MacGyver’s anger grew exponentially. Charlie, Anna and Kellie deserved their lives back, and MacGyver was going to make that happen or die trying. “One more thing. Palazzi has always threatened you to get Kellie to do what he wanted. There’s no reason to think he won’t try again. If he makes contact, just play along. Make him think you’ll sacrifice yourself if he’ll let her go.”
“Of course, I would.” Charlie bristled.
“I know. We all know, but hewon’tlet her go. Not when he can have both of you. You, making him think he might achieve that, will buy us some time.”
Charlie nodded, and the spaced-out look he’d worn a few minutes ago slowly returned.
MacGyver nudged Jeremy, and they both stood, moving away. “I think he’s in shock. I’m not sure he understands. Keep an eye on him.”
“Anna will hand me my head if I let anything happen to him…or Kellie.” Jeremy glanced back at Charlie, then stuck his hand toward MacGyver. “I’ve got him. I’m trusting you to take care of Kellie.”
MacGyver smiled as he took the offered hand. “We’ve come a long way, Marshal.”
Blake motioned to MacGyver, and he moved forward to take the seat beside him, donning the extra head gear. Blake handed him a set of field glasses, pointing ahead and to the left. “There’s the van. The cabin’s just over that ridge.”
MacGyver raised the glasses and trained them on the black van, kicking up dust in their apparent haste to reach Palazzi. Travis’s borrowed Dodge Charger had dropped back, not trying to keep up now that he knew where they were going. They could obviously hear and see the chopper shadowing them, but they didn’t seem to care. Neither did MacGyver. Surely they weren’t dumb enough to think hewouldn’tcome.
He swept the glasses across the ridge and dialed in on the cabin. Two vehicles were parked in front and a spiral thread of smoke curled from the chimney. “Looks like Charlie has company, and they don’t care who knows.”
Blake chuckled. “Maybe a little too obvious, huh?”
Too obvious?MacGyver made a slow sweep with the glasses through the trees and along the road near the cabin. No one moved. Following the road uphill, he focused in on the neighbor’s house where he and Kellie had spent the night. All was quiet there. No smoke. No vehicles.
As he swung the glasses away from the house, a bright reflection caught his peripheral vision. He jerked back, searching for the flash of light, but it was gone as instantaneously as it had appeared.But it had been there.Something had moved and caught the sun just right for a fraction of a second. Whatever it was, it was no longer in the same spot. Inanimate objects didn’t switch positions under their own power. And his gut was seldom wrong.Nice try, Palazzi.
He nudged Blake’s arm and pointed toward the house a mile from Charlie’s cabin. “There. How close can you get me?”
Blake regarded him curiously but didn’t argue—just nodded. “The road below the house has a blind curve just a thousand yards or so downhill. I can set down there long enough.”
“That’ll do.” MacGyver pulled his phone from his belt and tapped the button for his number two favorite.
Chapter Eighteen
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. Tony won’t leave without you.” The big, dark-haired man, sitting beside Kellie on the rear seat of the van, looked familiar.
Where had she seen him before? Apparently, he thought he was being funny. She gritted her teeth to keep from saying anything that would give him reason to hit her again.
Her ears still rang from the punch he’d delivered when she’d smiled and silently thanked God as the helicopter disappeared. The man shouldering the rocket launcher had been knocked on his ass by the downdraft of the rotor blades. By the time he picked himself off the ground and turned around, the chopper was only a dot in the distance. One of her molars was loose, and she tasted blood from her split and bleeding lip, but Pop, MacGyver and the rest of her friends had gotten away, and that was all that mattered.
“You don’t remember me, do you? Name’s Martin. You and I had a few drinks together earlier this week. Wally’s Tavern? Ring any bells?”
Oh God.She only vaguely remembered the rough-looking biker who’d towered over her and forced her to down tequila shooters until she could barely walk.
“My friends and I were disappointed when you cut out before the party really got started. We might still have a chance to get to know each other better. You know…if you’reniceto me…” His large hand landed on her knee and inched upward. “I can make things easier for you.”
“No thanks.”
MacGyver and Travis had filled her in on what Martin and his two companions had expected from her, and instant revulsion turned her stomach.
Kellie jerked away, but Martin caught a hand in her hair and yanked her to within an inch of his sweaty face. “Spirited. I like that.” He laughed. His yellow teeth and vile breath nearly made her gag.
She stopped breathing out of self-defense, staring into the man’s gloating, sadistic eyes.
His phone rang, and he pushed her head into the side of the van as he released her. “Martin…yeah, Mr. Palazzi, we’ll be at the cabin in about three minutes…the chopper followed us, and we let ’em, just like you said…where?…sure, Boss, I’d be happy to take a little walk in the woods with Miss Greyson.” Blatant lust filled his eyes as his gaze raked over her, and he ended the call, dropping his cell phone in his shirt pocket.
The chopper is following us?
Martin’s lascivious attention made Kellie’s skin crawl, and dread landed heavily on her shoulders. She glared back, refusing to look away or show fear. His pitiless laugh echoed in her brain as he leaned between the two men in the front seat and whispered something that made them all snicker.