Hunter: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “I don’t talk to Noah very often,” his cousin, Randy stated. “He’s always been a little off, but I never thought he would do something like this.”

  “What happened today?” Cap asked. We were all at the police station, trying to figure out our next move.

  “He had called me a few days back, wanted to know my schedule. He said that he needed to talk to me about some stuff. I told him today was my day off and he said he would be over by nine this morning. He came in and I asked him if he wanted some coffee. I turned my back and then I woke up when the chief sent over officers to check on me. I don’t remember anything else.”

  “Where would he take her?” I asked impatiently. We were wasting time. We needed information now.

  “I don’t know. His parents live in Georgia now, but he wouldn’t bring her there. They’ve never been too understanding of his eccentric side.”

  “And you have?” Knight asked. I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was thinking that Randy might be in on it.

  “No. We just live in the same area. I’m his only family that’s still around, but it’s not because I want to be near him. He never moved away and I joined the force.”

  “Who would be understanding of his eccentric side?”

  Randy shook his head slowly as he thought. “No one. I’m not even sure he keeps in touch with anyone anymore. But I don’t know a single person in the family that wouldn’t turn him in if he brought home a kidnapped woman. That’s just beyond crazy.”

  “Okay, then what about someplace that your family owns that no one currently lives in?”

  “None of us have any vacation homes or anything like that. We always-” he stopped and his eyes narrowed off into the distance. “There’s this one place we always went on family retreats when we were younger. We haven’t been there since we were teenagers, but this would be their off-season.”

  “Where’s it located?” I asked urgently.

  “Near Tuscarora State Park.”

  “That’s gotta be, what? Five or six hours away?” I asked.

  “About that. I can get you the information, but the place is huge. There’s gotta be close to thirty cabins that you’d have to check.”

  “Shit.” I ran a hand down my face. “He’s got at least a good three hour head start on us.”

  “That’s if she’s out there,” Knight said.

  “I’m going. It’s the only lead we have.”

  “I’m with you,” Knight said. “I’m just pointing out that we shouldn’t put everyone on this when we’re not certain that’s where she is.”

  Cap stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest. “Knight’s right. We can’t afford to send everyone out there. If we’re wrong, we’ll waste valuable time getting to her.”

  “Let’s load up. I’m leaving within a half hour.” I turned and walked for the door, but Cap stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

  “Last I checked, I’m still in charge of things.”

  “I’m not waiting for everyone to figure out what we should do. I may be wrong about this, but I have to go now and see if I can find her. She’s waiting for me.”

  “I know that, but you have us and we’re backing you one hundred percent, but you’re thinking with your heart, not your head. You’ll get her killed if you go running off without a plan.”

  “I have a plan. It’s simple. Grab my gun, find her, shoot him.”

  Cap smirked at me. “Not a bad plan, but how about you let us get just a few more details so we know what we’re walking into.” He turned to the rest of the guys, “We’ll take three teams out there. Cazzo, Irish, and Chance, your teams will head out in the next hour. Get back to Reed Security, load up, and go. Knight, you’ll make up the third on Irish’s team. Ice, get ahold of the owners and get permission to get on the property and find our girl. I want your team to find out anything you can about the area and get schematics of the campground. Work with Becky and Rob. You’ll guide them where they need to go. Alec, your team will coordinate with the police department and run down any other leads that come in. Let’s move!”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  The ride out to the campground was fucking excruciating. Every minute, I was running scenarios in my mind of what was going on with Lucy. I didn’t know if she was hurt. She was probably scared and had no one to rely on but herself. I at least had my team to support me.

  “Have you heard from Lola recently?” Derek asked.

  “No, have you?”

  He shook his head.

  “She told me she was headed to Hawaii for a few weeks,” Knight said nonchalantly. I turned to him, completely puzzled.

  “She fucking talked to you?”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged at my look of bewilderment. “What? I wasn’t the one that screwed her over.”

  “We didn’t screw her over,” Derek said. “Well, I didn’t. Technically, Pappy was screwing her over for a lot longer than any of us knew.”

  “You fucked Lola?” Knight asked.

  “Jesus, are we back to this again? Who gives a shit?”

  “Aren’t there some rules about coworkers being involved with each other?” he asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” I muttered. “But it doesn’t matter because we aren’t fucking anymore.”

  “That’s right,” Derek said. “Now you’re fucking Lucy.”

  “I’m not fucking her,” I sniped. “She’s more than that.”

  “Tell me how you really feel,” Derek smiled.

  “I don’t have to tell you shit.”

  “Hey, all I’m saying is that I went and talked to Claire’s father first. I told him exactly what my intentions were with her. Did you extend the same courtesy?”

  “We haven’t exactly had the smoothest relationship,” I pointed out. “When exactly was I supposed to go talk to her father about what I intended with her? When I demanded that she stay with me and then I pushed her away? Or maybe when I followed her to the spa. That would have been the moment right there. Hey, Harry. I want your daughter so much that I had my dick waxed for her. Yeah, that would have been the real winner right there.”

