Securing Sidney

by Susan Stoker

  Looking up, she considered climbing the fence once more, but one look at the men standing at the fence with their sticks and knives made her realize there was no way she’d make it to the top without being seriously injured.

  Then she looked back at Kujo and Thor.

  She was going to be seriously injured one way or another, and she’d have to decide if it would be at the hands of the men leering at her and practically drooling to see her torn to pieces, or by the very animals she’d spent her life trying to protect and save.

  She had a momentary thought about Decker, how she regretted not having more time with him. Not having told him she loved him. Because she did. More than anything. But then she had no time to think about anything other than staying alive.

  “One, two, three!” Victor shouted loudly, and the doors to the cages were opened and the two snarling, pissed-off dogs leaped into the ring and immediately turned to each other and started to fight.

  Gumby knew he should be grateful for how quickly the dozens of law enforcement personnel gathered and situated themselves around the warehouse on Washington Avenue…but it wasn’t nearly fast enough for his peace of mind. They’d been hearing cheering and yelling coming from inside the warehouse for a while now, and the thought that Sidney was inside, in the middle of the mayhem, was unacceptable.

  If it was up to him, he and his team would’ve been inside and broken up the gathering and saved Sidney by now. But this wasn’t their mission. They had to follow the cops’ rules—and it was tearing him apart.

  “Easy, man,” Ace said, putting his hand on Gumby’s shoulder. “We’re gonna get her out of there.”

  Gumby knew that. But what he didn’t know was what kind of shape she’d be in when they got to her. He didn’t voice that thought. He didn’t have to. He knew without a doubt that each of his friends was thinking the same thing.

  Rocco looked sick. He was the only one of the team who could really empathize with how Gumby was feeling. When Caite’s life was in danger, Gumby had felt bad, but he hadn’t really understood the emotions that Rocco had been feeling. He did now.

  The officers around him were all wearing bulletproof vests and had their riot gear at the ready. They all knew the second they burst into the warehouse, mayhem would ensue. The occupants would try to escape through any door possible, and by the sounds of things, there were a ton of people stuffed inside the warehouse. There was no way the police officers would be able to contain them all, but they wanted to catch as many as possible.

  But all Gumby cared about was Sidney. She was his only objective. He had to get to her before Victor did something stupid, like try to take her out because he was pissed.

  “You holding it together?” Phantom asked.

  Gumby nodded. He couldn’t talk, his teeth were clenched together so he didn’t scream out in frustration that the perimeter was taking so long to set up.

  “It’s almost time,” Rex said quietly.

  “She’s gonna be in your arms in a few minutes,” Bubba assured him.

  Gumby knew his friends were trying to help, but all they were doing was making him more nervous. Glancing to the side, he saw a few ambulances staging nearby, waiting for the danger to be contained before they moved in to help anyone who needed it.

  Detective Garnham walked toward their group. Gumby hoped like hell this was it.

  “Four minutes and we’re going in,” Francisco said. “As we discussed, the six of you will take up the rear. I know we already went over this, but I just want to be sure. None of you are armed, are you?”

  All six men answered negatively. Gumby didn’t care if they weren’t allowed to carry weapons into the fray. They didn’t need them. Each of the six men on the team knew several ways to kill with their bare hands. And if Victor had harmed Sidney, he was a marked man.

  He and Rocco had talked it over. They both knew it would be pandemonium inside the warehouse when the cops burst in. The confusion would give Gumby the cover he needed to make sure Victor would never be a threat to Sidney again. He didn’t enjoy killing, but if it came down to Sidney or Victor, it wasn’t even a question. He wouldn’t feel remorse about ending Victor’s life, not if it meant Sidney could live hers in peace.

  “Be careful,” Francisco said. “In raids like this, the owners have been known to let their dogs loose, to give them time to escape.”

  The SEAL murmured their assent. They were ready for just about anything.

  The detective eyed them all one more time, then nodded, turned and walked away.

  Gumby took a deep breath.

