Shane Read online

  She had thought about it long and hard, thinking about where they’d been all their life and how she’d ended up in this stupid scenario. She knew the job offer had been too good to believe. Although nobody would have expected her boss to take a bullet between the eyes, as these guys came through the building. Assholes. She didn’t know who else or how many other people had been killed in the process, but what was driving her nuts was why they had chosen this route to get her. And it drove her crazy. Not only was she a sitting duck and completely in the middle of this but all of it was done to hurt Shane. And that was horrible. He was her best friend and had been since forever.

  Just then the two gunmen got up, synced their watches, and made a phone call to somebody else.

  Her heart slammed in her chest. This was it. Then they came over and, grabbing her under each arm, half-lifted and half-carried her to the boardroom, sitting off to the right of this room. It was a conference room with just tables and chairs. A laptop was brought up, which she kept her eyes on, before she realized that a video was on a larger screen up in the front. And, sure enough, there was Shane. She feasted on his familiar face and gave him a teary smile in return.

  “Are you okay?” he asked gruffly.

  She nodded; her heart warmed that he would actually come. “You shouldn’t have come. You know that, right?”

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “If our positions were reversed—”

  “I’d leave you in the mess you made,” she said.

  He burst out laughing, until the laptop was jerked away from her face.

  “Now that you know she’s alive,” the gunman said, “we want you here, and we want you here in the next forty minutes.

  “I can’t make that,” he said. “Make it two hours. That’s the soonest I can get there. I’m sure you’ve already figured out that I’ve just now landed.”

  “Forty minutes should be enough time.”

  “No way,” he said, “so it’s two hours or nothing.”

  “Well, maybe it’ll be nothing then,” the one man snarled. He slammed Shelly’s head into view again. “We don’t have to wait for you to hurt this one.”

  “Well, I suggest you don’t,” Shane said, his voice turning hard. “Even the slightest bruise on her skin, and I’ll make sure it’s ten times worse on whoever gave it to her.”

  The man laughed. “We don’t care what you think you’ll do. We just want you here.”

  “Got it,” he said. “Two hours.” He looked back at her and asked, “Shelly, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay,” she said, then she took a deep breath. “Remember back at Smithville?”

  She didn’t get a chance to finish. Her head was jerked off to the side again, and a hand clapped over her mouth.

  “That’s all she says,” the man growled. “Now hurry up and get here.” And, with that, the screen went black. As soon as it did, he turned and smacked her hard across the face.

  She cried out at the stinging blow that sent her head snapping to the side.

  “I don’t know what you were trying to do,” he said, “but no more tricks. I mean it.”

  She didn’t say anything, her head still ringing from the pain. She wanted to slap him back even harder. She had some self-defense skills, but she was up against at least two of them, if not four, the others off somewhere else, and they were each very well-armed, and she wasn’t. She wasn’t averse to taking a chance if there was any hope, but these guys looked to not give a damn if they killed her or not. “You still haven’t explained why you’re doing this,” she murmured.

  “Don’t have to explain anything,” he snapped.

  She nodded. “No, that’s true,” she said. “You don’t, but it would sure make it easier for me to understand what’s going on if you would. That’s all.”

  “He did something wrong. He needs to pay for it,” the other man said, and it was the first time she had heard him speak.

  She looked at him in surprise. “He did?”

  He looked at her, nodded, and said, “You seem surprised.”

  “I’ve never known him to hurt anybody,” she said quietly. “He’s the opposite.”

  “Not in this instance,” he said.

  “Shut up now,” the leader said, as he stood and looked at the other two. “Joe and Pete, you guys stay here, and don’t let her say another word. Not one.” They just nodded and took up positions in chairs near her.

  Joe and Pete, huh? She looked at the leader. “Who are you?” she asked. “Shouldn’t I at least know who orchestrated the last few hours of my life?”

  “You can call me Bruce,” he said, with a ghost of a smile. “And you might live through this yet,” he said. “You’re only a means to an end. We don’t have any beef with you. Best you not give us one.”

  “So this is all just to get to Shane?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, “and, after we’ve got him, you can leave. We’ll let you go,” he said. And, with a smile, he turned and walked out.

  But absolutely nothing in that smile made her believe him. As a matter of fact, she was pretty damn sure he had lied. They wouldn’t let her go. No way.

  Chapter 2

  Shelly settled back in the corner. She’d been allowed to move over there, so she could rest her head back. Other than that, she was left in silence. She wanted to ask a million questions, but there just didn’t seem to be anything she could do. Her mind spun endlessly, figuring out a way to get out of here. Just then another woman was shoved into the room with her. She looked up to see Mary, an older coworker, her face flushed and her hands shaking, as she fell slightly, catching herself on the table. Immediately Shelly hopped up and hurried to her. “Are you okay?”

  Mary looked at her worriedly. “What’s going on?” she asked. “What do these men want?”

  “They want somebody I know,” she said quietly. “Apparently they took me captive in order to bring him here.”

  “Why?” Mary wailed. “I just saw Mr. Markham. He was such a nice man.”

  “I know, and he didn’t deserve this,” she said quietly.

