Torn (16 page)

I was pulled from my deep thoughts when I
heard Sara hollering, “Wait, you can’t just-”

My wooden double doors flew open, revealing
my best friend, Drew. Quickly, I tried to bury the letter in one of
the several piles of contracts, addendums, and other legal briefs.
“Drew, what’s up? Is everything okay? Oh, sorry, Sara.” I nodded.
“It’s fine.”

“Hey, man, why’s my sister callin’ me
freakin’ out? She seemed to think something was wrong.” Drew
strolled across my office and stopped in front of the desk as I
stood and walked around to meet him.

“I told her I was fine. I just called to
check and might have been a little distracted,” I admitted and
omitted. “I think she’s a little jumpy since the attack.”

“Yeah, I stopped by the other day and scared
the shit out of her, by accident of course.” He sat down in one of
the leather armchairs while I leaned on the front of my desk.

“See, it’s all in her mind. I really hate to
be a dick, but I have a ton of shit going down and I need to get
back to this merger.”

“Hmm, that’s funny, Leila said you claimed to
be preoccupied with a settlement that was falling apart.” He leaned
farther back in the chair, settling in.

Well fuck.

“I’m also dealing with the settlement, but I
have a merger that’s gone to shit now too.” I stood and retraced my
steps to my chair and sat.

Leave this alone,
Drew.

“Bro, you are the world’s shittiest liar.
What’s goin’ on? When I came in you were shoving papers around, I
assume hiding something. You’re antsy and sweating. Plus you have a
tell. When you’re lyin’ you clench your jaw and bite the inside of
your cheek. So spill, what’s goin’ on?”

Since she was safe and clearly had not been
abducted, I decided to tell Drew about the letter. “Someone dropped
off a letter saying they had Leila. I can only assume it was that
Drill guy, but I called Lei and she was home with Jaxon.”

“Where is it?” Drew looked over my desk.

Reaching down, I pulled the letter from
between a few piles of papers I had shuffled it into when he
practically burst in. “Here.”

Carefully he took the note from me, pinching
it by the corners, and read it. “Son of a bitch.” Drew pulled his
cell out and placed a call, requesting a forensics tech be sent to
my office to dust for prints.

A pissed-off Drew shook his head before
saying, “Seriously, Brody, why wouldn’t you call me?”

“I was going to but after I talked to Leila
and knew she was safe, I called my head of security and had him
start looking into this.” I stood and started pacing the room.

“I need to question Sara and look over your
security tapes.” Drew started to walk out of my office when he said
over his shoulder, “I’m calling Jaxon and Commander Gorden.”

Why in the hell would this
fool send me a ransom note if he doesn’t have Leila? It doesn’t
make any sense.

“Gorden is sending an agent over to review
the footage and question your assistant. I’ve been told to step
back, that I’m too close, but you know me.” An evil grin spread
across his face. “Can you pull up the video feed in here before
they get here?”

“Of course.” I sat down at the computer and
logged onto our security server. “What time did Sara say it was
delivered?”

“Five-fifteen to five-thirtyish.”

Looking at the right-hand corner of the
monitor, I took notice of the time. “Okay, I will rewind to five
and you can review.”

“Sounds good.” Drew came around and stood
behind me.

Fifteen minutes later the agent who was sent
out arrived at the office. He came in like a junkyard dog, barking
orders and just being a prick. “Listen, you’re in my office, don’t
talk down to me. If you need something, ask me, not my staff. They
don’t work for you.”

“Right,” was his smarmy reply.

He’s so goddamned lucky I was focused on
Leila right now, otherwise I’d throw his arrogant ass out of
here.

By eight p.m. there was an updated BOLO alert
out for Drill. The Feds had determined the messenger was just some
kid pulled in off the street. They figured Drill had paid the kid
to drop the letter off at a specific time. They had captured an
image from the security camera and sent it to patrol cars in the
area to identify and pick up.

Just as I was telling Sara to head home there
was an alert on my phone from the security cameras at Leila’s.
Pulling up the camera feed, I saw someone hopping the fence into
the backyard.

“Fuck,” I roared as I practically ran and
dived over my desk to dial Leila’s phone number. “Pick up the
fucking phone, Leila.”

