by Susan Stoker
“Summer, Alabama, and Cheyenne are MIA. They went to the restroom twenty minutes ago and disappeared. I haven’t searched the premises yet, but wanted you to know.”
“Caroline and Fiona?” Wolf’s voice was clipped and businesslike.
“Right here with me.”
“Put Ice on.”
Mozart handed the phone to Caroline.
“Hey, Matthew.”
“Ice, I need you and Fiona to stay close to Mozart. I’m calling the team, but until we know what the hell is going on I need you safe. Got me?”
“Of course, Matthew. I’ll stay right here and won’t let him out of my sight.”
“Thank you, baby, please stay safe,” Wolf said softly and with feeling before switching back to his no nonsense voice. “Put Mozart back on.”
Caroline handed the phone back to Sam without a word.
“Yeah.”
“Do a recon, then call Tex if you don’t find them. He’ll be able to track their phones. I’ll call Dude and Abe and let them know. Call Benny and Cookie and tell them to meet you at Aces.”
“Got it. Call if you find anything.”
After hanging out with Mozart, Wolf clenched his fists momentarily before sighing and scrolling through his contacts. Neither Abe nor Dude were going to be happy to hear their women were missing.
* * *
Cheyenne sat in the front seat of the SUV, huddled in misery. Alicia had crawled in the back seat with Summer and Alabama. She held the gun jammed into Alabama’s side. Javier kept sneering at Cheyenne and winking at her viciously. It was seriously creeping Cheyenne out.
She tried to think through what was happening. So far, all she knew was that one of the men at the grocery store that day was Alicia’s brother. She hadn’t been able to figure out how Javier fit into everything yet.
The duo wasn’t talking about where they were going or what was going to happen once they got there. The kidnapping was obviously pre-planned.
They drove for what seemed like hours, but was probably more like forty minutes or so, and pulled onto a dusty road. They bumped over the rough ground for at least a mile before coming to a stop outside a tiny house.
Alicia forced Alabama and Summer out, while Javier kept Cheyenne from exiting by latching tightly onto her arm and not letting go.
“Where is she taking them?” Cheyenne shrieked. “Let me go. “No, don’t take them. Shit. No.” She struggled against Javier’s hold until he finally took his fist and rammed it into the side of her face.
“Shut the fuck up. Damn. Seriously.”
Cheyenne shook her head. Her ears were ringing and she groaned. Shit that hurt. She tried a different tactic. “Look, if it’s money you want, I can get it for you. I’ve got twenty thousand dollars in the bank, it’s yours if you just let my friends go. They didn’t do anything, they have nothing to do with this. Please don’t hurt them, just take me and we’ll go and get the money.”
Javier didn’t answer, but instead rolled down the passenger window and yelled, “Hurry the fuck up, Alicia, we ain’t got time for this shit!”
“Keep your pants on, Javier. Fuck! I’m gettin’ there!”
Before Javier could roll the window up again, Cheyenne yelled out the open window to her friends. “Hang in there you guys! I’m sure the guys are coming!”
“Your fucking Navy SEALS aren’t coming, bitch.” Javier growled at her.
Cheyenne was sick of this. “They are. They’ll find you guys and shoot you down just like the snipers did to Alicia’s brother!”
“If they come, they’ll die.”
Cheyenne stared at Javier, trying to decide if he was talking smack or if he was serious.
“We wired the entire place.”
At the look of horror on Cheyenne’s face, Javier laughed. “Poor, poor, Cheyenne. Not only will you lose your friends, but you’ll also lose your precious SEAL. We’ve got cameras hooked up so we can watch too.”
“But I thought you didn’t know my friends would be here with me.”
“Of course we did. We put on a show that you fucking bought hook, line, and sinker. Do you think we don’t know that bitches can’t pee by themselves? We figured you’d be with at least one of your friends. Having two? That’ll just keep your SEALs occupied that much longer.”
“No, Jesus, no.”
“Yes, Jesus, yes.” Javier mocked.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this?” Cheyenne asked desperately trying to figure out a way out of the horrible situation she found herself and her new friends in.
