Her Adoring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 3) Read online

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m on 5th and McNichols. Oh God, Clint, I can see Mike and Lou in the SUV, there’s so much blood. You have to call an ambulance. They told me to drive home, but I didn’t, I’m around the corner. They’re getting into their vans now. They hit Beth, she’s unconscious.”

  As soon as she said the cross streets, Jack and the others started out the door.

  “Keep her talking, Clint. We’ll get to her,” Mason commanded.

  Clint looked ill, but he nodded. Jack remembered his job was intel and communications.

  They took three vehicles. Jack drove with Mason, and they drove straight to Lydia’s position. The other’s went to scout where the take-down happened. Lydia was still behind the wheel of Clint’s truck on her cell phone. It was clear she wasn’t even aware of their presence.

  “Lydia,” Mason called out as he neared the driver’s side of the truck. She finally looked at them. She dropped the phone. They could hear Clint yelling through the tinny speaker.

  “Archer, we’re here,” Mason shouted. “Lydia’s fine.” He opened the door, and Lydia slumped into his arms.

  “You’ve got to go get Beth. Get her!” She turned to Jack. “They have her Jack. You have to go and save her.”

  “Tell us what happened.” He saw Aiden sprinting around the corner towards them. He was shaking his head. Fuck. Lou and Mike must be dead.

  “It was a professional hit,” Aiden said as he reached him. He wanted to go and see for himself, but he knew his best source of information was Lydia. He looked at the woman, who so closely resembled Beth, as she tried to calm herself. She clutched at Mason, her face ravaged by tears.

  “They hit her so hard. I don’t understand, you know they wanted her alive, why did they hit her, Mason?”

  “I thought she had the gun to her head? How did you see them hit her?” Jack still wasn’t clear on how this whole event went down.

  “I drove away and turned the corner. I parked and watched. That’s where I called Clint from.” She stopped and tried to collect herself. “That’s when I saw Beth drop the gun. All I can figure is it got too heavy for her.” She looked at Jack, and started to cry again. “Oh God, then the man who’d done all the talking came up and back handed her so hard she crashed to the ground. For a second, I thought they killed her, but then she moved. They picked her up and shoved her into the van and drove off.”

  Jack could see everything she’d described in his mind’s eye.

  “Which way did they go, Lydia?” Mason asked.

  “They were going on McNichols Street.”

  “East or West?” She gave him a helpless look.

  “Towards the ocean?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, towards the ocean,” Lydia answered. Aiden was relaying the information into his cell phone, and so was Mason. Jack heard sirens.

  “Come on folks, we need to get out of here,” Mason said.

  “Don’t we have to talk to the police? Aren’t I a witness?” Lydia asked.

  “Some other time. Not now.” Mason got into Clint’s truck with Lydia, and Aiden drove with Jack back to the duplex.

  “We’ll get her back,” Aiden promised as he put Mason’s truck into gear.

  Jack stayed silent.

  “Mason and his team are good,” Aiden said after being met by Jack’s silence. “They might have ducked the police, but I heard Drake and Darius already talking to Clint. He’s wired into SDPD, and there’s an All-Points Bulletin out on your girl. Clint is working to pull in video feeds from the nearest grocery stores and gas stations so he can get license plates and vehicle descriptions of the vans.”

  Just two more minutes to the house, and then he could see for himself what was being done, Jack assured himself.

  “Are you listening to me? These bastards aren’t going to get far. Beth is going to be fine.”

  “They killed Mike and Lou. They took her in broad daylight,” Jack whispered. Aiden finally shut up.

  A car Jack didn’t recognize almost rammed them as they pulled into the driveway. Aiden and he slammed out of the car, Aiden getting to Terry before Jack had a chance to explain.

  “Jack!” Terry cried out. “Is it true?” the man yelled, trying to duck past Aiden.

  “Is he cleared?” Aiden demanded.

  “He’s clear,” Jack yelled to Aiden. “Yes, it’s true. Get inside.” Jack ignored Terry’s shocked expression and sped up the stairs. The door was locked, he pounded on it. It slowly opened, and Clint stood there with a gun in his hand.