She answered. “Brody, what’s wrong? Why are
you sho—,” she tried to ask.

“Give the phone to Jaxon and get upstairs
now,” I demanded.

“Brody, you—”

“Now, Leila. Give him the fucking phone,” I
shouted into the receiver.

“What the hell, Brody?” Jaxon growled.

“Someone just hopped the fence and is in the
backyard. Get her the fuck out of there or into the panic
room.”

“Son of a bitch. Leila, honey, I need you to
stay calm and go upstairs. Go into the panic room. Babe, don’t cry,
it’s okay, just go right now and take Ruger.” Hearing him call her
babe made me want to gut him like a fish, but right now her safety
was all I cared about.

*****

Jaxon

Leila tried to climb the stairs as quickly
as she could, telling Ruger to heel the whole way. Smart dog; he
knew something was going down and wanted to be in the middle of the
action. It was what he was trained and bred for, but I needed him
with her. He would die before he watched anyone hurt her.

“Stay on the phone, I’m going to put it
down,” I told Brody as I set the phone down on the table in the
foyer. Reaching into the closet, I grabbed the Beretta then reached
over and turned out the lights.

I saw the silhouette of a tall man before I
heard the knob rattle slightly. I had just enough light to see
where I was going as I crept down the hall to take cover behind the
dining room wall. Dropping to my knees, I peeked around the corner
to see the back door open and the large shadowy figure creeping
near our kitchen island with gun in hand.

Making the split-second decision, I barked
out, “Drop the gun or you’re dead.”

I gave him the opportunity, even though I was
well within my legal rights to shoot him where he stood, and God
knew I wanted to kill the fucker.

He looked side to side, scanning the room,
trying to get a bead on where I was. Slowly, he crouched down and
appeared to be placing the gun on the hardwood floor. “Yo, man,
don’t shoot. I’m puttin’ my piece down.”

“Kick it straight ahead and lie face down,
arms straight out in front of you. And so help me God if you move,
I’ll send you outta here in a body bag,” I ordered, still squatting
out of sight. By this time the guy had kicked the gun and was face
down on the floor.

Grabbing the gun, once I was closer, I saw it
wasn’t Drill, but some punk-ass kid who hangs around with him. I’m
pretty sure the kid’s name was Billy. Just as I got close to the
kid, the front and back doors flew open. I spun and had both guns
pointed at the men entering my home.

“Whoa, stand down, Jax, it’s just me.” Joe,
the officer in the marked car out front, trained his gun on the
burly guy who had just come through the back door.

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked the other man
who’d busted in through the back door. I had one gun pointed at
him, the other at Billy.

“Easy, dude, I’m on your side. I work for Mr.
Davis. I’m his head of security.” The guy held his hands up. I
noticed a Smith & Wesson pointed at the ceiling in his right
hand.

“Officer, this kid just broke in the back. He
was carryin’ that.” I handed him the black EAA snub-nosed revolver
then bent down to the little shitbag. “What the fuck are you doin’
in my house, Billy?”

The head of security felt around and flipped
on the kitchen lights, revealing himself as a massive
six-foot-five-inch Samoan man who could easily be a linebacker for
any NFL team. Instead, he’d crammed his large body into a finely
pressed suit and fancy leather shoes.

“Fuck. Remi, I swear I didn’t know this was
your place, man.” Billy panicked when he saw my face. “Drill just
said I was to come to the house on Society and come through the
back for the girl. I swear I didn’t know, man. If I woulda known
she was your old lady, I wouldn’t’ve agreed to grab her. You gotta
believe me, Rem.” He looked up from the floor, pleading.

“Where the fuck is Drill?” I grabbed Billy up
from the floor by the front of his shirt. “Where are you supposed
to meet him with her?”

Billy was shaking like a leaf and the other
two guys were letting me run with this. “I swear I didn’t
know.”

“Shut up and tell me where you were supposed
to take her.” I’d run out of patience for his bullshit. I leveled
the gun and dug the barrel into the side of his neck.

“The airstrip on Johns Island. He’s meetin’
that other guy out there for the money,” he coughed up quickly.

“What other guy?” I demanded.

