Chapter 37

I was laid down but could feel movement around me and the sound of tires on the road. At first I thought that maybe I'd fainted and the paramedic had lifted me into the back of an ambulance. Then was why was I laid on my side? I slowly opened my eyes to see the back of two seats in front of me and felt almost relieved that I was probably laid down in the back of one of Ranger's cars. That was until looking down I could see the rubbish on the floor and smell the unmistakable aroma of fat and food. Someone had a liking for McDonalds which meant that I was in strange car. No Merry Man would dare to pollute Ranger's cars with takeout wrappings.

A look into the rearview mirror gave me a glimpse of a dark haired man, his hair had been cut short and even though it looked disheveled I immediately recognized the eyes and face that were suddenly looking back at me. A face that was round with a flat nose and full lips could only be one person, Robert Kilroy.

"Hey, you're awake. Thank goodness for that. I thought that maybe you'd been hurt"

I didn't speak as so many questions were going through my head. Why was I with Robert was the first that I asked myself and then it was how did he know where to find me. I had a pretty good idea what he wanted but for the life of me couldn't understand why he had decided to make a grab for me.

"I've booked this small cabin out in the woods, it'll be perfectly safe for you"

I hated the idea of a little cabin in the woods and definitely didn't like the thought of being alone there with Robert. Moving the muscles in my arms and legs I tried to assess my condition. Nothing was tying my hands or feet together and I didn't feel any pain anywhere so very carefully I used my arms to push myself up into a sitting position. My thinking was that I could open a back door of the car and when he slowed down I could tumble out. Well, that had been my first idea. That this was a two door car made that something that wasn't going to happen. Maybe I needed to get him to talk, maybe even talk him into taking me back to Rangeman.

"Robert, how are you even here in Trenton?"

Though I had a pretty good idea what his reasons were, I was struggling to work out how he knew who I was.

"Well, we were all really worried when you didn't come back and then that someone had been snooping around the office. I told Jenson that it couldn't have been because of you because you'd been there so long"

Really, he was going to go for trying to be my friend.

"Anyway, when Xander showed up and looked like shit I just knew that something bad had happened to you, so I needed to find you. You had helped me, so I decided that I owed you. Xander let it slip that he'd been working with some men who sometimes helped Gregory out and it came to me. I remember seeing some men when I was found who wore black and had the name Rangeman written across their uniforms"

I didn't respond because I suppose it was a good story that Robert was telling me, but I knew there were two parts of it that had me knowing that he was lying. Xander would never have mentioned working with Ranger or his men, if nothing else Xander was a loyal person and secondly, I knew for a fact that Ranger and his men would never do a job wearing the Rangeman name on their clothes. If they ever did a job that wasn't specifically concerned with Rangeman business, then they wore plain and simple black.

"I found out that Rangeman had three offices, one in Miami, one in Boston and then one in Trenton. Xander didn't have a tan, so I discounted Miami and came to Trenton first with the intention of heading up to Boston next. Wow, you're some woman Chloe, or should I call you Stephanie? I called in at the local press office to see what I could find out about Rangeman, which by the way was very little, but I came across the Bombshell Bounty Hunter"

I had no idea that Robert was here in town and that he'd been asking questions about me. Robert's story of how he worked out who I was didn't sit well with me. I wanted him to continue talking but seeing as we'd turned off the main route and were driving down a single track it seemed that he was too busy concentrating on driving. It seemed like miles before he eventually stopped, though that was probably due to how slow he drove and the condition of the road. Once he'd stopped, he was opening his door and pulling out a rucksack that must have been on the front passenger seat. I pushed the driver's seat forward and ducked down to get myself out of the car and that was when I saw what he termed as a cabin through the trees.

My arm was taken, and I was led to that cabin by Robert. Okay maybe it wasn't as bad as it first looked. Once inside I looked around at the wooden floors and walls, the sparce kitchen area and small table. A worn out couch faced a fireplace that held an old metal wood burner in it. In some ways it reminded me of the second cabin where Xander and I had stayed just before going down to Atlanta.

"There's a bedroom through there and bathroom over there"

I looked around once more before staring at Robert. He was really pissing me off now if he thought that I was going to voluntarily stay here.

"Robert, why the hell would I want to stay here?"

"To be safe from those men who were following you"

I know I frowned at him because the only men that I knew who were actually following me was a shadow team that Ranger always organized.

"No one was following me"

I shouted at him getting a little tired of the game that he was playing. Why wouldn't he just get straight to the reason for why he had basically kidnapped me instead of using a stupid story.

