Читать книгу 1 Law 4 All - Gator - Billy Angel - Страница 16

Annie started driving northward above the speed limit. She hoped to have reassured Juan and her father that the situation was under control. She spots the dark SUV in the distance. It’s pulled alongside the road.

This lonely part of the highway gave her pause. With nothing but swamps on both sides of the road, she debated stopping. She puts her cell phone on the passenger's seat and slows down. Questions raced in her head of Dom’s safety. What if Dom’s hurt and they’re going to throw her into the swamp? Did something happen to the driver? Is the SUV in trouble?

She decides to play Good Samaritan and pulls over a short distance in front of the Ford. She takes her phone off the car’s charger and strides towards the van holding the cell phone over her head. "Do you guys need any help? I have a phone!"

The skinny man rolls down the driver's window. He greets Annie with a gun in her face. Little did she know the gun was Russia’s legendary, military Makarov pistol. She was up against former military, KGB operatives. Within an instant, Annie froze. The side back door opened. As the tall, muscular man from the gas station pops out, the skinny man commands Annie from the SUV’s window, "Get in!"

Annie's protest move, trying to turn and run to her car failed. She felt a thump on her head. She instantly dropped her phone while her consciousness whirled into a spotty-black tailspin.

The SUV’s road vibrations woke her. The first thing Annie sees is Dom across from her in the rear seat. The stocky woman sat between them.

The friends had their mouths duct-taped. Dom gives her an unbelieving look – like how could you get caught? She glanced at the inside of Annie’s right thigh. Annie signaled ‘yes’ with two blinks.

They had devised a signaling system while dating in college. One blink meant ‘no’ and two blinks meant ‘yes’. They used it mostly in their bar hopping days. They would indicate a wordless yes or no about the men hustling them. They tried communicating with their eyes only to have the stocky woman threaten to put black bags over their heads.

The skinny man didn’t anticipate this complication. “Who are you?” he screamed from the driver’s seat. The stocky woman ripped the duck tape from Annie’s mouth. Annie faked crying, and then said, “I thought you were in trouble. I was just trying to be a Good Samaritan.”

“What is this Good Samaritan?” Stocky asked.

Dominica hummed mmnnn-mmmnnn from behind her taped mouth. The stocky woman ripped it from her face. Dom asked, “What do you want from us? Why is this girl here?”

Dom pretended not to know Annie. The skinny man said, “You we want. The nosey girl we don’t need.” He told the woman to tape their mouths and put the black bags over their heads.

Dom and Annie surrendered to their uncompromising positions and swayed along with the rhythms of the road. They both hoped their trackers were still functioning.

They heard the skinny man talking on the phone. He called Tariel (Hoza) Mogilevich in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Hoza, their boss for this job, had instructed them to call in every hour. Hoza asked why they haven’t made contact for almost two hours.

The skinny man explained the interruption in the ride north. Now they had two women captives. Hoza instructed them to find out her name and anything else before they killed her. The skinny man said “da” or ok in Russian. Hoza Mogilevich wanted to make sure all was progressing as planned before calling Dominica’s father.

As they crossed the Florida-Georgia border, the stocky woman began questioning Annie. Eventually, Annie and Dominica confessed that they were cousins. Annie proclaimed, “You guys are in for a world of hurt. Our fathers know people that will crush you.”

Dominica waggled her head at Annie. “They know who I am. I’m sure they’re not worried about our fathers. They must have some sort of death wish!”

“Quiet now,” the skinny man said. “We’ll be at our safe-house soon.”