Chapter 8
She woke up suddenly. Lying quietly in the center of the bed, Rhodes was atop the bedding beside her. His eyes were wide open. She leaned up on one arm only to have him immediately raise a hand to stop her from moving. Quietly she sank back down again and waited.
A shadow crossed in front of the hotel room window making her blood run cold. Outside their door stretched a lengthy deck that ran along the front of several hotel rooms. They were all separated by small fences, but in theory, anybody could hop across if they wanted to. She caught her breath again as the shadow retreated across the window once again. She waited anxiously for Rhodes to make some kind of move. But he didn’t. Neither did he relax.
She was rather desperate for the bathroom. Didn’t know if she dared take a chance. Finally, he dropped his hand, turned to look at her and said, “It’s clear.”
She raised her eyebrows but took his words at face value. She threw back the covers, slid off the bed and walked to the bathroom. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the stuff she’d been working on, but her sense of unease grew. After washing her hands and returning to the bedroom, she worried if she’d fall asleep again. She checked her cell phone to see it was four o’clock in the morning. She glanced over at him and said, “Do you think that shadow had anything to do with us?”
“Yes.”
That was it, short, terse. A typical Rhodes’s answer. He’d been a lot more amiable years ago. But then they hadn’t been in danger back then. He had also been teasing and kind to her as a gawky teenager. She punched up the pillows against the headboard and crawled under the covers, then sat and stared at him. “Do we need to leave?”
He shot her a sharp look and shook his head. “Not yet.”
She waited. But he didn’t elaborate. “Are we waiting for something?” she said in exasperation. “Are we waiting for this to get worse, for somebody to charge into the room and actually attack us?”
His gaze never stopped moving around the room as he checked out something. She didn’t understand what he was looking for, but it seemed he was mentally cataloguing the contents of the room, wondering how fast they could get out.
“You want me to start packing?”
“How long would it take you?”
“Right now, running on adrenaline, five minutes.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Make that two.” He walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
She bounded out of bed and quickly got dressed. She hadn’t brought much in the way of clothing with her, and had already packed the DA’s material with Rhodes’s laptop and the ledger inside the box of documents. So, it was complete and ready to go. If anybody was after her, chances were more than likely they’d want the ledger. Sienna knew something fishy was going on in those accounts, but they had to have the proof. The DA needed a forensic accountant to look in to this deeper. If they had digital copies of all the documents, it didn’t really matter if the box of papers was stolen or not. But it would be much better to have it all.
Still there was no understanding the criminal mind these days. By the time Rhodes came out, she was putting her shoes on. She said, “I’m ready.”
His gaze searched around the room, and he nodded. “You have stuff in the bathroom.”
She walked in, packed the few toiletries she’d brought with her and added them to her backpack. “So where do we go from here?”
“It’s too early to head to the DA’s office, but several coffee shops are around.”
“Okay. That works for me. Especially if we can bring in the laptop and work.”
He glanced down at his watch and nodded. “It’s 4:15. With any luck, there’s an all-night café close by.” He grabbed up his bag. “If I take the box, can you grab your bag?”
She snatched up her backpack, put it on her shoulders and grabbed the laptop, and together they headed out, locking up the hotel room behind them. He went by the registration desk and dropped off the key. Having already prepaid, it didn’t matter when they left. Outside he led the way to the truck. There they stowed what they had and were on their way within minutes.
It felt odd to be up so early. Almost as if they were sneaking out of the hotel room so nobody could see them, but it wasn’t a clandestine affair she was involved in. It was something a lot more dangerous.
Although an affair would be a lot more fun.
He drove from the lot and headed down the main street. Within minutes they found several good coffee shops. He pulled into the second one and parked. With Rhodes’s laptop in her hands and a few of her notes, he locked up the truck, and they went inside to get coffee. “You want to eat?”
She shook her head. “Not right now. It’s too early for that.”
She settled back into the chair and opened the laptop. She was really too tired to review the material. Wasn’t even sure what she’d found at this point. When the coffee was delivered, she closed the laptop again and pushed it off to one side, yawning.
“Did you get any sleep?” Rhodes asked as he reached across and covered her hand with his much bigger one.
She smiled. “Still the big-brother attitude?”
He raised his eyebrows at that. “Hey, I knew you back when,” he said with a smile. “Besides, Jarrod’s my friend.”
“I’m no longer a little girl.”
