Rescued by the Navy Seal (2 page)

Jared found himself smiling.

Again.

Wet weather had any construction on hold and Casey was
going stir crazy stuck in the house. Rita was keeping her entertained with a
game of find the squeaky toy and her laughter was making his chest ache. He
never thought he could feel this way about another woman again. Rita had been
offered a promotion with the nonprofit she loved working for so much and they
had been discussing a change of address. Well, a second change of address, for
Rita and Casey.

It had taken several months, but Jared had managed to
talk her in to moving in with him and they grew closer every day. While Jared
liked the layout of his home, it came with a long ex-marital history and he
wanted to create a home with Rita that didn’t come with any emotional baggage.
This promotion was perfect timing and it would take Rita and Casey several
hundred miles away from her ex-husband. After his arrest, in lieu of serving
time, Tucker was compelled to attend court-ordered psychiatric sessions and he
had to wear an ankle cuff. A permanent restraining order prevented him from
coming within 100 yards of Rita, but that didn’t stop the occasional online
contact. While Rita would shrug it off, Jared remained worried. He would have
liked her to stop all online social contact, but he knew that it wasn’t fair to
her to make that sort of demand. She enjoyed staying in touch with old friends
and family. She did cut back on some of her activities by limiting which social
media sites she used and tightened up her privacy settings, but sometimes
pictures or comments would leak through and Tucker would surface.  

Jared heard his phone beep. Looking down, he saw a
message from a private caller waiting for him. Curious, he checked. It was one
word. “Outside.” Standing, he slipped on his shoes and headed for the door
calling out to Rita as he left that he would be right back. Stepping out the
front door, he looked around as he walked to the end of his driveway. Across
the street, a male figure was leaning against a car. Jogging across the street,
Jared walked down the sidewalk toward the car as the man walked around to the
other side. The man walked with a slight limp. Looking down, Jared saw that he
wore a prosthetic device in lieu of a left foot. Tilting his head at a fellow
Seal, he looked at his old friend.

“Davis. What brings you out this way,” questioned Jared.

“Bad news.” Nodding his head, Jared asked him if he
wanted to come inside, but Gavin Davis declined. “Let’s head into the park.”

Falling in step, the two men walked across the grass. As
they walked, Jared surveyed his friend. It was hard to believe that Davis had
been out of the military for 15 years. He looked to be as healthy and as young
as he did when the two became Navy Seals. If it wasn’t for the chemical fire
that took the lower part of his left leg and foot, Davis was as fit as ever.
Those five remaining years Jared spent as a Seal were difficult. Davis was
always able to predict the best course of action and had an uncanny ability to
predict enemy movements. Something that continually set off red flags with his
superiors. While he wasn’t the best at verbal communication, he kept the team
safe and on target. It was Jared’s job to mediate when his friend would push
things too far and together; their mission plans were well thought out,
successful and limited casualties. That was until Davis’ last couple of years
before the accident. Suddenly, his game was off and casualties were cropping
up. What was once a well-oiled team was slowly whittling away as members were
injured or killed. A mission to extract a potential informant resulted in three
dead, including the informant.

The accident that ended Davis’ career was unfortunately well
timed. There had been discussion of bringing him up on charges, but when a
chemical fire broke out on ship, Davis was the first on scene and he worked
quickly to save as many as he could. He was so intent on pulling seamen out
that he didn’t realize what he was standing in until it was too late. The toxic
chemicals had started eating away at his skin. When he was later questioned, as
to whether he noticed what was happening, he had shrugged it off stating that
he did what had to be done. He’d received two commendations for his actions and
any discussion of charges was shelved. After the chaos had died down, Davis
disappeared. Jared had hoped to keep in touch, but Davis had other plans, as he
appeared to drop off the map. While Jared often wondered if some of the
whispers about his old friend were true, he set it aside as he still had much
work to do. It was five years later when Jared suffered his career-ending
injury, which resulted in a medical discharge.

When the two men reached the other end of the park, Davis
continued to walk. As Jared walked beside him, he waited for his old friend to
speak. “There are things about me that you don’t know,” began Davis. “Some of
the rumors about me were true,” as Davis paused; he let out a hollow laugh.
“What am I saying, they were all true.”

“What do you mean,” asked Jared.

“There are factions out there who would pay a great deal
of money for players to throw the game, so to speak.”

“All those lives,” began Jared.

“It was A LOT of money,” replied Davis as he shrugged.

“And your leg,” asked Jared.

Shrugging again, Davis replied, “Another casualty of
money. I knew I was caught and I was not going to do time. I didn’t anticipate
the amount of damage.”

“Five men died that day. Another seven suffered severe
enough burns that they were medically discharged.”

“As I said, it was a lot of money.”

Flexing his hands, Jared contemplated killing his friend.
All those suspicions over the years were true. And here he was talking about
them as if they were chatting at some sort of barbeque. “Why are you here,
Gavin? Why now? Feeling some need to unburden yourself?”

Laughing harshly, Gavin Davis continued to walk. “No, I’m
here to warn you. Your woman is in danger. Her ex, guy called Tucker, was
looking to hire someone to take her and bring her to him. He’d approached me as
he thought the irony was hilarious, but I turned him down.”

“Why? Out of some sort of friendship?”

Shaking his head, “No, he couldn’t afford me, but that
doesn’t mean someone else won’t take the job. In fact, it may have already
happened.”

“What do you mean,” asked Jared with alarm. “What is
this?”

