Nothing Ordinary by M J Marlow (best ereader for academics txt) 📕

She realized she was secured to the seat and she tried to pull free. “Let me out of here!” she cried as he started the systems check. “Please don’t do this! I belong with my family.” “You belong with me, Annie,” McManus replied calmly. He put his hand on her abdomen. “We’ll have our own family.” He got out a bottle and Annie smelled ether as he opened it. She struggled to get free as he poured some on a handkerchief. “Sorry, baby; but I can’t let you see where we’re going.” He drugged her and then blindfolded her. “You’ll understand that you belong to me soon.” 29 James admired the efficiency of the FBI as they coordinated the nationwide search for his wife and McManus. Every person at the Academy was manning the phones or doing what they could to help. Because the man was wearing Clark’s face the story went out about a rogue agent who had kidnapped a pregnant woman as he escaped custody. Their photos went out and three hours later, a call came in from the manager of a small airfield fifty miles east of the Academy. “He took off in a private plane two hours ago,” the man told the cadet who was on the phone. He put it on speaker so they could all listen. “He filed a flight plan but I’m guessing it was bogus. Especially since the direction he flew off in is not the one he would have taken if he were following this plan.” “Give us the plane’s call sign, please,” General Owens asked the man. He nodded as he wrote it down. “Thank you for your help, sir. That’s my daughter he has and I want her home safe.” “I’ll start calling all the airfields west of here, sir,” the man responded. “I hope you get her back safe, sir.” Owens gave the people on the phones the same task and the information was given to the authorities over the wire. The hours passed slowly as they waited for an answer to their queries. Annie was groggy as the plane landed at another small airfield. She felt him freeing her but she was too weak to put up even a token fight. All of her energy was going into keeping upright. McManus pulled her out and she felt leather as he set her down in a waiting car. She couldn’t focus her eyes to see what kind of car it was. She felt something against her ankles and he was taping them together. He cuffed her wrists behind her back and patted her cheek before going back to the plane. “Hey, Mister,” the Manager yelled as he came out. “You can’t just leave that plane there! You need to sign in!” He fell as McManus struck him across the jaw and went to finish unpacking the supplies. He got it all in the SUV and drove away. “Where are we going?” Annie asked him as they headed north just as the sun was rising. He didn’t answer her question. “I need to eat something.” “We’ll stop when I’m certain you understand how you are to behave from this moment on, Anneke,” McManus replied. He smiled as she glared at him. “You really think you have any choice? I’ve murdered four people so I could get to you. One or two more is not going to matter to me.” “Four?” “I was taken prisoner with your husband, Anneke,” McManus told her. “Our captors decided they could use me. They hired me to murder your family and I was given Cartwright’s face and life so I could get close to you. Killing him was a pleasure after he tried to warn you that I was coming at you as him. I never liked that arrogant S.O.B.” “Why my family?” Annie demanded. “Just because my Grandfather had those damned files?” “Yes,” McManus nodded. He saw the anger in her eyes and smiled. “You expected something more?” Anneke glared at him and clamped her lips shut. “So, the rules.” He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. “Only one, darling. You do everything I tell you to do without argument or hesitation and I will let you live.” He let her go and concentrated on his driving. Annie sat back and tried to think of how she could get out of this. It was obvious she was going nowhere but where he wanted her to go for now. But he wouldn’t keep her strapped down forever. There had to be a time when he would drop his guard and then she would run. She was not going to let herself be put in this position again! She had let Guthrie do that to her and she wasn’t going through it again. “I’m going to be sick,” she said an hour later as she felt her stomach cramping, “if I don’t have something to eat soon.” She looked over at him. “I’m pregnant. I need to eat!” He pulled to the shoulder and pushed her forward. The cuffs came off and then went back on with her wrists fastened together in front of her body. He opened the glove compartment and pulled out a candy bar. The cooler between their seats held bottled water. “Knock yourself out, baby,” he snapped and pulled back out onto the road. “We’ll stop at the next fast food restaurant and go through the drive-through in a couple of hours.” Annie knew she wasn’t getting anything better so she ate the candy bar and sipped at the water slowly, praying she wouldn’t get sick. When she was done, she let herself doze off and woke to the smell of eggs and bacon. She had slept and missed the restaurant. He handed her an egg and bacon and cheese biscuit sandwich and put a straw in a carton of orange juice for her. “Thank you,” she said and saw his