by Susan Stoker
The tone Marie used was part whisper, part growl—and Casey was immediately thrown back to her time in the jungle. She’d heard that same half whisper, half growl after they’d been blindfolded and before the truck had driven off.
“Take them to the village, but make sure no one interacts with them. Only give them enough food for two people, not four. I’ll be there in a couple of days.”
Marie had been there.
It was Marie who’d arranged for them to be taken.
Casey knew the things her colleague had been saying were off, but she never would’ve guessed that she was behind their ordeal.
But why?
Casey vaguely heard the phone quit ringing, but she couldn’t stop remembering. When she was in the hole and it was being covered, she’d heard Marie again.
“If she’s still alive in a week, you and the others can do what you want with her. But remember, I’m watching. She has to stay down there the entire seven days for it to be useful.”
The phone started ringing again, and Casey blinked as she looked down at the device in her hand.
“Answer it,” Marie said in that distinctive growl.
Casey slid the bar to the side of the screen and brought the phone up to her ear.
She wanted so badly to tell Beatle to get his ass home and save her once more, but she had no idea what Marie would do to the girls if she did. It didn’t seem like she realized Casey had finally remembered what she’d so desperately been trying to recall. Yet. But Casey didn’t know what Jaylyn and Kristina had heard. If they were hypnotized and admitted to hearing Doctor Santos in Costa Rica, they were all in big trouble.
She couldn’t help jerking her arm out of Marie’s grip and glaring at her before she answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sweetheart. It’s me. I just wanted to call and check on you.”
“Hi, Troy. I’m good,” she told him, hoping like hell he’d figure out that she hardly ever called him by his given name…and maybe there was a good reason she was doing so now.
“Good. I’ll be home around five-thirty, I think. You want to go out for dinner or did you have plans?”
“Going out sounds good,” Casey said, more than aware of Marie’s eyes on her.
“Cool. You choose this time. I picked the place last time.”
“Okay. Troy?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“I just…I love you.” Casey suddenly knew that Marie wasn’t going to let them simply walk out of the apartment. If the other girls said something about knowing their doctor had been in Costa Rica, they’d all be in danger. If Casey couldn’t convincingly pretend she was hypnotized when she wasn’t, they’d all be in danger. She didn’t think any of them would get out of this unscathed, and the thought of Beatle never knowing how much she loved him if Marie succeeded here where she’d failed in the jungle was abhorrent.
“I love you too,” he told her. “I’ll show you exactly how much tonight, yeah?”
Casey could hear the emotion clear in his tone. It sucked that the first time they’d said the words to each other were under these circumstances, but it didn’t diminish them in any way.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “You’ll never know how much the last few weeks have meant to me.”
“They’ve meant the world to me too. I gotta go. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Troy.”
“Bye, Case.”
Casey hung up the phone and managed not to break down in tears. God, please let him wonder why I’m suddenly calling him Troy instead of Beatle, and please let him come home to check on me.
Marie grabbed the phone out of her hand and held the button down to turn it off. Then she threw it onto the counter and steered Casey back toward the living room.
The kitchen wasn’t that far from the sofa, and Casey knew the girls had probably heard her conversation with Beatle. She wasn’t convinced they’d heard Marie’s words to her though. She was sure they hadn’t when they looked trustingly up at the doctor and waited for her to start.
Marie slowly sat back down on the chair and tried to control her breathing. She had no idea what would happen, but she had to be ready for anything. She’d survived that hole, she could survive this.
Come home, Beatle. Please. I need you.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Beatle had been talking to Truck for twenty minutes when he stopped mid-sentence.
“What? Did you remember something?” Truck asked.
They’d been discussing the situation with the natives and how they’d found them in the jungle when Beatle had suddenly clammed up.
“It’s… I thought about this earlier and dismissed it…but something isn’t sitting right,” Beatle said slowly. He pulled out his phone and dialed Casey’s number once more. He waited for it to ring, but instead immediately heard her message in his ear. Her phone had been turned off because it went straight to voicemail.
He turned to Truck. “How many times have you heard Casey call me Troy?”
Truck looked surprised. “Maybe once? Why?”
“When I talked to her earlier, she said my name…” He paused, trying to remember their conversation. “Three times. ‘Hi, Troy,’ then my name before she told me she loved me, and again when she was saying goodbye.”
Beatle turned to Fletch, who had just hung up with someone from the Army’s tech department who he’d asked to sharpen the section of film with the hose and the camera. “When you talked to Chase, did he sound…off?”
“Off?” Fletch asked. “No. Why?”
“I’m not sure, but I think something’s wrong at the house.”
By now, Beatle had the attention of the entire room.
“Talk to us,” Ghost ordered.
“You guys know I talked to Casey earlier, and I thought everything was fine, but the more I think about it, the more I think she was trying to warn me about something but I didn’t catch on at the time. She called me Troy. Several times.”
“And she doesn’t do that?” Hollywood asked. “Kassie mostly calls me by my nick, unless she’s feeling emotional.”
