After some time, Jack Cross decreased the car’s speed and started to look for a place to hide. What was more surprising to him was how he knew how to drive that weird vehicle, as long as he didn’t think too much about it and just did it. Perhaps it was his body that remembered how to drive because if he thought about it, he could barely figure out how the pedals worked.
He saw an underground car park, and without hesitation, he turned to the entrance by following another car.
Jack saw the driver ahead pressing a button on a pole and receiving a ticket, so he did the same. After touching the button and receiving a ticket as well, the automatic gate opened, and Jack drove ahead and went in.
After a few parked cars on his right, there was an empty spot, and Jack parked there. He got out, took a quick look around, and after opening the back door, he grabbed the young woman’s hand and pulled her out, with her barely having time to grab her purse and hat.
She followed him in silence, with him still holding her hand. They went out through a windowed door, and after looking to both sides of the street, Jack turned left and went to the small alley between the parking building and an office building.
All that time, the woman stayed silent, feeling her body tremble but unable to shake off Jack’s hand.
She was too scared to be bothered by one of her father’s employees holding her so carelessly, and her feet were hurting too much for her to get angry at such a rude man who dared to pull her out of her limousine so carelessly and was walking so fast that she felt her feet and ankles screaming in pain. The high heels she had chosen that morning to visit her father were not meant to walk, or, in that case, almost run, because of Jack’s quick steps.
When they exited the alley on the other side, there was another street, but narrower than the street at the entrance of the car park and with fewer people walking on the sidewalk.
After a few seconds of walking, Jack stopped in front of a shop window, and while the young woman was looking at it and frowning at the cheap clothes on display, Jack said in a low voice, “We need to find somewhere to hide for a while. It would be better if you called your father to tell him you are alright and to ask him to send some people to get you. I don’t know what happened to my friend, the one who helped us escape, but considering those guys that were after you were armed, I am not sure if he is alright or not.”
“But… what was all that? Do you think they were trying to kidnap me? My father told me he got a few threatening messages, and he insisted I should stay at home and be very careful when going out, but I thought he was exaggerating!”
“They wanted to kidnap you or just kill you. Either way, I need to get you back to your father, because this is way above my pay grade. I am supposed to just be in front of that building, nothing more. The moment my daughter finds out what happened, she won’t stop nagging me until I quit that job and find a safer one.”
The young woman grinned and said, “Afraid of a little girl, are you? Surprising, considering everything you did until now.”
“I am afraid of making her an orphan. She already lost her mother, and we moved to this city just a few months ago. And you are the one who should be afraid because if I die because of you, she won’t stop until she slices your neck. Let’s go in. I think we can hide here.”
With a grimace, the woman complained, “You can’t possibly think that I will step foot in this cheap store! If someone sees me in there, I will be the laughingstock of this city!”
“Unless you prefer to be a dead body, you better go in before those guys come back.”
Jack Crawler opened the door for her, and while mumbling a bunch of complaints, the young woman entered, lowering her hat and putting on her sunglasses to hide her face.
A woman came to them, asking if they wanted some help, and Jack smiled at her and said they were just looking and he would call her if needed.
The woman nodded and went to a shelf to fold some clothes after glancing at the richly dressed woman and wondering why she would be in that store, considering the type of clothes she was wearing.
The young woman took her mobile phone from her small bag and said in a low voice, “I am going to call my father and tell him where we are so that he can send someone to get me.”
Jack was looking out the window and said, “Tell him we are in that coffeehouse on the other side of the street.”
“Why? Are we going there now?”
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“No. We are going to stay here. I want to see who comes to get you. I am having a weird feeling, and every time that happens, it’s always right.”
The young woman touched the screen of her phone, and after a few seconds, she said, “Hello. It is Mia Mills. Yes, I am alright and perfectly safe. He is where? He doesn’t know yet? Great, like always. Send someone to get me. I am in… What is the name of this street?”
Jack Cross shrugged and went to ask the seller for the address, and then Mia said to the person on her phone the name of the street and that she was inside a coffee house on number thirty-one.
After she hung up, Jack asked, “It wasn’t your father?”
“No, it was his assistant. My father is in a meeting. I never liked that guy. He always looks at me in such a way, as if I annoy him just by breathing. He said he would send a car for me.”