surprise. “My parents raised me to be polite.” She ate her sandwich and picked up the carton. “We’re going to lose the SUV soon,” McManus told her. “We have to change our looks, too.” He looked at her and smiled. “I always imagined what you might look like as a redhead. Now we’re going to find out.” He raised a lock of her hair and frowned. “It’s a shame, but we’re going to have to cut your hair. You can grow it back when we get where we’re going.” “You’re going to be caught long before that,” Annie snapped at him. “Why don’t you stop this now before you get hurt?” “You are a comedian, aren’t you?” Thomas laughed and pulled her over and kissed her before she could react. “Sweet lips,” he smiled. “Keep them closed.” They drove for another two hours until they came to a farm set off alone in a small valley. An old man came out of the house with a shotgun in his hands. Annie watched the fierce scowl become a happy grin as McManus got out of the car. “Pop,” McManus beamed as he pulled her out of the car and set her down. “This is Anneke.” “The girl from Germany?” the old man asked. He walked around her slowly and came back smiling. “She’s a looker, son. I can see why you wanted her.” He opened Annie’s mouth. “Good teeth. Fertile?” he asked as he put his hand to her abdomen. “Jumping the gun, boy?” “Looker like her? Couldn’t keep my hands off her, Pop,” McManus smiled. “She’s three months in.” “What’s done is done,” the old man nodded as his hands moved over her body. “Good wide hips. The delivery won’t be too hard on her.” He stepped back. “I’ll get the keys while you get her pretty for the pictures.” “Pictures?” “For our new licenses, baby,” McManus said as he put his arm around her waist and guided her into the house. She looked around at the shabby furniture and dirty windows and knew no woman had been in this house for a long time. They entered a bedroom and she frowned. It was set up like a beauty parlor with sinks and chairs and mirrors. “Pop’s daughter works out of the house sometimes.” He shoved her into the sink chair and shampooed her hair. “She taught me a few things,” he smiled as he took her to the chair and strapped her to it so she couldn’t move. “To the shoulder, I think,” he said as the door opened. “And make her chestnut red.” “Gotcha,” a woman said from the doorway. She smiled as she leaned past Annie to get the scissors. “I’m Josie. You’re a pretty thing. Mac has a good eye.” She cut the hair off just below the shoulders and put it in a rubber band. “Some cancer patients are going to have a nice new head of hair thanks to you, pretty girl.” Annie closed her eyes. It was only hair, she told herself; it would grow back. She listened to McManus and his sister discussing the hair cut and dye they would use like two old pros and wondered how many other women had come through here as his prisoners. She flinched as someone laid their hand on her shoulder and she opened her eyes. “There’s the cut, pretty,” Josie smiled at her. Annie saw her hair dancing around her face in still golden waves and liked it. But it wasn’t going to stay this color. Josie brought over a bowl with a white paste and poured something nearly black into it. The color came out looking like blood. She shivered as the cold paste was applied to her hair section by section and pinned up. “Twenty minutes,” McManus smiled as he let her up and took her to the hair dryers, “and you will be a whole new person.” Once the dye had set, Josie finished the cut and let her go. McManus took her to a room with a white backdrop along one wall and a professional looking digital camera. There was a computer and printer set up along another wall and cables running from the camera to the printer and the computer. A chair sat in front of the screen. “Smile, pretty,” the old man said as McManus made her sit down. “Want to look nice on your license.” He took the shot as McManus went out. When he came back thirty minutes later, his hair had been dyed and he had a goatee. He was wearing wire-rimmed glasses and had on a business shirt and tie. “Very classy, son.” He took the photo. “Go get yourselves something to eat. Josie made stew last night. You can warm that up for our lunch, pretty.” McManus took her to the kitchen, cut the tape off her ankles, nodded to the refrigerator and sat down. Annie balked at being made to serve these people, but she knew she’d regret it if she refused. So she got out the stew and warmed it up; then found the biscuit mix and made biscuits to go with it. She was pulling them of the oven when Pop and Josie came in. Josie set the table and got a basket and towel for her to put the biscuits in. “You’ve chosen yourself a good woman there, son,” Pop smiled as Annie put the biscuits on the table. McManus pulled her into his lap and smiled. “She should last you a long time before you have to trade her in.” “I am not…” Annie started to argue and McManus put a spoonful of stew into her mouth. She glared at him and Pop clapped his hands and laughed in delight. “Spirited little thing,” he crowed. “You’re not going to be bored, that’s for damned certain and sure.” He started to eat and the others followed suit. There was total silence as they ate and Annie was relieved. This place and these people were getting on