The quick movement startled Jenna, and she gripped the pack on his back. He glanced at her over his shoulder. She didn’t like the flash of fear that registered in his eyes before he shut it down it.
“Can you read me?” Charlie spoke to someone on the radio. “Request a delay in that order. SEALs on the ground. Please respond. SEALs on the ground. Shit! They’ve gone dark.”
“What is it?” She was afraid to ask.
“Damned Air Force pulled up the clock and launched the B-2 Stealth Bombers. We’re out of time.”
The air strike had started? “No! We’ve still got an hour, don’t we?”
Charlie didn’t answer her. “Mack! Birds in flight. Do you read me? Birds in flight and coming in hot!”
“How much time do we have?” she asked.
“Forty-five minutes, if we’re lucky.”
“The Harmonds. Did the guys get them out?” She asked.
Charlie shook his head. “Not yet. We need to move out of here in the next thirty or we’re all toast.” More grenade sounds made it difficult to think straight. He shouted into his headset mic. “Willy, Ty, Tavon, come in. We’ve gotta roll!”
This wasn’t happening! They’d come this far. She couldn’t leave without the kids. Was there a way to stop the air strike?
She pounded her pockets for her cell phone and dialed Kat.
“Jenna!” Kat answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”
“Shh. I’m in Colombia,” she whispered. “Where did you think I’d be?”
“Oh, no. That’s not good. You’re not supposed to be there. Your SEAL, um Lieutenant Riley, wanted to leave you behind. You know, to keep you safe.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. Of course he did. “I can’t talk about that now. You need to call Senator Tonell. Tell him that the Air Force is launching the strike too soon. Oh, and call my dad too. We need more time to get out of here.”
“Wait, you’re in the jungle! Jenna, the news said that the air strike has begun!”
“Well, stop it! Get Tonell to do something!”
Kat let out a low whistle. “I’ll try, Jenna. Be careful.”
She hung up. The senator would slow the strike. He had to. If not, her dad should be able to do something, right?
“Help,” a voice called behind her.
She swung around. Did she hear that? Or was her mind playing tricks on—
“Please…Jenna.” A little voice came again.
Jenna looked at Charlie, but he hadn’t heard the mystery voice. He was too busy calling the team members, listening to the radio, and trying to get through to the Air Force.
Jenna rose, slowly, quietly. Putting her hands on her hips, she squinted trying to make out any figures in the dusky light. Was that a little hand waving behind that thick bush? Jacob? Oh, my God! Jacob was alive? He escaped from the CRAF?
“Did you see that?” she asked Charlie.
Charlie waved her off. He was listening intently to the radio.
Fine, he had his hands full. She’d go get Jacob herself.
Moving quickly toward the bushes, her boots got tangled in the vegetation as she went. Jacob was much farther than she originally thought. Soon she’d run half a football field distance away from Charlie. She turned her head from side to side. What was that sound? She stopped in her tracks. Her heart pounded.
“Jacob. Come out of there,” she whispered.
A small whimper came from behind the bushes.
“It’s okay. Remember we said we’d walk out together? Come take my hand.”
“I can’t,” Jacob whined. “I’m…trapped.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes. Something wasn’t right. “Trapped? Are you stuck?”
He groaned.
Was he embarrassed that he’d gotten tangled up in the bushes?
Biting her lip, she wondered what to do. If she went to help him, she’d be worse than exposed, she’d be out of sight. The guys wouldn’t know where she was.
She raised her hands and waved at Charlie. “Over here!” she mouthed, afraid to yell at him.
Charlie looked her way. She was sure of it.
Jacob cried out. He was hurt, scared, or both.
“Shhh. I’m coming,” she said softly. With all the hair standing up on her neck, she remembered what Mack had taught her and stalked toward the bush. She stopped suddenly when the picture before her didn’t add up. Jacob was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. A cloth was shoved into his mouth. His eyes were wide with fear. A trap!
She pointed her rifle toward the bushes, slowly sweeping from side to side. “Stay down, Jacob. Come out you bastards,” she ordered.
