by Em Petrova
When she got her feet into position, she used all her core strength to stand. For a minute, her balance gave way. She tipped. If she fell, she had no way of catching herself and her head would slam off the concrete.
She folded at the waist, fighting for balance and some miracle. Praying for Ross to save her from this situation.
Ross…
She couldn’t think of him now. She had work to do.
Straightening, she took in a breath as deep as possible and bent her elbows. The pull against her wrists hurt. But she ignored the pain and tried to work free. Long seconds—minutes, hours?—later, she knew the zip-tie was cutting into her skin.
She still had to get out of it.
Drawing her elbows up and back as far as she could, she pulled the plastic even tighter. Then in one hard jerk, she shoved her elbows out and down at the same time, trying to snap the tie.
Nothing happened.
She tried again. Then a third time. By the sixth, she started losing hope. Her lips trembled, and her face started to feel numb from lack of air.
Focus, Hamlin. You got this.
From some deep well inside her, she drew on a reserve of energy. She yanked her elbows out and down, and her hands broke free.
For a minute, she was stunned that she’d done it. Then survival kicked in, and she raised her hands to scrabble at the hood.
As soon as she ripped it away, her hair falling in her face, she spotted the woman standing not far off.
Her stomach pitched with the bile hitting it. Meredith. She didn’t want to believe she recognized her voice, but she was right.
“Impressive escape, my friend,” Meredith drawled out.
Her feet were still bound. Dropping to the ground, she grabbed a rock, and using the point to dig into the plastic along with the power from years of martial arts, she set herself free. Meredith didn’t move to stop her, but a man rushed in from the side and tried to slam Pippa to the ground.
She grabbed his forearm, hooked her other behind his elbow, and using the man’s momentum and body weight, she dislocated his elbow.
He screamed and dropped.
Pippa thrust her shoulders back and faced Meredith, only to find the woman was the source of the smoke.
“You smoke too?” The question came out as a low rasp of surprise. In the recesses of her mind, she realized how stupid it was. But the shocks kept hitting her when it came to knowing her friend.
Meredith lowered the cigarette from her lips and gave a hearty laugh. “You’re such an innocent, Pippa. Which is why I’m doing this—you’ll never survive the cutthroat industry after you deliver that speech and the world knows of your find. People will come after you.”
“You came after me,” she said with more strength than she felt. Her voice boomed out across what she now saw was a shipping dock. She was on the coast, and a ship was coming in, the big lights glimmering in a V-shaped path on the choppy water.
Meredith dropped the half-smoked cigarette and stubbed it out with her toe.
“Why are you doing this, Meredith? Are you jealous that I made the discovery? You weren’t even working on the same project.”
“Grow up, Pippa. Stop being so naïve. You want to help people? The best thing you can do is put your research into the hands of someone who can actually do something with it. Something big.” She barked out a laugh. “We all know you’ll be content with your named as the scientist who found the big breakthrough to change medicine. But there’s a lot of money to be made here.”
She sucked in a breath. That spam email and the massive sum of money offered to give up her information loomed in her mind’s eye.
“Where did you get the money, Meredith?”
“So naïve, like I said. I don’t have the money. I know people who do, though.”
“I thought we were friends.”
“Friends? No. You’ve been laboring under the delusion that we’re friends, but I’ve hated you since college.”
Pain struck her heart.
“All the guys wanted you. You had the long legs and pretty eyes, while I got the stumpy legs and fat ass.”
She started to respond that Meredith was curvy and beautiful, as she always had. But those times were gone, and she snapped her lips shut.
“Your mother gave you diamond earrings for graduation. Mine gave me a smile. The other girls all liked you better too. You were the one getting invited to parties. I just tagged along. Same with the professors. They only saw you, Pippa, while I was always invisible, standing in your shadow.”
“None of that is my fault.” She raised her head high.
“Of course not. You’re just tripping through life in your happy-go-lucky way. You even fell into snagging the best boyfriend, didn’t you? Joke’s on you, though—I fucked him first. I know how he groans when I put my mouth on his cock.”
That bile did rush up her throat this time, and she swallowed hard to force it down. She wouldn’t give Meredith the satisfaction of seeing how her words affected her. But deep down, her insides were crumbling into ruin. Their long friendship had been nothing but a scam and a knot of lies.
Meredith lifted a hand and waved at someone. Two more big thuggish men strode forward and grabbed Pippa. She kicked out. She struck one in the throat, and he doubled over, wheezing through a collapsed windpipe. A third man took over for him.
She caught a glimpse of Meredith’s retreating back. Over her shoulder, the woman called out in a clear voice, “Bind her again. And make that hood tighter. Then put her in the crate and screw it shut. She gets the slow-boat to China. Bye, Pippa!”
The battle for her life took all her focus, skill and strength. Still, she couldn’t escape. She couldn’t fight her way to her family. Or to Ross.
They bound her hand and foot, and made damn sure little air and no noises could break through the tape and hood this time. Then they tossed her into a big wooden crate.
The sharp noises of a screw gun trapping her inside was the worst sound she’d ever heard in her life. At least she thought so, until she heard the hydraulics of the crane coming to pick the crate off the dock and load it onto the cargo ship.
