SAFE (13 page)

Ty watched as his lover came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and another drying her long, honey blonde hair. She still had a sleepy look that he silently promised himself to keep on her face as much and as long as possible. She sat on the bed and looked up at him.

“We need to get to the office,” she finally said, pulling her brush from the nightstand. Several quick strokes to slick the long tresses back and a twist of her wrist had the thick mass on the crown of her head and several long stick-looking things holding it all in place like it was done by a professional hair dresser. When Ty didn’t answer she looked back up at him and grinned. “What?”

“You have no idea just how beautiful you are, do you!” he whispered, knowing if he moved across the room toward her then they would never get out of here and back to the office.

“Pff,” she said, blowing a wayward length of bangs out of her eyes. “You just like getting in my pants!”

“It definitely has its advantages.” He moved over to the coffee pot and poured Melissa a cup of the dark brew. Handing it to her, he couldn’t help but tease. “Get you pretty butt up from there and get dress, woman!”

The next few hours were a blur once Melissa and Ty got back to the office. The wheels had been set in motion for the undercover sting disguised as Departmental Simulations in and around Lake Tanglewood. The judge whom Buck had always worked with wasn’t real happy about being kept in the dark more so than usual but she understood the need since they had as yet plugged the leak within their own department and there was still the problem of a mole somewhere on the Task Force. It was the only answer because security was tight and Lonnie was more vigilant than ever. She was almost sick with worry knowing Gayle had skipped out of the safe house to rescue the remaining kids, but Melissa had told the girl from the beginning to use her gut instincts and stay safe. She couldn’t hold it against her. However, Gayle still should have called her.

Now they were headed to Lake Tanglewood and the ruse would begin. She could only hope it was enough to catch everyone.

“Stop chewing on your lip.” She looked over as Ty drove and realized her bottom lip was raw again. A sure sign of her high stress levels and a tell she had fought long and hard to break. She had almost gotten there until Ty came back into her life.

“She’s out there alone, Ty.” It was all Melissa could think about and it caused her stomach to cramp with worry. She could take down criminals larger than herself but the thought of that teenager out there alone, against the monsters, was more than she could deal with.

“We’ll get her.” He watched her from the corner of his eyes as they made their way back out toward Lake Tanglewood and the Task Force temporary headquarters until this was finished, aware of the terror and guilt that rolled off of her. “It’s not your fault. She’s been taking care of herself for a long time and that girl knows how to keep out of sight.”

“But how did she get back to them and why? There has to be a big reason for her to take such a chance, especially after being taken out of the last Hell Hole. Either she realized one of the kids didn’t make it out or she saw someone connected to the creeps we’re tracking. It’s the only explanation for why she went back.” Melissa turned in her seat so she could face him. “We cleaned out the nest she was in. Why go back?”

“Either she remembered something or heard something. It’s the only answer so we have to back her up and see where it goes.” As they pulled into the large entrance of the Lake, Melissa felt a shiver of fear race up her spine. “There’s evil down there, Ty.” He barely heard the whisper but it sent goose bumps down his muscled forearms.

“There’s a trail that the Scouts use to hike into the backwater areas from up near Camp Don Herington. It will also take us close to the other site. Are you sure this is what she meant?” He wasn’t sure Melissa heard him until she closed her eyes and shivered again.

“She’s here,” she whispered again. “I can hear her.”

“What!?” Ty pulled into a deserted parking area and slammed on the breaks. “What do you mean you can hear her?” Reaching across the console, he grabbed her hand and realized it was as cold as ice.

“Melissa, can you hear?” he whispered. When she didn’t answer, Ty shook her shoulders, forcing her to look directly at him. “Where is she?”

“Oh gods, Ty!” He pulled her across the console and into his arms, sliding the seat back as far as it would go. “She found them in town and made them take her. There are three more little boys we missed and she went after them. One of them is her little brother.”

“How can you hear her, Lisa? How is it possible?” Ty was shaken to the core. However, his training kicked in, forcing him to think. He didn’t doubt his partner for a second but this was totally out of the realm of normal.

