“We, uh, we broke up.” Peter nudged in her ribs, a signal to finish the conversation. “Look, I’ve got to go. It’s been great seeing you and thanks for being a good neighbor.”
Peter didn’t give Jeffrey a chance to respond as he turned her again and strode the short way to the stairwell. The slamming of the door filled the concrete space.
“You did well, sweetheart. Now let’s go.”
His fingers pinched into the soft flesh of her upper arm and he hurried her down the stairs. She gripped the railing to stop herself from tripping over her feet and slamming face first into the ground.
“Where are we going?” she asked when they pushed out into the bright sunshine.
“That’s for me to know.” They stopped beside a non-descript grey sedan. Peter opened the door and shoved her inside. “Don’t try anything while I’m getting into the car.”
As much as she’d like to make a run for it, the chances of her getting far away was slim. She pulled the seatbelt on and placed her hands on her belly. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy’s here and I’ll not let anything happen to you.”
“Aww isn’t that sweet.” He reached over and took her chin with his forefinger and thumb, pinching until her eyes watered at the pain. “You make me sick. Now it’s time to sleep.”
A sting pierced her upper arm, a pinprick of pain before lethargy spread through her, forcing her eyelids down.
I’m going to die. Her last thought before the blackness consumed her.
Quiet greeted him when Ryan opened the door to his apartment. Where was Suzie? She’d told him that morning before he’d left for PT that she had the day off and planned to do some window shopping, then come home and read her book.
He had no doubt, if she’d been called into work, she would’ve phoned or texted him to let him know.
His neck began to itch.
“Suzie?” He called out as he strode through the small place to their bedroom. Maybe she was sleeping. He looked through the doorway and saw the bed neatly made, her handbag missing from the small chair she rested it on when she got home from work.
“Fuck.”
The itching increased.
It took him all of two minutes to check the apartment to find no trace of her. Well her clothes were still in the closet, her toothbrush in the stand next to his, so she hadn’t left him.
He dug into his pocket, pulled out his phone and dialed Suzie’s number. It went straight to voicemail.
“Hey, Roses, it’s me. Where are you? Are you all right? Call me when you get this?”
He fired off a text message as well. He paced around the room waiting for his phone to ring. After five minutes he dialed Italy’s number. There was no way he was going to lose the woman he loved. And dammit, he loved Suzie and their daughter with all his heart. He couldn’t imagine going the rest of his life without waking up beside her every morning. Seeing her beautiful face light up with a smile. Hearing her laugh while they watched a comedy together. No matter what, he was going to find Suzie and when he did he wasn’t going to let her go. “Is Suzie with Erin?” Ryan asked the second the call was connected.
“No. Why?”
“She’s not here.”
Italy laughed. “Did she come to her senses and leave your sorry ass?” he joked.
“My neck is itching.”
The laughter died immediately. “Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
Mentioning his sixth sense was all Italy needed to be told to know the situation was serious.
“Have you called, Tex?” he asked.
Ryan ran a face down his face, trying to control the panic welling inside of him. “No. Why would I call him?”
“Dude, you’re not thinking straight. Calm down. I’ll be there in ten minutes. In the meantime, call Tex.”
Italy disconnected the call, not giving Ryan a chance to tell him not to bother coming over. Although that was a lie, he was grateful his friend and team mate was heading over.
Okay, what he needed to do was push his worry for Suzie to the back of his mind, not forgotten, but he needed to look at this situation logically, like he would when on a mission. Get the facts straight and then go from there. But first, he needed to do what Italy suggested and call Tex.
The former SEAL answered on the first ring. “Talk to me, Joker.”
“I think Suzie’s missing.” Fuck, how lame did that sound.
“You think, or you know?”
“She’s not home. She’s not with Erin and my neck is itching.”
“Right.” In the background Ryan heard the distinctive sound of fingers flying over a keyboard. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“This morning at 0520 before I left for PT.” More clicking.
