The Unexpected Wedding(57)

He was surprised, and yet not, that his father had gotten involved with the son of the man who Becky Lee’s aunt had put in jail. He hoped that this time they could catch his father and stop him.

He reached into his pocket to get his cell phone to call Becky Lee and realized he must have left it on the kitchen table at home. He loped the distance back to the house, hoping that Becky Lee and Scotty would already be back from visiting TJ.

Becky Lee’s car wasn’t there, and he walked into the empty house. Penny greeted him by jumping on him, of course. She also had a chewed up shoe of Becky Lee’s in her mouth. Cal snagged the shoe and shook his head. Becky Lee was going to run out of shoes at this rate. He let Penny out into the backyard and searched for his phone. He saw it on the counter and snatched it up.

Nothing, no messages. No missed calls. As he got ready to call Becky Lee, a text message came through. He clicked on it to open it.

White van. License 2AB0429

It was from Becky Lee. What did that mean? Before he could answer her another text came in.

AL tags. Help. Kidnapped. Don’t call or text back.

His pulse pounded and he clutched the phone. He grabbed a card from his pocket and tapped in the number one of the Federal Agents had given him.

“Cal Gray here. I need help. They have Becky Lee and Scotty.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE





Becky Lee held Scotty tight after she’d texted Cal, using her watch, the watch that she’d thought had been a silly gift since she was not a techie person. But she’d spoken into it like some kind of spy gadget, and off her texts had gone. Now, if only her captors didn’t look at her cell and know she’d sent them. Could they tell she’d sent them? She wasn’t sure how all this worked, but at least Cal would have the license number. If he got the text…

The van pulled to a stop and she glanced at her watch. A little over an hour of driving. She tried to figure out what was within an hour of Baton Rouge.

“Aunt Becky, the van stopped. Do you think… they are going to shoot us?” Scotty whispered in the darkness.

“Of course not. That’s only in the movies.” Her heart pounded and she squeezed him tight.

“Maybe they want ransom money. Only Mom isn’t awake to pay them.”

“It will be okay.”

The van doors opened. “Get out.”

She and Scotty scooted to the door and climbed out. Scotty clung to her arm. She glanced around and it looked like they were in some kind of warehouse.

Somewhere.

“Over that way.” The man nodded towards their left.

She started walking that way slowly, looking around for something, anything she could use as a weapon, or some route to escape. They walked a long distance, she’d swear it was almost as long as a football field. She wondered what the warehouse had been used for, it was clearly abandoned now.

They got to the far wall and the man tugged open a heavy wooden door with a way too sturdy-looking sliding bolt lock on it. “In there. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t make any noise.”

She and Scotty stepped inside, and the door banged shut behind them. She heard the sound of the lock being clicked closed. She looked around the room in the dim light. Far above them, way out of reach, was a small window with a grate over it. The room had a few boxes and chairs, and an old desk.

As soon as she heard the man walk away, she pushed the button on her watch. No luck. She was too far away from her cell phone for it to connect to send another message.

Becky Lee let her eyes adjust to the low light. The window was up high, too high for her to even boost Scotty up to it. She opened one of the boxes. It was filled with glass water bottles like the kind in water dispensers. Unfortunately, they weren’t filled with water, either. Surely the men would come back soon and give them water and food?

“Aunt Becky? They aren’t going to just leave us in here forever are they?”

“No. They’ll let us out.” She hoped she wasn’t lying to the boy.

She opened another box in the corner, and it was filled with packing material.

Not helpful. Not helpful at all.

“What are you looking for?”

“Something I might be able to use to get us out of here.”

“I’ll help you look.” Scotty went over to a stack of boxes and opened the first one. “It’s got stacks of paper in it.”

Becky Lee tugged open the drawer on the desk. Maybe she could move the desk over to the wall below the window. It still wouldn’t be high enough to reach the window. She wondered if the men were far enough away she could try scooting it without them hearing her.

She glanced over at Scotty who was tugging on the stack of boxes. Suddenly the stack of boxes tumbled to the floor. Scotty jumped out of the way, just in time.