“We gotta go, Caesar. Cops are on their way,” the other man said.
Kyle had every reason to avoid the cops as Caesar did.
“Give me a hand, Zario. I gotta get her unhooked.”
“He says to leave her,” Zario answered.
“What the fuck?”
“Leave her,” Zario repeated.
Kyle could smell gasoline.
“No, man. She’s carrying my kid. I can’t leave her.”
“So Caesar, you gonna think with your dick or with your brains? She’s baggage, man.” The cop had appeared at the doorway and shoved the other man away. He leveled his gun at Caesar. “You wanna die for her, hum? That what you’re saying? ’Cause I’m not.”
Kyle thought Caesar would make a run for the cop’s throat. Caesar seemed to be seething with hatred, barely able to maintain. There was no way both of them would be alive by morning.
“Give her a chance.” Caesar said.
“No. We go. Now.” The cop was smart enough to wait for Caesar to leave the room first. “Zario, go get the stuff.”
Kyle joined Fredo on the side and watched as the men loaded Armando into the brown sedan’s ample trunk. He saw Fredo write down the license plate number for both the vans.
Kyle briefly considered launching an attack against the bad guys, but he couldn’t risk further injury to Armando and Mia.
Zario disappeared into house for a minute, and then brought something out. Kyle saw a homemade IED that Zario set on the porch by the opened front door. In a matter of seconds the place was going to blow, depending on the timer. Kyle motioned to Fredo to take cover behind a boulder. Fredo stood in his tracks and shook his head.
The jeep and brown sedan turned and took off down the dirt road, in the direction of Gunny and the van.
“I’m going in to get her.”
“No. You stay put…” But Kyle doubted Fredo even heard him.
The explosion rocked the house, sending sparks into the forest, igniting trees like matchsticks.
Water from the tank adjacent to the building spilled all over the yard, partially putting out the resulting fire. Kyle hoped Coop had been safe behind the ruptured tank. Through the burning timbers he and Fredo found Mia, who was badly burned and bruised, and thankfully unconscious. She’d been covered with the thick quilt and curtains as well as other debris, which had probably saved her life.
They couldn’t remove her shackles, but the bed frame was so rickety they could detach her, and so they brought her outside, slung in the bed sheets. She was breathing. Fredo poured water on a strip of cotton and wiped her face as Coop checked for further injuries. Fredo offered her a drink from his pack. She moaned and spit up blood.
“She’s got something internal going on,” Coop said. “We gotta get her to the hospital.”
Sirens were getting closer.
Kyle nodded.
“We could leave her with them. They’d take her,” Coop offered.
“Nah, can’t risk it. Remember, she might be able to ID the cop.”
Kyle pulled a folded tarp from his pack and they placed it under the sheet to make a sturdy sling to carry her. They took off toward the van. It was slow going through the brush, and they alternated two at a time so one could concentrate on lookout and cover, but they ran as fast as they could. Thank God Mia was a little thing. It would have been faster to drape her over a shoulder, but Kyle couldn’t risk exacerbating her internal injuries in doing so.
In the direction of the roadway came the sounds of other engines. Two RTVs were snarling and echoing off the rocks in the night air. They reminded Kyle of the sounds of chainsaws he’d wielded working the logging camp one summer between his last two years of high school. The sounds were getting closer.
The three men set Mia down under a small madrone and some brush. Kyle rigged a catch with lightweight razor wire from his pack. They wrapped it around two outcroppings of rocks. Someone was going to have to be bait, Kyle thought as he looked at his team. No one said a word, but Cooper ran up through the brush and conspicuously stepped on a fallen tree branch and fell, expelling a scream on purpose. Kyle and Fredo moved to either side of the rocks, the razor wire wound several times around the boulders between them. They hoped the person on the RTV would be attracted to their buddy like a fly to shit. Cooper would light up like a Christmas tree, but Kyle was hoping whoever was after them would miss seeing the wire.