  “I don’t know, I think when you took a bullet to the head might have been a good starting point,” Knight muttered. “It’s not like he could shoot you for being an asshole to his daughter after you took a bullet.”

  Derek barked out a laugh. “Let’s not overplay that incident. He didn’t actually take a bullet to the head. More like it scraped his skull. If one of us gets grazed in the arm with a bullet, we don’t bitch about it. We slap a bandaid on.”

  “Hey, asshole. I was in the hospital with a concussion.”

  “Yeah, and then Lucy went and made you all better,” he smirked. “You can thank me for that any time you want, by the way.”

  “I’m just saying, there hasn’t really been a good time to go tell him that I plan on keeping his daughter.”

  “Now you sound like a stalker,” Knight said.

  “You would know,” Derek shot back. “How long were you watching Kate from across the street?”

  “The difference was that she knew I was there.”

  “Not all the time,” I snapped at him. “Let’s not forget that you were watching her for a whole fucking year without any of us knowing about it. Well, almost none of us.”

  “Still sore about that, huh?”

  “Well, when my old best friend gets stabbed and dies in a fire and I have to fucking bury his ass, yeah, I would say that kind of stuck with me.”

  “Wait, what do you mean old best friend? Who’s your new best friend?”

  “Derek. He’s never faked his death and made me beat myself up for a whole fucking year about how I let him die,” I sneered.

  “I’m your best friend?” Derek grinned. “I’m touched, man. Truly touched.”

  “Dude, I had your fucking back in the desert. I can’t believe you so easily replaced me.”

  “Hey, when you went on a k
illing rampage, I’m the one that broke you out of prison. I’d say I went way beyond the boundaries of best friend.”

  Knight quirked an eyebrow at me. “What? You mean like lover? I’m taken, Pappy, and even if I wasn’t, I don’t swing that way.”

  “That’s not what I fucking meant.”

  “Are you sure? Because I heard that you gave Gabe quite the showing with Lucy. I heard you two had some kind of moment.”

  “We didn’t have a moment. If anyone had a moment, it was him. And who’s spreading that shit around anyway? You guys are worse than a women’s book club.”

  “Been to a lot of those, have you?” Derek asked.

  “Let’s face it, Derek. The only person in the world that actually goes to a book club to talk about the books is Claire. The rest of them talk about men and sex.”

  “Aren’t those two usually grouped together anyway?” Knight asked.

  “Not necessarily,” I told Knight. “Haven’t you ever heard all the girlfriends and wives at our parties? If they aren’t bitching about how often we want it, they’re bitching about how we don’t understand them.”

  “But, we don’t understand them,” Derek pointed out. “I mean, I understand Claire, but I don’t get her half the time. Like this one time, I wanted to have sex and she was having some weird dream about Superman. I woke her the way every woman wants to be woken-”

  “With coffee?” Knight smirked.

  “No, with my mouth on her pussy, and she couldn’t get into it. I mean, I was ready to get really dirty with her and all she could do was think about that dream.”

  “Sounds like you don’t know what you’re doing,” I said.

  “I know what the fuck I’m doing, but she’s a woman. I’m telling you, they don’t make any fucking sense.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never lost Kate’s attention or couldn’t get her to have sex with me.”

  “I can’t say that I couldn’t ever get Lucy to sleep with me, but I couldn’t get her to do anything more than that with me.”

  “That’s because you’re a fucking idiot and you screwed it up with her. Did you tell Knight about that?”

  “Tell me about what? Now you’re holding out on me? You drop me from best friend status and now I don’t even get to know what the fuck is going on with you?”

  “Fuck, I didn’t drop you from best friend status. You were out of my life for years. Sorry, I made new friends.”

  “Now I feel like the kid that no one wants to play with on the playground,” Knight grumbled.

  “You’re not wrong about that,” Derek muttered. “No one wants to play with you because someone always ends up in the hospital.”

  “Whatever. If you don’t know how to properly fight, you don’t step into the ring. So, how did you screw it up with her?”

  “He wouldn’t give her a drawer.”

  “A drawer? Like a kitchen drawer?” Knight asked.

  “No, dresser drawer. He wouldn’t share his dresser with her when he asked her to stay with him. He freaked out when she asked and it all went downhill from there.”

  “Look, I know I fucked up. Can we not rehash it? Besides, Lucy and I are in a good place right now. Well, we will be when I get her back.”

  “Are you going to give her a drawer this time?” Derek asked.

  “No, I’m going to give her the whole fucking house.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  We parked at the entrance of the campground by the office where the owners were waiting for us. Stepping out of the SUV, Derek and I walked toward them and shook their hands.

  “We appreciate you letting us check out the property,” Derek said.

  “Well, if someone is trespassing and using our property, we’d like to know,” the man said.

  “Did you check out the names we gave you?”

  The woman handed over some papers, fidgeting nervously with her fingers. “These are the locations they’ve stayed in the past, but I’m afraid it was always a different cabin. It’s always based on availability, so really, he could be in any of the cabins. I also included a map of the campground. I hope that helps.”

  “Is there any power right now?” Derek asked.

  “No.” The man shook his head as he looked back behind him. “We shut everything down for the winter.”

