Sully chuckled, toweled himself off, and wrapped the towel around his hips. When he reached the bedroom, he took a pair of athletic shorts out of the drawer and slid them on underneath the towel.
When he turned to face the bed, Maggie was lying on her side, her face averted. She'd been through a hell of a lot during her short time on this earth, and yet she still held an innocence that was refreshing to find.
Limping to his side of the bed, Sully pulled back the covers and crawled in. He scooted closer to her, keeping his bad leg on top of the covers and spooning her from behind. When she pressed herself closely against him, he sighed.
"I love you, Pixie," he whispered softly, hoping she was still awake to hear him.
A few seconds passed before she whispered, "I love you, too."
With her declaration resounding in his mind, Sully closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. For the first time in days, he rested.
Chapter 25
Maggie awoke to the sound of her phone buzzing on the bedside table. She sat up, noticing that the room was fairly dark, with faint light drifting in from the tall windows. Sully still slept soundly beside her, no doubt helped by the painkillers he was on.
She glanced down at her phone and saw that it was an unknown number. Standing and grabbing a blanket from the oversized chair sitting near the bed, she wrapped it around her and carefully opened the door to the deck that looked over the valley.
When she'd closed the door behind her, she answered the call.
"Hello?"
"You're certainly a difficult person to find. Kingston assured me that you'd be captured and brought to me last night. I realize now that I’ll have to do things my own way."
Anthony's icy voice pierced her ear, and fear settled in her lower back.
"Where's Brady?" she asked, consumed by her desperation to get her son away from this psycho.
"He's right here with me. He never talks, though. What the hell have you done to him?"
"He's scared of you. You kidnapped him from his family, and he's terrified."
"He's a weirdo, is what he is. Strange kid. Just stares at me all the time. Anyway, if you want him back, you'll do what I say."
"And what's that?"
"I'm going to text an address to you. Be there in three hours."
"What? I’m not meeting you anywhere, Anthony. Please, just give me Brady back. I'll disappear and leave you alone for good."
"Maggie, you just don't get it, do you? I don't want you to disappear. I plan to make you pay. For keeping my son away from me. For leaving me. You have five years to make up for."
"You sick bastard. Why won't you just leave us alone?" Maggie's voice had increased in volume, and she reminded herself to keep it down. She didn't want to wake the others.
"You have three hours."
"Three hours? I’m not in the city. There's no way I can make it there by then."
"I suggest you find a way if you want to see your son alive. Come alone. If I even get a whiff of that new boyfriend of yours or any of his teammates, I'll put a bullet in your son's head."
The line went dead, and Maggie collapsed on the deck, tears streaming down her face and sobs wracking her body. She stayed there for several minutes, cursing this life she'd been given. Why had she ever had to fall for Anthony's fake charms? Why had she let him into her life? Now, not only would she pay, but Brady would pay as well.
Her phone dinged with an address in Fairfax, Virginia. Pulling herself together, Maggie stood, the winter morning air finally penetrating through the thin blanket she'd wrapped around herself. She was no longer numb to the cold—neither the cold of the crisp morning, nor the cold of her heart.
Tiptoeing into the room, Maggie gently closed the door behind her. In her haste to get in bed last night, she'd slipped her pants and bra off, but had slept in her long-sleeved t-shirt from the day before. Quickly, she pulled on her bra and jeans, and grabbed her sneakers from her bag, which one of the men had brought into her room last night.
Opening the door to the main living area, she gave a quick look over her shoulder to see that Sully was still sleeping soundly. Good. He was tired and weak, and needed to sleep. It felt wrong to leave without telling him what was going on, but she was through with making her problems his.
The main room was quiet. The guys must have sent Marcus and Stephen away, because neither of them was around. When she reached the door, she forgot she'd have to get the van keys in order to leave. Maggie looked around and spotted a key holder next to the door where she was standing. She slipped the keys off the ring.
The alarm! Dang, she'd forgotten about the alarm. Quietly, she crept into the kitchen and rummaged through the drawers. If this was a safe house that other people used, maybe Zach or Sully had thought to write the disarm code down. Sure enough, taped to the back of one of the drawers, she found the numbers she needed.
Rushing back to the door, she punched in the code to disarm the alarm, and then locked and shut the door quietly behind her. Her feet fell hard on the gravel drive, and she knew she didn't have much time. If she was going to get out of there without the Castle team following her, she'd have to be quick and quiet.
Sliding into the driver's seat, she pulled the door to with a small snick.
Maggie paused before turning the engine over, her head resting against the headrest as she closed her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered to Sully, even though there was no way he could hear her.
Inhaling deeply, she turned the key and took off down the gravel drive to the main road. When she reached it, she stopped to put the address into the GPS on her phone. Two hours and thirty minutes. Anthony had called twenty minutes ago. She was going to be cutting it close.
"Hold on, Brady. Momma's coming."
