With a whimper of helplessness, she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, raising them in prayer. “God, I need your protection here,” she whispered. “Someone has to keep the girls safe—”
The faintest suggestion of a chuckle cut her petition short. She whipped her head toward the ghostly sound, every muscle in her body jerking with the realization that she was not alone.
***
Striker Team’s orders were to nab the recovery target as quietly as possible. Her father had warned them that she might resist. They had entered Miss Scott’s chamber with painstaking stealth, hoping to grab her while she slept.
Only, no sooner had they eased into the shadows of her darkened bedroom than she’d lurched awake. Sam, who was using NVGs to make a positive ID, had almost swallowed his tongue.
Viewed through the neon green of his lenses, with her auburn hair in disarray about her shoulders, Miss Scott struck him as the antithesis of a humanitarian aid worker. To him, she looked like an exotic flower, endangered and delicate.
As she stared fearfully into the dark, her breath rasping in the quiet, he ordered his brain to engage and his mouth to announce their presence.
Except the words never made it to his lips. In a flurry of movement, she kicked off the sheet, wriggled her gown over her hips and yanked it off her shoulders, exposing the prettiest thighs and tits this side of the Rio Grande.
Too stunned to speak, Sam watched her lie back down, clasp her hands together, and whisper a fervent prayer.
He was still reeling when Harley, who stood in the shadows behind him, loosed the chuckle he was holding in.
***
With a shriek of terror, Maddy scrambled to her knees. The shadow she’d mistaken for her wardrobe detached itself from the wall, taking the shape of a very large man. She could hear him speak as he moved in her direction, putting away what looked like . . . binoculars? But blood roared past her eardrums muffling his softly-spoken words.
He sprang toward her bed to haul aside the mosquito netting, and Maddy bolted. She leapt off the far side of the mattress, just avoiding his outstretched hand. With a squeal of terror, she sprinted toward the door, only to draw up short as a second man intercepted her path. Spinning about, she loosed the scream building in her chest as they boxed her in.
A large hand clamped down over her nose and mouth, cutting her scream short. A thick arm encircled her waist and plucked her off her feet. Caught up against a hard, male body, Maddy fought desperately to free herself.
“Quiet,” commanded a gruff voice as he squeezed the air from her diaphragm.
No problem. She couldn’t draw enough breath to make a sound.
How can this be happening to me? She had fought so long and hard to eradicate human trafficking from the earth. Yet here it was, happening to her. These men were abducting her! She would disappear into the underworld, another victim caught up in the sex trade.
Denial surged into her bloodstream. Not if I can help it.
Determined, Maddy bared her teeth and sank them into her captor’s palm, biting down with all defiance she could muster. He yelped, releasing her so suddenly that she crashed to the tiled floor. Pain radiated up her spine. Ignoring it, Maddy scrambled desperately toward the door. Freedom was only a few feet away; she could make it.
“Umph.” A tremendous force hit her from behind, tackling her to the floor. Her right cheek struck the tiles. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth. She tried to struggle free, but her attacker’s weight kept her prisoner. With the air driven from her lungs, she grew lightheaded.
“Hold her still,” hissed a voice she associated with the laughter earlier.
“I’m trying,” panted a deeper voice in her ear. “She’s a maniac.”
“We can’t hurt her.”
“Well, tranquilize her, then, before she kills us both!”
Maddy thrashed and managed to draw a painful breath, at last. “No,” she cried. But the man on top of her was triple her size. The only part of her she could move was her head, so she threw it back without warning, slamming her skull against his face.
Crunch.
“Ow. Damn it, woman! Hold still. We’re not gonna hurt you.”
The prick of a needle piercing the muscle of her upper arm made a liar out of him. She wailed, dreading the immediate lethargy that swamped her limbs and turned them into limp appendages.
Oh, God. They’ve drugged me. That was what they did to their victims, creating addicts too high and too numb to protest the misuse of their bodies.
“Ease up, LT,” said the first voice, and the man crushing her to the floor lifted his weight cautiously.
Maddy drew a second painful breath, but she couldn’t move her tongue at all to speak, let alone a muscle in her body. Oh, God. So, this was how it felt.
“Roll her over. Crap, I hope we didn’t bruise her.”
“She broke my fuckin’ nose,” growled the other shadow.
For a pair of barbarians, their hands were surprisingly gentle. But then they wouldn’t want to mar the merchandise, would they? The realization that they spoke English sawed at her outrage like a serrated blade. How dare Americans participate in such savagery?
Please, she tried to cry, but the word came out as a puff of air.
The man who’d stabbed her with the needle looked up at his companion, his blue eyes visible even in the darkness. “Aren’t you going to tell her?”
Maddy’s gaze swiveled to the brute who nursed his nose while eying her mulishly. Tell me what?
“Later,” he said, on a terse note.
“Suit yourself.”
They spoke with articulate efficiency, like they’d done this many times before, the bastards.
Just then, the room brightened. A neighbor by the east wall had flipped a light switch. Its radiance sliced through the cracks in the shutters, illumining the bully’s face. He struck Maddy as only partly Hispanic. Blood was sliding from his swelling nose, and a frown was carved between his eyebrows. In spite of either disfigurement, he was the most ruthlessly handsome man she’d ever seen. His dark green gaze looked her over with similar interest.
