Johnny: #2 (Special Forces) (12 page)

Maddy stepped into the warm spray, and all the tension from before evaporated. The warm water helped ease her poor aching muscles.

She rubbed her rear. How the hell had she pulled a muscle in her butt? Was that even possible?

She washed and rinsed off before the water turned cold and ruined all the good feeling it’d spread over her. She stepped out and dried herself off.

Maddy decided to dressed simply. There was no need to impress Johnny. He’d already seen her in a number of outfits and out of them as well. She didn’t even bother with make-up.

Her phone buzzed loudly, and Maddy grabbed it from the nightstand.

It was a text from Marissa.

She smiled. Although her friend had been nervous, it was clear that she had been interested in Clint, and Maddy hoped that maybe they had their own version of a wild night.

She sat down on the bed to respond when a note on the nightstand caught her eye. The phone had been sitting on it.

Maddy picked it up and flipped it open.

I can’t turn my back on my brothers when they need me, and I can’t ask you to wait for me.

These are dangerous times, and my place is where I’m needed most.

I’m leaving on a mission, and I can’t say that I’ll be back soon. I’m a SEAL and because of that, my life is not my own.

Please know that I will always love you, and our time together has meant so much.

Live the life you deserve.

Yours Always,

Johnny

Tears pooled in her eyes. That’s it? He was just going to leave a fucking note and disappear in the middle of the night?

Maddy raced over to her closet and grabbed out the nearest pair of tennis shoes. She tied them on as quickly as she could.

“Stupid. Idiot. Asshole.” She mumbled all the things she planned on telling him.

He didn’t get to just walk away like that, not when he’d come crashing back into her life. Not when he’d made her love him so much that the idea of being without him nearly crushed her soul.

Fuck that noise.

“You don’t get to decide what is best for me,” she said as she finished tying her shoes.

Maddy raced around the apartment looking for her purse and keys.

He was leaving on a mission. All she had to do was get there before he did and let him know exactly what she thought of his stupid note.

She found the keys on the couch, likely where Johnny had tossed them sometime after they had first come in last night.

A loud knock came at the door, and she turned.

He’d come back. Maybe he regretted what he’d written? She was mad still, but she could at least forgive him for being stupid. She could be the girlfriend of a SEAL, even if he decided to stay in until retirement. It would be hard, but the alternative would be even harder.

She threw open the door. The smile that had once been there slipped from her face as she stared at a very tall, bald and menacing man in a suit. She didn’t recognize him at all.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Maddy took a small step back as the large man stepped forward and invaded her personal space.

She stared up at him. A long, thick scar across his left eye and down his face only added to an overall scary as fuck appearance.

“You Madelyn Peterson?” he said in a deep, accented voice. German, from the sound of it.

She frowned. Who the hell was this guy? Whatever it was he was selling, she wasn’t interested.

“I’m sorry,” she said and tried to step forward so he would move back. The man didn’t budge. “Look, I’m really in a hurry right now. Why don’t you try the main house and talk to my father? I’m sure he would be very interested in whatever it is you’re selling.”

The man continued to stare down at her from her door.

He stepped in, and she backed away. Something was off about this man.

Faster than she would have thought possible, he snatched her purse from her arm and pulled out her wallet.

“Look,” she said, fear starting to creep into her voice. “Just take what you want and leave.”

Confusion and fear blasted through her. She watched, shaking, as he tossed all her credit cards to the floor. He pulled out her license and smiled. Her stomach rolled in revulsion at the sight. Something about the way he stared at her made her physically ill.

“Yes, Madelyn Peterson,” he said again and stepped forward.

Maddy stepped back and held up her hands. The back of her legs hit the coffee table, causing her to go crashing to the floor.

“Stop, or I’ll—” she began.

A hard hit to the top of her head from the man silenced her. The room spun for a moment before everything around her faded to black.

Chapter Eighteen

Johnny tried not to think of how Maddy looked when he left her in the morning or about how amazingly difficult it was to write that note and leave her once again.