  “Get in.” Clint gestured with his free hand.

  The three men piled into the house. It didn’t seem like the same place he’d been thirty minutes ago before his world had fallen apart.

  “Where’s Lydia?” They heard the distinctive rumble of Clint’s truck, and Clint opened the door and was down the steps before anyone could blink. Jack prowled over to Clint’s desk area that had two laptops and three desktop monitors running. He felt Aiden behind him.

  “Geez, what kind of set-up is this?”

  “Clint does communications for Midnight Delta.” One screen held nothing but lines of code. Another screen was divided into twelve sections, each showing a different view of San Diego traffic. One of the laptops actually showed the border crossing into Tijuana.

  “Lydia, sit down before you fall down,” Clint said. Jack saw Clint urging Lydia to sit on the couch.

  “Jack, get out of my way,” Lydia said as she made her way to the desk with the computers.

  “Baby, you can’t mean to work now.” She whirled around and shoved her finger into Clint’s chest.

  “Fuck yes I’m going to hit the computer now. This is my sister’s life we’re talking about. Now sit your ass down and help me. I’m calling Melvin. You try to get ahold of Rylie.” She glanced at the screens. “Did you pull the supermarket parking lot surveillance footage?”

  “It’s not online.”

  Lydia looked up from the computers. “Terry!” she yelled at the young petty officer.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Get over to the Ralph’s grocery store,” her voice trailed off. She looked at Clint then at Mason, helplessly. Everybody realized Terry probably wouldn’t get what they needed fast enough. Mason pulled out his phone.

  “Drake. Go over to the Ralph’s grocery store. I think it’s on 5th or 6th. I need you to get the parking lot surveillance video for the last two hours. According to Clint their video isn’t on-line. Coordinate with Clint and Lydia on any other places you see with surveillance. They’ll tell you if they can tap it or if you have to sweet-talk the owners to give it to you.”

  Jack liked the plan. There was nobody better to either sweet-talk or intimidate people into providing what was needed than Drake Avery.

  “I only got the first three letters of the one van, Clint. I’m so sorry. When I went around the corner it was too far away to see it.”

  “Those first three letters help, baby. You did great.” Clint’s hand trembled as he adjusted the monitor so Lydia could see it better for her height. Jack shoved his hands in his pocket, knowing his hands were probably trembling too.

  “This is all well and good. But I’m not happy standing around with my thumb up my ass while the geek squad tries to come up with answers,” Aiden said to Mason.

  “I agree. We know they headed West on McNichols. There is an on-ramp to the Five Freeway north when you head that way.”

  “We know, it’s the camera we’re checking,” Clint said as his fingers flew over the keyboard, bringing up live feeds of the San Diego Freeway.

  Jack watched as Lydia continued to dial a person on Skype. Finally she got through.

  “Hello my Kitten, what do I owe the pleasure of an actual face to face Skype session. I thought we were going to do voice only from now on?”

  Jack looked at the man who was in his mid to late twenties. He was a little on the doughy side, and he could benefit from some training.

  “Melvin, I don’
t have time for your shit.”

  He must have read the strain in her voice and demeanor because he sat up straight.

  “Lydia, what’s wrong?”

  “Beth. Berto Guzman kidnapped Beth an hour ago. I need to know how he plans to get her out of the area.”

  “Got it.” The screen went blank.

  “What the fuck!” Jack pounced forward. He reached for the mouse Lydia had been using, but Clint stopped him.

  “Back off, Preston.”

  “No. I’m part of this, and I will not be told to back off.”

  “He’s right, Clint.” Lydia looked at him. “Just don’t touch my mouse, okay?” She grinned at him weakly. “Look Melvin logged off because he’s going to work his contacts. He’ll be calling back as soon as he finds something. He’s odd as hell, but he’s a great hacker.”

  “Lydia, do we really have time to deal with freaks and oddballs? We need the A-Team,” Jack said seriously.

  “You’re reading this wrong. He’s not a freak,” Lydia started.

