Fallen SEAL Legacy (38 page)

With his arms under her chest, her kidnapper dragged her through a doorway and into a carpeted small space. The room was done up in pink, complete with a set of Barbie Dolls on a French Provincial sideboard that looked like it came out of a little girl’s room.

And then it hit her. It did look just like a little girl’s room. A single bed with a hot-pink, fuzzy bedspread, dotted with stuffed animal pillows was in the corner. An overhead chandelier in pink had lit up automatically as they entered the room. The massive arms hoisted her up and onto the bed. She was left in sitting position. She couldn’t feel much of her body below the neck.

Her eyes were beginning to focus better and she turned her head in time to see the man’s back, dressed in the same khaki clothes the gardener had worn every time she saw him. His hair fell loosely in ringlets as he removed his baseball cap. He quickly tied the ringlets back with a rubber band. Then he began searching for things in a makeshift kitchen consisting of a deep utility sink, a microwave and a hotplate.

He disappeared into what sounded like a small bathroom, bringing out a plastic glass of water. He sat and held it out to her. She saw his frog print tats, just like Cooper’s. That’s when she realized her hands were tied in front of her with green plastic tree staking ties. She took the water without looking into his eyes.

“You don’t look much like my Callie, but then no one could ever be as beautiful,” he said as he brushed the hair back from her forehead. She moved her head to the side and wrinkled her eyes and nose in disgust.

“Ahh. We are a little scared, and feisty. Don’t worry, we have plenty of time to get acquainted.”

She wouldn’t look at him, but handed him back the water without taking a sip.

“Very smart, but no, I don’t want you drugged. Nothing’s in there but our horrible San Diego water.”

Don’t want me drugged?
The impact of what that could mean sent a shiver down her neck.

He took the cup from her and placed it on a makeshift countertop in the kitchen. Bringing up a chair, he sat next to the bed, elbows on his knees, and rested his chin on his folded hands.

“You know, Libby, I’ve watched you. Watched you for several days now. You are such a beautiful girl, and I can see how fond your father is of you. I frankly don’t blame him.”

Libby looked at three Twilight posters pinned to the wall along the bed. There was a white collapsible dressing room divider in the corner. A pink flannel nightgown was thrown over the top. What she saw next to it frightened her. A studded dog collar and riding crop dangled from a hook secured by the top of the divider, along with a pair of cufflinks.

She looked at his face in shocked reaction but then wished she hadn’t as he smiled back to her.

“Yes, my dear. We’re going to have some fun. I intend to deflower you.”

She didn’t understand.
Deflower?
 

“Well, you are more experienced than my daughter was. I watched you and that big SEAL having sex. I could hardly hold the camera up, it was such a turn-on.”

Libby found her voice. “You are completely sick. My father has only been good to you. Why are you doing this?”

“Your father?” He leaned back and stared to the side. “Your father didn’t save my little Callie. She promised me she wouldn’t tell.” He turned and focused his brown eyes on Libby’s lips. “I believed her. Still do. She went to her grave with our little secret. Your father’s partner found out about it, and took advantage of her. Your father should have stopped it.”

“How could he have known? You blame my father for what that cretin did to your daughter?”

“He’s a useful idiot. I think Dolan will take the fall for what I’m going to do to you.”

Libby thought perhaps her greatest chance of survival would be to delay whatever sick scenario he had planned out in his twisted mind. “I’m not following you. Dad gave you a job.”

“Which is what I’d begged for because I wanted to get even. You see, I had other plans, but then—“ he rubbed his fingers against Libby’s cheek and she fended him off with her shoulder, turning her face around and back. “I feel I should be perfectly honest with you, Libby. We are going to have a wonderful time together. If you pleasure me enough, if you can convince me you like it, perhaps I’ll let you live. But you must be very convincing,” he said as he leaned over and tried to plant a kiss on her mouth.

Libby shook her head violently.

“That really isn’t a very good start, sweetheart.”

“I’m not your sweetheart. I’m not your daughter. And I’m
not
going to have sex with you.” Her chest was heaving. Bravado and anger were taking over. All the things that had happened between her and Dr. Gerhardt came flooding back. She was angry for having to give up school, angry that he had tried to hold her grades over her head to gain sexual favors.

