Protecting Tex (SEAL of Protection #12)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

The door to Tex’s prison opened suddenly, letting in a shaft of light that was so painful, he involuntarily slammed his eyes closed to protect his vision. In that split second, his arms were grabbed and he was yanked to his foot. The music was suddenly cut off and the silence that followed was so blissful, Tex almost didn’t care that he was naked and bruised and being dragged harshly out of that damn box.

Squinting, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the sudden influx of light, Tex saw he was in a room with absolutely no furniture except for a single wooden chair…which didn’t bode well for him.

Sure enough, he was slammed down onto the seat, his hands wrenched behind him. They were tied, too tightly, and only then did the two men back away.

They made the mistake of not tying his one leg to the chair as well, but it was too early in this game to show his hand. If they thought he was completely helpless without his prosthetic, that might be their one fatal misstep. For now, he needed intel. Needed to know who had taken him and why.

“Who are you?” He figured he might as well ask. Maybe he’d get lucky and they’d tell him what he needed to know without too much digging.

In response, the taller of the two men stepped forward and slammed a meaty fist into Tex’s jaw.

Fuck. Okay, maybe they weren’t going to tell him anything.

The men took turns punching him in the face, the stomach, kicking him…doing as much damage as they could with their fists. Tex did his best to protect his vital organs by tightening his core, and to avoid getting his jaw broken, but he wasn’t so sure he was successful in the latter.

Instead of concentrating on the pain his captors were inflicting, Tex did his best to memorize anything he could about both men. They were tall and muscular. Both had dark brown hair and brown eyes. They were wearing black handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses.

The shorter man, who was around Tex’s height, six feet or so, was more muscular than his companion. He was sweating profusely and smelled like fried food. He had dirt under his fingernails and grease stains on his hands. He was also wearing a wedding band.

The taller one, who was about six foot three, wore a short-sleeve shirt that allowed Tex to see a tattoo on his forearm. To his surprise and disbelief, it was the SEAL trident. An eagle holding a trident, a symbol any Navy SEAL would recognize anywhere.

So much for brotherhood, Tex thought, as he slouched in the chair, pain making it impossible to hold his head up anymore. Throughout the beating, neither man spoke. Not giving Tex any clues to their nationality or what part of the country they might be from. He had no idea if he knew these men, if they’d crossed paths before. Had Tex worked with the taller guy? Had he tracked his SEAL team when they were on a mission?

When the smaller guy released his hands, Tex literally fell onto the floor. Everything hurt. Blood dripped from his lip and nose, and he had a whole new set of bruises covering the ones they’d made when they’d kidnapped him in the first place.

He saw a foot swing out from the corner of his eye and found the strength to roll abruptly to the side, avoiding taking the steel-toed boot to the head.

The large man who’d tried to kick him laughed. It was a sinister sound. One without mercy or remorse.

“Back to your cage, asshole,” the man growled. “Start crawling.”

Tex did as he was ordered. If the men thought to humiliate him by taking his clothes and making him crawl on the floor, they’d fail. Tex’s only mission was to survive another day. To get back to his family. Nothing else mattered. He’d do whatever he was told as soon as he was told to do it, if it meant getting back to Mel. He had every confidence that his wife would know what to do to find him. She’d never give up. Ever. That was his woman. Strong as hell.

When Tex made it back to the box, he saw that at some point while he was getting beaten, someone had put a bottle of water in his makeshift cell. That was all he saw before the door slammed shut behind him and the damn music was turned back on.

It seemed even darker in the box now than before. Tex crawled to where he’d seen the water and it took way more time to open that simple bottle than he would’ve thought possible. Tex had the thought that the water could be drugged, but at this point, he didn’t care. He needed it. Again, if he was going to get back to Melody, Hope, and Akilah, he’d do whatever he had to in order to survive.

His stomach cramped as the water hit it, wanting more substance than the precious liquid could offer, but Tex blocked any thoughts of hunger from his mind. This most likely wasn’t going to be a short stay in the box. The men who’d taken him were good. Too good.

