Garrett and Donovan looked at each other at the same time. “Get Nathan and Shea back in here now,” Garrett barked.
SHEA smiled as Nathan disappeared from view and she turned to stare out over the lake while she waited for him to return. It truly was a beautiful spot and secluded from the others. It afforded Nathan privacy while still being close to his family.
She took another step toward the lake, inhaling the scent of pine, honeysuckle and the slight damp in the air from the mist blowing in.
What if she and Nathan really could have a life here? Together? Now that one of KGI’s team had gone in search of Grace—well, if they found her, brought her to Shea and offered them their protection—what was to say that they couldn’t live here? Under the protection and umbrella of KGI?
It was pretty fanciful and she was way jumping the gun, but how else were she and Nathan ever going to have a life together if Shea didn’t factor in everything into the equation?
Sometimes things just weren’t simple, and this was just such a case. Maybe she and Grace would forever be running. Maybe they’d never be truly safe. Did Shea dare throw caution to the wind and settle here with Nathan and trust that KGI could handle any problems that arose?
She sighed and started to turn back toward the house. It did no good to dwell on the future when the present was still so up in the air. One day at a time. What mattered now was that Grace was found and that both of them stayed out of sight until Nathan and his brothers could determine who wanted them and why.
She hadn’t fully rotated when she was knocked off balance by a hard body from behind. A strong arm snaked around her, preventing her fall, while a hand was clamped tight over her mouth.
Fear and panic exploded through her. She kicked, struggled and tried to scream, but the grip only tightened.
Nathan!
“Easy with her,” a second man barked from behind her. “Resnick’s orders were that under no circumstances was she to be harmed.”
Oh God. Resnick. He was the man Donovan wanted to talk to—had already talked to about her and Grace. Son of a bitch. She’d known it was a mistake. A huge mistake to trust anyone!
She tried to focus her mind, to make that connection to Nathan, when a sharp prick in her arm had her making a muffled sound of pain from behind her captor’s hand.
“Sorry, Miss Peterson. It had to be done. I can’t have you using your telepathy to alert anyone to our presence.”
The world did this crazy swinging thing, and black spots floated in and out of her vision.
The hell of it was, the man actually did sound regretful. The grip eased around her body, and then she was simply swung over the second man’s shoulder and he ran toward the drop-off as if her weight was negligible.
She was too drugged to scream when a helicopter suddenly appeared, hovering at the very edge, so close that it would only take a small jump to clear the space between the cliff’s edge and the inside of the chopper.
Oh God, no, surely he wasn’t going to…
He never hesitated. He ran and then they were airborne for the briefest of moments before they hit the floor of the helicopter with enough force to knock the breath from her.
He tore off his mask and stared down at her, his eyes clouded with worry. He was young. And handsome. And there were at least three of him.
“Are you all right?” he shouted as the helicopter swooped away.
She wanted to kick him right back out of the helicopter. Of course she wasn’t okay. But she couldn’t speak. It was all she could do to even keep her eyes open. Her tongue was dry and stuck to the roof of her mouth. She was so damned scared that she wanted to curl into a ball and cry.
But that wasn’t going to help her now.
Her eyes rolled back into her head and still she fought to remain conscious.
Nathan.
It was weak. A mere whisper. A plea for him to hear her.
But all that awaited her was suffocating darkness that closed in from every direction.
CHAPTER 34
FEAR and panic blew over Nathan like a tornado. And then it was gone just as quickly, leaving him unsettled and dizzy. His mouth went dry. He dropped the plank of wood he’d gotten to show Shea and ran back to the front of the house, clawing at the plastic, ripping an entire sheet from the frame as he stumbled to where he’d left Shea.
She wasn’t there. He turned in a rapid circle. She wasn’t anywhere.
“Shea! Shea!” he yelled. Shea, where are you, damn it? Talk to me. Tell me where you are, baby. Help me help you. I feel your fear. What’s happened?
Nothing.
The sound of a helicopter sent him sprinting down the path toward the edge of the cliff. He topped the slight rise in front of the house and then stared down just in time to see the unbelievable.
Some motherfucker with Shea tossed over his shoulder leaped from the edge of the cliff toward a helicopter hovering a few feet away.
Time stopped. He couldn’t breathe. Oh God, what if he didn’t make it?
When both landed inside the helicopter, Nathan nearly went to his knees in relief. But then he bolted into action and ran along the path paralleling the lake, keeping his eye on the rapidly fading helicopter.
Fuck it all, the goddamn thing had already become a blip on the horizon. It wasn’t a helicopter he recognized and he’d flown plenty. He knew every helicopter flown by the military whether it was the army or another branch of the service. This was none of those.
He’d never seen an aircraft like this one. He hadn’t heard it until it was literally on top of them. Which meant some goddamn top-secret prototype had just snatched Shea literally out of the air.
“Nathan! Nathan!”
He pulled up, nearly gutted by the cramp in his side, and turned to see Garrett hauling ass over the uneven terrain in his SUV. He braked hard when he reached Nathan, sending dust flying in all directions.
Donovan leaped out, Sam right on his heels.
“What the hell happened?” Donovan demanded.
“Shea,” Nathan gasped. “The bastards took her. I was in the house for only a minute and they had a helicopter waiting. Crazy bastard threw her over his shoulder and jumped from the edge of the drop-off into the chopper.”
Garrett’s expression was fierce. “We didn’t hear a fucking chopper.”
