by Marla Monroe
“We’ve got to get to Billings and find her,” Baldwin said.
“What about this asshole?” Jet asked, patting Bigsby on the shoulder.
“Tie him up and gag him until we get Tammy back. Then he can go to the Feds. I’m sure they’ll be very interested in what he has to say.”
* * * *
Tammy groaned when the van bounced over potholes, feeling each punch to her already battered and bruised body. Each bump forced whatever she was lying on to dig into her side and back. She struggled to get her hands free, but all she’d managed to do was rub her wrists raw.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. You need to save your voice for when we start asking you questions,” the man in the back with her said.
She studied him. He was dirty with stained teeth and greasy hair that hung limp to his shoulders. The other man had an unkempt, bushy beard and beady eyes. It was beady eyes that had all the tattoos even across the knuckles of one hand. The other one with the greasy hair was the one with the holes in his ears. Neither man seemed the least worried that someone would stop them and free her. It had her gut knotting up to the point of pain. They were going to kill her, and no one would ever find her.
Finally the van stopped, and then a few seconds later it slowly rolled forward a few hundred yards before the other man stopped the van and climbed out. The one in the back with her grinned down at her as he grabbed her by the feet and hauled her toward the sliding door. When it opened up, the first man was there to help him stand her on her feet, then threw her over his shoulder and carted her across a concrete lot and inside a metal building.
“Throw her in the cell in back,” someone she hadn’t heard before said.
“We’re waiting on Stu to get here. If she knows anything, he’ll get it out of her. We can’t make this next drop if she’s talked to the Feds about us,” the same voice said.
“What do you think she knows, Diez?” one of her captors asked.
“Don’t know, but we’ll find out. Just can’t move forward until we know what she told them.”
The man carrying her stomped across the concrete floor and around several halls before he opened a door and dropped her to the floor. Tammy cried out as she hit the hard, unforgiving floor, her head bouncing off it. Pain burst through her skull, erupting like a violent volcano down her neck and into her shoulders. Bright lights flashed across her vision as she fought to remain conscious.
It would be so easy to just let the blackness take over and all the bruises, scrapes, and cuts would fade away, but she was afraid that if she let it take her, she wouldn’t wake back up. She struggled to move, but nausea threatened to have her emptying her stomach when she did.
They’re going to kill me. I don’t know anything, and that means they’re going to hurt me first.
Tammy held no hope that anyone would find her. She was sure the other women had called for help, but who would know where she was? She didn’t even know where she was. She did know one thing though: it had something to do with whatever her asshole ex-boss had been into. She’d waited too long to quit her job. Now the gang wanted to know who she’d told about them, and she hadn’t told anyone other than Gabriel and Baldwin. They hadn’t said anything to anyone. She was sure of it. Randi didn’t know anything and wouldn’t have told even if she had. Why did they think she’d said something to someone?
Once the nausea passed, Tammy drew in slow, deep breaths to clear her head. Instead, doing so filled it with the stench of decay and sweat. She struggled to sit up and look around. The room they had her in was basically a small storage room about nine by nine feet square. There were some dingy-looking rags over in one corner with a wooden chair in the other corner.
Tammy studied the chair to see if there was anything on it that would cut through the plastic zip ties but didn’t see anything she could use for that purpose. The only reason she could see at all in the room was because of a skylight overhead that let in a small amount of light through the dingy pane. There didn’t appear to be anything in the room that would help her escape.
There has to be something I can use. Something that will help me get out of this place.
She pushed against the wall behind her to help her get to her feet. The added pressure to her arms hurt, but she needed to be on her feet to have any chance to survive. The room itself was made of painted cinderblocks. Tammy slowly shuffled around the room until she made it to the metal door. There she finally found something that might help. There was a curled piece of metal near one of the hinges that just might be sharp enough to cut through the ties.
I’ve got to make this work. No one is going to find me. It’s up to me to save myself.
Tammy backed up to the door and lifted her arms high enough to reach the hinge in the middle of the door. Her arms screamed in agony at being lifted so high behind her, but she managed to get the tie at the right height to drag the plastic tie across the metal edge. She pulled and pushed her wrists so that the sharp piece of metal dragged across the zip tie over and over.
Blood seeped from where she’d missed the tie and landed her wrist against the metal instead. It hurt but not nearly as much as what they’d do to her. She had to get loose, and this was her only option. The tie grew slippery with her blood as she continued to work it across the metal edge.
Tammy gritted her teeth at the pain radiating from her wrists up her arms. The pounding in her head seemed to pulse along with the throbbing in her hands. They’d tightened the zip tie so tightly she’d all but lost feeling in her hands. Now they were burning as she sawed the tie apart.
Finally, the tie broke and she fell backward against the door. When her arms fell forward, the feeling rushed back, sending needle pricks all up and down her arms. Her hands and arms hurt, but not nearly as much as her wrists did where she’d managed to cut them in several places. The cuts were deep but not life-threatening.
