Closer (12 page)

She followed behind him, her eyes smiling. Michael smiled back as they made their way down the hallway and into the lobby. Steve, Rob, and Tony were already waiting on them.

“How late are we?” Michael asked his brothers.

“We just got here ourselves,” Tony replied with a knowing grin.

It was at times like this he most thought about the brother they had lost in battle, Leroy. He recalled Rob placing a plastic MRE bag over Leroy’s exposed intestine and then wrapping it with tape from his first-aid kit.

“It’ll be alright. You’re going to be fine,” Michael lied to Leroy wishing to see anything but death in his eyes.

Leroy had coughed up blood and it dribbled down his chin as he tried to ask Michael to deliver his goodbye letter to his wife Kristen. They all carried letters to be delivered to their loved ones should they die on the field, and it was a brother’s responsibility to ensure the letter reached the designee.

Michael remembered the look of devastation in Kristen’s eyes as he walked up to her door. She had already been told about her husband’s death, but she had known the hardest part, hearing his last words to her, had yet to come. She had reached out her hand and took the dirty envelope from Michael.

“Stay with me,” she’d pleaded as she pushed the door open for Michael to enter her home.

When Michael stepped inside, she’s motioned for him to sit on the couch. To his surprise, she’d sat next to him, needing the human contact. She’d opened the letter and started to read it, sobbing, tears streaming down her face.

Handing the letter to Michael, she’d pleaded, “Read it to me.”

Michael couldn’t deny his brother’s wife’s request. He’d read the letter but couldn’t keep the tears from filling his own eyes. After he’d finished reading Leroy’s last words to Kristen, they’d sat holding each other. Kristen had lost the love of her life, and Michael had lost one of his best friends, his brother.

“There’s a diner across the street. Is that okay with everyone,” Tony asked looking at Emma for a response. He knew the guys would eat anything. After those MREs they had eaten for days and days on end.

“Anything works for me,” Emma replied not picky about where they ate, just as long as they did so soon.

“All right then, let’s hit the road,” Tony said turning to the door and bringing Michael out of his head.

They followed Tony across the street and into the diner. Five minutes later they were seated with fresh cups of coffee.

Tony spoke first, “Emma, we have a damn good plan. It will work. Your safety is our number one priority.” She looked at Michael and plastered a smile onto her face. Michael noticed her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Emma was afraid but she wouldn’t show these men her fear. She would be brave, and tough, and trust in them to protect her.

It made Tony’s heart feel good that his brother had found a woman who could take away his pain, even if for a moment. Michael was really quite changed from the serious, straight shooting man he knew in combat. Michael was smiling more now than he’d smiled in the six years he’d known him. It was almost like he could breathe again and that made Tony damn protective of the woman who brought about such a change in his brother. Tony would never admit it to anyone, but he saw the same signs of stress in Michael he had seen in himself. Tony knew if anything were to happen to Emma, Michael would lose the hard fought control he had been clinging to after combat. Combat did that to a man. It changed the fundamental nature of who he was. Tony knew Michael fought for control every day after leaving the military. He knew because he himself was fighting the same battle. No, Tony wouldn’t let anything happen to Michael’s Emma, and it was the deep love he felt for his brother which caused him to feel so deeply for this woman he did not know.

“What can I get you to eat?” the waitress said, grinning at Tony.

They ordered their food and when it came, they all ate in silence. Emma couldn’t finish her large breakfast of eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and sausage, but the guys had no trouble finishing theirs.

“Glad to see you have an appetite, Emma,” Steve said shoveling the last bite into his mouth.

“I can always eat,” Emma replied smiling at Steve. It was strange, but she didn’t feel self-conscious in front of these men. She could get used to the feeling of comfort she felt around these men.

They finished with their coffee. “I got this,” Tony said. He picked up the check, reached into his wallet, and pulled out his Visa/debit card. He handed it to the waitress. She came back with the receipt and a pen for him to sign. She made sure to give Tony a smile and wink before leaving the table. They all stood and put on their coats. Then, they made their way back to the hotel.

“Grab your gear and meet in our room in fifteen minutes,” Michael said to his brothers as he led Emma, with a hand on the small of her back, to the elevator.

