Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When Josie thought about her birthday, and the sex she and Nate had when they’d gotten home, and how sweetly he’d taken care of her when she’d woken up with a monster hangover, she couldn’t help but grin.
She wasn’t a big drinker, but that night had been incredible. She’d felt so loved, so much a part of something. Not like an outsider, as she’d felt for most of her life.
Remi and Wren were the best. Funny, welcoming, and Josie felt as if she’d known them for years rather than weeks. But even better, the older SEAL women—Caroline, Cheyenne, and the others—were just as welcoming.
Josie had received more texts on the new phone Nate had helped her buy than she’d probably ever gotten in her life. Her phone was constantly dinging with incoming text messages from her new friends. So much so that she’d had to silence it while she was working, otherwise she’d get too distracted .
And it wasn’t just the women either. Wolf, Dude, Benny, and the other former SEALs also randomly texted her to check in when she was home by herself. At first, she wondered if Nate had told them something about her that concerned them, but he’d reassured her that, no, that’s just the kind of men they were.
Things were going so well, Josie couldn’t help but worry that something would happen to destroy her newfound happiness. It was a pessimistic thought, but in her experience, just when things were going well for her, the shit usually hit the fan.
But she was determined to try to live in the moment more often. Not to let what might happen destroy her happiness in the present. And Josie had a lot to be happy about. She had her job back, new friends, Nate.
He was the partner she’d always wanted. Supportive, kind, brave. Men like him existed in the romance stories she sometimes read, but they were fiction. She knew better than most people that reality usually fell way short of what was portrayed in movies and books.
But somehow, here she was. Starring in her own romance book. Complete with a hero who was head over heels for her, kind, badass when he needed to be, and on top of it all…outstanding in bed.
Smiling, Josie looked over at Nate. He was in the kitchen, wearing his blue camouflage uniform and making them both some eggs over easy before he left for the naval base.
As if he sensed her looking at him, he turned. “What?” he asked with a small smile .
“Nothing. I just…I’m happy,” Josie blurted. “After what happened, I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel this way again.”
To her surprise, Nate put down the spatula and turned off the burner. He stalked toward her. When he reached where she was sitting at the table, Josie tilted her head up to look at him. He had a serious look on his face, and he turned her chair with ease, then leaned over so he was caging her in with his hands on the arms of the chair.
“I love you.”
Josie blinked in surprise.
“I just wanted to make sure you knew that. This isn’t a casual dating thing for me. I love everything about you. Your heart, your resilience, your strength, your body, the way you look at me with those big eyes like you’re doing right now, as if you don’t believe you’re loveable.”
Josie bit her lip and tried hard not to burst into tears.
Nate chuckled and caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “Don’t cry,” he ordered. “You know I can’t stand it.”
“I love you too,” Josie blurted, reaching up and latching onto his wrist with her hand.
He smiled tenderly down at her. “I know.”
Josie frowned at that. “How do you know?” she asked.
“Because I see it in your eyes every morning when I wake up. And when I come home from work. And when I’m so deep inside your body, I don’t know where you end and I begin. You’re the first person I think of when I hear a funny joke, because I want to share it with you. You’re the one I want to call when I get good news or bad. You’re the center of my world, Josie England, and I can’t ever imagine you not in my life, loving me back.”
“Nate,” Josie whispered, overwhelmed with emotion.
He leaned down and kissed her tenderly. A sweet kiss that she felt down to her toes. This moment felt like the beginning of the rest of her life. As if she was shrugging off the old Josie, the one who’d felt so alone in that prison cell, the awkward woman who preferred to stay at home because she had no one to go out with to lunch or dinner.
“What time will you be home tonight?” she asked.
Nate looked a little perplexed, but he answered anyway. “The usual. Probably around five-thirty or so.”
“Good. Because Wren convinced me to order a negligee and it’s supposed to come in today. I thought maybe you could help me figure out if it fits properly or not,” Josie teased with a shy smile.
