CHAPTER 31

Grace checked her watch. It was past midnight, twelve hours and she was still sitting. She was tired, hungry and had to pee. If someone did not come in the door soon, she was going to go the hell off. It had been a whole day of sitting there doing nothing but waiting...hell she had never been kidnapped before so she had no idea what she was waiting for.

If it was to give her time to breakdown in fear, well they screwed that up because all they had done was piss her off.

She wondered throughout the day how Jonathan was handling things with his mother. She was sure he had attempted to call her several times now. She was sure he knew she was missing and had taken steps to find her. Hell, he may have even called Roark to help. What about her mother? Did Winnie know she was missing? She was sure Myles would keep it from her as long as possible. The woman had been through enough pain. The last thing Grace wanted was to cause her more. AnnieMarie and Daisy would be there by her side, so would Aunt Vivian.

She was certain no one was considering Uncle Walker to be complicit in any of this, but Grace knew in her heart that he was. To what extent she did not know, but he was definitely involved. The only question she had was why now? What happened to force him to go to this extreme? She stood pacing around the now chilly container. The recording kept playing back in her mind. Your brother has no love in his heart for you. Walker is dangerous to your family. Her mind kept telling her the answer to her questions were in the documents Roark gave her. What was she missing?

There was a sound at the entrance. Grace whirled around, as the door slowly opened. The silhouette of a man appeared in the opening. The darkness of the night prevented her from seeing his face. No there was more. He had a mask on. A dark mask covering his face. That gave her hope that she may leave here with her life.

“You may want to put this on.” The man holding the door suggested. It was the same voice with the British accent from earlier in the day.

“There’s no need.” A tall man walked through the opening. “She will never make it out of here alive.”

Grace’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, a very brief moment she thought it was her father. But as her eyes adjusted, a blinding anger filled her.

“That is a good prayer, Uncle Walker. For your sake, I hope God is listening.”

“Gracie.” He grinned as a flash light illuminated the container. “That smart mouth of yours has gotten your ass in a bind, or should I say a box.” He laughed as he shined the flashlight around.

“You know some people turn these shipping containers into nice comfortable homes now, Gracie. Get used to it, this is your home…until the rats or who knows whatever else gets to you.” He pulled the chair up then sat in it. “Let’s talk, Gracie.”

Grace leaned back against the wall of the container. She knew he thought he had the upper hand and if she had to admit it, he did. But she’d be damned if she would concede that point to him. “My name is Grace.” She shrugged. “But go ahead. Have fun calling me whatever you want and I will do the same, Mr. Bitch.” She smirked. “Look a there, I even gave you a little respect.”

“Don’t make me angry before we get started.”

“As if I give a damn about you being angry. Don’t make me laugh.”

“Close the door,” he yelled at the man with the mask on.

As the man closed the door, Grace stared at her Uncle Walker, well not precisely at him. In her mind she was calculating the angle she would have to strike to hit her mark.

“Yesterday, you faxed a document to the police department, to the attention of the detective who was in charge of the case. The document never reached his desk.”

Grace listened as he spoke, wondering how he could have known that. She’d faxed the document herself and never mentioned what she was doing to Myles or anyone else.

“I have people,” he said as if reading her mind. “What I need to know is did you read it, did you make copies and or share it with anyone?”

“Hmm.” Grace folded her arms across her chest, her shoes dangling by the straps. “Let me think. You know I don’t remember, Uncle Bitch.”

“Don’t….piss me off, Grace. I have too much riding on this to let an arrest warrant from the past interfere with my plans.”

“Plans? What plans would that be?”

He placed the flashlight on the floor. The light shined upwards bouncing off the ceiling, giving the container a glow. For the first time she had a better view of the place she’d been in for the last twelve hours. There was a bucket in the corner. Damn, she had missed that before. She could have taken a piss. Her attention went back to Walker as he stretched out his legs then crossed them at the ankles.

“It can’t hurt to tell you what’s going to be happening.” He smiled. “Your father stole the bank from me and I’m taking it back. Then I’m going to destroy it. But I have to be in clear standing before the Banking Commission will allow me to be the CEO of Dunning. That’s why I had to wait for that document to surface before I could take any action. Now that I have that, I need to be on the Board. I don’t have to be a voting member, or an employee of the bank. I can be a silent member of the Board. To accomplish that I needed to get rid of two votes. Just two.”

Grace thought his count was off, but she learned to keep things close to the vest. Only releasing the information when it was necessary.

