by Susan Stoker
“Abe, Cutter and I will go around the left. Dude and Cookie, take the right,” Wolf ordered, taking command of the small group. “Take out any tangos you run into…silently. We don’t want to give Zach any head’s up we’re here.”
They’d been calling Fourati “Zach” since they’d found out who he was. The fact that the man had duped not only the Navy, but all of them, had pissed them off to no end. Besides, Aziz Fourati was simply a name he’d been using, it wasn’t who he was. No matter how much he might want to be an international terrorist, he wasn’t.
Zach was a spoiled rich kid who, for whatever reason, had decided to become a terrorist. Slade didn’t give a shit how and why the man had became what he did. He was sure the man’s entire history would come out after the women were rescued, but ultimately it didn’t matter. He was a dead man for touching Dakota.
The door to the room opened with a crash and both Dakota and Caroline jumped in surprise. They’d become more and more wary and stressed as the time had gone by and neither Aziz, nor any of his followers, had returned.
The men moved fast once they burst into the room. Two men in black robes grabbed Caroline and another two yanked Dakota to her feet before they could do more than weakly protest.
Dakota struggled in the grip of the two men who’d restrained her earlier. Her knee throbbed and was excruciating to stand on, but she refused to go down without a fight.
“Looks like they still have some spunk in them, Aziz,” one of the men drawled, clearly amused by their struggles.
Dakota glanced at Caroline and saw her doing her best to slip out of the grip of the men holding her, too.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Anoushka,” Aziz murmured as he came up to stand in front of her, now dressed in a black robe like the other men around them. “I was so hoping you would’ve spent your time waiting for me more constructively.” He leaned in and took her chin in his hand in a brutal grip. “I like it when my woman fights me,” he said with a gleam in his eye. “It turns me on.”
“Fuck you,” Dakota bit out, wrenching her head out of his grip.
Aziz motioned with his head to another man standing in the doorway. “It appears if I want to beat any sense into you, I need to do so before you’re pregnant. I don’t give a shit about you, but I wouldn’t want to hurt the future leader.”
The man Aziz had signaled moved toward Dakota and, without a word, drew back his fist and hit her in the face.
The men holding her let go, and she fell like a stone to the concrete floor. Her hand went to her face and she tried to hold back the moans of pain that were in her throat.
Before she recovered from the strike, the man’s boot hit her stomach. Dakota curled into a ball, trying to protect herself. He simply moved, kicking whatever he could reach as she tried to get away from him.
“Dakota!” Caroline cried. “Oh my God. Stop it, you’re going to kill her!”
“Ah, maybe you think I should pay attention to you, huh?” Aziz asked as if he didn’t have a care in the world. And with a tilt of Aziz’s head, the man who’d been kicking Dakota turned to Caroline.
As if in a daze, Dakota watched as he reached for her friend. Then her vision was blocked by Aziz. He’d kneeled down in front of her and was speaking softly.
“You will learn that defiance earns you nothing but pain. I might like a little fight in my woman, but I do have limits. Don’t worry, you’ll learn how far you can push me, Anoushka. You’ll submit to me sooner or later. But for now, I think you might need a little help relaxing, hmmmm?”
Not knowing what he was talking about, Dakota did her best to keep her eyes open. It hurt to breathe and her knee was screaming in pain, but she still managed to glare at the man in front of her. “I will…” She took a deep breath, and even though it hurt, it felt good to be defying Aziz. Her eyes narrowed as she finished her thought. “Never submit. You’ll never be able to turn your back on me. You’ll never be able to leave me alone. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing whatever I can to escape.”
