Page 100 of Protecting Addison
“Will do. Later.”
MacGyver didn’t have time to discuss what he was thinking with his friends, and in any case, he certainly wouldn’t do so in front of Vogel, but they knew him well enough to know he had a plan. They would go with the flow until he could tell them what he was thinking.
Vogel knew something. The girls’ disappearance started and ended with him. He may not have made that ransom call—but he also didn’t seem surprised by it. And his emotions definitely weren’t genuine.
Sometimes keeping your enemies close was the best way to gather intel. And that was exactly what MacGyver was going to do. He wasn’t going to let the man out of his sight. He was the key to finding Ellory and Yana, of that MacGyver had no doubt.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Ellory studied the random pile of items around her, frustrated. She’d built the staircase of boxes easily enough, but had been disappointed by what she’d found in the first dozen containers she’d opened. They were full of the same Christmas toys as she’d already discovered. They definitely had plenty of light now, but the repeating “Jingle Bells” song was starting to get to her. She wanted to rip the heads off the bears to shut them up, but she didn’t dare since that might mean they’d lose the light they provided.
She’d refused to give up, knowing there had to besomethingshe could use to help her and Yana escape.
She was excited when she’d opened the thirteenth box and found dozens of travel packets of tools. A tiny hammer, two screwdrivers, and a pair of pliers were inside each folded piece of plastic. There were nails, screws, and even a couple of thumbtacks in each, as well. Then she felt stupid. The tools were pretty much useless unless someone was doing something as simple as putting up a picture frame. They were obviously made by some company thinking it was a cute thing for women or children.
But her dismay didn’t last long. Even if they were tiny and cheap, she had tools. They were still items she could use. Maybe.
Other boxes held things that weren’t as useful. Plastic flip-flops, tiny squishy frogs, and even a box full of sex toys, which grossed Ellory out.
There hadn’t been clothes of any kind so far, which was disappointing, as she wanted something softer than the metal floor of the container for Yana to lie on. She glanced at her little sister and wanted to cry. There were tear tracks on her cheeks, and she was lying on her side, holding one of the stuffed bears in her arms, sound asleep.
The pressure she was under hit Ellory hard then. If she didn’t find a way out of this box, they would both end up dead. Remembering what Brady had said, about how he’d sold her for her organs, made Ellory panic. She had to get out of here.Now. Before it was too late.
She’d thought about climbing over to the door, but after seeing how tightly packed the boxes were in the space, she didn’t think there was any way she could remove enough of them for her and Yana to be able to make it to the door. And even if they did, she wasn’t sure how they’d get out. She’d heard the padlock click closed even from where they were three quarters of the way inside the container.
She was still staring at Yana, trying to think of some way to use the batteries, tools and plastic frogs to escape, when something caught her eye behind Yana’s head.
Moving slowly, Ellory crawled over to her sister to see what it was that she’d noticed. The color of the floor was different in one spot. It was…orange. At least, she thought it was; it was difficult to tell with the flashing colorful lights from the stuffed bears.
Moving Yana slowly and carefully, so the little girl didn’t wake up, Ellory brought one of the bears closer so she could examine the spot on the floor. She touched it, and was surprised when it seemed…spongy.
“Holy shit!” she exclaimed, feeling a little guilty for swearing but she figured if there was ever a time to use a bad word, this was it. “It’s rusted. The floor’s rusted!”
Excitement spread through her body as she picked at the flecks on the floor. When a piece of rusted metal came up, Ellory gasped. She wasn’t going to get too excited yet. Just because there was a little rust on the floor didn’t mean it was anything like a trap door they could escape from. But the hope that swam through her bloodstream couldn’t be stopped.
She began to poke and prod at the rusty spot, thrilled when more and more pieces of the metal broke off in her hand. Spinning around, she grabbed one of the useless little travel packs of tools and pulled out the hammer.
Slamming it down onto the weak part of the floor, Ellory winced at the loud sound that echoed in the small space.
Yana jerked awake and whimpered.
“I’m sorry, Yana. I didn’t mean to scare you. But look! The floor is weak here. Maybe we can bust through it and get out.”
“Good?” Yana asked.
“Yeah, this is good,” Ellory said. Of course, the floor being weak was one thing, making a hole big enough for her and Yana to get out of was another. And it didn’t matterhowbig a hole they made if the container was sitting on the ground. They could get through rusted metal, but they couldn’t tunnel through concrete or asphalt or whatever was under the container they were in. And if their Conex got stacked onto another, they were equally screwed.
They would have one chance to get out of here—when the container they were in was moved. And it was likely they’d be caught. But Ellory wasn’t ready to give up. She had to try.
“Come on, Yana, take this.” She handed her one of the little screwdrivers. “See if you can pry up the metal.” Demonstrating what she wanted the little girl to do, Ellory watched with pride as her sister didn’t even hesitate.
As Ellory hammered at the rusted metal, and Yana did what she could to pry up the loose parts, Ellory prayed as hard as she could that Ricky and her mom were on their trail. Because getting out of this box was only the first step in rescuing themselves…she couldn’t drive, had no idea where they were, and she didn’t want to run into anyone else who might be in cahoots with Brady.
Ellory smiled. Cahoots. She hadn’t ever had a chance to use that word in a sentence in everyday life. Her English teacher would be so proud. Then she sobered. Her English teacher wouldn’t know about the word usage if Ellory didn’t get out of here.
“Keep going, Yana. This is going to work.”
One thing Ricky always emphasized was the power of positive thinking. He told her that anytime he was in a situation that looked bleak, he and his SEAL teammates would never ever talk about the bad things that could happen. They knew about them, but they didn’t voice them out loud. He said that gave the bad energy in the world power to outweigh the good.
