by Jaime Lewis
“Alejandra, listen to me, sweetheart. Tell me everything you saw or heard.”
“I could only hear them shouting. Cody said he heard the man say something about needing to get to a boat out on the beach and then going to some yacht. Oh, Cody said the man had a gun and was pointing it at Aunt Autumn.”
Oh, dear Jesus. He had to stay calm for Alejandra’s sake. He put everything his body had into his sprint, thanking God, he still kept in tip-top shape, even though he commanded his teams from behind a desk.
“I’m scared, Pop.” Hearing her quivering voice broke his heart. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do for her at the moment except to keep talking to her.
He was breathing hard. “I know you are, honey. Where’s Cody? Is he there with you?” He made it to the building in record time, and Ace saw him, and he signaled to him to get everyone.
“He went to follow them. He said he had to help Aunt Autumn.”
“Where are you, sweetie?”
“I’m in Cody’s closet. He told me to stay in here and to call you, and, if you didn’t answer to keep calling all of daddy’s teammates until someone answered.”
Damn, that boy was a natural protector.
“He did well, and you stay in that closet until either your dad or a police officer comes to get you, okay?” As the team gathered, Derek looked at Frost. “Alejandra, don’t hang up, but I need to talk to your daddy and the guys, okay? You may not hear me, but I’m still on the line, okay, honey?”
“Okay.” She sniffled again, and it broke his heart, knowing she was scared.
“Good girl. Just hang on for a few minutes.”
He muted the phone so Alejandra couldn’t hear their conversation. Potter was looking at him with a concerned look.
“Why is Alejandra calling you?”
“There’s been a situation at the condo. According to Alejandra, some guy showed up at the condo and forced Autumn to go with him. Something about taking her to a boat.”
Frost’s face took on a hard, pained expression. “Took her? How? Did he threaten her?”
“Alejandra said he had a gun.” Derek looked at Potter. “She’s safe in Cody’s closet where Cody put her.”
“Where’s Cody?” Frost asked with his phone to his ear. He was trying to get in touch with Nathan since he was still in town.
“He went to follow Autumn.”
“Fuck! Do we know where they were heading?”
“No, but Alejandra said Cody mentioned taking Autumn to a yacht.
“A yacht?”
“Considering they took her in a small boat, the yacht is probably anchored somewhere offshore.”
“What do we need to do, commander?” Stitch asked.
“Alejandra said Cody called the police, but she is scared. Let’s call them again and make sure they are in route to the condo. Have them dispatch their water patrol unit to look for a yacht offshore near the condo.” Skittles pulled his phone out and contacted the local PD. Most of the guys had friends on the force.
“I’ll contact the guys over at SWCC and tell them that we need two Mark Vs ready to go pronto. With those, we should get out on the water quickly. Potter, you and Skittles head to the condo and meet with the police there. Ace, you take Dino, and Stitch in one boat. Frost, Irish, Diego, you guys are with me. Grab some gear before you board. These fuckers aren’t getting away.” He put his phone back up to his ear. “Alejandra…you still there, sweetie?”
“Yes,” her angelic voice floated through the line.
“Your daddy is on his way to get you, okay? Now I am going to hang up, and your daddy is going to call you.”
“Okay, Pop.”
“You are so brave, sweetie, Love you.”
“Love you, too, Pop.”
Damn, his heart melted every time she called him Pop. He watched as Potter put his phone to his ear and began speaking with her while he and Skittles sprinted to his truck.
He looked at Frost. “Let’s go get your woman.”
◆◆◆
Frost was full of rage. These assholes came into his home and not only threatened Autumn but took her at gunpoint. Carlie was the only one who came to mind who wanted to hurt Autumn. With all the money she has taken over the years, she could afford to rent a yacht and hire some muscle.
Right before they boarded the boats, they had gotten a call from PD, saying they found Carlie’s body at a hotel in Hampton Roads. They said she had been murdered. There went the Carlie scenario, Frost thought to himself.
