by Elle James
Sam stared at her standing in the soft morning light, the shape of her body silhouetted beneath the frothy pink nightgown.
His groin tightened. “The sooner we get started, the better,” he said and got out the other side of the bed. He headed for the other room, his back to her so that he didn’t embarrass or scare her with the jutting evidence of desire. “I’ll be ready in less than ten minutes,” he called out over his shoulder.
“I’ll be ready in five,” she responded.
Sam closed the door between them and groaned. Ten minutes might not be enough time in a cool shower to bring his desire under control. He hurried to the bathroom, stripped and turned the water on cold. The shock of water that originated as snow on the mountaintops hitting his engorged cock brought him back to reality.
He couldn’t think straight if he was always thinking about making love to Reggie’s beautiful body. He had to focus on the other women whose dire situation was desperate and sobering.
Stepping out of the shower, Sam had renewed his determination to bring this manhunt to a close. Today was the day. It would be done.
Then perhaps he could get on with his life, and Reggie could start healing. Sam wanted to be there to help her through the process, but she had to be in a place to heal herself. With the Master still on the loose, she wouldn’t have the closure she needed.
Reggie dressed in her borrowed jeans and sweater. She slipped the shoulder holster on and buckled it in place, then slid the .40 caliber into it. The weight felt unnerving at the same time as it comforted her. As soon as they found the Master and freed the women, she would return to her apartment and her own wardrobe. She’d buy her own pistol and get her concealed carry license.
Her life in Bozeman seemed so far away. Had it really only been a little over two weeks since she’d been kidnapped?
For the first time since that fateful night, she felt better. More like the old Reggie, though she knew the old Reggie would be no more. She couldn’t go back to being the carefree young woman who couldn’t conceive of being kidnapped and raped multiple times. For the rest of her life, she’d be wary of dark alleys, strangers and men she didn’t know.
As soon as she could, she’d enroll in self-defense classes. If she ever had children, she’d have them trained in self-defense from the moment they could walk.
She shivered at the thought of having a child kidnapped and tortured as she’d been tortured. Knowing the kinds of monsters that existed, could she bring another child into this messed up world? She thought of Hank and Sadie’s daughter Emma. That precious baby.
Reggie had always wanted children, but now…? She wasn’t sure she could.
After she’d dressed, combed her hair and brushed her teeth, she pressed her ear to the door between her room and Sam’s. She could hear the water in the shower still running. Rather than wait for him, she decided to go downstairs and help out in the kitchen. With extra guests in the house, there would be added work to prepare breakfast for them all.
When she arrived in the kitchen, she found Hank and Kujo in control of cooking breakfast. “There’s coffee in the pot, milk and juice in the refrigerator,” Hank said. “Help yourself. Sadie’s changing Emma’s diaper. She should be back in a second.”
“What can I do to help?” she asked.
“How about setting the table with utensils and glasses?” Hank suggested. “Kujo and I have the cooking under control.”
Kujo pulled piping hot biscuits from the oven and set the pan on a trivet.
Hank returned his attention to a pan of fluffy yellow scrambled eggs and a griddle lined with pancakes.
Sadie sailed into the kitchen with Emma in her arms. “Good morning, Reggie. I hope you slept well last night.”
Heat climbed up Reggie’s neck and suffused her cheeks. “I did. Thank you.”
“After breakfast, we’ll meet with Swede in the war room and bring you and Sam up to speed on what we’ve discovered during the night.”
“Did you find the house?” Sam asked from the doorway to the kitchen.
Reggie’s insides quivered at the sound of his voice, and warmth spread throughout her body. She’d never had that kind of reaction to any man in her life. Why was Sam so different? Was she experiencing some kind of hero worship because he’d saved her life? Would it fade after the Master was captured and rotting in prison? She turned to see Sam wearing his jeans like they were a natural part of his body. And the black T-shirt he’d put on to cover his gorgeous chest stretched over the muscles, leaving little of his impressive physique to the imagination.
Her body on fire with desire, Reggie turned to the refrigerator, opened the door and stood in the cool air, praying the heat would abate before she had to face the man again.
“What did Swede find?” Sam asked.
“Not a whole lot, but maybe something,” Hank said. “Upon close inspection of the satellite images, he thinks he found the hard lines of a roof through the trees in a couple places near the cliffs and dirt roads leading in from the highway. They bear checking into.”
“Is there an address from the road, leading into the property?” Sam asked.
“Not that we could find. We suspect it’s an old abandoned house.” Hank met Reggie’s gaze. “Do you remember if there were electric lights in the house?”
Reggie closed her eyes and pictured the cellar, the stairs and the house above. It had the musty smell of an older home with dry rotted joists and moldy walls and furniture. “I remember there not being many lights and lots of shadows. It was really creepy. And there was a steady hum of an engine when the Master was there.”
“Maybe a generator?” Sam asked.
Reggie nodded, opening her eyes. “He always hooked a battery-powered lantern on the wall outside our cells before he opened the door and took one of us up to the big house. And he left it there until he brought us back.” A cold chill rippled down her spine as she shut the door to the other memories of being inside that house.
