Imagine yourself crossing the street and suddenly a car runs a red light, just missing you by an inch or two. Imagine the rush of wind, your breath being snatched out of your chest, and that gravitational force that pulls you towards the passing car. Imagine that and you’ll know how Angelica felt the moment it happened to her. But in her case, well, the van did not just pass by—it took her with it.

“Who are you? Let me go!” she screamed as she kicked and wailed her arms around. She felt her shoe hit someone’s leg and a cry of pain rang out.

“Shut up, bitch!” a hand slapped her across the face.

Angelica couldn’t see a thing. It was really dark inside the van. She could smell a strong scent of cigarette, sweat and heat. And she could also feel that she was surrounded by not just one, but three or four men.

“Who are you? What do you want?” she asked, her voice getting angry. She knew she should be scared, but she was angrier for being snatched off her feet and being slapped. And no one hurt Angelica Dalton intentionally.

“We want those documents. Where are they?” someone rasped in front of her, too close that she felt and smelled his cigarette breath, and it was just plain horrible.

“What documents? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered strongly, leaning her head away from whoever’s mouth she was facing. “Let me go or I’ll call the police.”

Everyone in the van laughed. “You can’t call the police when you’re dead.”

That was not acceptable for her. With so much fury, she kicked her leg once more and this time, it landed on something softer like a man’s crotch.

“Shit!” A big howl of pain erupted in front of her and she received another big stingy slap across her face, her head turning to once side. Then a hand grabbed her by the arm, pulling her towards whoever owned it. “Do that again and you’ll join your daddy,” another voice whispered harshly.

“Got to hell!” she spat and received another stingy smack on the face. She felt blood drip down her nose but she didn’t care.

Someone tied her hands behind her back and she fought real hard.

“Where’s the device?” a voice asked. This time, it came from someone from the back of the van. She knew the man must be the leader because everyone else became quiet.

“I said I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she screamed. “Let me go at once!”

Well, it might have worked if she gave that order to someone in the hospital or someone who worked for her, but to these people it was not really working. And that only severed her anger. She was used getting her way but right at the moment that seemed impossible.

“We’ll see what you’ll have to say later when we get to where we are going,” the boss said, his voice eerie and just a little scary.

She chose not to demand where they were taking her and focused to what her other senses could tell her. She closed her eyes despite the darkness to concentrate and listen to anything that might give her an idea where they might be. She estimated that they might have been traveling for about three minutes now, running about fifty miles per hour, and she remembered feeling they turned one left and two rights. From that moment on, she’d memorize every turn so that she would know where to go when she got the chance to escape, which she would.

She just needed the right timing.

 *****

Henry cursed himself over and over as he sped through the night traffic of New York, following the black van and trying not to be noticed. He was used to tailing, so that was no problem. At some point, he anticipated the van’s route and took some different turn so that Angelica’s abductors wouldn’t suspect. He would meet the van at one turn, and then lose himself at another.

When the vehicle made a turn that would lead them to the highway going out of the city, he had no choice but to follow behind. This time, there was nowhere else to go but right behind the vehicle that had his ward in it.

He saw that it started to slow down. He decided to overtake, slowing his own car while looking at the rearview mirror. The van turned right into a dirt road, and when he saw that it was out of sight, he stopped and turned back around.

Henry did not enter the road taken by the van but parked his car off the highway. The sky was still stark black as he jumped out, his boots splashing against mushy mud. He grabbed his flashlight in one hand and his .45 ACP caliber handgun in the other and ran along the side of the dirt road. He knew how to walk through anything without a sound like a slithering snake and he did just that as he followed the van’s tracks with his trained senses.

Henry’s built to run and jump and it was no sweat for him when he finally located a patched up shack where the black van was parked. The windows were covered by woods of different sizes, but light crept through the cracks. Crouching down at knee’s height, he waited behind a tree trunk for the man serving as a lookout to circle around to the back of the shack. He looked at his watch and waited until the man reappeared once again.