Once the teams were loaded up in the two boats, they were on their way, and boats sped over the water in haste to get to Autumn before the yacht could get any further out to sea.
Skittles called and said PD had a sighting of a small craft east of the condo about a mile offshore, so they were heading in that direction. Shortly after, another call came in about a large yacht in the same vicinity. As a precaution, they called in the Coast Guard in case this guy managed to get into international waters.
“What the hell is that?” Irish asked, pointing toward an object in the water. He was looking through a set of binoculars. “Is that someone on a surfboard?”
Frost picked up the other binoculars next to him and put them up to his eyes. He focused in on the object in question, then his breathing stopped when he realized it was Cody. He was paddling his surfboard, heading towards the direction of a yacht they finally caught a glimpse of. His first thought was, what in the hell was the kid thinking? His second thought was the fear for his safety, as he could see that Cody was struggling to get through the rough water. At least he had been smart enough to put his life vest on, but he was heading towards a very hostile situation.
As the two Mark Vs followed by a police boat flew over the choppy waters gaining ground on the yacht, Frost saw two people emerge onto the starboard deck. He didn’t need any other visual to know that the woman with the red hair was Autumn. She had something over her shoulder and started climbing over the railing. Holy shit, she was going to jump.
Frost watched as a man went to reach for her, but at that exact moment, the police boat that was following had moved ahead and cut off the yacht, causing it to make an abrupt maneuver to avoid colliding with it. The sudden movement caused Autumn to lose her grip on the railing, and he watched in horror as her head made contact with the metal bar, and she tumbled into the ocean with the life ring coming loose, and she disappeared under the water.
Frost saw Cody approach on the surfboard, where his mom went into the water and saw him removing his life vest before disappearing under the water. As their boat came to rest at the same spot, Frost dove into the water along with a couple of the other guys. He spotted Cody’s foot as he was going under. Ace saw it as well—both he and Ace dove under the water after him.
They spotted Cody about four feet under, as he was trying to bring Autumn up. Her body was limp, and Cody was struggling. Frost grabbed Autumn while Ace took hold of Cody, and they both surfaced with the pair. Cody was coughing as Ace helped him to the boat. Autumn, on the other hand, wasn’t breathing. He yelled to Stitch and Irish, and they hoisted her out of the water. By the time Frost was out of the water and in the boat, Stitch and Irish had already begun CPR. Frost estimated she had been under the water two to three minutes.
He knelt down in the boat next to her and took her cold hand into his.
“Come on, baby, breathe,” he pleaded with her as he squeezed her hand, trying to infuse strength into her. He couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not when he finally had his future in front of him. Cody couldn’t lose her either. She had to make it through this.
After a couple of rounds of breaths and chest compressions, she made a gurgling sound, then coughed up a mouthful of water. Her eyes shot wide open, and the coughing became uncontrollable. They rolled her onto her side, so she wouldn’t choke. Frost pulled her into his arms and sat back against the side of the boat and buried his face in her hair. The emotions racking his body right now had him on the verge of totally bre
aking down. He could have lost her and Cody both today. He honestly couldn’t say if the wetness on his face were from the water or tears.
◆◆◆
Autumn felt like she was stuck in a nightmare. She was wet, cold, and confused. Her head and face hurt. She knew she was on a boat in the arms of her fiancé. What she couldn’t remember, though, was how she got there.
The last thing she remembered was some guy named Skinny, forcing her at gunpoint into a boat and them going to a yacht that the creepy guy Cecil owned. She put her hand to her head, feeling a rather large bump. Did someone hit her there, and why was she soaking wet?
She felt Frost’s arms tighten around her, and she tilted her face up toward him as she laid against his chest. He, too, was wet.
“What happened?” She asked in a very hoarse voice. It was even painful to speak.
