Hot for His Hostage (35 page)

Mom had missed her normal check-in call last night. Then again this morning.

“Yo, Ghid.” Maybe a redirect was the best plan here. “It’s nearly ninety out here.
That black shirt has to feel like a wool blanket. If you keep to the back of the tent,
just shuck it and nobody will be the wiser.”

Ghid sat in the chair next to Tait. The wicker creaked, not used to supporting over
two hundred pounds of solid muscle. “Kid, half my blood once roamed across Africa.
What makes you think this isn’t my idea of heaven?”

Tait threw over a scowl. “Could’ve fooled the rest of us.”

Shay didn’t hide the kick he dealt the dork this time. “Can you just zip it the hell
up now?”

“Sorry.” T took a sheepish drag of his drink before raising a sincere stare at Ghid.
“She’ll call soon, dude. I know it.”

The guy grunted and shrugged. “Meh. I’m just being a paranoid pussy. She’s got a lot
to deal with right now, with everyone but Oliver, Nika, and Damian now at the compound.”

Shay straightened. “Those are the three guys we couldn’t bust out of A-fifty-one with
us?” Ghid held his gaze and nodded tightly. The guy’s eyes were touched with teal
today because of his stress, but Shay also observed a warmer shade of understanding.
He knew what it was like to feel almost a brother to a guy because your screams hit
the same roofs.

Shay nodded in return, giving Ghid his thanks even as he joined the guy in a silent
promise to those three men.
We’ll go back for you. We swear
.

“Right.” Tait submitted the assertion with empathy drawn on his face for Ghid. “I
feel you, G. I want to talk to her again, too.” He exhaled. “Fuck. I can’t wait to
see
her again.” He tossed his stare at Shay. “You think she’ll recognize me? I mean,
I’m taller now. And cuter…”

Shay joined Ghid and Dan in a round of disgusted groans. After that, silence took
over the cabana. It seemed T’s humor had instigated deep thoughts for all four of
them.

After a couple of minutes, Ghid cocked his head. Shay could almost predict the question
he’d pose but waited for the discomfort of it, anyway.

“You have any ideas about the beasties lurking in your CBC test, kid?”

The man hadn’t let down his expectation.
Shit
.

Shay started his response with a shrug. “Nothing’s ever turned a weird color, howled
at the moon, or grown to abnormal proportions.”

Tait chuckled. “Except for that thing between your legs.”

Shay’s pulse froze for a second. He pinned his brother with a stare. “You mean yours
isn’t—”

“What?”

“The same…uhhh…”

“You mean am I hung like a goddamn race horse? Apparently not. But I heard all about
you
from Sylvia Cooper. In excruciating, inch-by-inch detail.” Tait set down his drink,
shaking with laughter. “Christ wept, brother. Are you blushing?”

“Damn. I think he is,” Dan drawled.

Ghid folded his arms and glowered. “Well, fuck. I get the backside of a Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle, and he gets to be Babar the Elephant?”

Shay whipped a glare of his own to Colton, who fully enjoyed the shared snicker with
Tait. “Guess you’re happy now with ‘teabaggin’ Tex’.”

Though Ghid looked tempted to jump on that dig, he kept his regard fixed on Shay.
“So that narrows things down to a list of critters on the—errrm—well-endowed side.
Stop looking soggy as a Jane Austen novel, kid; I know you’ve been curious.”

Shay pushed out a rebellious snort. So what if the guy was right? So what if ‘curious’
only chipped the tip of the mental chaos he’d been dealing with in all this? So what
if he felt like he’d been in a turbulent ocean already, only to be whammed by a goddamn
tsunami? And so what if the only anchor he kept swimming to was a five-foot-three
beauty he’d only met a week ago? Wilder shit had been known to happen to people, right?

People.

Yeah. And wasn’t that the bitch of things?

He couldn’t validate even being a ‘person’ anymore…even if he’d never felt more ecstatically,
uniquely, a man.

A cell phone started ringing. The look on Ghid’s face conveyed that the call wasn’t
just a prayer answered for Shay. After Ghid frantically pulled the device from his
pocket, his lips quirked in his version of jubilation. “It’s her.”

“Thank fuck,” Tait said.

“No shit.” As Ghid rose and walked away, he added over his shoulder, “You can blab
at her once I’m done, T.”

“
Mahalo
.” Tait swiveled back toward Shay with a chuckle tempting his lips. He shook his head
as he gave into the mirth. “Wow.”

Shay inclined his head. “Wow what?”

