***
Roman’s alert on his phone went off letting him know something was very wrong at the Manor. He pulled up the app and logged on, bringing up a screen of camera angles up and zeroed in immediately to the devastation that was his Angel’s office. She wasn’t there and neither was whoever had broken in. He exited the app and called her phone. The call went to voice mail so he dialed Cabe.
“Yes motherfucker. Tell me you got her!” Cabe was furious.
“No asshole that’s why I’m calling you! You don’t have her?” Roman grabbed the back of his neck and knew exactly who he had to call next.
“If I had her there wouldn’t be a shot up office at her house with her missing! You told me you had this…” Cabe had every right to be pissed, but Roman didn’t have time for this bullshit.
He hung up on Cabe in mid shout and made his next call.
“Romanov, I am busy plemyannik can I call you back?” Aleks always answered when Roman called. Either from God’s will or Aleks dangerous choices one day, he wouldn’t answer. Roman knew that day would change his life forever. But, luckily this was not that day.
“Aleks, your fucking Chechens took Sydney! Where would they have taken her?” Roman shouted into the phone.
Aleks sat straight in the back of the luxury sedan he rode in every day. “When Romanov? How long have they had her?”
“The alarm triggered twelve minutes ago. I looked on the monitor at her office but its destroyed and they are already gone.”
“Twelve minutes, good, good. This means they will have just started in on her. They will hurry knowing we will be coming for her. Plemyannik head to the warehouse section of the port. Go to the far east area and I will meet you there.”
“I’m heading there now.” Roman hung up the phone jumped in his car, and drove like a mad man. He had to get there before she was hurt. He had to.
****
Cabe looked at his phone after Roman hung up on him. He told him to put tracking on Syd. If anything happened to her it would be because he was too weak to do what he needed to do to make sure his loved one was safe. He looked over at his sleeping Isabella. She snored so loud he had to plug his ears at night which made him feel vulnerable, but she was having such severe morning sickness he wouldn’t do anything to interrupt her sleep if he could help it.
Cabe found the contact he needed and put the phone to his ear,
“Yeah,” Lucas was a man of few words.
“The fucking Russians took Syd. You monitoring the room tonight?”
“Naw man, The Scots was on monitoring duty tonight.”
“Later,” What a cluster fuck. Cabe found the contact icon for The Scots and called. It went straight to voicemail.
Something was wrong.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he knew something major was happening and he would have to navigate it remotely. He wasn’t leaving Isabella if they were under attack.
“Babe,” He needed to get her safe first. “Bella, honey I need you to wake up.”
“What’s going on?” Isabella carefully rolled over making sure not to disturb the two giant white dogs cuddled up with her.
“We need to get you and the dogs to the compound so I know you’re safe while the guys hunt for Syd.”
Isabella sat upright, “Sydney? What’s happened to Sydney?”
“Someone broke into her house and now she’s missing. I need to go help find her, but I am not leaving you until I know you’re somewhere safe.”
“I’m not safe here?” Isabella asked, but wasted no time getting up to gather her things and wake the dogs.
“I’m not leaving you alone here. I need to take you to the compound and then go help find Syd. We need to go now Bella.”
Isabella scramble off the bed and within minutes walked out the door with her large white dogs, Jake and Annie.
“Where’s Sophie?”
“No reports of her.” Cabe furrowed his brow. Things were going to get worse. “Honey, can you call your clan and find out where Sophie is?”
Isabella’s nodded and said, “Promise me you’ll find her Cabe,” Isabella didn’t want to know what life would be like without Sydney.
“I’ll do my everything in my fucking power to bring her home,” Cabe didn’t want to make a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep.
***
Lucas entered the monitoring room at the SDI compound where The Scots should have been watching the sites under surveillance. He studied the wall of monitors looking for Sydney’s home and any other unusual activity close by.
When it registered what he was looking at his blood ran cold and he hurried out of the room and jumped on his motorcycle as quickly as he could. Panic was setting in but he had to make his destination before he freaked out and totally lost his shit. Starting his bike he instructed his communication system to dial Cabe.
“Yeah,”
“Call first responders to The Manor. Man down Cabe. Blood everywhere. I’m heading there now.”
“Done. I’m calling Marcus in. Don’t go in alone mother fucker.”
“Call emergency. Marcus is at Safe Haven with the girls. He needs to stay there. If I get to the Manor first, I’m going in. There’s too much blood man. Now call.”
Lucas ended the call and gave his large bike more fuel, the roaring pipes echoed his foul mood.
***
Laird Hamilton, aka The Scot drug his shot up - bullet ridden body on his forearms, through the broken glass and splintered wood, to the prone body lying still in the middle of the chaos that was once a very nice room in an extremely nice home. He checked the body for weapons and removed the gun and two blades before he felt for a pulse.
