Taz, page 17
Nothing.
I tried the door. It was unlocked.
I went in quietly, quickly checking the first floor. No one was there. Just as I started up the spiral steps, I felt the vibrating shocks of my field phone against my thigh.
Three of them. Slate was in. I checked my watch. We were only twelve minutes into this.
I hurriedly checked both bedrooms and bathrooms. No one was in this cabin.
But they had been.
That much was certain.
Lindsey
We were in deep shit. That much was evident, but I still couldn’t quite figure out why. I mean, Liam was the one who had initially approached us and, by now, it was quite evident that it had been done by design. My mother and I posed no threat to him, or his freaking terrorist daughter. The whole scenario was sick and twisted, and the only obvious reason was that it had been exacted because of revenge.
But again, that part was baffling to me because Liam had approached us long before Taz had gone on that undercover mission that, unbeknownst to me, had landed someone named Capri dead. I wasn’t sure how she fit into the mix, but evidently she did. So if Taz had killed her, that was after Liam had contracted with us for his daycare centers.
Mom was sitting in a chair next to me, and I could tell she’d been scared shitless once roused out of her sleep by the driver who also served as one of the two guards here. She still had her pajamas on, but he had allowed her to put a jacket on before bringing her here.
“Lindsey,” she had said, running over to me when she’d been escorted into the conference room on the first floor, “What’s going on?”
I tried my best to play it cool.
Mind fuck.
“I don’t know, Mom. I couldn’t sleep. I came over here to use the phone to call home, and then Liam and Nadia were on me like I was some sort of…intruder.”
Mom looked back and forth between all of us. “There has to be more than that. Liam, please explain.”
He was standing and went to lean against the edge of the conference room table. He still wanted to be poised above us, that much was evident. He also wanted to display his position of power over us; that also was obvious. “There’s much more to it than that, Samantha, I assure you.”
“Then explain, please. This is ridiculous.”
“Perhaps introductions are in order,” he said, nodding towards Nadia. “This is Nadia—or, as she was previously known, Natalia.”
“Okay,” Mom replied, nonplussed. “And that should mean what to us?”
“I think your daughter knows, Samantha.”
Mom looked over at me abruptly. “Lindsey?”
“They’ve been bugging our chalet. They sleep together. She is Talia…the one that sent those videos…”
“The videos of your husband fucking me,” Nadia clarified, relishing in the declaration. “He loved every minute of it,” she hissed, giving me a provocative glare.
I didn’t know what prompted me to say what I said, except maybe the fact that I had promised myself I wouldn’t be victimized again.
Certainly not by this bitch.
“Yeah, I could tell,” I said flippantly, “Especially during those blow jobs he received while comatose. What do you do for real fun, Talia? I bet necrophilia really gets you wet, huh?”
She started towards me but Liam pulled her back. “Don’t be baited Nadia, you know what our mission is here.”
I watched as she took a deep breath, and then her eyes stopped flashing anger and remained cool, as if she’d willed the anger to dissipate just like that.
My mother’s jaw had dropped as she looked back and forth between us.
“Apparently Liam is into incest, Mom. But as far as why he lured us here under the premise of remodeling his resort, only he can answer that.”
Liam shirked, and settled back down against the table, crossing his arms. “Yes, I suppose I need to fill in the blanks. First of all, Nadia is not my daughter—by blood that is. She is my stepdaughter. Her mother and I raised her from birth even though she was sired by Liam Avery. She was born and raised in Baghdad until the age of eleven when we fled the turmoil in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of our sovereign nation.”
He had my full attention now. “You—You’re the Republican Guard?”
“I was. One of Saddam’s finest. Such a pity when his regime was dismantled. Such a blunder by the Western Coalition who embraced shock and awe as some media event, and then left the mess for years of Islamic chaos to sort out, don’t you think?”
I swallowed and looked over at Mom. I could tell she was starting to freak out. “So what is this?” I asked, “Some platform for a political statement? Why us?”
