“Should I leave now?”
“You don’t have to until they get here.” I led her over to the sofa and pulled her onto my lap when I sat. “How are you feeling about being back here?”
“Okay. I mean, I’m feeling guilty about not telling my grandparents we’re married,” she whispered the last word. “But maybe after your meeting, we can tell them together.”
“Sounds good to me.” I didn’t want to bring up the next subject, but I had to. “How are you feeling about Maxim’s death?”
She rested her head on my shoulder. “I suppose I should be upset, but I’m not. I don’t think he deserved to die, but he wasn’t a very nice person.”
“All logical feelings.”
“Looks like your guests were right behind me,” said Jimmy, coming in the back door.
Maisie scooted off my lap. “I’ll see you later.”
“I’ll walk next door with you.”
“How is Blanca?” I heard Merrigan ask when I returned from the other camp. I couldn’t hear Onyx’s response, but I did hear the next thing he said. “We’re getting married.”
Merrigan embraced him. “I’m so happy for you both.”
I couldn’t wait to tell everyone that Maisie and I were already married. My chest swelled with pride at the thought. God, I loved her.
“There you are,” Merrigan said, turning to me. “Sorry you had to cut your trip short.”
“It was time for us to come back anyway.” We cheek kissed.
“We should get started. There’s a lot we need to cover this afternoon.”
I took a seat when Doc asked everyone to. He walked over and sat in the chair beside Onyx while Merrigan remained standing.
“This will be the one and only meeting I facilitate on behalf of our new unit, K19 Shadow Operations,” she began. “After today, the team, along with its assignments, will be in the hands of Onyx and Ranger.” Those in the room applauded.
“By now, you should’ve all received the final report on our last mission. If there are any questions, I’ll address them. However, I’d prefer not to spend more time than is necessary on it. Because of the kill contracts United Russia put out on the partners of K19 Security Solutions, they will be forced to endure near-debilitating sanctions. We have also called for the resignation and imprisonment of their leader in order for the retributions to be lifted.”
Before I could ask why we were meeting if we weren’t spending any time discussing the outcome of that mission, Doc stood and handed an envelope to each person in the room other than Merrigan.
“What’s this?” Onyx asked.
“Your first official mission,” he answered.
Like everyone else, including Doc, I opened the envelope and scanned the first few lines.
“What is this?” Onyx repeated.
I was glad he had. I couldn’t understand why we would be hired to conduct the investigation of a kidnapping and murder that would normally fall under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement if state lines hadn’t been crossed and FBI jurisdiction if they had.
“We have been retained by the victims’ families,” Merrigan responded.
“Wait. Families?” he asked.
I turned the page to see there was more than one investigation involved.
“Three?” Again, Onyx asked the same question I wanted to.
“What we believe, is that a serial killer is on the loose. One targeting the daughters of wealthy families in the area.”
Targeting daughters of wealthy families? Fuck. Maisie fit the victim’s profile better than anyone.
At the same time I stood, so did Onyx. I didn’t care what anyone thought about us disrupting the meeting; I had to see Maisie with my own eyes and make sure she was next door, talking, laughing, enjoying time with Blanca and my brother.
I went to the kitchen and looked out the window. “No!” I shouted when I saw the door to the camp was swinging open. Why was the fucking door open? It was the middle of winter.
I drew my gun as I raced to have my worst fears confirmed. Both Jimmy and Blanca were gagged, blindfolded, and tied to chairs.
“Where the hell is Maisie?” I shouted at Jimmy as Wasp untied him while Onyx did the same with Blanca.
“They took her,” Blanca cried as soon as the gag was out of her mouth.
“Who?”
“Two men. Dressed all in black. Ski masks,” Jimmy said between gasps of air. “Used tasers.”
“He’s been hit.” Wasp pointed to the blood seeping into the fabric of my brother’s shirt. I took a step to the side when Doc rushed over.
“Is there anything else you remember?” I could hear Onyx’s words, but they were muffled by the roar of blood surging through my body. Every inch of my skin felt as though it was being pricked by a thousand pins as my brain triggered a fight-or-flight response.
I’d felt it before, more times than I could count, but this was different. This wasn’t fear for me. Someone took my wife, and it was up to me to find her.
Onyx and I cleared the remaining rooms of the cabin while Doc tended to my brother. At the same time, the rest of the team did a sweep of the property.
“Jimmy suffered a knife wound. I’ve controlled the bleeding, but I need to get him stitched up. Let’s move next door,” Doc said when I came back into the cabin’s main room.
I got on my brother’s uninjured side, and he slung an arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Range. I should’ve protected her.”
“There was nothing you could’ve done, Jimmy. You were ambushed.”
“We need to regroup,” I heard Merrigan say while Doc and I got Jimmy into one of the bedrooms. Regroup? As in have a meeting? As in sit on our fucking asses when Maisie had just been abducted? Fuck no. I wouldn’t be regrouping.
“How fast can you get a blade?” I asked Wasp.
“I might be able to get someone from forestry to take us up. What do you have in mind?”
“It’s the first week of February. How many vehicles are going in and out of the park this time of year? Not to mention, the number of roads that have already been closed cuts down on the area to search.”
“And what if she wasn’t transported out of the park, Ranger?” Merrigan asked. “She could easily have been taken to one of the other houses on this lake or in the surrounding area.”
“I can’t sit around and do nothing.”
Onyx put his hand on my shoulder. “You know better than this, bro. You’re too close, and you need to stand down. If it were me in your shoes right now, you’d tell me to do the same thing.”
He had no idea. Would he stand down if it was his wife who had been abducted?
“What’s Diesel’s twenty?” he asked Doc.
“Ten minutes out.”
Onyx turned to me. “We good?”
I gave a head nod. Once Diesel arrived, we would craft our own plan to find Maisie. It’s what we did. What we had been doing since our very first mission.
“We’re calling in everyone we can, Ranger,” said Merrigan, resting her hand on my arm. “You know how vital the first few hours are. We need to start canvassing the area, looking for anyone who might have seen something. What you said about there being fewer people at the lake this time of year will work to our advantage, but we need a plan.”