“Damn, woman. I’m thinking I can probably talk to Kevlar and get off early.”
“That’s what he said,” Josie blurted.
It took a second for her words to sink in, then Nate threw his head back as he laughed.
“Seriously, I love you,” he said, when he had himself under control once more.
“I love you too,” Josie returned.
“I wish I had time to throw you over my shoulder and take you back to bed,” he sighed. “But you have that live press conference in an hour, and I need to throw away the eggs I started and make new ones, then get to work. But tonight? When I get home… ”
His words trailed off, and Josie’s imagination went into overdrive.
Nate kissed her once more, hard and deep, before standing up, adjusting his cock in his pants, then heading back to the stove.
Josie watched with a dreamy look on her face as he washed his hands, threw the now-ruined eggs into the trash, and cracked two new eggs into the pan.
They lingered over their goodbyes that morning. After telling each other how they felt, it was as if they were embarking on a brand-new part of their journey as a couple. And she supposed they were.
With Nate, she didn’t feel as if she was less than other women, something she’d always experienced before. She’d always been the odd man out, so to speak. The one without close girlfriends, without a ton of experience when it came to men. The woman who hadn’t traveled much or done anything interesting.
And now she was a member of the I’m-part-of-a-couple club. It felt fantastic. More so because it was Nate who she was with. She didn’t worry that he’d cheat on her, or talk trash about her to his buddies. He was who he was—a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is, considerate partner.
Later, after the press conference she’d transcribed, and after she’d made herself a sandwich for lunch, Josie was sitting at the table, returning texts from Remi and Wren about the special package she’d retrieved from the mail room in the apartment complex, and advising Caroline on the best hotel on the Vegas Strip to take Wolf to for an impromptu mini-vacation, when there was a knock at the apartment door .
Surprised because she wasn’t expecting anyone, Josie put her phone down on the table next to her computer—and the very skimpy, very see-through, white, could barely call it a piece of clothing that had been delivered—and walked to the door.
Looking through the peephole, Josie saw someone standing a respectable distance away. She always got annoyed when people stood so close, they were almost touching the door. The person had their back turned, and she didn’t recognize the short-haired blonde.
Keeping the chain on, she opened the door. “Hello?”
In a move so fast, Josie wasn’t able to back up, the person turned and kicked the door as hard as they could.
The chain broke and the door flew backward, hitting Josie in the face. She let out a surprised oof and stumbled, tripping over her feet and falling on her butt to the floor.
Looking up, Josie stared into the barrel of a gun.
She froze. Every muscle in her body just refused to work. She should be running, screaming, something . But terror held her immobile.
“Get up,” the woman ordered.
Now that Josie could see the person’s face, she recognized her immediately.
Genevieve. Ayden’s sister. She was wearing a blonde wig and a pair of oversized sweatpants that made her look as if she weighed fifty pounds more than she did. And she was holding a pistol, aiming it right between Josie’s eyes.
“I said, get up ,” Gen snarled. “Unless you want me to put a bullet in your brain right this second. Because I will. I don’t give a shit if you die right here. But my mom has plans for you and wants you alive. So get the fuck up. Now!”
All the words that had returned since her rescue were once more stuck in her throat. It enraged Josie that when she was scared, her ability to speak deserted her.
Moving quickly, she got to her feet, only to have Gen grab her upper arm and give her a hard shake. All the while, keeping the barrel of the gun pointed at her face. “Don’t try anything,” she warned. “We’re going to walk to my car, calm and easy. If you scream or do anything to draw attention to yourself, I’ll happily shoot you. Understand?”
Josie nodded. The last thing she should do is get into a car with Gen, but she also believed the woman when she said she’d blow her head off. And Josie did not want Nate to come home to see her brain matter in the parking lot or splattered in the foyer of his apartment.
She, more than anyone, knew that as long as she was breathing, she had a chance of rescue. Nate and his friends would come for her. And it was that thought that gave her the strength to walk alongside Gen without struggling.