This monster had used her father’s trusting side, their vulnerable side, to his sick advantage. She even found it in herself to be angry with her father for this.

The gardener stood, and began removing his shoes. She knew what was going to come next. His eyes were flashing like roman candles as he reached up and began to unsnap his shirt. As he tossed it to the ground, she watched with horror as he flexed his forearms when he fisted and released his hands.

The frog print tattoo, just like the Cooper had, danced on the skin covering muscles underneath.

Chapter 41

Cooper and Kyle raised their hands, partly to protect their eyes from the disruptive bright light. Cooper saw smoke billowing around the massive legs and boots of the giant.

“So, what the hell are you guys up to?”

Cooper put his fingers to his mouth to indicate he wanted silence but the man wasn’t having anything of it.

Kyle whispered, “He the gardener?”

Cooper shook his head,
no.

The man raised his voice further. “I said, I want some answers, and quick, or I’m calling the cops.”

Not a cop?
With the boots and the gun, Coop figured he was either a bad guy or a security guard trying to do his job.

“They’re already on their way,” Kyle said as a test. His voice was commanding but not threatening. Cooper hoped they were not within earshot of the man who had Libby.  The man with the shotgun didn’t move, so Kyle continued. “We’re looking for a guy in a pickup. We think he has kidnapped a girl and brought her here. Need your help.”

The giant stepped back. “So you’re not cops?”

“No, but we’re working with them,” Cooper said. “Look, we don’t have a whole lot of time. We just saw him come in here,” he continued in a low voice. He wished they could step closer so they wouldn’t give away their location.

“I didn’t see no truck. There’s usually no one here at night. Besides, the gate’s locked,” the man said.

“Well, someone got in. We saw the gate closing right before we arrived,” Cooper added, his impatience boiling over. He respected authority, but this man was wasting precious time.

“So how’d you get in?”

“I got there first,” Kyle added.

The man scratched his scalp, lowering the shotgun. “That would be my clicker, then. It was stolen two months ago, right outta my truck.”

A security guard. Much better.
But they were still losing time they did not have.

“Please, we need to find out where he is.” Cooper was sweating. A distant siren put his nerves on edge. If the cops came in blazing with lights and noise, Libby might pay the price.

“You look military.”

“Navy,” Kyle volunteered.

“Special forces, I’m guessing.”

They both nodded.  “You’re security, then?” Kyle asked, and got a nod from the hulking stranger.

Cooper ventured a question, “You know a dark-haired guy, say in his late forties, drives a light tan Ford pickup king cab?”

“I know a lot of dark-haired guys that drive pickups. We got over 200 units here, plus some of the storage hangars. I don’t remember everyone’s face, or their vehicles.” After a pause, he continued, “As a matter of fact, I get paid
not
to remember faces or vehicles, you get my meanin’?”

Cooper was angry at the holdup and wished they’d acted quicker, perhaps immobilizing the guard so they could complete their vital and increasingly urgent mission. He considered grabbing the man and wresting the weapon from him, but Kyle put a hand to his chest and stopped him. Cooper heard his cell phone chirp in his pocket. He stared into the light.

“I gotta get this. It might be our backup,” Coop said and waited.

Kyle tried to be convincing. “Look, we’re not here to bother anyone. Just want to catch this guy before he harms her. We’ll explain everything later,” He said in his usual velvet tones.

“You get that phone, then,” the man said.

Cooper recognized Fredo’s number. “Where are you, Fredo?”

“Right outside this fucking gate. Got razor wire all over the top or I’d already be in. Can you buzz us through?”

“I’m working on it. Hey, you have anything thermal on you?”

“Wish I did. No. Just the night gear.”

“I’m going to send a security guard over to let you in. We’re trying to find the garage and we only have one scope.”

“Okay. Sorry I can’t help you with that one. Malcolm is with me, though.”

Cooper hung up and came back to the guard, who was shaking his head.

