Her Relentless SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 10)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “I’m not at my apartment. I’m at Starbucks.”

  “Don’t go back to your apartment. The guy who kidnapped me is in Tennessee. He knows where the twins live. He could know where you and Trenda live. I’m going to be there as soon as I can.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “The guy never got the passports he wanted. They’re worth millions. Jim’s friend needed to get them. The only thing this man has to lead him to the passports is my old phone. He’s been trying to get ahold of Jim and Blake but Aiden made them change their numbers and totally disappear, that leaves y’all. He’s going to try to take one of you to get to me.”

  “That’s crazy!”

  “No it’s not. It’s desperate.”

  “That means you can’t come to Tennessee. We need to get the authorities involved.”

  Evie bit her thumbnail. Maddie was right. “Just don’t go home. Can you try to get ahold of Zoe and Chloe? I’m going to get ahold of Piper and make sure she never talked to this asshole. Thank God you blocked him.”

  “I’ll have them call you as soon as I get ahold of either Zoe or Chloe.”

  “Thank you.”

  She hung up and turned to Lydia. “Was that Clint?”

  “Yep. The guys are two hours from Coronado. They were planning on surprising us.”

  “Woohoo, surprise,” Evie said wanly. “I need to call Piper and make sure she didn’t talk to him.”

  “It’s going to be all right.”

  “You’ve already said that.” Evie reminded the woman. “ But, there’s a madman after my sisters.”

  “We’re going to stop him. He’s not going to touch them. I promise.”

  “The guys aren’t here.”

  “We don’t need them,” Lydia said as she turned to her computer. Evie looked at her in amazement. Holy hell, she was totally sincere.

  She punched in Piper’s number. Fuck, it went to voicemail.

  ***

  Where Drake was animated rage, Aiden was silent ice.

  “Lydia already has our tickets out of San Diego. She and Evie are going to be there three hours sooner than we are because they’re leaving out of LAX,” Clint informed the Midnight Delta team.

  Aiden had already had a futile conversation with Evie, she was going with Lydia to Tennessee. Evie was hell on wheels on a good day, but add Lydia into the mix and she thought she could conquer the world. What was with these women?

  “Clint, can’t you get Lydia to stand down?” Aiden demanded.

  “What would be the fun in that?” Clint laughed. “But seriously, it will be good for them to get there as soon as possible. Lydia has our contacts at homeland security, she’ll coordinate with them.”

  “I hear a but in that statement.”

  “She already reached out. There not putting a lot of credence in Evie’s claim that her kidnapper from Turkey is in Tennessee, so I don’t know how much help we’re going to get. They aren’t going to get there until later tonight.”

  “Aiden, what’s the chance that this guy is acting alone?” Mason asked.

  “Slim to none, he’s a recruiter for his organization.”

  “If his end game is to get the passports, why target Evie’s sisters?” Jack asked.

  “Her phone and the email address were the only two things he had left to connect him to the passports. Dex shut down the email address, so he must be thinking to take one of Evie’s sisters as leverage to force Nathan to hand over the passports.”

  “Do we know where Nathan is?” Mason asked.

  “We left his ass to RLI to deal with. He’d fucked up the whole project and you know those mercenaries won’t let it stand. If I had to guess, he’s probably six feet under,” Clint answered. “Right now the CIA and Interpol are working to get the passports.”

  “Who has contacts with the CIA?” Mason asked.

  “Gray does,” Aiden answered. “I’ll have him find out if they’re anywhere close to finding the passports.”

  “Lydia’s been coordinating with Interpol,” Clint added.

  Aiden turned when Drake’s hand slammed against the wall of the ship. “When are they letting us off?”

  “We have priority. Twenty minutes at the max,” Mason assured Drake.

  Gray was waiting for them at the dock to take them straight to the airport. The problem was their flight had a layover, that’s why the women would be there so much sooner than they would.

