Deadly Hunt (Deadly #1) (25 page)

“Now that is sorted, let’s get down to business. Ms Dallas, I’ve been watching you for some time, you’re a fighter. I came here to kill you, then I watched you. You’re a truly amazing soldier. Then you got pregnant. I couldn’t bring you with me as my soldier, so now you die.” I swear to fuck, he’s insane. Did he really think I would let him bring me with him to be his fucking soldier? Damn he’s crazy.

“That was never going to happen, I would never be your solider. You’re out of your god damn fucking mind.” He walks over to me and slaps me across my face. My lip splits and I can taste the blood, I spit it out and it lands on his boot, I smirk at him. He pulls his arm back and punches me in the face. With that he leaves the room.

It’s been at least an hour maybe more since Mullah left, I’ve been trying to get out of the bindings around my wrists, and they are fucking sore. I hear moaning and look to the floor, Selena is moving around. Hopefully she can help.

“Selena, can you hear me?” She moans.

“Yes.” It’s a weak response but hey, she’s alive.

“You need to come over here and untie me, if you don’t we’re going to die in here.” She moans again. But she starts pulling herself along the floor towards me. “You’re nearly there, come on Selena, you’ve got this.”

She finally makes it to me and sits up as best she can, I feel her at the bindings. “I can’t my hands are full of blood; they keep slipping of the bindings. How do I get you out?” Damn it.

“Your teeth, you have to use your teeth to get me out.” So she does. It takes at least 15 minutes but she manages to get my hands untied. I reach down and untie my feet. I run and pick up the crow bar and tire iron. I walk back to Selena, and she looks bad.

“Selena, I can’t see, where are you shot?” She moves and I see that if she doesn’t get medical attention soon she’s going to bleed out. I look around the room seeing if I can find anything to try stop the bleeding. I see Caleb, and beg for forgiveness. I walk over to him I take his t-shirt off him, ball it up and place it on the wound.

“Selena, you need to stay alert, press this to your wound. As soon as he comes in I’m going to hit him with this. Then we’re going to leave. Do you understand?” She nods but doesn’t say anything.

“Selena who else is here?” She’s quiet “Selena?”

“No one. Only me and Caleb knew where he was.” Good. I walk back to the chair waiting for him to come back.

Another hour passes before he comes in again. I have the tire iron in my hand. My arms are still behind my back; I didn’t want him to know anything was different. He walks into the room, he does a quick scan, his eyes narrowing in on the shirtless Caleb laying on the floor. His eyes then fly towards Selena; they narrow dangerously at the sight of the shirt. He walks closer to me; I’m waiting for the right moment. I only have one chance. I need to do this right if I’m to survive.

I don’t give him a chance to say anything as he is only a few steps away from me. I stand and swing hitting him in his face, it knocks him to the floor and I bring it down once more. I don’t think he’s getting back up, at least not at the moment. I rush to Selena, I bend down and grab her arm and throw it around my shoulder, pulling her up off the ground. “Selena, keep the shirt pressed against your stomach.” She nods and we start walking out of the room. It takes us a long time, with me being 6 months pregnant and her putting all her weight on me.

We make it outside, and around the corner, when suddenly I feel pain in my stomach; it’s so intense I can’t stay standing. I fall to my knees bringing Selena down with me. She cries out, but the pain I’m feeling is so intense I pass out.

He has her in Harlem, damn it, the fucking tip from my old FBI partner Simon was right, Dwayne and Oscar told us it was unconfirmed back at the warehouse. We were distracted when it came in because we were looking into everyone’s background’s. If only we had checked it out. She wouldn’t be there now. I can’t help but imagine the worst.

We had been gone with the Commander for 4 hours we don’t know how long after Hailey left he took her. We saw that she was investigating him, it was on the laptop left on the floor during what we think was the struggle.

We’re all in the car, but it’s lunch time traffic in New York. I’m going fucking crazy, I look and see Scott sitting stoic, his features just filled with pain. I’d hate to see what I look like. A hand lands on my shoulder and I turn and see Connor, he looks fucking wrecked.

“She’s fucking amazing bro; you have a good one. She’s going to be okay. She didn’t let this bastard beat her before and she has so much more to fight for this time. So buck up and breathe, we will get there and you can be her knight in shining armour, chicks dig that shit.” Scott laughs at Connor’s statement.

“He’s right, my sister is the strongest, most determined person ever, and she loves romance novels, she would love you to be her knight in shining armour.” We all chuckle.

The traffic starts flowing and we’re in Harlem in no time. Just as we come to a halt at the curb, the door flies open and the sight of Sophia covered in blood floors me completely. She makes it around the corner and I’m out of the car chasing her. I hear the team say they’re going inside, and Asher says he’s going with them. Just as Me, Connor and Scott round the corner I see her fall to her knees crying in pain, then nothing, she’s deadly still. I run and drop down beside her. I don’t know how long I sit here just holding onto her.

“Move Nathan, let them get to her.” I hear Connor talking to me, but what he’s saying isn’t registering with me. I’m pulled up and I see Scott holding me.

