Page 76 of Omega's Triplets

For a moment, he was afraid they wouldn’t come. Maddy had warned him that this might happen.They’ll be afraid. They might not be able to move, she’d said.None of the others moved on the night I ran away. If they wouldn’t come, he was going to have to go in and get them, but he’d need to figure out a way to secure the ladder first...

Then, a couple of the women broke away from the pack and made their way over to where Jamie could speak to them. “Who are you?” one of them asked softly.

“I’m here to help you,” he said. “I can get you out. Get you to safety.”

“All of us?”

He nodded. “We need to move quickly, though. Can you get the others to come over here?”

The women looked at each other, then headed back to the group at a trot. Jamie watched them converse, hoping this was going to work.If they don’t listen, we’re likely to get them hurt or killed, he thought.They have to listen. They have to trust me.

The women came over. It was the whole group this time, and although some were looking up at him with misgivings or outright fear, he could see hope in most of their faces.

He spoke softly, careful not to let his voice carry beyond the walls of the barn. “I’m going back outside,” he said. “I’ll hold the other side of the ladder steady. Climb out one at a time. Careful at the top going through the window. When everyone’s out, we’ll go into the woods.”

The women looked around at each other, and Jamie could see them making up their minds. Would they go with him, a total stranger? Or would they stay here and take their chances with the auction?

A dark-haired woman, the shortest of the bunch, stepped forward and took hold of the ladder’s bottom rung. She nodded.

“I’ll give it a tug when I’m on the ground,” Jamie said. “Then, you can start to climb.”

After that, it was easy. One by one, women threaded their way through the window and descended toward Jamie. He helped each of them to the ground and waved them back into the trees to wait for him. When the last woman had come down the ladder, he gave the ropes a quick tug and bundled it up as it fell toward him. He shoved it in his backpack, slung the pack onto his shoulder, and headed into the woods to join the women.

“What happens now?” one of them asked him in a hushed voice.

“Now, we wait,” Jamie said.

***

AT FIVE MINUTES TOthree, Harley dialed the Portland Police Bureau.

“I’m on Route Ten, by mile marker thirty,” he told the desk sergeant who answered the phone. “I’m calling to report...well, I don’t know exactly what it was. It didn’t look right, though. There were a bunch of bikers driving this way and they all turned off on a dirt road that led straight into the woods. It looked like they were a gang or something.”

“Were they armed?” the man asked him.

“I couldn’t tell,” Harley said. “But there was something else.”

“What’s that, son?”

“Well, they were being followed by a truck,” Harley said. “And the truck was towing one of those trailers that farmers move horses in, you know? Except there were no horse snouts sticking out. In fact, I think I saw a woman’s face back there. I think they might have been holding her against her will and taking her into the woods for something...I don’t know... violent. Illegal.”

“Mile marker thirty, you said?”

“Just past the exit with the children's museum.”

“We’ll send someone to check it out. Can I get your name?”

Harley hung up the phone.

Now, he had to get ready to run for it. When the cops showed up, it was likely that the Death Fangs would scatter. Some of them would likely come running to the road, and Harley didn’t want to be anywhere near here when that happened. Nor did he want the police to see him and connect him with the phone call they’d received. That could lead to questions, that he didn’t want to answer, once they realized what was really going on in that clearing in the woods.

He threw his leg over his bike and revved up the engine, dialing a number on his phone as he did so.

A moment later, Mark answered. “Harley?”

“It’s done,” he said. “They’re on their way.”

“Good. Get out of there.”

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