“I did say carrier pigeon.” She fished in her purse for her phone and opened the camera app to snap a picture of the bird stuffy. She opened a message box and pulled up the number Tex had given her when he’d called to tell her Caleb was coming to Italy, to her, and attached the photo to it. Her fingers hovered for a moment before she started to type.
Rose: I lo?—
The hairs stood on the back of her neck, and her fingers paused. Suddenly, she knew without turning around that he was behind her. Janek had found her. Her time had run out. The future she’d just started to believe was hers for the taking was snatched from her grasp. Slowly, she turned and faced the creature of her nightmares. Her gaze flicked from the gun in his hand to his eyes and back again.
Shit.
To her amazement, she didn’t burst into tears. The fear that had driven her for so long receded and was replaced by a rage she’d never experienced before. There were too many innocent people here—she couldn’t allow him to hurt them. She just couldn’t.
“Well, well, well. What have we here?” the asshole said as he moved closer. A gel-greased lock of his hair spilled across his forehead as he bent towards her.
Rose was short, and Janek used every inch of his six feet to loom over her. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, preventing her from demanding he back off. She froze as past conditioning kept her in place as he reached for her.
Rose closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, picturing Caleb in her mind, calling to every ounce of love she felt for him in an effort to break free of the past and the hold of Janek’s training which kept her in place.
I love you, Rosey-Posey. I promise I won’t let you down again.
Her eyes flew open and narrowed on Janek. “Leave me alone.” She had little hope that he’d listen or even do as she asked. “I won’t tell anyone you were here if you leave now.”
His evil chuckle slithered down her spine like a snake of ice. “I think not. I keep what’s mine.”
“I was never yours.” Her hands trembled as she tried to think how she would escape him. She thought to run, but with the two men she could just about make out standing a few steps behind him, she didn’t there was any way she could outrun them. She pulled out the only weapon she had in her arsenal, opened her mouth, and screamed.
Caleb blewout a shaky breath as he watched Rose disappear into the store. He’d expected her to jump in his arms, to cry all over him. To demand he never left her again. He could confirm that all the books and movies lied. They fibbed so hard that their noses were longer than Pinocchio’s.
In the rearview mirror, he saw a car between the cart bay and the door reverse out and drive away. He fumbled with the gears of Rose’s dinky car but managed to reverse it into the free space before another driver claimed it. He touched the button to lower the window. Then he heard the scream. He knew that voice.
He contorted his body, forcing it out of the car until he popped free of its grip and it spat him out to land on his knees on the pavement. He scrambled to his feet and raced into the store, towards the sound. “Rose,” he yelled, only to be jerked back against a wall of solid muscle.
“Easy. It’s Cookie,” a voice whispered harshly in his ear.
He shot a glance over his shoulder and confirmed it was Wolf Steel’s teammate who held him. “Rose…”
“I know. Wolf and Mozart are tracking her.” Cookie handed him a Glock. “You might need this.”
Having a weapon in his hand snapped his focus back where it should have been. It pushed back the panic wrought by Rose’s scream to a level where he could channel the fury it caused to become the warrior the US Navy and Dalton had trained him to be.
He and Cookie had to stand aside as customers streamed from the store, blocking them from moving. Mothers hurried their children while old men ushered their wives ahead of them as they raced for freedom.
Caleb silently cursed the screams, sobs, and crying that kept him from hearing the one voice he needed above all others.
“Hurry up. Hurry up,” Caleb beseeched to someone, anyone who’d listen. He needed to get to her. Knowing one of the finest SEALs he’d ever known was there close to her should have eased his fears. Instead, it fueled his fury, because he figured out what was happening and why. Rose was bait. His woman, his heart, was bait to catch the fucker who hunted her, and nobody had warned him. “You knew,” he accused Cookie.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” Cookie admitted. “Orders came from the top; we had no choice.”
It galled him to nod in response, but he did it anyway when he saw the remorse on Cookie’s face. He understood orders better than most. But acknowledging it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Cookie motioned him forward and slotted into place on his left shoulder, “she’s never been alone since she left your place. Not for one moment. Despite encouragement to do differently, we’ve made sure she was safe.”
Someday, he’d be able to appreciate that. Today was not that day. He ruthlessly pushed everything aside and started to progress up the escalator into the grocery store while offering up a silent prayer.
I’ll give you anything you want; just don’t let her die.
With more couragethan she felt, Rose moved to the left and glanced over his shoulder to check where his goons were. She noticed two men creeping behind them and silently cursed when she recognized them as Matthew ‘Wolf’ Steel and Sam ‘Mozart’ Reed.
Trying to distract Janek from noticing, she hoped her feet kept up with her heart as she whirled around and raced away from him. She hadn’t taken three steps before another goon stepped into her path, his hands taking hold of her wrists painfully.
“Going somewhere?”
