Danger and Desire: A Romantic Suspense Anthology

by Kimberly Kincaid

  Great.

  When she got to the kitchen, she noticed that her shirt had red sauce on it, too.

  Really? Really?

  I need a keeper.

  She giggled. She did have a keeper, and wasn’t that wonderful? However, it would also be nice when she could leave the house again. She’d actually called Angela two nights ago and had a great chat with her. Her one-day-to-be-ex-husband was a crazy to the nth degree. Thank God she had gotten away from him. Jill was so happy to hear about the Rancher Man. Angela swore there was nothing boy-girl going on, they were just friends. But Jill was willing to bet her last clean shirt that as soon as crazy hubby was in the rearview mirror, Rancher Man would be staking his claim.

  Jill pulled off her shirt as she moved toward the laundry room, secure in the knowledge that there were only motion detectors and no cameras attached to the security system in Law’s house. He did have panic buttons set up in four rooms these days. He would have given her a gun, but they both agreed she would’ve ended up shooting herself in the foot, so no to that.

  She was about ready to strip out of her bra and throw on a sleep shirt because it was bedtime. No more Zoom calls for this working girl. If someone wanted to talk to her, it would be audio only. Before she had the relief of taking off her bra, her phone all the way back in the living room rang.

  Darn it!

  She would’ve ignored it, but it could have been Law. She threw on one of his Marine t-shirts and practically ran to the living room hoping it was him. But when she got to the coffee table she saw that it was Lesley.

  “Hey, Lesley, you’re never going to believe who I was just talking to the other night,” Jill smiled.

  “Was it my wife?” A man’s voice asked.

  “Who is this?” Jill demanded to know. “Where’s Lesley?”

  “Oh, quit the games, Jill, you know who this is. Where’s my wife?”

  Jill’s mouth was filled with cotton. She couldn’t catch a breath, and she couldn’t get her lips to part because she was biting down too hard on her bottom lip.

  “Answer me, bitch, where’s my wife!”

  “Uhhhh…”

  A high-pitched scream came through the phone. A woman’s scream. Lesley’s scream.

  “You better answer me, before I start cutting off body parts. Where’s Angela?”

  “Don’t hurt her!” Jill yelled.

  “Bitch, tell me where she is!”

  If she told him, then Lesley would be dead for sure. She had to stall. She had to get help. She had to do something!

  He hated being away from Jill for so long. It might’ve only been three days so far, but it was two days too many. He knew deep in his bones that Goshen would eventually make a play, and despite the fact she was hiding out at his house, he was worried.

  “Thorne, are you going to actually pay attention to what your trainee is doing this time?” Clancy asked. “Or are you going to let his ass get blown up by the other team?”

  Law carefully considered his teammate’s question. Truth be told, the idea of Roger getting taken out by Red Smoke had some serious advantages. He could send Roger back to the barracks and focus for the rest of the time they had left. It would make his life a hell of a lot easier, and they could wrap this game up tonight with a win.

  “Law?” Clancy’s voice was closer. He’d sidled up next to him in the low grass. “You’re not actually considering letting him go, are you?”

  Law looked over his shoulder at his friend.

  “Shit, you are. What has gotten into you? I know you’re in love and all, but seriously, this is un-fucking-acceptable.”

  “Clancy, shut your mouth. Jill’s at my house, and we still don’t have a bead on the guy who’s targeting her. I have a bad fucking feeling about this. He’s been quiet for too long. I know I have her locked down tighter than a drum, and she’s smart, really smart, she’s going to stay put. But I have a bad fucking feeling.”

  “Bad feeling how? Yemen bad, or Syria bad?”

  “Syria,” Law said succinctly. His ‘feeling’ had ended up saving their team from going into a booby-trapped building in Syria.

  Clancy looked him dead in the eye. “That’s good enough for me.” He pulled out his radio.

  “Lieutenant Hunt, this is Ayers. Thorne has a family emergency, I’m taking over for him. He needs to leave ASAP.”

