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“No…I…I was waiting for Sean when a van pulled up. I started to walk further down the block, but someone pulled me back into an alley and before I could even scream, he punched me, and I blacked out. I woke up here sometime yesterday morning.”
“Did they have you text Samantha and Hailey?” Justine asked and the way Isabelle’s eyes widened said she didn’t have a clue it’d happened. “Samantha had a message from you sayingyou’d gone up Wednesday instead of waiting for yesterday and not to worry about you not showing up to spend the night with her. Hailey said you’d told her you arrived safely yesterday.”
“Sean asked me to come up Wednesday instead of waiting for Thursday when we talked Tuesday, but I didn’t tell anyone, just came up here. I don’t know what he’s…”
“Isabelle, there’s a lot to explain but Sean isn’t real,” she told the girl gently. “Part of my job is to track online predators. The photo he sent you is the same photo that we’d been tracking on the east coast for over three years now. That’s how I knew something had happened to you and you weren’t just hiding out with some guy you’d met online. The two out there have been running a scam on teenage girls for years using that photo, luring them out so they can grab them for whatever sick shit they want. The rest of my team is heading up here, but my earwig isn’t connecting in here to let them know that we’re here and to come in, so until I can get hold of them, our best option is to stay until it’s dark. They claim they have something they have to do tonight…”
“The younger one…he kept telling me that as soon as the weekend was here I’d get a taste of the highs they can make me reach. He never shuts up,” Isabelle added, a look of utter disgust on her face replacing the fear and Justine couldn’t help but give her a light smile. “I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s apparently going to make them a lot of money so they can keep more girls.”
“Alright, then we’ll wait until night to make our way out of here if I can’t reach my team before then. I need you to promise me something though,” Justine said, waiting for her to meet her gaze before speaking again. “If I tell you to do something, don’t question it. Don’t hesitate, okay? If I tell you to run, you run and you run as hard and as fast as you can. If I tell you to hide, I need you to hide. I will do everything I can to keep you safe butthat might require you to keep going while I stay back. Whatever crap is between our families back home means nothing here, alright? I don’t care who your parents are or what the families have done to one another, okay? I would never let something happen to you out of spite, I swear.”
“So do you think the feud is stupid too or you just don’t want to get in trouble with your boss?” Isabelle asked and Justine gave a soft chuckle liking Tyler’s little sister more and more.
“I think the feud is pointless. No one has a clue what caused it any longer. I swear it has to be stubborn male pride that’s kept it going this long and I want nothing to do with it.”
“Then why do you and Tyler fight?” Isabelle countered making her brow lift in surprise. “I heard some of the others at church talking about it. That you gave him Angela’s note at your reunion and the two of you were snapping at each other until you were separated.”
“Most of it stems from high school,” Justine hedged because now was definitely not the time to get into her real relationship with Tyler. “Your brother made my life hell always tossing out Crawfords this, Andersons that, so I guess it’s been a defense mechanism with him that instantly came back since I was giving him Angela’s ‘Dear John’ letter.”
“He picked on you in high school?” Isabella asked and she nodded. “That rat, he always told us we needed to be nice even if we hated someone. Although…he also said that sometimes guys pick on girls that they like.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it,” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, shaking her head, hoping Isabelle couldn’t read the truth in her eyes.
“Well if you looked anything like you do now, I could see it being the case. Might be a little weird if he liked you now though since you don’t look any older than me.”
“It’s the makeup,” she joked, staying with the girl as the evening turned to night, holding her breath with every loud noise, hoping it wasn’t the two coming back to check on them since she still couldn’t get hold of her team.
It was closing in on ten when the squalling of the van started up and she peeked through the slats of the barn wall that were crumbling seeing both men in the vehicle. She waited until the quiet of night fell back around them again before getting up, pulling Isabelle along with her.
They crept towards the door, each moment making her heart race faster until she was able to reach through to grab the lock. She slid the key in and turned it, then quickly pushed the chain aside and slid out into the dark night, hating that there wasn’t a light of any sort on. After the dim ones inside the barn it was pitch black for several long moments until her eyes finally began to adjust to the dark once more.
She tugged Isabelle around the edge of the barn with her, being cautious despite the two having left. It was possible they could trip an alarm and bring them back. There was nowhere to hide between the barn and the copse of trees and then from the trees to the road, and with the electric fence that was their only way out.
She tried to get in touch with Moe again but there was still nothing but dead silence on the other end, and she took a deep breath before telling Isabelle, “Do you see that thatch of trees? We’re going to make a run for them. Hopefully when we’re there I can get hold of my team. There’s an electric fence around the property so we need to be careful to avoid it. I don’t know if there’s…”
A loud bellow stopped her hushed words, and she tensed, as vile curses flew loud and fast from the other side of the barn. The voice was definitely that of Harvey and she slipped a hand over Isabelle’s mouth when she let out a gasping whimper.
“I swore he was in the van,” she whispered to the girl knowing their option of going for the trees would never work. He was too close and getting closer from the sound of heavy footsteps pounding up the walkway inside the barn.
The house was their nearest cover, and she put her finger over her lips before grabbing Isabelle’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze and whispered to her, “Don’t let go, follow me.”
She took off, feeling Isabelle right behind her and they slid around the side of the house as the barn doors slammed shut while Harvey yelled, she guessed into a phone likely at Wendell.
“They’re gone…the two new ones. What did you do?”
The voice was getting closer, and she edged them around the house, then back behind the garage and flipped her shirt inside out so it was black instead of pink. Isabelle was wearing a black tank top and dark wash shorts which would help them not be seen.
“The barn door was shut when you left and it’s open now so they can’t have gotten far,” Harvey was saying near the house and she kept them where they were until the voice faded as another door slammed.
Beyond the garage was a small wooded area and she knew it was their best chance to hide until her team could get there to get them out. As long as she could get hold of them that was.
She kept them low and moved quickly, slipping into the woods as Harvey came back out with a bright flashlight, scanning the area around the back of the house before he headed towards the barn, giving her a few extra moments to get them deeper into the woods and further from him.
Chapter 9
Afrustrated breath slipped out of Justine, trying for what felt like the hundredth time to get her team. There had to be something blocking the signal which meant they had no clue what was happening to them, and she had no clue what they were planning. Her watch showed it was nearly midnight now. They were running out of time. Harvey was likely getting close to finding them now. The wooded area wasn’t that large, and it was the only logical place for them to be after the barn, the copse of trees, and the road were all devoid of their presence.
“Okay, we’re going to head back towards the house and make for the road. Hopefully he’ll be searching out here and give us a clear path off the property. I know I have a signal out on the road,” she told Isabelle who nodded, her face scared and a bit pale, but also determined, and Justine gave her hand another squeeze as they slid back through the woods, hiding when they spotted Harvey going deeper into them, still spewing curses and threats of what he’d do when he found them aloud.
