Taken! Box Set - Books 1-6 Read online

  Rivera let out a grunt and then collapsed to the sidewalk. An instant later, a van came sliding to a halt against the curb and a woman got out of the driver’s seat. She was blonde and beautiful, and after sliding open the van’s side door, she walked over to Sandra and offered her a hand.

  “Sandra Jenkins? Yes, I recognize you from your picture.” The woman then bent down and checked on Kari, but Sandra barely noticed, she was busy watching the man who had wielded the sap. The man was picking up Rivera as if his weight didn’t matter and then he deposited him into the van, afterward, he cinched several pairs of plastic restraints around Rivera’s wrists and ankles.

  Sandra walked over to the man. “Who are you?”

  He pointed behind her. “He knows who we are.”

  Sandra spun around, and an instant later, a damp cloth was clamped over her nose and mouth, an instant after that, and darkness swallowed her.

  The man caught her as she fell and then deposited her into the van beside Rivera, afterward; he spoke to his wife.

  “How’s that one doing?”

  Jessica gestured him over. “She’s got a laceration, but she’ll be fine; help me get her into the van.”

  He walked over and scooped Kari up just as a light came on in the window behind them.

  “You drive.” He said, and then placed the woman beside her companions, before retrieving Sandra’s errant gun. Moments later, they were blocks away and just beginning what promised to be a long night.

  ***

  Saturday, September 2, 7:22 a.m.

  Sandra awoke to bright sunlight, while lying beneath a soft cotton blanket. She flung the blanket aside and found that someone had bandaged her leg wound, that same someone had also undressed her and she now wore only her underwear.

  For just a second, she wondered if the man had disrobed her and a thrill passed through her. She shook her head at her heart’s girlish flutter and began searching the room for a possible weapon. As good-looking as the man was, he had taken Rivera out as if it were a daily occurrence, and anyone that deadly was a threat.

  She found nothing that would make a good weapon, but she did find her clothes on the seat of a chair; they had been washed and neatly folded. To the left of the chair was a small bathroom, and she relieved herself and then washed her face and hands. Outside the bathroom window, a field of green stretched to the horizon.

  After bathing, she tried the bedroom door and was surprised to find that it wasn’t locked. As soon as she opened it she heard the voices, among them, was one belonging to Kari.

  She followed the sounds to the kitchen and found Kari eating with the man and the woman. Her forehead had a wide bandage across it, but otherwise, she appeared fine.

  “What’s going on?” She said.

  Kari flew to her and hugged her. “Sandy, it’s okay; they’re friends. Her name is Jessica and he’s—”

  “Friends don’t drug each other into unconsciousness.” Sandra said, while staring at him, afterward, she glanced over at Jessica, who looked tired, and she realized that they had both been up all night.

  Jessica gestured at a chair and beckoned her to sit. On the table, lay a small feast and the aroma of coffee was calling to her.

  Sandra walked over to the table with Kari and took a seat beside her. The man grabbed a carafe and poured coffee into her cup.

  “Where are we?” She asked.

  “On a friend’s farm, near Atlanta,” He said.

  “Your friend just let you take over their farm? They must be a very good friend.”

  “We once saved him from... trouble. This is his way of repaying us.”

  “What did you do with Rivera?”

  “He’s out in the barn.” He said.

  Sandra jumped up from her seat. “Let me talk to him. I have to find my daughter.”

  “Our daughter,” Kari said. “She’s mine too Sandy. It’s how they found me; they found our surrogacy agreement while they were tracking you down and figured out that I was Chrissie’s birth mom.”

  Sandra looked over at Jessica. “Our surrogacy agreement was sealed. Who are you people?”

  Jessica walked over to her and took her hands.

  “We’re trying to help you. You’ve been operating on anger and desperation and it’s led you to do things that you would never have done otherwise. Please, let us help, my husband, well, let’s just say that if your daughter is being held somewhere dangerous, then my husband is your best bet at getting her back safely.”

  Sandra pulled her hands away and spoke to him.

  “Did you try to get Rivera to talk?”

  “He says that he’ll only talk to you; he wants your word that you won’t kill him.”

  Sandra headed toward the back door. “Take me to him.”

  ***

  Rivera was handcuffed to a metal post in what used to be the barn. These days the space held several antique cars, including a mint 1936 Cord 810 and a 1927 Bentley.

  Rivera sat on the white concrete floor with the post between his spread legs. When he saw him walk in, he flinched, but when Sandra followed behind him, Rivera stood up and smiled.

  “I didn’t get a good look at you last night, but damn girl, you’re fine. I see why Smith snatched your kid; I bet the apple didn’t roll too far from the tree.”

  Sandra walked within feet of him. “Where has Smith taken my daughter?”

  “Probably to a man named Hof, Hof holds an auction once a year for some of the wealthier perverts. I’ve seen him make as much as three million in one night.”

  “I already know about Hof.” He said. “I got his name from a man named Bob Hunt.”

  Sandra looked up at him. “You’re the one that beat up Hunt?”

  “It seemed the best way to get information, but he didn’t know where this Hof lives, only that it’s out in the country.”

