by Susan Stoker
* * *
Cheyenne couldn’t believe this was happening to her again. Once again she was covered in miles of duct tape. Her shoulder was screaming at her. Javier really had pulled it out of its socket when he’d wrenched it in the car. She supposed the tape holding her still was probably helping her keep it immobile, but it still hurt like nothing Cheyenne had experienced before.
The duo had driven her back into the city and to an apartment building. They’d broken in through a door in a back alley and dragged her down the stairs to the basement where they’d begun the process of taping her up.
Javier and Alicia had cackled the entire time they’d wrapped her in tape. Unlike in the grocery store though, they’d wrapped three bombs up this time. Then Alicia thought it’d be funny to wrap the tape around her neck and head too. Luckily Javier had stopped her before she could cover her mouth and nose with the stuff too.
So now Cheyenne was literally mummified. She couldn’t move. She was lying on the floor, ankles, legs, body, arms, head, all taped up. Cheyenne almost laughed thinking about how much all the tape must have cost.
She couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t run, she couldn’t get out of the way, she could only lay on the ground and watch Javier and Alicia. Cheyenne closed her eyes, she’d had enough of watching them. Apparently being horrible human beings in the middle of a kidnapping made them horny. They’d had sex on the floor right next to her. Since she’d been mummified she couldn’t move, she couldn’t do anything but close her eyes and wish like hell Faulkner was there.
After getting off, Javier pulled out a hand-held device and hunkered over it with Alicia, the two of them cackling with glee and laughing manically. It was the video feed of the cabin. They were watching as the SEALs made their way to the cabin.
“I wish this had sound!” Alicia complained. “But it’s fucking great. Look at them, all in stealth mode. I can understand what you see in them, they’re hunky and hot…too bad they’re all going to get blown up…along with your stupid friends.”
Cheyenne struggled on the floor. No! Dammit no! She stopped struggling when all it did was make her shoulder hurt more. She wasn’t going anywhere. She had to believe the guys knew what they were doing. They weren’t going to just barge in to the cabin without being cautious. Dude would see the explosives. He had to.
“What the fuck are they doing? Why aren’t they going in? You said they would rush right up to the door and bust in!” Javier complained to Alicia.
“Well, I figured they would. We had two of their women. They’re hotheaded military guys! That’s what they’re supposed to do!”
“Well, they’re not! Look! That one guy sees the camera! Fuck!”
The two were quiet a moment as they watched the action play out on the little black and white handheld device. After another few minutes, Javier sighed in exasperation.
“We gotta get out of here. Obviously they’re gonna get the girls out. Fuck this.”
“What about her?” Alicia whined.
“That part of the plan doesn’t change. In about eight hours she’s gonna blow up, so who the fuck cares.”
“But she knows who we are…”
Javier growled and got in Alicia’s face. “Yeah, and so do those bitches that are about to be rescued. You think they aren’t gonna tell those SEALs who we are? Huh?”
“But we can’t just leave her here…she’s going to tell them we’re headed to Mexico.”
“In about eight hours she’s gonna be dead so who. the. fuck. cares.”
“All right, all right, jeez. Keep your pants on. Shit. Should we change the timing so that thing goes off sooner?”
“Too late, dumbass. We already covered it all up with the tape,” Javier said impatiently. “Leave the TV here with her. We don’t want to have it with us in case they can somehow trace it back. Besides, she can watch her friends either get rescued, or blown to bits. Seems fair to me.”
Cheyenne watched as Alicia threw her head back and cackled at Javier’s suggestion. She then came over to where Cheyenne lay helpless on the floor, and propped the little device up next to her head with a box.
“There you go, bitch. I hope they all get blown to pieces. You can watch and then wait for your own bombs to go off and blow you to pieces.”
“You’re a piece of shit,” Cheyenne croaked out.
“No, you got my brother killed and you got Javier’s brother killed. You’re the piece of shit.”
Cheyenne could only watch as the two kidnappers gathered up their stuff and left without a backward glance. She looked around, knowing that if the bombs did go off she’d die, but probably more importantly, so would a lot of other people.
She was underneath an apartment complex. People lived there. If the bombs went off it would surely do some damage to the building itself. It might even collapse. If it did, no one would even find her body…if there was anything left to find. Cheyenne suppressed a sob. She couldn’t cry. There was nothing worse than snot running down your face when you couldn’t wipe it away. There was still time though. Eight hours. Maybe Faulkner could find her in time.
She turned her attention to the little television screen propped next to her. Cheyenne could barely make out the cabin, but she saw the SEALs walking around it and leaning over. Hopefully they were able to make it safe enough to get Summer and Alabama out. Hopefully Summer wasn’t dead. She could only watch as the best people she’d ever met, worked frantically to rescue her friends.
Cheyenne drank in the sight of Faulkner. She’d know him anywhere. She’d spent weeks memorizing every inch of his body, at his command. She knew the placement of every scar, every mole, every nook and cranny. Cheyenne had no idea if she’d ever see him in person again, or be able to feel his body against hers, so watching Faulkner move around the small cabin, she memorized everything about him all over again.
