He managed to pull his phone out of his pocket, was in the process of dialing when he realized there was someone standing in front of him.
He had no doubt it was Crystal.
“Want me to pose?” Crystal said to him and then laughed. Kell snapped a picture of him and shoved the phone away from him, knowing Crystal wanted Dylan or Reid or Cam to find it there and know he had Kell.
It was the best he could do before he blacked out.
Someone was watching her. She had a feeling it was Kell—she’d been outside for so long that she’d lost track of time, and he’d no doubt missed her long ago.
She hadn’t meant to stay at the door for so long, and she’d been selective in her photography because she hadn’t wanted to fly through the film too soon. When she had enough at her disposal, she usually took the shots in rapid succession, always afraid she’d miss something.
She realized now she’d been missing out that way as well.
Now that it was starting to get dark, the uneasy feeling from earlier returned—and she wanted to move inside to the safety of the house, and Kell.
The wind was picking up—a sign that the storm was coming back strong. The skies darkened further and the door pushed against her—and she fought the panic rising up in her throat.
Calmly, she backed inside and shut and locked the French doors. Stood there and watched the storm pick up for about ten minutes and then locked the shutter into place.
She was surprised Kell hadn’t come out to her in that time. She rested the camera on the table, was just about to open it and pocket the film when a shadow moved across the doorway.
She lifted her eyes and prepared to smile, but it quickly disappeared and she dropped the camera to the floor, fell to her knees beside it because her legs could no longer hold her up.
Samuel. His gun pointed at her.
“Nice to see you again, Teddie. We didn’t really have much time to catch up at the restaurant.”
Because you wanted to kill me.
She couldn’t get the words out and he motioned for her to stand. She struggled but couldn’t get on her feet.
God, Kell … where was he?
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she managed, put her hand down behind her to grope for the heavy camera.
“You have no choice, Teddie.” Samuel walked toward her, put the gun to his side and half dragged her to her feet. Once on that semi-level playing field, she swung her arm up and hit him in the side of his face with the camera, heard him yelp with pain as it crashed against him.
She backed up, knowing she couldn’t go far, but hoping she could find Kell. Ran into the kitchen and saw no sign of him. Samuel was on her tail, his cheek bloody and the anger in his tone unmistakable.
“You always were a little bitch—time to teach you a lesson.”
“Maybe you’re the one who needs the lesson,” she spat. “I know what you did to my father … you’d been trying to break up my family for a long time before you finally killed him.”
“Looks like I succeeded,” he said with a wicked smile, wiping away the blood that trickled close to his mouth. “You’ve got no one to help you now—your friend is dead.”
She hung on to the kitchen counter as she tried to absorb that sudden blow.
Dead. Kell was dead. She swirled those words around in her mind and realized they didn’t sit right with her.
There was no way. She didn’t believe Samuel for a second. She would’ve felt it somehow, like a blow to her gut.
She’d connected with Kell, on a level she hadn’t experienced with anyone else. Ever.
If he were gone, her soul would have been ripped out. “You’re lying.”
Samuel told her, “You shouldn’t have trusted him with all your deep, dark secrets. A man like that is too dangerous. He has too many enemies and he can’t be expected to do anything good.”
“Neither can you,” she said quietly, but Samuel was through talking. He grabbed her arm instead, held the gun to her back.
“Let’s go.”
The storm … he was taking her out of the house and into the storm. Her body began to shake violently. “I can’t go out there.”
“You no longer have a choice.”
CHAPTER
17
Kell woke, found himself bound with chains to the floor in some kind of basement and immediately lunged for Crystal.
The man didn’t move a muscle, just sat there, staring at Kell for a long moment.
“Are you thirsty?”
“Are you going to drug me again?”
“No.”
“Where’s Teddie?” he asked.
“With Chambers. They’ll be here shortly, I’d imagine, if they’re not here already.” Crystal passed him some water and a sandwich and Kell got over his what the fuck? quickly, because he needed his strength.
As he began to eat, the chains clanking, he noticed that Crystal was studying him again, and so Kell did the same to him, noting that the man looked as though he’d been beaten up recently. “Who fucked with your face?”
“Reid.”
Kell put the sandwich down as his gut tightened.
“Don’t worry, your friend’s fine. More than fine,” Crystal told him.
“Teddie better be fine too,” he growled.
“If you had a choice—stay with her and die, or leave her behind and live—which would you choose?” Crystal asked him and Kell knew it was a test, knew which answer Crystal would want to hear.
Even that wouldn’t guarantee that Kell would make it out of here alive, and so he told the truth. “Kill me and let her go.”
“Ah, that wasn’t a choice. But props to you for being creative. Thinking outside the box. How very … Delta Force of you.”
“I’m not Delta,” he said through gritted teeth.
“You love her.”
Crystal said it as though it was a completely foreign concept to him—and it no doubt was.
“Yes.”
“Have you told her so?”
