Page 128 of The Black Trilogy

Nick shrugged and opened it a few inches, and Luke caught the tail end of what the man was yelling.

“…the girl back, or I’ll shoot the cop.”

His jerky movements, his high-pitched voice, they both suggested the man’s self-control hung by a hair. Where was Tia? Did she know what was going on? That she was being used as a bargaining chip by a madman?

“Don’t worry,” Nick said. “Not going to happen. No way is she going to give up Tia.”

“Do you think he’ll really shoot that policewoman?”

The woman’s face shimmered white in the glare from the van’s headlights, and she stumbled as the man dragged her backwards.

“Who knows? He looks like he’s lost his mind. If he ever had it in the first place.”

“Somebody’s got to do something! We can’t sit here and wait for her head to get blown off.”

“Don’t panic. Somebody will.”

Nick gestured to the front door, and Luke watched, heart thumping, as Ash walked calmly towards the kidnapper. She stopped ten metres away and her lips moved as she spoke. What was she saying? Luke strained to hear, but he couldn’t make the words out.

The kidnapper nodded in agreement then jerked his head towards his van, where the sliding side door gaped open like the entrance to the underworld.

What was going on?

Ash took her phone out of her pocket and placed it on the ground, then walked in the direction indicated. When she got to the van, she reached inside and emerged with a pair of handcuffs and a length of rope.

“What’s she doing?” Luke asked. “What’s Ash doing?”

“Going with him.”

“Stop her! We’ve got to stop her.” Luke tried the handle again, but it rattled uselessly. The window wouldn’t open any further either.

“Nobody can stop her. Sit still, would you?”

“No, I won’t sit still! That’s my girlfriend facing a man with a gun.”

Nick swivelled in his seat to face him. “I thought you split up?”

“We did, but…” Luke trailed off as Ash sat on the sill of the van and tied her feet together before holding up the handcuffs.

“Put them on,” Howard yelled.

Ash shook her head, talking to the kidnapper again. A few seconds later, he huffed and pushed the policewoman away before turning back to Ash, the gun trained on her instead.

Luke pounded on the window, trying to break the glass.

“Good luck with that—it’s bulletproof,” Nick said.

“Let me out of the car!”

“No chance.”

Luke had no choice but to watch as Ash fastened one cuff around her wrist then attached the other to a cargo ring set into the floor of the van. The kidnapper strode over and looked in at her, his face hidden under a black hoodie. Then he slammed the side door of the van shut before turning back to the frozen crowd of onlookers, waving the gun wildly.

“If anyone follows me, she dies. I mean it,” he screeched.

Nick was right; he’d lost the plot.

Howard jumped into the van and peeled out of the driveway, onlookers scattering and tyres squealing. Luke gripped the edges of the window, his heart threatening to claw its way out of his chest. Yes, he and Ash had had their problems, but now he understood that she’d only been trying to help him. What if the kidnapper planned to kill her the way he’d threatened with Tia?

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