Elemental: Earth (9 page)

When Gavin and Giles finally got to the abandoned warehouse where Dallas told them he’d located Reed, the sight that welcomed them was almost surreal-- a rodent-looking man in a dark suit was sitting tied to a chair with electrical cords. His crooked, hooked nose was obviously broken since the hooked end of it seemed to have moved almost directly under his right eye. The eye was red-purple and swollen, looking more like raw meat than a man’s source of vision. Blood was pouring from his nose and mouth and his right ear onto what once was a crisp white collar of a dress shirt, now streaked with the dust of gravel and bricks. Dallas was sitting on top of a mound of concrete bricks watching the situation as Reed paced back and forth behind their victim in the chair. His movements were so fast he seemed to ripple, and that is how Gavin knew that this was all Reed’s doing.

“What in hell is going on here?” Gavin barked.

Dallas stayed sitting upon his mound and Reed kept pacing and rippling. The man in the chair groaned as he tried to pick up his head to see out of his one good eye. He seemed to mumble something like ‘help’, but it was hard to understand with most of his mouth so swollen.

“It’s fine. I’m getting him to calm himself down,” Dallas explained in a composed and unruffled voice. Gavin was on alert and his vision was darkened when he looked at this victim. All he could see for a few seconds was large black daggers clearly emanating from muddy red and dark greens, colors of the anger, resentfulness, and low self-esteem of those who believe themselves the constant victim. It almost hurt to look towards this man, his aura was so darkly concentrated. It hurt, too, for Gavin to hear the ominous calm in Dallas’ voice considering the situation, yet he could still see the glow of turquoise around his little brother.

“Let me make the introductions,” Dallas began. “Zinsser, these are my older brothers, Gavin and Giles. Brothers, this is Captain Adolfo Zinsser. He’s the girls’ handler, as they say.”

Gavin envisioned the man before him in the various snippets he’d seen him-- at the beach with binoculars, walking the crowds at the disco, on the computer speaking with Melissa when it was supposed to be her ailing mother. The ground under them all shook with Gavin’s anger and revelation.

“He’s the reason,” Reed said, speaking with concerted effort to control his anger, making his voice tremble. “He’s the reason they’re here, but it’s not what they think. It’s for his own selfish gains, and he’s using them and then will simply dispose of them when they’ve served their purpose.”

“How did this even happen?” Giles asked. “How do you know all of this?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Reed snapped. “I know it now, and it’s all true. Ask him.” He rushed up behind Zinsser and pulled his head up by his sopping hair to face Giles. “Tell him!” Reed commanded him.

“Mifs chew,” came the garbled answer. “Buh nof chus me.”

“There are others involved?” Gavin asked.

Dallas hopped off the bricks. “Yeah. He has a small team, but we haven’t located them yet.”

“Well, perhaps he can tell us, then, who it was with Leandro and Nicólas Gonzalez tonight and what they want with the ladies.”

A cold, hard breeze swept brick dust into Zinsser’s open eye. “What?” Dallas whirled. “What happened to Gillian?”

“They all four were taken hostage by the Gonzalez brothers and some other guy. His accent was not from here. They commandeered the truck, tied them up, threw hoods on them, and left.” Giles now approached the man in the chair. Just the proximity of his body to Zinsser’s was enough for Zinsser to squirm and try to pull back from the heat. “Who was he, and where did they go?”

Zinsser began to moan and scream from the heat, and blisters began to form on his forehead and cheeks. Gavin pulled his brother back but a black singe had already formed on Zinsser’s clothing.

“Okay. We have to stop and take a breath,” Gavin said. “If we are going to be of any use, we have to get our emotions under control and think rationally and carefully about this.”

The brothers spent the next hour hashing out a plan to find the girls, simultaneously working Zinsser for information. Gavin was confident that Zinsser’s team was less concerned for the girls than they were for getting the brothers, and the longer they all four stayed in the same location, the more dangerous it became for them. Since the special forces team under Zinsser most likely wasn’t going to spend time or energy trying to recoup the bait that had been lost, it would be completely up to the boys to find and rescue the girls. Gavin declared that it was time to split up in case Zinsser’s team had any idea of this location or the fact that they had Zinsser. They made plans to leave Dallas in charge of getting Zinsser to a holding place. As the charming baby brother, Dallas made friends and was generally easier to like than the other three, so leaving him to call in some favors would most likely be better received from Dallas than any of the others.