Both RTVs came at Cooper’s direction. He lay centered about thirty feet from the trap, holding his leg like he had twisted it. Just as he saw the headlights of the vehicles reflected on Coop’s face, Kyle saw him check to make sure his flak vest was secured. Kyle checked the taught wire. Cooper flashed light in the two driver’s direction, distracting them enough to miss the trap.
It worked.
The first RTV ran right into the razor thin wire, knocking the rider off. His limp body lay motionless where it fell. Kyle and Fredo kept the wire taught. The second rider tried to stop, and as he slowed, Fredo lurched at him, tackling him off the whining machine. Cooper went to switch off the first engine, but Kyle stopped him.
Fredo wrestled the other driver, who was considerably larger than the SEAL and seemed well trained.
Probably ex-military.
The man crashed against a boulder and Kyle heard the familiar snap of a bone breaking. Fredo bounced up and immobilized the unconscious man with zip ties on his wrists and ankles. Kyle hogtied the other one, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.
“He’s got a busted shoulder. Bad break,” Fredo said. “He’ll be screaming his lungs out when he wakes up.”
“Someone will find them. Let’s get out of here.”
They quietly covered up their footsteps and picked up Mia.
“Whoever is out there will be listening. They’re gonna know if the drivers don’t come back,” said Coop.
Kyle answered him by sending off a few rounds of fire from the weapon he’d ripped from the bad guy’s fingers. He tossed the other automatic to Coop. He signaled, and farm boy took one RTV, mounting it with glee.
“Always wanted one of these.”
Kyle shook his head. “You and your toys.” He turned to Fredo. “Can you handle Mia for a bit? I guess you’ve got five hundred yards or so to go.”
“No problem, boss.” Fredo held Mia’s dead waist against his chest and took off. Kyle hopped onto the other coughing RTV. He and Coop zigzagged through the forest to distract any other snipers out there and giving time for Fredo to get the girl to the hauler.
A few minutes later they stopped, and fired off a few more rounds. They headed back toward the hauler.
When they found Fredo hiding behind a large rock outcropping, they shut the motors off.
“Someone’s pulled up. Heard maybe three trucks pass by,” Fredo whispered.
“The Suburbans?” Kyle asked.
Fredo shook his head. “I think these are local law enforcement. Must have been running a roadblock or were headed out to the cabin They’ll send a chopper, too.”
Mia started to moan. Cooper pulled her away from Fredo’s chest to check her, but the SEAL possessively wouldn’t let go.
“I got to check her, dumbass. She’s not your girlfriend.”
Fredo shot him a warning look. Coop knew he’d embarrassed the man. Had singed his pride. Fredo defiantly held Mia’s hand during Kyle’s examination. A thin trickle of blood poured out of her mouth..
“Keep her warm. Jeez, I hope we can get her in the van soon,” Coop said.
“She gonna be okay?” Fredo asked.
“If she gets help. I can’t tell what’s going on inside, except for this.” Kyle pointed to a thread of fresh red blood running down her bare leg.
Mia was losing her baby, Kyle thought.
Cooper looked at both teammates. “The body does what the body does.”
“We’d better go the rest of the way on foot.” Kyle changed the subject, not wanting to look in Fredo’s eyes. They covered the RTVs with b
ranches, Cooper taking one last long look before covering the red one. Then they moved out.
The forest was erupting with lights and sirens and the smoke from the cottage fire had plumed up into the air about forty feet. Just before they came upon the toy hauler, they heard the horn honk. Twice.
“Shit,” Kyle said under his breath.
Chapter 15
Back at her condo, Christy had decided to eat dinner, then sat at the dinette table, staring into space, until she dropped her fork. It clattered on the glass top, the sound bringing her abruptly back to reality. She’d been sitting there. In the dark. All alone. What was she looking for?
Enough.
Checking the time, she noted she’d be a few minutes late for her workout with Marla.
She took the last of her unfinished salad and water to the kitchen and dumped them in the sink. Her appetite was gone.