Once inside the room, Michael pulled Emma closer to him and kissed her long and hard on the lips. She moaned into his mouth parting her lips to allow his tongue room to taste her. He couldn’t let himself think this might be the last time he would kiss her. He poured his soul into the kiss, deepening it. He tangled his hand into her hair and pulled her closer to him, her breasts molding to his hard chest. Her fingers traced the V of his back as her heart beat feverishly against her chest. They embraced each other until there was a knock at the door. He regretfully pulled away from her warm, soft flesh. She was breathing hard, and she subconsciously placed her fingers against her kiss-swollen lips, remembering the exquisite kiss as she stared absently into space. She was taken by this man and there was nothing she wanted more in the world than to remember exactly the way that kiss had felt for the rest of her life.

Michael opened the door and his brothers walked into the room making it feel very small. “Ready to do this?” Tony grinned at Michael after noticing Emma’s trance-like state.

“You do that to her,” Tony whispered for Michael’s ears only. Michael smiled at his brother and then looked at his Emma.

“Emma, Baby? Are you ready to do this?” Michael asked her in a gentle voice. He knew she was frightened. Hell, he was frightened too.

“Huh, what?” Emma mumbled coming back into her head.

“I said, are you ready?” Michael asked, feeling better than he had ever remembered feeling at the thought that he had such an effect on her.

Truth be told, he remembered every moment they had spent together. He remembered the way her body arched under his when he was driving into her, her soft moans, and her dirty word spoken only for him. He remembered the way she climaxed around his cock. He remembered the way his cock felt sheathed by her mouth. He could feel himself pressing against his jeans. He better stop remembering and get down to business. He grabbed his bags and headed towards the door. The men, plus one beautifully delicate Emma, made their way to the cars. They loaded their gear into the trunks and started their three-hour drive to kidnap Ahmed.

Outside of Pittsburgh, the men stopped to acquire a windowless van. It had been a painter’s van. They cleaned it out leaving all of the painting materials in the man’s driveway. These guys were good at being undetected. Plus, the driveway was on the opposite side of the house, on the other side of the man’s garage. It was easy enough to get into, hotwire, and remove before anyone could become the wiser.

Steve, Tony, and Rob stowed away in the back of the van dressed in civilian combat gear: jeans, boots, and coats with bullet-proof vests underneath. Michael drove with Emma in the passenger seat. The directions Ahmed had sent ordered for Emma to be dropped off at Warehouse P7 in Highland Park. The van rolled along the road as Michael searched for Warehouse P7. They found it in the middle of several abandoned warehouses. The garage door was open waiting for Michael’s delivery.

Michael pulled up to the garage door where a man stopped him, one Michael assumed to be security personnel for Ahmed. With a thick Algerian accent, the man asked, “What you doing here?”

Michael said, “Let me pull a little inside and then I can deliver the package to Ahmed.”

This was apparently good enough for the security as he allowed Michael to pull ten feet into the warehouse. Michael could see Ahmed a good twenty feet away, standing next to a rather unremarkable dark van. He wore a ponytail of straggly hair. His jeans were dirty and rotted, full of holes, and his blue windbreaker jacket with a white running strip down the arms was doing nothing to keep him warm.

If this went down wrong, he would never find Emma. But he couldn’t think like that. Michael took a deep breath to clear his mind. He pulled to a stop, and the security guard’s gun was trained on Michael. The guard peered into the van trying to see behind him. The guard kept glancing back at Emma as if the sight of her made him mad. He would definitely hurt Emma. Michael had to work fast to keep the others’ positions in the van a secret from the guard. Michael reached behind him to pull out his wallet to prove his identity, but instead pulled out his 9mm Beretta with a silencer and shot the unsuspecting security guard. With a clean shot between the eyes, the guard dropped to the ground. Ahmed saw this and started to run.

