“You’re mine now, bitch and he’s waiting for you.”
Chapter 33
“Chayle!” Chayle was laying on the chaise lounge resting her back when she heard the scream rip along the neural pathways through her head the instant the drug hit Jollie’s bloodstream.
“Get Rafe - they’re here!” Terror, desperation, it was so horrifying Chayle felt the muscles across her huge stomach contract as Jollie’s emotions slammed into her mental barriers like they were made of tissue paper, shredding them into slivers of nothing. It sent pain through her stomach and back bending Chayle over double where she lay, making it impossible to breathe for several minutes.
“No, not yet little ones,” she whispered to her boys. “I haven’t told your father yet and he’s going to be so pissed.” She rubbed her lower stomach as the contraction eased.
Forcing herself to stand, Chayle knew something was wrong with Jollie as dark images swamped her as she tried to stand. Dizzying blackness, an awful taste in the back of her mouth, then the babes were doing an odd kind of tumble as they seemed to shimmy to the base of her stomach just over her bladder.
Another contraction hit, this one harder. It sucked the air from the room and took her to the floor of the sunroom. Her bodyguard had been standing just outside of the door but he was instantly next to her, screaming for someone to get Kayne. She felt the warm gush of water between her thighs and knew it was too late. Their boys were coming now because their aunt had been taken.
“Kayne!” Panting, crying, Chayle damned all men to hell for what was happening and why it had to happen now, when Jollie was in trouble. She fought to keep the pain at bay when she heard her mate slam into the room. She could feel his panic, taste it as easily as she could her own and it terrified her.
“What? Baby, what’s wrong?” Kayne’s frantic hands reached for her as he slid down beside her, staring down at the fluid between her legs. It coated the long maternity day dress she had put on just that morning. Nothing else felt comfortable that morning, making her feel bloated and tired. Now she was thankful she hadn’t ruined one of the other outfits. “No, it’s too soon!”
“Kayne,” she whispered, reaching for him. Chayle pulled his panicked face to her, making her mate look into her eyes. Once she got his attention, she smiled. “It’s ok.”
“What the hell do you mean, it’s ok? He’s early. It’s too early.” Still frantic, Kayne started to pick her up, but another wave of contractions struck, almost killing in their magnitude.
“Ah damn,” Chayle screamed, dragging Kayne’s hand to her stomach. Once the contraction passed, she panted and waited. Finally able to breathe again, she looked at her mate.
“Now, I need you to do something for me, mate.” Chayle could see her strong male was on the very edge of killing someone, which was never a good thing. She would let him kill someone later, but she needed him to know about Jollie.
“Are you listening to me?” she finally yelled at him, grabbing his chin.
When he only nodded, still trying to decide if he should pick Chayle up or not, she slapped his cheek gently, getting his attention once more. It took a second for him to realize his mate had actually slapped him while she was in the process of laying on the floor in labor.
“Jollie has been taken,” she whispered to him through their mate-bond. She saw the instant the knowledge struck him and how she could know it. “I don’t know how, but she reached out. Get Rafe, mate. Find your brother!”
“I won’t leave you,” Kayne growled, finally picking her up and heading to their bedroom.
She hung onto his neck, thankful for his wide chest and huge arms. Safety and comfort for her babies. Home, that’s where Kayne would always be for Chayle no matter where they found themselves and she knew it to the very fiber of her soul.
“Of course you won’t leave, moron.” Chayle groaned out loud as Kayne pulled her close to him, her back killing her. “But Rafe needs to go after them. They’ve drugged her and I don’t know if she can reach him. I think it was the only way she could get to one of us, and I know now the babies helped her reach me.” Chayle knew the exact instant her mate realized what she had just said. He stopped on the landing outside their room, staring down at her like Chayle had just lost her mind.
“What did you just say, woman?” Kayne’s beautiful cobalt blue eyes were wide and filled with wonder as he focused on his mate’s huge mound of a belly as she rubbed it. Another contraction was coming and it was going to be a humdinger, but neither of them could do more than stare at each other.