“I know you are thinking my numbers are off, but I assure you they are not. AnnieMarie and Gary have both agreed to give their Uncle Walker a second chance to redeem himself.” He laughed. “I knew that rehab gig would work for all the family to see. The screw up Walker Jr. was taking steps to get his life back together. With two Dunnings in my pocket…well let’s say three, because I have you. Your lover boy Jonathan Michael is away in London. Well, as you can count that gives me a five to three vote.”

“I think your plan is flawed. Cainan, Myles, Mike, Lynn and Preston would never vote for you. And there is no Board meeting scheduled until next week. Jonathan is sure to be back by then. And don’t forget you haven’t killed me…yet.”

“You are so wrong, Gracie,” he laughed. “Lynn is a good man. He has no bias against me. No reason not to listen to facts and make an informed decision. And as for Preston.” He shrugged. “We have him too…family is hard to figure out. Sometimes they have your back and sometimes they don’t.”

“We?” Gracie questioned. “You keep saying we. I am going to assume the we is you and Elaine. As to family, you would have to eliminate me and Myles to take over. Neither of which is going to be easy.”

“You made it easy. I have to thank you for coming into my room that morning. You gave me a little scare there, Gracie. For a moment I truly thought I was a goner. But you let me live….that was a mistake, Gracie.” He exhaled. “It did open my eyes, though. There was no way I could let you live and take over the bank. You got a little bit of your Uncle in you.” He grinned. “I knew I had to eliminate you before I could complete my plans. I knew if I didn’t kill you…you were going to kill me. So in the last moments of your life I want you to think of this as self-defense. You or me, Gracie, and I chose you.” He laughed as he stood, then slowly walked over to her, stared into her eyes and said, “Make no mistake, Gracie, I have no problem eliminating family.”

As the man stared down at her Grace saw the unadulterated evil inside his eyes. Those were the eyes of the man who killed her father. Her knees came up in full force between his legs. As he bent over from the pain, she took the heels of her shoes, swung them around connecting to his face. Using the palm of her hand, she slammed it into his nose causing him to fall backwards on the floor. She kicked him in the crotch as many times as she could causing him to scream out.

###

The man outside the door pulled off his ski mask then made a call. He knew it was five in the morning in London, but felt this constituted an emergency.

“Sorry for the early hour, but I thought you should be advised,” Jack O’Donnell stated. “Dunning plans to kill the woman.”

“You must prevent that at all costs. Stick to the plan. Take the woman to the secondary location. Provide food and water. Once Dunning is voted in, signs over the corporate accounts, release her. Let the family integrity work out the rest.”

“You realize if Jonathan Michael discovers we are involved in this there will be bloody hell to pay.”

“Then I suggest you make certain he doesn’t find out.”

“Yes, sir.” Jack had disconnected the call and replaced the ski mask, when a scream filled the air. He ran to the container.

###

The door swung open. The man in the mask ran inside stopping before grabbing for her. She swung the heel of her shoes wide, connecting to his hand. As she walked back out of his reach Walker’s big hand circled around her ankle knocking her to the floor.

Grace fell backwards, hitting her head on the floor. It stunned her for a minute. Before she cleared her mind, she was yanked up then slammed against the steel wall, near the cot.

“Seal the doors,” Walker yelled, still holding his balls as he glared back at Grace. “Once the doors are sealed, the air is going to get stifling in here. I suggest you take really short breaths. Sup..sup…sup.” He turned and walked out of the container. His laughter followed him as the doors slammed shut.

“You’re still a bitch,” Grace yelled out, just before the darkness filled her mind.

###

Jonathan was staring out of the window into that same darkness as his phone buzzed. He glanced over at his mother who was sleeping comfortably on the fold out bed in the back of the plane. He pulled out the phone to see it was the contact number making a call to Dewberry. He listened to the call, making certain the recording button was activated on his phone. He quickly glanced at his computer to ensure the location tracking was working. The blinking on the screen indicated it was. His heart began to race as he listened to the call. He closed his eyes when he realized Grace was indeed still alive. As soon as the call was completed Jonathan pulled up the details on the location. It gave him longitude and latitude.

He prayed that wherever the call was made from, Grace would be there. He sent the coordinates and the recording to Myles in a text then made a call.

“Jerome, it’s Jonathan. A call came through on that number. I sent the coordinates to Myles now I am sending it to you. Get to the location and find Grace.”

Jonathan’s phone buzzed while he was still on the phone with Jerome. He glanced at the number. “That’s Myles on the other line.”

“He’s here at the house with the family. I’ll meet him upstairs.”

Jonathan clicked over. “Myles, she was alive when this call came through. The information I sent may be where Grace is being held. Get to her. Bring her home.”

“You found her,” Myles said. “I will go get her.”