She let the woman lead her to a four-door sedan that Josie had never seen before. She got in on the driver’s side and scooted over to the passenger seat. She stared straight ahead, and her ex-boyfriend’s sister started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
Bile formed in Josie’s throat, but she swallowed it down.
Nate would come for her. He would. They loved each other, and he would do whatever it took to find her. This wasn’t like before, she wasn’t going to be forgotten. She had people who would look for her, who would report her missing. She wouldn’t be left to rot in a cell like last time. She believed that deep in her soul.
It was the only thing keeping her from panicking as Gen drove them out of Riverton.
Blink frowned as he drove toward his apartment. It was four o’clock, and he was anxious to get home. Not only because he wanted to see what Josie had bought; the thought of her in a sexy piece of lingerie had kept his dick half hard all day.
But more than that, he was worried.
He’d texted her several times and received no answer. When he’d tried to call her, the phone rang, then went to voicemail. It was unusual, and in his line of work, unusual wasn’t a good thing.
When Blink had expressed his concern to Kevlar, his team leader hadn’t hesitated to tell him to go home to check on her. All his teammates had a soft spot for Josie. Not only because of what she’d been through, but because of her size. She was tiny, especially compared to them, and they all looked at her kind of like a little sister.
Blink pulled into his usual spot in the lot, right in front of his apartment, and hopped out of his truck. He strode toward his door—and his blood ran cold as he approached.
The door was shut but, to his trained eye, obviously tampered with. There was a large footprint in the middle of the door, clearly outlined in the light layer of dust that covered the surface .
Using his elbow, so as not to contaminate any fingerprints or other evidence that might exist, Blink pushed.
The door swung open with no resistance.
“Fuck,” he muttered, seeing the broken safety chain on the floor. Whoever had kicked in the door hadn’t bothered to make sure it was latched behind him when he left.
“Josie?” Blink called out, a little louder than he intended.
Silence greeted him, and panic instantly set in. Blink raced through the apartment and found what he expected—nothing. Josie wasn’t there. Her laptop was on the kitchen table, along with her phone, and a pile of lace and string on top of a bubble envelope.
For a second, Blink didn’t know what to do. His thoughts were scattered.
Josie was gone. Missing. How could this happen?
He didn’t for one second believe she was visiting a friend. Or had decided she didn’t want to be with him anymore. They’d exchanged I-love-yous that morning. And she wouldn’t leave without her phone. Besides, she didn’t even have a car.
No, his Josie hadn’t left him. The piece of lingerie was proof of that. As were her plans for the two of them when he returned home from work. And the damn broken safety chain and the footprint on his door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something had happened. Someone had forced their way into his apartment and taken Josie.
Teeth clenched together, Blink pulled out his phone. There was only one person to call right now.
Tex.
He’d get a hold of Kevlar and the rest of his team, Wolf, and his commander and the cops, but he needed to get Tex on this now . Josie didn’t have a tracker, but if anyone could find her, it was the ex-SEAL.
The phone rang once. “Blink, what’s up?” Tex asked in lieu of a greeting.
“It’s Josie. She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” Tex asked in a no-nonsense tone.
“Gone. I came home from work and there’s a damn footprint in the middle of my door, the safety chain is broken, her phone and mail are on the table, and she’s not here.”
“Any blood?”
Blink swallowed hard as he looked around. The apartment was as clean as it always was. No dirty dishes in the sink, no snacks left out on the table. Just her computer, phone, the scrap of cloth he’d had such high hopes of seeing on her, and a chair pushed partway out from the table. “No.”
“All right. So she’s not hurt. That’s good. Can you take a picture of that footprint and send it to me?”
“Yeah.”
“You call Kevlar yet?”
“No,” Blink said. He realized he was talking in monosyllables, but he could barely speak at all through the panic and adrenaline coursing through his body.
“Do that. And have him call Cookie and the others. You and your team can handle the search when I have info for you, and Wolf’s team can hold down things at the apartment and with the women.”
