The TAKEN! Series - Books 13-16 (Taken! Box Set Book 4)

by Remington Kane

  That simple plan would work, and all Boone had to do was return home.

  This is what he told himself, even as he ached for battle, the predator within caring little for restraint or safety.

  He checked his watch and hoped that Boone would return before it got dark.

  He missed his family.

  ***

  It took Angie longer than she thought it would to get to Boone’s house, because she didn’t dare drive fast and get pulled over, not while driving a stolen car and carrying a murder weapon. Still, she arrived in the area before Boone returned home, and had formed a new plan of action while traveling there.

  Why risk herself trying to take out both Boone and the tall man when the two of them would tangle and one of them would die?

  She would just stay back, keep watch, and then take out the winner, and hopefully the winner would be in no great shakes to defend himself.

  The tall man had the element of surprise on his side, but Angie would never count Boone out, and so believed that she’d be dealing with him when all was said and done.

  She’d catch him unawares if she could, just shoot him in the back, but however she did it, she couldn’t give him a chance, or God help her, she’d wish she was back in the endless ocean.

  And once Boone and the tall man were dead, she’d search the house and boat and find her money.

  She tripped as she walked along the edge of Boone’s driveway, which was paved with crushed shells, but then picked herself up and kept moving.

  “Damn vines,” Angie said under her breath, and once more thought that she should have stopped somewhere and bought new clothes, especially shoes, because the red flip-flops she cut to fit weren’t fitting very well and rubbed badly against the area between her toes. But she hadn’t dare take a chance on getting to Boone’s house any later than necessary or she might have missed all the action.

  A minute later, she was at the rear of the home and could hear someone moving around upstairs, and when she saw Jessica’s husband pass by a window, she smiled.

  The hell with waiting, he’s mine.

  Angie found the lock on the back door broken and figured that was how the tall man had entered. The door led into an enclosed rear porch, and past that was the kitchen.

  She entered the kitchen with the Colt Python gripped in both hands, and tiptoed into the hallway, but as she passed a darkened doorway with eyes locked on the staircase, a hand reached out and plucked the gun away, causing her to cry out in fear.

  “No!”

  After that, she was shoved against the wall, while the Colt Python was aimed at her stomach.

  The tall man gazed at her and shook his head.

  “You must be one hell of a swimmer,”

  “How did you know I was here? I saw you upstairs.”

  “You saw what I wanted you to see, and I’ve known you were here ever since you stepped on the property.”

  “How?”

  “You tripped on the way in, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It was fishing line, and it was rigged to warn me.”

  “What are you going to do to me? Jesus, please don’t throw me back in the water.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, and placed the gun just above her left breast, but before he could shoot, the trip wire he’d rigged near the dock was triggered, and the sound of tin cans rattling echoed throughout the house.

  Angie laughed with relief and began talking fast.

  “You can’t shoot me, a big gun like that, Boone will hear it go off, but listen, let’s be friends. I’ll lure him inside, you kill him, and after, I’ll make you so happy you’re a man you won’t believe it, I’ll do anything you want, anything, and I’ll—”

  He slammed the gun into the top of her head and she dropped like a stone.

  ***

  Boone was in a bad mood.

  He’d had an awful day of fishing which he blamed on the storm, and when he tied up at the little seaside harbor where he normally met with a married lover, the woman phoned and said that she couldn’t make it, because her husband’s flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.

  Fucking storm!

  Although he hadn’t caught any Marlin as he’d hoped to, he had caught two smaller tuna, and after leaving the boat, he walked across the dock and headed for the rear of the home carrying a cooler full of fish and half-melted ice.

  He was headed for the back porch where the chest freezer was kept, when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

  It was a pair of red flip-flops that looked like someone had chewed their ends off.

  Boone was instantly on high alert, which is why he was ready when Jessica’s husband opened the back door and pointed a gun at him.

