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Olivia woke from the vehicle’s jostling motion. Her head and jaw were throbbing, and a sharp pain shot through her right wrist and up the length of her arm, any time she tried to move.
The cut on the inside of her left arm was still bleeding, but seemed to have tapered off some. Olivia knew she’d already lost a lot of blood, because the entire right side of her scrub top was soaked through, sticking to her skin beneath it.
Looking around slowly, she realized she was in the back of some sort of SUV. She tried to move again, but her hands were tied together in front of her with thick, coarse rope, increasing the pain in her wrist.
She started to panic. Wanted to scream for someone to help her. More than anything, she wanted Jake.
Images from her last day at his cabin began moving rapidly through her mind. It was like was watching them through one of those toys she’d had as a kid. The ones with the pictures on the slides. With each click, she replayed the scenes.
She was standing with Mikey and Jake in Jake’s living room. Click. Talking with her brother in Jake’s bedroom. Click. Jake standing at his door, begging her not to go as tears ran down his face. Click.
Feeling lost and betrayed as she walked out that door. Click, click, click.
Jake wouldn’t be coming this time. There’d be no rescue, because she’d told him to stay away. Olivia could still see the devastating look on his face when she’d told him goodbye.
Tears filled her eyes, but only a few fell before she forced the rest away. Crying wasn’t going to help. She had no way to call anyone, so if she was going to make it out of this alive, she’d have to depend on herself to do it.
Glancing over her shoulder, she looked at the top of the seat she was laying behind. No one was sitting there, and it was tall enough to conceal any small movement she made.
She listened, hearing Cetro’s voice along with another man’s. Great. He brought a friend.
Olivia couldn’t understand what they were saying, because they spoke low, and in Spanish. As she continued to listen, Olivia became confident that they were the only two men with her in the vehicle.
Becoming more brave with her movements, she ignored the pain and began looking around as best she could for something, anything that could be used as a weapon to defend herself.
Of course, it couldn’t be like the action movies she’d seen. or the mystery books she’d read, where the damsel in distress always found a tire iron or a screwdriver conveniently lying around. There was nothing Liv could see that would help her.
Her body rolled slightly as the SUV turned onto what sounded like a gravel road, and she had to bite back a moan. Not long after, they turned again, driving a short distance before stopping.
Olivia’s heart rate was through the roof, and she had to force herself to take in deep, even breaths. Panicking right now would only ensure her death.
And she didn’t want to die. There was too much left to do. So much she needed to say. Not now, Bradshaw.
Her problems with Jake would have to wait. Olivia needed to figure out what she could do to fight off two grown men by herself.
Assuming they were both armed, and she was tied up and injured, her choices slim to none. Even so, Olivia refused to give up. She may go down, but by God, she’d go down fighting.
Their doors shut loudly, and their voices travelled around the sides of the SUV toward the back. Olivia quickly shut her eyes and pretended to be unconscious.
The back of the SUV darkened with the men’s shadows. She listened intently as they spoke. Thankfully, in English, this time.
“She’s still out.” She heard the other man say.
“Good,” Cetro responded.
There was a short pause, and then, the other man asked, “What do you want to do with her now?”
“Finish your cigarette, then bring her inside to me. I don’t want you smoking that thing in the barn. I’ll go make sure everything’s ready.”
“You’re the boss. Be there in a few.”
Okay. So, she was in the country, most likely an abandoned farm away from anyone else. Olivia didn’t think she’d been out for too long, so she couldn’t be all that far from her house. At least she hoped this was true.
Please let someone come by my house.
Jake was a stubborn man. Maybe he’d ignore her request to be left alone, and finally decide to show up anyway. There’d be no mistaking that something terrible had happened there.
He and his team would haul ass trying to find her. They did it before. Olivia had no doubt, they could do it again.
She heard the grinding of gravel beneath the man’s feet outside the back door. Time was running out. She had to come up with a plan.
The man hadn’t been smoking in the vehicle, which meant he’d only lit up after he was outside. This bought her a few minutes, but that was all. She needed to think.
