by Susan Stoker
Taking a deep breath, Slade took one last look around. He wanted Dakota here. In his space. In his kitchen. In his bed. She didn’t have an apartment to go back to when the threat of Fourati was over, so he hoped he could convince her to move in with him. It was insane, their relationship was extremely new, but deep down, Slade didn’t give a fuck. He wanted her with him.
Nodding, and telling himself to stop fucking around, Slade abruptly turned and left without a backward glance. Wolf was already headed home and said he’d meet him there. He locked his door and double-timed it to his Harley. He couldn’t wait to see Dakota.
Dakota came awake slowly. She groaned and turned her head. Her eyes opened into slits and she stared groggily at the sight before her. Caroline was lying on the concrete floor beside her. She was wearing a long black robe that covered her from her neck to her toes.
Seeing her new friend wearing such an odd piece of clothing was all it took for Dakota to remember exactly what had happened. She sat up and winced. Her head felt weird, probably a residual effect of whatever had been used to knock her out.
She looked down at herself and gasped in shock. She wasn’t wearing a long black robe like Caroline; instead, she was dressed in what looked like some sort of traditional Middle Eastern dress. No, not really a dress.
She slowly stood, keeping one hand on the wall for balance, and glanced down at herself again. She was wearing a pair of beige silk baggy pants. So baggy it almost looked like she was wearing a skirt. Dakota fingered the material. It was soft and luxurious, and creepy as all get out. Covering her breasts—her naked breasts, she realized—was a bustier. It was elaborately embroidered with red and gold thread and had different kinds of gold sovereigns sewn into the pattern. A matching necklace with over a dozen of the small coins was around her neck and when she turned her head, Dakota could tell she had in a pair of earrings as well.
In addition to the necklace and earrings, each arm had at least six bracelets of varying widths and metals, and when she shifted where she stood, Dakota could feel the heavy weight of more adornments around her ankles. She was barefoot, and the concrete was cold against her toes. There was a beige bolt of silk on the floor next to where she’d been lying as well.
Dakota shivered. This could not be good.
Caroline hadn’t moved, and Dakota shuffled across the small space to her, each step making the metal on her body clink together melodically. She kneeled down next to her friend and gently shook her. Caroline didn’t respond.
Dakota looked around the room again. There was no furniture. It was simply a small room, concrete floors, and a rectangular window. The walls were white and, even as she strained to hear something, completely silent.
There was nothing to use as a weapon. Nothing that would help them escape. Nothing at all. Beginning to panic now, Dakota shook Caroline again, harder this time.
“Come on, wake up,” Dakota begged in a whisper. “I’m scared.”
As if her words were all the other woman had been waiting for, her eyes popped open as though she’d been faking sleep the entire time. Dakota could see recognition in Caroline’s eyes, and was more relieved than she could remember being in a really long time when Caroline pushed up to a sitting position, put a hand to her head as if it hurt, and asked, “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. I think someone shot Benny, then they must’ve drugged us. The guys will be looking for us, right?”
“Fuck. Benny? God, I hope he’s okay. Jessyka is gonna freak. But yes, I know the guys are looking for us,” Caroline said confidentially. “Not only that, they’ll be here sooner rather than later because…” Her voice trailed off as if she realized something vitally important.
“What? Why?”
“Where are my clothes?” Caroline asked.
“I don’t know. When I woke up, I was dressed in this,” Dakota said, gesturing to her elaborate and fancy outfit. “And you were in that robe.”
“I’m completely naked under this,” Caroline told Dakota. She fingered her earlobes. “And they took my jewelry.”
Dakota didn’t want to be a bitch, but worrying about some earrings and stuff was the least of their problems at the moment. “Me too,” she told the other woman. “I mean, I’m wearing earrings now, but not the diamond studs I had on when we were taken.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Caroline said gravely. “I had trackers on. I always wear those earrings because there are location trackers in them. In my bra, too.”
“What? Why?” Dakota asked in shock.
