Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
Tex sat in the dark, that damn music continuing unabated, and once again cautiously probed the wound in his calf. It hurt like a motherfucker, but he thought the bleeding had finally stopped. Of course, that wouldn’t do him any good if he got an infection. The thought of losing his other leg made him almost sick to his stomach.
Then again, he had no doubt that Melody wouldn’t give a fig if he had one leg, one arm, or no arms. All she’d care about was him coming home alive.
Tex lay on his back and stared into the dark. He couldn’t see a damn thing, but he didn’t want to close his eyes. He racked his brain yet again, trying to figure out who could be behind this. He’d pissed off his share of people over the years, but he’d never felt as if he was in danger.
There was that time he’d crossed the New York Mafia, but he was fairly certain he’d managed to smooth things over there. It wasn’t as if he’d meant to send the cops straight into a huge gun-running scheme. All he was trying to do was bring home a missing teenager.
He’d also run afoul of the drug cartels in Mexico, after that thing with Khloe Moore and Raiden Walker down in Virginia, but he was under the impression that no one liked Pablo Garcia that much anyway. Thought he was a hot-headed, arrogant asshole. And considering how much time he’d done in prison in America, he didn’t have many contacts left south of the border when he’d been taken down for good.
Other situations flitted through Tex’s brain as he did his best to figure out who he’d angered enough to put him in this situation. And not only that—who was smart enough to pull it off. That was probably the better question.
Try as he might, Tex couldn’t come up with anyone from his past who stood out. But what this situation had done was hammer home that he needed to be far more vigilant about his and his family’s safety. He frequently worked with the worst of humanity, and he hated that there had been blowback. The only consolation was that the blowback had been toward him. Yes, Melody had been caught up in this hell, but he was more relieved than he could say that she wasn’t being held captive alongside him.
If his captor had truly wanted to torture him, that would’ve done it.
In fact, letting his wife go would be the man’s downfall. Melody was smart and tough as hell. She was probably banged up and hurt—which made Tex’s belly swirl in agitation—but she’d most certainly called in the troops. And while she didn’t know everyone he’d worked with in the past, his friends would know who to call.
The first person she probably called was Wolf.
Thoughts of his old friend made Tex smile. Thinking back to when he’d helped Wolf find his then almost-girlfriend made the smile fade. Caroline had been through some shit, but like Melody—like a hell of a lot of women he’d helped over the years—she was way tougher than even she could’ve imagined.
Wolf probably took the first flight across the country to be at Melody’s side. He’d protect her and his girls, of that Tex had no doubt. He wondered who Wolf would choose to contact. Penelope? The soldier turned firefighter from San Antonio? Trigger and his team of Deltas? Maybe Phantom and his fellow former SEALs? Maybe even Ghost and his Deltas. Most of the men he called his friends were no longer active duty, but they were no less badass. There was no shortage of men and women who Tex thought wouldn’t hesitate to offer their assistance.
But if there was one person out there who could figure out this entire fucked-up situation…it was Ryleigh Lodge.
The kid—okay, she wasn’t exactly a kid, but she was much younger than Tex, which made her a kid in his eyes—was a fucking genius. Way smarter than Tex. She’d been dealt a shit hand when it came to family, but she’d found a new family on The Refuge out in New Mexico. Surely Wolf would think of her. He’d met her recently, when he and Caroline went out to The Refuge, and they’d been embroiled in a shitshow of epic proportion.
Ryleigh could hack into his computer and figure out who the most likely suspects were in regard to his kidnappers. And Tex had no problem with her getting into his files either. The woman had hacked into countless government databases and could probably launch nuclear weapons at a push of a button on her keyboard.
But she was also as trustworthy a person as he’d ever met. And generous. He knew all about the money she’d stolen from her criminal of a father over the years, and how she was attempting to quietly give it all away. Beyond that, all she wanted was to be left alone. To live her life.
Thinking about his friends made Tex forget about his current situation for a while. Forget about the music blaring into his skull. Forget about the pain in his calf from being shot. Forget that he was as helpless as he’d ever been. Nude, locked in a box, starving, and pissing in a bucket.
He’d get through this because the alternative was unthinkable. He just needed to let his friends do their thing. And they would…because that’s the kind of men and women they were. Honorable, loyal, and stubborn as all get out.
That last thought made him smile. Tex had seen a lot of bad shit in his life, but the good stuff made it all worth it. Like his Melody and his daughters. And his friends. He was blessed. This would end and life would go on…hopefully with him back at his family’s side, a whole lot wiser and more cautious as he went about his daily business.
