Chapter Twenty
It seemed like hours before Sally heard footsteps again. She picked up her head and strained to hear how many and how close.
“Remember what we told you, angel lady,” Matt said in a stage whisper.
She smiled for a heartbeat, imagining the pained expressions on Daniel and Matt’s faces while they’d passed along their knowledge of a man’s greatest vulnerability and how to optimize the situation in her favor. Their conversation, while they waited for God knows what, was more than simply weighing their options, few as those were. They’d treated her like one of the team—like her opinions added value to the plan they’d devised—that very well might be their last. Of course, there’d only be one set of circumstances that would make escape possible, and without escape, there’d be no warning Luke about the trap he’d be walking into.
“Looking forward to it,” she whispered back and heard them both snicker. If only she was as confident as she’d made herself sound. The truth was, she was scared shitless. If she couldn’t make the pathetic plan they’d come up with work, they were all going to die. If the plan did work, Sally would no doubt die first. With that thought, her heart rate kicked up a notch, but she quickly got control of her fear. Luke would be here soon. She wouldn’t fail him.
One set of footsteps entered the barn and scuffed across the dirt floor to stop in front of her prison. “Hello, Sally. I’m happy to say, we’re ready for your friend Luke to return. I’m sorry I’ve neglected you, though.” Ahmed clicked something on the door of her enclosure, and it squeaked. “Luckily, we can fix that. You may come out now.”
Sally didn’t move, except to jump when he raised his voice to repeat the invitation. With wrists and ankles bound, she had to lie down and crawl like an inchworm. Finally, he grabbed her arm and dragged her the rest of the way, then pulled her up on numb feet. She teetered precariously until he pushed her back against the cage, and it moved slightly with her weight.
Suddenly, he jerked the bag from her head, and she scrunched her eyes shut and turned her head to block out the afternoon sunlight. He took full advantage of her exposed neck, fastening his lips there and scraping his teeth against the pulse point in her throat. One of his hands palmed her breast roughly, then continued up until he grabbed her chin and yanked her head around to face him.
Sally meant to suggest he rot in hell, but before she could utter a word, his mouth closed over hers, sucking and licking, his tongue delving for the back of her throat. She gagged, and he drew back, delivering a ringing blow with his fist to the side of her jaw. Pain erupted in sparkly lights as bright as the Fourth of July. She sagged between him and the metal cage behind her. Watching him through lowered lids, she saw him unsheathe the knife at his side. Her breath caught as she tried to stand straight. She heard voices other than Ahmed’s and realized Matt and Daniel were cursing. Tied to the same post not ten feet away, both men hurled insults.
Ahmed turned his face toward them. “I don’t need either of you. You’re only alive because of my generosity. That will end if you don’t be quiet.”
“Yeah, well, come over here and try to end me, you lily-livered Nancy boy. You think you’re tough, beating on a woman. Come over here and see what you can do with a man.” Matt’s taunt roared in the open barn.
What was he doing? He couldn’t defend himself, tied the way he was. Ahmed would kill him. “No, Matt, wait.”
He glanced at her, regret and sorrow in his eyes, but then his gaze flicked back to Ahmed, and he opened his mouth, no doubt to mock their captor further.
Without warning, one of Ahmed’s men appeared at the open door. Whatever he said to his boss in their strange dialect put a scary smile on both their faces before Ahmed issued an abrupt order that sent the other man scurrying back where he’d come from.
“Your friend is back. We’ll have to postpone our playtime…but I think I’ll let you come with me and watch.” He fisted his hand on the neckline of her tank top and pulled her toward him until his breath warmed her ear. “I may have to change my mind and keep you alive for a while. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, baby?” He slid his other arm around her hips and held her still as he ground his hard-on into her belly.
“I’d rather be eaten alive by lions than have you touch me.” The words flew from her mouth before she could stop them.
She’d done it now. He was almost certainly going to kill her.
Instead, he shoved her away from him. The back of his hand landed across her face with such force it jarred every bone in her body. Her legs nearly gave out, and she actually looked forward to the blackness that encroached on the edges of her vision. The next blow, from his fist to her stomach, doubled her over and made her forget the pain that had burst through her jaw a moment before. Her insides burned and nausea washed over her. She dropped to her knees.
