Page 20 of Stunts and Sparks

“What am I going to do, call my mom and give her my new address? My hands are tied, literally.” She tried to tug her own wrists apart. They’d been taped together shortly after the hood was put over her head. Whoever had done it had done a thorough job of it. She hadn’t been clearheaded enough to count at the time, but now that she thought back, she recalled that tape going around her wrists a number of times. And they had taken her phone straight out of her hands the second she was inside the van, before the door had even closed.

Heather was certain she had counted four men when she was taken. One was pushing her from behind, and two more pulled her into the van. The fourth was driving. But she had only heardthe voices of three so far. One of the men was tight-lipped, apparently. She decided to call him the muscle, since he didn’t have anything at all to say. He just manhandled her when he was told to do so — one of those obedient goons who were reliable but not inventive. The leader must have been somewhat dependent on this man’s loyalty.

“You know I was on a first date when you took me,” Heather said, recalling all the times she’d heard of kidnap victims surviving because they managed to humanize themselves to their kidnappers. “My poor date probably thinks I ditched him.” She tried to laugh, but she was sure she wouldn’t have been convinced if the roles were reversed. There was a reason she was a stunt double and not a leading lady.

After several more minutes, the van slowed and took a sharp turn. Wherever they were going, they seemed to have arrived. The sound around her had changed. A different pitch maybe, or a different quality. Heather got the distinct impression they had just entered a large indoor space. “Is this a parking garage?” she asked.

“Shut it!” was all the answer the psycho would give her. This time, she was scared enough to do as he demanded. It was strange to judge someone based solely on the quality of their voice, but she wasn’t being given much of an alternative. And she had to keep her mind busy to keep herself from panicking completely.

Slowly, the van came to a stop. Heather heard the side door slide open, and someone’s arms wrapped around her to shift her out of the vehicle. When her feet touched the ground, her fear finally caught up with her. If they were going to hurt her, this was where they would do it. She had allowed herself to be taken to a secondlocation, and everyone knew that was the last thing you were supposed to do.

She started to berate herself, telling herself she should have fought and screamed immediately when the first man laid his hands on her. She should have fought like her life depended on it to not get into that van, because her life probably did depend on it. And now it was too late.

“Please don’t kill me,” she murmured, but no one seemed to hear her. They would not likely grant her request anyway, and she was delusional to think they would. Whoever had her now moved her to where they wanted her like she was little more than a piece on a game board. Both his hands were on her upper arms, and he was just short of lifting her off the ground.

The man maneuvered her until she was sitting in a chair, and then she felt and heard the same tape that was around her hands being placed around her ankles.

“All right,” said the voice of the leader. “We’re going to need you to call your father with our demands.”

For a moment, Heather was stunned again. What could they possibly want with her father? Her family wasn’t rich. They were barely even middle class. Not only had her father never had any kind of power that she was aware of, he wasn’t even in her life. “What do you want from my father?” she asked.

“A million apiece should just about do it,” said the man who was talking to her. “He can come up with that easily, can’t he, Jessica? It’s a drop in the bucket to him.”

“I…” Heather started to respond before she really knew what she was going to say. She was shocked.Jessica? “I’m Heather,” she finally managed.

The hothead spoke up, “Don’t be cute with us, Jessie. We know who you are. Do you think you can hide from anyone? That’s the cost of being a star. So, just accept how lucky you are, and pay up. Or get your dad to pay up. Whatever. Consider it a celebrity tax.”

This was ridiculous, and Heather was just beginning to work out why. “Wait. You think I’m Jessica Johnson?” She couldn’t help laughing a bit at how absurd the situation was. “My name is Heather! I mean, it’s an understandable mistake. I’ve been told I look a lot like her. But you’d think if you were actually going to kidnap someone, you’d double check that you had the right person.”

“Nice try, Jessica.” The psycho’s voice was like ice in Heather’s ears.

“I’m serious,” she said. “I can call my dad if you want, but he’s going to be confused.”

“It’s her,” said the hothead. “Not exactly a common hairstyle. This is just her last-ditch effort to trick us into letting her go.”

“I’m not lying!” Heather shouted, desperate to convince them. “I have this hairstyle because I’m Jessie’s stunt double. I’m serious. Pull up a photo of her and you’ll see. It’s not me.”

“Just sit tight.” That instruction came from the leader, and then Heather heard footsteps walking away from them. She seemed to have thrown a wrench into whatever their plans were. Well, in all fairness they had thrown the wrench into their own plans by kidnapping the wrong woman.

By the sudden quiet, Heather guessed she had been left with one man to guard her. She wondered which it was and hopedit wasn’t the psycho. Finally, she heard him mutter, “Huh.” And then, to her shock, he ripped the hood off her head.

It took a few long seconds for Heather’s eyes to adjust to the light. When they did, she finally saw where she was sitting. It was the back corner of a concrete parking garage, just as she suspected. The place was empty for some reason. The lights were half on, half off, and there were numbers stenciled onto the pilings. From where she sat, there was no view to the outside, so there’d be no figuring out where she was. Although, her kidnappers were right either way. They had her phone, so who was she going to call?

She turned her attention to the man standing in front of her, and he examined her right back. He was young, with blond hair and blue eyes. She thought he looked a lot like someone she might have gone to school with. It was a shame he’d chosen to do this with his life.

Then he spoke. “Oh, you weren’t kidding.” He was holding up a phone next to Heather’s face. She assumed he had a picture of the actress up on the screen. “Well, that sucks.” By his voice, she could tell he was the hothead. He turned toward where his cohorts stood some distance away. “Hey! Hey, she’s right! She’s not our target!”

Another of the kidnappers came running their way. He looked young as well. From a distance, Heather could see that the other two were older.

The guy running toward them looked like a young businessman, and when he spoke, Heather was shocked to find it was the psycho’s voice that came out of him. “You took her hood off?” he shouted. “You idiot! Oh my God, could you get any stupider? Now she’s seen us! Now we have to kill her!”

Heather’s heart began to pound even harder when she heard those words. She had thought that if she could just convince them they had the wrong person, they’d maybe let her go. Clearly, that wasn’t the case anymore.

Instinctively, she bowed her head and lowered her eyes. “I won’t be able to identify you,” she said, knowing it was probably useless. “It was so bright in here after the hood came off, and my eyesight isn’t so great.”

At the commotion, the two older men moved toward them, and Heather finally got to see the leader and the muscle. The leader was the oldest, looking like he was possibly in his late fifties. The muscle looked middle-aged, like he was maybe in his forties. She wondered what had happened in his life to put him in this situation, where kidnapping a movie star was his best option. They were all risking so much. But why?

Heather wondered if it would be easier to appeal to the older men than their younger cohorts. “You don’t have to kill me,” she said to them. “Please. I won’t say anything to anyone.”

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