Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command)

by Billi Jean

  “What it means is if we move our asses we can find her, that’s what it means.”

  “We find her, cool, but you are not to do anything to her.” He pulled Tazz a bit closer until they were nose to nose. “Do you hear me, man? Are we clear on this?”

  Tazz nodded once, but it was his eyes that Dare watched. When he saw Tazz accept that nothing was going to happen to Kylie, he released him and stepped back. “Just keep that in mind. Super powers or not, she’s the number one mission here, not whatever else you have going on.”

  “Got the message, man. Got the message,” Tazz grumbled and made a show of adjusting his T-shirt back in his BDUs.

  Dare ignored him. “Any water?” He spat again, squinted at the men milling around a copter then at Tazz, who held up a bottle of water. He took it and asked, “How long was I out?”

  “The blast threw you back down the hall. From when I found you until now, it’s been two hours.”

  Two hours Kylie had been out from under his protection. Teasing, sweet, passionate Kylie, who’d blown his mind just this morning with the most satisfying and life changing sexual fun he’d ever had. Hands down. It wasn’t just her touch, it wasn’t just the way she fitted underneath him or how she got hot and sexy when aroused—it was all that and so much more. She was so much more. But he’d barely had a taste of her. Only twenty-four hours. It couldn’t be all he’d have.

  “Where are we now?”

  “Yokosuka.”

  “And these yahoos? They know what we’re up to?”

  “Not a chance. Carson is fit to be tied in a knot, but these guys only know we were in a minor accident and you took the brunt of it.”

  “You mean I look worse than you?” he demanded, rubbing his wrist where Kylie had been cuffed to him. He already missed having her close. Maybe he should have kept the handcuffs on. No doubt he’d be missing an arm if he had.

  “Hell yeah, you look ten times worse.”

  Every inch of his body he tried to move protested, so he guessed Tazz wasn’t softening the blow. His head ached, and from the nausea, he guessed he could add a concussion to his growing list. His forehead was tight, and when he reached up, he touched stitches above his eyebrow.

  “Here, put these on”—Tazz indicated the BDUs folded on a table nearby. Dare rubbed his chest where he’d been bandaged, and sighed. Always the damage, but always a new set of gear. When he was beyond repairing, would they still lay out gear for him?

  Shrugging the thoughts off, he changed, only wincing a few times as he pulled muscles still not ready for use. Ten minutes later he was following Tazz out of the hanger.

  “So who do I have to thank for patching me up?”

  Tazz shot him a crazy grin and thumbed his chest. “That’s okay, besides, don’t thank me until you get a look in a mirror.”

  He shot Tazz a frown for that, but followed him to the waiting copter. “Where is she?”

  “The other side of town. The intel shows a deserted warehouse.”

  Shit. Didn’t it always? Scumbags seemed to own empty real estate. “What else?” There was always more. By the scowl on Tazz’s face it was going to be bad.

  “Satellites picked up a whole shit load of men surrounding the place. The warehouse is inside a fenced and gated area, empty except for the main building, which sits almost dead center. There’s not much else. Some gardens, all overgrown. The fence is at least two hundred yards away on all sides. They could have dug a moat, too, but it didn’t show up on sat.”

  “Shit,” Dare muttered and tested his ribs. One or two might’ve been strained, possibly cracked. His nose hurt and his eyesight wasn’t a hundred percent. No doubt he had shiners, stitches, busted nose and his jaw felt swollen too. Kylie might run from him instead of to him this time.

  Under the whirl of the blades, Tazz gripped his forearm.

  “It would be easier if she’d been taken somewhere less isolated.”

  “It’d be easier if they gave out dollars at the store instead of charging, but they don’t.” His grandpop had always been a rational, down to earth man, and he’d raised Dare to be the same. He couldn’t cry over how hard it was going to be, he just fought that much harder.

  Tazz nodded and released his hold. Dare hauled himself up into the copter, took the seat next to a young lieutenant and accepted the com link from him, as well as the new sidearm he passed along right after.