Aziz grinned then. A nasty, evil grin that Dakota knew she’d see in her nightmares for years to come. “Oh, you’ll submit to me, beautiful Anoushka. You’re my wife. It’s my right to discipline you as I see fit. It says so right in the Quran. But for now, I’m going to take the edge off of that passion and fight. We have to travel, and I’d rather not worry about you drawing unwanted attention to us. As a bonus, some men like their women to be completely unconscious when they take them, but me? I want you to know it’s me, your husband, taking you. I want you to remember how you could do nothing but take whatever it was I give you. I will fill you with my seed until it overflows from your nether lips. Then I’ll do it again, and again. I’ll fuck you whenever I feel like it. You’ll be pregnant before the month is out, even if I have to keep you drugged the entire time. Oh yes, Anoushka, you are mine. Forever…or until I tire of you. But…” He ran his knuckles down her bruised cheek, smearing the blood from her nose and bleeding lip as he went. “Mark my words, my bride. You will never escape me. Ever.”
Dakota tried to push herself away from Aziz, but the men who’d held her earlier were there to hold her still. She struggled weakly as another man came toward her with a syringe. She shrieked in pain as her arm was roughly stretched out and held down on the floor. The man injected her with whatever drug was in the needle.
She glanced over at Caroline and saw another man inserting a needle into her arm as well. Dakota panted in pain and terror as she felt an unnatural lassitude take over her body. She sagged on the floor, almost boneless.
“There. That’s much better,” Aziz said with a smirk. “You are conscious. You know what I’m saying and what’s happening, but you’re too out of it to fight back. Exactly how I like my women.” He turned to the others. “It’s time to go. There are some Ansar al-Shari’a supporters waiting for us just over the border. We’ll use the boats. Go get them ready.”
Without a word, most of the men left the room to do Aziz’s bidding, now that she and Caroline weren’t a threat. Dakota felt as if she were floating. The good thing about whatever Aziz had injected her with was that she didn’t hurt anymore. The pain in her knee was now a dull throb and she couldn’t even really feel the injuries on her face and torso from the beating she’d been given.
Aziz was busy talking to a man over by the door, probably planning how they were going to leave undetected. Earlier, when she’d looked out the window, Caroline had said she could see the ocean and a beach, and that it seemed to her as if they were in a residential house.
Dakota rolled her head to the side and saw Caroline lying on the floor near her. Her robe was open and her body was on display, but she made no move to cover herself. Their eyes met and both women blinked. Caroline rolled her head away and stared straight up at the ceiling. Then she brought her hands up to her chest and made the sign for run. Then she patted her chest twice.
Dakota got it. The other woman was telling her that she was still going to make a run for it. She wanted to believe her. Wanted to believe that Caroline would be able to make a break for freedom when they were brought out to the boats, but she wasn’t sure she could. Even though it should be dark outside by now, she didn’t know if Caroline could do it. With the way she felt, Dakota wasn’t convinced Caroline would be able to move any better than she could, much less break free from whoever would certainly be holding her and run away.
Feeling as if she were looking down at herself from high above the room, Dakota closed her eyes and let the feeling from the drug take over her body. At the moment, she didn’t care what happened to her; as long as she didn’t have to go back to the pain she’d been feeling five minutes ago, she was good. Everything was just super.
The SEALs moved silently as they parted and surrounded the large, beautiful house. Wolf paused near a window and held up his hand for Slade to stop moving. As they were waiting and listening, a commotion caught their attention.
Both men watched in disbelief as a group of me
n in oversized black robes exited through a door almost hidden under a large wooden deck at the back of the house. They began to walk in a huddle toward the beach. Slade didn’t know where they were going, but was pleased they’d have fewer men to worry about when they entered the house to find Caroline and Dakota.
Just then, shouts went up and a figure dressed in a long black robe broke free from the group and began to stumble down the beach into the dark night.
A feminine voice Slade would recognize anywhere yelled, “Go, go go!”
He looked at Wolf, and without hesitation, all five SEALs shifted to Plan B and took off running toward the group at the same time.
Spotting the SEALs running pell-mell toward them, one of the men yelled, “Leave her! Get in the boats!” As a unit, the group of men began to sprint toward the beach, where Slade could now see four rubber boats waiting.
“Fuck, we have to stop them!” Slade bit out, and pushed himself to run faster.
