Her Wicked Hero

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  Gray gave Zed a considering look, then turned to Brockman. “He’ll find her and bring her to safety.”

  “I’m sure your Zed’s good. But you don’t understand, this Raymond, there’s something wrong with him. Can you spare two men?” Brockman asked.

  “Zed will bring her back,” Gray said again.

  Brockman pushed himself up the side of the hut, the only outward sign of pain were the beads of sweat that dripped down his temples. “How bad is it, Lieutenant? Are we going to be able to evacuate? I can make it with limited assistance.”

  “No, Sir, you can’t,” Gray stated emphatically. “Neither can two others. We also have your daughters we’re concerned about. With all of you, this should take us about three days to get to the road that leads to the coast. There will be a helicopter evac there to take us to the USS Ronald Reagan.”

  “And Marcia?”

  “I’ll make sure she is taken to the Reagan as well,” Zed said with quiet assurance.

  “I know she isn’t my daughter, but I think of her like one of my own. She’s special, Son.”

  Zed looked the man dead in the eye. “I know.” He turned to Gray, “I need to go coordinate with Dex, and see if Kane has any more intel.”

  Gray nodded.

  3

  Marcia couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Faster.” Raymond yanked on the rope that was tied around her wrists. He liked doing that. Even when she was keeping up, he would jerk the rope, just so she would stumble. What a needle dick. That was probably his problem. Raymond was such an A-hole because he had a teeny tiny penis.

  “Keep up, we’re on a deadline.”

  Marcia kept her head down, so she could watch for branches and anything else on the jungle floor she might stumble over. She was so tired, but she would never admit it. She’d done track in high school, and she jogged every other day at home. She was never going to give up even though her wrists were raw from the rope, and her hands were scraped and battered from when she’d fallen.

  “What do you mean we’re on a deadline?” she asked. One thing she had learned spending time with Mr. B., knowledge was power.

  Thank God, he went around a fallen tree instead of climbing over it. “You don’t think Kyle was the brains of this operation, do you? Fuck, he couldn’t run a Burger King. Look how things ended up. I was always working with the big guy behind Kyle’s back. I made sure I had a contingency plan. I was smart.”

  “I don’t know Raymond, seeing as we’re on the run, you’re not looking too smart. I think you would have been lucky just to be working the fryer at the Burger King.”

  He yanked the rope, and she had just a second to see the rage on his face and feel the spittle hit her as he roared, “Bitch.” She tried to duck his hand, but he was too fast. Stars exploded, and she hit the ground.

  Her nose was smashed into the damp jungle floor. Her mouth tasted like copper, dirt, and the pungent bitter taste of leaves filled her mouth. She spit, trying to clear her mouth. She didn’t know how long she was on the ground before more pain seared through her scalp. Raymond pulled her hair even harder as he lifted her head.

  “Drink this.”

  He shoved the straw from his Camelback into her mouth, so she could gulp down some water. As she was drinking he talked. “You shouldn’t have been so stupid. If you hadn’t mouthed off, I wouldn’t have had to hit you.”

  Raymond pulled her up into a sitting position. Marcia touched the side of her face with her fingers. She glared at the douche-nozzle, but just squinting her eyes at him hurt.

  “Don’t push your luck, Lesley. What I put up with in camp won’t fly out here. Women don’t walk all over me. I only allowed it before because I didn’t need the hassle. But make no mistake, women need to know their place. You get me?”

  He coiled the rope around his hand and Marcia saw the fanatical glee in his face. She had no doubt in her mind if he didn’t have some kind of need for her, she’d be dead. And it wouldn’t be an easy death. This boy had serious mommy issues. Marcia bowed her head, so he couldn’t see her expression, she knew her eyes would give her away.

  “I understand. I’m sorry, Raymond. Please forgive me,” she said softly.

  That apology left a worse taste in her mouth than the jungle floor.

  He pulled her to her feet and put his face close to hers. His breath reeked. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  She nodded, keeping her eyes downward. Her head hurt really bad, and she felt dizzy. Trying to maintain this subservient façade was going to be tough when she felt like crap, but darn-it she could do what she needed to in order to live through this crappy hand life had dealt her.