  “Alright, it would probably be best if you left the property. We don’t know the state of mind he’s in and we don’t need any other hostages around. When we’re done here, we’ll contact you and let you know what happened.”

  “What about damages?” the man asked.

  “Any damage we cause will be covered by Reed Security,” Derek assured them.

  We walked back to the SUV as the couple scurried off to their vehicle and drove away. I pulled on my vest and strapped on my thigh holster and shoulder holster, then pushed my earpiece in.

  “Ice, you copy?”

  “Loud and clear. We’re here with Becky and Rob.”

  “Any news from back home?” I asked.

  “Police found quite a stash of pictures in Noah’s apartment. He’s been watching her for a while.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “Looks like since earlier this summer.” Ice said.

  “That’s well before the first note came.”

  “Yeah, it looks like you weren’t the only one that purposely ran into her at the grocery store.”

  “Alright, let’s not compare me to this asshole.”

  “Just saying…”

  “Were you able to spot anything on satellite?” I asked, changing gears.

  “Negative. Tree coverage is too heavy. I’m afraid you’re on your own with that. We’ll be here for anything else you need.”

  “Derek has the lead,” I said, turning to the group of men surrounding me.

  “Alright, we’ll split off, each team taking a cluster of cabins. Chance, you’ll take your team to cabins one through ten. Cazzo, your team has cabins eleven through twenty. My team will take the cabins at the back of the property. We think that’s most likely where she’s being held. If you see anything, check in immediately. We take this guy alive unless he’s a threat to Lucy. Understood?”

  We all nodded and broke off in our teams, heading out in the direction of our cabins. Our team had the furthest to walk, so the other teams would likely clear one or two cabins before we reached the back of the property. We hustled as quickly as we could, doing our best not to draw attention to ourselves. We had to cut through trees to get there quickly and the branches scraped at our faces as we ran through.

  When we reached the first cabin, it was completely dark. My instincts told me that they weren’t here. It was too dark, too still. But protocol made sure that we cleared each cabin or we might miss something. I just hoped that the time we wasted clearing each cabin wasn’t the difference between life and death for Lucy.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Lucy

  WHERE THE HELL was I? I tried to clear my vision as I looked around the unfamiliar room. My head was pounding and I felt nauseous from whatever Noah gave me. There was a fan above the bed that was spinning fast, blowing the sheer white curtains around the canopy bed. I couldn’t look at it anymore or I would be sick. I sat up and pushed aside the curtain and let my feet fall to the floor, trying to get my bearings. When I felt steady, I stood and walked over to the window, my ankle still throbbing from earlier in the day, or whenever that was. There was a beautiful view of the mountain. Which mountain, I had no clue.

  My skin cooled and I rubbed my arms, realizing that I was no longer in my own clothes. I looked down to see that I was wearing a long, silk nightgown with spaghetti straps. I had no bra on and unless I was mistaken, I wasn’t wearing underwear either. I pushed aside the fact that I hadn’t changed my clothes myself. I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to figure out where I was and how to get out of here.

  I walked around the room and started freaking out a little. The closet door was open and I could see women’s clo
thing hanging in the closet along with several pairs of shoes on the floor. Lying on the foot of the bed was a silk robe and I hastily pulled it on to cover myself up. The door opened just as I was tying the knot in the front.

  “My dear, I’m so glad to see you up and about. Did you have a good nap?”

  A good nap? The man drugged me and took me away from my home. He was fucking delusional, but as long as he was treating me like something precious, he wasn’t burying me in a hole in the ground. I did my best to smile back at him through my fear and anger.

  “Yes, it was lovely. I was just a little chilly. I thought I might get dressed,” I said, walking to the closet.

  “Oh, no need for that. We’ll be eating dinner and then going to bed.” His eyes trailed over my body and I shivered at the slimy feel I was left with. He mistook my disgust for want because he walked forward and ran his finger down my cheek. “I have big plans for us tonight, but before we get to that, I’ve prepared dinner for us downstairs. I made it quite special.”

  I needed to play along. If I played into his fantasy, perhaps I could get the upper hand. His fantasy. Thank you, Claire! I knew exactly what I had to do. I smiled my biggest smile and took his hand. This was just like playing up a man’s ego in a bar. I could do this.

  “Thank you. Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

  He placed a kiss on my cheek and led me downstairs, holding onto my arm as we descended the stairs, making sure that I didn’t fall. The whole place was lit with candles, which seemed like overkill. Why wouldn’t he just turn the lights on? The cabin was quite beautiful and spacious, someplace I would stay if I ever went of vacation to someplace like this. That would never happen now. I would never ever want to come to a place like this. I couldn’t without thinking of this incident. That’s what this was, an incident. A small blip in my life and I would get out of here and never think of this man again.

  There was a white table cloth covering the round table and food already set out. He had really gone all out preparing dinner. There was a baked chicken on the table with mashed potatoes, corn bread, asparagus, and a cake for dessert. How long had he been planning this? How long had we been here already? This was insane, but the food did smell good and I was starving. I just didn’t know if the food was drugged in some way.