"Yes they were. Look, I did a lot of snooping around when I realized that you were this Stephanie Plum. Man, some folks really don't like you and others love you to pieces. Anyway, I got talking to this cop at one of those eating places, Ed, he said that he'd keep me informed of anything new. Cost me but hey I'm used to doing that"

Ed, was that Eddie? Well, he was someone who would be on my shitlist now. I'd always considered him a friend, after all he was married to my cousin Shirley.

"He was actually worried about you. He'd heard that you were back in town and assumed that you were probably staying with a guy called Ranger. He called me up, saying that you were at the station this morning, so I headed there hoping to talk to you. Well, I'm sat waiting in my car when these two big Hummers pull up. They looked real mean, those guys inside, and when one of them started to follow you, I followed him. Had my radio tuned into the police band. I just knew when it came up about there being a pile up ahead of us that you must have been caught up in it"

I crossed my arms over my chest just wishing that Robert would get to the point because I really wanted to know his story before Ranger turned up. Yes, I had trackers on me, one in my pocket and one in my boot so I wasn't feeling too worried that he'd be here soon.

"One of those goons was dressed as a paramedic and I saw him behind you, hell I even saw as you started to collapse. So I pushed some old dear who was bleeding from her head at him and grabbed you. I'm here to help you"

At last, he seemed to run out breath, so I went and sat down on the couch to go through in my head what he'd told me. He sounded so believable and no doubt most of his story was the truth but there were too many inconsistencies, or should I say coincidences that I was finding hard to ignore. Him finding me here in Trenton didn't gel for me. Okay once he was here it wouldn't be too hard to discover exactly who I was but as far as I knew the only people who were suspicious that I was here was Usman. Well, that Chloe was here, or did Usman and his boss know who I was now as well. I felt as Robert sat down next to me but continued to stare at the cold empty wood burner.

I had to admit that I was feeling a tad anxious that Ranger hadn't turned up yet. It had me remembering what had happened when Lawrence had taken me and how that box had stopped the trackers from emitting a signal. Did Robert have one of those boxes on him, was that why he was staying so close to me? Would he even know that I usually had trackers on me? I knew that I couldn't see anything, and I wasn't going to start touching him up so when he started talking again, I turned to look at him, observing what he was wearing.

"I can understand why you ran away from Trenton and why you seemed so quiet. Jenson didn't know what had happened to you before you turned up and I suppose he was happy when you seemed to settle down. I could write a book about you and everything that you've done but hell some of the people you know. Well, I have to admit they said some nasty things about you, especially with your grandmother dying like she did"

I wasn't interested in looking at what he was wearing now, instead I was looking at his face because what he'd just said worried me.

"Who did you talk to?"

Now being curious as to who had given him information and what had been said.

"This big black woman, but she looked as though she was gonna eat me alive. Never did get much from her, only a feeling that she was a good friend to you. Your mother, she frightened me to death as well. A real stuck up cow who for some reason seemed to want to vent to me all about how stupid you were and irresponsible. Your father, he wouldn't talk to me either even with your mother having a go at him. Then there were some of the folk that you'd come across when they were FTA. The working girls, they like you and they were the ones who told me about a cop called Joe Morelli. They had some interesting stories to tell me about him, so I found him, just to have a conversation with. He told me that you were his fiancé and that you'd lost your way. Said that you'd got too involved with some thugs that led you astray and that you needed to realize that you were no good at your job. I couldn't really figure him out to be honest"

Me either. Why would a man who said that I was his fiancé and profess to love me behave as he had? I'm sure that I frowned as Robert's word came back to me. What interesting stories did Lula's friends have to say about Joe? Was that part of why he wanted me to quit my job, so I wouldn't be mixing with some of those women and other FTAs on the street? Was Joe worried that I'd find out something that would put him into a bad light? I wasn't even sure I was thinking straight because I'd already guessed that Joe sometimes used woman that he picked up in bars. Was that it, that he didn't want me to talk to other people about that? Nah, that wouldn't have had him worried.

Then a horrible feeling stirred inside me. What if Joe knew about grandma's lottery win and knew that she was willing most of the winnings to me? Grandma was old so maybe even she wouldn't have lived for much longer and if I'd have married Joe then legally, he would be entitled to half of it if we divorced, assuming that we didn't have a prenup arrangement. And let's face it, I'm not sure that the idea of that would have entered my head. Shit, shit, shit. It should do after what Dickie put me through.

I needed to get back to my situation now and leave the theories, stories and rumors until later. The reason why Robert had brought me here was illuding me and I was sure that he had an ulterior motive, so I considered how I was going to find that out.