But being with him wasn’t what was best for her. She deserved a life where she didn’t have to worry if the person she was with would be coming home in a flag-draped box.

He took a deep breath and tried to clear his head as Clint stepped into his office.

Johnny tossed Clint’s keys on the desk and gave a smile to his commanding officer.

“You’re getting in late, sir,” he said and leaned back. “You and Marissa have a good time last night?”

Clint frowned at him and busied himself with putting away a few items.

“She’s great, but I think I’m a bit old for her.”

Johnny nearly choked on the coffee he was sipping.

“The age difference didn’t seem to bother her any last night,” Johnny said and set his mug on the desk. “Besides, you’re barely more than ten years older than her. That’s not that big a deal.”

Clint narrowed his eyes on the mug, and Johnny picked it up before he really managed to piss Clint off. “Didn’t expect to have to deal with your smart ass this morning.”

He sat down in the chair across from Johnny and folded his hands on the desk. “You think about what I told you?”

Johnny sighed. He’d done nothing but think about what he said. The squad needed him right now. He couldn’t just bail on them, especially when it might mean they would catch the bastard that killed Emir.

“I’m with you,” he said simply.

Clint nodded. The answer didn’t seem to surprise him, and Johnny wondered if the older man knew just how to play him into doing what he wanted.

“Good,” he said. “We’re really going to need you since Kadin has gone completely into hiding, and we’ve lost contact with him.”

Johnny had been thinking about his other friend and how scared he must have been. As a requirement for their work, they only took native speakers who had no family that might suffer from their involvement. However, he did vaguely remember a distant cousin Kadin had mentioned.

The cousin’s name had to be in notes somewhere, and that was who the man was probably with. If Johnny were going to hide, he’d do it where he felt safe.

“I think I might have a lead on that, sir,” Johnny said. “I just need to go over some of my notes.”

Clint nodded. “So can I consider you back from leave?”

Johnny nodded. Being in the service had taught him that there was no better time than the present to get shit done. That was just what he planned on doing.

His phone rang loudly in his pocket, and he glanced down at it. Trent.

He looked back up to Clint.

“Sorry, sir, it’s Trent. Just a second?”

Clint nodded.

Johnny pressed the green talk screen button.

“Have you seen her? Tell me Maddy is with you?”

His pulse quickened. Trent wasn’t a man exactly prone to panic, but his voice was rushed and tense.

“What’s going on?” He looked over to Clint, who leaned in a bit.

“Damn it, I don’t have time for fucking games. I know you two have been seeing each other. Is she there with you?”

Johnny’s heart sped up more. This wasn’t just concern on Trent’s part. This was open panic.

“Maddy’s not here,” Johnny said slowly. “What the hell is going on?”

“Fuck,” Trent grunted. He could hear the sound of something being thrown. “Her purse is tossed all over her apartment, and she’s not fucking here.”

“Maddy disappeared?” Johnny stood, gritting his teeth. Not really sure what the hell he was going to do, but it was better than just sitting there. “Do you have any leads on what happened?”

He could hear his friend struggling to maintain some sort of control. Rich spoke to someone in the background, likely the police.

“Police talked to the neighbors. One said she saw her get in the car with some bald guy with a scar.”

“Bald guy with a scar?” he repeated. “You have any clue who this guy is?”

It didn’t make sense. Why would she leave with someone? He had been with her all night, and not once did she act like she had somewhere else to be.

“Not a clue,” Trent said, his voice shaking as he spoke.

Johnny glanced over to Clint as he flipped furiously through a file on his desk, grimacing all the while.

“Son of a bitch,” Clint mumbled and turned the file to face Johnny.

A bald man with a scar stared back at him.

He looked up to Clint. This was unreal. That bastard Williamson had sent his henchman to go after Maddy? What the fuck?

Clint shook his head. “Tell Trent he needs to come to the base so we can talk about what the hell we’re going to do next. This is now not just about kidnapping. This is a matter of national security.”

