An action story with intrigue and romance.
*
I groaned and rolled over as my hand groped blindly for the cell phone that was playing the "Marine's Hymn." You know the song, the one that starts out, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli." My hand finally closed around the object that had woke me up from my sleep. Opening one eye I looked at the display and saw that it was my younger sister Jill calling.
"Hey sis. I hope there's a good reason for calling so early," I growled.
"Jake, we need your help," my sister's voice said.
I was instantly fully awake. "Okay Jill. What's the problem," I asked concerned.
"Jake, Christy's here and she's really scared. She didn't move away like I thought. She's been held against her will." The hackles on the back of my neck rose as she talked. "She said she tried to escape once before but she was caught and taken back. He knows we are friends and he might come here looking for her."
I was about to tell Jill to come to my house but instead I told my sister to take Christy to a road side rest stop near to my house. I wanted to make sure Christy wasn't being followed.
I quickly dressed and hopped into my pickup and sped down the driveway, pausing only long enough to allow the security gates to open. From here it was a straight shot down the highway to the rest stop. I pulled in and stopped behind the idling eighteen wheeler which was the only vehicle there. Reaching into the glove box I pulled out a pair of binoculars and hopped out. Even though the sun had just begun to rise it was light enough to see.
From this location I would be able to see the road I knew my sister would take. It wound down a distant hill side and connected with the highway I sat along side of. This was the Texas hill country just west of Austin. Within ten minutes I spotted my sister's red Mustang coming down the hill at a rather fast clip. Yep, that was my sister. She always has had a bit of a lead foot. I kept the binoculars trained on the hillside watching to see if they were being tailed.
As soon as they came to a stop I walked over to Jill's car. Both front doors of the car opened and the two females stepped out. I think my heart skipped a beat when I looked at my sister's passenger. She wasn't what you would call classically beautiful. Instead she was the blonde blue eye cheerleader that all the guys in school had the hots for, slender athletic body with a perky pair of breasts. I had only met Christy one time before at my sister's house. That was just before Jill had told me that her friend had unexpectedly quit her job and disappeared.
"Jill says you have a problem?" I said questioningly to Christy.
"I was seeing this guy and he has kept me locked up in his house. He wouldn't let me leave. I got away once before but I only made it a couple of miles before they caught me and took me back," Christy replied. "I don't know how they found me because I was hiding. It seemed like they knew where I was."
As she was talking I had noticed a choker style chain around her neck. It had a small black box hanging on it like a pendant. It looked oddly familiar. I had a flash, it was like the one I had on my dog's collar. It was a GPS tracking device.
"Christy, where did you get that chain around your neck?"
"Tony gave it to me. He had it put on me and told me that I was never to take it off."
"Let me see it," I said and stepped over to Christy. I turned her around and pulled the necklace up so I could inspect it. It was a solid chain with no clasp. Reaching into the sheath on my belt I pulled out my trusty Leatherman. Opening up the pliers I used the wire cutter to snip the chain freeing the necklace and pulled it from around her neck.
"You won't be needing this anymore. Jill, take Christy and wait for me at my house."
They jumped into the Mustang and Jill peeled out. I remained behind deep in thought considering what I should do with the chain in my hand. I was pretty sure that the box on the choker was a GPS tracker and Christy's captor was using it to keep track of her. I was just about to drop the chain and stomp on the the little black box when the engine of the big rig revved up as the driver prepared to pull out. Thinking quickly I stepped up behind the trailer and tied the necklace to the handle latch. After the semi had pulled out I waited with my binoculars trained on the road my sister had approached from.
I was just about to give up when I spotted a black sedan moving down the hillside at a high rate of speed. Sliding behind the wheel of my pickup I pulled out of the rest area and started driving in the direction the big rig had taken. It took almost twenty minutes for me to get it in sight at which point I stayed back about a mile behind him. It was only minutes later when the black sedan sped past me. The cars windows were tinted and I could only just make out that there were two passengers but I couldn't see their faces. The black car raced on and passed the truck then dropped back again. I followed along for another ten miles and observed that the sedan stayed behind the truck. I reckoned my suspicion had been right. The black box was emitting a tracer signal and they were following it.
Satisfied, I made a U turn and headed back home. Jill and Christy were sitting in my living room when I walked in. Christy's hair was damp from having had just taken a shower and I could tell my sister had been in my closet as Christy was now wearing one of my button up shirts. Being six foot two, my shirt came down to just above the knees of the five foot seven blonde. She had the sleeves rolled up so her hands could stick out. I had to admit, she looked damn cute dressed like that.
"Christy, I'm pretty sure you are safe for now. I need you to tell me everything you can about who was holding you," I said.
"His name is Tony Ross and I met him at a night club six months ago. He seemed really nice at first and he would take me out to a lot of expensive restaurants. I guess it was three months ago the I agreed to have dinner with him at his house. I didn't think anything was wrong until I told him that I wanted to go home."
At this point tears began to flow down Christy's face and I could tell she was having a hard time talking about this. I gently urged her to continue. She said that Tony had told her she wasn't going anyplace. She would be staying with him. When she got upset and tried to walk out the door he had beat her and locked her in a room in his house. That was when he put the chain on her. After that he would use her for his sexual gratification whenever he felt like it. Christy said that he made her write a letter of resignation to her employer and that he had his men clean out her apartment. Tony had gone to great lengths to make it appear as if she had moved away. She said he was rich and had a big house, but she didn't know where he got his money. And there were always two or three big guys with guns around all the time. The first time she had escaped two of the goons had found her and had taken her back. Tony had beat her again.
