“Heeelllllpppp!” she screamed.
The blindfold was ripped from her eyes. The scream died in her throat. The blinding light focused on her face surprised her. Another light, smaller and bright red blinking back at her. A camera.
“Tell them,” a man said in a thick Spanish accent. “Tell the U.S. President to make the planes go back. No bombs on us. We got women and children here. CRAF good. The cartel very bad people. Drop bombs on them!”
Jenna took a second to comprehend the situation. They were asking her to tell the U.S. to drop the bombs on the cartel, not on them. The irony of the situation got to her. CRAF guerillas were good? Is this why they kidnapped the Harmonds so that they could persuade the U.S. to help them fight the Coke War?
They shot Andrew Harmond and beat him up. She was stripped almost naked and had been slapped silly by these so-called good men. Who knew what they were going to do to her after she pleaded their case to the President. Rape, torture, death—these were not nice things. And at the moment, neither was she.
Jenna looked straight into the camera. She was ready to talk.
*
Mack’s head was exploding. CRAF had surrendered pretty easily for a bunch of armed guerillas. Their hands were tied together with duct tape, their weapons confiscated.
“Where are they?” Mack yelled for the tenth time.
“¿Dónde estan los niños? ¿La mujer?” Ty asked.
The men shook their heads and cowered. Not one of them would say where Jenna or the kids were. It was as if they didn’t know.
Mack growled in frustration. “What’s the Spanish translation for ‘I’m going to boot your sorry asses to Siberia if you don’t talk’?”
“Maybe they don’t know. The leaders could be keeping the captives separate and don’t tell the grunts where they have them hidden. It wouldn’t be the first time. Remember Somalia?” Tavon said.
“We don’t have time to beat the truth out of them, no matter how much we want to. Radio reports say the B-2s are less than thirty minutes out. The clock’s ticking and bombs are on the way,” Charlie reminded them.
“You need to find my children,” Marcella Harmond called out from under a shade tree. “Please. Go get them.”
Sure, lady, I’ll get right on that. Mack’s fists balled at his sides.
“This is my fault. Jenna warned me something like this could happen.” Andrew Harmond hung his head. “I should have listened.”
“Please be still, Mr. Harmond. I’m almost done.” Ty cleaned the man’s wounds and was bandaging a nasty bloody scrape on his arm.
Harmond had been shot twice at close range. The bullet to the leg had gone straight through without nicking the major artery. The other bullet had simply grazed his temple. The man was one lucky son-of-a-gun. Of course he’d been beat up pretty good too, but it was clear the man would live to make another billion bucks. Ty would see to it.
“Sorry. It’s so hard to sit here.” Andrew said to Ty. “Don’t you see? I didn’t listen to Jenna, I didn’t think of the consequences, and now she and our children are out there in the hands of armed guerillas.”
Marcella wailed all over again.
“If they die—” Andrew began.
“Shut the fuck up!” Mack growled.
Andrew blinked. “I beg your pardon—”
“You can’t speak to my husband that way!” Marcella whined. Jeez, her voice got on Mack’s last nerve.
“You too, lady. Close your trap, or I’ll close it for you.”
Her mouth promptly closed.
He stomped over to where they were sitting. “No one’s dying on my watch. Do you hear me? No. One.”
Everyone was silent.
Towering over the wounded man, Mack leaned in so that they were eye-to-eye. Andrew pulled back as if he was uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space. Good. Mack didn’t give a flying shit about what the man thought.
Mack leaned in again. “I understand you’ve been under a bit of stress, Andrew. I mean, hell, you were shot twice, and your face has been run through a cheese grater, but I will not listen to your voice of doom. Jenna is out there! Do you hear me? I am more than ready to kill every guerilla and drug dealer in this jungle to get her back. I might just kill the bastard who brought us all here in the first place too. Is it your fault we’re in this mess? Hell, yes it is. You stay away from me. Got it?”
Andrew nodded.
“Good.”
Mack spun around and saw the guys all staring at him. “What!”
“Nothing. It’s just…whoa, Mack, are you okay?” Willy asked.
Tavon rolled his eyes. “Does he look okay? Come on, give the man a break.”