  Law looked at his friend aghast. That went outside all procedure. Of course, their lieutenant would support him, but you never, never ever, asked for something like this unless someone’s life was on the line. You sure as hell didn’t do this on some goddamn gut instinct.

  Clancy looked up at him and waved his hand.

  “The lieutenant said to get the hell out of here and to call if you need us.”

  Chapter 12

  I’m not going to die. Lesley’s not going to die. Angela’s not going to die.

  But this assbutt? He’s going to die!

  Her fingers were sweaty as she held her mobile phone in a death grip. Jill’s gaze swung wildly around the living room until it rested on the security panel.

  Bingo!

  “If you hang up, she dies. I want to hear every goddamn move that you make. As a matter of fact, put on the video call.”

  “I don’t know how,” she lied.

  Jill strode over to the alarm system and bit her lip. She tasted blood.

  Do not cry. No crying allowed!

  Law explained how this worked, but one of the darned buttons was silent and one was a blast. Why weren’t they labeled? Wait, they were. She wiped at the wetness in her eyes that weren’t tears and pressed the one that said silent alarm.

  “Turn on the fucking video on your phone, bitch. I want to see you! I know soldier boy isn’t there, his truck’s been gone for days. It’s just you. I want you to come out the garage door and get in the back of the van with Lesley. If you want to keep her alive, you’ll come out, get in, and start talking.”

  “Don’t do—”

  Lesley’s words were cut off by a high pitch shriek of pain.

  “What did you do to her? If you kill her, you assbutt, then you won’t have a bargaining chip.”

  “There’s nothing stopping me from cutting off her ear, now is there? Or a finger? Or a toe? Take off your shoes, you dumb bitch.” Jill heard Lesley moan in terror. There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Lesley screamed again.

  “Where’s the video? If I don’t have video now, I’ll assume you’re calling the police and I’ll just cut off her nose.”

  Jill fumbled with the phone and hung up by accident. She saw a tear splash the screen of her phone and she wiped it away as she attempted to find her recent contacts. The phone rang. She pressed yes to accept the video call.

  “There’s my pretty.” He didn’t look anything like he had before. His hair was long and oily, and he’d grown a scraggly, patchy beard. He was revolting, inside and out.

  “Get your ass to the garage. You’re coming with me so that I can get some answers.”

  “Why should I? You’ll just kill us both.”

  She had to stall.

  How long has it been since I pressed the silent alarm?

  When will the police get here?

  Why aren’t Kane and Asher talking through the wall?

  Are they listening in?

  She turned the volume up on her phone to its highest level.

  “I might kill you both if you come with me, but I will start carving pieces off this bitch in thirty seconds if the garage door doesn’t open. I do hope you understand. I have all the leverage. Do you understand leverage?”

  Lesley screamed again.

  Jill bit back a sob and started toward the door to the garage, then stopped.

  The tracker. In case the jerk-fucker-wad made her get rid of her phone. She raced to her computer bag on the coffee table and unzipped the compartment. It took precious seconds to feel around before she found the thing at the bottom of the pocket.

  “Got you!”r />
  When she pulled it out, she shoved it into her bra. Then Jill ran back to the garage door in the kitchen.

  She opened the door, reached into the dark garage, and slammed her hand on the button that would open the door. In moments, a white panel van came into view. She backed up a step into the house, shut the door, and yelled.

  “A white panel van. No windows!” She prayed that Law’s sneaky SEAL friends were monitoring the alarm.

  She opened the door to the garage and saw Tim Goshen opening the back of the van.

  “Get in,” he said, he had a gun trained on something inside the van. She saw a knife handle sheathed at his waist.

  “Be a good girl, Jill, and get in. Otherwise, I’ll shoot Lesley in the head.”

  She could smell his body odor as she stepped past him and started to climb in.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wrenched the phone out of her hand and threw it towards the porch. “We’re not going to allow anybody to track you on your phone’s GPS.”