She wiped her hands up and down her pant legs to dry them off so that she could grip with them if need be. Tammy walked around the room once more and looked for a way out or anything she could use as a weapon. The door was locked from the outside, and she didn’t have any way to pick the lock. Neither was there anything that might help her in the room other than the dirty rags and the battered chair.
I might have gotten my hands free, but I’m still screwed.
At least she could fight when they came for her. She wasn’t going to curl up into a sniveling ball and feel sorry for herself. She’d fight. She was bound and determined that she’d make them hurt before they managed to subdue her.
She listened through the door to see if she could hear anything. Mostly it was quiet, but occasionally she heard shouting, though she couldn’t make out the words. Were they fighting among themselves or just horsing around? She wasn’t sure. The only thing she was sure about was that when she heard the stomping footsteps heading her way, she was going to hurt. Tammy prepared herself to fight, positioning herself against the far wall with her fists up, the wrags held tight in them.
Chapter Sixteen
“Whatcha got, Link?”
Baldwin waited as Gabriel listened to their friend relay the information he’d dug up. They were on their way to Billings along with Jet, Tanner, Kyle, and Quinn. Though the others had wanted to tag along, he and Gabriel hadn’t wanted to risk that something might happen to their women while they were gone.
“That’s what I was afraid of. Okay, thanks. We’re on our way to Billings right now. Thanks for the intel, man.” Gabriel rubbed the phone against his forehead.
“What is it?” Baldwin asked.
“The Feds have information concerning the Dead Dogs selling drugs and laundering the money through some laundromats there in Billings. They think there’s more than that involved, but have a snitch feeding them information and he’s only giving them bits and pieces, so they aren’t sure what laundromats or where they’re getting their drugs from to begin with.” Gabriel droppe
d his phone in his lap.
“So evidently the Dead Dogs think Tammy is the one giving the Feds the information. They don’t know how much she knew to tell them, so they’ve put their operations on hold until they can find out,” Baldwin finished, already knowing where it was leading.
“Right. As long as she doesn’t say anything, she’s alive, man. Don’t like where that leads us, but I’ll take alive over dead,” Gabriel said.
“We’ve got to find that warehouse,” Baldwin said.
“I’m going to relay what we know to the others,” Gabriel said, picking up his phone once more.
The others were following them in their trucks. With only six of them, Baldwin was a little worried that they’d have trouble with taking down the bastards who had Tammy, but they weren’t ordinary men—they were all ex Marines, Special Forces, and SEALs. They could hold their own in any battle. A dozen or so ratty gang members were nothing compared to what they’d endured overseas. They would annihilate the fuckers.
Baldwin turned down the road that would lead them by the warehouse Bigsby had given them and drove by the building without seeing anyone. He parked at the end of the road with the others parking next to him. They all climbed out of their vehicles and gathered around.
“What’s the plan?” Jet asked.
“Kyle, you and Quinn circle around the building and see if there’s a way in or out of the building back there. Once we know where all the possible escape spots are, we can move in,” Baldwin said.
“Jet and I will check the other side and report back,” Tanner said.
“Let’s go,” Gabriel said.
The six of them spread out and made their way around the warehouse with caution. They couldn’t afford to give themselves away. Surprise was the best offense they had at the moment. Plus, they had no idea where in the building the bastards had Tammy. Baldwin wanted to locate her as soon as possible and get her out of there.
“Jet said there’s a back door that he and Tanner will take,” Gabriel said, reading the text the other man had sent.
“What about side entrances?” Baldwin asked.
“They didn’t see one on the side they went around. Still waiting to hear from Kyle and Quinn,” Gabriel said.
“I don’t like this. That building is huge. It will take too long to clear all the rooms. They could kill her before we even get through the door,” Baldwin said.
“We don’t have a lot of choice, man.” Gabriel looked down as his phone buzzed. “Kyle says there’s no door on the side either. They’re going to split up, with him working with Jet and Tanner, and Quinn coming back round the front to go in with us.”
“Good. Tell Jet and them to breach in two minutes exactly,” Baldwin said.
Gabriel sent the text off and stowed his phone as they waited for Quinn. The seconds ticked by slowly as they waited for time to attack. Quinn met them just outside the door leading through the front. They flattened themselves on either side of the door and waited until their watches told them it was time to go.
Sweat trickled down the sides of Baldwin’s face and along the back of his neck. It was freezing outside, but the adrenaline had him sweating as if he’d run a marathon. One more minute.
Forty seconds.
Thirty.
Ten.
“Now!” he whispered to the other two men. “Go, go, go.”
* * * *
When the door opened to the storage room where they’d left her, Tammy was as ready as she could possibly be. She threw the balled-up rags at the man who stepped in first, then rushed him while he batted the clothes away. To her surprise, she managed to make it out of the room while the man she’d tossed the rags at stepped back, thinking there was something in the rags. His yell of rage spurred her on as she stumbled and nearly fell when she pushed past him.
“Get back here, bitch,” the man yelled as he barreled after her.