  “He’s a freak,” Clint inserted. “But his information is gold.” Jack switched his attention to Clint.

  “Fine. Let me know when you get something.” He turned to see Mason and Aiden at the dining room table, Mason motioned him over.

  “What have you got?”

  “Drake talked to a clerk at the gas station near the freeway entrance. The two vans took the south entrance to the freeway. We’ve notified the border.”

  “Let’s go.”

  ****

  It stank.

  Oh God, she couldn’t see. Her eyes were wide open, but she couldn’t see.

  “Help!” her voice echoed. She was lying on something hard. She couldn’t see. “Hello! Is anyone here?” she yelled louder than before. She tried to sit up, but her hands slipped. She was lying in about a half inch of warm water. It felt oily. She tried to push off the floor again, but her hands slipped out from under her, and she landed hard against her shoulder.

  Beth grunted in pain. She couldn’t see anything. She wished her sense of smell had gone away along with her sight. It smelled of oil, piss, and shit. She prayed her hands were only in oily water, but by the smell she wasn’t so sure. Finally she was able to get onto her hands and knees.

  “Hello?” Again, just the eerie echo. She didn’t think she was blind, probably in someplace where it was completely dark. Think Beth!

  It all came flooding back. She’d been driving with Lydia. They’d almost crashed into a van. Lou and Mike! Her hand slipped in the slime as she remembered the shots. She trembled. Please let Lydia have gotten away safely.

  She wanted to scream. To cry. To beg someone for help. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out Jack’s name. It was so stupid. She whispered it. Whispered it again. Finally she calmed down and she could think.

  She stayed still. She could feel and hear a slight rumbling. Underneath her, the floor was moving. She was in some kind of moving vehicle. Despite the dampness of her clothes, she wasn’t cold. It was hot, which added to the smelly misery.

  Suddenly the floor under her lurched, and once again Beth slipped, this time her cheek hit the floor and fiery pain exploded. Another memory formed. She had been hit in the face by a man.

  Now she could see bright shards of colorful lights, but they weren’t real, just bursts exploding through her pain filled brain. She worked hard to get back up on her hands and knees, and this time she started to crawl. She had to find something to lean against. There had to be a wall somewhere. Beth moved slowly, the last thing she wanted to do was bang her head against the side of whatever she was in.

  She tried to block out the smells, but also to listen. She thought she heard whining. What was that? It sounded like something she should recognize. Her shoulder ran into something hard. She reached out with her hand and found steel with rivets.

  A shipping container? Was she in one of the cargo containers they shipped the girls in? Keep it together. She reached up and felt under her blouse, there it was the necklace—the one Grace had given her. She took a breath, through her mouth, and whispered Jack’s name again. Okay, she was doing better.

  She needed to sit up and rest, and then she could start planning. She maneuvered herself against the wall, and finally had enough courage to sniff her hand. Thank God, only oil. If this was a shipping container, then there was probably some kind of bucket to use as a toilet and that’s the reason for the stench. Why was she in here by herself?

  Were they sending her overseas? That didn’t make any sense. They would be getting her to Berto somehow. The container lurched again, and her cheek hurt even though it didn’t bang against anything. She felt around her body, and finally felt the back of her collar was dry, so she wiped her hands off, and then she started to probe her face. Her right side was definitely swollen. A lot. Even her eye was swollen, but she could open it. She finally saw light coming through tiny pinholes high above. Probably ten feet from the floor of the crate.

  Then Beth recognized the whine, it was the sounds she’d heard on the freeway of a truck braking and shifting gears. She was on a truck. What happened to the van? How long was she unconscious? She rested her head against the side of the container, and it jerked slamming her head against the side. Oh no, not again, she thought as she drifted into unconsciousness.

  ****

  The vans had been found in Temecula five hours ago. It was obvious Beth was being transported over the border. It had taken every ounce of patience Jack had not to drive to Tijuana, but he knew it wouldn’t accomplish a damn thing. He needed intel. Clint and Lydia were the best he’d ever seen working their contacts. Mason had everyone lined up to go at a moment’s notice.

