by Nicole Helm
Natalie didn’t just lower her gun, she dropped it. She sank to the rocky ground and Jaime had to raise an eyebrow at Ranger Cooper sinking with her.
He couldn’t hear what they said to each other, but it didn’t matter. He turned to The Stallion. Victor Callihan. The man who’d made his life a living hell for two years.
He was still writhing on the ground, bloody and pale, shaking possibly with shock or with the loss of blood. He might make it. He might not. Jaime supposed it would depend on how quickly they worked.
Jaime slid into a crouch. “How does it feel, senor,” Jaime mused aloud, “to be so completely outwitted by everyone around you?”
“You think this is over?” The Stallion rasped. “It’ll never be over. As long as I breathe, you’re mine, and it will never, ever, be over.”
Jaime had been through too much for those words to have any impact. The Stallion thought he could intimidate him? Make him fear? Not in this lifetime or the next.
“There’s already an FBI raid at all four of your compounds.” He was gratified when the man’s eyes bulged. “Oh, did you think I didn’t put it together? The southern compound? You know who helped me figure out its location? Ah, no, I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I’ll let you worry about that. You’ll have plenty of time to ruminate in a cell.”
The Stallion lunged, but he was weakened and all Jaime had to do was rock back on his heels to avoid the man’s grasp.
“Everyone should be out by the time I get back, and you know what my first order of business will be? Burning every last doll in that place,” he whispered in the man’s ear, before standing.
Jaime turned to Cooper who’d gotten Natalie to her feet. He ignored The Stallion’s sputtering and nodded in the direction of the Jeep. “I have rope in my vehicle. We’ll tie him up and take him to the closest ranger station.”
And then he’d find a way to get to Gabby.
Chapter Fifteen
Gabby stood at the door to her room, Jasmine slightly in front of her. Alyssa and Tabitha had already gone back into the common room, plan in place.
Gabby felt sick, but she pushed it away. The girls were counting on her and so was... Well, she herself. She was the architect of this plan, the leader, and if she wanted them all to survive, she had to be calm and strong.
Jaime was out protecting her sister, and no matter how mad he might be at her for not leaving, she knew he’d do everything to keep Natalie safe.
And she hadn’t even told him...
She forced it all away as Alyssa’s cue blasted through the house. Gabby exchanged a look with Jasmine. Alyssa was supposed to yell at Tabitha, not scream obscenities at her.
As Gabby and Jasmine slid into the room, Alyssa attacked, stabbing one of her butter knives into Wallace’s leg with a brutal force Gabby had to look away from.
Jasmine threw the cords they’d gathered at Tabitha. Wallace screamed in a kind of agony that made Gabby’s blood run cold, but she couldn’t think about that now. Layne was her target.
His eyes gleamed with an unholy bloodlust and his gun was in his grasp far too fast. But somehow everything seemed to move in slow motion. Before Gabby could even flinch, Jasmine was throwing her body at Layne’s legs.
The impact surprised Layne enough that he fell forward, on top of Jasmine, who cried out, mixing with Wallace’s screams.
Gabby scrambled forward, pushing Layne off Jasmine so he hit the hard floor on his injured shoulder. He howled in pain, but he didn’t let go of the gun as Gabby grabbed it.
She jerked and pulled, but Layne didn’t let go. He screamed, but she couldn’t wrestle the weapon from his grasp.
Until Jasmine got to her feet and started stomping on his bad shoulder, a wholly different girl than the woman who’d, pale-faced and wide-eyed, told Gabby she wasn’t strong enough. Gabby finally wrested the gun free of his hand, trying to think past the high-pitched keening from both men.
“Rope,” she gasped then yelled louder. She glanced at Alyssa and Tabitha. Wallace thrashed, groaning in pain as he swung his hands out, but Tabitha had tied his legs tightly to the chair and Alyssa had already wrestled the gun out of his hands.
Alyssa kicked one of the cords Gabby’s way and Gabby grabbed it as Layne tried to scuttle away from Jasmine, cursing and, Gabby thought, maybe even sobbing.