“You gotta let the rest of my Team in, sir. Someone’s life depends on it,” Kyle stepped toward the guard, who didn’t object. He gripped his arm. “Please, I need your help.”

That seemed to have done the trick. The guard climbed back into the truck and, before backing out, rolled down the window and handed something out to Kyle. “You might need these.”

Kyle took a huge set of bolt cutters from the guard, and looked up at the man.

“Keys would be less expensive,” he said.

“No. I can’t do that. Everyone has their own padlocks, you see?” He flashed a light on one garage door and ran it down the first five or six units. Every one had a different kind and size of lock.

“Thanks, man.”

Kyle and Cooper resumed their scan, starting down a fresh row of doors as the guard drove off to let in Fredo and Malcolm.

They thought they heard talking but couldn’t make out from where. The scope detected blackness with an occasional hot spot where something was plugged in to a wall socket. Multiple targets showed up on the screen, all of a sudden in front of one door. Kyle cut the bolt and slid the door open, as quietly as he could. The metal squealed unless he lifted it slowly, and that got Cooper nervous. He dropped to his knees and immediately a rodent smell hit his nostrils. With his night vision goggles multiple cages along two sides of the storage unit held breeding mice. Then he noticed there was a door leading to a small room off to the right. He backed up and noticed there was an extra space with no roll up door between the two openings. As he looked down the line, he occasionally saw this extra space.

“Fuck”.

“What?” Kyle stopped and hooked the metal chain in place, which secured the door in open position. “Oh shit, pee-ew.” Kyle waved his hand in front of his nose.

“Kyle. There’s a room off some of these units. Has no direct access to the outside.”

Still using his night vision gear, Coop ran toward the small door and pulled a KA-BAR out of his utility belt.  He kicked in the door, which splintered into several long pieces. He flipped up his goggles and felt for a light switch on the wall and flipped it on.

Nothing. Bags of feed were stacked waist-high. There was a plastic sink on metal legs and a toilet.

Coop ran outside, worried they’d been at this for too long, and if the gardener was intent on murder, he’d already had ample time.

They entered all the garages that registered heat until they came to one that definitely had a heat source large enough to be two humans.

The images were bouncing around as the heat source was obviously moving. Cooper guessed it could be a couple. He stiffened as Kyle looked over his shoulder and slapped a hand on his back.  The door had a keyed lock installed in the door itself.

“Hey boss,” Fredo ran up behind them. “I got this.” Fredo attached a small explosive device to the locking mechanism and everyone retreated several bays to the right and left for protection, plugging their ears. A sharp explosion blew a two foot hole in the metal door.

Cooper hoped to God they were in time. Kyle rolled up the metal quickly and the other three SEALs entered. A light under the doorway to the adjacent room was quickly extinguished.

Kyle slapped the concrete wall with the flat of his hand, indicating it would make good cover in case anyone inside was armed. He kicked the door in as Cooper flipped on the light.

An older Mexican man and a younger woman were disheveled and only half dressed. But clearly Libby wasn’t there. Cooper soon realized they’d just scared the daylights out of a couple that was living in the diminutive space, never expecting to be bothered by intruders.

Fuck, where are you?

Cooper took the scope and now trotted down the row of garages. No time to go after anything other than human size. He made a mental note to keep his other scope in the bag in the future.

Malcolm and Kyle jogged behind, ready to remove any locking devices.

Again Cooper thought he heard talking, arguing even. He smiled. It warmed his heart when he realized it was Libby, he was sure of it. He’d recognize that righteous indignation rising in her voice any day. This time it appeared the noise came from the line of garages on the other side. They dashed over there.

The large orange shadows appeared so fast that it almost caught Cooper off guard. Although faded, there was the unmistakable outline of two people. Neither body was moving, but lay side by side, in prone position. The shadows were further away from the wall, indicating this was a much larger room.

Libby.
His heart nearly leapt from his chest.

Again Fredo placed the explosive charge on the keypad entry box, and, as soon as Kyle opened the door, Coop ducked under and was on the flimsy wooden door. He set his thermal scope down and, with one shattering kick, the door shattered. He flipped on the light switch.