The Marcelli Bride

22

The task force arrived by air. Shortly after eight in the morning, three Sikorsky Superhawk helicopters descended from the sky and landed on the open grassy area by the long driveway leading up to the house.

Most of the personnel were navy, with a few Secret Service agents thrown in the mix. Joe knew that other members of the team would arrive as soon as they could be flown in from other parts of the country. Captain Phillips had driven from his hotel to act as a liaison.

Joe stood by the front of the house as the helicopters shut down. When the team was assembled, he stepped forward to lead them toward the winery. He’d already commandeered the conference room and had Marco call the office staff to tell them not to come in to work. The team could spread out into the various offices and have access to the phone lines if necessary, although it wouldn’t take long for them to establish their own communications system.

“Through here,” Joe said as they walked into the main building of the winery.

One of the team members, Admiral Grant, moved next to Joe. “The fire was started as a diversion?” he asked.

Joe nodded. “We have preliminary confirmation of arson. A final report will take some time, but there’s enough evidence for our purposes.”

“There were two Secret Service agents with Darcy?”

“No. Just Alex. Alex Vanmeter. The agent who was shot.”

The admiral raised his eyebrows. Yes, Darcy should have been protected by two agents. She also shouldn’t have been sent off with the very man trying to kidnap her. Joe had already beaten himself up about it a dozen times.

“Lauren was with Paige,” Joe continued.

“No doubt the reason only Darcy was taken,” the admiral said.

Joe wasn’t so sure. Ian and his group had planned their kidnapping very well. If they’d wanted Lauren, he didn’t doubt they could have taken her. The fire had put everyone in a panic.

“You’ve given your report to Captain Phillips?” the admiral asked.

Joe nodded. They’d reached the conference room. He pointed out the maps of the area and the contact list, which included local law enforcement officials, the fire chief, and the main number of the house.

Joe started to step into the room, but the admiral blocked his way.

“That will be all,” the man told him.

Joe glared at him. “Sir, I know I screwed up. I know the kidnapping is my fault. But I’m still the best tactical officer you have.”

The admiral shook his head. “A good tactical officer doesn’t let his subject get kidnapped. You’re relieved of duty, sailor.”

The door closed in his face.

There was no lock. Joe could have stepped inside and forced them to listen, but to what end? He didn’t have anything to say. Nothing useful, anyway. Telling them that he wanted to trade himself for Darcy was meaningless. Letting them know that he would give his life for hers a hundred times over would only get in the way.

He turned from the conference room and headed for Lorenzo’s office. There he could stare at the maps on the wall and will them to reveal their secrets to him. Where had Ian taken her? What would the little shithead do with her?

An hour later, he was no closer to a solution. He slumped in Lorenzo’s chair and endured the frustration of having no way to act. Nearly as bad as imagining what Darcy must be going through was the reality of knowing that he had had Ian within his grasp and had never considered him a danger. If he had, he would have cheerfully ripped him into a dozen pieces.

But he hadn’t. Instead he’d listened to Ian talk on and on about everything from his opinion of the growing world economy to his seemingly endless anecdotal stories about his studies, his various roommates, and the time he spent locally with his-

Joe stared at the map. Ian had talked about his grandfather taking him fishing around here. He’d talked about caves.

He reached for the phone and called the main house. “Marco,” he barked, when Tessa answered.

Marco came on the line.

“Meet me in the conference room right now,” he ordered. “Hurry.”

Joe slammed down the phone and raced to the conference room. He burst in without knocking. The fourteen people sitting around the table all looked at him.

Captain Phillips stood. “Joe, you’re screwing up here,” he began, his voice cold.

“I don’t give a good goddamn about that,” Joe told him. “I know where Ian’s taken her.”

Phillips stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t caught him, have you? Not with any of the roadblocks. You’re not going to. He’s already off the road. He’s taken her to a boat somewhere close. There are caves on the coast, some of them big enough to hide in. He’ll wait until dark, then use a boat to get her away.”

Phillips and the admiral exchanged a glance. The Secret Service agent in charge nodded.

“We’ve found the van,” Phillips told him. “It was abandoned on the beach. Apparently there was a hole in the rear floor because we also found a trail of trash, rags, and one of Darcy’s shoes.”

Joe felt a flash of pride. As scared as she must have been, she hadn’t lost her head. Good for her.

