Whirlwind (SAI Book 2)

by Lea Hart

  “You gave me the perfect solution. I’ll bet you didn’t even know that, did you?”

  Shaking her head, Sara felt her hands grow clammy and her knees start to rattle against one another. The words that Ang just uttered let her know that she didn’t have much time to come up with a solution. Faking confidence, she threw her hair back over her shoulder. “Really?”

  “I called my cousin in Chicago and told him to let the family know that I have something they want. They should be here by tomorrow morning.”

  “I handed that one to you on a silver platter.”

  “I know. I couldn’t have planned it more perfectly. They will take care of you, and I won’t go to jail. If this works out the way I hope…Grady and I may have a chance at reconciling.”

  Sara was struck speechless. What could she say that wouldn’t sound like total bullshit? Nothing.

  “I’m surprised that you have no snappy response. You’ve been full of them since I grabbed you out of the parking lot.”

  “If you and Grady are meant to be together, then I’m sure it will happen.” There…that sounded like a total nonanswer. “So, how is it that you have some family members in the Outfit? I thought it was an all-or-nothing type of thing.”

  “No. It’s a choice. My Dad left Chicago when he was a teenager, and he was never a made man. He has two brothers who were part of the family. What was Sal’s role in the Outfit?”

  “I’m not really sure. He told me that he advised on matters of leadership. At first I thought he was a management consultant.”

  “You had no idea that he was part of the mob?” Throwing her head back, Angelina let out raucous laughter. “You really are naïve. How could you not know that?”

  Straightening up, Sara glared at her captor. “I didn’t happen to grow up in the underbelly of the criminal world. My father had a long, distinguished career in the Navy and my mother was an artist. I grew up in Georgia. I had the perfect family, and had no reason to believe that my biological father was a killer.”

  “Oops. Mom must’ve gotten it on with good old Sal as a last hurrah.”

  “I think it was her first hurrah, and she had no idea what he was into. The best I can tell is that I’m a result of a lost weekend. My mom went to Chicago for a seminar about Dali and met Sal. It was a one-time thing.”

  “So, how did you find out about it?”

  “My parents were killed in a plane crash, and I was going through our home and found a box of letters. Apparently Mom had gone up to Chicago to tell Sal about me, and she must’ve figured out what he was involved with, because she never spoke with him in person. There are letters between them, and she lied to him. He was begging to see her again, and she said she wasn’t up for it. She told him that she had been pregnant but lost the baby. He never wrote after that.”

  Moving around on the couch, she tried to relieve the cramp in her leg. “The collection of letters didn’t make sense to me, so I looked up Sal on Google and contacted him about getting together. I had no idea what he was into. If I had, I never would have bothered.”

  “So, you were not that impressed with dear old Dad?”

  “No, I wasn’t. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything between us, and I wasn’t interested in making something. The only thing I got out of it was knowing where my eye color came from.”

  “Yeah, you have those witchy green eyes that all the Marinos have.”

  Moving around, Sara realized that she had to use the bathroom. “Can you unbind my legs? I have to use the ladies’ room.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Angelina slid a wicked-looking knife out of her boot and cut the zip ties. “There’s no escape, so don’t try it.”

  “I just want to use the potty. I didn’t figure you for a fool.” Sara walked slowly to the restroom at the other end of the room and looked around for any possible weapons or means of escape. There was nothing. Ang had done a good job in picking the place. They were completely isolated, and there was very little chance of anyone happening upon them. Even if she somehow managed to escape, she would be in the open once she left the building. All she could look forward to was running into some gators from the swamp outside. As she lifted her bound hands to open the door, she tried not to gag. Not the cleanest room in the world. She flipped on the light, closed the door, wiggled her dress up and squatted. Silently she thanked Richard for all of the workouts he had put her through. She hadn’t been able to use any of the training, but at least her legs were strong enough to prevent her from falling on a dirty toilet. It was important to count your blessings where you could.

  “Are you almost done in there?”

  “Yes, just washing my hands.” Sara opened the door and faced Angelina. She really was a striking woman. They were close in height, but Angelina was built like Jessica Rabbit. Curves in all the right places.

  Underneath that crazy was a smart woman. It made sense that Grady was attracted to her. She was the type of woman who promised endless dark pleasure. At least, that’s what Sara imagined a man saw when he looked at Angelina. “I totally get why Grady fell for you.”

  Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth gaped. “Really?”

  “Of course. You are all the things a man would be interested in. You seem to have mastered the whole femme fatale thing.”

  “I learned early to get what I wanted with my father. When I was twelve, I figured out how easy it was to manipulate him and have everything I wanted. When I grew into a woman, I learned how to hone that skill until I mastered it.”

  “Totally makes sense.” Sara walked around Angelina and plopped down on the couch. “I never learned any of that.”

  “Yeah, I can tell. You dress like you’re still in college or you’re an artist. The raw material is there, but you never did anything with it.”

  “I illustrate children’s books. My feminine power was never something I worked on. Apparently you got all of mine.”

  The slow appraisal that Ang made of her let her know that she completely agreed. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

  “So, what now? We wait until your cousins show up, and then you walk out of here, back into Grady’s arms?”

