Entangled

chapter 13

Fed up with Jordan and Ivan's humiliation, Mark decided to execute the plan he'd been working on for days. Seeing that his attempt to destroy little Aaron failed, Mark is at it again, and this time, he kidnaps Nicole. Nicole is walking out of the computer store after getting a battery-replacement for her laptop, and she walked to the car and just when she was about to get in, two men grab her from behind, gagging her with their hands, and force her to get into a blue van. Since it's dark, eight o'clock at night, the crooks thought that no one saw their tag. They were wrong. A seventy-seven-year-old, Puerto Rican, adorable lady, who had just been in the office-supply store right by that computer store, and since there were no parking spots in front of the office-supply store, she had to park in front of the computer store. She was in this place to buy some printer paper for her handicapped granddaughter, saw everything, and although she wasn't very tech-savvy, she picked up her granddaughter's digital camera, which she had turned on by accident by forcing the box of the paper onto the power button, as the camera sat in the back seat, she saw the camera was still on, had been on for about five minutes, and just like her granddaughter had taught her while they were playing with the camera and exploring and using its different features, she took a picture of the car, using the flash, and the car's tag was clearly visible in the picture. As the crooks took Nicole away, to a journey of no return, the woman got in her car, placed the camera on her passenger's seat, and drove away from the store in a matter of minutes. She was distraught. She didn't know what to think. She'd just witnessed the kidnapping of a beautiful, promising, bright young woman, and she was crying. She hated injustice, and to watch people hurt other innocent people. It broke her heart so bad that suddenly, she lost focus, didn't know what she was doing, and just when she was about to drive down a bridge and drown, two more men intercepted her. She heard their voices and noticed they were men drivers. She thought it was the crooks, driving other cars to fool her and wind up kidnapping her, too, to kill her eventually. The two men approached her and one of them knocked on her window. She noticed they looked nothing like those assholes. She let the window down. She would have trouble telling them what just happened because she didn't speak English.

"Lady," Ethan said, lovingly, a handsome, brawny, black, straight-haired, blue eyed, thirty-two-year-old, divorced father of three, "didn't you see what you were about to do? You almost drove your station wagon down the bridge! Where would you be now if we hadn't been in the area? If you're upset, you probably shouldn't drive. We're young. Yet, when we're upset like you are right now, we don't drive. We pull over, take a few minutes to calm down, and get back on the road. What's wrong? You need help?"

Not knowing what else to do, she just handed him the camera, still crying, while Ethan's brother, Bradley, gave her a big hug. She must've been very well-groomed because she didn't smell like an old lady. She would always smell nice, always preoccupied with her personal hygiene, always dressed up, showering twice a day with the best soaps and washing her hair with the best shampoo. She would also wear the best-smelling perfumes by the world's masters of fragrances, like Elizabeth Arden. "Awww," Bradley said, saddened, not being able to help crying, "it's ok, just tell us what's wrong."

"Hey, Brad, check this out," Ethan said, scared to death, and Brad looked at the camera Ethan had in his hand. She took a perfect picture of a blue van and its tag, and you can see something going on right beside that van, like people fighting. I can't see the people's faces, but it seems like someone is struggling with two more people because they're trying to force that person to get into a van."

Justina didn't notice that while she was taking the picture. She thought she'd just seen the blue van captured by the camera before taking the shot.

"Someone's being kidnapped in this picture. The photo spoke a thousand words for the lady, literally. We have to go to the police and take the lady with us. There is always at least one police officer that speaks Spanish at the station. Come on. Let's put the lady in our car and go."