“Because being the wife of a Navy SEAL isn’t all fun and games. Me and my friends have had way too many close calls, and our guys had Tex make them for us. That way, if we’re ever in trouble, we can be found.”
She hadn’t really understood wanting to wear a tracker, until right this second. “So no one knows where we are. They aren’t coming.”
“They are,” Caroline countered. “But it’s going to take longer than I thought because none of our clothes or jewelry are here. If they didn’t change our clothes here, the trackers won’t help our guys find us.”
“Oh crap. Caroline, why are we dressed so differently?” Dakota asked, suddenly not liking her outfit at all.
“I don’t know, but I’m thinking it can’t be good.” Caroline said exactly what Dakota had been thinking.
“Nothing about this is good,” Dakota agreed. “What are we going to do?”
“What we aren’t going to do is sit around like helpless females,” Caroline said sternly and stood, shaking out the long black robe as she did. The garment swam on her frame. It didn’t have a hood, but no skin other than her neck, face, and hands could be seen. “Look, as shitty as it is, I’ve been in this kind of situation before.”
Dakota stared at Caroline in disbelief. “You have?”
“Yeah. And one thing I learned—okay, two things I learned are that we gotta be brave, and we have to do what we can to help ourselves.”
“But there’s nothing in this room. Nothing at all,” Dakota countered.
“I see that,” Caroline groused, wrinkling her nose as she looked around. Her eyes came back to Dakota’s. “But we’re in this room. We have to be ready for anything. I’m assuming Aziz is behind our little vacation.”
Dakota nodded. “I’m so sorry. He’s obsessed with me.” A thought occurred to her. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“He wants me to be his wife, to get me pregnant so I have a baby he can raise to be a terrorist.”
“Fuck,” Caroline whispered. “Are you wearing a wedding outfit?”
Dakota gulped and confirmed, “I think so.”
Caroline grabbed her arm and leaned in, urgency clear in her tone. “Do you know my story?”
Not understanding, Dakota merely shook her head.
“Okay, we don’t have a lot of time, but suffice it to say, I went through a lot of shit, but I got out of it, and we will both get out of this. Matthew and Slade will be coming for us. We have to hang on for them, and we have to be smart and help them find us if given the opportunity.”
“I don’t understand.”
“One thing I learned is that assholes like to taunt our men. They like to show off the fact that they got one over on the SEALs. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if Aziz dressed you up like that, he’s probably going to want to record your so-called wedding for his followers. And that means a video. And that means he’ll probably put it online so he can show you off.”
Dakota shivered. She didn’t want to be on film and she definitely didn’t want to marry Aziz. She closed her eyes in despair for a moment, then squared her shoulders. If Caroline wasn’t panicking, she wouldn’t either. “What’s the plan?”
Not knowing how long they had until someone came to get them, Caroline spoke quickly. Giving Dakota a brief history of what had happened to her and what she’d done to try to help Wolf find her. Neither of the women knew what Aziz’s plan was, but they wanted to be ready f
or anything.
By the time the door opened and two men entered, they had a plan…of sorts. They’d been able to look out the window and make some observations about where they might be. They might not have a physical weapon, but they had their brains. Neither knew what curve balls would be thrown their way, but Dakota felt better knowing she wasn’t going to simply cower in a corner and cry. She might not make it out alive, but she certainly wouldn’t go down without a fight either.
Slade pulled up to Wolf’s house, and the hair on the back of his neck immediately stood up. He whipped off his helmet and ran to the kitchen door. Wolf was in the middle of his kitchen crouched by Benny, who was lying on his back on the tan tile, unmoving.
“What the fuck?” Slade bit out, joining Wolf at his teammate’s side.
“Dart,” Wolf told him, motioning to the needle lying next to the unconscious SEAL.
Without a word, Slade stood and left the room. He searched Wolf’s house from top to bottom, calling out for both Caroline and Dakota. He had hoped the women were hiding somewhere, but by the time he got back to the kitchen, he knew his greatest fear had been realized.
