Page 47 of Once a Hero

“No! Keep your foot on the gas,” Jake said. “Of they blew out a couple of tires—”

“Help!” Beatrice lurched forward as the vehicle behind them rammed the van and pushed it off the road.

The van flipped over on its side.

Everyone screamed.

Chapter Twenty-One

Beatrice squinted, adjusting her eyes to the dim light of the space that looked like a musty basement. She found herself tied to a chair so tightly she couldn’t feel her arms and legs. Some sort of tape sealed her mouth shut.

In another chair, Jake seemed to have passed out. His face looked bloodied. His shirt was soaked through with something. Water? Blood? The tape over his mouth looked like duct tape, which made Beatrice think the same type of tape was also over her own mouth.

In front of them, a flight of stairs led one floor up to a closed door.

Where were Raynelle and Kenichi?

Beatrice tried to remember what happened to them after the van flipped over on the side of the road. She recalled trying to crawl out of the van, only to be met by armed men, who sprayed her face with something.

Beatrice passed out and woke up here.

The door at the top of the stairs opened, creaking on its hinges.

A man in black leather pants and vest came down the stairs, brandishing a dagger in a sheath. He was accompanied by another man.

Ignoring Beatrice, the man went straight to Jake. “Wake him.”

They splashed water on Jake.

He stirred. Gasped.

“Grady Northcutt, what a surprise,” The man said to Jake. “I’ve been wondering what happened to you since we left the Smoky Mountains.”

Of course, Jake couldn’t answer with the duct tape over his mouth.

“You infiltrated our team to get to Molyneux. How did that work out for you? Ah, I forget. You can’t speak.” The man pulled the dagger out of the sheath. “Recognize this?”

Beatrice saw Jake’s eyes widen. At the dagger or at being called by another name? She wondered if that had been his undercover name.

“Molyneux told me to finish you off.” He flashed the dagger in his face. “This dagger wants to scrape your bones.”

Jake’s body shook.

Beatrice made noises under the duct tape. “Mmmm! Hmmmph!”

The man turned to her. Ripped the duct tape off her mouth.

“Oweee!” Beatrice winced.

“What?” His face was awfully close to hers. So close that she could smell his breath.

“You can’t.”

“Can’t what?” The man plunged the dagger into Jake’s thigh. “Here we have a doomed man—once a hero, now a zero.”

The duct tape muffled Jake’s scream.

“No!” Beatrice didn’t know what else to do. She prayed for God to deliver them. “It’s me she wants, not Jake.”

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