Jasmine stomped another time on his wound, which had now bled completely through his bandage and shirt. His face went white and his eyes rolled back in his head, and it was only then that Gabby realized Jasmine was crying and that Wallace had gone completely silent.
Feeling a sob rise in her throat, Gabby knelt next to Layne and jerked his arms behind his back, doing her best to tie the cord around his thick forearms and wrists. She pulled it as tightly as she possibly could and tied as many knots as the length of cord would allow.
She breathed through her mouth, because something about the smell of Layne—him or his wound—nearly made her woozy.
“I’ve got his legs,” Tabitha said, moving to the end of Layne’s lifeless body. Gabby could see the rise and fall of his chest, so he wasn’t dead.
She almost wished he was, which was enough to get her to her feet. She glanced back at Alyssa who had ripped off half her shirt and tied it around Wallace’s face like a gag. The man still wiggled, but the cords and knots were holding and if he tried to escape too much longer, he’d likely knock the whole chair over.
Alyssa held the gun far too close to Wallace’s head.
Gabby crossed to her, holding her hand out for the gun. “Tabitha is going to guard them.”
Alyssa didn’t spare Gabby a glance. “My suggestion of just killing them stands,” she said, her hands tight on the gun, sweat dripping down her temple.
“I need your help to gather evidence.”
“They can,” Alyssa said, jerking her chin toward Jasmine, who stood with Layne’s gun trained on his unmoving form and Tabitha finishing up the knots at his ankles. She never looked at them, just gestured toward them.
“No, I need you,” Gabby said firmly.
Alyssa’s gaze finally flickered to Gabby. “You need me?”
“Yes. You’re the strongest next to me. We’ll be able to break down the doors easiest and carry the most stuff. I need you.”
Gabby didn’t really know if Alyssa was stronger, but it was certainly the most plausible. Clearly it also got through to her since she’d looked away from Wallace.
Maybe it would be easier to kill the men, but Gabby... She didn’t want to have to relive that for the rest of her life, and she didn’t want the other girls to have to, either.
Alyssa waved the gun a bit. “We might need this to bust the lock off.”
Gabby remained steadfast in holding her hand out, palm upward. “Give me the gun, Alyssa. We need to do this as a team.”
The woman’s mouth turned into a sneer and Gabby thought for sure she’d lost the battle. Any second now Alyssa would pull the trigger and—
She slapped the gun into Gabby’s palm. “Let’s go get those doors open,” she muttered.
Gabby nodded, looking at Tabitha and Jasmine. Jasmine had Layne’s gun and Tabitha had what looked to be a dagger of some kind that she must have taken off one of the men.
“Scream if you need anything,” Gabby said sternly. “Once we have whatever evidence we can carry, we’ll come get you and lock this place back up, and then we’ll start out.”
Jasmine and Tabitha nodded, and though they’d handled themselves like old pros, everyone seemed a little shaky now. Far too jumpy. She and Alyssa needed to hurry.
They raced down the hall to the door. “Give me one of those knives.”
Alyssa pulled one out of her bra and if Gabby had time she might have marveled at it, but instead she used it to start picking the lock. Turned out R
icky and his ne’er-do-well friends had taught her something.
She got the locks free and pushed on the door. It creaked open only a fraction. Alyssa inspected the crack. “It’s chained on the outside,” she said flatly. “Give me the gun.”
Gabby hesitated. “What if it ricochets?”
Alyssa raised an eyebrow. “It won’t.”
What choice did Gabby have? A butter knife wasn’t cutting through chain any more than anything else, and Alyssa might be losing it, but she was sure. They had to be a team.
Gabby handed over the gun. Alyssa shoved the muzzle through the crack, barely managing to fit it, and then a loud shot rang out.
The chain clanked and then after another quick and overly loud shot, Alyssa was pushing the door open.
