by Becca Van
Tabby sniffled as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t know how much more of this shit she could take without breaking down. She’d tried unsuccessfully to get the hood off by swiping her face against her shoulder, but it hadn’t worked. She wondered if the fuckers had somehow secured it to her so she couldn’t get it off.
She heard footsteps and tried to conceal her fear. Her first reaction was to cringe and try to move away, but she couldn’t. Her whole body tensed as the heavy footsteps drew nearer, and she wondered if this would be the time they would touch and rape her and then kill her.
She began to shake with terror, and she heard the bastard chuckle. Tabby flinched when a hand landed on her stomach and began to stroke her skin. She gagged when bile rose up in her throat but swallowed a couple of times to force it back down again. If she was sick, she could end up choking on her own vomit.
She shook even harder when the hand moved up and covered her breast. She cried out when he squeezed her hard enough to cause pain and knew she would end up with bruises. Then she couldn’t hold her fear back anymore, not when his other hand touched her panty-covered mound. This was it. This was the moment she feared the most. She could hardly breathe she was panting so hard, and her heart was beating faster than a runaway freight train. It actually caused pain in her chest. It was beating that fast.
Oh God. Help me. Please someone help me?
* * * *
Fletch was so anxious and tense he wanted to hit something. He and his brothers had just met with the sheriff of Miles City, and even though he was glad that the sheriff had the witness report of Tabitha’s abduction and he and his deputies had been looking for her, the search hadn’t been very well organized.
Apparently one of the cleaning staff had been standing outside of a side entrance to the hospital and had seen two men come up behind their woman and take her. What pissed Fletch off most was that the sheriff hadn’t even done a search of the parking lot. He’d wanted to hit the incompetent man in the face but knew he couldn’t. And from the look on his brothers’ faces, they had wanted to do the same.
At least the idiot had gotten the eyewitness’s statement. Cal pulled the truck into the hospital staff parking lot, and as soon as he stopped the truck Fletch and Law got out. From what he’d read in that report, Tabby had been taken near the back of the lot. He and Law walked side by side looking at the ground, searching for clues and evidence. Cal wasn’t too far behind them, and then he, too, was walking on the other side of him as they scanned the ground. When Fletch reached the end of the lot, he decided to get down on the ground on his stomach and look under all the cars he could. It didn’t matter if it took them the rest of the afternoon, because he wasn’t leaving until he found some evidence or something of Tabby’s, and hopefully he and his brothers would be able to use their empathetic powers to find where she had been taken.
He scanned under every car in the row in front of him, and when he didn’t find anything he moved onto the next row and once again got down on the asphalt on his belly and used his enhanced sight to see under all the vehicles. Fletcher glanced to his left and right and saw that his brothers were doing the same thing he was. He looked back up and straight, and just as he was about to get up and move onto the next row, something glinting in the sunlight caught his eye. He narrowed his gaze and tried to figure out what it was he was seeing, but whatever it was, was half beneath the back wheel of a car. He pushed to his feet and kept his eyes on the car where he had seen the sparkle and then crouched down next to the wheel. Poking out from beneath the tire was a key.
Fletch tried to pull the key out, but the car was too heavy and it wouldn’t budge.
“Over here,” he called to his brothers.
“What have you got?” Cal asked as he and Law came up beside him.
“There’s a key under the back wheel of this car. We have to lift it off.”
“Shit!” Law glanced at Fletch. “Do you think we are strong enough to do that?”
“Only one way to find out. Besides it’s only a small car,” Fletch replied.
“Let Law and I try, and if we can’t then you’ll have to help, too, and use your foot to get the key out once we lift the car high enough,” Cal suggested.
Fletch nodded and then waited while Law and Cal got down onto their knees and then gripped the bottom of the car frame. “On two,” Law said. “One, two.” Law and Cal strained and then that side of the car lifted a good five inches off the ground. Fletch reached for the keys and wrapped his hand around them, quickly pulling back so his brothers could lower the car.
He fell to his ass as emotions assailed him. He felt Tabitha’s fear and saw how she tried to fight off her assailants, but then she was stuck with a needle and passed out. Just as he was about to curse the fates and he began to lose the connection he had with her, fear stronger than before gripped his heart. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew that what he was feeling was what Tabby felt.
“Can you feel that? Did you see it?” Fletch asked.
“There’s nothing to see, but yeah, I can feel her emotions. Fuck, she is so scared,” Law said with a shaky voice.
“We need to get to the truck and see if we can follow that trail of emotion,” Cal said.
“You’re gonna have to help me,” Fletch said. “Because I can’t see a fucking thing.”
“What?” Cal nearly roared the question.
“Calm down, Cal. I think it’s because I’m connected to Tabby and she must be blindfolded or something. I’ll bet as soon as I let go of her keys I’ll have my vision back.”
“Don’t let go,” Law commanded and grabbed on to his upper arm. Cal moved in and took his other arm, and after helping him to his feet, his brothers began guiding him back to the truck.