* * *

Trent paced the conference room like a caged animal. He was pissed he wasn’t being included on the mission deployment, but there was no way they could. Not unless they wanted to have even a little chance of actually getting over to Chotastan in time to do anything about it.

The other men present, all standing in uniforms, many already mostly geared up, waited in silence.

Clint had been in contact with a whole mess of people. Miraculously, the bureaucracy seemed on their side, even though everybody from the FBI to the State Department was now in the loop. Hell, even some CIA assets were involved.

They’d thought about trying to keep the operation mostly quiet, but the FBI had contacted the Navy, passing along a cryptic e-mail they’d received from what appeared to just be a spam account:

PRETTY GIRLS SHOULDN’T SUFFER FOR THE SINS OF NOSY SEALS, PETTY OFFICER DAVIS. JUST LIKE TRANSLATORS SHOULDN’T. TOO MUCH BARKING. KEEP YOUR NOSE TO YOURSELF.

Intelligence indicated that a private plane had taken off from the East Coast and was on its way to Chotastan. Even though they’d lost tracking on the plane, some on-the-ground assets reported unusual activity at an airport near the weapons storage site in Chotastan.

The US government didn’t take kindly to being taunted. Apparently, the higher-ups wanted this handled quickly and quietly with extreme force, especially since they had already approved the initial weapons raid.

Time was of the essence. Intel indicated that sarin gas canisters might be the next shipment going through. Something like that in the area could lead to more than just a little civil unrest. In the wrong hands, the gas could be used to commit genocide.

So, the squad had two missions: save the girl and stop the bad guys.

Another mission, another day. Or at least Johnny tried to tell himself that. In truth he wanted to pace right alongside Trent, but he knew that wasn’t going to help anything. He needed to keep his focus, or he wouldn’t be able to help save Maddy or stop the gas from being shipped.

“Peterson,” Clint barked at Trent, “take a damn seat before you wear a hole in my carpet.”

Trent glared at Clint but sat down at the table next to Johnny.

“Delta Force units are being deployed as well. We’re to recon with the team there and assess the situation. As soon as they have word, she’s in the area, they will radio us.”

Clint looked between Trent and himself.

“Until we know what we’re walking into, we just need to embrace the suck and move on.”

Trent grunted in annoyance but kept quiet. As it was, he was just barely being allowed to remain stateside as an EOD contractor and adviser on the mission. Bombs were his specialty.

“I’ll have a direct line set up to Peterson here. Between him and the Delta Force unit, we will find those bombs, and we will disarm the threat. This is top priority above all else.”

Johnny clenched his fists but knew that Clint had to pass on the orders as they were given to him. They worked as a unit and to keep that going, it meant they took orders they didn’t always like.

“Davis will try to make contact with his people there,” Clint said, his gaze making there rounds but stopping on Johnny. “Once he has that contact, things will move quickly. I want everyone at the ready at all times. This isn’t a joy ride. There are lot of lives riding on this mission.”

The gathered men nodded their understanding.

“Good,” Clint said to the men in the room. “Now get your shit. We’re out in twenty.”

The men stood and started checking gear. To most of them, this was just another day at the office.

“You find her,” Trent said quietly. He gripped Johnny by the shoulder and forced him to look at him. “You find her and bring her home for me.”

Johnny nodded. He placed a hand on his friend’s arm. “For both of us.”

Chapter Nineteen

The plane bounced down on the runway as they landed. It had been a long-ass flight, and no matter how hard he tried, Johnny hadn’t been able to do much besides rest his eyes and think.

It was those moments that killed him really, sitting there forever, running over and over in his head how stupid he had been. If he had just stayed there with her like he’d wanted, none of this would have happened.

He swallowed hard. Or if he had stayed, maybe they would have just waited for him to leave and taken her then.

Either way she was just a tool to get to him, and it burned his ass even more. Fucking Williamson. The bastard would pay. For Emir. For Kadin having to hide. For Maddy.