Both women stumbled into the bright light of day. It very nearly burned, the bright sunshine, the intense blue overhead. Gabby tried to step forward, but only tripped and fell to her knees in the grass.
“Oh, God. Oh, God,” Alyssa whispered.
Gabby couldn’t see her. Her eyes couldn’t seem to adjust to the bright light, and her heart just imploded.
She could smell the grass. She could feel it under her knees and hands. Hot from the midday sun. Rocky soil underneath. It was real. Real and true. The actual earth. Fresh air. The sun. God, the sun.
The one time they’d been let out it had been a cloudy day, and The Stallion hadn’t allowed for any reaction. Just digging. But today...today the sun beat down on her face as if it hadn’t been missing from her life for eight years.
Gabby tried to hold back the sobs, she had a job to do, after all. A mission, and leaving Tabitha and Jasmine alone with dangerous men no matter how injured or tied up wasn’t fair. She had to act.
But all she could seem to do was suck in air and cry.
Then Alyssa’s arms were pulling her to her feet. “We have to keep moving, Gabby. We’ve got time to cry later. Now, we have to move.”
Gabby finally managed to blink her eyes open. Alyssa’s jaw was set determinedly and she pointed to a fancy shed in the corner of the yard.
Gabby took a deep breath of air—fresh and sun-laden—and looked down at her hands. She’d grasped some grass and pulled it out, and now it fluttered to the patchy ground below.
The Stallion had kept her from this, all of this, for eight long years. It was time to make sure it was his turn to not see daylight for a hell of a lot longer.
* * *
JAIME DROVE THE Jeep toward where Cooper’s map said there’d be a ranger station. Once they had access to a phone—The Stallion’s laptop had been too encrypted to be of use—Jaime would call his superiors and Ranger Cooper’s.
Things would be real soon enough, and he still wasn’t back to Gabby.
Still, he answered Cooper’s questions and only occasionally glanced at the woman sandwiched between him and the Texas Ranger.
She was slighter than Gabby, certainly softer, and yet she’d been the one to shoot The Stallion as though it had been nothing at all.
Jaime glanced at Cooper’s crudely bandaged arm wound. It was bleeding through, though he’d looked over it himself and knew, at most, Cooper would need stitches.
There was an awkward silence between every one of Ranger Cooper’s curt questions and every one of Jaime’s succinct answers. Tension and stress seemed to stretch between all of them, no matter that The Stallion was apprehended in the back and would likely survive his injuries.
Unless Jaime slowed down. But it wasn’t an option, not without news on Gabby and the raid. Too many unknowns, too many possibilities.
He finally found a road after driving through mountains and desert, and soon enough a ranger station came into view. Jaime brought the Jeep to a stop, trying to remember himself and his duty.
He pushed the Jeep into Park and looked at Cooper. “If you stay put, I’ll have them call for an ambulance, as well as call your precinct. We’ll see if there’s any word on the raid to Callihan’s house, where your sister was.”
Ranger Cooper nodded stoically, putting his hand on his weapon, his glance falling to the back of the Jeep where Victor Callihan, The Stallion, Jaime’s tormenter, lay still and tied up.
Bleeding.
Hopefully miserable.
Jaime glanced at Gabby’s sister, but she only stared at him. She’d asked no questions about her sister. She’d said almost nothing at all. Jaime figured she was in shock.
“I don’t know what to ask,” she said, her voice weak and thready.
Jaime gave a sharp nod. “Let me see if I can go find out some basics.” He left the Jeep and strode into the station.
A woman behind the counter squeaked, but Jaime held up his hands.
“I’m with the FBI and I need to use your phone.” He realized he didn’t have his badge, and he still had far too many weapons strapped to his body.
He needed to get his crap together and fast. He kept his hands raised and recited his FBI information. The woman shoved a phone at him, but she backed into a corner of her office and Jaime had no doubt she was radioing for help.
It didn’t matter. He called through to his superior, trying to rein in his impatience.
