by Becca Van
Tabby slid down until she was lying on her side on the timber floor and curled up into a tight ball. She hadn’t even thought about a stray bullet coming through the wooden structure of the building and was glad that Max was still thinking straight after everything he had been through.
The gunfire got closer and louder, and even though she wanted to see what was going on, she was too scared and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She heard more guns being fired and then thumps as the insurgents bodies landed on the floor. She didn’t want to look to see if they were dead. Her whole body was shaking, and if she’d had enough water in her system, she would have lost control of her bladder and made a real fool of herself.
All of a sudden, the lights were switched on and she automatically opened her eyes and blinked a few times. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Three very tall, very muscular men wearing American Military camouflage fatigues came striding into the room toward her, Max, and Gloria. Behind them were other soldiers dressed in the Navy SEAL uniform. The SEALs looked over the fallen rebels and then dragged them out of the room.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
Tabby swallowed when she looked into the cold gray eyes of the American soldier and then nodded.
“Are you injured?”
“No,” Tabby croaked, and when he reached for her she couldn’t help but flinch. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. You’ve been in a bad situation and it’s only natural to be wary. My name is Calbert Garton, but you can call me Cal. Are you Tabitha Carey?”
“Yes.” Tabby couldn’t help the groan that escaped when he clasped her upper arms in his hands and helped her to sit up. “But you can call me Tabby.”
“Tabby, huh?” Cal smiled. That smile took away all the coldness and made him seem almost affectionate, and so damn handsome. If she’d been in a normal situation she might have creamed her panties. He leaned her face forward into his chest and looked over her shoulder. “That suits you. You were all curled up like a kitten when we first came in.”
“Max told us to make ourselves as small as possible so we wouldn’t get hit by any stray bullets.”
“Max is a smart man.” Cal glanced over to where Max and Gloria had been sitting. Tabby looked that way, too, and started to panic when she saw they were gone. She pulled back from Cal and peeked around his bulky body just in time to see the Navy SEAL guys leading Gloria and helping to carry Max out.
She turned her head when the two men similarly dressed to Cal came close and squatted down beside her. These two men had removed the restraints from Max and Gloria and helped them over to the other soldiers. Even though they weren’t identical, Tabby could tell by their features that they had to be related to Cal. His words a few seconds later proved that she was correct.
“Tabby cat, these are my brothers, Lawford and Fletcher.”
“Let me guess.” Tabby smiled at the two men. “I’m to call you Law and Fletch.”
“Not just beautiful but smart, too.” Law winked at her.
Her heart stuttered in her chest and her breath hitched in her throat as she stared into his dark blue eyes. When she glanced at Fletch, she noticed his eyes were a lighter blue.
“Let me get your hands free.” Law moved until he was behind her, and she sighed and then whimpered with pain as her wrists were released. Her arms fell uselessly to her sides, and then the serious pain began. Her hands still felt numb, but it also felt like there were thousands of needles pricking into her skin as the blood began to flow back into her appendages. Her shoulders were screaming with agony and she sighed as Law and Fletch began to massage her joints.
None of the men hurried her. They patiently waited for her to start moving by herself before they removed their hands from her body. Tabby wanted to tell them to put their hands back on her, but she bit her lip instead.
“Are you ready to go?” Cal asked. “We need to get out of here in case there are more rebels coming in to help.”
“Yeah, I’m more than ready.” Tabby looked over her shoulder at Law and then met Fletch’s and Cal’s gazes. “Thank you all for rescuing us. You put your lives on the line to rescue strangers. Thank you.”
“Just doing our job, Tabitha.” Cal’s face looked a little red when he said that and then he helped her to her feet.
She’d been sitting for so long and had had so little water and food that she was feeling weak, and when her knees buckled she was embarrassed. She wanted to be able to walk out of the clinic with the three soldiers and not impede their escape, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
“Whoa.” Cal’s hands gripped her waist and then he swung her up into his arms. “Hold on, Tabby cat, this could get rough.”
Just as Cal finished speaking, more gunfire broke out. He and his brothers used their bodies to shield her from getting hurt while the Navy SEALs returned fire. She saw the helicopter in the distance and then closed her eyes to pray that the men sent in to her rescue her and the two doctors didn’t get hurt. When she opened her eyes, Cal was stepping up into the helicopter. She wondered how the hell he had been able to travel such a distance so quickly and with her added weight. He hadn’t jostled her and he wasn’t even breathing heavily. She looked back over his shoulder and saw that she hadn’t underestimated the distance from the copter to the clinic.
The Navy SEALs were running while returning gunfire, and they took much longer than Cal and his brothers had to reach the aircraft. Do they have super powers or something?
God, Tabby, now you know you’re going crazy. You must have had your eyes closed for longer than you thought.
She was pleased to see that Max and Gloria were already safely in the helicopter. Cal sat down with her on his lap, and when she went to get up he squeezed her waist and shook his head. The SEALs scrambled into the copter, and when she looked about she realized that there were no more seats available, so she leaned back against Cal and got comfortable for the ride.
There was nothing else she could do. Not that she was complaining.
