by JL Redington
Chapter Fourteen
The next few hours were a mish mash of packing clothes, the Dr. Seuss books, the recorder, deciding who should carry what and how it should be divided. Cayman felt it was important Alexa have none of the information on her person. Alexa felt like he was being ridiculous, as there was no figuring any of it out anyway. However, to avoid having to actually speak to Cayman, she let him take the backpack with all the information for the field office in it. He would carry it in the airport, and on the plane. She was sick of the cloak and dagger anyway. Let them play their stupid little games. She was done with the whole thing. They brought everything out to the car, with Cayman on alert, his eyes searching the area as they walked to the car.
Alexa now knew there were guards out there and had been all along, but at this point she just wanted to get this done. She wanted to be free of this man, free of the memories of her father, free of it all. She moved like a robot, cold inside and disconnected from everyone, but she managed to do what it was her father asked of her. It was the last thing she could give him, her final offering in his behalf, and she would see it through.
They drove in silence, all five hours and twelve minutes. Cayman had no idea what to say to her…she had nothing to say to him. She stared out at the barren desert she had once thought beautiful and wondered how her heart had ended up in this place, in this situation, again. She tried to back her mind out of it and see how it all began. Every time she ended up at the diner with those beautiful green eyes gazing up at her from his place at the counter.
Her mind wandered to the words from her father on the DVD. Had he been the one to teach her to be so mistrusting? She’d heard children learn things from their parents, things even unspoken. As a child, had she seen his searching eyes on the horizon like she’d seen in Cayman this morning? Had his eyes said things to her small child self she subconsciously stored away? Who was her father, really?
She stopped herself right there. Her father loved her, she had known this from the day of her birth. She would not let herself start doubting the one love she knew she could trust. She could trust that love, right? She sighed and looked out at the spring desert. She tried to focus on the new growth she saw. Spring was usually a beautiful time of the year here, she would find the beauty and think on that.
“Alexa, I--”
“Don’t.” Alexa’s voice rang hard and cold, reflecting her feelings inside, and her anger. The once hot and painful anger was now cold, unbending, like steel in a snow storm. Her eyes remained fixed on the scene outside her window.
Cayman ran his hand through his hair in frustration, eventually resting his head on his fist, his elbow propped against the door.
Neither was hungry so they drove through to Phoenix. They parked the SUV in long term parking, packed suitcases and duffle bags onto a cart and headed into the airport. In the terminal, waiting at the entrance was a young man who looked a lot like Cayman. Sandy hair, blue eyes and about six foot…give the boy green eyes like his brother and he could have been Cayman’s twin.
Cayman smiled and embraced him. He turned to Alexa and said, “Alexa, this is my brother, Patrick.”
Patrick smiled and stuck out his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Alexa, all good things for sure.”
Alexa smiled, trying not to be rude. “Thank you. It’s very nice to meet you.” That was it. She had nothing more to say, or even to pretend to say. She looked away, studying the crowd.
Patrick glanced at Cayman who also looked away into the crowd of people. His eyes registered a sadness Patrick had never seen in his brother before. Not knowing Alexa, he wasn’t sure if she always looked this downcast or if this was new. From what he’d heard about her through Cayman, he was pretty sure something had happened between them.
He looked expectantly at Cayman.
“Don’t ask,” he said flatly.
Patrick helped with the baggage and they were soon heading through check in. It was the usual harried taking off of the shoes, putting everything in the drab gray tubs and pushing them onto the rollers for their trip through the radar machine. Alexa hated this part of flying, usually, but today she was glad for the distraction. Now she had two Cayman’s to contend with, and she was quite certain she hadn’t been enjoying the first one. She wanted to get away from them both. There was a twinge of guilt at her rudeness, but that quickly melted into the emotionless pot of numbness she now carried where her heart used to be. She had no idea what was pumping the blood through her body, because her heart was gone.
Cayman and Patrick talked together about their parents and their brother, Sam. He wanted an update on his mom and dad, how they were doing, how the farm was, was it getting to be too much for them, all the things family would talk about. Cayman glanced toward Alexa a couple of times, hoping she might soften some and join the conversation, but it was clear that was not going to happen.
Arriving at their gate, Alexa walked to one of the shops and began casually looking at what they had to offer. She wanted to give Cayman and Patrick some time together, and she wanted some time to herself as well. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cayman watching her nervously. What did he think? Someone would come and snatch her right out of the airport in broad daylight with a million people around? Whatever. This was so much more pathetic than the worst spy movie she’d ever seen.
Patrick turned to Cayman.
“What’s happened? You two look like two love birds about to die of loneliness.”
“I blew it Patrick. I did the greenest agent thing I could ever have done. I asked her how long she and James had been engaged.”
“Yeah…so…” urged Patrick.
“So…she’s not spoken his name since he killed her father, that’s ‘so’. I shouldn’t have known the name of her fiancé,” Cayman spat.
“Her fiancé killed her father?” Patrick was shocked. He whistled softly and patted Cayman on the shoulder. “That’s pretty heavy stuff to have to deal with. It would be hard to care for anyone after something like that. I can’t even imagine it.” He looked pensive.