She saw how Frost was biting the inside of his cheek. His normal amber eyes had turned a dark brown, and his gaze was intense and fierce. She shivered as she kept her eyes focused on his. Someone had put a blanket over both of them.
“What do you remember?” He finally asked her. His voice was low and deep.
She explained what she could remember. He lifted his hand and pushed some loose strands of hair out of her face and cupped her cheek.
“You hit your head pretty hard on the railing.” She gasped and covered her mouth. He continued to tell her how Cody had paddled on his surfboard to help her and how all of the guys had jumped in and found Cody pulling her up. He recounted she wasn’t breathing when they pulled her onto the boat, and Stitch and Irish had to do CPR.
She felt the tears fall down her cheeks, and she shook. No wonder he seemed so angry. She almost died today. Cody could have died. He risked his life to save hers.
She grabbed Frost’s shirt. “Where’s Cody, now?” She asked, fearful that something bad happened to him.
“He’s in the other boat. He’s safe with Ace and Dino. They will meet us at the beach.”
“What about Cecil and those men who kidnapped me? What happened to them?”
“They are all in police custody. They will be going away for a long time.” He stroked her hair, and she laid her head back against Frost’s chest and burrowed under the blanket to stay warm. She closed her eyes as the boat rocked over the waves as they made their way back to shore.
◆◆◆
Potter came walking back down the beach, holding Alejandra in his arms, and Frost smiled. She was wrapped around him like a little monkey clinging to a tree. He couldn’t blame the poor thing. What she heard and had to guess what was happening had to traumatize her a bit. Diego and Skittles were with him. As soon as Potter set her down on the sand, she took off running towards Cody, who was standing with the rest of the team. Frost smiled when she gave Cody a big hug.
“She okay?” He asked Potter, who was watching the interaction between the two kids.
“Yeah, just shaken up a bit. She was right where she told me she’d be. She was worried about Cody and Autumn. How are they? Diego said Autumn hit her head pretty hard, then was underwater for some time.”
“Cody seems fine. He just has a couple of scrapes, and, of course, he is exhausted. Autumn’s being checked out right now. Stitch is with her in the ambulance. They wouldn’t let me in. They only allowed Stitch because he is a medic. She’s alert, so that’s good.” He paused for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts and emotions. The adrenalin rush was starting to flee his body. He had dealt with this feeling numerous times but knowing what he could’ve lost today scared the ever-living shit out of him. “I could’ve lost both of them today,” he said in a flat voice and biting his lip.
Potter clasped his shoulder and gave a hard squeeze. “But you didn’t. Your boy did good. I can’t believe he paddled out there on a fucking surfboard.”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Because of his quick thinking, he also prevented my little girl from getting caught up in the middle of all of this. He is a natural protector. Reminds me of us.”
Frost thought about Potter’s statement. He wondered how Potter was so calm and collected right now, knowing what Alejandra had been through the last few weeks. Jesus, that poor girl wasn’t going to be allowed out of his sight from now on. He couldn’t blame him either. He didn’t want Autumn or Cody out of his sight, either.
They both stood there silently as the police pulled up along the beach. They watched as the officers escorted Cecil and his men in handcuffs off the boat and into a waiting police car. The team had found out a little while ago, that one of the guys who worked for Cecil had already confessed to murdering Carlie. It was a sad situation when you really thought about it. If Carlie had just accepted Autumn into the family instead of getting caught up in jealousy, she could’ve been part of a great thing. Instead, she lost her life. Even after all of the terrible things she’d done, he prayed she was now at peace with her brother and parents, and hopefully, they’d forgive her.
Stitch caught his eye as he jumped out of the back of the ambulance. “They are going to take her to the hospital just as a precaution. She swallowed a lot of water, plus I’d feel better if she got a CT on her head.”
“Thanks, man.” He gave a Stitch a man hug, and Stitch gave his back a good slap.
“No worries, man. She’s safe, and those assholes are going to jail for a very long time. The FBI’s been after Cecil for quite some time.”
