by Dahlia Rose
Everyone was silent, and he sighed and pulled out a chair from under the long conference table and sat down heavily. His leg began to throb painfully to match his head. He was worried about Amari, and this reunion was taking its toll as well. “Listen, I’m not asking you guys to take me back into the fold, I know you feel hurt and betrayed. But help me find her. She’s in trouble and I love her. To lose her would be like dying, and I don’t want that anymore.”
Casey sat in a chair next to him, and again no one said anything until he spoke. “Like we would ever throw you out. Family does stupid, idiotic things sometimes, but it doesn’t mean we love them any less. I’m still fucking mad at you, but right now looking at your ugly mug, I’m just damn happy you’re not in a grave.” He held out his hand and Stavros clasped it. “Welcome home, Stav.”
Zander smiled. “Look at me. I’ve done more bad that good in my life, they still find me redeemable.”
“Anya keeps you out of trouble lately, so you’re not so bad,” Kale teased.
“Bite me, Kale.” Zander punched him in the shoulder.
“I refuse. You don’t taste good,” Kale replied and wrinkled his nose in distaste.
It was like the flood-gates opened, and everyone had to have a turn to hug him or shake his hand or slap him on the back. Malachi and his big bear self lifted him out of the chair and squeezed him so tight he lost his breath, and the gesture caused him some pain.
“Ouch! Put me down you big fucker,” Stavros teased.
“Stop whining and take the hug,” Malachi said. “I can’t wait for my Mae to meet you.”
“I can’t believe the bunch of you are all hitched up.” Stavros laughed. “A lot has happened in a year.”
Nia laughed. “Including babies. Promyse and Zane have Benjamin. Sophie is Casey’s baby girl. Kale’s wife April is pregnant, and more than likely more to come. Anya wants a baby, but Zander doesn’t know.”
“Well fuck, I do now,” Zander said in astonishment. “When did this conversation happen?”
Nia went along like she didn’t hear him. “Cam’s and Sable’s house on the compound is almost done. Mal and Mae have taken over the west wing of the main house. It’s all just one big happy family.” She gave a watery smile. “And now that you’re home and you’re in love, it’s officially perfect.”
“Kale, you big goofball, you’re going to be a dad?’ Stavros said. He eyed the green pallor of his buddy’s face and grinned.
“April made me watch a child birth video, and I’m still not over it.”
“Well, let’s make sure Stavros gets his Amari home so we can have a big celebration.” Nia clapped her hands and sat down. “Cam and I have some information.”
“So about Anya wanting a kid…” Zander sat beside Nia.
She held up her hand. “Not now, Zander.”
“You can’t drop a bomb line that and then just move on!”
Nia sighed. “We’ll talk later, because you’re a bonehead.”
Stavros couldn’t help but smile broadly. It was the same with them, and it felt like coming home. He was thrilled they’d all found happiness. Wives and children made them stronger, in his opinion. He wondered if he and Amari would have a chance to have what the rest of them had. He’d find her and apologize, and by God, if anyone hurt her, he would literally rip them apart.
“What did you guys find out?” Stavros asked
“Your girl didn’t tell you everything, in fact she downplayed it big time,” Cam said and slid a file over to him. “A year and a half ago she stumbled on to a ring, one the head cardio doctor at the hospital was a part of. Well not so much a part of as ran, big time. Hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out to him, some nurses and another doctor to buy hearts and move their very rich benefactors to the top of the heart transplant waiting list. They would make their charts look as if they were in dire need. And if that didn’t work, they killed at least five perfectly healthy people who came in for minor surgery, convinced the families that donation was best, and then harvested the organs for the highest bidder.”
“That’s some seriously fucked up shit,” Stavros said. “Why is Amari so important that they need to take her?”
“She was the lynch pin that brought it all down,” Nia answered. “She went to he DA and they in turn to the FBI. They planted her on the inside and she got them some valuable information. Enough that they busted the ring and the good Dr. Bascombe. At the first trial the Bascombe family, who has so man zeros in their bank account I lost count, managed to corrupt the jury and it went to mistrial. Something is always putting the second trial off. Prosecutors getting sick, witnesses go missing or show up with their stories changed. That family is throwing everything out there to protect their golden son.”
“But why take Amari? Why not kill her right there in her place?” When Stavros asked the question he felt terror grip his chest. Just thinking about her being gone left a desolate place in his heart.
“Because Ms. Amari Montgomery is one smart chick,” Cam grinned. “She gave the prosecutor information but kept some valuable paperwork and video for herself. A protection package, so to speak. They need to her to find it, and that’s what’s keeping her alive now.”
“They probably plan to torture her into giving up the information and then dispose of her body,” Stavros said grimly, and panic gripped him. “It’s already been hours since they took her. We need to find her ASAP.”
“We know it, and we found the most likely spot that they would take her,” Cam said. “We know they would never use a place with the Bascombe name attached, but the matriarch of the family, Norma Bascombe, has a piece of property with a boat house in her maiden name of Colleburn. She signed it over to her first son from a previous marriage before she died. The land deed was put in the name of Norman Fraye and never reverted back to her name. It’s basically desolate, on the opposite side of the a lake in upstate Massachusetts. That’s the only place they could take her for privacy if they had to…” Cam sighed. “Sorry man, if the plan to use alternative methods to get her to talk.”