Charlie was sitting on a stump, studying his cell phone. “Ah, Mack. I think you want to see this.”
It was obvious that Charlie Handly was treading lightly where Mack was concerned. Jenna disappeared on his watch, and Mack was about to rip someone’s head off. Charlie’s blond head made for a perfect target.
“What?” Mack barked.
“Careful, brother. Charlie’s not the enemy. Neither is Andrew.” Tavon’s large hands squeezed Mack’s arm, not lightly. The pain helped to center him.
Waving his cell phone, Charlie said, “A transmission. It’s close, real close. And it’s a live feed.”
Mack raced to Charlie’s side. All the guys surrounded him.
“What is it?” Willy asked. “What are they recording?”
Ten seconds later they got their answer when the blindfold was ripped off Jenna’s face.
A strip of long blonde hair hung over her face. Her beautiful brown eyes looked into the camera. They were wide with shock and fear. Her full lip was split and bleeding. The rosy outline of a handprint marred her soft cheek. She’d been stripped down to her white tank top and pink underwear. Fury bucked and rolled through Mack like a wild bull. He’d kill those sons of bitches!
He didn’t know he was roaring, until Tavon punched him hard in the shoulder. He didn’t feel any pain except in his heart. Jenna, sweet, Jenna.
Ty got in his face and performed some sort of Apache Jedi mind trick on him. “Be still, Mack. We’ve got to study this for ambient sound and visual clues. Her life depends on us.”
“Ty’s right. But if you can’t watch, we understand.” Willy’s usually sparkling green eyes were full of sadness, grief. The dimples were gone. He didn’t look like such a big goofy kid anymore. But he couldn’t have felt as old as Mack did right now. Mack was dying.
Rubbing his shoulder, Mack gritted his molars as if they were CRAF bones, and stared at Jenna on the cell phone. He longed to touch her and get her the hell out of there. But all he could do was watch and plot his revenge.
“Tell them,” a man off screen said in a thick Spanish accent. “Tell the U.S. President to make the planes go back. No bombs on us. We got women and children here. CRAF good. The cartel very bad people. Drop bombs on them!”
Jenna didn’t speak for a second. Mack watched her swallow, and he found he was unable to do the same. His mouth was bone dry, his heart seizing in fear. Holy hell, this was the worst torture he’d ever endured. He wasn’t sure he’d survive it. But he would survive to save Jenna.
“Tell them!” the bastard off screen demanded.
He was so going to rip that CRAF sucker’s lungs out through his asshole. And take pleasure doing it.
“Shh,” Charlie said to him.
Apparently, Mack had voiced his graphic desires out loud. He was losing his mind. Mack glared at Charlie, who was lucky he didn’t have Mack’s size eleven boot wedged in his colon.
Jenna sat up straight and tipped her chin up. She was proud, defiant. The fear in her eyes dimmed back. The strength that Mack had come to love shimmered right there on the surface.
“That’s my girl,” Mack whispered to her. “Don’t let them get to you. Hang on.”
There was no way she could have heard him, and it was impossible for her to be looking straight into Mack’s e
yes, but he sensed that she was.
“I’m here, babe. I’m coming for you.”
Chapter Sixteen
‡
Jenna licked her lip and tasted blood. She focused on the camera and visualized Mack standing in front of her, his deep blue eyes boring into her soul. She might never see the love of her life again. She had to make this good. Make him understand.
“Mack, are listening? God, I hope you can hear me. I love you, Mack Riley.” Her voice quivered. She took a deep breath, fighting the tears, losing the battle. “Always have. You are my life, my soul, my every dream. I thank God I had a chance to touch you again. It’ll never be enough. It’s going to have to be. Get the guys out of here. Now! Go! Drop the bombs on these CRAF bastards and send them all straight to—!”
The blow to her cheek was so vicious that the chair flew backwards. She hit her head. All pain stopped abruptly.
*
The live feed went dead.
Mack didn’t roar. He didn’t cuss. He didn’t rip anyone a new one. He stood there motionless. Dead already.
“Brother, we’re going to get through this.” Tavon pounded his back. “We’re going to get her out of there.”
