Kidnapped At Christmas. Maggie K. Black

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       TWO

      Panic rose in Samantha’s chest. She could feel the land mine pressing against the small of her back and had no clue how sensitive the trigger was. But if this strange man suddenly dropped his coat on her or moved even a little, would the explosion kill them both?

      Please, God, help me make him understand the danger we’re in!

      Faint morning light now rose at the horizon, casting the snow and trees around them in long shadows and shades of blue. But she could still barely see Joshua’s face.

      “So, you don’t want my coat?” He said the words slowly, like he’d just been thrown a curve ball and was struggling to make sense of what was happening. He set his coat down on the porch beside her. “It’s okay. I promise. I won’t hurt you. I’m a corporal in the Canadian army. It’s my job to help people.”

      My heart wants to trust you, soldier. But my mind’s telling me not to be naive.

      Both of his hands rose slightly. There was a handgun in his grasp. “What if we start by my untying your gag?”

      “No.” Her head shook. The muffled cry sounded more like nah than no. She closed her eyes. This was useless. She’d never been that great at knowing how to talk to people even when she’d had a voice. Besides, she could shake her head all she wanted, but that didn’t mean he’d actually listen. Just like Eric never seemed to hear her whenever she explained she was actually very happy spending her evenings working at home alone and didn’t want him showing up with fast food or a DVD. Maybe Corporal Joshua Rhodes was a better man than most. But even still, eventually he was going to just take matters into his own hands, and pick her up or something, and kill them both.

      “Go!” she pleaded through her muffled gag. At least one of them should have the opportunity to getting out of this alive. “Run!”

      Tears filled her eyes. It was hopeless. Her go sounded like ga and she couldn’t even make a sound that was anything like run.

      “Go?” he asked.

      Thank You, God! He understood that much at least.

      “You want me to just leave you here?” He drew his hands back and looked at her like she was a very difficult problem he needed to solve. “You don’t want me to touch you, you don’t want me to untie you and you don’t want my coat? Instead, you do want me to hightail it out of here—and that’s just not going to happen. Right now, you and I are in this together. So, here’s how this is going to work, I’m going to ask questions. You’re going to nod yes or shake your head no. That work for you?”

      She nodded. Yes.

      “I get that you don’t want me to move you or touch you. Is it because you’re injured?”

      She shook her head. No.

      “Do you think something bad will happen if I move you?”

      Yes.

      “Will somebody will attack us? Like there’s somebody nearby lying in wait?”

      No.

      “How about a booby trap?”

      Yes. Her eyes cut to the floorboards hoping he’d understand.

      “Underneath you? Like a pressure-sensitive device?”

      Yes! She nodded her head.

      “Well, then I get why you’re so twitchy.” He set the gun down, reached into his back pocket and pulled out his knife. “It looks like you can move your head freely without setting it off. So, now that I know what’s going on, I’m thinking that if I’m really slow and careful I can probably cut off your gag and then you can tell me exactly what we’re dealing with, okay?”

      Yes, but—

      She swallowed back the thought. Her pulse was racing so quickly she was worried it alone might somehow set the land mine off. She hadn’t woken up this morning looking for a crash course in trusting her heart.

      But, somehow, Joshua, something inside tells me I can trust you.

      She took a breath and then nodded.

      “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

      She felt the tip of the blade brush lightly against her jaw. It slid under the gag. He breathed a prayer under his breath and flicked the blade upward. The gag tore free.

      “Thank you!” She gasped. Then smiled, just slightly, her face creasing in relief. “I’m Samantha Colt.”

      “Good to meet you, Samantha.” He tapped her fingers lightly, like a substitute for a handshake, and then slipped the gag into his jeans pocket. “Now, how about you tell me what’s going on?”

      “I don’t know.” Her voice shook. She could guess it had something to do with something she’d been fact-checking for work. Military operations maybe? Criminal gangs? Missing women? Maybe the illegal weapon trade, considering the use of a land mine? But those were all long shots at best. And she wasn’t about to start throwing out wild guesses, especially to a stranger. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened, why someone would do this to me, or even where I am.”

      “Hey, it’s okay.” He set the knife down too. She had no idea how he was managing to keep his voice so calm and yet she appreciated it. “You’re in the Ontario countryside, middle of nowhere really, about an hour and a half north of Toronto, at the home of my friend Daniel. He’s a bodyguard with a private security business.”

      It rang a very faint bell. But she couldn’t place why. “I don’t know who that is.”

      “Where’s the device?” Joshua asked.

      “Under the small of my back. He said it was a land mine and that if I moved it would kill me.”

      “He?”

      “The man who tied me up and left me here. He didn’t tell me anything except about the land mine. I didn’t see much of his face, just that it was scarred. But he stunk like he smoked six packs a day. He had a partner with missing teeth, by the sound of it. They weren’t exactly chatty.”

      “Did you happen to see what the device looked like?”

      “No, but it’s round and about the size of a bagel. So, like an antipersonnel mine. Too small to be an antitank mine and definitely too flat be a bounding mine. It clicked.”

      His jaw dropped. “How do you know so much about mines?”

      “I’m a fact-checker. I know a little bit about a whole lot of things.”

      He nodded СКАЧАТЬ