“Answer or I take one of their fingers.”
Oh my God.
“You will not call your boyfriend. You will not call another number on your cell or your landline or I will cut something from your mother first and then move on to your father. Do you understand?”
Bile rises in my throat, and I’m already crying when I answer yes, my whole body shaking violently when he chuckles.
“Good. Now, you listen and you obey. I want you to come outside. A car will be there to pick you up. Do not struggle or my man will hurt you.”
“W-why? Why are you d-doing this?” I ask tearfully as my mind races.
“You will bring me what I want.”
“What—”
“Shut up! Just do as I say.”
“Not if you don’t tell me who you are.”
“Oh, really? Mrs. Staneslovsky, tell your daughter that you don’t need ten fingers but you would like to keep them.”
I hear a muffled shriek and start sobbing at the implication.
“Okay! Okay, just please…I’ll do what you want.”
“The car will be there shortly. I am monitoring your phones, so be smart.”
The call ends, and I’m up, shaking like a leaf as I dive for my dresser. The first thing I pull out is the little gun Lyon gave me. It goes in my waistband, and the knife goes in my shoe, Danny’s tactics almost making me smile.
The next thing I do is run to the fridge where a pad is hanging. The message I scribble to Wolf is a scrawled mess because my hands are shaking violently, but I manage to get it down and dive for the kitchen drawer just as gravel crunches outside.
I can’t take my phone. It would be too obvious, and the gun…that’s a decoy for the knife, but I do have another ace. Wolf’s paranoid and has these little tracker thingies that he’s always trying to get me to wear.
I haven’t as of yet, but I thank him silently as I grab the little disk and shove it into my sock, praying that I activated it right.
Once that’s done, I have to walk out onto the porch, and trust me, I am barely on my feet as I stumble out and down the porch steps, my legs like spaghetti when I see the huge behemoth waiting for me.
The punch I receive comes out of the blue and knocks me out instantly. I don’t even feel pain when my vision winks out and I fall into him.
Wolf
The house is quiet and dark when I pull up, the storm battering my truck making it hard to see anything as I bail out and rush for the porch. God, I hope the power hasn’t been down long, because Lori is not good in the dark.
“Babe?” I call out as I unlock the door.
The place is like a tomb, and my senses start tingling when I flick a light switch and everything illuminates around me. I’m running for the bedroom before I can think, and I know immediately something’s wrong when the place is empty.
“Lori!” Her car is outside, so I know she’s not running late, and a search of her little vegetable garden in the pouring rain is my last-ditch hope, my mind shrinking away from but hoping she’s out there for some reason. Maybe she fell and passed out or—
“Lori!”
I’m at my wits’ end when I skid into the kitchen and feel my heart stop when my eye just happens to catch the pad hanging on the fridge.
The message is nothing but a scrawl, and I can almost see her fear as she scribbled. Someone has her and her parents.
“Lyon! Someone took Lori and her folks. Call the men.”
They arrive en masse in under thirty minutes, Lyon the first to rush in and grab me where I’m still standing by the fridge, staring sightlessly at the message.
“What the hell?”
“I found it just now, after I looked for her and didn’t find her. She’s not here, man. She’s gone,” I wheeze, the fear hitting me like a hammer blow.
Lyon grabs my neck when I go to run outside, his own clothes soaking into me when he grabs me.
“Stop! Think. You know it won’t do you any good to go running out of here without a clue as to where she is. We need info. Jake! Search the house. Lynx, I want eyes outside. The rain’s washed away tracks, possible clues, but if someone has her and they’re out there, I want warning first. Bear, call your pal at the phone company. I want to know if anyone called her in the last two days.”
Things go full speed from there, and I feel useless when Lyon shoves me down into a chair and forces me to stay.
“Text! We got a text on her cell. She hid it under the pillow, but I found it. Shit.”