“You will learn your place…or you will die.” Ahmed clutched her hair and hauled her back to her feet.
Sally pushed the pain from her thoughts and fought the urge to vomit. She couldn’t ruin everything now, when Ahmed was about to cut her feet loose so she could walk with him to witness his triumph over Luke. Not if I can help it…and there’s a God in heaven.
When she didn’t struggle to get away, Ahmed smiled. “Hold still, baby, while I cut your ties.” He held her gaze as he knelt in front of her, then glanced away for a split second to position the knife. An audible pop later and she could move her feet.
Too bad her legs were tingly from lack of blood circulation. They would only get worse when the flow of blood increased, so it was now or miss her opportunity. She glanced at Matt, and he nodded slightly.
Ahmed rose to his feet. “Ready?” He took a step back and swung his arm to indicate she should go first.
Sally kicked her leg with all the strength she possessed. The toe of her shoe landed firmly in his testicles, exactly where Daniel and Matt had instructed it should. Then she braced her foot on his sack and dug in, crushing any flesh that got in her way.
“Fuck!” Ahmed grabbed himself with one hand and went down on his knees, his eyes rolling back in his head. He clutched the knife in his other hand, holding it to the side of his body as though he were about to drop the weapon. Sally swung her leg again, flipping the knife from his hand and sending it flying toward the men. Matt and Daniel both slid their ropes down the post until they were sitting on the ground, but the knife was still two feet short.
Ahmed rolled into a fetal position as Sally started moving. He grabbed futilely for her ankle. Her hands still securely bound, she ran to where the knife had dropped and kicked it with her foot until Matt was able to grab hold.
“Good luck.” She was already out of breath.
“Get out of here,” Matt said.
Sally didn’t look back. Sprinting through the open barn door, she picked up speed as she went. Luke’s Jeep was stationary at the top of the last hill that overlooked the cabins and the river. Why had he stopped?
Of course. The remains of Daniel’s cabin still smoldered. He would see the destruction and know something was wrong. If she could just get close enough to warn him before one of Ahmed’s men shot her in the back, he might get away. Their plan had worked so far. Please, God, let me do this one last thing.
She ran, ignoring the pain in her knee, the sawing of the zip ties at her wrists and the blood still seeping from the wound over her eye. She strained to see Luke in front of the Jeep parked on the hill ahead. He appeared to be holding something big and black to his face. Suddenly, Travis’s Chevy rumbled over the rise and skidded to a stop behind Luke’s Jeep.
Staying purposefully away from the cabins and the road, Sally plowed through knee-high grass and jumped over rocks. Spotting two of Ahmed’s men running to intercept her, she ran faster. Her breath labored in and out of her lungs and her heart hammered as though it knew this was her last run. Hopefully, Matt and Daniel had gotten away too.
She pressed on, running on sheer adrenaline now. Damn, if she could only wave her arms, it would be helpful. Just a little farther and maybe her voice would carry to Luke.
“Catch her, you idiots!” Ahmed’s voice from behind her was steeped in pure rage. Obviously remembering himself, he repeated the command in the language of his men.
Sally took a chance and glanced over her shoulder. They were gaining on her. Apparently, they weren’t going to shoot her. Guess Ahmed wanted her alive. That was sure to be a bad thing. Racing to the top of a small mound, her feet slid out from under her and she fell. Rolling to her back, she pushed to her feet. The men were so close—she was out of time.
“Luke!” She forced herself to run again, although she didn’t have enough lung capacity for keeping her pace and screaming like a banshee. The men were gaining. “Luke, it’s a trap! Don’t come in! It’s a trap, Luke!”
One of the men tackled her, and she was all out of fight. She’d done what she’d set out to do—warn Luke. Jen was safe, and he’d survive to take care of her precious little girl. Her lungs hurt. Hell, everything hurt. The men’s faces, covered with black masks, blurred before her eyes as they stared at her. One of them said something, but he could have been asking for the next dance for all she knew. She didn’t have the energy left to care. The smaller of the two drew a machete from inside his cloak and placed the tip on her chest, repeating his words.
