Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

Serena

Monday morning, I fingered one of the earrings Duke had given me as I remembered his words. “I love you, Tiger.” It had been a battle, but he loved me. And I was never letting him go.

Since I didn’t have cancer, I was back in the office today, as demanded by his highness Dr. Powell. I’d walked by his office when I first arrived so he’d notice me, and then again, to make sure.

Luckily, Winston had made copies of what he found in the locker before turning it over to the FBI. Regardless of what happened with Aiden Pons, the material would be more than enough to get our criminal investigative division and the US Attorney’s office interested in filing charges against Knife Creek, the company.

As I saw it, Pons might have been the head of the snake, but the size of the operation meant more people at the company had to have been involved. It was probably one of them who’d called Pons’s phone while the FBI guys were at the house.

Katelyn bounced up and surprised me. “Ready?”

I looked up and closed the folder. “For what?”

“Another day, another site visit.”

With all that had happened last week, I didn’t share her enthusiasm this morning. “Where to?” I’d given Powell a request for a week off to be with Duke and relax, and that was my focus. Who knew when he’d get around to giving me an answer.

“Some little shit place down south,” Katelyn said. “We’re taking my car, but you can drive.”

“Isn’t that out of our area?”

“I don’t question Powell. I just go where he sends me.”

After putting away the folder, I grabbed my purse and followed her.

An hour later, the industrial area we drove through became increasingly sketchy.

Katelyn pointed. “Turn right down there.”

It was only an alley between buildings, but I turned in as instructed.

“It’s the door on the right, all the way at the end.”

I stopped, and we got out. “You weren’t kidding when you called this a little shit place.” The rusty door had a sign hanging at an angle that read Occidental Garlic, an odd name.

Katelyn went in first.

The hallway was dank, with only dim light from a window above the door after it closed behind me. The slight garlic odor in the air said the sign hadn’t been a joke.

Strong hands grabbed my arm. “I’ve got you now, pretty one.”

I whipped my head around to find Johnson Spinelli. It can’t be. He was supposed to be halfway across the country.

He clamped the same sickly sweet-smelling rag over my mouth. Not again. I kicked at him and pulled away. My foot connected with his shin.

“Fucking bitch.” He slammed me against the wall.

My head hit hard, and pain rippled through me. I couldn’t avoid sucking in a breath.

“You’re not getting away this time, little bitch.”

As my vision blurred, I wished I’d accepted Duke’s necklace.

Johnson roughly grabbed my breast.

I willed my foot to kick the creep again, but it wouldn’t move as things dimmed and the darkness sucked me back in.

Duke

Why did this have to be so difficult? I selected the next Hawaiian resort from the endless list. This one didn’t mention dolphins either. How was I supposed to find Serena’s dream vacation like this? A week in Hawaii and swimming with the dolphins had sounded simple enough.

“What’s up?” Winston’s voice startled me. He leaned over to check my screen. “Nice. You and Serena? You should definitely take her to the big island.”

My sister Alice had told everybody that Serena and I were together again, and this morning everybody had advice for me.

“She wants to swim with the dolphins, and I can’t find a place that offers that.”

“Keep looking,” he said. “You’ll find it. By the way, the boss said he finally got ahold of your buddies, Singleton and March.”

“Yeah?”

“March will be here Wednesday, but Singleton took another assignment.”

One more frogman was better than none. “Thanks.”

“Guys,” Lucas yelled from his office an hour later. “We have a situation.”

Winston and I hustled in, followed by the rest of the team.

“Lloyd,” Lucas said into his speakerphone setup. “Say that again. The whole team’s here now, and Constance is patched in.”

“I just got a ransom call,” Benson said frantically.

My heart stopped.

“He has Serena and her workmate Katelyn.”

My hand balled into a fist. I was going to kill whoever had taken her. “Did you talk to her?” I half yelled.

“No. They said not until I get the money together.”

“He could have drugged them,” Winston said.

I guessed that was meant to make me feel better. “Yeah.” Hope was better than the alternative.

My gut churned as Serena’s father recounted the call and then left the line to arrange for the money—two million dollars.

“What about that tracker necklace you were going to give her?” Terry asked.

