The Law of Motion (Law Series) (42 page)

"And then some Play Boy," she laughed, shoving me. "Come on, I'm missing my bud."
             

We all shut up at those words, because it brought home the reality of why we were standing in the middle of the fucking woods on a rainy night.

Macon slapped the back of his hand across my chest. "Let's go, Boss. We have the longest run, because we're cracking open the opposite side of the fence from here."

"Radio checks. Sound off," Cam commanded as we all split into the forest at a silent, but fast pace.

As we all checked in, the terrain became steeper. The trees were large and grew close together. An owl hooted somewhere overhead, his call an eerie sound in the dead of night. A deer bolted at the sight of us, taking off into the rain soaked forest. After that, the only sounds we heard were the sounds of our own breathing and the spatter of rain falling around us.

             
I spent the past few hours pacing in my cell after having a full twenty minutes of rest before a nightmare woke me. I had been through worse. And though, I should have been finding comfort in that it only made me angrier. I
couldn’t
escape from Garcia’s place. It was guarded by men that held almost as much training as I had. It was pure luck that I was able to catch one slipping when I did. And hell, even that had to take weeks.

             
These guys. They were idiots with guns. The guards in this bomb shelter with me always slept, if they were even here at all. And when they were awake they were easily distracted by the slightest things. I was pissed at how many opportunities for escape that I had. The ones I had to let go, because I needed a rescue to get off of the mountain, especially in a storm. But the waiting was killing me.

Throughout the day I listened to Kris, talked to him, and he brought me food when he could. He told me that he already had his family in a safe place, and only stuck around in case some of the other guys got jumpy. I was grateful to have an ally in this. I didn’t have that in Cuba and made the waiting easier. This was good because Myles and Zoe were pissing me the fuck off. More than once he’d come to the cell door, just to watch me, with some evil fascination plastered on his face. My hands shook with the desire to just knock him the fuck out. Zoe just kept saying smart shit under her breath, but kept a safer distance from my cage since her little collision with the bars.

No one checked in on me for 
fucking hours
, a fact that just made my temper rise to the surface. By the time they all traipsed their happy asses down the stairs, I was practically a pacing lioness in my cage. I glared at the three of them as they walked down with Kris.

Zoë’s dumb ass was the first to speak. “Look at me like that again, and I’ll wipe that look off your face.”

"Good luck with that," I warned her with a raised eyebrow. "You
seriously
underestimate me."

"We're going to call your boyfriend back and tell him where to meet us," Terry stated, pulling out a cell phone from his pocket ignoring our words. Once again, he turned on the speakerphone.

"Harris," Adrian answered sharply, and for a split second, I heard people in the background.

"Tomorrow, Adrian. Monroeville Mall...two o'clock," Terry stated, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Those terms aren't good for me, because I'm not going to walk into a trap. My money, my terms," Adrian replied, his voice calm, smooth, but I could hear an underlying anger seething just below the surface. "Scranton...bus station...noon," he countered.

Terry closed his eyes, letting a hissing breath out in a rush. "Fine, but you'd better bring that money, or I'll shoot Alyssa in the head on the fucking street corner."

"No, you won't," Adrian stated. "But you can try."

"If you bring someone other than yourself, Harris, she won't make it out of the car," Terry swore.

Adrian laughed. 
Laughed
. It made me smile and raise an eyebrow at my captor.

             
"I'm not particularly concerned," my guy snickered. "I'm pretty sure she can fight you and win. Hell, I'd be willing to bet more than one of you is sporting a bruise or two from her."

Oh damn. My eyebrows shot up, because he couldn't possibly know that. He had to be guessing...or he just knew me that fucking well.

Terry laughed. "As a matter of fact... they are," he snorted, glancing at Zoe, Myles, and Kris, though Terry didn't know that Kris's was by request.

"Before I do shit, I want to hear her voice," Adrian stated, and Terry waved to me.

"Adrian," I sighed, just happy to be able to say his name.

"Honeyface, hang in there for me. It won't be long now. The
 
hour
 is drawing near," he said cryptically, but he leaned on the word "hour," just like he had leaned on the words "one day" during the last phone call.

I wanted to jump with joy because Adrian was fucking
 
here
. He was so close that I would see him in a few hours. My heart soared with elation, but pounded with worry, because this would be a fight.

I told him. "Be safe."

“I love you Alyssa," he crooned, but his voice changed back to forceful when he addressed Walter. "Tomorrow...Scranton."

With that, he ended the call, and Terry smirked, stepping closer to me. A stack of pages landed on the cell floor. Terry had thrown them at me through the bars. "Nothing," he stated. "Your boyfriend and his father are nothing but business men."

“Macon King, security guard after her left the army, Jackson Meadows, photographer, Roslyn De Luca an aviation instructor and Dario Lombardi a
fucking
cook.”

I huffed a laugh, not even bothering to look at the pages. I let them drop to the floor, except for one that caught my attention, Adrian’s background. I gripped it, walked to the bars, and thrust it into Terry's face.

"See that span of time between his dismissal from the Army to the day he joined me. Do you
see it
?" I yelled, waiting until they all nodded. "His father has an even longer span of time than that. Doesn't that even concern you? Or are you too pompous to think outside the fucking box?"

They didn't answer, not one of them.

"They were ghosts, Terry," I told him, keeping my voice calm. "Do you think I would have fucking cook as the head of my security team?” I spat laughing, because Dario’s fake life was almost as ridiculous as Jackson’s. “They lived under the radar, but they never, 
ever
 stopped being soldiers."

