“I know. I just wish I had done something different, you know. Maybe if I had then Greg wouldn’t have tried to make me go down on him and my mother wouldn’t have jerked me out of the orchestra.”
“They should have kicked his sorry ass out,” she snapped.
“He was the conductor; I was just the “mediocre” violist. Why would they keep me?”
“Because he was wrong and you were right. And if your mother and I hadn’t come in he would have made you finish what he was trying to make you start. He’s a bastard pedophile and they covered for him because—”
“Because he’s a musical genius.”
“It wasn’t right.”
“I didn’t say that it was, but it is what it is and it’s in the past—has been for many years now. And I do still play you know, just not as I should if I wanted to do something great with my talents. Maybe I’ll move here after all. I can enroll in your classes.”
“Oh I will ride your tail hard, missy. You will hit that shift…”
“That A sharp…”
“Also known as B flat,” Kelly chuckled.
“Or I will drill you until your fingers fall off,” they said in unison before laughing hysterically.
“That woman was…”
“Crazy as hell,” Kelly chuckled. “But she was the best instructor we ever had.”
“True…although she really did have days when you could tell she went off her meds,” they laughed. Mrs. Jasmine Trankof was insane. She was the hardest, meanest, craziest teacher they had ever had, but she was good. She was really good. They had started their group lessons with Mrs. Jasmine, as they had always called her because they were all too young to be able to adequately pronounce her last name.
“Do you miss it, Nat? Do you miss playing on stage?”
Natalia shrugged. “Every time I see you up there, or here you talk about some amazing concert piece you’ve just won over the heart of the audience with it makes me miss it a little. But then I look at pictures like these and I remember the way we were,” she turned the photo outward. Kelly was still missing her two front teeth, but this time her mother had snapped a photo when she was running around on her uncle’s ranch and had fallen face first in a pile of horse manure.
“Give me that!” Kelly tried to snatch the photo out of Natalia’s hand and she wouldn’t let her. Several minutes of being chased around the house, one massive tackle from her sister in arms and the photo in dispute went to the victor—Kelly, who had tickled the darn thing away from her.
“Fine,” she huffed. “I have another copy at my place.”
“You,” Kelly frowned. “I have some damaging photos of you too you know. How would you like it if I sent a few to that hunky man you’re head over the moon in love with?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she gasped.
“When you get back you hand over that photo or I’m mailing the package.” She laughed hard, which told Natalia her friend was not as serious as she seemed. But just in case, she would send her a copy since she did have three more at home.
“I’m going to book our outback tour. It’s going to be so much fun. The angel and the devil tearing up the outback,” she hooted.
Kelly’s mother had always said she was a little devil while everybody always thought that Natalia was an angel. “Don’t let her corrupt you,” Miriam, Kelly’s mother, had said as they sat at the table eating a bowl of her homemade ice cream. “That one I’ll have to bail out of jail someday, but not you Natty Pattaty. You are going to be a good girl.” And she had been good. She was always good. While Kelly was always the little hellion, but never once did she land in jail. She may have almost landed there, but she never did. Her good looks allowed her to flirt her way out of any situation. Natalia thought back to the officer who had stopped them when they were out joy riding in Kelly’s father’s car. Kelly had her license, but giving the keys to a Lamborghini to a seventeen year old was just asking for trouble. Going a good sixty miles over the speed limit had caught the attention of the state trooper set up with his radar. He was ready to slap the cuffs on her for the criminal speed limit she was doing, but one smile, her batting those cute blue eyes at him, and a little subtle flirting and she had a free pass, plus the cop’s number. Now if only he had known that Kelly was seventeen Natalia wondered if things might have gone differently. Kelly always could pass for a few years older than what she was.
“All set,” she rounded the corner. “We are going to the outback,” she hummed in a perfect G-Major tune.
Natalia spent the day helping her friend get settled and then she pulled out her laptop and emailed Alex. He had made her promise to email every day and since they would be in the outback for a couple days she wouldn’t be able to keep that promise. She wanted to let him know where she was going and how long she would be gone, so she typed up the particulars and sent the email to Alex.
Chapter Four
How one outing could go so horribly wrong was a mystery to Natalia. Everything was on point. They were having fun. They were seeing the sights. They had ditched the big tour jeep and were hiking in to the camping location. It was a “roughing it” tour to the max because they would be sleeping on the ground, surrounded by bugs and snakes and God knows what else, but it was right up Kelly’s alley, and honestly, Kelly had kind of gotten Natalia out of her “I hate getting my hands dirty,” stage years ago. She wasn’t as adventurous as Kelly—not on her own anyway. If she had been on her own she would have just gone to do some sightseeing in the city, but this was perfect—or at least it should have been. Everything changed so quickly, and there was no going back.
