Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
“Hi, hon,” Caroline said as she walked into the house.
“We need to talk,” Wolf said, not wanting to drag this out.
Her face fell and she put her purse down on the kitchen counter. Her gaze went to his duffel bag before it went back to his face. “You going somewhere?”
Wolf put his bag down and reached for Caroline’s hand. He gripped it tightly and brought her over to the couch, where he pulled her down next to him.
“You’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Tex is missing,” Wolf said as gently as he could.
Caroline blinked. Then she smiled and rolled her eyes. “Good one. Although that was in extremely poor taste as a joke. What do you want for dinner?”
“I’m being serious, Ice. Tex is missing. I got a call from Melody earlier. They were ambushed in their car on their street and shoved into a van. They both had hoods put over their heads as they were driven away. Then Melody was pushed out of the vehicle while it was moving, and the kidnappers disappeared with Tex.”
His wife stared at him for a beat before her lips pressed together. Tears sprang into her eyes, but she blinked them back. “Is Melody okay?”
“Broken arm, concussion, road rash. But alive,” Wolf said succinctly.
“And the girls?”
“Akilah is at college and will be picked up to be brought home. And Hope is with Amy and her husband.”
“Tex?” Caroline whispered.
Wolf shook his head. “We don’t know. We have no intel.”
She sat up straighter. “None? Who took him? And why? Do they want money?”
“We don’t know yet. But I’ve got people on this, honey.”
“Who? What people? Tex can’t be missing! He’s the one who finds everyone else who disappears!” Her voice had risen, and she sounded almost hysterical as she continued. “Was he wearing a tracker? He insists on everyone else wearing one, but I bet he wasn’t, was he? It would help a whole hell of a lot if he practiced what he preached! Does he think he’s invincible?!”
Wolf took Caroline’s face in his hands and leaned closer. “I’m on this,” he told her firmly.
He watched as the strongest woman he’d ever met, his wife, the love of his life, pulled herself together. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and grabbed hold of his wrists. When she opened her eyes again, he could see she had control over her emotions once more. “Of course you are,” she said. “When does your plane leave?”
That’s what he loved about Caroline. She was levelheaded. Good in stressful situations. Lord knew they’d met in the most stressful situation he could imagine. A plane full of drugged passengers that was taken over by terrorists. Then there was the cabin she’d been stashed, which had blown up, with Caroline rescuing him from the resulting fire—and then she’d been snatched while he’d been lying unconscious on the ground. And of course, the whole being-thrown-into-the-middle-of-the-ocean thing, while bound with weights around her ankles.
Yes, his Ice was a rock. And Melody needed her. Hell, Wolf needed her.
“In a couple of hours.”
“I’m going with you,” she informed him.
“Of course you are,” Wolf said calmly.
Her eyes filled with tears once more. “He’s really missing?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit, Matthew.”
“I know.”
“He’s the one we all call when people we know need help. Who do we call when the hunter becomes the hunted?”
“Everyone,” Wolf said with conviction.
“And you’ve called everyone?”
“Not yet. But it seems like it. I’ve called the people who can help the most in the short term. Beth from Texas, Ryleigh from The Refuge, Baker from Hawaii, Rex from Colorado…we’re all on this, sweetheart.”
She sniffed, then nodded. “I need to pack.” Caroline leaned forward and put her forehead against Wolf’s. They sat like that for a beat before she abruptly stood. “Melody has to be freaking out. I can’t believe they threw her out of a moving car! What assholes ! Are the others coming too? Dude, Benny, the girls?”
“No, just us. The last thing Melody needs is a house full of people she’ll have to worry about hosting,” Wolf said.
“You’re right. But what if Tex needs help? I know you’re badass and all, but I’d feel better if you had some backup.”
Lord, he loved this woman. “That guy I mentioned earlier…Baker? He’s coming too.”
Caroline lifted a brow. “One guy? That’s it?”
“Believe it or not, I’m hoping none of us will even be necessary. But if it turns out we need help, you know I won’t hesitate to call the guys. Tex will either escape himself or someone will find the intel we need to get the cops to go arrest those responsible.”
“Or he could be?—”
Wolf put his hand over Caroline’s mouth, not letting her finish her sentence. “He’s not. This is Tex. He’s probably hurting, but he’s fine .”
Wolf hoped saying the words aloud would make them true.