Allowing her eyes to open in narrow slits, Olivia could just make out the man’s shadowy figure through the large back window. From what she could tell by his head and shoulders, she estimated that his waist probably fell at about the same height as the back latch.
That meant, the area right below his waist, would be at her eye level. This gave her an idea.
Mikey had talked to her a lot before he’d left for boot camp. During one of their more serious chats, her brother had turned almost deadly when he’d started talking about boys and how to stay safe while he and Jake were away.
She remembered squealing and begging Mikey to stop talking when he proceeded to tell her that a man’s testicles were like plums.
If you squeezed one hard enough, Junebug, it’ll pop.
Olivia had put her hands over her ears, but not before the visual image from their description had already sunk in.
Years later, an extremely drunk man came into the ER after getting a little too handsy with a girl at a bar. The woman had taken things into her own hands...literally...and Olivia realized her brother had been right.
The guy’s left testicle had popped, just like Mikey had said it would. The man had been in so much pain, he’d passed out right there in the bar’s parking lot.
Any second now, the man standing outside was going to open up the back hatch to get her out. Most likely, his crotch was going to be right on her level.
It wasn’t the best plan, but it was all that she had. Olivia said a prayer that it would work, and she waited.
After what seemed like an eternity, Olivia heard the grinding of gravel, as if the man was stomping out his cigarette butt. She then heard him grab the SUV’s back latch and pull.
Forcing herself to remain still, she kept her eyes closed, her breathing slow.
It was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do, especially when she felt the man’s hands on her, pulling her closer to the vehicle’s edge.
Knowing he was about to lift her up, Olivia opened her eyes to slits again, and saw the man’s zipper directly in front of her bound hands.
Thanks to her broken wrist, she’d have to use her left, non-dominant hand. Not the best option, but it would have to do.
As he started to lift her, Olivia said one final prayer, and grabbed hold of the man’s crotch. She twisted and squeezed.
He cried out, and tried to drop her back into the SUV, but Olivia held on. She squeezed harder. The combination of the added pressure from her fist, along with the pull from her body falling was exactly what she needed.
She felt the pop, immediately followed by the man’s strangled cry of pain. It was barely audible, as though he couldn’t catch his breath.
When Olivia finally let go, the man fell to the ground and started gagging. Not wasting any time, she clumsily sat up, swung her feet around, and hopped down.
Her entire body hurt, and every time she jostled her wrist, she wanted to throw up. Even so, she ignored it all and began running.
Olivia followed what appeared to be a long driveway that connected to a gravel road at the end. If she could just make it to the road, then she’d have the thick patch of trees that lined it on the opposite side to use as cover.
Sounds of the man vomiting behind her reached her ears. That’s what you get, asshole.
She kept running, hugging her broken wrist to her chest as she went. She’d already made it halfway between the car and the road. Just a little further, and she’d have a place to hide.
With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that the man was still down on the ground, and Cetro was nowhere in sight. I’m going to make it!
It became her mantra. Olivia told herself that, over and over, until her foot hit a larger rock at an awkward angle. Her ankle twisted and she went down onto her knees.
Unable to use her hands to break her fall, the jagged rocks dug into her flesh, ripping through her thin pants. Pain shot up through both legs. It hurt like hell, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.
Using her left elbow to balance, Olivia made her way back up to her feet. She’d just started to run again when she heard the man on the ground start yelling at her from behind.
“You stupid bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!”
This was quickly followed by Cetro’s loud bellowing voice.
“No!”
On reflex, Olivia turned around to assess the threats behind her. She couldn’t believe what she saw.
The man on the ground had his gun pointed directly at her heart. Cetro had his gun aimed, too...just not at her.
He was marching hastily from the barn’s large entrance, the barrel of his pistol pointed straight at the other man’s head. She’d just started to run again, when the two men fired their guns simultaneously.
One of the bullets tore through the dirt and gravel by her feet. Olivia screamed and nearly fell over trying to avoid it.
She looked back as the man who’d tried to shoot her fell to the ground. Cetro had shot him in the head. What the hell is happening?
Not wanting to stick around to find out, Olivia started to run again. Cetro, the crazy bastard, ordered her to stop as another bullet hit the ground next to her.
