Love Inspired Suspense June 2021--Box Set 1 of 2, page 16
“Ripley,” she said. “I don’t think you should get into the truck with Nolan. I think we should go back inside the bed-and-breakfast and call Lex.”
He froze, his finger still reaching for the button, then he leaned back against the front seat of his truck.
“Poppy? I’m here.” He raised his voice. “Can you hear me?”
She didn’t answer and he suspected she’d either muted the call or his voice was muffled by her phone being in his pocket.
Nolan’s voice rose. “Get in the truck. Now.”
“Ripley, listen to me,” Poppy said, her voice urgent. “I know Johnny loved you and wouldn’t want to see you hurt. It’s clear from the bruises on your arm that someone’s been rough with you. I’m guessing it was Kevin and that you both have been lying about him leaving town.”
Lex knew without a doubt that he was the true audience of her words. His heart ached, knowing she probably didn’t even know for certain that he could hear her.
Poppy, I’m here. I’m listening.
“That’s enough!” Nolan’s voice bellowed.
A gun clicked. Lex’s breath froze in his chest. He grabbed his keys, fired up the engine and threw his truck in Reverse.
Hang on, Poppy, I’m coming.
“Ripley, I think Kevin came to town when he got out of jail to cause trouble for you and didn’t leave,” Poppy’s words tumbled over each other quickly, as if she knew she was running out of time to speak them. “I’m guessing he somehow forced your brother into helping him poach baby bears. Maybe he said it would settle the score between you. Or that he’d finally leave Ripley alone if he did. I know he told people you owed him money. You got worried for your brother, or for yourself, and told Johnny who told Lex. But instead Kevin killed Johnny.”
“Not another word!” Nolan’s voice rose to a roar. “Hands up where I can see them!”
“Lex!” Poppy shouted. “Help! I’m—”
A gun fired. The phone went dead.
“Poppy!” Lex shouted, feeling her name wrenched from somewhere deep inside his heart. “Lord, please, you’ve got to help me save her!”
He hit Redial as he drove as fast as he dared back through the trees toward Gustavus. Nobody answered. He called his mother and told her Poppy was in trouble, to keep Danny safe and stay with friends. The second he heard her agree he hung up and called Will. The trooper didn’t answer. He tried Poppy’s line again. It rang through to voice mail.
Lord, help me. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know where she is. All I know is that she’s in danger and she needs me to save her. I can’t let her down.
Finally, he reached his home and swerved into the driveway, barely stopping the engine before he leaped out. The glass on the road in front of his house told him a vehicle window had been shot. Flattened grass indicated there’d been a struggle.
He ran up to the house, threw open the door and ran inside. It was deserted and untouched. Poppy was gone. Then he heard the sound of barking rise around him as, moments later, Stormy scrambled down the hall faster than he’d have dreamed imaginable considering her injury and butted her head against his leg.
“Poppy’s gone, isn’t she?” He ran his hand along the K-9’s head. “Don’t worry. We’re going to find her.”
He found her laptop on the table and turned it on. As the screen came to life, he tried the same password she’d used back when they were dating to stream movies on her television and breathed a prayer of thanks when it worked. Then he took a breath, opened the video chat call and hit the one for Colonel Lorenza Gallo.
Moments later the head of the K-9 unit appeared on screen. She blinked.
“Lex?” she said. “Where’s Poppy?”
“She’s been kidnapped,” he informed her. “By Nolan who also has his sister with him and might have kidnapped her, too. I need help.”
Lorenza’s face paled.
“I’m sending a team immediately,” Lorenza said, her hands moving rapidly over the keyboard. “But they won’t get there for over an hour.”
Over an hour? Poppy might not have that long.
“Where did he take her?” Lorenza asked.
“I don’t know!” He tried to sit but found himself jumping right back up again. “The docks, I’m guessing. But I don’t know which one or which direction they went to meet up with that boat your team is searching for. There are multiple ways to leave the glaciers and so many places they could hide.”