  Jack and Dare had to stay behind to debrief the Captain. Normally Mason would leave Clint to do it, but there was no way he would remain behind while Lydia was in Tennessee.

  ***

  As soon as the flight attendant said it was safe to turn on the cell phone, Lydia and Evie had theirs out.

  “Lydia, should my sister’s even have their phones on? Can that bastard locate them, like we located him?”

  “No Evie, if he could have done that, he wouldn’t have been calling each of them to find out their information over the phone.”

  “Fuck, I’m so stupid.”

  “No, you’re right to be thinking of all the angles.” Lydia covered her hand. “Now call your sisters and find out where they are.”

  Lydia and Evie were sitting near the back of the plane, so they had time to make calls. She heard Lydia calling Dex, but then Trenda’s phone connected. Bella answered. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Baby. It’s Aunt Evie. Can I talk to your Mama?”

  “We’re at the LeeLee notel Aunt Evie. We can get cans of pop from the machine.”

  “That’s great. Can you give your Mama the phone?”

  “Mama! Aunt Evie’s on the phone.”

  “Darn it all. Isabella, I told you not to play with Mommy’s phone.” Trenda got on the line. “Evie, are you all right? Where are you?”

  “I’m fine. Where are you?”

  “I’m over at the LeeHy motel.”

  “That rat trap?”

  “It was close and I could get a room. Nobody’s going to find me here. Relax.”

  “Why didn’t you go stay at one of the resort hotels?”

  “It’s the Thursday before Labor Day weekend, they’re all booked up.”

  “Okay, keep your head down, Trenda.

  “You got it, what are you going to do?”

  “Lydia and I are heading over to Chloe and Zoe’s place.”

  “Aren’t you going to call the police?”

  “Lydia’s got someone who is coming to Jasper Creek who will be meeting us. They will be here soon.”

  “What is soon?”

  “Soon,” Evie stalled, wanting to end that line of questioning. From what Lydia said they weren’t going to arrive for a couple of more hours. The men would probably arrive first. “Just trust us. Do you know where Maddie is?”

  “She’s been hanging out at the Polly’s Restaurant. She just commandeered a booth, plugged in her laptop and made herself at home. She’s going to spend the night here with me and Bella.”

  Evie could see why Maddie might not want to spend the day there.

  Okay, so three of her sisters were accounted for when she included Piper who was safe in California. She’d gotten the phone calls, but she just had a policy of never answering calls that she didn’t recognize. She’d need to give lessons to Zoe when this was over with.

  It was their turn to get up. They didn’t have any carry-on items, everything was at baggage claim. Lydia had wanted to take a gun. When Evie had asked for one, Lydia asked her if she knew how to handle one, and Evie had to admit that she didn’t.

  “Then you don’t get one. A gun in the hands of someone not trained is worse than not having one.” Evie trusted Lydia, so she didn’t balk, especially when she saw how competent the woman was in handling it.

  At baggage claim she tried to get ahold of either Chloe or Zoe once again. No luck.

  Shit!

  She had her phone up to her ear as she followed Lydia to the rental car counter. “Maddie?”

  “Are you h
ere? Do you need a ride?”

  “No, we’re renting a car and heading over to their apartment at ETSU right now. I wish we could get one of them on the phone so we didn’t have to make the drive.”

  “I’ve texted and emailed them. Nada! Nothing! I can believe it from Zoe, but not Chloe. This is so unlike her. Maybe it’s because it’s almost Labor Day weekend?” Maddie said thoughtfully.

  “I don’t care why it is, they need to answer. Just keep at it, will you?”

  “You got it.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  All of the men were too big to sit comfortably in commercial, and to make matters worse, because they hadn’t gotten reservations ahead of time, they were all in middle seats. Aiden kept his eyes closed during the majority of the trip from Dallas to Tennessee, trying to work out all of the angles of their upcoming mission.

  Lydia had called Clint from the Tennessee airport and left a message updating him to say they were on their way to the twins’ apartment at ETSU.

