“Take proof of life.” The boss instructed. “I’ll send the demand at noon.”
Within minutes, Rick had been dragged across the hall. The men manhandled him, making him turn to stand against the wall on the far side of the room.
“Hold this.” Gianni slapped a newspaper against Rick’s chest.
“No.” He would not make this shit easy for them. If they wanted a fucking proof of life photo, they could fucking hold the newspaper up themselves and take it.
Gianni pulled out his handgun and pointed it at Rick. It made the bravado in his head pause a second, but he refused to back down, a picture with a hand was a clue. A clue that might result in someone finding him if he didn’t manage to get free himself.
“If you kill me it’s not proof of life, it’s proof of death.”
The man tightened his grip on the gun and slammed it into the side of Rick’s head. Thank fuck he was against the wall, or he would have fallen from the force of the blow. Damn it, it deserved repeating, even if it was only in his own head. He should have just ignored the damn phone and stayed in bed with Saxon.
“Nobody said you had to be unhurt, just alive,” The man slapped the paper against his chest. “Take the damn picture, but keep me out of it.” he ordered the one with the camera.
The click of the shutter was loud in the room, but thirty seconds after it sounded, both men, having gotten what their boss had ordered, walked away from him. The click of the door locking behind them sounded even louder. Ugh, he hated being locked up. It was one of his triggers. He forced himself to breathe through the panic that threatened to escape now that he was alone.
“Fuck.” Rick contorted himself to gain the leverage he needed to break the damn tie wraps. He knew they would leave a mark. They always did. He’d trained for this scenario multiple times. Every damn time, the tie wraps left red welts on his skin.
“Ah, good, Mr. Jones. You have freed yourself.”
At the first sound of the distorted voice, Rick spun toward it and spotted a speaker and camera in the corner of the room. “You will find food and beverages in the fridge. Bathroom is through the door behind you.” the voice told him. “As you can see, there are no windows, so no escape.”
“Assholes.” The red light on the speaker blinked out. Damn it, they had sound and audio. That was going to make it difficult to stage an escape.Check the room. There has to be something you can use as a weapon. Just like that, giving himself something to do made him feel better. He got to work, starting at one side of the room, he would systematically go through it. He had no idea what happened to his weapons. Losing a gun was going to cause serious freaking paperwork. His boss would be thrilled. Not! Even if they could see him search and they’d know if he found something to use as a weapon, it was better than being totally unarmed as he was now. There had to be something useful here.
Chapter Two
Saxon strodeout of the hotel, ducking to avoid hitting the archway with his head. He could do this—he would do this. He would find him and get Rick back—the alternative… he didn’t dare thinking about that right now.
His cell buzzed in his hand, showing the number for one of the satellite phones Max used for their mobile TOC. He slid his finger across the screen to answer it, “GO.”
“Bravo Three, Cupid here, are you at the truck?”
Max using their Red Squadron call signs kicked the panic that had threatened to consume him, and pushed it back. Work mode finally won out in his brain and settled him like the rush of staring down an IED in the back ass of Afghanistan. “Almost.”
“Good, I have eyes on it.”
“What? You’re meant to be following the people who took Rick.” He stepped off the sidewalk to make his way around the tables set up outside one of the many bars on this street. Max had better not be fucking around. He knew that was unfair, Max probably had multiple screens running side by side on his laptop. But gah, he needed to find Rick, and he couldn’t help pushing the urgency down the phone to his teammate.
“I—,”
“We’ll deal with it when we get there,”Noble spoke over Max. Even though he was not on the phone, but talking from somewhere in the background, his voice was loud and clear in Saxon’s ear. Noble was giving him a pass on being rude. He’d take it.
“Yes, Sir.” In the background, he could clearly hear the sound of a helo firing up. God, he fucking loved the brothers he found when he joined Red Squadron. They were taking a damn bird. Thank fuck. They could be here in less than an hour. Every second they gained could be the difference in getting results.
Within seconds, Saxon was almost to where he’d parked his truck. He paused and leaned his shoulder against the corner of a Tabacchi shop to watch and wait for a couple of minutes. These little stores were on almost every street corner. This was where most Italians paid bills and taxes on every little piece of official paperwork they had to send for everything and anything. Want to pay your government taxes, go to the Tabacchi and get your stamps. Want to play the lotto, go to the Tabacchi. Registered letters, bus tickets, and a multitude of other things, the Tabacchi provided them all. Here was a place people expected to see others waiting, so he wouldn’t be out of place. Too many years spent in combat zones had made him wary, especially as most of those years had been spent disarming explosives. Now that he knew Max had eyes on his truck, he would force himself to have patience he didn’t feel and would wait for clearance before he moved.
“Bravo Three, Cupid, you are clear to approach.”Max’s voice told him he was good to go.
“Copy.” Saxon walked across the street to the 4 x 4 he’d parked there earlier. As soon as he got into the truck, he reached for the glovebox and pulled out a spare coms unit. “Switching to coms.”
“Copy.”
He’d known Max would get it. He needed to not be on his cell when he was driving. Having a cell phone to his ear would result in the cops pulling him over. That was shit he didn’t need to deal with today. Hitting the button to switch on the unit, he pulled out into traffic, “Cupid, Bravo Three, tell me you got something?” He knew he should have expected the support and backup from his team, but it still hit him in the feels that they had his six and were incoming to help him find Rick.
“Yeah, take a left at the lights.”Max told him.
“The van went straight through.” He’d freaking seen it from the window. Max had better not be sending him on a wild goose chase to delay him until they got there.