“I’m getting to that. You see, I loved Renya very much. Even though I knew her heart still belonged to the Brit—Nadia’s biological father, Liam Avery. But, you see, my heart belonged to Nadia, and when I learned what Renya was attempting, I couldn’t let either one of them go. As Saddam’s family prepared to flee the palace in Baghdad, I was amongst the last of the Republican Guard units to stay behind. There were treasures to be protected, not the least of which, my family. But as darkness closed in on that final night, the first special ops units closed in on the palace.”
He had stopped momentarily to collect his thoughts. Whatever he was about to say was becoming difficult for him to verbalize.
“The first despatch of coalition special ops was well prepared. There’s no denying that. Both with weapons and intelligence. The remnants of the Republican Guard left behind to protect Saddam’s palace wasn’t close to what was needed. Overhead drones with rockets were timed perfectly to precede the arrival of the soldiers in their armored fortresses on wheels. Do I need to tell you who it was that led this particular battalion?”
Oh shit.
My mind scrambled with the timing of all of this. No way. It couldn’t have been Taz. I quickly looked over at Mom and saw her face had turned pale. She swallowed nervously, but remained silent.
“That’s right, Samantha,” he said, “It was your husband. And neither he, nor the rest of that battalion cared that innocent children and women were slaughtered by those rockets. I lost my wife, Renya. Nadia lost her mother.”
The room was blanketed in silence.
“What do you intend to do with us?” my mother asked. “I can understand your sorrow, but you have to know that my daughter and I weren’t a part of that…mission.”
Nadia spoke up. “Retribution will be ours for the life of my mother and for the life of my lover, Capri. Both of your husbands will understand the pain of losing their spouse; as will your children with their mothers. It is perfect retribution, isn’t it, Ali?”
“Yes, my darling, it is.”
Nadia moved behind me and, for a moment, I imagined she was getting ready to put a gun to the back of my head. Was this how their retribution was to be carried out? Or was some type of torture a prelude to it all? I wasn’t sure what I should expect.
“Are you detaining us?” I asked, and then wondered why the fuck I would state the obvious? But something prompted me to buy some time. Maybe ignorance would do that. “Are you going to keep us here against our will?”
Liam—Ali smirked, shaking his head. “We can’t keep a thing from you, can we?” he barbed. “Yes, you are our prisoners of war, dear Lindsey and Samantha. Maybe it’s twelve years too late, but this war hasn’t ended now has it?”
“And then what?” my mother asked. “Our husbands will know something is wrong when we don’t return.”
“By then, my sweets, it won’t matter.”
His words had barely sunk in when the door to the conference room was kicked open and, from that point on, everything seemed to go in slow motion. It was like an out of body experience for me, but one that I was observing as it unfolded.
It was Slate!
He grabbed Mom, shoving her to the floor, and barking at her to get out of the room. He had his weapon drawn on Ali, ordering him to drop down.
But Ali wasn’t moving.
“Well, well…if it isn’t the decorated American sniper himself. Do you think you or your country will be any safer with me in custody?”
“Save it for Allah,” Slate growled, shoving him back against the table.
Suddenly Taz was right there, his weapon drawn as he spun to the right and aimed it above my head, where Talia stood behind me.
Everything was going to be fine.
Except that I hadn’t realized until I felt the strong pull of Talia’s arm around my neck and felt the cold, steel blade resting against my throat that maybe things weren’t going to be okay.
“Drop it, Agent Matthews,” she growled; her voice throaty and dangerous.
Realization hit me. Something deep inside of me knew that my husband was in a precarious position. He had to decide if she would actually take it that far or not. And if he wasn’t sure, then there was much more at stake than just my life. There was Mom, Slate and Taz.
I realized in that split second that life, as we know it, means much less to those radical insurgents that behead innocent people for shock and awe.
There were those words again: shock and awe.