“How in the fuck did this happen?” he asked, running a hand through his hair in agitation. He’d failed Dakota. He’d told her nothing would happen to her. That she’d be safe. That Fourati wouldn’t get his hands on her. And he’d been wrong on all counts.
“Window over the sink is broken. My guess is that whoever shot Benny, did so through it. His phone was lying on the table, the first three numbers of my cell punched in.”
“Why didn’t the alarm go off?” Slade asked, pissed off.
“It did,” Wolf replied in a tone that said he was barely keeping his shit together. “But my motherfucking override code was punched in. It’s why I wasn’t notified.”
“Who knows your code?”
“The team. Caroline. And you and Dakota. That’s it.”
“There has to be someone else,” Slade insisted.
“There isn’t,” Wolf told him.
“What about the neighbors?” Slade asked. “Wouldn’t they have called the cops?”
“Not necessarily. Sometimes Caroline doesn’t get to the code fast enough to shut it off. The neighbors used to call the cops when it first happened, but they’ve learned not to by now.”
“Fuck,” Slade swore.
“Whatever happened, the women were incapacitated quickly. I’ve taught Ice self-defense. She wouldn’t go quietly. She knows better. I’m calling Tex.” Wolf clicked some buttons on his cell and brought it up to his ear.
Something Slade had seen when he’d been frantically searching the house clicked in his brain, and he rushed out of the kitchen to the front hallway.
There on the floor were two piles of clothes and accessories.
He recognized the jeans and T-shirt he’d bought Dakota the day before. She’d been so pleased with his choices of clothing for her. Slade heard Wolf come up behind him and say, “God damn it. Pick up, Tex. Dammit, pick up.”
Slade looked down at the clothes the woman he loved had most likely put on that morning and felt his heart encase in ice. They’d stripped her. Taken all her clothes off and left them on the floor. They had plenty of time to do it too, especially since apparently, no one had alerted the cops. He had no idea why they’d removed her clothes. To rape her? To taunt him? Any semblance of the man he’d become after getting out of the teams, any softness he’d built up as a result of being away from the death and destruction men could do to one another, disappeared. All that was left was the highly trained killer the Navy had created.
Slade knew Dakota was probably hurt. Not only that, but Fourati had touched what was his, he knew that without a doubt. He’d been determined to kill the man before, but now the outcome of their meeting was a certainty. Fourati would fucking die. The pile of clothing before him was the catalyst.
“Tex? Wolf. Track Caroline now,” the other man ordered tersely.
Seconds passed, but they seemed like hours to both men.
Slade’s jaw ticked as he continued to stare at the piles of clothes on the floor. He tried to block out the thoughts of what Dakota was going through, but couldn’t. Slade had seen too many broken women after they’d been in the hands of terrorists. He’d see too many rape victims staring into space, shells of their former selves. The thought of his Dakota being that way was abhorrent. The hate in his soul bubbled and festered.
“She’s there in the house,” Tex said through the phone speaker.
“No, she’s not. We checked,” Wolf bit out.
“All of the trackers are showing her location right there,” Tex insisted. “What the fuck is going on?”
Without answering his friend, Wolf kneeled next to his wife’s clothing and, using only his index finger, separated each item. Shirt, pants, underwear, bra…and on the bottom were her wedding ring set, a necklace she always wore, and a pair of earrings.
“They’re here,” Wolf said, standing up but still looking down at his wife’s belongings. “All her trackers are here. How in the fuck did they know about them?” Wolf asked in an eerie tone. It was almost calm, but Slade and Tex could hear the absolute fury behind it.
Instead of answering, Tex asked Slade, “You get Dakota’s trackers yet, Cutter?”
“No. But it wouldn’t fucking matter if I did, because those fuckers took off not only every piece of clothing, but her jewelry as well. In case we’re not making this clear, they stripped our women of every fucking thing they were wearing before they left this house. You need to get on your computer, hack into every fucking satellite, computer, and phone in a sixty-mile radius and fucking find them. Now!” His voice had risen with each progressive word until he was shouting the last.