  Boone threw the cooler just as the gun went off, and eighty pounds of fish, ice, and water splattered across the back steps.

  A second later, and Boone was sprinting towards his boat, where a sawed-off shotgun sat pumped and ready.

  ***

  He didn’t know what it was that had spooked Boone, but the man reacted just before he stepped outside, and the blast from the Colt Python seemed to make the cooler Boone tossed at him explode.

  He went out on the porch just as Boone sprinted back towards the dock, and stepped atop a chunk of ice, causing him to slip, tumble down the back steps, and land hard in the wet grass.

  After grunting in anger, he jumped to his feet and ran after Boone.

  To his surprise, Boone had already made it to the dock, and although he knew it was a low-percentage shot, he still fired at the man, but the shot went wide and took a chunk out of the dock’s railing.

  Boone made it back aboard the boat, and he chased after him, but when he was ten feet past the porch steps, Boone emerged from the boat’s cabin carrying a sawed-off shotgun and charging his way.

  He reversed direction, ran up the steps and hit Boone’s front door running. The door burst inward as the wood holding the lock splintered, and as he hit the floor, double-ought pellets flew over his head and peppered the opposite wall.

  Boone’s voice filled the air.

  “I don’t know who you are, mister, but you’re gonna die!”

  He got to his feet, stayed low, and moved deeper into the home as a game of hide and seek began.

  He smiled.

  So much for the simple plan,

  CHAPTER 28

  Kelly waved goodbye to Jace and Cassandra as she watched them follow Noah and Grace along the shoreline and away from the boat.

  Chip had sailed northwest and skillfully maneuvered The Ravager inland through a narrow, but deep, waterway, and anchored the boat in a cove at the edge of the Southern Glades.

  That’s when Noah and Grace said that they just had to show them this remarkable spot for snorkeling. And when Kelly begged off, while saying that she wanted to stay and help Chip set-up on the beach, Grace and Noah grinned as if it were Christmas morning.

  And so Kelly watched as the foursome disappeared from sight after rounding a curve in the shoreline, and wondered how aggressive Chip would become now that they were alone.

  To her surprise, Chip sat across from her rather than sitting closer, but when he poured tea from a pitcher and offered her a glass of it, she wondered if the tea were drugged.

  As if to answer the question, Chip poured a glass for himself from the same pitcher and drank from it.

  That made her drop her guard, and she took a sip of the tea, found it to be too warm for her liking, and added ice cubes from a bucket that sat beside the pitcher.

  Chip grinned at her.

  “Would you like a little rum in that tea?”

  Ah, Kelly thought. Maybe his plan is to get me drunk.

  “No thanks, I only like beer.”

  Chip looked around.

  “Do you like it here in the cove?”

  “Yes,” Kelly said, and it was true. The cove was lovely, a U-shaped oasis of clear blue water surrounded by sheltering trees, amid the serenad
e of birds and insects. The beach was so white that the sand looked like sugar, and the flowering plants gave off a sweet scent like perfume.

  It was a truly beautiful place, and she was sharing it with a child-molesting monster. Only, the monster wasn’t being very monstrous at the moment, and Kelly had imagined that he’d be all over her by now, but no, Chip was just leaning back in his seat, sipping the tea, and smiling.

  “You’re a very pretty girl, Kelly.”

  “Thank you, Chip, and you’re cute too.”

  Chip waved that off, although it wasn’t untrue. He wasn’t the best looking man in the world, but he was in good shape and had a pleasant face.

  When Chip said nothing more, Kelly laid her head back against the lounge chair and savored the cool breeze blowing in from the shadows beneath the trees. It was a hot day full of sun, but in the cove, all was nice and comfy.

  She jerked her head up.

  Had she almost fallen asleep?

  She glanced at the nearly empty glass of tea in her hand and wondered again if it had been drugged.

  It couldn’t have been spiked. Chip drank from the same pitcher.