The words make my blood run cold. Someone does have her parents. And now her, and not knowing makes me want to run out there and tear the world apart looking for her.
“We have a call logged at around four sixteen! The number is a burner phone, but I have Brass on it. If it’s at all traceable, we’ll find it,” Jake says, striding in with a scowl.
Traceable—
Jumping up, I rush for the drawer where Lori has thrown every tracker I tried to sneak onto her. I’ve tried to hide one on her for the last three weeks, the last one she found under her phone cover making it a total of six.
“She took a tracker. That’s my girl!” I yell triumphantly, the guys already running as I hit the porch and dive for my truck.
My adrenalin is pumping, and I may not have a clue what the hell is going on, but I swear to God I will kill whoever laid hands on my woman. The computer in my truck is set up to ping the trackers—yeah, I know I sound like a stalker boyfriend, but give me a break. It’s a fucking good thing I’m this crazy.
“Lafayette?” Bear asks slowly, his face going hard as I pull out, reversing with mud flying all around us. “Jesus Christ. I know who took her.”
“Bear, this can’t be—”
“At the debriefing, you told them it was you who took Noni out, because you didn’t want Danny to face an enquiry. I know who this is, Wolf. I’ve had my eye on him for a while, and it’s a good thing too. Why do you think I called the teams back from the job in Switzerland? I got a hit on Noni’s nephew, Grant, when he slipped into New Orleans earlier in the month.”
Shit! Fuck.
“He’d better hope she’s not hurt, because I will kill him,” I snarl, taking turns at breakneck speed despite the slick roads.
We’re all crammed into my truck, and I ignore their curses when they slam together with every twist of the wheel, Lyon gritting his teeth and holding on beside me.
“You all armed?”
Bear’s question is foolish. We go everywhere armed. Hell, Lyon sleeps with his gun, the paranoid fuck.
“And ready,” Lyon snarls, his affection for Lori making him just as dangerous, if not more than, anyone else in the truck.
Except me. I’m a raging beast inside, and I pity anyone who gets in my way.
They have a head start on us, and with the rain, I finally have to slow down or risk killing us all, making the journey slower than I would like.
I’m seething, afraid, almost numb with the overload when I feel a kernel of something take root inside my chest, almost crippling me. It hurts to breathe, seriously hurts, and I have to dig deep for strength when the need to cry makes my eyes burn.
“We’re gonna get her back, Wolf.”
“I know, Lyon, but in what condition?” I ask, choking at the thought of my baby hurt and all alone.
She must be freaking out by now. I know she’s doing better after therapy, and I know she’s strong, but Lori’s still dealing with a lot of the old angst her trauma caused, and I’ve seen her freak out.
It’s another element of danger added to a situation that is already up shit creek. If she goes numb and lame, she can’t fight, and if she can’t fight, they could kill her.
“She just started sleeping properly and stopped having the nightmares every night! This is bullshit!” I yell, slamming my fist into the wheel so hard it makes a crunching sound.
“Calm down. Don’t go nuts on us or I will tranq your ass. I don’t need you fucking things up by losing your temper.
Lori’s life depends on you keeping things level and being the cold hard-ass you have always been. She’ll be okay, but you can’t help her if you get yourself killed running off half-cocked,” Bear shouts, the rain pouring down so hard it’s all we hear in the cab of the truck.
He’s right, and I know he is. I need to dig deep and find that cold I’ve lived with for years. I need it now, now when I feel, now when the thought of going back to the numbness is almost too hard to bear.
I do find it though. I have no choice, and when I feel it settle inside me, I know that I pity anyone who has laid a hand on her.
Chapter Fourteen
Lori
My eyes open to complete darkness and cold, so cold I feel my hands ache when I push down beside my hips to push myself up. It hurts like a bitch, and I moan out loud when I can’t move, my body numb with the chill I feel all the way inside my bones.
I can hardly move when I roll, groaning long and low at the icy burn that meets me when I touch the floor. I’m on the verge of meltdown status when I hear soft whimpers reaching out from the pitch-black.
