Page 78 of Wolf Bound

“I think you’re right. At least I sure hope so.”

22

As soon as the blue van drew closer, they saw the cargo carrier on top and that the driver was a man and the passenger a woman.

Fisher and Kira waved them down, though she figured they wouldn’t want to risk stopping to talk to strangers on the road out in the woods. Kira wouldn’t have wanted to. It could be a dangerous world out there and though it looked as though Fisher and she were boyfriend and girlfriend and not trouble, whoever knew? Lots of couples were criminals.

The van slowed, and the man rolled down his window. “Are you in trouble?”

Kira brought out her badge and flashed it at him. “We’re trying to track down a kidnapper and ended up being taken hostage.” She hated how foolish that sounded but she had to admit the truth to get some help and she showed where her wrists had been rubbed raw from the handcuffs. “He has kidnapped another boy to use as a hostage so he can try and have his cousin released by other members of our team that have him in custody. He stole my car, and we need to report in so our fellow special agents know we’ve escaped but that the kidnapper still has the boy. If we could borrow your phone, we would be grateful.”

“Yeah, sure.” The driver handed his phone down to Kira.

She called Demetria. “Hey, listen, Fisher and I have escaped. We’re on…” She glanced at the driver of the van. “Do you know what road this is?”

“Pinebrook.”

“Pinebrook Road. We’re on foot and need a pick up. We’re about fifteen miles from the service station where Oscar stole the boy and my car and took us hostage.”

Demetria said, “I’m sending someone now to pick you up. What about the boy?”

“The boy’s name is Tommy Jones. I wasn’t able to ask him much else before Oscar took off with him and he’s driving my car.” She gave Demetria her license plate number.

“But you’ve got someone else’s phone.”

“A nice couple loaned it to me to make this call to you. But I have to give it back.”

“Alright. Tanner’s on his way to get you,” Demetria said.

“Okay, thanks. I’ll let Fisher know. We’ll just stay here then. What are you going to do about the kidnapper?”

“We’ll have to be careful, but we’re having someone posted at all the places where the bus will stop so that if Royce gets off earlier than Colorado City, we’ll catch him. If his cousin comes for him at any of the locations, we’ll catch both of them. Tanner will pick you up and take you to the bus stop in Colorado City,” Demetria said.

“Okay, great. We’ll see you soon, one way or another, I’m sure.” Then they ended the call, and Kira thanked the driver and handed his phone back to him.

“Do you need us to drop you off anywhere?” The man and woman looked shocked to hear of all that was going on out here.

“No, thanks we’re going to get picked up by some of our law enforcement agents.” Not really, if Tanner was coming to pick them up.

“Get them some bottles of water,” his wife said to someone in the back of the van.

Then a couple of kids about twelve and fourteen brought some bottles of water to the dad and he handed them out the window.

“Thanks so much,” Kira said, glad they had run into them.

“Yeah, thanks,” Fisher said.

Then the people wished them luck and drove off.

“I sure wish we could go to the third bus stop right now,” Fisher said as they sat down on the side of the road. They each drank from one of the bottles of water. “I wasn’t sure if the USF policy allowed us to release someone who is in custody for serious crimes and give into a kidnapper’s demands.”

“As far as Demetria and the others were concerned, three of us were being held as hostages at the time. They couldn’t risk losing all of us. But even so, they can’t risk losing the boy. So they’ll do their best to keep track of Royce while they try and apprehend Oscar too.”

“Good. Do you hear a siren off in the distance?” Fisher asked.

“Yeah, and it’s headed this way.”

They stood and watched for the police car. “Tanner wouldn’t be driving one. Someone must be in trouble,” Fisher said.

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