  When Law got to his property, he saw two cop cars out front. He backed into the Hendersons’ side carport since they were out of town, and watched his house. He didn’t want to get involved with the cops, he wanted to take care of this on his own. It didn’t matter if his team was in the wilds of Camp Pendleton or Asher and his team were in Virginia, Lawson knew he could handle this on his own, if he could just get to his tracking system in his house!

  “Your girl did good,” Kane said soothingly. “We know she’s in a white panel van.”

  “I couldn’t care less. The tracking system app on my phone isn’t working.” He was gripping his smartphone so hard it was a wonder it hadn’t cracked. “I need to get into my house so I can use the main tracking system.”

  “You can’t,” Asher said over his truck’s Bluetooth device. “Kane already tracked the GPS on Jill’s phone and it’s at your house, Law.” The pain in Asher’s voice was real.

  Law thought his head would explode. He couldn’t lose her.

  “I’ve told the police about the van,” Kane said. “They’ve got an APB out, and they are also getting a bird in the air.”

  His hand hurt. He looked down at his phone’s screen and watched again as the app wouldn’t load...

  “Play me the audio from the alarm system again,” Law demanded as he watched one of the police cars start to drive away. He willed the other one to follow, but it didn’t.

  The sound of Jill’s voice filled his truck. Not even her attempts to swear at Tim could make him smile, there was too much fear gripping his heart. He continued to listen for any clues that Tim might have inadvertently given.

  It wasn’t until Law made his buddy play the audio for the second time that he caught it. Jill had said, “Got you.” It was right before she went to the garage.

  “Asher, she took the other tracker from her computer bag! I have to get into my house and get into my main system,” Law said desperately.

  “Law, are you sure?” Kane asked.

  “Fuck that noise, he’s sure,” Ash roared. “Fucking work your magic, McNamara!”

  Law waited tensely for two minutes. He smiled when he saw the two cops run from his house and slam into their car, then race down his drive with their lights and sirens on. Kane had done something, all right. Law waited until they were out of sight, then he slammed his truck into drive and was at his house faster than a NASCAR driver.

  When he got to his home office and turned on the tracking device, he had her. She was in the ass-end of nowhere, near the end of the toll road construction. He rushed to his truck.

  “I’m sending you coordinates,” he said as he was getting into the driver’s seat.

  “Wait!” Kane’s voice stopped him. “Find Jill’s phone. I want that motherfucker’s phone number, I have an idea.”

  “We don’t have time,” Law raged.

  “Listen to him, Law. He understands how important this is. He would never ask for something that wouldn’t help save Jill,” Asher insisted.

  Law stepped down from his truck and looked around the front of his driveway. He didn’t move. Walking around and searching was not how he was trained. He slowly looked over the area. Finally, he saw the discordant patch of metallic rose peeking out from behind his bottom step.

  He snagged her phone and put in her so-no-secret code. He rattled off the last incoming number to Kane.

  “Got it,” Kane said. “Get moving.” Law grimaced at Kane’s instructions, considering that he was already back in his truck and partway down the driveway. How slow did he think a Marine was, for God’s sake?

  He was at the first big intersection before the freeway when Kane called out.

  “I did you a solid.” There was a smile in Kane McNamara’s voice over the truck’s speaker.

  Law was considering running the red light. He scanned the area. The bicycle lane was free. “What did you do?”

  “While you were on your home system, I was able to create an encrypted version of your tracking app. At the next stoplight, I’ll tell you how to download it to your phone.”

  He downloaded the app right before the light turned green. Law would’ve said thank you, but it’d take too much time. He had to get to Jill.

  Lesley’s eyes were glazed. Tim had cut her on both arms and there was blood dripping off her back through her blouse. It looked like he’d really tried to cut off her pinky.

  “You’ve got to pretend you’re unconscious,” she whispered to her friend.

  Lesley’s breathing was shallow. She’d already thrown up twice, which had made Tim royally mad. He’d stopped the van and stepped outside, saying he had to take a piss. This was Jill’s chance to talk to Lesley, but Jill wasn’t sure Lesley could understand her.

