by Susan Stoker
Caroline shook her head again, “No, take Matthew and go, I’m right behind you. I don’t need help. Just get him out of here and safe.”
Mozart was frustrated, but she was right. He had to get Wolf out of there. He leaned down and put his teammate over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
“Okay, I’ve got him; get your ass out of there. Now!” Mozart bellowed at Ice.
Caroline ignored the ire in Sam’s voice. She knew he was stressed and wasn’t really yelling at her. She turned around to look around the room to see what she could use to help her get out of the window and not get burned. The T-shirt she’d laid there to protect Matthew had slid out with his body.
She grabbed a pillow off the bed. She laid it over the hot window sill and watched as it too immediately started to smoke. It was now or never. She didn’t have any time to spare. She stuck one leg, then the other out the window and sat on the pillow on the sill. She took one more look behind her and saw the bedroom wall collapsing. She let out a small shriek and jumped. It wasn’t too far to the ground but she fell sideways when she landed anyway. She immediately got up and headed after Sam.
Mozart took the time to turn and look at Ice as they ran away from the burning cabin. She was next to him. She had cuts on her arms and legs from the glass from the window, her face was covered in soot, she was coughing like a forty year old smoker, but she was mobile and running. It had to be good enough for now.
“Why didn’t you get out of there, Ice?” Mozart asked, not even out of breath. He was obviously in good shape and this was just another little run for him.
“SEALs don’t leave SEALs,” Caroline panted and said between coughs. “I couldn’t leave him. I just couldn’t.”
Just as they were reaching the nearby tree line, a man stepped out from behind a tree, holding a pistol pointed right at them.
“Stop right there,” he said menacingly.
Mozart knew he could take him. No problem. As he was leaning over to set Wolf on the ground he saw more men come out of the trees, all with rifles or pistols pointed at them. Shit. He was good, but he wasn’t that good. Where was the team?
“I bet you’re wondering where your team is, aren’t you?” The man sneered, seemingly reading his mind. “They aren’t coming. They’ve been ‘indisposed,’” he threw his head back and laughed in the most evil laugh Caroline had ever heard.
“You’ve been a pain in my butt for a while now bitch, but now it’s my turn to be one step ahead. You SEALs think you’re indestructible, but you aren’t.”
Before any of them could do anything, the man raised his pistol and shot at Mozart. Mozart felt the bullet graze his head and he fell sharply to the ground. Hell, that hurt. He heard Ice screaming. God, Ice. He felt Wolf’s bodyweight heavy on his back. He tried not to pass out. He needed to stay awake and get Caroline out of there. He needed to protect her and make sure Wolf was all right.
Caroline screamed as she watched Sam fall to the ground still holding Matthew. Two men came out from the trees toward her and grabbed her before she could even think about running or fighting back. She struggled and tried to kick them, but they had her arms bound behind her back before she could do anything.
The zip ties they’d used immediately bit into her flesh. They’d tightened them to the point of cutting off her circulation. They obviously weren’t concerned about her comfort. That scared her more than anything.
“No, stop it. What are you doing?” She said, still struggling in the grip of the two men and against her bindings. They walked her toward the man that had shot Sam.
“You’re coming with us, bitch,” the man smirked and backhanded her hard across the face. Caroline would’ve fallen to the ground if she wasn’t being held up by the other two men. Dammit, that hurt. Her head swam. She coughed. Jesus, she was in trouble here.
Mozart struggled on the ground. He’d heard what the man had said. Shit, he had to get to Ice; he couldn’t let this guy take her. His head was swimming and he couldn’t get his arms to work right. He was going to pass out; he wasn’t going to be able to help her.
The man turned his attention back to Sam and Matthew on the ground. He held the pistol toward them.
“No. No. No!” Caroline screamed, struggling even harder, ignoring the pain in her arms from the awkward way she was being held. “Leave them alone. What do you want? Me? You’ve got me, leave them alone!”
