His Angel (22 page)

She gave him a sad smile. "I felt that way too, but I thought you didn't want to ruin our friendship for something which might not work out."

"I didn't. I thought if it didn't work out, I'd lose you altogether. And when I was finally ready to face my fear..." He took a deep breath and let it out again. "Sawyer is good for you. I watch him watch you. You come before everything else for him. I can't say the same and you have no idea how sorry I am for that. At one point in my life I thought we were soulmates, you know? Now I think, while you may have been mine, I was never yours. But if he ever hurts you, there's going to be hell to pay." She started to say something but he shook his head, stopping her. "I want you to be happy, baby, and despite everything going on, I see the way you look at him too. I know you're in love with him and I'm okay with it. Well, maybe not at the moment, but I'll get there. Maybe when this is all over, I'll start looking for my true soulmate, if she's out there. But honestly, Ang, you're going to be a tough act to follow."

By the time Athos finished talking, Angie was crying again. He pulled her into his arms and held her until the tears stopped a second time. Then he let her go, but not before he placed a lingering kiss on her forehead. "I love you, Ang. I always will."

"I love you too, Jimmy Andrews. You'll always be my best friend."

When the two of them stepped out of the bathroom together, Ian saw her swollen, red eyes and she could sense the anger blasting through him as his stare shifted to the man who'd made her cry. But before he could say or do anything, Angie walked over to him, climbed back into his lap and wrapped her arms around him, needing to soothe him along with herself. She felt his body relax when she whispered in his ear, "It's okay, Ian. He had some things he wanted to tell me but it's you I want to be with. He'll always be my friend, but it's you I'm in love with."

Ian tugged her hair, pulling her head back until he could look into her eyes. He had to see the truth there–she was in love with him. Her heart belonged to him and only him. He leaned down so his mouth was next to her ear and spoke so no one else would hear. "And I'm in love with you, my sweet angel."

When they arrived back at the compound they were met with an almost full parking area outside of the Trident building. There were several government-issued vehicles, marked Tampa P.D. cars as well as personal vehicles belonging to whoever Devon had managed to get in touch with. Jenn had about forty surrogate uncles from SEAL Team Four, all whom would drop everything for Baby-girl but only a few of them were close enough to Tampa to get there within a short time frame. Even Beau knew he was 'on-duty' and had attached himself to Angie's side, as if knowing she was the human who needed him the most. Boomer's father, Rick Michaelson, and Devon approached Marco and Ian's vehicles which they had driven home from the small airstrip.

As Boomer greeted his dad, who was also a former SEAL, Devon got down to business and filled them all in. "Still no word from the kidnappers and we can't figure out why because it's been over three hours. They've gotta still be in Tampa somewhere because Angie's their objective. In addition to Rick, we've got Bannerman, Rad and Urkel inside the conference room doing what they can to coordinate everything and try to figure out where they may have her. We also called Chase and asked him to spare whoever he had on hand, which was only five guys with the experience we need." When necessary, Trident contracted additional manpower from Chase Dixon, who owned Blackhawk Security. It was his two men who'd been assigned to protect Jenn. "But he'll have more tomorrow if it goes that long. He's at the hospital with Henderson, who's still in surgery. His folks are on their way from Jacksonville. I told Chase to book them a room at the Hilton up the street from the hospital and bill it to me. He told me to fuck off, he's got it covered.

"We're keeping the DEA out of the loop until we know who we can trust. Instead, I called Keon. He's stuck in D.C., but contacted the local office and told them to help us out in any way they could. Unfortunately, it means Frank Stonewall is here and he's not happy about it."

The local FBI Special Agent in Charge had been far from thrilled with his supervisor, Trident, and Carter after he was shut out of the investigation when Carter killed the hit-man targeting the team several months ago. While the rest of the team groaned at Devon’s announcement, Carter smirked. Last time he and Stonewall met, the SAC almost crapped his pants when the pissed off operative lit in to him. It would be interesting to see the fed's reaction to seeing him again.

"Angie!" All heads turned as Kristen came running from the residence building straight into the other woman's arms and held her tight. The two of them tried hard not to crumble but they couldn't stop the few tears which fell down both of their faces.

Ian walked over and stood next to them, rubbing his hands up and down their backs in comfort. "Kristen, why don't you take Angie up to your apartment for now, hmmm? There are too many people inside the offices and you'll just be in the way. Take Beau with you and we'll let you know when we hear something." Turning his head toward Angie, he added, "We're doing everything we can. We'll find her and bring her home. I promise."