  “I know where he is.” Rivera said to him. “And I’ll tell you, but only if you’ll let me go and keep this bitch from killing me.”

  He walked up to Rivera. “You’ll tell me, one way or another, and you’ll do whatever I say.”

  Rivera looked him up and down. “You ain’t so much, pal; I see the way you let that blond piece of tail lead you around.”

  He looked at Sandra. “Lock the door.”

  Sandra secured the door and when she walked back over, he handed her the key to the handcuffs.

  “Unlock him.”

  They left the barn forty minutes later with Hof’s address and everything else of pertinence.

  Behind them on the barn floor, Rivera laid unconscious, bleeding, and handcuffed back to the post.

  When they returned to the house, Kari greeted them with a huge grin.

  “Guess what Sandy? Jessica let me feed the chickens.”

  Jessica ran over to him and touched a spot on his neck.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “It’s not my blood.”

  “Oh,” She said, as she walked over to the sink to wash her hands. “Did you learn what you need to know?”

  He nodded. “This man Hof has bodyguards, how many is unknown, but Rivera says that Hof relies mostly on his security measures, cameras, motion detectors, that sort of thing.”

  Jessica turned around and leaned against the sink. “I don’t like this; there are too many unknowns.”

  “I know the only thing I need to know.” Sandra said. “My little girl is in that house. With your help or without it, I’m going after her.”

  Jessica caught his eye. “I want to talk to you alone.”

  They went out into the yard. A chicken coop was nearby and the birds clucked nosily as they picked at fresh feed.

  “This isn’t our usual style. If you go to that house, you’ll have no idea what you’re facing. What if he has ten men guarding him? Besides, we don’t even know for sure that her daughter is there.”

  “So what do you want me to do, Jessica, nothing?”

  “Maybe it’s time we called the police. You saved her last nigh
t. If we hadn’t been following Kari, Sandra would be dead now; you’ve done enough.”

  “Rivera says that Hof is ruthless. There’s a chance that he could harm the children if the police closed in.”

  “Children? What do you mean Children?”

  “Hof holds an auction every September. Instead of works of art, he auctions off children. Chrissie is likely not the only child in that house.”

  “You mean... he auctions them off to childless couples, right?”

  In answer, he simply shook his head.

  “Good God.” She said, and for a moment, looked ill. “The man is a monster.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you won’t walk away?”

  “No.”

  She looked down at the ground for a few seconds, and then back up at him.

  “Do you have a plan?”

  “Yes.” He said, as he watched the chickens scratch at the dirt.

  ***

  When they went back into the house, he asked Sandra to follow him while Jessica and Kari made preparations for the attack on Hof’s home.

  He went up a flight of stairs and then entered the master bedroom. When he walked over and stood by the king-sized bed, she came to stand before him.

  He stared down at her breasts. “How big are you?”

  She actually felt her cheeks flush. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Size, what size are you, a small, a medium?”

  “I’m a four.” She said, and then watched as he opened the walk-in closet and pushed aside a row of men’s suits to reveal a keypad. A few deft strokes from his fingers, and the wall to the left slid aside. The small room it revealed held an armory. Pistols of many types and also assault rifles,

  She followed him into the tight space and saw a set of four vests in different sizes. He grabbed the second one from the right and handed it to her. She slipped her arms through it and felt the weight of it, but was also surprised at how form fitting it was.

  He gave her a look of approval and then handed her a gun. It was a Glock 18, a fully automatic weapon.

  “That old thirty-eight you were using won’t do where we’re going.”

  He removed a few more items and then relocked everything.

  Sandra raised herself on her toes and kissed him on a corner of his mouth.

  “Thank you, you and your wife; because of you, I’m going to get my daughter back.”

  He handed her a packet wrapped in brown paper.

  “What’s this?”

  He grinned. “My friend calls it his run money. If things ever went bad for him again, he wanted to be prepared. There’s ten thousand in cash in there, along with ten thousand in gold. You’ll need it. After everything you’ve done, there’s no going back.”

  She held her head high, while looking him in the eye.

  “I regret nothing.”

  He turned from her gaze and caught a reflection of himself in the mirror.

  “I envy you.”

  ***

  Saturday, September 2, 5:56 P.M.

  Sandra opened the cage and tossed three chickens over the fence; she then watched and waited.

  A few minutes later, two men came along with guns and headed in the direction the chickens had gone. Once they had passed her position, she turned the cage on its side and used it as a boost, to climb up and over the fence; afterward, she headed for Hof’s studio. According to Rivera, this is where the children were.

  She moved along quickly, while her eyes darted from side to side and the gun she carried was kept up and ready.

  The area between her shoulders grew tight from tension as she neared the studio door. She should not have gotten this far without meeting some resistance, and the lack of it worried her more than its sudden appearance would have.

  As her hand turned the knob on the unlocked door, she knew that she was walking into a trap, and prayed that it wasn’t a fatal one. Once inside, she blinked at the brightness of her surroundings. All was white, the floors, walls and ceiling, and lit to brilliance.

  Something reflected off a surface from the other end of the room, and as Sandra squinted to see what it was, she spotted her daughter.

  “Chrissie!”

  “Mommy?”

