“Well, I’m glad you cleared that up,” he chuckled.
He feathered kisses all along her jaw until he reached her lips. Once again, Jill lost her mind as Law’s taste and touch took her to an entirely new universe. She felt dizzy, and then she was laughing when she realized he had carried her into his bedroom.
Yes, life in Law’s arms was amazing.
“I can’t fucking believe it. We finally find Angela, and now her husband has disappeared?” Law thought he might be losing his damned mind.
He looked at his brother and Kane. They had flown in from Virginia that morning on military transport. He hadn’t been expecting them at Camp Pendleton. Somehow, Kane had managed to commandeer one of the briefing rooms for Law to have his freak-out in private.
“You need to keep your shit together,” Asher coached.
“Where’s Cullen? Shouldn’t he be here?”
“He went over to your house as soon as we disembarked. He has Jill covered.”
“Well, la-dee-da. She’s at work. So you all screwed the pooch on that one. Explain this to me again. In words small enough for me to understand, because this is some convoluted fucked-up shit.” Then he yanked his cell phone out of fatigues. “Scratch that,” he said as he held up his index finger and pressed in Jill’s number.
Dammit, it went to voice mail.
“Honey, it’s Law. Call me immediately. It’s important.”
He glared at the two men in front of him. “Continue.”
“At long last, Jamison tracked down Angela. She’d quit waitressing. She’s been working as a cook out on a ranch and taking care of a widower’s two kids. He knew that she wanted to stay hidden, so nobody on his ranch let out a peep that she was there. It took Jamison the last four weeks to find her. When he did, he almost got the shit beat out of him for his trouble.” Kane and Asher laughed.
“Okay, so there’s a funny story somewhere,” Law growled. “Get to the point, besides the fact that Angela now seems to have a protector.”
“The point is,” Asher drawled, “that Angela finally feels safe enough to talk. She told Jamison some interesting shit. The night her son died, her husband came to see her in the Detroit hospital. He said, that he had always wanted her all to himself, and now she belonged just to him.”
Law felt his blood run cold.
“She can’t possibly think that her husband purposely killed his own child.”
“It gets worse,” Asher said. “Angela told Jamison that there was always something odd about the way her former fiancé died. It was a boating accident with his best friend, who was…” Asher let his voice drift to a stop.
“Wanna guess?” Kane asked.
“Tim Goshen?” Law asked.
“Give the man a cigar,” Kane nodded. “Yep. Then Tim goes in and comforts Angela over her fiancé’s death, and two months later, they’re married. She told Jamison she had always felt rushed into the wedding. And she knew for sure that Tim had been mad about her getting pregnant.”
“But still, killing your own child?”
“The last thing Tim said to Angela at the hospital, right before he left, is that if she didn’t want something to ever happen to another child, she better have her tubes tied while she was in the hospital.”
“Fuck,” Law hissed.
“Exactly.”
“No wonder she ran. The man is a psychopath.”
“And he wants her back. He’s obsessed. So far, he’s only tracked her to Southern California and to Jill. He went back to Detroit after the whole break-in attempt at Jill’s house, but there was some mismanagement of funds at his law firm recently. Tim’s under investigation. He was due to be deposed four days ago. He didn’t show.”
Law’s phone rang. It was Jill.
“Baby, where are you?” he demanded.
There was a pause before she answered. “I’m here at the office, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine. What’s wrong?”
Law scrubbed the back of his neck. “Stay there, I’m going to come pick you up.” He forced a smile into his voice. “I have two pieces of good news. First, you get to meet my brother Ash in person, he’s in town.”
“And the second?”
“Cullen’s friend found Angela. She’s okay. I should be at your office in about a half-hour. Will you be ready to leave by then?”
“Will you be ready to tell me the bad news then?” she countered.
“I’ll lay out everything as soon as we all get home,” he sighed.
Again, there was a pause. “It’s going to be all right, Law,” she said. God, there she was trying to comfort him. What was this world coming to?
“That’s my line, Honey. And yes, it will be.”
Chapter 13
Since the three Navy SEALs from the Night Storm team were near San Diego, they had to report into Coronado. Kane and Cullen did some training with the Midnight Delta team, but Asher just took some leave to spend with Law and to get to know Jill. That lasted for a week, before the three men had to head back to Virginia. Even after Kane had left, he and Law’s teammate, Clancy, had worked together remotely and they still couldn’t find hide nor hair of Tim Goshen. It was eerie.
Law wanted to bring Angela back to San Diego to act as bait, but her Wyoming rancher wasn’t about to allow that. All and all, he couldn’t blame him. He was going crazy at the thought of Jill being in danger.
The one good thing in all of this? He’d heard stories about some of the women that his SEAL friends had gotten involved with, and many of them had not stayed put when they should have. Meanwhile, Jill had allowed him to put a tracking device on her phone, in her laptop bag, and on her car. She might be just going to and from work and waiting for him so that they could go to the grocery store together, but she was taking this shit seriously. It gave him a lot of peace of mind. Still, when he got called for another set of war games, he desperately wished that he could put her in a steel vault somewhere, only not like the one in Caracas where Eden and Ash had been trapped in.
