by Elle James
The SUV drove south, as far as Kinsey could tell. They’d stuffed a rag in her mouth, tied her wrists behind her back, using the scarf Lois had worn, and then secured her ankles with duct tape. Then they’d tossed her into the back of the vehicle on the floor. She tried to sit up to look out the window, but every time they rounded a corner, she was thrown across the floor again, bumping her head against the sides of the vehicle.
She could tell the van was winding downhill, traversing back and forth. From her knowledge of the island, she’d bet they were heading down to the little Port of Athinios where the ferries landed and cargo for the island could be loaded and unloaded. If she didn’t get loose soon, she’d be hauled off in the belly of a ship never to be found again.
How she wished things could have been different. What if the Martins hadn’t been in on the kidnapping and cared about their children and wanted her to be an au pair? Would she have met Sam? And if she had, would they have found the same spark and physical connection?
She wanted so badly to see him again. To have him wrap his arms around her and hold her until this nightmare went away. But she was the master of her fate. Sam might not come to find her. If she wanted to escape the awful plan her captors had for her, she had to make it happen all by herself.
Kinsey worked the rag out of her mouth and, with the tips of her fingernails, tore at the tape binding her ankles. She practically had to contort to reach the tape, but she possessed a strong will and always looked for solutions to her problems. If they didn’t drug her, she had a chance. If she got out of this situation, she’d go back to Sam and convince him of a future where the two of them could be together.
The vehicle stopped, and the big guys got out, opened the back of the SUV and dragged her out, grabbing her arms and legs. They’d parked behind some buildings between stacks of crushed corrugated cardboard and wooden pallets.
Kinsey didn’t scream, knowing that if they were smart enough to figure out she’d dislodged the rag from her mouth, they’d shove it right back in. Instead, she studied her surroundings in the light from the stars overhead. She smelled the salty, fishy scent of the sea and heard waves gently lapping against the shore.
They carried her to a small building with few windows and what appeared to be only one door.
Lois unlocked the door and held it open for the men to take her inside.
The building contained a variety of wooden crates large enough to ship household goods and furniture. Big enough to hold a full-grown woman. Maybe two or three.
Her heart beat faster as her gaze shot around the room, searching for some way to extricate herself from this horrible dilemma.
“Put her in with the others.” Lois nodded toward a door at the far end of the building. “And that’s it. We met our quota. I’ll call for pickup.” She pulled a cellphone from her pocket and turned away.
Her henchmen carried Kinsey across the warehouse and dumped her in a room the size of a walk-in closet. The space smelled of disinfectant and cleaning fluid.
She fell on her side, pain shooting through her shoulder, but she didn’t let it daunt her.
The door closed before she could see who the others were. She lay for a moment, getting her bearings, and then spoke softly. “Hello?”
A whimper sounded behind her. Another from nearer where her head lay against the concrete floor.
“Who’s there?” she asked, her voice shaking. The darkness frightened her more than the people within.
“There are three of us,” a woman said with a decidedly British accent. “I’m Alaina. Brigid and Helene are here, as well.”
“Are you all tied up?” Kinsey asked.
“Yes,” Alaina said.
“With what?”
“My hands are bound behind my back with rope. I can’t get it loose and the more I try, the tighter it gets. I can barely feel my fingers.”
Someone spoke in another language that sounded Swedish or Dutch.
“Brigid and Helene are bound with duct tape.”
“If we help each other, we should be able to free our hands.” Determined not to remain a victim, Kinsey used an elbow to push herself to a sitting position. “Brigid, let me see if I can work the tape loose.”
Alaina translated and a slight figure inched across the floor to sit with her back to Kinsey.
Kinsey pulled and poked at the tape with her fingernails, making minimal progress. But she couldn’t give up. “Alaina, I know you can barely move your fingers, but try and work through the tape on Helene’s wrists. If we can get one of us loose, that one can free the rest.”
Kinsey worked silently and as fast as she could. The tape was on tight, but she finally found the end and yanked to unwind enough that Brigid could separate her wrists. “Hurry, untie us,” she whispered.
They had to be free and ready to make a break for it before Lois’s pickup crew came for them.
Brigid struggled with the scarf, finally working out the knot and pulling it off her wrists. Kinsey let go of the breath she’d been holding, hope surging from within. With her hands unbound, Kinsey ripped the tape from around her ankles and helped Alaina liberate Helene.
While Helene and Brigid worked the knot out of the ropes on Alaina’s wrists, Kinsey felt her way around the room. She found mops, buckets, spray bottles and jugs of cleaning fluid. She gathered items and scooted them toward the door. She couldn’t find another exit so they had to work with the only existing one and be ready to attack their abductors. Whispering commands, she set the other women to work pouring fluid into the spray bottles and dismantling the mops so that they could use the long poles as weapons.
When Lois and her goons opened the door again, they would be in for a surprise. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be armed with guns. Even then, the women were better off dead than sold into the sex trade.
Kinsey prepared her plan of attack, coached her makeshift army and waited for their moment to launch their escape strategy. She’d be damned if she let anyone else take advantage of her or the other ladies trapped in the closet.