“Hello?” I croak, fearful to make a sound but so scared and cold I can’t stop the sound.
“Help us.”
I cringe at the soft plea, my own helplessness starkly opposed to the hopeful note in the girl’s voice. I can’t even help myself, and I know, from the grogginess, druggedness—I can’t think of another word because I’m so cold it hurts to form a thought—I know that I’m not only numb from cold but the feelings trying to break free inside me.
Not now, I plead with a higher power. Please just make me strong now.
It takes a bit, but I note, finally, that I am not naked, and I thank God when I feel my shoes because I know that I at least have a knife as protection.
“Where are we?”
“F-f-f-freezer,” another voice gasps, the chattering of teeth making her voice a hoarse croak of sound in the stillness.
Oh God! We’ll die.
“H-how long?”
“Twenty m-m-minutes. I think. So cold. So, so cold.”
Somehow, I manage to find them in the darkness, pulling my legs behind me as I will myself to keep moving and build up some heat. We need to get out of here now. It’s the only thought I have as I meet the icy cold flesh of seeking hands and gently grip the fingers shaking in mine.
I keep my voice steady by sheer force of will, I don’t even know how, and lock my jaw against the teeth-chattering cold.
“We need to get out. Where is the door?” I ask.
One girl, because I only hear two voices, slowly takes my hand and leads me to her left, the cold metal meeting my palm. I can’t see a thing, but I feel the latch, and knowing it won’t do a damn thing. I pull.
Locked.
“We have to get this open. Help me.”
It’s hard, and I have to stop a pained cry when my fingers start aching, but we do try, the sheer fact that we’re trapped inside a meat locker driving me on, pushing away the panic that’s snapping at my heels.
It feels like hours that we pull and push and bang on the door, my desperation pushing me to scream for help even when my instinct tells me to shut the hell up.
I don’t want to die. Not in here. Not in the dark where I can’t even draw up Wolf’s image in my mind. The thought gives me hope because it’s all I have. He’ll have found the note by now. He’ll be coming for me. I know it as strongly as I know that we need to get out of here.
The door clangs moments, hours later, and I scramble back, blinking at the shaft of light that hits my eyes.
“You’re all alive still! Good. Come on, then.”
The voice is a soft crow of amusement, and I tilt my head to let the girls out first, horrified when my eyes land on another girl, curled up in a tight ball in the corner.
She’s probably dead, I think, swallowing bile. But I pull her out with me, hurting and struggling under the weight despite her stiffness.
“Leave the bitch. She’s a popsicle.”
“You’re a monster!” I yell, falling onto hard kitchen tile, my body screaming at the sudden change in temperature.
The girl is blue with the cold, and my tears burn as they fall, dripping onto her face. I don’t know her, but the grief I feel at this show of cruelty, the horrible way she—
Her eyelid twitches. She’s barely breathing, but I see her eyelid twitch and gasp my joy.
“She’s alive! I need a blanket.”
“She’s a lost cause.”
He growls the words with exasperated annoyance, and I look up at him, baring my teeth in a snarl. His eyes are black, bottomless pits, colder than anything I have ever seen.
He’s short, almost squat, and bald, I note, taking in the sweat on his brow with envy.
“Come now, I don’t have time for this. We need to make a call.”
“I’m not doing shit until I get her warm.”
I have no idea where I find the balls, honestly, but I know, as I look down at the icy blond hair and marble-white pallor of her skin, I can’t leave her here to die.
The man snarls and goes to hit me, but I jump up and take a fighting stance, the karate and Wolf’s teachings bringing me into instinctive defensive pose.
He laughs, and I feel a bit of the panic slipping away. Wolf told me they’d underestimate me and that would be my biggest advantage. I take it before he can let out another bark of amusement, slamming out my hand, the heel meeting his nose with a sickening crush. He stumbles back, and I leap again, slapping both hands to his ears quickly before following with a chop to the throat.