  The Melvin character just pinged, and said he’d be Skyping in five minutes. They stood around the desk full of computer monitors. Lydia’s phone rang, she looked down and sucked in a loud breath.

  “Fuck, it’s Rylie.”

  “Put it on speaker,” Darius demanded.

  “Rylie, can you do a three-way Skype with Melvin?” Lydia asked.

  “Yep.” The line went dead.

  Jack was getting sick of the way these people just hung up. The monitors lit up. Dough-boy and a pretty young blonde filled the screens.

  “What have you got?” Jack demanded.

  “Who’s the Viking?” Melvin asked.

  “He belongs to Beth. Shut up and answer his question,” Lydia snapped.

  Rylie and Melvin started talking at the same time, but Jack could understand them. Rylie was explaining Berto was in Veracruz, and there was a big problem with the operation. He was literally slicing and dicing employees to get them back in line. Melvin was saying he had found a small trucking operation leading out of the US of specialty types of product being sold to the Middle East. He suspected Beth had been transported on a truck.

  “Where are you getting your information?” Jack demanded.

  “I found a site on the dark web. It’s a little like finding a Russian bride, only it allows you to buy a woman.”

  Jack looked at the man on the screen and saw he was serious.

  “How do you know the women are coming from the US?”

  “I did a cross-reference to the missing person’s sites here in the US, and found correlations. The only thing I don’t know is if this is Berto’s operation.”

  “Shit.”

  “I do know my information relates to Berto,” Rylie spoke up. The woman who looked like she should be a sophomore in college.

  “Don’t tell me you found more of those fucking videos, Rylie,” Darius said.

  “Fine, I won’t.”

  “Why does the bastard keep posting them?”

  “That’s his way of keeping his men in line, and it’s pretty Goddamn effective. He beheaded this last guy after cutting out his tongue for snitching to the authorities. Once again the butcher was tatted up with Veracruz gang tattoos.”

  “But you said Berto was in Veracruz, what makes you think that?”

>   “You could actually hear him in the background.”

  “How do you know it was him, Rylie?” Darius asked in an ominous tone of voice.

  The woman looked uncomfortable.

  “Rylie, answer the fucking question!”

  “I met him once! Okay?” Jack looked at her, trying to wrap his head around how this girl could have met a notorious slave trader.

  “Explain yourself fast, Rylie,” Darius said in a low tone. “How in the fuck do you know Berto Guzman?”

  “It was when I was acting as Sylvia. I was working a con on his father to get money for one of the charities. I was in Laredo—it wasn’t in Mexico. I didn’t expect either of them to actually show up. I was working on their banker at a charity benefit.”

  “Jesus.”

  “It’s okay. I got out of there quicker ‘n snot.”

  Lydia told Jack earlier Rylie sometimes took on the persona of Sylvia Hessman when she went out in person.

  “Okay, so we know Berto is in Veracruz,” Jack said.

  “Rylie, we are so going to talk about your habits,” Darius said.

  “Shut up, Darius,” Jack damn near yelled at the other man. “She got us valuable information. Beth is probably going to end up in Veracruz.”

  “Or Berto could come out to the West Coast and meet up with her here,” Lydia said.

  “Not likely,” Rylie disagreed. “This is a big problem he has in his Veracruz operation, and he’s needed there. He’s going to have your sister delivered there.”

  “I’m not so sure. Melvin, what do you think?” Lydia asked the other person on the video screen.

  “I think there is a whole set up here on the West Coast for US girls. It looks like he ships them from here to overseas. Why transport her overland to the East coast of Mexico, when he can just hop a flight to Tijuana?”

  “We’re splitting up,” Jack decided. “Aiden and I are going to Veracruz. We’re going to meet up with some of his family from the Yucatan. They can help us search Veracruz and find the gangs and Berto. He’s going to want Beth on his turf.”

  “Jack, are you sure? You could be wrong,” Mason said.

  “I’m not wrong.” Jack felt it down to his bones.