“What do you mean, wow what? In the last seventy-two hours, I’ve learned my little
bro pulled off arguably the slickest secret mission since Neptune’s Spear, and brought
our mom back to us in the process. Not only that, but you’re now some kind of badass
super hybrid something,
and
you found a woman who digs the hell out of you—who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. I
sure as hell know where Kell and I are taking our dreamgirl on our next vacation.”

Shay couldn’t help indulging his own laugh. “What happened to my sibling who always
made things dark as a Brontë novel?”

Tait flaunted a lopsided grin. “He moved to Kauaˈi. Swims in the ocean before breakfast.
And has the love of his life to come home to every day.”

He studied the guy for a long moment, hardly believing his brother was the same man.
A year ago, the only thing that got Tait out of bed was a bottle of Grey Goose and
a semi-clean glass. A soft smile replaced his chuckle. “It’s really that simple, isn’t
it?”

Tait gestured toward the pool with one hand. “Sometimes you just have to believe it’s
the best day of your life, brother.”

Like a bizarre magic spell, T’s words seemed to set everything into slow motion. The
bad B movie kind, like rocks in Jell-O—which was exactly what Ghid looked like as
he fell to his knees on the deck. The phone popped out of his hand and plunked into
the pool between Zoe and Ryder, who joined Brynn and Ellie in gaping at him with confused
horror in their eyes.

“What the hell?” Dan bounded to his feet.

Shay rose with him. “Not. Good.”

He might as well have said
holy shit
.

Zoe. She had to get out of the water. He had to have her back here, next to him. Now.
Now
.

But the second her name started to buzz off his lips, his phone rang. Also listing
a northern Nevada number.

Shay jammed the line open as fast as he could. “Mom? What the hell’s going on? Ghid
just collapsed like a deck of cards, and—”

“Sergeant Shay Bommer. My, my, my. Hello there.”

It wasn’t Mom. The voice was low. Calm. Cultured. Male.

Sometimes you just have to believe it’s the best day of your life
…

Until it became the worst.

“Where the hell’s my mother, Homer?”

Despite the heat of the day, Zoe shivered as if she’d been dunked in a vat of ice.

She’d been trembling since the moment Ghid’s proud stance had given way to a collapse
of defeat. If that hadn’t turned the day into a giant blast of surreal, Shay’s snarl
worked out the finale for the job.

Homer Adler. Like the captain of the
Titanic
, he was all too happy to guide a ship of dreams, right up until the iceberg. Then
he’d abandoned it, but found time to leave a “parting gift” for Shay—an adder in a
shiny box called Mom. 

Before even hearing his sickening professor voice, Zoe hated the man.

Where the hell had he come from? Why was he calling? And how did he know both Ghid
and Shay’s numbers?

Caramba.
If the answer was a snake, she would’ve been bitten and killed by now.

After one look at Shay’s face, she wondered if she was going to wish for that, anyway.

There was only one person on earth with both Ghid’s and Shay’s numbers stored in their
phone. She knew that because she’d personally programmed Shay’s number into the device.

Right before saying her good-byes to Melody Bommer.

Shay paced to the cabana’s table, his steps erratic. Half a dozen drinks and a plate
of nachos occupied the space until he cleared them in one sweep. After slamming down
the phone in their place, he stabbed the speaker button and leaned over the device,
hands planted like he’d reach in and grab Adler through the phone if he could.

“I asked you a question, maggot. Start talking, or I’ll track you to within an inch
of your puckered little ass hole then implant it with enough bullets, you’ll shit
lead for the rest of your sorry days.”

“Really? Hmmm. You and what army?” The man sounded like Shay was a boy again and he’d
simply asked if Shay wanted his ice cream in a cone or a cup. “The big green machine
who’s officially listed you AWOL after you slipped away from the facility at A-fifty-one?
Or the CIA spooks who have joined in on the manhunt, since Mr. Colton is on that same
outlaw list with you?”

“Surprise, surprise,” Colton whispered.

“You think they locked you out just because you had bad breath or something?” Ry retorted,
also beneath his breath.

“He doesn’t have bad breath,” Brynn snapped. Colton’s light smack on her ass ended
any extension of that debate.

Besides that, Adler was just getting started. “Hmmm,” the man repeated. “Perhaps you’re
enlisting the Las Vegas Police Department, who are getting ready to break the news
that three young dancers from the Sunset four-oh-three drama were recaptured by one
of their hijackers three nights ago, along with their handsome model friend, and are
believed alive…for now.”

This bastard was starting to piss Zoe off. “Nice try,
cabrón
.” She closed the towel around her waist with a harsh jab. “You’re too late. We’ve
all called our families already. They know we’re safe, happy, and protected.”

