Acquiring Trouble (32 page)

Morgan
opened the door to her hotel and Bill sauntered through
it,
h
is belly
hanging low after all the food he had snuck
from
Marcy’s table.
After gi
ving their statements to the ho
rd
e
of FBI agents,
Marcy had herded
them to her farm and fed them.

“Come on, Bill. Let’s get a nice b
ed for you.” Morgan walked over to the closet and pulled out
a
large pillow and an extra thick blanket. She laid it on the far side of the room
and smiled down as Bill
curled up and fell asleep instantly.

Could this be her life now: a
snoring dog, a handsome man who loved her, a sister
,
and a family? The town was learning to accept her.  She even had found a friend in Annie
,
and
all
the other women had made an effort to talk to her tonight. Morgan could hardly imagine a life where she had love, family
,
and friends.

“What are you thinking about, sweetheart?” Miles asked as he unbuttoned his shirt, reveali
ng the hard lines of his chest.

“You. Me. Us.” Morgan kicked off her shoes and
stepped toward Miles.

“That sounds serious. What about us?” Miles slid the shirt off his
well-
defined
arms and laid it on one of the chairs.
She tried not to stare, but sh
e suddenly felt very, very hot.

“I was thinking about maybe not rushing back to DC. What do you think?”
Morgan asked hesitantly.

“I think tha
t sounds like a wonderful idea
, and let me show you all the reasons why.”
Miles sat down on the bed and pulled her toward him.
He
wrapped his
hands around her
hips
mov
ing
her
be
tween his legs. His hands practically
burned through her clothes.

“You look flushed, let
’
s get you out
of those clothes.” Miles slid his
hands up her ribcage, brushing the sides of her breasts as he pulled her shirt off. Yes, staying in Keeneston would have some very nice benefits indeed.

*
    
*
    
*

Afghanistan,
s
ix
y
ears ago…

Miles felt the familiar dream start up again, but he was
helpless to wake himself
.
He was shoving a bleeding and unconscious Cade into the sedan
and grabbing the keys to find out who was b
anging inside the trunk.

He
reached out slowly with the keys in his hands. He had calmed his breathing and was ready for whatever he found in the trunk. With his gun in the other hand he slowly inserted the key. With a slow and deliberate twist of the key
Miles
felt the lock give.
He
raised
his gun and stepped back to
w
atch
as the trunk popped open.

A
blonde woman star
ed
at him with wide eyes as she pushed herself f
a
rther back into the tru
n
k
. She had been beaten badly. H
er face
was
swollen and black and blue. Her lip was split and there was dried blood coming from her nose. Miles knew she would be screaming if it hadn’t been for the
dirty cloth stuck in her mouth.

“Mariah? Mariah Brown?”
h
e asked in a soft, yet authoritative tone. The woman stilled and then nodded frantically. “I’m
Captain Miles Davies
with the United State
s Delta Force. I’ve come to rescue
you. I’m going to pull out a knife now and cut your bindings, okay?”

When she nodded again he reached into the trunk and cut the rope digging into her ankles and wrists. She quickly reached for her mouth and yanked out the rag. He scanned the area as he held out his hand to assist her out of the trunk. She was just a child, about Paige’s age and it pained him to think of someone like her going throug
h this.

“Thank you! Thank you so much Captain Davies.” Mariah sobbed as she climbed out of the tru
nk and collapsed into his arms.

“Are you injured?”

“No, just relieved. I’m sorry, my legs aren’t doing too good of a job holding me up right now. I’ve been in that trunk for
G
od knows how long.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re not going to have time to stretch them now. My brother is in the car injured and we need to get to
safety.” He took out his compass and field map and started to devise a plan.

“Oh my
G
od! You’re injured! Let me look at it. I took first aid when I was a lifeguard.” Mariah grabbed his brown camouflage before he could stop her.

“It’s okay ma’am
. I’m fine. It’s more important we get out of here quickly.” Miles looked down at the map again. “We were suppose
d
to h
ike ba
ck into the mountains and cross the border back into Tajikistan. Although we have troops on the ground in Afghanistan, this mountainous part of the country is still ruled by rebel factions.
Farkhor
Air Force Base is the closest to
us
. The trouble is
there’s
only one road into
Darvaz
and there’s a large bridge we’d have to cross.”
 

“What’s the problem with that?” Mariah asked.

“The problem is when
your kidnappers
discover you’re gone, they’ll be looking for us
on
that road and that bridge is the first place
they’ll set up.”

