“Open your eyes, sweet cheeks. I can tell you’re fakin’,” the second one said in a thick southern drawl. “If you breathe any damn harder, you’re gonna pass out.”
Kaci did as requested and took in the drab walls lined with old cardboard boxes. A small warehouse, maybe? Overhead, a fluorescent bulb glared pasty yellow light over the cold, wet, cement floor littered with fish scales. Lord, how am I going to get out of this one?
The man from the boat stood inches from her. He smiled, his front teeth harboring a wide gap. “There you are.”
He took a step back and rammed his foot into her ribs again.
She’d only had a second to prepare herself. It didn’t help. Her breath along with more vomit rushed from her mouth. Unable to do anything else, she tried to curl into a ball to protect herself.
“Sit her up,” the second, scarier guy barked.
Large hands grasped her under her arms, and before she had time to blink, she flew through the air.
Her back slammed into concrete blocks, and she cried out. Pain seared her sides, and she couldn’t catch her breath. Broke my ribs? Her knees buckled, and with a moan, she slid to the floor.
The guy from the boat knelt in front of her, grasping her chin and jerking her head up. His wild, dark blue gaze drilled into her. “Where is the flash drive?”
She tried to speak, but his fingers dug into her jaw.
“And, don’t even begin to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. We heard your conversation on the boat with lover boy.”
The other guy snickered. “Lover boy? More like pussy-whipped.”
The scary one twisted away, his blond ponytail slapping against his shoulder. “Shut the hell up.” As he rounded back to her, the light caught a thin scar slicing down the side of his neck. He bared his teeth, and grabbed her jaw again, jerking her head up at a painful angle. “Start talkin’. You said you think it’s at some cabin. Where?”
Okay, so no playing stupid. That didn’t mean she had to tell him. At this point, she figured much more pain and she’d pass out anyway. Hell, they could go ahead and kill her. As long as they didn’t get their hands on the drive, there was always a chance it would be found by someone else, and whatever incriminating evidence on there would be exposed.
The man squeezed harder, and she couldn’t stop the tears from spilling over her lids. “Silence won’t work either. You must know, given our history, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Save us all a lot of time and trouble and tell me where the damn cabin is.”
Her short, shallow breaths left her light-headed. Please, Mom, give me the strength to fight this guy.
With a growl, he released her, his eyes glinting with madness. In one swift move, he backhanded her across the face. Her head whipped to the side, slamming against the concrete, stars sparking through her brain. Heat and pain seared her face. She moaned, tasting blood.
“Okay.” He crouched next to her again, grabbing her hair and yanking hard. His filthy lips grazed the shell of her ear. “We’ve already taken care of your family and your boyfriend. What about Dr. Chuck, your boss? Or maybe those two cute friends of yours who cut your hair the other day? Believe me, we won’t be anywhere as nice with them as we’re being with you. It’ll be long and painful, but they’ll be no less dead in the end. Will ya talk then?”
Oh, God! No! “Please, don’t hurt them. They don’t even know about the cabin.”
“Then tell me where it is.” He jerked her hair again, forcing her to meet his ominous gaze, and leaned in closer. His hot breath washed over her face, the smell of death rolled out his pores. “Now!”
She gagged as the spittle flew from his mouth and hit her cheeks. “Georgia. It’s in Georgia.”
He grinned, showing a full mouth of sparkling white teeth. “Now was that so hard?”
He released her, and Kaci slumped to the floor, the cool, wet cement a balm on her bruised and battered skin. The urge to close her eyes and drift off into nothingness beckoned with promises of relief. But concern for her friends kept her from the giving in.
The scary guy stepped away and turned to the other man. “Put her to sleep and get her loaded in the van.”
Terror consumed her. Not again. Kaci tried to get up, tried to run but could barely manage to crawl across the floor.
“Where do you think you’re off to, sugar?” The second guy drove his knee in her lower back, pinning her to the concrete. “I sure would like to take you right here. Show you a good time with a real man.”
She turned her head, catching his movement in her peripheral. Holding up a syringe, he pulled the cap off, revealing a long needle.