“Think,” Lorenza said, her tone so firm it was almost a command. “Poppy’s counting on you right now. She’s all you’ve got to direct us where to go.”
He felt Stormy’s head drop onto his knee. The wolfhound looked up at him and he ran his hand along her back. They were all Poppy had, a wounded K-9 dog and a park ranger who struggled with self-doubt.
“Where is she?” Lorenza’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“I told you...I don’t know!”
“Take a deep breath,” Lorenza said. “Hold it for three seconds. Then let it out and start telling me everything you do know.”
He took a deep breath in, praying for God’s guidance, then let it out again.
“When she called me, she was with Ripley and Nolan,” Lex said. “It sounded like Nolan was trying to take Ripley somewhere.”
“Did she mention a boat?” Lorenza asked.
“No, just his truck. But she speculated that Kevin somehow forced Nolan into helping him poach the bear. She guessed maybe it was because he thought they owed him money or maybe he promised to leave Ripley alone if he did. She also speculated that Ripley had been the one who’d told Johnny about the bears.”
Of course. His former friend was nothing if not loyal and had lied about going to the watering hole to protect the woman he loved. Lex just wished he’d seen it sooner.
“I know all the web traffic says the bear cubs were being moved by boat,” Lex added, “but that doesn’t make sense considering Nolan owns a small charter airline. I’m guessing Kevin is the one who tried to take Danny hostage. And if he was telling the truth about already having a client lined up to take the cubs, as Poppy suspected, maybe the whole boat business thing online is a red herring. Could be that there is no overseas animal auction and no ship. Which means that it was just a ruse to draw attention away from Nolan’s remote airfield.”
He closed his eyes a moment and when he opened them again he felt a fresh surge of adrenaline fill his core.
“Nolan had to have taken her to his airfield,” he said. “It’s just a guess but an educated one based on Poppy’s theory that what Danny’s kidnapper said was the truth, not the online posting. And that has already turned out to be partially right.”
‘Good enough for me,” Lorenza told him. “I’ll send Will back from Juneau, with backup, to meet you there.”
“I’m taking Stormy with me,” he said. “I know she’s limping and can’t leap into action, but she’s my best hope for sniffing out where they have Poppy stashed if they’ve hidden her somewhere.”
The wolfhound looked up at him and he knew that the K-9 wouldn’t have had it any other way.
He just hoped they reached her in time.
* * *
Poppy woke up to find her head groggy, what felt like a bandanna blindfolding her eyes and her hands tied together behind her back with plastic zip ties.
Just like she’d found Johnny.
Please, God, help me focus. She was sitting on what felt like a wooden chair. Despite the fact her eyes were blindfolded, the brightness of the light shining through the thin layer of fabric let her know it was still daytime and probably even still late morning. The combination of brain fog and a twinge in her neck told her she’d been sedated with something sharp, probably a dart, but she could also tell it hadn’t been that strong. Poppy raised her head and blinked, scrunching her face just enough to catch a glimpse of the world underneath a tiny gap in the bottom of her blindfold. She couldn’t see much, not much more than a sliver. But it was enough to tell she was on a concrete floor with crates stacked high on the edges of the room, like in some kind of warehouse. Then she caught a sliver of blue sky to her right.
She was in an airplane hangar.
Help me, Lord, nobody knows I’m here! The entire might of the K-9 trooper unit was focused on checking the harbors, ports and ocean beyond for boats, and here Nolan had taken her to his small private airport.
Sounds reached her ears now, mingling with the beat of her own heart pounding. Multiple voices were talking over each other in a garbled mass of sound. There were at least three men, by the sounds of it, and it sounded like they were arguing over money being exchanged and some kind of big financial deal was going down. There was a low growling too that sent shivers of danger down her spine. Then she heard the plaintive sound of two baby bear cubs crying and realized their sale was happening here and now.
