Claimed (6 page)

To her right a man was going through her bag
of toys that he had obviously taken out of the bedroom. He laughed
and pulled out Leslie’s metal handcuffs along with her leather
restraints. “We can use these on the señorita if she doesn’t do as
she’s told,” the man said in Spanish as he tossed the metal ones to
scraggly-beard.

“Convenient,” scraggly-beard said. “Now where
are your jewels and your money?” he asked in a harsh tone as he
swung the cuffs back and forth.

“In the hotel safe in the bedroom closet.”
She swallowed. “I’ll give you the combination. Then please let me
go.”

He laughed and shoved her so that she
stumbled. The back of her legs hit the couch and she fell onto the
edge of it. “Maybe we will let you go after we enjoy your body
first.” He shrugged. “Or maybe we don’t let you go. There is a
market for beautiful American women.”

Cold washed through her at the reality that
these men could rape her like he’d just threatened, and they could
also sell her. She’d heard about women being abducted and sold, and
turned into sex slaves. The thought made her want to vomit. She
glanced at the other two men who looked at her with raw lust in
their eyes.

Come back, Rick,
she prayed
silently
. Please come back.

The man with the gun spoke to one of the
other two men. “Check the closet.” Scraggly-beard turned back to
Leslie. “The combination.”

She paused for a moment, her mind suddenly
blank.

“
The combination,”
he shouted.

It came to her and she rushed to get the
numbers out. “Five-five-zero-one.”

The man with the gun nodded to one of the
other men, a thin man wearing a dirty white wife-beater T-shirt.
The man went to the bedroom, shoved the door open, and disappeared.
She heard the distinctive hard click of the lock and door
opening.

The man shouted in Spanish from the bedroom,
“Much money and jewelry.”

“Excellent.” The man with the gun approached
Leslie and her heart pounded impossibly faster. “Now we have
fun.”

She felt exposed, vulnerable, and helpless.
Three men with at least one gun against her, a naked woman. They
were going to rape her. She could see it in their eyes. She’d never
been so scared in all her life.

Scraggly-beard set the gun on an end table
and started to unzip his jeans

Terror ripped through Leslie, giving her
strength. She shot her foot out and rammed her heel into his groin
as hard as she could.

He screamed and dropped to his knees. The
other men grabbed her and she screamed. One of them slapped her so
hard that her mind spun. She tasted blood in her mouth and realized
her nose was bleeding. The other man grabbed her around the neck
from behind and pulled her up against him.

“
You
, I will kill,” scraggly-beard
said in English.

At first, Leslie thought the man was talking
to her.

Then Rick spoke in a deadly quiet voice. “I
am only going to tell you once. Let her go.”

She looked up to see him standing in the
doorway to the suite. Fear for him rose up inside of her. What if
they shot him?

The man she’d kneed in the balls had already
retrieved his gun from the end table and had it pointed at Rick.
The arm around her throat tightened.

“You are not telling me anything,” the gunman
said to Rick. “Close the door. Then on your knees, hands behind
your head.” The man walked toward Rick, keeping his gun steady. “Or
she dies.”

Rick looked calm as he got to his knees. He
showed no fear, no doubt. As if he was just biding his time.

The man with the gun pressed it against
Rick’s forehead. “Get the handcuffs we found,” the scraggly-beard
said to the thin man without taking his eyes or gun off of Rick.
“Use those to cuff the gringo.”

The third man kept his arm around her neck
while the thin one went to her bag and retrieved her police-issue
cuffs. The man with the cuffs walked behind Rick and knelt down to
cuff his wrists.

What happened next was a blur. Rick snapped
his arm up and grabbed the barrel of the gun, pushing it away from
his face and ripping it out of scraggly-beard’s hand. The gun went
off and a lamp exploded as a bullet hit it. The man lost his hold
on the gun and it dropped on the floor beside them.

With his opposite arm, Rick flipped the thin
man over his shoulder, wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, and
twisted. Leslie heard the sickening pop of bone as Rick snapped the
man’s neck then released him.

