Intimate Strangers (10 page)

Eleven

“I won’t take no for an answer, Carstens.”

Tiaan huffed, knowing the battle he currently faced with Mac was a losing one.

“Just go get Ruan and yourself in the car. There’s no point in racking up unnecessary fees in long-term parking. You guys have no clue how long you’ll be there. Who knows? They may surprise you have a change of heart.”

“Or,” he began quickly before the other man said something else ridiculous, “they’ll turn us away from their doorstep and I’ll get some kind of legal documentation that says those bastards can never see my son. Ever.”

Last night with Chelsea had been wonderful. They moved to a new place in their relationship – a word he had never used when referring to himself and a woman other than his mother – and he finally felt deserving of her affections. Tiaan wanted her love, but didn’t know if he had any to give back in return. Not that he didn’t care about her, but because he wasn’t sure exactly
how
to love.

However, the anger had returned no thanks to her comment about how her parents wanted her to get rid of Ruan. He had sat beside the crib, staring at the tiny sleeping form through the rungs from the moment Chelsea fell asleep, until Ruan woke up, searching for something to eat. He knew that there was still some milk down in the refrigerator so Tiaan had gone down and read the instructions on the fridge, which were for Kayla and Mac, as their names on the top of the sheet indicated, and warmed a little up. Holding Ruan was one thing. Feeding him, another completely.

While his son suckled at the milk in the bottle, Tiaan had fallen even deeper in love with him and made a silent vow that he would never leave Ruan or Chelsea. They were his life now.

“I’d do the same damned thing,” Dunlop growled, thick arms folded over his chest. “But until you actually need to worry about it, just…get…in…the…car,” he spoke the words through clenched teeth, in his ‘do as I say this instant’ voice.

A smile pulled one half of his mouth back, completely involuntarily. “Right away, Sir.” He saluted mockingly with his free hand.

Mac grumbled something incoherent and motioned to the porch after he opened the front door. Ruan sleeping in the car seat he held, Tiaan exited the house and headed for the vehicle he had rented for Chelsea to drive until he had his SUV sent up from Washington. From this moment on, he’d only feel comfortable letting her drive something large and bulletproof – with or without Ruan in the car. Chelsea assisted him in anchoring the car seat, with some belt and clip thing, hidden down the back of the seat, and pulled the normal belt over to secure it in place. He slipped into the back seat, behind Mac, and took Chelsea’s hand in his.

Soon, they’d be taking off for Toronto. They’d face her folks together and he’d be there to hold her hand if they refused her and Ruan. He smiled at her, his way of letting her know that he was there, and he’d always be there for her.

~~~

At first, Chelsea thought they were going through an earthquake. The shaking of the vehicle reminded her very much of the four-point-one earthquake she’d been in back home in Ontario a number of years ago in the first and only earthquake she had experienced.

Seconds after the jerking of the vehicle she heard the crunch of metal, what sounded an awful lot like tires being shredded – once she had accidentally driven in the out section of a building with intense security protection and her car’s tires were torn to bits so she knew that sound all too well – and the shattering of breaking glass, Chelsea’s head hit the seatback in front of her.

If not for her seatbelt locking and holding her body in place, she might have blacked out from connecting with the small screen Mac had installed for Kayla and Erik to watch during long road trips.

A voice called out. Unfamiliar.

She heard her name.

Chelsea groaned. She felt drunk, despite having had no alcohol since the night she spent with Tiaan in his hotel room.

What was going on?

Her arm, when she attempted to raise it, to reach to her left and touch the car seat that Ruan was in…

RUAN!

She forced her eyes open but saw nothing through the sticky, warm stuff covering her face.

Pain shot through her shoulder and she cried out, throwing up the eggs and toast she had eaten for breakfast not long ago.

“Baby,” Tiaan’s voice called out to her, his hand going through her hair. “Tell me what hurts, have you broken anything?”

His words and his voice brought up a deluge of tears which, mercifully, cleared some of the sticky substance from her eyes. “M-my shoulder,” she told him, looking out through the fog covering her gaze.

Something touched the area again, winning an agonized shriek from her. Chelsea heaved again, bringing more half-digested food to the floor.

“I think it’s dislocated,” Tiaan murmured, stroking her cheek. “I’m going to push it back in for you–”

“No! Just leave it.” As if on cue, her stomach muscles clenched, ready to empty the organ completely.

But Tiaan wasn’t listening. He whispered, “One, two, three,” and grabbed her arm, shoving it into the socket.

The loud crunch hurt, oh God, did it ever. Seconds after screaming her pain out, Chelsea felt the world disappearing altogether in a sea of ink-thick darkness.