“I’m not sure how but it’s coming from her. She’s reaching out, guiding us to them.” Her eyes fluttered closed again and Ty reached for his phone. As he held her close. Ty switched the phone to Bluetooth and dialed Buck. As soon as his friend was on line he briefed him on as much as he dared, leaving out the connections between Melissa and Gayle. They would have to wait on the sting and hope they were able to gather the core group when they moved in. Once the call was finished Ty turned back to Melissa.

“What else does she know that will help us?” Ty whispered, his palm firm on the back of her neck as he held her. Wet eyes looked up at him and Ty lost his heart all over again to this woman in his arms.

“They aren’t in the caves, Ty. They are in a house near an airfield. It’s one of the residents, it has to be.” The confirmation of his fears wasn’t what he wanted to hear but it made sense. She described the house Gayle was sending her images of and it was evident her captors had no intentions of Gayle ever being able to do more than be product for them again. Otherwise, they would have kept their location more secure. Someone got sloppy!

Sending a text to Buck with the updated info, Melissa moved back into her seat so they could move out to meet the rest of the team. A quick call to Lonnie and Melissa was back to her professional self. To distract her, Ty asked the question that had been on his mind since the conference room scene with Lonnie.

“So, how did you finagle Lonnie onto the team and past Buck?” he asked, brown eyes twinkling at her surprised look.

“What do you mean? He’s more than qualified for the job!” Puffing up like a mother hen defending one of her babies, Ty burst out laughing.

“You had to tell Buck he was older than he really was, woman. That boy can’t be over twenty if he’s a day.”

“His birthday was a couple of months ago, and yes, he just turned twenty.” She grinned, looking back out the window. “We were on a tricky job and our IT department was overworked, understaffed, unable to get us the information we needed. When my team caught a hacker in a separate incident who tried to get into some classified documents but was shut down, I took the case because I needed some down time. Lonnie was barely eighteen. He’d been on his own for over three years at that point, living off the grid, making his living doing cash deals and keeping low so CPS and other agencies couldn’t find him. It was just luck that he made a mistake and that was only because he had been so sick with the flu, needed the money to go to the doctor, that he made a mistake at all.

“When I found him, he was passed out on his cot in this little one room set-up, his laptop next to him. He was running 104 degree temp. I got him to the doctor and took him home with me to recover until he could actually tell us what was going on. I cleared it all through Buck,” she held up her hand before Ty could comment. “I just didn’t tell him at the time that he was one of the ones who was doing the hacking. Lonnie turned all data and bosses over to us that he had been tracking and he came to work for us. As it turned out, he was the secret hacker who had been sending me emails to help with the investigation. Once Buck learned that, I specifically asked to keep him on my team since he’s so young for now. The guys watch out for him, but he’s been bullied and had such heartbreak all his life. He needs someone there to take care of him.”

“Another lost soul,” Ty murmured, shaking his head.

“He’s not a lost soul. Just bruised a little.” Melissa grinned, but she wasn’t going to give up Lonnie as hers.

“Does he date or mingle with the Team much?” He hadn’t seen it very much and it worried him that the young man may be so introverted that he had a hard time in most situations.

“Don’t ever play video games with him,” she growled, then burst out laughing. “That boy will chop you up and spit you out in a heartbeat. He’s death in
Halo
, and no one will play
Assassin’s Creed
with him anymore because it’s just no fun. He makes it look so easy but you feel stupid when he kills you over and over!”

“I take it you’ve found this out from experience.”

“I’m not going to comment either way. At least that way my record stays unblemished except between Lonnie and myself.” Her smirk was enough of an answer so that Ty was sure he was going to be playing at least a little bit with the younger man.

“Sit back and relax for a bit.” He turned onto the Claude highway and raced past the restaurant where they had eaten the first night he was on the Task Force. Had it been only a couple of weeks? It seemed like a lifetime had passed and now they had a future to discuss. Because a future was what he wanted with Agent Melissa McKenny, even if she wasn’t aware of it. But first, they had to take out the trash.

