We creep to the door with the light on and I slowly turn the handle. Opening the door, I see Trevor poised over Shayla. She is fighting him and screaming no; it’s all the confirmation I need. I pull the trigger and watch him go down. I hurry to her and shove him off. She’s hysterical. I call her name over and over, but she doesn’t respond. She keeps screaming. I don’t want to slap her out of it, but I may have to. I try touching her shoulder.
“Shayla.”
She jerks violently away from me as she mutters that she doesn’t want this and wants to go home. She mutters my name several times and I do the only thing I can. I wrap her squirming body in my arms and promise her that she’s okay. She’s finally safe. Shayla seems to be in a daze, but she stops fighting against me. Nothing she says makes any sense. I think she’s in shock. The only word I can understand is the word safe.
“Yeah, baby. You’re safe. I’ve got you now.” I squeeze her tightly to me.
Paul comes in the door. “The house is secured, but the others may need some help outside.” I nod in understanding, but that’s not my first priority right now.
“We need to do something with him,” I point to Trevor. I think he’s still alive, but barely. “And find her some clothes.” Shayla clutches me tightly. “It’s okay, Shay. I want to get you something to wear.” I look back to Paul. “Look in that closet for something.”
“No, please. I don’t want his clothes.” She looks up at me with such panic in her eyes, I can’t deny her anything.
“What about my shirt?” She nods. “Okay, you’ll have to let go for just a second. She loosens her grip and I take off my gun holster so I can pull off my long-sleeved t-shirt. It’s a good thing I layered up for this mission. I help her get it on and then I get myself back together.
“She needs something on her legs, it’s too cold outside to just have my shirt on. Let’s go look in a different room.”
I stand with her in my arms with the blanket still wrapped around her lower half. It’s a little awkward navigating, but we make it to the room across from the one I found her in. I try to sit her down on the bed, but she grips me tightly.
“I’m not leaving you, but we need to get you dressed in more appropriate clothes. It’s really cold outside. Can you sit here while I look?”
“I can find something. You won’t leave?” She looks so lost.
“No, baby, I won’t leave you. Never again.” She smiles. She stands up and is a bit wobbly, but I help her steady herself. I fight the anger rising inside me at the sight of her. She’s obviously hurt, that much is clear. She’s bruised and too thin. She’s suffered more than I wanted to believe. I honestly thought, hoped, that Trevor would at least care for her basic needs, given that he wanted her as his. I’ve been a fool. My attention returns to the room as Shayla speaks.
“This is the room he made for me. There are lots of clothes.” She kneels down in front of a dresser and opens the bottom drawer. She pulls out a piece of black material. “There are no real pants or casual clothes here. But I found these leggings the other day. They’ll be okay for now.”
She sits there holding them for a long moment. I stand to go to her, but Paul interrupts. Shayla jumps, but settles quickly. I glare at him.
He looks apologetically. “I found these tennis shoes in the closet.” He hands me a pair of white Keds and then leaves the room.
“Is he dead?” She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.
“I’m not sure. It wasn’t a kill shot. It should’ve been though, I’m sorry I didn’t get to you in time.” I kneel down in front of her as she cups my face.
“You did. You got there just in time.”
Relief floods me. “Yeah? He didn’t …”
“No, he was about to, but then … you shot him.” She touches her face. “I have his blood on me. That’s what that was?”
I wipe at her cheek, there’s really not much on her. “Yeah, let’s get you cleaned up and we’ll get out of here.”
“Where’s Dylan?”
“I’m sure someone found him.”
I don’t want to worry her, but so far there’s been no sign of him. I heard Paul call in Shayla’s rescue over the com, but no one has mentioned any sign of Dylan. I’m afraid Mathis may have run with him, but right now, I need to get Shayla out of here. After she has her clothes, socks, and shoes on, we head through the house. There’s still gunfire sounding outside. Shayla clings to me.
