Chapter Five
If there was a way to track someone online, Tex had the skills to do it. Tex had tracked down Pippa ex using his honed computer skills and now they had narrowed it down to a house on the outskirts of town, which appeared at first to be abandoned. Stan had saved whatever money he’d gotten from the sale of the house he’d shared with Pippa and had taken a portion of it to buy a run down house on the edge of town.
Diesel and the team had surrounded the house and watched for less than an hour though it seemed much longer to him. Minutes had never crawled so slow in his life. They waited for the sun to go down so they could use their night vision goggles to see who might be inside and where. The house appeared abandoned at first glance. But SEAL’s knew appearances could be deceiving.
At last the sun went down and they donned their night vision to do a visual search from a distance that wouldn’t give away their positions.
No lights shined in the windows and no sound could be heard.
Until the child started crying.
Diesel froze.
The sound tore at his heart in a way nothing ever had before.
That was his son. The first sound he’d ever heard from his son, and it was a sound of distress.
It almost made him frantic. He had to reach the boy. To save him from whatever was happening to him right now, or what might happen to him.
He also had to stay calm, focused, set on the goal and the mission. Keep his head clear from emotion in order to do his job. This might be the hardest mission he’d ever been on. Most of the time SEAL’s lived for the next mission, but this was one mission he wished had never happened. His little boy should’ve been safe at home, playing with his toys, being doted on by his loving family. Not trapped in a previously abandoned house by some lunatic who wouldn’t let his ex wife go.
His child, who he’d never once held in his arms, needed him. The urge to charge in immediately, to destroy the man who’d abducted the child and the child’s mother, was so strong and made him want to his something.
He tamped that down, controlled it. Forced it to bend to his will. He had to do what was best for the boy, for the safety of the boy, for the complete success of this mission. There could be no mistakes. Failure was unacceptable.
“You’re too close to this,” Wolf said.
“Don’t even think of telling me to sit this one out,” Diesel said. “That’s not an option.”
“We won’t fail,” Mozart said.
Stan was in one of the bedrooms cleaning his gun. Pippa was in the kitchen, seated on a chair and tied to it. Little Ben was playing with a toy car, rolling it back and forth along the floor. Diesel took all this in.
God, what I wouldn’t give to be sitting on a kitchen floor playing cars and trucks with my son. He took a breath and gritted his teeth. Focus. On. The. Mission.
Then it was on. The team moved without speaking, using hand signals. One, then two, then three, and then four. Into the house and moving through the rooms to reach the one man they wanted to take out.
One man with a loaded gun or even with multiple guns was no match for four trained SEAL’s. The entire operation was over in less than ten minutes.
Stan lay on the ground, knocked out cold.
Diesel hurried into the kitchen, took one look at her, and then bent down on one knee to untie Pippa from the chair she was tied to. “Are you hurt?”
Pippa heard the voice and chills ran down her back. She knew that voice, behind her ear. The man who was working the knots loose with quick and sure hands and that calm, strong presence. She knew that voice.
Her gladiator. He was here.
“No,” she said in a soft voice. “He hadn’t hurt us yet. But he was going to.”
“No,” he said. “I wouldn’t have let him.”
“How did you find me?”
It all seemed like something out of a fairy tale, the way he’d suddenly appeared.
He’d untied her and now he pulled his goggles up so as not to scare the boy as he moved around in front of the chair where the boy played. Then he bent down on one knee again and looked at the boy.
Ben looked up at him, smiled the sweet smile only a two year old can give and then said, “Play trucks.”
It was a command. Not so unlike his father. Tears filled Pippa’s eyes. “I have something to tell you.”
Diesel turned his brown eyes to took into hers and her son turned to watch her too. He knew what she was going to say, but he needed her to say it. He needed her to tell him what she should have told him a long time ago.
“We made a beautiful boy one night. I’m glad you’ll be able to meet him now. Thank you for saving our lives.” Tears’ started rolling down her cheeks and that was all she could get out.
Diesel had tears in his eyes now too. How could he be angry with her, when he’d looked into her eyes and seen the feelings and emotions there? The way she loved and cared for their son. Their son. It really was true. Not some fairy tale or imagined thing from his father. The old man knew. From the moment he saw him he knew.
A little hand patted Diesel’s rock hard thighs and he turned his head to look at his son again. “Play trucks now,” he demanded.
They both laughed as they looked at their son.
“How about we go home and play trucks there,” Diesel said.
But Ben was already playing trucks by driving the truck up Diesels shoe.
Diesel had a grin from ear to ear, so big that his face was hurting. He looked at the other team members who had gathered in the room. “I have a son,” he said.
“Looks just like you,” Hunter said.
“Stubborn like you too,” Wolf said.
“Bring that boy on out here where I can see him,” Tex said. He was outside guarding their prisoner, Stan.
“Let’s go meet Tex,” Diesel said.
He held out a hand to help Pippa up and she stood, moving her arms and legs, getting the circulation moving again. She went to pick up Ben, but Diesel said, “Let me.” He reached his arms toward the boy, waiting to see if Ben would come to him and grinned even wider when he did. Lifting him up into his arms, he held him and blinked a few times.
They walked out of the house into the yard where Tex was watching Stan. Still out, he looked less dangerous to Pippa, especially with SEAL’s on her side and in control. Stan couldn’t hurt her.
“We’ve talked about the way this needs to go down, from here,” Wolf said. “Since this was an unauthorized op. We’re going to fade into the background. What we need for you to do, is call the police from here, using this phone.” He handed her Stan’s cell phone. “Tell them he abducted you, tell exactly what happened. We can’t be here when they arrive and you can’t mention us.”
She nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”
“Now here is the story you need to tell. He had you in this house and you tried to get away. You saw a chance to knock him out and you took it. Then you grabbed your baby and ran like hell. Used his van to drive yourself away from him and back home. Tell them you want them to charge him with kidnapping you and your son and that you were terrified for your life. With his record they will send him away and he won’t get to you again.”
“But what if he gets out again?”
“I’ll be there,” Diesel said. “He’s not ever going to get to you or Ben again, but even if on some wildest chance he does, I’ll be there.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you, all of you. I don’t know what I’d have done if he’d hurt Ben.”
“It’s over now,” Diesel said.
“Time to go,” Wolf tapped his watch. Hunter carried Stan’s limp body inside to arrange it and came back out carrying the ropes used to tie Pippa to the chair.
“Why aren’t you leaving them?” Pippa asked.
“Doesn’t fit the story,” Hunter said and then winked. He tossed the ropes into an SUV and climbed in.
“Make that call,” Wolf said.
She took the phone and called the police, following the instructions.
“Here are the van keys,” Tex said, tossing them to her.
“I’ve got Ben,” Diesel said. “There’s no car seats so I’ll buckle him into the passenger seat.”
Pippa wished there was a back seat, but Stan had stripped it out so he could toss them into the back of the van, close to the driver’s seat where he could watched them. She watched Diesel strapping their son in, as careful as any other dad. This all still seemed unreal, like a dream she hadn’t woke up from yet.
“Wolf and I are going to tail you back to your apartment and wait out of sight until the police leave. Then we’ll go get my truck and talk.”
“I guess we have a lot to talk about.”
“We do. For now let’s stay on track here. You get this van to the apartment with all the evidence inside and they’ll come here and go over this place with a fine toothcomb. All you’ll have to do is sit tight at home and take care of Ben.”
“Sounds good.”
Going around to the passenger side, she climbed in. When she started the van and pulled out, a dark SUV slowly pulled out behind her. Wolf and Diesel would be behind her, though soon out of sight. She felt safer knowing they were there.
.