“Fuck you!” Olivia yelled over her shoulder, still running.
He was going to kill her anyway, and a bullet was probably a lot better way to go than whatever else the sick bastard had planned for her.
He fired his weapon again and she felt a burning pain shoot across the outside of her left shoulder. She stumbled. Shit, that hurt!
“The next one will go into your leg.”
Unwilling to give up, Olivia kept going, even though she knew he was gaining on her. Between the pain in her wrist, and the blood loss from the cut in her arm, Olivia was quickly losing steam.
She was hurting and scared. Even more than that, she was pissed. Enough was more than freaking enough.
If she was going to die—and this time it looked as if that was the case—she sure as hell was not going to make it easy on him.
“Go to hell!” Olivia yelled back, her voice shakier than she would have liked. “You want to kill me, then kill me. But, I’ll be damned if I let you take me into that barn.”
She stumbled, falling down to her knees again. Get up, Bradshaw! Don’t let him win! Olivia tried, but tumbled to the ground once more.
When Cetro was almost next to her, she fully expected him to hit her. Or maybe kick her, like he’d done while she’d been held captive.
What she didn’t expect was the snarling smile spread across his face as loomed over her.
“You will walk into that barn willingly. Then, you will do and say whatever I tell you to. You do this, and it all ends here. With you. If you do not”—he leaned down closer to her and yanked her up by her arm, causing her to cry out—“then once I am finished with you, I will find Jake McQueen and put a bullet between his eyes. After that, I will do the same to every man...and the pretty blond woman...on his team.”
Olivia couldn’t keep from gasping loudly. He knew about Jake? And the team?
Horrific image of Jake and the others, dead by this bastard’s hand, flashed before her. Dear God, this man was pure evil.
Staring into a set of cold, unemotional eyes, Olivia tried to determine whether or not he was lying. He could be. Probably was. Unfortunately, there was no way to know for sure.
There was also no way in hell could she take that chance. Jake meant too much to her. So did the team.
She was faced with the worst kind of decision. Either go willingly into that barn, and let this man dish out whatever torture he had in mind before killing her, or fight him and risk him going after Jake and the others.
He may still do that, but if there was even a chance that she could prevent that, Olivia would do whatever she had to in order to—
Oh, God!
Realization hit with the force of a wrecking ball. Everything Mikey and Trevor had said about Jake and why he’d lied to her came rushing back tenfold. Olivia choked out a low sob as it all sank in.
She finally understood, but now, it was too late. She was going to die with Jake believing she hated him.
Another sob escaped because she knew Jake would spend the rest of his life blaming himself. That thought alone was worse than any physical pain she was about to endure.
At least Jake will be alive. He’ll have a chance to move on. To be happy.
With that in mind, Olivia began walking back toward the barn. Her entire body hurt, but the jolts of pain were worth it if it meant saving Jake’s life in the end.
****
Jake sped into Olivia’s driveway. He slammed on the breaks, and put his truck in park behind Trevor’s.
A large dust cloud bellowed up from behind him, and the vehicle was still rocking when he opened his door and raced toward the house.
Trevor stood on the sidewalk at the bottom of the porch steps, the look on his face confirming Jake’s worst fears.
“Why the fuck haven’t you been answering your phone? I’ve been calling you for twenty goddamn minutes!”
His friend remained quiet, which pretty much gave Jake his answer. With his heart in his throat, he made a move to go inside, but Trevor’s palm slapped against his chest to stop him.
“She’s not here, Jake.” Jake’s boot hit the bottom step, but Trevor pushed harder. “You don’t want to go in there, man.”
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jake knew he was right. From the tortured look in Trevor’s eyes, he knew that whatever was behind that door was bad. Really bad.
Still, he couldn’t not go inside. Jake had to know. He needed to see for himself.
Shoving Trevor’s hand away, he leapt over the rest of the small steps. Olivia’s door was ajar, the place eerily quiet.
He raised his right hand and slowly pushed it open. It gave way with a soft creak, and his world came crashing down.
A strangled sound of denial escaped his throat as he took in the gruesome scene. Everywhere he turned, there were signs of a struggle.