Taz’s words were calm and steady, “It’s over, Talia. There are more officers on sight, and even more coming to this party. So, you’ve got no reason to harm Lindsey.”
“I have plenty of reasons, the first one being Capri.”
“Capri? Oh—you mean Susan Reynard?”
Susan Reynard? Oh my God!
“Yeah, you know my wife had occasion to meet that twisted bitch? No real loss. I didn’t even have to put much ass behind that one, Lindsey. So Talia, why don’t you drop that knife you’ve got in your right hand?”
Taz’s words struck me. He was giving me a message. Put some ass behind it, Lindsey. Right hand.
And so I did.
I took every bit of adrenaline-fueled energy that I had and elbowed her swiftly on her right side. The force was strong enough to knock the knife from her hand, as she expelled a loud “wooof” when the wind had been knocked out of her. But I wasn’t done yet.
Oh. Hell. No.
I swiveled around and quickly brought my knee up hard and soundly between her legs. I swore I heard the sound of bone cracking when I did. I remembered Taz saying that area was a target area for both males and females.
I hoped like hell when I heard her scream out in pain that I’d broken her pubic bone.
Taz immediately snatched me up, not taking his eyes off of her and gently set me down behind him.
“Don’t move, bitch,” he growled at her and I heard the safety release on his weapon. “Because I’d like nothing more than to take your ass out so you can join Capri in hell.”
Liam was shouting something in Arabic, but whatever it was, Talia was disregarding it, still doubled over in agony.
Slate had cuffs on Liam, and was pushing him out the door as a police officer entered and quickly came to where Taz had his gun pointed at Talia.
“Read this bitch her rights, Briggs, and give her some pretty silver bracelets.”
“Roger that,” the officer said, yanking Talia up from the floor and cuffing her quickly.
Taz holstered his weapon and turned to me. Things were still going in slow motion. It seemed surreal. I wondered if maybe I was in some kind of shock. As Talia was led away, I suddenly felt as if my legs couldn’t hold me up any longer. My adrenaline was dissipating and in its wake was the raw realization that I—that we had come close to dying tonight…again.
I felt Taz’s hand brush a lock of hair from my face. “Everything’s okay, baby girl” he said softly.
I looked up at him. I just wanted to be held, but I couldn’t articulate that to him at the moment. I didn’t want him to think I was weak, so I remained silent.
More officers were arriving on the scene. Bright flashing lights were reflecting off the glass of the exterior windows. I felt several tears roll down my cheek.
“Oh God,” he said, pulling me up against him. “It’s fine, baby. Everything’s going to be fine. His strong arms wrapped around me made me finally feel safe and secure.
I wiped my face and looked around. “Where’s Mom?”
“She’s over there with Slate,” Taz said, pointing.
I turned a bit and saw that Slate had my mother wrapped in his arms, talking to her soothingly. She was sobbing and I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t. I had cried a few quiet tears, but they were tears of relief. “Slate sure loves her,” I commented softly.
“No more than I love you, Lindsey.”
I looked back up at my beautiful husband and smiled. “Did I put enough ass behind it, Taz?”
“I’m so fucking proud of you, baby girl,” he murmured against my hair, “So damn fucking proud of you,” he repeated, rocking me back and forth, his lips placing soft, sweet kisses across my forehead. “God, I’m so glad we got here in time.”
“Hey?” I asked, pulling back a bit to look up at him, “Speaking of that, how did you know we were in trouble?”
He peered down at me, his green eyes full of loving warmth. “Instincts, baby,” he replied softly.
“So your instincts are back, huh?” I replied, giving him a meek smile.
“Not mine, baby girl. It was your instincts that brought us here.”
“God I love you, Trace.”
“I love you, Lindsey.”
It had been a month since everything had gone down with Alyshad Amin and his stepdaughter, Nadia aka, Natalia Scorpio. I knew that it had been another traumatic experience for Lindsey, but I was pleased at how well she seemed to be dealing with it. It hadn’t been her first trauma but, hopefully, it would be her last. We simply didn’t need this kind of drama in our lives anymore.
