Page 64 of Guarding Truth

“I’m alive,” she rasped.

“Ivy, are you okay?” No response.

Caleb craned his neck toward the back seat. Ivy stared out the side window.

“No, no, no,” Ivy muttered. “They’re here.”

The car door was flung open. A masked man reached in toward Ivy.

Ivy kicked the guy and scrambled across the back seat, trying to open the opposite door.

Caleb tried to extricate himself from the squished front seat, but the side console kept his seat belt from unlatching. “Ivy!”

The man wrapped his hand around Ivy’s ankle. She flailed, but he dragged her from the vehicle.

Juliette fumbled with the crushed center console. “It’s jammed, and my gun’s in there.” She smashed the compartment with her fist. “Come on. Open!”

Caleb wrestled with the seat belt. “Stop!” Caleb’s scream was muted by police sirens screeching toward the scene. But they wouldn’t arrive in time.

The man wrapped his arms around Ivy with her feet dangling in the air. One last sob escaped her before he injected her in the neck with a needle. She fell limp in his arms. Then they disappeared.

“They’re too late.” With a grunt, Caleb finally untangled himself from the seat belt. “She’s gone. They took her.”

Tires squealed. Burnt rubber clung to his nostrils, sending his gag reflex into overdrive. The bad guys, with Ivy, backed up their truck and sped off. But not before he memorized the make and model of the truck along with the license plate number.

Juliette beat the console, and Caleb echoed the sentiment. He wanted to put his fist through the windshield. “What are we going to do?” he whispered.

Tears rimmed Juliette’s eyes.

He’d lost Ivy.

“I think I can get out,” Caleb said. He rotated in his seat. He tried the door, and though it stuck for a moment, with a shove of his foot, it swung open. When his feet hit the pavement, he turned to help Juliette shimmy under the steering wheel, over the crushed console, and out the passenger side door.

The second her feet hit the ground, Juliette morphed into soldier mode. “I’m calling Agent McGregor.” She pulled out her phone, and Caleb marched toward the nearest police car.

“CXD8302. Silver Dodge Ram 1500 with a quad cab, 2018 or 2019 model. Right front bumper will be smashed in. Dark tinted window.”

The officer had just stepped out of his vehicle. “What? Slow down.”

Caleb was about to lose it. “I need you to put out an alert for the truck that sped off with my niece.”

The officer had Caleb repeat the information as he took notes.

Juliette put a hand on Caleb’s arm. “Agent McGregor is on his way.”

“I’m going to go call this in and will be back to get your statements,” the officer said, and walked away with his radio to his mouth, relaying Caleb’s description of the vehicle.

Juliette spotted one of the FBI agents and took off. Caleb passed her and got in the man’s face. “What happened?”

“We were hit by a truck. Same as you. I had to crawl through the back window, just as the truck fled the scene.” The man’s face reddened. “Sorry, but we were trapped. And my partner was injured in the crash.” Caleb wanted to pummel him, but it wasn’t this guy’s fault.

It was his. Why had he agreed to this plan? The hackers had cut them off before they’d even gotten a chance to implement their plan.

Smoke poured out of the engine of the FBI agent’s crumpled car, which had fared far worse than their own.

“This was the plan all along,” Juliette said. “They wanted to kidnap Ivy.” She wretched like she was going to lose her lunch.

“Are you sure you’re good?” Caleb asked. Her face was pale, but she didn’t have any visible cuts or bruises on her.

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