The conference room door opened and Marco stepped in. “My father,” Joe said. “Marco Marcelli.” He crossed to the maps pinned to the walls. “We think Ian took her by boat to a cave. Which ones are big enough to hold a dozen or so people and equipment?”

Marco joined him at the map. He studied it for a second, then pointed. “Here. There are three caves big enough. I used to play in them when I was a kid. A couple of these have several rooms.”

Three was manageable, Joe thought. Three caves, three teams. “What’s the deadline?” he asked.

Phillips shook his head. “Joe, this isn’t your fight.”

“Yes, it is. This happened on my watch. What are his demands and how long do we have?”

Phillips considered the question, then explained Ian’s demands for Misner’s release. “The first deadline is seven-forty-three tonight.”

Not much time, Joe thought, calculating the travel time from San Diego to here. But enough. “We’ll have three SEAL teams, one on each cave. They can be here by one, and we’ll put together our plan.”

Phillips looked at the admiral. “It’s what he’s best at.”

Admiral Grant nodded. “All right, Joe. You take charge of your SEALs. Everything comes through me.” He glanced at his watch. “The president will be landing in a couple of hours, and he’ll want a full briefing.”

“Can we make Ian think we’re giving in to his demands?” Joe asked. “Having him monitor that will provide a distraction and keep Darcy safe.”

The admiral picked up a phone. “Let me see what I can do.”

Despite Ian removing the gag and offering Darcy more water, she still felt nauseated and faint. She wanted to cradle her left hand against her stomach and protect her suddenly vulnerable fingers. She wanted to run screaming out of the dark cave, into safety. She wanted to be back at the Marcelli house, with Grandma Tessa offering her food and Joe tempting her into his bed. She wanted to live, fingers and all.

Fear grabbed at her and refused to let go. The need to scream built until she had to press her hand to her mouth to hold it inside. Focus, she told herself. She had to focus. Be calm. Relax.

Tears burned, but she held them in. Eventually the need to scream faded to a whimper. She thought about Joe and how tough he was, how he would want her to be tough, too. She thought about Lauren and knew however much she loved her sister, Lauren couldn’t possibly handle being kidnapped. She would be too scared.

Darcy nearly laughed. After all these years had she just realized she was the strong one, emotionally? What a time to have a self-actualization-type breakthrough.

Sometime around noon, Ian offered her a sandwich. She didn’t want to eat, but she knew she needed to keep up her strength. Later, she was allowed to use the Porta Potti in the back of the cave. There was no escaping from that route, she thought as she glanced around at rock walls.

She returned to her chair, was chained in place, and waited to see what would happen. Ian kept the television turned to CNN, but there was no mention of her kidnapping at all. The first hint of news came a little before three when the phone rang.

Ian picked it up and flipped on the speaker. “Welton here,” he said.

“Ian, how are you?”

Darcy watched as Ian grinned and waved toward the back of the cave. “Jonathan?”

“Yeah.” The other man chuckled. “I don’t know how you did it, but they’re letting me out. Hell of a job, kid. Hell of a job.”

Ian squared his shoulders. “I told you I wouldn’t let you rot in jail. I’d planned on kidnapping the British prime minister when he came to San Francisco in three months, but then someone dumped a better idea in my lap.”

“They won’t tell me anything. What have you done?”

Ian glanced at Darcy and winked. “Kidnapped the president’s daughter.”

“Lauren?”

“No. Darcy. She’s right here. Couldn’t have been easier.” He explained how he’d been dating Mia and had gone to meet her family, only to discover Darcy in residence.

“Luck like that doesn’t happen every day,” Ian said. “What could I do?”

Jonathan laughed. “Good for you, Ian. Now you know this could be a trick.”

“Already got that covered.”

Darcy didn’t know what to think. There was no way she believed her father would agree to release a prisoner on death row. He couldn’t. Which meant it was a trick, or someone was lying. She shivered from fear and cold, even though it was warm in the cave.

She stared at the lapping water only a few feet away. If not for the heavy chains, she would take her chances in the ocean. Maybe she could swim to shore.

Ian ended his call and disappeared into the other room of the cave. She heard the men cheering as they discussed the good news. A few minutes later he came back with something in his hands. Something that looked like a vest.