~~~

“Mac!” Tiaan slapped his friend on the back of the head – hard.

His anxious gaze flicked back to Chelsea. Stuck in his seat, there wasn’t much he could do for her at the moment. The impact had completely crushed the door to his belt and the damned thing wouldn’t budge. And though his leg wasn’t broken – he had complete feeling and nothing hurt – it too was stuck in the door.

“MAC!”

“Wha?” Mackenzie leaned back in the driver’s seat, cradling his brow. “The fuck?”

Ruan was fast asleep. Tiaan didn’t know how he did it, but the little babe slept through the entire ordeal. “Mac, I need you to help Chelsea. I’m trapped in the door. She’s just blacked out.”

Rage filled his old friend. Tiaan read it easily in the squaring of shoulders, the loud exhaled breaths through his flared nostrils, and grumbling deep in his chest. “Carstens, very slowly, reach for the two handguns beneath my seat. Hand one to me. Then, cover yourselves.”

The fuck?
indeed. But Tiaan knew better than to waste time glancing about for the source of Mac’s distress. As he was told, he fumbled beneath the driver’s seat and found two weapons strapped there. Quickly, he gave one to Mac. The other, he flicked off the safety, checked the clip, made sure he was loaded and ready to go, then checked out his shattered window.

Two men in black combats were advancing from the left. Tiaan swung his eyes right. One more.

Shit, shit, shit!

“Keep yourself together, Carstens!” Mac hissed in his usual commanding manner which never failed to gain his attention.

Right, he thought, taking aim at one of the two men approaching his side of the vehicle. They weren’t police officers, nor were they EMTs. Their gait, not to mention the weaponry hooked to their waists, thighs, ankles, and in the many pockets of their vests, it all added up to one thing.

Military.

Not Canadian military, either. The Southern drawl he caught when one of them called out an order could only have come from the Lone Star State.

Tiaan shoved one hand in his eye, rubbing it, and then replaced his hand at the gun. It had to be a coincidence.

But both he and Mac didn’t believe in such things.

“You seeing what I’m seeing?” Mac growled from the front seat.

“
Ja
.”

“Protect Ruan at all costs.”

He didn’t need to be told twice.

With surprising speed – to anyone who didn’t know the man – Mackenzie kicked out the last of the shattered glass from the passenger side window and aimed at the man there. He fired off four shots in swift succession.

Tiaan blinked.

React, man!

Right.

Weapon aimed, he pulled at the trigger, catching one of the two men approaching from the left in the neck. He went down, futilely clamping a hand on the wound.

Two down,
he thought, aiming for the third man.

Tiaan blinked again.

There was no one else.

Had Mac taken him out while he’d been busy?

