Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1)

by Susan Stoker

  Just before they went around a small building she thought she saw the fisherman raise his hand. It looked like he was trying to tell her something, but it was too late. They’d turned the corner and he was out of sight. Caroline was too tired to cry. She’d blown her last chance, she knew it. Her head drooped. She didn’t know how much more she could take.

  Benny watched as the group disappeared around the corner. Shit. He’d tried to let Ice know they were there, they were coming for her, but he’d waited too long and he didn’t know if she knew what he’d been trying to tell her. He’d signaled the sign for “help is coming,” but didn’t see any recognition in her eyes and no acknowledgement of his signal.

  Benny gathered up the fish and the basket he’d been pretending to clean and walked seemingly nonchalantly toward the warehouse. He had to meet up with his team and get their speedboat ready. He’d seen the boat they were taking her to. One part of him was glad the rescue was moving to the water. SEALs were generally always prepared for any kind of fight, but there was nothing better than bringing a battle to the water. It was what they were trained for.

  * * *

  Caroline barely winced as she was thrown onto a seat on a small motor boat. She was beyond pain at this point. Oh she still hurt, but her upcoming death was overcoming her feelings of pain.

  The men didn’t spare her a glance as they readied the boat to leave. She thought about jumping overboard, but didn’t think that would help her much. She knew she was a good swimmer, but they’d just fish her right back out. Besides, she wasn’t sure how well she’d fare in the water with her injuries. With her luck, the blood still oozing from her wrists and head would attract a shark and she’d get eaten.

  The men were planning on continuing to torture her, she had no doubt. They didn’t want her to die a nice, painless death. She decided she’d be better off biding her time and waiting to see what they had planned. If she had the opportunity, maybe she could slip overboard when they weren’t looking. Once they got out to sea she had a better chance. It was getting dark and the lack of light would help her. She just had to wait and try to be patient.

  She watched the men bumble around the boat getting it ready to push off from the dock. Just as they were about to leave, the smelly man and the man in the suit joined them. The smelly man walked right over to her and smacked her hard across the face, then laughed. The fancy man, as she dubbed him, ignored her and went into the small pilot room. She was dead. She knew it.

  * * *

  Wolf was glad the sun was going down. It’d work in their favor. His skin was crawling. He was ready to have Caroline back in his arms and out of danger. They followed the motor boat from a distance. It wasn’t as if they’d lose them on the open ocean. It made it trickier to follow them without their knowledge, but after a while it wouldn’t make a difference if the terrorists knew they were there or not. It’d just be a matter of catching up to them before they could kill Caroline.

  Wolf knew their boat was more powerful than the one the terrorists were in, but again, he wanted to wait and see what they were going to do. In any rescue, the goal was to get the captured person back alive. Until they knew what the terrorists had up their sleeve, they couldn’t guarantee Caroline’s safety.

  Wolf and his men watched from a distance as the traitor boarded the boat. They weren’t close enough to see him clearly though. Wolf sat silent and still, almost too still. Every fiber of his being was focused on the boat slicing through the choppy water ahead of them. All of the men who’d hit his woman were on that boat. If he had his way, they’d all die today; after he got Caroline safely away.

  * * *

  Caroline hung on to the side of the seat, wincing every time the boat hit a wave. Her ribs hurt like hell. She tried to ignore it and concentrate on where they were. If she had to swim back to shore, she wanted to be sure she was going the right way. It would be just her luck to escape from terrorists only to swim out to sea instead of toward shore.

  After navigating what seemed like miles, the boat finally stopped. The man in the suit came out of the wheelhouse and watched silently as one of the other men grabbed her ankles. Because Caroline wasn’t thinking clearly and was distracted by the cold demeanor of the man in the suit, she didn’t have a chance to fight or to jump overboard. She didn’t notice the chains they were putting around her ankles with the weights until they were firmly attached. She tried to kick at the nearest man, but it was too late. Oh. My. God. She really was going to die. In one corner of her brain, she’d kept the hope alive she’d be able to escape, but it was obvious what they had in store for her.