“We’ve got the jet refueled and packed and we can head out immediately for extraction,” Casey said briskly and looked directly at Stavros. “How are you health wise?”
“If you mean am I hanging back, there is no way in hell,” Stavros replied. “I’m still healing, but Amari took great care of me. Honestly, I’m not one hundred percent, but if you try and leave me here we’re going to have fight on our hands. I need to be there for her.”
Casey nodded. “We’ll put Mal on your six when we go in.”
“Who is finding the new compound?” Stavros asked.
“Only I know that, and he wants to stay anonymous,” Casey replied. “I know this person personally, and let me tell you he is in high government, so his identity has to be kept private at all times.”
“You say he’s on the up and up, and that’s all I need to know,” Stavros said. “I need some gear for this.”
“All your gear is in your locker, the way it always was.” Casey cleared his throat. “We never could pack it away.”
“Then let’s go get my girl,” Stavros said. “God help anyone who gets in my way.”
Kale beat out a little tune on the surface of the table. “The Army Beasts ride again.”
“Stavros, there was an empty space that you left that could never be filled, and now we’re whole again,” Nia said. “You guys be careful. I’ll grab the ladies and we’ll man the communications while you guys are gone.”
Stavros rose with the others and strode out of the room. The familiar sense of going out on a mission with his brothers in arms actually enhanced his energy and he felt the familiar fire in his chest when he went through his gear. The Army Beasts ride again. He thought of Kales words. Amari was right all along. This was what he needed. This was home.
Chapter Five
Amari woke up and groggily tried to see. There was something over her eyes. The black material was so thick she couldn�
�t even make out light through it. Her mouth was taped, and when she tried to move her hands they were tied over her head. She took stock of her situation as it all came back to her. She’d had an argument with Stavros, drove home, showered, two men, chloroform, and nothing after that. She wondered how long she was out and where she was being held. It was obvious who took her and the reason why, what she had to figure out now was a way to get free. Did anyone notice she was missing? Amari doubted it.
Stavros was probably still brooding at his cabin, and none of her co-workers would expect anything until Monday if she didn’t show up. Madge would go by and check to see if she was okay. By then it would be too late. I’ll probably be dead. The thought made panic lance through her.
Amari began to struggle in vain against the rope that bound her arms and legs. She was in a thin mattress on a cot. When she finally stopped moving, she could feel cold wood against her back. She took a deep breath and smelled water and the familiar scent of spring in Boston. They had brought her back to the place she was running from. She heard a noise, footsteps coming across the boards and then a door opening. She stayed as still as she could, hoping that she could fool whoever it was that she was asleep.
“I know you’re awake.,” The man’s voice sounded amused. She knew who it was instantly; Dr. Bascombe. “I heard the squeaking of those springs.” Amari still said nothing and he made an impatient sigh and ripped the tape from her lips, making her cry out. “There you are. Hello, Nurse Montgomery.”
“You might as well take this crap off my eyes. I know your voice, Dr. Bascombe,” Amari snapped. “Where the hell am I?”
“Someplace where no one can find you,” Dr. Bascombe took the cover from over her eyes. “You should have never run away. My mother would have made you a very lucrative offer to forget what you saw.”
Amari gave an incredulous laugh. “You seriously think you mother’s money means anything to me? Isn’t it just like you to have Mommy bail you out. I thought you were this amazing heart surgeon, and it turns out you’re just a pathetic waste of space. Didn’t Mommy give you enough allowance? Is that why you needed to make more money by selling organs?”
He slapped her across the face, and her skin stung from the contact. She refused to cry out again and give him the satisfaction of hearing her pain. She knew there was probably going to be more as the time progressed. She made the firm decision to hold out against anything they did to her until she could free herself.
Dr. Bascombe thumped his chest. “I’m brilliant and you know it, everyone knows it. I’m saving lives. Why should a donor heart go to some machine worker from Iowa who will waste his or her life? When there’s people in the world that deserve it, who work hard and invest in the future.”
“You mean rich people who can afford it. What makes their lives worth more than a machine worker who is taking care of his family or a woman who works hard to put food on the table for her kids?” Amari demanded. “They do more in their lives than your rich, pompous, privileged friends ever would. What gives you the right to chose who lives or dies?”
He rubbed his thumb and finger together. “Money, darling. You can never win against the green. Now, are you going to tell me where you put the evidence that you hid away?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amari said stubbornly.
He laughed. “Come now, you aren’t going to play that silly game. I have a person in the FBI here who says you didn’t give the investigators everything. The rest has been corrupted and all that’s left is to get what you have.” He grabbed her face cruelly and stared into her eyes. She glared at the man with the long thin face and a goatee, who thought he could pick and choose when it came to life and death. “The Bascombe name reaches far. It took a little time, but we found you. Tapped your sister’s phone and found you. If it wasn’t for that cop husband she lived with we’d have taken her and called you to hear her scream. Give me the packet of evidence and I might let you live. Or I’ll get my friends to come back and show you what pain is.” He smiled cruelly. “The things they can do with a body to make you talk, if I told you, would make you shudder.”