  “Ready?” Rocco asked.

  Pressing his lips together, Gumby nodded. As did the rest of his team. They were as focused and ready as they’d ever been. This wasn’t a rescue mission for some unknown target. This was one of their own. None of the six men would leave without Sidney. A SEAL didn’t leave a SEAL behind. Ever. And Sidney Hale might not be a Navy SEAL, but she was still a part of their team.

  Gumby and the others moved behind the SWAT officers. Every one of Gumby’s senses was attuned to the job at hand. Everything else fell away.

  One moment they were standing there, muscles tense in anticipation, and the next they were moving. The door to the warehouse was flung open and the officers streamed inside, yelling orders, telling everyone to freeze.

  Just as expected, the inhabitants of the warehouse immediately scattered. They headed for the other two exits as fast as they could, ignoring the orders from the officers.

  As the crowd thinned, Gumby desperately searched the space for a familiar petite, raven-haired woman. The noise was so loud he couldn’t talk to his team, but without needing to be told, they fanned out, searching for Sidney.

  Then he heard it. Screams and growls coming from the center of the room.

  Looking up, Gumby saw a fenced-in area in the middle of a warehouse. And when more people in front of him fled, he realized exactly what he was seeing.

  A fifteen-foot diameter ring, enclosed by a tall chain-link fence. And inside was the reason he was here. Sidney.

  As was a large, powerful, pissed-off pit bull who was doing his best to get to her.

  Gumby literally pushed two men and a child out of his way as he headed for the cage, eyes locked on Sidney. “Hold on, Sid,” he murmured. “For God’s sake, hold on.”

  When Kujo and Thor were let into the ring, Sidney froze in terror for a moment as the dogs immediately turned on each other. Their teeth gnashed together as they snapped and lunged. She backed away as far as she could while still staying out of reach of the spectators and their knives.

  For a moment, the two dogs were more interested in tearing each other apart than turning on her. Blood spattered in every direction when one of the dogs shook his head, sprinkling Sidney in the process, but she ignored the way her skin crawled, her eyes glued to the fight in front of her.

  But way too soon, Kujo managed to get his jaws around Thor’s throat. It was vicious and brutal, and like every single one of the spectators, Sidney couldn’t tear her gaze from the sight. Tears filled her eyes once more as Thor’s struggles got weaker and weaker.

  When it was obvious Thor wasn’t going to win the fight, the crowd went absolutely berserk. They hooted and hollered, and Sidney saw a ton of money changing hands as those who bet on Thor had to hand over their hard-earned cash to those who’d bet on Kujo.

  She vaguely heard Victor yell, “The fight’s not over! Time for some incentive!”

  Flinching when something hit her leg, Sidney turned her head to see a man holding a gun, aimed right at her. Her eyes got wide—then something stung her in the back.

  Spinning, she saw someone else holding a gun. Suddenly, there seemed to be guns in just about everyone’s hands around her. Were they shooting her?

  Then she heard Kujo yelp. Her eyes went back to him, and she realized the spectators weren’t shooting them with bullets, but BBs or something similar.

  As another projectile hit Kujo, he turned toward
her and snarled.

  “Oh, shit,” she said under her breath, before letting out a scream when the pit bull started stalking toward her.

  “No!” she yelled. “Kujo, sit!” she said desperately, but the dog just snarled and continued his slow, measured steps toward her.

  Before she was ready, Kujo leaped at her.

  Instinctively, she turned to the side and kicked out, catching the dog in the hindquarter. He veered off course, but wasn’t deterred. He lunged at her again, this time catching her calf with his teeth.

  Screaming in pain, all Sidney could think about was getting away.

  She pummeled the dog’s head with her fists, trying to get him to let go. The pain in her leg so intense, she felt blackness threatening to take her under. Knowing if she went down, Kujo would tear out her throat, she fought to stay upright.

  Then the crowd began pelting Kujo with their BBs again. The dog shook his head and yelped, letting go of her leg in the process.