Chapter 18

The group of vehicles gathered at the main community center of the Lake looked like a FEMA convention had assembled and guests had crashed the party. A tent was set up as a command center, a secure area where Lonnie could do his wizardry without being hassled too much by other agencies. He sat with his earphones plugged in as if he were listening to rock music similar to the outrageous t-shirt he wore. Melissa knew he was, in fact, plugged in to all of the frequencies for the different agencies. Her boy took multi-tasking to a whole new level.

Buck stood outside the tent talking with several high ranking members of the community, assuring them it was all a simulation and they would be out everyone’s hair by noon the next day. Danny Ashton stood close by as the Public Relations Agent, looking well-groomed and professional except for the bored look on his face. Evidently, Buck was doing all of the talking, again.

With so many participants, Melissa still hadn’t seen Chip and it worried her. Buck had assured both of them that he was a good guy. Other than that, he wouldn’t go into specifics and swore them to secrecy. Whatever the other agent was involved in, it was dangerous and part of the ongoing investigation. When this was all over Melissa planned to have a very long chat with Agent Chip Nicholson.

With a hand signal from Buck and Ty, The Team Leaders were called for a meeting inside the community center where it could be secured from prying eyes. No sense giving more information to the residents than necessary. The minute the doors locked and Lonnie checked the entire room for bugs and other obscure devices, and Buck stood at the front waiting until his IT geek gave him the all clear.

“Ok folks, you may or may not know as yet this isn’t actually a normal exercise or simulation. We have a group of numnuts hold up in one of the residential properties just off this private air strip.” Lonnie cut the overhead lights and pulled up the front screen, nodding at Buck.

“From what we can pinpoint at the moment, it’s a 5,700 square foot private residence with two hangers located behind it. Surveillance shows there are two planes in the larger one on the backside of the residence. Another hanger seems to currently house several large transport vehicles and a couple of private vehicles.” Buck pointed at the hanger housing the vehicles. “We need to secure this hanger. If information proves correct, the victims should be housed in the residence but it’s still close to the hanger where the vehicles are located. It is imperative that these unknown subjects do not make it out here. Do I make myself clear?”

Buck’s booming voice left no room for questions. It was important to make sure that their plans went off flawlessly because he didn’t want any of these creeps to make it out of there with even one innocent. Once he was sure that he had everyone’s attention now, he continued.

“There will four teams. Two and three will secure the hanger with the vehicles, four will take the hanger with the planes.” Looking over at Ty and Melissa, pointed at them. “Team One will take the house. Sources indicate that is where the kids are being held, along with whatever other contraband they have on location. Infrared indicates multiple targets on the ground level and other floors. We can’t get a good reading on the basement but we have Intel that indicates there are holding cells down there. I want flawless, people! I don’t want to see any of my teams coming out with blood on them unless it’s the blood of a monster! Do I make myself clear?”

Ty watched as the Team Leads continued to discuss the plans and his gut told him time was of the essence. With this supposed simulation on site their targets were getting ready to move their product. Buck and Ty had made the area a “No Fly Zone” for the duration of the exercises, but that didn’t mean their targets wouldn’t try to make it out of here on the planes. The Lake was being closely watched, and Lonnie had satellite access to keep track of anyone who tried to skip out through one of the many coves around the Lake.

However, Ty’s gut told him that something was going to happen. That unique sixth sense that had saved his ass numerous times and ensured those under his command stayed safe. He glanced over at Melissa, worried by the paleness of her face and how silent she had been since arriving at the Lake.

“Are you solid?” he whispered, allowing the pinky finger of his left hand to stroke the back of her hand down by her side. When she turned to look at him the first thing he saw was her blown pupils. The woman he loved more than life was fighting an internal battle that could kill her.

Melissa only nodded, turning back to view the room. She was so still, so calm and it scared the hell out of him. He could feel her emotions raging but the external shell was one of professional calm and rock solid nerves. Ty fell in love with her all over again knowing how much the strain was tearing her apart.