The man turned back toward Carline with a glint in his eye. “You don’t want me to kill them?” He said with venom.
Caroline shook her head vigorously.
The man laughed evilly. “What will you do for me if I let them live?”
Caroline was scared out of her mind. She had no idea what this man had in store for her, but she knew he wasn’t really asking for her permission. He’d kill them in a heartbeat if he wanted to. “Whatever you want. I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t kill them. They’re only here because of me.” She’d drop to her knees if she thought it would help, but the man didn’t even give her a chance to offer.
The man turned his back on her and went over to Sam and Matthew. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and leaned down toward Sam. Before Caroline could beg the man not to hurt him he’d sliced into Sam’s cheek. Laughing he did it again, and again. Standing upright again he brought his boot down and ground it in Sam’s face as if he was squishing a bug under his foot.
Turning toward Caroline, who was now watching in horror, he sneered, “Fine, I won’t kill them, but they’ll wish they were dead when my men get through with them. They’ve got other ways to make them suffer.” He nodded at two other men nearby and they headed for Sam and Matthew.
Caroline struggled with all her might but all it did was make her wrists bleed sluggishly. The last thing she saw as she was led away was the two men kicking Sam and Matthew who lay unconscious on the ground.
Chapter Sixteen
Wolf paced the room. It’d been six hours since Caroline had been taken. His throat was still raw from smoke inhalation, and he was still coughing, but he was alive. He was glad he didn’t remember the beating he and Mozart had been given on the field. The rest of the team had arrived in time to prevent the two thugs from killing them.
The terrorists were good. They’d created a diversion that had Benny, Dude, and Cookie headed off on a wild-goose-chase. Wolf only knew what his team had told him they’d seen when they came across the terrorists beating the crap out of him and Mozart, which wasn’t much. He had no idea what had happened to Caroline and how they’d gotten out of the cabin. Mozart had most likely rescued the both of them and they’d been overwhelmed while escaping.
Mozart was still unconscious. A bullet had grazed his head and that, along with the beating, had him laid up in the hospital. Wolf was especially worried about Mozart’s face as well. Someone had carved him up and there was enough dirt and crap in his wounds to cause a massive infection. Mozart had always been the “pretty” one of their crew and Wolf worried that his days of being a flirt would be over. His face wasn’t pretty, but at this point that wasn’t what was concerning the doctors. They’d all just have to wait and to see how long it’d take him to pull out of it. Dude, Abe, Benny, Cookie and himself were now trying to figure out what the hell happened and where the fuck Caroline was.
Wolf hurt, but he ignored his injuries. He’d suffered worse in the past and continued on. This time was different though, they had his Caroline. He closed his eyes in despair, then quickly opened them again. He didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself or to panic. He had to figure out what the hell was going on and where Caroline was. It was time to call Tex. If anyone could find her, it was Tex.
* * *
Caroline opened her eyes slowly. She hurt. Everywhere. She had no idea where she was. The man who’d kidnapped her had stuffed her into an SUV and one of the other men had knocked her out with a cloth over her nose and mouth. She knew it was chloroform, and fought as hard as she could, but inevitably, couldn’t fight it
s effects.
When she’d come to, she was restrained to this stupid chair. The damn zip ties were still on her wrists, but now they were attached to the arms of the chair she was sitting in. She could see the blood oozing over the edge of the armrests and dripping onto the floor. Jesus, it was like a bad movie. The chair, the zip ties, the chloroform…if it hadn’t been happening to her and if she wasn’t so scared, it would’ve been laughable.
The man who’d cut Sam and ordered both him and Matthew beaten—she hoped they weren’t killed, despite what he’d said—came into the room. She was in some sort of warehouse. He came right up to her and spit in her face. Caroline was so surprised she didn’t do anything to try to avoid the spittle. She felt it ooze down her cheek as he yelled at her.
“You stupid bitch,” the man growled at her. “You cost me everything! I had it all planned. It was gonna work, and you blew it. You. It’s all your fault! Those dumb ass country hick SEALs wouldn’t have known what was going on if it wasn’t for you.”