But they didn’t know some of the people Tex worked with. As soon as they got wind of what was going on, they’d find him. He had no doubt whatsoever of that. And when they did…they’d rain hellfire down on his kidnappers.

Melody’s arm itched from the drying plaster used to make the cast on her arm. But she didn’t care. Amy had returned from the house with her old phone and thankfully all the contacts were there. Including Matthew Steel’s. Wolf. She’d wanted to call him as soon as she got his number, but the doctor had decided to discharge her. So there’d been forms to sign and scrubs to put on, since the clothes she’d been wearing when she and John were abducted were bloody and torn, and the detective had taken them as “evidence.”

It was laughable that the man thought she had something to do with this. But then again, he saw the worst in humanity day in and day out. What was the statistic? Over forty percent of murdered married women were killed by their husbands? She wasn’t sure what the numbers were for wives killing their husbands, but obviously the detective had to look at those who were close to John for answers.

But he wouldn’t find any skeletons in Melody’s closet. Whoever had done this was someone obscure. Who had a beef against her husband.

Amy drove like a bat out of hell on the way to Melody’s house. She wasn’t happy Melody wanted to go back there, but she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be than somewhere she was surrounded by happy memories of John. Everywhere she looked in their home, she’d be reminded of him. Of better times.

“I think I should stay here with you,” Amy said, after she finished walking through the house with a shovel she’d grabbed that was leaning against the side of the house. John had planted a new tree the other day and hadn’t put it back in the garage yet. Melody would’ve laughed at the sight of her best friend menacingly brandishing the shovel as she opened each and every door in the house, but there was nothing remotely funny about the situation.

“Someone needs to pick up Hope,” Melody told her.

“I can have my husband do it. He had an important meeting today, but it should be over by now. Maybe. Or I could text her and have her get a ride home.”

“Please, Ames. I trust you with her. She’s going to have questions. She’s not stupid. You can bring her right back here and I’ll tell her what I know…which isn’t a hell of a lot. You can stay the night. Your husband too. In fact, I’d feel better if you did. But I need a moment to call one of John’s friends. I need help. He needs help. Now.”

Amy sighed. “All right. But I’m setting the alarm when I leave.”

Melody nodded, perfectly all right with that.

Amy came over to the couch, where she’d plunked Melody when they’d entered, and hugged her once more. “You scared me,” she whispered as she held on tightly. “I swear my heart stopped when you said you’d been kidnapped.”

“I know,” Melody replied. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry!” Amy said almost violently. “It wasn’t your fault. And if you had called anyone else, I would’ve been pissed. Okay, I’m going so I can return quickly. Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself until I get back?”

Melody nodded. She was a little nervous to be alone, but as soon as Amy was gone she’d have Matthew on the other end of the phone line. If anything happened, he’d know. Which wouldn’t help her a whole hell of a lot, but she didn’t want to wait one second longer than necessary to get someone more capable than her, or the damn detective, looking into where the hell those men had taken John, and why.

Taking a deep breath once she heard Amy’s car back out of the driveway, Melody reached for her phone. It wasn’t activated for cell service, but she could use the wi-fi calling on it. She clicked Matthew’s name in her contact list and held her breath as she waited for him to answer.

Her heart was beating way too fast, and she had no idea why.

“Hello?”

“Matthew?”

“Yeah. Melody? What’s up?”

He had to be wondering why she was calling him. Melody had called Caroline many times over the years. But she couldn’t remember contacting her husband once. “I need help. No, John needs help. He’s been taken.”

“ What ? Taken?”

“Yeah.” It didn’t take her long to recount the day’s events.

“Fuck. Are you all right?”

“I will be. My arm is broken, and I have a concussion and road rash from hell. But I’m all right. It’s John I’m worried about.”

“Right. What do the cops say?”

“The detective thinks I had something to do with it.”

