She closed her eyes. She was being too stupid to live. She knew she was. Hollywood was a badass Special Forces soldier. He could take care of this for her. But she couldn’t get the words on her phone out of her head.
If you bring your boyfriend, you’ll make your sister a whore.
Taking a deep breath and ignoring the tear that fell down her cheek, she swallowed hard. She’d text Hollywood when she got to Sixth Street. She was an idiot, but she wasn’t a complete one…okay, she was, but time was ticking. She had to leave. Now.
Her shoulders sagging as if the weight of the world was on them, Kassie turned away from Hollywood and snuck out of her bedroom.
* * *
Hollywood jerked awake at the sound of the vibration of his cell phone against the wooden tabletop next to him. He reached for Kassie, but his hand met with nothing but cold sheets. He turned his head and saw in the faint morning light coming through the window that she wasn’t lying next to him.
He sat up and rubbed his face. He’d slept like a log. He’d been awoken by a phone call from Ghost around two. Kassie hadn’t stirred as he’d had a short conversation.
The op was done. Dean had shown up with six other men who were playing at being soldiers. They’d been surrounded by both Delta teams and everyone immediately surrendered, except for Dean. When his friends had dropped their guns, he’d turned on them, screaming at them for being weak and calling them traitors and losers. He’d trained his weapon on his friends and began to shoot, the nonlethal rounds from the Deltas’ weapons not seeming to faze him. One of Dean’s friends turned his own pistol on him and brought the out-of-control situation to a halt.
Dean was dead. Killed by one of the men he’d recruited to “play” his war game with him.
As was required by the commander, none of the Deltas had any live rounds in their weapons. There would be no blowback from the Army about Dean’s death. Kassie was free from Dean’s threats once and for all.
Hollywood hadn’t had the heart to wake Kassie. Deciding to let her sleep and tell her the good news in the morning, he’d said goodbye to Ghost and gone back to sleep, satisfied for the first time in over a month that Kassie and her sister really were safe.
Leaning over, Hollywood grabbed his phone to see who was contacting him this early. There was a text from Fish.
Fish: Get your ass up! Karina’s in the wind and Kassie is on the hunt.
At reading the words, all mellow feelings of being relieved Kassie was safe were wiped away. Hollywood punched in Fish’s name and brought the phone up to his ear.
“About time,” Fish said as a greeting.
“Talk to me,” Hollywood ordered even as he was pulling on a pair of jeans.
“Thirty minutes ago I got a text from Kassie. She said someone had kidnapped her sister, sent her a picture of Karina tied up, sitting in the dirt, and told her she had to come alone to The Dizzy Rooster down on Sixth Street.”
“Fuck!” Hollywood roared. “Dean’s dead, so it wasn’t him. Who the fuck texted her?”
“No clue,” Fish told him. “I tried to call but she didn’t pick up. Texted her and got no response.”
“Where are you?” Hollywood asked.
“Outside The fucking Dizzy Rooster. It’s deserted. The only life around here are a couple businesses down the street near the Voodoo Doughnut place. Asked, and no one there saw a fucking thing.”
“So she’s just gone?” Hollywood asked disbelievingly.
“Looks like it.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Hollywood chanted as he paced Kassie’s bedroom. “Why didn’t she wake me up? What was she thinking?”
“Hollywood, don’t blame her—” Fish started, but Hollywood interrupted him.
“I don’t fucking blame her. I know she was scared out of her mind. Asshole probably told her if she said anything to anyone he’d kill her sister or some such shit. She’s extremely protective of Karina and there’s no way she’d do anything at this point to put her in danger.” Hollywood sighed. “She doesn’t know about Dean,” he told Fish.
“I guessed. But it doesn’t really matter one way or another. If Dean’s dead and Jacks is in jail…who took Karina and texted Kassie?”
The answer became clear to Hollywood in a flash. “Fucking Blake. It has to be. There’s no one else.”
“The new boyfriend?” Fish asked.