Nathan shook his head. “This wasn’t a typical military helicopter. I’ve never seen anything like it. I only heard it when it got damn close. I’ve heard…I mean I’ve heard shit about prototypes for super stealth choppers that can’t be heard over a couple hundred yards away. Just didn’t think they existed yet.”
“Talk to her, man,” Van urged. “Find out what’s going on with her. Get her to give you any information she can.”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Nathan yelled. “I’ve got nothing but this yawning black hole in my mind. She’s not there!”
Garrett put his hand on Nathan’s arm. “We know where to find her.”
Nathan looked at his brother in confusion, sure that he hadn’t heard correctly. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Resnick’s boys were behind the break-in at Shea’s house,” Donovan said grimly. “The bastard has been tightlipped with us because he’s behind it or at least he has a big hand in it. He must have loved me coming to him for information. Fuck me. I all but gave him a detailed map of how to find her. I’m going to kill him.”
Nathan tried to clear the haze of rage and confusion that was clouding his mind. “Wait a minute. Resnick has her?”
“Yeah, or at least he knows who does,” Sam said. “Come on. We’ve got a house call to make. That little son of a bitch is going to regret this.”
“If he so much as touches a hair on her head, I’m going to gut him and leave him for the vultures,” Nathan hissed.
“And we won’t do a goddamn thing to stop you,” Garrett promised. “Now let’s go. We left Ethan and Swanny with Steele and his team, and they’re likely having a kitten for wanting to blow something up. Looks like they’re going to get their chance.”
SHEA came to awareness but was careful not to convey that she’d regained consciousness. She was no longer in a helicopter. She knew that much at least. Nor was she moving. She was lying on a couch. A couch? As tempted as she was to open her eyes, she forced herself to have discipline and carefully determine what she could without any noticeable change in her breathing.
It was silent. She strained to listen for any sign that she wasn’t alone. But all she heard was the light hum of a central air-conditioning system.
She allowed one slit in her left eye, and when she didn’t immediately see anyone else in the room, she opened both eyes and quickly examined her surroundings.
Seeing no one, she shot to her feet and then nearly went down and face-planted on the floor. Holy hell, but whatever they’d given her must work for elephants too. She sank back onto the edge of the couch and shook her head, trying to clear the muzziness that surrounded her like fog.
There were two ways out of the room. A door and a large window. She had no idea where the door led, but she was going to check out the window first. It was already dark, which meant she’d been out for hours.
Shea, goddamn it. Where are you? Talk to me. Just talk to me. Let me know you’re okay. Let me know where to find you. We’re coming for you, baby.
She dropped to her knees, holding her head in agony. Each word sent splinters into her brain until she moaned and closed her eyes. She rocked back and forth, so shaken and in so much pain that her stomach was a tight ball of nausea.
Nathan.
As soon as she tried to reach out to him, pain speared through her skull and down her spine. Overwhelmed, she leaned forward and vomited. It took her several long moments to regain her composure and for her to stop the violent heaving of her stomach.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder, and she reacted on instinct. She turned and lashed out, first with her hand, landing the heel of her palm on the bridge of her captor’s nose. She was on her feet in an instant and followed up with a vicious kick to his balls.
He doubled over with a grunt and she nailed him with a right hook to the jaw. Not leaving anything to chance, she snapped her foot into the side of his head and sent him reeling to the floor.
The dull gleam of a pistol secured in his shoulder harness sent her scrambling to yank it free. First she hit him on the back of the head with the butt and then she quickly frisked him for extra clips.
She felt like doing a double fist pump when she found not only two extra clips, but a smaller Sig Sauer secured to an ankle holster. She pocketed it and the knife from his pocket and then ran for the door.
She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. Maybe some underground compound. A top-secret government facility in some cave. Or maybe even a basement in some underground Washington D.C. test facility. Whatever she’d been expecting, this wasn’t it.
She was in a freaking house. A normal-looking house that from all appearances someone lived in. Damn it. She hadn’t thought to frisk the dude for keys to a vehicle. They had to have gotten her here someway.
She crouched down in the hallway when she heard voices in the next room. The stock of the pistol was slick in her hand and her pulse raced. She didn’t want to have to kill anyone. She wasn’t saying she wouldn’t do it. But it didn’t mean she was ready to start pumping people full of lead.
On the other hand, these assholes had scared her to death, they’d drugged her and they’d jumped off a cliff into a helicopter. And whatever they’d given her had affected her ability to use her telepathy.
Yeah, she was just pissed off enough to shoot and get the hell out of this place. Wherever this place was.
She ducked into one of the other rooms, realizing it was a guest bedroom. For God’s sake. Were they in suburbia? This was getting more bizarre by the moment.
Footsteps passed in the hallway and she knew she only had moments before it was discovered she’d escaped. She ran to the window and forwent trying to be stealthy.
She kicked out the glass, making a big enough hole that she could get out without being cut to shreds. Then she ducked through and stepped into empty space.
She barely had time to utter a foul curse before she hit the ground with a painful thump. All the air left her and she couldn’t draw in a single breath. It hurt too much.
Hell, she’d never even considered that she was in a two-story house. It was dark. She was still disoriented from the drugs. She just wanted to get the hell out of that creepy place.
Gasping painfully, she rolled and pushed herself to her knees.
“Damn it, Shea, what the hell are you trying to do, kill yourself?”
She grabbed the pistol and shot to her feet, backing away from the man who stood a short distance away.
He held his hands up and took a step forward. “I’m not going to hurt you. Put the gun down so we can talk.”
She shook her head. “Too late, asshole. This whole ordeal has been anything but a cakewalk. If it’s all the same to you, I’m getting the hell out of here.”
