Renegade Runaways :: Chapter Twenty Six

"Hope you can't go in there," Shane whispered in a harsh tone, "Let me tap into the camera system. There could be traps. Guards. Who knows what else."

They were 100 miles south of Salem on the outskirts of a small town she'd never heard of. Hope stared at the beautiful building that stood before them. No one would ever guess a gang of criminals were holding three people against their will. She waited impatiently.

"Okay," Shane sighed and stared intently at the iPad he held, "I've got a camera at the front and back doors, one on Victor and Maggie, and one on Ciara. There's no telling how many men are in there."

Hope impulsively threw a large rock at a window on the second story. Alarms sounded.

"Are you crazy?!" Shane growled. He pulled her against the wall in an effort to get her out of sight.

"I'm going in," Hope replied evenly. She adjusted her earpiece, drew her gun, and ran around to the opposite side of the building.

"Shit," Shane cursed. He hid in a bush as two men raced to the broken window and stared down below. He could hear their voices alert the other gang members of a breech of perimeter. Shane's heart sank. This wasn't going to end well.

Hope entered from a window on the first floor. It was already cracked. A collection of cigarette butts scattered the ground outside of the window. She pulled herself up and into a room that looked like an office. A creak on the wood floor behind her made her spin.

"We knew you'd come," A tall man with perfect white teeth grinned at her. Her skin crawled and she wasted no time drawing her gun and pulling the trigger. The silencer muffled the sound of her gunshot. She didn't have time to think about what she'd done. Her daughter was in danger. She hugged the wall and approached the door. Silence greeted her.

She carefully entered a long hallway. The building seemed industrial even though the outside appeared commercial. She slowly walked the hall, watching every door and eyeing every corner. She heard voices coming from one of the rooms and footsteps coming from the other end of the hallway. Attempting not to panic, she tried one of the door knobs and was surprised to find it unlocked. As luck would have it, she'd found one of the rooms she was looking for.

Inside the room she found Victor and Maggie blindfolded and handcuffed back to back in a couple of chairs. Her eyes scanned the room and found the camera. She quickly shot out the lens and rushed to Maggie's side.

Maggie cried when she felt Hope touching the blindfold she wore, "Oh Please. Please don't hurt us."

"Shh," Hope whispered, "Aunt Maggie, don't cry."

"Ohhh," Maggie gasped when her blindfold was removed and she saw Hope staring back at her. Hope smiled and cupped her face, "I need you to be really quiet. Stay calm." She quickly moved around to Victor and removed his blindfold.

"Hope, thank God," Victor sighed, "I'm so sorry. This never should have happened."

"Close your eyes," Hope demanded, "Lean as far forward as you can."

The pair did as they were told. Hope shot several times at the chain of the cuffs that held them to the chair. On the third bullet, they were released. Victor stood and helped Maggie up. As they gathered themselves, Hope heard the footsteps from earlier outside of the door. She pushed Victor and Maggie into a corner and pointed her gun towards the door.

A man entered the room and was surprised to find his hostages standing free of their chains. He reached for his gun when he realized a third person was in the room, but his attempt was in vein. Hope pulled her trigger and the man fell to the floor with a thud.

"Follow me," Hope ordered quietly. She found it hard to ignore Maggie's tears of fear and disbelief at the dead man they were all forced to step over. She hardened herself and forced herself to focus. Their lives depended on it.

She led them all to the window she entered the building from. To Maggie's horror they encountered another body, but Hope helped her through the room and to the window.

"Shane, I need you to intercept Victor and Maggie. They're coming out of the west side of the building." Hope mumbled into her earpiece.

"Copy that," Shane replied, "Hope, you're doing great, but I'm worried. Ciara isn't alone. There's a woman in there. My infrared view shows two bodies outside the door. She's going to be harder to get out. We need more help."

"I can't leave her in here Shane," Hope replied, "I'm going after her."

"They won't hurt her," Shane replied, "If she's dead they have no bait."

"I'm not taking my chances," Hope spoke heatedly, "Besides, it's me they want. Not her."

"She's just a little girl," Maggie whispered, "She must be so terrified."

Hope swallowed a thick gulp. She knew her little girl was scared. She'd do anything to fix it. She helped Maggie and Victor climb out the window and watched them disappear into the night. She took a deep breath and gathered herself. She had one more life to save, and this one was pretty important to her.

