SEAL's Vow (Iron Horse Legacy Book 4)

by Elle James

  “Shut up,” he said and smashed her face against the pavement again.

  Her head swam, and darkness took on an entirely different meaning. She fought the haze descending on her mind like curtains for the last call on stage.

  Must…not…pass…out…

  Chapter 13

  “We’re within one hundred yards of the coordinates,” Hank’s voice came through loud and clear over the communication device. “Bastian, report.”

  Bastian had volunteered to take point to recon the area before the others moved in. Lying in the brush thirty yards from the closest structure, he lowered his night vision goggles and scanned the survivalists’ camp, his pulse kicking up a notch. This could be the moment when they found their father.

  He stared for a long time, straining to see deeper into the camp. As he studied the area, his heart sank to the pit of his belly and hope faded.

  “Well?” Angus’s impatient voice sounded in his ear.

  “I see tents, crates and boxes.” Bastian paused. “No heat signatures.”

  “No heat signatures?” Colin asked. “None?”

  “None.” Bastian moved closer, careful to check for trip wires. He didn’t know what the survivalists were capable of, or how far they would go to keep their secrets safe.

  When he reached the side of the first tent, he pulled his K-bar knife from the sheath at his ankle, stabbed it into the canvas and dragged the blade to the ground. Parting the edges, he looked inside. Nothing but some cardboard boxes and food wrappers.

  He rounded the tent and stood looking at the other structures. “It’s like a ghost town. They must have bugged out between the time the drone flew over and when we got here.”

  Hank joined him along with Angus, Colin, Duncan, Kujo, Swede and the FBI Special Agent, Greenbriar.

  “If you recall, we saw one truck leave the area,” Swede reminded them.

  “That could have been the first of many or the last one out,” Hank said. “They left a lot behind.”

  “Yeah, but not our father,” Colin said.

  Angus clapped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’ll find him.”

  “When?” Colin bit out.

  “Soon,” Angus said.

  Duncan shook his head. “Mom’s going to be devastated.”

  “She’ll deal with it,” Angus said. “She always does. And she has us to help her through.”

  “We don’t seem to be all that much help,” Colin said, sounding disgusted. “How much more will Dad be able to withstand?”

  Bastian ducked into each of the tents and one tin shack, searching for answers. Yes, they’d left trash, but nothing else that would lead them to where they might be hiding now. He returned to the center of the compound. “There’s nothing to be found here.”

  Hank nodded. “Let’s get back to the ranch and look at the images again.”

  Swede shook his head. “I went over them several times. There were no other areas that stood out. If they’re hiding in a cave, we’d have to see them going in or out to catch them on drone video.”

  “And we don’t have a drone to do anymore surveillance,” Ms. Greenbriar said.

  “What now?” Duncan asked.

  “Back to the drawing board,” Angus said. “Let’s get back to the ranch.”

  They didn’t have to tell Bastian twice. He hadn’t liked leaving Jenna at the White Oak Ranch waiting for someone to pick her up. The way things had been going lately, she seemed to be a walking target. He hoped his mother and Jenna had done as he’d said and gone straight back to the Iron Horse Ranch.

  The sooner he got home, the better he’d feel. And he had to come to grip with what Jenna had said right before he’d left her.

  I love you.

  As soon as he’d climbed into the SUV to leave, he’d wanted to go back to her and tell her that he loved her, too. He should have told her as soon as she’d said those three words. Why had he hesitated?

  Eleven years was long enough to grieve. He hadn’t died with Lauren, though he’d wished he had at the time. And like everyone had said, time helps heal all wounds. At least, it helped numb them. Lauren had died. He hadn’t. Bastian needed to get on with the business of living.

  He hurried back through the woods, anxious to get to Jenna and tell her just that. He was finally ready to get on with living. And he wanted to be with her. That cute little brat he’d found annoying as a kid had grown into a beautiful, kind woman with a heart as big as the state of Montana, and he loved her.

