Healed
The Found
Book Three
By
Caitlyn O’Leary
© Copyright July 2015 Caitlyn O’Leary
ISBN# 978-1-943281-59-6
All cover art and logos © Copyright July 2015 by Caitlyn O’Leary
All rights reserved.
Cover by Croco Designs
Published by Passionately Kind Publishing, Inc.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Biography
Books by Caitlyn O’Leary
Thorn’s Bondmate
Berserker’s Rage
DEDICATION
To My Fabulous Beta Readers
Trenda London, Karen DiGaetano, Kenna Nauenburg, Elle Boon
Chapter One
“What the hell do you mean Sarah’s gone?” Nate pressed Kota against the wall of the parking garage at the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.
“She booked three flights this morning. I was here confirming what Sierra found out.”
“Which is?” Nate demanded as he pushed Kota harder into the cement wall.
“She hopped flight 760 to Atlanta at six am.” Nate gave his friend and Navy teammate a hard look.
“Did you confirm it?”
“Of course I did. I got two valid I.D.’s confirming what we all saw on the video.” Kota gave him an offended look.
“I don’t understand. Why would you need to go that far? Call Sarah’s family, they have to know where she is in Atlanta.” Nate’s fingers tightened on Kota’s shirt in frustration.
“That’s the problem. She didn’t get off the plane in Atlanta.” The frustration in Kota’s voice was clear.
“Fine, she got off at the layover.”
“It was a direct flight.”
“Sierra must have fucked up. She had to be on the video getting off the plane.” Nate’s voice held just a hint of desperation.
“We had her brother Cyrus look at the video too.” Nate’s arm tightened against Kota’s throat.
“Cut a guy some slack,” Kota gasped. Nate looked at his friend, whose normally bronze skin was turning a lovely shade of purple. Releasing him, Kota slumped against the wall.
“Fuck. Would you please quit with the crazy?”
He’d like to, he’d really like to, but where the hell was Sarah? “I’m going to Atlanta.” He grabbed his duffle and turned towards the terminal.
“I’m telling you, she wasn’t on the plane.”
“And I’m telling you, you’re all forgetting Occam’s razor. You’re looking for a complicated answer to a simple problem. She disguised herself while on the plane and you missed her when she deplaned.”
“Fuck you, Nathan Goodman. I looked, Sierra looked and there is no way her brother would have missed her.” Kota no longer looked injured, he looked worried and pissed.
“She’s one of the found. She has special abilities. You forget they’re beginning to take on each other’s gifts. Seth can blend into any situation. She disguised herself and blended in with the other passengers. It’s simple. She’s in Atlanta. Those fuckers at Rixitron are still gunning for her, and she’s out of her mind for leaving the safety of the apartments. When I find her, I’m going to set her ass straight for putting herself in harm’s way.”
Nate’s eye twitched and his palm itched as he strode through the same doors he just exited. He booked a flight taking off in less than two hours. He was surprised Kota didn’t follow him. In the past his naval buddy stuck with him when he went on one of his wild rides.
Just as he passed through security, his phone rang.
“Nate. I agree with you. She’s in Atlanta.” A little bit of the tension left his shoulders when he heard his commander’s voice. He had worked with Noah Kukailimoku in the Navy for over six years. He trusted him like no one else.
“Finally, someone with some sense. Why didn’t you say so sooner?” There was a long pause.
“We were at the hospital, Kali was having Braxton Hicks labor pains.” Noah said, referring to his wife.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Why the hell wasn’t Sarah by Kali’s side? She was a doctor and a healer, and should be with Kali if she was going into labor. None of this made any sense. When he said as much, he was surprised by Noah’s reaction.
“Sarah’s already been through this false labor with us three times. What’s more her specialty is pediatrics.”
“All the more reason for her to be there, you’re having children.” Nate emphasized the last word, since his friends were having twins.
“We’ve got a great obstetrician. We don’t need Sarah and she knows it.” There was another long pause. “This has to be huge for Sarah to leave like this.”
“Why wouldn’t she tell everyone and ask for someone to escort her?” Nate knew the answer as soon as he asked the question.
“Because we wouldn’t have let her go. She’s in too much danger. You know those fuckers are still looking to take her into their breeding program.” Hearing the phrase had chills running through his body.
“Nate, I think Cyrus should be the one who goes after her. He’s her brother, a cop, and knows Atlanta inside and out. It makes the most sense.”
The twitch over Nate’s eye increased. “Except he doesn’t even think she’s there, so he can just sit this one out.”
“You’re on tap to act as undercover security for one of the next Rixitron rotations. This is an important operation. We can find out what they’re up to, it took a lot of maneuvering to arrange this.” Noah sounded every inch the commander.
“You can fix it, put Cyrus in for me. I’m doing this Noah.” He disconnected the call and stood in the middle of the causeway. Dammit, he wanted her back in the apartments, safe and sound, not out where people would be trying to capture and hurt her. He shoved his hands in his pocket, knowing worrying wouldn’t help anything, he needed to focus on the present and what he could accomplish. First things first, he needed a clear head. He hadn’t eaten in damn near fourteen hours, a lifetime for him. He headed to the Mexican restaurant up ahead. At least there was a decent one in this airport, with good beer and good fajitas. The food would soothe him as he concentrated on the next steps.