Natalia looked up through the empty spaces in the barb wire fence. She was stuck in that compound whether she wanted to be or not—and clearly she didn’t want to be stuck there. When she agreed to go with Kelly on the outback tour, she had no idea they would find themselves knee deep in a pile of horse manure. Not literally of course. But their guide, of the ten person tour, had managed to take them to a remote area of the outback and they had just happened to turn up there on a day when the drug cartel was doing its business. Ten people dead and she, she was the only one left alive. She watched her best friend get shot in the heart right in front of her. She watched her bleed out as she tried to hold her hand over the wound. She watched the life leave her eyes and in that moment she knew she was next. She was the only one left, so she had no doubt that her fate would be the same.
Instead of killing her, they took her prisoner. Apparently Senior Valdez was going to be flying in from Colombia to Australia to finalize their business and he liked the darker women. They were holding her there for him, so that he could take her back to Colombia and do whatever he wanted with her. They left the dead bodies where they lay because they said the animals would clean it up for them. Those bastards had murdered ten people and now they were going to let them be picked apart for dinner. And her friend, the woman who was more of a sister to her, more a part of her heart than anybody had ever been, had been among those killed. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Yet it had happened. Her heart was breaking. She knew the finality of death. She knew that she would never see Kelly again. She would never hear her laugh or share the memories of yesteryear with her. She was gone, and no amount reliving the moment when her heart stopped beating was going to bring her back.
“If Kelly were here she would tell you to fight, Natalia. She would tell you to fight like hell.” But what could she do? Where could she go? She was locked in a compound surrounded by barbwire fencing. She was in a foreign country, in the middle of nowhere, and even if she could get out she wouldn’t know which way to go once she did.
She sighed, watching the sun flitter through the fence. She had to get out of here. She had to escape, but how could she? Their tour group wasn’t due to get back to base camp for two days. She wasn’t due to leave for home for another four days, and that meant nobody would be looking for the group and nobody would be looking for her. By the time they realized so
mething had gone wrong, and that she was missing, Senior Valdez would already have her moved.
“Find me guys,” she prayed. Alex knew about the tour. She had emailed him when she emailed to let him know why she wouldn’t be online for a couple days. While she was emailing him she tried her best to admonish him for his joke he felt compelled to make in his last email to her. He had made some wise crack about an Australian kiss, and she had written back, “real original, Alexander.” He didn’t like being called Alexander and she only did it when he did something that warranted him being called by his full name. He knew she was going on the tour, and he had told her to be careful, to stay safe and stick with the group. Since he knew where she was she knew they could find her, but it could take a while. She knew that because she had seen some rescues be a quick in and out type of rescue while some of the others had taken a week. In the case of Micah’s last rescue mission, he had been missing for three months. “I don’t have three months.”
She was not so naive that she didn’t know what this Senior Valdez would do to her once he got hold of her. She knew exactly why they were holding on to her and she didn’t want any part of it, or any part of him.
“Please find me, Micah. I need you to find me.” She wrapped her tiny fingers into the loops of the fence and hung her head low. This could not be the fate she was meant to have. She would rather die than become some man’s sex slave. She would rather die than become a prisoner to some Colombian drug lord who pawed at her whenever he pleased. She would not go without a fight. And if Micah and the team couldn’t find her before that day came, then she hoped that fight would end it for her; that she wouldn’t have to endure another man’s heaven that would become her hell.
“When he comes you will come,” the gold toothed cad strode past her, stopping only to issue another torment to her. He was ugly and smelly and downright rude. She didn’t like him, not just because he was all three of those things, but because he was the one who pulled the trigger; he was the man who sent that bullet straight into Kelly’s heart. And if she ever got the chance she was going to give him the same treatment. If ever, she thought as she stood outside waiting for some magnificent escape plan to formulate in her mind. Unfortunately, nothing came to her.
“Have you heard from Natalia, Alex?”
“Missing her already?” His eyes held a glint of recognition. Micah hadn’t exactly come out and admitted that he had previously experienced a brief hint of sexual awareness while looking at Natalia, but he was starting to wonder if his casual questions about how she was doing, or what she was doing, in Australia were starting to tip his hand.
“You have been talking about her every day and I haven’t heard anything these past couple days so…” He shrugged it off; he would not let this kid make him confess to something that wasn’t real. That moment, that brief moment had just been the reaction any man would have. It was nothing.
“Actually she went out on a tour in the outback. She should be back at Kelly’s home tomorrow…or would that be today their time?” Alex shrugged. “I’ll hear from her soon. And then she’ll be home in four days. I’m going to pick her up from the airport since you insisted she leave her car in her garage.”
“I’ll pick her up,” Micah nearly growled. Alex had a girlfriend already, but was he trying to make a move on Natalia? Something in that thought made his blood boil with anger. He couldn’t have her. Why the hell he was thinking on those terms was beyond him, but he knew Alex had better keep his paws off of Natalia.