“You’ll do it anyway, because that’s the kind of fucked up evil that lives in you,” she said stubbornly. “Go ahead and torture me. When they find my body, that packet will go to the main FBI office in D.C. I’ll bet Mommy’s reach doesn’t get that far up the ladder. And if that goes missing, a new copy of the packet will be sent every three months until someone pays attention. Not from one person, but many.” Amari smiled wickedly. “I made sure to cover my ass very well, you fucking asshole.”
He slapped her again and then wiped his mouth with a shaky hand. She could see the wheels in his head turning as he tried to figure out if she was bluffing or not.
“I’ll be back. I’ll be back,” he muttered.
She wanted to yell at him and laugh in his face. But she kept silent knowing she had a very tenuous hold on the upper hand. She was bluffing, of course. The packet of evidence was hidden in Boston so well no one would know where to look. She glanced around trying to find something she could use for escape. She tried twisting her wrists hoping that her small hands would be able to slip through the loops. She was tied too tightly, and soon the rough texture of the rope made her wrists sore and raw.
Amari thought of Stavros and prayed he went to her house to find her and she was gone. If she had any hope of being freed, it was him. She wanted the chance to tell him how much she loved him, and that she was sorry for yelling and walking out. Please find me, let him save me. She sent the mental thought heavenward. She’d given him so little to work with, and she regretted not explaining the whole truth. She hoped that fate wasn’t going to deal her a cruel hand and take her away from the man she loved before they had a chance to even start a life together.
* * * *
Stavros had sat in the jet while they flew and tapped his foot impatiently. Now that they were on the ground and driving to a designation point where they would approach the boathouse, his last nerve was frayed. It was dark by the time they left in the black SUVs that were parked and waiting for them at the private airport. He wanted to just go, find Amari and break someone’s arm for taking her. Right now he should be introducing her to everyone and meeting all the wives and kids himself. Because of some crooked doctor who thought money could buy everything he was praying she was still alive. He strapped his second set of knives into the pack that Kale held, and for a moment he immersed himself in the feeling of being geared up and heading out once again with the team. He and Malachi would be going in to the boathouse in shift form. The surprise alone of seeing a bear and a tiger charging in would give them valuable minutes.
Plus, he hoped he could sink his teeth into the neck of Dr. Bascombe. He’d claimed Amari as his mate, and by God, no one fucked with his mate without repercussions. He realized he’d missed the camaraderie as they got ready to enter the building, and again it hit him in the gut how he’d walked away from all of them. Casey still gave him a look now and then that was filled with betrayal and hurt. But along with that he saw relief in his friend’s eyes. He knew how Casey thought, and each day he was alive he probably thought about how that entire situation came to be. He would have blamed himself every day, even though Stavros had made the choice to grab that wire. There wasn’t enough apologies that could go around for what Stavros had put them through. There was enough time for them to get reconnected after a year. Right now his mission was to find Amari alive.
“Com check., Guys, put your earpieces in.” Camden passed out the small ear bud receivers. “Alpha, bravo, Charlie, One, two and three, are we good?”
“Roger that,” they all answered.
Casey turned. “Okay, just like we went through it on the plane. We go in hot. Stavros and Malachi are through the door first. Kale has both your clothes and your weapons. He goes in right after you and secures the interior. We’ll secure the outside for any runner, and we round them up nice and pretty for the
cops. Alive would be great, but if they get froggy and want to jump, take ’em down. We all clear?” He waited for the nods and then turned to Stavros and Malachi. “Shift in the woods and then we head in.”
Stavros and Malachi headed into he trees and in minutes came back out in the form of their second nature. Malachi in his bear from was bigger that normal bears, and with the dark fur, ominous to look at. Stavros felt wonderful in the guise of his tiger. It was as if all the inpatient tension in his human body now pulsed through the power and the muscles beneath the white fur. The weakness in his left side was not as bad as it usually was when he ran in Alaska. He wondered if it was the connection back with they guys of Army Beasts that made him feel stronger.
They headed in, the team members who had not shifted with their guns up and night vision on. No one made a sound, and not even a dry branch on the ground cracked beneath their feet. They all knew the job, it was what made them so deadly in either form.
The boathouse was just to the side, and there was a small amount a light coming through the dirty window. Casey, Cam and Zane took the root that led to the part of the boathouse that was connected to the small boat dock. Stavros moved with Malachi toward the front with Kale and Zander. No cars were anywhere around, so they must have come in the small boat that was moored on the other side of the lake. Stavros had no doubt they planned to kill Amari and sink her in the lake when they got the evidence she had. He was not going to allow that to happen.
“We’re in position. It’s a go.” Casey’s voice came through the communications units in their ears. Cam had designed the units so that they fit in their ears when they were in shift. The man was a genius in Stavros’s opinion, because the units worked perfectly. Zander gave them a terse nod before he and Kale breeched the door with a smooth kick. With a roar, Stavros went in and Malachi followed.
