by S. K. Lessly
Also, inside the room was a state-of-the-art computer system that sat atop a wooden desk. Monitors were mounted on the wall and currently displayed the raging fire that once was my house.
My search yesterday had placed Josh, or rather his phone, at a bar close to the city. The bar happened to be inside a hotel, which fed my paranoia. It didn’t help when he texted, he was staying at said hotel for the night. For hours, I tried to hack into security cameras in the hotel in hopes I would catch him getting on an elevator or climbing the back steps to a room with an escort by his side. I had gained access but couldn’t find him anywhere. As you could imagine, that only fueled me to keep at it until I saw him.
At the same time, I started looking for Emily. I reached out to a few of my contacts in the NSA and asked them to use the latest facial rec software to locate her whereabouts. I knew Nickels and Junior were hard at work looking for Emily. I just needed more eyes. Plus, this was personal. I started with the time she exited our building, after the train wreck of a meeting, and hoped they would get a hit on her movements and current location. See, I wasn’t completely stalking my husband. I was also trying to stalk his ex-lover.
I took another puff from my inhaler and felt the medicine doing its job. I felt my lungs expanding and air getting through. Once I felt somewhat calm, or as calm as a person whose husband had just been kidnapped by a crazy bitch, I grabbed the computer chair and sat down. I immediately started hitting keys to bring up the recordings from the security cameras outside the house. I found the recording I needed and fast-forwarded until the moment I saw Josh running toward the house.
I let the recording play and watched in rapt attention then breathtaking horror as my husband was thrown in the air when our house exploded in a ball of flames. He traveled quite a distance before he finally collided with the ground. He laid there for several minutes before he started to move. I watched him crawl for a bit on his hands and knees before he fell. He laid there for a few minutes and I noticed about eight figures emerge from the darkness behind him.
I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. I rubbed my belly for comfort, desperate to ease the growing fear and dread. When the figures came into view, I saw one of them was none other than Emily Parsons.
“No,” I whispered and watched as they drugged Josh, picked him up and carried him to a black panel van I hadn’t even noticed was parked on my street.
I stopped the footage and took a deep breath. Hot tears ran down my face, but I didn’t wipe them away. I needed to get the emotions out so I could effectively do my job and locate my husband. I looked over at our sleeping son, who was sprawled out inside his play pen and couldn’t help the breakdown that ensued.
I ugly cried until my body shook and my chest and heart ached. I needed to calm down and get myself together but every time I tried, I started thinking about seeing Josh get taken.
Okay, Kenya. You have to get it together so that you can help find your husband.
I took two shots of Albuterol, wiped my face with the bottom of my shirt, and got started.
First, I went about contacting Nickels. Once his face appeared on my monitor, I straightened my back and gave him the play-by-play. I also sent the footage his way and opened the lines of comms so he could have access to our security system and cameras. In essence, he saw the same things I saw, which was three goons crouched far into the distance of our burning house. The security team that had been posted right outside the house was gone. Their car, gone.
Nickels offered to send more guys to my location, but I warned him off.
“I’m fine down here. This safe room wasn’t on the plans of the house. If they knew about it, I’m sure I’d be dead right now. I need to call Shane, though. I need to report this before I lose it. He needs to hear this from me.”
Nickels frowned not agreeing with me, but he nodded anyway.
I took a deep breath and continued, “I need you to sound the alarm in the office. Then analyze the footage of the kidnapping. I need anything you can find on the van, then check the traffic cams in the area. See if you can find them and follow where they took him, everything. Also, there’s no audio but you could see Emily was giving orders to her team, see if you can figure out what she’s saying. If you can’t, grab Misty. She’s a trained lip reader. I’m sure once you ring the alarm, she will be the first person in the office barking out orders.”
“Okay, I’m on it.” Nickels replied and gave me a reassuring nod. “Let’s stay connected so I can make sure you’re okay. For my sake, yeah?”
I sighed and gave him a small smile. “Okay. Get the team moving and bring our threat level to three. I’ll call Malcolm, Shane and Misty.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
I nodded took a deep breath, reached for my cell and called Misty. Her phone went right to voicemail, indicating it was turned off. I frowned. Her phone was never turned off. I proceeded to page her with an emergency code letting her know shit hit the fan and then called her again. Nothing.
She had to answer her page within a few minutes, so I moved to Malcolm. When he didn’t answer his phone, I didn’t panic. After about calling him seven times and all seven times my call carried to voicemail, that’s when I started to panic. I paged him too and made eye contact with Nickels.
I had seen Junior sitting next to him typing feverishly on his computer. Without looking at me he said, “I’m on it, Sweets. Call Shane.”
I nodded once, fighting back tears, and called Shane. Thankfully, he answered on the third ring.
“Sweets, now isn’t a good time. If you—”
“Shane,” I said shakily and he immediately stopped talking.
“What’s wrong?”
I breathed out and tears started falling down my face.
“Sweets?”
I couldn’t talk for a few seconds.
“Sweets? What’s going on? Where’s Josh?”