  The fancy-man was holding the camera again.

  “Say goodbye to your SEAL, bitch. It didn’t have to come to this. You could still tell me what I want to know.” He paused as if giving her a chance to talk and to save her life.

  Caroline glared at him, refusing to talk. She knew even if she spilled her guts now, he’d still kill her. He was crazy. He looked sane in his pressed and flawless suit, but it was obvious he was the craziest one of the bunch. Caroline didn’t want to die, but at this point she didn’t think she had any other option.

  “That’s what I thought. Brave to the end aren’t you? Well, we’ll see how brave you are when you’re sitting on the bottom of the ocean. Oh don’t worry, I’ll make sure your SEAL sees your last minutes alive. I’m sure he’ll blame himself for the rest of his life.” He chuckled under his breath, laughing at himself. Then he nodded at the smelly man. He grabbed her under her arms and one of the other men grabbed her legs. The third man picked up the weights. They moved in tandem toward the side of the boat.

  Caroline thrashed and fought against their hold. She raked her nails down the side of the closest man’s face in desperation. She finally found her voice and started screaming. She pleaded with them not to do it and promised she’d tell them whatever they wanted to know. At the realization that her death was immanent all thoughts of being noble and brave flew out of her head. The men her just laughed at her feeble attempts to get away and threw her over the side of the boat like they were throwing out the garbage.

  Caroline gasped and tensed, knowing hitting the water was going to hurt…badly. She choked and sucked in a bunch of water when she hit. Damn, it did hurt; she landed on her side with the broken ribs. She felt herself sinking quickly. They hadn’t tied her hands, so luckily she could use them to try to help get to the surface. Luckily, she was naturally buoyant. She’d never regret those extra fifteen pounds again.

  She took a gasp of air before sinking downward again. She tried again and managed to tread water quickly enough to keep from sinking. The weights they’d tied to her ankles fortunately weren’t too heavy. They’d underestimated her. She knew she wouldn’t have the energy to keep it up for long though. She was heavy, in pain, and tired, and while she was a good swimmer, she knew she couldn’t keep herself above water indefinitely. There was no way she’d survive if they left her in the middle of the ocean.

  The waves were crashing over her head as she bobbed up and down. Caroline didn’t know why she thought the water would be calm out in the middle of the ocean. It was a good thing she was a chemist and not an oceanographer. She swallowed water each time she took a gasping breath, but since she was getting some air, she didn’t think she could complain.

  She heard the fancy man call out from the boat. It was keeping near her, but not near enough for her to grab the side. They circled her, as if taunting her further.

  “We’ll pull you back in if you tell me about the plane. All you have to do is tell me how you knew about the ice and you’ll live.”

  He was screwing with her and she knew it. She’d promised to tell them everything she knew before they threw her overboard. If he’d really wanted to know, he would’ve made the guys put her down and listened to her.

  “Screw you!” Caroline cried out at the man, even though it wasn’t much of a yell. She watched as the stupid red light on the camera kept blinking. The bastard
was still filming her. The man next to him raised his arm. Oh geez. Really? Now they were going to shoot her? She choked back a sob. This would be so much easier if she didn’t want to live so badly.

  Caroline took a deep breath and let herself sink. She’d be damned if she’d be shot on top of everything else she’d gone through. Hijacked, stabbed, stalked, blown up, kidnapped, beaten, thrown overboard, and then shot? No. Just frickin’ no.

  She vaguely remembered a television show where the hosts proved that ducking underwater would protect a person from a bullet because once the bullet hit the water it slowed down or was deflected or something. She couldn’t really remember the science behind it, but she hoped they hadn’t made it all up.

  She sank quickly. The weights around her ankles helped. Caroline stopped thinking and just sank. It was almost like floating. The silence was heavenly.