“Fucking get with it; she’s going to need you. The paramedics are bringing her to Metro. Let’s go.” I see them putting her on the board and rushing her to the ambulance. Scott drags me to the car.

We rush to Metro, and make it just behind the Ambulance. Scott called his dad and Luke on the way and they both are going to meet us here.

“What the fuck happened?” Scott asks Ryder and I’m thankful he asked as I can’t speak my heart is in my throat. I’m in some sort of a trance.

“We found Caleb shot dead, he took one between the eyes. Selena was outside with Sophia, she took one to the stomach and was bleeding profusely. Mullah Al Mohammed was lying on the floor, his head bleeding, but still alive, although barely. We spoke briefly with Selena, she says Sophia hit him with a tire iron twice and they fled.” Damn my girl is fucking fearless, she is amazing. I need to know what is going on. Steven and Luke enter into the waiting room and they get filled in. Steven walks over to the nurse’s desk trying to get information; he has come straight from work and flashes his badge, which seems to get him some answers. The nurse picks up the phone and talks to whoever is on the other end and then hangs up, she says something to Steven and he walks over to us.

“The nurse has rung the doctor, she’s out of surgery, and they are making sure she is okay. The doctor will be down to explain in a few minutes. I’m finally able to breathe, she’s out of surgery that is good, I excuse myself and make a phone call. I call someone I know she’s dying to see.

“Hello?” Comes the confused voice.

“Hey, it’s Nathan. Soph is in the hospital, she’s out of surgery and we’re waiting on the doctor to come and give us news, as soon as he does I’ll ring you and let you know.”

“Thank you Nathan, I hope to talk to you soon.” I hang up and walk back over to the group.

“What’s the best memory you have of her?” Skye asks Scott in such a sad voice. She’s scared; she gets on so well with Soph.

He laughs “she was about 9, we were at the beach, and she hadn’t ever seen the beach before. Anyway she was building sandcastles the whole day. She told us she wanted to make a big one, so mom and dad helped, it was massive. Anyway they made this moat around the castle, and it went the whole way around it. The thing was they made the moat really big as well, so Luke ran away and came back with a crab and placed it in the moat. Only me and mom saw him do it, so he put this crab at the back of the castle in the moat. So anyway they were finishing up the castle when she walks up around the castle and spots the crab.” He starts laughing now.

“What did she do? Did she scream?” Connor asks.

“Nope, she looks down at it and asks “Daddy, did you see the crab? Can I bring him home?” dad looks down and laughs, he tells her that the crab has to stay with his family. She starts looking for his family and doesn’t find it. She starts crying, so mom asks why is she crying and she said because the crab doesn’t have a family. That’s when Luke says he got it from the sea.” He’s laughing so hard now he can’t continue with the story. It takes him a few minutes then he continues.

“She picks up the crab and walks over behind Luke who is sitting down. Luke hasn’t seen her come up behind him, and she places the crab on his head. Well, Luke goes crazy trying to get it off him, and throws the crab on the floor, and the crab scuttles away.” We’re all laughing now, it’s lightened some of the tension.

“Oh that’s not even the best part. Soph sees the crab fleeing, she goes up to Luke and starts screaming at him, telling him, how much of a horrible brother he was and she hates him. Luke stood up and told her to shut up. What does my sweet little sister do? Yep, she rears her fist back and punches him and broke his nose.” We are all gasping for air because we’re laughing so hard.

“Damn, has she always been a sassy little thing?” Sam asks.

“Oh yeah, ever since the day I met her, she was hiding behind mom’s legs, she was always sassy, she knew what she wanted.” I’m glad she had such an amazing family.

We’re quiet for a few moments, I’m thinking about Soph and how we will bring our baby to the beach, when I see a doctor coming over to us.

“Sophia Dallas?” we all stand.

“I’m Dr, Simmons. Sophia was brought in complaining of severe abdominal pain, there was also a slight bleed. We instantly checked on both her and the baby and we found out that Sophia has a slight placental abruption. This is where the placenta has started to come away from the womb. In Sophia’s case it isn’t as severe as others but it still needs to be monitored. She has already stopped bleeding but we are going to keep her overnight at the very least to observe and make sure it stays that way. She has a broken nose that we have had to set. You will be able to see her shortly. Any questions?”

“Yes, is the baby okay?” I ask and he nods

“Yes the baby is fine. As long as Sophia isn’t bleeding or in pain and takes it easy, the baby should be fine.” I nod and he walks away.

“Told you man, that lady is invincible, she is amazing. Her and your baby are okay.” Connor says with a slap to the back and a laugh. I’m finally able to breathe freely, I was fucking scared. They are my fucking world.

I step out and make a call.

“Hello, how is she?” I can hear the fear in their voice.

“She’s okay, they both are, and Sophia had a slight placental abruption. They are keeping her overnight at the very least, they want to make sure she will be fine to go home.”

“Thank you for calling me. I’m in a taxi on the way to the airport, I’ll be in New York in 11 hours.” I’m glad.

“Do you want me to collect you?”

“No but you can send someone? You stay with Soph, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow Nathan My flight lands at 12:30, okay?” I’m nodding.

