Elaine’s muscles ached as she stood in the middle of the box truck waiting for the door to open. It felt like hours had passed when she finally heard the latch move and the door slowly slide open. Without thinking Elaine jumped at the first shadowy figure she saw and yelled “Run!” at Tommy before sinking her fist into the face of the person she jumped on. The man yelled in surprise and anger as she tumbled on the ground. She saw a leg kick at her and she rolled away in time before it connected. As she stood on shaky legs she felt cold steel against her neck. She quickly turned and grabbed at the gun but in the struggle it fell with a clatter and skidded underneath the truck. A large hand came across Elaine’s face and she fell to the ground.

She struggled to get up quickly, tasting blood on her lips. She whirled around to find three large men staring furiously back at her. One man was on his knees, a large lump on the side of his face. The way he surveyed her angrily she guessed that was the one she had jumped on. She noticed the other two men were holding guns haphazardly at their sides, unsure of what to do. Before she could move she saw Nick storm around the side of the truck.

“What’s going on?” He yelled agitatedly. Elaine did a cursory glance at her surroundings. She was on some type of shipyard loading dock. She could see the ships and ocean to her left and to her right were rows of warehouses dusted with grimy snow. The dirty snow reminded her that she had no jacket on and the biting wind chilled her to her bones causing her to shiver. She looked back around at the truck and was relieved to find Tommy gone. She hoped he escaped.

Nick looked at the odd scene in front of him and stood still waiting for an answer. “Patno!” he yelled at the man on his knees. “What happened?”

The man on his knees stood. “As soon as we opened the truck she jumped out and punched me!” He answered heatedly.

“Didn’t you tie her up?” Nick asked exasperated.

“Yes.” All three men nodded.

“Well obviously not good enough!” Nick walked to the back of the truck peering inside. “Where’s the boy?”

The three men looked at each other in alarm. “He was in there when we left.” The one named Patno responded as he walked up to the truck and jumped in to look around. All three men began searching for Tommy. When it was obvious that he was not inside or around the truck Nick rounded on Elaine and stalked toward her eyes blazing.

“Where is he?” he bellowed loudly enough to echo off the surrounding buildings making Elaine’s teeth chatter.

“Who?” She asked innocently. Nick strode up to her and slapped her with the back of his hand. Elaine’s mouth filled with blood.

“I won’t ask you again. Where is he?” Nick raised his hand but Elaine remained silent staring defiantly at him before spitting the blood in her mouth at his face. Nick opened his eyes slowly grabbing a tissue from his pocket and wiping the blood from his face. He let out a low breath. “Fine we will do this the hard way.” He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket producing a gun. He calmly walked up to Elaine and pushed the gun into her temple. Elaine closed her eyes as she felt the cold metal rub against the side of her head. Nick breathed heavily into her ear. “Where is he?”

To Be Continued…