“Casey has always called me Beatle. She knows my first name, of course, but literally has only used it a couple of times. But today in our minute-and-a-half conversation, she called me Troy three times.”
“I’ll call Chase again,” Fletch said immediately, already picking up his phone. He put it on speaker and the entire team listened intently as it rang.
Chase picked it up after only two rings. “Man, you’re worse than a girl, Fletch. What now?” the other man teased.
“Is everything all right there?”
“Yeah, why?” The light and airy tone was gone from the Army captain’s voice. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re not sure. Beatle called Casey and everything seemed okay at first, but now he’s not so sure. Did you see her recently?”
“We were all watching Annie play earlier and a car pulled in. I was on alert at first, but Casey said she knew the women who got out. She said two were students who were kidnapped with her, and the other one was a psychologist.” Chase told them what he’d already relayed to Fletch earlier.
The Deltas all looked to Beatle. He sucked his lips between his teeth, deep in thought. Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t know. But something doesn’t seem right about this.”
“Casey didn’t say they would be visiting?” Ghost asked.
“No. But she didn’t say they wouldn’t be, either. She did get a phone call the other day that bothered her, but we haven’t gotten a chance to talk about it. I know she seemed worried about it, but typical Casey, I have a feeling she didn’t want to seem paranoid.”
“You think it was one of the girls or the psychologist?” Coach asked.
“Who else could it have been?” Beatle asked. “She’s talked to her parents several times, and had no problem with me being right there. The officials down in Costa Rica don’t have her number, so it couldn’t have been them.
It might’ve been her boss at the university, but we’ve been talking about her job, so she had the perfect opportunity to bring it up. I honestly don’t know who else it could’ve been.”
“You haven’t known each other that long,” Chase said. “Maybe it was a man she’d been seeing before she got kidnapped, and she felt weird about telling you she was dating someone.”
“It wasn’t,” Beatle snapped, then took a deep breath to control his temper. “Look, I get it, there’s a lot we don’t know about each other, but I absolutely do not think the call that bothered her was from an ex.”
“You want me to go up there?” Chase asked.
Beatle ran his hand through his short hair in agitation. “Yeah, but I think you should wait until we get there. It’s a catch-22. If you go up there now and knock on the door and something is wrong, the shit could hit the fan, and with three unknowns versus Casey, it could get ugly fast. But if you wait, every second we don’t get eyes on her could mean a greater chance of her being hurt.”
Ghost gestured to Beatle to head out. Fletch picked up the phone and the team walked out of the room while still talking to Chase.
“Get Annie and Emily to the safe room,” Fletch ordered. “The last thing we need is more civilians involved if something is wrong.”
“I will. I’ll wait to make contact, but I’ll do some reconnaissance and see if I can find out anything more for you guys when you get here,” Chase reassured them.
“Appreciate it. We should be there in twenty minutes or less,” Ghost told the other man. “Call if you have more intel.”
“Ten-four,” Chase said, all business.
Fletch clicked off the phone without saying goodbye.
“Is everyone carrying?” Ghost asked quietly as they made their way out of the building toward the parking lot.
When everyone confirmed, Ghost nodded. “Okay, let’s take two cars. Fletch, you and Beatle come with me after you stop at your cars to get your pieces. Hollywood, Coach, and Blade, you guys go with Truck. We’re goin’ in as quiet as possible on this one. Just like Chase said, we don’t want to cause drama where none exists. When we get there, Beatle will go up first, use his key so as not to frighten anyone if nothing is wrong.” He looked at Truck. “You, Coach, and Hollywood take the perimeter. Blade, you’ll be behind Beatle with me. Fletch, you head to your house and make sure your family is safe. Any questions?”
Everyone shook their head. They were used to working together and knew the plan almost before Ghost had spoken.
Within moments, the two vehicles were pulling out of the parking lot and headed for Fletch’s house, unsure as to what they’d find.
* * *
Casey sat on the chair with her head down, her hair hiding her face from Marie. She was scared out of her mind, and pissed, but was biding her time. She didn’t want to do anything that would traumatize Jaylyn and Kristina more than they already were. It wasn’t their fault their doctor was bat-shit fucking crazy.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—both young women were susceptible to being hypnotized. Marie had them in an altered state within ten minutes. Casey pretended to also have been put under.
She hoped like hell Beatle had figured out that something was wrong, but it had been a long time since their phone call, and he hadn’t arrived, so she had little hope. She obviously hadn’t been clear enough in their conversation that she needed him. Casey kicked herself for that.
“Hold out your hands,” Marie told her enthralled audience. Casey did as requested, and saw out of the corner of her eye that Kristina and Jaylyn had done the same.
Doctor Santos stood and fiddled with something in her purse for a moment, before stepping up to Jaylyn. She placed a marble in both of her palms, then did the same with Kristina. She went back to her purse and got something else, then stood in front of Casey.
Casey tried to keep her eyes unfocused and blank and managed not to flinch when something hard was placed in her own hands. It also looked like a marble, but seemed to be coated with something.