“Was she working today?”
“No, she had the day off. Told me she was going to go window shopping and then come back home.”
“Okay. Let’s see if I can get some eyes on her trail,” muttered Tex. Ryan began pacing as he let Tex do his stuff. The guy could find the proverbial needle in a field full of haystacks. “Bingo.”
“What?” Ryan asked. “You’ve found her. Where is she?”
“Her car is parked outside her old apartment.”
“What the hell?” A knock sounded on his door. He opened it and found all his teammates crowding the small hallway. He nodded, grateful for the show of support they were giving him. He waved them in. “What’s she doing there? None of this makes sense. She told me she never wanted to go back to that place again.”
“Well that’s where her car is. Looking through the footage from the cameras she got there around ten.”
It was now after seven. She’d been there for almost ten hours. Like a bullet piercing a target a name burst into his head. “Jeffrey. I bet her disappearance has something to do with that fucker. No way is he going to hurt my girl. Thanks Tex.” He disconnected the call, cutting off the other man.
“I know where she is,” he said facing his teammates. “Let’s go.”
He was out the door and halfway to his car before Robot finally caught up with him. He went to grab his arm, but Ryan shook him off. His thoughts focused solely on getting to Jeffrey and wringing the fucker’s neck until he got the information he needed.
“Joker! Stop now.” Slowly through the red haze of anger enveloping him, Robot’s command registered. Years of following orders from his superiors halted Ryan’s mad progress to his car.
Robot and the rest of the team surrounded him. Each man looking serious but determined, letting him know he wasn’t in this alone. They were with him every step of the way. It was exactly the same way they had approached the situation when Erin had been held captive. Only then they had Wolf’s team with them. Plus, they knew where Erin was located. They only had speculation to go on as to Suzie’s whereabouts.
Robot clapped his hand on his shoulder, applying enough pressure to let Ryan know he wouldn’t be shaking off his team lead anytime soon. “I understand you want to get the fucker who’s taken Suzie. I also understand that her being pregnant has you acting on emotion and not thinking this through. You can’t go in all guns blazing. You suspect this Jeffrey is involved, you don’t know it yet.” Robot held up his hand when Ryan tried to interrupt him. “No, listen. We will do this the right way. This isn’t a mission. Commander Black doesn’t even know we’re here. It’s after seven in the evening. People will be home. Let’s play this cool. We’ll come up with a plan on the way to Suzie’s last location. You understand?”
Ryan nodded. Everything Robot said was true. There was a reason he was the team lead. They split into two cars and made their way to Suzie’s former apartment complex. Ryan’s knee jerked up and down as Italy drove through the streets.
“It sucks doesn’t it?” he said quietly.
“What?” asked Ryan.
“Knowing the woman you love is in trouble and you don’t know where she is or what’s she’s going through.”
“Yeah. I don’t think the guy
would hurt her. I think he’s in love with her, too.” He let out a harsh laugh. “Why wouldn’t he be? Suzie is the best thing that ever happened to me. I need her, you know.”
Italy’s hands clenched the steering wheel and Ryan suspected he was reliving the moment when he heard the news that Erin and Antonia hadn’t caught their flight. “Yeah, man, I get it.”
“Did you say anything to Erin?” he asked, hoping inane conversation would keep his mind off finding Suzie hurt or worse. He squashed the thought before it could fully form in his mind.
“Yeah, I don’t keep anything from her. She’s worried but confident that we’ll find her like we did her and Antonia.”
Conversation drifted off and five minutes later they pulled to a stop a block away from the complex. He exited the car and his adrenaline spiked at the impending confrontation.
“How are we going to do this,” he asked when they met up with the rest of the team.
“Do you think you’ll be able to knock on the guy’s door and speak to him rationally about Suzie, or will one of us have to do it?” Robot asked.
“I can do it.” He looked around at his team. “If you guys have my back.”
“Always.” They replied in unison.
