Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Penny was having a hard time breathing. She was in the front seat of Edge’s extended-cab pickup, leaning forward as if that would make the truck go faster. Mandy was in the back seat, having come along for moral support.
“Breathe, Penny,” Edge ordered.
She nodded but kept her eyes on the road in front of her.
Her baby was out there. Alone and scared.
Okay, not alone, since the two fishermen were with her, but almost certainly still scared.
She couldn’t imagine what Bowie had been through.
She simply needed to hold her daughter. Feel for herself that she was all right. Unharmed.
Edge turned down the road that led to the pier, and they saw the blue truck the fisherman had mentioned. Before Edge had completely stopped his vehicle, Penny’s seat belt was undone and she’d flung open the door. She saw three people standing near the pier, and her heart leapt into her throat.
“Bowie!” she yelled, as she ran toward them.
The little girl turned in her direction, and a huge smile crossed her face. “Mommy!” she screamed, holding out her arms.
Penny was there in a heartbeat, grabbing Bowie and hugging her as hard as she could, lifting her off her feet in the process. The warmth of her body, the feel of her tiny arms around her neck, the sweaty smell of little girl mixed with the salt air of the ocean, all of it was almost overwhelming.
Penny went to her knees but didn’t let go of Bowie.
“Mommy, you’re hurting me!” Bowie exclaimed with a little giggle.
Immediately loosening her hold but not letting go, Penny pulled back just enough to look her daughter over from head to toe.
She was dirty, had sand in her hair and all over her clothes, and the jeans she wore had holes in the knees. “Are you hurt?” Penny asked, desperately trying to hold back tears.
In response, Bowie held her hands out, palms up. “My hands hurt.”
The tears she’d been holding back fell down her cheeks. Bowie’s palms were all scratched up. As if she’d fallen over and over again.
“But I’m okay. I’m worried about Kylo-Pyro. Can we go get him now?”
Penny was so proud of her daughter. She was a kind soul down to her toes. She wasn’t crying. Wasn’t whining about her experience or her injuries. Instead, she was worried about Pyro. Of course, so was Penny. She looked behind her at Edge.
“The rest of the guys are getting him,” he told her.
That seemed to appease Bowie. She nodded. “Good. Mommy? I’m still hungry. Can we get some chicken fingers on the way to see Kylo-Pyro? He’ll want some too, because we didn’t get to eat dinner last night.”
Penny took a deep breath. She’d been so worried about Bowie, but now that she was holding her, and could see for herself that she was all right, every ounce of that concern shifted to Pyro.
Who she loved more than she ever thought she could love a man.
“Yeah, baby, we can do that. But first we need to wait here for the police to come. And the paramedics. They need to make sure you’re okay. ”
Bowie’s brows furrowed.
“It’s okay, baby. They aren’t going to hurt you. But everyone was worried about you when you went missing. Remember that ambulance that passed us the other day? You were so excited about it, wondering what it was like on the inside? You’re going to get your chance to find out this morning.”
But instead of looking happy about that, Bowie’s bottom lip began to wobble.
“Oh, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
“I wanna go home! I want Kylo-Pyro!”
Edge knelt next to them and put his hand on her back. “Hi, Bowie. It’s Edge. I brought your mom like you asked, and we drove so fast, we beat the police and the ambulance…I’m sure you can hear them behind us, right?”
Bowie tilted her head and listened for a beat, then she nodded. Of course she could, because if Penny heard them, her child could definitely hear the distant wail of emergency vehicles.
“We’re going to be by your side at all times. And I promise that the rest of the guys—Casper, Buck, Obi-Wan, and Chaos—are going to find Pyro. He’ll be talking to the police and the paramedics too.”
“He will?” Bowie asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay. If he is, I can too.”
It was obvious Bowie had a serious case of hero worship. And that was more than all right with Penny.
The next ten minutes were spent dealing with the arrival of the police, thanking the fishermen for taking care of Bowie until Penny could get there, and making sure Bowie wasn’t scared out of her wits by the shrieking ambulance.
The paramedics were awesome, and they had her laughing within a couple minutes of her sitting on the stretcher in the back of the ambulance.
Overall, her little girl was doing amazingly well.
She had scrapes on her knees as well as her palms, she was hungry, tired, and dirty, but not seriously hurt.
And Penny knew without a doubt it was because of Pyro.