  She’d known Mr. Brockman almost all of her life. Her family had lived across the street from his family when her parents had been alive. Mr. B. would send those soldiers after her. There was no way he’d leave her hanging in the wind. She just needed to hold on and not let her mouth get her killed.

  “Can I ask a question?” she asked meekly.

  “Can you be pleasant?”

  “I promise,” she said in a low voice. “You said we were on a deadline. How fast do we need to go?”

  The look he gave her made her skin crawl. “As soon as I get to a phone, I’ll get in touch with Jefferies and see what plans he might have for you. If it’s worth my while, I’ll turn you over to him. If not,” he shrugged. “If not, you and I are going to do a bit of Skyping with your father. I have a bone to pick with him.”

  “What do you mean we’ll Skype?” Marcia hated the tremor she heard in her voice.

  Raymond pulled her even closer to him and she could see bits of food stuck between his teeth. “Pray hard, Lesley, pray really hard Jefferies can make it worth my while to hand you over because your daddy has a lot to answer for. I want him to suffer for my friends who died.” He shoved her away from him, then smiled brightly like they were at a cocktail party. “But don’t you worry about it, I’m sure Jefferies will make me rich, and soon, you’ll be home in the bosom of your family.”

  She looked at him in disbelief. How could he change personalities in the blink of an eye?

  “Quit staring at me,” he growled.

  She looked down at the dirt.

  “Good girl. Now, let’s get going. The sooner I get to a phone, the sooner you’ll be home.”

  Sure, she believed that. Just like she believed in leprechauns, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy. There wasn’t a chance in hell they were ever planning on letting her return to the U.S. Marcia took a deep trembling breath.

  Get it together Price.

  One breath. One moment. One hour. One day. She could get through this.

  “Did you hear me, Lesley? You get to go home? So, speed it up.”

  “Sir, I could go faster if you untied my hands. My balance is off.” Gah, she had to swallow down the bile using the word ‘Sir’, but if it would get him to untie her hands…

  “Nice try. Suck it up, Girly,” he said as he yanked at the rope. “If you keep up, I’ll feed you the next time I need to take a piss.”

  Her stomach growled at the mention of food. She’d keep up. Her foot hit water. What in the world?

  “Where are we?” she asked before she could stop herself.

  “We just hit the swamps leading up to the river. Nobody’s going to be able to track us through this shit.”

  Marcia whimpered as her Sketchers sunk into the mud and tried to suck her shoe off when she lifted it back out. How was she going to keep up now? He had boots on. This was going to be impossible.

  “Raymond.”

  His eyes cut to hers, and he glared.

  “What is it?”

  “Can we stop while I tie my shoes on tighter? They won’t stay on in this mud.”

  “For fuck’s sake, you should have worn something more practical,” he reprimanded harshly.

  She bit her tongue just in time. How stupid was he to say something like that? As if she had thought she was going to be k
idnapped off the yacht. He stopped next to a rotted stump. He lifted her up like she weighed nothing. The show of strength gave her the heebie-jeebies. He scraped the stinking mud off her shoes, so he could get to her shoelace. Two beetles crawled over her jean covered leg. She whimpered.

  “Don’t be a pussy,” Raymond said as he crushed the bugs into the fabric of her jeans. Once again, she felt herself throw-up in her mouth and was forced to swallow it back down. The fetid and sour taste made her eyes water.

  “Quit your crying.” She looked down at the orange smears on her pants and winced at the tightness of her shoes, but it was for the best. Of course, it was nothing compared to the pain in her face. Marcia had never been hit before in her life, and she’d like to avoid it in the future. What’s more, if she got another injury, it would just make it tougher for her to ride out this nightmare. He hit the side of her hip. “Up and at ‘em. We’re burning daylight.”

  Raymond plucked her off the stump and dropped her into the murky water of the swamp. This time he put an arm around her shoulder. “Can’t afford to have you fall face first and drown, so you’re next to me.”