“I said, your boys helped their aunt call me. Now,” Chayle groaned as the contractions started again. “Can I have my bed? I think they want to come out to play.”
“I’m going to kill you, woman.”
“Get in line, mate of mine!” Chayle tried to grin as another contraction ripped through her stomach, tearing a scream from her before she could stop it.
“Rafe, do you have Jollie?” Kayne called to his twin as Chayle gripped his hand while they waited for one of his men to bring her doctor.
“No, why?’ The instant Kayne heard it, he knew.
“Rafe, fine Jollie. Someone took her. Chayle is in labor. The babies helped Jollie reach out to her when someone took her.”
Kayne could feel the snarl of rage that echoed through their twin-bond but the roar of it echoed through the house downstairs as everyone in the house heard a madman tear from the residence.
“He’ll find her, Chayle. Rafe will bring her back.” Kayne held onto his mate as another contraction ripped through her. They were less than two minutes apart and the damn doctor wasn’t here yet. Chayle’s grip was strong as she pulled him to her, a scream echoing throughout the mansion, Kayne’s curse close behind. He fought to stay calm but it was a losing battle as his mate fought the pain ripping through her body. Kayne was going to kill the damn doctor with his bare hands if the man didn’t get there soon.
Chapter 34
First Rafe knew from the telepathic buzz from his men that Jollie’s injured bodyguard would live and had been moved to the infirmary. The guard was still unconscious and would be lucky to live with the mount of drugs used to knock him out. Mercury was working with the medical team to ensure the guard received every possible advantage to live because Rafe needed to know who it was that took his mate. He needed answers, but Rafe barely managed to contain his rage as he realize whoever infiltrated the compound had already been inside. Rafe wanted to know who, how and when because he was going to skin whoever it was alive one inch at a time, and it would be a slow process.
Less than fifteen minutes after Chayle went into labor, Rafe was standing in Gabe’s technology nest, pacing. Every camera was checked repeatedly, every surveillance footage verified to see first, how they could infiltrate the compound and get his mate out of their home without anyone else being the wiser. Somehow, they had managed to get past every advanced surveillance device they had set up, get to Jollie, and disappear. He wanted to know who had helped them, how did they get into his home and how had they snuck his mate out without anyone seeing them.
Then, Rafe was going hunting.
He couldn’t reach her through their mate bond, which was unheard of. Rafe should be able to sense her but there was nothing but emptiness. It had been less than an hour and already darkness had fallen on his soul. Death walked next to Rafe McIntyre as he stalked the compound. No one talked to him, no one approached and no one dared touch him. Not yet.
News came that Chayle was in labor, forced by the kidnapping of Jollie when she reached out to her friend when she couldn’t reach Rafe. Somehow, whoever took her had the ability to block her telepathic abilities and that told him they were working with someone very gifted and very high up on the food chain. Not many could carry off something like this for very long. The energy it took to do so was debilitating and would kill an individual if they continued to pushed it for too long.
Those who could blank the void, create dead space we
re dubbed Nulls by the Special Ops groups working in Intelligence gathering. When questioned, Commander Derek had assured Rafe and Kayne that every identified Null had been accounted for and none were out there working for the other side. Nulls were sought after by both sides of the Intelligence community, and the fact that one or more could be working for the other side was now a very real possibility. An individual who could damper psychic abilities to the point that no one else could detect them for a defined period of time was an asset, especially in the world where Rafe now fought to hunt down his kidnapped mate. Evidently someone was out there, and they had just put a bull’s eye on their forehead by taking Jollie Sanchez from his home.
“I’ve got something,” Gabe grumbled, his fingers a blur as he maneuvered there over his keyboard. The large monitor on the wall flickered, showing a shadowy figure carrying a bundle over his shoulder running through the trees toward the end of the lake. “The time stamp on it is less than twenty minutes ago. Not sure how they managed to get past the sensor, but they did.”