In the meantime, Gavin and Reed were checking out a few places known to rent rooms and houses to see if they could find any of the team members or at least find Zinsser’s dwelling for more clues to track down the team. Giles was commissioned with heading to Nicó and Leandro’s shanty deep in the jungle for a reconnaissance mission to see if there was any suspicious activity (other than the usual drinking and gambling that usually happened there). They were all to report back to the warehouse in two hours.

“You’re sure it’s safe to keep him here?” Giles asked Dallas. “No phone on him? No other GPS device to lead his team here, or wherever you move him?”

Dallas responded that he’d been thoroughly checked when they abducted him. Giles looked at Reed for his confirmation, and to answer, Reed pulled on a latex glove and popped it in place.

“If you went that far, Brother, I’ve got much respect for you,” Giles commended. “Not to mention that I’m a bit scared of this new side of you, as well.”

“Not new,” Reed retorted. “Just don’t let it out enough. But I’m not reliving the hell of losing Melissa. My feelings for Grimm were a mere school-boy crush compared to the experience that Melissa and I’ve shared. That I will not give up so easily.”

Each of the brothers knew exactly what he meant, and each of them mentally returned to the dreamlike world they’d experienced recently during climax with their partners. The brothers were individually certain, as certain as they were of who they were and what they possessed, that these women were their destinies, their counterparts, the complementary piece that perfected them. There was no way any of the Fuerza brothers could live without their accompanying partner ever. For once they had tasted this perfect completion, they knew just how powerful and how happy they could be when the intended two became the destined one.

Tessa was remarkably calm. She’d been in situations more dangerous than this. Leading troops in a war in the Middle East was often scarier than some of the situations she encountered back in the States. This one was child’s play for her, but she felt a stab of worry and concern as she listened to the soft crying of Dara on the other side of their captor. She was being quite the trooper, Dara was, trying to control herself so she didn’t make much noise or attract much more attention. And to think the beauty queen only had a few weeks with Jameson before taking on this mission, Tessa mused. Though she hadn’t really enjoyed her time with Dara per se, Tessa felt a sense of pride and respect for this motley crew and especially for Dara.

The road suddenly got rougher, and Tessa figured they were off the beaten path. They’d been driving for about twenty minutes, and she had begun to feel sun on her legs, so they must have been heading north. The sharp turn to the right put them heading more northwest now, away from the coastline.

The Suburban bounced over rocks and large limbs, throwing Tessa upwards. She actually hit her head on the ceiling of the car, to which she heard her captor grumble to the driver.

“Mas despacio, chimbo!”

“Siento, capo,” the driver mumbled as he slowed down.

“Are you okay, mi’mor?” The captor leaned toward Tessa and soothingly petted her head. All she could do was nod. He patted her knee, and she felt the rough, callused hand of a man who had at least at one time had to work and use tools regularly, but it didn’t seem to connect with the commanding presence he held with the other two goons.

Another ten minutes of bouncing off-road, and they finally came to a stop. The door beside her opened, and she was scooped out of the truck and placed on the ground. The air felt cooler, but just a bit. Tessa could smell something sweet, but she couldn’t quite decide what it was. She could feel movement behind her and assumed it was her captor sliding out of the truck. She heard Dara gasp sharply on the other side, and the sound of the back hatch’s hydraulics helping to lift the hatch itself. Whoever was back there, Nicó or Leandro, grunted slightly. Tessa assumed he was getting the other two out of the back.

“OK,” the capo said. “We walk you in, sit you down, then we take off the hoods. Be careful walking, and take our directions specifically. Your shoes don’t look so great for the environment.”

Gingerly and almost as if her ankles were bound, Tessa began moving in the direction the capo directed. His calloused hand was back on her, but he’d taken her elbow firmly yet somehow still chivalrously. She followed everything he said and eventually found herself being seated on a cold metal chair. She refused to let her mind go to the dark places and imagine the scene of the four girls bound to cold metal chairs in some horrible, desolate warehouse.