  At that, Mary started to cry. “It’s just terrible,” she said.

  “Did they say why you’re here, Mary?”

  “No,” she said. “I just wanted to go home.”

  “Did you ask to go home?”

  “No,” she said. “I didn’t think they would listen to me.”

  “Probably not,” she said, her tone sympathetic. “They seem to be pretty gung ho on getting what they want.”

  “What is that though?” she asked. “They’re not saying anything.”

  “No, and it makes it that much harder to deal with them,” Shelly said quietly. “I just keep hoping that something will happen, and we can get out of this nightmare.”

  “I don’t know how,” Mary said. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Neither did I,” Shelly said.

  “But at least you know somebody,” she said resentfully. “That involves you more than it involves me.”

  Shelly stared at Mary in surprise. “It doesn’t involve me at all, Mary. It’s somebody I grew up with,” she said. “And, as a matter of fact, he’s putting his life in danger to come here.”

  “Well, if he’s got a beef with these guys, it’s best that they sort it out themselves and keep us out of it,” Mary said, sounding bitter.

  “Well, I’m not at all sure they have a beef with him,” she said, and slowly she helped the older woman to sit down in a chair. The woman was shaky and distraught. Shelly understood where she was coming from, but it still didn’t sit right that she would blame her or Shane. “Let’s give the police a chance to sort this out,” she said.

  At that, Mary looked at her in surprise. “Do they even know?”

  “Well, I would imagine so,” she said, frowning. Then she stopped and winced. “It would be bad if they didn’t.”

  “Of course it would,” Mary said, “but it’s bad no matter what. They came barging in here and killed the boss.”


  “And I don’t understand that either,” she murmured. “What’s the point?”

  “No resistance, I presume. He was the boss, and we all followed what he said. Take out the leader, and nobody knows what to do.”

  “Well, that’s true enough to a certain extent.” Shelly studied the older woman. “How many are at the office today?”

  “Only twelve,” she said. “I wanted to stay home, but I came in, not realizing what a mistake that would be.”

  “Have you not been feeling well?” Shelly asked the older woman.

  Mary shook her head. “I haven’t been feeling well for days,” she said. “I’m just getting really tired and worn down.”

  “The office seems like it’s been really stressful lately, hasn’t it?”

  “That’s to put it mildly,” Mary said. “Ever since Donnie quit, it’s been pretty rough.”

  Donnie was the CFO, and he’d quit several weeks ago, under a cloud that had cast a pall over the company. “I wonder if he has anything to do with this.”

  “What would that have to do with your friend? Does he even know Donnie?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” she said, quickly dismissing the idea. It was something she would love to pull out and pin on him, but it really would have nothing to do with Shane.

  “What does your friend do?”

  “He was in the navy,” she said.

  At that, Mary frowned. “What do they want him for then?”

  “I have no idea,” she said. She sat back and yawned. “It’s really hard to just sit here and wait too.”

  “Well, the rest of us were all sitting out there in the one room,” she said. “That’s not exactly a picnic either.”

  Shelly smiled gently. “I know, and I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on, but I can only hope it’s all over with soon.”

  “Ha,” Mary said. “I’m not sure we’ll ever get out of this.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and rocked herself gently on the chair.

  “Have faith,” she said.

  “What kind of faith?” Mary said suspiciously. “I used to go to church all the time,” she said, “until I lost that bit of faith too.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “It sounds like you’re a lost soul right now.”

  “I just wanted to go home, put my feet up, and visit with my cats!” she said.

  “It’s been a tough adjustment since your husband died, hasn’t it?”

  “Well, first my father, then my mother, and then my husband,” she said, “and all within eighteen months.”

  At that, Shelly winced. “I’m so sorry. That’s got to be brutal.”

  “It is. All I’d like to do now is go with them, but I can’t trust anybody to look after my cats.”

  Shelly thought about that for a long moment. Is that all there was to life? To worry about who would look after your cats? Then again, she was a pet lover herself, and cats would be nice, especially now that she had a stable job. She almost snorted at that though, because she didn’t have a stable job at all. The way things were going, she probably wouldn’t have a job left by the time she got out of here. It was hard to say what kind of job she would end up with now. She shook her head, trying to clear it, but sleep and fatigue took over.

  “Are you okay?” Mary asked.

  “Yeah, just really supertired,” she said. “Nothing like being held hostage to raise you up and then drop you on the other side. I’m crashing, probably due to the adrenaline. I could really use a coffee.”

  “Well, I need to use the bathroom,” Mary said, “but I’m not looking forward to asking for that either.”

  “Not only that,” Shelly said, “they were here with me for a long time, and then they got up and left.” She checked the clock up on the wall. “It’s almost time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “For my friend to arrive. They said forty minutes at first, but he was still stuck at the airport.”

  “You can’t get anywhere in forty minutes if you’re still at the airport,” she said. “Have you seen the traffic there lately?”

  “I know,” she said. “So Shane said no way, but that he’d be here in two hours, and we’re coming up on that. So I suspect that, when they come back here again, it’ll be to haul me out.”