  Free from the animal’s jaws, Sidney ran for the fence. The knives and sticks didn’t seem nearly so bad anymore. She wasn’t thinking about anything but getting away from Kujo’s teeth, and since dogs couldn’t climb, the only chance she had was to get to the top of the enclosure.

  The dog owners had created a chain-link ceiling, of sorts, probably thinking it would keep her from escaping, but it also allowed her a way to avoid both the dog and the men surrounding the cage. If she reached the top, she could cling to the ceiling like a child might hang from the monkey bars in a playground.

  As she desperately tried to climb with one leg bleeding and throbbing from Kujo’s bite, the men on the other side sneered in her face. They spit at her. They laughed. And they did their best to make her let go and fall back into the ring, shaking the fence and trying to slash at her with their knives.

  Ignoring the spectators, Sidney climbed for her life. If she could only get to the top, she’d be okay.

  All right, that probably wasn’t true. It would only be a matter of time before Victor and the others found a way to make her let go and have to face Kujo again, but anything she could do to not feel the dog’s teeth around her flesh again, she’d do.

  All of a sudden, the noise and the entire atmosphere in the room changed. Instead of cheering and laughing, there was panicked yelling and screams.

  Ignoring everything but her need to get away from Kujo, now snarling and growling as he jumped against the fence again and again in an effort to get to her, Sidney clung to the chain-link. The spectators had stopped messing with her, but she was too preoccupied to try to figure out why.

  She stopped climbing when she reached the top of the fence. Her fingers hurt from holding onto the chain-link and her leg was throbbing unbearably. Blood was dripping from the wound, landing on Kujo—who continued to leap up at her—and covering the floor beneath him.

  Sobbing, her fingers cramping, Sidney knew she couldn’t hold on long.

  She was going to die. Right here. Right now. By the jaws of one of the very animals she’d spent her adult life trying to save.

  Gumby took off at a dead run toward the ring. He searched for a way in as he ran and couldn’t find one. His eyes finally landed on a large padlock on the opposite side of where Sidney was desperately clinging to the side of the fence. She was about ten feet high, at the very top of the enclosure. She was practically naked, but that wasn’t what concerned him at the moment. It was the dog covered in blood, trying desperately to get at her, that made his adrenaline race.

  Reaching the gate at the same time as Ace, Gumby lifted a leg and kicked the fence as hard as he could.

  Sidney let out a screech on the other side as the entire enclosure shuddered.

  “Shit,” he murmured.

  “Move. I got this,” Ace said as he held up a pair of bolt cutters.

  Gumby moved, but asked, “Where the fuck did you get those?”

  Ace placed the jaws of the cutters around the lock holding the gate shut and said, “Garnham. He handed them to me right before we breached the room. Said they might come in handy.”

  Gumby had never been so relieved for the man’s insight as he was right now. He saw Rocco run around the enclosure toward Sidney, who was still clinging to the chain-link at the top of the enclosure. His friend took a flying leap and quickly scaled the fence. He managed to carefully climb on top of the precarious rig, above where Sidney was holding on for dear life. The links were too small for him to reach through and grab hold of her, but Gumby knew he would be talking to her, telling her to hang on, that help was there.

  The snarling dog was more of a problem. In order to get to Sidney, Gumby had to eliminate the threat from the dog. But without a gun, he didn’t have an easy way to do it. The second the lock fell from the door, Gumby pushed his way inside the enclosure. His brain registered the almost-dead dog in the middle of the floor, but he didn’t spare it a glance. He only had eyes on the one standing below Sidney.

  Gumby was prepared to take the dog out with his bare hands, but Phantom pushed him to the side and, in seconds, had swiped a blade across the dog’s throat.

  Realizing his friend had lied to the detective about being unarmed, and not giving a shit, Gumby headed straight for the fence. He slipped once in the blood on the floor below Sidney, and would’ve gone down if Ace hadn’t caught his arm. Not taking the time to thank him, Gumby was climbing the fence toward his woman, desperate to get to her.

