Previously…
– Tori was enraged after learning what her father did to make sure she agreed to give up her unborn baby for adoption. She fled and asked her cousin, Marcus, to take her to see Zane.
– Two men tried to snatch Christian, thinking he was Caleb. Brent and Molly intervened, and Christian was able to escape.
– Molly and Brent were locked in the trunk of a car and driven to an unknown location. With horror, they realized what was in store for them…

Inside the car’s trunk, it is blacker than night. Brent and Molly Taylor, despite being crammed together in the compact space, can still barely see one another — but they can hear the movements and indistinct voices outside the car over its still-idling engine. As if the anticipation and confusion weren’t terrifying enough, though, they soon smell an all-too-distinct scent wafting over the entire scene.

“What’s going on?” Molly asks nervously.

Brent crinkles his nose to confirm. “They’re spreading gas. They’re going to set the car on fire.”

“What?” she shrieks in terror.

Someone pounds on the outside of the trunk. “Keep it down in there!”

Molly thinks that she recognizes the voice as belonging to one of the men who tried to kidnap Christian and who must have knocked both her and Brent out and tied them up in here. Her heart races as words begin to pour out frantically:

“Why are they doing this? Why would they have wanted Caleb? And if they kill us–”

“Shhh,” Brent says, though Molly cannot fathom what he could possibly say to calm her down.

“This has to do with that drug bust,” he explains quietly. “Somehow, it has to. The dealer we’ve been after–”

“Caleb got mixed up with a drug ring? I thought it was–” She stops mid-sentence, gasping for breath. “I thought it was a small bust. Enough you didn’t even have to press charges. Why would they want to hurt any of us like this?”

“Because…” Brent is panting, too. “Caleb and his friend… They gave us the lead we needed to start moving up the chain. And now we’ve almost got him – we’ve been working on making the big bust, and…” He trails off, inhaling to confirm that the scent of the gasoline has grown even stronger.

“How do we get out of here?” Molly asks, as tears threaten to overtake her. “Are we going to die?”

“No.” She hears him swallow, hears the stickiness of his mouth moving. She knows that he is attempting to sound confident when he is not. “I’m going to get us out of here.”

All Molly can do is see the darkness enveloping them, as the unavoidable smell of the gasoline overwhelms her senses and her body quivers with fear.

—–

“Caleb’s on his way home,” Christian Taylor says as he drops his iPhone to his side and returns to the living room of his mother’s house.

“Good. Maybe he’ll be able to tell us something we’re overlooking,” Rosie Jimenez, who has been waiting in her navy police uniform, replies. “And this way, we’ll know he’s safe.”

“Come here, dear.” Paula Fisher motions to her teenage grandson, who slides back into her embrace. “Your mom and dad are going to be fine. I just know it.”

“We’re running every possible combination of characters you might’ve seen to see if we can nail the license plate,” Rosie says. “And we have officers out all over the city looking.”

Christian squeezes his eyes closed, wishing that he could somehow squeeze himself out of this reality. An hour ago, everything was normal, and his dad was dropping him off for a weekend at his mom’s, and now his parents are in terrible danger — and only because they were trying to save him.

“I wish I knew something else,” Christian says despondently. He feels his eyes beginning to mist, but whatever embarrassment he might usually feel about crying in front of Rosie or anyone else is a mere afterthought now. He sniffles and wipes his eyes with his sleeve.

Paula rubs his arm. “You’re safe, dear. And your parents will be, too.”

“Do you mind if we go over the incident one more time?” Rosie asks. “Just to be sure.”

Christian shakes his head. “No, it’s fine.”

He sniffles again as Paula guides him toward the couch. She sits down on one side of him, and Rosie takes a seat on the other side. They walk through the logistics of the encounter again, from when the strange car pulled into the driveway to when Christian ran back inside the house.

“Maybe if we had said we’d call Caleb to come home,” he says with a sigh, “we could’ve used that to stall.”

“You did everything you could’ve done,” Rosie assures him. “You ran inside, you called 911, and you tried to get a look at the license plate. You might’ve inherited some of those law-enforcement genes from your dad.”

She offers him an encouraging smile, a gesture that Christian does his best to return.

“For a minute, I thought they were gonna take me instead of my dad,” he says. “They said they couldn’t take him, that it had to be me — or Caleb — to go to someplace, like… I don’t know…”

Rosie leans forward. “Wait. Did they say something about where they wanted to take you?”

“Nothing that meant anything.” He shakes his head again. “It was like, ‘We have to bring him to Black’s’ or something.”

“Black’s?” Rosie zeroes in on Christian even harder. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”

Christian’s eyes widen as he leans back. “I think so.”

“What does that mean?” Paula asks.

Rosie springs up from the sofa. “I need to go. I might know where your mom and dad are.”

—–

Marcus Gray slows his Ford Fusion to a stop at a red light.

“Are you sure?” he asks as he glances over at his cousin.

“Yes!” Tori Gray rifles through her purse and pulls out her cell phone. “I need to talk to Zane.”

“Tori…” The teenager drums his fingers along the steering wheel. The sound seems to reverberate through the car, since Tori shut off the radio, trapping them in silence.

“What?” she snaps while sending a text.

“I know your dad went behind your back–”

“Went behind my back?!” She shifts toward him in the passenger seat, causing the seatbelt to ride up over her pregnant stomach. “He went into my phone and deleted some text from Zane so that I’d think I had to give up this baby for adoption.”

Marcus frowns. “Would one text have changed your mind?”

“Maybe!” She stops and then points forward. “It’s green.”

“Sorry.” He lifts his foot off the brake and touches the gas, advancing the small car through the intersection. He is slowly getting more and more used to the feel of driving and the routines, but none of it feels totally like second-nature yet. “It’s just… Zane did a lot of, y’know, crazy shit to your family. And you’re young to have a kid.”

