by Lora Leigh
Emily stumbled as the memory of Risa’s frightened cries seemed to wrap around her.
Why, Daddy?
A sudden groan jerked her from the memory.
Emily’s head snapped up just in time to hear the soft pop of a silenced pistol and to watch Kira slide to the floor.
“Kira,” she cried out, rushing toward the fallen woman, watching in horror as blood bloomed across her chest.
“Stay the hell where you are, you little bitch,” Elaine snapped, pressing the gun to Emily’s head, her expression creased with malevolent anger as Emily stared back at her.
“It’s really too bad.” Elaine was no longer crying. She was staring back at Emily with cold hatred as she backed away slowly, keeping the gun leveled on her.
“You’ll never get past Kell,” she told the other woman. “He’ll stop you.”
“That gutter rat.” she said, sneering. “He’ll never know what happened. Neither will anyone else. These old houses are full of hidden passageways.” One such passageway opened up to reveal Jansen.
Emily opened her mouth to scream when he rushed forward, only to have the sound cut off by the nasty-smelling handkerchief he pressed over her mouth and nose.
“There you go, pretty girl,” he crooned. It was the voice from her nightmares. “Just go to sleep.”
Darkness washed over her as screams and memories echoed in her head.
Jansen Clay. It had been Jansen all along and she had remembered too late.
Twenty-six
KELL PACED THE HALLWAY, CHECKING his watch, as Ian watched the door with eagle eyes. It wasn’t like they could hear anything if there were any problems in the bathroom. The music and chatter from the party was so damned loud in the hallway that guns could have been blasting and it would have blended in.
“A ladies’ room is a vortex into another fucking dimension,” Ian growled. “They disappear in there and it takes them damned hours to come back out.”
Kell stared back at him in surprise. Ian wasn’t a big talker. His rough voice, nearly ruined from an assailant’s garrote years before, always seemed to make him uncomfortable.
Kell checked his watch again.
Ten minutes. It was ten minutes too long.
“I should have never let her step in there,” he told Ian fiercely. “She knows we need to get the hell out of here.”
He stalked to the door as Jansen came in from the foyer and stared at him with a frown.
“They’ve been in there too long,” Kell explained as he went to push the door open.
Jansen shook his head as a somber smile tugged at his lips.
“You don’t know women,” he said, chuckling. “I’ve seen Elaine disappear into the ladies’ room for more than half an hour simply to repair her makeup. Give her a few minutes, Kell. The news about Risa has really shaken her up.”
Kell stepped back, his jaw tensing as he glared at the door.
“She’s different, isn’t she?” Jansen said then, resting against the wall beside him.
Kell snapped his gaze back to the older man.
“Emily,” Jansen explained. “She’s different for you. I told Richard years ago he would have to watch her closely. I could tell you had a thing for her.”
Kell stared back at him with a frown. “Meaning?”
“Well, son, no offense, but without your family’s backing, you’re not exactly in her social sphere,” he said kindly. But something in his gaze reflected back, hard, dangerous.
“Kell!” Ian’s voice snapped his head around. “Look at your feet.”
Kell glanced down and felt cold murderous rage shake his soul. Blood was inching past the bottom of the door.
Pushing away from Clay, he gripped the doorknob, tugged at it, then threw his shoulder into the door. It cracked open to reveal Kira reaching out, her eyes dazed as blood spilled from her chest.
“Ambulance,” he yelled out as Ian hurried to Kira’s side, trying to stop the blood from oozing from the wound. Kell jerked the radio from his inner pocket and rushed to Elaine’s fallen form.
“Elaine!” Jansen’s fear-filled voice echoed through the room.
“Macey. Ambulance. Reno, converge. Emily’s missing and Kira’s down.”
His gaze went around the small room desperately. There had to be a hidden entrance into it. So much for the fucking reports that there were no secret tunnels through this old house.
Jansen was barking orders to a servant as Ian worked to save Kira, and Markwell was shouting orders from the doorway to his security personnel.