The man continued his ranting. “You’ll tell me everything that happened on that plane. I want to know exactly how you knew about the ice and how you overpowered my men!”
Caroline didn’t want to tell him anything. It was enough he knew she was involved. She’d never been so scared in all her life. Even when she was hiding in the shower afraid to breathe too loud, she hadn’t been this frightened. Jesus, each situation she’d been in was worse than the last. This time she knew she was going to die. The government didn’t make deals with terrorists and besides that, no one even knew where she was. Matthew and Sam had been unconscious when she’d been dragged out of the clearing by the cabin, and she hadn’t seen anyone else around. If his men had been around, they would’ve prevented them from taking her…wouldn’t they?
Even as the brief thought flashed through her head that maybe they let the terrorists take her to save their teammates, she dismissed it. She hadn’t met the rest of the team yet, but if they were anything like Matthew, hell, like Christopher or Sam, they wouldn’t have let them take her. She had to get control of herself. Thinking irrationally wasn’t going to save her life. If she had any chance of getting out of this clusterfuck, she had to use her brain.
Even though she was scared, she vowed to herself she wasn’t going to tell this maniac anything that would help him take down another plane or hurt more people. She looked away from the man and around the room instead. To even have a chance, she had to start trying to figure out how to get out of there.
“You aren’t going to talk, bitch?”
Caroline’s eyes went back to the crazy man standing in front of her. She just looked at him without saying a word.
He leaned in toward her. Caroline could smell the foul body odor coming off of him. It was as if he hadn’t showered in days, no weeks. He leaned in as a lover would, and whispered into her ear.
“You tell me what happened or I’ll make you so miserable you’ll be begging me to let you tell me every little thing I want to know. Then you’ll beg me to kill you.” He licked the side of her neck up to her ear with a long slow brush of his tongue against her. Then he bit her earlobe so hard Caroline was afraid he’d torn it in two. She couldn’t help but whimper and try to pull away from the pain. She didn’t want to tell him anything, but she wasn’t tough. She was just…her.
The man stood up and backhanded her. He didn’t give her a chance to recover from his strike before hitting her again, then again. Then he kicked her shin as hard as he could. He continued hitting her and slapping her and occasionally biting her. He tried everything he could to get her to talk, but Caroline kept her mouth shut.
Caroline started off stoic and not giving any reaction to each strike, but she was soon crying out with every hit and she could feel the tears coursing down her cheeks. The man knew he was hurting her, but he didn’t stop. He laughed as he beat her.
Caroline knew she was going to die, but she’d be dammed before this crazy man used her knowledge to hurt or kill others. She said nothing throughout his beating, just kept trying to avoid his fists and feet when she could, which wasn’t often.
Finally he stopped. Caroline knew it wasn’t because of anything she’d done, but more because he was tired. He was breathing hard, and panting as if he’d run a couple of miles. He was sweating profusely and his face was bright red.
“You’re a stupid bitch. Don’t worry, I’m leaving you for now, but I’ll be back. We’ll start up where I left off. I’ll bring some of my buddies back with me. You can just sit there and think about all the ways I can make you hurt before I kill you, slowly. I’ll give my men a go at you as well. Have you ever been gang banged? No? Well you just sit there and think about it. You can save yourself the pain and misery if you’d just tell me what I want to know. If you do, I’ll kill you quickly. If not, you’ll die a horribly painful death. I can promise you that. My men will make sure you’re bleeding out of every hole before they kill you. They’ll watch you bleed and laugh.” He spit on her once more and left the room.
Caroline’s head bobbed. She closed her eyes and tried to process everything. She was still tied up in the chair and had blood dripping from her head somewhere. Her eyes were almost swollen shut. But she was still alive…for now. She completely believed the man when he said he’d make her suffer. She’d seen the look the men who’d roughly pushed her into the SUV had given her. They wouldn’t be gentle at all with her. She was scared shitless. She didn’t want to die slowly, or otherwise, but she just couldn’t, and wouldn’t, condemn other innocent people to die.