A broken chair lay at his feet. Blood was on the floor, not far from where he stood.
Jake looked toward the living room, his knees shaking when he noticed the pile of broken glass that used to be Olivia’s coffee table. His throat closed around a painful knot when he saw more blood there.
God forgive me. I’ve failed her again.
Woodenly, he stepped further inside. Turning to the right he noticed coffee cups and knives strewn across the countertop, stove, and floor. Broken porcelain crunched beneath his feet as he continued into the kitchen.
Jake ignored it. All he could focus on was the blood. Olivia’s blood.
It was smeared all over the normally pristine countertops. Jake zeroed in on a particular steak knife lying on the floor near the edge of the stove.
Once again, Liv had been forced to fight for her life. This time, in the one place she should have been safe.
But it hadn’t been enough. She was gone. My world is gone.
Jake’s mind raced with questions to which he had no answers. They hit him at full speed, their effect dizzying.
Where was she? How long had she been gone? How badly was she hurt? How could I let this happen?
Stumbling out the door, Jake was down the steps before even realizing he’d walked outside. He passed by his teammates in a haze. Could hear their voices, but didn’t bother listening to what they were saying.
He didn’t care. All he could think about was the fact that the love of his life had been taken by a madman hell bent on revenge.
His breathing picked up. His heart raced. Liv was out there somewhere, and she was hurt.
That bastard, Cetro, had put his hands on her for the second time, despite Jake’s promises that he would never be able to touch her again. She may already be dead.
Ah, Christ, he couldn’t take this. The guilt, the pain, the fucking gut-wrenching fear for what Olivia may be going through was a living, breathing thing.
It was tearing him apart, piece by fucking piece. And it was all his fault.
“Goddammit!” Jake roared as his fist slammed into his truck’s passenger-side door.
He felt no pain, only the fear that now consumed him to the point of madness. Chest heaving, he raised his fist again. When he started to swing again, his arm met with a strong resistance.
Ready to fight, Jake spun around, surprised to find Grant’s hard eyes staring back at his. The other man must have arrived while he’d been in the house.
“Let me go,” Jake growled menacingly.
With zero intention of following orders, Grant said, “Can’t do that, boss.”
“What the fuck do you mean, you can’t do that?” Jake tried to jerk from the other man’s grasp but was unsuccessful. “Let. Me. Go!”
Grant’s only reaction was a curt shake of his head and a clear, “Not happening, boss.”
Jake’s nostrils flared as his breaths moved in and out in hard, fast puffs. He couldn’t believe that, Grant Hill—of all fucking people—had his hands on him. Was disobeying him.
Jake opened his mouth to tell the asshole off, but the big guy didn’t give him the chance.
“Don’t do this to yourself, Jake. It’s not your fault.”
“The hell it’s not!” Jake finally managed to pull from Hill’s grasp. “She’s mine to protect, and I let her go!”
“And she needs you, boss.” This time, it was Coop who spoke up. “You’re not going to be any good to her like this.”
Jake looked at Coop then glanced around at Trevor and Mac who had all moved in closer, their faces covered with matching looks of concern. Finally, he looked back at Grant.
“That bastard has her, again. He’s hurt her.” His voice broke. Tears fell down his face, but Jake didn’t care. “And it’s my fault.”
He looked back at the house, the images of what he’d found inside, forever burned into his mind.
“I swore to her that we’d caught him. I told her he’d never be able to hurt her again. And now he has her, and I don’t even know if she’s alive or—”
Trevor chimed in with, “She’s alive, Jake. If Cetro wanted her dead, we would have found her body in the house. There would have been no reason to take her.” Jake’s friend took a step toward him. “But you losing your shit, right now, isn’t going to help get her back.”
Jake’s mind cleared just enough to realize his friend was right. If Cetro just wanted to kill Olivia, he would have done it here and left her for him to find.
He was keeping her alive, for now at least, but God...Jake couldn’t allow himself to think about what that bastard was doing to her. What he would do. Because Jake had no doubt that Cetro would kill her eventually.
“Boss, this isn’t your fault any more than it is ours,” Grant spoke up again. “Now, you can stand here feeling sorry for yourself, or you can get your head out of your ass and do what needs to be done to ensure that Olivia makes it out of this thing alive.”