“Go fuck yourselves.” The second time in her twenty-nine years she’d dropped the f-bomb…and it felt pretty damn good. But what was the matter with her? She wasn’t being very polite. She looked directly at the machete man and smiled. “Please go fuck yourselves.”
The two men looked at each other and laughed. Sally chuckled along with them…until machete man raised his huge weapon, poised over his head for a few seconds, and slashed downward.
Sally wiggled onto her side and drew her legs up to her chest in a useless attempt to protect her vital parts. She closed her eyes. Why the hell did people have to use knives? Give her a nice quick bullet any day. Okay. Now she was rambling. Probably in shock. What would it be like to be dead? She’d miss her baby…and Luke.
The terrorist dropped to one knee against her back, and she heard the machete plunge home. A sharp pain…and then nothing. It didn’t matter, though, because the darkness was already upon her…taking her somewhere safe…and quiet…
* * * *
He’d seen the plume of smoke from miles away, but when Luke topped the last rise that overlooked the resort cabins, he slammed on the brakes and stared at the devastation below. Daniel’s cabin was gone. Still smoldering, a pile of charred rubble was all that was left, part of the blackened chimney standing sentinel over the rest.
“What the hell?” He tore open the glove box and rummaged until he latched onto a pair of binoculars. His brother was always prepared and evidently kept his Jeep ready to go as well. He glanced in the rearview mirror as he had repeatedly for the past half hour. This time, he spotted a cloud of dust racing along the rough and pothole-filled road three or four miles behind him. Luke grimaced. At the very least, he was going to owe Travis a new set of shocks.
Luck had been with them when he’d finally reached Garrett on his cell phone. He and Rachel were in Coeur d’Alene, picking up supplies for the lodge. They dropped everything and headed for Sandpoint. Luke had turned back about five miles out of town, leaving Travis and Coop to escort their charges to a prearranged rendezvous point north of Sandpoint. As Luke had expected, Travis must have hauled ass to catch up to him, probably urged even faster by the column of smoke.
Luke stepped from the Jeep and raised the field glasses. The place was like a ghost town. The old Ford pickup sat in its spot near the ruins of Daniel’s cabin. All the remaining cabins were closed tight, and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. The horses and Bridgett’s pony chomped the grass in their pasture, apparently unaffected by whatever had gone on. At the dock by the river, four small fishing boats bobbed with the current, securely fastened to the wooden structure. Had there been four boats? More? Less? He couldn’t answer the question with certainty.
He had to get down there to assure himself Sally and his friends were safe, but his need warred with logic that said to wait for backup. Logic would have lost the battle if his buddies hadn’t been a mere mile away.
Two minutes later, Travis’s Chevy roared up behind the Jeep, skidding on the packed dirt as the engine went silent, and Travis and Coop piled out. Luke tossed the binoculars to Travis as the man shouldered up beside him.
His friend raised them and peered through. “Shit o’ Friday. That must have been one hell of a blaze. Where is everybody?”
“Let’s go find out.” Luke started for the Jeep.
“Wait. What’s this? Shit!” The urgency in Travis’s tone immediately grabbed Luke’s attention, and he whipped around just as Travis held out the binoculars.
Luke took the glasses, but he didn’t need them. Sally, a small figure at this distance, ran headlong through tall grass and wildflowers, on a direct line toward him, but her gait was jerky and awkward. She raced over the ground, sliding, tripping, catching her balance, her hands held behind her back. What the hell was she doing?
“There!” Travis pointed toward the river.
Two black-robed, face-masked figures sprinted on a diagonal course that would soon cut her off.
Luke raised the glasses. He had to be wrong…but his gut told him he wasn’t. What the fuck are they doing here? And where were Daniel and MacGyver? He groped for the weapon tucked against his back. Shit! They were too far away. In a blind rage, he tossed the binoculars to Travis and sprinted for the Jeep.