* * * *
Rough hands shook him gruffly, and Sully sat up with his fists curled, ready to pummel whoever had dared to interrupt the amazing dream he'd been having. Maggie had been dressed all in white, her hair pulled to one side, with pink Chucks peeking out from under her wedding gown. And she was smiling at him as if he were the only person in the whole world. Her everything. He wanted that dream to become a reality more than anything else.
"Sully!" the voice said loudly.
"What the hell, Zach?" Sully complained. He glanced over to see if Zach had woken Maggie with all his commotion, but she wasn't there.
That cleared his head in a hurry.
He blinked several times and focused in on Zach. The damn painkillers were making him loopy.
"What's wrong?" he asked, the worry in his gut clearing out his head.
"Maggie. She's gone."
"What do you mean, 'she's gone’? Did you check the area?"
"We didn't have to. The van is missing, and I have her on video surveillance leaving the cabin about thirty minutes ago."
"What the hell? Where'd she go?" Sully demanded, trying to get to his feet. His leg was throbbing, but he pushed away the pain and went searching for his jeans and shoes.
"I had the forethought to tag her phone shortly after she came to work for us. I knew she meant something to you, so I put a chip inside her phone so that we could follow her if anything ever happened."
Sully clapped Zach on the shoulders. "Genius. So you have a location for her?"
Zach nodded. "She's heading back towards D.C."
"Did you try calling her?" Sully asked, shoving his feet into his boots.
"Yeah, and she's not answering her phone. But it is on, so I'd say she's following her GPS."
"Can we follow her?"
"Of course we can," Zach said, looking affronted that Sully would even have to ask.
"Good. I have a bad feeling about this." Sully pushed through the door into the main living space and looked around. The guys were already picking up their gear bags filled with Kevlar and enough firepower to light up a village.
"You and me both," Zach said, following closely behind. "Sully, we've got this. Why don't you stay�
�"
"I’m going to stop you right there, Zach. I'm fine. Sore, yes. But nothing I haven't experienced before. Now, is everyone ready to roll out?" He was a little miffed that they'd waited this long to wake him. It was clear that the guys were well into their preparations to follow her.
"Yes. I knew as soon as I saw the van missing that something was wrong, so we started preparing to go after her. I'd bet my last dollar that Garmoni called her about the kid."
"Which means that she's walking right into a trap," Sully said. "And we have no idea where that trap is being set."
Sully checked his phone. No messages from Maggie. He tried her number, but it rang once and then went to voicemail, meaning she had sent it there purposefully.
"Dammit, Mags!" he grumbled.
Isabel came over, still clad in her pajamas, a silk robe wrapped around her torso. She pulled Sully into a hug and stood on her tiptoes. "Bring our girl home. And that sweet little boy of hers," she said quietly.
"I will."
"Promise me, Sully."
"I promise."
And he did. He wasn't sure how they were going to pull it off, where they were going, or what they were about to face, but he knew that he'd find her and keep her safe if it cost him his life.
As if reading his thoughts, Isabel smacked him on the arm. "Bring yourself home, too, understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said, saluting her. She smiled.
The guys loaded their arsenal into the back of the remaining van and said goodbye to the women they loved.
When they were all in the van, Lucas drove down the gravel drive.
"Where is she now?" Sully asked Zach, who was sitting on the floor next to him, with his laptop on his knees.
"She's about an hour ahead of us on sixty-six."
"Which means she's headed back towards home, but that could be anywhere."
"Just try to relax. We'll get her."
Sully really hated it when his guys tried to mother-hen him. He got it. He'd been shot last night. Had lost a lot of blood. He was still weak, and he hated that he was going into a fight feeling weak. But life didn't wait around while you healed.
"Do you think The General is behind any of this?" Gabriel asked.
The thought had briefly floated through Sully's mind as Zach had been talking earlier, but he'd pushed it away. As Gabriel brought it back to the surface, though, Sully seriously considered the question.
"I wouldn’t put it past him."
Just then, his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he answered without looking at the ID.
"Castle."
"Want to tell me why Charles Kingston just asked for one of our special ops teams to be sent to some old farmhouse in Fairfax, Virginia?"
"Mr. President, sir. I'm surprised to be getting a phone call from you, especially on my cell phone."
"Yeah, well, I figured your secure lines were blown up when your warehouse had that gas leak last night. I'm assuming that that was no gas leak."
"No, sir. It wasn't."
"Thought so." The president sighed loudly into the phone. "The special ops team. Know anything about it?"
"I'm not entirely certain, but I think he's baiting a trap for us. We're en route, following the bait, right now."
"Should I stop this team from responding?" the president asked.
"I don't want to be responsible for killing innocent men, sir. If there's a way to stop its approval without getting you too far involved, then it would keep us from having to choose between our own lives and the lives of our brothers in arms."
The president sighed loudly again. "I was afraid you were going to say that. Fine. I'll make sure they don't get approved. Kingston will find a replacement, but most likely from less savory places."
"Yes, sir."
"You've got this under control, Castle?"
"Absolutely, sir."
The president chuckled without humor. "You're a crappy liar, Castle. Keep me posted."
The line went dead, and Sully pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at it as if it had answers to all of life's questions.
"What was that about?" Ethan asked.