Blink nodded.
“Blink? Did you hear me?” Tex asked in a demanding tone .
“Yeah,” he managed to say.
“I’ll be in touch. Call Kevlar. Out.”
Blink clicked off the connection and stood motionless in his apartment, feeling utterly lost. It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. All the life. Without Josie, it seemed…empty. Blink wanted to sink deep inside himself, as he’d done after that horrible mission with his previous team. Going to that place where life didn’t hurt so much.
But he couldn’t. Not now. Not when Josie needed him.
He took a deep breath. Then another. Nothing could happen to her. Not when they’d just found each other. Not when they had a beautiful life ahead of them after so much heartbreak. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to show him everything he’d ever wanted in life, only to rip it away ruthlessly.
He clicked on Kevlar’s name and brought the phone back up to his ear.
“Kevlar here.”
“She’s gone,” Blink said succinctly. “I need you and the team.”
“Are you at your apartment?” Kevlar asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll call the others. Have you called the police?”
Blink shook his head, feeling as if he was in a long, dark tunnel.
“Blink?”
“No,” he whispered.
“Okay. Hang on, buddy. We’re comin’.”
He nodded and clicked off the phone without saying goodbye .
Blink was terrified . He didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that Josie was missing, she was probably scared out of her mind, and she was relying on him to find her. Except he didn’t have a clue where to start. Where to look.
This feeling of helplessness was all too familiar. He’d felt the same way when watching his teammates dying and moaning in pain in Iran, and there was nothing he could do except attempt to give them cover from enemy fire.
But this felt way worse. Because Josie hadn’t volunteered for this. And she’d already been through hell. It wasn’t fair!
Closing his eyes, he took another deep breath. He had to get himself together. He’d be no good to Josie like this. Her scent filled his nose. The soap she used. The lotion she liked. The slight scent of eggs from that morning, still lingering in the air.
Opening his eyes, Blink felt more in control. More determined than ever to find Josie and give her the beautiful life he envisioned for them both.
Looking down at his phone, he clicked some buttons for the third time.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“My girlfriend’s been kidnapped. I need a detective. Immediately.”
The trip to Las Vegas was surreal. Gen spent the ride alternating between being completely silent and ripping into Josie for “killing” her little brother. She held the gun the whole time, using it to punctuate her words now and then .
Josie didn’t dare do anything to distract her or make her lose control of the vehicle. Though Gen wasn’t speeding, wasn’t doing anything to bring attention to their car. At one point, she pulled over on the side of the interstate and took a small dirt road that veered off into the desert. She drove about half a mile, out of sight of any cars that might be going by, then forced Josie to get out.
She’d thought that was it. That Gen was going to shoot her in the head and leave her body to rot out there in the desert.
Instead, she told her to open the trunk. Inside was a can of gasoline. While holding her at gunpoint, Gen ordered her to put the gas into the tank. After she complied, Gen told her to toss the empty can on the ground and get back into the car. They returned to I-15 and continued their trip east toward Vegas.
Josie was going to beg her to stop so she could use the bathroom. But since she didn’t seem to be able to get any words past the huge lump in her throat, and the whole desert detour made it pretty clear Gen had no plans to stop for gas, she didn’t bother even trying to make her needs known. Since gas stations were obviously out, she still hoped Gen herself might need a rest area soon.
Until, at one point, Gen glanced at her with a creepy smile and said, “I’m wearing a diaper.”
Josie frowned in confusion.
“An adult diaper. So I don’t have to stop. I don’t want to be on any cameras anywhere. Which is why I brought gas with me. And I can piss in the diaper. We’ve worked it all out. We watch crime shows, we know the things they look for. We’re smarter than everyone , even that dumb asshole you’re with. They can look into us all they want, but we have alibis. Mom’s probably using my phone right now, texting herself to prove I’m still in Vegas.” She smiled triumphantly. “No one will ever know it was me who kidnapped you. You’re fucked , Josie. Just like you fucked Ayden. Just like you fucked Mom and me.”
