“What are you talking about? We never had anything between us until you showed up suddenly interested because you were ready to retire. Where were you the last two years?”
He threw his arms up into the air and then slammed his hands down on the island. She looked at him, and kept calm. “Four of them? Those four men?”
“Yes, and I love them, Anderson, and they love me.” She stepped closer, the island was a buffer between them, and she reached out and covered his hand. “I hope that we can still be friends, hell, family. That you and Brian will accept them and welcome them to the family.”
“Seriously? How the fuck can you ask me to do that after our make-out session? It was incredible and you were willing to see where things led, but those men have your head so screwed up you’re making a mistake.” She was hurt by his words. She pulled her hand back and then went around the island. The sun set quickly, darkening the room. “I think you should go,” she said, and he turned toward her, rubbing his jaw.
What do you think your brothers, parents, and family will say that you chose such men?”
“I’m my own person. I’ve accomplished everything I have thus far on my own, with my determination and hard work. I hope they will be happy for me.”
“And if not? If they feel like I do, that these men are using you, and by the time you figure it out it will be too late.”
“You’re wrong. They love me and I love them. One day I hope that you’ll feel something so strong, so indefinable by words because your love for that person and their love for you is that grand,” she said to him.
Just then, the lights in the house flickered. She squinted and he turned around as they heard a noise from the back room. “What was that?” he asked.
Suddenly, the front door burst open and a large bang came from the back door. Men in black masks over their mouths, automatic weapons like military, entered the house. She screamed and turned toward Anderson who reached for her but one of the soldiers pulled her back by her collar. She struck him in the face. His nose splattered and he returned the hit with a fist to her jaw that sent her onto her ass. The pain and impact sent her right to her back, and as she grunted, she caught Anderson moving out of one of the men’s grasps, then knocking him onto his ass. Anderson bent down like he was going for something, but someone came behind him and stuck him in the neck with a needle. She rolled to her belly and attempted to scurry away. Someone grabbed her ankle, yanked her back, and she screamed as he straddled her legs. She heard the voices. It sounded German. Then there was a pinch to her neck. She turned and saw the needle then the soldier dropped it. He gave orders and they lifted her up, and before she even reached the black SUV in the driveway, her vision blurred, and darkness overtook her.
Anderson felt the pain in his head. He moaned as his brain began to process what was going on. He blinked his eyes several times and felt the rays of the sun streaming through the windows. It all started to come back to him. The noises, the invasion by soldiers, Harper screaming and fighting to get free, his fighting until they stuck him with a needle. “Fuck. Harper. Harper.” He yelled out her name and when he tried to get up, he couldn’t. Whatever they gave him was a heavy sedative. He couldn’t even move his legs. It was a struggle to lift up. He was in a panic. Who were those soldiers? Where did they take her? What did they want with Harper? As he thought about it and slowly used his aching muscles to reach into his pocket for his cell phone, he saw the blood on the rug, her one sandal. He could hear her screams, saw her fighting then get struck.
He hit the button. “Where the hell are you?”
“Police, get to Harper’s. Hurry Brian, they took her.” He couldn’t even comprehend his words as they left his lips. He hoped they sounded as clear as he thought they did. He lay there worried about her life, about what this could be about, and then it hit him. The Dortry men. Those soldiers could have been sent to kill the Dortry men, or to take Harper. They knew Harper was sleeping with the Dortry men. They caused this. She was going to die because of those assholes.
He could hear sirens in the distance, looked to where the blood was, and knew that Harper struck the one guy. The police could possibly get some DNA from that. Maybe a match to a record in the system.
The door slowly opened and there was Kane McCabe, Deputy Lotus McCuen, and a few other officers.
“Don’t step on that blood. Harper hit a guy. You could maybe get some DNA from that,” he said.
Kane moved around him. “What the hell happened?” he asked.
“Military hit. Soldiers came in from the front and the back. They took Harper. She tried fighting them. I got one guy down but then they stuck me with a needle. Drugs that put me out for a long time.”
“What the fuck do you mean a long time?” Lotus asked him.
“I got here before sunset, was talking to Harper about things, it was getting dark and then they tore into the place. I just woke up now.”
“It’s nearly noon time,” his brother Brian said as he walked into the house and knelt down next to his brother.
“Noon time? Holy fuck. Oh God, they could be anywhere. They’ll kill her. Those fucking Dortry men caused this. They fucking ruined her life, promising her guardianship, but then leaving her unprotected while they went off and agitated these men somehow, whomever they are. These were well-trained military. Fuck.” He closed his eyes and Kane spoke to the troopers that arrived and Alex Weathersen, a Texas Ranger.