  But then she felt the glass slipping from her grip and shook her head, as the need to sleep grew stronger.

  When she looked over at Chip, he was grinning at her.

  “Getting sleepy, are we?”

  Kelly stood. The boat had an air horn. One blast from it would bring Cassandra and Jace running back. That was true, but after taking a sideways step, Kelly fell back onto the lounge chair, and laid flat with just her legs hanging off the side.

  “Did you put something in my drink?”

  Chip gave her a look as if he were a little boy caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

  “Grace did it, and it was in the ice cubes, not the tea. That trick works every time.”

  “Every time?” Kelly murmured, while she wondered what drug Grace had used, whatever it was, it was awesome. She was no longer groggy, but was just floating along in a delicious stupor, one that made even her fear melt, and when she wondered what Chip would do next, the thought was accompanied by curiosity, not fright.

  “Oh yes, Kelly, we’ve had many girls like you, but would you like to know a secret?”

  “Sure,” Kelly moaned, “Why not?”

  “Grace was the first.”

  “Grace?”

  “Yes.”

  “You drugged her too?”

  Chip laughed.

  “God no, she gave herself willingly, and she was only eleven,”

  “Tell me more,” Kelly whispered, and Chip did, as she floated on a pillow drifting atop a cloud.

  ***

  Jace and Cassandra followed along behind Noah and Grace who insisted on carrying the large blue cooler between them, which they said held blankets, bottled water, and snorkeling gear.

  They had walked at a good pace and covered nearly two miles when they came to a lagoon that was much smaller than the cove they had left.

  Noah pointed out at the water.

  “We’ve navigated the boat to just out past that sandbank, but the water here is only about twenty feet deep, and there’s a natural tunnel at the base of the sandbank that you can swim through, it’s pretty cool.”

  Cassandra glanced around.

  “It’s beautiful here.”

  Noah stared at her. “You’re beautiful,”

  Cassandra was wearing a blue and white striped bikini that accentuated her breasts and displayed her shapely tanned legs.

  “Catch!” Grace said, as she threw a blanket, which Jace caught, and then watched as Noah spread one atop the sand twenty feet away.

  “Why don’t we just chill for a while?” Noah said.

  Jace spread the blanket out, and when he and Cassandra settled atop it, they looked over and saw that Noah and Grace were lying down together and kissing.

  Grace smiled at them.

  “Don’t be shy.”

  Jace and Cassandra locked eyes, leaned towards each other, and kissed.

  “Remember,” Cassandra whispered. “We’re a couple,”

  Jace smiled, pushed Cassandra to lie flat, and ran his hands over her body, and as he did so, she sighed with pleasure.

  CHAPTER 29

  He had just made it to the top of the staircase when Boone sent a second blast his way from the sawed-off shotgun.

  The pellets missed by several feet, but the sound of their impact into the wall spurred him on faster.

  He knew the house well, having searched it the day before, and soon lay waiting in a spot where he could ambush Boone as the man crept up the stairs.

  However, Boone surprised him. The man seemed to have no sense of caution as he sprinted up the steps without fear, and when he fired at him, he missed Boone by more than a foot, while giving away his position in the doorway of the middle bedroom.

  Boone fired off another blast, shredding the spot he’d just rolled away from, and then he was on his feet again, only to dive through the doorway that connected one room to the other, to land, roll, and come up in a crouching position with the Colt Python held up and ready.

  “You’re a quick bastard, I’ll give you that, but who are you?”

  “I’m the man who will kill you,” he said, giving away his position as Boone had hoped, but then, slipping soundlessly to the right, and easing behind the open door of a closet.

  When the expected blast came, he let out a cry of pain, hoping that Boone would think it real.

  It worked, and Boone rushed into the room with a gleeful face, expecting to find him wounded or dead.

  He pulled the trigger with his gun aimed at Boone’s head, and its barrel resting atop a hinge in the crack between the door and its frame, but the big man threw himself backwards into the hallway at the last second, and the shot missed.