  * * *

  Abe floored their boat and headed straight at the other boat, now bobbing in the water. They’d watched in horror as Caroline was thrown overboard, screaming, then in relief when she came back up. It was now or never. Wolf and Benny were ready on board, Dude and Cookie were in their wet water gear and ready to go overboard. They’d discussed the plan and each of them knew their role. They’d worked together so long they could almost read each other’s minds. They were a SEAL team, and they were here to do their job. Failure wasn’t an option. It definitely wasn’t an option when one of their own was involved. And Ice was theirs. One hundred percent.

  They heard the shots as they pulled up near the terrorist’s boat. Wolf’s heart was in his throat. Caroline had to be okay, she just had to.

  “Put down your weapons, United States Navy,” Abe hollered through the loudspeaker of the boat. He aimed the floodlight at the other boat, partially blinding them. They saw two men hurry into the relative safety of the wheelhouse. At least the gunshots stopped with their actions. One of the men who’d run into the pilot house had been the one who’d been shooting at Caroline. The man in the suit just laughed and turned the handheld camera to them. The fourth man, the one who’d been on the video beating Caroline the most, just stood there arrogantly.

  “You think you’ll save her?” The suited man yelled. “I don’t think so. Didn’t you see the chains that were attached to her ankles? You’ll never find her now. The bitch is on the bottom.”

  Keep him talking, keep him talking, Wolf said to himself over and over, refusing to rise to the bait of the other man. He had to distract him. He had to do his job. Caroline’s life depended on it.

  “Give yourself up now and you’ll be spared.” He responded loudly, knowing it wasn’t going to happen, but he tried to convince the man anyway.

  The man finally put down the camera.

  “No way in hell!” He yelled back and pulled a pistol from his pants. He pointed it at the SEAL’s ship and fired. Wolf ducked just in time and swore he heard the bullet pass over his head.

  “I’ll give you one more chance, asshole,” Wolf yelled again, making sure to stay low in the boat.

  When there was no answer, Benny gave Abe the signal to pull back from the terrorist’s boat. They’d have to do this another way. They always had a Plan B. In fact most of the time Plan B was really Plan A, everyone knew it, but they’d always tried to go the “nice” route first.

  Wolf knew the commander would be pissed, but they had other things to be concerned about, namely Caroline. They’d given the traitor a chance to give up, but he hadn’t. They’d wanted to interrogate him, find out more about his connections and how ingrained the terrorist cell was, but now they had no choice. Everyone on the team hoped this was a fed working independently, but until they got back to base and analyzed the videotape of what was going on tonight, they’d never know.

  It was standard operating procedure to film their missions when possible. Benny had hooked up the camera before they’d left the dock. Tex would be able to check it out and they’d see just how deep the traitor’s reach had gone. Hell, Tex probably already knew who the traitor was by analyzing the security tapes at the marina. The man was spooky good at what he did.

  There wasn’t a lot of time to save Caroline and deal with these assholes. It was them or Caroline, It wasn’t even a choice. It was time to make their move.

  Making the terrorists think they were giving up, the SEALs backed off. One of the men on the terrorist boat started its engine and began to peel away. Wolf and Abe could just hear his cackled laughter before he put the boat into full throttle. Counting down three seconds, Wolf turned his head to protect his eyes just as the boat exploded.

  Pieces of the terrorist’s boat rained down in the water around them. Wolf and Abe knew the terrorists wouldn’t be an issue anymore.

  Wolf didn’t spare a second’s thought for the four men who’d literally just exploded in front of his eyes. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about them. All he cared about was Caroline. Had they taken too long? Was she still alive?

  * * *

  Caroline felt herself sinking further and further down in the water. Her ears popped and it brought her out of her stupor. Shit, she’d sunk too far. She didn’t think she was going to make it back to the surface before she ran out of air…or energy.