“Because one of those assholes was my brother too. Alicia and I met while filming a segment for one of the news shows. We watched you, hung out in the parking lot where you work. Memorized your schedule. We decided to band together to get revenge. Revenge is always sweeter when shared, don’t you think?”
Cheyenne sobbed once, then choked it back. She flinched when she heard a gunshot ring out into the countryside. “Summer? Alabama?” she cried out frantically.
“We’re okay!”
Cheyenne sighed in relief, then heard another gun shot. “Stop fucking shooting at my friends!” she screeched, hoping Alicia could hear her. Javier just laughed next to her, obviously not concerned about Alicia in the slightest. He rolled the window up, so Cheyenne couldn’t hear what was happening in the little cabin anymore.
Cheyenne watched as Alicia exited the cabin. She didn’t come straight to the car though. Cheyenne observed as she took wire and circled the cabin twice, making sure to twist the wires together as she went.
“She’s setting the wires for the bomb,” Javier told her, sounding as if he was telling her the weather forecast for the day. “The cabin is rigged to blow. There are trip wires all over the place. All it will take is one wrong step by your precious SEALs and your friends will be blown to bits right in front of their eyes.”
“No,” Cheyenne breathed. “Please, leave them alone.”
“Sorry, sweets. Too fucking late for that.”
Cheyenne thought she was hyperventilating. Had Alicia shot Summer or Alabama? Were they inside the cabin dying right now?
Alicia came running back toward the SUV. She tore open the back door and was laughing as she plopped her butt on the seat and slammed the door behind her. “All set. The first shot scared them, but the second one shut the blonde up.”
“No! What did you do?” Cheyenne tried to turn in her seat to she could leap over and hurt Alicia, but Javier just laughed and twisted the arm he still had in his grasp cruelly.
Cheyenne contorted her body to try to take the pressure off her arm as Javier twisted it in his grasp. He kept on twisting until Cheyenne heard a pop. The most incredible pain she could ever imagine swept over her, almost making her pass out. “Aahhhhhhh.”
Cheyenne heard Javier and Alicia laughing through her pain.
“Did you break it?”
“Nah, just pulled it out of socket. That should keep her docile.”
Cheyenne concentrated on not throwing up all over herself, the car, and Javier. She had no idea how she’d get out of this. How her friends would get out of it. She didn’t even know if Summer was still alive. If Alicia had shot her, how long did she have before she had to see a doctor or she’d die? Cheyenne moaned. They were all in big trouble.
Chapter Fifteen
Wolf, Abe, Mozart, Dude, and Benny surrounded an alley in the heart of the city. Cookie was back at Aces with Ice and Fiona, guarding them, waiting for intel from the team.
Wolf and Abe approached from the south while the other three SEALS approached from the north. Tex had traced the women’s cell phones to this location. There was a large dumpster up against the wall and the men could hear sounds coming from inside it.
Cautiously and soundlessly the men approached. They had no idea what they would find inside, but all five men were fully concentrated on the dumpster. Wolf covered the south while Benny covered the north entrance. Mozart cautiously approached the dumpster, brought his flashl
ight up and without making a sound, lifted the lid.
After he peered inside, he lowered the lid and closed the dumpster carefully, then quickly backed away.
“Bomb,” he said tonelessly.
The five men wasted no time retreating until they were standing at the end of the alley.
Mozart told his friends what he’d seen.
“All three cell phones are in there, strapped to a small bomb. I don’t think it can do much damage, but we need to call it in.”
“Do I need to go and check it out?” Dude asked, knowing he’d be able to tell with a glance how dangerous the bomb was.
“No, it’s obvious they ditched the phones and they’re just fucking with us,” Abe commented with disgust.
“Fuck. I’ll call Tex back and tell him to keep looking,” Benny said, pulling out his phone and punching buttons while he said it.
“What the fuck is going on?” Dude growled out to no one in particular.
“This has to be connected to whatever happened in that grocery store. The bomb is just too much of a coincidence,” Wolf theorized as the team stalked down the street back to Wolf’s SUV. “Call Cookie, have him talk to Ice and Fiona again, see if he can’t get any more information. Anything would help us at this point.”
