Trigger

5

“Kory!” he snapped the second the phone picked up.

“Allo, Trigg. Did you find the place all right?”

“You know I did. Tell me what the f**k is going on.”

“Vhat do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.” He wanted to add you giant prick but didn’t. “Tell me what this is about, right now. Did you set me up again? There’s no one here.”

Kory sighed. Trigg heard him pick up a drink and take a swallow.

“I didn’t plan this, Trigg. Believe me.”

“I don’t have to believe a goddamn thing. Tell me. Did you send me out here so you could move the girl right out from under my nose?”

“Stop it, you paranoid f**k!” Kory yelled. “I didn’t plan this. She should have been there.”

“What do you mean?” Trigg asked, feeling worried for the first time.

“The truth is she could be anywhere.”

“What?”

“I’m trying to tell you the little b***h escaped. She got through the guards and f****d off into the vilderness, and now I have no f*****g clue vhere she is.”

STORMY

The night was nearly silent. Stormy could hear her feet falling softly on the snow and the sigh of her own breath that misted the air. She had expected the forest to be quiet, but instead, she detected faint sounds all around her.

When she stood still and closed her eyes, she could identify what they were. The sweeping wings of a nocturnal bird. The faint scratching on wood of a creature that dwelled in the trunk of a nearby tree. Far away, she heard a thin howl and hoped that the wolf was out of range of her scent.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the canopy of branches above her. They were sturdy, thick, evergreens. The starry sky above flickered in and out through the movements of the old trees.

She smiled softly. She was very pleased with herself. It had taken a long time for her to escape, and now that she was free, she allowed herself some satisfaction. She knew not everyone could have figured out a way to get out, and she considered herself lucky.

It had taken a terribly long time to work the nails and screws free from the window with her small knife. She’d had that knife hidden in her boot. Her mother had insisted she carry the small weapon with her everywhere she went. With her mother being in politics Stormy’s entire life, she learned a few tricks of the secret service’s trade.

The blade was tiny but sharp. She had managed to dig out the nails and pried them free one by one, and she then used the pointed edge to twist out the screws. It had taken hours, she was sure, even though she didn’t have a watch.

She’d been sure she’d made too much noise more than once. A piece of wood had shrieked as it pulled free, scaring her. She’d waited for the guards to come screaming in. The entire frame had jiggled on another occasion, making a loud thump. The glass rattled more than once. Her captors had not even noticed. They wouldn’t underestimate her again.

She put her hands in her pockets and continued hiking through the forest. She was dressed warmly enough, and she’d be okay for now. She had hightailed it into the forest so fast after getting out of the house that she didn’t even know which direction she had run. She was too afraid to try for the road in case her captors went that way looking for her.

She couldn’t trust anyone. She was safer out here than she was on the road. She had no idea who had kidnapped her or why. She wondered if they were coming after her ... if they had even known which way to go.

Before her parents allowed her to travel without them, they had put her through various types of training, including self-defense and hostage negotiating. Then with her father being a nature fanatic, she had learned more than the basics of how to live without grocery and pizza delivery.

While she had been held prisoner, she’d tried to get them talking. She’d used an excited, high tone of voice and smiled a lot, trying to get them to talk to her and to get them to think she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself. At first, she’d asked questions about where they were. Did they hunt here, how much land surrounded the place, did they live in this small mansion? She’d thought if she could get them talking about mundane things, they might unwittingly reveal the location so she would know which way to go when she finally escaped.

That hadn’t worked. The guys didn’t acknowledge her, let alone answer her. After that, she’d tried a more direct approach. She had told them her name and asked for theirs, attempting to introduce herself. Kidnappers were less likely to kill someone if they were on a first-name basis. These guys must have known that because whenever she tried to make conversation, they had turned and left, shutting the door on her while she was halfway through a sentence.

They had only opened the door to bring her food. The room was supplied with a bed, a bathroom, and bottles of water. She supposed that they had nailed the window shut, so they didn’t have to watch her every second, but that joke was clearly on them ... it hadn’t slowed her down much.

She grinned, pushing forward through the thick forest. She’d stopped trying to talk to them after she heard one of them complain she was a “typical woman who didn’t shut up.” That was just fine with her. It had given her more time to work on her escape.

She couldn’t help but wonder why her captivity had been so comfortable. When she was first kidnapped, she thought she wouldn’t be alive much longer. The fact that they had taken her somewhere and made sure she was comfortable suggested there was a negotiation in place, but she couldn’t wait for her mother to wheel and deal. There was a plan of action, and her part was to get away then contact her mother when possible.