The figure who’d broken away from the group fell onto her hands and knees, but immediately got up and began to make her way down the beach once more. But this time Slade could see that whoever it was—most likely Caroline, if Dakota yelling “go” was any indication—was weaving and moving as if drunk. She looked back toward the group who’d left the house, and what she was wearing clicked in his brain for the first time.
It was definitely a woman. And definitely Caroline. She was nearly naked, the robe she was wearing huge and flapping around her body as she ran. It was open down the middle, and her pale body was easy to see in the moonlight as she tried to flee.
“Fuck, Wolf,” Slade exclaimed.
“I see her! It’s Ice,” the other SEAL returned.
“Go.” Slade needed the man’s help, but if it had been Dakota running away, half naked, panicked and in obvious distress, nothing would’ve kept him from going after her.
Without a word, Wolf turned left and sprinted toward his wife.
Slade turned his eyes back to the group of men and cursed. They weren’t going to make it to them before they cast off from the beach. They were entering the four boats now and pushing them away from the beach at the same time. His eyes roved over each one, trying to see which held Zach.
In one of the middle boats, Slade saw the man’s blond hair, easily recognizable amongst his dark-haired friends and followers.
Dude and Cookie reached the edge of the ocean at the same time Slade and Abe did.
“They’ve got one of the women,” Cookie said, not even breathing hard.
“You sure?” Slade asked.
“Yeah, I saw one of them toss her over his shoulder and throw her into a boat.”
“Where are they going?” Slade asked, not taking his eyes off the boats, which were quickly putting distance between the beach and themselves.
“Mexico?” Abe guessed. “Where else would they go?”
“We need to stop them,” Slade bit out in frustration.
Cookie had his phone to his ear and said, “Rocco and his team are two minutes away. Two boats will come and pick us up and two others will make chase and give us coordinates.”
Slade nodded and paced impatiently along the sandy shoreline.
“Where’s Wolf?” Dude asked.
“Caroline’s the one who got away and took off. He’s on her,” Slade told the other SEAL succinctly.
“Thank fuck,” Cookie breathed.
“Yeah,” Slade said between clenched teeth.
“I didn’t mean—”
Slade held up his hand, stopping his friend’s words. He knew Cookie didn’t mean anything by being happy Caroline was free from the terrorists. But his woman was not.
Within a minute and a half, the four men saw two boats coming at them at a high speed. Slowing only enough not to ram the boat halfway up the beach, the SEALs driving the high-speed vessels were backing out even as Abe, Cookie, Dude, and Slade were jumping inside.
As if they’d worked together on missions like this for their entire career, the men from three different SEAL teams moved in a kind of deadly harmony. Their focus was on catching up to and eliminating the threats from the other boats.
Dakota lie on the bottom of the boat she’d been tossed into and tried to understand what was happening. She’d seen Caroline break away from the group. She had no idea where she’d found the strength, but was impressed. No one had been paying much attention to her because they assumed she was too far out of it to be able to defy them. But instead of running after her, the men had bolted toward the boats they’d obviously gotten ready earlier.
She was thrown over someone’s shoulder and she’d bounced bonelessly as they’d raced toward the surf. The water was cold as it splashed onto her face, making her only slightly more aware of what was going on. She was unceremoniously thrown into the boat, and Aziz began to yell to the drivers of the others.
“Once we’re away from shore, separate. They must not know which boat I am in. The leader must escape! We’ll meet up across the border. Long live Ansar al-Shari’a!”
“Long live Ansar al-Shari’a!” was shouted back, then the voices were drowned out by the motors being revved.
Dakota had a momentary thought that Aziz was the biggest coward she’d ever met. He’d basically ordered the others to do whatever it took to make sure he escaped. What a douche.
Her limp body was thrown against the back of the boat as the driver gunned the engine and raced away from the shore. She concentrated on trying to see who was at the wheel, but the farther they got from Coronado, the harder it was to see anything. The two men in the boat hadn’t turned on any lights and the only thing she could see clearly were the stars twinkling over her head.