“We need to get whatever evidence we can from the blood on the rug. I have to find a way to contact Ferrion.”
“Fuck him and his brothers. They did this,” Anderson said, and Brian tried to calm him.
“We need to do whatever is necessary to find out who took her and then go find her,” Brian said to Anderson, and started to help him to sit up. Anderson’s head spun, and he felt like shit.
“You two aren’t doing anything. Let’s contact Ferrion, him and the team are her guardians.”
“They got her taken. She should be with us anyway,” Anderson said to Kane.
“She isn’t though. She chose the Dortry brothers and they chose her. Let’s focus here so we can help get to Harper as soon as we can so worse doesn’t happen,” Kane said, and then walked out of the house.
“What the fuck is going on? Where is Manny?” Stone Ryder asked Corporal Sanchez.
“I think we found our fucking rat,” Sanchez said, and pulled up information on the computer that Sanchez was working on. “He downloaded a bunch of information. Look at this. He knows where the pick up points are for the teams in Mexico.”
“Get on the line with our pilots. Get the info to them to change course,” Stone Ryder ordered, and then he pulled out his cell phone.
“We have a situation. Our rat is on the go. Manny Franks. Locate him and drag him back in.” Stone Ryder didn’t even put his cell phone down yet, ending the call when one of the other intelligence officers came running into the room.
“Emergency dispatch in Cherry Hill, Texas, team one’s residence town.”
“And what?” he barked.
“Their woman, sir. Harper, military men broke into the home and abducted her.”
“Military men? What the fuck? In that small town, did anyone see anything?”
“One witness, evidence on the scene and the local sheriff Kane McCabe has been calling Commander Dortry’s secure line.”
“Fuck.” He placed his hand on his hip. “Ferrion and the team are going to lose their shit. Those military men who took her have to be working for Skoens. I need people trying to locate Skoens and his brother, Hyzein. You patch me through to the sheriff. Send it to line three.” Stone Ryder hurried toward his office. This was turning into a nightmare. They were so close to finding these men, to destroying their operations once and for all, and perhaps stopping acts of terrorism.
He picked up the phone. “Sheriff McCabe, I’m a close friend to Ferrion and his brothers, well, and his boss. What can you tell me about the situation in Cherry Hill and H
arper?” As he listened to the details and about the witness, a soldier, and how things went down, his concern for Harper’s life went up another notch. The team still hadn’t been able to locate Watson Everest’s sister, Isla, yet either.
“They could take her anywhere, even out of the country, but that would be more difficult. I will have one of my team get a hold of that blood sample from the Texas Ranger and speed the process up. Maybe it will identify someone specific and we can take the necessary steps to locate him.”
“So you have a feeling you know who these men were or are working for?”
“I can’t divulge that information to you at this time. Obviously, if Ferrion gave you this number then he trusts you. I have to get in contact with him and take the necessary steps forward. In the interim, I’m going to connect you with someone who will be your go-to with updated information and the process. That way we can work together to find out where these men took Harper.”
“We’ll do whatever you need. She’s a sweet young woman, and important to all of us.
“I’ll be in touch, Sheriff. Thank you.”
He ended the call and Corporal Sanchez came in. The teams are stuck now while the pilots relocate pick up locations to ensure safe departure.”
“I suppose I should wait to tell Ferrion about Harper.”
“At least until they’re off the ground and heading back to the states. In the meantime, we can use our resources to figure out who the soldiers were and where they may have taken Harper.”
“Get on that, if Skoens is out for revenge, then she won’t have much time to live at all.”
Chapter 5
“What did you say?” Ferrion asked Stone over the satellite phone.
“There was a situation in Cherry Hill. A military operation, men sent by Skoens, they broke into Harper’s home and took her.”
“No! Fuck! No!” Ferrion raged and then looked at his brothers.
“Skoens sent men to take Harper.” They all sat forward and started cursing like he did and then asking questions.
“What do you have? She was alone? How did you find out?”
“There was a friend of hers there. A soldier, Anderson Hayes. He was attacked and stuck with a needle. They didn’t kill him, but he said Harper fought back, took some hits, and he believes they drugged her, too. There was blood on the rug from one of the men she hit. We got people there to assist the police and Texas Rangers.”
“And?”
“And it was Brukaan.”
“That German asshole is still alive and working for Skoens?”
“He’s one of his best soldiers.”