No pulse.
The Scot rolled to his back and allowed himself to relax slightly.
Eventually, one of the other men would realize the alarm had been triggered and help would arrive. He just had to hold on and hope he didn’t bleed to death first. He knew if he survived this he wasn’t going to live it down with the men he worked with. In his eagerness to encounter some action in order to break up his bored to death status, he broke protocol; got himself shot and didn’t even manage to save the girl for his troubles.
He also hadn’t sent an alert to the guys. Yep. This is was going to be a painful mistake, and he wasn’t talking about the bullets currently taking up space in his body.
Chapter 26
Sebastian
S ebastian Denisovich listened as the little warrior laughed like a lunatic at the murderers who would surely take her life and the life of the girls they had abused.
He was lucky he’d kept some of the old alliances even after the wars six years ago. It was those forbidden alliances that led him here to this filthy warehouse and hopefully save the bravest little woman he’d ever seen in his entire lifetime.
But listening to her laugh, he wondered if she was brave or crazy. Either was fine with Sebastian; he liked her regardless.
He counted eight men when he arrived. He’d already disarmed six of them. These two with the girls were the last but also the most volatile. Them being in such close proximity to his little warrior limited what he was willing to do to take them out.
He decided the direct approach would be best.
Speaking in their native Chechen, he walked out from the shadows and barked, “How do you plan to escape this you fools?”
Both of the men terrorizing the small warrior would die this night. They had both laid hands on her and Sebastian knew better than anyone how easily she bruised. She would be brave and never let them know they were hurting her, but he knew they were causing damage to her small body and it was too much to bear.
“You are the fool for coming here. You think we are alone? No. And now you have sealed your own fate along with your Pakham. We take you out and he is weakened,” the Chechen spoke bravely. Unfortunately for him these would be his last words. This was the leader of the rouge group and Sebastian believed to be the one who was vile enou
gh to target the children.
Sebastian flickered a glance at the small child tied to the pole and threw a deadly blade at the leader. The blade embedded in his throat ending the sadistic leader’s life.
One down. One left.
He turned to the Chechen holding his small warrior by the hair and lifted his arm to throw the second deadly blade he was known for. The Chechen telegraphed his panic and fired his gun at Sebastian hitting him in the chest and abdomen.
Luckily for Sebastian, he was able to see his blade embed into the throat of the last living Chechen in the warehouse and putting to rest, finally, the group of men that had been preying upon the innocents of this city, a city Sebastian has called home for many years.
As he fell to his knees his eyes met the little warrior’s eyes and smiled at her. Then he fell face first onto the dirty concrete floor.
Chapter 27
Woman Down
I knew in my gut someone was going to arrive just in the nick of time to save us. But Lord Almighty if I knew or even had a thought it would be Thug Number Three.
I don’t know who was more surprised to see him, me or the bad guys/serial killers.
Another thing I learned; when someone has their hands fisted in your hair and they’re killed, they don’t release your hair like in the movies. No, their hands grip tighter and they crumple over on top of you.
Now, if you’re a big strong person this might not be as big of a deal because you can get yourself untangled. But when you are an averaged sized woman who is shorter than most of the male population, you aren’t getting out from under the dead weight.
That’s how Roman , Aleks and their group of Russian enforcers found me and the girls.
On another note I’ve decided the Russian thugs shall now and forever be deemed enforcers instead of thugs because of the whole “saved my life” thing.
Once Roman and Aleks freed me I saw two of the enforcers cut the child down and one was checking on Sophie who still had not moved.
There was a whole lot of Russian yelling happening and one of the two ran over to Sophie, and immediately started CPR.
I completely lost my shit and started screaming. That’s the scene that Cabe, with two of his men I’d never met before, found us in. They immediately attacked the two Russian enforcers who were performing CPR and it took Roman several minutes to calm them down enough to understand.
Roman was speaking to Aleks and whatever he said had Aleks calling his enforcers off and out of the building while one of Cabe’s men took over the CPR . Within seconds after the Russians left, the police and emergency rescue arrived and took over trying to revive Sophie. Everything was happening so quickly and no one was listening to me. I needed to know how Sophie was and if she was going to make.
Oh, Lord Almighty!
What had those horrible men done to her?
I was a blubbering mess when I was placed on the gurney and loaded into the ambulance. No one was paying attention to me at all. Let me clarify: they were attending to my medical needs but they weren’t answering my questions. As soon as Roman realized I couldn’t stand on my own because my ribs were so sore, he literally stopped talking about anything but my medical welfare. I didn’t care as much, I knew I was going to be okay because I only had been kicked a few times. Sophie and the child were my main concern because they were in far worse shape, or so I believed.