Sam took her hand. “Thanks.”
“Does that help?” she asked.
Hank nodded. “It could mean he’s off the grid. Which means, no registered address with the power company or the tax office. It also makes the house harder to find. Especially, if the trees and vegetation have grown up around it.”
“But you said Swede found evidence of buildings out there,” Reggie said.
“He did,” Hank said. “Let’s hope one of the buildings is the house we’re looking for.” He glanced at Sam. “The other alternative is that the rooflines are old deer camps or covered deer stands hunters placed in the trees.”
Swede joined them for breakfast and discussed the potential of hidden buildings in the forest.
“There’s another thought we might need to be prepared for. Montana has several active groups of survivalists. They live off the grid in remote locations.”
Hank’s face was grim. “And they don’t like folks walking into their camps uninvited.”
“That’s right,” Swede said. “They might shoot first and ask questions later. And they have plenty of places to hide the bodies.”
When the conversation turned morbid, Sadie shooed them out of the kitchen and down to the war room, claiming she’d heard enough negativity for a lifetime.
In the Brotherhood Protectors’ basement war room, the men continued the conversation. Two more men arrived, introducing themselves as Taz and Chuck. They joined in on the planning and potential outcomes.
The more theories they came up with, the worse Reggie felt. “If there’s a chance those women are out there, I’m willing to risk running into a survivalist’s camp to find them. As far as I could tell, there was only one man at the house where I was held. But he had two Rottweilers who’d just as soon rip you apart as look at you. So, whoever goes in with me needs to be prepared for them.”
Sam was shaking his head before she finished speaking. “You’re not going in.”
Reggie lifted her chin and met his gaze. “I have to
. I promised to get them out of there. I know the layout of the house enough to get to the cellar.”
Sam frowned. “He could be armed. I can’t put you at risk of being shot.”
“You’re not putting me at risk,” she said. “I’d be putting myself at risk. And it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Besides,” Reggie lifted her chin higher, “if you don’t take me, I’ll go by myself. I have to see this through.”
Sam started to say something, but Hank stepped into the conversation with, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we need to recon the areas Swede has identified. If we find a house on a hill, we report back. No one goes in until we have a team assembled. Understood?”
Sam, Kujo and Swede all nodded, used to taking orders.
Reggie slowly nodded. They were right. She couldn’t go in alone. She needed Sam, Hank and his team to get those women out alive. And they needed the element of surprise on their side.
“I’m sending Bear, Taz, Kujo and Chuck out to scout the area. Molly, you’re welcome to join them. But I wouldn’t alert your counterparts in the FBI, just yet. We don’t know if the kidnapper has connections. The rest of us will wait until we hear back from them. However, they’ll remain in place until we have the team assembled and ready to make the move. Sam, you and Reggie can stay here, or head to town. I don’t suggest you drive on the highway out to the locations. The fewer people out that way, the better. He might be watching the roads. They aren’t major highways.
Hank had his team gear up with satellite phones, two-way radios, headsets and bulletproof vests. Each man selected his choice of weapon and ammunition.
“Reggie, I know we fit you with a .40 caliber pistol. Did you have a chance to test-drive it?” Hank asked.
She shook her head. “No, we didn’t. Do you happen to have a taser or a stun gun?” she asked. “I might feel better about using something that won’t kill me if I mishandle it.”
“I do have a taser, and you might also like this.” He held up a small canister that would fit easily in the palm of Reggie’s hand.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Mace.” He held it up. “All you have to do is point it in his face and press the top. It’ll blind him long enough for you to get away.”
Reggie shoved the canister into the pocket of her hooded jacket and placed the taser in the other pocket. She patted the .40 caliber pistol in the holster beneath the jacket and felt a little ridiculous at being armed to the teeth. Then again, she was going after the man who hadn’t hesitated to deploy a taser on them, shocked them with cattle prods and kept them drugged so much that they couldn’t fight back.
If she had to, Reggie would use the full force of every weapon she had to stop him from ever doing that to anyone ever again.
Everyone headed out of the ranch house. Hank walked with them. “I want you to take a trailer with you and several four-wheelers. Park the trailer a couple miles away from the locations identified by Swede. Split up and go in on the ATVs until you’re within a mile of each.”
“Got it,” Kujo said. “And we’ll move in on foot from there.”
Bear drove the truck around to the barn where they hitched a trailer to the back of it. One by one, they loaded the four-wheelers onto the trailer. It was decided that Molly would ride double with Kujo. His dog, Six, would be able to run alongside them through the woods until they reached the point at which they’d ditch the ATV and continue on foot.
Reggie’s pulse quickened as they finished loading the ATVs. Kujo, Molly, Bear, Taz and Chuck loaded up into the four-door cab of the pickup, and they left the barnyard with the coordinates Swede had given them of the places he’d identified from the satellite images.
“I have business in town,” Hank said. “I’ll be at the sheriff’s office to talk to him about another case one of my guys is involved in. I’ll keep my ears open for anything out of there and my satellite phone clipped to my belt. Where will you two be?” he asked of Sam and Reggie.