  The team made it back to the SUV and truck, piled in and headed back to town. As soon as they were within range of the communications towers, Bastian’s cellphone vibrated in his pocket.

  He pulled it out as Colin, Duncan and Angus pulled out their cellphones.

  Bastian stared down at the text message that came across from his sister, Molly.

  911! Mom hurt. Jenna missing. Call now!

  Bastian glanced up at the same time as his brothers.

  “Did you get it, too?” Angus asked.

  Bastian, Colin and Duncan all nodded.

  “I’ll call,” Bastian was already hitting the number for his sister.

  Molly answered on the first ring. “Bastian, are you with the others?”

  “We’re all here,” he said, his pulse pounding so hard against his eardrums he could barely hear.

  “I’m with Mom in the back of an ambulance, on our way to the hospital in Bozeman. We’re heading out of Eagle Rock now, so I’ll lose reception soon. She and Jenna were involved in a car wreck on the way to the ranch. They’d hit a tree. A neighbor found Mom, unconscious. She’s since come to and is talking to me. The neighbor said Mom was alone when he found her. Her SUV had gone off the road on the way to the Iron Horse Ranch. The airbags deployed and the passenger side door was open but no Jenna.” Molly paused.

  For a moment, Bastian thought Molly had lost reception.

  “Bastian, I’m worried about Jenna. Sounds like Mom was on her way back home after picking her up. Jenna wouldn’t have left mom in the car after a wreck. I’m afraid someone took her. You have to find her.”

  Bastian’s heart and fists clenched. “We’ll find her. Keep us informed about Mom,” he said. “We’ll join you at the hospital as soon as we find Jenna.”

  “Bastian,” Molly’s voice lowered. “Did you find Dad?”

  Bastian drew in a deep breath and let it out. “No.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that,” she said. “I’ll let Mom know when she’s capable of handling it. In the meantime, I love you guys. Be safe.” Molly ended the call.

  “Well?”

  “Mom crashed into a tree on her way back to the ranch. She’s talking to Molly, but we don’t know the extent of her injuries. Jenna’s missing. She was in the car when Mom ran into the tree. Where she went, no one knows.”

  “We can find out.” Swede dug in a bag at his feet and brought out what appeared to be a handheld radio.

  Swede bent over the device. “We should be able to locate her quickly, as long as she’s still wearing one of the GPS devices I gave her before we left earlier.”

  He switched on the tracker and waited while it booted. A moment later, he looked up. “Got her.”

  “Where is she?” Bastian leaned over the back of the seat, trying to get a look at the tracker.

  “On a road three miles north of Eagle Rock,” Swede said.

  Hank pressed his foot down hard on the accelerator. “We can be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “Make it sooner,” Bastian said. He didn’t know who had taken her or what their plans were, but if they hurt one hair on her head… “Could you go a little faster?” he urged.

  “Got the pedal to the metal,” Hank said. “Going as fast as I can. As it is, we’ll be speeding through Eagle Rock.”

  “I’ll call the sheriff and let him know,” Angus said. “He can bring backup.”

  Bastian sat forward, his gaze on the road ahead, willing the SUV to go faster.

&n
bsp; As they blew through Eagle Rock, he prayed they wouldn’t be too late.

  The sound of a door slamming brought Jenna awake and immediately made her want to pass out again as sharp pain rippled through her head. She opened her eyes and lifted her head, staring around a room with which she was unfamiliar.

  When she tried to move her hands to push the hair out of her face, she couldn’t. She didn’t understand why until she looked down at her arms bound to a wooden chair with gray duct tape.

  Alarm rippled through her, clearing her fuzzy mind. That’s when she remembered. She’d been taken from the scene of an accident. An accident that had left Mrs. McKinnon unconscious.

  Jenna fought to free her arms, but the tape had been wound around enough to keep her arms completely immobile.

  She focused on the shouts coming from another room, recognizing the voices of Corley and Otis Ferguson.

  “You dumbass!” Otis yelled. “You had no business bringing her here.”

  “I couldn’t take her to our house in town. They would have found her there.”