She was actually being slow-boated to China. Her only saving grace was the knowledge she wouldn’t survive the journey.
Chapter Fourteen
Ross ripped off his hat and slammed his fingers through his hair. Goddammit, what had he done? Allowed the woman he loved to be kidnapped. He’d failed her—after she came to him for protection, he’d failed her.
Not only her. He broke her family. His too. If he didn’t get her back, none of them would ever be the same.
He slammed a hand off the dash. “Drive faster, Boone!”
His brother said nothing. Tight-lipped and drawn, Boone must be feeling the effects of his error the way nobody else could. He was the one stationed in front of her door, and she’d appealed to the friend in Boone and asked him to get her food.
“From this day on, we don’t take on friends or family,” Ross grated out.
Boone said nothing. He only drove, making insane turns through the city at dangerous speeds to reach the coast.
A sick dread surged through Ross. If they hurt her…or worse… Well, he’d never considered himself the serial killer type, but he would hunt down each and every person associated with this act until their DNA was scourged from the Earth.
“We’ll get her,” Josiah said from the back seat. “We’ll get her, Ross.”
He didn’t reply—he couldn’t. His damn throat was constricted, choking off all his air.
As they reached the docks, he spotted the search dogs unit first. WEST Protection had never worked with K-9 handlers before, and he hoped to hell he didn’t need to give them direction, because he didn’t have the ability to lead right now.
Boone parked haphazardly and cut the engine. Ross hit the ground first, jogging to the group gathered to help them search every inch of the docks to find Pippa.
Approaching the team, Boone pulle
d out a pair of woolen gloves. With a shock, Ross realized they belonged to Pippa—Corrine had purchased them for her, and somehow Boone had the wherewithal to bring something with her scent to help the dogs find her.
He stared at the gloves, thinking of Pippa’s soft fingers. The way she worked them through the strands of her hair as she gathered the mass into a ponytail. And how her hands felt on his body.
He shut down—he had no fucking choice but to bury his emotions and switch to his professional face.
The handlers passed the gloves between them, letting the dogs sniff them and imprint the scent of her on their noses. The chopper Ross had called in flew overhead, sweeping the ground below for signs of that vehicle or Pippa.
“All the ships are docked or floating just offshore, Ross.” Boone didn’t quite meet his gaze.
“None got out before we closed things down?”
Boone’s mouth tightened, drawing brackets around each corner. “One. The Coast Guard’s been called out to bring it in.”
He gave a stiff nod. “Now we search.”
The search crew already dispersed, working the dogs through shipments sitting on the dock to be loaded, and then they searched the ships themselves. Nothing would go unsearched.
Ross jerked his jaw toward Boone. “Let’s go.”
Josiah and the rest of the team split up to do the same, all of them silent and withdrawn.
Beyond the bright lights illuminating the area, the world looked black. Bleak. Darkness swallowed everything but this circle of the universe, and he hoped to hell Pippa was still in the light.
He thrust away his heavy thoughts and took off with Boone. As they reached a massive flat of heavy metal pipe, he shined his flashlight into one. It was large enough to hide a woman.
A body.
No, goddammit. She’s alive. I won’t fucking believe otherwise.
He and Boone rushed through searching each pipe and found them all empty.
Into his ear, Noah’s voice sounded. “Found two guys hiding in a truck. They claim to be homeless and sleep here, but we’re taking them in for questioning.”
“Let me know what you find out.” Ross leaped off the flat holding the pipe and Boone landed beside him. They rushed to the next shipment and the next. When they reached the crates, some of the dogs and handlers were milling around, and the spotlight from the chopper swept the area.
He pointed to a large wooden crate. “Open it,” he commanded one of the dock workers who loaded the crates onto ships.
Immediately, two men leaped to action with crowbars and screw guns. As the final screw was removed, Ross stepped up to the crate. He and Boone helped move the heavy wood side.
Holding his breath, almost dying inside, Ross shined his light on the opening.
Bags of cotton fabric filled the entire crate from top to bottom.
“Get a dog here to search.”
A handler ran forward with her dog.
It went on and on for what felt like hours but couldn’t be more than a few minutes.
“The Coast Guard just radio’d in, Ross.” Josiah’s voice flooded into his ear. “They located the cargo ship. It left an hour before the port was closed. We don’t have long before it reaches international waters.”
He and Boone exchanged a look, the first straight-on full stare since they discovered Pippa was missing.
“I’m pinning my money on the cargo ship. Meredith and whoever she’s hired would know we’d search the port and they’d get Pippa out as quick as possible. Get me on a chopper, dammit! Now!”
His team went into a flurry of activity and talk. Ross’s mind glazed over, his terror for Pippa hitting new heights. If she was on that ship, he could only guess at the traumas she’d received. Beaten, tied up…
“Ross, the chopper’s ready!” Boone’s bellow in his ear shook him from his dark thoughts, and he jerked around to see the chopper had landed on the dock. Boone gripped his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry, man. So fucking sorry.”
“You’re not at fault. No one is. But we’re both getting her back. You’re coming—I need you on my six.”