And she was a helpless witness to it—kidnapped, alone and unable to do anything to stop it but pray.
Then she heard another noise coming from behind her. It was a rustling so subtle she could barely make it out above the chaos of noises swirling in front of her. But she heard it nonetheless, a low and soft sound like someone was crawling through crates and tarps across the floor toward her.
No... It couldn’t be.
A warm furry head brushed against her bound hands and a wet tongue licked her fingertips.
“Stormy!” She whispered her partner’s name so softly it was almost silent on her lips, but she knew the dog’s excellent hearing would pick it up. “Good girl.”
What was her injured partner doing here? Let alone crawling across the floor like she’d demonstrated in the bed-and-breakfast to make Danny giggle in what felt like a lifetime ago?
But then she felt the dog shift so that her fingers brushed the K-9 canvas harness that Stormy was now somehow dressed in and felt something cold and hard underneath her fingertips. She eased it out of the harness.
It was a pocketknife. Tears rose in her eyes. Oh, Lex. You’re here, too? He’d found her, and instead of charging into danger and risking their lives to help her, he’d sent Stormy to arm her.
“Good girl,” she whispered again. “Now go and hide! Stormy, hide!”
She pressed her lips together and prayed her partner would obey her command. Then something lurched in her chest as she felt the dog’s soft fur leave her touch and heard the sound of Stormy crawling away. She turned the knife slowly in her bound fingertips, pricking her thumb slightly as she released the blade and slid it between the plastic zip ties. Then she began cutting. Relief flooded her limbs as she felt the bonds loosening. Just a couple more moments and she’d be able to snap them free.
A crash sounded somewhere behind her and to her left like a box toppling over.
“What was that?” called the skinny poacher, who she now assumed was Kevin. “Go check it out.”
Fear seized her. Was it Stormy? Was it Lex?
She stopped cutting, hid the knife in her hands and started shaking the chair from left to right, banging the wooden legs on the concrete as loudly as she could to draw all eyes and attention to her.
“She’s awake!” Nolan shouted.
“Go get her to stop!” Kevin replied.
Her distraction worked well enough. She heard footsteps pounding toward her.
“Stop that!” Nolan bellowed. “Right now!”
She complied. The poacher’s feet stopped just inches to her right, so close she could see his knees and boots through the thin gap at the bottom of the blindfold.
“Listen,” Nolan hissed as he leaned closer. “This whole thing is almost done, okay? In just a few more minutes, the buyer will leave with the bears, Kevin will get his money, we’ll let you go and we can all go on with our lives.”
His voice was so earnest it pained her to think just how much he needed to believe it was true.
“Where’s your sister?” she whispered.
“Waiting in the truck,” he said.
“Is she free to go or did Kevin insist she was tied up?” Poppy hazarded a guess.
The fact he didn’t answer told her everything she needed to know.
“This is just about money,” Nolan said. “Kevin won’t leave Ripley alone until he gets the money he thinks we owe him for lawyer’s fees, bail and losing his business and stuff, from when we called the police on him and he went to jail. You were right, okay? He said if I helped him poach and sell the cubs we’d be even. Then he’d leave Ripley alone and never bother her again.”
“You figured if calling the police on him and even sending him to jail didn’t keep him away, you’d step up and fix it, right?” Poppy whispered. “I get that. But it won’t work. He’ll just keep coming back.”
“Hey!” Kevin snapped from what sounded like the other side of the hangar. “What are you doing over there? I didn’t give you permission to start chatting with her. What’s she saying? Tell me what she’s telling you!”
Poppy risked sliding the blade of the knife back between her bound wrists again.
“Just shut up, okay?” Nolan whispered. “Or he’s going to make me knock you out again and I don’t want to.”
“Let me go,” Poppy whispered back. “I’ll save Ripley and protect her. I promise.”
Nolan hesitated.