“N-no!” Ignoring the pain in her ribs, she fought to get free. Kicked and bucked her hips. Grappled the cement beneath her. A little more and I’ll claw his face apart.
A sting burned the side of her neck—the needle piercing her skin.
“It’s all right, sweet cheeks. We got time.” The pressure of his knee against her spine eased as her world spiraled into darkness. “We got all the time in the world.”
Chapter Eleven
The heavy thud thud thud of rotors chopping the air cut through Hurricane George’s raucous assault. Zeke looked up, spotting the tiny red and green lights flashing in the darkness, marking the helicopter’s location. A searchlight swept across the heaving sea about three hundred yards away. Clinging to the chunk of yacht, he waited for the beam to land on him. His teeth clenched from the cold. Not too much longer, thank God.
Thirty minutes later, he dangled in the air, the wind ripping at his bare skin as the crew hauled him up into the helo. Once the team had Zeke on board, Kyle wrapped a blanket around him.
“What happened out there, Diz?”
He shook his head. “Bastards kidnapped Kaci.”
Bobby sat next to him. “Wait. Are you talking about Kaci as in the girl we rescued from that burning boat six months ago?”
He nodded and tugged the blanket tighter around his shoulders. Damn, he couldn’t seem to get warm.
“The girl on the boat with the bomb?” Shock filled Kyle’s face. “Madame Eve set you up with that girl?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “It’s the same girl.”
Bobby whistled. “How the hell did you manage to get a one-night stand with her?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with it.” His molars clacked, another core-deep shiver enveloping him, and his lids drifted closed. Paddling around in the ocean had worn his ass flat out. “A-all M-madame Eve.”
“Whoa, there!” Kyle caught him before he hit the floor. “Let’s lay you down. Get some fluids in you.”
“Sure.” He needed a quick nap. The team could handle things till they reached land. He trusted them with his life. And they’d be all-in with rescuing Kaci. What an amazing woman, his green-eyed love.
A sharp prick bit his arm. Yeah, Kyle had mentioned something about fluids. Two parts champagne, a whole fucking ocean. Shaken not stirred. He laughed.
“What’d you give him?” Bobby demanded.
“Just saline.” Kyle lightly slapped Zeke’s cheek. “Hey, Diz. You with us?”
“Gotta save Kaci,” he mumbled. “How?”
“Take it easy, buddy,” Bobby told him. “We’ll figure this out once we land in about…fifteen.”
***
“Come on, guys. There has to be some way to figure this out. Help me here.” The walls were closing in on Zeke. The whole team had gathered in Colin’s office on base for the last hour, but they hadn’t made any progress in locating Kaci.
“We found the speedboat you described abandoned in a weedy marsh along Highway 98. Surveillance cameras from the convenience store across the street showed two men in wet suits. One carrying a woman, exiting the boat, loading her in a light blue van and heading west on 98. The cops have a BOLO out,” Kyle reminded him.
“Yeah, but the ‘Be on the Lookout’ was enforced eight hours ago. No one has seen a trace of that van since. Those bastards killed her f
amily. God only knows what they must be doing to her.” Zeke ran a hand through his hair. If one of those assholes lays a finger on her— He shoved the thought from his mind. Thinking like that wouldn’t find Kaci. “We have to locate that cabin. I know that’s where they took her.”
“She didn’t give you any clue where it might be?” Colin asked.
“Damn it, Ghost,” he growled. “If she had, don’t you think I’d be there by now?”
The captain lifted his hand. “Okay, let’s all slow down a bit. Do you know anything about her family, anything at all?”
“Only what we’ve dug up online. Mother journalist, father corporate lawyer. We’ve searched land records in both their names in every state within a five hundred mile radius. No cabin.” Damn, he wanted to get to her.
Bobby snapped his fingers and pointed at Zeke. “Wait, wasn’t there a brother on that boat when we rescued her?”
Shit! Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Yes.” He riffled through the file they had of the rescue, his fingers flying through the pages. “Danny. Danny Phillips.”