A man stepped forward with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder. Pulling Jacob’s hair, he dragged the little boy out of the bushes. Jacob tripped and fell to his belly on the ground. He was face down, whimpering.
Jenna leveled the rifle at the man. “Don’t touch him!”
The man pointed his weapon at her. “Drop it, mujer!”
Another woman might have been shaking in her blisters-making new boots. But seeing the terror in Jacob’s eyes as he trembled in the dirt was enough to snap the final straw. Jenna was pissed. Without any hesitation she aimed at the man’s belly and pulled the trigger. The man grunted and stumbled, his bullets wildly spraying the air. None of them hit her, but more men rushed out from behind the trees. She shot again, missing this time.
Someone tackled her, driving her straight into the ground. She was yanked to her feet and a thick arm around encircled her neck. Her rifle was ripped from her arm. A pistol pressed against her temple. “Come with us, mujer. Do not make a sound.”
This couldn’t be happening.
“Charlie! Help—!” she screamed until something hit her on the back of the head.
Everything went dark.
Chapter Fifteen
‡
Mack lined up his shot and pulled the trigger. The insurgent was dead before he knew what hit him. Mack lined up another shot. And another. CRAF fell like flies. He scanned the area. One bastard was shimmying up a tree, pushing his rifle in front of him. What did he think? He’d get to take pot shots at his guys from the branches? Hell, no. Mack put the guerilla in his cross hairs and pulled the trigger. One less monkey in a tree.
Bullets flew wildly around the area, but CRAF were not the best marksmen, especially when on the run. Sort of like shooting monkeys in a barrel. More like turds in a fishbowl.
“Mack, over here,” Ty called.
“Go. I got this,” Tavon let loose another round of hellfire on CRAF. It turned out he was not too bad as a lefty.
Mack slipped away and found Ty standing over an underground wood door. He lifted his eyebrow. “What have we here?”
“I don’t think it’s a wine cellar. Open it?” Ty asked.
Mack aimed at the door and held up his fingers. Three. Two. One. Execute.
Ty swung the door open and two dirty faces peered up at them from the depths.
“Are you the Harmonds?” Mack asked.
The nodded their heads.
Holy hell! They were alive! “Wow, I know someone who is going to be happy to see you.” He was already anticipating the loving Jenna would spring on him when he brought the Harmonds out of this hellhole. He grinned. Yep, he’d play up this rescue for a whole lot of naked time with Jenna. A lifetime full.
Gunfire slowed down in the camp and things were quieting enough so that Charlie’s call came through Mack’s headset loud and clear. “Mack! Birds in flight. Do you read me? Birds in flight!”
“Are you shitting me?”
“B-2s, fully loaded. I couldn’t stop them,” Charlie said. “The streets are getting hot in Bogota. But intel says the leaders are hanging out here. Right where we’re standing.”
“Dammit! They can’t wait another hour to blow them away?” Mack snarled. Then he realized that the scared people in the hole had no idea why he was raving. They hadn’t heard the delightful news that they were all about to get bl
own sky high. “Sorry. We’ve got to be quick about this. Ty, jump in there and hoist them up. I’ll pull from this side.”
Marcella Harmond came out first. Mack removed her gag and cut the ropes on her arms.
“Thank you, oh my God. I never thought I’d see Americans again.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Please, help my husband. He’s injured.”
“Nice and easy, Ty.” Mack didn’t really need to give instructions. Ty had a way with people and animals unlike anything Mack had ever seen. Carefully, they both lifted the injured man out of the hole and untied his hands.
Marcella cried hysterically, “The kids! Where are they?”
Mack swept the dark hole with his flashlight. It was empty. “When did you see them last?”
Andrew’s voice was weak but he managed to say, “Not since we were yanked out of the car in Quito.”
“Dammit to hell!” Mack exploded. “Charlie, the kids. Do you see them on the satellite?”
A grenade went off.
“Shut that crap up, Willy! I can’t hear,” Mack snarled. “Charlie! Do you read me? Where are the Harmond kids?”
“Ah, Mack, we’ve got a big problem,” Charlie said.
“I know. Stealth Bombers are winging their way here and we are missing two kids.”