“No.” Fucking psychological bullshit. “But I’d appreciate any time I could get with her.”
“You’ll get twenty-four hours once she arrives, but I can’t put you in the same room—too dangerous, and I’m not that stupid. She’ll be right next to you, though. I’m sure you can find a way to communicate. After that, Chambers’s got plans for her. Keeping her alive won’t keep him out of jail, so …” Crystal looked bored as anything and Kell thought that he could probably rip the chains out of the walls with his bare hands right now with the amount of adrenaline pumping through his body.
But in order to understand Crystal’s game, he needed to remain as calm as the merc in front of him. “I thought you liked working alone.”
“I like bringing people together. Think of me as a facilitator.” Crystal smiled.
The man was so fucking unhinged. “What’s your game?”
“Making you feel helpless.” Crystal looked around the barren room. “Sure is nicer than the prison you sent your team into.”
Calm it down, Kell … do not engage.
Figuring out how to save Teddie was far more important than rehashing the past, and she was right next door. Or would be soon.
“You can’t believe Dylan’s letting you get away with this.”
“Dylan letting me? That’s rich.” Crystal paused. “Dylan’s lost his edge. It’s sad, really. But I’ve got someone else in mind anyway for the job.”
Kell wanted to keep him talking but the sound of a door opening above them distracted him. Crystal left Kell alone to wonder who the new player was, and how bad that development was for him.
He bucked against the bonds, his muscles straining even though he knew the chains wouldn’t break. But never surrendering was a part of his DNA and so he rattled them, if no other reason than to prove he was alive.
The pain helped with that as well. He hated being separated from Teddie.
He checked the room out to see if there was
anything he could do to escape. But it was concrete and windowless. He could use the chains to strangle Crystal, if the man got close enough.
Goddammit, he wanted him to get close enough.
Chambers is going to kill her and you’re helpless.
The thought made him so ill he nearly lost what little he had in his stomach. He tried to stand. He had to get the hell out of his cell and get to Teddie.
He pounded against the wall, and called her name until his throat was raw. “Teddie, answer me.”
He heard nothing in response. He imagined this was very much like what happened to Reid and the others in their underground prison cells in Africa and shook that thought off immediately. Looked around and saw nothing he could use that was within reach of the chains. They were fastened into the cement floor, not the wall. He rolled over and knocked on this wall—it sounded hollow, like drywall, and he began to poke at the loose molding along the floor.
He didn’t see any cameras in the room. That was helpful. And the floor was half dirt under the wall. First, he would dig through until he could see and hear what was in the next room. Then he’d figure out a way to get these goddamned chains off.
He’d be ready when Crystal walked back into the room.
The car ride was truly terrifying—they shouldn’t have been on the road, and Teddie prayed they’d be pulled over, but since they were in a stolen van from the local electric company, no one stopped them.
The wind blew the van all over the road and she huddled in the back in a ball, feeling the sway, the splash of water under the tires, the hard lash of rain bands as they threatened to unleash their fury at any moment. Samuel was behind the wheel, holding it tightly and cursing. His gun was tucked into his jacket and there was no way to grab it without killing both of them.
She’d have to find another way out of this, cursed herself for freezing up and letting herself be taken from Riley’s house.
She realized she should be looking out the window, trying to figure out where Samuel was taking her, but she was barely breathing. Tried to think of Kell, how he would tell her to be strong.
But someone had gotten to him.
He hasn’t let you down yet. So now it was her turn to make good.
She would fight with everything she had.
When the van came to a stop inside a garage, she waited until the door closed out most of the sounds of the storm. They’d driven for maybe an hour, but in this weather, they might only be fifteen miles from Riley’s house.
Samuel had the gun out again, told her to “hurry the hell up,” and she climbed out of the van.
It was dark in the garage, save for the penlight Samuel held to guide them, a heavy hand around her biceps, which felt like a lead cuff sucking the energy from her.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked when he dragged her inside the house. It was dark, just a lantern on the floor, highlighting that the house was empty. She didn’t see anyone else, but she did notice wet footprints leading across the floor.
“You got in touch with me, sweetheart, remember? Good old Uncle Samuel will save the day.” His smile was mirthless.
“You haven’t been good old uncle anything to me for a long time. You owe me an explanation.”
“So much like your father. So righteous. Everything so black and white.”
“You were never his friend. He was always smarter, better, kinder than you, and you leeched onto him in hopes you could be a quarter of the man he was.” The words were meant to seek the truth—judging by the way Samuel’s eyes flashed anger, she’d hit on it.
“I could kill you, Teddie. But I don’t think that’s what I’m going to do.” Samuel stroked a hand over his beard, a familiar gesture from her childhood, when she’d thought everything was idyllic.
“How long were you with my mother?” she asked finally, not sure if she wanted the answer.
“Forever,” he answered shortly. “We were always in love.”
“So why didn’t she marry you instead of my father?”
“I never wanted children. She did.”