“One and the same,” Hollywood responded, on the move to the living room.
“Damn. I fucked up,” Fish told him quietly. “Once they got to the dance, I sat in the parking lot for a couple of hours and when Ghost sent me the text saying Dean was at the training exercise, that they’d gotten visual confirmation, I figured she was good. Left her.”
“This is not your fault,” Hollywood returned immediately. “I had Tex do a background check, but he told me flat out it was only a surface one. He was busy with some SEAL team stuff. I didn’t push for more. I should’ve. Knew that fucker seemed off.”
“No sense beating ourselves up now. We gotta figure out where he took them and what his plans are.”
“You think he’s been in touch with Jacks?”
“Maybe,” Fish said. “I’ve been putting off neutralizing that fucker until after this thing with Dean was over, but I’ll make some calls. See what I can find out.”
“Don’t get yourself in trouble,” Hollywood warned. As much as he wanted to find Kassie and her sister, he didn’t want his friend going down as a result.
“I might not be Tex, but I know some people. Ones who owe me. I’m calling in my markers.”
Fuck. A Delta calling in a marker was a big deal. They met many kinds of people in their line of work. People the government wouldn’t be happy their super soldiers were consorting with. And Fish using those markers to help him and Kassie was huge. Fish might’ve lost his teammates over in the desert all those months ago, but until now, Hollywood hadn’t been sure Fish was really all that fired up to make those kinds of connections again.
“Any information you can find would be great, Fish,” Hollywood told him.
“Call the others. They’re probably on their way back to post. They’re probably closer to Austin by now than they were a few hours ago.”
“On it,” Hollywood told him. “But first I’m calling Beth.”
“Beth?”
“Long story, but she’s a hacker down in San Antonio who’s been working with Tex. I’d prefer his expertise, but if he’s knee deep in an op, I won’t put my fellow SF guys in danger.”
“Keep me informed,” was all Fish said, not even questioning if Beth could get the job done.
“Thanks for the call.”
“Anything for a Delta,” Fish responded, then hung up.
Hollywood yanked the shirt he’d grabbed on the way out of the bedroom over his head and dialed Beth’s number.
“’Lo?” she answered sleepily.
“Need you to track a phone,” Hollywood barked impatiently.
“Who is this?” Beth asked.
“Hollywood.”
“Shit. Okay, okay, I’m up. Give me a sec.” Her voice got muffled then, and Hollywood knew she was talking to Cade “Sledge” Turner, her boyfriend. “Go back to sleep, hon. It’s work.”
He couldn’t hear Cade’s response, and Beth came back on the line. “What’s up?”
“My girlfriend and her sister are missing. The sister disappeared probably sometime after nine last night. Kassie got a text with a picture of her sister, tied up. She was told to meet someone at The Dizzy Rooster here in downtown Austin. She texted one of my teammates.”
“They both have their phones on them?” Beth asked.
Hollywood could hear her typing in the background and said, “No clue. But it’s a place to start.”
“Give me their numbers,” Beth ordered.
Hollywood did and listened as the other woman did her thing in the background. Visions of Kassie lying dead somewhere, if only for Jacks’s satisfaction, and Karina being sold to so
me depraved fucker as a sex slave ran on rewind through his brain as he waited impatiently for Beth to find out something that would help him find them.
“Yeah, okay,” Beth said more to herself than Hollywood. “I can see why Kassie would run off without saying anything to you.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m looking at the picture and text conversation she had with whoever sent her the picture. I’m not saying it was the right decision, but I can understand why she did it.”
“Fuck,” Hollywood swore. It was the only word he could think of that would sum up what he was feeling at the moment. “I can’t believe you got it already.”
“Hey,” Beth said, sounding offended, “you called me for a reason. I’m good at this shit. Now don’t piss me off while I’m trying to help you.”
Normally, Hollywood would’ve found her funny, but at the moment he couldn’t find anything humorous. “What did it say?”