In her bedroom, she shed her clothes and put on her workout sweats. She still felt Kyle’s kisses at the back of her neck, the touch of his fingers as he’d moved down her spine and kissed every vertebra. She’d never felt so worshiped. And so abandoned.
She tied her shoes and put her hair up in a scrunchie, then gave herself a good hard look in the mirror. Some of the puffiness around her eyes had calmed down.
She slung her gym bag over her right shoulder, grabbed her keys, and walked down the silent hall to the elevator for the second time today. The gym was on the top floor. It was going to close in an hour, so she’d have just enough time for a quick workout with Marla and maybe a sauna.
Then maybe she could sleep tonight, after all.
She didn’t know why the hair at the back of her neck prickled as she walked toward the elevator. She couldn’t remember a time when the condo had been so quiet. The art deco doors opened and she stepped in, then pushed the black up button for the gym and common area. The elevator rumbled, as if asking her if she wanted to change her mind at the last minute. Took forever. Were the lumbering doors always this slow?
What am I afraid of?
The gym was nearly empty. Marla wasn’t there waiting for her, like she usually was. A new male employee with the Infineon’s green polo shirt logo was wiping down the weight machines with a white towel, using a spray bottle of emerald green cleanser. He held the bottle up to Christy in a salute.
“Marla here?” she shouted.
He shrugged and held up his hands again as if he didn’t understand.
“I’m going to do some cardio first, then I might come in here,” Christy shouted out to him over the classic rock and roll. The music blaring throughout the gym was a little too loud, and it was irritating.
“Suit yourself,” he shouted back. “We’re open for another hour and twenty.” His British accent bothered her. And she hadn’t recalled the gym being open so late before.
Why? No one was here. She looked down the hallway of offices. Marla’s door was closed, but a light shone under a crack at the bottom.
Probably on the phone.
Christy thought perhaps she’d take her sauna before a quick workout to relax, but didn’t want to miss Marla. She headed for the cardio room. Her body flinched at every little creaking door, and at the sound of howling winds whipping around the glass corner windows that overlooked the dark sky. Lights twinkled on hanging streetlamps at sidewalk level below. Some of the boats in the inlet had strings of lights illuminating their masts.
She slung a towel around her neck, put on her headphones, plugged them into the elliptical machine and clicked the TV on the wall directly in front of her. Two other TV screens mutely flashed ads and programming down at the end of the room, playing to ghosts of workout patrons who had long since vanished.
She clicked through her choices until she found a movie channel and started playing an old Rambo film. Kyle’s biceps weren’t as big as Stallone’s, but she liked them better. All alone in the cardio room, Christy became absorbed in the movie as she coursed through her three point five mile routine.
Until images of a fire in the Santa Nella forest flashed on the screen of the TV furthest from her. A reporter was in a helicopter as the overhead camera zoomed in on a burning cabin. She switched her channel changer to listen to the newscast on the screen right in front of her.
“Police and fire crews are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze. The bodies of three men some half-mile away have been found, dead under what the Coroner has called ‘unusual circumstances’.”
That got Christy’s attention. But why did she suddenly feel like Kyle had something to do with this? Would she always wonder if Kyle was involved when she saw a news report about an unusual occurrence? Is this what came with the territory: feeling afraid to watch the news? And why did it make her fear her own surroundings?
She hated being afraid. When she was little, her biggest fear was of drowning. She’d developed this fear after she’d had a close call at a neighbor’s pool. Although now a good swimmer, it had been a whole four days before she would jump into the pool with all the other youngsters during summertime swimming lessons after her near-drowning. But once she got the knack of it, she became the fastest swimmer in the class.
She used to lock up the Madame M’s store at night in San Francisco dozens of times and she wasn’t as apprehensive then as she felt tonight.
This was something she’d have to fix. Being with Kyle was giving her the heebie-jeebies. And that wasn’t good.