“Ryleigh and I found a few possibilities!” Beth announced as she burst through the basement door into the living room, making Melody jerk in fright where she was sitting on the couch, trying not to go out of her skin with nerves.
It was five o’clock the next afternoon, and they only had six hours until she was supposed to meet John’s kidnapper at The Sugar Shack.
Relieved that at last , Ryleigh and Beth had some information for them, Melody turned toward the disheveled woman. She’d been holed up in the basement for the last twelve hours or so and looked as exhausted as Melody felt…and probably looked herself.
But she also looked smugly satisfied.
“We came up with three options that would make good places to stash someone you didn’t want anyone else to know about,” Beth went on. “I marked them on a map, come here,” she ordered, heading toward the kitchen table.
Everyone immediately stood and crowded around the table as Beth spread out a map of the area.
“Here’s where we are, the town of Washington,” she said, pointing to Melody’s neighborhood. “And here’s where Rook’s mom lives, just north of town. And lastly, here’s The Sugar Shack. It’s about ten miles east of Rook’s house. Between those two spots are the three places we think would make perfect places to hole up.
“First up, here. It’s an old gas station along a rarely used road. It used to have a lot of traffic, but then the interstate was built, making it obsolete. There’s a large freezer in there that could easily hold a prisoner. It’s obviously not a freezer anymore, as there’s no electricity going to the place, but there aren’t any windows and it could be locked from the outside. Rook could stash Tex there and head off to live his normal life, without fear that Tex could escape while he was gone.
“Secondly, there’s an old house that went through foreclosure and was never bought from the bank, and it’s been left to rot. There’s a barn behind it, with weeds and vines making it almost inaccessible. The driveway to get out there is at least half a mile long, so it’s very remote.
“And lastly—probably the most unlikely spot, but we thought we should mention it because we have no idea what this Rook guy is thinking—is an old trap house in a pretty crappy neighborhood. There are people still living in the area, but they mostly keep to themselves. Most of the inhabitants are on the sex registry, so they want nothing to do with cops and bringing any kind of attention to themselves.”
“Which do you think is the best likelihood for where Tex could be stashed?” Matthew asked.
Beth pressed her lips together and straightened from the table. She shrugged a little. “Ry and I talked about it, and the smartest place would be the gas station. That freezer is a ready- made cell. There’s no way Tex could be able to get out of there on his own. The old house is our second guess, although from viewing the satellite images, it doesn’t look as if anyone has been out there in a long time. But that could be exactly what Rook wants it to look like. If he put Tex out there, secured him properly and left him, there wouldn’t be much of a footprint of anyone being there.
“The most risky would be that house in the sex registry neighborhood. True, most people wouldn’t call the cops because of their backgrounds, but that’s not to say no one would. All it would take is one phone call and the entire plan could backfire. And Rook’s too smart for that.”
Matthew’s cell vibrated with a text and he glanced at it. “The guys are here,” he announced.
Melody smiled gratefully. As shitty as this situation was, she couldn’t wait to see Abe, Cookie, Mozart, Dude, and Benny again. She’d missed them a lot, and mentally, she planned a trip out to California once John was back home and healed from his ordeal, so they could see all their women too.
Matthew went to the door and opened it, then the room was suddenly even more full than it was already.
Melody smiled broadly at the familiar faces as they filed in and immediately headed for her. They each gave her a long but gentle hug, mindful of her broken arm, and said how sorry they were about the situation.
She was speechless. There was so much Melody wanted to say, but she was suddenly overwhelmed and couldn’t find the words. That these men had dropped everything to come to her side when she and John needed them the most was unbelievable.
Now that she really thought about it, she probably should’ve called that detective and informed him of what Ryleigh had found. Informed him about the supposed money drop and asked if he could provide security for her while she went out to The Sugar Shack.
But she hadn’t…because she didn’t really trust the man. She was sure he was competent at what he did, but this was her husband she was talking about. She couldn’t afford any mistakes because his life was on the line. She trusted Matthew, and Baker, and John’s friends. And most of all, she trusted the five newcomers with not only her life, but John’s. If she went out there to the abandoned factory, and John was there, she wanted and needed these men at her side, and no one else.
“Thank you for coming,” she finally managed to croak out.
“Nowhere else we’d be.”
“Of course.”
“We love you both.”
“This is what friends do.”
“This fucker is going down.”
Melody couldn’t help but chuckle at Dude’s last comment. He was normally pretty stoic. She knew he was a Dominant, she and Cheyenne had talked enough for her to know the couple’s sexual preferences were pretty…intense. He was all about taking charge. Also, everything about Dude screamed honorable. He took it as a personal offense when women were assaulted or battered. He’d no sooner hurt a woman than he’d lose control while on a mission. His entire life was about control, and right now, Melody needed his stability. His control. Because it felt like she had none.