Something hard slammed into his temple and Tiaan was shrouded in deep nothingness.

~~~

Jolted to the right, his heavy head drooped to touch his shoulder. Ma must have been grabbing his father’s arm while he drove again.

Tiaan snuggled back in the bench seat of his parent’s station wagon, dreaming of returning home to the Land of Milk and Honey. So much beauty, untamed, rugged. He didn’t like it here, this fake and commercial place.

Someone tried to wake him up. Father, no doubt. He opened his mouth to say, ‘
piss off
’ but he choked on them instead.

So dry.

Felt like his throat was closing up.

“Christiaan!”

Christ, I just want a few minutes to myself with no bickering!

“Tiaan!”

Fok
, he thought, working harder to ignore them.

“CARSTENS!”

At that, he knew he wasn’t in the back of a car with his parents arguing up front. The only time anyone called him Carstens was at work.

Tiaan threw his eyes open, waiting for them to focus. Steely-grey irises were staring back at him. “Mac?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” A thick finger touched his throat.

Checking his pulse, he knew. “What the hell happened?”

Pain crossed his face. “We need to get you out of the vehicle.”

Head lolling back to the headrest, Tiaan surveyed his surroundings. He
was
in the backseat of a vehicle – his rental. The one he got for…

Chelsea.

Swinging right, he saw no one next to him. Not even the car seat.

“Ruan!” he shrieked. “Chelsea!”

“Ruan’s fine,” Mac assured him as crunch of metal and the sound of a saw splintered the air.

Panic continued mounting in his chest, the sensation like hundreds of rusty needles pricking at his heart. Mac hadn’t mentioned his soon-to-be wife. “And Chelsea? Jesus, Mac, tell me she’s okay.”

An eternity passed before Mac finally parted his lips. “Let’s get you outta here first. Then we’ll discuss everything else.”

“Everything else? Don’t fuck with me, man, where is she?” He recognized this dark feeling threatening to take over his body.

Tightness in his chest.

Unable to breathe and when he could, he was hyperventilating.

Severe nausea.

Tiaan was in the midst of a full blown panic attack which lasted the entire trip back to Mac’s house.

Twelve

It turned out that Tiaan’s fears were completely justified.

Ire, molten and searing, had joined the blood in his veins as the recording sent to the doorstep no more than an hour ago played inside his head again.

You have something that belongs to a friend of mine…

The ‘something,’ he knew, was a file. Tiaan had both a digital and a hard copy. The contents would shock anyone who saw or heard. Reynolds had been attempting to sell nuclear weapons to the enemy for a massive sum.

…and now I have something of yours.

Those fucking shit-head bastards had taken Chelsea.

If you ever want to see her alive again, I suggest you pay very close attention to what I am about to tell you…

For about the thousandth time since he’d been allowed to leave the hospital – idiot doctors sure there was nothing wrong with his leg which had been trapped in a crushed SUV door for about seven hours – he shoved his hands over his head, paused where his hair swirled, and gripped it near the roots. They wanted a trade, Chelsea for the file and all copies he possessed. If not for Mac, he’d have gone out already to do the swap. Valiant, bloody, son-of-a-bitch Mac. Tiaan’s feet kept moving, sliding over the floor as he paced.

“Carstens, you’re gonna wear a goddamned hole in my carpet. Sit the fuck down or I’ll make you.”

Shooting a rage-filled glower in Mac’s direction, Tiaan exhaled through his flared nostrils, silently begging his old friend to give him a reason to pop the man’s skull open.

“Until Chelsea is back here and safe,” the Vancouver police detective intervened, “I’m with him one hundred percent. If it was my wife out there…” Fowler shook his head. Then he directed his gaze at Tiaan. “I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now but I assure you, I’m gonna do everything I can to get her back.”

That’s the problem
, he thought with a sigh.
Your best just might not be good enough
.

Fowler, a man who Christiaan had gotten to know very well though a background search he performed on the other man a few hours ago, was tall and wiry, with hazel eyes that took in everything surrounding him. He seemed quite proficient at what he did and, Tiaan was especially pleased to read, the man had an exemplary record. However, doing things their way and following procedure wasn’t going to get Chelsea back into his arms any sooner.

That his sweet, darling Chelsea was being held captive at all made him feel violently ill and the mere thought of Sewell’s hands anywhere on her tamped down on his nausea, causing a violent whirlwind of rage to take over.

Tiaan resumed pacing – the only thing he was allowed to do at the moment.

The only thing he could control while that tape played out in his head, stuck on a continuous loop.

“
You have something that belongs to a friend of mine, and now I have something of yours. If you ever want to see her alive again, I suggest you pay very close attention to what I am about to tell you. Bring the file and all copies to the shipping yard on the south side of the harbour. You’ll go to row A, the last green shipping container at the end of the row, overlooking the water. Knock three times, wait, knock twice. Put the files down on the ground, turn around, and walk away. Come alone, unarmed. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in me doing whatever I want with your precious girl. And believe me, Carstens, I’ve got a fucked up taste when it comes to sex. I like my bitches to scream, and I like their fear real.
”

Biting back a slew of derogatory terms to describe the son of a bitch in both English and Afrikaans, Tiaan fisted the material of his shirt resting above his heart, his body wracked with agony for his sweet Chelsea. He couldn’t allow anything to happen to her. He refused to.

But what the hell was he supposed to do, aside from complying? He knew what he wanted to do – get out there and find her; however, Mac wouldn’t allow it.

