“Did he say what that purpose was?” Shark asked.
“No, he just had one of his men break another of my fingers. I don’t remember anything after that, and when I woke up I was in that cage where Ryder found me. My whole body hurt so they must have beaten me some more before they left me there.”
Tears spilled down Abigail’s cheeks and he lifted her, taking her place in the armchair and settling her on his lap. He tucked her head under his chin and wrapped her up in his arms, cocooning her in a bubble of safety. A kind of rage he’d never felt before filled Spider, he’d been angry with his father, hated the man for what he did to him and his mom, but this was different. Abigail had been targeted because of them, and unlike his mom who had known that her husband had both an anger and a drinking problem even before she married him, Abigail was completely innocent. She’d been dragged into this against her will.
A glance at his friends had him seeing his own anger reflected on each of their faces. Not just anger, protectiveness too, as SEALs they were protectors by nature but this was personal for each and every one of them. As the daughter of a SEAL and Night’s baby sister she was family, and no one messed with their family and got away with it.
From the protectiveness and anger that filled the room Spider was sure of one thing. Whoever had targeted Abigail, abducting her and interrogating her, would pay for what they had done.
Pay with their life.
Chapter 13
June 26th
2:19 A.M.
Fingers.
For some reason Abigail couldn’t seem to stop staring at her fingers.
As she looked her left pinkie began to change. It started to bend sideways, just a little at first then more and more until it was at a ninety-degree angle.
Turning her head in the direction that her finger pointed she saw the dance studio. It was dark, all the lights were turned off, and when she looked around she realized she was standing in the parking lot.
When she looked for her car she found it parked in the back corner she always used. And beside it was the black SUV.
Although she wanted to run in the opposite direction, get as far away from the car and the abduction she knew was coming, her feet began to move toward it.
Step by step she got closer.
And then she saw him.
A man.
The shadows hid his face, but he was walking steadily toward her.
Run, her brain screamed, but her feet refused to cooperate.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“You know who I am,” the man replied, his voice was familiar but she couldn’t place it.
“Tell me your name,” she demanded as he continued to come closer.
“You know it.”
“I don’t,” she screamed, frustrated.
“You know me.”
“Tell me who you are,” she begged. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and somewhere in the distance she heard a voice call her name.
“You know who I am, and now you need to come with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You have to, they’re hurt, they need you.”
“Who’s hurt? Who needs me?”
“Abigail,” the other voice called.
She ignored it. “Tell me please, who are you?”
The man reached her and leaned down, his face just inches from her own, and she finally realized who he was.
Abigail screamed.
The man reached for her, grabbed her, began to shake her as he dragged her toward his car.
She fought him with everything that she had.
“Abigail, it’s me.”
“No, no, I don’t want to go with you, I don’t want to go back there,” she pleaded for her life as she fought against her abductor’s hold.
“Abigail, it’s me, it’s Ryder.” A slap to her cheek hard enough to sting accompanied the words, and her eyes popped open to find herself lying on the floor of her bedroom with Ryder on top of her.
Dreaming.
It had just been a dream.
Forcing her brain to accept, she fought to slow her wildly beating heart.
Ryder leaned in close, his eyes searching hers for confirmation she was awake. “Sorry, I hit you,” he said as his fingertips stroked across her still stinging cheek. “I couldn’t get you to wake up, you were screaming and crying.”
Her cheeks felt wet so the tears of her nightmare must have turned into real tears.
The terror hadn’t left her yet, and neither had the shock of realizing who was behind her abduction. It didn’t make any sense, but she knew the man who had taken her, she just didn’t know why he’d done it.
“Honey, are you all right?” Ryder asked. The concern in his voice was evident and she wanted to answer, but she couldn’t seem to get her control back.
For so long she’d thought her abduction had been random, then she’d been rescued and learned she was probably targeted. Then yesterday remembering that whoever had taken her had done so because they wanted to know about her brother and Ryder had shaken her, but this …
“Sweetheart, you’re scaring me.” Ryder moved off her and gently untangled her from the covers before wrapping them around her and gathering her into his arms. “In your dream you were fighting me so hard you fell off the bed. I had to hold you down, I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself,” he said as he carried her out of the bedroom and through to the living room where he settled them both in the armchair. “What did you dream about, Abby?”
Ryder’s warm body helped to warm her own freezing one, and she rested her cheek against his bare chest letting the steady beating of his heart try to calm hers. “I saw him. The man who took me.”
“You remembered your abduction?”
Not just that, now that she had seen his face she remembered everything. “I know him,” she said softly.
Ryder’s body stiffened beneath her. “Who is he?” The tone of his voice said he was debating depositing her someplace safe and going immediately to the man’s house.
“You know him too.”
“Who is it, Abby?”
“It was Alex, Ryder. Alex Irwin, one of the SEALs on your team.”
A low growl rumbled through his chest frightening her. That meant something to Ryder although what, she had no idea.
“Ryder, what is it? You’re scaring me,” she said, twisting so she could see his face.
“I need to call the guys,” was all he said as he went to move her off his lap.
“No, Ryder, wait, tell me what’s going on. I have to be wrong, right? Because why would Alex kidnap me? And why would he be asking me questions about you guys when you’re on the same team?” None of it made sense, and she had to wonder if maybe her mind had just conjured up Alex’s face because she needed answers.
For a moment it looked like he would refuse to tell her, but then he sighed and drew her close, holding her in an almost crushing grip. “Alex got kicked out of the SEALs about six months before you disappeared.”
“Why? What happened?” Abigail asked already knowing it wouldn’t be good.
“Alex had an anger problem, beat up his girlfriend. Once she realized she was safe she told us that Alex had been working as hired muscle for a local drug dealer. The drug dealer had ties to Luis Perez, the man who owned the compound where you were being held. When we found out about what Alex had been doing he went AWOL. We haven’t heard from him since.”