“You don’t understand Grant—”
“Do you love her?” Mac’s voice broke through.
Jake’s eyes burned. He blinked back more tears. Turning to her, he whispered, “More than anything.”
She gave him a small smile. “Then let’s go find your girl.”
Mac’s blunt question and matter-of-fact attitude was like a slap in the face and a splash of ice-cold-water, all wrapped into one. And it was exactly what Jake needed.
Just like that, he was in battle mode. Except, “I-I don’t even know where to start looking.” He ran a shaking hand down his face before rubbing the back of his neck.
“I think I can help with that.”
All heads turned at the sound of Derek’s voice. Confused, Jake looked around, surprised when he saw D’s car next to his.
Jesus, he must truly be losing it if he didn’t even notice another vehicle pulling into the driveway.
“Did you check the camera feed yet?” Tablet in hand, Derek walked quickly toward them.
Shit! Fuck! Shit! He’d completely forgotten about the security cameras!
Jake’s head swung around, his gaze landing on the one above Olivia’s front door. The system Derek installed looked like a single camera setup, but was actually two. One lens faced her front stoop while a second one recorded her driveway.
Jake ran a hand over his weary face, again. Grant was right. He had to get his head on straight. Olivia didn’t have time for anything less.
He turned back to Derek whose fingers were tapping away on the tablet’s screen. Jake saw his teammate’s face go slack, his complexion suddenly pale. “Ah, hell.”
Jake’s stomach plummeted. “What?” he demanded as he closed the distance between them. “What?”he growled again when Derek didn’t answer right away.
Sympathy filled Derek’s eyes as he turned the tablet so Jake could see its screen. His body tensed as he watched Cetro carry a bloody, unconscious Olivia outside. When they moved out of the camera’s view, Jake tapped the screen to switch to the secondary camera’s recording.
The bastard laid her down in the back of a white SUV. Cetro spent a couple of minutes bent over the back bumper before closing the hatch, presumably securing Olivia.
Jake’s teeth clenched together so hard he was surprised they didn’t crush into powder from the pressure.
His brow turned in when Cetro got in on the passenger seat, rather than the driver’s. “He had someone with him,” he said mostly to himself.
Squinting, he focused on whoever was behind the wheel, but he couldn’t make out any features other than the driver was obviously male.
“Probably the other prisoner he escaped with,” Coop said.
They all watched, hovered over Jake’s shoulders, as the vehicle quickly reversed out of the drive, and then took off toward the highway.
Forcing back the stark terror screaming through his veins, Jake restarted the video. This time putting all his effort into the details, as he would for any other job.
If he didn’t, if he allowed himself to think about what Olivia could be going through this very second, he’d never make it another step.
“There!” Jake blurted. He looked up to find his entire team still surrounding him, having his back, as always.
His thoughts and vision blurred by emotions, Jake had missed it the first time. Pointing to the screen, he directed his words to Derek.
“Can you enlarge that?”
Derek took the tablet from Jake’s hands, and in seconds, he had a clear picture of the SUV’s front license plate. Another couple minutes, and he knew who it was registered to.
“It belongs to a rental company out of Dallas,” D told Jake excitedly. “It was rented out under the name Robert Jones two days ago.”
“Bob Jones? Really?” Mac asked sarcastically before muttering, “Guess Cetro doesn’t have much of an imagination.”
“How the hell is that going to help us find him?”
Jake could contact the state and local authorities to issue an APB, but by the time they got the word out, Cetro would be long gone, and Olivia would be dead.
The fingertips on Derek’s right hand tapped against the screen with lightning speed. “It’s a national rental chain.”
Jake still didn’t see his point “And?”
Head still down, Derek talked while he worked. “A few years ago, all of the major rental companies put GPS trackers in their cars. Too many people using fake ID’s to rent them and then stealing their cars.”
After another minute, D smiled and his eyes lit up with excitement. He turned his tablet around for Jake and the others to see. “I know where she is.”
Knowing the others would follow, Jake sprinted to his truck.
Hang on, baby. I’m coming for you.