“Fuck, I need to call Lambert,” Slade added. “I know this job was supposed to be unsanctioned, but I swear to Christ if he doesn’t get the VP and president involved, he’ll be sorry.”
“I’m on this,” Tex reassured Slade. “I’ll call Lambert.”
“This isn’t your job,” Slade told his friend.
“Maybe, maybe not. But I gave your name to Lambert in the first place. I’ll call and fill him in on what’s going on and make sure you have all the assistance you need to find Caroline and Dakota.”
“Fuck,” Slade repeated, not sure he could come up with anything more coherent at the moment.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Fourati doesn’t want to kill Dakota,” Tex tried to reassure his friend.
“Yeah,” Slade said bitterly. “He only wants to rape her over and over until she’s pregnant.”
“And he might not want to hurt Dakota, but he doesn’t give a shit about Ice. Why did he take her too?” Wolf added.
Both men could hear Tex’s fingers clicking on the keys of his computer in the background. The sound was usually comforting, but at the moment it was anything but. Not when their women were in the wind.
“Call me back the second you have anything,” Wolf ordered. “I gotta check on Benny. I’ve already called for an ambulance.”
“What happened to Benny?” Tex barked. “Goddamn. What the fuck is going on?”
“That’s what we want to know,” Wolf said, then relented. “I found Benny facedown on my kitchen table, a dart in his neck.”
“I’ll be in contact,” Tex said, and ended the connection.
Wolf and Slade looked at each other for a long moment. As if they’d worked together for years, the men turned at the same time and headed back through the living room to the kitchen.
They both noticed the broken window, obviously where entry was made into the house, but ignored it; not that it mattered now. They needed to get medical help for Benny and they needed to gather the team.
Slade thought about how Lambert had said the mission was to be a solo one and frowned. He’d definitely blown that to hell and back.
Screw it. He’d already told Wolf and some of the other guys most of the story. He needed as much help as he cou
ld get right now. Besides, it wasn’t just Dakota on the line. Caroline was involved up to her neck right now too. There was no way Wolf’s men would sit back and do nothing.
Slade didn’t care if Lambert refused to pay him a dime. Nothing mattered but Dakota. He’d end the threat of Aziz Fourati to the American public, but more important, he’d end the threat to his woman.
Slade fingered the knife strapped to his waist absently as he kneeled down next to Benny. Fourati was going to get an up close and personal lesson on why Slade’s nickname was Cutter. His knife would be the last thing the man ever thought about…as it severed his carotid artery and his blood spilled on the ground.
Chapter 13
Dakota stood silent and still, eyes full of tears she refused to shed, and prayed for all she was worth.
Two men had come to collect her and Caroline, and they hadn’t been gentle about it. Both women had struggled and strained against their captors’ holds, with no luck. When Caroline had kneed one guy in the balls, her effort hampered by the voluminous folds of the robe she was wearing, he’d backhanded her so hard she’d stumbled backward and fell on her ass.
Seeing her new friend fall, Dakota lost it and fought for all she was worth, trying to gouge out the eyes of the man holding her. But he’d avoided her fingers and had turned, ramming her forehead against the nearest wall. She’d seen stars and had lost any advantage she might’ve had.
Both she and Caroline had been brought into another room, where Dakota saw Aziz for the first time since that awful day at the airport.
The man she knew as Aziz Fourati was definitely the same person the SEALs knew as Zach, she’d recognized him immediately in Benny’s pictures. She had no idea how in the world he’d gotten a job as a contractor for the Navy, or passed the background checks, but ultimately it didn’t matter. He had, and now she was back in his clutches.
Dakota shivered in fear. All of her nightmares were coming true, but she wasn’t dreaming this time. Slade wasn’t there to kiss her awake, to hold her tightly and tell her everything would be okay. Thoughts of Slade bolstered her. She remembered what Caroline had said. She had to keep it together so she could help Slade and his friends find her. That was the ultimate goal.