Miles stepped away from Mariah and pulled out his satellite phone. “Major, it’s Alpha One. I have the package, but we need a new exit. Alpha T
wo
is injured and no longer mobile. What are my new orders?”

Miles nodded as he listened to the voice on the other end of the phone. He gave a quick summary o
f the surrounding area, the man
power he had seen
,
and the fact that he ha
d
a car. “Yes, sir. We’ll meet Bravo team in eight hours. Alpha One out.”

Miles found Mariah star
ing at him when he turned around. “We’re going deeper into the mountains. There’s a goat trail that
’s
big enough for the car, but not much else. There’s a good chance
we won’t
be able to make it the whole way, but we can get horses the
re
.”

“Why can’t they pick us up here?”

“The area is way too hot
. The drone picked up rebels coming this w
ay. They’re
about
30 minutes away
. T
here
isn’
t enough time
for our guys to get here
and
the rebels are known to have ground to air missiles in the mountains.
We
have
to move
now
.
”

Mariah nodded and hurried to the passenger door. Miles checked on Cade and was relieved to see that he was still breathing strong and stead
il
y even t
hough he remained unconscious.

“Where are we going?” Mariah asked as she looked nervously around.

“We’re trying to make it to a small mountain village call
ed
Vanj
. We’ll follow this small road, if you can even call it th
at, through the mountains and then turn north on
t
he road traveling along the bo
rder until we can go f
a
rther
west
into Tajikistan
. It should take seven to eight hours
for
an exit g
roup
to
meet us with a
medevac
chopper.”

“Then let’s get going. I can’t tell you how badly I want to be home.” Mariah shivered and rubbed her arms to warm herself. She hopped into the car and gave Miles a couple of minutes to use his field kit to clean the wound and pour some quick clotting granules
on the gunshot wound. He gritted his teeth as the granules burned
in the wound
.

Miles lowered his shirt and took all evidence of blood and bandages and tossed them in the trunk. Mariah was quiet as he drove away from the
rescue
scene
.
He drove for five minutes as fast as he could before turning around and driving the other direction. He drove in a large circle covering a couple of miles hoping the tire marks would be too confusing to follow before heading in their true direction.

They were almost to the border when he r
ealized Mariah hadn’t said a word.
He had been concentrating on handling the car. It was made for off-road racing and it ate up the dirt roads as it went
into the mountains. However, the roads turned to rock as they wound through th
e mountains toward the border.

“Are you sure you’re alright?
” Miles asked as he took a tight corner. “
I know we’re on a tight schedule ma’am, but
let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you, Captain. I’m
alright
besides being banged around some. I dare say my face and ribs will heal. Now, if I’ll ever be able to forget
about
this, I don’t know, but I pray I do. Do you want me to check on your brother? He was injured saving me, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, ma’am, he was.
I’d
appreciate it if you checked his pulse and breathin
g. I’m pretty sure
he has slipped
into a coma. I just hope the swelling
in
his brain goes down soon and he wakes up. I’ll get you both to a hospital by tomorrow morning.”

Miles slowed the car as he took a sharp turn.
H
e was only thirty minutes from the border
by his calculations
,
however
it would be another two hours
until
he reached their evacuation point. He was ahead of schedule now, but he wasn’t about to slow down and give the rebels a chance to catch up to them.

“Do you know why they took you?”

“
Yes. As you know, my father is Secretary of State. We’re really close and he tells m
e probably more than he should
,
” Mariah paused and grinned slightly at the memory of her father before starting again. “He was negotiating behind the scenes with several major players in the Middle East, Europe
,
and Asia to orchestrate a no
-
fly zone and completely sever monetary and humanitarian aid to the area I was in. It was going to be a first… denying help to
specific
section
s
of the
region
spanning multiple countries
without blocking any entire nation
.”

“How could your father get Pakistan and Afghanistan to agree to t
his?” Miles couldn’t believe her father could acc
omplish such a feat.

“He threatened to completely blockade the countries
of
all aid and financial support from t
he United States,”
Mariah
said as she turned around and put her fingers to Cade’s neck.

“That would never fly. The US depends o
n oil exports. I can’t see the P
resident agreeing to it.”

“Privately, the P
resident put out that he would back it. It was a bluff, but it worked. It worked so well that the
rebels
who
call these mountains home
,
kidnapped me
.
The
ransom was a UN
Treaty
saying
US supports the current regimes and
,
in return for their cooperation during this War on Terror
,
would ne
ver
place
sanction
s on
the
m
. I
n fact
the treaty
would call for an
increase
in
aid with no restrictions.
T
he US would avoid the black eye of having the Secretary of State’s own daughter kidnapped and then murdered.