Three minutes, he noted. He only had three minutes to make his move towards the house. Patiently, Henry waited with the sound of crickets for the man to rove back to the back of the shack and when he finally did and not a shadow was left of the man, he made his way to the pipes that rose up to the roof. His head scanned the area. He checked his watch. He only had two and a half more minutes to climb up before the man reappeared again. He tucked his gun in his pants and dropped his flashlight inside his jacket pocket and started to climb up the pipe with ease. And as he did so, he could hear voices from the inside, but mostly it was Angelica’s voice.

At first he thought she was crying, but as he continued to listen, he was made certain that she was nowhere near a pleading voice. She was furiously shouting something at whoever she was talking to and he could hear a man’s voice as angry as hers.

She’s not making this easier, Henry thought as he pulled himself up and his feet finally planted themselves flat on the roof, which by the way could give out if he was not too careful.

“You’ll be in trouble,” he heard her say. “My guardian will be looking for me and he won’t stop. And when he finds you—all of you—he’s going to make you pay. So let me go!”

What the hell?! The woman was impossible! So now was bragging about having a guardian?

He heard laughter from below. “A guardian? What are you? Twelve?”

“I’m telling you, you won’t be laughing when I get my hands on you!”

Henry wanted to jump down through the roof and cover her mouth. She wouldn’t last the night if she talked like that.

He had to move fast or he would have a dead ward in an hour.

 *****

Angelica could perfectly run through her mind every turns the van took earlier back and forth. She also knew who had the keys to the van and it was the bald guy with a scar across his right cheek. Mr. Black guy was the one she kicked right on the crotch. She knew that because he was sort of limping as they dragged her into the shack earlier.

She had no idea where her kidnappers took her, but that was not a problem. She knew where she’d go the moment she escaped. And that was the problem right now: how to escape.

“You know, this has been dragging too long and I’m getting tired,” the boss said, walking back towards her. He had black hair, his face too oily, and like Mr. Scar guy, he had a white line that ran vertically across his left eye.

“And I’m getting tired telling you that I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t know any documents!” she answered for the nth time.

“Your father didn’t leave you anything? That’s something quite impossible,” Mr. Scarred Eye walked closer and leaned towards her and she could see her reflection across his brown eyes. It was then that she realized that they might not have been joking when they said they’d kill her. They all took off their masks earlier and it only meant two things: they either didn’t care if she saw their faces, or they were not planning to let her go alive.

Maybe it’s really time to panic, she told herself. But first, she had to calm down and think of a way to prolong her life. “My father and I are not close,” she uttered.

“But you’re his only daughter, right?”

Technically, that was wrong, but she nodded anyway.

“Then you must know where he placed his most precious things, right?”

“Uh, no, not really,” she answered truthfully. She was not a moron to not know that they were looking for the very thing she left at the hospital. And she didn’t know if she should be thankful or not that she forgot to bring it.

“You don’t seem afraid. Are you afraid?”

“Of course I am,” she answered because by way the man was looking at her right now, she started to feel afraid. “But not really afraid.”

“And why is that?” Mr. Scarred Eye ran a finger across her cheek and she fought all urge to flinch away.

“As I’ve told you, people will be looking for me. Someone must have seen you outside the hospital,” she couldn’t help but answer.

 *****

Stupid! Henry shouted in his mind. He was wrong when he thought that the roof was weak because he couldn’t find a single hole that would be big enough for him to break. The only way in was through the windows or the door. And he couldn’t enter without notice if the lookout person was around.

He made up his mind and went to the edge of the roof, making sure that there was no window down. The moment he was waiting for came as the lookout man appeared with his big gun in his hand, his head busily looking around for any sign of intrusion.

One…two…three…four steps…

Henry calculated in his mind and made the leap, directly landing down the man, and as he did so, he did not waste more time. There was not a sound but a grunt from the man as he knocked him unconscious with his elbow. After making sure the enemy was in deep sleep, he pressed his back closer to the wall and walked sideways. You could never be sure of how many enemies would come your way.

From listening earlier up on the roof, he estimated four men inside the shack. He had counted their footsteps which varied in every person’s weight. It was a skill he had mastered a long time ago and it was obviously useful, especially now that he didn’t have anyone to count on. His stupid beautiful ward was not helping with that big mouth and misplaced courage of hers.