Another yell went up, and Luke swung around. The newcomer’s height, shape, stance and coloring left no doubt in his mind. Ahmed Kazi, the snake who inhabited his nightmares, screamed at his men to catch her—to catch Sally—and finished his command with a volley of words in their native language. His blood turned to liquid fire in his veins. The son of a bitch had died the night Luke was rescued, or so he’d thought. He hadn’t realized he’d spoken the name aloud until Travis grabbed his arm.
“Ahmed? You’ve gotta be kidding. Isn’t that the SOB who killed Ian?”
Luke didn’t answer, just started for the Jeep again, a singular purpose running through his mind…until he heard Sally’s strained voice. He jerked around just as Travis grabbed a fistful of his shirt.
“Luke, it’s a trap! Don’t come in! It’s a trap, Luke!” Her thin voice drifted to him on the wind, and he barely comprehended her meaning before she lost her footing on a small slope and fell.
Luke turned and tore the Jeep door open, but Travis’s hand still held him. “I have to get to her, man. They’ll kill her.” He ground out the words, trying to shrug off his friend.
A glance down the hill confirmed his fears. The two fighters were on her. One of them raised a long knife, the type they favored for beheadings and such. Fuck! He swung on Travis, knocking him up against the Jeep, but suddenly Coop was there, pinning Luke’s arms behind his back. He struggled as though Sally’s life depended on it…because it did. Couldn’t they see that?
He glanced toward where she’d fallen…and his world went still. The knife dropped in a long arc as the man wielding it fell to his knees to gain more force for the kill. Just like Ian. Luke had learned the hard way that the human head survived for a few seconds after being separated from the body. The horror consumed him all over again. His own blood, pounding in his head, deafened him. Coop released him and stepped away, watching warily…for the beating he expected, no doubt.
Luke’s legs gave out and he dropped to his knees. He raked his hands through his hair helplessly. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Instead of keeping Sally safe, he’d brought the enemy right to her door. He’d been watching for someone who wanted to harm her, but it’d been him who was being hunted all along.
He’d thought he’d hit his lowest point in that prison in Afghanistan, but he hadn’t even been close. Without Sally, there was no reason to go on.
Jen. Luke had told Sally he’d take care of her daughter—he couldn’t let her down again. The game was still on. He had unfinished business and it was going to end here—today.
“How many are there?” Luke didn’t miss the fact they’d both stepped back as he rose to his feet.
“I’ve counted six so far, including the blond-haired bastard.” Travis offered him the field glasses, which Luke accepted and placed around his neck.
Six was doable. He’d taken out that many during training exercises. “Daniel? MacGyver?”
“No sign,” Coop said.
Luke reached behind him for the handgun shoved in his waistband and pulled out the clip to check his load, an action born of habit and caution. Replacing the clip, he thrust the gun between his back and his jeans again, then met Travis’s gaze. “I could have stopped them—distracted them long enough Sally might have gotten away. You don’t know—we’ll never know.” His voice rising and close to breaking, he clamped his mouth shut. It’d been a mistake to start this now. Raw and bleeding, his emotions were too close to the surface. Concentrate on what needs to be done.
Travis strode toward him, and Luke tensed. “Your head’s all fucked up, Luke. What’s the first rule? Huh? Those dickheads are out for your skin. Why else would that traitorous scum be here? If you’d rushed in there, you’d be dead now.”
Shaking with fury and despair, Luke closed the space between them until they were nose to nose. “Do you think I give a rat’s ass? I’d gladly give my life if there was one fucking chance she could have walked out of this.” He dropped back and turned to survey the cabins, now quiet and, for all appearances, deserted.
“That’s why I stopped you. You weren’t thinking straight. She would have died anyway, the minute they got their hands on you. They didn’t need her for anything but drawing you into the trap. She said it herself. She made the choice to warn you. Don’t you think she could guess what would happen when they caught up with her?” Travis pointed toward the meadow where Sally had fallen.
He was right about one thing. This whole damn clusterfuck was Luke’s fault. “You and Coop head back to town.”
Coop and Travis exchanged a glance.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Coop said, issuing a disbelieving laugh.
Travis folded his arms in front of his broad chest, making it clear he wasn’t moving either.