Then she laughed. A maniacal laugh that made the hair on the back of Josie’s neck stand up. It seemed as if she and her batshit crazy mother had planned this kidnapping carefully. Which made despair threaten to overwhelm her. But Josie pushed it back.
They weren’t smarter than Nate. He and his friends would figure out where she was. They had to.
The skyline of Vegas came into view, and with every mile they traveled, Josie’s hopes sank further and further. She recognized the neighborhood Gen turned into as being where Millie’s house was located. She’d been there once with Ayden, shortly after they’d started dating. It was the most awkward dinner ever, and she’d managed to avoid doing that a second time.
Gen pulled up to the house and the garage door opened. She pulled in, and the door shut behind them. Then Millie was at the door on Josie’s side, yanking it open.
“Out, bitch,” she said.
Josie didn’t want to. Wanted to stay right where she was, but with Millie now pointing a second gun at her head, she had no choice. She slowly stepped out and stood, stumbling when Millie shoved her toward the door to the house.
The two women followed and herded her inside. There were piles and piles of stuff throughout the house. Way more than had been there when she and Ayden had come over for dinner. She’d realized then that Millie was a hoarder, and instantly understood why Ayden always wanted to stay at her place. But it seemed to have gotten exponentially worse since she’d seen the house last. There were boxes everywhere, along with piles of clothes, trash bags, and crap that hadn’t been touched in what looked like years. The house was an assault to Josie’s eyes and nose. It smelled…old. Funky. Disgusting.
She didn’t have time to figure out exactly what she was smelling when Gen pushed past Josie and opened a door just off the kitchen, and gestured for her to go down a set of stairs.
She was surprised. Most houses in Vegas didn’t have basements, something about the kind of rock in the desert soil making them hard to excavate. This one was small and claustrophobic. And it too was filled from corner to corner with boxes and other junk.
“Over there,” Millie said, jamming the barrel of the pistol into the middle of Josie’s back.
She stumbled again, struggling to adjust to the low light in the room. There was a path through the boxes that had been cleared, leading to a small door.
For the first time, Josie hesitated. This room reminded her way too much of the cell she’d been shoved into. She couldn’t do it again. Couldn’t be shut away like a forgotten piece of trash.
But just like on the other side of the world, she didn’t have a choice here. Gen shoved her hard, making Josie fall to her knees. She felt the barrel of a gun being pressed into the back of her head.
“Don’t shoot!” Millie exclaimed, and Josie broke out into a cold sweat. She closed her eyes, sure she was about to die. Her only regret was that Nate would never know what happened to her. These women would take her body out into the desert where she’d never be found. It would be as if she’d never existed.
She found her arm being wrenched upward, behind her back. “Get up, bitch! And get in there. You’ll be gone soon, but we can’t have you in our way while we finalize arrangements for your future . So get in,” Millie ordered, as she opened the small door with a flourish.
Gen shoved her forward, and Josie landed on her hands and knees. She had no choice but to crawl into the small closet-like space as Gen kicked her in the ass, propelling her toward it. The tiny room was only big enough for her to sit on her butt and barely turn around. Amazingly, Josie missed what now seemed like her spacious cell in comparison.
She opened her mouth to plead with the women, to beg them to let her go, to take whatever blame they wanted to heap on her head for Ayden’s death, but her voice still wasn’t working. And she didn’t have the chance anyway before the door slammed shut. The snick of a padlock sounded like a bomb going off in the dark space.
Then there was nothing. Silence. It was as if she’d entered an alternate dimension.
Trapped. Again! Only this time, there was no drip drip drip of lifesaving water in the corner. No small metal cup to catch the liquid .
Whatever Millie and Gen had in store for her couldn’t be good.
Josie just had to hope that Nate would get to her before whatever plans the women had devised could be put into motion. She had a feeling once they were, she really would disappear, as so many other people in the world did, without a trace. Like a puff of smoke.