"How's Jenson doing. I hear Anya's helping him at the office?"

Yeah, that surprised him and maybe he was thinking that I was just making polite conversation.

"He's doing okay. I think he was worried that somehow one of his clients had frightened you off. He had us looking through all of his files"

Okay I could work with that because now I could introduce me knowing about the files in the storeroom.

"That must have taken some time. He had me scanning some of those old files so they could be recorded electronically"

Robert looking down at his hands told me that I had his interest now, what was it? If someone looked away from you, they were probably thinking of how to mislead you?

"He said that and we found some on his computer. Did you do anymore?"

I almost smiled that he'd taken the bait and was asking me that question. I knew just the answer that would really confuse him.

"Yes. Actually, I only realized that I had the pen drive with them all on recently, so I've transferred them all over to him"

Robert suddenly looking up showed me that he was surprised by that. Now would he assume that a file that he was looking for was in with them?

"Anything of any interest?"

"No idea, I just scanned and saved. I never read any of them"

Robert sat forward on the couch as though contemplating what he needed to do next. I was slowly taking my coat off having assured myself that the tracker was still in the pocket and stood up to go and hang it up on the pegs on the front door. Robert stayed where he was but watched me, to the point that I had to explain my movements to him.

"I need to use the bathroom"

If Robert did have a jammer on him then I wasn't too sure what range it would have. Regardless I knew that I had to get out of here and just hope that Ranger found me. Once inside the bathroom I locked the door behind me and cringed at how old the room looked. It might have been clean but the stains under the dripping taps showed its age along with the crack in the sink. I moved to the window, disappointed that it looked to be nailed shut and standing to one side looked outside. Trees were the only things that I could see. Brown trunks and the green of pine needles swaying high up. The ground was bare as though the pine trees had dared anything to grow underneath them, a layer of old brown needles coating the earth. Okay, maybe there was the odd brave plant that had risked a tentative bid for freedom.

It was so still that a slight movement caught my eye and as I looked more carefully, I could have sworn that there was something behind one of the thick trunks. I dared to hope that it was Ranger or one of the Merry Men scouting out the area ready to break into the cabin when they knew that it was just me and Robert here. The problem was that it just blended in too well with the tree and that was when another movement showed me something brown was hiding just behind the tree.

My heart sank as I remembered who I'd seen wearing brown and I knew that getting away from here could be almost impossible. Usman, he'd worn brown, and it would make sense. Robert knew Hennley, who knew Zeneman who employed Usman. Robert had been trying to deceive me just as I'd thought. He probably thought that if he talked to me and got me to trust him that I'd tell him everything that I knew about that damn file. Well guess what, that wasn't going to be happening.

I needed a plan for getting away from here. If Usman had planned with Robert to bring me here then the chances were that there was more than one jammer in the area and several other men watching and waiting. Which meant me running out of here and being caught was likely.

Back in the main room Robert was stood looking out of the front window, why I had no idea, but a thought came to me. I walked over to my jacket and went through my pockets, retrieving the tracker in one hand but also pulling out a paper tissue before blowing my nose.

"Robert, do we have any food here. I'm really hungry"

Obviously, that was something that Robert or Usman had thought about. Damn, I was hoping that Robert would have to leave and go buy something then I could have slipped the tracker into his pocket or even in the car,

"Pizza. I was recommended a place called Pinos, that they do amazing pizza"

I watched as he opened up a cupboard and pulled out two pizza boxes and then unpacked them from the boxes. He was quite domesticated in how he arranged them onto plates and then turned on a stove. To be honest I hadn't taken much notice of what was in the kitchen but supposed that anyone using the place would need the basic equipment. The stove seemed to be fueled from a gas bottle and there were no electrical appliances to see so maybe there was no electricity here.

I sat on the couch again now worried as to how I was going to escape from here and even more worried with what was planned for me next. It might take some time for Xander to get those files to Jenson and probably Robert would want to know that Jenson had them. How would Robert find out what files I'd sent? Maybe Anya? The smell from the pizzas started to infiltrate the air in the room reminding me of the many times that I'd been to Pinos and enjoyed their pizza or their meatball subs. It certainly made me feel hungry. Feeling hungry and being hungry were two different things. After a couple of pieces, I couldn't face eating any more so turned to Robert who was sat next to me.

"Robert, I want to go back to Trenton. Will you please take me?"

Okay, so I was trying to be polite, but I was feeling anxious enough that I didn't want to be here anymore.

"That's gonna be a problem, Stephanie. You see I need to know what files you sent Jenson"

At least he was being honest with me now and had stopped telling me all of the bullshit from before. It didn't mean that I was going to give him any information though.