“Close your hands into fists and hold on to what I put in your palms. Do not drop it under any circumstances. If you do, you’ll feel intense pain. The most pain you’ve ever felt in your life.”
Casey closed her hand around the marble-like thing Marie had given her and wanted to scrunch her nose at the slimy feel of the object, but refrained.
“Are you holding on?” Marie asked.
Casey dutifully answered in the affirmative along with Jaylyn and Kristina.
“Good. Now, Kristina, tell me what you were thinking when you took all the food for yourself that last day. You said that one of your kidnappers opened the door to your hut and placed one serving of food inside, and that you got to it before Jaylyn and Astrid. Be specific.”
Casey kept her breathing slow and even, but what she really wanted to do was stand up and berate Marie for what she was doing. What she was asking the other women was invasive and damaging. She wasn’t a psychologist, but even Casey knew that.
She thought about jumping up and bum-rushing the older woman while she was preoccupied, but was worried about Jaylyn and Kristina getting hurt in the melee that was sure to follow. Maybe she’d wait a little bit longer. Make Marie feel safer that all three of them were all the way under, then pick up her chair and brain the little bitch.
As minutes went by and Marie continued to ask the other women questions, Casey began to feel extremely weird. She no longer thought about hurting Marie, concentrating intensely instead on what she was seeing and hearing. The light in the room was bright, but when she closed her eyes, swirls of orange, yellow, and red were all she could see. The colors undulated as if they had a mind of their own. They were hypnotizing in their own right, and Casey found herself getting lost in the swirling, twirling colors.
“Casey, your turn. Why don’t you tell us how you felt when you were told you were going home and your ransom was paid?”
Casey tried to concentrate on the question, but when she opened her eyes and looked at the psychologist, she was appalled to see the words Marie had spoken floating in the air around her.
“Casey? You were happy to be leaving, weren’t you?” Marie asked. “You didn’t care that you were leaving the others behind, did you?”
“No, I was worried, I—” Casey stopped speaking because the five words she’d just spoken were now floating around her head. Big black letters that cut through the yellow and red swirls like a knife cutting through butter. As she watched in fascination, they turned toward her and seemed to grow. They changed colors too. From black to dark purple, then a bright fuchsia. Casey closed her eyes in confusion, but all that did was make the colors behind her eyelids swirl faster.
“And when you were brought to the edge of that hole, what were you thinking? That you were going to die?”
Casey swayed in her chair to the colors. No, she swayed to the music…but there wasn’t any playing, it was the colors making noise now. A part of her knew that what was happening wasn’t normal, but she couldn’t get her mind to focus. “I didn’t want to die,” she managed to say, before the words started pushing against her eyelids to get back inside her head.
“Yet, when you were in that hole with no way out, you still didn’t give up. Why?”
Casey couldn’t answer. She was suddenly back in the hole once more. She looked up and all she saw were the swirling colors.
“Casey!” Marie shouted. “Why didn’t you give up? What made you fight to survive when anyone else would’ve given up and just died in that fucking jungle? I need to know. It’s vital you tell me!”
At the word “jungle,” suddenly the nice colors she’d been seeing changed from the light, happy orange and yellows, to dark green and maroon. Casey looked at Marie, but she wasn’t Marie anymore. In her place sat a giant bullet ant. The antennae coming out of her head twitched in her direction. Its mouth opened and the biting jaws came closer and closer to Casey, poison dripping from the fangs, ready to inject her w
ith its extremely painful venom.
Casey stood and immediately fell to the ground. Her hands opened as she fell and she dropped whatever it was Marie had given her to hold, but Casey was so far gone, in the midst of a trip so bad, she saw danger everywhere she looked and didn’t even notice.
The fringe of the rug brushed against her palms, and Casey looked down to see that she’d fallen right into a nest of bullet ants. They were biting her. Hurting her. She frantically tried to get them off her hands, but the more she smacked at herself, the more ants appeared.
Fully in the grip of a bad LSD trip, Casey screamed.
* * *
Everything looked normal when the cars holding the deadly Delta team pulled down Fletch’s driveway. Ghost and Truck stopped just beyond the clearing around the house and garage, and all seven men slipped out of the vehicles without a sound.
Chase met them at the edge of the trees.
“I haven’t heard or seen anything abnormal,” he informed the group. “I went to the front door and heard voices, but they weren’t raised in agitation or anything. I couldn’t hear what was being said, and the door was locked.”
Everyone nodded, but Beatle was already on the move toward the stairs. Ghost gestured to the others and everyone fanned out. Fletch slipped away to the back of his house, and Ghost and Blade were right on Beatle’s heels.
Beatle silently climbed the stairs with his heart in his throat. He didn’t like this feeling at all. It was one thing to know what the danger was that you were walking into, it was another thing altogether to have no idea what would be on the other side of the door. It was a hundred times worse because it was Casey who might be in danger.
He held up his hand and the men behind him stopped. Everyone had their pistols drawn and were ready for anything. Fletch slipped the key into the lock and slowly turned it, not making a sound.