“Do they, Miss Chestain?” His voice, a combination of Hannibal Lecter and Agent Smith
from
The Matrix
, sent a hundred more ice cubes down her spine—with spikes in them. “I
am
speaking with Miss Chestain, yes? How pleasant it is to hear your voice. It’s as
lovely as your face. Your friend at the police department, Captain Donner, was generous
in sharing so many—interesting—images of you in his urgent concern for your safe recovery.”

The ice blended into her stomach. The spikes, too. “Captain Donner,” she stammered.
“
Bryce
Donner?”

Adler hummed again, a creepy confirmation. Shay’s posture curled into a tension she’d
never seen before.

“As I said, the man’s been very helpful in our efforts. He’s still very fond of you.”

“But he’s not a captain.”

“He is now.”

Forget the ice. Zoe’s skin crawled with cockroaches of disgust. “You’re vile.”

Ghid, who’d managed to stumble back to the cabana with Ry and El’s help, shoved back
up with his stampeding rhino face on. “No more happy tea party, asshole, until you
put Mel on.”

Adler’s huff distorted the line for a moment. “Now, Gabriel,” he chided. “That’s not
the way it works and you know it.”

Shay rotated the phone so the speaker was closest to him. “His name’s Ghid. Call him
‘Gabriel’ again and you won’t have an anus to speak of. Secondly, that’s exactly the
way it’s going to work, Adler.”

The man’s chuckle made her think of fava beans, Chianti, and having the stomach flu.
“Oh my, little Shay, how magnificently you have grown up. Having to watch you from
afar was never as interesting as this.”

Zoe’s heart clenched to watch Shay take in that confession. She’d had a weirdo fan
of the show try to stalk her for a few months, who was eventually thwarted when she
started dating Bryce. It was a nightmare that ended after a few weeks—nothing compared
to what Shay now had to comprehend. The clench of his fist and the tension in his
back confirmed that harrowing fact.

“Glad to know it was so fucking fascinating for you,” he finally snarled at the phone.
“Can we move on now?”

“Oh, fascinating doesn’t even scratch the surface, boy. I have to know, which part
did you feel the most, do you think? Was it Hercules or Scout? Or maybe it changed
as you got older…” He interrupted himself with a soft grunt. “Good lord, I’m digressing.”

“No shit.” Shay didn’t relax an inch of his rigidity though he visibly battled to
stay focused on the conversation now. “My mother, you dickwad. Put her on the phone,
or you don’t get one more tight hair of cooperation from me.”

The bastard released a heavy sigh. Zoe tucked her arms to her sides to avoid throwing
the phone—or anything else—out of furious frustration.

During the same interim, Tait stared over at his brother. “Hercules and Scout? The
horse and the family dog. That’s poetic, in a fucked-up kind of way.”

“Shut up,” Shay growled.

“Shay?”

Ghid joined Shay and Tait in lunging over the phone. “Mel?” His voice wavered. “God—Mellie—are
you okay? If he’s touched a hair on your head, I swear I’ll—”

“I’m fine. We’re all fine. Shay…are you there?”

“Right here, Mom. And Tait, too.”

A determined growl vibrated over the line. It was so impressive, Zoe forgot her trepidation
for a moment. One musing, crossed off the list. Shay got the talent straight from
Mama Bommer, not the family dog.

“Listen to me, Shay. I’m still your mother. If you give in to this douche, I’ll rain
hell on you like you’ve never—ahhhh! Noooo!”

“Adler!” Ghid bellowed it as Melody’s shrieks exploded through the line. The sound
ripped horrified tears out of Zoe, while her empty stomach churned on its own bile.
Brynn and El hugged her from other side, their faces bearing the same grief.

As Melody’s screams diminished into sobs, an incoming image flashed on the phone’s
screen.

A newly severed human finger. Slender. Female.

Ghid’s back heaved and dropped in time with his tormented breathing. His arms curled
up and back, his hands like paws of quaking fury. Zoe didn’t doubt he’d choke the
life from the first creature that crossed his path. No sound spilled from him except
those lurching breaths. Shay and Tait’s faces were grim, conveying the stark understanding
of soldiers who’d experienced this kind of brutality before—though it had never been
their mother. 

Nobody said a word except Ryder, who often had obnoxiously accurate ways of expressing
things. “I’ve met gobs of testicle sweat with more class than that.”

Adler added his smug chuckle on top of Melody’s steady weeping. “Oh, aren’t you a
clever bunch? That’s such a sweet sentiment, but I’m not in the mood for sweetness
today.”

“You don’t say,” Tait snarled.

