Her Adoring SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 3) (17 page)

“It’s kind of yummy.” 

Beth blushed.

“Our guys are the yummiest,” Lydia teased.

Beth looked at the dining room table where they were loading up their plates.  She had to admit, Clint and Jack sure looked good.  Jack looked the best though.

“Do you want something to eat?” Lydia asked.

“I can’t.  This has been a lot to take in.”

Clint broke away from the group and came over.

“I’m going to go get some beer, do you want anything, Lydia?” Clint held up the keys to his truck.

“Let me go.  Beth and I need some space.”  Beth practically jumped off the couch.

“That’s a great idea.” 

Lydia grabbed the keys out of Clint’s hand.

Jack came over. 

“We’ll go with you.”

“Oh for God’s sake.  Mike and Lou are outside, they’ll follow us to the store.  It’s just down the street.  I go every other day.”  Lydia laughed at the two men, then she kissed Clint on his chin.  He smiled.

Jack put his arms around Beth, and kissed her forehead. 

“Don’t forget to get some Shiner Bock.”

“Pacifico for me,” Clint said.  “Do you need cash?”

“I’m covered,” Lydia said as she grabbed Beth’s hand.  “Let’s go before they change their minds and decide to go with us.”

Lydia had them out of the house and down the front stairs before Beth could blink.  It felt good to be in the fresh air.  The sisters waved to Mike and Lou, who started up their SUV as the girls stepped into Clint’s truck.

“If I didn’t know Clint so intimately, I would think he was compensating for something with the size of his truck.” Lydia giggled. 

Beth blushed.

“That’s the second time you’ve blushed in five minutes.  I wouldn’t think you still could after all the time in Vegas,” Lydia said as she backed out of the driveway. 

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t think I really wanted to make a beer run for the guys, do you?  I couldn’t care less if they had their Pacifico.  I wanted to find out all the details about you and Jack.” 

Lydia adjusted the rear view mirror, and then cut a sideways glance at Beth.

“We’re going to take a hell of a long time at the supermarket, and you’re going to tell me every little detail.”

Beth smiled.  Before all the drama, she’d really been looking forward to sharing with Lydia. 

“Yay, a smile not a blush.  I knew the time alone with Jack was going to be great for you.”

“Look out!” Beth screamed as she saw a van pull out in front of them from a side street.  Lydia yanked the steering wheel hard to the right, and slammed on the brakes.  The truck went into a skid as it fishtailed, coming to a stop a couple of feet away from the van.  Both women were thrown painfully against their seatbelts, but the airbags didn’t deploy.

Beth heard a crash behind her, and she whirled around to see another van hit the car Mike and Lou were in.

Lydia screamed, “Get down.”

Beth turned to the front and saw two men with guns had gotten out of the van in front of them.  Her heart froze as she heard two shots behind her.  Mike and Lou had been shot, she knew it.  Lydia leaned over in front of her, opening the glove box.  She saw the blue black metal of a gun, and she slapped Lydia’s hand away, knowing what she had to do as the two men advanced.

She grabbed the gun and shoved it up against her throat.

“Beth, what are you doing?” Lydia demanded as she lunged for her, and Beth turned and glared at her.

“They want me.  They shot Mike and Lou.  They’ll shoot you too.  I’ll threaten to kill myself unless they’ll let you go, and I’ll save your life.”

“No, God no, Beth!” Lydia wailed, as she clawed at her seatbelt.

“You hurt my sister and I will kill myself,” Beth yelled out through the open window.

The two men halted.

“Beth, please don’t do this.”

“Lydia, undo my seatbelt.  This is your only chance. 
Our
only chance.”  She peered sideways at Lydia and saw her considering her words, and then felt her slowly unbuckling her belt.

“Now lean over and open my door.”

“Please don’t ask me to do this.  It’s too much.”

“Do it.”

Lydia was crying.  “I can’t.”

“You know you have to.  Now do it.”  The gun was much heavier than she expected.  Her hand was trembling. 
God don’t let me drop it.
  “Please Lydia, open the door, I’m begging you.”  She was going to start crying, and then it would all be over.

“You two behind us, go join your friends,” Lydia yelled.

Beth hadn’t even thought about the men who shot Lou and Mike.  They waited until two more men walked around to the front of Clint’s truck.  Now there were four men in front of Beth and Lydia, all staring at the women.