  “Oh, my gosh, aren’t you terrified?”

  “I don’t know about terrified,” she admitted, trying to hide how nervous she really was inside, “but I’m certainly not looking forward to this next step of whatever nightmare is going on here.”

  “No,” Mary said, “me either. I just want to go home.”

  Just then the door opened. Both women were momentarily startled and stared at the man who stood there. It was the one they had called Joe. He looked at Mary, then looked at Shelly and pointed. “You, come on.”

  She hopped to her feet and said, “Mary here has to go to the bathroom,” she murmured.

  He looked at Mary, then shrugged and said, “That’s nice.”

  “Well, it won’t be nice if there’s an accident,” Shelly said. “The least you can do is take her to the washroom.” He hesitated for a moment. She shrugged and said, “I’ll sit here and wait.”

  He looked at Mary and said, “You have to go, huh?”

  She immediately nodded. “Yes, please.”

  He nodded. “Come on then. You first.”

  Then Mary stood, shot Shelly a grateful look, and said, “Thank you.”

  At that, the older man sighed and said, “Hurry up. Let’s go.”

  Mary moved out the door ahead of him, and the door swung shut immediately, leaving Shelly all alone.

  Geared up in a pair of overalls, Shane was already down in the sewer tunnels, standing just underneath the office building. “What the hell are we doing from here?” He studied the great big circular doorways that connected sewer tunnel to sewer tunnel, wondering how he was supposed to get through this next one because it wasn’t opening. He had C-4 in his backpack but didn’t want to take the chance of alerting any kidnapper that somebody was in the tunnels. He pulled his phone out and sent Gavin a message. Can’t open the last door.

  Give it a minute. We’re working with the city right now.

  He groaned and looked at Diesel. “They’re working on it, but we’re running out of time.”

  Diesel nodded. “Maybe it’s just stuck. There’s two of us,” he said, “let’s give it a try. See if we can put our weight together and get this done. Otherwise we’ll have to blast the damn thing open because the kidnappers are expecting us at any moment.”

  “I know,” Shane replied. With the two of them on the wheel, they worked at it until it finally gave. With that seal snapped open, they pushed their way into the center area of the telecom building. After that, they climbed up one level into a basement that let them into the utility area of the huge office building above. They quickly stripped down out of their protective gear and stashed it out of sight, then got their weapons ready and headed for the stairs. They had a map of the building and hoped to get up as high as they could undetected.

  “You sure you want to trust that she’s on the seventh floor?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We both attended Smithville for only the seventh grade. That is one thing I do trust.”

  “Okay,” he said, “but you’re putting an awful lot on her memory.”

  “No. She’s just the kind of person who would think of something like that,” he said. “Besides, we need something to go by, so I’ll go by that.” Diesel frowned but didn’t say anything. Shane understood his hesitancy. Diesel didn’t know Shelly the way Shane did. By the time they neared the fifth floor, there had been no sign of anyone. “Did the police clear out the rest of the building?” Shane asked.

  “They did.”

  “Great,” he said. “I want to go as far as the sixth, then take the elevator up.”

  “And what will you do when that door opens?”

  “Well, I won’t be there,” he said, and he walked to the b
ank of elevators and quickly set each one for the seventh floor. When all six were on the way, he moved down the hall to the service elevator and from there he headed up to the seventh floor, on his own with Diesel. As soon as it opened, they came out with guns front and ready. But nobody was there. Frowning, he moved to the next hallway.

  It was a huge building that looked to have at least forty different offices up here, and they were on the far side. At least they were on the same floor now as Shelly, but they had to get into the room where Shelly was held. As soon as they headed down one of the hallways, they knew they were going the right direction when they came across two bodies in the hallway—men who had been shot and killed for probably no other reason than the fact that they were heading for the elevator.

  Shane took a photo, sent it to Gavin, shook his head, and kept on going. With semiautomatic rifles in hand, they moved slowly from hallway to hallway.

  “What are you thinking about how best to get into the actual office?” Diesel whispered.

  “Well, they’ll let us in if we show ourselves,” he said, “but there is another service elevator. I’d like to go up one floor and then come down.”

  “Which means that you’ll be very late.”

  “Maybe, unless Gavin’s doing his job.”

  “I guess it depends on if they can get a hold of him, huh?” Diesel said.

  “Well, the kidnappers will be waiting because it’s me they want after all.” Finding another service elevator, he and Diesel quickly hopped up one floor and, once on the eighth floor, headed to the spot where Shane figured they’d been standing, just one floor below. “Now we have the offices at this end of the building,” he said. “So what we need is that schematic to show us just which area we can go through into the washroom.” Once they got a look, they realized the plumbing was stacked from floor to floor. “That’s convenient.”

  “Well, it is for the plumbers,” Diesel said. “It’s also normal construction.”

  They quickly made their way into the bathroom, and, looking at the floor and the ceiling, Shane said, “Let’s get through the vents.” They quickly cut open one of the walls and found one of the big metal HVAC ducts. But they would have to cut into that as well. And that wouldn’t be quite so easy. They had brought the tools, but it would take time.