Sam turned to Reggie. “We’ll be in town as well. Since the highway is on the other end of town from this ranch, we might as well be as close as we can get without actually driving out there.”
Reggie gave a tight smile, glad Sam hadn’t decided to leave her behind with Sadie.
“I’ll get Reggie geared up with some of your communications equipment before we head into town,” Sam said. “Should have done it when we got the others wired.”
Hank nodded. “Good. I’ll see you later.” He kissed Sadie and Emma, and then climbed into his four-wheel-drive pickup and headed for town.
Swede and Sadie walked with Reggie and Sam back into the house, down the stairs to the war room and into the arsenal.
Sam gave Reggie a two-way radio headset and showed her how to use it. After she’d successfully communicated with him from the other room, he helped her fold it up and stuff it in the pocket with the mace. Then he filled a bag with two bulletproof vests, a couple of flashlights and night vision goggles.
Swede approached Reggie, carrying what appeared to be a necklace with a pendant hanging from the chain. “Wear this at all times. If for some reason you’re separated from Sam, we can find you with this. It has a built-in tracking device we can follow using this.” He handed a GPS tracking monitor to Sam.
“What if I want to keep track of Sam?” Reggie asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Trust me,” Swede said. “He’ll find you. And you’re the potential target. Not him.”
Swede made a good point, but Reggie would have liked to be able to track Sam if she should lose sight of him. The mere thought of being out of Sam’s sight made her knees weak and her body tremble.
Reggie squared her shoulder and fought the fear threatening to overwhelm her. She’d clawed her way out of that hell without any help. She would do whatever it took to get the others out alive. If it meant going in alone, she would. Her hand rested on the .40 caliber tucked beneath her jacket. This time, she wouldn’t let him hurt her. And she’d kill him before she let him hurt anyone else. God, she wished she’d had time for Sam to show her the basics of how to use the gun. Somehow, she’d make it work.
Chapter 14
Reggie followed Sam out to his truck.
He held the door for Reggie, and then Grunt, and placed the equipment bag on the back floorboard. Once they were settled, he climbed in and drove to Eagle Rock.
As they passed the sheriff’s station, Reggie noted Hank’s truck parked there. If they ended up needing help, Hank was in the right place to get it. That was reassuring on a day when anything could happen. Or not.
Reggie sat silently in the seat beside Sam, her fingers twisting in her lap.
Near the opposite end of town from where they’d entered, a woman driving a minivan was parked at an odd angle in front of an antique store, the hatch on the back of her van open and several bags of groceries scattered across the ground.
Reggie could see immediately that the minivan’s left rear tire was flat, and the woman was struggling to lift a tire out of the back.
“We have time,” Reggie said. “We should stop and help.”
Sam had already put on his blinker and was pulling over.
“My father made sure I knew how to change a flat tire as soon as I was old enough to drive on my own. He said no woman should ever be stranded on the side of these Montana highways because she didn’t know how to change a flat.” Reggie glanced across at Sam. “Want me to do it?”
Sam smiled. “I’m sure you’re amazing at it, but I’d feel better if you stayed in the truck with Grunt.”
Reggie didn’t argue. Sam had agreed to take her on the mission to find the Master. If he wanted her to stay with Grunt, she’d stay with Grunt while he changed the tire.
The lug nuts on the woman’s flat tire proved to be a challenge. From what Reggie could hear through her open window, they’d been put on with a torque wrench, making it nearly impossible to dislodge. Fifteen minutes into changing the woman’s tire, Sam only had
half of the lug nuts off, and he’d worked up a sweat.
Grunt paced across the back seat of the pickup.
Reggie was getting anxious, thinking the guys might have reached the drop-off point by now and would be mounting the ATVs for the next leg of their reconnaissance mission. She glanced at the satellite phone, praying for it to ring. She crossed her fingers, hoping they found the house and reported in soon. Then they’d be on their way to finally free the other women.
She stared out the window at the minivan, willing the lug nuts to loosen already.
Grunt whined behind her and paced faster, back and forth across the truck seat.
“I know. They’re taking too long.” Then she had another thought. “Do you need to go outside?”
The dog stopped moving and stared at her. Then he barked and went to stand at the door, waiting for her to let him out.
“I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go.” Reggie glanced at Sam bouncing on the tire iron, working hard at loosening the lug nuts and making slow, painful progress. She didn’t want to bother him. He needed to get done with the tire changing as soon as possible.
Which meant she’d have to take Grunt for a walk to relieve himself.
She grabbed the lead, straightened her wig and slipped out of the passenger seat. As soon as she opened the back door, she realized her mistake.
Grunt leaped to the ground and took off before Reggie could snap the lead on his collar.
Sam had just dropped the tire iron, the clatter covering the sound of Reggie’s curse. She closed the truck door gently and ran after Grunt. The animal turned down an alley between the antique store and an insurance agency. He’d probably seen a cat and was hot on its trail.
“Grunt!” she called out. What was the word Sam used to make the dog stay? “Grunt, bleib!”
Too late, the dog had rounded the back corner of the building and disappeared out of eyesight and hearing.
