Chapter 19
tell your SEAL this is just the beginning
Sophia’s keys fell out of her left hand as she continued to look at the phone in her right. She read the words again. They didn’t change.
She looked up. The only light on in her kitchen was the one over her stove. The time was seven-thirty-five. She needed to get her daughters from Beth. The woman had graciously picked-up Lisa and Kayla from school and taken them back to her house, along with the rest of her kids today.
She looked down at her phone again.
tell your SEAL this is just the beginning
They’d dropped Bree off earlier today, and she’d come home to shower, to recover. Now it was time for her to pick up her girls.
tell your SEAL this is just the beginning
She gagged. Oh God, she was going to throw-up. Her phone clattered to the floor as she stumbled for the kitchen sink. Her stomach heaved once, then twice, then a small stream of vomit came up, tearing at her throat.
Another.
Then another.
Sophia yanked at her hair, so it would stay out of the way.
Tears and snot combined with the vomit.
Her stomach kept heaving, even after there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. She clutched at the faucet to keep herself up.
Get it together, Gault.
One more heave.
Stop it! Get it together!
Sophia swallowed and grimaced. She avoided looking at what was in the sink and lurched across the counter for the paper towels. She grabbed a handful and wiped off her face.
One breath.
Two.
Think. Come on. Think.
“Mason. I need to call Mason.”
She looked around at the counter and couldn’t see her phone. It took a moment, then she remembered it falling to the floor. She found it. It had survived. Damn well better have considering how much the protective case cost.
Her laugh sounded hysterical.
She cut it off short and measured the distance between her and the island barstool. It was too much. She sank to her knees and made the call.
Four rings.
“Gault. You know what to do.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Even hearing those six words in Mason’s voicemail helped.
“Mason. Nobody’s hurt. We’re all fine.” That was the most important part to get out before anything else.
Making a call when he was on a mission just wasn’t done, so he needed to know that they were okay.
“Bree, Kayla’s friend, was kidnapped. She’s safe now.
But I got a text just now. It said, tell your SEAL this is just the beginning.
I haven’t had Lydia look at it, but.” She swallowed.
Started again. “But I have to assume it’s untraceable.
” She gripped her phone like it was a lifeline, and maybe it was.
“Mason, come home. Whoever this is, is going to come after our babies. I know it. I’ve got them at Beth and Jack’s place for now. It’s a fortress… Come home.”
She hung up.
“Dammit!”
She hadn’t said she loved him.
She called Beth first.
She didn't explain. She didn't need to. Beth said of course before Sophia had finished the sentence, and Sophia heard her daughters' voices in the background—Lisa laughing at something, Kayla talking—and she pressed her eyes shut for just a second.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Stop,” Beth said. And that was that.
She called Lydia next.
“Lydia.” Her voice came out steadier than she expected. “I got a text.”
A pause. Not the pause of someone surprised—the pause of someone already moving. “From the same number?”
“I don’t know. Just an unknown number. How do I—” She stopped. Read it again, even though she didn't need to. “It said, tell your SEAL this is just the beginning.”
Silence.
“Come to my place,” Lydia said. “Now.”
Sophia didn’t remember much of the drive, but Lydia was at the door before Sophia's headlights swept the driveway. When Sophia got to the top of the stairs, she just stepped back and let Sophia in and held out her hand for the phone. Sophia handed it to her.
“Angie's down,” Lydia said, already moving toward her office. “Declan has a school thing, and Rylie doesn’t feel good leaving Marcus and Tanisha again. I told them I’d call when I find something out.” She sat down in front of her computer. She didn’t look up from the screen. “Sit down.”
Sophia sat down on the couch in the office. She hadn't expected to feel this tired. She'd expected wired. Instead she felt hollowed out.
“Burner,” Lydia said.
“Huh?”
Lydia was now standing at her desk, one hand flat on the surface, her eyes moving across her screen with the focused patience of a woman who had done this a thousand times. “Pre-paid. Cash purchase, almost certainly.” She paused. “It pinged a tower in National City.”
Sophia felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. “The warehouse district.”
“Adjacent.” Lydia said. “Whoever sent this was close to where we pulled Bree out. They were probably watching the building.”
“Oh.” Sophia said, feeling worn out.
“We'll work it. Tomorrow.” Lydia came around the desk and handed her back her phone, then looked at her the way she sometimes looked at her kids when she was trying to figure out how much they needed before they'd accept help. “When did you last sleep?”
“I slept Wednesday night.”
“It's Friday.”
“Yes, it is.”
Lydia looked at her for another moment. She made a sound that wasn't quite a sigh. “Come on.”
“I don't need—”
“The guest room is made up.” Her voice left no room for a counter-argument.
“I should really go home.”
“You really shouldn’t.”
The look on Lydia’s face made Sophia want to laugh. Almost.
“Look, Sophia, Either you want to function tomorrow or you don't. That's the only choice you have right now.” She held out her hand. “I'll wake you if anything changes.”
Sophia looked at her friend. At almost twenty years of history with this woman standing in front of her.
She followed her to the bedroom.
The guest room was cool and dark and smelled faintly of the lavender Lydia kept in the linen closet.
Sophia sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall and told herself she would not sleep.
She needed to think. She needed to plan.
She needed to figure out what the beginning meant and what came next and how to—
The phone in her hand vibrated.
She looked down.
Mason.
Her thumb fumbled as she answered.
“Soph.” His voice came through the line, rough and low and beautiful.
She pressed the phone to her ear with both hands.
“I got your message,” he said. “Tell me you're safe right now.”
“I’m safe at Lydia’s. The girls are safe at Beth’s.”
A breath. She heard something move in the background—equipment, voices, nobody she recognized. “Good. Listen to me. I'm coming home.”
The relief hit her like a tsunami.
“When will you be here?”
“I’m not sure, baby. As soon as I can.”
“I love you so much, Mason.”
“I know that, Sophia. I always know that. I love you too. Kiss our babies for me.”
“I will.”
“Stay safe.”
“Stay smart.”
The line went dead.
Sophia lowered the phone.
She lay back on the bed without taking off her shoes, one arm across her eyes, and she was asleep before she finished the thought she'd started.