“That’s not all. Jenna’s missing too.”
He couldn’t form the words, any words, to scream at Charlie.
“Sorry, Mack. They’ve got her. CRAF guerillas took Jenna hostage.”
Mack’s world turned to shit.
*
Jenna woke up. Or at least she thought she was awake. Why couldn’t she see? She wasn’t dead. The excruciating pain slicing like a jagged blade through her head proved that point. Where was she? She tried to move and couldn’t. Her arms were behind her back, and she was tied to a chair. Sweat dripped down her chest and landed on her bare legs. Damn it! They’d stripped her. She was in her tank top and panties. Bastards! Did they get a good long look at her? Touch her when she was unconscious? Fine. That was all they were going to get. If they tried to touch her again, Mack would pulverize them.
Part of the problem was not being able to see. Being blindfolded was never her idea of fun. Even in the bedroom, she liked to see what was going on, be in control. This wasn’t control. This was terror. Panicking, she screamed and gagged on the rag in her mouth. Coughing and choking, she had the irrational terror that she couldn’t get enough air through the small opening they left for her nostrils. Was she going to suffocate?
No! Jenna, focus. Calm your pulse rate.
It took a few long seconds of thinking she was going to die before she realized she could breathe through her nose just fine. She forced herself to take more even breaths. Slowly in, slowly out. Her heart rate went down and she was able to think again.
She tried as hard as she could to see through the fabric wrapped around her eyes. Shadows? Light? No, it was pitch black in her world. She might as well have been blind.
She tried to fight, rock, and hop up and down. Struggling against the binding didn’t work. Wiggling and thrashing only tightened the ropes that bound her wrists. The skin on her inner arms burned and the knife inside her head turned sharply. Her stomach rolled from the pain. Panic tried to race through her again.
No! I’m stronger than this. She’d been through many scary times and survived. This one was no different. Well, okay, it was very different, but the outcome would be the same. She’d win. All she had to do was think positive thoughts. Good thoughts.
Taking calming breaths, she focused her mind on Mack’s beautiful eyes and the curve of his smile. God, he was so beautiful. He was also safe and strong. Could there be anything more comforting than falling asleep in his arms, her head resting on his rock-solid chest? And the way his angled face went soft after they’d made love…she inhaled softly. There was nothing more beautiful, more serene, than Mack’s face resting in the afterglow.
Her heart slowed. Keeping Mack front and center in her mind was the key. She took a deep breath and started screaming.
“Heeeeeellllpppp!” She tried to yell through the rag, concentrating on not gagging as she did.
“Shh,” someone whispered.
She turned her head and listened.
“Jacob?” Some noise seeped through the cloth in her mouth. Footsteps pounded close by, hard and heavy. Angry sounding, those were no little boy feet.
She yelled again.
“¡Silencio!” A man snarled in her ear.
The smell of sweat, dirt, and old booze hit her nose, and she gagged again.
“Please, let me go!” She begged, trying to make him understand. But the words were only a jumbled mess of syllables caught inside the rag.
A vicious slap to her cheek made her see stars in all that blackness. She pulled back, stunned and frightened. Would the bastard strike her again?
“Don’t hurt her!” a little voice cried. “Jenna, it’s me, Jacob.”
She turned her head toward the sound of Jacob’s voice and tried to call out to him. Incomprehensible noises got tangled up in the rag in her mouth.
The smelly creep slapped her again, so hard this time that her hair fell over her face. The old terror she used to feel as a little girl came roaring back. The smell of alcohol. The need to run, or hide from Mom. Get away! She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. But this bastard wasn’t Mom, and if she didn’t get a hold of herself, he might hurt the kids. Her panic eased back, and now she was really mad. Fighting mad. If she could get free, she’d bloody this guy’s nose. Who hits a tied up blindfolded woman? Her face burned like fire, but she would not let him see her sweat. She flipped her hair back and sat up as straight as she could. Defiant, bold. Her new plan was to channel her inner SEAL and rise above this.
When Mack gets a hold of you, dude, you’ll be wearing your balls around your neck.
