by Aliyah Burke
Even when his brothers arrived, Cao didn’t move. The dog was marble until he completed his task. Dropping the last bit of glass in the second bowl, Derek glanced up to see his siblings there. He rinsed out the rag then put it back up to Cao’s wound.
“There’s a box by the door that wasn’t there when I left. My guess whoever took her came disguised as a delivery person. Check the box to see what you can find.”
“On it.” Adam walked away.
“Anything else happen that we don’t know about, Derek?”
He blew the breath out of the corner of his mouth while he removed the rag from Cao’s chest. “Like what, Rhodi? We came back from dinner last night, talked and fell asleep on the couch. She woke me from a nightmare, we went to my bed and fell back asleep. I was going to make breakfast when Wild called about the client we had to meet. All I did was tell her I was going there and then coming back, and we were going to talk.”
“She was okay with this? Nothing struck you as odd about her behavior?”
He shook his head, non-verbally responding to Wild. Scratching Cao behind the ears, he pushed to his feet. “I don’t think you need any stitches, boy, you’ll be fine.” He knew the dog could take some but didn’t feel it necessary, and quite honestly didn’t trust himself or the dog with a needle. They weren’t friends that way. At the sink, he dumped the bloody water down the drain and washed out the bowl, leaving the one with the glass particles seated on the counter.
Whirling back, he faced his brothers. “I forgot. She called her father last night.”
Adam walked in with the box, already opened, and set it on the counter. His expression told more than any amount of silence would. Whatever resided within those cardboard barriers wasn’t good.
Derek didn’t even ask his brother to tell him what it was, just moved over there and peered inside.
That rage rose again, free to fly and pour in every direction. Encouraged on by the winds. And this did. His world turned an ugly shade of red, and his fingers clenched and flexed while he struggled not to punch the counter.
“We need to be rational about this,” Rhodi said.
“If you say anything like that again, you’ll not make it home to your wife and kids.” The words ripped up deep from his gut. “I’m not being rational, this is a doll looking like her in pieces. Someone has her and I swear to fucking God, they will pay for daring to lay a hand on her.”
Rhodi licked his lips and gave a small shake of his head. “I don’t mean we don’t find her, but we—”
“Do you remember when it took the both of them to pull me off of you?”
Rhodi paled and Derek never lowered his gaze. A few years ago, Rhodi had come into his home spoiling for a fight, Derek had obliged him. Ever since he’d left the SEALs there’d been a darkness in him that didn’t take much to claim hold of him and push everything else away, surrounding him in a veil of wanting to kill. Egging him on to be violent.
“Say anything like that again and they won’t be able to get to me in time. Avery is my woman and I will kill to protect her. Without fail. Without hesitation. Make no mistake about this.”
“And that includes me?”
There was a low beating in the back of his head that wouldn’t be silenced. In fact, it was growing louder.
“If you get in my way, yes.”
Wild stepped between them. “Knock this off. We all know that’s not what Rhodi was intending to have come across as the meaning for his comment. But we do have to do this right. Rhodi and Adam, go and follow up on the call she made to her father. Something had to happen there for them to know where she was. She’d been off the grid until then.”
Adam grunted and gestured for Rhodi to head for the door. “And you two?”
“We’ll be finding out who dropped this off and go from there.” Wild’s calm tone helped to rein in the beast that had dug in his spurs and was riding him like a bucking bronc.
The moment his brothers were gone, Wild gripped one of his arms and shook him. “You need to put this anger in the fucking corner.” There wasn’t any forgiveness in his tone.
He snarled but Wild didn’t blink, nor did he back away. In fact, he stared then punched him in the face without any warning.
“Fuck, that hurt.” He stumbled back, pinching his nose once more to stop the bleeding.
“Suck it up, SEAL. You need to find your game face here. All this anger is narrowing your line of vision. She’s out there, somewhere, waiting on you to get her. So rein it in and get ready.”
Sharing a glance with Cao, he did just that.
Chapter Six
Avery swallowed the bile that rose each time the vehicle slowed. Which was often, given the condition of the roads. She couldn’t see anything. Didn’t have a damn clue as to where she was.
“Cao?” Her throat hurt as the one word pushed through. Even as she said his name, in her gut, she knew he wasn’t there with her. Wherever I am.
Her eyes burned and she couldn’t even move her arms around to rub them. Her wrists were secured tight behind her back and she lay on her side, so she was more than a bit disoriented. Funny, she didn’t think anything about being scared right now.
She was angry. Pissed that this happened again. To her. Why was it happening to her? What was it that she had done to anyone to deserve this?
The ass of the large truck swerved and she rolled with the motion, not even trying to stop herself. As she hit the far end of the empty truck, she managed to wriggle her way up into a seated position.
It had to be the delivery vehicle that had come up to the house. It’s what I get for opening the door and trying to take the pen to him so he didn’t lose it.
Had Derek come home? Had he realized she was missing? What happened to Cao? Feet braced to help her balance, she lowered her head and tried to stem the fear that had found her and crawled up her legs, searching for her heart and mind to latch on and feed her full of its evil essence.