Oh, my God, I’m naked! The realization doused Maddy in horror. She was lying on the floor with her nightgown in a twisted hoop around her hips, no underwear.
“We need to cover her,” said the brute on a regretful note.
What? Confusion addled Maddy’s already-sluggish thoughts.
His companion openly grinned. “I have to say, sir, this is a first,” he chortled.
Together they worked to make sense of her bunched and twisted gown. Inept and cursing under their breaths, they dressed her with surprising care. Maddy scurried to a safe, dark corner in her mind, fighting her awareness, while at the same time grateful that her brain was still functioning at all. If she could just keep her wits about her . . . Fingers brushed her taut belly. She ground her teeth in denial. That’s not pleasure I’m feeling. It had to be the drugs they’d shot into her system, confusing her senses.
She felt the dark thug thread her arms through her sleeves. As the knuckles of his hand rode the outer curve of her breast, her breath congealed and her nipple stiffened. I did not enjoy that! she berated herself.
It was mortifying, degrading to feel pleasure at his touch. She refused to imagine what the rest of her ill-fated life would be like if she let them take her. You’ve got to help me, God!
Blue Eyes gave a final tug, and she was blessedly covered. “Okay let’s move.”
The first man’s watch flared in the darkness. “We’re three minutes behind,” he clipped, sounding annoyed.
His companion squeezed a button on a cord she hadn’t seen till now, hanging across his chest. “Target recovered,” he murmured. “We’re coming out now.”
Target recovered. Target recovered.
The words both disturbed and comforted Maddy, but the tide of oblivion that had rendered her body useless was now seeping into her brain, keeping her thoughts from proce
ssing. Target recovered . . . What did it mean?
Her eyelids sank shut and would not open again, despite her efforts to keep awake. She felt the men hoist her off the floor, felt them carry her to the window on the far side of the room, beyond the wardrobe.
“Hand her down to me,” said the bigger thug, lowering her feet to the floor. She heard the shutter creak, heard him clamber onto the ledge and jump. A light splash sounded in the courtyard below. His companion scooped her up and swung her feet-first out the window.
A wet mist sharpened Maddy’s senses as she felt herself being lowered. Sure hands caught her knees. Powerful, protective arms encircled her thighs securely. The man above relinquished her, and she slid with little fear down the length of the bigger brute’s body. Good lord. Even with her senses dulled, Maddy recognized what a ride that was.
Stay awake! Don’t sleep! she commanded herself.
But a black-velvet current pulled her relentlessly toward oblivion. Her head, too heavy to hold up, lolled against a broad shoulder. Her nose slumped toward a warm neck that smelled like baby wipes and dryer sheets.
As the darkness encapsulated her, that last sensory detail left her bewildered. Weren’t miscreants supposed to reek of body odor and villainy? Just what was that stuff they’d injected into her, anyway?
Rave Reviews for MARLISS MELTON
THE PROTECTOR
“…the kind of intrigue I enjoy, much like Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, and Steig Larsen. In my opinion they have nothing on her.”
- Lt. Col. John Lund, U.S. Air Force, ret.
SHOW NO FEAR
“If you enjoy good suspense, lots of action, plenty of plot twists and realistic romance, then Marliss Melton’s Show No Fear is for you.”
- Novel Reviews, Book Reviews
TOO FAR GONE
“Likeable and honorable characters who elicit sympathy and/or empathy…”
- RomRevToday.com
DON’T LET GO
“4 Stars! Another winner in a top-notch series! …”
- Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine
NEXT TO DIE
“Melton brings her considerable knowledge about the military and intelligence world to this Navy SEAL series.”
- Freshfiction.com
TIME TO RUN
“Melton…doesn’t miss a beat in this involving story.”
- Publishers Weekly
IN THE DARK
“Hooked me from the first page…”
- Lisa Jackson, NYT Bestselling Author
FORGET ME NOT
“A wonderful book, touching all the right heartstrings. I highly recommend it!”
- Heather Graham, NYT Bestselling Author
Novels by MARLISS MELTON
THE TASKFORCE SERIES
THE PROTECTOR (June 2011)
THE GUARDIAN (July 2012)
THE ENFORCER (Summer 2013)
TEAM TWELVE NAVY SEALs SERIES
FORGET ME NOT (Dec 2004)
IN THE DARK (June 2005)
TIME TO RUN (Feb 2006)
NEXT TO DIE (August 2007)
DON’T LET GO (April 2008)
TOO FAR GONE (Nov 2008)
SHOW NO FEAR (Sept 2009)
DANGER CLOSE (2014)
Author Bio
Marliss Melton is the author of ten gripping, counterterrorist/romantic suspense novels, including a 7-book Navy SEALs series and continuing with “The Taskforce Series.” She relies on her experience as a military spouse and on her many contacts in the Spec Ops and Intelligence communities to pen realistic and heartfelt stories about America’s most elite warriors and fearless agency heroes. Daughter of a U.S. foreign officer, Melton grew up in various countries overseas. She has taught English, Spanish, ESL, and Linguistics at the College of William and Mary, her alma mater. She lives near Virginia Beach with her husband, young daughter, and four college-aged children. Be sure to “friend” Marliss on Facebook! Visit www.marlissmelton.com for more information.
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