Delta Salvation (Phantom Force, Book 1) (15 page)

“Not yet, but it looks like I have some unwanted company and it’s just me and my girl.”

Rowan’s indrawn breath was all Kai heard for a few seconds. “It’ll take me a good fifteen minutes to get there. How many you got coming at you?”

Kai explained what he knew, and hoped Rowan got there in time to save Alexa.

“I’ll be coming in hot, so is there any mods I need to know about?

The man was smart, so Kai explained about the change in security code.

“Of course Tay did, the fucker. Do we know if they’re on our side, or...” he trailed off.

“Until I have confirmation one way or the other, I’m assuming it’s you, me and who you bring. Trust no one but me and Alexa.” The words tasted like ash coming out of his mouth.

“Hey, I get it, Cap. Right now you’re sitting in a damn good place. Don’t be Captain Fucking America. You’re not bullet proof, so use the damn safe room with your girl. Yeah, I totally heard that by the way. I’m hopping in my rig now and got a half dozen guys with me. I think we can even the odds out.”

Kai didn’t like the reminder, but hung up before he said something he’d regret. “Rowan’s on his way. We just need to hold down the fort for about fifteen minutes. I need to change the security entrance codes. Give me a second.” Kai wasn’t an expert like Shade or Tay, but he was no dummy. It took him a couple minutes, but he made the change, using the numbers he’d given Rowan. If in fact his team had gone rogue, they no longer could get access to the property. He knew they’d never voluntarily give up the info if they’d been captured.

“Hey, I know your guys. They wouldn’t betray you or our country.”

He wanted to believe that, but with her life in the balance, Kai wasn’t willing to take that gamble.

“Want to help me watch the monitors?” Kai asked to distract Alexa.

“Do you want a drink while we wait?” Alexa got off his lap.

Kai swallowed and realized he was thirsty. “Yeah, a bottle of water sounds good. Thank you.” He reached out and grabbed her hand. “You’re being really brave, baby.”

“That’s because you can’t see me shaking in my shoes. Trust me I am.” She let go of his hand, turned and walked out the door.

****

A
lexa stared around the kitchen, unable to believe just a short time ago she was having wild monkey sex with Kai on the counter. Now, she was scared out of her wits. Seeing the cards spread out on the table she quickly gathered them into a neat pile, then went to the fridge for their drinks.

A sound near the front of the house had her heart pounding. Holding the two bottles, she crept back toward the long hallway to Kai, only to come to a stop at the sight of Tay through the floor to ceiling windows. His bloody face pressed against the windows made her whimper. A man holding a gun pressed it against Tay’s head, waved his hand at her. He was dressed all in black, from head to toe. Alexa was sure he looked like the cliché bad guy and a nervous giggle escaped.

One black gloved finger raised to the man’s lips. Tay didn’t appear to be awake, hanging limply in the other man’s arms, and then his mouth moved against the glass. Alexa looked down the long hallway, thinking she should get Kai. Another body was pushed against the glass. Oz’s red hair was plain to see, along with blood marring his face. The two men holding Kai’s team didn’t appear to care that she saw their faces, and she wondered if they planned to kill both men while she watched. A third stepped up, a white board in his hand. Written on it was a single sentence ‘Come outside, and they live.’

She stood there frozen. Why did they want her? She was nobody.

The white board appeared again. ‘For each minute that passes a bullet for them.’

Her eyes flew to Tay and Oz, both men shook their heads. She couldn’t allow them to be shot because she stayed inside. Making a quick decision, she ran to the door, remembering the number Kai had given Rowan, she punched it in.

Alarms began blaring.

“So good of you to come out and play, Alexa.”

The white board was dropped, and all hell broke loose. Tay and Oz were dropped.

She heard her name being yelled from inside, and the man who’d spoken her name, like he knew her, grabbed her by the back of the hair, yanking her to him. “It’s taken us twenty-seven years to find you. Now, we have our pawn. Too bad you brought a little trouble with you.” He sighed. “Oh well, nothing we can’t handle.”

Alexa screamed as he began firing into the open door, jerking on his hold. Her elbow went back, hitting him in the abdomen. His grunt satisfied her.

