Sierra popped up on the first ring, she looked anxious. “Hey, Sierra, get Cyrus.”
“He’s here. We got tapes of the outside area of the airport in Orange County. Sarah didn’t leave through the employee exit.”
“I know, she deplaned in Atlanta. Pull up the tape, she was passenger number thirty-one, she was with a black male. Cyrus, can you identify him?”
He did his best to wait patiently, zooming in on the picture of Sarah. She was smart—no face shot. She kept her head down the entire time. But he’d know her anywhere. Those hands, the arch of her neck, okay maybe the legs threw him for a loop. He’d never seen her in a short skirt before. God, he wanted to see those long mocha colored legs in person, preferably while wrapped around his waist. Fuck, he needed to dial it back. First he needed to get to know her, hell they’d never been on a damn date.
“Fuck, how did I miss her?” Cyrus snapped. “She’s my little sister.” Nate wanted to know the same damn thing, but he kept his mouth shut.
“Who’s the guy?” Sierra asked.
“Never saw him before.” Cyrus sounded frustrated.
“Maybe she picked him up on the plane,” Sierra said. Nate snorted, and then explained what he had discovered.
“Cyrus, can you get his photo in front of your brothers? See if anyone knows this creep?”
“On it.”
“He doesn’t look like a creep.” Nate recognized the tone from Sierra, she used it occasionally when she was trying to soothe one of her naval teammates. Right now it was fucking irritating and he told her so.
“Look Goodman, going off half-cocked isn’t going to help things.” Sierra said using her smack down voice. “Obviously something was pretty damned important to Sarah. She’s smart, smarter than the two of us put together. She knows her life is in danger. If she thought something was worth this level of risk, then it is.”
Nate stared at the computer screen unable to believe the shit coming out of Sierra’s mouth.
“I can hear you growling.”
“I am not growling,” he said between clenched teeth.
“You are so growling you fucking Neanderthal. You better be thinking with the big head and not the little head. Sarah might have given us the slip, but she needs protection, and you’re it big guy.” Sierra pointed at him for emphasis.
“Bullshit, my family will be right by the big guy’s side.” Shoving his face into the screen.
Nate didn’t doubt it in the slightest. He had met Cyrus’s brothers. They lived in Atlanta, and he knew as soon as he pointed out Sarah in the video Cyrus had sent texts to his family.
“When can I expect to see the hoard?” Nate tried not to shudder thinking of all the Johnson brothers.
“As soon as you get your ass over to my parent’s house.”
“You told your mom and dad?” Nate asked incredulously.
“Of course. My mother would have torn a strip off me if I kept this from her.”
Nate flashed back to the nice woman who arranged the prayer circle for Kali when she had been kidnapped, it didn’t jive.
“Why would you worry your mother?”
“Are you saying because she’s a woman, she’s weak and needs to be protected?” Sierra demanded.
“Can it Sierra. You know I don’t feel like that. Hell, how many times have I depended on you to pull my ass out of the fire when we’ve been on missions together? But this is Mrs. Johnson’s little girl we’re talking about. I didn’t think she needed this worry.”
Nate watched as Cyrus threw his head back and laughed.
“Let me tell you something about Lila Johnson. She’s the fiercest member of the Johnson clan when it comes to her children. Don’t be messing with her babies. She might be all choir singing, church going, Sunday dinner making mama, but she’s a lion wrapped in sheep’s clothing. I’m scared of my Mama, and I’m damn near forty years old.” Cyrus laughed outright.
“I didn’t mean to cast aspersions on your mother. However, I will now be casting aspersions on your manhood on a regular basis. I just didn’t want her worried. I’d hoped we could find Sarah before she knew she was even gone.” Nate rubbed the back of his neck, but nothing was going to work out the kinks.
“You’re still not getting it. Mom will be able to help the most. Nobody knows Sarah better than she does. I was kind of yanking your chain, but seriously, my mother has every right to know what’s going on, and she’ll be a big help. So get your ass over to my parent’s house. They’re expecting you. You did good recognizing my sister, don’t blow it now by being a horse’s ass.”
“Do you have any idea why she would do something so reckless? Rixitron is still intent on conducting their breeding experiments with the found. Sarah’s been the number one target. It’s been barely eight months since we stopped their attempted kidnapping in Atlanta. Why would she risk coming here?”
“It has to be something important, and by that I mean something damn near life and death in her eyes. I can’t fathom what it is, that’s why you have to talk to Mama. If anyone can get into Sarah’s head, it’s her.”
“Let me finish going through the tapes, I want to see if I can find her leaving the airport. I want to know if she took a taxi, or they left in a car. After that, I’ll head on over to your mother’s house.” Nate shut off the Skype session, determined to find more information to help in their investigation. He was not going to fail.
****
He held Sarah a little longer than necessary but must have realized it, so released her. He looked into her eyes and smiled. Sarah looked at her friend who had helped plan her escape and smiled back at him.
“Let’s get your bags.”
“What you see, is what you get, Ramone” He groaned, and Sarah winced, realizing how her words could be interpreted.
