Tortoise Tango Read online

He gave the controls another twist and stepped out of the stall. Ripping a towel off the rack he applied it to his body. The mirror showed him a harsh expression. Too bad. Little Red and he needed to get a couple of things straight. She’d enjoyed herself in his bed and if she wanted to deny that he was more than willing to feed her her words again.

  She was not going to run away from his bed.

  His pager let out a shrill signal making him cuss. Goddamn it! Of all the stinking lousy timing! He grabbed the thing and looked at the line of code displayed on its screen.

  Another round of profanity hit the mirror as he grabbed a clean uniform. Looked like his pride was going to have to get a number and wait in line.

  * * * * *

  Amber breathed a sigh of relief. She watched Joe back out of the driveway from her bathroom window. She had listened to him walk into her room and try the bathroom door. Her sudden streak of cowardice wasn’t sitting on her stomach very well but she shook it off.

  Tonight was going to be plenty soon enough to face the man. For that matter, she had no idea what hours Joe kept. Maybe he came home for lunch.

  She took her shower at light speed. The water was near freezing because she’d let all the hot water run down the drain while watching the driveway. She muttered under her breath as her muscles cramped in the frigid liquid.

  She cuddled inside a thick towel as she flung open the bathroom door. She froze as she looked at her desk chair. It was sitting exactly two feet in front of the doorway with its back facing the bathroom doorway. A stark white piece of printer paper was taped to its back. In bright red marker, Joe had left her a note.

  Good morning, Honey, I’ll be back.

  Today suddenly looked like a great day to move to Idaho.

  * * * * *

  Amber worked instead. Her email box was crammed with urgent projects and rush jobs. Telecommuting held a whole lot of advantages—no office to report to, the ability to adjust her work hours around life’s crises—but there was also the downside. Namely, people seemed to assume that if they sent a request to her before they left their office for the day, she would have it back to them when they arrived the next morning. Since she was dealing with every time zone on the planet, it was an impossible task.

  Well, no job was perfect but hers was pretty good. In fact, today she was enjoying the mind-numbing, frantic pace that kept her from investigating her nocturnal behavior.

  Amber finally pushed away from her desk when her hunger refused to wait any longer. Walking towards the kitchen, she sure hoped there was some of Deborah’s casserole left in the refrigerator.

  The microwave was humming along when the door opened. A little frown twisted her lips as Amber thought about facing Joe on an empty stomach. Solid footfalls came towards the kitchen making her frown. Joe was as light-footed as they came. These were heavy steps.

  There was a flash of tan in the doorway as a man stepped into it. His eyes lit onto her as he gave a satisfied grunt. He was wearing the same uniform that Joe did but a soft belly pushed the lower part of it out.

  “I’m Deputy Wilcox. The sheriff ordered me to bring you into town.”

  Joe could have done that. Amber looked at the man in front of her again, something wasn’t right. Her eyes roamed over that uniform top before she found the place where a badge should have been. Instead there was nothing. Fear tightened her skin as it heightened her senses. There were multiple red welts covering the man’s bare forearms.

  “Those bees are persistent, aren’t they?”

  He nodded agreement before his face twisted into a frown. Amber lifted Deborah’s casserole dish from the counter and heaved the thing at his head. She didn’t wait to see if she hit her target. She sprinted out through the laundry room and slammed the door behind her.

  Her fingers slipped on the lock as she frantically tried to bolt the door. Cussing filtered through, making her force the lock into place. She turned and shrieked as another man lowered his arms around her. She dropped to the floor and slipped right between his legs. The door gave a violent rumble as it was kicked from the kitchen side.

  Pushing to her feet, she grabbed the open box of laundry detergent sitting on the washing machine and tossed the powder into the face of her nearest assailant.

  “You goddamn bitch!”