“Markwell, where’s the hidden door?” Kell turned, fury burning in his chest as the other man stepped to the doorway. “Where’s the hidden fucking door?”
“In the back closet,” the other man snapped.
“Goddammit, why don’t you bastards tell me about your fucking bolt-holes,” he snarled, jerking the door open and rushing into the closet to check the wall.
There it was. The mahogany paneling was just a bit out of joint. As he pulled on it, the door slid into the wall, revealing a small tunnel.
“Where’s the exit?” he snapped, pulling the radio free once again to report the coordinates to Reno and the men outside.
“The drain about half a mile down the road. The tunnel opens inside the culvert and leads to the wash,” Markwell explained quickly. “But the gates leading to it were welded shut years ago.”
Kell radioed the information to Reno. “I’m heading through the drain now, meet me at the exit. Whoever took her has a hell of a head start on us.”
“Ian?” Kell glanced around the door as he quickly slid the ear clip over his ear and tucked the radio into his sleeve.
“She’s alive. I’ll keep her that way,” Ian snapped. “Find Emily.”
“You’ll need light.” Markwell pushed a flashlight into his hand. “Let’s go.”
Kell glanced at Markwell’s hand. “I don’t need you here.”
“Fuck you!” The other man’s lip lifted in a snarling sneer. “This is my home they decided to take her from and by God I’ll help take them down. Now you’re wasting time.”
They slid into the tunnel, the flashlight picking out the tracks in the soft sandy floor dirt as well as Emily’s thigh holster and pistol. There were two sets of footprints, both male, one boots, the other soft soled.
“Two assailants.” He lifted his wrist to snap into the radio. “Emily’s not walking.”
Kell could feel the fear in his gut now. She had to be unconscious, he assured himself. If they had killed her they would have left her body with Kira’s and Elaine’s; they wouldn’t bother to kidnap her.
“We’re heading for the drain,” Reno barked into the receiver. “How much head of a start?”
“More than ten minutes and we’re half a mile from the exit.”
“We’re pushing it,” Reno stated coldly. “We’ll meet you there.”
“Let’s go.” Kell glanced over his shoulder at the anger in Markwell’s expression. For all his social pomp and arrogance, the man was known for his quick thinking and honesty.
“Was anyone in the ladies’ room when you entered?” Markwell barked as they raced through the tunnel.
“Kira indicated no before she closed the door,” Kell stated, remembering Kira’s nod that all was clear before she closed the door.
“How did you know there was trouble?”
“Kira’s fucking blood running from beneath the door,” Kell snapped.
Kira would be lucky to pull out of this. The shot was too damned close to her heart. Someone had aimed to kill, not wound.
“No one knew about this tunnel,” Markwell informed him as they rounded another bend. “I hadn’t even told Catherine about it when I found it. I just had the gates welded closed and forgot about it.”
“Shut up, I can’t hear anything.”
It was an excuse. He could hear too damned well, and the problem was, there was nothing to hear. Not a whimper or conversation or the sound of orders.
In this tunnel sound would travel far.
“Is there another exit?”
“Nothing,” Markwell answered quickly.
The women had been in the ladies’ room for close to fifteen minutes. The kidnappers would have a vehicle waiting. Goddammit, he wasn’t going to get to her time. Once again, he wasn’t going to be able to save the woman he loved.
He would kill Fuentes himself, Kell swore. If Emily sustained so much as a damned bruise then he would go hunting when all this was over. When it was over and he had Emily in his arms, in his bed. When she was safe.
He couldn’t consider anything less. God help him, if he lost her, he would never survive it. He couldn’t live with the knowledge that he had let her down, that he hadn’t protected her well enough.
Visions of Tansy raced through his head then. Her fragile body twisted on the old mattress where he had tried to hide her.
Had she screamed his name? He knew she had. Sometimes he heard her voice in his nightmares, screaming for him, begging him to save her. He couldn’t add Emily’s voice to those demonic dreams.
