High-Risk Rescue, page 19
Tanya unlatched the lock and opened the door.
The man standing on her front porch with a pizza box looked like he was maybe in his late twenties. Dark-haired, tall and skinny, he shifted his weight from foot to foot, and his gaze darted nervously around, never quite making eye contact with her.
“Hi.” Tanya made herself smile. “You have the wrong address. I didn’t order pizza.”
“You sure? Maybe somebody else in the house ordered it. We run into that a lot.” He moved up closer to the threshold, suddenly appearing focused on looking past her into the living room.
Tanya instinctively moved back. This guy was pushy, and she didn’t much care for that. “Yeah, I’m sure. The Connells are the next house on this side of the street. They’ve got three teenagers. Maybe one of them ordered it.”
The last few words came out of her mouth slowly as her mind began to process what she was seeing. Or more accurately, what she was not seeing. She had two exterior lights on the side of the garage visible from the front door. Both had been on when she’d arrived home. Neither one was burning now. And she knew for a fact that they were not on the same electrical circuit as her porch light, so it wasn’t like something had happened to make all the outside lights go out at the same time.
Since the lights were on inside the house, she could see the top of the pizza box. She recognized the name of the pizza place it came from. It was an inexpensive national chain. They usually had illuminated signs attached to the tops of their delivery vehicles. She glanced toward her driveway and could just barely make out the outline of a pickup truck. It didn’t have a sign. The headlights weren’t on, and the engine wasn’t running. Normally, delivery people left the engine idling.
A flicker of awareness came to life in the center of her stomach. Something’s wrong. Images popped into her mind from news stories she’d seen about home invasions. Images of people tied up inside their own homes while they were terrorized and robbed.
Get a grip. There was no reason for anyone to invade and rob her nondescript little house. She was overreacting.
Except the guy wasn’t wearing a pizza company hat or jacket like the drivers normally did. Just regular clothes, a coat with the hood pulled up over his head, and gloves.
While the suspicious thoughts wormed their way to the surface of her mind, the delivery guy’s weight-shifting moves became even more agitated.
“Shouldn’t you call your manager and get this delivery issue straightened out?” she said, and then immediately wondered why she’d told this guy how to do his job, but she was a problem solver by nature. It was part of why she became an accountant. She liked to get things in order and make sense of them.
The guy’s phone chimed, and he pulled it out of his pocket to glance at the screen. Tanya moved to close the door, but pizza guy stomped a muddy boot over the threshold to stop her.
“Back off!” Tanya snapped. She tried shoving the door closed, but his foot didn’t budge.
Pizza guy looked up from his phone screen and settled his gaze on her. Tanya didn’t like what she saw there. He had a hyperintense focus that did not belong on the face of someone just delivering pizza, and then he added the sudden flicker of a predatory smile. “Are you Tanya Rivera?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he threw down the pizza box and lunged at her.
Tanya tried again to slam the door shut, but it was too late. He already had half his body weight shoved forward with his foot and shoulder wedging the door. He gave the door a strong shove and forced it farther open. Shocked, Tanya jumped back, nearly stumbling over her own feet.
Calvin! Her heart thundered in her chest. What should she do? Yell out to Calvin to warn him? Shout for the little boy to hide? Yell at him to grab her phone from her purse and run out the back door? Could he even handle any of that?
Lord, help!
“What do you want?” she shouted as she quickly backed up and hit the light switch, plunging the living room into shadows. It wasn’t completely dark because there were other lights on in the house, but maybe it would slow him down if he came after her. Maybe it would cause him to trip over something if he couldn’t see the room clearly.
The man turned his head from side to side, as if he was looking for something. Or someone. Tanya reached for a heavy glass lamp on an end table, yanked the cord from the wall and held the lamp by her side, ready to swing it at the man. What else could she do? Run? The only other way out of the house was through the kitchen. If she ran for the back door, she’d lead this creep straight to Calvin. There’s no way she would do that.
“My husband will be out here any minute,” she lied. She didn’t have a husband. “And he’s got a gun.” She didn’t really have a gun in the house.
Pizza guy turned to her. She couldn’t see his face clearly due to the shadows, but she could feel him staring at her. After initially forcing his way in, he hadn’t chased her any farther. He didn’t seem to be in a big hurry to grab her. Really, he didn’t act at all like the impulsive criminal she’d presumed him to be when he’d lunged at her. He seemed to be taking in the situation, acting cold and calculated, like he had a plan.
“You don’t have a husband, Tanya,” he said. “You live alone.”
This was the second time he’d used her name. He hadn’t just randomly selected her house. The thought gave her chills.
“What do you want?” she demanded again. “I don’t have any valuable jewelry. I don’t keep much cash on hand, but I’ll give you my purse and you can take the money, the credit cards, whatever that’s in it, and go.” He could have it all. The only thing she cared about right now was keeping Calvin safe.
What if this jerk followed her into the kitchen while she got her purse? Was it too much to hope that Calvin had heard the altercation at the front door and had hidden somewhere in the house?