The sound of rapid typing from Jason’s laptop filled the room. “I’m searching land records now.”
Zeke’s heart rate increased. This had to be the break they were looking for. There were no acceptable options left, and losing her again after he’d just found her certainly wasn’t acceptable. Damn, his chest ached.
“Bingo! Twelve-acre land lot on Lake Allatoona, a few miles north of Marietta, Georgia. Includes a four-bedroom cabin. Deeded to Daniel by a George Phillips three years ago.”
Zeke jumped up, his chair tumbling over backward and crashing to the floor. Grabbing his camouflage BDU jacket, he yanked the office door open.
“Not so fast, Diz,” Colin commanded. “We need a plan, and we need backup. We can’t go in unprepared. That’ll only get your girl and us killed. So, take a seat, and we’ll work this all out.”
Squeezing the knob in a death grip, he bowed his head and blew out a breath. Tamping down the adrenaline rush coursing through his body took every ounce of training he’d taken over the years. But Colin was right. Bad as he wanted to scoop Kaci into his arms this very second, it would be stupid to run off half-cocked. Turning, he picked up his chair and sat.
“So, we’ll need a helo, tactical equipment, and assault rifles.” He nudged the computer whiz kid. “Moore, find us a drop point where those bastards won’t hear us coming.”
Chapter Twelve
Red-hot blood raced through Zeke’s veins. He couldn’t breath, couldn’t get enough air to flow in and out of his lungs. Never, in all his years of training and actual combat, had he experienced the overwhelming compulsion for action. I need to get in the fucking cabin and get Kaci out. Now! Struggling against the fight reaction his nervous system demanded was damn near impossible.
“With all due respect, Lieutenant Tanner—” Not that he felt any respect for the Cherokee County SWAT commander at the moment. “—your bomb squad is two hours out.” Which was plain old incompetence in his book. “I’m here. Let me and my team participate in this. It’s not our first go-round with explosives. It’s my specialty for chrissakes.”
Zeke and the gang had arrived on scene forty minutes ago and had spent the entire time in a verbal tug of war with the locals. Why they’d even been required to get anyone else involved was bullshit. He didn’t give two shits about jurisdiction, laws, or any of that crap. He and the guys could get the job done. That was all that mattered.
But no, Ghost had felt the need to go all “protocol” on him. The only good thing to happen so far was the eyes and ears SWAT had managed to get inside the cabin. So, here they stood, half a mile from the two assholes who’d kidnapped the woman he loved, watching the feed on a small TV screen set up inside a black van while they had a pissing match to decide what happened next.
The camera panned.
Holy shit. Kaci wore nothing but the tiny green bikini from the ship, her face…a black and blue bloody mess. He clenched his fists. I’ll kill them.
Next to him, Bobby grabbed the camera operator’s shoulder. “Wait. Angle that lower.” The focus shifted, and Bobcat sucked in a breath. “Fuck me. Is that…?”
Zeke’s heart stuttered. He leaned closer—not that he needed to. The distinctive shape of the gray brick, the wires. He gritted his teeth. “Shit yeah.” Swallowing, he forced himself to focus on what needed to be done. “She’s sitting on a bomb.”
Not only had the bastards beaten her, but from what he could see from the video feed, they’d also rigged a bomb to trip if she came out of the chair for any reason. But she was alive and conscious. He needed to block out the sight of her bruised body and concentrate on that bomb.
He spun around to face Colin. “Captain, come on, isn’t there someone you can call? Look at her! We need to get in there.”
“Already done. We should be getting the go ahead any second.”
Sure enough, Tanner’s cell phone was at his ear, his brows dipped down in a scowl, the deep frown lines in his forehead darkening even further. “Yes, sir.” He jabbed his phone’s screen and centered his gaze on Zeke. “Seems you get your way. Your team is point. We’ll back you up.” He leaned over the map of the cabin and surrounding grounds. “How do you want to work this?”