The two women nodded, neither one trusting themselves to speak at the moment. Ian kissed both women on the head, lingering longer on Angie's. Then he watched they staggered back to the apartments, their arms around each other in mutual support as Beau trotted beside them. Taking a deep breath, he turned back toward his now extended team and gestured for them to head into the offices. It was time to make good on his promise.

Inside, Colleen was sitting at her reception desk, calling in an order for pizzas and two cases of bottled water for the men who were now occupying the conference room. Devon's office, as well as two vacant desks in a small bullpen area behind her, were also in use. The young secretary's eyes were red and it was obvious she'd been crying earlier. As they walked by her, she gave them a watery smile filled with trust as if she had no doubt the Doms would do everything they could to save Jenn's life.

Brody went straight to his war-room, unlocked it and started booting up the different computers he would need. Curt Bannerman, who’d been their back-up computer specialist in the Teams, joined him, taking a spare chair and rolling it over to assist his fellow geek. Neil 'Rad' Radovsky and Steve 'Urkel' Romanelli gave Ian and the rest of the team lazy salutes while staying on their respective phones with their contacts, trying to find where Jenn might be being held.

Inside Devon's office, the five men borrowed from Chase were checking their weapons and waiting to be called to duty. One was on the phone and from the sound of it he was talking to his boss and checking on Henderson. Ian would have to find out about the slain bodyguard later to see what they could do to help the man's family deal with their loss. Earlier on the plane, Ian had told Devon, who agreed, they would take care of all costs for the funeral and burial. If he had wife and children, they would make sure they were well taken care of. It was the least they could do for a man who had given his life trying to protect Jenn.

The conference room was filled with three FBI agents, including a scowling Stonewall, two uniformed policemen and two plainclothes detectives from the local P.D. If the situation wasn't so serious, Ian might have laughed when Stonewall paled at the sight of Carter walking into the room. As it was, he heard Boomer chuckle behind him when the kid noticed the same thing. Carter in turn gave the SAC his best Dom glare, then ignored the fed and got to work, calling his own contacts.

Also present in the room were Colleen's Dom, Reggie Helm, and Ian's cousin, Mitch Sawyer, both of whom shook Ian's hand and offered whatever help they could give them. Mitch asked, "What should we do about the club? Do you want me to shut it down for the night?"

Ian looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. They still had about three hours before the club opened at nineteen-thirty hours. "Yeah, the less people here at the compound the better. We don't know how long this is going to last. Whatever you do, don't let the members know about Jenn, otherwise every Dom will be showing up to help and while I'd appreciate it, they'd be in the way. We have enough personnel here as is."

Mitch nodded. "I'll send out the mass text from my office." He turned to Tiny. "Do you mind helping me call the staff? I want to make sure everyone knows not to show and the phones will probably start ringing off the hook when the members find out we're closed, wanting to see what the problem is."

Ian spoke in a low tone to Reggie so he couldn't be overheard, "I'd appreciate it if you took Colleen home with you. She doesn't need to be here for this and the less you know the better. We may need you after this is all over."

Reggie was one of Trident's lawyers, and this was Ian's way of keeping the man out of the loop for when the shit hit the fan. If Reggie needed to defend them in court for any reason, like for a murder charge, it gave him plausible deniability. When lawyers spoke to their clients accused of crimes they rarely asked them outright if they were guilty or not. They didn't need to know in order to defend their clients, and usually didn't want to know.

Right after the two Doms and Tiny left with Colleen in tow, the phone rang and Ian picked up the line on one of the conference room phones sitting on the table. As soon as he heard the computer-altered voice, he began rapidly waving his other hand and snapping his fingers to alert everyone in the room that the kidnappers were making contact. Everyone stopped in mid-sentence and remained silent. Marco ran out the door toward the war-room to tell Brody to start tracing the call as Ian hit the speaker button so they could all hear.

"...see her again. Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, you'll receive a text. Have Agent Andrews bring Angelina Beckett to the address you're given and we'll release your pretty niece, although she may not be too pretty anymore if you don't do as you're told."

The hair on the back of Ian’s neck tingled as his fear and anger intensified. Leaning his two hands on the conference table, he growled at the person on the other end of the phone. "Listen you fucking bastard, if you hurt one fucking hair on that girl's head, there won't be anywhere on this fucking earth where you can hide that I won't find you. And when I'm done with you, you'll be fucking begging me to kill you to end your suffering! You hear me you piece of shit!"

He'd been in such a blind rage and was yelling by the end of his rant that he didn't realize the caller had disconnected until Devon put his hand on his bicep. "Ian, he hung up."

Devon’s voice was low, trying to calm his brother down but it didn't work. Ian grabbed the office phone, ripped out the cord and threw it against the wall where it shattered.