She rammed her head backward, but his grip kept her from connecting, and then something hard hit her in the side of the temple. Alexa smelled the scent of copper, her nose tingled, and then all went dark. She was sure she heard the sound of roaring, but her body hit the ground next to Tay’s, and she let the darkness claim her.

****

K
ai yelled Alexa’s name as he heard the alarm beep. He’d changed the number sequence every five minutes like Rowan and he’d set up, knowing the other man would know the proper ones when he arrived. The scene he saw made him stop in mid-run. Tay and Oz both were pressed against the glass, blood smeared on the surface while the three men with them seemed to be talking. Alexa purposefully opened the secure doors, but why was his question.

As the apparent leader grabbed his woman roughly, then slams the gun in his hand against her head, he began firing. The return volley made him roll out of the way, barely escaping from another bullet wound. When he glanced around the wall, all three men and Alexa were gone. Kai eased out, keeping low in case they were still there. His heartbeat erratic, a new sensation he wasn’t sure he liked. Usually on a mission he was able to keep calm and in control. Yet knowing Alexa was in the hands of the enemy had him on edge. The sound of vehicles roaring into the yard, made him rush toward the door and his fallen teammates. Kai recognized Rowan and several of his pack.

“Shit man. What the fuck happened?” Rowan cleared the distance, kneeling next to Tay’s prone form.

Kai swiped his hand down his face searching the woods for any sign of Alexa or the men. “I’ve no damn clue, man. There were over a half dozen heat sigs some distance away, but none close enough to the property. I figured we were safe enough. I sent Alexa to get a drink, and then all of the sudden she was opening the door. Hell, if I hadn’t reset the alarms, she might’ve slipped out without me knowing a thing,” Kai cursed.

Oz’s moan had him hurrying to his side. “What the hell happened, brother?”

“We were jumped by several. They just fell out of the trees, man.” Oz coughed.

Tay and Oz both struggled to sit up.

“We need to get you to the hospital. Laikyn is on shift, and believe me she’s the best of the best. Let’s get you loaded,” Rowan said waving at a few guys.

“Have you seen Sully or Coyle?” Fear ate at him. If Tay and Oz had been ambushed, he hated to think his other two friends were lying out in the woods somewhere, possibly dead.

“We lost contact after our last check in,” Tay grunted.

Oz held his hand up. “Sorry, man.”

“You apologize again and I’ll beat your damn ass when you get out of the hospital.”

Kai nodded at Rowan and his friends, watching as they lifted Tay and Oz and carried them to two waiting vehicles. “I need to find Alexa, Sully and Coyle.”

“Let’s do it.” Rowan slapped his hands together.

The other man’s blue eyes shone bright blue. Once a SEAL always a SEAL.

A chorus of ‘Hoorah” rang out. The need for stealth truly forgotten until they hit the woods, and then Kai fanned out his fingers, and was impressed as Rowan and his men split up as if they spoke beforehand. He hated to admit it, but he missed working with the big southern bastard.

On silent feet they both moved through the woods. He let Rowan lead since the man owned the property and knew it like the back of his hand. Every few hundred feet they’d stop and Rowan would lift his head, looking around then they’d make an adjustment to their trajectory. Within ten minutes they came across a mound. Kai’s icy calm threatened to crack as Rowan bent, jerking back what was actually a netting of some sort.

“Shit, we are not dealing with amateurs here, Swift.”

Beneath the covering were the still forms of Coyle and Sully. Like a marionette, he moved forward, and pressed his fingers to Coyle’s throat. The steady beat made him fall on his ass.

“Easy there. Sully’s still alive as well. Looks like they’ve been tranqued, but by what I’ve no clue. We need to radio for help. This,” he shook the netting. “It hid their presence. I’d say these guys knew what I had for surveillance and came prepared.”

Rowan used his cell and called for his guys to bring in a quad, giving them the location of Coyle and Sully.

“Shit, we need to keep moving, but I don’t want to leave them unprotected.”

Rowan nodded, his head lifted and turned in the direction to the left. “They are not unprotected. Let’s go.”

Kai saw a man walking toward them and recognized him as one of the members of the Iron Wolves. With a nod, he and Rowan stood and began walking further into the woods. Since Rowan and his team had come in from the front the only logical way the other men could’ve escaped was out the back. With them using a camo that hid their heat signatures, Kai needed to rely on tracks. Or in this case, Rowan and his abilities.