It’s gross, the crunching bone and gurgle, but it serves me well when he falls to his knees and slumps to the floor.
“Come on.”
The girls I ignored thus far spring into action, grabbing a leg as I shove my hands beneath the unconscious girl’s armpits and lift, wheezing at her weight.
She’s not fat. In fact, I can see her ribs poking through skin, but I am weak and still fighting the drugging effects of the cold.
And my nerves are screaming in pain as circulation resumes.
We make it to the kitchen door just as a blast rocks the house somewhere. The noise is deafening and gets worse when bullets start booming in loud staccato waves all around.
“Drop!”
On the floor on my belly, I throw myself at the girls and pull them down when they freeze. I wince when the unconscious girl’s head hits the floor, but I can’t worry about that right now.
Bullets. Bangs. Booms. It’s a war zone of sounds and screaming. I’m terrified out of my skull now. It’s one thing to have a knife and think about using it. It’s another when faced with shooting, screaming, bloody warfare altogether.
We need to run.
“Come on.”
Grabbing the girl under the arms, this time all by myself, I start dragging her to the back door and almost faint in relief when it opens and no one attacks me.
The others are crying, but I can’t care right now. I need to get us all out before we get shot. It’s not easy though. The backyard is a long stretch of grass and bushes. It’s hot and dark, and I can’t see anyone coming at us.
Fear is a bitter tang in my mouth as I lower the girl to the bricks behind a flowerbed filled with honeysuckle and gesture for the others to hide. My knife is a solid weight in my hand. They’re shaking, but I have something to protect us at least.
Well, me. I have to go back in there. My parents haven’t just magically escaped.
“Don’t leave us.”
“Please.”
“I need to go find my parents. Stay here, and when you can, run. Get to a phone and call the cops. Don’t let them take you again.”
I ignore their whimpers and dart back inside just as someone comes through the door. I freeze, as does he before he smiles and lunges for me.
He never makes it, and I do scream when he stills, eyes rolling back in his head and collapses, a knife imbedded in his neck.
“Haul
ass, baby girl! That man of yours has lost his shit.”
I fling myself at Lyon, shock and relief making me sob when his strong arms wrap around me. I could so stay like this forever, I think, crying into his armpit, which is all I can reach, the man is so big.
“Move, babe—”
“My parents,” I cry, struggling when he grabs hold of me.
“Are already out. Wolf and Bear went after that little shit Grant. Come on, Lori girl. We need to get you out and to safety before he’ll stop the rampage. Christ, that man is nasty when he’s pissed.”
“But…” I look down at my knife and pout.
It’s awful, but with the relief and the certainty that I am safe, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to use the thing. What?! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I can tell you that now because Wolf will be on my poor ass like white on rice from now on.
“Don’t pout. I’m sure Wolf will give you many reasons to use it over the next few years,” he laughs, correctly interpreting my expression. “And don’t even think of going in after him. He’d fucking kill me.”
I sigh and remember the girls, my eyes widening.
“Come on. I need your help. We need a medic or an ambulance.”
Lyon almost growls my ear off when I lead him outside to the flowers and show him the girls. The first two cower back before they see me, but he’s only got eyes for the blonde with the blue lips.
Tears fill my eyes when he falls to his knees beside her, his hand shaking when he reaches for her and softly feels for a pulse.
“Take this, and tell Hawk to get a bus down here.”
I do as he says and wait a minute before Hawk and Lynx round the corner, stopping dead at the sight of the women, their eyes taking in the way Lyon has the blonde cradled to his chest.
Something is going on here, and I should care, but all I care about when the door bangs open and Wolf stumbles out is him.
I’m in his arms in seconds. I don’t know if it’s me who moved first or him, but I’m on him, legs gripping his hips as he crushes me to his chest and pants into my hair.
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