He settled back, gently pulling his hand away from hers.
She was kind of sorry she’d said anything. Something was so damn comforting about his touch. She doubled the cream in her coffee and stirred it.
“Did Jarrod say something to upset you before he left?”
She looked up in surprise. “Hell, no. Jarrod’s a good guy. He knows he can trust me to have common sense.”
“Have it about what?”
She gazed at him innocently over the rim of her cup. “Life, I guess.” She smiled into her mug.
“Why is it I think you’re laughing at me?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Jarrod gave me the same old warnings he’s always given me. His friends are good, decent men, but they played fast and loose with women, so watch it. But he trusts me to make the right decision for me.” She stared at him directly. “I got that warning ten years ago, and again a few days ago.”
“Wow, I didn’t know he still considered all of us that way.”
“I don’t think he does, but I think he was so used to giving that warning that it came out naturally as part of his habitual good-byes.”
“That makes sense. I don’t have a little sister to worry about, but I can see that being a prime concern.”
“What he doesn’t realize is that I’m an adult, and I won’t have an affair with anybody I don’t want to have one with,” she said a little too strongly.
There was a sudden silence as he studied her. Then she realized she and Jarrod hadn’t even discussed something along those lines. It wasn’t like her brother was warning her off having sex; he was warning her off the men at the compound. That they couldn’t be trusted to stick around longer than a one-night stand.
She shook her head. “And that’s just an overly strong reaction of the younger sister having been told off for years and years on the same issue.”
He laughed. “Whatever works.”
She smiled. “You always did have that get-along-with-everybody attitude.”
“I wondered how much you remembered from back then,” he said curiously. “You never say much.”
“What’s to say? I met several of Jarrod’s SEAL friends.” She shrugged. “I’ve seen most of them over the years again too. This is the first I’ve seen of you since then though.”
“Right. You sure don’t look like you did back then. Cocky, skinny, braces, and carrot hair.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “You were adorable. And are a beauty today.”
Her gaze widened in surprise. “Well, I had a hero complex over you back then.” She laughed. “I got rid of the braces, but sometimes I still put my foot in it.”
He grinned. “I think we all do. That’s not a skill you outgrow easily.”
The waitress came back and asked, “Do you want to order anything to eat?”
Sienna shook her head. “Just more coffee for me, please.”
She listened as Rhodes gave a similar answer. The atmosphere had warmed with their confessions. It gave her hope. She stared out the window, seeing the world around her lighten up slightly. That could’ve just been because her eyes were more adjusted, but it seemed like daylight was finally kicking nighttime into the background.
“Can we go home today, do you think?” she asked, pulling out a notepad. “I have a few points for the DA to look in to, but there’s not a whole lot here.”
“In that case, yes, we can go home.”
She brightened. “Good.”
“Glad to hear you consider the compound home.”
“It took a while. After the attacks, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. But I quickly realized Jarrod knew most of you and that somehow I’d been lucky to end up there. But since then, just sitting back and watching everybody go through their own personal relationship issues, it’s been something else to handle.”
Rhodes laughed. “Isn’t that the truth? Levi and Ice, Stone and Lissa …”
“Merk and Katina,” she added with a laugh. “Those two were destined to be together. I can’t imagine how they even broke up last time.”
“You might’ve felt differently if you’d been the one in the Las Vegas wedding.”
She grinned. “Good point.”
“You are okay staying at the compound?” he asked, his gaze intent, warm.
Warmer than she’d seen before. Instead of making her uncomfortable, she wished they were alone. Still this bubble was intimate. The moment special. She gave him a slow smile. “For the moment. The work is interesting. Lots to learn and do, and I feel safe there.”
“All good reasons.”
“And, of course, I like the people.” She batted her eyes at him playfully. “Some more than others.”
*
Over two hours later, Rhodes put down his empty coffee cup. “Let’s go.” He tapped his watch and said, “The DA’s office will open soon. If we get there soon enough, maybe we can leave early. We could be home just after lunchtime.”
That brought a smile to her face. He watched as she quickly packed up the little bit of material she had with her, drank the last of her coffee and stood up. “I’m leaving the laptop here while I go to the ladies’ room.”
He watched her go. That long, lean, gawky body had turned into a voluptuous woman with legs that seemed to never quit.