She heard a rattling sound from the direction of the kitchen. Like maybe Calvin was trying to unlock the door to the backyard. She swallowed thickly, trying not to choke on the fear rising up. Focus. She had to stay rational in the middle of this bizarre and frightening situation, but her anxiety grew as she considered what might happen if this creep saw Calvin.
Pizza guy turned his face in the direction of the kitchen and the rattling sound.
“You haven’t told me what you want,” Tanya said loudly, desperate to turn the man’s attention back to her.
“Ultimately, we want information from your sister, Dawn,” he said, facing her again. “But right now, we’re here to take the boy.”
We? There was more than one stranger here? And they wanted Calvin?
The sudden explosive noise of breaking glass yanked her attention back to whatever was happening in the kitchen, and she heard the wood-splitting sound of the back door being forced open.
“Calvin!” Tanya flung the lamp at pizza guy and darted toward the kitchen, desperate to grab her nephew and get him out of the house and away from danger.
She was halfway down the hall to the kitchen when pizza guy leaped on her, knocking her to the ground and grabbing hold of her ankles.
“There’s no point in running,” he growled.
She twisted an ankle free from his grip and kicked his face. He cursed at her, and she took advantage of his momentary surprise and was able to break free. She pushed herself to her feet and sprinted into the kitchen, shoving through the swinging door and coming up short.
Calvin stood by the table, eyes wide with fear, a half-eaten onion ring clutched in his fist. A stranger stood beside him, hand gripping the boy’s small shoulder, holding him close.
“Leave him alone!” Tanya shouted, but she didn’t dare move to grab her nephew, even though she desperately wanted to. The man holding Calvin was pointing a gun at her.
No! No, no, no! This could not be happening. Lord, please!
Pizza guy walked through the swinging door behind Tanya, red marks and scratches on his face from where she’d kicked him. He shoved her aside and moved toward his partner, a heavyset and balding man who appeared to be in his midforties.
Pizza guy’s steps made crunching sounds as he walked over the broken glass scattered across the floor toward his accomplice. The back door had obviously been busted open and then shut, but the latch no longer closed tightly. Wind from the increasingly unsettled weather rattled the door and blew into the kitchen through the holes in the glass.
“Young Calvin here is going to accompany us on a trip,” bald guy said. “He’ll have fun, and it might encourage his mother to meet with us for a chat. We’ll be in touch later with directions on how she can do that.”
Though it was hard to even take a breath, Tanya somehow managed to swallow her panic. Desperate screams were not going to help Calvin. “Take me with you,” she said. She couldn’t imagine what they wanted from Dawn, and most especially, what they could want so desperately that they would attempt to kidnap Calvin.
Dawn’s trip to Mexico was a diversion with the friends who were supposed to have been her bridesmaids. It was intended to help her forget about the bum who’d jilted her just three weeks short of their wedding date. Could something have happened in Mexico? Was she in some kind of trouble there?
“Dawn wouldn’t want you to hurt me,” Tanya added quickly. “We’re close.” That was mostly true. She and her older sister weren’t exactly on the outs, but they’d always been different personality types, and Tanya had developed a faith that Dawn didn’t seem to understand. Still, they got along well when they were together. The birth of Calvin, followed by the pressures of being a single mom when Dawn and Calvin’s father had parted ways, had most definitely helped draw the sisters together.
“I could be more helpful to you than the boy,” she continued. “I could reason with my sister, convince her to give you whatever you want or find the information you’re looking for.” Words poured out of her like water. Driven by fear, she frantically tried to think of reasons why they’d want to take her instead of Calvin.
She could tell by their lack of response that her pleas were going nowhere. The bald guy with the gun started pressing on Calvin’s shoulder to get him to turn around to face the back door. Pizza guy now stood halfway between Tanya and the bald guy, as if to keep her from interfering when the man took Calvin away.
“I won’t give you any trouble,” Tanya burst out. Tears poured down her face, and sobs rose up like a fist in her throat. “It will be easier for you if you take me. I won’t make a scene. I won’t do anything to draw attention to myself. Calvin is just a little boy. He’ll get upset. He might yell and scream and make things harder for you.”
She began to shake. She was losing it. She looked around, desperate for something she could use as a weapon, something to stop them, but there was nothing within reach. The wooden block full of sharp knives was up on top of the fridge. She’d started keeping it there back when Calvin was a toddler and had started to get into everything. Her phone was in her purse, which was pushed toward the back of the table. It might as well be a mile away.
She turned to Calvin. His wide-eyed gaze had stayed on her the whole time. Clearly, he thought she could save him. The expression of hopeful trust in his eyes nearly killed her. The wind blowing through the broken windows kicked up the tuft of hair on his head, the one that never wanted to stay down. A sudden gust blew the back door open, and it banged against the edge of the counter. Both gunmen turned toward the sound.
Calvin still had his gaze locked on Tanya. “Run!” she yelled.
The boy twisted and ducked and broke free of the bald guy’s grasp. Tanya launched herself at the bald guy, focused on grabbing his gun, terrified he’d shoot at Calvin as he darted out the door.