“Why didn’t we know that? I mean, the part about her fiancé?” Patrick asked, “It’s not part of the file we have.”
“It’s personal information, not made known to other agents. At least that’s the only reason I could think of. It was a surprise to me when she told me.”
“She cares for you, Cayman.” Patrick looked at his brother.
“Yeah, she cares for me about like she cares for the cold steel of her gun.” Cayman whispered, looking for her in the shop.
“She can shoot? Wow…that’s hot--”
Patrick was interrupted by Cayman as he rushed toward the shop.
“Patrick, do you see her? Make the call! Does anyone have eyes on her?” He was frantically searching the shop, behind the counter, under the racks. “Alexa!” Turning to the clerk he said, “Ma’am, do you have public restrooms in your shop?”
The clerk looked at him, not understanding what he was saying.
He pulled out his badge and flashed it front of her face.
“DO YOU HAVE PUBLIC RESTROOMS IN THIS SHOP!”
The frightened clerk shook her head no. There was no sign of Alexa anywhere. He went to the front of the shop and looked hopefully at Patrick. Patrick shook his head. He’d stayed with the bags and now radioed to the agents assigned to watch the airport.
“Subject is gone, I repeat, Subject is gone. Begin sweep. Repeat: begin sweep.”
After one more search of the shop, Cayman hurried back to where Patrick was standing. He was distraught, out of breath and angry.
“I shouldn’t have let her go in there by herself. What was I thinking? Where’s Dixon? He was supposed to be watching the shop? Where is he? We need to initiate a sweep--”
“It’s already been done, Cayman. Just stay calm, you know the routine.” He was eyeing his brother suspiciously, wondering if his involvement with Alexa would make him unable to think clearly enough to complete this missi
on. Before much more could be said, Cayman started running down the concourse, checking each gate to see if she was being or had been forced onto another plane.
“Nah, he’s good,” said Patrick to himself. Grabbing the backpack with books, recording and DVD in it, he hailed the person at the gate counter. The man came right over.
“We have a missing person,” he said pointing to the remaining bags, “and I need you to store these bags behind the counter until we can come back for them. Do you understand? I will be the one to come back for them. Give them to no one else. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll keep them with me.” The young man took the bags and headed back to the counter. There were multiple messages coming over the radio by now and Patrick started responding to each, one by one. He started down the concourse and saw the now unmanned counter in the shop where Alexa disappeared. He hurried into the shop with his gun out. Checking behind the shop’s counter he saw a pile of fabric that was the apron worn by employees of the shop.
He looked quickly around the shop and saw the back room door had been hidden behind the magazine rack. Pushing it to the side, he opened the door and entered the back room. Agent Dixon lay unconscious on the floor, blood trailing from a head wound. He was coming back around when Patrick knelt beside him.
“What happened?” Patrick checked Dixon’s eyes.
“I saw someone forcing her into the back room, I saw the clerk heading back as well. I ran in here and everything went black.”
Patrick radioed ‘agent down’ and told him to stay where he was. Patrick headed out the front of the shop onto the concourse, running in the opposite direction Cayman had gone and did the same thing at each gate along the concourse. The two brothers ran back to the gate empty handed. Alexa was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Cayman had never been on this end of the need for information. He’d never known the pain that sat in the gut when someone was waiting for word from his team on the wellbeing of a loved one. He laughed sarcastically at that one. A loved one? At this point in time he knew Alexa never wanted to see him again, didn’t care if she ever saw him again. But he loved her and as much as his brain didn’t want him to admit that, his heart couldn’t deny it. He didn’t know whether to shoot something or…shoot something.
Patrick explained to him what happened with Dixon and that the woman at the counter wasn’t a store employee. They’d asked around and spoken with the owner of the shop and it was actually supposed to be closed for cleaning. Cayman wanted to pick Dixon up by his lapels and scream at him. How could he let this happen? Why didn’t he call for help when he saw the kidnapping go down? What was the matter with him? However, Dixon was nowhere to be found. When the EMT’s arrived, he was gone. No one had seen him since which made Cayman wonder if they’d come back for something, found him conscious and took him with them.
Cayman sat down in one of the chairs at the gate. Patrick sat down beside him. They were waiting to see if Alexa would magically show up. Cayman knew that wasn’t going to happen, but he also knew regs were regs, and this was what you did when there was a missing person…you waited.
“I have to ask you some questions, Cay, you understand.” Patrick was nervously rubbing his palms together. They were sitting at the gate now, waiting for word. Patrick looked straight ahead, elbows rested on his legs.
“Yeah, I know. Go ahead.” Cayman was leaning forward in the chair, arms also resting on his legs.
“Have you slept with her?” Patrick let the words spill from his mouth.
Cayman pursed his lips at the intrusion into his privacy. Then he shook his head from side to side as if clearing cobwebs.
“No, Patrick. I have not slept with her,” he replied.
“Serious?” This was Patrick the brother talking not Patrick the agent.