“They are never fucking going out again without us there, not even to pee.” Dude was at the end of his rope. This was worse than the day Cheyenne had lunch with her family. At least then he knew she’d just had a bad day and was laying low. This? Some fucker had her who was smart enough to ditch their cells and create a hell of a diversion with them.
Benny piped up as they got to the SUV. “Tex is calling the cops to let them know about the explosive in the dumpster. He’s as pissed as we are. He’s seeing what he can find on surveillance tapes, although Aces doesn’t really have good coverage. Since they had three women, they had to have had a bigger type car.”
“Why do you think they all went? I mean if they were kidnapped by one person, it would’ve been hard to overpower them all,” Benny further mused.
“Threats. He had to have threatened one of them. You know our women,” Abe said in a low pissed off voice. “All he had to do was threaten to kill or hurt one of them and the others would’ve done whatever he said without a fight.”
Out of the blue, Mozart turned away from the vehicle and stalked over to the nearest building and punched the wall. Blood immediately flowed from the broken flesh on his knuckles. Wolf and Benny went to him and put their hands on his arms, ready to restrain him if he went to punch the wall again.
Instead, Mozart put both hands against the wall and leaned heavily on it, head down. “Summer can’t go through this again,” he said in a low tortured voice. “She’ll break. If she’s fucking broken when I find her, someone’s gonna die.”
“We’ll find her, Mozart,” Wolf told his friend earnestly.
“Yeah? When? After she’s been violated? After she’s been tortured again? Seriously, you know what happened with Hurst last time. She can’t go through this again.”
“I know, Mozart. I know. Tex will find them. You know he can find anyone.”
“He fucking better.”
No one said a word for a moment. Thoughts about what the three women were going through flitted through each man’s head. Finally Mozart pushed off the wall and walked up to Dude and Abe.
“I’m so fucking sorry you guys have to experience this. I’d hoped I’d be the only one to have to know what it feels like to have my woman stolen from me. I don’t know who or what we’re up against, but we have to get them back. Yesterday.”
“We will, Mozart. We fucking will,” Abe told him.
Dude didn’t say a word. Hatred was burning in the back of his eyes. It was bad enough his friends’ women were taken. But no one took his woman away from him. Cheyenne was his. He felt like a dog with a bone. Shy had said it straight out. She was his.
Dude loved Shy. It was all suddenly clear to him now. He didn’t get it before. Oh he knew he had feelings for Cheyenne and he’d thought he’d loved her, had even told her so, but he hadn’t understood how his teammates could put everything they’d ever known aside for a woman. But now? He fucking got it. When Fiona had run because of flashbacks and Cookie was out of the country? When Abe realized how badly he’d hurt Alabama and how much his words had shredded her? When Summer had been taken and Mozart had been frantic to find her? Even when they were in the middle of the ocean and Wolf had stepped aside and let someone else run the mission to rescue Ice…Dude finally understood.
Love. His friends loved their women with all they had, just as Dude loved Cheyenne. She was his. It didn’t matter that this was the twenty first century and women didn’t “belong” to anyone anymore. It didn’t matter that Cheyenne was independent and could function perfectly fine on her own without him.
Deep down, some basic instinct they had, insisted that the women were theirs. Theirs to protect, to feed, to clothe, to love. Theirs. Cheyenne was his, dammit. He needed her in his life, in his house, in his bed. Hell, he just needed her around. To see her smile, to see her chew on her damn thumbnail. To love. That’s what love was. It wasn’t simple affection, it wasn’t enjoying her company. It was all consuming and in the very marrow of his bones.
“Let’s go,” was all Dude could get out between his clenched teeth. He was on edge. He knew Mozart and Abe were feeling the same way. Their women were in danger. This was probably the most important mission they’d ever been on. The team was already close, but now, they were functioning as one. Wolf knew it could’ve easily been Caroline. It was pure chance that it hadn’t been.
The men climbed back into the SUV without a word. This shit had to end. Whatever this shit was, it totally had to end.