I freeze, listening to the commotion sounding in my com; I hear my team cursing and then a voice, I’m not sure whose, say, “They’re coming out of the bunkers. There must be a least twenty!” Moments later, I hear Marsh telling our guys to go after the newcomers.
“Are you okay?” Shayla asks me. I look down and smile.
“No problem. There are just a few more men here than we anticipated, but everything is okay. We need to get you out of here.”
“We need to find Dylan.”
I turn her towards me so she can understand. “Shayla, I know this is hard, but right now we need to get you to safety. Once I do that, I can look for him, but I can’t risk losing you both. I need to get you to the base.”
“No, I need to find my son.” She tries to pull away from me, but my grip is too tight. She starts to breathe heavy.
“Shay, calm down, baby. We will find him, but you have to get to safety so we can.”
“Listen to him, baby girl.” Her head jerks towards the door and I let go so she can run into the arms of her father. I know he won’t let her get out the door.
“Daddy!” He hugs her tightly.
“Let’s get you to safety, honey. Let Ryan find Dylan.” She nods. “I got her, you go on. We’ll just stay put here until you get back.”
“You said you wouldn’t leave me.” Shayla releases her father and comes back to me.
I cup her face in my hands. “I can’t do both. I can’t stay with you and find Dylan.”
She nods. I think she’s in some sort of shock or is, at the very least, confused. It’s understandable though. “Right. Right, go find our baby.”
“I’ll find him.” I press a kiss to her forehead and my stomach drops as I feel her flinch from me. Oh, my poor Shayla.
“What’s going on out there?” I ask Tom, who’d been outside most of the time we’d been in the house. I don’t release Shayla just yet. She’s settled against me, clinging to me.
“They had some men hiding in the bunker, but they’ve about got them cleared out. Maybe about twelve or so left. No sign of Dylan or Mathis from what I could gather on the com, but some of the coms have gone down according to Riley.”
“Right, I heard that part. Shay, I’m going to go get our boy. You stay here. Please, stay here.”
She nods, but says nothing as I head outside. Paul and I creep around the house and head towards the outbuilding. I can see Marsh and a few others fighting in the field about midway between the house and a gazebo looking structure. It looks like they have it under control.
Paul and I are almost to the outbuilding when two shots are fired. I’m hit in the abdomen, knocking me on my back and Paul is hit in the arm. Luckily, I just get the wind knocked out of me because I’m wearing a bullet proof vest. It’ll bruise, but I’ll be fine. I manage to sit up, just in time to see the guy raising his gun again. I shoot him and a man behind him.
“You okay?”
Paul grumbles under his breath as he rips off part of his shirt, trying to make a tourniquet. I grab it and quickly tie it around his arm. “It’s just a graze. I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
I help him up and we’re off again. Unfortunately, the outbuilding is empty. It looks like any other storage shed with gardening tools and a lawnmower, but there is also a chair with a rope loosely draped around it. They must have tied Dylan there.
“Let’s look for a door to the bunker. The entrance could be in the floor,” I say, as I start to move things out of the way.
“Here!” Paul calls. He’s in the back corner of th
e building and there’s a trap door under a shelf. We move it out of the way easy enough, but there’s a pad lock. “There might be a key or something we can use to cut through it.” He starts to look around and I do the same.
“Got it,” I tell him. I hold up a pair of wire cutters and snip right through the lock easily. Paul stands with his gun raised and ready as I open the hatch.
“Clear.” We shine our lights down into the hole. There’s a ladder, but its pitch black down there. “We going in?”
“Yeah, let’s just see what’s down there.” He nods and slowly descends the ladder. It’s nothing but a root cellar. “Well, that was anticlimactic. It doesn’t look like there’s another way out of here either.
“It’s empty?” I ask.
“Not exactly. There are shelves lining all the walls. It’s dirt except for the floor and part of one wall. There are old jars of food and some empty wooden boxes, but other than that, I don’t see anything. There’s nothing that would lead to a door or path to the bunker.”