He wondered if Jarrod really did believe all of them were the love ’em and leave ’em types. Rhodes could understand the warning ten years ago, but it hardly applied now. Not with all his buddies getting hooked up, and those relationships made the place sound more like a love compound than an actual security one.
While he waited, he paid the bill. When she still didn’t return, he checked his watch and realized she’d been gone ten minutes. He frowned. That wasn’t terribly outlandish, but if she wasn’t back soon, he’d bust down that damn door and haul her out. He picked up the laptop and her notebook, pocketed the receipt from the register and made his way to the ladies’ room. He knocked on the door and it pushed open easily. The room was empty, as were the four stalls.
He stepped back out again and searched the restaurant. Where the hell was she? He glanced at the window in time to see a small van leave the parking lot. Instantly he knew something was wrong. He bolted outside, checked the parking lot to make sure she wasn’t waiting for him, raced to his vehicle, dropped the items inside and headed after the van. He jammed his phone onto the dashboard mount and called Levi. As soon as he came on, Rhodes said, “Sienna’s gone missing.”
He explained what happened and that he was chasing a white van but had no way to know if it had anything to do with her disappearance.
“Did you check the other washroom? Did you check everyone in the restaurant?” Ice asked. “If the place was busy, she could have used the men’s room.”
“The restaurant barely had a few people, and all the stalls were completely empty. Something’s happened to her.”
He knew it inside. His gut clenched. He unlocked his hands from gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles still white. Up ahead he could see the van as it went through several lights. Not giving a shit about the traffic speed, he gave the truck more gas and pulled up as close as he could to the van.
As if suddenly realizing they were being followed, the van’s driver crossed three lanes of traffic and took a left on the next street. It also went through a red light, leaving Rhodes in the middle of the intersection until the cross-traffic passed.
He quickly followed and turned down yet another street. No sign of the van. He drove slowly up and down it, then backtracked, looking for an alleyway, a garage, or something. Only two of the houses had a garage. He went around the back of the place but found nowhere for the van to hide.
Around the front again, he caught sight of one young guy standing outside on the front step. That could easily be him. As Rhodes passed the second house with a garage, he watched a woman and children walk out the front door. Immediately he made a U-turn and headed back to the first house. The man was no longer outside.
Rhodes parked in the driveway so they couldn’t leave. He sent Levi a text with an update. He made it look as if he was heading around the back of the house. Instead he backtracked and snuck inside the garage via the side door.
Bingo. There was the van. He opened the doors, looking for any proof Sienna had actually been inside. The last thing he wanted was to barge into a house and terrorize a family who had nothing to do with her kidnapping.
Unfortunately the van offered nothing helpful.
At the back door, he peered through the window but found no sign of anybody inside. There had been a guy on the front step, but Rhodes didn’t know where he’d gone. Rhodes opened the house door quietly and slipped inside. Stairs to the second story were right in front of him. With a quick glance around the stairwell, not seeing anyone there, he crept up the stairs.
He checked all the bedrooms, and in the last one he found Sienna tossed onto a bed. Her mouth was taped; her hands and feet tied. She appeared to be unconscious. Still no sign of the person, or persons, who had taken her. Hearing a sound below him, he quickly hid in the closet.
Two voices traveled up the stairs. “Are you sure we should’ve taken her?”
“We didn’t have much choice. They were heading back to the DA’s office. You heard them.”
Rhodes frowned. That meant whoever had taken her had been in that restaurant with them. A couple young punks sat two tables over, but he hadn’t paid them any mind as they’d been sitting there drinking coffee and playing games on their cell phones. They hadn’t shown any interest in her or him. Apparently he’d been wrong. They seemed to know exactly what Rhodes and Sienna’s plans were.
“I still don’t understand what difference it makes.”
“They’re afraid that whatever paperwork she has will implicate one of the bosses,” the other replied.
“So why didn’t we just steal the boxes?”
“Don’t be daft. Everything’s digital nowadays.”
“And so what the hell difference does it make if we have her or not?”
“Leverage.”
“Oh.”
Rhodes watched through the slats of the closet door as two men walked over to Sienna. “Wake up, bitch.”
Sienna didn’t make a sound. The same guy hauled his arm back and smacked her across the face. Her head snapped from one side to the other and then rolled gently until it came to a stop. She never made a sound.
“How hard did you hit her?”
Inside Rhodes’s anger built. They’d knocked her out, and now they couldn’t even wake her up? As soon as he got her out of here, she was heading straight to the hospital. No matter what she said.