  Marcia knew she was pushing her luck, but she had to try. “Raymond?” she said meekly.

  “Now what?”

  “I’d really like to put my arm around you, so I could hang on better. I really don’t want to drown. You know I can’t get away from you. You’re too fast and strong. Can you please untie me? I’m begging you. Please?”

  As he stood there looking down at her, she gave a pleading smile, all the time thinking how nice it would be to kick him in the balls.

  “You’re right. You can’t get away from me.” He plucked a wicked looking knife from its sheath and cut the rope from her wrists. “Okay, baby, cuddle up. The faster we get to a phone, the sooner we can determine what your fate is.”

  Zed went to talk to Dex. Could it get any worse? As soon as he thought those words, he winced. Damned right he was superstitious, he came by it naturally. And Dex’s expression was going to prove him right, he just knew it.

  “Come look at the screen,” Dex said pointing to his small laptop that could damn near withstand a nuclear attack.

  “Our boys, Raymond and Sommers were involved in that mission you told Kane and me about with the Saudi palace. There were only five survivors, and they were two of them.”

  “So, they have an ax to grind with Brockman,” Zed said grimly.

  “Only if they knew he was behind the scenes,” Dex said carefully. “There’s still the fact Kyle got everyone together immediately after the fissionable material was stolen from France.”

  “You and Kane need to work that shit out. I’m going after Marcia, it’s already been two hours. I’ll take the comm with me, and you can feed me any information you get.”

  “To be on the safe side, Gray wants you to take one of the satellite phones,” Dex said as he handed it to Zed. “For all we know, there’ll be a damn meteor shower or some such shit that’ll screw up the comm.”

  That had really happened, so Zed took the satellite phone. “You need to get more information from Brockman about the mission in Saudi.”

  “Agreed,” Dex nodded.

  “Good.” Zed gave him a chin tilt and headed toward the spot where Debbie had said Raymond and Marcia had disappeared into the jungle. It was easy to spot where they’d entered, the foliage was trampled. He adjusted his pack and started out a jog. He intended to catch up with them in less than four hours, he didn’t give a shit if they had a two-hour head start. With Marcia as a hostage, he knew he could easily catch up.

  Zed paused at different points.

  “Fuck,” he breathed out under his breath. He could see where someone had fallen. It was a small body, obviously Marcia. He carefully examined the fall pattern and noted her hands hadn’t spread out like they should of. If he had to make an educated guess, Raymond had tied her hands in front of her. He hated the thought of it, but the pragmatic part of him knew that was going to make it easier to catch up with them since she couldn’t go as fast.

  It was another half mile when he saw another major disturbance in the jungle floor. It was another indent that was the size of a woman, not a man. He inspected it and this time he saw blood on the leaves. “Goddammit.” He brushed aside the leaves, looking for some kind of rock that might account for her to be bleeding. He didn’t find anything but the spongy rot of leaves. That left only one explanation, she was bleeding before she hit the ground. “Fucker!” He’d done something to bloody her. Zed felt his fists clench and unclench.

  This time when he sprang up from his crouch, he started moving even faster, then had to force himself to slow down. He knew better. The last thing he needed to do was injure himself. Taking a calming breath, he skirted a large fallen tree and continued following their trail.

  The jungle started to thin out, and he saw a flat wide expanse before him. It was a swamp. It reminded him of his time training on the Pearl River in Mississippi. Zed was from the streets of LA, he’d hated the swamp training. Abso-fucking-lutely hated it.

  “Suck it up, Zaragoza,” he muttered. He flipped his rifle down behind his back and crouched down and tied his boots on as tight as possible. It was only going to help him for the first half mile, he knew it, the damn silt and mud was going to get into his boots and then slide between his toes. Out of all of his training, trudging through the swamp was the one he hated the most. One of his teammates was from Louisiana, and he never stopped giving Zed shit.

  “Well, Cullen, you sure as hell would be laughing your ass off if you could see me now,” Zed said with a half-smile. Then his features turned grim. The problem was there was no good way to track them in the shallow water which he damn well knew was Raymond’s intent. He’d be heading for the coast, most likely down the Kinabatangan river since he’d headed inland.