“All right. Let’s get out of here.”
A shout calls my attention outside. I see Paul clear the door and hurry out of the building to see what’s happening. Shayla is running to the opposite side of the house near the garage and Tom is chasing after her. I follow.
“Shayla!” Tom shouts.
She stops almost to the edge of the garage. “I have to find him.”
“Shay, baby. We’ll find him.” I’ve made it past Tom and I’m almost to her, when hands reach out and grab her. “Shayla!” I run after her. I skid to a stop as I round the corner. Mathis has her pressed to him with a gun to her head.
He smiles at me. “Perfect timing, Ryan.”
“You promised not to hurt me. I’m family,” Shayla tells him. I’m surprised by her bravado.
He laughs. “Well, your husband is delusional. Besides, the marriage license won’t be filed until morning. And I do believe that Ryan foiled my cousin’s plan to consummate, so you’re not family yet.”
“You know Trevor won’t see it that way,” she tells him.
He squeezes her tighter, making her squeak in pain. Tom, Paul, and I have our guns trained on him. One wrong move and he’s dead. He’d be dead if Shayla wasn’t in his arms right now.
“Let her go, Mathis. It’s me you want.” I’m hoping I can buy some time, or he will move just a few centimeters so I can have a clear shot and end this.
“No, it’s her I want. I want her to pay for everything you’ve done to me. You’ve ruined my life, Ryan.”
“You did that yourself.”
He laughs. “No, you’re the one who slept with my wife and wormed your way into my circle of trust. You’re the one who took down my organization. But you know what? You didn’t stop us. We still have plenty of people who are loyal. So loyal that they’ll do anything I ask, no matter what the consequences are.”
“Mom!”
The sound of my son’s distraught voice makes me automatically turn my head. Dylan is being dragged away by four huge men. Where are my people?
“Dad!” I start to move to him, but I need to get Shayla.
By the time I look back to Mathis, he is dragging Shayla away. I aim and fire. It hits him in the thigh. I pray to God that he bleeds out. He falls, taking her down with him, but before I can reach them, he’s up and firing at me. I duck behind a tree as a bullet whizzes by. I hesitate on firing back, afraid I’ll hit Shayla. When I look again, he’s gone. I call over my com, not worrying about procedure.
“Mathis has Shayla. I repeat, Mathis has Shayla. I’m going after them.”
Marsh comes back. “They got away with Dylan. We couldn’t get a clear shot without injuring him.”
I curse and kick several trash cans over. I don’t know what to do; go after my son or my girlfriend. Each would want me to get the other first, but I know Shayla would kill me if anything happened to Dylan because I was saving her. Growling, I take off running toward where my son was last seen.
“What happened?” I ask Marsh.
“We were able to subdue all targets except for the four who had Dylan. They made it around the outbuilding and disappeared. I’ve confirmed with Riley that no vehicles have left the property.”
“So they went into the bunker. Paul and I searched all over and couldn’t find a door.”
Marsh claps a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll find him. Let’s go talk to Daniels and see if we can get answers.”
Talking to that man is the last thing on earth I want to do, but to find my son, I’ll do anything. Trevor is sitting in one of the chairs on the porch. It looks like they gave him pants and shoes, but he’s shirtless and shivering. Good. Freeze, psycho.
“Where’s the bunker entrance, Trevor?” I demand, punching him in the face. Marsh grabs my arm before I can land the second blow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Trevor’s head rolls around lazily. He looks close to death, but he’s been patched up by the medic so it’s most likely drugs.
“Yes, you do. You built this place. There’s no way you wouldn’t know there’s a huge bunker under the ground.” I try to punch him again, but Marsh and Linc restrain me.
“Oh, that. It’s not a bunker. It’s just the old foundation of the house that was here before. It was a basement.” Trevor yawns and blinks his eyes widely, trying to stay alert.
“I don’t care what you call it. How do you get to it?”