  Aiden had called Dex during their short layover in Dallas. Dex had come through with some information from Interpol. They had identified the man with the English accent. His name was Khalid Clifford. He was born in Belgium and educated in England. He had travelled extensively in the Middle East and was known as a recruiter for the cause. That would be why he wanted to get his hands on passports, he would want his minions to have access to countries across Europe and even into the United States.

  “Dex, does Interpol show he’s in the US?” Aiden asked.

  “Yep. Landed about a week before the hotel was broken into.”

  “So he’s had plenty of time to recruit people to help him,” Aiden bit out.

  “That’s my take,” Dex agreed.

  “Do you have any good news?”

  “Yes. Clint has a tracking device on his phone for Lydia, and I’ve installed one for Evie on yours.”

  “That is good news!”

  “I have two trucks waiting for you at the rental counter when you get there. Call me when you land. I might have more information then.”

  “You got it.”

  ***

  It took them an hour and a half to get to the girl’s apartment.

  “It’s a nice area,” Lydia commented.

  Evie was too keyed up to care. She’d been driving like a bat out of hell, and, luckily they hadn’t been pulled over. She’d made Lydia call her sister’s number every fifteen minutes, but nobody answered.

  She parked on the street, and jumped out of the car.

  “Whoa. We can’t go off half-cocked. You’re the one they want Evie. You need to stay in the car, and let me go up to the door like I’m just one of their friends.”

  “You think he has them?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he would have already called your cell phone with them on it.”

  Bile rose, she thought she would throw up, for just a moment she was back in that room, the man pointing her pink phone at her.

  “How could I have not realized?” Evie’s voice was hoarse.

  “Don’t beat yourself up. It’s good news, but we need to be smart about this and let me go knock on the door.”

  Evie nodded. Lydia walked calmly up the walk towards the apartment that Chloe and Zoe shared. Evie watched as she knocked on the door, and then she saw how it pushed open. Lydia disappeared inside. She looked down at her watch, if Lydia was gone for more than ninety seconds, she was going in after her.

  Sixty seconds after she went in, she came out and waved at Evie. She shot out of the car. Lydia stopped her before she went into the apartment. “It’s a shambles, but there’s no sign of a struggle, so that’s good.”

  She went inside, and the first thing she saw is the huge chalkboard that covered the wall in the dining room. She’d forgotten how artistic Zoe was.

  Every drawer was open, the desk that the sisters shared had all of its papers strewn about the floor. The small filing cabinet beside it had been upended. Somebody had been searching for something.

  “What were they looking for?”

  “My guess is your address.”

  “Thank God they weren’t here, but where are they?” Evie looked around the room, and then the hair on the back of her neck stood up. There on the chalkboard was damn near everything the kidnappers needed.

  LABOR DAY WEEKEND AT LACIE’S! CHEROKEE LAKE, HERE WE COME!

  She rushed over to the board and saw where there had been something taped to it, but it had been ripped off. She pulled what was left off, and saw part of an invitation.

  Oh God.

  Oh God.

  Oh God.

  The kidnappers would know exactly where her sisters were. They were at Cherokee Lake with Lacie Danvers. She remembered the girl, but she had no idea where the house might be. She needed to call Maddie.

  Maddie didn’t say hello when she answered, she just asked if Evie and Lydia had found the twins.

  “No. But we know where they went. There was an invitation for them to go to Cherokee Lake with Lacie Danvers. Do you know where her house is?”

  “It’s her uncle’s cabin. I’ve been there once, but I have no idea how to tell you to get there.”

  Evie had it on speaker and Lydia was listening in.

  “Maddie, this is Lydia. What’s Lacie’s uncle’s name? I can get the records and get the address.”

  “Oh shit. It’s not really her uncle. He’s a friend of the family, and I don’t know him except as Uncle Walt. I was there once. If you pick me up I’m sure I can get us there.”

  “No. We don’t need any more innocents involved.” Lydia’s tone was emphatic. Evie touched her arm. She looked at the woman’s strained face. She remembered that she was an older sister, too.