As Jared turned to run back to the house, Davis grabbed
his arm. “If you had been in the house, he would have killed you. At least this
way, you have a chance to get her back.”

“Who is HE? Where is he taking her,” demanded Jared.

Releasing his arm, Davis smiled. “HE is someone who used
to work for me. And the where,” Davis shrugged. “Well, I heard that her ex has
a yacht berthed in Long Beach. Might want to start there.” As Davis turned to
walk away, Jared grabbed his arm.

“Why, Davis?”

“Why, what?”

“Why tell me this?”

Shrugging, Davis looked at his old friend. “Her ex is a
sanctimonious shit who doesn’t know how to move on. You, at least, I liked.”

“This isn’t over, Gavin.”

Tugging his arm free, Davis started walking away. “You
won’t see me again.” Looking at his watch, he turned one last time to his old
friend, “Hurry, Jared. They have some time on you.”

As Jared broke into a run, he prayed that his old friend
was wrong. As he ran across the park, all the missed cues, the failed
missions…the pieces started falling into place. As he neared the house, he
slowed down. Nothing looked amiss. Not wanting to alarm Rita, he walked
casually toward the front door. He could hear Casey barking in the backyard.
She never barked. Reaching the door, he pushed it slowly open. It was
unlatched.

“Rita?”

Silence.

“Rita, honey, you in the house?”

Jared began searching the house, but couldn’t find
anything amiss. Except that, Rita wasn’t answering. As Casey’s barking became
more frantic, Jared walked into the kitchen. Standing outside the French doors
was Casey, pacing back and forth, begging to come back in. Opening the door,
she raced to his office. Inside the door, his office chair had been pushed
across the room, but other than that…reaching down, he picked up a piece of
paper off the floor. Flipping it over, he saw a printout of a picture of Rita
sitting outside by the fire pit, laughing. Her sister had taken that picture at
the last family get together. Under the pic was the GPS coordinates for his
house.

“Dammit,” he swore.

Taking a deep breath, Jared steadied himself. Stepping
back, he began a systematic search of the house looking for clues. Checking the
bedroom and bath, nothing seemed out of place. He searched the family room and
found the remnants of Rita and Casey’s afternoon game, but nothing else.
Walking down the hall, the carpet runners were out of place, but that often
happened when Casey raced around. Checking for Rita’s bag, he found it hanging
in the entry, her wallet still there along with her cell phone. She never left
the house without her phone.

Reaching for his own phone, he called the detective that
they dealt with when John Tucker first tried to kidnap Rita. He got his
voicemail. Taking a deep breath, he snapped a photo of the one of Rita with the
GPS coordinates and sent it to him. And then he went outside to search for
anything. Walking to the curb, he turned to look at the house. Not finding
anything out of place, he walked the perimeter of the house. He almost missed
it.
Damn, I’m out of practice
, he thought. The lock to the side door had
been broken. A quick tug to the doorknob and the door swung open. As he walked
back in, his phone rang. It was the detective.

“What is this,” he asked without pretense.

“It’s Rita; I think she’s been taken.”

“What do you mean?” Without mentioning Gavin Davis, Jared
brought the detective up to speed on what he found and his suspicions that Rita
may have been taken to Tucker’s yacht in Long Beach harbor. Without missing a
beat, the detective asked him, “So, what aren’t you telling me?”

“My source. I received a warning, but it came too late.”

“And your source would be?”

“I can’t tell you that. Can you help me? They have at
least an hour on me. I’m heading up to Long Beach now. If there’s a way to find
out if Tucker is berthed there and the number, that’s a start. Even better if I
can get access to any security footage.”

“You can’t do this alone.”

“Oh, yes, I can.”

“Look, you may have once been a badass, but this guy has
one upped you. You’ll need help.”

“Volunteering?”

“I’ll make a couple calls. Pick me up at the station on
your way to the freeway. I’m coming with you.”

“Done.” Whistling for Casey, Jared grabbed his keys and
headed to his truck. He was panicked, but he knew if he let it get to him, he
was done. Rita was done. What the hell was Tucker thinking? Jumping on
Clairemont Mesa Blvd, he headed to the sheriff’s station to pick up Detective
Drake Edwards. He had been one of the first officers on the scene after the
incident with Tucker at the Nuñez family home. While the two didn’t serve
together in the military, they had established an easy camaraderie and the two
had become friends. As Jared pulled in front of the Sheriff’s station, Drake
was waiting out front. Climbing in the truck, he gave Casey a friendly scratch
before pulling out his tablet. As Jared heading to the freeway, Drake began
talking.

“He has a yacht moored at the Alamitos Bay Marina. Nice
looking. Fifty footer. Was able to reach Harbor Patrol and they verified that it’s
still there, but no idea for how long. It’s not like an airplane. He doesn’t
have to record any type of travel plans.”

“Is he there, now?”

“Not at the moment, no. Security reported some activity and
they’re in process of pulling footage.”

“How did you have time to get a search warrant?”

“Yes, well, about that. I may have mentioned something
about the Patriot Act and the security guard got excited. I guess it’s normally
a quiet marina.”

“John Tucker is not a terrorist.”

“We won’t know that until he’s apprehended, now will we?
It will take us at least two hours to get up there. I have alerts out on Tucker
to surveil, but not detain. Since he had someone else do his dirty work, we
need to let this play out so we can get to your woman.”

Clutching the steering wheel, Jared could only nod as
they drove in silence for the next hour.