“There, they camped here. Shit, look at this.” Rowan walked around the circular opening. A clear path had been made recently into the river. “The damn water. I can’t believe I didn’t think to look here.” I assumed my cameras would show you if they got close. I’m sorry, Kai.”

Shaking his head, Kai paced back and forth. “They shouldn’t have known where we were unless they tagged her. Fuck!” He looked up at the towering trees and wished to hell they could get a helo in the air. “Where does this river lead to on each end?”

Rowan explained it was more of a small outlet, and that only small boats could get in and out. Kai figured they’d need to have more than one boat for all the men who had been on the property, or they were still out there hiding in plain sight. “Shit, Ro, they may still be there under their fucking shields waiting to shoot us.” Kai spun around.

Pointing at his nose, Rowan shook his head. “I’d know, and so would my guys. Some went that way, and a few went there. Your girl went on the river.”

“How do you know?”

Again Rowan pointed at his nose, making Kai roll his eyes.

“There has to be a reason they want Alexa. We just need to find out why,” Rowan said. “What do you know about her? I mean really know.”

His mind went back to the intelligence they’d gotten on her, and thought about her paperwork of before she went into foster care, and swore something was off. “Shit! We need to find out what happened before her parents were killed.”

Chapter Nine

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A
lexa woke with a pounding headache. Darkness surrounded her and at first she thought she was back at the compound. The hard mattress beneath her reminded her of the same one she’d been given there, but the voices she heard coming in sounded foreign.

She tried to move, quickly realizing she was tied down. Terror washed over her. Did they mean to rape her? Mutilate, before they killed her, then dump the body somewhere? “Oh god,” she cried.

Heavy footfalls alerted her that she’d been too loud. Light filled the room, momentarily blinding her.

“Ah, you are awake, mon ami,” a man with a French accent said.

Blinking she tried to see his face. “Who are you?”

“I’m a friend of your parents. A shame we had to meet under such...harsh circumstances. Are you thirsty?” He brushed a lock of hair off of Alexa’s forehead, making her flinch.

“What are you talking about? My parents are dead.”

His smile made her stomach flip. The term feral was exactly what he looked like in that moment. His dark hair and eyes, and square jaw made him one of the most appealing men she’d ever seen other than Kai, but she could see he was wholly evil.

“I assure you they are alive, and I plan to use you to get them to come out to play. It was a fortunate thing you getting attacked the way you did.” He tapped his finger on his chin. “Aside from the fact you were almost killed. I mean that would have been a shame, but then again they may have come to your funeral, and then I would have found them. But, I’m rambling. Now that I have you, I will alert them and they will come out of their hidey hole, and I will finally get my revenge.”

Alexa was dealing with a mad man. She’d been in foster care for as long as she could remember. She had no memory of her parents, and didn’t know why this man thought they were in hiding. “I think you have the wrong person. I’m a nobody from Chicago. Please just let me go and I promise I won’t tell anybody.” Yeah, like that was going to work, but a girl had to try.

He laughed. “Oh, Alexia, you are so beautiful. I believe you are even more so than your mother.”

“See, my name is Alexa, not Alexia. Wrong person. It happens all the time.” She winced as he grabbed her by the jaw.

“That is where you are wrong.” He released her as quickly as he grabbed her. Standing he walked back to the open door. “Your parents were supposed to be my friends. We set up a network together, and then they fell in love and decided they wanted out. There is only one way out, and it’s not a door.”

“Wait,” she protested. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

The man looked at her prone form, then jerked his head. More footsteps and then a brute of a man came into the room. The zip ties were cut, pain lanced down her arms from being in the same position too long. She wondered how much time she’d been there and worried about Kai and his team.

“Oh god, did you kill the men back at the cabin?” She asked, rubbing her arms trying to ease the ache from shoulders down.

“Pascal, you should come see this.”

Alexa registered the man’s name being yelled from outside the small room. The small log cabin looked cozy from where she now sat, waiting for the feeling to return, but the man who’d cut her free didn’t seem inclined to let her sit for long. The deadly looking knife he’d used to cut her free, got her up before she was ready with just a menacing wave of the blade.