Caroline pulled Wolf’s hand away from her mouth. “Statistics say if someone isn’t found within forty-eight hours, most of the time much less, it’s likely they’ve been…you know.”
“Women. I think that statistic mostly applies to women and kids. Those taken for sexual reasons. This is different.” Wolf was talking out his ass. He had no intel as to why Tex was taken. But he was pretty sure it wasn’t for sex. He wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. None of them were. He couldn’t personally fathom a situation where someone went to the lengths they had to kidnap a badass like John Keegan. But a man with the connections he had? With the intellectual prowess he had? There was a reason he was taken, and Wolf was pretty sure it wasn’t just so he could be killed immediately.
Caroline stared at him for a long moment, then finally nodded. “I’m going to go pack.”
“Okay, Ice. We’ll head to the airport as soon as you’re done.”
“Can I call the girls? Or maybe just Fiona? She’s going to take this the hardest. You know what Tex did for her when she had that flashback after she’d gotten home from being abducted herself.”
Wolf couldn’t deny his wife anything. “Just Fiona.”
“I love you, Matthew.”
“I love you too.”
“Will you please think about wearing a tracker now?”
Wolf couldn’t help but smile. Leave it to his wife to push her advantage. He’d been adamant about not wanting to be an experiment for Tex’s newest tracker. Subcutaneous, tiny, undetectable to normal scanners.
“Go pack,” he urged, knowing what his answer would be. If Tex was found, he’d happily be a guinea pig for his friend’s newest innovation in trackers.
When Caroline was out of earshot, he pulled his phone out of his pocket once more. He needed to give Cookie a head’s up that his wife was about to get some very bad news, and she’d need him by her side as soon as she was done talking to Caroline.
Tex swallowed the groan that threatened to escape. His head was pounding. The damn music hadn’t turned off for one second after he’d been put back into the box. He had no idea how much time had passed. He didn’t think it had been too long though. Was it night? He wondered what Melody was doing. If she’d told Hope about him being taken. He prayed Akilah was all right as well. He worried about her being away at school.
Pushing himself up, he got to his foot. He was hunched over since he couldn’t stand up straight, and sweat poured from his temples as he struggled to overcome the pain in his body. He needed to stay mobile. Be ready for anything his kidnappers had planned. He couldn’t just sit around being morose and depressed. No, he had to keep his body in tip-top shape. He hadn’t had anything to eat since he’d been here, but he could live without food. Water was another story.
He’d already had to piss in a corner of the box, which hadn’t made Tex happy in the least. He wondered if his kidnappers had thought about that part of keeping him confined or if they just didn’t care if he had to live in his own waste. Probably the latter.
Tex racked his brain to try to think about who might be behind his kidnapping. He dealt with some horrible people, but no one lately who seemed any more horrible than others. They were all lowlifes. Kidnappers, sex traffickers, drug dealers…anyone and everyone who felt it was all right to use other people for their own gain.
Which made him think about what his own kidnappers wanted. If they’d wanted him dead, they would’ve already killed him. That, at least, was a positive thing about this fucked-up situation. Intel? Money? Who knew. He supposed it didn’t matter. Kidnapped was kidnapped.
Tex had a whole new sympathy for those he helped. Soldiers, women, children, friends…he’d worked hard on the back end to find out why and where and who. But he hadn’t stopped to truly think about what the captives went through. He supposed it was because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to do his job as effectively. But now he had nothing but time to think about those things.
Now, he felt as if he’d been insensitive. Or at least not sympathetic enough. He’d sat in his basement clicking away at his keyboard, giving the information he found to those who could go out and do the hard work of getting their friends or loved ones back.
He made a vow that if he got out of this alive, he’d do better. He’d recommend psychiatrists, places like The Refuge for victims to go to deal with what happened. Check in with their families more often. He wouldn’t simply call it a job well done and slap his hands together as if all was back to normal.
Nothing for the people and families who went through something like this was ever normal again. He should’ve known that better than anyone else.
Taking a deep breath and going to his happy place in his head…anywhere Melody was…Tex dropped to his knee and prepared to do some push-ups. He needed to stay busy. Strong. He had no idea how long he’d be here, so he’d do whatever he could to keep his body in working order. He was taking the fact that he wasn’t already dead as a good sign. The assholes who took him wanted something. He just had to wait. Let his friends figure this shit out.
They’d do it too. Of that, he had no doubt. But there was a small niggling of concern about what his condition would be when they did.