“Serious.” Cayman replied. Then sitting up and heaving a big sigh he continued. “I haven’t slept with her, and do you know why? All this time, I thought it was because of her situation, and I didn’t want to take advantage of her, you know? She’s been through a whole lot of hell this past year. But there’s just something about her, Patrick, something that made me see she was more than a body, more than a shell. I wanted to understand her. I wanted a clear view of who this amazing woman was, not a view clouded by sex. I just wanted to get to know the human being first. So, no, I haven’t slept with her.”
Patrick wanted to know who this man was sitting next to him and where they’d taken his brother. However, there was something in Cayman’s eyes, a heartache in the words he spoke that made Patrick realize this woman was the real deal. He’d never seen Cayman this distraught over anything before, especially a woman. Patrick cleared his throat in an effort to sound at least a little professional.
“What has your relationship with her been to this point?” Patrick continued with the required set of questions.
“My relationship with her?” Cayman thought on this for a minute and a wistful smile crossed his lips. “I talked her into coming with me to Page, to help her answer some questions about her father’s death. In reality, I lied my butt off so I could get more information from her and possibly catch some very bad men. If you want to call that a relationship, then there you go. I succeeded at my mission. I got the information for the Bureau, but I lost the most important piece of my life.”
“We’re going to find her Cayman, and when we do, are you going to tell her how you feel?” Patrick looked at his brother.
“I don’t think that’s on the list of questions,” said Cayman.
“No, that’s on the brother’s list of questions,” smiled Patrick.
“I don’t know, Patrick. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I do know I’m never going to let her out of my site, and if I have to tell her how I feel to accomplish that, then so be it. I can’t breathe without her. I can’t think straight and I certainly don’t want to live without her.” Cayman sighed, sitting back in the stiff chair and running both hands through his hair.
“We’ll find her,” said Patrick, looking at his watch, “and it’s time to move. C’mon, let’s go meet up with the others.”
After getting the luggage from behind the counter, and thanking the young clerk for taking care of them, Cayman and Patrick walked swiftly to the front of the airport. They joined the remainder of the team still there and waited for the others of the team to pick them up and take them to where Cayman’s SUV was parked.
Sliding into the driver’s seat of his SUV, he could feel her presence in the car. He missed her; he missed her not speaking to him. His anger rose when he thought of anyone hurting her, anger that rose to a fury that both frightened him and kept him sane. Patrick eventually opened the passenger door and sat down, shutting the door behind him.
“I’m riding with you,” he said. “You’re not going to be alone until we find her. I’m going where you go. The team is heading to the Phoenix field office and we’re welcome to meet them there. There’ll be a situation report on what is known so far, they’ll map out the known places where this group has been seen. We’ll fan out from there and start a search. Are you up for that?”
“Yes. I’m definitely up for that, and when I find them, if they’ve so much as broken one of her fingernails, I’m going to--”
Patrick finished his sentence for him. “You’re going to stand back and let us get her safely back to you. This time we have what we need to put them away. You know we do.”
“I…I know. I know.” Cayman followed the team ahead of him as the two brothers drove the remainder of the way in silence.
***
When the first man grabbed Alexa in the shop, a hand went over her mouth before she could utter a sound. The agent they called Dixon saw them grab her and turned his head gazing blandly down the concourse. Had he seen them? Why didn’t he call to Cayman? What was he doing?
She kicked and fought, trying to bite the hand covering her mouth. One of her hands got free and she punched her attacker in the groin as
hard as she could. He started to fall and the woman at the counter rushed to steady him, punching Alexa in the stomach and then ran to open the door to the storage room. Alexa grunted as her captor gained his footing with a groan and a curse, nearly twisting her head off her neck. In the storage room her mouth was stuffed with a handkerchief and taped, her hands taped behind her back. A cloth was tied around her head, covering her eyes.
She could hear Cayman screaming her name and she tried to call out to him, but the tape was sure and the handkerchief held the sound inside her mouth. Her heart broke at the anguish in his voice. Remembering what her dad said about this group of men, how ruthless they were, she decided to do all that she could to save herself. She would see Cayman again, and when she did, she would not be afraid to tell him how she loved him.
She was wrapped in a coat with a large hood and taken to a car apparently parked in a hangar, from the echo she heard as her kidnappers called out to each other. The trunk of the car was opened and she felt a fist hit the side of her face and everything went black.
***
Dixon saw Mitchell come up behind Alexa and grab her mouth. He quickly looked away before Mitchell actually touched her, so she would think he hadn’t seen anything. Had he looked away quickly enough? If she’d seen him, it could ruin everything.
The woman behind the counter nodded to him as the back room was emptied and he quietly walked into the shop.
“Make it count,” he said to the woman, “plant it right here.” He pointed to a spot on his forehead and the woman hit him with the butt of her gun. Everything went black.
The woman went back out to the front of the shop, moved a rack holding magazines in front of the door to the stock room and quickly took her place behind the counter. It was seconds before the agent they called Cayman stormed into the shop. He didn’t see the hidden door, and once he was gone, she took off her apron, dropping it on the floor behind the counter, put on a hat and long rain coat and started down the concourse. A large group of people from Seattle were deplaning and she easily disappeared into the crowd.