Mack couldn’t hear anything except the slap to Jenna’s beautiful face. It was as if he’d been clobbered upside his own head. Her chair flew backward. He burned with rage. Those bastards were going to pay. If she hit her head, she might be unconscious. She might bleed to death…His heart pounded so hard he couldn’t see straight. For the first time in his life, he understood the terror Jenna felt when he went off to war. He just got her back. He couldn’t lose her now.
“Yeah, well we’d better hurry. The radio report says the B-2s are in Colombian airspace,” Willy said.
“I found her!” Charlie cheered. “Did you hear me, Mack? I know where they’ve got her!”
The only thing Mack could hear was Jenna’s voice. “I love you, Mack Riley…Always have. You are my life, my soul, my every dream…”
“Where?” Ty asked. “Let me see the coordinates.”
Charlie pointed to the LST screen and Ty memorized them. “Got it.”
“Let’s roll!” Willy jumped up and swung his rifle over his shoulder.
“No. Wait. What about the Harmonds?” Ty asked.
“Right. What do we do with them? We can’t leave them here,” Tavon said.
Ty stood up. “I’ll take them with me to the helo, come back, and pick you guys up.”
“Sounds good.” Willy agreed. “That way we can bug out of this hellhole once we’ve got Jenna and the kids.”
“Okay. I’ll grab the Harmonds. See you all soon. Kick the bastard in the balls an extra time for me. No one hits our Jenna and lives to tell the tale.” Ty lifted his fist. “Hooya!”
“Hooya!” The others repeated.
Mack still hadn’t moved. His gaze was fixed to the blank cell screen, willing her to come back on and say she was all right. If she wasn’t all right—
“Hello!” Willy waved his hand by Mack’s face. “Jeez, it’s like he’s in a trance.”
Tavon shook his head. “He’s heartbroken. I’ve seen this same shit before. Hell. Jenna was the problem then too. He barely lived through it.”
“What are we going to do?” Charlie asked. “I screwed up. It’s my fault they got her. I’d let him punch me in the face. Crap, I’d let him knock me unconscious if it would help. But I don’t think it’ll help.”
“No. He needs to go save her. That’s all. Sorry, brother, but I’ve gotta do this.” Tavon hauled off and hit Mack again. Harder this time. The dislocated shoulder popped back into place.
Mack roared. “Tavon! So help me God, if you hit me one more time, I’ll trade you to the cartels!”
“And he’s back.” Tavon grinned.
“What are we waiting for? Jenna needs us.” Mack knocked Tavon under the chin with an upper-cut.
Tavon shook his big head. “I guess I deserved that.”
“More than. But we’re not even.”
“We’ve got children to save too!” In a surprise attack, Willy knocked Tavon under the chin too and jumped back out of the way.
“Hey!” Tavon complained, wiggling his jaw.
“And U.S. missiles to dodge!” Charlie raised his fist. Tavon gave him such a murderous look that Charlie dropped his hand. “Um, yeah. Let’s go.”
They all took off at a run.
*
Jenna woke up. At least her eyes were open under the fabric. Blindfolded again. Oh, wow, she’d never been hit that hard in the face before. Her entire head ached—her eye sockets, her teeth, her nose—major pain. The back of her head hurt too. Was she bleeding? There was no way to tell without her sight or hands. She sniffed. The room smelled musty, with a faint hint of dirt and jungle. Something big rustled behind her. The kids?
“Jenna? Are you awake?” A tiny voice said.
“Jacob?”
“I’m here too, Jenna,” Anna said. “Are you feeling okay? They hit you real hard. I’m sorry for what I said before. I don’t want them to hurt you or us. I just want to get out of here.”
She opened her mouth and wiggled her jaw around. It didn’t seem broken. Hey! No rag in the mouth! That was an improvement, at least.
“Yeah, I’m okay. What’s happening out there? How long have I been sleeping?” She acted as if she’d taken a nice long siesta instead of being knocked unconscious by guerilla thugs. Again.
“You’ve been out about five minutes, maybe? They’ve been arguing a lot,” Jacob whispered. “I don’t know what they’re saying, but they sound angry and maybe a little scared.”