“Does that mean I get you?” he asked.
“You’re still a flirt, I see.” She raised her eyebrows and looked at him.
“Okay, okay. Let’s get to my car.”
Ramone held out his hand and she took it, following the throng of people towards baggage claim leading to the exit of the Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport.
Twice Sarah caught him glancing at her.
She couldn’t believe he was the same boy who had eaten paste at Daniel Bagley Elementary. Even harder to believe he was the same young man she had treated in the ER for a gunshot wound when she’d been rotations as an intern. He had been on his way to a life of crime—angry, sullen, and downright scary.
She’d met his mother and sister that night so long ago, and thought for sure they were going to lose him to a gang. Instead he visited the hospital months later to thank her for saving him. They’d reestablished their friendship.
“A Prius?” Sarah shouted with laughter, it was the first time she laughed in the last forty-eight hours.
“Do not make fun of a man’s wheels. Especially when they are taking you where you need to go.”
“You are Ramone Sands, right?”
“That’s Reverend Ramone Sands,” he said as he opened her door. He lifted his hand and she knew he was going to stroke her cheek. She caught it before he could.
“I don’t think there are security cameras here. We can stop now.”
“Damn, I’ve been liking this. A lot. Haven’t you? Just a little?” There was only a gentle question, which made her pause rather than shake her head. But the reverend was nothing if not astute.
“Is there someone?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know if there is or not.” She thought about Nate, but then again, when didn’t she think about him? It had to stop. His life was somewhere else. He wasn’t like Noah. He hadn’t asked to be transferred to California, instead he was still out of the country most of the time. Obviously there was never going to be anything between them.
“Sarah, are you listening to me?”
“What?” she asked, distracted.
“Never mind.” His hand cupped her cheek and he smiled gently. He lowered hi
s head and gave her the sweetest of kisses, and then settled her into the car and shut the door.
Damn he was smooth. It didn’t matter though, he wasn’t Nate.
****
Nate didn’t know how he was supposed to eat the food Mrs. Johnson put in front of him, considering he no longer had any back teeth. He’d ground them to dust when he saw the kiss Sarah shared with the man in the parking garage.
“Don’t you like lasagna?”
“Yes I do Lila, I’m sorry, I was preoccupied.” Nate realized he better pull his head out of his ass. He didn’t want to hurt Sarah’s mom’s feelings. He really liked the woman, and she’d gone to a lot of trouble making such a great meal.
“I can understand why you’re worried, but while we’re waiting for Kyle to get off shift, we might as well have dinner. I’m sure he’ll have the information you need from the license plate number. Now, give me a couple of minutes and I’ll be back with the garlic bread.”
Nate looked at the beautiful woman, who looked a little bit like Sarah, which amazed him, considering Sarah was her adopted daughter. Hell, calling her adopted wasn’t doing the whole thing justice, since she showed up in the Johnson’s backyard one day when she was five years old.
“It’s something else, isn’t it?” Frank Johnson nudged him.
“Hmmm?”
“My two beauties.” Lila went into the kitchen and Frank spoke. Two of his other son’s heads popped up and grinned at their father. It looked as if this was a well beloved topic. Nate didn’t know if he was up for it, considering one of the beauties in question was gallivanting around Atlanta with some pretty boy and putting her life in danger.
The front door opened, and finally Kyle came in and sat down at the dinner table. He grinned at Nate.
“I’ve got the name of your guy.” He started spooning lasagna onto a plate.
“Well?”
“Ma,” he yelled out. Lila came into the dining room.
“Hi Baby Boy. What did you find out?”
“Don’t call me that. Sarah’s the youngest.”
“I’m sorry Kyle.” Lila rolled her eyes to the rest of the table and everyone laughed.
“Ma, do you know a preacher named Ramone Sands?” Everyone waited as she thought for a moment.
“He’s the assistant pastor over at the Union Church on Third and Jakes Street. Your sister treated him for a GSW her first year at the hospital. They were in the same grade in elementary school for a few years before his dad passed. Then he and his mama moved away.” She sat next to her husband. “I remember your sister telling me he was on his way to being part of a gang, but he turned his life around. I never met the man, but your sister spoke highly of him. Reverend Hughly wouldn’t have taken him as an assistant if he wasn’t of strong character. Ramone is in charge of the youth ministry, if I’m not mistaken.”
“You’re not. I called to talk to him. He’s conveniently unavailable, meeting with a group of boy scouts at Lake Winfield to hike and camp in the Chattahoochee National Forest.”
“Call his cell phone,” Nate barked. Every one of the Johnson’s laughed.
“I did. He asked if this was an official investigation, and if Sarah had done anything wrong. Basically he gave me the runaround. He knew I was her brother.”
“Bring him in for questioning,” Nate shot back.
“On what grounds?” Kyle reached for the garlic bread.
“On the grounds she could be in danger and he will be in danger if he doesn’t immediately tell us everything he knows.”
“I tried, he laughed.”
“Fine, we go to him.” Nate was having a tough time with Kyle’s lackadaisical attitude.