“Law, I promise to stay locked up behind your Uber Cyber Spyware Security. I refuse to be a redshirt.”
He laughed out loud at that. They watched the original Star Trek with him and knew that the guys in the red shirts were most likely to die on a mission. He loved this woman. He loved her. He was not going to let one silky hair on her precious head be harmed. Not on his watch!
When he’d left her at his house it was with a five-day supply of frozen meals that he’d cooked and made sure that there were no Hot Pockets anywhere to be found. Those things were murder on the cholesterol, and anything he could do to keep her out of harm’s way, he was all for. After all, she was the one who’d spent a shit ton of money on motorcycle leathers for him. It went both ways.
“I sure appreciate you taking on all this extra work, Jill,” Natalie’s smile was wide on the computer screen.
“It’s so not a problem. I’m glad you understood why I needed to do all of this documentation from home and away from the office distractions.”
“Sweetie, I’d set you up on the beach in Hawaii if you can get this done in time for our roll-out. You are amazing, especially after Beatrice botched it. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”
“I will,” Jill told her boss right before shutting off the Zoom call. She looked at the flowchart on her document and winced. It still wasn’t right. Jill reached over to the plate to pick up her food.
“What the?!” Her fingers were sticky with zucchini, red sauce, bell peppers, and cheese instead of nature’s natural food group—a pizza roll in a pocket. She’d forgotten she’d warmed up one of the meals that Law had cooked for her. Heck, it required a fork and everything.
She got up from off the floor and went into the kitchen to wash her hands before she dripped tomato sauce all over her print-outs and keyboard. She looked over her shoulder. Scratch that, her papers were already dripping in red.
Great
.
When she got to the kitchen, she noticed that her shirt had red sauce on it, too.
Really? Really?
I need a keeper.
She giggled. She did have a keeper, and wasn’t that wonderful? However, it would also be nice when she could leave the house again. She’d actually called Angela two nights ago and had a great chat with her. Her one-day-to-be-ex-husband was a crazy to the nth degree. Thank God she had gotten away from him. Jill was so happy to hear about Rancher Man. Angela swore there was nothing boy-girl going on, they were just friends. But Jill was willing to bet her last clean shirt that as soon as crazy hubby was in the rearview mirror, Rancher Man would be staking his claim.
Jill pulled off her shirt as she moved toward the laundry room, secure in the knowledge that there were only motion detectors and no cameras attached to the security system in Law’s house. He did have panic buttons set up in four rooms these days. He would have given her a gun, but they both agreed she would’ve ended up shooting herself in the foot, so no to that.
She was about ready to strip out of her bra and throw on a sleep shirt because it was bedtime. No more Zoom calls for this working girl. If someone wanted to talk to her, it would be audio only. Before she had the relief of taking off her bra, her phone all the way back in the living room rang.
Darn it!
She would’ve ignored it, but it could have been Law. She threw on one of his Marine t-shirts and practically ran to the living room hoping it was him. But when she got to the coffee table she saw that it was Lesley.
“Hey, Lesley, you’re never going to believe who I was just talking to the other night,” Jill smiled.
“Was it my wife?” A man’s voice asked.
“Who is this?” Jill demanded to know. “Where’s Lesley?”
“Oh, quit the games, Jill, you know who this is. Where’s my wife?”
Jill’s mouth was filled with cotton. She couldn’t catch a breath, and she couldn’t get her lips to part because she was biting down too hard on her bottom lip.
“Answer me, bitch, where’s my wife!”
“Uhhhh…”
A high-pitched scream came through the phone. A woman’s scream. Lesley’s scream.
“You better answer me, before I start cutting off body parts. Where’s Angela?”
“Don’t hurt her!” Jill yelled.
“Bitch, tell me where she is!”
If she told him, then Lesley would be dead for sure. She had to stall. She had to get help. She had to do something!
He hated being away from Jill for so long. It might’ve only been three days so far, but it was two days too many. He knew deep in his bones that Goshen would eventually make a play, and despite the fact she was hiding out at his house, he was worried.
“Thorne, are you going to actually pay attention to what your trainee is doing this time?” Clancy asked. “Or are you going to let his ass get blown up by the other team?”
Law carefully considered his teammate’s question. Truth be told, the idea of Roger getting taken out by Red Smoke had some serious advantages. He could send Roger back to the barracks and focus for the rest of the time they had left. It would make his life a hell of a lot easier, and they could wrap this game up tonight with a win.
“Law?” Clancy’s voice was closer. He’d sidled up next to him in the low grass. “You’re not actually considering letting him go, are you?”
Law looked over his shoulder at his friend.
“Shit, you are. What has gotten into you? I know you’re in love and all, but seriously, this is un-fucking-acceptable.”
“Clancy, shut your mouth. Jill’s at my house, and we still don’t have a bead on the guy who’s targeting her. I have a bad fucking feeling about this. He’s been quiet for too long. I know I have her locked down tighter than a drum, and she’s smart, really smart, she’s going to stay put. But I have a bad fucking feeling.”
“Bad feeling how? Yemen bad, or Syria bad?”