“I’m in a ranger station in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I have Texas Ranger Vaughn Cooper and civilian Natalie Torres with me. The Stallion is hurt and disarmed. We need an ambulance for Callihan and Cooper, and I need an immediate debriefing on what’s happening at The Stallion’s compound in the west.”
“Immediate,” Agent Lucroy repeated, and though it had been years since Jaime had seen the man in charge of his undercover investigation, he could imagine clearly the man’s raised eyebrow. “That’s quite the demand.”
“Sir,” Jaime said, biting back a million things he wanted to yell. “There are four women in that compound, whom I left with armed and dangerous men. It is my duty and my utmost concern that they are safe.”
There was a long silence on the line.
“Sir?” Jaime repeated, fearing the worst.
“The raid has been initiated per your message. Our agents are on the ground at the compound...”
“And Ga—the women?”
“Well... Let me get off the phone and contact the necessary authorities to get you out of there. We’ll do a proper debriefing when you’re back in San Antonio.”
Jaime nearly doubled over, fear turning into a nauseating sickness in his gut. Oh, God, he hadn’t saved her. She wasn’t safe at all.
“What happened to the women?” he demanded. “One of the captives...Natalie Torres, the woman Ranger Cooper has been protecting, she’s the sister of one of the captives. She deserves to know...” She deserved to know how horribly he’d failed.
Agent Lucroy sighed. “Let’s just say there’s a slight...situation at the El Paso compound.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Do you think we can carry a computer as far as we need to walk?” Gabby asked, looking dubiously down at the hard drive Alyssa was unhooking from a million monitors.
Alyssa shrugged. “We can get it as far as we need to. Then it’s got just as much a chance of being found by whatever cops we can find as any Stallion idiots.”
It was a good point. In fact, Alyssa had made quite a few. Though Gabby still didn’t trust Alyssa not to go off and do something drastic or dangerous, the woman was very effective under pressure.
They hadn’t found any bags or things they could haul evidence in, so they’d shoved any important-looking papers into their pockets. Gabby had come across a map with markings on it, and she thought with enough time she’d be able to figure it out. She’d taken a page out of Alyssa’s book and shoved it into her bra.
Gabby went through a shelf of tech gadgets and picked up anything she thought might have memory on it. Anything that
could make sure this was over for good.
It’s not over until you’re out of here.
She tried to ignore the panic beating in her chest and focus. “That should be good, don’t you think?” When she turned to face Alyssa, the woman was staring at a shelf of dolls. They all looked like variations of the same. Dark hair, unseeing eyes, frilly dresses.
A heavy sense of unease settled over the adrenaline coursing through Gabby. She understood now, completely, why the dolls had weighed so heavily on Jaime. She tried to look away, but it felt as if the dolls were just...staring at—
The shot that rang out made Gabby scream, the doll’s head exploding made her wince, but when she wildly looked over at Alyssa, the woman was simply holding the gun up, vaguely smiling.
“Think I have enough bullets to shoot all of them?” she asked conversationally.
“No,” Gabby said emphatically. “Let’s go. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Alyssa nodded, grabbing the computer hard drive and hefting it underneath her arm. She kept the gun in her other hand, but before either of them could make another move, the door burst open.
Gabby dropped to the ground, trying to hide behind the desk that dominated the shed, but Alyssa only turned, gun aimed at the invasion of men.
Men in uniform.
“FBI. Put down your weapons,” they yelled in chorus.
Gabby scrambled back to her feet, blinking a few times, just to make sure... But there it was in big bold letters.
FBI.
Oh, God. She searched the men’s faces, but none of them was Jaime.
“Drop your weapon, ma’am,” one of them intoned, his voice flat and commanding.
Alyssa stared at the man and most decidedly did not drop her weapon.
“Alyssa,” Gabby hissed.
“I’m not going to be a prisoner for another second,” Alyssa said, her voice deadly calm.
“It’s the FBI. Look at his uniform, Alyssa. Do what he says.” Gabby held up her hands, hoping that with her cooperating the men wouldn’t shoot.