“Yeah, you are. There’s been enough collateral damage.”
Coop’s chest expanded and he took a step toward Luke. “Since when are your brothers considered collateral damage? Those dirty motherfuckers attack one of us, they attack us all. Or have you forgotten?”
Coop’s words jarred Luke. Maybe he’d feel the same if he was in their place, but he wasn’t, and all he cared about was finding MacGyver and Daniel, hopefully alive, then taking out as many of the murdering terrorists as he could…before they killed him.
“MacGyver is a SEAL. You know damn well he’ll stay alive, and he’ll make sure Daniel stays in one piece too, because he’s Ian’s brother and a damn good friend.” Travis closed on Luke again, stopping in front of him. “You made it out of that pigsty they called a prison. That’s no small feat. Coop and I are stayin’ to guarantee you make it out of this little shindig too.”
Luke glanced away from Travis’s determined face to see the same look on Coop’s. Damn it. He was wasting time and he was dangerously close to losing it.
He dropped his gaze to the ground a few feet in front of him. “I made it out of that prison because of Sally. I—” Luke couldn’t continue, grinding his teeth together in agony.
“She’s not dead.” Coop’s voice was so low, Luke wasn’t sure he’d really spoken.
Anger and pain surged through him. “Damn you. Don’t lie to me.” Luke took long strides toward Coop, who leaned one hip against the front of the Jeep. As Luke reached him, Travis pushed between them and shoved Luke back a step.
“You want to hurt somebody—hurt them.” Travis’s words were superquiet but laced with steel.
The man had earned Luke’s respect a hundred times over in training, in firefights and on impossible missions. He’d also been a friend when Luke needed one most. Coop too. Shit. Luke was acting like an ass, but he was so messed up, he ranged between simply not caring and needing to physically pummel someone. Too bad his friends were the only ones around. He inhaled a long, deep breath and lifted his eyes to study Coop. “Why’d you say that?”
A slow smile materialized on Coop’s rough features. “It’s true, man. While you were down for the count, I watched them haul her to the barn.”
Luke’s breath stopped for a heartbeat. “They didn’t…”
“Hell no. She’s all in one piece. Through the binocs, I could see they cut her on the inside of her arm. They carried her with her arms and legs above her heart. She was bleeding pretty good—not bad enough that they got the artery—but it was running down her arm and soaking her shirt.”
Luke had a hard time grasping Coop’s meaning. He’d gotten stuck at cut her on the inside of her arm. Ahmed’s men had cut her arm. The posturing they’d done with the blade must have been for Luke’s benefit—making him believe they’d killed her in the most gruesome way—because Ahmed knew it would demoralize him. It had almost worked…but there was more in Coop’s smug smile, now being shared by Travis.
Sally is bleeding. The dead didn’t bleed—not uphill anyway. As soon as the heart stopped pumping, the blood stopped flowing unless the wound was at the lowest point in the body. She was alive, for the time being. His relief was so great, he grasped Coop’s shoulder to keep from collapsing again.
He should’ve seen that. Instead of falling apart like a cheap pair of boots, he should’ve been paying attention to details. The theatrics with the long knife had obviously been orchestrated by Ahmed, and Luke had fallen for it like a wet-behind-the-ears sailor.
He glanced sheepishly between his friends, finding only understanding and determination in their eyes. “Guess I’m a little too close to the situation on this one.”
Travis barked a laugh. “Ya think?” He slapped Luke on the shoulder while working his bruised jaw back and forth. “You’ve still got the best right hook in the unit…and you’re still the man I’d want by my side if my woman was in a bad place.”
“Damn straight,” Coop said.
It was humbling, and a little awe-inspiring, to feel the strength of the bond between the three of them, but Luke didn’t have time to fully appreciate it now. “What do you say we have a look around and make a plan? It’ll be dark in a few hours. We need to be ready to move.”
Sally was alive—he refused to believe MacGyver and Daniel weren’t too. Any plan they devised needed to get him into that barn without being seen, take out Ahmed’s men, who were no doubt digging in and lying in wait, and reach the target before the surprise wore off.
Easy.