14
Sam sat in the passenger seat of the van as Mack careened around the hairpin curves leading down the side of the hill to the Port of Athinios. He craned his neck with each turn, hoping to catch a glimpse of the buildings below, but they weren’t quite close enough to see to the bottom. Dread built with each passing second. Regret formed a hard knot in the pit of his belly. He should have kept Kinsey in sight at all times.
When the van finally made it to the coastal road, they slowed, following Detective Demopolis. He’d called for backup, but Sam and his brothers refused to wait.
Isabella, who’d spent time in Syria fighting for abused women there, insisted on accompanying them. Fiona and Dierdre wanted to come, but they stayed behind to keep Mrs. D calm.
With their own small army, the Magnuses could take out whoever got in the way, even though the only weapons they carried were their Ka-Bar knives. Isabella had pepper spray and a Taser.
Sam prayed their adversaries weren’t more heavily armed.
The detective motioned for them to park far enough away from the designated location that their vehicles would be hidden by buildings. The team would go in on foot. If the kidnappers were there, they’d be surprised. If not, they’d have to start all over in their search.
In Sam’s mind, the clock was ticking. His pulse raced and his muscles tensed. They had to find Kinsey before she left the island. Once off Santorini, she’d be impossible to locate.
The men and Isabella climbed out of the van and hurried to join the detective. He told them the layout to expect, and they split up into two teams. One would go through the front gate. The other team would come around from behind and slip through the back gate.
When he flew, Sam relied heavily on communications equipment. Without it, he felt as if he was flying blind. But he wouldn’t let the handicap stop him. Kinsey could be in there. He’d move Heaven and Earth to get to her.
And when he did, he’d
tell her how he felt and that he thought they would be good together, even if their relationship was long distance for much of the time. He liked her. A lot. Maybe even loved her. He sure as hell wanted to give love another chance. As long as the romance was with Kinsey. Her smiles rivaled the sunshine and made him happier than he’d been in a very long time.
He wouldn’t let this be the end.
Sam accompanied the detective and Mack through the front entrance. Someone had hooked a combination lock on the links of a heavy chain, but it wasn’t clicked shut.
Sam eased the lock free and lowered the chain quietly so that it didn’t bang against the chain-link fence. Then he slipped through the gate and into the shadow of a nearby building.
The three of them moved from one structure to the next by chasing the shadows, with Sam in the lead.
As they neared the back of the complex, Sam saw a dark vehicle parked between a stack of crushed cardboard and a stack of wooden pallets.
The back end of the vehicle had been smashed, and the bumper was missing.
Bingo. They’d found the SUV that had tried to run their van off the road.
His heart pounded against his ribs. Kinsey had to be in one of the buildings. Sam prayed the kidnappers hadn’t had time to get her onto a boat and off the island.
He tried the door on the first building they came to. The knob was securely locked. Sam pressed his ear to the wall but couldn’t hear any noises coming from within.
Mack stood on his toes at the side of the structure to peer into a small, dirty window. He dropped down, shaking his head.
Empty.
Sam gave a silent signal to Wyatt, Ronin and Isabella. They eased through the back gate and searched the building on the other side of the yard, moving through one at a time.
As Sam worked his way toward the black SUV, the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. His instinct told him he was getting closer. It also told him that a hostage rescue wasn’t going to be easy.
Lights glared from the road and a delivery truck slid stopped at the entrance to the warehouse yard. A man dropped to the ground, opened the gate and held it wide while the truck drove through.
Sam, along with the rest of their rescue team, shrank into the shadows. When the truck stopped in front of the small building nearest the SUV, the driver and another man dropped down from the cab. They walked to the rear and flung open the back.
The door of the building opened, and a woman stepped out along with the two men Sam recognized as the ones who’d been kidnapping Kinsey the first time.
Sam started forward, his fists clenched.
Detective Demopolis grabbed his arm and held him back, motioning to one of the men. “He’s armed,” the detective whispered. “And so is she.”
Sam looked closer. The woman held a handgun at her side as if to warn the newcomers she couldn’t be easily intimidated. He saw movement from the other side of the group in the open. Ronin was easing nearer.
“I have to get going.” Sam pushed past the detective’s hold. Moving in the shadows, he crept along the side of the adjacent building and waited for the moment the group in the yard wasn’t looking and made the move to cross the open space between the side of the smaller building. He circled around to the back and didn’t find another door. If he wanted to get inside, he’d have to go through the people standing there.
By the time he’d worked his way forward to the end of the building closest to the party out front, Athan and Mack joined him.
He peered around the corner, careful not to make any sudden moves that would alert the kidnappers to their presence. He looked for Ronin, Wyatt and Isabella. At first, he couldn’t see any of them. Then Ronin poked out his head from the opposite corner of the building.
They were all in place. Now was the time to make their move. Rushing them from both directions hopefully would confuse the people with weapons and give the team sufficient time to disarm them.
“I have the man with the rifle,” Mack said.