  The fence swayed under his weight, but it didn’t slow him down. In seconds, he was next to Sidney, trying to figure out a way to get them both down safely.

  Sidney’s eyes were squeezed shut as she put all her energy into hanging on to the fence. Her fingers were burning and her leg trembled, trying to hold her up. Her toes were shoved through the links of the fence, and she barely registered anything around her due to the pain. She vaguely heard someone talking to her in a low, soothing voice, but she couldn’t open her eyes to see who it was.

  When something touched her back, she jerked and screamed in terror.

  “It’s me, Sidney! I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

  “Decker?” she shouted in disbelief. She had to be hallucinating. There was no way it was Decker.

  “Can you let go and grab hold of me?”

  Her eyes popped open finally—and she blinked at seeing Rocco crouched above her on the outside of the enclosure. She looked around and didn’t see any of the spectators. No one was poking at her anymore, laughing and cheering.

  Turning her head, she then saw Decker. He was there!

  “Decker!” she croaked.

  “Shhhh. Can you move your arm and put it around my neck? I won’t let you fall. Grab hold of me.”

  “No! Kujo!”

  “Who?”

  “The dog! He’ll get us!”

  “He’s dead, Sid. We need to get you down and get that leg looked at.”

  Peering down, Sidney saw Phantom standing below Decker. Ace was also there. She didn’t see Bubba or Rex, but knew they had to be in the warehouse somewhere.

  Not only that, but the bloody body of Kujo was lying on his side on the concrete floor, not moving.

  Everything hit her at once. Decker had found her. Just in the nick of time.

  Her body moved without her even consciously telling it to. She let go of the fence with one hand and wrapped it around Decker’s neck. She immediately turned and looped her other arm around him, and did her best to hitch her good leg around his hips too. She had no doubt he’d be able to hold her. No way would he let her fall.

  Ever so slowly, Decker began to inch his way back down the fence. She had no idea how his large feet fit in the small holes of the chain-link, but at the moment, she didn’t care. She felt hands touch her sides as they got near the floor, and she gripped Decker tighter. She felt the second his feet touched the ground, and then they were headed for the door to the ring.

  “Put her down, Gumby,” a voice ordered.

  “Not here,” he said, his voice ru
mbling through her as she clung even harder.

  A shout to her right made Sidney pick her head up and look in that direction.

  Victor was standing in front of Rocco, who’d climbed down after Decker had reached her—and was pointing a gun at the SEAL’s head.

  She saw everything unfold as if watching through a long, dark tunnel. She opened her mouth to scream, to say something, but she needn’t have worried.

  One second Victor was threatening Rocco, and the next he was lying on the floor, motionless.

  Bubba had come up from behind and quickly disarmed him, then Phantom had spun him around and punched him with one strong blow to the face.

  Even as Decker carried her out of the ring, toward the door of the warehouse, she looked back and saw Rocco leaning over, checking Victor’s pulse.

  “Fuck, no heartbeat,” Rocco said as he knelt down and immediately started doing CPR.

  Feeling out of it and dizzy, Sidney noticed the cops had many of the spectators lined up or lying on the ground with their hands behind their backs. The thing that struck her the hardest was how many kids there were. She remembered seeing them from inside the ring. They hadn’t been cowering, scared to be there. They’d been cheering and yelling just as loudly as the adults.

  “Hang on, Sid. You’re okay,” Decker murmured.

  She didn’t feel okay. She felt heartsick and depressed. Her leg throbbed horribly, and remembering how close she’d come to being mauled by Kujo made her breathing speed up and her mouth begin to water. “I’m going to throw up,” she warned Decker, mere seconds before she did just that.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t let go of her, and she puked all the way down his shoulder, back, and arm. She whimpered at how horrible she felt, both physically and because she’d literally just thrown up all over Decker.

  When the pain and humiliation began to overwhelm her, and the dizziness crept in once more, Sidney gladly gave herself over to blackness.