They rumbled to a halt and the engine died. She tensed when the sliding door between her and the front moved back, allowing a shaft of light to pierce the darkness she’d been seated in. More pain erupted in her skull, then the invasion of brilliance.
A large man stepped through. She shrank back, fear lodged in her throat, nausea churning wildly. This wasn’t the man that had been in the truck. So either they moved her to a new vehicle or stopped to pick this one up.
His bushy beard was full and hung low. The barrel chest blocked out most of the light behind him.
She whimpered, her fear in full effect. A soft sound outside the back of the vehicle had him freezing and scowling down at her.
Like I’m the one out there making some kind of noise.
Whatever it was, he wasn’t happy and he yanked her up to her feet by her upper arm. Swallowing back her cry of pain, she struggled to remain on her feet. The behemoth holding her shoved her toward the front, the opening he’d come through.
There was still enough daylight for her to see she was out in the middle of bum fuck nowhere. Snow-covered trees on either side of the road they pulled off of, she didn’t see any tire tracks coming toward them, so even if it was a main road it obviously wasn’t well-traveled.
The man shoved her down the steps of the delivery truck. As her hands were bound behind her, she didn’t have any way of balancing herself and fell. The snow might’ve helped break her fall, but the rock beneath did no such thing. It dug into, her tearing through flesh and leaving behind blood.
Lying there, she stared up the steps to the man watching. Nope, daylight didn’t do anything to improve his appearance in her eyes. In fact the low light did nothing but increase the ominous wave rolling from his form.
She swallowed, hard. The wind swirled around her such that it either moved the snow, or it was still freshly snowing. Either way she was cold. Disgustingly so. The Arctic chill seeped through her close and into her skin. She had not exactly been dressed for an outdoor excursion when they took her.
> Apparently, there was one good thing it did do, and that was to slow the blood trickle coming down from her head. She could feel it making its way down towards her eye. Eventually it would be there and she would either not see or have to use the snow to rub it away. Neither option favorable in her estimation.
Even so, she refused to move. Her fingers began to tingle from the cold, her socked feet not much better. What did they want with her?
The man strode down the steps until his heavily booted feet hit the snow-packed earth. He grunted and scratched his chest. For a moment she expected him to beat it and perhaps readjust himself. He did neither.
Positioning himself before her, he bent down and lifted her right before he tossed her over his shoulder. Then he struck off into the woods.
They always said never let them get you to a secondary location. Well, she failed miserably at that for she was either at a secondary or perhaps a tertiary location.
None of this made any sense. Who could possibly want her now? What lucky person was kidnapped more than once? Instead of struggling she hung there and did what she could to soak up the heat from his body. He didn’t share much but some was better than nothing.
Darkness had fallen when he slowed to a halt and stopped. Unable to see caused her fear to escalate once more. She could make out the sound of a door opening and warmth hit her. Tears once again sprang to her eyes, not from the fear this time but from the heat seeping back into her body, sending pain throughout.
The only light in the place was from the fire and she took the opportunity to see all she could. Small and old were the first words that came to her mind. The narrow bed lay against one wall, and against the other was a small table with one chair.
Avery remain huddled where she was. Flicking her tongue over her lips, she worked up some moisture enough to talk.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this to me? And what you want?”
Bear man grunted as he looked at her. “My name is of no consequence. I’m not doing it to you, I’m doing this for someone. And as to what I want —” his gaze grew tense and lewd — “I want you. I want to do many things to you that have you screaming in pain. Do you honestly not remember me?”
Skimming her gaze over him multiple times, Avery shook her head. “No. Where do I know you from?”
He tsked. “You never once looked at me while you were down there all those times, I was nice to you. I kept you safe.” His voice began to rise like a slow crescendo, increasing her fear in time with each note it went up. “But you, you,” he seethed. “You continue to act holier than thou as if you are above the entire place. As if you are above me.”
She realized in that moment who it was before her. He called himself Cameron, but he didn’t look like that before, it wasn’t how she recalled him. As the thought flitted through her mind that she been watched this entire time upon her return, he pulled off the bushy beard mask and wild hair. An act which left behind the man she did recall.
Fear clenched her heart and began the low, continuous squeeze. “I remember you now.” He threw the mask in the fire she squinted from the flareup of the flames, for it hurt her eyes. “Why?”
“We had a deal. We were to be together.”
She shifted her weight and winced at the biting pain from the restraints. “Remove these.”
“And when you try to run?”
She shook her head. “I have no shoes, no winter clothes. It would be suicide for me to run out.”
His dark eyes narrowed and she gulped when he flipped out a butterfly knife and opened it. Seconds later he cut through her binding and she squeezed her eyes against the rush of blood back into her hands. Once it stopped she wiped the blood from her head with her sleeve and inched closer to the fire. Keeping her back to it as her eyes were still far too sensitive.
Squinting at him, she angled her head to the left. “Who did you have the deal with, Cameron?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
Another head shake. “I had no idea somebody was trying to sell me.”