They stayed quiet, so I finally decided to let them know what was coming. "You won't hear them, you know—when they come—It'll be silent when they walk up in here. They'll cut your power, your communication, and probably the throats of the guards at the gate, not to mention that razor wire. They'll go hunting, seeking out every individual that ever had a part to play in this shit. Every man will be punished for just having
known
you, Terry.

They are experts in stealth, guns, explosives, and torture. They carry with them an intense sense of family, of
 
loyalty
. If you think you've gotten away, that's when the sniper gets you, or when the man hidden in the brush puts a knife to your throat. They are fast, smart, and extremely deadly. They have zero problems killing, because it's 
what they do
. They were Navy Seals, Black-Ops Specialists, Apache pilots and Rangers. They’re the FBI, the DIA, and they are coming for
me
. I'm not fucking kidding you. And you can prepare all you want, but you won't stop them. They'll know the layout of this place inside and out. They'll know exactly what they're looking for, and that storm won't even slow them down."

Myles shifted on his feet as the spatter of raindrops smacked against the concrete stairs, but Terry stood his ground in front of me. Kris shook his head, looking slightly sick, and I needed to make sure that he stayed alive, because he'd helped me when he didn't have to. Zoe smirked, rolled her eyes, and glanced up at Myles. “That’s why your capture was so easy.” She snarked at me.

I grabbed the bars and looked on the other side of him. “I am here because I
want
to be. They aren’t the only ones that were in Special Forces. Or does my time in the Air Force not bother you either?”

“No, and neither does your
discharge
.” Myles snapped.

I smiled at him and rolled my eyes. “Oh so you
can
read…”

“Don’t argue.” Terry snapped. Without taking his eyes from me, he said, "Myles, go wake the reinforcements. Have them at the ready. If she's lying, then it's no great loss, but if she's not, then these...
soldiers
 will have to fight their way in. And keep an eye on this bitch." He gestured toward me, giving Zoe a sideways glance.

I laughed softly and humorlessly, rolling my eyes and shrugging. "Myles, wake them all. It'll make it easier for them to be found." I pointed to Terry. "My boyfriend wasn't shitting you, Terry. He
 
will
 make this personal." I yelled after him when the door to the stairs slammed.




I sneered at the two guards that now stood sentry at the main gate of the prison I was in. Their backs were to me, but their conversation was loud and clear. They were talking about football, baseball, and women—the latter of topics going on
 
way
 too long for my liking, though I think they were doing it on purpose.

If they said the word "pussy" one more time, I was going to dismantle my cot and throw it at them. It was one thing when Adrian whispered it, his voice dripping with sexiness and dirty ideas. It was a completely different thing when it was actually used to describe women, objectifying them. Pigs.

They were dressed just like everyone else I'd seen—plaid shirts, jeans, hiking boots, and ratty tees, and they really had no discipline, because they truly weren't paying attention. One was young, maybe late teens, and the other was old enough to be his father. Neither would have passed an IQ test. At all.

I could've opened my cell and choked them from behind, and they would never have heard me coming, as loud as they were talking. They were paying attention to their cell phones and each other, but not their surroundings. As much as I wanted to get rid of them, I needed to wait until the right time.

I thought about Kris, I told him to get out of dodge because I was worried about what was coming. I had held off the truth as much as I could incase he had a change of heart and decided to warn them beforehand but he didn’t. It was the only way that I could assure he’d be fine because I knew that they were gonna tear this place apart. Honestly, him being here when he should have been with his family made me sad and nervous. Nervous, because I wasn't sure what the others planned to do to me, and sad, because he'd gotten wrapped up in something that he should never have been close to. He'd been trying to move on with his life.

"I'm gonna take a piss," the older one said, walking up the steps, the puddles of rain splashing under his heavy foot. The storm was heavy and I got tired of listening to the conversation.

I sighed getting antsy, again, I knew that they were out there even if they hadn’t stormed yet. “Time to leave.” I said to myself as I felt around the pocket of my cargo pants, finding what I was looking for just behind the metal clasp. The last gadget I was saving. I pulled out one of Doc's lock picks, giving Mr. Teenage Hormones a quick glance, before reaching around through the bars of my cell. It was harder to do when I couldn't see, and I damn well wasn't as good at it as Doc was, but it wasn't long before the lock clicked back.

My eyes shot up to the main cell door, but the kid was too busy picking his nose to pay attention to what I was doing. Carefully, centimeter by centimeter, I opened the door. I didn't want it to creak in any way. I tiptoed up behind the kid, reaching slowly through the bars, and grabbed the back of his shirt. With one hard and fast yank, I pulled him back against the steel bars, knocking his ass out cold. He fell to the concrete with a soft thump.

I reached through the bars to open the next lock, trying to hurry, because Piss Boy would be back soon. The lock clicked louder on the second one, echoing up the stairwell, and I froze, waiting to see if someone up top had heard. When no one came running, I carefully and slowly tugged open the gate.

I climbed the stairs, keeping my eyes peeled and my ears straining to hear anything from above me. I plastered myself on the right side of the wall, peering out over the grounds. There was an exceptional amount of activity for how late it was. Men milled around the grounds, weapons shouldered. I turned to the left, and my path was blocked, but when I peeked around to the right, it was all clear.

I waited until the closest set of men turned around, and then I pushed myself out of the stairwell, darting around the corner of the shelter. I was aiming for the barn wall— more specifically, the haystack next to it— when a cry rang out.

"Hey!" I heard behind me, along with thumping and splashing boots through the rain soaked grass. "Son of a bitch! Stop her!"