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  Nicked

  Book Two of the Vanished Series

  By Michael Arches

  Copyright by Pyrenees Publishing 2021

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Book 3 Excerpt—Anointed

  210114

  Chapter 1

  LoDo Neighborhood, Denver, Colorado

  Maude Gacy and her son Rufus cruised the midmorning streets of downtown Denver looking for a slave. Maude needed another pair of strong hands for her organic farm. Her son was more interested in finding a fresh piece of ass.

  Their pickup’s bed was covered with an aluminum canopy tall enough to allow someone to kneel inside. It would provide the perfect place to stash their prey. Midmorning was the perfect time to hunt because the streets were mostly empty. They didn’t want some passerby to notice them snatching another young wench.

  The two hunters spoke only when they noticed a possible victim. Patience was the key. Whoever they settled upon, they’d have to live with…or kill.

  Maude would make the initial approach. Because she was over six feet tall and muscular, she could manhandle most women. But four decades of hard living had taken a toll. Wrinkles covered her deeply tanned face, and her shoulder-length hair had turned from black to mostly gray. Her voice was low and gravelly, thanks to too many cigarettes and joints.

  Rufus drove slowly on the one-way streets. He was half her age but outweighed her by fifty pounds. His long black hair and bushy beard hid most of his face.

  He’d insisted on driving her old white pickup. She’d learned the hard way to let him have his way.

  “Hey,” he hissed. “Her—the redhead on the bench.”

  A skinny girl with long, flaming red hair sat by herself.

  She seemed to be waiting for somebody in the tourist trap behind her. “She’s too scrawny,” Maude said. “Not strong enough for the fields. And if we grab a kid that young, the whole town will go nuts.”

  “She’s the one!” Rufus cruised by her, grinning. Then he started looking for a place to drop Maude off.

  She put a hand on his arm. “Please, keep looking. Lots of gorgeous older ones around. What’s wrong with the blonde over there?”

  A woman with huge boobs was smoking outside a restaurant. “She’ll do a hard day’s work, and afterward, you can nail her to your heart’s content.”

  Rufus shook his head, turned the corner, and stopped in an empty loading zone. “I want the young one.”

  Maude could see it in his eyes. It was probably impossible to change his mind. But given the risk, she tried again. “She’s obviously too weak, Rufus. Probably whine all day, too. I—”

  Rufus backhanded her with his massive paw—for the thousandth time. “Take the damned dog and grab the girl.”

  Maude rubbed her temple, waited for the stars to disappear. Living with him was getting harder every day. He wasn’t the brightest star in the heavens, thanks to fetal alcohol syndrome, but he was a born hunter. Before he hit her a second time, she hopped out.

  She unlocked the back of the pickup’s canopy. A little dog hopped out. One thing she and Rufus agreed upon—puppies were the perfect bait for young women. So, Maude had borrowed a twelve-week-old golden retriever from a neighboring farm.

  After hooking on his leash, she and the dog strolled back toward the bench with the girl. They didn’t rush because Rufus needed time to circle the block and get into position.

  -o-o-o-

  Skye Dunbar scrolled through texts and emails as she waited outside the touristy knick-knack shop. Her parents couldn’t seem to pass them up, the tackier the better. They’d already shipped dozens of packages to friends back in Edinburgh as part of their “Do America” tour.

  She couldn’t get over how enormous this country was. The longest road in Scotland was only a few hundred kilometers long. Skye was even more impressed by the sun. The farther west they traveled, the brighter it became. Yesterday, in Denver, she didn’t see a cloud in the sky for the entire day. Amazing!

  Skye looked forward to spending at least four years in Colorado, studying aerospace engineering at CU. She might even become an astronaut.

  Her thoughts were interrupted when a middle-aged woman in dirty clothes sat on the bench next to her. Her body reeked. Skye figured she was homeless but she wasn’t carrying any bags of belongings like most of them.

  Then Skye noticed the puppy. Tae cute! It was maybe two months old and too darling for words.

  He bounded toward Skye, but the woman’s leash held him back.

  “Do you mind if I pet him?” Skye asked.

  “His name is Jasper,” the woman said in a low, rough voice. “Go ahead.”

  Skye leaned forward. The puppy yelped and squirmed with pleasure as she stroked his tummy. What a sweet—

  Something pressed down hard at the back of her neck.“Stop it! Stop—”

  Skye tried to straighten but couldn’t. The woman smashed a rag soaked in some chemical against Skye’s nose and mouth. Skye managed a muffled scream. Tried to jerk away, but the woman was too strong. Skye’s mind blurred then went black.

  -o-o-o-

  Everything was going as planned. Rufus and the pickup approached up the block. Then, Maude heard a deep man’s voice calling from the shop behind them.

  “Skye? What’s wrong? Are you sick, lassie?”

  Maude glanced over her shoulder. A big, burly man with a ruddy complexion was running toward them.

  Dammit!

  But for once in his life, Rufus did something useful. He stopped the pickup in the middle of the road and dashed to the rescue. The father’s gaze was focused entirely on the girl.