“Okay,” Robot continued. “We ask him if he’s seen Suzie. The use of force will be kept to a minimum. Understand?”
The men all nodded, and Ryan pulled in on himself to get his mind in combat mode. It might not be combat like on a mission, but it was combat on getting his woman back. “Let’s go,” he said.
Together they walked toward the entrance of the building, all of them casing the surrounding area for anything out of the ordinary. He wondered if the rest of the guys were like him, wishing he had his weapon safely in his grip, ready to take action.
Once inside the building, Cowboy and Red took the stairs, while the rest of them took the elevator.
“This would have to be the slowest fucking elevator in history,” T-Rex muttered.
“Tell me about it,” responded Ryan, it was the exact same thought he’d had the first time he’d come and visited Suzie.
The cart ground to a halt and the doors slid open. “You take the lead, Joker. Italy will go with you,” Robot said. “T-Rex and I will stay here to make sure nobody tries to take the elevator.”
Ryan nodded. Their plan was solid they knew what they had to do and hopefully it would end peacefully and in a few minutes he’d have Suzie in his arms again. He planned on never letting her go.
The distance to Jeffrey’s front door wasn’t far but it may as well have been a ten mile trek through the jungles of the Congo with how long it seemed to take them to get to the eight foot high piece of wood.
Ryan’s adrenaline amped up into overdrive the second they reached the door. He raised his fist to pound on it, but Italy’s hand closed over his.
“I know you want pound the guy’s face the second he opens the door, but what if he’s not there. What if he’s taken her someplace else? It wouldn’t make sense to kidnap someone and then take them back to their own home. They’d take them to a place where no one would find them. It’s what Bryan did with Erin and Antonia.”
“I know. It doesn’t make sense. But he’s all I’ve got to go on. The way he’s been acting around Suzie lately, he’s bordering on being a stalker.”
“Right, well let’s do this calmly. Let me knock.” Italy said and hit the wood. Ryan had to agree his knock was more friendly than Ryan’s would’ve been.
He tapped his foot on the ground waiting for the door to open. A few seconds later it opened a crack. “What do you want?”
His whole demeanor was skittish, as though he was trying to hide something. Ryan clenched his fists at his side to prevent himself from pushing the door open and barging in. “I’m looking for Suzie? Her car’s outside, is she here?”
“No.” He went to shut the door, but Ryan palmed it preventing it from closing.
“Look, I know you like her, okay. But I love her and I’m worried. She’s carrying my baby. I need to find her.”
The last thing he planned to tell the guy was his feelings for Suzie, but he hoped, maybe, just maybe, it would be enough for Jeffrey to let him in. Or release Suzie to him.
“If you love her why did she break up with you?”
“What?”
“You heard me. She told me today she’d broken up with you.”
This didn’t make sense to Ryan. Why would Suzie tell Jeffrey that they’d broken up? When he’d left her this morning she was all warm and cozy in bed and he’d given her a hell of a goodbye kiss. It had taken the whole drive to PT for his erection to subside. What his words did do though, was confirm Jeffrey had seen her. At least they could be able to get a timeframe of when that happened, and her movements after her conversation with Jeffery. That is if Jeffrey wasn’t her kidnapper. Ryan still wasn’t sure the other man wasn’t somehow involved in Suzie’s disappearance.
“Please, Jeffrey, can we come in. I think she’s in danger. I’m pretty sure you don’t want anything to happen to her.”
He contemplated Ryan’s words for a few seconds before opening the door wider. A breath of relief whooshed out of him. Progress. That had to be a good thing.
He and Italy walked through the opening. The layout of Jeffrey’s apartment was very similar to Suzie’s. The area was as neat as a pin. The scent of lemon filled the air. A quick look around didn’t unearth any hint that Suzie had been here. Not that a kidnapper would leave anything like that out in the open. If they did, they were pretty incompetent.