“I didn’t touch her. It’s not my fault when I grabbed her that she slammed her head against the window. It made her easy to deal with though.” The two guys backed up slightly. “You think we should tell anybody?”
“Hell, no. Let’s not bring that type of trouble down on our heads just yet.”
The two young men walked out of the bedroom when one of their phones rang. “It’s the boss,” said the kid.
Staring through the slats, Rhodes saw the kid on the phone wore a red shirt and the other a light gray hoodie. Honestly they looked so similar they could be brothers. They were both about five ten, skinny, with jeans that barely hung on their hips. Rhodes shook his head. What the hell had he and Sienna stumbled into?
The one in red spoke into the phone. “No, we’ve got her.” He glanced over at his cohort and held up his hand. They high-fived each other. “No problem. We’ll take her to the rendezvous point.” He looked at his partner as his grin widened. “Sure, no problem.”
He clicked his phone off. “We’re supposed to take her down to the warehouse.”
“Oh, shit. We just hauled her ass up here. Why didn’t he call a few minutes earlier, and we could have just kept on driving,” the hoodie guy said in disgust.
“Doesn’t really matter. What the boss says, we do.”
The hoodie guy looked over at the bed and said, “Shit.”
Rhodes knew that carrying her upstairs had not been easy for these two scrawny teenagers. He watched as they walked over and manhandled Sienna off the bed to the floor, repositioned their hands and picked her up, slowly carrying her down the stairs.
Rhodes stepped out of the closet and waited until they went around the corner. They’d learn soon enough they couldn’t leave without his vehicle being moved. As the guys went to the garage, Rhodes headed out the front door. He called Levi and the cops. He waited until the two had her at the back of the van inside the garage and followed. As soon as they lowered her to the ground, he took out the first one with a headlock. Only there was a brittle snap, and the kid went limp. Checking that he was unconscious, Rhodes dropped him to the floor. The second guy looked at Rhodes in shock.
“Who are you? Where did you come from?” His gaze landed on his partner on the floor, and he screamed. “Oh, my God! Did you kill Joe?”
Rhodes grabbed the kid and slammed him against the van, his arms pinned behind him and his head flattened against the side of the vehicle. “Maybe. Not that I planned it that way. What the hell did you expect when you kidnapped someone? A slap on your wrist?”
The kid started to cry. “You killed my brother.”
He struggled in Rhodes’s arms, but he seriously had no freedom to move and even less strength. No wonder it had taken the two of them to pick up Sienna.
Rhodes again slammed the kid against the van. “And you’ll get the same treatment if you don’t shut up.”
The kid subsided. Rhodes glared at him as he pulled cuffs from his back pocket and quickly clipped the kid’s wrists together. “Jesus. Kidnapping is a federal offense. Did you really think you would get away unscathed?”
“We weren’t really kidnapping her,” the kid said. “The boss just asked us to bring her down, and she didn’t want to go.”
“Hence the term kidnapping, when you pick up people against their will. You’ve tied her up, knocked her unconscious, and hauled her out of that restaurant into your vehicle. Where the hell do you think you are going from there? I believe it’s jail. If you live that long.”
The guy’s eyes widened as he stared at Rhodes in horror. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No jail for me. I won’t survive it.”
Rhodes could believe that. “The only way you might cut some of that jail time short, or get into an easier one, is if you cooperate fully.”
Immediately the color drained from the kid’s face. “You might put me in jail,” he said, “but the boss’ll kill me if I tell you anything.” At the sound of sirens he trembled. “Oh, my God! I’m so in trouble.”
“You’ll be in even more when the boss finds out you’ve been picked up by the cops because he’ll assume you turned on him. Your life is now forfeited anyway.”
He stared at Rhodes, the horror in his eyes turning them almost black. “You don’t understand these people. They have very long arms. They can also kill me in jail.”
“Welcome to the criminal world,” Rhodes snapped. Shoving the kid ahead of him, he quickly hit the button to open the double doors of the garage. And that’s when the kid saw Rhodes’s truck. “You were already on to us. You followed us from the restaurant?”
“Yes.” Rhodes nodded. “I certainly did.”
Two black-and-white police cars pulled up behind his truck. Rhodes quickly pulled out his ID and hauled the kid over to one of the men. But he didn’t let him go.