“Look, we want Beth Hidalgo,” a big ugly man said with a thick accent.  “We don’t care about you, bitch.”

“Yes you do.  You don’t want any witnesses.”  The first two men exchanged glances.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Beth yelled out the window.  “I’m going to get out of the truck.  I’m going to continue to hold the gun to my throat.”  Her hand trembled, it was hard to yell with the gun pressed against her neck, but she managed.  “My sister is going to drive away.  If you try to stop her, or rush up to me while she is still here, I will kill myself.” 

“You won’t do it,” the first man sneered.

“I will do anything to protect my sister, and you don’t want to risk angering Berto.  He’s crazy, and we all know what he does to people who make him mad.”  Beth brought her other hand up to help steady the gun.

“Open the door, Lydia.”  Lydia finally did.

“I’ll bring help,” she whispered.

“I know you will, remember we’re a team.”

Beth stood in front of the men as Lydia drove away.

As soon as the truck turned the corner, it was like all of her strength deserted her, and her arms dropped like wet noodles to her side.

“Get her,” commanded the first man who’d been doing all the talking.

––––––––

T
he world went quiet around Jack as he watched Clint wave his arm to get everybody to quiet down.

“Are you all right?  Answer the fucking question.”  Clint put his phone on the dining room table and hit speaker.

“Yes, I’m fine.  They have Beth.  You have to come here now.  I’m pretty sure they killed Lou and Mike.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m on 5
^th
and McNichols.  Oh God, Clint, I can see Mike and Lou in the SUV, there’s so much blood.  You have to call an ambulance.  They told me to drive home, but I didn’t, I’m around the corner.  They’re getting into their vans now.  They hit Beth, she’s unconscious.”

As soon as she said the cross streets, Jack and the others started out the door. 

“Keep her talking, Clint.  We’ll get to her,” Mason commanded. 

Clint looked ill, but he nodded.  Jack remembered his job was intel and communications.

They took three vehicles.  Jack drove with Mason, and they drove straight to Lydia’s position.  The other’s went to scout where the take-down happened.  Lydia was still behind the wheel of Clint’s truck on her cell phone.  It was clear she wasn’t even aware of their presence. 

“Lydia,” Mason called out as he neared the driver’s side of the truck.  She finally looked at them.  She dropped the phone.  They could hear Clint yelling through the tinny speaker.

“Archer, we’re here,” Mason shouted.  “Lydia’s fine.”  He opened the door, and Lydia slumped into his arms.

“You’ve got to go get Beth.  Get her!”  She turned to Jack.  “They have her Jack.  You have to go and save her.”

“Tell us what happened.”  He saw Aiden sprinting around the corner towards them.  He was shaking his head. 
Fuck.  Lou and Mike must be dead.

“It was a professional hit,” Aiden said as he reached him.  He wanted to go and see for himself, but he knew his best source of information was Lydia.  He looked at the woman, who so closely resembled Beth, as she tried to calm herself.  She clutched at Mason, her face ravaged by tears.

“They hit her so hard.  I don’t understand, you know they wanted her alive, why did they hit her, Mason?”

“I thought she had the gun to her head?  How did you see them hit her?”  Jack still wasn’t clear on how this whole event went down.

“I drove away and turned the corner.  I parked and watched.  That’s where I called Clint from.”  She stopped and tried to collect herself.  “That’s when I saw Beth drop the gun.  All I can figure is it got too heavy for her.”  She looked at Jack, and started to cry again.  “Oh God, then the man who’d done all the talking came up and back handed her so hard she crashed to the ground.  For a second, I thought they killed her, but then she moved.  They picked her up and shoved her into the van and drove off.”

Jack could see everything she’d described in his mind’s eye. 

“Which way did they go, Lydia?” Mason asked.

“They were going on McNichols Street.”

“East or West?”  She gave him a helpless look. 

“Towards the ocean?” Jack asked.

“Yes, towards the ocean,” Lydia answered.  Aiden was relaying the information into his cell phone, and so was Mason.  Jack heard sirens.

“Come on folks, we need to get out of here,” Mason said.

“Don’t we have to talk to the police?  Aren’t I a witness?” Lydia asked.

“Some other time.  Not now.”  Mason got into Clint’s truck with Lydia, and Aiden drove with Jack back to the duplex.

“We’ll get her back,” Aiden promised as he put Mason’s truck into gear. 