  “Welcome, sir. This will be a silent in with a drop off and return for pick up when or if you signal.”

  Dare nodded, but stayed silent. Through the link, he heard the flight deck okay their lift off.

  “We need to get in close, but not close enough that they hear us. There’s a building to the southeast. They have a landing pad, and several times a week a copter lands. We go there.” The lieutenant indicated a group of buildings on the skyline far to the east of them.

  Tazz turned from where he’d been speaking on the com to the pilot. “As soon as we reach the perimeter of the fence, there’s a break where someone has stacked some debris. We go in there. It’s still light enough for them to spot us when we cross the open area, but we’ll deal with that if we have to.”

  “And if we take fire?” Dare asked.

  “We are on standby with a stunner if you’re in need of us, sir.”

  “A stunner?” Dare demanded of the younger man. At his nod, Dare growled a curse and faced off with Tazz. “No way are we using that. There’s—”

  “The stunner is for after we find our target. There are more men in there than we can handle without making the nightly news. This is under the radar. Silent in and only if necessary, do we use the stun to get out. There are snipers set up on the nearest buildings. We secure our target and head to the nearest safe house.” Tazz handed him a packet. “And we get settled there until we get our next orders.”

  Next orders. “She needs to get to her father’s place.”

  Tazz nodded. “We’ll get her there.”

  Dare exhaled heavily and pocketed the slim leather case. Inside he knew he’d find the location of the safe house written in code, along with enough other essentials to get him by for a few weeks.

  “Try to stay with me, but if we get separated, go without me. For now, you should take this.” Tazz handed over a small, round pill.

  “Is that right?” He examined the small blue pill then speared Tazz with a look.

  “It will give you enough of a boost to get through whatever waits for us. You need to keep up. With this, you will.”

  “You want me to—?”

  “It won’t have lasting affects with one dose. Would I give you shit that would?” Tazz snarled, hand on the com so no one but Dare could hear him.

  Dare fisted the drug and nodded. He’d take it as soon as they landed. His head ached like someone was crushing his skull with hammers. His ribs were sore, and his body tired as hell. Tazz hadn’t lied, Dare was certain he looked like shit.

  “This is the building, sir.”

  Dare looked down to where the lieutenant motioned outside the helicopter window. Below them was an old structure, stained with age. Most of its windows were boarded up along the ground level and a few floors up from there. The area around the building was deserted, but there were trees and shrubs. He didn’t think they’d qualify as gardens, but they were a cover he could use. He already spotted several other weak points in their defenses. With care, they’d get inside without causing an alarm.

  “Where are the men?”

  “They don’t leave the building, sir.”

  Dare shared a surprised look with Tazz. “They have cameras?” he asked.

  “Not that we can tell, sir.”

  “What the hell are they doing in there, then?”

  “They’ve only been at the location for seven days. Before that, the place was occupied by a group from Saudi. Nothing before that. We caught wind of the Saudis only from a VISA check and this address came up. Since then we’ve been monitoring the area and nothing. This buildi
ng seems to be used as some sort of stopping point, but we’ve yet to discover where they go after.”

  “A spotting point for…?”

  “Al-Qaeda.”

  Dare frowned at the lieutenant then Tazz. Tazz’s face was neutral, but he wasn’t laughing his ass off at the younger man.

  “Al-Qaeda?”

  “That’s what we believe,” the lieutenant said.

  Dare rubbed his jaw and examined the kid’s nametag. He looked fresh out of college, landing in a mess he had no idea how to handle. He hid it, probably thought no one knew, but any man with one combat experience under his belt could see it in the too fresh, too eager expression on his face.

  “Look, Stevens, how is that figured? These are all Arabs, but working together under Al-Qaeda? Bin Laden would have loved it, but he couldn’t accomplish it. Now you’re saying it’s happening and not only happening, but happening in Japan of all places?”

  The kid’s face darkened, but he continued on with his theory. “There are several different groups inside at the moment, sir. Our intelligence has pinpointed at least six wanted men, and that’s just because they were careless and went outside and we caught a picture of them.”