No one was hurt by the flying debris although several of the men were hit. Not a word was spoken as the usually unflappable man stormed out of the room and made his way to his office, passing a stone-faced Marco on the way. He slammed the door behind him and they heard a roar of frustration and anguish. The men all knew the call time was far too short for a trace. They were equally frustrated because, despite all the missions and cases they'd been on over the years, this time it was personal. Devon looked at everyone else. "Give him a few minutes. In the meantime, get back to harassing your contacts."

* * *

Angie was in Ian's bedroom after telling Kristen she'd be up in a few minutes. Brody had programmed her hand print for the lock-scanners at Ian's request earlier in the week so she'd been able to let herself in as Beau followed Kristen upstairs to her and Devon's apartment. This was the first time Angie had a moment to herself since Jimmy had showed up, her brief time in the plane's bathroom notwithstanding. She needed some time to come to terms with a few things. In addition to her worry about Jenn, she was still reeling from Jimmy's confession and then the fact that she'd told Ian she was in love with him. She hadn't expected him to say the words back to her, and although she knew he meant them, she couldn't help but think he was still holding himself back from her. His ex-fiancée must have done a number on him and she was glad the woman didn't live anywhere nearby because she might have gone looking for her and pounded on her for hurting him.

Entering the bathroom, she washed her face again then brushed her teeth with the spare toothbrush Ian had given her to use after her first overnight stay. When she came back out, she started pulling the pieces of her disassembled cell phone out of the sweatshirt Ian had given her to wear when she started shaking at the news of the kidnapping. She'd retrieved the phone parts from the backseat of his SUV where he'd tossed it yesterday, and shoved them in her pockets. God, was it only yesterday afternoon when she and Brody had been running for their lives? So much had changed in less than thirty-six hours.

Putting the SIM card in, followed by the battery, she closed the cover and powered the phone up. At once, it began alerting her to missed texts and calls. Checking the call log first, she saw four voice mails from her friend Mandy, Shelby from the club, Red Rose Books and one other client. Then she checked her texts and saw more of the same but one 'unknown' message caught her eye. When she opened it she was horrified to see a photo of Jenn. The girl had been bound, gagged and blindfolded, yet Angie could still see the fear in her partially covered face. The message with the photo told her to contact the sender immediately without telling the cops or Trident team, or they were going to kill Jenn. Checking the time stamp, she saw the message had only been received twenty minutes ago. She sent a return text as fast as she could.
I'm here. Tell me what I should do.

Less than fifteen seconds later the phone rang in her hand and she'd been so startled, she almost dropped it. The screen read
'unknown caller
'. After punching the connect button, she brought the phone to her ear. "H-hello?"

A computer disguised voice came over the line and Angie's hands began to tremble. "Come alone to the address I'm going to text you. If I see your boyfriend, the cops or anyone else, I'll kill her. You have fifteen minutes."

Before she could respond, the call was disconnected. She stared at the phone until a text message alert sounded.
1795 Route 301…Alone!

Frantic, she ran out to the living room and began to search for her purse and car keys before remembering her car wasn't here. It was still in the driveway at her house. She spotted Ian's spare set of keys sitting on a shelf of his entertainment center. Snatching them, she ran out the front door, and jumped into his Audi, pushing the keyless start button as she grabbed the seat belt. She couldn't risk telling Kristen where she was going, or anyone else for that matter. But she wasn't stupid though. When she reached the destination, she would send Ian a text letting him know where she and Jenn were.

Relieved to see no one was outside except two security guards, who she barely knew, she put the car in drive and accelerated as fast as she dared without alerting them something was wrong. The gates had been left open to allow the police and feds to come and go as needed, and Angie drove out of the compound, heading for the main road. Ian and Jimmy were going to kill her if the drug dealers didn't do it for them, but she knew they wouldn't exchange her life for Jenn's and she refused to be responsible for the girl's death. It didn't take her long to get to Route 301 but when she reached it she didn't know if she needed to go north or south. She programmed her phone's GPS with the address and turned north when the annoyingly cheerful woman's voice told her to. A few minutes later the same voice spoke again. "You're approaching your destination on the right."

Pulling to the side of the road, Angie viewed at the structure set back from the road. It was similar to Ian's compound but had fewer trees, no fence, and only two warehouse buildings. From where she was she could only see two vehicles–a black SUV and a plain, four-door sedan which she assumed belonged to the DEA agents who had been at her house. She typed a text to Ian.
Kidnappers called. They're at 1795 Route 301. I'm trading myself for Jenn. Hurry.