Page 98 of Protecting Addison
The bears threw off enough light that she could easily see the boxes stacked around them. Shaking her head, Ellory was amazed that she’d done what she had…climbed up about ten feet or so to the top box. It looked scary as hell, and she probably never would’ve attempted it if she could see what she was doing.
But it was worth it. They had light! Now that she could see, maybe she could make some sort of steps out of the boxes. If she could get back up to the top once more, throw down the top box, then the next, she could create a stairway, making it easier to examine what was in the other boxes around them. Surely they weren’tallfull of stuffed animals.
A particular memory from hanging out in the garage with Ricky, tinkering with his stuff, came to mind. One of the first things he’d taught her was how useful a battery could be. Hand warmer, lighter, electromagnet for a compass, fire starter…there were a ton of things he’d shown her. A fire inside this container was a horrible idea…but maybe she could MacGyver something else that would help them.
She grinned. MacGyver. She just had to channel Ricky. If he and his SEAL buddies were stuck in here, what would they do? Her mind spun, and suddenly she was anxious to see what else she had to work with. Brady might think she was useless because of her disease—he’d never said it, but she wasn’t dumb; she could see in his eyes that he thought she was pathetic—but she’d show him.
“Yana, can you hold this guy—I think we’ll name him Fred—and if his lights stop, can you push this button so he starts up again so I can see?”
“Yes,” Yana said, grabbing the bear and holding him to her chest.
Ellory stood and did a few stretches. She felt energized. “One box down, ninety-hundred to go,” she muttered, before helping Yana stand off to the side where she wouldn’t get hit by the box Ellory planned to shove off the top of the stack. Then she took a deep breath and began to climb once more. Time was of the essence. She had no idea how long it would take for the container they were in to be put on whatever ship would take them across the world. The faster she could work, the sooner she MacGyvered a way out of here, the better.
* * *
MacGyver glared at Brady Vogel. As soon as he got word that Kevlar and Blink had Ellory’s biological father in their grasp, he’d left the house to meet up with them. Smiley and the older SEALs had stayed behind to make sure the boys and Addison were all right.
Addison wasn’t happy with him at the moment. She’d wanted to come with him. To face her ex. To demand to know why he’d kidnapped her girls and where he’d taken them. But MacGyver had begged her to stay home. He’d finally gotten through to her by saying that if something happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
Their parting was extremely painful. MacGyver wanted to stay home with her, hold her, comfort her. His teammates could get the information they needed from Vogel, of that MacGyver had no doubt. But he needed to confront the man. Get answers.
He and Flash had met up with Safe and Preacher at Wolf’s house. Surprisingly, the older SEAL and former team leader had offered up his basement as a perfect place to interrogate Vogel.
When MacGyver arrived, the furniture in the basement had been pushed to the side and Vogel was sitting in a chair, his hands cuffed behind him, his face sporting two very painful-looking black eyes. He had blood coming from a split lip, but he wasn’t cowed. Not in the least.
“I told you what would happen when MacGyver got here,” Kevlar said. “He’s not going to be as nice as Blink and I were. If I were you, I’d start talking. And not the bullshit you’ve been spouting so far,” he growled.
“I’ve been telling you the truth. Ellory texted me and said she was sick of being bullied and didn’t want to tell her mom, since she’d told her the bullying was done. She was embarrassed. So she asked if I would come pick her up. It washeridea for me to say that you and her mom were in an accident. She’s smart! She knew I wasn’t approved to pick her up. Check my phone. The texts are there. She begged me to get her out of school. It wasn’tmyidea!”
MacGyver listened without expression. He didn’t believe Vogel’s story for a second. “And Yana? Why did you pick her up?”
“Again, Ellory told me to. Said her mom always picks up her and Yana together. Said the little girl would be afraid if Ellory wasn’t there to get her. She went in with me and pretended to be upset so we’d be able to sign her out too. Check the school cameras, man! They’ll show you I’m not lying.”
“Where’s his phone?” MacGyver asked.
“Here,” Kevlar said, chucking it over to him.
MacGyver caught it and turned it over.
“Code is one-two-three-four-five,” Kevlar added, without the smallest hint of amusement on his face.
“Of course it is,” MacGyver muttered, before unlocking the phone and opening the text messaging app. There were texts from Ellory, begging him to come get her from school. Suggesting that he tell the secretary that he and Addison had been in an accident. On the surface, they seemed to prove the man wasn’t lying—but MacGyver’s bullshit meter was still pinging like a motherfucker. Especially after the conversation he’d had with Ellory that very morning at breakfast.
“Where are they now then? Where did you take them?” he asked the man.
“I dropped them off a few blocks from your house. Again, it was Ellory’s suggestion. Since Addison works from home, she didn’t want her mom to see them getting out of my car. Thought Addison would be hurt or something, since Ellory didn’t call her to get her from school. I don’t know, man. She’s a teenager. They make no sense.”
“She’s only twelve,” MacGyver said, feeling annoyed. For some reason, he wanted to make it clear that Ellory wasn’t yet in her teens. It made a huge difference in his eyes.
“Whatever. Look, man. I was trying to do the right thing. My daughter was in distress and I wanted to help. That’s it. I have no idea what happened to her and the other girl after I dropped them off.”
Everything within MacGyver was screaming that Vogel was lying through his teeth. It would be an easy thing for Tex to check the cameras at the schools and the timestamps on the texts. They didn’t have Ellory’s phone, but Tex could also look into her phone records and make sure Ellory really did send the texts. He could ping the locations and see where the texts were made from. Her phone was off right now, so they couldn’t track her or Yana that way.
Frustration ate at him. He thought for sure once they had Vogel, they’d have the answers they needed. But Yana and Ellory could be anywhere.
Just then, Preacher’s phone rang.
“Preacher.What?Fuck. Right. Hang on, let me put my phone on speaker…okay…we can all hear you.”