***
Anger and fear roiled in Kaci’s gut. How am I going to get out of this? Pretending to have passed out, she sat with her chin to her chest, trying to come up with a solution while the bastards who’d beaten her searched her parents’ cabin. They’d strapped her to one of the dining room chairs with duct tape, and she wiggled her fingers, encouraging blood flow to her numb hands. Her ankles had been secured to the wooden legs, too. So, no chance to kick them in the balls if they ever got close enough.
She squeezed her eyelids tight, forcing away tears of frustration. The summers she and her family spent on Allatoona Lake had been some of the happiest. Lots of fishing, swimming, laughing. It pissed her off these assholes were tarnishing those memories. They’ve turned the place upside-down searching for Mom’s flash drive, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to tell them where it is. Well, if I knew where she hid it, I wouldn’t tell them.
Someone grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. She yelped at the unexpected attack.
“Where is it, sweet cheeks?” the guy rasped in her ear.
“I d-don’t know.” The words came out slurred through her swollen lips.
With a snort, he shoved her head forward and strode to his partner. “Man, we’ve spent hours digging through this place. It ain’t here.”
The scary guy pulled books from the shelves, rifling through the pages then tossing them aside. “What are you suggesting?”
“I say we leave her here. Eventually, she’ll move and blow herself up…and the evidence right along with her.”
The guy laughed and chunked a family album, pictures scattering across the hardwood floor. “That’d be one way. Much as I like it, we wouldn’t know for sure the drive was destroyed. But then, with her family and boyfriend dead, no one else would know to look for the drive.”
“You hear that, girly?” He yanked her head again, his slimy tongue licking her ear. “Either you tell us where your ma stashed the drive, or we let you blow yourself to bits.”
She frowned. “Like you’ll let me live.”
“Never know.” He leaned over, his hands heavy on her bare shoulders. “I might get to keep you,” he whispered.
His fetid breath accosted her senses, and acid pushed up her throat. “Screw you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, now we’re talkin’.” His meaty fingers slid beneath her bikini top, the calloused pads scratching her skin.
An icy shiver shot through her body. No, no, no, no….
“Come on, sugar. You know you want some.” He pressed his wet lips to her neck, and she gagged.
Jerking from him, she turned and slammed her forehead into the side of his head.
“Fuck!” He staggered away, his
nasty touch going with him.
Stars exploded in her head, but she didn’t give a crap. She might be tied to a chair, but she sure as shit wouldn’t make it easy for him.
Hands came around her neck, fingers digging into her skin, pressing against her windpipe. Panic tore through her, and she twisted, trying to break free. But the kidnapper held tight.
“Fuck with me, bitch?”
Darkness tinged the edges of her vision. I’m sorry, Mom.
The front door slammed open, and seemingly from nowhere, men carrying assault rifles rushed into the room. Glass shattered behind her. Voices yelled, “Get down!”
The guy holding her by the throat jolted and yanked away, his momentum pulling her with him. Her feet left the floor, her chair rocking backward. Gunfire erupted. More glass breaking. The bomb! If I go over—
Kaci sucked in a breath, tilted farther….
She stopped.
Peering down between her knees, she found her savior. “Zeke.”
Lying on his back, his hand on the bottom rung, he lowered the chair gently to the floor. He gazed up at her with sharp brown eyes, a loving smile tugging the corner of his mouth. “Hey, Kaci.”
“I thought…I thought….” You were dead.
He rolled to his knees, producing a knife from his pocket. “Right here, darlin’.” Meeting her gaze, he gave her a serious look. “I’m going to cut you loose, but you can’t move. Understand?”
She nodded. “Because there’s a b-bomb under me. They t-told me.”
He slit the tape, freeing her. Bringing her hands to her lap, she rubbed her wrists.
A big man with dark brown hair approached. “We got one, Diz.” He jerked forward the kidnapper who’d tried to choke her. Blood trickled from the side of his face where she’d head-butted him.
She tensed.
Springing to his feet, Zeke set his hand on her shoulder, keeping her from bolting. “Bobcat,” he growled. “Get the fucker out of here before I kill him.”
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