Tammy ran as hard and as fast as she could, taking one turn after another until she found herself in the wide-open space she remembered from when they’d brought her in. She’d managed to get out of the little room where they’d kept her, but she’d run right into the room where the rest of the men were waiting. Eight angry faces stared at her as she skidded to a halt just inside the room.
“What the fuck? Stu, how did she get loose?” the one called Diez asked, stomping toward her.
Tammy immediately raced to the far end of the big room and grabbed a metal chair to use as a weapon. She’d fight for as long as she was able. They weren’t going to torture her, then kill her when she didn’t know anything.
“Get her.” Diez pointed in her direction as the other men fanned out to pin her down.
She had one wall to her back and the chair held out in front of her. She would hurt a few of them if they tried to get too close.
“What are you, a bunch of cowards? She’s one girl. Get her,” Diez screamed when they all just stood around watching her swing the chair from one direction to the other.
The first man who stormed her got the chair across his face. He reeled back, holding his nose and cursing. The next man got the legs to the stomach, causing him to bend over then fall to his knees. She swung the chair back and forth to keep them back.
“Shoot the bitch. Hit her in the arm or the leg. Just don’t kill her,” Diez said.
One of the men drew his gun and fired at her. To her surprise and immense relief, the bullet hit the leg of the chair and ricocheted back to hit one of the other men.
“What the fuck?”
Then all hell broke loose as doors banged open on each side of the building and men poured in, attacking the group at the far end of the warehouse where they’d all congregated to interrogate her. She didn’t recognize anyone until she caught sight of Baldwin and Gabriel. They’d come for her.
“They’ve got guns!” she screamed at them.
She might as well have not said anything since they obviously did, too. In less than five minutes, it was all over. Seven of the gang members were rolling around on the floor of the warehouse, holding legs and arms where they’d been shot, while five others were being held by the men who’d come with Gabriel and Baldwin. Tammy threw herself into Gabriel’s arms as soon as the dust settled. Her wrists were a mess, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was that her men had come for her.
Seconds later, sirens could be heard in the distance. Baldwin smiled. “Link called them just in time.”
“Link?” Tammy asked.
“An old friend who helped us out,” Gabriel said.
“How did you find me?” Tammy asked.
“Your boss helped. He told us right where you’d be,” Baldwin said.
“Bigsby helped you?” She somehow didn’t believe that.
“Well, we persuaded him to help,” Gabriel said.
Tammy winced. “Is he going to go to jail with these guys?”
“Definitely. Our friend Link sent some incriminating evidence to the authorities that he hacked into the man’s accounts and found for them. The Feds will be busy with all of this for some time to come,” Baldwin told her.
“Who are all these guys?” she asked, looking around her.
“Our friends from overseas. We all served together in one way or another while we were over there. They all live on the mountain with us,” Baldwin said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Thank you for helping to save me,” she said.
“It was our pleasure. Don’t get a lot of excitement now that we’re stateside. This was fun,” one of them said.
“Jet likes to get into stuff. This was like a party to him,” Baldwin said.
“We need to get you to an ambulance and see about your wrists. What in the world did you do to yourself, babe?” Gabriel asked.
“I cut the tie thingy they had on me off and kind of cut outside the lines some,” she said.
“I’ll say. You really did a number on yourself.” Gabriel picked her up and carried her toward the front of the building just
as several law enforcement officers burst through the doors.
“Everyone on the ground!” someone yelled.
“She needs a doctor,” Gabriel said.
“On the ground,” the voice said again.
“Well, hell,” Gabriel said and went to his knees still holding Tammy in his arms.
* * * *
Tammy sat on the stretcher waiting for the doctor to finish sewing up the two deeper cuts. Though he’d deadened the areas, she could still feel the pull as he stitched, and she grimaced with each tug.
“You don’t feel that, do you, babe?” Gabriel asked, hovering over the doctor.
“No. It just feels funny. I’m fine, Gabriel. You’re making the doctor nervous. I’d rather he not be nervous while he’s sewing me up,” she said.
Gabriel grunted but took a step back. Tammy just sighed and shook her head.
“That about does it.” The doctor dropped the needle and scissors on the tray next to the stretcher and dabbed at her wrist with a piece of gauze. “Don’t get the stitches wet. Keep them dry and clean. You can return here or go to your primary care practitioner to have these out in seven days. Watch for any signs of infection like swelling, redness, or discharge. I’m going to give you a prescription for an antibiotic and some mild pain relievers. Any questions?”
“No, sir. Thank you,” she said.
“The nurse will be in to dress the wound and give you your discharge paperwork in a few minutes.” The doctor smiled at her but frowned at Gabriel before walking out.
“You made him nervous,” Tammy complained.
“I just wanted to be sure he wasn’t hurting you.”
“Well, don’t scare the nurse. She’s only doing her job.”
Gabriel smiled, then gently kissed her on the lips. “You scared the hell out of us, babe. We were afraid we wouldn’t get there in time to save you. Don’t ever, ever do that again.”
“I didn’t mean to do it this time. Believe me, I can go my entire life without anything interesting happening to me again,” she said.