“Gone,” I whispered, sniffed, and wiped my face.
Shane sighed.
“Sweetheart, he’s pissed. Just give him some time to—”
“No, Shane,” I interjected quickly and with a bit of force in my voice. “He’s gone, gone. He’s been taken.”
“What?” Shane barked and I quickly told him everything that had happened surprisingly, without shrieking hysterically, which was very difficult to do.
When I was finished with my briefing, Shane was silent for a few seconds. Then he asked, “Where are you? Are you safe?”
“Yeah, I’m in the safe room.”
“Okay,” He sighed, sounding relieved. “You said you’ve contacted the office. Nickels and Junior are looking for this van you saw?”
“Yes. Well, Nickels is trying to locate it. Junior is trying to locate Misty and Malcolm.”
“What do you mean Junior is trying to locate Misty and Malcolm. Have you called them?”
“Yes. I’ve called them both and paged them with the emergency code you gave us.”
There was a slight pause before Shane asked, “Malcolm didn’t answer?”
“No.”
“And Misty?”
“Her phone was off. It went straight to voicemail. Also, they haven’t returned my page yet either.” I could feel myself start to lose it. It was bad enough Josh was missing, but was Misty and Malcolm missing too or worse?
“Okay, don’t panic,” Shane replied soothingly. I nodded my head, as if he could see me, and took a deep calming breath. “Here’s what I want you to do. Work with Nickels in locating that van. And kudos on trying to get the audio on the footage. Put me on speaker. Are you still connected with Nickels?”
“Yes,” I replied then placed my phone on the desk and placed him on speaker. “You’re on.”
“Good. Nickels, where are you with the audio?”
“I’m not a lip reader but I have some software that—”
“Send me the footage. I’ll take a look and see what I come up with. Junior where’s my brother?”
“His phone is
indicating he’s at home, but—”
“Okay, ping Ms. Worthington’s phone, see where she is and call her. If she’s with my brother, his phone is probably not within reach. He has a security system. Hack into the system and check the area. You should be able to get a hold of him that way.”
“Got it.”
“What about Misty?”
Junior paused and looked at me through the monitors.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not what I want to hear,” Shane stated automatically.
“We’re trying to track her phone, but it’s off. I’m trying to hack into the security cameras around and inside her house, but it’s a bitch trying to get past her firewall. I mean what kind of—”
“Okay, keep working on it.” Shane cut in. “Do what you have to do but find her, understand me?” You could hear the bite in Shane’s voice, the tension vibrating in his tone. Nickels and Junior looked at each other then at me, before Junior replied.
“Yes, sir. We’re on it. We’ll find her.”
Shane grew silent and I could only imagine what he was going through. His brothers were MIA and on top of all that, the woman that I knew had his heart was missing too. This was all kinds of messed up.
“Alright,” Shane began, his voice back to Major mode. “Do whatever it is you have to in order to find my brothers and Misty. Also, get Curtis and Jesse moving. I want them to pick up Sweets and bring her to the office.”
“Shane wait, There’s three guys outside from Emily’s crew. I’m sure they’re waiting for someone to show up. I don’t want anyone else killed because of me, especially my own brother.”
“Don’t worry, Sweets,” he told me. “Your brother and Jesse know what they’re doing. Give them the intel on the location of the guys lying in wait and they’ll be careful.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked, knowing the answer he was going to give.
“I’m going to look for Misty. Stay where you are until Curtis gets to you. Nickels, call everyone. I want them assembled and on alert. Understand? And move our threat level to two. I want my brothers found.”
With that he was gone.
I looked up at Nickels and Junior, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
“Okay, you heard the man. Let’s get to work.”
16
Shane
I disconnected the call with Sweets and exited the elevator of my building on high alert. My gun was in my hand and my eyes searching the lobby. The space was empty but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t waiting for me outside. I moved quickly, surveying the night through windows, checking rooftops, trees and cars. My truck sat to my right, close to the entrance of the building. I hauled ass to the passenger side, got in, and started it up.
My heart was in my chest thinking about Misty. She knew better than to turn her phone off; however, that didn’t have my heart in my throat. I expected she had turned it off right after she escaped my apartment last night and hadn’t turned it back on. No, what bothered me was the timing of the disappearance of both her and Malcolm and Josh’s kidnapping. Was this an attack on the team? Who else has been targeted?
I kept my eyes on the road as well as my mirrors, looking for anything out of the ordinary. If I was next on the list, the attack would happen soon.
I pulled out into traffic and started making my way to Misty’s house when my console lit up with an incoming call. The screen listed the call as private. Hoping it was Emily trying to gloat, I answered.
“Cooper!”
“Major?” asked a hesitant female voice. The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place it completely.
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Oh, uhh sorry it’s…” She paused and I heard grunting and a deep growl of displeasure and pain that actually did sound familiar. But the female voice…I couldn’t quite place it.
“Who is this?” I asked again, impatiently.