As her mind floated, Dakota stared up at those stars. She could see the Big Dipper and North Star. She recalled standing in Slade’s arms and seeing the same stars in Goldfield. How long ago had that been? Yesterday? No…yesterday she was at Wolf and Caroline’s house. Her brow wrinkled as she struggled to remember. After a long moment, she decided it didn’t matter and closed her eyes.
The bottom of the boat hitting a wave jostled her back to reality as pain tore through her body, and she blinked. Dakota slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position and looked around in a daze. She saw the lights of Coronado twinkling as they raced southward.
“He’ll never find me,” Aziz yelled back to her as he stood at the front of the boat. “I’ve got new identities for both of us, Anoushka. I was right under his nose and he had no idea it was me he was looking for.” He cackled, long and loud, and Dakota winced.
“I’ve got everything I need to grow my flock, and within a year I’ll have organized the biggest and deadliest terrorist incident on US soil they’ve ever seen. And you were my inspiration,” Aziz told her. He took a step toward the back of the boat where she was sitting, but a large wave made him lose his footing and he had to grab the railing to keep his balance.
Obviously changing his mind about coming to the back of the boat where she was, he said, “Rest, my bride. And don’t worry. I’ll have you inside a warm home, safe in my bed, where we can consummate our marriage in no time. Close your eyes, Anoushka, sleep.”
Dakota closed her eyes as he ordered, more out of frustration and terror than obedience. She couldn’t allow Aziz to get her out of the country. She’d be even more helpless than she was right this moment. It would be twice as difficult for Slade to find her then.
It was thoughts of Slade that gave her the strength and determination to both defy Aziz and overcome the pull of the drug coursing through her veins.
Seeing that her captor and the other man were busy trying to see where they were going by looking at the instruments softly glowing on the panel, Dakota slowly forced her uncooperative body up until her belly rested on the edge of the rubber boat. The lights onshore were swirling dizzyingly, but she didn’t let that stop her. The noise of the engine and the waves crashing on the underside of the boat worked in her favor. As did the fact that Aziz thou
ght she was incapacitated by whatever he’d given her.
Without a sound, Dakota held her breath and leaned over the edge of the boat, sliding headfirst into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean. The small splash her body made as it knifed into the water was indistinguishable from the other sounds the vessel made as it raced toward Mexico.
Chapter 16
Slade stood with his feet braced apart, not even feeling the spray of the cold water on his face as the Zodiac’s powerful engine pushed them closer and closer to their objective. The four boats that had left the beach had scattered in four different directions.
He and Cookie were in a boat with another SEAL named Rex. He was wearing a tactical headset and was communicating with his teammates on the other Zodiacs, then relaying the information to the others on his boat.
“Phantom and Gumby neutralized the tango headed north.”
“Was Dakota or Zach with them?” Slade shouted to be heard over the engine and water.
“Negative,” Rex said as he shook his head.
One down, three more to go.
“Rocco and your men, Abe and Dude, are coming up on another…they’re in a firefight, but it looks to only be two men, and not any women onboard.”
“Come on, come on,” Slade pleaded in a soft voice as they continued to gain on the boat in front of them. Please be the one Zach is on. I want to be the one to kill that fucker.
“Second boat down,” Rex informed them.
“Update on the third?” Cookie shouted.
“Ace and Bubba are closing in,” Rex informed him.
Slade didn’t take his eyes off the boat in front of them. It had no lights on, but Rex and Cookie were wearing night-vision specs, and he had on a pair of thermal-vision goggles, allowing him to clearly see the bright red and pink traces of warm air from both the boat and the people onboard.
He could only see two shapes, near the front of the vessel, but that didn’t mean Dakota wasn’t there. He didn’t have a clear view of the bottom of the boat. If they were following Zach, it was likely that Dakota was there too. The alternative was unthinkable.