An ambulance pulled up a few minutes later. He waited until Sienna was checked over, then her still form loaded into the ambulance. He hated to leave her, but he also couldn’t trust the cops. Before they could take possession of the prisoner, he phoned the DA’s office and talked to Robert.
After that, things moved at a slightly different pace. Another vehicle arrived, and the DA himself got out. He took one look at the kid and said, “Take him in for questioning. Rhodes, I suggest you come with us.” He glanced at the ambulance, now heading off down the street. “Will she be okay?”
“As for these assholes, he’s the one who knocked her out,” Rhodes said bitterly. “If you could just leave me alone with him for a few minutes …”
The kid screamed, “He killed my brother. You can’t let him anywhere near me.”
The DA looked at Rhodes.
He shrugged. “I didn’t kill him. Just rendered him unconscious.”
The kid stopped and stared at him. “You told me that you killed him.”
Rhodes smiled. “I lied.”
He got into his vehicle and followed close behind the DA and his prisoner. No way was he letting this kid out of his sight. The DA seemed to understand. They drove to the police station and very quickly were in an interrogation room.
The DA said, “We must handle this officially.”
Rhodes nodded. “I agree with that. But I need to know who the hell is after Sienna to put a stop to this fast. Get me a name. I’ll take care of the rest.” His voice was hard, his glare bitter. He wasn’t letting up until he had that name. Sienna had gone missing on his watch, and he’d never forgive himself for that.
Only the kid didn’t want to talk. Between the cops and the DA, he just sat there and glared at them. In frustration, the three law enforcement officers got up and walked out.
Rhodes had been watching from the observation window. He said in a low voice, “Let me talk to him.”
The officers immediately protested. Robert smiled and said, “You could scare anybody. Go ahead. You got five minutes. But remember, the entire thing is recorded, so stay on this side of the line. We can’t have this case fall apart.”
Rhodes walked in and headed straight for the kid.
The kid shrieked, jumped up from the chair and ran to the back of the room. “You can’t touch me. The cops will keep me safe.”
“The cops might, but only long enough to get the information we want. I already put word on the street you’re talking.”
“But I haven’t said anything,” he cried out in protest. “You can’t lie like that.”
“What universe do you live in, kid? Do you think this is some punk-ass game you played in high school? People are dying here. And you’ll be one of them if you don’t smarten up.”
And suddenly the kid realized he really was in trouble. “You don’t understand. If they think I’m tattling, they could kill me.”
“And you don’t understand. The minute you were picked up by the cops, they assumed you were, so you’re dead anyway. You and your brother, Joe.”
The kid walked over to the chair and slowly sank back down. “Oh, my God,” he said. “You’re right. I have no way out of this.”
“Only one—cooperate fully with the cops. With any luck you and your brother will get a lighter sentence, and you might actually still have a life after this. If you don’t, well, no promises.”
Rhodes turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him. As he left, the kid yelled, “Wait, wait. I want to talk.”
He nodded to the cops. “That’s your cue.” He stormed over to the side window and glared out at the morning sun. He still wanted to ring the little chickenshit’s neck.
The DA said, “A little brutal but effective.”
That startled a laugh from Rhodes. “Yeah, that’s me, right down the line.” He turned to study the man they’d come to help. “The files and your laptop are in my truck. I’ll get them for you, and then I want to know who ordered the attack on Sienna.”
One of the cops came out and walked over to them. “He wants to make a deal.”
The DA said, “That’s my cue.” He turned back to Rhodes. “If you’ll bring in those materials, that’d be great. I presume you’re heading to the hospital right now?”
Rhodes nodded. “Until we pick up whoever it is that ordered the kidnapping, she’s not safe. Not even there.”
As the DA walked in to make a deal with the punk kid, Rhodes raced to his truck, pulled out the box of information the DA had given him and carried it to the observation room. As he entered the outer room again, the DA was talking with the police officers.
The DA took one look at the box and smiled. “Okay, we got names and addresses. We’re putting together a tactical team to go after them.” He hesitated and said, “I know you’d like to, but I can’t have you take part in that.”
“Damn.” He shrugged. “You do your thing. I’ll go to the hospital and protect Sienna. I let that asshole get at her once. Can’t let that happen a second time.”
“You’re not responsible for this,” the DA called as Rhodes headed to his truck.
“I’m not, but I am.” And Rhodes thought, That’s just the way life is.