* * * *
Cal loved having Tabitha Carey in his arms. She felt so damn right. When he’d first seen her curled up on the floor of that clinic, his heart had stopped in his chest. At first he’d thought she might have been seriously injured or dead, and that would have been a tragedy. His heart hadn’t felt like it had begun beating again until she lifted her head and blinked a few times.
She was so fucking beautiful his cock had twitched in his pants, and that had never happened to him before. Not while on a mission or just at the sight of a beautiful woman. He glanced over at Fletch and Law and saw that they were having a hard time keeping their eyes off of her, too. She was a stunningly gorgeous woman with her long, wavy white-blonde hair, light blue eyes, and pixie face. She couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds and was definitely on the short side. If she was an inch over five feet he would eat his gun. She was so damn tiny, and even though she smelled of sweat, he caught a whiff of her perfume, the lingering scent of her body wash. She smelled like honey and milk, and saliva was pooling in his mouth, just urging him to take a bite out of her.
If he was able to, he would want to ask her out on a date, but he knew once he and his brothers got back on the aircraft carrier, she wouldn’t be their responsibility anymore. Plus, he and his brothers would be heading back home straight away now that the rescue mission had been successfully completed.
Cal was really cut up because he had a feeling that Tabitha Carey was one special lady and that she could just be the one woman he and his brothers had been waiting for, and he didn’t think that they would ever get to see her again.
When the helicopter arrived on the deck of the carrier, he reluctantly passed Tabby over to the medical officers and watched her being wheeled away on a portable gurney until he could no longer see her. His brothers were standing beside him, and when Law squeezed his shoulder, he reluctantly turned away and prepared to head home.
Chapter Two
&nb
sp; Fletch and his brothers had been back from their mission to Frenda, Algeria, for four weeks, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the image of Tabitha Carey out of his mind. He and his siblings had been snapping and snarling at everyone, and finally Whit had called them into his office to talk to them about their attitudes. That had been a week ago, and now he and his brothers were more aware of how they spoke to the others but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still thinking about that sexy, blue-eyed sprite.
They had stopped going to the main house for their breakfast and only ate their dinner with the rest of the team and their women. Fletch didn’t know if he could stand watching how cozy his teammates and women were for too long without blowing off some steam and making a real ass of himself.
He practically slammed the platter of bacon and eggs he’d cooked on the table, which earned him a glare from Cal. When he saw the muscles in his brother’s jaw flexing as he ground his teeth together, Fletch knew he’d gone overboard.
“Sorry,” he mumbled and then sat down. He stared at the food and wondered if he would be able to eat any of it, but knew he needed to force it down. He couldn’t afford to miss fueling up. If he and his brothers got another call out for a mission, he needed to be in top peak.
Just as that thought slid across his mind, each of their cell phones vibrated. He looked at the message and then started eating quickly, as did his brothers. They had ten minutes before they were due in the meeting room at the main house.
When he and his brothers were done, they dumped the dishes into the sink and headed out. The rest of the team were already at the main house and most of them were in the meeting room. They were just waiting for their team leaders.
Whit, Dalton, and Hay entered and then sat down after passing out folders.
“If you’ll all open the folders and look at the information Tony has sent us, you’ll see that Aguri Akashi has got evidence on two Japanese politicians from the House of Representatives who are involved in the sex slave ring,” Whit said. “The Prefectural Police have arrested and detained the two politicians and are currently interrogating them. Hopefully by the time they’re done we’ll have a list of each and every person involved in the Japanese underworld criminal organization, including those already stationed here in the US.
“Once we get that list, the FBI, CIA, and our local law enforcement officers will be going after those assholes, but until then we are to keep all our alerts in place. I wouldn’t put it past these bastards to come after us. In fact, I would say it’s a given.”
Just as Dalton was about to speak, an alarm on one of the laptops on the desk in the far corner went off. Whit, Dalt, and Hay hurried across to it, and Fletch watched Hay’s face as he began tapping rapidly on the keyboard.
“Fuck!” Hay lifted his head and looked at each of the teammates, and then his gaze landed on him and his brothers.
Fletch had a feeling he knew what was happening before any of their team leaders explained the situation.
“Cal, Fletch, and Law, you need to lock and load. Another blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman has been reported missing. You guys need to leave right now,” Dalton commanded.
Fletch nodded and rose to his feet. “Have you got all the information yet?”
“No,” Whit said and scrubbed a hand over his face. “We’ll have it before you’re ready to go, though. I need you guys to find this woman and get in and out as fast as possible. We all know that his could be a setup and we are probably going to have incoming headed here.”
“We’re going to get the women and children from both ranches away from here and safely hidden, but we are going to need you three back here as fast as possible,” Hay said. “Tony is aware of the situation and will send in backup if needed.”
“Understood,” Cal said and then led the way out.
Fletch and his brothers were prepared and back in the conference room ten minutes later. After picking and retrieving weapons from the hidden cupboard in the wall, Whit handed over the information on the missing woman. “I’ve already alerted the Miles City sheriff that you are coming. You can look over that stuff on your way. Be vigilant and stay safe.”
