All In (Sleeper SEALs Book 9)

by Lori Ryan

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Damon waited. He could be patient. She was saying goodbye to friends and had been for the last half hour. It seemed like every time she said goodbye to one friend, another stepped up. He’d have to move quickly and be discreet.

  The minute he met Lyra’s new boyfriend, he’d known the guy had to be undercover. How she hadn’t seen it, he’d never know. Then again, maybe she wasn’t the suspicious type. Damon liked to think of it as cautious, self-preservation if nothing else.

  When Billy said the guy had taken over the super’s duties for a short time, Damon had started digging into the guy’s life. It never hurt to be prepared and know just how to hit someone if you needed to go on the offensive. Luke Reynolds had an Achilles heel all right. A big one.

  Damon kept his head down in a book and when someone tried to talk to him, he was polite, but brisk.

  Finally, she was on the move again. Damon closed the book and tucked it under his arm, whistling as he walked toward her. She headed out toward the small parking lot and he jogged behind her.

  “Naomi,” he called out, raising a hand.

  She turned and smiled, and he slid the gun between her arm and rib cage, making sure she could feel it press into her side.

  He smiled. “Keep walking, keep smiling. You and I are going to take a little trip.”

  He could see her open her mouth and take a deep breath, but he tugged her closer, twisting his hand and digging in with the gun. “Scream and the twins are going to pay the price for it.”

  “The twins?” Her face gave her away. She knew exactly who he was talking about.

  “Try me. I promise you. You’ll regret it,” he bit out, still smiling and looking down at her, letting her see in his eyes that he didn’t make idle threats.

  He steered them to his car and it was done.

  Patience always paid off.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The room outside grew quiet. Lyra needed to stand and stretch her legs again to keep the blood circulating. Getting stiff or having her legs fall asleep wouldn’t be a good plan right now. The girls had fallen asleep though, each with a heavy head on her lap. She hated to wake them. Hated to have them go through the realization that this nightmare was anything but that. That it was really happening and they were still stuck in the dank room.

  She heard movement in the room outside, maybe a chair scraping. Definitely the sound of footsteps. The footsteps weren’t coming toward the room she and the girls were in, but she sat still, straining to hear them anyway. Lyra shook the girls awake, finger pressed to her lips as they sat up and stared at her. She wanted to cry when she saw their faces, saw dawning come. Saw the fear there as they remembered what had happened and where they were.

  She didn’t. She pressed them behind her and then stood, shaking her legs out as silently as she could, then sat again, her right hand sitting on the floor near where she’d stashed the metal bar under the bed. She needed to be ready to slide it out and use it if she needed to.

  She didn’t look at the way the girls huddled behind her. Doing that would break her heart.

  The footsteps stopped for a bit and then began again, this time leading to the door to their room. She heard the lock turn and the door swung open. There was more light outside the room than in, leaving her looking at a silhouette, but she recognized it.

  Murphy.

  The girls crept into her lap but Lyra stared at Murphy, her right hand still ready to move if he came forward. She would need to stand in one motion, pulling the metal bar out without putting the girls down gently, but they shouldn’t be hurt from the fall, if she needed to act. All of her being wanted to wrap her arms around them protectively, but she didn’t dare.

  He stood in the doorway for what seemed like an eternity, and Lyra could hear soft whimpers from Prentiss and Alyssa. In what seemed like an agonizingly slow move, Murphy slid a tray he’d been holding in one hand toward them, then scanned the room before shutting the door.

  The girls were on the food in a heartbeat, before Lyra could think to stop them. They’d been given water bottles earlier in the day, but with those she’d been able to see that the seals on the bottles hadn’t been cracked.

  The girls were wolfing down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before she could stop them, and Lyra closed her eyes and said a prayer that there wouldn’t be anything in them to hurt the girls. She would let them eat their fill before eating any. They’d been hours without food.

  “Slow down, girls,” she said quietly. “You’ll get a belly ache if you eat too fast.”

  Prentiss nodded and pushed a sandwich toward her mom.

  Lyra shook her head. “You eat first, baby. I’ll eat whatever’s left over.”

  “I have to go potty, mom,” Alyssa said, putting down the last of her third sandwich.

  Lyra bit her lip and looked to the door and back. By the way Prentiss was crossing her legs and bouncing, she knew both girls had to go. So did she, for that matter.

  Lyra crossed to the door and banged on it with her fist. “The girls have to go to the bathroom.” She didn’t use Murphy’s name. She didn’t want to remind him that she knew who he was and could identify him if he let them go free. It was something that had been hanging over her this whole time. She knew perfectly well that they were aware she could identify Damon and Murphy if they released her. She needed to find a way to convince them that she wouldn’t do that.

  Maybe if she talked to him about his grandmother. Got him to see how disappointed she’d be in him. What Lyra couldn’t figure out was why in the world he’d be working with Damon. Murphy was a man who brought his grandmother her groceries once a week, for heaven’s sake. What on earth would make him do something like this?

  She heard footsteps coming toward them and stepped back from the door. It opened and Murphy glared at her, annoyed, then looked toward the girls.

