Found

by Jodi Kae

  “He’s in the shower.”

  “I’ll tell your mom about the treats if you tell Jax to call me back right away, it’s urgent.” She whispers okay as if we are playing a game. The tears fall faster, but I hang up and dial 911.

  “911, what’s your emergency?”

  “Please, I have been kidnapped. I am in the trunk of a black sedan. Please help me. The man’s name is Sully Vrennikov, and he has taken me before.”

  “I’m sorry, Mam, I can barely hear you. Did you say, you’re locked in a trunk by Reniov? Is he your husband or boyfriend, Mam?”

  Just then the car stops moving, and I hear a door slam. I hang up the phone, turn it to silent and shove it down the front of my pants. Oh God! This is going to be bad.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Torture:

  * great physical or mental suffering. *the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or in order to force them to do or say something. *a cause of great physical or mental suffering.

  “Unci Jax, Auntie Tori said to call her it’s urgent. You have to call now so I can get donuts and licorice.”

  Stepping out of the bathroom, I rush to the phone and call Jana’s cell. It rings four times and goes to voicemail. The blinking light on their answering machine catches my attention, so I push the button to listen and hear Tori’s voice asking if we need anything. They are probably at the grocery store that’s about three miles away and might be on their way home already. I wait ten minutes and try again when they still have not made it home. Voicemail again, shit! “Alissa, does your mommy have find my iPhone set up on her computer?”

  “Yes, daddy put it on there for emergencies. I even know the password, I will show you.”

  I follow Alissa to their home office and watch her work away. Thank God for technology. I am waiting patiently, kind of, while my six-year-old niece shows me up on a computer and pulls up the location of Jana’s phone. My heart sinks when the map shows it is at a hotel in Destin. Dammit to hell! Why would my sister take her to a hotel in Destin? The phone starts ringing, so I race back to the living room and grab the receiver. The number shows up unknown and my panic sets in. “Hello, Jana, Tori.”

  “Oh, Jax, I can’t find her. She went to get makeup and just disappeared. I have searched the entire store, and I now have the manager checking with employees. Jax, I’m so sorry. I should have made her stay with me. She has my phone, and I’ve called several times, but she won’t answer. Wait, wait, wait, here comes the manager.”

  I listen intently as the manager tells Jana what he knows.

  “An employee in the back witnessed a woman with dark hair being escorted out the shipping dock. She was crying, and the man was bandaged all over. We pulled up the video feed to see the man shove the woman in the trunk of a black sedan and drive away. The license plate is Florida issued and the number is QVR103.”

  I don’t wait to hear anymore and hang up to call my boss. He informs me that the plate belongs to a car rental company and sends me the direct number. After fifteen minutes of being on hold while they verify that I am who I say I am, they finally give me the name of the renter. Sully Vrennikov. How is this even possible? I watched the house blow up myself. What the hell kind of turn of events is this? This shit only happens in the movies where the bad guy comes back to exact vengeance on the good guys. I promised Tori that she was safe, and that was the biggest lie of all.

  ∞∞∞

  I am yanked out of the trunk and dragged through the door of a motel. It appears to be a small building with two levels and luckily he is on the bottom floor, so I don’t have to fumble up the stairs. I am slammed into the wall just inside the door and crumple to the floor. I am so dizzy that I don’t see the first blow until I feel it in my jaw and my head slams into the floor. If he keeps this up, I will be unconscious and won’t feel a thing.

  “You stupid bitch! Do you have any idea what problems you have caused me? The men I have pissed off are going to kill me if I don’t hand over you and your sister. Pregnant or not, they will have no mercy on Serenity. Her escape has toppled this organization and sent people running for the hills.”

  The shocking news about my sister’s pregnancy is occupying my brain, and I don’t feel the pain as he roughly hauls me up and slams me into a chair. He duct tapes my wrists behind my back and yanks them hard for extra punishment.

  “All my men are dead because of you two. What the hell is wrong with these men who want to be your savior? A pussy is a pussy; they are a dime a dozen. I can get them any number of women that they wouldn’t have to fight for.”