  The door splintered while the second man swiped at his white-covered face and cussed. Amber threw her body out the back door and towards the yard’s dense landscaping. She was hauled right out of her tracks by a giant of a man who squeezed her rib cage until she heard the faint cracking of her bones.

  “You two are a pair of fuck-ups.”

  “Damn bitch threw soap in my eyes!”

  The man holding her squeezed her tighter as he laughed at her victim.

  “So what? She’s a redhead, they’re always spicy. If the boss lets us have any fun with her, I get her first because I caught her. Got it?”

  A large hand covered her face. Wet cloth was pressed to her nose and mouth as Amber struggled to get away from the sickening odor coming from it. The hand held as her vision blurred. Her body lost its grip on reality as her brain went black.

  Chapter Eight

  Amber didn’t answer the house phone. Joe frowned as he listened to it ring. Punching in her cell phone number, he waited for her voice to answer. Instead her voice mail caught the call.

  Dropping the phone, he stared at it. She could be ignoring him. Looking at his computer, he checked the online massager service she used. She’d turn as red as her hair if she found out he’d nosed through her laptop that morning.

  Her laptop was idle. Pushing away from his desk, Joe headed for the door. He didn’t like the feeling that was creeping down his neck. His gut instinct had saved his skin more than once and he wasn’t going to ignore it.

  * * * * *

  Her head felt too heavy for her neck to hold up. Amber tried to lift her eyelids and found the task almost unbearable. She forced her eyes to open and moaned softly as light speared straight into her brain like a knife. Nausea gripped her stomach and she frantically tried to fend it off. A strip of fabric was tied around her head, gagging her.

  Holy Christ!

  She blinked and the room came into focus. She was tied to a chair in a very small kitchen. The single window had a blanket tossed over the curtain rod. Her feet were tied to each front leg of the chair while her hands were secured behind her.

  Oh dear God, she had never been in this bad before. Her eyes flew around the kitchen as she tried to force her brain to think. Bad luck was one thing, this was life-threatening! The walls vibrated as voices filled the room just beyond the doorway. Her heart pounded frantically as she tried to concoct any sort of plan.

  A solid, heavy step hit the floor and she let her head drop back to her chest. Another step hit the floor in the doorway as she tried to make her breathing even. A male grunt hit her ears before she heard those heavy footfalls moving away from her.

  Opening a single eye, Amber looked at the doorway. She took even breaths as she forced her mind to resist the urge to panic. She had to figure a way out of this. Where there was the will, there was always a way.

  And she had one hell of a will!

  * * * * *

  Joe wasn’t mad. He knew the difference between anger and stone-cold rage. It burned along his body, releasing him from any form of guilt. All that was left was the instinct to hunt and destroy.

  The phone rang and he grabbed it before half the ring tone had sounded.

  “Lott.”

  “Boy, I’m sending you my best men.” His uncle’s voice might have sounded promising to anyone that didn’t really know him. Joe heard the slight ring of resentment in it. The odds were almost insurmountable in kidnapping cases.

  “Forget it, I’ve got it covered.”

  There was silence on the phone line. His uncle wasn’t an armchair warrior. The man knew what the sting of battle tasted like. He also understood the code of silence that went with it.

&nbs
p; “I didn’t hear you, Josiah. The line is full of static and you’re breaking up.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Joe dropped the phone and looked at the team of investigators logging details in his house. Lifting his wrist he noted the time. He didn’t need any witnesses when his team showed up.

  Navy SEALs never broke up, even retirement from active duty just meant they went into deeper cover. Dantrolp had just made a mistake that gave Joe a reason to bring his team out of the woods. That little twist of his gut had been correct. The splintered door to his laundry room screamed at his own lack of complete trust in that warning. He should never have left Amber alone.

  Joe just might let the man live long enough to regret what he’d done.

  * * * * *

  “When is that bitch going to wake up? You gave her too much of that shit.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, at least I didn’t let a little pussy get the jump on me.” Something crashed to the floor as there was a scuffling of feet. “Should have used that shit on you instead. I would be enjoying the day a lot more with her, that’s for damn sure.”