The image made her smile. She heard the creep mumble something in Spanish and stomp away. A door closed.
Oh, God, Mack. Did he know she was taken captive? Was he still alive? He had to be. She wouldn’t let herself think otherwise. She forced herself to pull away from the danger at hand and think good thoughts. Nice thoughts. Keep the terror at bay.
Just like she used to do when Mom hurt her.
As a little girl, she’d learned a coping device. Think good thoughts and take your mind to other places far away from the danger and the fear. Leave the bad place behind. This moment was similar and Jenna would survive it by focusing on what made her happy and whole. Mack.
When he came for her, they’d go back to California and start a beautiful life together. Baby Mackies were next on the list. How cute would his children be? She could only imagine his baby’s beautiful blue eyes and dark hair. They might have her stubbornness, but that was okay. She could deal with it as long as she had Mack. She wanted that dream more than anything else, and she was going to have it.
If the guerillas didn’t torture her to death and the bombs didn’t kill them all.
No, no, no. Stop it!
No negative thoughts. Number one on her plan was to survive. She’d keep Mack first in her mind and find a way to escape.
“Mmmrrrr,” she mumbled. It wasn’t a word, but she hoped Jacob would respond. She needed to know that he was okay.
“Jenna, don’t move, okay? Don’t scream. Don’t do anything unless they tell you to. Please, Jenna.” Jacob whispered somewhere to the left and behind her. “They don’t like it if you disobey.”
That didn’t sound good. Had they hurt him? Oh, no. Anna! Where was she?
“Annnnnaaaaa!” Jenna screamed. “Annnnnaaaaa!”
“Shh, Jenna, please be quiet,” Jacob whispered.
“Jenna?” A girl sniffled somewhere behind and to the right of her. “Is that you?”
Anna. Sweet Lord, thank you.
“Of course it is,” Jacob said. “Who do you think it is?”
“I can’t see her very well. It could be any lady in her underwear.”
/> “It’s Jenna. They brought her in while you were sleeping. She was all slumped over. I thought…I thought she was dead.” Jacob said to Anna.
“You said she was going to rescue us,” Anna hissed. “How’s she supposed to do that if she’d tied up and bleeding?”
“I dunno.”
“Heelllpmmmeee.” Jenna rubbed her wrists back and forth trying to loosen her ropes.
“We can’t help you since our hands are tied behind our backs,” Anna said. “You’re lucky they put you on a chair. Jacob and I are tied together on the dirty floor. There are rats down here, Jenna. Big fat ones with sharp teeth. And gross black bugs. I want to go home.”
Jenna sighed. She did too.
“Did you see Mom and Dad?” Jacob asked.
Jenna shook her head and continued to struggle.
“Tell her to stop making noise and wiggling so much. They’re going to hit her again. I can’t stand to see that,” Jacob whined.
Anna sniffled. “Whatever. She’s not much help to us, is she?”
“Shut up! That’s a horrible thing to say.”
Anna didn’t respond.
She had to get them out of there. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious. The bombs could be dropping in any minute.
“Hellllppp!” she yelled again.
“Please, Jenna,” Jacob begged. “Do as they say. No more yelling. No one can hear us, and they are just going to hurt you. Please, stop.”
Jenna nodded, but only to calm Jacob down. She was going to yell her lungs out if she thought the team could hear her. She didn’t care if the bastards slapped her around a little if she and the kids were rescued.
“Quiet!” Anna hissed.
“They’re coming back. Pretend you’re asleep,” Jacob said.
Jenna heard a lot of scrambling behind her, followed by fake deep sleep breathing. Just as Jenna had learned to cope with her own mother, it seemed the kids had learned a lot about how to cope with their captors. Apparently, sleeping children were left alone.
Men stomped into the room. By the sound of the boots on the wood floor, at least three men had surrounded her. She started to tremble. Sweat drops landed in a constant drip on her thighs. Dear God, what were they going to do? The anticipation was just as bad as a slap across the face. But if they raped her in front of the kids…
SEALs of Summer: Military Romance Superbundle - Navy SEAL Style Page 94