Page 3 of Torn in Half

The man shrugged. “A friend of mine needs to have his face reconstructed. Currently, he’s too recognizable by certain, shall I say, agencies, and he’d like to change that.”

Having three retired Navy SEALs for sons, whose special-ops careers had followed them into the private sector, she was far from naïve or stupid when it came to the underbelly of society. “You want me to alter some criminal’s face, so he can avoid being captured and prosecuted. Is that it?”

“Yes.”

“You said this was a job interview. What happens if I refuse to be employed by you?”

His head tilted to the side, and he took a puff of his cigar then blew the smoke into the air. “Then I’m afraid I’ll have no use for you or the pretty lady next to you, and no one will ever learn where you both disappeared to.”

So, in other words, do the surgery or they were both dead. Well, shit.

She glanced at Jocelyn, before returning her attention to “Mr. Albano.” In another time or place, she might have considered him to be a handsome man, but the smugness that hadn’t left his face in the past few minutes radiated the evil within him, and it made him downright ugly. “Where am I supposed to perform this surgery? I need equipment, a sterile room, an anesthetist—”

“All that will be provided. A fully-stocked operating room is ready to handle all your needs, along with a small surgical staff. This is not the first time I’ve arranged this procedure for one of my associates. However, the plastic surgeon who’d agreed to perform the surgeries, in exchange for cancelling his gambling debts, decided to get greedy and tried to blackmail me. Needless to say, he’s no longer able to perform surgery. After his hands were removed from his body, he was released into the woods for my men to hunt. I understand he screamed like a girl before they took his head.”

Marie and Jocelyn gasped at the horrible image and the nonchalance of the man who’d created it with a few simple words. This was just getting worse and worse, and Marie hated to ask her next question, but she needed to hear the answer. “What happens to us after the surgery? We’ll have seen your ‘associate,’ as you call him, so we’ll be able to identify him. You won’t just let us walk out of here if we can identify you and him.”

Albano nodded. “You’ll see his face right before the surgery, at which time you’ll map out the reconstruction. After the surgery, he’ll be swollen and bandaged. You won’t be seeing the final results at all. As long as you don’t give me any problems, I’ll have you both returned to San Isidro in one piece. As for being able to identify me, just by description alone, I’m not worried. One, I have plenty of the local and national law enforcement in my pocket, along with several politicians. You’d never come close to having me arrested. And, two, if you try, I’ll have everyone who works in and visits your clinic beheaded. Of course, I won’t do it right away—I’ll wait until no one sees it coming. You’ll have all those deaths on your hands, Dr. Sawyer, and I doubt you want that.”

“How can we trust you’ll keep your word? There’s nothing stopping you from killing us both when it’s all over.”

He frowned at her. “I’ll keep my word, Dr. Sawyer, as long as you don’t give me a reason not to. Now, Antonio will return you to your room, and I’ll have some food prepared for you. Then I suggest you relax and get a good night’s sleep. You’ll want to be at your best tomorrow. Both your lives depend on it.”

Antonio, the tall man who’d led them downstairs, gestured toward the doorway. “Let’s go.”

Standing, Marie didn’t let go of Jocelyn’s hand. The younger woman was barely holding it together. As they followed their escort back upstairs, Marie wondered how long it had taken her husband to contact their sons to say she was missing. Knowing Chuck, it hadn’t been long. Which meant Ian, Devon, Nick, her son-in-law Jake, and the rest of the Trident Security teams would be on their way to the Philippines. Glancing at her watch, she calculated the time. She just had to do everything she could to keep herself and Jocelyn alive until they got onto the island. Her boys would find them—

she just hoped they wouldn’t be too late.

Chapter Three

Angie was trying to be brave, but it was so hard. Ian had cut back his workload a few days ago to ensure he wouldn’t be far from her when she went into labor. Now he was going to be halfway around the world, and there was no way she could ask him not to go. Marie and Chuck Sawyer were the closest thing she’d had to parents these past few years. She’d been born to her own mother and father when they’d been older and not expecting any more children. Angie’s brother, Sam, had been nine years older than her and had been killed in a car accident with several friends his senior year in high school. Her parents had then both died eighteen months apart in their late fifties of natural causes—at least that’s what their death certificates said. Angie believed they’d both died of broken hearts, never fully recovering from the loss of their only son.

When Angie first met her future in-laws on a trip she’d taken with Ian, the older couple had been in the Philippines then too. Marie and Chuck had welcomed her to the family with open arms. Although, Angie and Ian hadn’t been engaged at the time, Marie had told her that even though her eldest son was gun-shy about marriage, after a bad breakup with his former fiancée years before, she was certain he would come around. Angie hadn’t been too sure, but the woman had been right. Seven days later, less than two hours after they’d landed at Tampa’s International airport, Ian had proposed to her. She still wasn’t certain which one of them had been more shocked. It’d seemed like he’d experienced an epiphany at the time and blurted it out. But then he’d gotten all romantic and she knew the proposal had been real and honest. Not once since had she ever regretted becoming Mrs. Ian Sawyer. Her Dom and husband owned her heart, body, and soul, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.