“You’re going to have to wear this,” he said, holding it out to her. “I know it looks scary, but it’s perfectly safe. There isn’t even a manual detonation. It has to be done by remote control, so you can’t trigger it yourself by sneezing or something. See?”

The fear became tangible. She felt it deaden her arms and legs. She could barely breathe as she stared at the vest.

Strips of gray material had been sewn into rows of pockets on the outside of the vest. She’d seen enough action movies to know the claylike substance was some kind of explosive.

Everything had been wired, with the colorful wires all meeting back at a common point that would be right above her left breast.

“Look. No boom.” He smiled and shook it, then dropped it on the floor. As if that proved anything.

Hysterical laughter threatened. Right. Safe, right up until the minute someone pushed the little red button on the detonator and she exploded into a million pieces.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“I know you don’t want to, Darcy, but I’m not giving you a choice. I’d like to. You’re really nice. Lauren’s okay, but you’re prettier, and I like you better, which is why I wanted to kidnap you. Although I’ll be real sad if I have to kill you.”

She wanted to point out he was probably going to anyway, but what was the point?

“The thing is, we have a greater good to think about,” he continued. “That’s why I’m doing this. The government has to understand we’re not responsible for the world. We have our own problems to deal with. Charity begins at home, right? We’re not being especially charitable right now. Do you know how many children go to bed hungry every night right here in this country? Shouldn’t we be taking care of them? So you see why I have to do this, don’t you?”

He held out the vest. She leaned back and shook her head.

Ian sighed. “Jesse,” he yelled. “We’ve got to get the vest on her.”

Jesse appeared from the rear of the cave and roughly pulled her out of the chair. She twisted and turned and wished her feet weren’t manacled together so she could kick the crap out of him. But they were, and the heavy chains didn’t allow for much mobility.

“No!” she cried as he put one of her arms through the vest.

Jesse raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face. The pain and shock immobilized her enough for them to unlock her hand and finish putting on the vest. Then they pushed her back into her seat and resecured her wrist to the chair.

The vest was thick and lighter than it looked. There was an odd smell that terrified her. Her heart beat so quickly she thought it might fly right out of her chest. This couldn’t be happening to her. It couldn’t. Her face throbbed from the slap, and she knew deep down in her heart she wasn’t getting out of this alive. Not now. They were going to kill her, and there was no way anyone would ever find her in time.

Joe finished briefing the team, then picked up his diving gear and weapons. Everything felt good in his hands. Right.

He suited up, then climbed in the back of the truck for the short trip to the boats that would take them close to the caves. From there they would approach underwater.

At nearly five in the afternoon, he and his men waded out into the ocean and slipped onto the boats. Joe’s headset crackled.

“Larson?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“We just got word. They warned us not to try anything. They’ve wired her with an explosive. If anything happens they don’t like, she’s gone.”

Joe heard the information but he refused to react to it. Now he was on a mission and it was all about doing the job. He wouldn’t allow himself to think emotionally or feel. Darcy’s life depended on his ability to disconnect from her.

“This changes everything,” Phillips said. “You have to come back.”

“No, sir,” Joe told him. “We’re still going forward. If they’ve got her wired, they’re prepared to kill her. They’ll probably do it anyway. We have to get her out.”

“Larson?” Another man came on the line. “This is President Jensen.”

Joe stiffened. “Yes, sir.”

“That’s my daughter we’re talking about.”

It was also the woman Joe loved. “I understand what she means to you, sir. I’ll bring her back alive.”

“You’d better.”

“Sir, I will bring her back or die trying.”

Jensen didn’t respond. Phillips came on and gave a few last-minute instructions, then Joe motioned for the team to head out. As they moved north across the ocean, Joe breathed in the scent of salt air. The water had always been a haven, he thought. It was the one place a SEAL could feel safe, and where he performed best.

Three caves. He’d taken the team going into the largest one. His gut told him she was there. They had a plan and a willingness to do whatever it took to save her life. He loved her too much to let her die.

Darcy sat in her chair, shaking. She would have thought that over time the fear would lessen, but it hadn’t. She held on by a thread.

Ian and Jesse stood in the rear of the cave, speaking in low voices. The acoustics were such that Darcy could hear them, and their words didn’t make her feel any more comfortable.

“You think they’re really going to release Jonathan?” Jesse asked.