  “Something like that. I haven’t figured out how to convince Grady that we should see each other again.”

  “There’s a weird echo thing that allowed me to hear a lot of your relationship with Grady. I always got the impression that you two had a lot of passion. Both good and bad.”

  “That was true from the moment we met. My father hired SAI to solve the problem of our trucks being hijacked. We had been targeted for almost a year, and we were being ripped off on a regular basis. We had a contract with a pharmaceutical company, and we were about to lose it. Grady came in, worked with us, and eventually solved the problem. We started a tempestuous affair. That was crazy fun. Until it wasn’t. I must’ve been his first crack at having a relationship, because he had no idea what he was doing. I don’t think he ever had a regular girlfriend while he was on the Teams. What started out as a hot, crazy affair turned into something that I never wanted to let go of.”

  “Grady wasn’t in the same place as you?” Sara watched her rub her finger over the gun cradled in her lap. Not a good sign.

  “No. I think my tastes were too dark for him. Which surprised me. I thought a hardened warrior would enjoy the same things as me. I did everything I could to introduce him to my world, and he played along for a while. Then he stopped. Just like that. There was one evening that made him really uncomfortable, and it was never the same after that. I thought once I showed him, then he would love it. He ended up blaming me for dragging him into my world. I never got him back after that.”

  “Allow me to be Captain Obvious for a moment…Why do you want him back?”

  “Because I’ll be whatever he wants me to be. He doesn’t get to leave me. I love him, and I think we can make it work.”

  Nodding, Sara stared at her bound hands and felt like throwing up. This was by far the worst experience of her
life. The man she had gotten to know was completely different from the man Angelina was describing. She had no idea how to process it. The only thing she did know was that Grady seemed to be more a part of Angelina’s life than hers. Truth be told, she was just the girl who lived next door and happened to be in trouble. Nothing that she and Grady had seemed real. It was probably just a result of his natural protective instincts. Raising her head, she stared at Angelina and understood that there was no way a man could be attracted to the both of them. They were as different as night and day. The thing that happened between them was just a fluke. A result of quickly changing circumstances and nothing more. “I’m going to try to sleep. I’m worn out.” She curled into a ball, rested her head against the end of the sofa, and closed her eyes. Biting the inside of her cheek, she held back her tears.

  The last thing she wanted was for Angelina to see that she was upset. Somehow it had become imperative that she maintain a breezy attitude. It was sort of required of being abducted by her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, who happened to be related to the very people who wanted her dead. This was such a clusterfuck. She had heard Richard use that phrase, and she was pretty sure it was spot-on.

  If, by some miracle, she survived this, she was going to leave on the first available plane to California. Grady’s face filled her mind, and she shut it down. He belonged to Angelina in some way. It didn’t make sense, but that’s how she felt.

  Probably none of it was going to be an issue. There was very little chance that she would survive crazy Ang and the Outfit.

  Hopefully someone would write her story and make it into a Lifetime movie. There was no way to make this kind of shit up. At the very least, her life could be memorialized by an hour-and-a-half show. Maybe they could get Lyndsy Fonseca to play her in the movie. People had often said that they looked alike. Her mind slipped away as she tried to come up with an actor who could play Grady. Oh, well…

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Tuesday

  Twelve AM

  Grady strode down the hall into the coms room and noticed that the Team had arrived. God bless them one and all. “Thanks for coming in.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Trevor said. “I picked up the van from the warehouse, so we can ride out in that. I’ll start getting the supplies together, and I’ll coordinate coms.”

  “Ben, are you sure that you want to be here? What if Ruby goes into labor?” Grady asked.

  “I’m under strict instructions to help out. Ruby knows that we need everyone, so she made me drop her off at Vivi’s. They’re having a slumber party, so she’s in good hands.”

  Joel strode into the room and glanced around. “Viv is ready to deliver the baby if necessary. So we have nothing to worry about.”

  Dane held up a printout. “I have the addresses of all the properties owned by Balcom. Let’s pull up satellite imagery and see if we can pick up anything that gives us a clue.”

  “Angelina’s father said that she’s been missing from the house for forty-eight hours. He’s had a PI looking for her, and they haven’t come up with anything yet.”

  “So, we can forget picking up a location on her phone?” Harris asked.

  “Unfortunately, her phone is sitting at home,” Grady replied. “Mario said that she hadn’t been taking her medication, so she’s probably on a manic high.”

  “What are we dealing with?” Joel asked.

  “Mario told me that she has a schizoaffective disorder. Angelina suffers from schizophrenia and is also bipolar. I can’t fucking believe that I’m finding out about this now. He never said anything to me when I started dating Ang. Seems like something that should’ve been brought up.”

  “Shit!” Dane tipped back in his chair and rubbed his head. “A lot of stuff makes sense now. All those incidents at your house were just the warm-up.”

  “Why hasn’t her father done anything about it until now?” Joel asked.

  Grady shook his hands out and rolled his shoulders. “He’s been trying to help her since she was diagnosed in her early twenties. Apparently she’s been doing well for the last five or six years. He’s been fighting cancer for the last year, and he hasn’t been able to watch her as closely.”