  Sandra sped to the other side of the room and nearly collided into the glass wall that separated her from her daughter. Chrissie stood in a four by four foot room that held a child’s table; atop the table was a play tea set, and the floor was littered with dolls.

  Chrissie wore a pink dress, pink shoes and socks; and in her hair were pink ribbons. Movement came from Sandra’s left, and she realized that Chrissie was not alone. Chrissie’s prison cubicle was only the first of a dozen. In the one to the left was another little girl. She was four at the most. Her tear-stained eyes were puffy from crying and someone had dressed her in a smaller version of Chrissie’s pink outfit. To her left was another child, and then another, and another.

  Sandra spotted something in the sixth cubicle that made her stomach roll; it was the slats of a crib.

  “Chrissie, baby, I want you to get into a corner, then turn around and close your eyes real tight; mommy’s going to break the glass.”

  Chrissie began crying and Sandra had to soothe her, but finally she complied with her mother’s wishes and curled up in a corner.

  Just as Sandra was about to strike the glass with the butt of the gun, Hof’s woman walked into Chrissie’s cubicle from a sliding back wall, in one hand she held a pair of night vision goggles, in the other, she held what appeared to be a remote. She smiled at Sandra and then pressed a button on the remote.

  Everything went black, as all light was extinguished.

  In the next instant, there was a loud noise and the sound of rushing footsteps. As she raised the gun to fire at the sounds, the glass wall behind her struck her, and sent her reeling forward. Then the hands came, at least four of them. One grabbed her wrist, while a second one removed the gun from her hand, and a third and a forth pinned her to the floor. Then, a hood was placed over her head, as her wrists and ankles were bound.

  Chrissie was screaming and Sandra struggled to free herself, but knew it was useless, and also knew, that the men who had her daughter, now also had her.

  ***

  6:22 P.M.

  A half-mile away from the gates of the house, Kari squirmed in her seat inside the van.

  “It’s been so long, do you think she’s still okay?”

  He turned his head to look at her. “I know this part was risky, but now that they believe the threat is over, their defenses are down. Sandra knew this was dangerous, but she thought the risk outweighed the—” He held up a finger. “Be quiet, she’s talking,”

  Inside the house, Sandra lies on a couch with her feet and hands bound. In her left ear, is a tiny, flesh-colored gadget.

  “Can you hear me?” She says.

  “Yes, I take it that you’re alone?”

  “Right, now listen, when they yanked the hood off I saw four men that looked like bodyguards, all armed and nearly as huge as Rivera. Hold on, someone’s coming.”

  Martin Smith entered the room with Hof beside him and walked over to glare down at Sandra.

  “Vigilante Mom,” Smith said. “That’s what the press is calling you. Can you guess what little pet name I have for you?”

  Sandra looked back at him through eyes that were slits.

  “You’re the man who took my daughter, aren’t you, Martin Smith?”

  “It’s a name I’ve used for years.” Smith said.

  “I’m going to kill you Martin Smith.”

  “I doubt that honey; you’re about to be used by Hof’s gorilla’s. By the time they’re done with you; you’ll probably want to kill yourself.”

  “How many of them are there? How many men did you need to defend yourself from one woman?”

  “There are six of them, and each one is going to have his way with you. I only wish I had enough money to buy your daughter back from Hof here. If I owned her
, I’d let his men have her too, and I’d make you watch.”

  Hof stared down at her and sighed.

  “If only you were twenty years younger, then I’d have two prime items for sale. Let’s leave Smith. It’s time I’ve told my men about their good fortune.”

  After they’d left, Sandra said, “Did you hear them?”

  “Yes, and I’ll be right in.”

  Hof’s home sat amidst rolling hills, and they had parked the van inside a clump of trees; they had also brought along a car. He left the van and headed toward it. Jessica caught up to him when he was halfway there.

  “Six men, plus the two we just heard, all armed,”

  “I know.”

  She hugged him tight. “It’s too many.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  She released him and looked up into his eyes.

  “You’ll have to kill, won’t you.” It was not a question.

  “I’ll do what I have to. If I can avoid it I’ll—”

  She laid her hand flat against his chest.

  “Kill them, kill every last one of them and then come back to me.”

  His eyes hardened into stones and he nodded.

  “Wait in the van; I’ll be back soon.”

  And then he walked over to the car and opened the trunk.

  “Rivera, we’re on,”

  ***

  Hof answered the phone in his office by pressing the speaker button. “What is it?”

  “There’s a Mr. Rivera at the gate sir, with another man, and they’re driving what looks like a Rolls Royce Phantom.”

  Smith sat up straight. “Rivera? Hell, I figured she killed him; it must have been Hunt that told her about you.”

  “Yes, I got word earlier that he’s in the hospital, expected to live, but just barely,” Hof said, and then he spoke to the phone. “Let them in Tate, but I want all hands to greet them, you men can have your fun later.”

  “Yes sir,”

  “Come along Smith, it appears that Rivera’s found another bidder. A Rolls Royce, yes, I really must raise my opening bids.”

  Hof, along with Smith, joined his men outside in front of the studio. As before, the men stood to either side of Hof, their weapons out and ready.