“She may not be there, Myles.” Jonathan could hear the fear in his own voice.

“She will be there, Jonathan,” Myles stated. “When you land I will put her right in your arms.”

Jonathan hung up the phone feeling grateful, yet helpless. “Lord, bring my Grace home.”

###

It was close to two in the morning by the time Jerome pulled into the location, with Myles and Mike.

“Are you sure this is the right place, Jerome?” Mike asked. “It’s a damn shipyard.”

Jerome checked the coordinates. “The exact location is a little further in.” He continued to drive forward.

“These are shipping containers,” Myles said as he glanced around. “Could they be holding her inside of one?”

“How do we get inside if they are?” Mike asked.

“We’ll worry about that when we find her,” Jerome replied. “But we will get inside if she’s here. That I can promise you.”

There were rows and rows of large steel containers. The kind you would use to ship large quantities of merchandise overseas. Myles shook his head trying to clear the thought of Grace being inside of one of them, possibly hurt or worse, dead. How in the hell would he explain this to his mother?

“She’s going to be all right, Myles.” Mike reached from the back seat of the SUV. He put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’re going to find her and take her home to Winnieford.”

Myles reached back, reassuring his brother. “Yes, we will, Mike, yes we will.”

“These are the exact coordinates,” Jerome said as he stopped the vehicle.

The three men got out, looking up and down at the rows and rows of steel containers.

“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Mike sighed. “Where in the hell do we start?”

“Right here,” Myles stated, pointing to the nearest container. “Then we will rip off the doors to every single one of them until I am satisfied Grace is not here.

“I have a better way,” Jerome said as he pulled his black tote bag from the back of the vehicle. He pulled out a piece of equipment that looked like a camera with a handle. “I brought a little help along.”

“What is it?” Myles and Mike walked over to where he had placed the bag on the hood of the vehicle.

“A thermal sensor,” Jerome replied. “It can detect the presence of a human body.” He turned the device on, then held it up to the container Myles had pointed to. He scanned around the front, then walked down the side, then back, then back up the other side. He shook his head. “Not there.”

“Try this one,” Myles said.

“Hold up, stop walking around,” Mike ordered.

He had a flashlight in his hand pointing to the ground. “There are fresh footprints in front of this one. Two sets, both large. Too large for Grace.” He shook his head.

“She could have been carried in,” Jerome said as he walked over. He held the sensor up to the front of the container. The image of a body lying on the floor of the container appeared in a bright orange outline.

“That’s her,” Mike yelled as he began pulling at the lock on the latch of the container.

“Step back, Mike,” Jerome ordered as he placed the sensor on the hood, then took out a thin plastic case about the size of a stick of gum from the bag. He put on a pair of gloves, then opened the case. “Move back behind the car.”

“What is that?”

“Don’t ask. Move behind the car.”

The brothers did as they were told. From behind the SUV they watched Jerome take a strip of cloth from the case, then wrap it around the lock on the latch of the container. Once it was secure, Jerome joined the men behind the SUV.

“Cover your eyes,” he commanded.

They could hear a sizzling sound, then a loud pop. The brothers started to move, but Jerome held them down. There was a boom. Debris floated around.

Jerome, Myles and Mike jumped up then ran inside the container.

Grace was lying on the floor near the wall in the back. Unresponsive.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Mike cried out as he ran to his sister.

Myles was already there picking her up in his arms and carrying her out into the fresh air. “There’s blood on the side of her face.”

Jerome checked her pulse. “She’s alive. That’s what’s important.

“Damn right she is,” Myles said as Mike opened the back door of the SUV. “Jerome, get us to the hospital, then call Jonathan.”

Mike jumped into the passenger seat.

Jerome grabbed the bag off the hood of the vehicle then jumped into the driver’s seat, and pulled off at top speed. He made a call from the console of the SUV.

“I need a clean up at the location transmitting to you now. I need to know who owns the container and when and where it was purchased.” He disconnected the call. Then dialed another number. “Jonathan, we got her.”

“How is she? Can she hear me? Grace?”

“She’s un-responsive,” Jerome replied. “We’re transporting her to the hospital.”

“Don’t worry, Jonathan.” Myles took a deep cleansing breath. “We are all going to be laughing at how she pissed on herself when she wakes up.”

Mike took a calming breath. “Yes, we will.”

“Where was she?” Jonathan asked.

“In a shipyard inside a shipping container,” Mike replied

“Who in the hell put her in a god damn death trap?” he asked.

Jerome looked into the rearview mirror at Myles. Their eyes met.

“We don’t know,” Myles spoke calmly. “But we are damn sure going to find out.”