“Kassidy’s the brown-haired bitch he’s with all the time, right?”
“Yes,” the man said cautiously. “I don’t want her harmed. All you need to do is take her to a designated spot, and when the time comes, kill her father. I’ll handle everything from there.”
Micah snorted. “And how do you want this done?”
“There’s a package I left in the woods, close to your place. Everything you need will be inside it. Look for a red X on a tree, the package will be two trees over to the right, buried in a small patch of dirt.”
“I guess you’ve thought of everything.”
He chuckled. “What can I say? I’ve been waiting for this moment a long time. When you get to the package, call me. There’ll be a phone for you to use.” The man hung up and I sat there, stunned. The fucker wanted me dead.
“Dude, if you couldn’t hear that conversation, I have a shit ton to tell you. This is fucked up. I don’t know what you did to piss this person off, but he wants you dead. We need to figure out how we’re going to do this.”
The sooner, the better. I was ready to get to the bottom of it.
“Logan, as soon as I find this package and call the fucker back, I’ll call you. I don’t think riding over there will be a good idea.” I agreed with him.
A few minutes later, I heard him get out of his truck. “I’m back at my house and walking into the woods. I see the tree with the red X.” I waited a little while longer. “Found it. There’s a phone and a fucking gun.” That was easy enough. “Wait, there’s something else.” Heart pumping, I shook impatiently. “A piece of paper with directions, and some kind of pills. Probably a sedative.”
No doubt to give to Kassie. I wasn’t about to give those to her. “That’s not gonna happen,” I hissed.
“Write this down.” He gave me the directions from the piece of paper. There wasn’t a specific address, just that there was an abandoned cabin, deep in the woods. Getting the police involved wasn’t going to be easy. “I’m calling the bastard back,” Micah said.
I heard the beeps as he pressed in the number. I couldn’t hear the guy from this phone, only muffled gibberish, so I only got Micah’s portion of the conversation.
“Yep, got everything. I’m assuming the drugs are for the girl?” There was a long pause. “Two days then,” he said. “I’ll kill Chandler and drop his bitch off at your location. After her father’s dead, I’m done. I don’t want to see or hear from you ever again, got that?”
The call ended and I grew sicker by the minute. Killing me was one thing, but getting Kassie involved was a hard limit. I didn’t like it, but what else could I do? It was the only way we could catch the fucker.
“I’m calling you, Logan,” Micah warned.
My phone rang and I picked it up, hands shaking with rage. “I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I. Killing you will be easy. Having to take your girl isn’t; especially if I kill you in front of her.” He sighed. “Fuck. She’s going to be so pissed at us when it’s all over.”
“Yeah, she will. I’m only worried how she’ll take it. Knowing Kassie, she won’t go down without a fight. I don’t want her getting hurt.” She’d fight to the death if she had to.
“Think we should tell her what’s going on? She’d have to be good at acting.”
An idea came to mind. I couldn’t let her go into this ordeal helpless. To keep her sane and safe, it was the only option. I just had to believe she could handle it.
I explained everything to Micah and we contacted the bureau and Gary to let them know what we were doing. Gary was going to stake out the abandoned cabin with me and be there to make the arrest. If everything went according to plan, we’d have the case solved in two days. All that was left, was to tell Richard and Kassie. I texted them both and waited for them to show up. Kassie came first and when she got out of her car, I could tell she knew something was wrong. I was worried about her.
“I don’t think I like that look on your face,” she called out. “Why didn’t you come back to the shop? Everyone was wondering where you were.”
“Was Sean pissed?” I asked.
She climbed up the steps and wrapped her arms around my waist. “He was a little agitated at lunch today.”
“You ate lunch with him?”
She nodded. “At the shop. Dad picked us up some sandwiches.”
“What time did you guys start and finish?”
Her lips pursed. “I’d say probably around twelve to one-thirty. We talked about Janie and the race.” Then she poked me in the ribs. “And about your slacking. Sean’s worried about our image. I keep telling him not to, but he doesn’t understand.”
Holding her tight, I kissed her forehead. “Soon they’ll all know.”
She jerked out of my arms, eyes wide. “Really? What happened?”
Richard’s car caught my attention. “I’m about to tell you both.”