“Oh, the usual shit assholes like this say to get their target to sneak out of their house and not tell their badass boyfriend who could easily wipe the floor with them where they’re going. It’s the picture that most likely got to her.”
“For God’s sake, Beth, what—”
“Check your phone. I just sent it,” Beth told him.
Hollywood put the conversation on speaker and clicked the screen to open his email. He had to wait a second for the picture to download, but when it did, he sucked in a breath.
“Jesus,” he said.
“Exactly. I’m trying to pinpoint the GPS location on where the photo was taken, but it’s taking a bit. Looks to me that it’s somewhere south of Austin. How far south, I’m not sure. But it’s not in the Hill Country, that’s for sure.”
Hollywood only half heard Beth’s continued mutterings. He’d only met Kassie’s sister that one time when he’d gone over to her house for dinner, but he’d liked her. She was a younger version of Kassie for sure. Sassy and funny, but also respectful to her parents, and it was obvious to see the love the entire family had for each other. Their family reminded him a lot of his own in many ways.
So the look of absolute terror on Karina’s face in the photo hit him like a ten-ton truck and took his breath away. Her eyes were covered by a piece of cloth and her hands were bound together behind her back, but he could still see how scared she was by looking at her face and body.
Lips tight, shoulders hunched forward as if they could protect her from whoever was taking the picture. Her makeup was smeared and she had black tracks running down her cheeks, obviously from her mascara running when she’d cried. Her legs were drawn up in front of her and Hollywood could see scrapes and bruises on her legs through the ripped material of her fancy dress.
He hated that Kassie had snuck out of the room and hadn’t turned to him, but as Beth had said, he understood.
“Got you, you little fucker,” Beth exclaimed excitedly. “Okay, I was right. The picture of Karina was taken almost at the border. Right outside of Laredo. It takes about three and a half hours to drive to Laredo from Austin. So whoever took her could’ve driven her down there, then come back and texted Kassie and met her downtown.”
“Or he could be working with someone,” Hollywood said.
“True. But I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Hollywood asked, impatient now.
“Because I’ve got locations of both phones on my screen right now.”
“And?”
“And they’re currently about to enter the outskirts of San Antonio. From the pings, it looks like whoever has the phones is driving south on I-35.”
“Dammit,” Hollywood said. “I’ll never catch up.”
“You won’t,” Beth agreed. “But I happen to know some people right here in San Antonio who wouldn’t mind kicking some ass this morning.”
Hollywood immediately thought of TJ Rockwell, known as Rock when he was a member of his Delta team. “Call TJ first,” he ordered. “Then anyone else you can think of who can help. I’ll see if I can’t get a chopper from Fort Hood. Gotta pick up my team, but we can be in the air within the hour.”
“So you want a watch-and-wait strategy?” Beth asked.
That was the million-dollar question. It seemed to him that if it was Blake who had kidnapped Karina and come back for Kassie, he was on his way south to wherever he’d stashed Karina. But if he was wrong, and if Kassie was hurt, waiting could cost her life. If she died because he’d made the wrong decision, Hollywood wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
On the other hand, if they waited and got Blake out in the open in the middle of the desert, they could more easily take him down.
“Yeah,” Hollywood told her, making the decision. “Have TJ follow them, but do not intercept. We’ll find him from the air.”
“Who should I look up to find out details on what you’re dealing with?” Beth asked.
Hollywood was impressed with her no-nonsense demeanor and smart questions. “Blake Watson. Said he was twenty, but fucker looks years older. I knew it, but didn’t push.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll call her parents. Get the make and model of his car. They have to be freaking out that she’s not home yet. Of course Blake could’ve used her phone to text them some bullshit story, but if it was my daughter, I’d be panicking.”
“Good call. I’ll call back with any other pertinent info I find that you’ll need to know when you catch up with him,” Beth said.
“Thanks.” It was obvious Beth had learned a lot from working with Tex. She stuck to the facts and knew exactly what was needed when the shit was about to hit the fan. Not to mention she was excellent at working under pressure.