“I can’t go. I’m on duty. You’re stuck with the slacker who doesn’t work.”
“Ignore my brother,” the second youngest Johnson brother, Brayson, said. “He’s just jealous how the shifts work at the Fire Department. I have a lot of experience camping in Chattahoochee. We’ll go corner the good reverend and find out where he stashed Sarah. This is total bullshit.”
“When can we leave?”
“After dinner, we’ll stop at my apartment and pick up the camping gear and supplies we’re going to need.”
Books by Caitlyn O’Leary
The Found Series
Revealed, Book One
Forsaken, Book Two
Healed, Book Three
Navy Seal Series
Her Vigilant SEAL, Book One (Coming August 2015)
Fate Harbor Series Published by Siren/Bookstrand
Trusting Chance, Book One
Protecting Olivia, Book Two
Claiming Kara, Book Three
Isabella’s Submission, Book Four
Cherishing Brianna, Book Five
Keep up with Caitlyn O’Leary:
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/nuhvey2
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Website: http://www.caitlynoleary.com
Email: [email protected]
Berserker’s Rage
SmokeJumpers
Book two
By Elle Boon
Chapter One
Felicity pinched the bridge of her nose and closed down the computer. “Thank God today is over.” The final rush before prom had moms, and their teenage daughters, coming into the overpriced boutique to buy one of a kind dresses. The boutique, located in a strip mall, was in one of the wealthiest parts of Beverly Hills.
She’d let the other employees, most of whom were teenagers or college students, leave shortly after closing, while she did the end of the month total. Looking at the clock on the wall she grimaced. “Fuck a duck.” Knowing it was going to be dark out, but figuring she was in a well-lit parking lot, not to mention the crime rate was almost non-existent, she grabbed the bank envelope and stuffed it into her purse.
From her office she saw the lights in the front of the store were set to low. After making sure the alarm was turned on she walked out the back, closing and locking the heavy steel door. She took two steps and then stopped at the sight of four figures wearing hoodies.
Felicity hugged her bag closer to her chest, calculating in her head the chances of getting back into the store, or making it to her car. She wished she’d listened to her parents and learned to use a gun, or taken those self-defense classes they’d went on and on about.
“Look at her. She’s thinking about trying to escape, Danny.” One of the thugs sneered.
“Shut up, asshole.” The one she assumed was Danny began moving toward her.
Felicity decided a few thousand dollars wasn’t worth her life, and pulled the bank envelope out. The credit slips and checks could be cancelled, she reconciled in her mind. “Here, just take it and go.” She held it out as the one she assumed was the leader came toward her. They had masks with white skulls painted over their faces, making them appear even more frightening to Felicity. She locked her legs in place as he took, and then opened the envelope pulling the cash out.
He leaned down and sniffed her neck. “You really should’ve locked up and went home earlier. Don’t you know it’s not safe to be out after the sun goes down? Things go bump in the dark, little girl.”
Looking up, she saw the coldest eyes staring down at her, and she knew her life was over. No matter how much she wished it otherwise, these men had no plans to take the money and run.
“Why?” Felicity hated the plea in her voice, but couldn’t help but ask the one word question.
The other three men had moved closer, somehow maneuvering her into the darkened corner near the dumpsters. A perfect place to do God only knew what to her. Felicity looked around for an escape, or a weapon, but saw nothing but garbage and darkness.
“You want to know why we chose you?” One of the thugs asked, his voice grating. “You are always the last to leave. You may not be much to look at, but your body is kickin, and
there is the added bonus of the money. We call that a win-win.” Two of the masked men fist bumped each other.
“Wow, he sure is talkative tonight. I guess that means we get to kill this one, huh?” Felicity nearly fell on her ass hearing the feminine voice behind the mask.
“Awe, what’s the matter, sugar lips? Did you think only men could do these sorts of things? Nah, I enjoy fighting and fucking just as much as these guys. Actually, I think I may get off on it more.”
Thinking back to the string of crimes she’d read about, and how they’d found all the victims, made Felicity’s stomach roll. She placed her hand over her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said. Her parents would be horrified that her body would be found naked, the way the other victims had been discovered.
“That’s not going to save you, sugar lips.” Felicity hated the woman.
“Alice, quit being a cunt and scaring our date.” The one she assumed was Danny moved in closer. “Now, we can do this several ways. You can let us have our fun, or you can fight, and we will enjoy that even more. The difference is you won’t enjoy option B nearly as much as us.”
“What the hell, Dan, you got a soft spot for the ugly duckling or what?” Alice asked.
Felicity winced at the words tossed out by the woman. She had always been a plain Jane, and had been fine with it. Hearing that even her attackers thought she was ugly, but still planned…she couldn’t finish the thought of what was coming. What she could do was fight and not let them have it the easy way. She’d rather die fighting than be alive while they did whatever they intended. Since they weren’t expecting her to attack, she would go on the offense. She lifted the cross-body bag from across her chest, knowing it appeared light, when it fact it was heavier than if she had a couple bricks stored inside.
Thorn's Bondmate (Zarronian Warriors Book 2) Page 27