* * *
Two hours later, the entire team convened around a small cabin about twenty miles outside the city. Caroline and Fiona had gone back to Caroline’s house and were accompanied by three SEALs from another team on the base. Wolf wasn’t putting their safety to chance. The women had accepted the protection without a word, which pissed all the men off because it meant the women were feeling vulnerable and freaked by everything that had happened. Usually Ice would’ve flipped out on Wolf and argued against having any strangers in their house, but she’d just kissed him, hugged him hard, and told him to bring her friends home.
Tex had come through again. Just when the men thought there was no way Tex would be able to help them this time, he figured it out. The man could find a damn needle in a haystack, from a thousand miles away.
He’d used some sort of math/physics/engineering algorithm to study the traffic patterns, along with cell phone usage and surveillance cameras to pinpoint the exact damn vehicle the women had been taken in. Once he’d found the car, it was a simple matter, Tex’s words, to hack into the government’s satellites and track it.
Everyone on the team knew what Tex was doing was illegal, but no one said a word. If it helped get their women back, no one gave a fuck.
Tex had been able to track the car to this shitty little cabin. It was eerily quiet. Too quiet. Something was definitely not right. Dude wanted to yell out Cheyenne’s name, to see if she was okay, to see if she was even in the damn building, but he wouldn’t. This mission was on communication lockdown. If the kidnapper was in there, they wanted to surprise him.
Dude led the way to the cabin, every few steps he scanned the area, looking for…something. He wasn’t sure what. The hair on the back of his neck was sticking straight up. This wasn’t right. He signaled for everyone to hold up.
Everyone stopped immediately and waited for Dude. Taking his eyes off the ground, Dude looked around. He willed his brain to see what his eyes weren’t. Finally he stopped and turned his head back to where he was just looking. There.
“Fucking camera in the tree,” he tonelessly said to his teammates through his mic.
After a moment Wolf said, “There’s one over here too.”
“Here too,” Abe
chimed in.
“Wolf, the bastards are watching us,” Dude commented unnecessarily.
“But are they watching from inside the cabin or from elsewhere?” Benny chimed in, asking what everyone else had been thinking.
Without waiting for Wolf to approve of his actions, Dude yelled out. His voice carried across the clearing to the house. “Shy? Summer? Alabama?”
The men waited. Hoping.
“Here! We’re here!”
“Thank fuck!” Abe breathed, recognizing Alabama’s voice.
“Don’t come in!” Alabama continued to yell from inside the cabin. “The bastards have rigged the entire place with some sort of explosive!”
Every man froze in place. Dude looked around, now that he knew what he was looking for, it was easy to see. The wires around the cabin weren’t hidden all that well. He’d been so concerned about looking for hidden trip wires, he’d missed the obvious ones right in front of him. The kidnapper had obviously thought he was being sneaky by placing some wires around the cabin in the path, hoping the SEALs would step on them and set off the bomb. Idiots.
“Is Summer in there with you? Cheyenne?” Mozart called out.
“Summer is. They took Cheyenne though.”
“They? Jesus, how many people are involved in this?” Cookie muttered through the mic.
“Okay, sit tight, sweetheart. Anyone else around?” Everyone could tell Abe wanted nothing more than to rush into the cabin and see for himself that Alabama was all right, but he was too well-trained to do anything to fuck up the mission, especially when explosives were involved.
“No, it’s just us in here. But, Summer’s hurt.”
With Alabama’s words, the anxiety level of the men suddenly shot up. Dude blocked out the fact that Cheyenne wasn’t in the cabin and got to work trying to piece together how the explosives were set up and how to disarm them. The faster he figured it out, the faster they could get to Summer and Alabama, and the faster he could find Shy.
“Benny, you and Cookie work on dismantling the cameras. Be careful, the bastards might have rigged those too. Leave one up and running. I’ll call Tex and give him a head’s up on the cameras, he might be able to backtrack the signal and find the fucking nest. They have to be watching us for a reason. Let’s use their voyeurism against them. Fucking assholes.”