Love Under Two Navy Seals (16 page)

“Where’s Julia?” He tried to look into the kitchen but the afternoon sun shone too brightly for him to get a good look inside the house.

Tracy set down the tray of meat. “She just popped out to get a couple of things. She should be back in a bit.”

Drew looked over at Dev, who returned his look of concern.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tracy said. “You men are all the same, getting all uptight and such if one of us leaves your sight.” Then she tipped down her sunglasses. “Y’all need to chill. Texas women are made of strong stuff.”

Drew nodded. “Julia certainly is, and I have every faith in her ability to take care of herself. Doesn’t mean I like having her out of my sight.”

Tracy shook her head as if to say she’d never understand men. A quick scan of the others showed him what he expected to see—nods of agreement from the men and a pitying look from Tamara.

Drew had wondered, earlier, about the familial relations in the Benedict clan. Now he could see a bond between the men that spoke to him of more than just their being family. He sensed a deep well of respect as well as love between the men. The fact that both Morgan and Henry seemed to accept Peter Alvarez as another brother impressed him.

Lusty was looking more and more appealing with each passing day.

“Of course, we nailed that little punk, but not before our Fed, here, got shot.
Again
.” Jordan recounted the excitement they’d had just a few weeks before.

“You’re just jealous of all of the scars I’m amassing.” Peter’s expression appeared stoic.

Tracy came out of the kitchen with a bottle of beer for herself. She used it to toast him as she said, “Any more scars and you’re going to need plastic surgery.”

“Maybe I’ll get plastic surgery so we can match,” Jordan said. “I wonder if I could get the doc to give me a matching bullet crease on my left arm,” Jordan said.

“You’d feel differently, little brother, if you ever had to duck flying lead,” Morgan said.

“You’re probably right.”

“Maybe we should change the subject. I don’t want my two lovers thinking about me and ducking flying lead at the same time, if you don’t mind.” Peter looked from Morgan to Henry.

Morgan shrugged. “Just trying to do our part to desensitize them,” he said. “I know Adam feels the same way.”

“We’ll get there.” Tracy stretched up and placed a kiss on her future brother-in-law’s cheek. “So”—she stepped back and looked from him to Tamara—“how are the wedding plans coming?”

“We’ve chosen a date,” Henry said. “Almost.”

“The only absolutes so far,” Tamara said, “are the principals and the venue.”

“Which would be you three and the Lusty Community Center,” Tracy said. “And the caterers too, of course.”

“Of course.” Tamara grinned.

Drew looked over at Dev, who held his cell phone to his ear. He didn’t have to ask. He knew he was calling Julia. She’d been gone for nearly half an hour. When Dev pulled it away and frowned as he looked at the display, Drew asked, “What’s up?”

He felt his senses go on red alert when Dev said, “She’s not answering.”

“Maybe she left her cell phone at home,” Tamara said.

The laughter had left Jordan’s face as he shook his head and pulled out his own cell phone.

“No, she wouldn’t. One thing that was drilled into
all
of us once cell phones came into such wide use. They’re a safety device and none of us goes anywhere without one.” He looked over at Tracy. “She went to the grocery in town?”

“Yeah.”

Jordan keyed in a number and then everyone waited quietly. “Hey, Aunt Patti, it’s Jordan. Just great, thanks. I was wondering, is Julia still wandering around there, by any chance?” He listened, then thanked his aunt before closing the phone. He looked from Dev to him, and by the look of alarm on the man’s face, Drew knew something was terribly wrong.

“I just spoke to my aunt who runs the grocery. She’s been on checkout all day.” He looked from him to Devon and then back. “Julia never arrived.”

Chapter 11

Vibration buzzed at the very edge of her consciousness, like a pesky gnat that wouldn’t let her sleep.

Julia struggled to open her eyes. A sense of disorientation swamped her. Pain, sharp and biting, tore through her thoughts, reaching down and yanking her to the surface of wakefulness. She gasped, terror exploding and threatening to consume her. It took every bit of nerve she possessed to beat that monster back, to take control of her emotions. Her heart pounded loudly in her own ears. She closed her eyes and focused on breathing, on slowing her heart rate, and on achieving calm.

She refused to let the fear have her.

Darkness, the stink of car exhaust, and the sensation of rough, quivering motion all assaulted her at once. She blinked, immediately aware of the small space enclosing her. There was pain in her shoulder and behind her eyes, a slight headache that nagged. She frowned, and felt the sensation of something sticky on her temple. It took her a moment to deduce the stickiness was drying blood.

 
I’m inside the trunk of a car!

But how the hell did she get there, and what in the name of God was going on?

Memory resisted her efforts to call it, so she closed her eyes once more, bore down, and
demanded
an answer.

The effort sharpened her headache, but images, like freeze-frames on a movie reel, began to form. They gave her only pieces of information.

She saw herself leaving Tracy’s en route to the grocery in Lusty to get ice and butter. Another vehicle, a brown Chevy, came up beside her and forced her off the road.

Julia heard again the scream of crumpling metal and breaking glass and recalled the explosion of pain as her car hit a tree and her head hit…something.

Julia blinked, but the rest of the memory turned murky then faded out. The rest didn’t matter, anyway. Between one heartbeat and the next, she understood
exactly
what had happened to her.

