putting her foot on the metal closure as leverage.  When she felt his hands on her bottom, she looked back down at him.  “Don’t enjoy this too much,” she warned.

“Oh, I am,” he came back
with a lascivious grin as he watched her from below
. 

She found a good position on the roof of the container, then felt Hector’s strong arms circling hers.  She smiled happily as she snapped the pictures of the police officers closing in on the warehouse.  She
even
got some great pictures of Rolf Peterson being led away in handcuffs.  Overall, it was a wonderful day, even though
H
ector
eventually
forced her to visit his private doctor to make sure her head was okay. 
At least he waited until she’d filed the story and pictures with her editor, who was astounded by the details and background provided. 

Later that night, as
H
ector held her in his arms and they were both naked and sated, she turned to face him again.  “Thank you for this morning.”

“You’re a good reporter,
Kallista
.  I had no idea you could write that well, but do me a favor.”  When she smiled and nodded eager
ly
.  “Don’t go after any more drug dealers.  And let me know what stories you’re working on as you’re going along from now on.  It took me too long to figure out what you meant by having coffee with your friend this morning.”

She propped her chin on his chest and grinned.  “How long did it take you?”

“Only a few seconds.  But those were the worst few seconds of my life.  I can’t be without you,” he said and ran his hand along her bare back. 

“You won’t have to.  I’m here to stay and I promise, we’ll definitely communicate better from now on.  We’ve definitely had enough mis-communications to last us the rest of our lives, wouldn’t you say?’

“Definitely,” he replied back
and kissed her gently on her bruised lips
. 

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