Sitting in the conference room in the Trident Security offices, with her swollen feet up on another chair, Angie wished there was something more she could do to help, other than the few phone calls she’d made. Ian was in the war-room with Brody “Egghead” Evans, Ben “Boomer” Michaelson, and Nathan “Cookie” Cook doing whatever it is they needed to do before heading to the local private airport where the TS jet was stored. Their pilot, CC Chapman, and occasional co-pilot, Clinton Howe, were already on their way there and would have everything ready in time to go wheels up. Since it was such a long flight, they needed the two onboard, as per regulations, so one could rest while the other flew the jet or monitored the autopilot.

Dev was in his office on the phone with Chase Dixon at Blackhawk Security, giving him the details of cases that couldn’t be put on hold. BHS and Trident often backed each other up and shared resources when needed. Marco “Polo” DeAngelis, Nick, Jake and the Omega team operatives, were over in the next building gathering all the equipment, weapons, and ammo they might need. Since they had no idea what the mission would call for, they were preparing for the worst and praying for the best. With the hidden storage compartments on the jet, they’d be able to sneak their weapons into the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Kristen and Kat, Boomer’s wife, were in the office break room with Jenn, filling up two coolers with sandwiches, drinks, and snacks for the two teams to fuel up on during the trans-Pacific flight to the Philippines. When Angie had called the Omega Team members, she’d asked Logan “Cowboy” Reese, who lived closest to the compound, to swing by a Publix that was open twenty-four hours a day for some rolls and lunchmeat. Between everything he’d brought, Kristen’s and Angie’s refrigerators, and the company’s stock room, they’d be able to pack up enough food for everyone for the long trip.

The only member of either team that wasn’t there was Darius “Batman” Knight who was on his honeymoon in Tahiti. After everything he and his new bride, Princess Tahira of Timasur, had gone through to get to the altar, Ian had refused to call and ask Darius to cut his vacation short and meet them in the Philippines. Knowing Darius, he would’ve dropped everything and done just that. Instead, Ian was calling a few contacts that might be able to get boots on the ground in the province of Davao del Norte quickly and start gathering intel, so it was available when the Trident jet landed. Every second counted at times like this.

Whenever they traveled, Chuck and Marie made certain their sons had their full itinerary, in case anything happened. According to the latest one they’d sent, the couple was in San Isidro, a fifth-class municipality, in other words, one of the poorer areas in Davao del Norte. Tomorrow was supposed to be the last day of their twenty-day trip before flying back to the States. Marie had apparently done several reconstructive surgeries on children with birth defects or devastating injuries, whose parents could barely put food on the table, much less pay for medical care.

Everyone was busy doing something except for Angie, Beau, who was at her feet, and JD, who was sound asleep in the portable crib they’d moved into the conference room from Devon’s office, so she could watch him. Aware of the fact she wouldn’t be able to do much hadn’t stopped her from waddling over to the office with Kristen earlier. Her back and feet hurt, and Little Bit was kicking up a storm, but she wasn’t about to tell Ian or anyone else that. They had plenty to do and worry about, and she didn’t want to add to the long list.

“Hey, Ang,” Marco said as he strode in with two boxes and sat down next to her. “Can you do me a favor and check these comm units with me really quick? We used them all in yesterday’s training session with TPD and Blackhawk, and I need to swap out the batteries for fresh ones and make sure they’re all working properly.”

Surprised but happy to have something else to do than just sit there, she reached for the closest box and opened it. After replacing three or four batteries, she realized Marco hadn’t needed her help. He could have done this on the eighteen- to nineteen-hour flight, including one stopover for refueling. The reason he’d asked her was to give her something to take her mind off the fact her mother-in-law was missing. Like her husband, Marco had been a Dom in the lifestyle for a long time. Taking care of a submissive’s needs, mentally, emotionally, or physically, was second nature to them. It didn’t matter if a sub was unattached or had been collared by someone else—most Doms took their roles seriously and cared for all of them.

“Thank you, Marco.”

He shrugged his shoulders as he continued to make sure the tiny earpieces were receiving and the attached microphones were transmitting. “No problem. We’ll be ready to hit the road in about ten minutes, so try to get some sleep after we leave. There’s no point staying awake the rest of the night when we’ll just be in the air. Harper said to text her in the morning, and she’ll head over with Mara.”

“I will. Fancy texted me and asked if she should take the day off. I basically told her what you just told me. There’s no point, since you won’t be landing until late afternoon our time.” Brody’s wife, Fancy, owned a bakery, and she was usually there by 6:00 a.m. and would open an hour later. She also had a wonderful staff who could fill in for her at any time, which would come in handy when she had her own baby in a few months. “Logan said Dakota was working early too, but she would check in with us when she could.” Cowboy’s fiancée was an undercover police officer with the Tampa PD.

When she’d first agreed to marry Ian, Angie hadn’t realized how close she would become to the men and women of Trident Security. At the time, Devon had been the only married teammate. But as each of the “Sexy Six-Pack,” as Kristen had dubbed them, had fallen for their soulmates, and another team and other employees had been added to the mix, they’d become an extended family. As with every family, they had their ups and downs, but when one of them needed help, there was never any question of loyalty or sacrifice. Every single one of them would drop everything to support the others, no matter what needed to be done. And Angie knew they would do everything they could to find Marie and make sure Ian got back in time to see her give birth to their first child. She’d just have to pray it was enough.

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