  “Pretend you’re unconscious, otherwise he’ll keep torturing you to get me to talk. And no matter what happens to me, don’t make a sound.”

  “But—”

  “If you do anything else, we’ll both end up dead,” Jill hissed.

  She heard dildobum’s phone ring. She hoped he dropped it in his pee. Then maybe she would have time to address some of Lesley’s wounds. The woman was now lying on her stomach on top of a couple of stained moving blankets.

  Jill found an unopened package of cleaning rags. She tore it open and pulled one out as she lifted the back of Lesley’s blouse. She needed to see how bad her wound was. Lesley whimpered as she wiped away the blood.

  The wound started out shallow, but got deep as it got closer to her ribs. He hadn’t hit any organs, but muscle was definitely involved. She needed to get the bleeding stopped. She could use the rags as gauze pads, but she needed something to keep them in place.

  Her eyes scanned the van for anything that might work.

  “You let me talk to her, or I’ll kill the Marine’s woman!”

  What was going on? Tim sounded even crazier.

  “Let me talk to Angela!”

  Lesley whimpered, whether from fear or pain, Jill wasn’t sure. Heck, she was going to start whimpering. She wanted Law.

  Stop it Girly, you have to save yourself.

  “I can still want Law,” she muttered.

  “Huh?” Lesley moaned.

  Jill looked back to soothe Lesley, and that’s when she spotted it—a flowery scarf that Lesley had used as a belt in her jean’s belt loops.

  Perfect!

  She had just gotten the bandage on Lesley’s back in place when the back panel door slammed open. “Playtime’s starting sooner than we thought.”

  Tim was holding his phone up high over his head as he pulled his knife out of its sheath.

  “Did you hear that, asshole? I’m going to start cutting on the Marine’s woman, all because you’re not going to let me talk to my wife.”

  What’s going on? Who’s on the phone?

  “Get out here,” Tim screamed at Jill.

  Yeah, sure. Not.

  He wasn’t pointing a gun. Why was she going to get close to that knife if she didn’t have to? He’d ha
ve to come on in and get her. He put a knee up into the van and started to climb toward them. His knife looked like a machete to Jill’s scared eyes.

  “Tim, it’s me, Angela.” Jill heard Angela’s voice coming out of the cell phone.

  Tim stopped in his tracks. As soon as he did, Jill’s brain kicked into gear. How was it that Angela was calling Tim at just this moment? It had to be Law’s tracking device and all the talking she did into the Law’s security system.

  He’s going to save me.

  Tim had the phone to his ear and off the speaker. Jill didn’t know what Angela said, but he was getting agitated.

  Come on Angela, be cool.

  Jill cringed when she saw Tim pull the gun from his jacket pocket. “I’m not going to let them go until I see you. You know that, don’t you?” His voice sounded so reasonable. Almost loving.

  Lesley started making retching sounds, and Jill realized she was going to throw up again. Had she missed something? She blocked out the sound of Tim’s voice and pretended there wasn’t a knife or a gun in the vehicle. Instead, she pretended that she was in an ambulance and that she had a patient. That was all that mattered.

  She turned Lesley’s head and made sure her airway was clear so she could vomit, and then found the egg-sized lump on her head.

  Carefully, Jill moved her friend’s head.

  “Lesley, open your eyes, Honey.”

  “Shut up!” Tim yelled.

  “Open your eyes,” Jill whispered.

  When Lesley finally got them open, Jill wanted to groan. Her pupils were huge. She had a concussion. She needed to get her to a hospital, and fast.

  “I love you, Angela, I can’t live without you. If I can’t live, nobody can. I’ll shoot them both.”

  Jill sucked air between her teeth. First, get the gun away from Tim, then get Lesley to a hospital.

  Easy peasy.

  Think, Jill, why has Angela called?

  Who arranged it?

  Law had to be somewhere, right?

  How can I help in my own rescue?

  Law had been listening to the whole debacle as he’d driven to the construction site. There were plenty of heavy-equipment vehicles parked all around, he just had to follow the beacon to find the white van.