“Mr. Davis,” the big guy piped up. “He got a
ransom note from the dumb fucker at five o’clock tonight. I guess
either this asshole is late or the bike messenger kid was
early.”

“Motherfuckin’ son of a bitch. I’ll kill him
with my bare hands.” I dropped Billy and stalked toward the foyer
table where I left Leila’s phone. Snatching it up, I saw the call
was still live. “You fuckin’ prick. You got a fuckin’ ransom note
and you didn’t think to say anything?”

“Fuck you, Jaxon. I called her and Drew is
here handling it. How the fuck was I to know more shit was going to
go down? I talked to her, she was fine and safe with you,” he
roared right back.

I ended the call, and it took all my
self-control not to throw her phone through the wall. Instead I
remembered she was terrified in the panic room.

Again.

Chapter Twenty-two

Leila

I had now been in this godforsaken panic
room twice, and while I was grateful we had it, I was starting to
detest it. This time Ruger was here to keep me company. No way was
I leaving him out there to jump in the middle of whatever was
happening.

Pacing the room, I saw some of what was going
on—yeah, I figured out how to work the security cameras. Some beefy
guy came in the back door and the cop who was sitting out front
came in the front door. Then I saw Jax grab the phone off the table
and appear to be yelling at the phone before slamming it back
down.

Jaxon disappeared from the front door monitor
then a few minutes later appeared outside of the panic room door. I
walked over and pressed the intercom button to listen.

“Lei, it’s safe to come out, babe. Open the
door.” His voice was anxious even though he tried to sound calm. He
was clearly rattled. I started to open the door, and then I
realized he never said the safe word. I pulled my hand off the knob
and waited.

“Babe, open the door.” He beat on the door
with his massive fist then, as if the elevator hit the top floor,
the bell in his head went off. “Fuck, sorry, babe. Quantico.”

He kicked the suits out of the way so I could
open the door fully.

“What the hell is going on, Jaxon?” Ruger
pushed past me.

He reached for my hand and helped me balance
my way through the piles of clothes I threw on the floor to access
the Fortified Room of Terror, as I now called it.

“Everything’s fine now. I want you to stay up
here. Lie down and try to relax, okay?”

Relax? Fuck no, I’m not
going to relax.

“Tell me what’s going on, then I can relax,”
I demanded. I hated when he tried to hide shit from me.

“I’ll explain after I deal with everything.
Can you please just lie down and watch some TV? And keep Ruger up
here.”

“Damn it, Jax,” I warned.

“A kid broke into the house from the
backyard,” he said hesitantly. I got the feeling that wasn’t the
whole story and eyed him suspiciously.

“And?”

“And Joe arrested him and some huge fuckin’
guy that works for Brody is down there now too. Speakin’ of which,
did you know that he put a guy on you?”

“No, how would I have known? He didn’t say
anything to me. Did you think I knew and just didn’t tell you?”

“Not exactly. I mean you did just have a
concussion. He could have mentioned it then or right after and you
might have forgotten,” he reasoned.

“No, I would have remembered something like
that, Jaxon.”

Leaning forward, he kissed my forehead and
led me from the closet. “Climb in bed and I’ll be up in a little
while. Don’t let Ruger out of the room.”

“Fine,” I grumbled on my way through the
bathroom. I had finally stopped seeing blood on the floor and now
this. Christ, why couldn’t I have a normal life? A normal
pregnancy? It always had to be some sort of freaking chaos.

Lying in bed almost asleep, I roused when
Jaxon finally came upstairs with a highly agitated Brody and the
bodyguard guy I saw on the security camera earlier. Ruger saw the
enormous stranger and went on full alert.

“Ruger,
pfui
,” I
mumbled.

“See, she’s fine and we woke her up. Are you
fuckin’ happy now?” Jax spat out at the other two men.

“Lei, you okay?” Brody approached the bedside
as I turned and sat up.

“I guess so, I don’t really know what
happened, but I’m guessing it’s more than some kid breakin’ into
the house.”

Brody looked at Jax then to the beefcake
bodybuilder. “Yeah, the kid broke in and you, as always, are right
that’s not the whole story. By the way, this is Ikaika, my new head
of security.”

“Forgive me, but I’ll never remember that,
let alone pronounce it right.” I looked him over.