  “Right under our noses in Japan?”

  “It would seem so.”

  The pilot swerved to the left and around to circle in on the landing pad.

  “Well, shit,” Dare muttered. He exchanged a loaded look with Tazz. This would change thing drastically. If this was a terrorist cell, what the hell did they want with Kylie? Worse, what were they doing to get it?

  “You see the need to get her out, right?” he demanded.

  Tazz nodded grimly.

  “Safe, alive,” he gritted, trapping Tazz’s forearm.

  The Texan looked him in the eye. “Alive and well, Dare, man. Alive and well.”

  Dare released him. He couldn’t ask for more from Tazz. The man had pretty much given his word with that. Dare turned back to Stevens. “Just let us get her out, then do your thing. But do not do a damn thing until you have my signal. Clear?”

  Stevens nodded. “Absolutely, sir.”

  His anxiousness lessened to a dull knot. “Good. See you on the flip side,” he called as soon as the copter landed. He followed Tazz out, his boots hitting the ground firmly right behind his buddy. Two seconds later they were off the pad and racing across the roof as the helicopter circled overhead.

  The easy part was over.

  Now to get Kylie out, before his government decided she was too much of a risk alive.

  * * * *

  “So, Ms Chung, we will ask you again. Where is your father?”

  Kylie looked from one man to the other, unsure if they would really use the drill the bigger man was holding or not. Her hands were taped flat to the surface of the wooden table. Surely they wouldn’t use that on her. The man with the drill appeared indifferent, as if he could use it, or he could stand there forever simply intimidating her.

  She swallowed, but her mouth was so dry it hurt. She couldn’t imagine the pain of someone drilling through her hand, but by the look on both men’s faces, she knew her life was about to go in a direction she might never be able to forget.

  “I don’t know. I’ve told you this already. I’ve told you everything you wanted. I don’t know more.”

  “You see, Ms Chung, this is not something that I’m glad to hear.” The smaller of the two men gestured with a hand and the man with the drill, stepped closer. The weirdest thing about them was that they were both dressed in silk shirts, designer jackets and dress pants that probably cost more than her Mini Cooper. The one with the drill had a shaven head, but his bushy beard more than made up for the lack of hair. The other man had black hair, slicked back to the sides perfectly. Both men were dark-skinned with the wealthy appearance of Middle Eastern oil sheiks.

  She swallowed tightly as the bald man turned the drill on. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything besides watch as the tip of the loud machine drew closer and closer to her hand.

  “Stop, stop! I’ve told you everything, why are you doing this?” she cried, squeezing her eyes shut. But the darkness and not knowing what was happening made her fear even worse. She still couldn’t bear to watch her hand being destroyed, so she focused on the lunatic in the chair simply watching her.

  He made another waving motion with his hand, as if he were swatting a fly. She blinked sweat from her eyes and tried to watch him, the drill and the man wielding it.

  Suddenly the drill shut off and the man holding it backed away to stand by the wall.

  She sucked in a lungful of air and tried hard not to cry in relief.

  “My dear, we need your father. More, we need his expertise. My brother, you see, is seriously injured and we have it by the best sources that he can save his life. Even from the brink of death.”

  His words made it to her brain, but she couldn’t make sense of what they meant at first. She tried to calm down, and finally shook her head.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My brother is in need of aid. Your father has created something, has he not, Ms Chung, that brings about healing at a much quicker rate, even if the wound is a mortal one.”

  “What? Are you asking if my father can bring a man back from death?”

  “Ah, I see your confusion. My brother is not dead. Certainly I would have no need of your father if he were. My father has sent me to bring your father to him, though, so that he may heal my brother.”

  “Who are you people? My father isn’t a doctor. He’s a scientist. His research has been focused on cancer—”

  “Ah, I see, I should have introduced myself before now. I see where my manners have not been at their best.”

  His English was crisp, sounding British, but his comment was so out of place compared to the nightmarish cruelty he’d shown her so far, she could only stare at him. He bowed his head slightly and with another gesture to his companion, he smiled. It wasn’t a reassuring smile.