  She hurt all over, but she had to try. She’d started to use her arms to swim back up to the surface when someone grabbed her from behind. Caroline panicked. She kicked out with her bound legs, she tried to get her arms to move to hit whoever it was, but her arms were pinned to her sides. Oh Jesus, she was gonna die. She was going to die right here, after all she’d been through, after all her fighting and struggling. It wasn’t fair. She might as well inhale as much water as she could to try to make it quick.

  Caroline felt something being put over her face and tried to get away from whoever held her, but she couldn’t fight her body’s natural reaction of inhaling for the need of oxygen. This was it, she was dead….but somehow she wasn’t.

  She inhaled again. Oxygen. It was a diving mask over her face. She sucked in the oxygen greedily. She was still terrified, but at least for now, she had air. She tried to turn her head, but the hand holding the mask over her face was too strong. She started to panic again. Was she being kidnapped by the terrorists again? Had they laid in wait in the water making her think she was going to die before they caught her again? Was this some new kind of torture?

  Just before a full-blown panic could set in, Caroline felt the person behind her take one of her hands in his and press his second and fourth fingers down hard. Caroline almost sobbed in relief. Matthew….no, it wasn’t Matthew, but it was one of his team. She grabbed the man’s hand and squeezed it has hard as she could, which probably wasn’t really very hard in her condition, to let him know she understood. That she knew he was with Matthew. She was just so glad they’d found her. She wanted to cry, but she had to concentrate on breathing.

  She had no idea how whoever it was behind her had ended up in the water with her just when she needed him, but she couldn’t think about it now. She’d appreciate it later. She tried to relax. She went limp in the man’s arms so he’d know for sure she understood he was there to help her.

  He lifted one of her hands to the mask on her face and pressed hard. She nodded. She got it; she had to hold the mask on. She could do that.

  Cookie relaxed a little. She’d understood. He was afraid Caroline would’ve been too far gone in her panic and pain and wouldn’t remember what Wolf had told her about the signal to let her know who he was. After everything he’d heard about her from Wolf, Abe, and Mozart, he should’ve known she’d keep her head and trust him to do what he needed to do to make sure they both made it out alive.

  Cookie had been prepared to knock her out if he had to, but it was so much easier with her cooperating with him. He was doubly thankful he’d gotten to her before she’d gone unconscious. It would’ve been much harder if he had to worry about doing CPR under water. It wasn’t something any of them wanted to have to do, but they’d been trained on the lifesa
ving technique. Cookie wasn’t sure what was going on above their heads, but knew he was working on limited time.

  Cookie couldn’t do anything about the weight around Caroline’s ankles right now, but the extra weight and the fact she couldn’t use her legs wouldn’t slow him down. He kicked away from the terrorist’s boat. He had to get them moved a good distance before Dude blew it up. The shockwave under the water could kill them as easily as a bullet or inhaling water would.

  He kicked hard; checking every now and then to make sure Ice was still holding the mask to her face and breathing the lifesaving oxygen.

  Every time he looked down at her she was still breathing. He knew she’d had a close call. Even now he could tell she was using all her remaining energy to hold the mask on her face. She wasn’t trying to help him swim. She was deadweight in his arms.

  * * *

  Wolf looked around. It was hard to see anything with all the parts of the exploded boat floating around them. Where was Dude? Where was Cookie? Where was Caroline? Fuck. He’d never been this anxious about the outcome of a mission before. Benny joined him at the side of the boat while Abe maneuvered slowly around the main wreckage site. They all scanned the surface for a glimpse of their teammates. Abe saw the signal first. It was Dude. He eased the boat over next to the man and Wolf and Benny helped pull him on board.

  Dude pulled off his mask.

  “Have you picked them up yet?” he asked, just as anxious as Wolf was. Wolf shook his head, knowing Dude meant Ice and Cookie then stood back up to scan the surface of the water again. Dude stood up and joined him.