Nate was tired and not paying attention as he made his way to his seat on the plane. He followed a mother holdinga small child, who must have been about three years old. The boy started to cry as he stared at Nate, and Nate cursed himself and immediately smiled. He knew better than this. At six foot six, and a face like a block of granite he could easily scare small children. It never bothered him to scare the enemy, now that he enjoyed. But he should have realized there was a kid in front of him and been smiling. He could always get a kid to smile back at him when he worked at it. The little boy stopped crying and gave a shy wave.
Nate got into the aisle seat, thankful he would be able to stretch out his legs for portions of the flight. He closed his eyes and attempted to get some sleep, but found it useless. Instead he kept thinking about the last assignment in Mexico where they had to rescue the American factory owner who had been kidnapped.
Thank God the kidnappers had wanted suc
h an outrageous amount of money that it had given them more time than normal to find their location. It was when the kidnappers wanted smaller sums the length of time was shorter and the odds of finding them in time was reduced. Another thing in their favor was the family called the embassy as soon as they received the internet feed showing the victim being held with the ticking clock and a knife to his throat. They had five days to get twenty million dollars in diamonds. It had been close, but they had managed to get to him in time.
Nate and his team had been on their way stateside after a month in Afghanistan rescuing three journalists when they had gotten the assignment in Mexico. He’d wanted to get back stateside. He wanted to start working with others on his team whose job it was to protect the found.
That had been his plan. He had worked one mission in Florida with the team, but mostly he had been overseas, and was tired of it. He worked with some of his teammates when he was overseas, but these days the majority of his friends were stateside, and he missed them. He missed Sarah, he missed her too much. And if the way he just lost his shit on Kota was any indication, obviously he had pretty deep feelings for the woman, so why the hell hadn’t he been pursuing her? Because you’re a dumbass. Well that was about to change, just as soon as he got her safely back to California, he was going to start by asking her out on a date. God that sounded lame, but he had to start somewhere.
He was going to have to talk to Admiral Sakuro about having his orders changed so that the majority of his time was spent in California. He would still be part of the elite naval unit, just focused on the enemies of the found, not on the hostage and rescue they had been doing for the last few years. With that decided Nate was finally able to get some sleep.
When he landed in Atlanta, Sierra had him booked into the Westin hotel at the airport. Pulling out his laptop to view the security tapes she’d forwarded, he got an incoming Skype from her and Cyrus.
“She didn’t get off the plane. She must have given us the slip in Orange County.” Cyrus looked haggard.
“How do you think she managed that? We saw them take her ticket, and watched her go through the doorway onto the plane ramp.” It took everything Nate had to keep his tone reasonable. Cyrus and Sierra were talking bullshit.
“Maybe she let everybody else pass by and just before they closed the doors she came back out?” Sierra suggested tentatively.
“Really? Didn’t you check the tapes? How long did you watch? Did you ever see her come back out of the jet way?”
“I watched the tapes for two hours and no she didn’t come out. But she could have gone out with the employees near the end of the ramp.”
Nate just lifted his eyebrows.
“Yeah, it smelled bad to us too.” Nate could clearly see their frustration.
“Cyrus, send me the tape of the departing passengers in Atlanta.”
“We went over the tapes four times. She didn’t get off the plane.” Then he paused and looked directly at Nate. “But I’d love it if you found something I missed.” It was obvious how much he cared for his baby sister.
“Send them to me.” He shut down the Skype session. He didn’t have long to wait, Sierra had the tapes to him in record time. Since they had been so sure she hadn’t deplaned, he was surprised how fast he recognized her. She was the thirty-first passenger off the plane. She’d cut her hair short, wore a mini-skirt and held hands with a young black man, while concentrating on her phone. Damn. She knew exactly how to avoid the security cameras. And who the fuck was the guy? He was a pretty boy. Nate hated him.
Nate watched the man pull her close and kiss her temple as they passed the airline desk. No wonder Cyrus and Sierra had been fooled. Who was he? They were far too comfortable together. Damn she looked good. He’d never seen her legs showcased like that before. Who the hell was the man with her? He watched the tape two more times, and on the third run through he pulled his attention away from Sarah and concentrated on the man.
Whoever the guy was, he definitely took note of his surroundings. While he paid attention to Sarah. He was also aware of his surroundings, like he had special training. Nothing escaped his notice. Nate went back to the original boarding tapes. Sarah boarded with a shopping bag and a purse. The man boarded with a duffel bag and a backpack.
Now Nate watched for it, he saw they knew one another before they boarded, it was subtle, but they acknowledged one another. This was no chance meeting on the plane. Going back to tapes of the plane’s arrival in Atlanta, he watched as Sarah departed with a backpack, no purse, no shopping bag. The male carried only his duffel. Dammit, she called in an accomplice to help her.