In virtually the same motion, he brought
straggly-beard down, slamming the man’s head against the floor. The
man scrambled for the gun that was now beside him and grabbed it.
Rick wrenched it from his hand. He put a bullet through the man’s
skull.

He surged to his feet, gun still in hand, and
started toward Leslie and the third man. He came to an abrupt
stop.

“I’ll kill her!” The third man sounded shrill
as he tightened his arm around her neck, choking her. Then her
blood chilled as she felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed
against her temple. That was why Rick had gone still. “Put down the
gun.”

“Don’t listen to him. He won’t kill me.”
Leslie clawed at his arm around her throat as she could barely
talk. “He knows you’ll kill him if he does.”

Rick looked at the man as if calculating his
next move. His face was impassive, no expression that she could
decipher. “Let her go,” Rick said. “And I’ll let you live.”

“I do not believe you.” The man behind her
trembled against her back. He tightened his arm around her throat
some more and she clawed harder at his arm. “I saw what you did to
my brother and my friend.”

“I will let you live,” Rick repeated as he
took a step forward. “Put the gun down.”

“Don’t move!” The man swung his gun around
and pointed it at Rick who was now only about three feet away.

Leslie kicked the man hard in the shin with
her heel. It was enough to distract him and he took his eyes off of
Rick who took two long steps toward them. Rick easily kicked the
gun out of the man’s hand who then lost his grip on Leslie. Rick
drove him to the floor and gripped him by his throat before
slamming his fist into the man’s face. He screamed.

Rick raised his fist again but went still as
voice shouted, “Police!” accompanied by the sound of guns being
cocked. Leslie and Rick snapped their attention toward the
doorway.

“Put your hands behind your head,” a man in a
uniform shouted in English. “And get to your feet. Slowly.”

Four men stood just inside the doorway, all
in Mexican police uniforms, all with guns trained on Rick.

He did as he was told and slowly rose. An
officer tossed the towel that had dropped on the floor to Leslie
and she wrapped it around herself with shaking hands.

One of the officers jerked Rick’s hands
behind his back and cuffed him. Another officer cuffed the man on
the floor and dragged him to his feet.

“Wait.” Leslie looked at the officer that
looked like he was in charge and she gestured toward Rick. “He
saved my life. These other men were robbing me and were going to
rape me. They also threatened to kill us both.”

“We will determine if your statement is true
or not.” The man in charge gave a nod toward her closet. “Put on
some clothes. We are taking you to the police station.”

Leslie did as she was told, hoping they
weren’t stepping farther into a nightmare.

“I already told you everything.” Leslie felt
exhausted as she spoke to the police officer. What had started out
as a wonderful morning had turned so very wrong. “We’re tourists.
Those men broke into our suite. You know the rest.”

She had wondered at how fast the police had
reached the hotel and their room. One of the officers explained
that one of the housekeepers had recognized the men and saw them
break into Leslie and Rick’s room. The men had not seen the
housekeeper and she was able to notify the hotel manager who
contacted the police.

Leslie looked in the direction they had taken
Rick when they’d been escorted to the station. “Where is Rick?” She
hadn’t seen him since they had arrived and her stomach churned at
the thought of what could be happening to him.

The officer frowned and opened his mouth to
speak when another officer caught his attention and spoke in rapid
Spanish.

“We spoke with our contact in the United
States.” He lowered his voice and continued in Spanish, but Leslie
could hear and understand the man. “This Rick Pierce is a Navy SEAL
and an American hero. If we cannot prove that he did wrong, we must
release him.”

The officer who had been grilling her stood,
suddenly looking nervous. “I believe the woman is telling the
truth. Release Señor Pierce.”

Leslie slumped with relief. With all of the
horror stories she’d heard about people getting caught up with the
Mexican authorities she’d been so afraid that this was going to end
up even worse than it already was.

The officer had called Rick an American hero.
Was that what they considered SEALs to be? It certainly was to her.
Or could it be something more?