Slowly and quietly, Henry made his way to the other side of the shack where there was less light. He guessed it was an empty room and it was obviously the only entry for him. But the window, just like the others, was barred by woods. It would be a freaking difficult task to open and he cursed some more.

I shouldn’t be here in the first place. I should be out lurking saving the world and not some red-haired girl who don’t know the meaning of safety, he thought as he worked on one wood, gently ripping it off the window frame.

He suddenly heard a big crash like that of a wooden chair or something and he froze. That can’t be good. What did she do this time? He did not bother making a lot of noise as he tore off the rest of the wood in one motion.

 *****

She called him a creep and he came smashing the chair he was sitting on right across her. Angelica felt sharp debris slash across her cheeks and now it was bleeding along with her nose. As a doctor, she knew she wouldn’t lose that much blood, but she was concerned about infection. Her hands were tied behind the chair and she had been trying to slip out of it. When Mr. Scar tied her earlier, she clenched her fists as hard as she could so that her muscles grew large, giving even just centimeters of difference if she was tied with relaxed hands. Though it was a cool trick, it wasn’t easy to unbind her hands. For now, she had to keep them talking and distracted. Her hands would definitely get scratches, but it would be her dermatologist’s problem later.

As the sound of the chair crashing against the floor died, they heard something else from outside. Angelica’s head perked up in hope.

“What’s that?” Mr. Scarred Eye asked harshly. “Check on Perkins. What’s that bastard doing outside?”

Mr. Scar and another bigger man wearing a bonnet walked towards the door, their footsteps heavy on the tattered wooden floor of the shack. Mr. Black guy had never made a move from where he was sitting, obviously still in pain. That she could see with the grimace he wore on his face. As the two men walked out the door, she was left with Mr. Scarred Eye and Mr. Black.

Hoping that someone—anyone—was outside, maybe some curious neighbor or if she was lucky, a rescuer, she planned what she had to do. She could shout and cry for help or she could continue working with her binds and run for it while everyone was distracted.

Seconds passed and no sound came from outside. No cries or sound of battle.

“Black, see what’s holding those idiots up,” Mr. Scarred Eye ordered.

Angelica almost snorted. Okay, she knew she was just making names, but it was one hell of a coincidence that she gave Black his real name. Black looked at Mr. Scarred Eye pleadingly. “Boss, my balls are in pain and—”

“Go or I’ll cut them myself!” his boss ordered, whirling around.

“Fine,” Black moaned as he stood up and limped to the door.

Now, she was alone with the boss. Great.

Mr. Scarred Eye smiled wickedly at her, his head tilted to one side. “Are you hoping someone came to rescue you?”

Every hair in her body stood up. His voice got to her if not his words. There was something in the way his lustful eyes roamed over her. “That’s a possibility, yes,” she answered and she could feel her voice was starting to shake.

Slowly, Mr. Scarred Eye closed the distance between them and bent his head towards her ear and she leaned away as far as she could. “I have men outside,” he breathed against her hair. “Now, you’re going to tell me where the device is, my sweet little—”

She kicked him with her knees and he was the second victim of her crotch attack that night. He stumbled backwards, his mouth opened in pain, his hands on his manhood. It was a sight, really, to witness a coldblooded boss who kidnapped people being in pain. But then, she knew he’d recover and forget about the pain as anger rose up his face.

“Don’t you dare lay another finger on me!” she warned. It was just an empty threat, but she hoped it worked.

“You, bitch!” His hand went over his head. Angelica stared at it. It was going to be freaking painful.

In slow motion, she saw his hand coming down towards her and she leaned her head away, her eyes closed for the attack.

But it never came.

Her eyes cautiously opened, her gaze directed towards the floor. And there he was, his body limp and unconscious, lying with the broken parts of the chair.

Angelica snapped her head up and saw her guardian.

Her ruggedly handsome, dirty, angry guardian was looking down at her with a gun in his hand.

“You have a lot of explaining to do, Ms. Dalton,” he whispered harshly, his black eyes glittering with anger.