That was a surprise to Frost. “Really?”
“Yep. From what they say, he’s been behind a ring of multi-state vehicle thefts. Anyway, come on, let’s get you to the hospital.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Autumn stood on the parade grounds on base. It was hot out, but this was an important day. While she waited for the ceremony to start, she thought back to all of the events in the last few weeks leading up to now.
It had been almost a month since the incident with Cecil. They avoided the subject as much as possible. She and Frost accompanied Carlie’s body to North Dakota, where she was buried next to her parents and brother. She hoped she would find peace when she met her parents again. Since then, a lot had happened. As a matter of fact, they were life-changing.
For starters, she and Frost were married two weeks ago in a small but quaint ceremony at Ace and Alex’s house. The guest list only consisted of Frost’s teammates, his commander, and Juliet, and, of course, his family that included his mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and their two little kids. She had invited Mrs. Higdon, but she couldn’t make it because she and her new roommate were on a Caribbean cruise.
Alex and Tenley were her saviors and apparently had a little experience in throwing together a quick wedding.
Both she and Frost told everyone not to buy any gifts and explained that sharing in their day was the best gift they could have. So, when Frost’s commander presented them with an envelope at the end of the evening, it had surprised them. The contents of the envelope had brought tears to her eyes. It was a cashier’s check payable to her in the amount of 1.2 million dollars. It was from her sister in-law’s estate. The amount included the money owed to her from her husband’s life insurance policy, along with the money owed to her and Kevin when Kevin’s parents passed away. The additional money was what was leftover since she and Cody were her only remaining family. She had questioned how this all came about, and the commander explained how each team member, along with Alex, Tenley and Juliet, played a strategic role in getting everything completed and legally binding before the ceremony.
The second life-changing event was when she and Frost purchased a new home. It was a model home in a fairly new neighborhood next to where Alex and Tenley lived. Since it was a model home, it came with all the upgrades, including the Jacuzzi tub she’d always wanted in the master bathroom. They moved in a few days ago. It was four bedrooms and three and a half baths and had a huge back yard for the kids to play in. She and Frost were planning to start trying for a baby.
She also resigned from her job at t
he Naval Hospital and is now working part-time three-days a week at an orthopedics office just down the road from their new home. Of course, she wanted to work full-time, but Frost explained she didn’t have to. Since she was married to him now, she and Cody were covered under his insurance, plus working part-time meant she’d be able to help pick the kids up from school. When school started in a couple of weeks, Cody would be attending the public middle school just down the road. And in her free time, she told Alex she’d volunteer at her clinic once it opened.
She took a deep breath and smiled as she looked with the rest of their friends as they all watched Cody stand tall and proud in his Sea Cadet’s dress white uniform as he was awarded the Honor Ribbon, which was awarded to a cadet who is directly responsible for saving a human life at the risk of his or her own life.
He was receiving the award for his bravery and courage for putting his life on the line when he not only saved Alejandra from being bitten by the rattlesnake but also for saving the life of his mom.
Frost and his team were involved in the ceremony. With permission, they were all dressed in their dress whites as they all stood at attention and saluted Cody when the Secretary of the Navy presented Cody his ribbon. Yes, she couldn’t believe the freaking Secretary of the Navy was here, presenting her son with an award. Apparently, Commander Derek Connors and his daughter Alex have some good connections.
She smiled as Cody saluted the SECNAV, then shook his hand as he accepted the award. She was so proud of him and seeing him grow into the wonderful young man he had become. And although at times she wished he would never grow up so she could always have the little boy she’d loved these past ten years, she couldn’t wait to see what the future held for him. If her gut was right, she had a feeling that one day, her little boy would be standing where his dad is currently standing. She thought back on their wedding day when Cody asked Frost what he should call him now that he was married to his mom. Frost told him it was up to him. When Cody told him he wanted to call him dad, she swore she saw a tear slip out of her man’s fierce eyes, though she’d never call him out on it.