“Where’s their exit?” Rafe moved to stand in front of the large monitor, his hands sweating as the figure disappeared into the trees.
“It looks like the highway at the end of the lake,” Gabe mumbled, his fingers pulling up more programs. Another monitor flickered next to the first, this one smaller and Rafe could instantly see it was a satellite image. His eyebrows rose and he twisted to look up at Rafe. “I hacked into a satellite network. They aren’t off the property yet, Rafe.”
Rafe was moving, his large body a blur as he clicked his ear-wig, mobilizing the team standing by so they could get in the air. In less than two minutes, he was outside and jumping into a stealth helicopter that shouldn’t even be legal to the private sector but thankfully Commander Derek had procured for his teams. It was in the air before Rafe fastened his seat belt. A click in his ear-wig alerted Rafe of an incoming.
“They’re moving,” Gabe directed. Coordinates came over and the pilot immediately corrected, taking the helicopter low and on a direct intercept. All Rafe could think was that they had to get to her before they left the property and masked their signature. Otherwise, the kidnappers could hide her anywhere.
“Got them, sir,” came the pilot.
“Do it.” Rafe shut down all thoughts except to apprehend and take out those who had taken his Heart - Now.
The helicopter swung wide, making sure the other smaller chopper saw them. The only plan was forcing it to the ground, they had to get them out of the air. Two people could be seen in the front seats of the chopper, one with a high powered rifle aimed at Rafe’s helicopter while movement could be seen in the back through the side panels. There was no way his team could allow them to escape. Rafe’s pilot was trained in the battlefields of the Middle East, extracting SEAL teams from some of the hottest areas in the world and he had never lost a team member during extraction. With precision that seemed choreographed rather than instantaneous the pilot brought his craft within a hair’s breath of the front window, allowing Rafe to look eye-to-eye at Jollie’s kidnappers.
“No!” A roar echoed across the airways, both neural and radio, alerting all of Rafe’s team the identity of the traitor. The radio crackled, coming alive.
“Back off, Rafe! Now or she dies!” Davy’s smooth, boyish tone came over the radio. No remorse, nothing to connect him to the brothers with whom he had fought with, almost died with remained in the voice of the young man Rafe had thought he knew. “They want her back and I have to take her. Kayne has Chayle and soon his baby. Let us go and we’ll disappear. Otherwise, she’s dead.”
The two aircraft hovered in a Mexican standoff several feet apart facing each other above the ground in a meadow just inside of the woods near the lake. The turbulence from the blades of both aircraft whipped the branches of the huge trees in all directions, kicking up debris and dirt as Rafe glared at the young man in the other craft. Every time Davy’s chopper tried to swerve around to move away, Rafe’s pilot cut him off.
“Why, Davy?” Rafe asked over the radio, his voice rough with anger and rage it was impossible to hide. Davy was the youngest of them. They had all worked hard to protect him when he came into the project, the last to enlist, the last to be tested and the last to take so much of the shit that was dished out during the experiments. He had been through so much they had worked to keep him sheltered thinking the shy yet determined young man who had made it through all of the same training they had and ended up with their group had somehow been damaged by the chemicals pumped into his body. Smaller than the rest at just barely five foot ten inches, Davy had the lean muscles of a swimmer instead of a body builder like the rest of his team and therefore all of them had treated him like a little brother. Hell, Rafe and Kayne had always kept him close.
“Because I can be more than I am with you.” The whispered answer almost broke something inside of Rafe. The only thing keeping him together was his Heart. Rafe had to get to Jollie because without her, he would be nothing.
“Rafe,” Gabe called to him, seeking out the single connection they shared rarely used except by mates or familial. “Keep him talking, distract him for just a few more minutes. If you can, get them closer to the ground.”
“What are you doing, Gabe? You can’t endanger Jollie!” Rafe growled back along the silent airways.
“Just do it, Rafe. Please,” was the only answer Gabe gave him before everything went silent. Looking over at the pilot, Rafe made a decision.