  “So, the relationship with you triggered something, and she went off the deep end,” Kyle stated.

  “Yeah.” Joel slapped Grady’s back and gave him an encouraging smile. “Now we know what we’re dealing with, so let’s find out where they are and get Sara out of there.”

  “Yes, sir.” Grady cleared his throat and pulled his shit together. “Mario gave me the addresses of five of the warehouses that are up and running. We can eliminate those and concentrate on the five abandoned ones. He gave me the number for his nephew, who is now running the company, and we can ask him for info.” He handed the paper to Lance. “Can you call him and see what he has?”

  “On it.” Lance swung his chair around and picked up the phone. “Sat images should be up in a minute. I sent them to the big screen.”

  Joel, Ben, and Grady moved to the monitor and waited. Grady rubbed his eyes and concentrated on breathing.

  Ben shoved an elbow into his side. “We got this, man. Failure isn’t an option.”

  “Absolutely,” Grady said. “The good news is that we won’t have any tangos trying to shoot at us when we go in to pull Sara out.” He comforted himself with that thought and knew that without Sara in his life, he might as well be dead. So, yeah, this rescue was going to be textbook perfect.

  “Piece of cake,” Ben replied.

  The sat images of the five possible properties came up on the screen. Joel stood at the table and enlarged the first image. The only illumination came from street lamps. There were no cars or activity at or near the building. The street was quiet. “Not seeing anything.” Joel said, as he brought up the next image. He went through the same process with the next two buildings. “Am I missing anything?” he asked.

  “No,” Ben answered. “Let’s see the next one.”

  The fourth image came into focus, and Grady stepped forward. “Enlarge this one. There’s something by that door.” As Joel enlarged the image, Grady’s heart tripped against his chest. Pointing, he yelled, “There. That looks like a van.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Ben breathed, as he studied the dark shape on the screen. “Can we get closer?”

  “Not on this one. We’re going to have to tap into another sat to get a clear image.”

  “I have a feeling that this is where Ang took Sara,” Grady said as he stepped back. “Let’s get the blueprints and get out there.”

  “Lance,” Grady shouted over his shoulder. “Can you get Lucky to pull blueprints on the fourth sat image?” Lance waved at him and then let his fingers fly over his keyboard. “Okay, let’s look at the fifth to confirm and then get our asses in gear.”

  Harris yelled for Grady. “I have the van taking an off-ramp near the airport. Is that jibing with what you’re seeing?”

  “I think so. Do we have an address on the building?” Grady called out.

  “It’s on Northwest Fourteenth Street,” Ben answered.

  Harris added an overlay of a street map against the van and knocked his knuckles against the table. “Bingo!”

  “Damn, how did you do that?” Grady asked, as he leaned closer to the monitor.

  “It’s easy.”

  “For you,” Grady responded.

  Joel moved to the middle of the coms room and shouted for everyone’s attention. “Let’s put our info together and make a tac plan. Lance will continue to work with Lucky on feeding us intel. Harris, you give it to us as we move through the op. Ben, you’re our lead sniper, Trevor is coms, and Grady is on breach. Kyle, Dane, and I will go in and pull Sara out. Questions?” Joel glanced around at the group and nodded. “Good. Let’s get started on the tac plan.”

  The men gathered around the table in the middle of the room and brought the tablets they had been working on. They started sending images to the large screen
that was built into the table and discussed strategy.

  Grady glanced around the table and hoped like hell that Sara was holding up and knew that he was coming for her.

  ***

  Grady pulled his buzzing phone out of his pocket and saw that Sam was calling him. “Have you landed?” The sound of jet engines drowned out his voice, so Grady waited to see if he found a quieter place.

  The background noise suddenly disappeared and Grady could hear Sam. “Repeat what you just said. I missed most of it.”

  “The Outfit sent two hit men to Miami. They are due to land at six a.m. I have a team on the ground. We’re going to pick them up and take them in for questioning.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Exactly,” Sam replied. “Over a year has passed since Sara left Chicago. After the initial order was placed to bring her back to the family, there’s been very little activity. Until a couple of weeks ago. How in the hell did they find her? Is your crazy-ex connected?”

  “When I worked with Angelina’s family’s company a year ago, I never found any ties to organized crime. The father ran a clean operation.”

  “Maybe the family tree isn’t quite so legitimate. What is the name of the trucking company?” Sam asked.

  “Balcom. It’s a combination of Baldacci and Cometti. That was Angelina’s mother’s maiden name.”

  “The Baldaccis are part of the family in Chicago. They haven’t risen above being an underboss. But they do hold some influence.”

  “So, Angelina must’ve called someone and told them who she had kidnapped.” Grady felt rage rush over his body. This whole thing was his fault. He thought he had been protecting her, but he had done the exact opposite.

  “Are you there, man?”

  Grady cleared his throat and tried to shove the dark thoughts down. They were not going to help. When they went in to rescue Sara, he had to be operating at his best. She deserved at least that much from him. “Yeah. I’m here.”