His laugh bordered on maniacal and it did nothing for her nerves. “Not just someone, not just a nobody or someone you have contact with very rarely, but someone you should be able to trust and love.”
Derek? Immediately she banished that thought. No way he would’ve done this.
“Will you tell me?”
“What will you give me if I do?”
“You kidnapped me, Cameron. I don’t have anything to bargain with.”
His eyes darkened with lust and her gut churned with disgust. “You have something I want. And trust me, it will go much easier for you if you give it to me willingly. But, to be honest, I do like a good fight.”
She shrank into herself, lowered her head slightly, and whispered Derek’s name.
“Your protector will get here too late to save you. You’ll never see him again.”
Cameron spoke in a low tone lined with menace and malicious intent. Once again, she swallowed back her nausea, licked her lips, and met his gaze had on.
“If you think that, then you’ve already lost. Because he will find you and, when he does, he’ll kill you.”
αβ
Derek couldn’t recall ever being wound so tight. Adam and Rhodi were being flown by Alyse to the East Coast to confront her parents. Part of him wanted to go and look them in the eye while they questioned them about selling their own daughter. He refused to leave until she was safe in his arms. Correction, it was just the mother according to what they recovered; however, Derek wasn’t entirely sure about that being the case. Either way, Rhodi and Adam had much more level heads than he did at this time.
He was in warrior mode. One goal—kill the enemy and retrieve the target. Wild was with him and he was glad to have the Marine at his side.
They’d hacked cameras and a satellite, but he now knew where she was being held. And that was all that mattered.
It was around midnight as they neared the small cabin. Snow continued to fall, covering their sound but also hampering their progress.
Derek went left while Wild went right, checking the outside of the cabin before they even attempted a breach. Prior to this trek, they had taken another look at the cabin and had only found two heat signatures within. Three if they included the fire. Avery was huddled in the middle of the cabin small, even looking at her fueled his anger. The other one paced a lot but as of yet hadn’t touched her. Not that it mattered, he was going to die regardless for his part in this.
Two clicks in his ear had him moving back to the front door. The only door. As he reached for the handle his vision wavered, enough so he stumbled back. Clear as day he could see Avery taking a bullet to the chest. This time there was no saving her—all it was, was loss. Her loss of life. His loss of her.
“We have tangos inbound.”
Wild’s words snapped him from the vision that was quickly sucking him in, rendering him as useless as a newborn suckling on a teat.
“How many?”
“At least six.”
“We need to get her now with a better chance of keeping her alive if the gunfight is not taking place while she’s trussed up in a cabin.”
“So take him quietly. We can take the cabin, secure her safe, and take those coming.” Wild’s voice was low and vibrated with anger.
“Moving in three, two — ” he holstered his sidearm and withdrew a tanto — “one.”
The moment he said one he went through the door. With a lunge he shoved the twelve-inch serrated blade deep into the man’s chest as his other hand covered his mouth to contain any scream. Derek stared into the other man’s gaze as life left him. He wished he could do it again and prolong his suffering, bring him back and do it once more.
“See to Avery,” Wild muttered softly as he entered and closed the door behind him.
Derek withdrew the knife, shoved at home in the sheath, and pivoted to Avery who sat huddled close to the fire. The tears he saw in her beautiful brown eyes ripped him ap
art at the soul. He stared at her, noting each bruise, mark, and blood she had on her features.
He had no words. The first time he saved her he had known exactly what to say to keep her calm, and ensure that they were going to get her home. But this was the second time around and he had nothing because he’d failed her.
Derek opened his arms and she flew into his embrace, wrapping tight around him, heedless of the blood and cold she surely felt from touching him. She was muttering something in a tone so low he could make out the words. He lowered his head closer to hers so he had a chance to hear what she was saying.
“I knew you’d come. I knew you’d find me.”
Maneuvering her head up so he could see her face, he kissed her, ensuring to keep it gentle and not aggravate the cut lip. Once he ended the kiss, he held her gaze and swept his thumbs below her eyes, wiping away the tears that freely fell.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, babe.”
He set her away from him, shared a glance with his brother, and began stripping off the gear. He covered her with his body armor then put his coat around her to give her some warmth. A pair of boots were dropped by her feet and, without looking, Derek knew Wild had removed them from the dead man.
There wasn’t much at all in the way of protection in this place. But they did what they could, adjusting the table and the bed frame, and surrounding her within the mattress they built the best fortress they could with what they had.
Moments after she was as safe and secure as they could make it, the bullets started flying. It wasn’t easy, but Derek focused on the battle before him and not the woman hiding in a makeshift shelter. He swore as a bullet tore through his side, ripping through flesh. When the last man fell he checked over his brother even as they both moved to the shelter.
“You good?” he asked as he tossed the mattress off the top.
“From the looks of things a sight better than you. You okay to keep on?”
“Yes.” He peered down at the woman cowering, bundled in a jacket far too big for her. But she was safe, and to him that was all that mattered. She took his offered hand, despite the injury, and he swept her up in his arms, needing to have her close, to feel the beat of her heart against his own chest.