Page 20 of Rescued By the SEAL

“Heather.” It’s only when a deep male voice calls out my name that I can’t ignore it any longer. I have to admit this is for me, so without giving myself even a moment to think about it, I turn around to see who it is. “Heather, come here. I’m here for you.”

“Oh, my God, Landon.” It’s him, it’s my hero, he’s here to save me once more. Thank God. Relief absolutely floods me. I’ve been hanging on to the idea of seeing him all night long, but now I’m stunned to have him here. “What are you doing?”

I’m so excited, so thrilled, I can’t contain myself. I seriously hope that I’m not dreaming this time around. If he vanishes when I reach out to touch him, I’m going to be seriously pissed off. I’ll fucking scream my head off.

“I’ve come to get you, of course.” He almost steps out into the road to come for me, but a string of traffic comes in front of him. We’re both a little shocked as the cars don’t seem to stop coming.Where are they all coming from? How are so many people out at this time? But nothing worries me anymore because I can see Landon. I know all is okay with him. “One moment.”

Over the cars, our eyes lock, and I feel a surge of emotion racing through me. How can I not trust this man with everything inside me? How can I not love every inch of him? My God, he’s officially the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He lets out a little laugh, and I do too, but my feet bounce once more in eagerness to get to him. Why is everything holding us apart?

My keenness brings me to the edge of the sidewalk, so I’m ready to leap as soon as I can. I can almost feel his arms around me already, comforting me and making me feel safe and better all over again. I have a shudder down my spine in preparation.

“Any minute now,” I whisper with excitement to myself. “Any minute now, I can have him all over again.”

What the fuck?I honestly don’t know what’s happening, but a wind rushes past me and my feet are yanked from the ground. But it isn’t Landon who has hold of me because I can still sort of see a blurry vision of him. Now this has to be a fucking dream, goddamn it. I’ve fallen asleep while planning my escape, and I’m not going to make it out at this rate…

“Ah, shit.” I’m slammed hard on a cold, metallic floor which I quickly realize is from a van. “What the fuck?”

I don’t get a chance to see the face of whoever has done this to me, but I know enough to know it’s someone I don’t recognize. Someone I shouldn’t be in a van with. I try to scramble toward the exit, but the door slams on me too hard, too fast. Shit, this is bad, really bad. I need to get out of here and get to Landon. He’s here, he was near me, but now…

Fuck, now we’re driving away. Now we’re pulling down the road away from Landon and there is a lot of yelling from the front. Shouting from voices that I don’t know, that I don’t recognize, and that scares the living shit out of me. How has interviewing Roger Caine led to all of this? If only I hadn’t bumped in to Bill Ross, none of this would have happened.

“Landon,” I call out loudly, pathetically as tears shed down my face. “Oh, God, Landon. You were there, right there.”

How do we keep missing one another? How the hell did that happen? I can’t even wrap my head around it. I’ve spent so much time thinking that we are meant to be together, assuming that fate keeps bringing us back into one another’s lives, but maybe we’re actually being kept apart. If that wasn’t a sign, then I don’t know what is. But I love him. I love him, and I don’t want to die here. Fuck, this really could be the end for me now. This is the most danger I’ve ever been in through my whole life, and I don’t know if I’m going to get lucky to be saved another time. That might not happen for me.

I collapse on to the van floor in a heap and sob hard, not caring about the state of me as I do. What does it matter anymore? I was so close to getting out of here, so close to surviving this and getting everything that I want, but I failed.

My father is going to fucking kill me if I ever get out of this. Now I can have some empathy with my mother by thinking that I knew best just to end up failing him and his predictions. Goddamn it, his plan to keep me safely locked in his house was the right one and I stubbornly and pig-headedly ignored him. I can’t believe I’ve let history repeat itself like this.

18

LANDON

“What the fuck!” I scream as soon as I realize what’s just happened. I actually can’t believe it as a big black van drives past and someone pulls Heather inside. How is that even the sort of thing that happens in real life? It isn’t, and it certainly isn’t the sort of thing that happens to me on my jobs. But working on the most important job of my whole life is when it happens, with the woman I love as well as someone I feel responsible for. “No way. Bring Heather back now.”

But the van speeds off much too quickly for me to catch up. I don’t stand a goddamn chance on my feet, and it takes me what feels like a lifetime to get inside my car and to drive off after her in the van. My God, it seemed way too good to be true when I spotted Heather walking on the sidewalk in the opposite direction to me. I guess I was right about that.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I drive, I try to speed as much of the van has, but I don’t know which way it’s gone. It’s impossible to track something down if you don’t know where it is, but my desperation keeps me going. “Heather, I’m coming for you.”

My pulse thumps wildly. I feel dizzy and in actual pain as I drive. My heart is fucking shattering into a million pieces. I really do feel like now, she might be gone for good. Like whoever took her this time might finish her off. Since I don’t know who it was, I also have no idea what they’re capable of. Since they killed my father, if this is them, then she could be in trouble too. I can’t stand the concept of Heather not being in my life, not being on the planet any longer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to hack it.

“Where the fuck is this van?” I want to scream. “Where the fuck did they take her? Oh, my God. How the fuck did I lose her?”

I got some of the license plate numbers, but not all of them because my head was in a spin. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to track them down with the limited information I have. I definitely can’t do it alone. I’m going to have to go to Max and admit the truth. I’ll have to let him know that I defied him and it all went tits up. He’s going to fucking kill me.

“You don’t have any choice,” I growl to myself. “Heather’s life is on the line. Don’t worry about yourself.”

Really, as long as I can get Heather out of this alive, it doesn’t matter what happens to me. Losing my job will be the least of my issues. Getting yelled at and losing the respect of Max is irrelevant too. I need to save her life.

Driving back to Max’s office sickens me to my stomach. I can feel myself crumbling and falling apart. It’s good when I pull back up to the office and I see my boss’s car in the parking lot. Thank God he’s here, early as usual, so I can get his assistance right now. I don’t know what the fuck I would have done if I found myself alone in the building again.

I run up the stairs two at a time and I find Max sat at his computer with a furrowed brow and a concerned expression on his face. I burst in and rest my hands on his shoulders as I attempt to get his focus all the way on me. Heneedsto hear me now.

“Landon, what the hell is going on?” Max pulls back to stare at me. “Why are you here so early? You know I’m glad you are actually because there was a voicemail message this morning that I need to make a plan with you about.”

“Yeah, I know. I heard it. It’s Heather, she’s…” I don’t get to finish my sentence because Max’s phone rings, making my blood run cold. He turns away from me and picks up. I try not to get pissed off because he obviously didn’t hear the urgency.

“Hello? Officer Buchan.” Max cocks an eyebrow in my direction. “She has? I see… so we need to… to come up with a calm plan to make sure that this doesn’t spiral out of control. Yes, I understand that it already has spiraled… He’s dead?”

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