“Nah, I’ve got her. I already told her I would.”
“I dropped her off; I’ll pick her up.” He would swear he felt steam coming out of his ears like one of those crazy cartoons he watched with his cousin, Sabrina, when they were younger.
“I already told her I would meet her outside baggage claims.”
“So when you email her back tell her I’ll be meeting her there instead.”
“Look…” the phone ringing shut Alex up quickly. “Yeah, this is Alex,” he answered without breaking eye contact with Micah.
“Yes, I’m the emergency contact for Natalia Bright. Did she hurt herself?”
Micah felt the hairs on the back of his neck go on edge. If that call was coming from Australia then something serious had happened, something that required the emergency contact be notified. She was with her friend; if it weren’t serious then Kelly would have handled it. Had there been an accident? Were they both in the hospital?
“What! When the hell did that happen?” Micah wanted to hear the other end of that conversation so badly. He saw Preston and Jet leave their chairs to stand at the door to their offices. “Well where the hell is she? What do you mean you don’t Know?” He was near irate. “What the fuck do you know?” There was silence until Alex slammed the phone down onto the receiver.
“What the hell is going on, Alex?” Micah couldn’t wait for the man’s temper to settle. He needed answers now or he might just lose his mind.
“Natalia’s been abducted. At least they think she’s still alive since they didn’t find her body with the rest of them.”
“Whoa!” Preston nearly stomped into the reception area. “What do you mean the rest of them?”
“Ten person tour, plus the guide. They found ten bodies because a hiker was out exploring and got lost. When he found his way back to civilization he alerted the authorities. Ten bodies, including Kelly, but not Natalia. She was the only black woman in the group so that’s how they knew she wasn’t among the victims.”
“Back up, why are they all dead?”
Alex shrugged. “They don’t know, but they think it could have been drug runners tied to the Colombia cartel they’ve been having some trouble with lately.”
“Shit,” Micah barked.
“They don’t even know if she’s still alive,” Alex knocked the pencil holder off his desk. “Guys, we’ve found a lot of people. We’ve gone out there for money and brought people home now I’m telling you we’re going out there for her. We are bringing her home alive.”
Alex didn’t need to tell them that. There was no way they would sit back and wait for somebody else to make this right. “I’ll call my contacts.” Micah knew exactly who he could call regarding the Colombian angle. If something was going down this guy would know where, when, who and how it was going to be playing out. He was too good not to know.
“I’ll have the jet gassed up,” Jet nodded.
“I’ll get the big guns,” Preston chimed in. “Alex, get the scopes. We’re going in hot and we’re not leaving until we have our girl. We’re bringing her home. We’re bringing her home alive.”
Micah felt his heart pounding in his chest. The longer it took them to gather information, the longer she would be in captivity. Men like that didn’t take without plundering. They were ruthless and they had his woman. No, she wasn’t his. Why he felt this sudden possessive streak towards her was a mystery to him, yet he felt it to his core. If the bastards had harmed her he was going to shoot off their testicles and then put a bullet in their head. “How long ago?” He needed to know how much time they had lost.
“Two days. They think it happened on the first day of their tour because they found the jeep at the docking point from where they were supposed to hike in to the camp ground. Thing is, the camp ground was ten klicks south of where the bodies were found.”
“Damn,” Micah shoved his hand through his hair. Two days was too much time.
“We’ll get her back.” Jet tried to soothe his temper; to soothe all of their tempers. They needed to stay calm and focused. Usually they could do both, but this time it was personal.
“Damn straight,” Micah agreed. “We’ll get her back, but make no mistake about it; the Natalia we bring home won’t be the Natalia who went away for a week to help her friend.”
“I know,” Preston admitted. “She’s going to need all of us. We’ll deal with that road when we come to it, but right now our first priority has to be getting our girl back. Agreed
?”
“Agreed,” they all said in unison.
This wasn’t just another mission to bring a package home; this was Natalia. She wasn’t a package she was a friend. This, this journey into the heart of danger, was going to be their most important search and rescue mission ever. “Let’s get to it,” Micah headed to his office to make the call he needed to make. They would find her, alive and he hoped to whatever God there was that she wouldn’t be physically harmed. Emotionally he was sure she was already a mess, but God he hoped they weren’t torturing her, or raping her. He felt the tightening of the muscles in his jaw and he realized he was wound so tight he was ready to pop. “Save it,” he told himself. “Save it for the bastards who took her and then put a bullet in ‘em.”
His contact had only been marginally helpful. He knew of only one Colombian who had ventured into the Australian ring. It seems like every agency from the FBI to the CIA on down to the Secret Service had been keeping their ear to the ground on this man. None of them knew half of what Hector Rodriguez could find out, but this time, not even he could provide all the details.
Heart of Danger (Special Ops) Page 4