Kidnapped At Christmas. Maggie K. Black

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СКАЧАТЬ probably take the police over an hour to get here. Even then they might not be able to disarm the explosive, only detonate it.” There was a deeper, stronger timbre to his voice now, like a commanding officer preparing his troops for battle. “So, here’s what we are going to do. First, I’m going to, very slowly and very carefully, cut the ribbons holding both your hands and your feet—”

      “Ribbons?” She’d been able to tell her abductor had tied her feet with something red. But still a shiver of horror slid down her spine at the thought of someone tying her up like a Christmas present.

      “Ribbons,” Joshua confirmed. “Now, again, I’m going to cut them off and you’re going to help by staying very still and not moving, which might be hard considering your instinct’s going to be to stretch.”

      “Got it. I won’t move.”

      She felt the knife brush along her calves. She stayed as still as she could, but even so she could feel the pressure in her ankles shift the moment he cut them free. Then he moved up to her hands. His fingers held hers gently as the knife sliced. Then the bonds fell away. The digging pain disappeared from her wrists. Gently he slid both of his hands over hers and rubbed warmth and life back into her fingers. She almost whimpered with relief.

      “Now,” he said, “I’m going to slide my hand underneath your back, nice and slowly, until I feel the land mine. Then, I’m going to hold the detonator down. When I do that, I’m going to shout ‘go,’ and then I need you to roll down the stairs as fast as you can. Don’t try to stand up. Just roll.” He slid off his jacket and threw it down into the snow. Then he took off his gloves and tossed them after it. “You can put those on when you get there. You’ll be needing the warmth. Now, you ready?”

      She nodded. “As ready as I’m going to be.”

      He squeezed the tips of her fingers and whispered another prayer under his breath. Then he slid his hand underneath her torso. She felt his hands feeling their way along the curve of her back. Slowly, gently, he worked his fingers in between her body and the metal casing.

      “Okay, I’ve got it. When I say ‘go’, you’re going to roll down those stairs right here, down to the ground. No hesitation. No thinking. Just roll. Ready?”

      “Ready.”

      “Go.”

      She rolled down the stairs, her body beating hard on the frozen wood, expecting at any moment to feel the searing heat of an explosion consuming her body.

      She landed on her face in the snow, pulled herself up, and looked back at her rescuer.

      Joshua was kneeling on the porch, both hands pressed against the small land mine, in a position almost like CPR. Faint morning sun fell from above, onto his head and shoulders. He had a strong nose and a tender mouth. Even through the folds of a dark fleece she could see the broad cut of his shoulders. The faint scruff of day-old shadow brushed the lines of his jaw.

      She slid on his jacket and gloves and felt the residual warmth fill her limbs.

      “Now run,” he said. “Get as far away from here as you can. You won’t get a cell signal anywhere on this road, but if you turn left you’ll reach civilization eventually. To be totally honest, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to defuse this thing. If I do, I’ll come find you.”

      She hesitated. So he’d had no actual plan other than taking her place and substituting her life with his?

      An engine roared from beyond the trees. From inside the house, she could hear the dog barking again, and only then realized it had ever stopped. Someone was coming.

      “Samantha!” Joshua’s voice sounded clear and commanding. “Get out of here. Now!”

      Headlights shone through the trees, then flashed across her face.

      She ran.

      * * *

      The glare of approaching headlights filled Joshua’s view. As much as he hoped it wasn’t a foe, he hated the idea of putting any friend in the situation he’d found himself in. Samantha had disappeared into the shadows and he couldn’t see where she’d gone. He looked down at the small land mine he was now keeping depressed with both hands at once. He’d seen this kind before. Round and beige, his buddies in ordnance disposal said there were thousands of them still littered over the world’s abandoned battlefields. Not that he ever expected to find one in Canada. Or be in the situation he was now.

      Whoever Samantha is, she knows her land mines.

      A truck pulled down the driveway. The engine cut and doors slammed.

      The headlights faded slowly, as a lightly bearded man started down the driveway, with the kind of smooth, confident walk Joshua had secretly spent a good chunk of his teen years trying to copy.

      Thank You, God! A prayer filled his heart. Alex and Zoe were back. Alexander Fletcher had been Joshua’s best friend since kindergarten. While Joshua had been overseas serving his country, Alex had tried studying first to be a doctor, then quit to become a paramedic, before dabbling with the idea of a career in law enforcement and spending a few years teaching high school math and gym. He was the smartest man Joshua had ever met, even if Alex had spent years going through life like a boat searching for its anchor. But he’d finally taken up Daniel’s offer of moving to rural Ontario to help him start up Ash Private Security.

      Alex was one in a million. And there wasn’t a single person on earth Joshua knew more about, which just might save them now.

      “Code yellow jacket,” Joshua shouted. “Big, huge, code yellow jacket.”

      It was their own private in joke, which they’d used to warn each other of serious trouble ever since a teenaged Alex crashed Joshua’s first truck when a wasp flew in the window.

      Alex froze. “Zoe, stay back.” His arms shot out to keep her from coming any closer, looking like an umpire calling a runner in safe. “Josh? Where are you? What’s going on?”

      “On the porch. Holding a live land mine.”

      “And you went with ‘code yellow jacket’?”

      “Figured you were more scared of wasps than explosives.” Nothing like a friend you could joke with when you were one wrong move away from death. “It’s pressure sensitive. Small blast radius. I’m leaning into the detonator right now, keeping it down. If I let go, it explodes.”

      “Okay.” Even in the pale morning light he could tell Alex’s face had gone white. “Zoe, we got a situation.”

      “Tell me what you need.” Zoe leaped out of the vehicle. She was tiny, barely four foot eleven, with the kind of sharp, single-minded focus her stepbrother had occasionally lacked. Her chin-length hair was currently black with a few streaks of red. A world-class athlete in both gymnastics and mixed martial arts, Alex’s sister had been Daniel’s second private security recruit. It was her dog, Oz, who’d been barking just moments ago. Couldn’t hear the pup now.

      “All right,” Joshua said. “Zoe, open the kitchen door, get Oz out of here, drive until you get a cell phone signal and call the police. Tell them we’ve got a live land mine. If you run into a beautiful blonde woman wearing my leather jacket, her name is Samantha. I think she needs help, СКАЧАТЬ