Shay straightened. His arms coiled at his sides at similar angles to Ghid’s, fierce
and tense, only his hands were slack, as if he prepared to render his damage by grabbing
a rifle instead of ripping someone to shreds. “He’s in the mood for business,” he
intoned. “And about to tell us that if we’re not, Mom has nine where that came from.”
He stared at the phone as if tempted to spit on it. “Am I warm, asshole?”

“You forgot the part about letting my men arm wrestle for who gets to use her cunt
first, but sure…that’s warm enough.”

Ghid still didn’t say a word. Instead, as they all watched, he departed the cabana
on steps that threatened to crack the deck with their intensity. He didn’t stop his
incensed prowl until he got to one of the palms that bordered the pool—and rammed
the top of his head into the thing’s trunk. With a roar, he shoved. And shoved. And
shoved. The palm gave way, Ghid’s force hauling it out by its roots. It crashed into
the pool, soaking the deck, though Zoe was certain the surface of Ghid’s face was
wetter.

More sobs erupted up her own throat in empathy for his pain. As little as a week ago,
his act would’ve had her urging the hotel to skip the call to security and dial the
local mental hospital. Now, she understood every drop of his grief. It was exactly
how she’d feel if Shay were in captivity under Adler’s filthy thumb.

“You’ve made your point, Adler,” Shay finally stated. “Now let’s talk logistics and
terms.”

Colton angled in, making sure his glare was acknowledged. “Dammit, I-Man. No!”

Zoe shoved away the ice cubes. Barely. As for the iceberg that waited behind them?
Adler made sure nobody forgot it today, didn’t he?

“Shut up, Dan.” But Shay locked his gaze with Tait’s as he issued it. “This is my
decision. And I decide it’s going down.”

“Wh-what’s going down?” Zoe stammered. She reached and grabbed Tait’s elbow. “What
the hell is he talking about?” Then shifted her hold back to Shay. “What the hell
are you—”

“It’ll be okay, dancer.” He pressed his fingers over hers. “Everybody gets what they
want. Mom will finally have her compound in the hills, and she’ll be safe.”

The iceberg flowed on top of her chest before she could rasp her reply. Before she
could bear to know what Shay would render as his answer.

“And what does that
bastardo
want?”

“Me.”

* * * * *

There was such a thing as life moving fast. Then there was the speed of light. Then
there was the acceleration taking place as she watched, blinking and speechless, from
the corner of Roklan Reed’s palace-sized living room in the city’s luxurious Southern
Highlands neighborhood.

Rok, arguably the world’s most recognized male model in the world for the last two
years, wasn’t just Ryder’s mentor. He’d become a good friend to Ry—probably with benefits
from time to time—which was a damn good thing, since they’d all shot out of the Vdara
as soon as Shay hung up with Adler, and Ryder called Rok beseeching this huge favor.

That was all after the conversation that had Zoe losing her lunch on top of the tree
Ghid had uprooted. The little chat in which Shay agreed to turn himself over to Adler
in exchange for his mother—tomorrow at dawn.

During the two and a half hours after that, spent mostly inside Ghid’s van in a convenience
store parking lot, Zoe refused to look at Shay, let alone acknowledge his assurances
about how everything was going to be “copacetic,” Apparently, he and Tait had used
their bond of brotherly connection to mind-meld back at the hotel and there was already
some kind of plan in the works. The moment Rok pinged back at Ry with a green light
on them all invading his home, they were on their way. During the trip, Colton kept
showing both thumbs up, assuring Shay and Tait that all parties involved in their
plan were on board for the challenge.

She’d succumbed to the royal eyebrow spike with that one. What the hell did “all the
involved parties” mean when they were being hunted by every military, police, and
special intelligence officer within a fifty-mile radius? Did they plan on recruiting
mercenaries from the strip clubs and bars at the other end of town? The way they chattered
on about “the team” and “the op” made her seriously ponder the idea, tempting her
to vomit all over again. Did Shay actually think his ragtag little crew would stand
with him the second anything went sideways with this plan?

And things
would
go sideways.

They always did when she loved the person at stake.

Mom had returned from Greece with tuberculosis. Ava moved to LA for a dream job and
ended up working for a lunatic—then was nearly killed by another.

And dammit, now it would be Shay.

Who she loved just as much.

And maybe, in certain parts of her heart and soul, a little more.

She gazed at him crossing the room, joining Tait in the foyer to greet the newest
arrival at the house: Sergeant Garrett Hawkins. She recognized Garrett at once from
the photos of Ethan’s team that were now part of the décor in Ava’s Hermosa Beach,
California bungalow. He was a muscular hunk with thick, dark blond hair that spiked
naturally at the top and a proud jawline that spoke to his Iowa farm boy origins.