"Kingston requested that a special ops team be sent to an old farmhouse in Fairfax. That was the president of the United States asking if he should stop it."
"I'm assuming he's going to?" Gabriel asked.
Sully nodded. "Which means that Kingston will resort to mercenaries, and there's no telling the story he'll feed them."
"Damn," Ethan muttered.
"Pretty much," Sully said.
"I don't guess the president gave you the address of that farmhouse, did he?" Zach asked.
As if on cue, a text pinged Sully's phone with an address in Fairfax, Virginia. It was followed by the words: End this.
Sully gave Zach the address and waited for him to pull it up on his computer.
"From satellite images, it looks like it's about sixty acres. There's a farmhouse dating back to the Civil War era, and several outbuildings, including a barn. The place has been up for sale for years, which means I also have some real estate pictures of the inside."
Zach turned the computer around so that Sully could see the pictures. The place was falling apart, with holes in the roof and mold growing on the walls in the kitchen. He wasn't sure why the place hadn't been torn down by now.
"There's pastureland surrounded by woods. We'll have plenty of cover initially, but once we leave the tree line"—Zach pointed to a green area on the map—"we'll be completely exposed."
"I'm guessing that's part of the appeal of this place to Garmoni and The General," Lucas said over his shoulder.
"Now that we know The General is involved, should we call in reinforcements?" Gabriel asked.
"Yes. Gabriel, give our guys a call. Let them know the danger. I don't want them to feel obligated to get involved, but we need help. I think last night is evidence of that."
Sully wouldn’t call last night a complete failure. They’d all come out alive. But they’d accomplished nothing in terms of finishing this thing with The General.
"Zach, anything yet on The General? Anything at all we can use?"
Zach shook his head. "I'm sorry, boss. I've heard back from all my sources but one. I've scoured the dark web. Kingston has been good. Covered his tracks. Taken care of anyone that could testify to his deeds—or made sure that they were equally as involved."
"You said you've heard back from all but one?" Sully questioned.
"Yeah. I found this contact on the dark web. The guy goes off the grid for months at a time, though. I've heard nothing from him since this whole thing started. I kept hoping he'd get my messages and respond. But so far, nothing."
So basically, their only choice was to just keep fighting against a ghost? A wisp of ether? An idea?
How would continuing to fight against his hired weapons help them to put The General away for good? It wouldn't. They would remove the threat, and he'd just send more. Sully felt the defeat settling in his bones.
"Dammit!" he shouted, slamming his fist on the bottom of the van floor.
"I'm sending another message. Maybe we'll get lucky," Zach said, but he wasn't very convincing. They'd hit a dead end. The General was going to continue to torment them. His family, his friends—they'd never be safe. Christy Knox would have to live in hiding for the rest of her life.
Sully wanted to scream.
"Look, boss, we know it's infuriating. But right now, we've got to focus on the mission ahead. Rescuing Maggie and her kid from that bastard. Then we'll find a way to get rid of that boil on our ass, Kingston," Gabriel said.
"You're right," Sully said, pushing away the despairing thoughts. "Let's rescue my girl."
Chapter 26
Maggie pulled down the gravel lane that led to an old farmhouse sitting in the middle of a field. There were several buildings nearby, and a charming red barn that sat off to the left. The place was clearly in need of repair but had most definitely been a beautiful homestead at
one time.
Her van stopped in front of the farmhouse, and she cut the engine. Slowly, she emerged from the van, not sure what to expect. She'd met the three-hour deadline, but she'd had to speed the last hour and had prayed the entire time that a policeman wouldn't pull her over.
Approaching the porch, she took in the sagging steps that looked as if they were almost ready to detach from the house entirely. Holes were punched into the deck flooring, and the paint had worn off at least a decade earlier.
Maggie reached for the doorknob but saw that it was pointless to turn it. The door was already standing slightly ajar. She pushed it open and stepped inside. The place was a dump. There were piles of trash scattered about. Nests that had clearly been the homes for furry critters that Maggie didn't really want to think about, were nestled in the corners of the rooms. And the smell. It smelled like dirty socks and sewage.
There was a room on her left that looked like a bedroom, or even a dining room of sorts. These old homes were all broken up into separate rooms, and not open and spacious like Sully's cabin.
Sully.
Her heart clenched. She hated that she was worrying him. He'd called at least a dozen times on her way to the farmhouse. She'd ignored every call. The last time, he'd left a message.
Maggie, I'm so pissed at you right now. Don't be stupid. Call me back. Please. I love you.
His voice had softened at the end. She knew he was angry. She knew he was looking for her. Chances were, Zach was following her somehow anyway. Maggie secretly hoped that that was the case. She knew she was walking into a trap, and she doubted she’d be walking away from this in one piece. But if there were some way she could get Brady out of here, or make some exchange with Anthony for Brady, she'd do it.
She passed by a living room with an old fireplace. The kitchen must be at the back of the house. She crept quietly, trying to avoid squeaky boards, but the house was so old and in such terrible disrepair that the pops and creaks sounded like an old person walking down the stairs.
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