  The next blow comes to the right side of my face as he backhands me. I feel a sharp sting and wetness trickles down my face. My eye begins to swell, and I know it will be useless in about five more minutes. Maybe two, because I still can’t focus my eyes from the first hit. He stomps away still screaming at me about an explosion that propelled him through the back windows of the house. I have no idea what he is talking about.

  “I had to crawl down to the docks and into my boat where I lay for two days trying to heal. Look at this shit!”

  He peels the bandage away from the left side of his face to reveal red, raw skin covered in blisters. He needs medical attention, but I don’t say that and just sit there silently while he glares at me.

  “My whole left side is charred, including my dick. I am doing the world a favor by taking whores out of the population, and this is how I’m repaid. I should just kill you now and get it over with, but your master still wants you to exact his own form of punishment. I will use you as bait for your sister and then I will have my revenge.

  I barely see him coming, and before I know it, he has sliced through the tape at my wrists and pain explodes up my arm. He moves to stand in front of me, and his hands wrap around my neck, cutting off my oxygen. As I bring my hands up to pull on his arms, I see my blood pulsing from a deep cut in my wrist and know he has cut an artery. As I start to fade, I see Jax’s gray eyes staring down at me as he made love to me the last night in Costa Rica and realize that I will die with that memory as one of the best.

  ∞∞∞

  Racing down Highway 98 in my brother-in-law’s pride and joy, I smash the gas pedal to the floor in his brand new Ford Raptor. I have broken every speed limit and if the police try to pull me over they will just have to follow me all the way to the sadistic bastards hotel room. I grab my nieces Migo phone and hit 1 for the home number and pray that my sister has made it home to answer.

  “Hello, Jax is that you?”

  Jana is frantic, and I know she feels guilty, but I only have myself to blame. I was cocky and smug leaving Sully alive. I took great pleasure in watching him squirm in that chair, knowing he knew what came next. I was selfish in getting my own form of revenge, to have the last laugh. Who is laughing now? Definitely not me.

  “Yes, I have Alissa’s phone, and I need you to get on the computer and pull up your phone again on find my iPhone. I need to know if the phone is still at the motel. I hear the click of a keyboard and then silence. The wait is killing me even though it has only been thirty seconds.

  “Jax, the phone is moving. It appears to be on Scenic Hwy 98 near Tori’s family’s home. I took her there today before we went to the store. She said just being able to see it gave her a sense of peace and confirmed that she was really free. I’m so sorry, Jax. I should have stayed with her.”

  “Jana, I’m only three minutes away. Stay on the phone with me and let me know of any changes. Sully might know that Derek and Serenity are there, and he is trying to recapture both women. It’s not your fault so quit beating yourself up.”

  “Jax, the phone stopped moving just down the street from Tori’s house.”

  A few minutes later, I pull onto Scenic Hwy 98 and immediately spot a black sedan parked across the road from the ocean view houses. Driving slowly, I spot the 2343 address that Tori spoke of. I make a u-turn before I reach the sedan and drive back out the way I came in.
/>
  “Jana, I’m hanging up now and going in on foot. Call me back if the car starts moving before you hear back from me.” I pull over around the corner and make my way towards the sedan along the fronts of houses. I pass Tori’s family’s cottage from across the street and notice the blinds are open but from this angle, I can’t see who is inside. The sedan is maybe fifty yards from the house, and I need to get to it undetected. Does he have Tori in the car? Did Sully find the phone and take it with him, leaving her behind? I can make out only one figure, and I start to regret not going to the motel first. What if she is there, injured and needing help? My gut tells me to stay on course, but my mind argues that if I went to the motel first, I could have saved her already. Shit, shit, shit! Sully lowers the window and holds up binoculars to his face aiming them at Tori’s house. As long as he stays facing that direction, I will have no problem taking him by surprise. I pass a few more houses until I am in line with the trunk of the car. Inching my way forward in a crouched position, I make it to the back tire. I lift up a little to see through the back window, noticing that Sully is still watching the house. I move forward far enough so I can see into the backseat. If she is not in the car, I will have to leave him alive to find her. If she is in the car, he is a dead man. One wrong move could warn him that I’m here, and it could be disastrous. I lift up slowly to peer into the back seat and lose my damn mind. I don’t think, I just react, grabbing the passenger door handle, I yank it open and take aim. Sully whips his head around, raises a gun with his right arm and fires a lucky shot that nails me in the left shoulder. My shot nails him right between the eyes, and he slumps forward onto the steering wheel.