She then lifted her leg a bit and massaged her ankle, making Jack frown. Noticing him looking, she said, “My feet hurt, okay? These shoes were not meant for so much walking! And you almost dragged me here!”
Jack signalled the seller and asked, “Do you have some comfortable shoes for her? And by the way, is there a back door? We might need an exit from where we don’t draw so much attention. A lot of people know her, and we want to get out without anyone seeing her.”
“We have a back door from where we receive large packages. It goes to an alley and then to the street at the back of this building. I am not sure if I have something to her liking, but I will do my best.”
“Anything will do, as long as it is her size and comfortable. And cheap, because I will be paying in cash for it, not her.”
When the seller left for the storage behind the front counter, Mia complained, “Do you want me to buy shoes here? Why? A car will come soon to get me!”
“I am going to buy shoes for you. You can pay me back another day. I don’t want you to use some credit card or whatever, and suspicious people finding out we were here.”
“You watch too many movies, don’t you? Track down my credit card? Those were some lousy wannabe kidnappers! I doubt they would have the means to track me!”
“Nevertheless, you can’t use anything but cash. And turn off your phone.” Seeing her frowning, Jack warned the stubborn woman, “Unless you want me to break it, turn off your phone right now.”
Still not very happy with the way Jack was talking to her, she said, “When I tell my father how you treated me, he will fire you for sure. You are too rude!”
“He can fire me if we survive this. Well, I am going to survive this, because if our lives are in danger, I will leave you behind, because there is no way I am going to leave my daughter without a parent because of a woman I don’t even know!”
“Then why did you save me? You could have let them take me!”
“My body moved on its own; I couldn’t do anything. If it was now, I wouldn’t budge. Now shush, the selling lady is back.”
Surprised by the way Jack was bluntly saying he would not save her if another similar situation happened, Mia Mills whispered, “What the hell did I do to you for you to hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you; I just don’t like you. Shut up and try these.”
With a grimace, Mia took off her expensive shoes and slid into the tennis shoes the woman was offering her. She tried them both and nodded a single time, making Jack go to the counter with the woman to pay.
While Mia was putting her shoes in the bag the seller gave her, she looked at her new ones and mumbled, “Lousy shoes... lousy man... lousy shop... I am so going to make you pay for this. Just you wait, dumbass.”
When Jack returned, he guided the still angry young woman to a corner of the shop, from where they could see the coffee shop on the other side of the street through the front window.
Not even fifteen minutes went by before the car that stopped in front of the building that Jack and his co-worker were guarding arrived.
Jack confirmed by looking at the licence plate and saw the same two men exiting the car and entering the coffee shop. A few moments later, they came out, with one of them making a phone call on his mobile phone and the other one going to the driver’s seat.
The car left, and while Mia Mills was looking at the car, she heard Jack saying, “The same car, the same two men. Are you sure you can trust your father’s assistant?”
“I… don’t know… Do you think he is working with those guys? But he has worked for my father since I was little! Could it be that someone tampered with my phone and bugged it?”
“Do you have a way to call your father directly without going through his assistant?”
“I… suppose I can phone the front desk and ask for them to call my father in the meeting room, now that I know where he is.”
Jack was still looking through the window, and after a couple of seconds, he said, “Do that. But let’s ask the selling lady if we can use her phone. If someone messed with yours…”
“Right! I know what you mean! Guess all those movies you watched are coming in handy!”
While Mia was going to talk with the seller, Jack mumbled, “Movies? What movies? I have no idea what she is talking about! Weird woman, that one.”
At the front counter, while Jack was still looking through the front window, trying to see if someone suspicious was arriving, Mia talked with the selling lady.
Still wondering why, the woman gave Mia the shop’s phone and went to a shelf to check the price tags.
After dialling the number, Mia said to the voice on the other side, “Hello, Kathryn. It’s Mia Mills. Yes, it is me; my phone broke, and I want to talk to my father. I know he is in the main meeting room, extension 2-1-4, I believe. Can you be a sweet and put me through? No, I don’t want to talk with his assistant. Just my father directly. Okay, I will wait.”
While tapping the counter with her fingernails, Mia glanced at Jack and mumbled, “Strange guy, that one. He doesn’t look like anything special, but he still managed to get me here safe and sound.”