“I’ll take the woman,” Sam responded. “Ready?” He didn’t wait for Mack or the detective to respond. With a deep breath, he took off running.
Mack, the faster brother, sprinted past him and hit the man with the rifle in the side, like a football linebacker going in for the tackle.
The woman Sam targeted darted for the door to the building and ducked inside before Sam reached her.
The other man from the truck dove in behind her.
The door slammed in Sam’s face and a lock clicked in place. Sam didn’t even look back at the sounds of a fight that ensued. He reared back and kicked the door as hard as he could. It didn’t budge. The woman must have thrown a deadbolt on the other side. He kicked again, only managing to jolt the hell out of his leg.
Kinsey had to be inside. Why else would the woman have barricaded herself in the building?
Sam realized he’d have to use a lot more force than his foot could provide. He turned in time to see the detective kick the rifle out of reach of the man Mack had tackled.
Ronin had his hands full with one of the big guys who’d attacked Kinsey, while Wyatt pinned the other.
Isabella grabbed the rifle from the ground and ran for the door. “Get back!” she yelled. Then she aimed the muzzle downward at the space between the door handle and the doorframe and pulled the trigger. The doorjamb splintered.
Sam kicked at the door, but it still wouldn’t open.
Isabella aimed and fired another round. This time, the doorjamb disintegrated, and the door swung inward.
Sam and Isabella jumped to the side of the door.
Several shots were fired from within, hitting the back of the truck.
Sam waited a moment before diving through the opening and rolled to the side.
Isabella did the same, diving to the opposite side.
More shots sounded, but Sam didn’t give a rat’s ass if the woman was aiming at him. He had to find Kinsey.
The lights were turned off in the building, making it difficult to locate the man and woman who’d run inside. And Sam didn’t know if they were the only Tangos they had to be concerned with. “Kinsey!” he yelled and held his breath, praying for a response.
“Sam?”
He heard her voice call out, as if muffled by a wall or door, and his heart started to beat all over again.
Isabella moved. A click sounded, and the building was bathed in light from a row of fluorescent bulbs hung from the ceiling.
Sam spotted the woman with the gun on the opposite end of the room. She flung open a door and pointed her gun inside. “Come any closer, and I’ll shoot her,” she shouted.
Sam froze, his heart in his throat. “Don’t shoot!”
The woman smirked. “Then get out, and take your friends with you.”
Before Sam could take one step forward or backward, a long stick exploded out of the darkness of the closet where the woman stood. It connected with the hand holding the gun.
The gun went off as it was lifted into the air and smashed to the ground.
Kinsey was the first out the door, wielding what appeared to be a broom or mop handle. She used it to whack the woman in the side of the head, and then she shoved her backward.
The woman tripped and fell on her back.
Kinsey pounced, slamming the broom handle over the woman’s throat and pinning her to the ground. “Move and I’ll break your neck,” Kinsey threatened, her voice low and rough like a lion’s growl.
Several young women jumped through the door, armed with spray bottles. They cornered the man who’d followed the woman into the building and sprayed liquid in his face.
He screamed and covered his eyes.
“Kinsey, do you need help?” Sam called out.
“Not yet,” Kinsey responded from her perch straddling the woman who’d threatened to kill her. “Grab her gun.”
Sam retrieved the woman’s handgun and performed a quick search of the interior of the structure, looking for anyone hiding in
the shadowy corners. When he was certain no one else would jump out and shoot them he crossed to where Kinsey held the woman pinned to the floor.
Detective Demopolis entered the building and hurried over to the man surrounded by the women with spray bottles. After he secured the man’s wrists behind his back with zip-ties, the detective crossed to Kinsey and cuffed the woman she’d subdued.
Sam helped Kinsey to her feet and wrapped her in his arms. The sense of relief that washed over him made his knees shake and his eyes burn. “God, I thought I’d never see you again.”
Shaking her head, she chuckled. “That was my intention. But I wasn’t planning on going out quite like this.”
He tipped up her head and stared down into her blue eyes. “Please, don’t leave me again.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I couldn’t stay. Not when I was the one they wanted. I couldn’t let them hurt you and your family.”
His chest swelled at her reason.
Kinsey hadn’t been thinking of herself. She’d cared enough about Sam and his family that she’d walked away to protect them.
His arms tightened around her, and he rested his cheek against her hair. “But you left. Without saying goodbye.”
“I wrote a note…”
He shook his head. “Not good enough. You didn’t give me a chance to talk you out of leaving.”
She laughed, her voice catching on a sob. “I knew if I stayed, I couldn’t walk away. And now, you’re making our separation harder than ever.”
“Then don’t walk away.” He brushed his lips across hers.
“But you said from the beginning you weren’t into commitment.” She raised her hands to lace behind his head. “You don’t know how hard it was to leave the first time. In less than two weeks, I have to do it all over again.”
His gut clenched. “No, you don’t.”
“You have a job to do. You don’t want a long-term relationship.”
“I was wrong?” He kissed her again.
“About the job or the relationship?” She asked, her eyes swimming in tears. “And please…don’t make me cry. My eyes get all ugly and red.” She sniffed.