Once they sat down, Ryan leaned forward and clasped his hands together loosely between his legs. “When did you see Suzie?”
“Umm just after ten. I came home because I’d forgotten my lunch.”
Studying the other man’s body language for any hint he was lying wasn’t difficult. It was something they’d been trained on. Everything indicated he was telling the truth. Ryan glanced at Italy who was leaning against the wall. He nodded at Ryan, confirming he believed Jeffrey wasn’t lying either. To the untrained eye his stance looked relaxed, but Ryan knew his teammate was ready to spring into action at any time.
“Right. But you said Suzie told you we’d broken up?”
“Yes.”
“You see I don’t understand why she would do that. When I left her in bed this morning we were very much still together.”
“Maybe you left the toilet seat up one time too many and so she decided enough was enough.”
Ryan would’ve laughed but Jeffrey’s stark one-eighty degree turn from affable to aggressive sent off warning bells.
“Do you know where she is? Is she here? Are you hiding her?”
The other man’s shoulders slumped, as though the last smart-ass comment had taken all his bravado from him. “No. She isn’t here. I…”
Out of the corner of his eye Ryan caught Italy standing up straighter. He’d heard the same waver in Jeffrey’s voice that Ryan had too.
“You what?” Italy asked.
“I think you’re right about her being in danger.”
Ryan leaped up and in a flash Italy was by his side restraining him from grabbing the other man. “Joker, she’s not here, okay. And I don’t think he’s involved,” muttered Italy.
“Fine,” he sat back down. Inwardly he agreed with his teammate. Jeffrey didn’t display any signs of a man nervous about hiding something. Plus, apart from their arrival, he didn’t seem eager to push them out the door.
“Jeffrey, as you can tell, Joker here is anxious to find his woman. If you’ve seen or heard anything that would be helpful, please share,” asked Italy, his tone soothing and non-confrontational.
“I saw her leave with another man. He had his arm around her shoulder and when I asked why she wasn’t with you…” He nodded his head toward Ryan. “She told me that you’d broken up.”
The fact his prime suspect wasn’t who he thought it was devastated Ryan. He had no idea now who had taken Suzie. He
controlled the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him. He had to remember, if he let his emotions get the better of him, the chances of him finding Suzie was going to be slim. “Have you seen this person she was with before?”
“No. I haven’t.”
Fuck. He was hoping Jeffrey’s need to know everything that happened in Suzie’s life meant he’d seen every person that had knocked on Suzie’s door. Which was ridiculous. Suzie worked all sorts of shifts. It was possible she had visitors when Jeffrey wasn’t home.
“Can you describe him?” Italy asked.
“He was about your height,” Jeffrey pointed at Italy. “He had dark hair and brown eyes.”
“Did Suzie look like she wanted to be with him?” This time Ryan asked the question.
“No. She tried to look like she did, but she looked frightened and the guy had a tight grip around her shoulders.”
Ryan almost wished it was Jeffrey that had taken Suzie. The guy sitting on the couch in front of him wouldn’t hurt Suzie because he cared for her. But this person. The person he described as being with Suzie was someone who would like to hurt her.
“Fuck.” He practically shouted the word as another suspect came to mind. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”
“What?” Italy asked.
“Suzie’s ex-husband. She told me about him just the other week.”
“What about him?”
Ryan looked at his teammate. “She said he was verbally abusive to her. Controlling. I asked her if he could’ve been the one who trashed her apartment, but she said she didn’t think so. She also mentioned that he’d hit her once, but she’d moved out after that.”
“Bastard.”
Ryan looked over at Jeffrey, surprised the word came out of his mouth.
“Any man who harms a woman is the scum of the earth. Women are meant to be treated like fine pieces of china. I would never hurt a woman.” He looked up at Ryan, his eyes pleaded to for him to believe what he was about to say next. “I know you don’t believe me, but I would never hurt Suzie. I will do anything to help you. Anything.”
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Guarding Suzie (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 12