  Wasting no time, I pull open the back door and see so much blood. Tori’s face is bruised all over, and her right eye is swollen shut. She has dried blood on her face, but her torso is covered in fresh wet blood. I grab her wrist to check for a pulse and find the source of all the blood. With every pulse, more blood spurts from the slice in her wrist, probably from an artery. Shit! She is going to bleed out before we even get an ambulance here. I rip off my sleeve and tie it tight around her wrists to form a tourniquet. Grabbing her under her arms, I pull her from the car. I don’t even feel my own bullet wound as I pick her up and start running toward the cottage. As I get close enough to the door, I kick it in and fall to my knees. Tori’s look-a-like sister screams loud enough to shatter my eardrums and Derek rushes in to stop dead in his tracks. “She doesn’t have time to wait for an ambulance. My truck is around the corner, Ford Raptor, MOVE DAMMIT!

  “Ren, call the hospital and let them know we are coming.”

  Within a minute we are climbing into the truck, and Derek is racing toward the hospital. The ride is the longest five minutes of my life. Derek pulls into the ambulance bay and jumps out to open my door. Rushing through the bay doors, I start barking demands. “I need a surgeon and transfusion set up; she’s bleeding out.” They rush over a gurney for me to lay her down, but I refuse to let go of her wrist. A tall, lanky, bald man runs in pulling on a cap, grabs the gurney and pushes it through swinging doors. As we run down the short hallway, he is shouting orders for vitals.

  “Do you know her blood type?”

  I look around for Serenity hoping she knows so I don’t look like an ass for not knowing, but she is not anywhere in sight. “No, but I’m A+, and if we are a match, I want you to use mine.”

  “Sir, there is protocol that needs to be followed. It would take weeks for your blood to be tested and frankly, she doesn’t have that much time. Are you immediate family or her husband?

  Damn! “Yes. I’m her husband.”

  “Take her into ER 3. She’s in hemorrhagic shock. Start an IV; we need to get her stable before we can move her into the OR.”

  The doctor orders several things in medical jargon that I don’t understand. Nurses are running around grabbing supplies. I just stand there in my own kind of shock, not being able to save the woman I love. “I’m not leaving her,” I say to no one in particular.

  “Sir, you can stay with her in the emergency room, but when we move her into surgery, you will have to wait in the family waiting room.”

  The blonde nurse, Maggie, gives me a sad smile. What the hell does that mean? Do they think she’s not going to make it?

  “Is that a bullet hole in your shirt?”

  “You will take care of her first, and when she is out of danger, you can help me.”

  Another blonde nurse named Barb gets in my face and gives me a stern look.

  “I can see that you will be a difficult patient. Sit here so you are not in our way.”

  I sit like a trained dog, not wanting to hinder their work in any way. My own wound is throbbing like a bitch, but I’m not moving until they wheel her away for surgery. I want to go back to her house and kill that bastard all over again. What the hell did he do to her? He looked to be in pretty rough shape himself, but from the looks of Tori’s face, he took his anger out on her.

  I need to call my boss and report the shooting, and I will have to fill out a mountain of paperwork. Shit! Out of state investigations are going to be a bitch. After an hour of listening to medical terminology I don’t understand, and the numerous monitors signaling more stuff I don’t understand, the doctor comes to stand in front of me.

  “We have her stable and are moving her into the O.R. You can either wait in the main lobby, or we can show you to the family waiting room. You need to get that shoulder looked at.”