“What’s the plan?” Abe asked.
Before Matthew could speak, however, there was another knock at the door.
Turning, Melody saw a huge man enter her house through the unlocked front door the former SEALs had just used. He was one of the tallest men she’d ever seen, and he wore a scowl, which accented the gnarly scar on the side of his face. He was muscular on top of that. This was definitely a man she wouldn’t want to come across in a dark alley…not that she was spending much time in dark alleys anyway.
Luckily, she knew exactly who the newcomer was. She’d met him once, maybe twice. So she wasn’t freaking out that a badass scary-looking stranger had just walked into her house.
Before she could greet the man, Annie let out a loud whoop. “Trucker!” she screamed, making a beeline toward him.
Truck—Melody was sure he had a proper name, but she couldn’t remember it at the moment—grinned a lopsided grin and opened his arms as Annie threw herself into them.
“It’s so good to see you, Sprite!” he told her, hugging her tightly.
“Same!” the woman exclaimed, smiling up at Truck. “I’m a little sad that Fletch couldn’t come as well, but with Emily in the hospital with appendicitis, he didn’t feel as if he could leave her. Trust me, I think it’s killing him not to be here, but it’s probably for the better, because he still thinks of me as a little kid who used to like to ride around the yard in that tank you guys made me.”
They smiled at each other, then, as if they both remembered where they were and why, they turned toward Melody with all traces of amusement wiped off their faces.
“Are you okay?” Truck asked Melody gruffly, eyeing the cast on her arm.
“As well as I can be,” she answered honestly. “Better, now that all you guys are here and we have somewhere to look for John.”
Truck glanced around at the men. “What’s the plan?”
Melody couldn’t help but smile a little at that. He sounded exactly like Abe did a few moments ago. These were men of action…which she fully approved of.
Matthew gave Truck a quick rundown of what Beth and Ryleigh had learned about who might be behind the kidnapping, and the possible locations of where John could be.
“I’m thinking most of my team will go with Melody to The Sugar Shack. I’m betting no one shows up when she gets there, but just in case, I want to make sure she’s covered. Tex would have my ass if she got hurt while under our protection,” Matthew said.
Melody was more than all right with that plan. She was grateful she wasn’t being left out of tonight’s activities altogether. She was well aware that everyone would’ve preferred that she stayed right where she was—safe at home—but since the kidnapper specifically ordered her to be the one to bring the money to the secluded location, no one wanted to do anything other than what was requested, just in case the kidnapper did show up.
“Baker and Cade can check out the abandoned gas station, I’ll head to the farmhouse with Dude, and, Truck, you and Annie can check out the house in the sketchy neighborhood. If that’s all right with everyone?”
Everyone nodded their agreement.
“Beth, if you or Ryleigh come up with any more intel that points to one location or another, or even makes you think Tex is nowhere near here anymore, call me immediately. I’ll relay the info to the others.”
“Okay, but that won’t be necessary. Not really. I mean, as long as everyone has their phones on them, Ryleigh can text everyone at the same time. Make sure the intel gets sent out as fast as possible.”
“Right, of course she can,” Matthew said with a nod. Then he turned to the room in general once more. “Everyone put your phones on silent. The last thing anyone needs is a ping or chime alerting Rook or any other scumbag to our presence. We have a few hours before we need to head out. Melody, why don’t you lie down, see if you can get some rest.”
Melody snorted. That wasn’t happening. She was ready to go now . She didn’t want to wait for eleven o’clock to roll around. But she also knew the cover of darkness was important for the others as they searched for John. Yes, they were all special ops, but they wanted to be sure they had the upper hand. No one had forgotten that there had been five people involved in her and John’s kidnapping. They could call for more backup, there were plenty of people out there with military experience that would be happy to fly in and help, but they didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to make a move. So they were compromising by splitting up the man-and woman-power they had now, by waiting until it was dark to make their move.
She supposed she should be more nervous than she was. Should’ve wanted someone else, most likely Annie, to pretend to be her and go to The Sugar Shack in her stead. But she needed to do this. Needed to have some role in getting John back. Even if it turned out she was on a fool’s errand, and the kidnapper had no intention of meeting her at the deserted factory, it still felt as if she was helping. And she certainly wasn’t scared. Not with Abe, Cookie, Benny, and Mozart with her.
“I can’t sleep,” she told Matthew firmly.
He nodded as if he expected that response.
“I want to visit with everyone a bit. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you guys,” Melody said, glancing at the newcomers.
Abe came over and put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a side hug.