He’d protected her, just as he promised he would.
But in doing so, he’d left himself vulnerable.
He was still in the hands of the people who’d taken them with the intention of doing him great harm.
Selling him. Possibly even killing him, since they had to know by now that Bowie had escaped.
Her worry for him was overwhelming.
“Hang in there, Penny,” Mandy said, putting her arm around her shoulders.
Bowie was currently giggling as the female paramedic let her listen to her heartbeat through a stethoscope, as the other medic got the paperwork ready for Penny to sign, declaring she didn’t want her daughter transported to the hospital.
“The guys will find him. I know it. They might be the best pilots the Army has, but they’re also damn good soldiers. And no one messes with one of their own,” Mandy said softly.
Penny nodded, though her anxiety didn’t wane. Losing Pyro, when she and Bowie had just found him, wasn’t something she wanted to contemplate.
The wail of sirens cut through the quiet morning once again…and they sounded close.
Penny’s gaze met Edge’s.
“Is that…” she whispered.
“I don’t know.”
But they both knew what it was. Bowie had walked from the house where she’d been held, which couldn’t be that far from where they were now.
“Can we go? We need to go!” Penny said urgently, needing to see where those sirens were heading. Needing to know what was happening.
“I think we should stay here, wait to hear from Casper or one of the others,” Edge said.
“No,” Mandy said firmly. “We have to go. You need to help, Edge.”
He wanted to. Penny could see it in his body language.
“Pyro would murder me if I exposed you to any kind of danger,” he said. “Especially after he worked so hard to get Bowie out of there.”
“We aren’t going to get in the way. By the sounds of it, the police will get there before us anyway.
But we can see where they are and stay back until they secure the scene.
” Penny had heard that term on a crime show or two.
She had no idea how things really worked at an active kidnap-rescue situation, but she had to see for herself if Pyro was okay. And if he wasn’t—
No. She shoved that thought away. He’d be okay. He had to be.
“Please, Edge?” she begged.
“Fuck. Okay. But you, Mandy, and Bowie stay in the truck. I mean it. You don’t get out until I come get you. If you can’t agree to that, I’m taking you straight back to your apartment.”
“I swear,” Penny said without hesitation. She’d do whatever it took to get to Pyro.
The paramedics finished up with Bowie, and she climbed out of the back of the ambulance. Her hands and knees had been cleaned and she had a smile on her face. Then she paused, her head tilted, and she said, “More sirens, Mommy.”
“I hear them, sweetheart. Are you ready to go?” She wasn’t about to tell Bowie they were going back to the house where she’d been held captive, or even mention Pyro’s name. If he wasn’t all right, she didn’t want Bowie to know.
They all piled back into Edge’s truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
Mandy was in the front seat now, and Penny was in the back with Bowie.
She had her arm around her daughter, and she pressed her lips to the top of her head.
Bowie leaned into her, and Penny realized she had to be exhausted.
She’d been up for who knows how long, walking in a strange area, filled with fear and adrenaline as she tried to find help for herself and Pyro. She really should get Bowie home…
Some people might call her a terrible parent, but the need to see Pyro was too overwhelming.
Closing her eyes, Penny prayed he was okay. That this nightmare would be over soon…for all three of them.
* * *
Pyro was losing. And it pissed him off.
He wasn’t losing because the man he was fighting was bigger and stronger, or because he was better at hand-to-hand combat.
It was because Pyro had lost so much blood.
The concrete floor of the basement was covered in blood, both his and his opponent’s.
They’d both managed to make contact with the sharp edges of their blades.
But the wound in Pyro’s thigh and his broken leg were definitely having an effect on his ability to fight.
He wasn’t going to last much longer. And the only consolation he had was that if he died, this asshole wouldn’t be able to sell him. That, and the fact that Bowie wasn’t here.
He felt in his bones that she was okay. She was a smart little kid. She’d find someone to help her, get her back to her mom. He’d done what he’d set out to do, protect her. He didn’t want to die, but he had no regrets.
“Give it up already,” the man taunted. “You’re not looking so good. Might as well let me end this quick. I can slit your throat so you won’t feel any more pain.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Pyro muttered—then lunged. Satisfaction filled him when the guy shrieked as the blade sank into his belly.
Pyro leapt back just as quickly, and the man covered the wound with his free hand.
“You’re gonna fucking pay for that!” he screeched.