  “I am Muhammad ibn Saeed ibn Abd al Aziz al Filasteeni. My father has instructed me to discover from you where your father is and bring him to my brother. As you can see, at times like this, we are forced to resort to unpleasant methods in order to reach an understanding as quickly as possible. My brother’s life depends on it.”

  He nodded as if he made perfect sense. And to him, perhaps he did. To her, all she knew was that if she couldn’t think of something soon, her hand would never be the same again. She’d never be the same, because no doubt, when she couldn’t tell them more, she’d end up dead. She glanced from one man to the other. She knew neither would stop until she either died horribly or gave them what they wanted.

  “So you see, I need this information. Unfortunately for you, Ms Chung, I need this information more than you need to protect your father.”

  “I’m not protecting him, I’m trying to save him,” she rushed out when Muhammad gestured to the drill man. He halted the man with a whisper in a language she didn’t know and sat forward, looking intently at her, as if he could see inside her skull. “I was trying to save him, when you took me,” she added quickly.

  He lowered his dark eyebrows and tilted his head, as if he’d had trouble hearing her. Or understanding her, she realized.

  “You were attempting to find your father as well?” he clarified.

  “Yes,” she said quickly. “Someone has my father and is demanding I bring them information if I want to see him again.” He was listening closely so she went on. “If I want him back alive, I have to do what they’ve demanded.”

  “You are saying your father has been taken? Kidnapped.”

  She nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, he’s been taken and I don’t have anyone other than myself, none of this”—she nodded to the drill man and the men she knew he had outside this room. “It’s just me, to find him.”

  He tsked at her and waved aside what she’d said disdainfully. “Ms Chung you were roomed with two US military.”

&nbs
p; “They kidnapped me!”

  He frowned at that and sat back to rub his groomed beard. “If this is so, you would not be saddened to hear that both men died in the explosion.”

  “Of course I would!” she spluttered, tugging at the tape on her wrists. “Who wouldn’t? I don’t understand you people. How can a human life mean so little? I’ve helped my father save lives, not end them. Of course I will be upset. I am upset, I—”

  “I see. You aided your father, you say?”

  She bit her lip, understanding what she’d just done. Broken her rule. She never responded to violence, let alone stood up to a man. She never spoke without thinking but since this craziness had started, she’d done just that—over and over again. If Daren Scott was dead, gone from this world—she stopped the painful thought, just as she refused to think she’d lost her father. He’d been there her entire life. When her own mother hadn’t bothered with her, her father had taken the time to see that she had all she needed. She wouldn’t allow him to die because she couldn’t gather what his kidnappers wanted.

  “Be yourself, Ky, that’s all I ever want for you. To be happy with yourself.”

  ‘Happy with yourself’. She’d never understood her dad’s words that last day. Never really thought about happiness or what she wanted until she’d discovered what she didn’t want—to be part of her dad’s work. She’d ended that part of her life, and until now, she’d not known what more she’d wanted. Until now. She wanted out of here, safe, and she wanted her father free as well. She had too much to tell him, to explain, for him to be gone so quickly from this world.

  She wanted a life. A life with a man who cared for her, liked her for who she was, and thought she was the best thing in the world. Like Daren Scott seemed to. She wouldn’t believe him dead. He’d just entered her life, but he’d dug in and made visions of something more than she’d ever had come into focus. A family—a real, there every night, picket fence, dream family.

  She clung to her desperate thoughts, too shaken to do more than stare at the man sitting so calmly across from her.

  After several silent moments of giving her a minor heart attack, he finally gave her a thoughtful, intrigued frown. She tried her hardest not to move, too afraid if she did something now, she might make him gesture to the drill-holding monster at his side. Her fingers were numb from how tightly they’d taped her hands down. The chair was too big, but they’d tied her to it with ropes across her chest so her feet hung off the ground. The lack of movement caused her toes to go numb and she knew, even if by some miracle she suddenly got free, she’d probably have to crawl out of here until her feet could work again.