Surprisingly, the next couple of hours went by quickly. It was nice to catch up with the SEALs from California, and Truck. But when ten o’clock rolled around, and Matthew announced it was time to head out, she was more than ready.
Abe and Cookie had put every duffel bag and suitcase they could find in the house into the back of Melody’s car. Just in case someone was at the abandoned factory, they wanted it to look like Melody had some money with her. That she was complying with the demands of the kidnapper. The duffels were filled with towels and the suitcases were empty. Melody had been coached to pretend they were heavy as she removed them from the car…if things came to that.
The instructions they’d received for the money drop had been sparse at best. Just secondhand from the clerk at the gas station.
The plan was for Cookie to be in the car with her and the others to precede them, park a ways from the factory, and fan out, searching the grounds. If someone was there, they’d keep an eye on them until the person made themselves known to Melody when she arrived. Cookie would crouch down on the passenger side of her car to protect her if shit hit the fan.
Baker and Cade would head to the gas station as planned, to check out the freezer and see if that’s where John had been stashed.
Matthew and Dude would go the farmhouse…again, parking a safe distance away so as not to alert anyone who might be watching that someone was coming, and once again, see if they could find John.
Lastly, Annie and Truck would go to the sketchy neighborhood. They wouldn’t need to park as far away as the other two groups, since it was a populated community. But that also made it less likely that John was there. Even with the inhabitants being mostly sex offenders and other men and women who’d been on the wrong side of the law at one time or another, the chances of someone seeing something suspicious and calling the police was higher than at the other two locations.
Melody hoped like hell Ryleigh and Beth were right, and John was at one of the three locations. Because the alternative was unthinkable. If he’d been transported out of the area, it would be even harder to find him. And without the kidnapper communicating with Melody, telling her what he wanted, she wasn’t sure what the outcome of this shitshow would be.
She did know she was ready for it to end. She couldn’t fathom having to go another day, week, month, year, without knowing where her husband was. Couldn’t imagine having to tell Hope that her daddy was “lost.” The agony of not knowing where he was or what he was going through was hard enough after just a few days. Melody literally couldn’t imagine what it would feel like for weeks or more to go by and not know.
She had confidence in John’s friends. She’d heard him say more than once how talented Ryleigh was. How John thought she was the better hacker. Melody wasn’t sure she believed him, but just him saying that was huge. It meant her husband had an immense amount of respect for the young woman. She had to be right. She simply had to.
Melody hugged each and every one of the men and women in the room, thanking them for being there, for doing what needed to be done to find John.
And she wasn’t surprised when everyone blew off her thanks. Saying it was what friends did. And what John had done for years for all of them.
“It goes without saying that if you find Tex, the first thing you need to do is contact one of us,” Matthew said sternly. “No going in by yourself. None of us will be that far away, we can be at your location in minutes. Tex’s best chance to make it out of this without Rook, or whoever the kidnapper is, killing him before he can be rescued is if we work together. Understood?”
Everyone nodded their assent. The words killing him echoed in Melody’s brain. They couldn’t get this close to rescuing John to lose him at the last second.
“And if there is someone at The Sugar Shack, let us know as soon as possible,” Matthew told his team. “From the satellite pictures Ryleigh sent, it would be an excellent place to interrogate whoever is there to collect the money.”
Melody wasn’t shocked by his words, or even turned off by them. She almost wished someone would be there. If the men around her could get someone to tell them where John was, she didn’t care how the information was obtained. As far as she was concerned, the ends would justify the means, and the kidnapper brought on whatever was coming his way by what he’d done.
“Let’s do this. Remember…protect Tex at all costs,” Matthew reminded the group. “We have no idea what shape he’ll be in if we find him. Not after all this time. If that means letting Rook or anyone else go, that’s fine. He won’t escape. We’ll get him one way or another. There’s nowhere he can hide with Ryleigh and Beth on his case. And when Tex recovers, he won’t rest until he sees his kidnapper dead or behind bars. Understand?”
This time the nods and affirmative responses were a little less enthusiastic. Melody understood. The last thing she wanted was the man who’d kidnapped her and John out there free, plotting and planning to do it again. She didn’t want to live her life in a bubble, constantly looking over her shoulder. But Matthew was right. If letting the bad guy or bad guys go meant protecting John and freeing him, that’s what needed to happen. John was the most important thing here. Period.
Caroline, Jodelle, and Beth hugged her tightly, wishing her luck, before Melody headed out the door. She was more than ready to do this. It beat sitting around the house worrying and wondering what was happening to John. She hoped like hell whatever happened in the next hour or so would end this nightmare once and for all.