  Maude crammed the rag into a plastic bag inside her purse and pretended to help the girl. “Jesus, darling, what’s wrong?”

  The man rushed to the bench. As he bent over, Rufus punched him on the side of the head. The man collapsed to the sidewalk, out cold.

  Maude glanced around—blessedly, no witnesses. “Hurry, let’s get her into the truck.”

  They carried the girl to the rear of the pickup. The tailgate was already open, so they heaved their new slave inside. Maude dashed back to the bench and grabbed her purse, the girl’s things, and the stupid puppy.

  “Get in the back and tie her up,” Rufus said. “I’ll stop as soon as I can.”

  It was the best option, so Maude tossed the dog in the back and crawled in after. Rufus closed the tailgate before driving off.

  Maude took a couple of deep breaths to get her wind back. Then she used a pair of zip ties to bind the girl’s hands and feet. Maude worked fast, unsure how much of a dose the kid had inhaled. She might revive at any time.

  The damned mutt did everything he could to get in the way, but Maude managed despite him.

  Next, Maude filled the girl’s mouth with a rag and wrapped several
layers of duct tape around her head.

  Rufus turned sharply to the right, sending Maude cursing as she rolled sideways. He screeched to a halt.

  A moment later he opened the tailgate again. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, fixed her good. Help me out of here.”

  Rufus grabbed her hand and dragged her out. They stood alone in a lonesome alley surrounded by tall buildings on both sides.

  “That was too close,” she whispered. “I had my pistol, but I didn’t want to kill the old coot. Hopefully, your punch only left him groggy.”

  Rufus shrugged as though he didn’t care. As far as she knew, he hadn’t killed anyone, but he’d started more than his share of fights. A year ago, he’d beaten the shit out of two men and a woman. That’d cost him some time in jail. Still, murder was a whole different thing.

  “Let’s get out of here before the pigs start sniffing around,” Rufus said.

  Maude couldn’t agree more. “Want me to drive? We have to take it real easy, so we don’t get pulled over.”

  “Shut up. I know what I’m doing.”

  She backed away. “Fine, do it your way, as usual.”

  They tore out.

  Sometimes, he acted like he almost wanted to get caught. But if the cops stopped them and found the girl, Maude would suffer as much as he did. They’d both be locked up for decades.

  -o-o-o-

  Interstate 76, north of Commerce City, Colorado

  Skye seemed to float in a rushing river. She kept bouncing off of rocks, but they didn’t hurt.

  Her mind and eyesight gradually cleared. That’d been a dream.

  But reality was a nightmare.

  She was lying on her stomach, her face turned to one side. Couldn’t move her arms, and her ankles were tied together. She was inside some kind of pickup with a cover above her.

  She tried to scream, but her mouth was full of something soft that tasted like dirt. She tried to spit it out, but couldn’t. Taped in place. She had to breathe through her nose.

  Panic flooded through her. Nicked! She remembered the old woman with the puppy. And the rag soaked in chemicals.

  That bitch!

  She tried to breathe slower.

  Get a hold of yourself, girl. Why did they take me? Where are we going?

  She rolled onto her back and tried to sit up. Barely managed it by pushing off with her hands. The puppy slept nearby.

  Through the canopy’s dirty back window, she could glimpse open land rushing away behind them. This looked like a farming area. Other vehicles shared the road, but they were hard to make out.

  She’d heard stories about terrible crimes in America, and she’d seen too many American movies and TV shows to count. Skye had thought they were all exaggerated. But this was proof of the opposite.

  Not that Scotland was some paradise. She and her parents had left Edinburgh in part because of Bert Stanton, the top-scoring striker on one of the city’s soccer teams. They’d met at a pub, but he was five years older. He claimed to be smitten. She’d ignored him until he started showing up wherever she went. That was when she and her parents knew something was seriously wrong.

  But because he was a celebrity, the police refused to arrest him until he actually did what they all knew he was working himself up to. Instead of waiting, Skye and her parents had left for the New World a few months earlier than they’d otherwise planned.

  Not that she was defenseless. Because she’d always been slim and pretty, Da and Mum had encouraged her to learn a martial art. She’d chosen Muay Thai, a Southeast Asian discipline that taught her to use every part of her body as a weapon.

  But her years of training wouldn’t help much if she kept acting stupid. She’d been caught unawares by an evil old woman and her cute puppy.

  The pickup suddenly slowed. Skye almost rolled backward. What in the bloody hell do I do when we stop?

  Chapter 2

  Lake Isabelle Trail, near Ward, Colorado

  Athena Kazan was hiking with her bull mastiff Hagrid and her beagle Barney over freshly packed snow. It was slow going, even with two ski poles, thanks to an old brain injury. She’d survived a .38 caliber bullet to the head, but as a result, she could barely walk without some help.

  Under the name Carol Winter, she’d rented a small mountain property, fifty miles northwest of Denver. Athena remained enrolled in the Federal Witness Protection Program because the Santiago drug cartel had set a price on her head of two hundred grand.