“You’re going to be sitting in the front between the two of us,” Cal said and then placed the hand he wasn’t using to hold Tabby’s key on the top of the open door. “We can feel what you’re feeling and I don’t want to risk losing that by having you too far away.”
Fletch got into the front of the truck and scooted over into the middle of the bench seat. Cal and Law buckled him in so he wouldn’t lose his connection with Tabby.
“Okay, let’s see if we can find our woman.” Cal started the truck and began driving.
Between Fletch and his brothers, they were able to follow the link heading south of Miles City. When the truck began moving away from the direction the emotions were coming from, he directed them back on course.
“We’re on Sunset Drive and only a hundred yards from the end. It’s a dead-end road, Fletch.”
“Stop the truck,” Fletch ordered. “I can feel her and she’s close. My guess is she’s in a house or something at the end of this road.”
Cal pulled the truck over and turned off the ignition. “You stay here and keep that connection to our woman. Law and I are going to check things out. We’ll be back for you in a bit.”
“I can…”
“No,” Law snapped. “We can’t afford to lose that link with Tabby. We’ll reconnoiter and make sure this is the right place first.”
Fletch sighed and nodded his head. He knew his brothers were right. If he went with them, he’d have to release Tabby’s keys so he could see what he was doing. Although he knew his brothers wouldn’t let him run into anything, if this was the place Tabby was being held and Fletch stood on a branch he could give them away to Tabby’s kidnappers. Plus he was scared that he wouldn’t be able to feel her again if he lost the connection with her. He’d heard the other team members had experienced a connection with their women but he’d never felt anything like this before and didn’t trust himself to find it again if it was broken.
The waiting was really hard, but he liked being connected to Tabitha. He shivered with cold and knew that he wasn’t the one feeling it, but that wasn’t the only emotion he felt. The fear was nearly overwhelming, and then he felt vulnerable and sick to his stomach. He had to swallow a couple of time
s so he wouldn’t vomit. The whole time he felt Tabby’s emotions, he was chanting in his head to his brothers. Hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up.
The driver’s door to the truck opened and Cal spoke. “This is it. Law skirted around back and peeked in all the bedroom windows. Tabby is tied to a bed in her underwear and she has a hood over her head. There are only two men in there and they have weapons. One of the men was standing over her looking at her body.”
Fletch put Tabby’s keys in his pocket and released them. He sighed with relief when his eyesight came back and had to blink a few times to adjust to the light. The sun was going down and they only had about an hour of light left. They needed to move, and it had to be now.
“Did you do a heat signature scan with your phone?” Fletch asked as he got out of the truck and then grabbed his automatic rifle from the secured compartment in the floor in the back. He placed his weapon on the seat and then reached in for his brothers’ automatic rifles and handed them over.
“Yes.” Cal checked the clip on his rifle and then slammed it back into place. “There were only three signatures. Two were in one room and the other one was at the front of the house.”
“Let’s go and get our woman.” Law took point and started off down the road.
None of them spoke as they jogged down to the last house at the end of the street. Law hurried out back, while Fletch and Cal ducked beneath windows and up to the front door. He had lowered his mental shield—all the Elite Dragoons team members had the ability to connect to each other and were able to push emotions and pictures to communicate with their empathetic skills—and felt everything his brothers did and was never more thankful for their enhanced skills. Being connected to his brothers like this made their missions so much easier.
Cal sent a go signal to Law using his mind, which Fletch felt, too, and then his brother kicked the front door in. The man in the front room who was watching the TV yelled and turned toward Cal and Fletch at the same time. Fletch saw his arm move and knew he was reaching for a weapon. He palmed his pistol quickly using his enhanced abilities and shot the asshole in the shoulder. The man screamed in pain, and Cal rushed forward, jumped over the sofa, and had the fucker on the floor with his arms behind his back and secured in handcuffs before the guy could draw another breath. The sound of glass breaking drew Fletch’s gaze toward the hall, and he was just in time to see the other asshole point his weapon at Cal. He raised his gun and fired. A simultaneous report echoed with his, and he knew that Law had shot the bastard, too. The assailant dropped to the floor face-first and didn’t move again.
Law disappeared back down the hall, and Fletch knew he had gone to help Tabby. He wanted to go and see her, too, but he had a job to do first.
He pulled his cell from his pocket and called the sheriff.
Chapter Three
Tabby heard more gunshots, and she was so scared and shaking so much she couldn’t think straight. The window above her had been broken from the outside and she had expected to be cut as glass rained down on her, but none of the glass had even touched her skin.
She whimpered when she heard clothing rustle close to her and wondered if this was the moment her life would end. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs, and she was beginning to feel dizzy. And then all of a sudden, she heard the voice. She held her breath and tried to make her brain concentrate on what she was hearing, but she couldn’t. She was too damn scared. She flinched and cried out when hands gripped her upper arms, but then the deep male voice began to penetrate her fear-fogged mind.
“Shh, baby, you’re safe now. Don’t be scared anymore, Tabitha.”