“Sure. They don’t want anything to happen to Darcy. We’ve got them. Once we get word he’s released, we’ll call the boat and get out of here.”

Boat? They already had two. Darcy glanced at the small vessels in question and realized Ian was talking about something bigger. Of course. They were flying Jonathan to a rendezvous point and they would meet him there with a boat.

“Good,” Jesse said. “When we’ve put this place behind us, we’ll dump her overboard. No one will ever find her.”

Darcy froze and waited for Ian to deny the statement. When he didn’t, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to hold it together much longer. A scream built up inside her.

Suddenly the television picture disappeared into snowy static. Ian ripped off his headset and yelled, “What the hell?” Cries of pain came from the back of the cave. Without warning, the water seemed to rise up and a shock wave blasted across the open space.

Darcy felt herself tossed around like a toy. She and the chair slammed into the wall and everything went black.

Joe and his men rushed out of the water. The jamming signal had rendered everything electronic inoperative, including the remote detonation for the bomb. He’d sent in the stun grenades such that Darcy received the least of the impact, but she’d still been blown back into the wall.

“No one gets out of the cave,” Joe said into his headset.

The instruction was unnecessary-his team knew what to do, but he couldn’t help it. There was too much at stake.

He ran to Darcy’s side and checked her for injuries. No blood, although her head might have hit the wall. He saw the chains and cursed, then reached for the vest.

“Joe?”

“Hey, Darcy.” She was awake. Thank God. He fingered the various wires, then reached for his small tool kit.

“You’re not dead. I thought he shot you.” Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes.

“That was Alex,” he told her. “I’m okay and so are you.”

“Alex?”

“He’s in surgery.”

“It was horrible. I was so scared.” She touched the vest. “It’s a bomb.”

“I know. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” He managed a smile. “I’ve taught the class.”

“I always knew you were a great guy to have around in a crisis.”

He sorted through the wires, then cut three. “How do you feel?” he asked as he pulled off the vest and tossed it away.

“Like I was hit on the head with a hammer. You know, he could have detonated that remotely.”

Joe wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She was still attached to the chair, but he didn’t care.

“We jammed the signal.”

“So that’s why the TV went out.”

“Yeah. Signals from the cavalry. You okay?”

She clung to him. As soon as he felt her hands on his back, he allowed himself to relax a little.

“Never better.”

“You must have been scared.”

She pulled back enough to look at him. “You can’t imagine. Remember how last time you said I had to talk to someone?”

He nodded and touched the bruise on her cheek. “I have some names.”

“I think I’m going to need them.” Tears filled her eyes. “Oh, Joe. You’re here.”

“Yes, Darcy. I’m here.”

“Don’t let go.”

“I won’t. Not ever.”

“You can’t take me,” Ian screamed as he ran out from the back of the cave and drew a gun.

Joe pushed Darcy behind him and, in one quick move, pulled out his gun. One of the guys on his team got there first. After a terse order to “freeze,” three shots rang out in the cave. Ian stumbled then collapsed.

Joe ignored the bleeding body. “The rest?”

“All captured, sir.”

“Call it in. Tell them to send the boat in for Darcy.”

He turned back to her. She had her eyes closed. “I don’t want to look,” she whispered.

“You don’t have to.”

One of his men brought over a key for the chains. Joe released her and pulled her onto his lap. She huddled against him and started to cry.

“Hey,” he said gently, smoothing her hair and kissing her face. “Don’t do that. You’ll want to look good for your dad.”

She sniffed. “He’s here?”

“Of course. The entire military is here. Lauren, too. The Marcellis are really worried about you. Oh, Brenna’s in labor.”

“You’re kidding. Now?”

“Yeah. She’s at the hospital. Last I heard, there’s no baby, but plenty of screaming.”

She chuckled. “I don’t blame her. Nothing about the actual process of giving birth seems pleasant.”

He cupped her face. “There’s one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

He stared into her brown eyes and knew he’d finally found the one thing that had been missing his whole life.

“I love you.”

She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I love you, Darcy.”

She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Joe felt a tap on his shoulder.

“The boat is here, sir.”

Joe shifted Darcy onto the ground, then stood and swept her into his arms. She grabbed him around his neck.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Saving you.”

“You’ve already done that once today.”

“I plan on doing it for a long time to come.”