The disgusted huff of breath Matthew let out made Melody feel a hundred times better. “Then he’s an idiot.”

Amazingly, Melody found herself defending the guy. “He doesn’t know us from Adam. For all he knows, I hired someone, or several someones, to do this and to let me go.”

“To push you from a moving vehicle? Not a chance in hell.”

“Anyway, I know John has worked with some people who are good at computers. Who do what he does. But I don’t know their names. He keeps that part of his life completely separate because he wants to protect me from the horrors I know he deals with all the time. I keep telling him that I can handle anything he wants to talk to me about, but he’s stubborn and doesn’t want to burden me with his work details. Do you know anyone who might be able to look into this? Might be able to help? I don’t know…maybe someone John has worked with in the past, or communicated with, or whatever. But someone who can perhaps hack into his computer? I don’t know if that’s even possible, because we’re talking about John here, but I also don’t know how else to figure this out.”

“I know who to call,” Matthew said in a voice so calm and reassuring, Melody instantly relaxed…and tears formed in her eyes.

“But I doubt anyone is gonna be able to hack remotely into his computer. There’s no way in hell Tex would leave a crack of any kind in his system. The people I’m going to call, they might need to be there in person. Is that okay?”

“Of course. I’d welcome anyone and everyone who can help,” Melody reassured John’s oldest friend.

“Good. And Caroline and I will be on the red-eye out your way tonight as well.”

“You don’t have to?—”

“Bullshit. We’re coming. How’s Hope? Does Akilah know?”

Just knowing help was on the way made Melody almost lose her composure. She wiped the errant tears off her cheeks and sniffed discreetly. “Amy is picking Hope up from volleyball practice now. I’ll call Akilah after I talk to her sister.”

“All right. And you’re not alone?”

“Well, right this second, I am. But I’m sure Amy’s already called her husband, even though I told her I’d be fine, and he’s probably on his way over here. And she’ll be back with Hope. And Amy and her husband are both spending the night.”

“I don’t love that you’re alone right now, but at least tell me the doors and windows are locked.”

“Of course they are.”

“Good. What else can you tell me about what happened today?”

The fact that Matthew was all business made it easier to talk about what happened. “There was a yellow brick with a note tied around it on the ground, near where I was pushed out of the van. I didn’t touch it because I didn’t want to mess with any DNA or fingerprints that might be on it. I have no idea what it said. Do you think it could be a ransom note? If so, why haven’t the police contacted me about it?”

“I don’t know. But I guarantee before the night’s over, we’ll know what it said. As soon as I make some phone calls, Tex’s friends will be on that shit. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out. Okay?”

Melody’s eyes began to leak once more. The unconditional support Matthew was giving her felt amazing after the detective’s suspicions.

“Will you be okay while I make arrangements for us to get to you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. And, Melody?”

“Yeah?”

“Tex is the toughest bastard I know. If anyone can make it through this, it’s him. Okay?”

“Yeah. But what if they want to kill him?” Melody whispered, speaking aloud her greatest fear for the first time.

“If they wanted to kill him, they would’ve done that on the street,” Matthew said as gently as he could. “They would’ve put a bullet in his head right there in the driver’s seat of his car. They took him for a reason. Maybe they’re making a point, maybe they want money, maybe they want revenge. I have no idea. But his friends will figure it out, and we’ll make every single person who had a hand in this pays. They’ll regret laying one finger on Tex and you.”

By the time Matthew was finished speaking, his tone was deathly hard. It was a tone Melody had never heard from him before. And instead of freaking her out, it was reassuring. And he was right. The men who’d taken them must want John for a reason. His friends just needed to figure out why, and who, and then find where he’d been taken.

“Melody? You hear me?”

“I hear you.”

“Good. Stay safe. We’ll be there in the morning. But rest assured the people I call will be on this the second I tell them Tex is missing.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Love you, sweetie.”

“Love you too. See you soon.”

“Soon,” Matthew parroted.