“Change of plans!” Kevin shouted. “The client doesn’t want the brown bear. Says it’s too big for their little plane. Plus he’s worried it’s gonna wake up and if we tranq it again, its heart might stop. But he likes the look of Poppy and is willing to pay extra to take her, too. We got the cubs on the plane already and his pilot is all fueled up and ready to go. Help me get the girl on the plane for him quick and then we’re done.”
Her heart stopped as a quiver of fear sent chills through her core. But she gritted her teeth and prayed.
Lord, give me the strength I need to escape this evil.
“Time for you to choose whether you’re going to be a hero or a villain, Nolan,” Poppy said. She wrenched her hands apart, her wrist screaming in pain as the bonds snapped. Then, leaping from the chair, she yanked the blindfold down with one hand and clenched the knife in the other.
Sunlight flooded her eyes. Out of her periphery, she saw Kevin dash out the wide and open side of a modest airplane hangar toward what looked like a small but very expensive private plane. She spun toward Nolan.
“I’m Trooper Poppy Walsh of the Alaska K-9 Unit and you’re under arrest for poaching, kidnapping, murder and attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent—”
“You kidding me?” He gripped his gun with both hands and pointed it at her face. “I’ve got a gun aimed at you, and all you’ve got is a little knife!”
“Yeah,” Poppy agreed. “But you’re alone and I’ve got backup.”
Somewhere. She couldn’t see Lex or hear him. She had no proof that she wasn’t alone and that there was no one hiding among the boxes and crates to leap out and save her.
But she knew Lex and that was all she needed to know.
“Now,” she said. “Drop your weapon and get down with your hands up.”
Nolan hesitated, the small private engine began to purr and Kevin leaned back in and shouted, “Just shoot her in the leg already and we’ll drag her!”
Nolan shook his head as if arguing with himself and aimed his weapon at her leg. The sound of a bullet fired, cracking the air. As she watched, Nolan dropped his gun and clutched his shoulder, screaming in pain as the unseen marksman took out his arm before he could even fire.
“Put pressure on it,” Lex shouted. He sprinted out from behind a wall of crates with his gun in his hand. “A tourniquet would be great. You’ll need a few stitches, but you’ll be fine. We’re going to go save the bears and your sister.”
Poppy yanked the clip from Nolan’s weapon. “Then I’m arresting you.”
Lex met her eyes and grinned, and she knew without a doubt that she’d give anything to see that strong, determined and charming smile every day for the rest of her life. He reached into his coat’s inside pocket and pulled out her badge and weapon. “Thought you might need these.”
“Thank you.” She took them and then looked past him. “Where’s Stormy?”
“My truck.” He ran for the door and she matched pace. “It’s hidden around the corner. I thought she’d be safest there, so I snuck her back out after she brought the knife to you.”
“Thank you,” she said. “You know, you could’ve left her safe at home.”
“You kidding? Stormy would’ve never forgiven me.” She chuckled. Yeah, that was true. “Plus, I needed her tracking skills to find you.”
They stepped out into the bright Alaskan sunlight, side by side. Poppy scanned the airfield and suddenly realized what Lex had meant about tracking her. Several small buildings, garages, hangars and sheds dotted the expansive plot of land, intersected by three different runways.
Far to their left, the private plane was driving down to the end of a runway preparing to take off, with the blue cubs inside. Nearby the brown bear lay on its side in a wooden storage crate far too flimsy for an animal its size. Its breathing was erratic, the tranquilizers were definitely wearing off and considering what it’d been through that bear would be likely to lash out and attack the first thing it saw the second it could.
Then a panicked scream for help dragged her attention to the right. Kevin was sitting in the front seat of Nolan’s pickup truck, a terrified and bound Ripley beside him on the passenger seat.
“Shut up!” Kevin backhanded her across the face and gunned the engine.
Kevin was kidnapping Ripley. The little blue cubs were about to fly off with the client who’d paid for them to be trafficked. Another suffering and dangerous bear needed their help, as well.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t save them all.
