Page 32 of Strangers in Love

“Do you think Freedom was the one they meant to take?”

I shook my head. “Same contact information for the parents. They didn’t really even need to reach out to Freedom.” A question occurred to me. “Whydidthey contact Freedomandthe parents? Freedom wasn’t named in the video, just the parents. So why send the video to her too?”

“As far as I know, she’s still in Iran,” Cain said. “Maybe they wanted to warn her to stay away from the authorities.”

“That makes sense.” I frowned. “Except, how did they know she was in Iran in the first place? And even if Aline had told them that much, she’d have no way of knowing if Freedom had left or not. For all Aline knew, Freedom had been sent back to the U.S. by the cops right after Freedom reported Aline missing.”

“Or, more likely,” Cain picked up my train of thought, “someone’s feeding them information.” He made another note, and just as he finished, someone knocked on the door. “That’s the rest of my team.”

The three guys who came into the house looked nothing alike, but there was still something similar about them. Even without knowing that Cain had most likely hired other ex-military, I could’ve guessed that’s what they were.

“Army?” The shortest of the three was at least six feet tall. Hair so blond it was almost white and long enough for me to guess he probably’d been out of the service for a couple years, even though we looked about the same age.

I got to my feet and held out a hand. “Eoin McCrae. And yes, army. I’m guessing that means you’re not.”

He shook his head and grinned at me. “Navy EOD. And I’m Bruce.”

“Bruce? Really?”

The next guy laughed. “As in Bruce Wayne. His real name’s Bode Monroe, but he comes from money, and he likes his toys.”

“Got it.” I laughed too. “You’re…?”

“Desmond Ambler. Dez.” He shook my hand, and that was when I noticed the scar going through his right eyebrow. A quarter the size of mine, but something about how he didn’t stare at or avoid my scar made me wonder if he had others too. “Marine.”

“I won’t hold that against you,” I promised, and he laughed again. I turned to the last guy, the one closest to my own six and a half feet.

“Fever,” he said as he gave my hand a brisk shake.

I couldn’t tell if he was fucking with me or not. “Haven’t heard that one before.”

“Pollard Fevrier,” Bruce supplied.

“That makes sense.”

Fever shot Bruce an annoyed look. “I can speak for myself, thanks.”

Bruce shrugged, and something about the way he did it made me think this was the normal way these two interacted.

“Fever was a marine,” Cain said. “Scout sniper.”

Impressive.

“Now that we all know each other,” Cain continued, “let’s get down to business. We have someone to rescue.”

Twenty-Three

Aline

Dr. O’Keefe’sfirst name was Hammond, which was apparently his mother’s middle name. He’d never been married, and his entire life had been dedicated to his work at Signature Care Emergency Center. Dana had come to Houston from Dallas and was a single mom to a now-adult daughter named Shannon. She hadn’t said where her daughter’s father was, but something about the way Hammond had softened when she’d said she was a single mom made me think that whatever had happened had been traumatic enough that it still hurt.

They’d been here the longest, a little over a week before I was taken, though none of us could really say for certain. They confirmed that our captors never kept enough of a schedule for us to figure things out. Whether that was intentional for that specific reason or simply how they ran the place, we didn’t know.

All of us had done ransom videos, but none of us had heard anything about the status of our ransoms, which bothered me more than I wanted to show. Gia wouldn’t say what they’d asked for, but Audric said he’d overheard enough with his limited knowledge of their language to guess that they’d asked the government for something political as Gia’s ransom. The rest had been money like me, though not as much.

Our kidnappers seemed to think that Hammond and Dana were married, so they’d done their video together, addressing Hammond’s accountant since he didn’t have any living family. Even though neither of them had come out and said it, I thought they were both worried that the accountant had used the authority he’d been given to take the ransom money – or more – and run off with it. He’d been given more time than my parents, since Hammond had explained that the accountant would need certain legal documents to access the money, but I could see they were both worried that their time was running out.

Judging by the new bruises on Hammond’s face, the kidnappers were getting tired of waiting too.

---