“Are they in Germany?” Ferrion asked, and tried his hardest to remain calm and rational so they could make a plan and find Harper. He was so angry and felt responsible and like he failed her. This was one of the main reasons why they didn’t go public with their guardianship. There was always a fear that people they hunted would hunt them or those close to them.
“No, we don’t believe so. There’s been some chatter that they’re in the states and so is Armad.”
“Armad?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“A nice little happy gathering. I want them fucking dead, and all of this over with.”
“It could be coming to that. We had no idea the two were working with one another, but it explains the rat in the team and that he worked for Armad. The feds were investigating similar cases and some warehouses where they raided and caught some of Armad’s men. We’re now working with these agents. They said that Flask and Myer were in town for a couple of weeks.”
“In Cherry Hill? Like spying on us?”
“More than likely.
“Holy fuck.”
“No need to worry about that shit, we need more information. We’re closing in on a location on Manny Franks, he’s our rat. He downloaded a bunch of shit to a thumb drive. We couldn’t get what was on it. However, he was communicating with Skoens, and the two things we’re working round the clock on right now are pulling Manny in for interrogation, and also dissecting his cell phone, computers to work and home and everywhere else we can attach him to using. We’re getting closer and hopefully will have a location soon enough.”
“It’s going to take us all fucking day to get back.”
“Head home, refresh, regroup, gear up and sit tight until I call. We’re doing everything we can, Ferrion.”
“I know you are.
“Just remember, there are no guarantees. You know how Skoens works, and surely you know firsthand how Armad works, too.
“I get it. Just don’t leave us in the dark. Shoot straight, no bullshit.”
“Never friend, never.”
He rubbed his chin and looked at his brothers. “It’s fucking bad, I’m not going to lie. Skoens and Armad are involved in her abduction.”
“Mother fuckers. I swear I’m killing them when I get my hands on them. They’re terrorist scum bags,” Snipe stated as he shook his head and rocked back and forth in the seat on the military plane.
“What the fuck went down? How did it happen?” Broaden asked, and Ferrion explained.
“She must be so scared. We just got our woman abducted and she could die because of this fucking job,” Lextin said to them. They each ranted about what could happen and what they needed to do.
There hadn’t been any word or update at all, and Stone wouldn’t allow any of them to fly out to headquarters to help interrogate Manny Franks. Broaden and his brothers went to Harper’s house immediately to look at the crime scene to see what happened. They didn’t expect to see Anderson there.
“You’re too fucking late. She could die because of you assholes,” he snapped at them.
“Fuck you, she’s our woman not yours, and we didn’t plan this,” Snipe yelled at him.
“You sure the fuck didn’t because you were only thinking of yourselves and what you wanted. Her body, her sweetness, her love, but you didn’t protect her in return. You left her wide fucking open,” Anderson said to them.
Lextin shoved him. “You don’t belong here.”
“I do belong here, and if she was with me, then she would be alive and well and in my arms and in my fucking bed being loved and protected, not used like some whore.”
Lextin struck Anderson and Anderson hit him back. Broaden and Ferrion separated the two men, and Anderson yanked himself free. He pointed at them as he walked backward out of the house. “You did this. You caused her the pain, the fear, and probably her life. Live with that, assholes. Live with fucking that.”
Broaden ran his fingers through his hair and Lextin roared. Snipe tried calming him down, and Ferrion ordered everyone to just calm down.
“He’s fucking right. We got our woman killed. Probably beaten, tortured for fucking fun. Fuck,” Snipe said, and walked out of the house.
“Let’s go. There’s nothing for us to solve here. We need to be ready for the commander’s orders,” Ferrion said, and followed Snipe out. Lextin cursed and then walked out next.
Broaden looked around the room, at the broken items, the blood stained on the rug, and he felt his heart aching. She couldn’t die. They had to find her in time. They were a family now and had plans. This needed to end, and perhaps it was a better time than any to end with this case, with taking out Skoens and Armad, and being done with the danger once and for all.
Harper felt the aches and pains all over her body. Cold air collided against her flesh and she realized she was naked, or close enough. She blinked her eyes open, felt the restrains on her arms and ankles. Her panties and bra, that was all she had on. She tried moving, but her head was super fuzzy. They drugged her. Again. The last time she woke up was when she first got here. Wherever here was. Two men undressed her as they said things about her body and touched her. She couldn’t fight them. Her body numb, her mind in a blur and whatever drug they gave made her immobile. She could hear their words, see them, but couldn’t move as they touched her, and told her she was going to be sold or killed, and i
t all depended upon when her men would arrive to be assassinated.
Love Shouldn't Hurt Page 9