  “Lydia, we have no choice. Cherokee Lake is just too big for us to go out there alone without some idea of where we’re going. We need Maddie.”

  “Pick me up at Polly’s. I’ll be ready to go.”

  ***

  “I should drive.” Maddie said as she ran up to the SUV. She had a duffle bag swinging in her arms.

  Lydia was already in the backseat, and Evie pointed to the passenger seat.

  “But I know where-”

  “Seriously Mads, don’t give me any shit. We know who the better driver is. You navigate, I drive. We don’t have time.”

  Maddie shut up, got in and buckled up. She tossed the bag over the seat.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a bitch.”

  “You weren’t. But I was just trying to help. I brought back-up.”

  “What do you mean?” Evie asked.

  “Polly’s daughter is on a softball team. That’s her bat-bag,” she said gesturing to the duffle bag she’d just thrown into the back seat.

  “You’re amazing. Do you hear that Lydia? My sister gave me a weapon. You might not have given me a gun, but I damn well have a bat to play with!”

  Maddie’s head whipped around to the back seat. “You have a gun?”

  Lydia nodded. She was staring out the window. “How far away is the lake from here?”

  “It’s an hour’s drive. The last twenty minutes is backroads.”

  “How sure are you that you can find this place, Maddie?” Evie asked.

  “We might take a couple of wrong turns, but I’ll get us there eventually.”

  “Lydia, are you going to be able to write down the directions so you can give them to Clint and Aiden?” Evie asked.

  “No need.”

  “Huh?” Evie glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

  Lydia held up her phone. “GPS. Clint has me tracked. He’ll be able to pinpoint our location. He’ll find us.”

  The amount of relief Evie felt was ridiculous. So much for always wanting to handle things on her own.

  “They will have landed by the time we have arrived at the lake,” Lydia said.

  Evie took a deep breath. Yeah, she was relieved that Aiden was going to be
here. She needed him. But, he was going to be so pissed.

  “Clint is going to hand me my ass.”

  Evie looked at Lydia in the backseat and saw her wearing a shit-eating grin. It sparked a small smile on her own face. She wanted to take this fucker down, didn’t she? Damn right she did. And she had a bat to do it with.

  ***

  The four men were at baggage claim, Clint was repeating back what Lydia was saying to him on the phone.

  “They’ve gone to a lake. It’s in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Lydia says that there having a hell of a time finding the right place, so hopefully our target is having problems finding it too.”

  “What the fuck?” Drake said.

  Aiden had already tried to call Evie, but it went to voicemail.

  “Clint, why can you talk to Lydia, and I can’t talk to Evie?” he demanded.

  “My woman has a satellite phone. Yeah it’s overboard, but what can I say, anything less freaks me the hell out.”

  Aiden saw Mason and Drake making mental notes to get Sophia and Karen satellite phones in the future. Evie would have one before the weekend was done.

  Just then Evie called him back.

  “Why didn’t you pick up before?” he demanded.

  “Aiden? This is Maddie. Evie’s driving.”

  “I want you to pull over to the side of the road and wait for us. We’re an hour away from the lake.”

  “No!” Evie and Lydia said the same word at the same time. Apparently Maddie had the phone on speaker.

  “I’m hanging up now,” Aiden heard Clint saying in stereo. He was in the girl’s car and in the airport with the men. Aiden put his phone on speaker so all of the men could hear what was being said, he didn’t give a shit about the rest of the passengers in baggage claim, they’d just have to cope.

  “You will pull over. You will wait for us. You will not pass go. You will not collect two hundred dollars.” Drake said.

  “Fuck you, Drake,” Evie yelled.

  Aiden saw a mother take her three children and walk to the furthest side of the baggage carousel.

  “Guys, keep it together,” Mason counseled in a low tone. “We have you tracked. What is your game plan?”

  “We’re not just going to drive up to the cabin, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Evie said sarcastically.