Page 54

“His chopper can’t take off right now because of the snow. He wants us to hold the girl at the cabin until he gets here.”

Tildi lost the battle with her tears. She’d thought she would be okay, but she was wrong. Flashbacks of her year in Nico’s captivity cascaded through her mind. She had promised herself she’d never be in that position again.

The fact that she was facing this now was all her fault. She’d left the SUV to protect her Daddy, but now she was wondering if she should have stayed on the floorboard with Kenzie and trusted her Daddy to get them out. Her body locked down, tensing into a fight or flight loop playing over and over in her head. Then something small, hard, and circular pressed into her ribs.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you,” the man to her left said.

His rancid breath almost had her heaving. Did they still need their mothers to pack for them? Sheesh! “When you’re spending the night away from home, you should take a toothbrush.”

The man on her right growled and pushed his gun into her side even harder than his friend.

Apparently, her camel had a weak back, and that was the straw that broke it. All sense of self-preservation deserted her. With a loud huff, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You know, I have enough hard things going on in my life right now. It’s bad enough that I’m trying to fit in with my new Daddy and his family. Worse yet, I’m having to deal with Nico Midnight andtalking him out of killing me, or worse, selling me to the highest bidder. But the worst is being squished between you two, with your less than socially acceptable body odor and your deplorable dental hygiene. I didn’t ask to be kidnapped again. The least you could do is let me make the trip without your guns bruising my sides.”

The men in the front seat laughed, but the man on her left snarled, “You want my gun out of your side? Here you go.”

He shifted his gun from her side to her temple.

“Listen, you little bitch. We’ve been stuck in a cabin in the woods for three days. No heat. No food. No internet. And no plumbing. All because of you and your psycho boyfriend. We have to get you to that cabin and make sure you stay there until the boss arrives. What we do not have to do is listen to your lip or get you there without shooting you first. So if I were you, I’d shut the fuck up.”

The men in the front seat laughed harder. The man on her right shook his head. What no one did was contradict the man on her left. Or demand he lower his gun from her head.

The panic she’d been fighting back finally dealt her a knockout punch to the gut. Her lungs stopped working properly and a gray fog coated her brain. She was alone with four Cosa Nostra soldiers. She’d been held by men like them for over a year.

What had she been thinking? Being with her Daddy had made her forget. She forgot that not all men were stern when they ought to be, strong when they needed to be, and kind every second of every day.

Thanks to her Daddy, she’d almost forgotten men like that Vinnie guy, and the General, and Nico Midnight existed. For her, they didn’t anymore, present situation excluded, of course.

But the present couldn’t be excluded. Fear slithered down her spine like a rattlesnake returning to its den. She’d made a mistake. A huge one.

Her Daddy would rescue her. But how many bad things would she have to endure before he got to her? He shouldn’t have to rescue her at all. Just like the first time Nico had kidnapped her, it was all her fault. She never learned.

But she’d been so scared her Daddy would get shot. She would’ve done anything to keep that from happening. Anything.

What if Kenzie forgot to tell them Tildi had her phone? If bad men could do bad things through a phone, then her Daddy and his Wild Men could find her. As long as Kenzie remembered to tell them. What if she didn’t?

She had to get out of this truck. The man on her right still had his gun pointed at her, but he was looking at something on his watch. This was her chance.

Scrambling over him, she reached for the door handle. Her fingers brushed the metal hinge. Fire lanced through her scalp as the man on her left caught her hair and snatched her backward. She landed on her knees on the floorboard.

He lifted her by her hair, forcing her back onto the seat where he shoved the gun against her cheek. “You need to sit down and stay very, very still because the next time I have to deal with you will be the last time. I’ll face the boss if I have to, but I’m not putting up with any more shit from you.”

He stared at her as if he expected something, but she couldn’t respond. Terror held her prisoner in her own body. It didn’t matter. With the grip he had on her hair, he nodded her head for her.

“Good. Oh, and you might as well not try to open the doors or windows. We learned a few things about this town and the kind of people who live here. The child safety locks are active on the doors and windows. Now you sit here and don’t move.”

With silent tears streaming down her face, she sat still and prayed her Daddy would hurry.

CHAPTER 19

Kai drove Boone’s truck with Sev riding shotgun so Dutch and Grif could stay online checking maps and making plans. Chance, Tanner, and Grant followed right behind. But Boone? Right then, Boone was reliving the past.

Physically Boone was riding beside Dutch on their way to where Tildi almost certainly was being taken. Mentally, he was far away in front of his old house a few miles from the base where he had been stationed.

He’d left the members of his team watching the Seahawk’s game inside. Except for one. This time, the Little girl who’d followed him out of the house to tease him wasn’t mission specialist Cara Bradshaw, who Nico had killed three years ago. It was Tildi.

He knew what was about to happen, even though he hadn’t had the nightmare since he’d met Tildi. This time, the one who would die would be his bluebell. And he wouldn’t be able to stop it now any more than he had then.

“Chief, you gonna get that?” Dutch’s sharp tone pulled Boone into the here and now. Boone had no idea what his friend was talking about. “Your phone, chief. You gonna answer it?”