  That’s when he remembered that there was a mirror above the mantelpiece of the fireplace in that room, and realized that Boone must have glimpsed his movement in it.

  “That was close, asshole, but ol’ Boone is harder to kill than that.”

  He went silent then. The Colt Python was a .357 and held six bullets. When he’d taken it off Angie there were only five in it, and so far, he had fired three times. That left two shots remaining.

  Boone’s voice came from somewhere in the rooms behind him.

  “Shit, you’ve been here for a while, haven’t you? You found my damn guns and took out the bullets. But that’s okay, I’ve still got a shell left in my shotgun.”

  He smiled. Boone was lying. He’d gotten a good look at the shotgun and was sure it was a Mossberg 500. That gun was capable of holding five shells and Boone had only fired three times. No, he also had two shots left, maybe even more if he had the time to grab extra shells before leaving the boat.

  He moved back into the hallway, crouched, with his left shoulder hugging the wall, and went in search of Boone.

  ***

  Cassandra gasped as Jace ran a hand along her hip.

  She glanced over at Noah and Grace and saw that they were watching them even as they did their own kissing, and when Grace caught her eye, she parted her lips from Noah and asked a question.

  “If you two are feeling adventurous, we could switch off.”

  Jace gazed over at her.

  “Thanks baby, but I’ve got everything I want right here.”

  “Still, the offer stands,” Grace said, before kissing Noah hard on the mouth.

  Jace and Cassandra locked eyes, and went back to kissing. When it turned more passionate, Cassandra couldn’t help but notice the effect she was having on Jace.

  “My my,” she whispered, “You’re quite the actor,”

  “Sorry about that,” Jace said.

  Cassandra whispered. “Don’t be, you’re not the only one feeling things.”

  She was lying on her back with Jace’s arms around her, as he laid on his side, she shifted to her left, pressed her hips against him, and stared into his eyes, while caressing his cheek.
/>
  “We might as well make the best of this, no?”

  And when her tongue slipped between his lips, Jace moaned in pleasure, but it was short-lived, as moments later, he felt the tip of a knife prick his back.

  He released Cassandra and sat up, and that’s when they saw Noah and Grace standing over them, both with long knives in their hands.

  Noah grinned.

  “Like Grace said, we switch,”

  ***

  Back on the boat, Kelly was still conscious, but had neither the desire or ability to move. The drug she’d been slipped seemed to leave her floating in a cloud of semi-consciousness, but it was Chip’s voice that held her there, as he talked on and enlightened her about Grace.

  “Grace grew up in Porto Alegre in Brazil, and from the time she was eight, her father had pimped her out. She was eleven when I first saw her, and by then she had grown to hate her father and was looking for another one. That’s where I came in, and when I left Brazil, Grace came with me.”

  Outwardly, Kelly showed no reaction to what she’d just heard, but inwardly, she cringed in disgust.

  Pimped out at eight? And by her own father, and then she has the misfortune of meeting this pig.

  “I was a huge step up for Grace,” Chip continued. “I fed her well, taught her to read, and despite what you might think, I never had to ask her for sex, she gave it willingly, and back then, we shared the same bed every night. But, as they say, variety is the spice of life, and soon, we started picking up strays.”

  Kelly tried to sit up, but couldn’t. She wasn’t physically unable to, it was just that the desire to follow through on the thought was nonexistent, like a smoker saying they should quit, even as they lit up another cigarette.

  The drug was bliss, damn near euphoric, and so she just laid back and listened, as Chip prattled on.

  “Things were great for years, but then, then Grace met Noah, and I knew I had to let him join us or risk losing her. And, it’s not so bad, she still comes to my bed sometimes, and Noah has no desire to be boss. We’ve got a great life the three of us, a great life.”

  “What are you going to do to me?” Kelly said, but it came out as, “Whuut arrr u goon dooo to mep?”