  “They’ll be looking for her. Eventually, they’ll find her here.”

  “They didn’t find McKinnon,” Corley said. “Why should they find Jenna?”

  Jenna’s pulse quickened. The Fergusons knew something about James McKinnon.

  “If that bitch had come to that cabin a day earlier, she would have found him and me.”

  “But she didn’t,” Corley said. “And they didn’t find him or you.”

  “Only because his keepers have him on the move,” Otis said. “He doesn’t stay in one place longer than a day or two.”

  Jenna’s heart clenched. No wonder the authorities and the McKinnon family couldn’t find James.

  “If you’re so damned smart, who are they and where are they taking him next?” Corley asked. “They always show up with ski masks on. How do you know they aren’t part of the deep state? They could be with the sheriff’s department or the state police.”

  “You think I’d tell you?” Otis snorted. “You can’t keep your dick in your pants long enough to keep a fuckin’ secret.”

  “It’s not my fault they discovered the location of the camp.”

  “Yeah, if you hadn’t chased after that bitch, her boyfriend and his brothers wouldn’t have had a reason to expand their search beyond the cabin.”

  “He’s not her boyfriend. She’s my goddamn wife!” Corley yelled. “I’ll be damned if I let her screw around with other men. She’s mine.”

  “You lost that right when you nearly killed her. No court in this country is going to let you keep her.”

  “I ain’t going back to court,” Corley gritted out.

  “You’ve already screwed that pooch by taking her. Now, what are you going to do with her?” Otis asked. “If she gets away, she’ll have your ass in jail faster than you can say restraining order. And you’ll be up on kidnapping and assault charges to boot. You’re going to jail, little brother. Any way you look at it.”

  “She’s not going to get away, and I’m not going to jail,” Corley said. “You’re the one who should be going to jail.”

  “Why should I go to jail?” Otis said. “I haven’t done anything anybody knows about.”

  “You put the screws to old man McKinnon. If that ain’t assault, I don’t know what is. I’ve never seen a more stubborn man than that one.”

  “If he’d just tell them where the loot is, it’d be all over. They’re not going to keep him alive much longer. They’re practically foaming at the mouth to get to that money.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know where it is,” Corley said.

  “He knows,” Otis said. “The man who shot Reed was there. He said Reed whispered something to McKinnon before he died. It had to be the location of his stash.”

  “I don’t know how they’re going to get it out of the old man,” Corley said. “If he didn’t talk after what you did to him, he ain’t gonna.”

  “If they let me at him again, I’ll get it out of him. In the meantime, get her out of here. We gotta keep up the appearances of being on the right side of the law, even if we ain’t.”

  “Where else am I gonna take her?”

  “Take her to the camp. They should all be gone by now.”

  “That’s a good idea. But not until after the McKinnon brothers find it,” Corley said. “No. I gotta keep her here for a couple days. Once interest in the abandoned camp dies down, I’ll move her out there.”

  A couple of days? Jenna’s heart sank to her knees. Surely, she’d be found before then. Corley talked like he wanted to keep her alive, but his temper always got the better of him. If he got mad like he had that once, Jenna wasn’t sure she’d live through the beating again.

  “That’ll take too long,” Otis was saying. “You gotta get her out of here sooner than that. Someone’s gonna start pokin’ around and find out his place isn’t as abandoned as it looks.”

  “You got any bright ideas?” Corley demanded.

  “You don’t need the bitch, Corley,” Otis said. “She’s been nothin’ but trouble since you married her.”

  “Yeah, but she’s mine. I ain’t lettin’ no other man have her.”

  “Fine, you don’t have to let another man have her if she’s dead.”

  Fear struck Jenna square in the chest and rippled all the way through her body, leaving her shaking.

  If Otis had his way, he’d kill her.

  Jenna twisted her hands, trying to get her fingernails into the tape close to her wrist. If she could tear it just a little… She hooked the tape with her thumb and dug her nail into it, forming a small tear.