* * *
Dude stood off to the side and observed Abe holding Alabama and Mozart comforting Summer as Cookie made sure she was stable enough to be transported down to the city. Summer had been shot, but luckily the bullet had only grazed her upper arm. Alabama had immediately done some basic first aid and stopped the bleeding. She’d be okay.
Dude was relieved both women were all right, but the burning in his gut wouldn’t stop. Where the hell was Cheyenne? What was she going through? He stood back from the others, fists clenched, wanting to do something, but not sure what it was they could do yet.
Remembering the cameras in the trees, he looked up at the one they hadn’t taken down yet. Tex was working on tracing the feed. Were the bastards watching them now? He kept his eyes on the camera, it was easier than watching his friends holding their women.
* * *
Cheyenne didn’t know how much time had passed since Alicia and Javier had left. She’d kept her eyes on the blurry little black and white screen in front of her. The angle wasn’t great, but she could still make out when the group went into the cabin and when both Summer and Alabama came out.
Her heart about stopped when she saw Summer being carried by Sam, but relaxed a bit when she saw she was moving and holding on to her man of her own accord.
Even though it was torturous to see her friends so close, but so far away, she kept watching. After a moment she noticed Faulkner. He was standing off to the side, not interacting with his friends in any way. He was looking up at her…well up at the camera. Cheyenne could imagine she saw the tick in his jaw. They knew the cameras were there. They knew.
A single tear fell from Cheyenne’s eye before she brutally swallowed them down. If they knew about the cameras then they had some plan. She had to believe that. Cheyenne had no idea how they were going to get her out of this, but if anyone could, her SEALs could.
Cheyenne continued to watch until the group finally moved out of camera range. They were obviously leaving. The feed continued to play but all Cheyenne could see were the trees gently blowing in the wind and the cabin sitting forlornly in the clearing.
&n
bsp; She hoped with all her being that she hadn’t just seen the last of her friends…and of Faulkner.
* * *
“Come on, let’s go. We have to get Summer to the hospital,” Wolf ordered, heading back for the SUV.
Dude finally took his gaze off the camera and looked at his teammates. Wolf was looking at him with concern. Benny and Cookie just looked pissed and Mozart and Abe looked relieved to have their women back, but they also looked determined.
“No one fucks with this team. And no one fucks with our women and gets away with it,” Abe said with feeling. “We’re not stopping until we find her, Dude.”
“The woman’s name was Alicia and she called the guy Javier,” Alabama said suddenly. “They said some of the guys in the grocery store that day were their brothers.”
With those two sentences, it finally all made sense.
“Revenge,” Cookie said, stating the obvious.
“Obviously making bombs and being an asshole runs in the family,” Summer quipped from Mozart’s arms.
No one laughed, but everyone appreciated her attempt at levity.
“We can’t leave yet. What if Cheyenne is up here somewhere? We’ll lose too much time if we all head back to the city and then have to come back up here once Tex traces that feed.”
Benny was being practical, and it sucked. He was right. Dude didn’t know whether to continue to search the woods nearby, or to head back down to the city. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, thinking.
Okay, so these were siblings to the guys killed. They wanted revenge. Would they want to stash Cheyenne up in the woods where they could torture her, or would they bring her back into civilization for some reason?
Dude raised his head, knowing deep in his gut his conclusion was right. “They’re in the city.”
Without asking how Dude was so sure, the men strode toward the car.
Alabama wasn’t so sure. “But Dude, they brought us up here, why wouldn’t they have stashed Cheyenne somewhere up here too?”
Not slowing down, Dude tried to explain. “They want revenge. You guys were a diversion. They wanted us to waste time up here. They took her back down to where there are people. They want to hurt Cheyenne, yes, but they also want to hurt us. They know what we do, killing as many people as possible is their goal. They want to show that SEALs aren’t perfect, that we can’t always rescue people as I did that day in the grocery store.”
“But that’s crazy,” Alabama whispered.
“Yeah,” Dude agreed, but said no more.
It was a tight fit in the SUV, but no one complained. Their mission wasn’t done. Cheyenne was still out there…somewhere.
Chapter Sixteen
Seven men stood around a table on the Naval base. The team’s CO, Commander Hurt, had joined them and was listening to the information Tex was giving them.
“The camera feed definitely leads back into the city. Because of all the buildings and interference, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where.”
“Try.” Dude’s voice was strained. It was obvious he was hanging on by the merest thread.
“I am, Dude. I swear to Christ, I am. Have the police had any luck in breaking Alicia and Javier yet?”
Wolf had contacted the commander and he in turn had contacted the police as soon as they’d left the cabin. He’d explained who the people were that kidnapped Summer and Alabama. Both women had said they were more than willing to press charges.
Javier and Alicia were dumb enough to still be in their apartments packing to flee out of the country. They’d been taken into custody without trouble, but were refusing to say anything about Cheyenne. They denied having anything to do with the kidnappings and denied even knowing who Cheyenne was.