  “One at a time.”

  “No.” Lyra spoke firmly. “We go together.”

  He stared her down and she wondered what the outcome of this would be if Damon were here. It had been clear to her that Damon was the one in charge.

  “Fine.” He stood back and let her and the girls come through the door and out into the outer room. “Be fast about it, though. And no fucking around. I’ll make you sorry if you fuck with me at all.”

  The words seemed out of place coming from him, as though he were a little boy playing in an adult’s clothing. Like the fight with Damon had made him feel the need to prove himself to her.

  Lyra moved out into the room, one twin on either side, pressed against her tightly. She realized with a start, the walls of the room they were in were all lined with some sort of heavy foam. Her eyes moved to a long desk with machinery on it and she recognized sound mixing equipment. They must be in a recording studio.

  As Murphy swore and shoved her toward a dirty bathroom on the other side of the room, she realized something. A recording studio meant sound proof walls. Tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall. As she and the girls used the facilities, she took deep breaths. When she moved back through the room with them, she wanted to be ready to take in every detail she could. Everything from furniture placement to phones, weapons, exits. Every small scrap of information that might help her formulate a plan. She needed to stay calm to do this right.

  Inside the bathroom, Lyra scooted the girls to the potty, while she quietly opened the drawers and cabinets, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. There was very little there. The bottom drawer was filled with empty toilet papers rolls and a few crumpled tissues, as though it was being used as a garbage can. The next drawer up was empty.

  The top drawer held dental floss and a substance that looked yellow, sticky, and gross. Lyra wasn’t about to try to figure out what it was. As Prentiss and Alyssa switched places so Alyssa could go to the bathroom, Lyra opened the medicine cabinet. A bottle of Tylenol and black eye liner. It was the kind with a brush tip that was more like a marker
than the typical crayon type of liner.

  Alyssa finished using the bathroom and Lyra looked at the pen in her hand. She didn’t want to think about what could happen to her, but if she and the girls were separated, she wanted a way for someone to get them help. A way to get them to safety if she was—

  She swallowed and refused to think about what it would mean for her if someone had to use this. She turned Alyssa so her back was to her and lifted her shirt, writing Uncle Luke and Luke’s cell phone number on her daughter’s back. She waved the shirt back and forth to dry the liner as Murphy banged on the door for her to finish up.

  Lyra reached over and turned on the faucet. “Almost done.”

  She repeated the procedure with Prentiss, not looking her girls in the eye as she did it, but she knew each of them watched as the words went on the other’s back. She couldn’t explain to them that they might be on their own if something happened to her. She couldn’t do it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Sam’s on it. She’d running property searches for Damon and for Joel, in case Damon is using one of his properties.” Zach spoke to Luke as he walked back into the living room, not bothering to so much as acknowledge Billy’s presence any longer.

  Luke looked at his brother and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Listen, Zach, I know you need to call this in. Can you give me—” He broke off when his phone rang and he saw it was Naomi face-timing him.

  Part of him wanted to let it go. She would see right off that something wasn’t right with him. A tingle went up the back of his spine and he slid to answer her call, freezing when he saw the video. The room was dark, but the image of Naomi was clear. So was the gun that was held to her head.

  Her voice was shaky when she spoke. “Uncle Luke—” She wasn’t given a chance to finish. Damon appeared on the screen.

  “A little birdy told me you’re thinking of poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.” Damon held the phone so Luke could see the gun he pointed back at Naomi now as she sat, white faced and still beside him.

  Damon continued talking as Luke soaked in every detail he could, but there wasn’t much to be told. It looked like they were in a bathroom. It was filthy. Maybe a gas station or restaurant restroom. He could see dirty tiled walls and the kind of metal divider that made up the bathroom stalls.

  “I don’t like people butting into my business. Luckily, I’m always thinking one step ahead, and I had a little insurance plan in mind for just such an occasion. If you want to get your niece back in one piece, you’ll sit back and let me do things my way.”

  Luke hated the look on Naomi’s face, but he quickly realized she was mouthing something at him. He spoke to Damon, but kept his eyes on Naomi. “If you hurt one hair on her head, I’ll tear your heart out and feed it to your fucking mother for breakfast.”

  It was cliché, but it was what he could come up with since his attention was divided. It didn’t matter. As Damon grinned and told him his mother was dead and he’d be out of the country before Luke could get to him, Luke made out Naomi’s words. She was repeating, “save the twins,” over and over to him. Save the twins.

  Damon must have run his mouth enough for Naomi to know he had Lyra and the twins, and she was telling him to go after the girls. That was how she was. It was the kind of person she was soul deep, and he loved that about her.

  Damon disconnected and Luke looked up at Zach. He intended to save all of them. Naomi, the twins, and Lyra. And then he was going to take down this Damon asshole and all the people working with him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “I’m not on the clock.” Zach had been telling Luke the same thing for the last five minutes as they waited for Samantha and Logan to arrive. “I don’t need to call in shit.”