“But it should be my choice,” she says, focus down on her phone until she finishes texting. “There. I told him I’m coming over.”

He grips the wheel hard. “I just don’t know if it’s, like, the best idea.”

“Marcus, you’re the one who told my parents I went to that clinic. The least you can do is drop me off at Zane’s,” she says.

“Okay, fine. Yeah.” He looks back at the road. “Your mom and dad really do love you, you know.”

He can almost hear Tori grimace.

“Keep driving,” she orders him.

—–

It is silent for far too long outside.

Inside the trunk, Molly sucks in a deep breath.

“I don’t want to die,” she says. “I’m not ready. The boys…”

Brent wriggles his body so that their knees touch. “I know. There has to be a way…”

A sob escapes her throat. “There’s no way.”

“Mol–”

“There’s no way,” she says, her voice breaking. “We’re tied up in the trunk of a car, in the middle of nowhere, based on what I can hear. These people, these crazy people — they want to kill us.”

Even though the darkness, she can see Brent groan.

“I’m going to save us,” Brent says. “Save you.”

“How?”

Brent’s hesitation is the only answer she needs.

“Caleb and Christian, they’re such good kids,” she says, racked with emotion. “But they need us. They need their parents.”

“They’re gonna have us. This isn’t over.”

“You ready, Commander?” a male voice shouts, as a hand bangs on the car’s trunk from outside.

“You’ll never get away with this!” Brent screams.

The response he receives is a harsh laugh. “It’s not about getting away with anything. It’s about teaching you a lesson!”

Molly cowers at the booming voice, terrified of what is to come.

—–

Outside the Taylor home, the red and blue lights from squad cars cast their urgent signal into the night.

“Get cars from Puyallup, anywhere up there,” Rosie tells another officer. “It’s at least half-an-hour from here. We might not have that much time. Any city that can get a car there faster — send ‘em.

The officer goes on his way, and Rosie is about to head back inside when she sees a Prius pulling up on the street. She waits as she watches Caleb Taylor climb out of the backseat. She raises an arm to signal him.

“What’s going on?” the teen asks as he jogs toward her in his jeans and Nike high-tops. “Christian said–”

“Some guys took your mom and dad,” she tells him matter-of-factly.

“Wait, what?”

“We think it’s related to Diego Barrera and the drug ring,” Rosie says.

“Where are they?” he asks, his face straining with panic.

“I think I know. We called for other cities to send cars out that way, so they can get there ASAP.” She looks up at the house. “Your brother’s inside with your grandma. Go in. I need to head out.”

Caleb nods and takes half-a-step, then pauses.

“Can you make sure my parents are okay?” he asks.

“I’m gonna do everything in my power,” she says before bolting for a squad car.

—–

“Take a left at the next light,” Tori says, as she reads directions off her phone. “It should be Snohomish Road.”

Marcus draws a deep breath as he drives. He exhales slowly and steadily.

“Okay,” he says, but he squints as they approach the upcoming intersection, which is marked only by a stop sign. “I think this is Snohomish.”

“It looks like it’s further,” she says, glancing between her phone and the road. “It says it’s a light.”

“Yeah, well, the sign says Snohomish,” Marcus fires back.

Tori lets out a loud groan. “Where the hell are we, anyway? This can’t be that far from Zane’s place.”

He lifts his shoulders into his ears. “I don’t know! I only really know how to get to, like, school and Uncle Matt’s and the movie theatre.”

He eases his foot onto the brake, but Tori leans forward.

“That says Snoqualmie,” she tells him. “Keep going ’til we get to a light.”

“Fine.” He lifts his foot off the brake and proceeds through the intersection.

As he does, they both hear a horn blaring at them.

Marcus jolts in his seat and looks to his right — but it is too late, because a pair of headlights races toward them.

“Stop!” Tori screams, but the only response she receives is the slamming and crashing of metal and glass as the other vehicle plows into Marcus’s car.

—–

“Is this what they wanted to do– to Caleb?” Molly asks.

Unable to move his hands, Brent wriggles nearer toward her. “Caleb and Christian are both safe.”

“Still…”

And then something changes. There is a whoosh — a rush of sound, a rip of heat — that somehow tells both of them for certain: the fire has been lit.

Brent jabs his knees up into the trunk’s lid, to no avail.

“We’re never going to get out of here,” Molly says, as tears overtake her. “Not… not alive.”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true. Brent, we’re going to die in here.”

“No!” But his body slumps again.

“I am so sorry,” he finally says.

“For what?”

“For involving you in this. This is because of my investigation–”

“This is not your fault.” Her breaths are shallow and quick now. “You– Brent, you’ve given me so much. You gave me two beautiful sons.”

“They’re the best thing we’ve ever done.”

“Yeah.” Molly is unable to stop the tears now; the smell of the gasoline fills her nostrils. “And you supported me. You stood by me and helped me fulfill my dreams. The life I’ve had…”

A sob overtakes her.

“Molly,” he says, his own voice breaking now.

“My life has been so much better because of you,” she says. “You showed me what true love is. Brent, I… I will always love you.”

“I love you, too,” he says. “I always have. I always will. I’m sorry we couldn’t…”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. Because we’re together now.” She inches even closer to him, pressing her body to his. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

Somehow, through the dark, their faces find one another, enough to press their lips together, to feel a moment of pure connection.

They lie there, crying, as the heat of the flames grows stronger, closing in all around them.

END OF EPISODE 973

Will Rosie’s hunch be correct?
Are Brent and Molly doomed to die in the trunk?
Will Tori and Marcus survive the crash?
Discuss it all in the comments below!

 

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