“You, too.” Fletch and his brothers shook their teammates’ hands and headed out to their truck. Minutes later they were on their way to Miles City in Montana.
* * * *
“Fuck!” Law yelled from the backseat of the truck when he opened the folder Whit had handed him.
“What?” Cal glanced in the rearview mirror and met his gaze. Fletch turned to face Law from the passenger front seat and waited for him to speak.
“We have to get to Miles City as fast as possible,” Law commanded. “Fletch, get onto Whit and tell him to put the word out to the highway patrol that we’re coming through and aren’t to be pulled over for speeding.”
Fletch immediately pulled his cell phone from his pocket and connected with their team leader. When he finished the call, he gave Law an expectant look, but Law’s heart was in his throat and he had to swallow before he could continue.
“What the fuck, man?” Fletch asked impatiently.
Law took a deep breath and tried to push the fear he felt down deep. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“Just spit it the fuck out, Law,” Cal commanded but didn’t take his eyes from the road since they were going so fast.
“It’s Tabitha Carey.”
“What?” Cal yelled, and the truck swerved as he turned to look at Law. He turned back to the front and didn’t speak until he had the vehicle back under control. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No.” Law ran his fingers through his hair. “The woman we are going to rescue is our Tabby cat.”
“Shit! When was she reported missing and by whom?” Fletch asked.
“She went missing two days ago and a work colleague called the sheriff because someone saw her being taken.”
“Do you think Tabby knows that?”
“I doubt it. The report says that two men came at her from behind.”
“Fucking hell.”
“Exactly.”
“Where was she working?” Cal asked.
“At the local hospital,” Law replied.
“That sounds like our little girl,” Fletch said. “We have to find her and get her back. I’m not letting her out of my sight again.”
“How long is it going to take us to get to Miles City?” Law asked Cal.
“Hopefully about four and a half hours, but it depends on traffic, and we will have to stop for gas. I just hope we can cut more time off the six-and-a-half-hour trip. At least we won’t have to worry about being pulled over by the highway patrol. Good call on that, Law.”
“Do you think this is a coincidence?” Law asked.
“I don’t know,” Cal answered.
“I fucking hope so, because if it’s not, that means there is someone close to our CO, Tony Sullivan, leaking information,” Fletch said.
“Call Whit again.” Cal snapped out the command. “If this isn’t a coincidence, then the team could be in trouble.”
Fletch called their team leader and told him everything about the mission to rescue Tabitha in Frenda, and that she was the one they were on the way to rescue. After Fletch disconnected the call, they were all silent. Law had a feeling they were all thinking about their Tabby cat.
* * * *
Tabitha couldn’t believe she was in this situation again. It had taken a week for her to get up the courage to leave her apartment and go back to the hospital. She was just beginning to regain her confidence about being back at work as a nurse, and now she was scared for her life, again.
She’d been working the night shift and had finished her four-night stint and was headed out to the parking lot toward her car. That had been two days ago. Now she was once again tied up, but this time by some Asian people, and she had no idea why.
She’d never forget how scared she felt the last time in Frenda when she’d seen those guns, but this time she h
ad tried to escape. Whoever had taken her had come up to her from behind. They had wrapped their arms around her body, pinning her limbs to her side, and covered her mouth at the same time. She’d bucked and screamed and fought as if her life depended on it, and it very may well, but her efforts had been futile. There had to have been two of them because she had been pricked in the neck by a needle and then succumbed to the drugs injected into her system. When she’d woken up, she hadn’t been able to see a damn thing and it had taken her a few moments to realize that something was over her head. It felt like a hood of some sort.
Her arms and legs were tied and she couldn’t move. She’d tugged and wriggled, but no matter how hard she tried, the restraints holding her wouldn’t budge. She’d heard men talking, but they were speaking what sounded like an Asian language and she couldn’t understand a word they were saying.
She was cold and tired and scared and wondered if she would ever get out of this situation. Tabby had no idea what her kidnappers looked like because even when they fed her and gave her something to drink occasionally, they only ever lifted the bottom half of the hood. She’d even been stripped out of her nurse’s uniform and laid spread-eagle on a bed in only her bra and panties.
Even when she went to the toilet, she suffered the indignity of having someone watch over her. She didn’t think she’d ever get over that humiliation. All the times she used the facilities, she’d felt the eyes on her and prayed that whoever was looking at her wouldn’t touch her.
Please, God. Please let someone know that I’m in trouble and need help.
There hadn’t been anyone around in the parking lot when she’d been taken, and now she was on a four-day break. None of her work colleagues would even realize that there was something wrong until she didn’t show up for work the day after tomorrow. She knew that two days had passed. Even though the hood was kept in place at all times, she’d seen small glimpses of light under the hood when she’d moved and she’d felt the sun on her through a window, which she had worked out was above the bed she was tied to. The sun was going down, the rays getting weaker, and she was getting cold again. Goose bumps rose up over her skin and she shivered. God, she had never been so cold in her life. The assholes who had taken her didn’t even cover her up at night time with a quilt or sheet.