Wolf answered Tex, “No, they aren’t saying anything. Alicia let something slip though, and it might be nothing, but she said she might be willing to talk in the morning. We don’t know why the morning will make a difference though.”
“It’s another bomb,” Dude said into the silence that followed Wolf’s statement. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. They’ve stashed her somewhere and immobilized her with a bomb, just as their brothers did in the store. She’ll talk in the morning because it’ll be too late then. The bomb will have gone off.”
Surprisingly, it was the commander who lost it. “God damn it! Get me the fucking Police Chief on the phone now!”
No one was really sure who Commander Hurt was talking to, but Tex apparently decided he was talking to him. “Connecting now, Sir…Ringing…you’re on.”
“Yeah?” A voice barked out from the speaker sitting on the table in the room.
“Chief? Listen, this is Commander Hurt. There’s been a development in the case…”
The Commander proceeded to explain their suspicions to the Police Chief and why time was of the essence. The Chief agreed to put more pressure on Alicia and see if they couldn’t get her to tell them where they’d stashed Cheyenne.
“Tex…”
“I know, I know, I’m working on it.”
“We’re running out of time,” Dude’s voice finally cracked. He could sense it was almost too late. He knew he’d need every second he could get to try to get Cheyenne out of whatever fucked up situation the two yahoos had put her in. This was what his entire SEAL career had prepared him for. This was why he was a natural with explosives. To save this woman’s life. To save his woman’s life.
“Dude, I swear to God I’m going to find her. Those schmucks aren’t very fucking smart, they sure as hell aren’t smarter than me. Mother fuckers.” Tex’s rant stopped abruptly. “Wait…oh fucking hell. Are you shitting me?”
“What? Jesus Tex. What?”
Every man in the room turned their complete attention on the innocuous looking phone sitting on the table.
“Okay, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I don’t want to wait to be completely sure. I’ve narrowed the feed down to a city block. There are three buildings. An office building, an apartment building and what looks from the satellite photos to be an abandoned old factory. I think there are plans to turn it into some fancy-ass duplexes or something.”
Wolf turned to Dude. “Which one?” He had complete confidence that Dude would know.
Dude closed his eyes to think. He couldn’t be wrong about this. Yes, all the buildings were close together, but for all the people involved, for Cheyenne, he couldn’t be wrong. He worked through the situation out loud.
“Okay, the abandoned building is out. That wouldn’t cause enough damage. They wanted people hurt or killed. They want to make a statement. Both of the other buildings have people in them. Tex,” Dude’s eyes opened and he began to pace, “tell me about the layouts of each.”
They could hear Tex clicking on his computer keys. “The office building is a four story building which houses seventeen different organizations. They’re split over the four different floors. Elevators in the NW corner as well as in the middle. Stairways in the SW and NE corners. The apartment building is also four stories high. There are twenty apartments on each floor for a total of eighty apartments. Seventy five of the apartments are currently occupied. There are two vacant apartments on the second floor, one on the third and two on the fourth. There are three elevators in the lobby and two stairwells. Both are emergency stairwells with exits to the street.”
“Entrances?” Dude barked, still pacing.
“The offices have two emergency exits leading out to the street from the stairwells. There are two main entrances into the building and there seems to be a security desk in the lobby checking employee IDs and accepting packages. The apartment building also has two entrances, both are swipe card access, but no security desk in the lobby. There’s a mail room on the first floor, accessible to the general public, but there’s a swipe card door that leads from the mailroom into the lobby.”
“Basements? Access to them?”
“Both buildings have basements, negative on the access for the office, but both stairwells
in the apartment access both the basement and the roof.”
Dude was heading for the door to the conference room before Tex had finished speaking. “She’s in the basement of the apartment building,” he said as he reached the door.
No one asked how Dude knew, no one questioned him. It was uncanny how Dude could figure things out sometimes. If he said Cheyenne was in the basement of the apartment building, she was in the basement of the apartment building.
The commander was barking into the phone at Tex. “I’ll notify the Police and Fire Chiefs…set off the alarms remotely Tex, clear both those buildings and get people out of the area. I don’t know how much time we have, but we have to get everyone out.”
Dude was focused on Cheyenne. The commander was right, he didn’t know how much time he had, but in his gut he was afraid it wasn’t going to be enough.
* * *
Cheyenne heard the alarms in the building above her pealing. She had no idea what time it was or how much of the eight hours had passed since Alicia and Javier had left. Her shoulder didn’t hurt anymore, she figured it was because it was numb. She knew when a shoulder was pulled out of its socket it was a matter of time before blood flow was stopped.
Her eyes went back to the black and white screen. She couldn’t take her eyes from it. It was the last place she’d seen Faulkner and she needed to hold that memory in her head.
Cheyenne hoped like hell the sounds of the fire alarm above her head meant the building was being cleared. She couldn’t think that it was because of her. She wouldn’t get that hope built up inside her, only to have it dashed.
The trees swaying at the cabin on the screen mesmerized her. The door to the cabin was open and every now and then would slowly creep shut, then be blown open again a couple of minutes later. She kept her attention on the little screen. It was better than thinking about her own situation, or about how many people might die because of her.