Lindsey and I still had weekly sessions with Ralston, and I sensed those would be coming to an end soon. Our marriage seemed rock solid once again, and we were enjoying the fruits of it on a near daily basis…if you catch my drift.
My memory was returning in bits and pieces every day. My meds had been cut again and, before long, I was sure they would no longer be needed.
At the Bureau, I’d put in for a transfer. It was for a teaching position in a newly created training program for senior agents going into the counterterrorism undercover unit. It was something I was qualified to do with my education and current knowledge base intact, and it was something that both Lindsey and I could live with.
She was extremely pleased with that decision. She was also pleased when I briefed her on the multiple federal charges that had been brought against Alyshad and Nadia.
The investigation had uncovered money laundering, drug trafficking, weapons violations and gun smuggling, along with the kidnapping related charges of abduction and unlawful restraint. Neither one of them would see life outside of a federal detention facility anytime soon. And when they did, they would be deported and blacklisted so as not to be able to lawfully enter the U.S. again.
The terrorist network and training camps that are entrenched deeply into various parts of the country is a reality. In my newly appointed position, at least I would be doing my part to train the best people on ways to neutralize, if not totally obliterate, our enemies.
I wanted my kids to feel as safe growing up as I had, but I knew deep inside that was a tall order.
“Hey,” Lindsey said, coming into the family room with Jackson. I was just kicked back watching something on ESPN, “Your son needs you,” she said, handing him over to me. I didn’t miss the wicked little smile she’d given me either.
“Whoa, dude,” I said, scrunching my nose up as I got a healthy whiff of his loaded pull-up. “What happened? Didn’t make it to your potty chair in time?”
Lindsey flopped down on the chair opposite me. “Uh…I don’t think he even tried, babe. I found him in the corner of the nursery, squatting down, grunting until his cheeks were red.”
“Seriously, Jackson?”
He smiled up at me and gave an affirmative up and down nod. Just then, big sister came bouncing into the room.
“Jackson pooped his pants,” Harper announced as if it wasn’t totally obvious by the stench now filling the room.
“He sure did,” I replied, getting up so that I could get him cleaned up.
“You spank Jackson?” she asked, giving me a hopeful yet coy look.
“Harper,” Lindsey chided.
My daughter was clearly waiting for an answer.
“You know, you’re awfully anxious to see your brother spanked, aren’t you?” I asked. “Why is that?”
“He been bad,” she explained. “He pooped.”
“Well, he’s just learning,” I explained to her. “You had your share of accidents back in the day. Did we spank you?”
She shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t know the answer to that.
“Well we didn’t but, I’ll tell you what, if you think he needs a spanking I’ll consider it if you’ll agree that when Mommy or I tell you to clean up your toys and you forget, like you often do, then you get a spanking too, deal?”
She had a finger in her mouth considering the deal I’d offered for about two seconds. “Jackson not bad,” she said.
“Yeah, I thought you might see it that way,” I replied with a laugh. “Come on, let’s go get him cleaned up.”
Later on, after the kids had been bathed, dressed and put to bed for the night, Lindsey and I enjoyed a shower together. My wife was so damn beautiful that, at times, it just took my fucking breath away.
I lathered her up, and she did the same for me. I loved touching her soft, smooth skin, kissing the nape of her neck until she shivered, and pulling her wet naked body up against me.
“Trace,” she said, shivering, “Let’s go to bed.”
We rinsed ourselves off and exited the shower, wrapping fluffy white towels around us and practically running to the bedroom.
She quickly discarded her damp towel and burrowed down under the covers of our bed. In about three seconds, I had joined her and we immediately tangled our limbs together for warmth.
I lowered my lips to hers, enjoying the sweet taste of her as my tongue parted them. We kissed long and deeply, her arms laced around my neck, pulling me in even closer.
