Page 42 of City of Love

The pitcher took her elbow, like he was ready to escort her onto a dance floor. “What’s your name, beautiful?”

She flinched her arm away, slowly backing up until she butted against the flamingo fence. Every fiber of her being readied to run. “Who are you guys? How did you know I’d be here?”

She swiveled her head, eyes frantically searching for some plan of escape. The reptile house? The primate reserve? Bear country? Should she yell for a zookeeper to come help her? She could only imagine what her story would sound like to a stranger, though admittedly that would be the least of her problems in this scenario.

Whatever she did though, she needed to stop swiveling her head. Lexi didn’t know if it was the sudden change of worlds, or fear, but she felt dizzy. And nauseated. And weak.

Her knees started to buckle, but the two men were there to catch her, each hooking an arm around her, one of them pressing what she felt sure was the business end of a pistol into her ribs.

“Let’s see a happy zoogoing-smile, babe,” one said as they led her towards the park exit. “We’re just a normal threesome—two brothers and their pony-riding sister out for the day.”

“Gideon?” Fear clutched at her gut, but the more she panicked, the less chance she had of being calm enough to connect with him. There was no response—just a buzzing in her ears.

“Where are we going? And by the way, you still haven’t told me who you are,” she said as they made their way through the parking lot, her eyes constantly scanning for a way out of the situation that wouldn’t involve a gunshot wound to her torso.

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

“Kind of a cliché answer, don’t you think?” She pulled against their arms, but knew it was really no use, the gun jammed to her side a constant reminder of her helplessness.

“Settle down and don’t try to be some kind of heroine.”

Her heart sunk at the phrase. “Gideon? Why can’t you hear me?” For the first time she wondered if something might be wrong on his end. No, please God, no.

When she heard the chirp of the car remote unlocking the doors to the SUV in front of them, she knew it was her last chance. As the back-seat door was opened and a hand placed on her back to guide her in, she spotted a family getting out of their car in the next row. She opened her mouth to yell for their attention. She’d take the risk that her abductors wouldn’t fire the weapon in such a public spot. But the sight of a toddler being lifted onto his father’s shoulders gave her pause. She had no idea whether her abductors would go so far as to pull that gun on these innocent bystanders, but she simply wouldn’t take a chance of putting that child in harm’s way, and she got in the car.

As they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway toward the city, Lexi huddled into a corner of the backseat. She tested the lock on the door.

“Forget it, we’ve got the childproof lock engaged,” the man in the pitcher’s jersey said. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Pulling her knees up to her chest, she rested her head on top of them and let the tears fall.

What the fuck is going on? I don’t understand.

While one man drove, the other made a phone call. “We’ve got one. We’re on our way.” A pause while he listened to whoever spoke on the other end of the line. “No. A woman. Brunette.”

He glanced over his shoulder to the back seat, and Lexi now regretted the tears he saw on her face. She raised her head, wiping away the streaks with the back of her hand and returning his stare. An attempted muster of defiance.

He turned away unimpressed and spoke into the cell again. “Yeah, she definitely came over from the other side, so we went ahead and picked her up. Any word from the other teams?” Another pause. “Okay. We’ll be there in about forty minutes.”

The driver pulled into the fast lane. “Everything good?”

“He’s less than happy. Didn’t get who they were expecting, I guess.”

“Maybe one of the other teams will pick him up. Nobody else has reported in yet?”

The man on the passenger side shrugged, thumbing through his text messages. “Don’t know.”

“What did they expect with this stupid, shitty plan anyway?” the driver mumbled as he slowed for the inevitable traffic in that part of the city. “Fucking guessing game.” He continued in a mocking, sing-song voice. “They’ll appear somewhere in the zoo. All teams be on the look-out.”

The passenger shot him a look of annoyance. “Be thankful, at least, that they knew the vicinity of where to expect them and we didn’t have to watch the whole damn city. Our satellites can’t track the subjects until they pop over here.”

“I just think that—”

“Your job is retrieval, not mastermind.” He tipped his head toward the back seat, reminding the driver of their captive in the back. “Just shut up and drive.” He shook his head, mumbling. “Idiot.”

Satellite tracking? Someone must’ve put a locating device on her.

She began feeling around on her clothing, in her hair, along her arms. It was like searching for a tick after hiking in the woods, and sure enough she found it. A tiny metallic button, about the size of a rhinestone, had been stuck under the collar ruffle of her peasant shirt above her shoulder.

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