  Technically, she could hide almost anywhere, but she and Beau Boudreau had become a thing. As long as he worked in the FBI’s office in Denver, she’d stay reasonably close. Beau was the only person outside the US Marshal’s office who knew where she lived.

  And just in case, she’d acquired a small arsenal, including three guns, a compound bow, and a Taser. Mostly, though, she relied on her two four-footed buddies for protection.

  Hagrid was a brindle mastiff, mostly black. He weighed a hundred and twenty pounds without an ounce of flab. He was the kind of dog everyone wisely steered clear of, though he’d been thoroughly trained. Hagrid always sat patiently out of the way as people passed them on trails and sidewalks.

  Barney, on the other hand, was prone to nip. Athena had found him in a shelter and taken him home because he was the yappiest dog there. Beagles had great noses and hearing, which meant that if anybody, friend or foe, approached the ranch, Barney let everybody know about it.

  Athena’s ten acres were located at an elevation of nine thousand feet, surrounded on three sides by national forest. Three feet of snow remained on the ground out in the open, with more under the evergreens.

  As soon as she and the mutts returned to the house, she checked her security system to make sure there’d been no incidents or intrusions. All was well.

  She gave each dog a chew stick suited to his size. Barney took his to his kennel. Its opening was too small for Hagrid to stick his huge head into, so the beagle could gnaw his treat in peace.

  Athena prized peace because she was five months pregnant with an über-baby she’d named Leonardo. He was all the more reason she needed to stay safe.

  While the dogs rested, she sat at her state-of-the-art desktop computer and reviewed her electronic security programs. Once again, she needed to make sure no one had come anywhere close to infiltrating her electronic privacy. She found no reason to worry, so she checked for incoming messages. A handful of people knew how to contact her through a highly secure, encrypted email system. Days went by without her communicating with a living soul. Thank God Beau keeps dropping by.

  For the moment, though, she didn’t mind the solitude. She soon had to leave for Wyoming. A woman who’d tried to murder Athena, namely Dominique Santiago, was going to be tried for that crime in Cheyenne. Athena was the star prosecution witness. The US Marshals had arranged a safe house up there where Athena and the prosecutors could prepare for her testimony. More protection.

  Athena sent Beau an encrypted message inviting him to her place for a homecooked meal and a romantic evening. And she browsed the Internet for news.

  She got a ping. As usual, it was from Mom. But this one was stunning. Your cousin Skye was just kidnapped! Right off the street in Denver. Mingus was attacked. Knocked out. On his way to the ER. Erin is frantic. Anything you can do to help?

  The Dunbars were relatives from Mom’s side in Scotland who Athena had never met. But she had kept up with Erin on Facebook. The whole family had planned to move to the States while Skye went to CU, but Athena didn’t know why. She did know that CU was well known for its aerospace engineering program.

  Unfortunately, Athena couldn’t get together with the Dunbars, just like she wasn’t able to visit with most of her relatives. But Mom and Dad had planned to travel to Denver to visit with them tomorrow. The trip would have to be postponed with Mingus in the hospital.

  At least, Athena could help to find Skye when Athena wasn’t busy preparing for
trial. She started by checking the Denver Police Department’s website. Sure enough, they’d already posted an Amber Alert: Skye Dunbar was abducted off the street in downtown Denver. Two other similar kidnappings within the last three months along the Front Range. Skye is seventeen years old, five-foot, ten inches tall, weighs one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Long, wavy, red hair worn in a single braid. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a white Field Museum of Natural History T-shirt, and a tan windbreaker.

  Athena’s throat tightened. The photo of Skye with the alert showed a happy teenager with an innocent smile. Now, she had to be going through pure horror.

  Tears welled in Athena’s eyes. If Skye had been taken by the same people who’d kidnapped the other girls mentioned in the alert, the prospect for recovering her was particularly bad. Both kidnappings were at least a month old. Those girls had been grabbed off the street in Boulder, less than fifteen miles away.

  Athena had been uneasy for over a month, since the last attack. It seemed like nowhere was safe anymore, and Boulder was where she did most of her shopping.

  This sounded like a job for the FBI, but Athena knew from past experience that Beau and the Bureau would decide for themselves what cases to take on. To urge them to do the right thing, she sent Beau another encrypted message, this one asking him to do whatever he could, particularly for Skye.

  -o-o-o-

  FBI Field Office, Denver

  Beau Boudreau arrived at the Special Agent-in-Charge’s office. Stephen Yang sat behind his massive oak desk. It was bare except for a computer keyboard, a mouse, and a photo of his wife and two grown kids. A dark computer screen hung on one of those mechanical arms, off to one side.

  “Close the door and sit, Boudreau,” the boss said.

  Beau complied.

  “I would prefer to speak frankly, but only if you will agree that this conversation never occurred.”

  Yang had never started a conversation like this before, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who bent the rules. But Beau had asked him if he could help find the missing women. In general, Yang preferred to do the asking instead of having his staff pick their own projects.