He listened intently, then placed his hand over the speaker and asked, “Did Micah have a pediatrician appointment today?”
“No, what the hell is going on?” Johnny felt pressure on his chest. He laid a hand up to rub away the pain.
“Lis, hold on, I’m putting you on speaker so Bennett can hear.” He pushed the speaker button then put the cell phone down on the desk and pulled out his notepad. “Okay, Lis, what’s code about a doctor appointment?”
“I don’t know! That’s the problem.” Melissa was talking fast and had to take a breath. “I had a creepy—Brian, I mean creepy spine tingling feeling about her so I called.”
“Yeah, so?” Brian shrugged and said, “You get that whenever she stubs her freaking toe.”
“She asked me to pick Jamie up from school and keep him until she got back from Micah’s appointment with Dr. North.”
“Whoa, whoa, Dr. North?” Johnny’s eyes met Brian’s.
Melissa blurted, “She knows I can’t get to Jamie’s school in time to pick him up. I’m in Berkeley. Brian, something is wrong.”
“Who is Micah’s pediatrician?” Brian asked.
“Webber,” Johnny said. “And it’s Mark’s day to pick-up Jamie.”
“She said to take Jamie to her house and wait for her, and then she gave me some bogus alarm code.” They heard paper rustling. “101128.”
“Is that the code?” Brian asked as he wrote the number down.
Johnny shook his head. “Not even close.”
“Brian, I know my sister. Something is wrong. I could hear it in her voice. She was trying to sound super breezy and normal, but there was nothing normal about this conversation.”
“Okay let’s sum this up. She doesn’t have a doctor’s appointment.”
“She had lunch plans with Julie then she planned to go home. That’s it. She usually calls me when she gets home and I haven’t heard from her yet.” Johnny leaned in closer and he and Brian examined the notes, trying to decipher the numbers. “North must be important. What about highway numbers.”
Brian slammed his hand down on the desk, making the cell phone clatter. “Fuck! It’s highway 101, north.” He looked up at Johnny. “It crosses highway 128.”
“Melissa, was there anything else. Did you hear someone talking in the background?” Brian asked.
“No, not even the radio.”
Johnny slowly slid back down into his desk chair and had to swallow back the wave of nausea that hit him. “Oh god…” he said, clutching his stomach. He leaned over and put his head between his legs. If anything happened to her or Micah…he needed to throw up. “Who…oh fuck,” he moaned, it had to be Carl. Who else would do this?
“Bennett, man,” Brian cursed under his breath and shouted, “Martinez—I need you to ride with me, Bennett is sick.”
“No, I’m going,” Johnny said forcing himself out of the chair.
“No, hell no, I’m not taking you with me. You’re a wreck—you can’t help.”
“I’m fucking going!” Johnny said getting in Brian’s face.
“Fine,” Brian said, “You call Peters, I’ll drive.” Brian picked up his phone and turned off the speaker. “Lis, call us if you hear from her.” He turned his back to Johnny and said, “Yeah, Lis, I know,” he was quiet for a minute, running his hand through his hair. “Lis…” His voice lowered. “No, it’ll be fine, babe—shh-shh-shh…stop crying. I’m not going to let anything happen to her or Micah, I promise.”
Johnny got another wave of nausea when he realized how scared Ali had to be. He shouldn’t have pushed her to go out. “This is my fault,” he whispered.
“Come on.” Brian slid his phone back into the case on his hip. “Let’s get out of here—Get Peters on the phone.”
“Carl, do you want to go to jail?”
“It’s doesn’t matter now,” he said.
“It’s not too late. Go back so we can drop Micah off at a hospital…or police station. I don’t want him involved in this, not with you waving a gun around.”
“Hell no.” He laughed and Ali stared at him.
He’d completely lost his mind. He was one brave soul to mess with her. Johnny would surely kill him now.
“—I need him to make sure you do what I want.”
“I’ll do whatever you want.” Her pulse spiked at the look in his eye and she realized he was more than crazy, he was dangerous. “I just want Micah safe. Just stop somewhere.”
“No! He’s coming with us.”
Ali took a couple of deep breaths, she needed to calm him down and get him past the agitation so he could think rationally. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see when we get there. Stop talking!” He shouted as he glanced from mirror to mirror.
“Carl,” Ali said softly, resting her hand on his arm. “You are not a criminal, why are you doing this? This is kidnapping, you’ll be in so much trouble.”
“I told you, it’s too late.”
“No, it’s not, not yet. Take us back.”
“I just wanted you back,” he said, his voice lowering as if he were talking to himself. “I didn’t want any of this. If I would have known…”
“Known what?”
“If I would have known Micah was so important to you.”
“Of course he is, but what does that have to do with this?”
“None of this would have happened if it weren’t for him,” Carl growled. “Why did you have to go and get yourself pregnant?”
“Micah is a blessing. If you don’t see it that way, you don’t have to be his father. I already told you you’re free of the responsibility of taking care of him.”
