Page 8 of Carter's Battle

Bobby got in the front and reached back to yank her purse away from her. He dug inside and pulled out her car keys. “Follow us in her car,” Bobby said and threw the keys toTweedle Dumb. He nodded and got out of the passenger seat and slammed the door.

Bobby put the van in drive, and they left Ohana’s. Mia wanted to scream, to fight, but there was no way she could overpower the man beside her. He was large in every sense of the word. She didn’t stand a chance. Glancing at the door, she wondered if could she pull it open and jump out. One look out the windshield told her they were on the main road now and going way too fast for her to survive throwing herself out of the speeding vehicle.

Shit. Shit. Shit. What the hell was she supposed to do now?

She bit her lip to curb her panic. It was one thing to talk big when Bobby wasn’t in the room. It was a whole other ballgame now that he was holding her hostage in the back of a van. All she wanted at this point was to survive. And from the way Bobby kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror, that possibility was getting further and further away.

CHAPTER 5

Carter watchedthe van pull out and memorized the plate. The large black-haired guy with a lot of tattoos got into what Carter assumed was Mia’s car and followed the van out. He’d only caught the very end of whatever happened, but it was enough to make his stomach churn.

When he’d started out of the bar, Mia was getting into the van. To be fair, it was more like she was being forced into the vehicle. He couldn’t tell exactly what was going on from his angle and only moonlight for illumination, but he didn’t think it was anything good. He’d kill for a pair of night vision goggles. His gut said there was an issue and if he trusted nothing else, he trusted that.

Carter hustled to his borrowed SUV, jumped in, and fired it up. Gravel crunched under the tires as he sped after the car and van. He’d caught up with them just as they reached the main road. He let them both pull out ahead of him and then let another car go by before following.

It was dark, and he hoped that whoever was driving the van and Mia’s car wasn’t really looking for a tail because with only one car between them, his headlights wouldn’t be hard to spot.

They wound their way through town and into a neighborhood. The car ahead of him turned off leaving him fully exposed. Carter swore and dropped back. He kept the taillights of Mia’s car in view but then lost them around a turn. His heart rate ticked up. He didn’t know this woman from Adam, but seeing her get forced into that van caused major anxiety to tighten his chest. He sped up, but by the time he got around the corner, both vehicles had vanished.

“Fuck,” he growled as he scanned the street. His heart rate kicked up another notch. Where the hell had they gone? The street was still. No cars moving. He put his window down and stopped. Was that car doors slamming? Instinct told him it was, and he peered at his surroundings. A small lane on the right veered off the roadway, heading up an incline. They must have gone up there. He killed his lights, reversed, and then took the hidden lane going up the hill. He crested the top and glanced in both directions. The van was parked in front of a small white house. The car was in the driveway.

Carter pulled onto the street and parked facing the opposite way. It was a risk if he needed to chase them but he didn’t want to park next to them just in case he needed to follow them some more.

Carter watched the house in his rearview mirror. Maybe Mia wasn’t in trouble. Maybe everything was fine, and he would look like some kind of weird stalker. He took a deep breath.And maybe not.He’d go with his gut on this one. Hopefully, this was all a misunderstanding and Mia would be okay with him following her.

Right now, he was helpless when it came to the investigation into what was going on with the other guys on the team. He couldn’t stand by and do nothing here as well. He fucking hated being helpless.

Carter waited a couple of minutes and then got out of the SUV and made his way quickly to the van. Peering inside he found what he expected. It was empty. He glanced at the little house. The lights were on, but every window was covered. He had no idea if anyone was inside but he was betting that’s where they’d taken Mia.

He opened the mailbox at the end of the driveway and pulled out a piece of mail. It was addressed to Mia. So it was her house. Carter moved swiftly up the driveway sticking to the dark shadows in case any neighbors happened to be looking out their windows. The last thing he needed was to be reported as a peeping tom. He crept to the side of the house. Sticking close to the wall, he slid up to a window and glanced in. An empty bathroom. He moved to the next window and risked a quick glance in. Kitchen. The lanky man who’d been driving had his back to the window. The two large guys, one with two full sleeves of tattoos and one with tattoos on his neck, were standing on either side of Mia. He didn’t know her, but her expression told him she was pissed off and more than a little scared.

He took another quick peek. The two men were facing the window, so he had to be careful. Moving to the end of the building, he checked around the back of the little house. The small yard was taken up by a concrete patio with some grass beyond. Sliding glass doors led from the patio into the house. The doors were closed but thankfully, no curtains covered the opening.

Carter moved along the wall, ducking under a second kitchen window, and approached the glass doors. He cocked his head, heard them talking. He couldn’t make out their words, though. Glancing around he quickly noted the kitchen window was raised a crack.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Mia,” the first voice said. “We’re in this together now. If I go down, you go down. You’re the accountant. They’ll look at you when those books come to light.”

“You asshole!” Mia’s vehement cry cut through the night. “I was doing the fake books. I had no idea you were laundering money through the cafè.”

“That don’t matter now, does it?” Didn’t need to see the guy’s face to catch the sneer Carter knew would be on it. He continued, “If anyone says anything, I’ll tell them you were in on the whole thing. And don’t think I won’t take down Akela and Kai, too.”

“What the fuck do you want, Bobby?” Mia demanded. “There’s no way you’re just after my silence. You always want something.”

The man named Bobby laughed. “You always were a smart one. Okay, Mia, I do want something. I want you to go back to start gambling for me again. I need you to win me some money.”

Silence greeted these words and then, “No way. Not going to do it. I’m not going back to that, Bobby. I’m out. I’m done with that world. Hell will freeze over before I go back.”

There was the sound of a scrape and then Mia let out a yelp. Carter’s blood iced, and every SEAL instinct in him kicked to life. They were hurting Mia and he was fucking going to stop it. Now.

Carter ducked back under the window and hurried back toward the front of the house. He paused to look into the kitchen window one more time. The tall guy had Mia by the jaw and he was all up in her face.

Carter’s gut rolled as he headed for the front of the house. He couldn’t let this continue. Three against one wasn’t great odds, and chances were good that these guys had a gun or two. But he’d also bet they were all slow. Big guys usually were. They used their size to intimidate people and rarely had to do any serious fighting.

He climbed the front steps as quietly as possible and then paused at the front door. Ever so gently, he tried the front door. The knob turned easily in his hand and opened just a fraction. He drew in a deep breath and then pushed the door open. “Mia, they didn’t have any…” he let the words die out as he entered the house and took in the scene before him. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

The three men stared at him. The guy Carter assumed was Bobby dropped his hand from Mia’s face and she swung her head in his direction as well, with her eyes full of confusion.

“Mia, honey, what’s going on?” Carter demanded as he moved into the room. He positioned himself so he could take out the guy with the neck tattoos first and then Bobby. The guy with the full sleeves was on the far side of Mia and there was no way to reach him without going through her at this moment.

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