She heard and felt movements near her on each side, and the smell of jasmine and vanilla reached her nose, heralding Gillian’s presence. Tessa was almost quivering with anxiety to see the other three and just know that they were relatively okay. Suddenly, someone grabbed her left foot and forced it over to the leg of the chair, quickly binding it there with a large zip-tie. Tessa cried out as the hard plastic edge cut into the skin. She adjusted her ankle to relieve some of the pressure as the other foot got the same treatment.

“No seas tan á spero!” yelled the capo. “I’ll kill you if you leave any marks on her body!”

Leandro laughed a bit. “Capo, do you think you’re getting married? She’s a prisoner, not a bride.”

The capo replied through clenched teeth. “She’s a captive, yes, but she will still be adored. And she’s mine. Whatever is mine, you will treat with respect. Comprende?”

“Sí, capo,” Leandro replied, his tone apologetic.

The hood was swept off Tessa’s head, and she squinted against the bright light at first. The capo was in front of her, smoothing her hair into place. Tessa had to work this angle. She had to keep him adoring her somehow. He would eventually slip, surely. If there was this small glimmer of kindness, he could be manipulated. “You can see your friends are okay, but then that is all,” the capo explained.

“What do you mean?” Tessa asked. She looked on each side of her. Other than the bruises Dara had on her face and the mess of tangles her long copper hair had become, the girls looked untouched. Her eyes locked with Melissa’s, and she knew that Melissa was telling her to keep the capo wanting her. Before she could try and read anything else from Melissa or Gillian, the three of them were pulled up from their chairs by three armed men.

“You didn’t think we would leave you all together, did you?” the capo asked Tessa. “You’re too smart. We can’t afford to have you conspiring against us.”

“No, wait,” Tessa said. “Please. What are we going to do? We have no idea where we are or even who you’re. What plans can we possibly make?”

The other three were marched out of the small room and the door closed behind them. Tessa could hear the military-style boots of the three men clomping down the hallway. Eventually, one set would stop and open a creaky door, then slam it. Too soon, there was nothing to hear.

“Your handler, Zinsser, should be receiving a message very soon informing him of your capture. The only way he will get you back is to pay us the money he owes. I have a feeling he will be especially interested in the fact that we have you, mi’mor,” the capo purred. “He and I have shared a certain affinity for you for quite a while. You alone will probably bring the entire ransom.”

“Affinity? Zinsser? For me?” Tessa didn’t want to say too much. She knew she needed to keep up this act to stay alive, but it made her skin crawl to think about that weasel having fantasies about her. But more than an affinity for her, Tessa knew Zinsser had an affinity for money. . . and power, which meant she and her girls were shit out of luck.

Giles chuckled to see how stupid the Gonzalez brothers were. Sure enough, they were using their cabin as some sort of headquarters for this operation. He immediately texted Gavin to notify the others of his findings. He knew that some action would follow and soon, and he relished the idea. He decided that he should really check the lay of the land and spot the assets around. The brothers would need to call in “reinforcements”, so he needed to know if he’d options available.

As he stole into the shadows, Giles made mental notes of the layout. There were tents set up in the back almost like a command center of a battle. Armed soldiers milled around or stood watch.

This is hilarious, Giles thought. They really think they’re big time. The Gonzalez brothers had always been the butt of jokes around the town, literally the village idiots. The rumors were that the family tree only went one direction, and as far as Giles was concerned, their stupidity validated that theory. The Fuerzas had experienced a few run-ins with these two brothers, usually when Nico and Leandro were inebriated and belligerent. They were the kind of drunks that always had to get into a pissing contest with any male within a twelve-mile radius. This get-up was definitely an attempt to actually “be” someone.

How pathetic, mused Giles.

“Well, look at that.” Gavin whispered behind his brother.

“What in the hell is that?” Reed questioned. “Is there a war and we weren’t invited?”

“Ssshhhh. There are way too many stupid people with automatic weapons around here. We don’t need to draw attention to ourselves.”