“Yeah Winter, I’ll have someone collect you and I’ll see you tonight. Or tomorrow.”

“I’m pulling up at the airport now, I’ll see you soon Nathan, look after them for me.” and she hangs up.

I walk back into the waiting room and go to Connor “Hey man, I need a favour?”

“Yeah, sure anything.” He answers automatically

“I need someone to collect Winter from the airport at midnight.” He looks pained.

“Yeah, I’ll collect her. I got to make a phone call.” He’s probably calling Maddie; I hope to god she doesn’t turn up; I don’t have it in me to be nice to her today.

It was more than an hour before I could see her. I walk into her room and crumble at the sight of her. Her face is black and blue; her nose has a bandage on it. She’s tucked into the bed and has a drip. I walk over to the bed. I wipe my eyes and focus on the positives, she’s alive and so is our baby. I reach over and place my hand on her bump and my other hand I place over her cold one.

“I’m so fucking glad you and your mom are okay. You’ll be proud of her, just as I am. She is the best person I have ever met, and I’m not just saying that because she’s your mom, I really do mean it.” I feel a kick and I smile.

“See you agree.” Another kick. “Now let’s get one thing straightened out, you won’t take advice from any of your uncles on girls unless they have daughters okay.” I hear a chuckle and turn and see Steven, Luke and Scott come in. They all take a seat, Steven and Luke on the other two chairs in the room and Scott sits at the end of the bed.

“It’s not funny, I’m deadly serious.” Luke and Scott laugh.

“What if she’s a girl?” Steven asks. I hit him with a glare

“Why on earth would you say that? Don’t jinx it.” He chuckles.

“Dad why are laughing? You went crazy when guys started coming round Soph back in high school.” Luke says with a laugh

“Yeah dad, you put a complete dampener on my dating life when you used to meet them at the door with your service weapon.” All our heads swing to Sophie. She looks like shit, but she’s never looked so beautiful to me.

“Baby girl, you have got to stop being put in the hospital, I really think you’re trying to send me to an early grave.” She giggles and it makes me smile. She wraps her hand around mine that’s still lying on top of hers.

“I’ll try daddy, but you’ll complain we’re too quiet and we’re up to something.” She says and Luke and Scott agree with her.

“Okay smart ass, can you try and stop being injured please?” She nods

“So how is Selena?” everyone quiets at her question.

“Why are you asking Soph?” Luke asks what the rest of us want to know, but he says it in a nice way. I would have just said why the fuck would you want to know about that bitch. Each to their own I suppose.

“She saved me.” Huh?

“What? Soph how did she save you baby girl?”

“She used her teeth to get the bindings of my wrists, she was bleeding so badly but she helped me.” Okay the bitch has slightly redeemed herself, but she’s still a fucking bitch.

“She was in surgery, I’ll try and find out later on, also Mullah is barely hanging on, they don’t know if he will survive.” She shrugs like it’s no big deal.

“You all have sympathy in your eyes. Don’t! It is what I do. I won’t lose it for killing someone. It wasn’t my first and I doubt it will be my last. Okay?”

We all nod. I forget that she was in the Army, she’s seems so fragile, yet invincible. I look down at Soph and see she’s asleep. Steven, Luke and Scott stay a while, we find out Selena is okay, and so is Mullah. Well, okay is a relative word, he’s alive, but is in a wheelchair. However, Soph hit him, she severed his spine, oh well. There’s a knock at the door and Steven tells them to come in. The door opens and in walks Ryder, Sam, Oscar and Skye. The relief is evident on all of their faces as they finally see her.

“So how did you figure it out Soph?” Ryder asks her.

“It took me ages to realize that it was him. There were so many clues. None of them made any sense until I had a conversation with my brother about who it could be, that is when it clicked. I had only just found out he was adopted.” She says and she has everyone’s full attention.

“I went searching and found out he was born in Afghanistan. Also he always had a guilty look in his eyes whenever I was around him, that and the fact he looked suspicious when he found out he was going to get looked into.” She looks at me and I can see she’s getting tired.

“That’s it? That’s how you figured it out?” Scott asks her, she gives him a sad smile.

“No, it was part of it but the main reason was he was the one who was there when I parked my car, the time it blew up. He was the only person around me. I can’t believe it took me this long to connect the dots. Also they left the house in Hell’s Kitchen quickly which meant they were tipped off, again only the people around us knew. Everything added together, that is how I found out that Caleb was a betraying bastard.” She’s fucking smart, I would never have put that together.

“Fuck, I’m glad you’re okay Soph.” Sam says and she blows him a kiss. Her eyes start to sag and everyone says their goodbyes, leaving me and Soph alone. I take her hand and rest my head against it.

I’m woken by someone shaking me, my head pops up and Winter’s here. I stand up and open my arms, I won’t touch her unless she wants me to. She runs to my arms and sobs.

“She’s okay Winter, they are both fine. Look, sit on the edge of her bed and place your hand on her bump.” She does and she waits. I know the moment she feels it, the relief in her face is evident as well as the complete and utter joy.