Miss Taken

Chapter 12-S

Chapter 12

"Go!" Karter shouted.

Bow threw the door open and launched himself out of the way. Bullets started raining into the room, ricochetting off the walls and shelves, but Karter jammed the shelf through the doorway before anyone was hit. That I saw, anyway.

Four layers of solid metal stopped the bullets before they reached us. In the chaos, I couldn't see how many invaders there were, only a cluster of people dressed in black and Karter forcing them back with the shelf. The Oompa-Loompa grabbed the shelf as well and helped Karter pull it. The others ran for the door at the end of the hallway, while staying close enough to the shelf to still be under its cover.

Upon reaching the door, Bow twisted the door knob and forced it open. The Boss, Riley, Bow, and the Oompa-Loompa dashed down the stairs to the van. Karter snatched a black duffle bag and grasped my hand, pulling me along. As I ran with him, I teetered on my heels-great, I'm that person-and fell on my knees. Wasting no time, Karter scooped my up in his arms and flung himself into the open door of the van, slamming the door to block from bullets.

The instant the door was closed, Bow charged the already started van out of the garage, the opening garage door skimming the roof of the van. The invaders behind us had shoved the shelf out of the way (because it was too wide to fit through the door) and were beginning to filter out through the door, showing bullets down on the van. The back window shattered and there was a crack in the left one near the back, but we all came out of it without any fatal injuries as far as I could see.

"What in the actual-" a voice from behind me began, before Bow cut a corner, the tires screeching. We looked back to see Angela sitting up clumsily, as she was still bound by the duct tape.

"Who's that?" Boss asked, turning around from his position in the front passenger seat.

"Angela Donovan," Karter answered. "Well, not really. She's a spy for S."

"S?" I asked.

"She's the leader of that band of psychos back there," Bow explained.

"Said the kidnapper," Riley muttered.

"What's the deal with them?" I asked, more interested in this than making sarcastic comments for once.

"We don't really know," Karter said. "All we know is that their leader sent us several letters telling us to back off from kidnapping Riley and getting the ransom, and signed them 'S.' Obviously we did anyway and I guess now they're either trying to get revenge or take Riley."

"That's a lame name," I said. "If I was gonna be a leader of an epic kidnapping organization with ninja soldiers, I'd call myself 'Wicked-Awesome-Death-Lady-Stealin'-All-Yo-Children.'"

"Thus the reason you are not the leader of a, quote, 'epic kidnapping organization with ninja soldiers,'" Bow said from the driver's seat.

"Okay guys, we've got a spy lady back here listening to everything if you care," Riley reminded. "If you two wanna stop being cozy, maybe you could do something about that?" She raised her eyebrows at Karter and I.

I looked at him and realized he was still holding me from carrying me to the car. His gray eyes widened and he pushed me onto the small space next to him, as there were four people squeezed into three seats.

"If you wanted to give me a hug, all you had to do was ask," I said to Karter. He gave me a look of annoyance and I winked.

"Guys!" Riley exclaimed in exasperation, looking at Angela pointedly.

Karter rolled his eyes. "D'you have a wire?" he asked Angela.

"No."

"Check her," Karter said to the Oompa-Loompa. The Oompa-Loompa looked surprised by the command, as Karter was obviously not ranked high enough to give him commands, but Karter disregarded this completely and the Oompa-Loompa climbed back to check her.

"Wouldn't be smart to pull anything," Karter told her without looking back at her. "Even if you did eliminate him somehow, we outnumber you three to one. And we've got this spitfire to make snide remarks while we're at it," he added, beckoning at me.

"Thank you," I said.

"What about me?" Riley asked.

"You're entirely useless as anything but a hostage," Karter responded evenly.

Before Riley could reply, the Oompa-Loompa called out, "She's clean!"

"Good work, Terry," the Boss said from the front. "Any ID?"

"No sir," Terry said. His name is Terry! I was internally cracking up.

"What?" Karter asked me, his voice quieter than usual.

"His name his Terry," I whispered, covering my mouth to keep from laughing.

"Yeah, so? Terry's a unisex name," he said.

"I know but it's just funny to me!" I giggled. Karter gave me a look that was supposed to be something like "You're insane," but he smiled so it was more like "You're insane but I love you for it."

Love you? Wow, getting ahead of yourself there, subconscious.

We stopped outside another warehouse and the Boss finally got off the phone call that he had been on nearly the entire drive. We walked through a narrow gap between the warehouse wall and a chain link fence. I stepped carefully in my heels, as I was still in a dress and my braid from dinner. It was past seven now, and dusk was beginning to set in.

Around the back of the warehouse was a large helicopter. With hardly a word, the Boss had everyone load into it (all seven of us!) and went up to speak to the pilot.

"Where're we going?" I asked Karter.

For once, he didn't have an answer.

A/N: Hey y'all! I know this update took awhile but it's summer so I'm getting too used to slacking off :P But this didn't take as long as the last one! Jeez, sorry about that again... Anyway, hope you enjoyed! :)