  Luke raised his brows. He knew that was bullshit. Zach was putting his job at risk. Luke couldn’t blame him. He’d do the same thing in Zach’s shoes.

  Zach stepped in front of him and stopped his pacing, speaking quietly. “Listen, Luke, I know this is killing you. You saw yourself as our family’s caretaker long before the accident. And you stepped up in a way I couldn’t have then. I wouldn’t have had it in me to raise Naomi like you did. But I’ve got your back on this now. Sometimes taking care of the family means letting the family step up.”

  Luke nodded. “All right.”

  Luke scrubbed at his face. Something had been needling him. “He’s got to be working with a partner.”

  “Why’s that?” Zach asked.

  “In the video, it was clear Damon was holding the phone and it looked like it was only he and Naomi in the bathroom.”

  His brother looked at him for a beat. “So you’re thinking he wouldn’t have left Lyra and the twins somewhere without a partner to watch them?”

  “It’s too risky. He’s organized, calculated. He knew about Naomi ahead of time. He planned what to do ahead of time to control Billy and I.”

  Zach shook his head. “Could have them tied up in a van somewhere. In a hotel room, an apartment.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so. It’s too risky. You leave her alone like that and she can try to signal to someone. Leave them in a van parked somewhere on campus while he grabs Naomi, all Lyra has to do is kick the sides of the van. Apartment or hotel room, same thing. She makes noise.”

  “Or he has them drugged. Or knocked out.” Zach looked almost apologetic as he spoke. He didn’t say the “or worse” they both knew belonged on the end of that sentence.

  Luke turned to Billy. “Besides you and Joel, who else could Damon be working with. Who else could be involved in this?”

  “I don’t know, man. No one else was supposed to be in on it. It was just supposed to be us.”

  “What about Aiden James? You think Damon would have grabbed him? Pulled him in if he needed someone to help him get to Lyra?”

  “The asshole that lives next to her? Hell no. Damon said that guy was a pervert.”

  The doorbell rang and Zach opened it to Logan and Samantha. The latter didn’t look up from a small laptop she carried with one hand and typed on with the other as she made her way to the couch.

  “Damon Taylor doesn’t own any property and he seems to be estranged from his father. Mother is dead.” Samantha spoke without preamble. Luke had always liked her. “Joel Sadoski has a couple of things we should check into.”

  Samantha glanced around now as she looked up and Luke nodded for her to continue. Logan stood at her back and Luke knew he’d go wherever they needed him to and do whatever needed to be done to end this. “Joel’s dad has bought him a few businesses in addition to the one Lyra works for. That one leases office space at a building downtown. They’d be unlikely to take them there because the building is shared by a few other businesses. We can check it, but . . . ”

  “Skip it,” Zach said.

  “Before that business, he wanted to start up a music production company. It never really panned out, but he does own a small recording studio as a result. It looks like they let people rent the space, but it’s not doing all that well. That would be my best guess for where they’ve got Lyra and the girls.” Samantha looked up at the men as she spoke, then down to her computer again. “I’m still searching for anything out near Naomi’s school.”

  They had relayed the news of Naomi’s abduction to Samantha and Logan as soon as they had it. It killed Luke to know she was in trouble hours away where he couldn’t get to her right away. He’d never felt so damned pulled in different directions in his life. Even when his sister had died and he’d had to face the reality of leaving the teams long before he was ready to, the decision had been a no-brainer. You took care of family. Always.

  Right now, he felt like he had two families, and both of them were in danger.

  Logan was the next to speak. “Chad and Jax are on the way over. Zach, me and you should go get Naomi when we track down where they might have her. Luke, you can take Chad and Jax with you to get the girls and Lyra. They’re both ex-military. Jax is
a medic.”

  He didn’t add that Jax’s skill could be handy if any of them were hurt, but he didn’t need to.

  Luke nodded. It killed him to know he wouldn’t be going after Naomi, but he also knew she cared what happened to the twins. She wouldn’t forgive him if something happened to Lyra or the twins while he was saving her. Not any more than he’d forgive himself. The only problem was, the same could be said for the other way around. How the hell would he live with himself if Naomi was hurt, or worse, while he went after Lyra and the twins?

  He took a slow deep breath, employing every damned skill in the field he’d ever had to calm himself down. One step. Then another. That was how they’d get through this. Just like when he’d been active duty.

  The only damned problem was, he wasn’t active duty and hadn’t been in a long freaking time. What the hell had he been thinking? He was a washed up old SEAL who’d turned himself into a stay-at-home Mr. Mom. And now he’d be expected to save just about everyone he loved before his whole world was wiped out by some asshole who apparently didn’t give a shit who he hurt so long as he could make a buck.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Do we wait for Zach and Logan to locate Naomi before we move on the studio?” Jax Cutter looked to Chad and Luke. Zach and Logan had left to head toward Dartmouth while Samantha sat cross legged on the couch tracking down where Naomi might be.

  Luke grimaced. The unspoken part of Jax’s question was what would Damon do to Naomi if he either got word they’d freed Lyra and the twins, or even if he simply didn’t hear from whoever he’d left here holding the girls.