He shook his head vehemently. “But I’ll lose you too.”
“Yes, Micah and I go together.” She kept her voice low, hoping not to set him off.
“Alison…I thought you loved me.”
“I did until you rejected my son.”
“We’re great together without a baby. We were free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. No babysitters, no diapers…why would you want to ruin that.”
God she wanted to smash her foot right into his stupid face. She took a deep breath and prayed for patience. “Carl, stop this nonsense and take us back.”
“No!” Before she could react, he threw his hand out, backhanding her across the cheek, making stars erupt behind her eyes.
The car swerved and jostled her head into the headrest. “Carl!” She screamed and braced herself for impact. When she reached to hold on, she gripped onto her cell phone resting in the center console.
Carl righted the car and shouted, “See what you made me do!”
Ali took the chance with racing heart to switch the cell phone to her right hand and held it between her seat and the door while Carl focused on the road and steering the car.
She held down the speed dial button to call Johnny and waited, watching the screen for him to answer. When he did, she nearly came out of her seat in excitement.
“Carl…” She had to fight tears of relief as she tried to question him. “Where are we going?”
He fidgeted and she braced for another blow, but he just gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I told you, you’ll know when we get there.”
“Isn’t your parents place up here…near Mendocino, right?” She prayed to God Johnny was listening.
Carl’s shoulders relaxed a little. “You remember.” He smiled over at her. “Doesn’t that sound like a nice vacation spot?”
“This is hardly a vacation. Taking me against my will does not constitute a pleasure trip.”
“You’ll change your mind when we get there,” he said. “It’s beautiful, Ali. You’re going to love it.”
“If we’re going to a remote house on the
coast, we’ll need some things for Micah. I don’t have formula or diapers.”
“We can get whatever we need in Mendocino, honey. If not, we can drive up to Fort Bragg.”
Johnny and Brian looked at each other and smiled. “Damn she’s good,” Brian said and picked up the radio to call in the information. “Here.” Brian handed Johnny his cell phone. “Call Peters and give him an update. Maybe we can head them off in Albion.”
The screen on Ali’s phone showed Johnny was still connected so she tried to keep Carl talking. “How much further?”
“Not far, maybe another hour.”
“I thought your parents sold this place.”
“No, they had it on the market, but no bidders were high enough.”
“You know…in a couple of hours people are going to know I’m missing. Then they’ll start looking for me.”
“They’ll never find you up here, besides they’ll assume you left on your own, especially after talking to Melissa. I mean, making arrangements for Jamie to be picked up—that was smart. They’ll assume you were buying yourself more time.”
Ali chuckled sardonically. She couldn’t help herself. “You really are delusional, aren’t you? Nobody is going to believe I left Jamie—or Johnny for that matter.”
“Don’t say that name!” His grip tightened on the steering wheel again. “He doesn’t exist any longer in your world. It’s just us now, you and me.”
Oh my god she hated him. How could she have ever thought she loved this man? What a selfish, arrogant son of a bitch. “You forgot about the baby in the backseat—again!” Ali shouted. As if on cue Micah started whining. Ali turned to talk to him. “Micah, sweetpea, we’re almost there, baby.”
“Can’t you do something?”
“He’s hungry and probably needs a diaper change,” Ali said. “He’s been in the car for a long time.”
Micah started crying louder. Ali shifted and tried to calm Micah down by talking to him, but it seemed to irritate him more.
“Alison, shut him up.”
“I’m trying. Maybe you should pull over for a minute.”
“I can’t pull over, we don’t have time.”
“Carl, I can’t do anything if you don’t pull over.”
“Shut up! Between his screaming and your bitching, I can’t think.”
“Don’t tell me to shut—ow,” she yelped when he grabbed a fistful of her hair. “—okay—let go!” she screamed as Carl yanked her across the center console.
He pulled her face close to his and tightened his grip on her hair. Ali tried to shrink away from his bulging eyes as they surged with anger. She’d never seen anything like it. “Make him shut up!” He pushed her with so much force her head smacked the passenger window hard.
She held her breath as her eyes swelled with tears.
When the pain subsided, she gently placed the phone in the door storage pocket, hoping Johnny could still hear. She clicked off her seatbelt and leaned into the backseat.
“Micah, please, sweetpea.” Her voice broke and she had to take a deep breath to talk. She laid a reassuring hand on his head and said, “Try to sleep, baby.”
When he had calmed slightly, she shifted back into her seat and replaced her seatbelt.
Carl reached over to rub her knee. “Ali, I’m sorry, honey.”
“Don’t touch me.” She pushed his hand away. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
“Don’t be like this,” he said trying to take her hand.
Ali smacked him and pushed his face as the car swerved. “I said don’t fucking touch me!” She screamed. “If you’re going to hit me—you don’t get to touch me!”
“Ali, stop! I can’t drive.” He placed his hand over her face and shoved her away.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Johnny’s eyes locked on Brian’s.
“Things are getting bad,” Brian said.