  Zed took his first long strides into the swamp while hitting the comm device.

  “Dex? You read me?”

  “Gotcha. Where you at?”

  “Headed toward the Kinabatangan river. Managed to find me some swampland.”

  Zed heard a chuckle come through the line, and it wasn’t Dex.

  “Your favorite,” Kane said. Shit, somehow Dex had conferenced in his teammate from Night Storm.

  “It’s not on the map. There shouldn’t be a swamp,” Zed grumbled.

  “I’m going to tell Cullen,” Kane laughed.

  “Tell him later. Have you figured out which angle Raymond is working? Or who he might be working with?” Zed questioned.

  “Nada,” Kane said, all laughter gone from his voice. “If Raymond is really heading toward that river, you gotta know it eventually spits out near Sandakan near the tip of Borneo.”

  “He’s going to have to hijack a boat,” Zed thought aloud. He looked down at his GPS. There was a spot with a significant bend in the river. He mentioned it to Kane and Dex.

  “Yep, that would be the perfect place to ambush someone,” Dex agreed.

  “I’m heading there,” Zed stated. “Do you know what kind of boats I can expect on the river?” he asked.

  “I’ve researched,” Kane said. “It’s mostly locals. Some longboats, kayaks, canoes, and houseboats.”

  “Okay.” Zed looked off into the distance, thinking it through. He saw a swarm of brightly colored birds fly by and monkeys chattering in the distance. He felt himself calm. He had a plan. “Thanks. This helped,” he told the two men. “How’s it going with the rescue?” he asked Dex.

  There was a pause.

  “Tell me,” Zed prompted.

  “Brockman’s not doing well. His right lung is deflated. We had to fashion a stretcher and wrap him in so that he wouldn’t jostle his rib and do more damage.”

  “Shit you’re close enough to Brunei, can’t they help?” Kane asked.

  “The jungle is too dense. We have to just wait until we get to that road. We need about eighteen more hours. Gray just decided to have Hunter and I camp with the others whil
e the rest of the team double-time it to the chopper evac site.”

  “How quick do you think you can make it to an extraction point?” Kane asked.

  “They think they can make it in half the time while still keeping him relatively stable. He needs surgery, and they can provide that on the Reagan.”

  “Gotcha,” Kane said. “In the meantime, I’m going to have my eye on you Zed. If you get off track, I’ll ping you.”

  “Steak dinner says I won’t.”

  “I’m not taking that bet,” Kane chuckled again. “But I’ll have your back, anyway.”

  “You always do,” Zed muttered as he snagged a good-sized branch that was floating in the murky water. “Okay, ladies, gotta go.”

  He pushed the branch into the mud ahead of him, making sure that there weren’t any drop-offs. It shouldn’t slow him down, and it would save him a dunking. Cullen would be so proud.

  4

  Marcia had been trying to get away from Raymond for hours. Not to escape. She knew that was hopeless in the swamp, but she just wanted his arm off her.

  Suck it up, Price. Your life is on the line, and you’re over here caring if he has his arm around your waist? She shuddered because his fingers gripped her stomach, making her want to throw up. Marcia couldn’t help her visceral reaction, but seriously, this should just be number forty-one on her list of things that were bothering her. She tried to concentrate on the fact she was probably going to be sold to the highest bidder and tortured.

  Torture was less intimate though, right?

  God, Price, you are a piece of work.

  “Where are we going?” she asked Raymond when he stopped and looked down at his hand-held GPS device.

  “Thought you weren’t talking to me, Girly,” Raymond looked down at her with a sly grin.

  “Figure since this concerns my life, I should pretend to care.”

  He gave her a long considering look. Oh crappola, had she come off too flip? She really didn’t want to be hit again. She’d forgotten she needed to be acting subservient. Acting like a doormat needed to be number one on her list. As soon as she thought that, her mind rebelled. Absolutely not. Her number one priority was to survive. Life was too precious not to do everything possible to fight and stay alive. So, no more smart-mouth.