“Force them down to ground, now!”
“Yes sir!” The pilot didn’t hesitate.
The men on each side of his gun ship were already in position but Rafe unstrapped himself and moved to stand behind Merc at one of the door. The pilot gently tilted the stick of their helicopter, nudging toward the other craft as he tried pushing the skids of his craft as close to the other helicopter without interfering with its blades. It was a risky move because if the other pilot panicked he could crash both of them. Slowly and with precision, the other chopper was nudged and cornered until it was mere feet from the ground skimming the pasture grass and backing up.
Suddenly, Rafe saw the other pilot clutch his head with both hands and scream, slumping over the stick. The action forced the helicopter to a hard landing, the blades still going at full blast but the pilot out cold. Davy tried to push him off the controls but it was useless. They were on the ground and instantly surrounded before he could do anything to stop it.
Davy’s sad eyes lifted to lock with Rafe’s. In a move that both surprised and stunned every man there, Davy pulled his Glock and put it to his temple.
“Davy, no!” Rafe screamed, running toward the helicopter as fast as he could.
“I’m a dead man either way, Rafe. He’ll kill me if you don’t and I wouldn’t blame you if you did.” With a sad smile Davy pulled the trigger, sending his head back against the headrest, his hand dropping with the gun still clutched in his hand.
Rafe slammed into the side of the bird, pulling open the side door to find his Heart trussed up and sleeping on the floor mats with duct tape over her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Another man was slumped on the floor beside her, out cold. Jollie was still sedated, which was probably a blessing. He pulled her into his lap while at the same time reaching for the knife from his boot, making short work of the duct tape around her hands and feet. Gently he removed the blindfold and pulled her into his arms and against his heart as his body began to shake.
“Kayne - I have Jollie. Tell Chayle that she is safe and unharmed, brother.”
“Tell her yourself when you come say hello to your nephews, brother.”
Rafe clutched Jollie to him as he closed his eyes, breathing in her unique scent of sandalwood and smoke essence, aware that his men stood around them in battle mode waiting for orders but he could only sit rocking her at the moment. He had almost lost her. The thought was still too fresh and it was going to take a very long time before Rafe was able to let her out of his sight again. It
suddenly dawned on Rafe what his brother had said, and he started laughing.
“Did you just say nephews, as in more than one?”
“Just caught that, did you?”
Chapter 35
Jollie became aware of warm breathing close to her ear first, then strong arms holding her against a broad expanse of chest. She refused, not wanting to alert her captors that she was awake. If she could surprise them maybe it would give her just the edge she would need to get back to Rafe. The thought of Rafe hit her, and a gut-wrenching pain hit her chest as she gasped.
“Easy, my Heart. I have you!” She heard him, but when the arms tightened Jollie panicked.
“Rafe,” she screamed loud and long, kicking her legs down and back as she fought to break the tight arms around her chest.
“Enough!” Rafe’s growl was sharp and loud next to her ear, stopping Jollie’s movements in an instant. She didn’t want to hurt him, couldn’t hurt him if her life depended on it. If Rafe was holding her then Jollie would be still so they could figure out how to get away. Somehow, the kidnappers must have gotten both of them but she didn’t remember anything.
“Rafe?” she whispered, keeping her voice soft so no one could hear them. Instantly she remembered and stopped. “Babe, how did they get you?”
She tried to look back over her shoulder but Rafe simply buried his head in her neck and took a deep breath. Jollie could feel him shaking behind her, feel his huge muscles trembling as he held her tightly against his massive chest and it scared the hell out of her because Rafe McIntyre never let anything get to him. Something was wrong, seriously wrong and Jollie now felt it along their mate-bond. Whatever it was, it was bad and it was tearing her man apart. They had to get away from here so she could help him. Jollie opened her mind completely to her lover for the first time since realizing this man was everything to her - her heart, her soul. She sent feeling she could manifest into their link and shoved it down to him so he would know just how much he meant to her.
Promises (Blood Brothers #1) Page 19