“Good. We want them scared. They know the good guys are coming to get us.”
“When? I want to go home!” Anna cried.
“I know, sweetie, I do too. We just have to be patient.”
“I’m tired and hungry, and I want my mom.”
“Quiet. You want them to come in here and slap you too?” Jacob warned.
Anna whimpered.
“My team is coming. It won’t be much longer now.” Jenna’s voice rang with more confidence than she owned.
She hoped the guys had been able to track the video feed to their location. If anyone could find her with that short transmission, Charlie could. But time was running out. How long before the bombs dropped? She had no idea but sensed it would be soon. She wanted to be saved and get the kids out, but she wanted Mack and the guys to be safe too. Lord, it was an impossible situation. She wouldn’t fault the team if they left her behind. It’s what she’d asked them to do. Ordered, really, and she was still the boss.
“Be safe, my love.” Her tears soaked through the blindfold.
“What did you say, Jenna?” Jacob asked.
“Nothing.” She sniffled. “Listen, are you kids still tied to one another?”
“Yes,” Anna said. “Unfortunately. He’s really, really stinky.”
“You don’t smell so great yourself.”
“Hey! Stop it!” Anna said.
“You stop it!” Jacob grunted.
Were they shoving each other? It couldn’t be too easy to be bound together all this time. “Guys. Guys!”
Just then, Jenna’s cell phone went off. “Where’s that coming from?”
The kids scrambled to search for it.
“In your pants. Up on the table. I can almost reach…” Anna struggled.
The phone kept ringing. Was it Mack? “Hurry!”
“There! I’ve got it—”
Crash.
The phone fell to the ground. Jenna could tell by the sound that it had slid away from them. The phone stopped ringing. Her heart sunk.
“Sorry, Jenna,” Anna said. “It slipped out of my hands.”
“Good going! What if it was Mom and Dad? Now none of us can reach it.”
“I said I was sorry! I didn’t mean to drop it. Really, Jenna.”
“It’s okay,” Jenna sighed. “Good try.”
The phone made a sh
ort beep.
“That sounded like a text! Can either of you read what it says?” she asked.
“I can. Almost. Sort of,” Jacob said.
“Try real hard,” Jenna encouraged.
“Okay. Something about…” He strained. “Tonell says, um, some words I can’t read, sorry it’s really far away, but at the end it for sure says ‘remember the code. And then a bunch of words followed by… “No good. Take cover.’”
It wasn’t Mack. It was a text message from Kat and she didn’t need all the words to know that they were in deep trouble.
“What does it mean?” Anna asked.
She didn’t answer the question. “Can you both wiggle in under a table or behind a piece of furniture?”
“Huh?” Jacob asked.
“Like that little table?” Anna asked, probably pointing. Jenna couldn’t see anything through her blindfold.
“Why, Jenna? What’s going on?” Jacob’s voice was serious again. Worried.
You and me both, kid. “See if you both can fit under the table. Make sure your heads are covered.” Jenna took a deep breath. “We’re going to protect ourselves.”
“What did the text mean ‘take cover’? Does it have to do with the bad guys?” She could hear the terror quivering on the edge of Jacob’s every word.
She didn’t want to scare the kids, but they had to be prepared. “The U.S. Air Force is going to drop bombs on CRAF guerillas—the bad guys.”
“The Air Force is coming to rescue us? Isn’t that great, Jacob? We’re going home!” Anna cheered softly.
Jacob didn’t say a word. Somehow he knew the truth—the Air Force wasn’t coming to save them. No one was going home.
*
Mack was one with the tree he hid behind. Not moving, barely blinking, he made himself blend into the bark. The tree was far too skinny to cover him completely. The best he could hope for was concealment and visual camouflage. Since the sun had come up, it was getting harder to remain hidden. The other guys had their own tree shields and were all doing the same things he was—scanning the new CRAF camp, searching the perimeter, marking the rat bastards, and looking for the best shots. They were outnumbered at least four to one. Lousy odds.
SEALs of Summer: Military Romance Superbundle - Navy SEAL Style Page 95