Jack stayed silent.

“Mason and his team are good,” Aiden said after being met by Jack’s silence.  “They might have ducked the police, but I heard Drake and Darius already talking to Clint.  He’s wired into SDPD, and there’s an All-Points Bulletin out on your girl.  Clint is working to pull in video feeds from the nearest grocery stores and gas stations so he can get license plates and vehicle descriptions of the vans.”

Just two more minutes to the house, and then he could see for himself what was being done, Jack assured himself.

“Are you listening to me?  These bastards aren’t going to get far.  Beth is going to be fine.”

“They killed Mike and Lou.  They took her in broad daylight,” Jack whispered.  Aiden finally shut up.

A car Jack didn’t recognize almost rammed them as they pulled into the driveway.  Aiden and he slammed out of the car, Aiden getting to Terry before Jack had a chance to explain.

“Jack!” Terry cried out.  “Is it true?” the man yelled, trying to duck past Aiden. 

“Is he cleared?” Aiden demanded.

“He’s clear,” Jack yelled to Aiden.  “Yes, it’s true.  Get inside.”  Jack ignored Terry’s shocked expression and sped up the stairs.  The door was locked, he pounded on it.  It slowly opened, and Clint stood there with a gun in his hand.

“Get in.” Clint gestured with his free hand.

The three men piled into the house.  It didn’t seem like the same place he’d been thirty minutes ago before his world had fallen apart. 

“Where’s Lydia?”  They heard the distinctive rumble of Clint’s truck, and Clint opened the door and was down the steps before anyone could blink.  Jack prowled over to Clint’s desk area that had two laptops and three desktop monitors running.  He felt Aiden behind him.

“Geez, what kind of set-up is this?”

“Clint does communications for Midnight Delta.”  One screen held nothing but lines of code.  Another screen was divided into twelve sections, each showing a different view of San Diego traffic.  One of the laptops actually showed the border crossing into Tijuana. 

“Lydia, sit down before you fall down,” Clint said.  Jack saw Clint urging Lydia to sit on the couch.

“Jack, get out of my way,” Lydia said as she made her way to the desk with the computers.

“Baby, you can’t mean to work now.”  She whirled around and shoved her finger into Clint’s chest.

“Fuck yes I’m going to hit the computer now.  This is my sister’s life we’re talking about.  Now sit your ass down and help me.  I’m calling Melvin.  You try to get ahold of Rylie.”  She glanced at the screens.  “Did you pull the supermarket parking lot surveillance footage?”

“It’s not online.”

Lydia looked up from the computers.  “Terry!” she yelled at the young petty officer.

“Yes, Ma’am.” 

“Get over to the Ralph’s grocery store,” her voice trailed off.  She looked at Clint then at Mason, helplessly.  Everybody realized Terry probably wouldn’t get what they needed fast enough.  Mason pulled out his phone.

“Drake.  Go over to the Ralph’s grocery store.  I think it’s on 5
^th
or 6
^th
.  I need you to get the parking lot surveillance video for the last two hours.  According to Clint their video isn’t on-line.  Coordinate with Clint and Lydia on any other places you see with surveillance.  They’ll tell you if they can tap it or if you have to sweet-talk the owners to give it to you.”

Jack liked the plan.  There was nobody better to either sweet-talk or intimidate people into providing what was needed than Drake Avery.

“I only got the first three letters of the one van, Clint.  I’m so sorry.  When I went around the corner it was too far away to see it.”

“Those first three letters help, baby.  You did great.”  Clint’s hand trembled as he adjusted the monitor so Lydia could see it better for her height.  Jack shoved his hands in his pocket, knowing his hands were probably trembling too.

“This is all well and good.  But I’m not happy standing around with my thumb up my ass while the geek squad tries to come up with answers,” Aiden said to Mason.

“I agree.  We know they headed West on McNichols.  There is an on-ramp to the Five Freeway north when you head that way.”

“We know, it’s the camera we’re checking,” Clint said as his fingers flew over the keyboard, bringing up live feeds of the San Diego Freeway.

Jack watched as Lydia continued to dial a person on Skype.  Finally she got through.

“Hello my Kitten, what do I owe the pleasure of an actual face to face Skype session.  I thought we were going to do voice only from now on?”

Jack looked at the man who was in his mid to late twenties.  He was a little on the doughy side, and he could benefit from some training.