“I owe ya,” Hollywood told her.
“No you don’t,” Beth returned immediately. “Taking fuckers like this off the street I do for free. Later.” She clicked off without giving Hollywood a chance to reply.
Not caring about the niceties, Hollywood’s only thought was to get to Kassie, he pressed a button to call the Andersons. The most important mission of his life was about to unfold. He couldn’t fail now.
Chapter 18
Kassie tried not to panic. She’d gone to the closed bar on Sixth Street as she’d been instructed, but at the last minute had sent a text to Fish telling him what had happened. Why she didn’t text Hollywood she didn’t know… Actually, yes she did. She was scared.
Afraid he’d yell at her. Or tell her she was an idiot. Which she was. So she’d texted Fish, then gotten out of her car. She remembered a man coming at her wearing a hoodie, and knew it was whoever had taken Karina and who she was supposed to meet, but had panicked and turned to run anyway. But obviously she hadn’t gotten far before he’d hit her so hard she’d blacked out.
She’d woken up in the backseat of a moving car…and to Blake Watson. She should’ve known.
He’d tried to treat her like she was a guest in his car instead of a kidnapping victim. He’d invited her to climb over the seat. She’d refused until he half turned in his seat and pointed a knife at her. He gave her a drink of water and two aspirin for her throbbing head. He’d even supplied her with a washcloth so she could clean the blood off her face. What a gentleman. Not.
But when she’d asked where they were going, he didn’t reply. When she’d asked where Karina was, he didn’t reply. When she’d demanded to speak with her sister, he’d merely laughed and told her she’d see her soon enough.
She’d watched San Antonio go by in silence. She’d tried to catch people’s eyes as they passed them, but Blake had seen her and said in a chillingly cold voice, “If you do anything to make me get pulled over, your sister is going to die.”
“What?”
“I’m the only one in the world who knows where Karina is. And if you prevent us from getting to her, she’s going to die. Alone. A slow, painful death. You ever been so thirsty you swallowed sand by the handful because it was better than nothing?”
Kassie had shaken her head.
; “It’s not a nice way to die. So sit there. Keep your thoughts to yourself. And you’ll get to see your sister again.”
That had been thirty minutes ago. Kassie couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Why are you doing this? What have I or my sister ever done to you?”
“To me? Nothing.” He didn’t elaborate.
“Then to who?” she insisted.
“My brother.”
“And who is that?” Kassie almost screamed, so sick of the game he was playing.
“You don’t know?”
“Obviously not.”
“Dean Jennings.”
“Oh my God, you’re Dean’s brother?” Kassie breathed in disbelief. “You look nothing like him.”
“That’s because we have the same slut of a mother but different fathers. I didn’t grow up with him and we have different last names, but he tracked me down recently. We clicked. He told me all about you and how you disrespected his homie, Richard.”
Kassie shook her head. “No, it’s not like that, we—”
His nice-guy persona cracked as he took his hand off the steering wheel and punched her. Luckily she moved quickly enough that it hit her shoulder instead of her face. But it hurt a lot.
“I know all about what it’s like. You led him on. Promised him the world. But when he got hurt, you turned hot and cold. Making him beg for your snatch. Refusing to move with him to his duty stations. Making eyes at all his friends. Oh yeah, Dean told me how you were so hot for him, you were almost gagging for it. But what you didn’t know is that he told Richard all about you and your actions while he was gone.” Blake shook his head in mock sadness. “Why is it so hard to find a woman who will suck and fuck on command? Huh?”
“How old are you?” Kassie asked instead of answering what to her seemed like a rhetorical question. A disgusting one with awful implications at that.
“Twenty-nine,” he said immediately. “And I have to say, I hadn’t been interested in teen pussy before this gig, but now that I’ve had it, I’ve changed my mind. Teenagers are so easy to manipulate and fuck with their minds. It’s awesome.”
Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5 Page 22