Boone’s eyes lost some of the strain, and he gave a nod. They took off for the chopper, and in seconds were in the air, speeding from the dock.
Toward the cargo ship. Toward Pippa.
Christ, he prayed they were on the right track. With his head bowed, he shut out the noise of the chopper and the pilots’ talk. He stopped listening to his men on the ground and word that yet another area had been searched and Pippa wasn’t found.
His gut told him she was on this cargo ship. He’d never performed an air drop to the deck of a moving ship before, but he was prepared to freefall if it meant reaching her.
Boone nudged his arm. Ross glanced up.
“Christ, Ross. Don’t look at me that way.”
He didn’t ask what way—he knew his heart and soul were somewhere out there, alone and afraid.
“The pilot says the winds are right, and he can fly low enough that we can make a short jump to the ship. The Coast Guard is boarding it as we speak.”
“Jesus Christ.” He started to stand, and Boone pulled him down.
“We’re three minutes out. Are you up for this? You can’t make any mistakes, Ross.”
“I know it.”
“Get out of your fucking head right now.”
Boone’s harsh command infused his backbone with the steel he needed. When the three minutes were up, and the pilot gave the word, Ross moved to the opening. Wind cut across him and snatched away his hat. Well, that was one casualty lost at sea, and he wouldn’t be another.
When he made the jump, his gaze was locked to the deck. His feet struck hard, and he tumbled into a roll. Boone touched down behind him, and Ross leaped up, instantly ready to fight, to kill if need be.
“Start the search,” he said to Boone and the men from the Coast Guard standing in front of him. “Time is running out.”
* * * * *
Pippa’s cheek dug into the rough, splintered wood beneath her. She lay on her side, the thrum of the vessel moving through the water her only link to reality.
Her mind played tricks on her. She thought she heard Ross’s voice. It echoed through her skull, took over her pulse. Their last moments together slammed her from all angles, until she could almost feel his arms around her.
I can’t give up. I have to reach him.
She shoved herself into a sitting position. Scooting against the wall of the container she’d been locked inside, she battled to find a way out. She slapped her head against the wood. It created a hollow ringing noise.
Could anybody hear that?
She did it again. And again. When her head started to hurt, she used her feet, lifting them and throwing them down on the floor of the crate over and over again.
As kids, she and the Wynton boys had played war in the woods bordering the ranch. She and Ross had escaped capture, and they lay on their bellies, hushed into silence and evading the footsteps of the other kids searching for them.
Ross had begun to tap a finger on the ground, and when she looked at him in question, he whispered, “Morse code. Do you know it?”
She shook her head.
He tapped the ground and said, “A.” She imitated him, through the entire alphabet until she knew it forward and backward and inside out.
The rhythm of her boots changed. She tapped out an S-O-S. Again and again. If nobody heard her, then at least she’d tried. She hadn’t gone down without a fight for her life.
Inside the hood and tape, she got little air. Dizziness was her constant companion. It made her imagine things. She and Ross riding horses, galloping across the majestic fields of the Wynton Ranch. The wind in her hair.
In her mouth.
A ripping sound hit her ears first, and then the shouts filtered in. The hood left her face, and she didn’t think to gulp in until cool air rushed across her lips.
Strong arms lifted her off the floor. She t
ipped against a hard chest, her head lolling.
“Pippa! Pippa, wake up!”
Ross.
What a sweet dream. She didn’t want to wake up.
“Pippa, goddammit, wake up!” The command broke through her haze, and she cracked an eye. Bright lights shot straight to her brain stem, jolting her. She thrashed, and the person holding her crushed her more tightly to his chest.
She gasped in a deep breath and flooded her nose with Ross’s scent.
“Get a medic!” he bellowed. “Cut these fucking ties off her!”
His arms never left her as people freed her arms and legs. A plastic mask hovered over her face, delivering precious oxygen her body had been starved of.
Slowly, everything came into focus—first, Ross’s face.
Tears overflowed as she centered on his rugged features and knew she was alive—and he was the reason for it.
She hardly registered being transferred to another ship, this time outside of a shipping container. She was not being slow-boated to China. Had they caught Meredith?
Ross sat on the deck, his spine pressed to the side. She lay across his lap, head tucked under his chin. She pulled away. “It was Meredith.”
His eyes sparked. “I know.”
“Did you catch her?”
“There’s a manhunt taking place.” His gaze moved over her face and fell away. He didn’t look at her again.
The tendon in the crease of his jaw flickered, and she knew Ross’s rage when faced with it. Pulling out of his hold, she sat up in his lap.
“Ross.”
His jaw set more firmly.
“Ross. Look at me.”
He didn’t.
“I know you must be angry with me for leaving the room. I needed to talk to Meredith—to get closure about what happened between you two.”
His gaze jerked to hers and skittered away.
With a shock, she realized he wasn’t angry with her—he was stuck in his own head. Battling with himself.
She grabbed his face and forced him to meet her gaze. “Ross, it’s okay now. You found me. I’m here. I’m safe now.”
His stare penetrated her deep. His chest gave one heave and then he issued a shuddering sigh. He flexed his arms around her, crushing her against him, and she didn’t want to be anywhere but here.