Turns out one of the reasons Roman was so worried was my breathing had become labored and I was blowing blood from my mouth and nose. My ribs had splintered and slightly punctured a lung and that was really dangerous.
I didn’t learn any of this until I woke up after being rushed into emergency surgery. I yelled and cried and hollered all the way to the hospital. Well actually, I lost consciousness in the ambulance but that was how I saw myself. I was so worried about Sophie and the child I didn’t think there was any way I might have been seriously injured too.
Waking up in the hospital room with Roman asleep next to my bed was surreal. For me, no time had passed and when I woke it was in full on panic.
I needed to know how the girls were doing and if Thug Three had made it.
A nurse quietly entered the room, I am assuming, to take my vitals, and saw that I was awake. She glanced at the still sleeping Roman and whispered, “My goodness, you’re finally awake.”
Finally?
I tried to reply but my voice was dry and all I could manage was a croak.
“Hush now, don’t you try to speak yet. You’ve been through a lot and your body will need time to heal. You sure gave us a fright.”
I gave them a fright? What about Sophie and the child? Where were they? What about Thug Three? Was he alive?
“Angel, I can’t believe you’re finally awake,” Roman ran his hand across the back of his neck and took my hand in his carefully. “You scared the shit out of me.”
I tried once again to ask him what happened and croaked. This time it hurt and he saw the pain across my face.
“Sshhh Angel, I’ll fill you in. We need to hurry. As soon as your crazy sisterhood finds out you’re awake they are going to converge on this poor unsuspecting hospital. You had a punctured lung. They had to remove part of your right lung. That is something you’ll need to deal with moving forward. There will be some limitations, but not much and nothing we can’t work around.”
Roman leaned forward and wrapped both hands around my one free hand and said, “Your heart stopped twice Angel.” My Tall Dark and Handsome man had tears in his eyes when he went on to say, “I thought I’d lost you. I can’t lose you. You are the only good thing that has ever happen to me. You matter, and are loved by so many.” He wiped his eyes in that manly way men do and went on in a deep rumbly voice, “You’re marrying me and I am spending the rest of my life showing you how much I love you.”
I crumpled my brow at him. This was the worst proposal ever! I wanted an old fashioned, down on one knee, huge diamond ring kind of proposal and as soon as I could I was telling him just that.
We’d get to that later.
I stared at him and silently begged him to get to the others who had been victimized by the Chechens.
He read me well, because he went on to say in a low whisper, “Sebastian saved your life.” I gave him a quizzical look and he clarified, “Sebastian is the man who Aleks sent to retrieve you and left bruises on your arms.”
Oh okay, that made sense.
Sebastian. I said his name over and over in my head
Sebastian was now a hero in my eyes.
I looked back at Roman and tilted my head indicating to him to go on filling me in.
“The young girl was reunited with her family. She is going to have a long road ahead of her but knowing all of the men assaulting the girls in this area are dead helps her family feel a little better. She had cigarette burns and knife slashes all over her body. She’d been raped and sodomized. It’s unthinkable what they did to her. Luckily she’s being shielded by the U.S. Marshals from the media.”
I stared at Roman with a sick feeling in my stomach. Why was he leaving Sophie last? Why didn’t he start with her? I felt tears in my eyes and knew what he was going to say before he said the words.
“We lost Sophie…”
I cried out and tried to sit up. I couldn’t hear any more of this. Why would God let me live and let her die? Why didn’t I keep a closer eye on her? This was all my fault. I was a terrible person. She should have had a tracker on her. All of our girls should have trackers on them.
I didn’t want to live in that big house without her! I bought it thinking it was going to be our first home.
I struggled again to get up and Roman stood placing his hands on my shoulders and held me to the bed and said, “Angel, we lost her several times, but like you, she pulled through! She’s in intensive care now. Once the doctor clears you to move I’ll get a wheel chair to take you to see her.”
“You lead with that asshole!” I croaked out and cry-laughed.
&
nbsp; “I haven’t slept for more than an hour at a time for four days. Sorry Angel if my delivery isn’t perfect,” Roman kissed my forehead and smiled at me, “Thank God you’re back. I was scared to death to lose you.”
Four days? I’d been out for four whole days?
The nurse informed the doctors I was awake and began what I like to call the parade of medical professionals who basically told me the same things; I’d need to be careful not to get overheated, would need to strengthen my lung capacity and take very good care of myself. Any respiratory flu or allergies would have to be looked at right away, but other than that, I should be good to go once I was healed up. I would spend the next couple of days in the hospital, but as long as I was improving I’d get to go home.
Lawyer & Liar Page 20