Whatever was said on the phone call certainly
worked. The attitudes of the Mexican police changed. She was told
that Rick’s paperwork was being processed and he would be released
shortly. Her passport was returned to her as she waited for
him.

It seemed to take forever, but finally Rick
came into the room she was in. She practically ran to him and threw
herself into his arms. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see
anyone in my life,” she said and brushed away a tear that rolled
down her cheek.

“Are you okay?” He gripped her by the
shoulders and studied her. “They wouldn’t tell me what they had
done with you.”

“All they did was interrogate me.”
Over
and over again.
“I’m fine.”

“It’s a damned good thing.” He kissed her
hard.

“Thank God you’re all right.” She put her
head against his chest. “I was so worried about you.”

“Nothing to worry about.” He kissed her
again. “Let’s go.”

She nodded and he looped his arm around her
shoulders.

“They said they found out that you’re an
American hero.” She looked up at him as they walked. “They released
you in a hurry after that.”

Rick shrugged. “I guess being a SEAL carries
some weight in some places and with some governments.”

“They said specifically ‘American hero’,” she
said.

“Whatever it takes to get me out.” He pushed
open the door, leading them into the sunshine. “They just wanted to
get me free.”

“Well, you’re a hero to me.” She rested her
head against his chest. “Thank you for saving me from God knows
what.”

“I’m just grateful you’re okay, honey.” He
kissed the top of her head. “It scared the hell out of me to see
those men with you.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look as
calm as you did,” she said.

“I never had a doubt I’d get to you before
they could hurt either of us,” he said. “But seeing you like that—I
never want to see that again.”

She sighed. “That makes two of us.”

When they reached the hotel, they went to the
front desk. All of their bags had been moved to a new suite after
the investigation and clean up.

It was already evening. The ordeal had taken
the greater part of the day. After Rick unlocked the door, she
tossed her purse onto the couch.

“I need a bath.” She was still trembling as
she turned to Rick. “A nice, long hot bath.”

He brushed his lips over hers and it helped
to calm her. “Mind if I join you?”

She managed a smile. “Your tub or mine?”

With a gentle smile he said, “Which would you
prefer?”

Without hesitating she said, “Yours is just
fine. I’m still shaking.”

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her
close. “I’m here, and while I’m here, I won’t let anything happen
to you. Do you understand?”

She loved the strength of his hug and the
safe feeling it gave her. She had never met anyone like Rick.

He kissed her then took her hand and led her
in the direction of his room. “I’m ready for that bath.”

The rectangular jetted tub was huge and had
backrests on both side of it. She ran the water until it was almost
hot, stripped out of her clothing, and eased into the tub. She
sighed as her body sank into the warm water and closed her
eyes.

The water sloshed and she looked up to see
that Rick had ditched his clothing, too, and was climbing into the
tub. He sat across from her and looked as pleased to be in the hot
water as she was.

“Furry little seals love water, don’t they?”
she said with a slight smile.

“As do big SEALs.” He gave a groan that told
her he was very happy to be in the tub with her.

“Mind if we stay in tonight?” She played
footsies with him in the water and he grabbed one of her feet. “I
think after today I would like to just relax.”

“Agreed.” He started rubbing her foot. “We
can order room service.”

She sighed with pleasure as he massaged her
foot. The gentle massage helped to relax her. Between that and the
warm water, she wasn’t trembling as much.

“Oh, that feels so good,” she said. “Please
don’t stop.”

He smiled and after a moment picked up her
other foot and started massaging it. She closed her eyes and
reveled in the feeling of his touch.

The water had cooled by the time they decided
to get out. He grabbed one of the thick, fluffy towels and dried
her off. She was happy to stand in front of him and let him towel
dry her. He made short work of drying himself and then tossed the
towel aside and led her into his bedroom.

She looked at the bed. “I think I could
happily pass out right now.”

“Lie down.” He gently pressed her toward the
bed. “On your stomach.”