He was American, and the voice sounded familiar. Tabby stopped crying and exhaled slowly. Hands brushed against her neck, and then the hood was lifted off over her head. It took her a moment to clear her vision and adjust to the light after being in the dark so long. When she was able to see properly, she nearly started crying again, but this time with relief. Standing before her was one of the men who had rescued her and the two doctors from the rebels in Algeria.
She would never forget him or his brothers. They were so brave and handsome she hadn’t been able to get them out of her mind.
“Law?” Her voice cracked, and his eyes softened as he brushed the hair out of her face.
“Yeah, it’s me, baby.”
She looked up when she caught movement in her peripheral vision, and when her eyes connected with Cal’s gray ones and then Fletch’s darker blue orbs, her vision blurred as tears filled them again.
“Tabby cat, are you okay?” Cal asked as he and Fletch hurried to her side.
“Yes,” Tabby smiled through her tears. “I owe you three so much. Thank you for saving me again.”
Cal crawled up onto the bed and over Tabby. He reached for her hands and began untying the restraints from around her wrists as Law and Fletch began working on the knots at her ankles.
“Did they hurt you, love?” Fletch asked and looked up at Tabby after he released the tight leather from around her ankle, rubbing her shin in a comforting gesture.
“No,” Tabby groaned as Cal massaged her arms and shoulders and helped her to lower her arms to her sides. She sucked in a pain-filled breath as the blood began to flow back into her starved limbs and closed her eyes when those thousands of needles came through the numbness in her arms and hands.
“Easy, Tabby cat,” Cal said when she tried to sit up, and pressed his hand against her shoulder to keep her still.
Tabby looked toward the door in fear when she heard more male voices and then glanced at Cal, Fletch, and Law.
“It’s okay, baby,” Law said and headed toward the bedroom door. “It’s the sheriff come to take that asshole away.”
“There were two of them,” Tabby whispered urgently, and fear strummed through her blood.
“Everything will be all right, love.” Fletch cupped her cheek, and she couldn’t help but turn into the comforting gesture. “We got both of them, but one of the men died when he tried to shoot Cal.”
“Oh God.” Tabby glanced back to Cal and then ran her eyes all over his body. “Are you hurt? Did you get shot?”
“No, kitten, I’m fine. Law and Fletch got that fucker before he could get me.”
“Thank God,” Tabby whispered, and a sob escaped.
“Shh, Tabby, we’ve got you. No one is going to hurt you again. I promise.” Fletch got onto the bed and knelt beside her. He slid his hands in under her shoulders and slowly helped her to sit up. She reached out for him and cringed with pain when her aching arms protested, but she needed an anchor because she had been lying down for so long she felt a little dizzy.
“Whoa, love,” Fletch said. “Let me help you. We need to take this slow.”
Tabby let him slowly lift her upright, and when she heard footsteps heading toward the bedroom, she covered her bra-clad breasts with her arms. Law was standing in the doorway and blocking the view of whoever was behind him. Cal removed his rifle from his shoulder, ripped open the Velcro fastening on his Kevlar vest, and then dropped the protective garment on the floor. He then pulled his khaki-green T-shirt up over his head and stepped closer to her. He pulled the shirt over her head and then he and Fletcher helped push her arms through the sleeves.
“Thank you,” Tabby whispered and let Fletch help her to the edge of the bed while Cal put his vest back on. She couldn’t help but notice his bulging, flexing biceps and pectoral muscles as he moved, and she sighed with resignation when he finally closed the fastening, covering his massively defined chest and abdominal muscles from her view.
Fletch stood up in front of her and cupped her face between his hands so she was looking him in the eyes. There was a twinkle of heat and humor in their depths, and she wondered if he’d caught her ogling his brother. “Are you ready to try and stand up, love?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll take it nice and slow again. I want you to tell me if you get lightheaded, okay?”
“Okay.”
Tabby clung to his forearms when he clasped her upper arms and he slowly pulled her to her feet. She swayed and blinked to clear her vision when everything went dark. “I can’t see.”
“Shit.” She heard Fletcher curse just before she was swept from her feet. Tabby breathed deeply a few times and was glad the dizziness passed quickly. She stared up into Fletcher’s blue eyes and felt like she was drowning in them. He looked so worried about her, and she wanted to alleviate his concern. He and his brothers had already done so much for her. They had all risked their own lives to save her, twice.
“I’m okay, now.”
Fletch smiled and winked at her. “I’m glad to hear that, love. Are you up to talking to the sheriff?”
“Yes.”
Fletch began carrying her toward the door, and when she looked at Law he smiled and winked at her as he moved aside for his brother.
Tabby saw the elderly sheriff, and he cursed loudly when he saw her.
“Shit! Oh, sorry, ma’am. We’ve been so worried about you. Are you all right? Do you want me to call the paramedics?”
“No, thank you, sheriff. I’m fine.”
Fletch didn’t stop walking until he carried her out onto the front porch, and she was surprised when he didn’t put her down but instead sat on the step with her in his lap. She was relieved he didn’t let her go. She was cold and his body heat was helping to keep her warm, and she liked the way it felt to be in his arms. If she had her way, she didn’t want to ever leave these three men again.