Nate pressed his hand against his forehead trying to stop the annoying twitch. Then he placed a video call to his teammates. It was no damn hardship to hide out in a brand new apartment complex in Newport Beach, California, but it still chafed the found members, and apparently Sarah had reached her limit.
Sierra popped up on the first ring, she looked anxious. “Hey, Sierra, get Cyrus.”
“He’s here. We got tapes of the outside area of the airport in Orange County. Sarah didn’t leave through the employee exit.”
“I know, she deplaned in Atlanta. Pull up the tape, she was passenger number thirty-one, she was with a black male. Cyrus, can you identify him?”
He did his best to wait patiently, zooming in on the picture of Sarah. She was smart—no face shot. She kept her head down the entire time. But he’d know her anywhere. Those hands, the arch of her neck, okay maybe the legs threw him for a loop. He’d never seen her in a short skirt before. God, he wanted to see those long mocha colored legs in person, preferably while wrapped around his waist. Fuck, he needed to dial it back. First he needed to get to know her, hell they’d never been on a damn date.
“Fuck, how did I miss her?” Cyrus snapped. “She’s my little sister.” Nate wanted to know the same damn thing, but he kept his mouth shut.
“Who’s the guy?” Sierra asked.
“Never saw him before.” Cyrus sounded frustrated.
“Maybe she picked him up on the plane,” Sierra said. Nate snorted, and then explained what he had discovered.
“Cyrus, can you get his photo in front of your brothers? See if anyone knows this creep?”
“On it.”
“He doesn’t look like a creep.” Nate recognized the tone from Sierra, she used it occasionally when she was trying to soothe one of her naval teammates. Right now it was fucking irritating and he told her so.
“Look Goodman, going off half-cocked isn’t going to help things.” Sierra said using her smack down voice. “Obviously something was pretty damned important to Sarah. She’s smart, smarter than the two of us put together. She knows her life is in danger. If she thought something was worth this level of risk, then it is.”
Nate stared at the computer screen unable to believe the shit coming out of Sierra’s mouth.
“I can hear you growling.”
“I am not growling,” he said between clenched teeth.
“You are so growling you fucking Neanderthal. You better be thinking with the big head and not the little head. Sarah might have given us the slip, but she needs protection, and you’re it big guy.” Sierra pointed at him for emphasis.
“Bullshit, my family will be right by the big guy’s side.” Shoving his face into the screen.
Nate didn’t doubt it in the slightest. He had met Cyrus’s brothers. They lived in Atlanta, and he knew as soon as he pointed out Sarah in the video Cyrus had sent texts to his family.
“When can I expect to see the hoard?” Nate tried not to shudder thinking of all the Johnson brothers.
“As soon as you get your ass over to my parent’s house.”
“You told your mom and dad?” Nate asked incredulously.
“Of course. My mother would have torn a strip off me if I kept this from her.”
Nate flashed back to the nice woman who arranged the prayer circle for Kali when she had been kidnapped, it didn’t jive.
“Why would you worry your mother?”
“Are you saying because she’s a woman, she’s weak and needs to be protected?” Sierra demanded.
“Can it Sierra. You know I don’t feel like that. Hell, how many times have I depended on you to pull my ass out of the fire when we’ve been on missions together? But this is Mrs. Johnson’s little girl we’re talking about. I didn’t think she needed this worry.”
Nate watched as Cyrus threw his head back and laughed.
“Let me tell you something about Lila Johnson. She’s the fiercest member of the Johnson clan when it comes to her children. Don’t be messing with her babies. She might be all choir singing, church going, Sunday dinner making mama, but she’s a lion wrapped in sheep’s clothing. I’m scared of my Mama, and I’m damn near forty years old.” Cyrus laughed outright.
“I didn’t mean to cast aspersions on your mother. However, I will now be casting aspersions on your manhood on a regular basis. I just didn’t want her worried. I’d hoped we could find Sarah before she knew she was even gone.” Nate rubbed the back of his neck, but nothing was going to work out the kinks.
“You’re still not getting it. Mom will be able to help the most. Nobody knows Sarah better than she does. I was kind of yanking your chain, but seriously, my mother has every right to know what’s going on, and she’ll be a big help. So get your ass over to my parent’s house. They’re expecting you. You did good recognizing my sister, don’t blow it now by being a horse’s ass.”
“Do you have any idea why she would do something so reckless? Rixitron is still intent on conducting their breeding experiments with the found. Sarah’s been the number one target. It’s been barely eight months since we stopped their attempted kidnapping in Atlanta. Why would she risk coming here?”
“It has to be something important, and by that I mean something damn near life and death in her eyes. I can’t fathom what it is, that’s why you have to talk to Mama. If anyone can get into Sarah’s head, it’s her.”
“Let me finish going through the tapes, I want to see if I can find her leaving the airport. I want to know if she took a taxi, or they left in a car. After that, I’ll head on over to your mother’s house.” Nate shut off the Skype session, determined to find more information to help in their investigation. He was not going to fail.
Healed (The Found Book 3) Page 1