  The front door slammed and the kitchen window vibrated. Another round of scuffling sounded from the front room before the window shook again with a second slamming of that door.

  Amber lifted her head to renew her searching of the meager kitchen. She had no idea if there was anyone left in the outer room, but time was running out. Now that the effect of whatever drug they’d given her was completely gone, her brain was working.

  There was a telephone sitting right on the counter, just four feet away. Olive-green, the thing looked left over from the eighties. Her captors certainly didn’t put much faith in any ability she might have to outwit them. Her ankles were tied to the legs of the chair but her feet were sitting on the floor. There was nothing binding her waist to the chair. She could lift her bottom right out of it.

  Looking at the phone, Amber flexed her hips away from the chair and back into it. The thing rocked with her motion so she did it again and again until it tipped forward on its front legs. She landed on her feet with the chair balanced on her back. It was an awkward position that made her hold still while she steadied her muscles.

  Using her ankles, she took a tiny jump forward. The chair on her back bounced into her spine making her eyes smart with tears. She bit into the thin gag and jumped again. The wooden chair smacked her again as she forced her feet to jump again and again.

  Tears streamed down her checks when she reached the counter. Looking at the face of the phone she searched for the function keys.

  God did love her!

  The speakerphone feature was on the bottom of the unit. A nice wide, square button—all she had to do was push it. Looking at the counter, she strained against the wood strapped to her back. The gag in her mouth was thin. Clamping her teeth tightly she could close her front teeth too.

  A single pen was lying on the tile, stretching her neck she tried to grab it with her teeth. The effort had her almost panting but she clamped her jaw shut as the plastic tube hit her lips.

  Amber worked the pen deeper into her mouth with her lips. It was a painfully slow process that had her fearing discovery any second. She finally bit into the thing with every last bit of strength in her jaw. Angling her weapon at the phone she stabbed at the button.

  A dial tone filled the air as she frantically stabbed at the volume button. The dial tone died away as she fought to get high enough to punch in a phone number. Her spine screamed as she battled against the wooden chair, but she refused to let the pain defeat her.

  Everything happened for a reason in life. She panted through her teeth as she punched the last digit of Joe’s cell phone. She wasn’t even sure why she memorized those contact numbers he’d given her.

  Today she was certain it had been divine intervention that made her commit the information to her memory.

  She let the pen drop from her teeth and began the slow journey away from the phone. Leaving the line open was the only thing she could think of doing. The gag was tied tight across her tongue.

  The walls shook as the front door opened and her captor stomped back into the house. Amber dropped the chair to the floor and sat in it. She was only halfway back to her original position but she didn’t dare get caught moving.

  “Well, would you look at that. You sure are pretty.”

  She swallowed the nausea his words inspired. Amber choked on the gag and struggled to breathe. He chuckled at her distress and flipped open a pocketknife.

  “Can’t have you strangling just yet.”

  Amber sucked in a huge lungful of air as she spat the gag out of her mouth. Her tongue screamed with pain as its binding was released. She choked and gasped before tossing her hair out of her face. With any luck, the phone line was still open.

  “Where am I?”

  “You don’t need to know.”

  The second man appeared in the doorway and smirked at her. Amber felt the blood drain from her face as his eyes traveled over every inch of her body. He lingered on her spread thighs before he rubbed his crotch.

  The ties on her wrists held as she strained against them. Her brain suddenly filled with anger as she watched a smile contort her captor’s face. He rubbed his crotch again and smirked as he did it. Amber pointedly looked at his fly before raising a bored expression to his face.

  “You really don’t want to try any of that with me.”

  He spat on the floor. “I’ll do whatever the hell I want. Boss is going to waste you anyway.”

  “You are full of it.” Amber tossed her head and looked at the first man. His eyes didn’t hold the delight that the one in the doorway did. But his expression sent a chill down her back. The idea of her death sat on his face without remorse.