“Syria,” Law said succinctly. His ‘feeling’ had ended up saving their team from going into a booby-trapped building in Syria.
Clancy looked him dead in the eye. “That’s good enough for me.” He pulled out his radio.
“Lieutenant Hunt, this is Ayers. Thorne has a family emergency, I’m taking over for him. He needs to leave ASAP.”
Law looked at his friend aghast. That went outside all procedure. Of course, their lieutenant would support him, but you never, never ever, asked for something like this unless someone’s life was on the line. You sure as hell didn’t do this on some goddamn gut instinct.
Clancy looked up at him and waved his hand.
“The lieutenant said to get the hell out of here and to call if you need us.”
Chapter 14
I’m not going to die. Lesley’s not going to die. Angela’s not going to die.
But this assbutt? He’s going to die!
Her fingers were sweaty as she held her mobile phone in a death grip. Jill’s gaze swung wildly around the living room until it rested on the security panel.
Bingo!
“If you hang up, she dies. I want to hear every goddamn move that you make. As a matter of fact, put on the video call.”
“I don’t know how,” she lied.
Jill strode over to the alarm system and bit her lip. She tasted blood.
Do not cry. No crying allowed!
Law explained how this worked, but one of the darned buttons was silent and one was a blast. Why weren’t they labeled? Wait, they were. She wiped at the wetness in her eyes that weren’t tears and pressed the one that said silent alarm.
“Turn on the fucking video on your phone, bitch. I want to see you! I know soldier boy isn’t there, his truck’s been gone for days. It’s just you. I want you to come out the garage door and get in the back of the van with Lesley. If you want to keep her alive, you’ll come out, get in, and start talking.”
“Don’t do—”
Lesley’s words were cut off by a high pitch shriek of pain.
“What did you do to her? If you kill her, you assbutt, then you won’t have a bargaining chip.”
“There’s nothing stopping me from cutting off her ear, now is there? Or a finger? Or a toe? Take off your shoes, you dumb bitch.” Jill heard Lesley moan in terror. There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Lesley screamed again.
“Where’s the video? If I don’t have video now, I’ll assume you’re calling the police and I’ll just cut off her nose.”
Jill fumbled with the phone and hung up by accident. She saw a tear splash the screen of her phone and she wiped it away as she attempted to find her recent contacts. The phone rang. She pressed yes to accept the video call.
“There’s my pretty.” He didn’t look anything like he had before. His hair was long and oily, and he’d grown a scraggly, patchy beard. He was revolting, inside and out.
“Get your ass to the garage. You’re coming with me so that I can get some answers.”
“Why should I? You’ll just kill us both.”
She had to stall.
How long has it been since I pressed the silent alarm?
When will the police get here?
Why aren’t Kane and Asher talking through the wall?
Are they listening in?
She turned the volume up on her phone to its highest level.
“I might kill you both if you come with me, but I will start carving pieces off this bitch in thirty seconds if the garage door doesn’t open. I do hope you understand. I have all the leverage. Do you understand leverage?”
Lesley screamed again.
Jill bit back a sob and started toward the door to the garage, then stopped.
The tracker. In case the jerk-fucker-wad made her get rid of her phone. She raced to her computer bag on the coffee table and unzipped the compartment. It took precious seconds to feel around before she found the thing at the bottom of the pocket.
“Got you!”
When she pu
lled it out, she shoved it into her bra. Then Jill ran back to the garage door in the kitchen.
She opened the door, reached into the dark garage, and slammed her hand on the button that would open the door. In moments, a white panel van came into view. She backed up a step into the house, shut the door, and yelled.
“A white panel van. No windows!” She prayed that Law’s sneaky SEAL friends were monitoring the alarm.
She opened the door to the garage and saw Tim Goshen opening the back of the van.
“Get in,” he said, he had a gun trained on something inside the van. She saw a knife handle sheathed at his waist.
“Be a good girl, Jill, and get in. Otherwise, I’ll shoot Lesley in the head.”
She could smell his body odor as she stepped past him and started to climb in.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wrenched the phone out of her hand and threw it towards the porch. “We’re not going to allow anybody to track you on your phone’s GPS.”
When Law got to his property, he saw two cop cars out front. He backed into the Hendersons’ side carport since they were out of town, and watched his house. He didn’t want to get involved with the cops, he wanted to take care of this on his own. It didn’t matter if his team was in the wilds of Camp Pendleton or Asher and his team were in Virginia, Lawson knew he could handle this on his own, if he could just get to his tracking system inside his house!
“Your girl did good,” Kane said soothingly. “We know she’s in a white panel van.”
“I couldn’t care less. The tracking system app on my phone isn’t working.” He was gripping his smartphone so hard it was a wonder it hadn’t cracked. “I need to get into my house so I can use the main tracking system.”
“You can’t,” Asher said over his truck’s Bluetooth device. “Kane already tracked the GPS on Jill’s phone and it’s at your house, Law.” The pain in Asher’s voice was real.
Law thought his head would explode. He couldn’t lose her.
Lawson & Jill: Romantic Suspense (Night Storm Legacy Book 1) Page 9