He couldn’t let it happen. She was his life. She was every dream he hadn’t dared to allow himself and couldn’t keep from reaching for.
Glancing at the sandy dirt of the tunnel, his brows drew into a frown. Sand. When he had stared down at Kira’s body he had seen sand on Jansen Clay’s shoes. Not a lot, so little that his gaze had at first passed over it. But it had been there. And beside Kira’s body and beside Elaine’s he had seen the same sand.
Jansen Clay would have known of every move Kell and his team were making. Even if Richard and the admiral hadn’t informed him about the exact nature of what was going on, he would have been smart enough to figure it out. An ex-Navy SEAL, and one of the best, Jansen could have accessed via his position at the Pentagon on Homeland Defense whatever he hadn’t figured out himself.
“Macey.” He lifted his wrist to his mouth and activated the radio.
“Copy,” Macey snapped into the receiver.
“Where’s Clay?”
“His limo just left. Mrs. Clay finally came around and he was taking her to their private doctor.”
“Where are you?”
There was a heavy silence.
“Macey?”
“I’m at the wash, Kell. There are no vehicles, no bodies, but evidence that both were here. They’re gone.”
Kell snarled. “It’s Clay.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Markwell muttered behind him.
“Got your laptop?” Kell asked Macey.
“It’s in the limo, heading back there now. Do we turn on the tracker?”
“Negative,” Ian snapped on the line. “Do not activate the skin-tag. Not yet.”
“Kell?” Macey questioned him.
“Tap into radar,” Kell ordered him. “Hack Defense. I want to know if anything lifts off from a private airfield anywhere in the vicinity.”
“Got it.”
The scent of fresh air grew stronger as Kell practically ran through the tunnel. He came into the wash minutes later through the thick stand of brush covering it as Reno and the rest of the team materialized from the surrounding woods, followed by the Secret Service agents assigned to back them.
“How did you overlook the wash?” Kell snarled to the agent in charge. “It was your job to contain the perimeter.”
“No excuse, sir,” the agent growled. “We missed it.”
“He was meant to miss it,” Markwell argued. “Hell, Kell, it’s well hidden.”
“No excuse, sir,” the agent repeated.
“Macey’s on the laptop. Jansen Clay is our Mr. White,” Kell snapped.
Stunned silence met his words as Reno’s head snapped around and his gaze pinned on Kell.
“You’re certain?”
“There’s a sandy soil in the tunnel. These grounds are heavily vegetated. Clay had that sand on his shoes, I saw it myself when he was standing over Kira. Is there a report on her?”
“Ambulance is loading her now,” Reno reported. “She’s alive but in bad shape.”
“Conscious?”
“Negative,” Reno stated as they rushed up the incline to the limo.
“Ian,” Kell snapped into the radio. “Get her loaded then steal one of Markwell’s vehicles and follow behind.”
“Got it!”
“At least I have insurance.” Markwell sighed.
“Kell, Jansen’s daughter was raped during that kidnapping,” Reno snarled. “You have to be wrong about this.”
“I’m not wrong about this.”
Kell was aware of the implication. Jansen Clay had caused the death of the daughter of one of his friends, Carrie Bridgeport. But Risa was his own daughter.
“The bastard’s dead,” Reno snarled. “Fucking dead.”
“Kell, I have a lock on radar,” Macey called from inside the limo. “There are three private airfields close by; one was shut down last year when the owners left the property.”
“That’s the one we want, load up.”
The limo wasn’t the quickest way to get to where they needed to go, but it was their only choice. The six men loaded in, their expressions savagely intent, weapons held ready.
“Where’s the bastard Reno caught with the gun?” Kell asked as the limo burned rubber pulling out.
“Gator bait,” Reno answered. “He’s trussed up about four feet off the ground and waiting on the admiral to collect him. Shouldn’t we call the admiral?”
“Called,” Macey informed them. “I called his secured cell as I was pulling in. He’s arranging things on his end in case we don’t catch them before they lift off.”
“Not an option,” Kell bit out. “They do not lift off.”