Pizza guy grabbed a handful of Tanya’s hair and yanked her head back, effectively pulling her away from the gunman and throwing her to the floor.
“Get the boy!” the bald guy shouted.
As pizza guy sprinted past her and out the door, Tanya pushed herself up onto her knees and grabbed at the bald guy’s gun again, afraid he would go hunting for her nephew. He backhanded her so hard that she fell, and the side of her face slammed against the linoleum floor. For a second, she lay there stunned and unable to move.
Oh, Lord, help Calvin! she prayed.
Ignoring the sensation of her head spinning, she got to her feet. She stumbled unsteadily to the doorway. It was pitch-black outside. Rain was falling. Calvin and the two gunmen were nowhere in sight.
* * *
Bounty hunter Danny Ryan had been tailing his mark for three-quarters of an hour. He’d spent the last fifteen minutes in his SUV parked on the street, watching a house, trying to figure out what was going on inside.
Victor Durbin was relatively new to town, and after three months of living in Range River, Idaho, he’d stolen a brand-new, very big, fully outfitted luxury sedan. Victor had been caught, charged and subsequently released on bail. He’d purchased a bail bond through Range River Bail Bonds, Danny’s employer, which also happened to be the Ryan family business.
Victor hadn’t shown up for his court appearance this morning, his first mistake of the day. His second mistake had been boldly moseying into a pizza shop where he’d been spotted by one of Danny’s informants.
Danny had caught up with Victor just as he and some guy left the restaurant with a pizza and drove away in a pickup truck. Danny wasn’t a cop, so he wasn’t authorized to make a traffic stop. Instead, he figured he’d follow them until they got to wherever they planned to eat their dinner, and then he’d arrest Victor and earn his recovery fee. The guy had some prior arrests, but nothing violent. The sedan he’d stolen had been unoccupied, so it wasn’t like he’d pulled a gun on somebody. It should be a garden-variety collar.
The two men had headed toward the curving narrow roads that led up into the hills on the southern side of town. Danny had held back as he followed them, not wanting to risk them seeing him and speeding off. They’d passed through a stretch of forest until they reached the edge of a residential area with widely spaced houses. Figuring they were headed to a house around here, Danny had slowed down and dropped back even farther.
When he’d approached a house, and the exterior lights were suddenly extinguished, that caught his attention. Maybe it was a sign that Victor was there and he was trying to hide. Sure enough, as Danny slowly cruised by, he saw the truck he’d been following parked in the house’s driveway. In the shadows, he could barely see one man standing at the front door. He was the same general size and shape as Victor.
Danny had driven by, turned around and parked down the street to watch the house. If this had been Victor’s home, Danny would have called one or two other bounty hunters, and they could forcefully insist on gaining entry to the residence. They were expressly given the right to do that in the bail-bond contract. But he couldn’t do that in this situation, since he had no record of this being Victor’s residence, so he sat, watched and waited.
Waiting was not Danny’s strong suit.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have his night-vision goggles with him. He saw Victor stay on the porch for a while and then kind of lurched inside. That was odd. And where was his friend?
Already tired of waiting, Danny got out of his SUV to have a look around. He quickly saw that the front door of the house had been left open. That was strange, since it was cold and windy, and anybody inside the house must have noticed the door was open by now.
The house had an attached garage, a few outbuildings and some trees, but no fencing. The open front door could be some kind of trap. Maybe the fugitive knew he was being followed. Danny had been in the office when Victor purchased his bond. He would recognize Danny as a bounty hunter. Perhaps he’d seen Danny and fled.
Danny decided to move around the garage and head toward the back of the house. He just wanted to get a quick look so he could figure out what he was dealing with and come up with a plan to capture his fugitive.
He’d barely cleared the corner of the garage when he heard a male voice coming from a cluster of trees several yards away. “Where is he?”
“Can’t be far,” a second voice that sounded like Victor’s responded.
Where is who? Had they lost their dog?
If so, this could be the perfect opportunity to grab Victor while he was distracted.
The back door of the house was open. What was it with these people’s inability to close doors? Danny glanced over at the light spilling from the house, trying to gauge how he could stay hidden as he made his way over to grab Victor. His gaze swept over the glitter of smashed glass near the threshold. He realized the window in the door was broken.
“I’m not waiting!” a woman shouted, her voice choked with anguish. She was inside the house, in the kitchen, from what he could see. “No!” she shouted again.
Danny took a quick peek and saw the back of a woman with a phone to her ear.
“What if they find my nephew and start to leave with him?” she said into the phone. “I have to stop them. Tell the cops when they get here that I’ll be outside doing whatever I can to protect Calvin. And that they need to be looking for the two men I already described to you.”
A sharp blade of worry slashed through the pit of Danny’s stomach. Had Victor and his friend done something to this woman’s nephew? Had they hurt a child?
Danny stepped up to the threshold. The woman spun in his direction, dropped her phone, picked up a chair from a small dinette set and started swinging it at his head. He brought up his arms to block the blows.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said between hits. “I’m not one of the bad guys. I want to help.”
Her eyes appeared glazed with fear, and if anything, his words seemed to make her determined to hit him even harder.