Teddie’s head ached. Could she have been the reason her mother hadn’t married a man she loved, the reason Samuel had tried to ruin her father, or was this just another of his lies?
Did it really matter? Teddie needed to stop blaming herself for everything, needed to stay alive, no matter what it took.
She knew both her parents would’ve wanted that.
“I can’t believe it took your father so long to figure it all out. I took his women right from under his nose—he was too wrapped up in being a good little diplomat to notice. He was wonderful at his job. At love, not so good.”
Bastard. She went to lunge at him, but he grabbed her hard and pushed her to the ground.
“Fighting won’t help you this time.”
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough, Teddie. And this time, I’ll make sure there’s no one to stop me.
“I’m going to stop you, you bastard.”
Samuel ignored her, grabbed her arm again and pushed her down a dark staircase into a large basement with several closed doors. He opened the first one and shoved her inside—it was damp and she was cold and shivering. Samuel threw a towel at her and closed the door. She heard a lock turn even as she lunged for it, turning the handle frantically. She slammed at it with her palms until her hands ached and then she turned away and cursed. Fought the tears—her anger helped with that.
She’d have to stave off panic attacks as the basement of the house began to take on water, and she heard the house’s shutters rip off with the wind through the small windows above.
This place was nowhere near as secure as Riley’s house … but for the first time in years, something scared her more than the storm.
And then she heard it—the scratching at one of the walls, turned to see if it was some kind of creature … or something else. Still holding the towel, she walked over to where the sound was loudest, had to get down on her knees to see the small hole that had been dug into her room.
“Kell?” she whispered, held her breath and spoke his name again.
“Teddie? Thank fucking God.”
At the sound of his voice, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. “He told me you were dead. I knew he was lying.”
“Are you okay? Did Crystal hurt you?”
“I’m okay. It was Samuel who took me.”
A pause, and then, “Well, Crystal’s here too. Is there anything around you that you can use as a weapon?”
“I don’t think so … it’s pretty bare in here. Just a plastic water bottle.”
“Are you chained?”
“No.” She swallowed hard, rubbed her face with the towel and then wrapped it around herself to try to get warm. “What does Crystal want?”
Kell didn’t answer her, instead slipped a thin piece of metal that looked like it had been ripped off a doorjamb through the hole. “Take this. Don’t let anyone see it. Use it if you need to.” He paused, then said, “Go for the carotid on the side of the neck. If you can’t, go for the eyes. The throat. Anyplace soft. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” she whispered, then she said it louder. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get me back to you.”
“Good girl.”
Crystal already knew we were with Teddie. It wouldn’t be a stretch for him to track me through Grier in order to hook up with Chambers and his men—and in doing so, he knew he’d cause enough chaos to keep us rattled.” Reid had spent the better part of the morning rolling that around in his brain and was damned pissed about it.
Now, on the phone with Dylan and Cam, the men were putting it all together.
“Check your phone,” Cam told him.
“We’ve been using throwaways since Crystal came on the scene,” Reid confirmed. “I checked my phone—nothing’s been planted.”
“Vivi checked your number too. Seems to be fine,” Dylan confirmed. “You weren’t tracked
going in or out of Mexico.”
“Definitely not by border patrol.” Reid ran a hand through his hair, looked around the dingy motel room and thought about going back to the hospital to spend more time with Grier. “We were never sure who planted the bomb in Mexico, not until Grier confirmed Crystal knew the address.”
“He was there when it went off, the fucker,” Dylan muttered.
“He bugged the truck, followed us out of Mexico, found our address in Texas and watched us take off in separate directions.” Reid drummed his fingers on the small table he sat at, with a view of the street through the partially opened blinds. “He was able to follow me back here with no problem, and he was able to track me through Grier.
“And if he didn’t know exactly where Kell was before, Chambers did,” Reid said grimly, and dammit, he’d handed that intel off. “If Crystal grabbed a private plane with Chambers right after he fought with me, he could’ve landed close by and driven the rest of the way in. If The Weather Channel can move around during a hurricane, Crystal certainly can too. We’ve got to get in there.”
“We’re on it, Reid.”
“I’m getting on a plane tonight,” he said. “And I’m going in no matter what.”
He had a ticket booked out of a Texas airport for later that day—he’d fly as close to the hurricane zone as he could, and walk the rest of the way if he had to.
Grier was getting sprung that afternoon, later than she’d first been told, according to Jack. So far, she hadn’t used the number he gave her, and he was planning on forcing the issue, putting her on a plane and helping her to disappear.
It was the least he could do.
He had no doubt she’d already used the other information he’d given her regarding Chambers’s overseas bank accounts, which Vivi had emailed to him after an exhaustive search of Chambers’s assets. That plus the pictures and Teddie’s testimony should put to rest any doubt that Samuel Chambers had been behind the kidnapping scheme.
When Reid stopped by the hospital, they told him she’d already been released, which he found odd.
Night Moves: A Shadow Force Novel Page 24
