Chapter 1

If he had to get kidnapped, Jake figured he was lucky to end up in the hands of incompetent kidnappers. Either they hadn’t taken the time to research him at all or they knew he’d been military and couldn’t be bothered to be extra careful. Whatever the reason it worked well for him.

After a day and a half of pretending to be docile he made his move. They sent in a beta to bring him food, another dumb move on their part unless this was an exceptionally strong beta. It was almost insulting. Jake may have needed medical retirement but he was still an alpha and former special forces. It wasn’t hard to subdue this so-called guard.

When the guy was knocked out cold Jake checked for weapons. None. Apparently the kidnappers took some precautions. He’d just have to make do and get down the hall to the next guard before anyone noticed the dinner delivery was taking longer than usual. Food deliveries were always very quick affairs and he wanted the element of surprise.

This plan was somewhat derailed when he saw through a small window that a man was curled up looking miserable in the room next to where he had been held. Maybe Jake wasn’t the only person kidnapped? He couldn’t very well leave the poor guy behind, even though odds were good that another person would just make it that much harder to escape.

The door was locked, so he had to go back to grab the keyring off the unconscious guard. Shit, someone was going to get suspicious soon.

“You wanna get out of here?” asked Jake as soon as the door swung open.

The guy tried to get up but couldn’t. He looked terrible and had to have been in this abandoned warehouse for longer than Jake. Damn it, this escape was not at all going according to plan and for the first time Jake began to worry.

He barely heard the guy say, “I can’t.”

He couldn’t just leave the guy. As soon as Jake escaped, the kidnappers were likely to move their other captive (captives?). Time for plan B, then. Too bad Jake didn’t have a plan B. “Okay, let me see what I can do,” he said.

The obvious first step was taking out the other guard. By this time the second guard had gotten suspicious about how long his buddy had been gone. That actually worked to Jake’s advantage. He shut the door to this other guy’s room and moved away from the window, keeping his hand on the doorknob so he could open the door silently. He only had to wait a few seconds until the guard went to the room where he’d been held.

Then he pounced. The element of surprise was a grand thing. Subduing this guard was slightly harder; the guy was an alpha and no weakling either. Jake almost saw stars when the guard’s foot connected with his bad knee. He channeled his pain into rage and managed to get a solid chokehold, holding it tight until the guard blacked out.

This guard had a loaded Glock, giving Jake something to work with. On the other hand one Glock wasn’t going to be nearly as much help if he had to carry the other prisoner out with him.

Along with the Glock he discovered a cell phone. Now he had a better plan B. He tied the guards to a pole in his room. He only had their clothes to work with, effective gags but not the best restraints, so he pistol whipped them for good measure. That ought to keep them out cold a while longer. While Jake had zero problems killing his kidnappers, he’d rather not call attention to his escape with gunshots if it could be helped. That done he tapped the word Emergencyto bypass the passcode and called 911.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

“My name is Jake Nelson and I’ve been kidnapped,” he reported. “I’ve tied up the guards for now but I don’t know how long before they’re missed, and there’s another captive here who’s in bad shape. He can’t walk.”

“Do you have any idea where you are?”

“I was kidnapped outside the Auburn YMCA, and they only drove for about ten, twelve minutes at most. I’m in what looks like an abandoned warehouse, and when they took me I was put in a blue cargo van, the kind with no windows.”

“I’m getting your location information now, Mr. Nelson. Police and ambulance are on the way and I’ll stay on with you until they arrive.”

Plan B couldn’t have gone better. Jake knew 911 couldn’t always get the location information from cell phones so, aside from that kick to the knee, this whole escape was going very well.