“You can’t. It’s sealed off.” His head falls forward. He’s passed out. I growl and punch him before anyone can stop me.
“He’s lying. There has to be a way in. They didn’t just disappear.”
Tom and Paul come around the side of the house, panting. Tom is holding his arm as blood seeps out between his fingers. I run over to meet them.
“What happened?”
“Mathis shot me. I’ll be fine, but I need to see the medic.”
Paul and I help Tom over to the medic and once I make sure he’s really okay, I turn to Paul
“Where’s Shayla?”
“They went behind the garage, but disappeared. There has to be an entrance to the bunker somewhere close. People just don’t disappear. “
“No, they don’t. We have to find them soon.”
I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose Shayla and Dylan. Especially, after having Shayla in my arms. I will find out where my family is and I will bring them home safely if it’s the last thing I do.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Shayla
After Ryan leaves to find Dylan, I slump down into the kitchen chair. I’m so tired. I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours, which isn’t an unusual thing for a doctor, but with all the trauma I’ve recently suffered, it has left me almost useless.
Tom pushes my hair back on my forehead gently. “Nasty bump you have there. Do you need me to find a medic?” He asks as he sits in the chair next to me.
“No, I’m pretty sure I have a concussion, but it’s not that severe. I’m alert. I’ll get checked out after this is all over. Right now, I just want to know Dylan is safe.”
“I’m sure Ryan will find him, sweetheart.”
He squeezes my hand; making the ring Trevor gave me dig slightly into my middle finger. I jerk my hand away and pull the offending piece of jewelry off, laying it on the table.
“He really forced you to marry him?”
My father’s face is so sad. He’s seen me go through so much. I wish I could tell him that I wasn’t hurt and that everything was all right, but he’d obviously never believe it considering my current state.
“Yeah,” I finally say sadly. “It was awful, Daddy. He beat Dylan so that I’d cooperate. He used the fear of him hurting Dylan so I’d do what he wanted. I know it’s probably bad for me to say this, but I really hope he’s dead.” Anger flares in me. I’d love nothing more than to shoot him myself.
“I’m sorry you both went through this. Looks like I’ve failed to protect you once again.”
“Oh, no.” I grab his hand. “This isn’t your fault. You’ve always done everything you could for us. Please don’t feel like you’ve failed.”
“I’m glad you’re safe now. Your mother and I have worried non-stop. I was so limited in what I could do. I’ve been out of the game too long, everyone I know is dead or moved on to other things.”
I smile. Ryan really is so much like my father. “Looks like you’re back in now. I think Ryan will flip when he knows you are retired CIA.” I giggle. It feels so good to laugh.
Tom smiles. “Yeah, I’ve dropped a few hints to him. He looked pretty desperate to ask me about it, but we had to go.”
“You’re so mean to him.”
“I’ve gotta be. I didn’t do a good enough job with Todd, so I’m putting up extra effort with Ryan.”
“Dad,” I admonish with an eye roll.
He laughs. “He’s a good kid, sweetheart. I would have helped you both back then, if you’d told us.”
I regret how I handled things, but back then I thought I was protecting our little family. I couldn’t see a future where Ryan wasn’t going to get carted away and thrown in jail for us loving each other.
“I wish I could go back and do things differently. We probably wouldn’t be here right now if I had made choices other than the ones I did, but Ryan has done so many great things with his life and career, which might not have happened if I’d told him about Dylan when we were younger.”
“Well, none of that matters now. Let’s just focus on your future. I expect more grandbabies to spoil.” He winks.
I can’t even think about that right now. I know what Trevor has done will cause me to need therapy. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares and who knows if I’ll even be able to let Ryan kiss me, much less work on grandbabies. He must sense the change in my mood and touches me on my shoulder.
“Sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to upset you. You take your time and get better.”
“I know. I just don’t know how all this is going to affect my relationship with Ryan. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it if we can’t work it out.”
Vengeance (Oak Grove Suspense Book 1) Page 29