Page 18 of No Escape

Ridge is here to be the neutral party.

Easton knows Shaw and I are compromised when it comes to Saylor.

Fucking hell.

It’s killing me to know she’s out there somewhere, scared out of her mind, and it’s been the better part offourdays since she went missing.

The senator sat around, waiting for a ransom demand, for almost three days. He finally realized a call wasn’t coming and frantically called our boss.

We got lucky still being in Boston. It has an international airport with a nonstop flight to Amsterdam that we were able to jump on with only a forty-five-minute wait. From the time I took Easton’s call to the time we were boots on the ground in the Netherlands, only eleven hours had passed, but that doesn’t mean shit.

The first forty-eight hours of any investigation is the most crucial.

“I don’t know anything! I swear,” Avery says. “Check my phone. I showed the other guys. She texted me that she was coming back to the hotel. I sent a text twenty minutes later, asking if she got here safely…” She sobs. “She never responded, but I didn’t realize until I woke up the next morning. I’m just as worried as you are.”

“If I find out you were involved in this, I’ll kill you myself.” Shaw growls, and I stomp over, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him away from the crying woman. “We’ve got fucking nothing,” he snarls. “No idea where to start, and the trail is four days cold.”

“Give Calder some time to go through the security feeds,” I say, referencing the tech guy for Shadow Security. Easton handpicked Calder for his tech skills, and he’s the best in the business. He’s thorough as fuck because he hyper-focuses until he finds something.

“She could already be dead,” Shaw hisses, slapping out of my hold. “Do you know what they could be doing to her right this very second?”

My gut churns.

Yeah, I do.

And it fucking kills me.

* * *

Before

“You wake up in an unfamiliar room. You’re tied to a chair much like the one you’re in now. What’s your first step?” I ask, pacing in front of the chair I’ve got Saylor in.

“Do I know I’ve been kidnapped?” she asks in a humor-lined tone. She’s always so light and happy. I hate having to go over this shit, but the bottom line is that it could save her life one day.

“Your head is foggy. You know you were taken but not where you are geographically. You also don’t know who your assailants are.” I turn back to face her and quirk an eyebrow. “What do you do first?”

“Play dead?”

“Saylor,” I growl, taking a step toward her chair.

“Stay quiet and try not to move. Keep my eyes closed and listen.” She rolls her eyes so hard they practically get stuck in the back of her head. “Regulate my breathing and don’t panic. Try to determine if I’m alone or if there are others in the room. Listen for anyone talking or discussing what their plans are. If no one is speaking, keep an ear out for sounds like someone breathing.”

“How long do you wait before opening your eyes?”

“At least a few minutes. Even then, I shouldn’t make it obvious that I’m awake. If I can safely assess my surroundings, I should do that, but only if it doesn’t put me at risk.”

I nod, exhaling heavily. Her answer was textbook. She pays attention and memorizes the information, even if she gives me a hard time about it.

The goal is to have these sessions be for nothing. If she never has to use the knowledge, that’s a good thing, but if she ever does need it, I won’t be able to sleep at night unless I know she’s prepared.

“Your kidnapper has made contact. What do you do?” I ask, rubbing my hands together and giving her an expectant look.

“Answer their questions as calmly and clearly as possible.” She smiles, raises a hand, and ticks the steps off one by one. “Don’t beg. Don’t cry. Don’t be uncooperative. The more I agitate or antagonize them, the higher the chance they’ll torture me. Give them the number to Shadow Security’s kidnapping line. Assure them it’s monitored twenty-four hours a day and that the ransom demands will be paid.”

“What do you do if your kidnapper gets in your face?” I grab the arms of the chair Saylor sits in and block her in.

To make the kidnapping training realistic, the manual says I should tie her up and leave her blindfolded for at least fifteen minutes.

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