I shook my head. “She refused.” I hadn’t insisted, and now that decision had cost me. No, cost us.

Ten minutes later, Constance called back with specifics. “They were due to make a site visit this morning to a company in Reseda. They never arrived.”

I needed hope. “Could they just be running late?”

“Not two hours late,” she replied.

“And, both cellphones went dark at the same time,” Jordy added.

“Constance, you said it was common for government vehicles to have trackers. Is that true of all the EPA cars, and were they driving one?”

“Yeah, but it’ll take time to authorize a trace from this end.”

“I can work around that,” Jordy said as he rushed to his office. None of us asked how he got access to these feeds.

The whole group followed him.

I sweated as he typed, interspersing that with rapid mouse clicks.

This has to give us something.

“Got it,” Jordy announced. “Car one-oh-four’s track matches their phones. Now we just have to…follow it.” More mouse clicks showed an increasing red line making its way south on a map on his screen.

“But that’s going south, and Reseda is north,” Terry pointed out.

Jordy turned in his chair. “All I know is their phones were in that car when they left the federal building.”

Someone had given Constance bad info.

“There.” Jordy pointed. “It stops in Long Beach. The car is still there.”

Lucas patted his shoulder. “Good job, Jordy.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jordy pouted. “And I’m stuck here on comms.”

“No.” Lucas grinned. “Comms, yes, but bring your drones along. Everybody else, gear up. If the trail’s hot, we’re following it.”

I could feel the adrenaline as we strapped on protection and checked weapons.

“Cobra,” Lucas said as he slammed a clip home in his SIG. “You’re with me. Jordy and Terry in car two. Winston car three. Briefing en route.”

I racked the slide on my SIG and holstered it, following my brother and claiming the driver’s seat when we reached the Cayenne. With the V-8 howling, we burned rubber out of the garage, and the other two Porsches followed.

“Comms check,” Lucas said as he started the mission brief.

Serena

I woke with a metallic taste in my mouth. Thank God, it wasn’t dark. Squinting, I adjusted to the overhead lights and rolled on the hard floor.

“Thank goodness, you’re all right,” Katelyn said next to me. She stood next to the door in this small, tile-floored room. “He must have given you a bigger dose than me. I can’t fucking believe this.” She jiggled the doorknob. “I’m a nobody. Why kidnap me? You, I get. Your daddy has a gazillion dollars, but me? I got nobody, and I’m so far underwater I can’t even see up to being dead broke.”

I sat up, taking in her complaints. “Do you know where we are?”

“No fucking clue. This sucks. Chloroformed or whatever the hell that was, and now locked up in here waiting for who knows what to happen. What if I have to pee?”

“Keep your voice down.” I stood and fixed my breast, which was out of my bra again. Fucking Johnson. “Have you heard him say anything? Do you know if he’s outside or not?” I asked, stretching to get the kinks out.

She tried to force the knob with two hands. “That’s why I’m freaked out. He made a call and demanded a bunch of money from your father or he’d kill us. Then after another call, he left.” She rattled the knob again.

I laid a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down.” I wasn’t ready to tell her that what Johnson probably had planned for us was even worse.

Katelyn pulled away. “Easy for you to say.” She was on the verge of hyperventilating. “We gotta get out of here. What if your father doesn’t want to pay for me?”

“Calm down,” I repeated. “We can depend on my dad. Are you sure he’s gone?”

She nodded. “I heard him talking to someone. He said it would take him an hour to get there. Then he left.”

I examined the lock. “I’ll get us out of here.”

“Really? I’m too young to die like this.”

I went through the steps I’d practiced for getting my bra off and the wires out, all to Katelyn’s amazement. “ Speed is everything; seconds count ,” the master chief had said. I left the bra on the floor, slipped the shirt over my head, and went to work on the lock.

Picking the cheap thing was a cinch. Putting a finger to my lips, I shushed her and stashed the wires in my pocket.

I slowly pulled open the door and hoped for no squeaks.

Johnson Spinelli’s evil grin greeted me. “Very tricky, pretty girl.” He sat just opposite the door with a gun pointed straight at me. The bastard had never left.