Upon the sound of gunfire Emma jumped in her seat while Rob, Steve, and Tony jumped out of the back doors of the van and took off running after Ahmed. Tony held out the Taser in front of him and pointed it at Ahmed. He only had to be within twenty feet of the man and the Taser would fire, sinking its hooks into the man’s skin, rendering him incapacitated for five seconds. As Tony neared the man, he pulled the trigger firing the Taser. The Taser’s needle barbs went straight through Ahmed’s wind breaker and into his skin. Ahmed dropped to the ground, unmoving. Before Tony and Rob could reach him, Ahmed was on his feet and running again with the needle barbs still attached to his skin. Tony pulled the trigger of the Taser again, and again Ahmed dropped to the ground incapacitated. This time Rob was there and had him cuffed with a zip tie in under five seconds. Once Ahmed could move again, they helped him to his feet. Now the fun would start.

Tony ran back to pull the garage door closed while Steve and Rob watched Ahmed impatiently. On the way back from the garage door, Tony stopped at the van and pulled out a black duffle bag full of tools. Michael kept his gun focused on Ahmed the entire time. Steve shoved Ahmed forcefully into a chair as Tony opened the bag and started dragging out tools. Ahmed looked over at Tony and sweat started to bead on his forehead. They could smell him. He smelled like he hadn’t showered in weeks, let alone days.

“Maybe cracking Ahmed would be easy,” Michael thought.

All the banter and good nature disappeared from the men. They were now soldiers, serious, deadly. Emma could see how they worked together as a close-knit team in times of war. They frightened her. Once Tony returned to Ahmed, Michael led Emma to the van.

“Get in the back of the van and don’t look. Promise me you won’t look,” he pleaded with Emma guiding her into the back of the van. “I want you to wear these headphones. Listen to my iPod for a while,” he cajoled.

“You’re going to hurt him, aren’t you?” Emma whispered to Michael.

Michael couldn’t meet Emma’s eyes. He did not want her to know this side of him, but he wouldn’t lie to her. He nodded his head.

“Are you going to kill him, Michael?” Emma questioned him meeting his eyes for the first time since they pulled into the warehouse.

“No, Emma. I am not going to kill him. But I can guarantee you I am going to make sure he wishes he were dead,” he snarled, psyching himself up for what had to be done.

Emma flinched. This side of Michael scared her. Although she had only known Michael a short time, she trusted her gut. And her gut said Michael would never hurt her, but she would have to give some thought to being with someone who wouldn’t think twice about hurting someone else, even if he was the bad guy. Would she do the same thing if she were in Michael’s shoes? If her mom or dad or even Michael were the one to be taken, would she not do everything in her power to get them back? Would she not hurt people to get information to save the ones she loved? She thought about that for a second. As if a light bulb lit up, she realized she truly loved Michael. She knew that hurting the dirty man would be Michael’s last resort. He wouldn’t just start torturing him, would he? She really didn’t know Michael and yet she had fallen for him. The realization had taken her aback. It was too soon. Her head worked to convince her heart that it was just the adrenaline and danger of the situation that had hyped up these feelings she’d never felt before. What would she do if something happened to Michael? The mere thought made tears stream down her cheeks. So she sat in the back of the van with the realization of her love for Michael at the forefront of her mind. She cried for what Michael had to do. She cried for who Michael had to be. She cried for what the bad man was going to endure to keep his secrets.

She knew in her heart that Michael didn’t like hurting people and that it probably caused him a great deal of guilt. Michael was very caring when it came to her well-being. He couldn’t be that caring and be a monster at the same time. No, the things Michael had to do and did do weighed heavily upon him. She noticed his guilt in the lines around his eyes. She noticed his guilt buried in the depth of his soul when he looked at her. She made up her mind. From now on, she would be a rock Michael could lean on when the guilt of the things he had seen and done were too much for him to endure. She loved him.

In her mind, a rational voice spoke up again, “What if he doesn’t want you there for him?” She cried some more.

Michael left her and walked back to his brothers who were guarding Ahmed. Rob wasn’t wasting anytime with the questioning. “Where is she? Where are you holding the American woman?” Rob demanded, grabbing the collar of the windbreaker the dirty man was wearing.

He pulled the man by the collar. Ahmed could feel the spit land on his face as Rob made demands for answers that Ahmed wouldn’t give. Of course, Ahmed knew where the terrorist cell was holding the American woman. He had just come from there. But telling that to these men would get his family killed. He had a wife and kids to think about, not to mention he was a true martyr for his cause. He would endure their torture, their questions, to save his wife and family; to save the plan to take down the American government.