Underestimated Heiress

CHAPTER 15 - The escape

Jess's team started their hike, they were ready for the challenges they might face during this hike. The local hiker was leading them, Jess was cautiously analyzing her surroundings while walking through the bush. She heard some branches breaking in the bush multiple times and she had a feeling that someone was following them. She stopped to check if someone was around them, the others thought that maybe it's one of the challenges and someone is scaring them. But Jess was feeling uncomfortable, she felt as if they were being watched and a hidden danger was approaching them. Unfortunately her bodyguards didn't accompany her, as she didn't want to take any risks and who would have thought that the local goons also posed a threat to them. When she didn't find anything in the bush, they continued their walk.

They came across a crossroad, one was very small and looked like it went deep into the woods. This sent a shiver down Jess's spine, while others were oblivious to the danger. Jess had a very bad feeling and she thought of calling Colin, but they were out of range. She asked the group if anyone had any range on their phone, but one of them said, "no Jess, didn't they tell us that it's hard to get mobile range in this part of the mountain." Jess nodded and they continued walking, now all Jess could think was to complete this part of the hike as soon as possible.

The path was getting narrower and rocky, it was expected. Suddenly, the 3 hooligans appeared in front of them, they wore a mask and started approaching them. The team was not scared because they thought it could be a challenge but for some reason Jess had a bad feeling. One of the 3 hooligans spoke, "We will not harm you if you listen to us." Geeta laughed and said, "your acting is so real." Hooligans looked at each other confused.

"Shut up, and follow us.", another hooligan said, interrupting Geeta. Geeta was a bit angry with his tone, but listened as she didn't want to lose points during this task. Jess wanted to confirm if these 3 men were really a part of the professional team that they had hired, so she started asking a few questions which sounded generic. When she got the answers from the 3 men, she was sure that they were not part of the professional team but somehow knew few things about them. Jess was scared, she tried to keep calm and think. She will have to keep acting, while she could think of a way to tell her group.

Due to the narrow path, they all had to walk in one line. The 1st hooligan was leading, he was followed by the local hiker, who was followed by the 2nd hooligan, because the hiker was local they didn't want to give him any opportunities to run away. The group of 5 kids followed the 2nd hooligan and the 3rd one was at the last. Luckily Jess was in the middle of the 5 kids and they were walking through a rough patch with stones so they had some gaps among each other. Grabbing one of these opportunities, Jess whispered to Lucas, "they are kidnappers, danger", she kept it short but Lucas was shocked and he stopped in his tracks, alerting everyone. Jess told him in a normal voice, "Lucas, don't stop midway, you are delaying us and this message is for all of us." She was trying to hint him to pass the message to Geeta who was behind Lucas but she was too close to the 3rd hooligan, how will he do that?

While Lucas was figuring out on how to tell Geeta about this and was waiting for the right opportunity, Jess found another opportunity to tell this to Susie who was walking ahead, but she wanted to make sure that she doesn't react like Lucas otherwise it will alert the 3 men. She walked close to Susie while Ben was waiting for his turn to climb a tricky stair, Susie was behind Ben and Jess thought this of a perfect opportunity. "Susie, please do not react and listen to me carefully. These people are not here for a challenge, I think they are here to kidnap us. Please pass this information to Ben without alerting that man." Susie was smart, she already had her suspicions and knew what she should do. After crossing the difficult stairs, Susie waited for another opportunity. They were going up the mountain. At some places the rocks were slippery and the path was dangerous so they had to be extra careful. The hooligans didn't look like they hiked a lot, so they were slow and careful when walking through rocky and dangerous paths.