Caroline tried to figure out more about where she was. If she had a shot at all to get out of there she had to pay attention. She couldn’t see that well through her swollen eyes and the blood blurring her vision, so she tried to listen.
There…what was that? Seagulls. The nasty birds always made those cawing sounds as they flew through the air. She had to be by the sea. She felt proud of herself for a moment, but then realized most of Norfolk was by the ocean. Crap. That wasn’t going to help anyone. She could hear what sounded like ship horns blowing. She tried to concentrate more, but finally just closed her eyes. She was so tired…
It could have been minutes or hours later when she heard the door squeak open in the cavernous room. A man came in, not the same man that had beaten her before. She’d never seen him before, but he was wearing a three piece black suit. His hair was slicked back and not a piece was askew. He looked as out of place in the dungeon-like atmosphere of the filthy room as he would’ve at a rodeo in the heart of Texas. He was followed by three other men, including the guy who’d beaten her earlier. Oh shit. Was this it? Caroline held in a sob. She regretted with every fiber of her being not making love with Matthew. She suddenly fervently wished she’d put her concerns about moving too fast with him aside and had gone for it.
The man in the suit didn’t look at her, didn’t say anything. He got busy setting up what looked like a tripod. Oh God. Was he going to film the men raping her? He mounted the video camera on the tripod and turned it around so it was facing her. He stood behind it and gave a chin lift to the three other men. Caroline saw the red light blinking on the camera and shuddered, watching as the men came toward her, cracking their knuckles. No, no, no, she couldn’t do this. She screeched as they reached for her.
* * *
Wolf sat at the table, his hands clenched in his lap. He was a SEAL. He was supposed to be able to save the world, but he felt helpless because he couldn’t save the one person who’d quickly come to mean everything to him. He and his team had discussed for what seemed like hours what they were going to do next. Tex was working frantically with his hacker friends to try and track down where the men had taken Caroline. They had some clues, but no location, not yet. Cookie’s phone rang and he answered it quickly.
“Yes, sir. Got it. I’ll tell him.” He hung up. “Check your email, Wolf.” Cookie said. “That was the commander, he just received a video. He told me to tell you they were tr
acing it now.”
Cookie called Tex to update him on the email and to have him get to work tracing it. They knew the commander was tracing it as well, but more often than not Tex could get results faster than anyone else. Wolf quickly brought up his email on the laptop and the team gathered around to watch.
The five men watched in horror and anger. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen or experienced for themselves in the past. But this was Caroline. Wolf’s Ice. That made all the difference in the world.
The video showed Caroline strapped to a chair. She’d obviously been beaten. Her wrists were bleeding where the zip ties held her to the chair and she had blood dripping from her head somewhere. But her face. Jesus. They’d beaten the hell out of her. Her eyes were swollen almost shut, and her face was already bruising. The T-shirt she was wearing was ripped and hanging off of one shoulder. They could see her bra strap vividly white against her skin. She was breathing quickly and erratically.
There was a man speaking, but Wolf barely heard him. His woman was hurt. Christ. He couldn’t handle this. He pushed pause on the video and locked his hands behind his head. He paced back and forth rapidly. He took a deep breath. He had to handle it. He couldn’t let Caroline down. He had to focus.
His teammates let him be. No one tried to talk to him. No one gave him false reassurances. They didn’t know what they were going to see on the rest of the tape. It was up to Wolf on when, and if, he wanted to watch the rest of the video.
Wolf paced, trying to gather up the courage to watch the rest of the video. If his woman was killed in front of his eyes, he didn’t know how he’d react. He had to lock it down. Wanting to go back to the previous night when he’d held Caroline’s soft sweet body in his arms, Wolf took a deep breath. “Fuck.” All his anguish and dread were put into that one word. The room was quiet. No one said anything; they could feel Wolf’s anguish.