She made her way back to the hallway. It was empty. She carefully made her way down the long walls. She felt her pulse begin to race as she made her way to the end. She hid herself against the wall as she peered around the corner. Another hallway quite similar to the one she was in intersected her location. Her eyes found two men with their arms crossed standing silently against a door. She knew Ciara was in there. She took a deep breath and fired her gun at the bigger of the two men. He fell to the floor in a heap as blood pooled quickly on the floor. The second man panicked and ran inside the room.

Hope felt momentarily discouraged. Her heart sank. She was going in blind.

"I've got two bodies in with Ciara," Shane warned, "Be careful. One is by the door."

"Copy," Hope whispered. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She quickly made her way to the closed door with less care than the previous hallway. She could hear the voices panicking on the other side of the wall that separated them. She didn't care about them. What she cared about, was the fact that she could hear her daughter crying.

She kicked the door in and threw herself against the wall in anticipation of gunfire. Silence greeted her at first, followed by Ciara's scream.

"I have a gun to this pretty little head," a woman's voice yelled.

"There she is," a man appeared at the doorway with a gun pointed around the doorframe at Hope.

"Let her go," Hope demanded, "Take me. Please."

"I think we'll keep both," the man disagreed, "Drop your gun."

Everything inside of Hope screamed no. She gripped the gun tightly, but held her hands up in surrender. If there really was a gun to her daughter's head, she couldn't take any chances.

"That's right," the man grinned at her, revealing crooked, stained, teeth. He put his body on hers, pinning her to the wall. His closeness revealed breath that smelled like cigarettes. Hope's skin crawled as he patted her down. He ripped the gun from her hand and threw it down the hallway, "Awfully pretty to be playing with guns."

"She's just a little girl. She didn't do anything wrong." Hope replied, "She'll just make everything worse for you. She's a liability."

"Mommy!" Ciara screamed at the top of her lungs in the most primal, distressed, tone, Hope had ever heard. She head butted the man in front of her and shoved him off, freeing herself from the wall. She ran into the room to find Ciara struggling to get away from the woman with a gun.

"Ciara, stop," Hope ordered forcefully, fearing for her daughter's life, "Do what she says, okay? Mommy's right here."

"Listen to your mom, you little brat," The woman growled and forced Ciara back into a hold.

Hope held her hands up, "Please let her go. I'll stay."

"It's too late for that," the woman replied, "What did you do to my boyfriend?"

The man appeared a second later rubbing his forehead. He violently shoved Hope to the ground and slammed the barrel of the gun into Hope's temple, "Got a wild one tonight, I see."

Ciara wailed, "I want my mommy!"

"Tie that bitch up," the woman demanded, "Hurry up!"

The man obeyed and tied Hope's wrist together in front of her waist. Next he tied her feet together. At the same time, the woman did the same to Ciara.

"Try anything funny, she's dead," the woman glared at Hope as she pointed her gun at Ciara.

"Okay," Hope whispered. She patiently waited for them to leave. As soon as the door closed and locked behind them, she struggled to crawl to her distraught daughter.

Ciara threw herself into Hope's body as tears cascaded down her flushed cheeks, "Mommy!"

Hope raised her arms above Ciara's head and over her body so she could actually hold her, "It's okay baby." She pulled her close, rocking her back and forth as she cried, "I'm so sorry."

"Mommy, I'm scared," Ciara cried into Hope's chest, "I want to go home."

"Hope, please don't do anything stupid," Shane begged into the discreet earpiece that Hope still wore, "I will find a way to get you out. Just cooperate."

Hope didn't say anything in the event that she was being watched. Instead she prayed Shane would come to the rescue. If not for her, for Ciara. She held her little girl, thankful to have her in her arms.

"I missed you baby," Hope whispered into Ciara's hair, "I love you so much."

Ciara snuggled closer to her, "I missed you too. Please don't leave me again."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Hope replied. She managed to scoot their bodies into a corner. She leaned on the wall for support. Her concern lessened as Ciara's cries turned to sniffles. She held her close. It was a waiting game now. It was going to be a long night. She felt blood trickling down her face. All that mattered to her though, was that she was reunited with her daughter. Ciara was unharmed, and Shane and Victor were on the outside. They would be rescued. It was just a matter of time.