  She did it again but couldn’t reach much further back. Wiggling her wrist, she pulled up as much as she could. The tear grew a smidge bigger.

  Between wiggling her wrist and pulling her hand up, she stretched the tape and had the tear halfway down the arm when she realized the voices had stopped and footsteps were headed her way.

  Jenna slumped in the chair, pretending she was still unconscious. Her hair fell forward, veiling her face.

  Through the slits of her eyes, she could see Corley enter the room.

  “What am I gonna do with you, Jenna?” he said.

  Jenna didn’t respond. She tried to look as limp and unconscious as she could, though her body wanted to tense into fight mode.

  “Otis wants me to slit your throat and hide the body.”

  Corley ran his hand over her hair. “I don’t want to kill you. I love you.” His hand dug into her hair, and he yanked her head back.

  Jenna gasped and stared up into Corley’s angry eyes.

  “You were supposed to love me until death do us part.” He glared down at her. “You promised in our marriage vows.”

  “Where in love, honor and cherish does beating me senseless fit?” Jenna rasped.

  “If you hadn’t been so stubborn—”

  “No, Corley. There is no excuse for what you did to me. You don’t love me. You just want to own me.”

  His face grew redder with every word she said. “You’re mine, damn it. I keep what’s mine.”

  “Like I said. You don’t love me. You never have. A man doesn’t hurt the things he loves.” Jenna knew she was playing with fire, but all the frustration and pent up anger she’d felt toward this man who was supposed to protect her came out in full force. “You’re not a man at all. You’re an animal. And your brother is no better. I hope you both rot in hell.”

  Corley’s face turned an alarming shade of red, bordering on purple.

  Jenna had gone too far. The only other time she’d seen him that mad was when he’d almost killed her over a broken bottle of his favorite whiskey.

  “Take it back,” Corley said, his voice low and dangerous.

  “Take what back?” She snorted. “I can’t take back the truth.”

  Corley’s hand snapped out and backhanded her across her face so hard, she rocked in the chair and nearly tipped over.

  Blood dripped fro
m Jenna’s lip, but she didn’t care. “Does hitting a woman who is tied to a chair make you feel like more of a man? Why don’t you untie me and make it more of an even match. My one-hundred and twenty pounds to your two-hundred and eighty. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?”

  “Don’t do it,” Otis said. “She’s already proved she can whip your ass.”

  “She caught me by surprise,” Corley muttered. “She won’t do that again.”

  “Damn right she won’t.” Otis held up a gun. “Let her go. Let’s see how good she is at dodging bullets.”

  “Damn it, Otis,” Corley raged at his brother. “I told you she’s mine.”

  “Yeah, and she just told you to go to hell,” Otis sneered. “You gonna keep a woman around who’d just as soon stab you in the face as take her next breath?”

  Corley rubbed the knuckles of the hand he’d hit her with. “She won’t stab me in the face.”

  “You have to sleep sometime,” Otis reminded him.

  Jenna lifted her hand, desperate to work the tape loose on her arm. She figured she didn’t have much time. Otis was set on killing her. If he didn’t, Corley would by hitting her once too often.

  The tape ripped a little more. She worked her wrist and then her arm, careful not to draw to much attention to what she was doing. If she could get one arm free…

  Then the tape broke beneath the wooden arm.

  Hope swelled in her chest

  “If you don’t have the balls to do it,” Otis said, “leave her to me. I’ll take care of business and even dispose of the body.”

  Corley glared at his brother and looked back to Jenna. “You wouldn’t stab me in the face while I slept, would you?”

  “Of course not,” Jenna said, keeping her arm on the chair, hoping they didn’t notice the tape no longer held her.

  Otis laughed. “Are you just stupid? She’ll tell you what you want to hear to keep me from putting a bullet though her pretty head.” He raised the gun, pointing it at Jenna’s face.

  “Don’t.” Corley stepped in front of Otis. “I’ll take care of her.”

  “You better. You already got us sideways with the Snake Dragons for bringing attention to their camp. I doubt they’ll let us know where they set up next time.”