  I nod my head, and Barb moves me to ER 2. She tries to carry on a conversation with me, proving to be a waste of time; I really can’t think straight to hear her or respond. They said she was stable. Does that mean she is no longer in danger? Barb gives me a shot of antibiotics that I don’t feel; cleans out the holes, which hurts like a bitch; puts in a plastic straw that feels damn weird, and stitches me up.

  I wander to the main lobby in search of Derek and Serenity. When they see me, Serenity bursts into tears.

  “Where is she?” She sobs

  “They just took her into surgery to repair her wrist. They said it wouldn’t take long, and we can wait in the family waiting room.”

  “What happened to her? How did she get injured? What did you do, Jax?”

  “I will tell you both all I know, but Tori has information that I don’t have, and we will have to wait for her to wake up to hear everything. First, Derek can you take my truck back to Serenity and Tori’s house? There is a black sedan about fifty yards up the road on the opposite side that needs to be taken care of. Take pictures for me as evidence and call the police if someone hasn’t already.”

  “What is going on, Jax?”

  Serenity is getting pissed, but I will let Derek decide how much he wants to tell her.

  “Baby, please go with Jax to the waiting room and wait for the doctor. I will run back to the house to help Jax out, and when I get back, we can sit down and talk together.”

  Serenity and I are shown to the family waiting room, neither one of us talking. I know she hates me because I kept Tori away from her, but it’s no different than Derek keeping her from her family. Some of my reasons were based on necessity, and some were only me being an overprotective asshole. Serenity is going to be family, so I need to find a way to make amends.

  “How has my sister been?”

  Serenity is seething and trying damn hard to keep her temper in check. “I can only speak for myself, and what I saw and experienced, anything else will have to come from Tori.

  “I was hired by Sully Vrennikov specifically to train your sister, and I went into the house a week after you were taken from the house. After meeting with Derek about you, I did some digging and found her on missing persons as well. As you know we escaped a week later, and I took her to my home in Costa Rica to keep her hidden.”

  “No, Jax, we didn’t know anything. All we knew was that you went into The House undercover. You never communicated that you found my sister. I had no idea if she had been shipped to Russia or i
f she was still in The House. The first I heard anything about her was a cryptic email from you saying, Found her, run. Derek wasn’t even sure of the meaning. Then as we were hiding out in Destin, I saw a news broadcast with my dad and Sully. He announced that I had been spotted traveling on I-95 and Tori had been taken by boat. I didn’t even know it was you who had her until the night we blew up the house.”

  “I’m sorry it had to happen that way, but the night we left The House, we were going to blow the place. When we went to go back in and finish the job, one of the guards came out shooting at us, so we had to leave them all behind and alive. Sully had my cell number and called me saying he would have you by nightfall and would seek revenge on me for taking the other women. I dumped the phone and took Tori to the only place I felt I could keep her safe. I asked Snake to keep his ears and eyes open for any information and notify me when we could take them out. A week ago, I got the call that you had been taken again, and Derek and my boys were going in to save you. I flew in that night to help and went back to Costa Rica two nights later. I had been trying to get through to Tori from the moment I stepped foot into that house. The lies were too much for her, and she withdrew into herself, barely eating, not talking or listening. I live in a village by Rio Banano, and the people there were rooting for me. She thought I was still the bad guy, and somehow they convinced her I wasn’t. When I arrived home after destroying The House, our relationship changed and we were ready to move on with our lives.”

  “Why did you hide her from us? She probably needed her family; we could have helped her.”

  “You were still in hiding and on the run like we were. I couldn’t risk any phone calls or messages getting into the wrong hands and have them find her in Costa Rica. After we destroyed the house and the two of you were safe, I decided to bring her home. When we arrived in the U.S., Snake informed me that you and Derek were on vacation, so we went to my sisters in Fort Walton Beach. I didn’t want her to have to see your dad before you two had a chance to talk and decide what to tell him.” I look up as Derek walks into the waiting room.