"I don't understand. What's so important about those files?"

He looked at me before laughing, a real deep laugh, that surprised me and also confused me, so much so that I was stood up staring at him.

"Only make me a number one author. I'll have the story of a lifetime"

And no doubt Hennley would also benefit. From stealing whatever Chiconi had hidden or from publishing rights, who knew, or cared? I felt so annoyed that Robert was basically putting people at risk for a story, one that he had no idea how it would unfold.

"What story, what are you talking about?"

Unsure if he even knew everything about Peralta and Chiconi.

"I'll send you a signed copy of my book when I publish"

Damn it, he wasn't going to be telling me anything, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised seeing as he was a journalist and would know how to keep any information very close.

"You realize you'll be writing that book from a prison cell for kidnapping me"

That just came out and I immediately regretted it. If Robert or Usman thought that I was of no use to them then they could very easily get rid of me. I sat back down heavily on the couch feeling totally defeated. I was aware as a light came on and watched as Robert lit two oil lamps. It was getting colder now so I went and retrieved my jacket from the door before putting it on. Any hope that Ranger was going to be coming any time soon, was fading quickly.

I hadn't been into the room that Robert had pointed out as the bedroom but decided that I needed to be away from Robert. Without saying a word, I picked up one of the lamps and went over to the bedroom door. It wasn't too bad inside, or maybe it was too dark to see the bad parts. The light from the lamp flickered but never reached the corners of the room. If I didn't see any insects, then they weren't there, well, that was what I was telling myself. I pushed the flimsy bolt to lock the door but wasn't stupid enough to think that it would keep anyone out. There were two sets of bunk beds, so I assumed that the cabin was probably used for hunting in season.

A large rug covered the floor between the beds but like the accident prone person that I was, I tripped up over the frayed edge and landed on my knees hard because I was more concerned that the lamp didn't go flying. I sat down, tears coming to my eyes as I realized that Ranger wasn't going to be coming and rescuing me, or that escaping was almost impossible without coming up against Usman. That idea had me shivering as I remembered what Ranger had said about him.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there for, feeling totally miserable but eventually conceded that the bed would be more comfortable. It was as I pushed myself off the floor that I felt something underneath my hand. Something solid that was raised from the floor. Standing I pulled the rug to one side and was staring down at a trap door. I suppose that the floor of the cabin had been built off the ground so that it wouldn't rot but that meant that there was a way out. I turned the lamp down so there was only a small flame and placed it by the door. When I lifted the trapdoor, I didn't want anyone from outside to be attracted to any light coming from underneath the cabin. I leant down into the darkness below me, my weight being held by one hand on the ledge and my legs still across the floor.

I had no idea what was below me, and to be honest struggled with seeing how far away the ground was underneath me. Surely it couldn't be that far, we'd only come up about three steps to get into the cabin. That was when I was sure I heard something at the bedroom door and was then sure that I could hear the handle being turned. The door was locked with a cheap and flimsy bolt so when it was suddenly pushed it gave way easily and the door was suddenly being flung open. Two things happened as a result of that. The oil lamp was knocked over and broke with flames following the path of the oil that was leaking out and I was suddenly falling through the trap door.

I landed on my shoulder and literally rolled onto my back with an umph. I stayed perfectly still staring up above me as the yellow light intensified and flickered. I didn't feel that I could move but the sound of voices had me making a quick decision. I turned onto my stomach and literally crawled along the hard ground toward where I was sure there were trees. Once at the edge of the cabin I looked ahead of me, worried that Usman was still there but thought to hell with it. I was up onto my feet and running toward the trees. The sound coming from behind me didn't distract me because I was frightened to death of being caught. My heart was hammering, and my side was killing me when I knew that I had to stop and try to catch my breath. I was doubled over with my hands on my knees when a bright light caught my attention. Looking up all that I saw were plumes of flames iridescent against the dark night sky and the billowing of smoke as it rose and dissipated to mix with the clouds hanging low.

I started to feel a slight panic rise up through me and the taste of bile and pizza in my throat as I realized what I was seeing. A fire, intense fueled by soft dry wood. It wasn't my fault, I kept repeating over and over in my head maybe I was even saying that out loud. What ifs then assaulted my mind, what if I hadn't found that trap door, what if I hadn't placed the lamp by the door. Then I shook my head at how stupid that sounded. Robert should never have made a grab for me and brought me here, the fault lay with him and Hennley and their greed. Though I was hoping that no one had been hurt. I turned and continued in the direction that I had started out in but at a slower pace because I was sure that no one was following me.