Oh, hell, I’ve been kidnapped
.

The possibility of being kidnapped had been a shadow that hovered near when she’d been a child. Every Benedict, Kendall, and Jessop always understood that, because of their wealth, they were all prime targets for kidnapping. She and her cousins had grown up learning to be aware of their surroundings, and any strangers who paid them undue attention. The families had mastered high security with a casual flair. Every member of the family had been taught evasive maneuvers against the eventuality of being assaulted.

Julia had never believed it would really happen to her.

How long ago had she been grabbed? Her head throbbed, but did that mean she’d been unconscious for a long time, or just a short one?

Julia felt the vibration again, the same tickling sensation that had awakened her. Her cell phone! She’d shoved it into her pocket along with a twenty dollar bill as she’d headed out to the store, leaving her purse behind.

No member of the family ever left home without their cell phone.

Her hands weren’t bound, and neither were her feet. Had she been taken by the most inept kidnapper ever?

He—and she was almost one hundred percent certain it was a he—likely figured that since she’d been unconscious when he dumped her in his trunk, he didn’t need to tie her up.

Good news for her, but how long would it last? How long until he pulled over, opened the trunk, and trussed her up like last year’s Thanksgiving turkey?

Her cell phone stopped vibrating. Thank God she rarely had the device set on ring. Listening, she could hear no radio, no sound beyond that of the car’s motor, which really wasn’t all that loud. If her phone did ring, or if she tried to talk on it, whoever was driving the car might very well hear her.

Crap
. She needed help, but couldn’t call anyone. Julia blinked. No, she couldn’t
call
anyone, but maybe she could text someone! At least, she hoped she could. She took a moment to think. He’d placed her on her right side, with her knees bent. Her cell phone was in her right pants pocket. She tried to ease off her right side, so she would be able to reach into her capris. Her head pounded the moment she began to move, and a wave of dizziness swept through her, making her stomach roll with nausea. Clamping her jaw closed, Julia focused on not crying out and not puking. If she had any hope of succeeding, she had to keep silent, and she had to hurry.

Darkness and motion and a sense of being crammed into a very tiny space all worked against her and Julia had to use every bit of determination she possessed to forget about all of that, to lean back just enough to free her hand so she could reach into her pocket.

Her right arm and hand had gone numb. She was afraid she might not be able to feel the phone with her fingers, let alone use it. If she dropped the device, it would be as good as lost to her.

Julia wiggled her fingers, stretched out her hand, and then made a fist, working her fingers and wrist until the pins and needles of returning sensation nearly brought her to tears.

The necessary exercise ate up precious seconds. She could have sworn she heard the tick-tick-tick of a clock in her head. The car continued to move at what felt like a pretty steady speed. Funny how much rougher a road could seem when one traveled in the trunk as opposed to the cabin of the vehicle.

Julia brought her wandering mind back to the task at hand. Her fingers felt almost functional again. She hoped they
were
functional, because she had only one chance to get it right.

Only one way to find out. Just do it, Jules
. She reached into her pocket, and latched onto the slim and slippery device.

Pulling it out and holding it up, she brushed a finger against the keyboard and the display lit up. She could see the keys, which meant her vision was all right, so that was one blessing at least.

Julia wanted to call Dev and Drew. She wanted to call them and cry and beg them to rescue her. She knew that once they found out she was in trouble, they’d come for her. There was no doubt in her mind about that, period.

But she hadn’t taken the time to enter either of their numbers into her cell’s phone book. Of course, she’d memorized them both, so all she had to do was—

A clicking sound seemed to fill the entire trunk, so loud it jarred her thoughts. Then the car began to reduce speed.

Panic bubbled inside her, threatening to erupt. Was the driver turning, or pulling over? Fighting the panic, and the changing motion of the slowing vehicle, she hit the button for phone book, and then the number 4, and selected ‘text’. She used her left hand to hold the phone while she tried to see the keys she would press with her right. Her grip felt tenuous at best, and her shaking didn’t help.

The car continued to slow down and Julia felt tears sting at the back of her eyes. No time now for anything but the most basic message. So she keyed only three letters, and then moved the cursor to ‘send’.

The car must have pulled off the road onto the gravel shoulder. The sudden roughness, and then the stop, jerked her body forward and then back again.

The phone tumbled from her fingers, landing somewhere beyond her sight in front of her, between her and the far corner of the trunk.

One of the car doors opened, and then slammed closed again and the trunk lock clicked.

Julia pulled her right hand down, working it under her body to almost where it had been when she’d come to. Closing her eyes, she tried to relax, her instincts telling her to play possum for as long as she possibly could.

She prayed her captor was just going to check on her and not change vehicles. As long as she was in the same general vicinity as her cell phone, there was a very good chance she would be rescued.

* * * *

Dev felt his blood run cold. The sensation was very similar to the professional detachment he assumed when getting ready to go on a mission. Jordan’s words had shocked him, angered him, and terrified him all at the same time.

He wanted, quite desperately, to punch something or someone.
Okay, maybe what I’m feeling is not quite the same detachment as when I go on a mission.

“What do you mean, she never arrived?” Drew took the two steps necessary to bring him beside Dev, effectively making them a single unit.