There was loud breathing and mumbling before her voice flooded my car through the Bluetooth connection. “Sorry, I had to… never mind. This is Izabella Fuentes. We met—”
“Yes, Ms. Fuentes. I know who you are,” I said impatiently, the tension wrapping itself around my chest. “What I want to know is why do I hear my brother growling in the background.”
She paused then said, “He’s been shot!”
“What! When? How?” I asked, resisting the urge to punch the shit out of my steering wheel.
What in the hell is happening?
She started speaking but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. It took me a minute to realize she wasn’t speaking to me. I started to get this dreadful feeling in my gut that made my already high blood pressure higher.
“Put my brother on the phone,” I demanded.
“I can’t do that and… wait. Hold on.”
There was rustling on the other line then a shit load of background noise.
I looked at my phone, pulled up a tracking app and proceeded to trace this call. It took less than a minute for me to find out that Izabella was at my brother’s house.
“Okay, you’re on speaker,” she announced finally.
“Shane?” Malcolm said through gritted teeth; his voice filled with pain.
“Malcolm, I’m here. What’s going on? Izabella said you were shot. Where are you?”
Malcolm grunted and replied tightly, which had my grip on the steering wheel and my need to get to my brother growing stronger, “Fuck! I’m inside the… safe room. My place is surrounded. There were too many for me to… Ah shit, woman.”
“Sorry,” came Izabella.
“This shit fucking hurts like a bitch,” Malcolm cried out, cursed some, moaned and mumbled something I couldn’t understand before he fell silent.
“Malcolm?” Silence. “Malcolm!” I called again this time louder and more forceful. Still nothing. I tried a different approach.
“Jovanni, Fratello, parlarmi?”
Nothing.
“Shane, sorry he’s gone.”
“What!” My heart stopped.
“Shoot, I mean he passed out. There’s so much blood,” Izabella said, her voice sounding shaky as she spoke.
I had to take a minute to get my heart to start beating again with her choice of wording. I had made my way on the highway, doing at least a hundred, my emergency lights flashing so traffic could get out of my way. I needed to focus on the road before I lost control and killed myself. Once I stamped down my panic and found some control I focused back on Izabella.
“Izabella, I need you to tell me what happened. First, where has my brother been shot?”
“Umm… He uhh…” She sounded as if she was on the verge of losing it. I needed her to focus.
“Come on, Agent.” I instructed, my voice taking on a more authoritative tone. I had hoped changing my pitch would snap her out of her freak out and talk to me. “Talk to me. I need you to brief me.”
“Okay, sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just fill me in. Why are you there and what happened to my brother?”
“Right, okay,” Izabella cleared her throat and when she spoke it was with a bit more strength in her voice.
“I had called Malcolm about an hour ago asking to meet to talk about something I um… found and he told me to come to him. I pulled up and noticed people approaching his house from the beach. I called him immediately to warn him, but he already knew and had engaged in a firefight with the intruders. I made my way into the house and proceeded to assist and well Malcolm…” she paused, I assumed to gather herself. She sniffed then said a bit shakily, “Malcolm was taking on at least twenty men before he was hit.”
I fell silent trying to figure out what in the hell was happening. Both Josh and Malcolm’s homes were hit the same way. Was it at the same time? I had so many questions but not enough answers and it was beginning to irritate the fuck out of me.
“I tried my best to help him, Major. I really did,” Izabella rushed out after the silence bet
ween us stretched.
“I know,” I said finally. “Where was he hit?”
“He umm… took two rounds to his body, one to his thigh and the other his lower abdomen. I used his belt to stop the bleeding from his thigh. The wound was a through and through. My concern is the bullet in his abdomen. There’s no exit wound and there’s a lot of blood. If we don’t get him out of here, I’m afraid he may bleed to death.”
I closed my eyes briefly, my heart tightening from her words. I gripped the steering wheel tight as fuck but quickly released it. I had to stay focused. There wasn’t time to flip the fuck out. I heard a female start to wail in the background and it wasn’t Izabella.
“Who’s with you?” I asked her.
“Um… I don’t know her name. I assume she’s Malcolm’s girlfriend.”
“Amanda is with you? Amanda? Do you hear me? Are you alright?” Shit was beginning to spiral out of control. I felt my body tense. I swerved to avoid a minivan who took too long to get out of my way.
Get a grip, Shane.
“Amanda is in panic mode.” Izabella explained. “She’s freaking out and I can’t get her to calm down. I can’t leave Malcolm’s side. I’m applying pressure to his wound with my shirt but it’s soaking quickly.”
“Okay. I’m going to send paramedics your way—”
“No!” Izabella screamed.
“Why? What’s—”
“We’re surrounded. There’s a crap load of bad guys outside and inside his house. They’re trying to get in here. They’ve used bullets and I think explosives. I have no idea what they will try next.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah, I don’t know what to do.”
I fell silent so I could think. I could feel my brother slipping away from me. Don’t ask me why or how, but I felt his life fading deep in my soul. I had to do something or I’d lose him and that wasn’t a fucking option.