Johnny’s stomach knotted tighter with each scream that rang through the phone. He prayed Carl didn’t crash the car. “I wish she would stop trying to get him to talk. She’s just provoking him.”
“Relax. You need to keep your cool, Bennett.”
“He’s going to wreck the car…I hope she has her seatbelt on.” He rested his head back and looked up at the roof of the car. God, keep them safe… please keep them safe. “Brian, what if he hurts them. Carl already said he plans to get rid of Micah.”
“Ali won’t let anything happen to Micah.”
“Then who’s going to take care of her while she’s taking care of Micah?”
“We are—we will take care of her—fucking stop, Bennett. Hold yourself together. Peters has a team on the way to Mendocino, it’s going to turn out fine. Ali’s got her shit together more than you. Thanks to her we can hear everything. We even know where they’re going now that Martinez got us the address for the Hayes’ beach house.”
“I can’t stand this; I can’t stand to hear Micah cry like that. He never cries like this”—Johnny rubbed his forehead—“can’t you drive faster?”
“I’m not going to kill us trying to get there,” Brian said. “Chill out, take a deep breath and stop freaking out.”
“Okay! Okay!” Johnny stretched out and sat upright, he needed to pull himself together. “Wait—shit-shit-shit!” He looked at his phone.
“What?”
He held the phone out to Brian. “We lost her.”
“She lost her signal…they’re in the hills, driving through the redwoods, that’s all a dead zone for cell phones.” He turned to face Johnny. “Don’t panic they’re almost there and we’re less than an hour behind them.”
“Stop it!” Carl screamed again. “I can’t drive when you’re attacking me.”
“Don’t touch me,” Ali said breathlessly as she shrank back down in her seat, her heart racing and hands shaking. She carefully leaned in and took her phone from the door storage bin and glanced down at the display. She looked closer and realized she lost the call and her signal. Crap! How long ago did she lose it? She looked up at the huge Redwood trees they were driving through and wanted to cry. Her head hurt, her baby was sitting in a pile of pee, and his father was a freaking lunatic. How was she going to get out of this?
“We’re less than thirty minutes away, just relax a little,” Carl said.
Ali sat in silence for a long time, periodically looking down at her cell phone checking the signal. Just as the signal had strengthened, Carl slowed the car. She looked up quickly. “What are you doing?”
“We can get what you need here. The house is only about another ten minutes away.”
Ali examined the parking lot of the small gas station and wedged her phone under her thigh just as Carl pulled into a parking spot.
She flipped down the visor to look at her face in the mirror. She had dried blood around her lips and two black eyes. “You have to go in without me, Carl. I can’t go in there looking like this. My face is bleeding.”
He turned to examine her, but when he didn’t respond she said, “Unless of course you want people to know you’ve been abusing your wife in the car?”
“But I don’t know anything about diapers or baby food.”
“I guess you should’ve thought about that before you gave me two black eyes,” Ali sneered. “I’ll give you a list. While you’re in there, I’ll change Micah and feed him a bottle.” Ali made a list of things for Carl, acting as nonchalant as she could. She had to keep her cool to keep him from realizing she had her phone hidden from him.
Carl took the list then reached over and gripped her chin forcing her to turn to him.
“Ow—stop!” She threw her hand up to push him off, but the expression on his face stopped her cold.
His eyes narrowed and his grip tightened. “I can see everything you do fro
m inside that store—do you understand that?”
She tried again to back away, but he pulled her closer. “I swear, Alison, if you so much as roll down your window, I’ll kill him.”
A tremble shot through her body at the tone in his voice. She nodded, her breath catching and her eyes filling with tears.
He got out and opened the back door. “What are you doing?” she sobbed as he unhooked the car seat. “What the hell are you doing?” She reached over and held on to the car seat.
“Micah is coming with me.” He leaned in to meet her eyes. “Behave yourself and he’ll be fine.”
“No—hell no!” Ali shouted. “No-No-No! You are not taking my son from me!” She willed herself to fight off the hysterics building, but she couldn’t. A sob broke from her chest and she started pleading. “Please don’t hurt him—please, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Alison, don’t give me a reason and I won’t hurt him.” He pried her fingers loose and jerked the car seat out of the car.
Before Ali had a chance to respond, he was gone, carrying Micah in the car seat at his side. Her tears were streaming now and she could hardly see to dial Johnny’s number.
She put the phone on speaker and laid it on her lap. “Ali!” Johnny answered.
“Johnny—” Her cry came out in a pathetic sob and she threw her hand up in front of her mouth so Carl couldn’t see her lips moving. She ducked her head to look into the store. His eyes were on her, glaring.
“Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”
“Carl kidnapped…” She couldn’t talk through her hiccupping sobs.
“Ali, sweet, calm down and talk to me, are you hurt?”
She tried to take a deep breath then she pushed out a loud, “No.”
“Okay, good, take another deep breath.”
She breathed in and out slowly, and closed her eyes, trying to focus. “I called earlier—could you hear us?”