She switched back to her movie and completed her forty minutes. No one else came in during the time, which she thought was odd. Marla must have gotten involved in something else, probably left her a message she’d get later on her cell.
Someone was cleaning out the garbage in the weight room, but still there was no sign of the other staff or other patrons. Christy decided she’d take a sauna in hopes it would quiet her nerves.
In the changing room, she slipped off her workout pants and sports bra top, left her shoes underneath the clothes peg in her locker, wrapped herself in the oversized white fluffy towel, and stepped to the sauna area. Just outside the glass door she found a water bottle steeping in a bowl of half-melted ice cubes, along with a rolled up washcloth. She grabbed them and stepped inside the warm moist enclosure.
She poured water on the artificial coals to create steam inside the chamber, spread her towel down on the cedar planks, lay on her back, and placed the ice-cold washcloth over her eyes. The wet heat soothed her bones. Her skin loved the moist womb of the sauna.
Raising her knees, she felt the little bruises left between her legs from her night of heavy lovemaking. She had the urge to place her own fingers there, but decided against it.
Someone walked past the door.
In pants.
In the women’s wet area?
Christy sprung to the glass door, pressing against it and peeked out, but could not see anyone else. She threw the towel around her, opened the sauna door a crack, then quickly made it to the dressing area, where she dressed. Without taking the time to put her shoes on, she ran out through the women’s side lobby clutching her shoes by the laces, and into the reception area next to the weight room. The phone was ringing, but no one was manning the desk. Through the glass wall that divided the reception area from the weight room, she could see the bottle of green spray and the towel the staff member had left on one of the padded benches. The garbage can in the corner was tipped over.
She hit the heavy glass doors of the gym and discovered they were locked. She turned the heavy metal lock, pushing on the door handle. She burst into the hallway, running to the elevator. As she stepped in, she heard the gym doors open. She pushed the down button multiple times as she heard the sound of footsteps running toward her.
Christy flattened her body against the right side of the elevator car as the doors slowly closed. She half expected someone’s hand to separate the doors and come after her, but the elevator began its slow descent to the fourteenth floor. Once again, she was safe for now. But what awaited her at her condo
? It took forever to get there, and luckily, the car didn’t stop between.
Again, the hallway was deserted. After checking both right and left, Christy dashed to her condo door and scanned the pad with her room card, which released the latch. She slammed the door behind her.
Home.
Any calm she’d achieved with her workout and the sauna had been shattered by the fear that someone was after her. Images of the last hour flipped through her mind. Sure, she’d exercised by herself before, especially late at night. She’d been the last one in the gym several times. Maybe this was just her crazy imagination.
Where was Marla? The other staff? Why was the garbage can turned over? And why wasn’t anyone at the desk?
Chapter 16
Gunny heard the explosion and knew nothing good was going to come of it. Then cars pulled up all around the van. He wasn’t going to go for his piece, which was tucked in a plastic bowl and covered with a tea towel. There were too many of them. He heard the familiar clicking sounds of rifles and weapons being readied.
“Please step out of the vehicle with your hands up,” the stern voice yelled. Bright light shone through the small portal of the front door. Gunny swore loudly so the men outside could hear him, and acted like he’d fallen, hitting the horn on the steering wheel to give the signal. As he slipped his pants down, leaving just his shorts in place, he swore again even louder and looked around, wondering if it would be the last time he’d see the cabin, then slowly pushed down on the door lever and stepped outside into the blinding light with his hands up.
He saw outlines of sheriff’s hats and some baseball caps. No military, he was relieved to note. But then, the only military he was worried about would never let themselves be seen.
He placed the back of his arm against his forehead to shade his eyes.
“Turn around slowly,” came the next command. Gunny lowered his hands and started to turn.
“Hands. Get your fucking hands in the air.”
Gunny complied. But he turned his head as his wrists were jerked down by a uniformed officer and handcuffed together with two cuffs, due to Gunny’s girth.
Accidental SEAL (SEAL Brotherhood #1) Page 14