He was aware of the looks he was receiving from the other men. Jansen had delayed him too long outside the bathroom; the kidnappers had a head start on them, as did Clay. The airfield was in the opposite direction of the wash and they were playing catch-up in a vehicle not meant to catch up.
“We have a Gulfstream lifting off,” Macey reported, his voice heavy with regret and resignation as the limo slid onto the side road just in time to see the private jet lifting into the air.
“It’s changing call signs. Son of a bitch, Homeland Security has just designated it as a passenger liner.”
“Tag it,” Kell snapped.
The limo slammed to a stop.
“Get us back to the senator’s house,” Kell commanded. “Macey, keep that plane in sight, do you understand me?”
“Understanding, Kell,” he answered shortly.
Jerking his cell phone from the clip on his slacks, Kell keyed in the senator’s number quickly.
“Meet at the house. Do you still have your supplies?” Guns, ammo, everything a SEAL would need to defend himself.
“That and more,” the senator snapped, his voice husky. “We’re hauling everything out now and waiting for you.”
“Clear our way, we’re heading back at top speed and I don’t have time to deal with the cops in this state.”
“Taken care of,” the senator snapped. “I have your six, just get said six here pronto. Out.”
“Put it to the floor, Macey,” Kell demanded, forcing himself to relax back against his seat. “The senator’s arming us, expect the admiral to have air gear in place by the time we arrive. Macey, keep him updated on the Gulfstream’s tags. I want to know where and when that bastard lands the second he puts down.”
“Tagging in progress, chief, but he has help. Homeland Security is changing his call signs like they’re free. Let’s hope this program works.”
“Hope?” Kell growled.
“It’ll work. It’ll work,” Macey promised desperately. “Hell yes, or I’ll shoot it.”
Kell dragged his fingers through his hair and blew out an unsteady breath as his gaze met Reno’s.
“We’ll find her, Kell.” Reno stared back at him with savage determination. “We’ll get to her in time.”
&nb
sp; They had to find her. For the first time in fifteen years, Kell began to pray.
Twenty-seven
EMILY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HAD happened when she awoke. The knowledge was just there, certain, painful. Her eyes fluttered open and she took a deep, fortifying breath. She had obviously been out for quite a long time because she wasn’t in a car or a plane, she was lying on a cot in a dark room that smelled of wet soil and desperation.
It was too similar to the first kidnapping, but this time Jansen wasn’t standing over her, his smile compassionate, his eyes hard. She remembered it now, clearly. How he had entered that shack just after she had been shoved inside it with the other girls. He had shaken his head at her and told her that her father should have chosen his friends more wisely.
And his daughter, his own daughter, Risa had stared back at him, dazed, in shock, because he had allowed one of those bastards to touch her. To rape her.
Tears filled her eyes now at the memory. How Risa had screamed for his help, begged him to make her rapist stop hurting her.
Please, Daddy. Please, she had screamed. But Jansen hadn’t made them stop. He had been silent, aloof, allowing the men to rape both Risa and Carrie, while ordering them away from Emily. Declaring that he would take care of her personally.
He had betrayed his own child.
He had helped Fuentes’s men hold them down after that while another shoved the syringe in each girl’s arm.
She whimpered at the memory. Why hadn’t she remembered it? How could she have so completely forgotten the monster he was? How could she have ever forgotten the monster who had allowed other men to rape his own child while saving Emily’s virginity for himself.
By time I finish with you, you’ll belong to me. You’ll beg for my cock. Beg for my touch. The perfect pet for myself and Elaine. She will so enjoy tasting every sweet inch of your body before I take you.
Emily nearly threw up at the memory. She could still see Risa’s eyes, the burning rage in the pale blue depths, the murderous hatred and shocked horror.
No wonder Clay had been forced to have her institutionalized. Risa must have somehow remembered. Carrie had died, she hadn’t been a threat, but Risa, Risa had never forgotten. The complete horrifying betrayal her father had dealt her had been too much for even that drug to erase.