  “Well, then you’d really better not piss me off.”

  “What the fuck do you mean?”

  Amber clamped her emotion under iron control. The only weapon she had was her brain and she was betting her life on being able to outwit these two thugs. She forged towards the battle with a smile on her face.

  “My mother is a voodoo master. She’ll curse you so damn bad, you’ll beg for death like a baby. She does it all—black magic, Cajun curses and stuff you never heard of.”

  “Bullshit!”

  Amber laughed as she saw the smallest hint of apprehension enter his face. His hand had stopped rubbing his genitals and now lay like a shield over the bulge in his pants.

  “She lives right outside New Orleans. Right next to the graveyard. Did you enjoy those killer bees? How about that hurricane? See, she’s mad at me for leaving her home. She cursed me with bad luck until I came back to her.”

  They both looked worried now. It wasn’t a matter of believing her, it was more a point of not taking the chance of her being right.

  “Then I get hit with a bag of cocaine? Oh, please! Now kidnapping? It’s a curse. I ran away from her magic.” Amber forced her body to shiver. “You should have seen what she did to her last boyfriend. He cheated on her and she made sure he’d never do it again—ever.”

  “Put that damn gag back in her fucking mouth!”

  “Yeah.”

  The giant scooped up the gag and tied it back around her head. Amber glared at him but shook with relief. Both men wanted to get away from her.

  “She’s full of shit.” With the gag in place, the man in the doorway seemed to muster his courage. His eyes moved over her as he gave his crotch a hard rub.

  “Maybe.” The giant lifted his arm to stare at his bee stings. His eyes lifted to her before he moved away from her. “I don’t need a piece of ass bad enough to test out her words. That voodoo shit is serious stuff. That was one of the biggest beehives I’ve ever seen. Enough drones in that thing to kill a man. Nope. No pussy poke is worth that.”

  He left, shouldering the man in the doorway aside as he went. Another rub to his crotch and the second man spat on the floor before leaving the kitchen. The little room got darker as the sun set. Her limbs cra
mped and her mouth begged for water but Amber kept her ears tightly tuned for any sound that her reprieve from molestation was over. The television was on in the other room. A basketball game held the attention of her captors as she cast a longing look at the telephone.

  Fatigue was taking its toll. Her body became one single point of pain. Her spine hurt from her walk across the floor. The fabric of her gag seemed to be wicking every bit of moisture away from her mouth and even her throat. The darkness closed in as she found herself looking at the light shining in from the outer room as a friend.

  The muffled sound of the television began to take on a comforting feeling. A cold draft of night air hit her bare arms. Turning her head she bit even harder into the gag as the shadows behind her grew and moved. She wasn’t even sure they were men, they merged with the darkness too completely.

  Every inch of them was hard and deadly. Their gazes moving over her with razor-sharp precision. Pistols leading the way, they dismissed her and closed in on the men in the next room.

  It was all completely silent.

  A solid hand wrapped around her head making her jump. Her head landed against a hard chest before the man slipped to one knee behind her. His lips stopped just a single millimeter from her ear. A low shush was the only sound he made. The muzzle of another gun appeared in his opposite hand, aimed towards the doorway.

  The two men at the door waited. Their bodies were a study in control. So, strong yet not tense as they held their guns steady. Their reason for halting arrived two seconds later when the front door exploded into kindling. The men coming through it fired off several rounds as they converged on her captors.

  “Clear!”

  The same word bounced out of each man’s chest including the one holding her. A second later she was free. The rope on her ankles slit with an efficient slice of a wicked-looking blade. Her hands sprang apart after one more swipe of that same knife.

  Amber reached for her gag but her hands refused to perform. Instead her arms quivered in jerks in her lap. The gag sailed towards the floor as two hands appeared on her arms and began a rough massage of her aching limbs.