~~~

In one arm, Hannah cradled Erik to her left hip. Kayla was curled around her right side, offering her comfort and her support. If not for her step-daughter, Hannah didn’t think she’d be able to stand up straight.

Her lips trembled and she brought a free hand up to press lightly against them. The action drew Mac’s attention from across the room, his head whipping to locate her. Concern flooded his grey eyes and he nodded, as if to let her know that her emotions were normal for this kind of situation.

Well, it didn’t feel normal! She wanted to run through the streets of Vancouver, screaming at the top of her lungs for the bastards to release her friend. And if no one responded, she’d move on to the next city, and the next. She wanted to run and scream, and keep running and screaming, until Chelsea was safely returned to them, where she belonged.

A strangled sob choked at her throat and Tiaan jumped, pausing for just a minute second in his pacing of the room. Hannah wished there was a way to help him in this moment too, but what could she possibly do?

Then it hit her. The same thing she had done for Mac.

With shaking hands, Hannah gave Erik to his sister, brushed her fingertips against Kayla’s cheek, and crossed the room to where Christiaan furiously muttered to himself, hands clenching and relaxing, feet marching out an invisible pattern.

She waited until he came to her on the next round of pacing, and Tiaan stopped in his tracks, confusion etched over worry in his expression. No hesitation. Hannah threw her arms around his shoulders, which were stiff and confounded, and she held him fiercely. “We’ll find her,” she whispered in an emotion-clogged voice.

What she didn’t expect the man to do was exactly the action he took. Tiaan gripped her fiercely in return and released an anguished sigh into the crook of her neck. She fought back tears and cradled the man to her. Across the room, Mac nodded his thanks and his approval.

Hours later the others had left and the house had fallen silent. Hannah had just left Tiaan in Chelsea’s room but had taken Ruan with her. In his current state of mind – despondent and desolate – he could hardly be expected to care for a two month old.

She nearly bumped into her step-daughter who was sneaking down the steps. “Crap, Kayla! Don’t scare me like that.”

So they wouldn’t wake the men, Hannah ushered Kayla – who was now almost a full inch taller than herself – downstairs and into the kitchen. When she flicked the switch, bathing the room in a dim glow, Hannah noticed the fresh streaks going from Kayla’s eyes to her chin. Her heart stuttered in her chest. She hadn’t even considered how this would affect her. Kayla had finally gotten to a place where she could accept her mother’s passing when Chelsea moved in with them and now she must be feeling like her world was coming down around her all over again.

“I’m sorry.” Kayla twisted the hem of her t-shirt, wringing the material in both hands. Her eyes glistened, filling up. “I can’t sleep. I just…keep picturing these awful scenarios in my head, like, Ruan’s birthday, and Chelsea isn’t here…” Her lip trembled and her breath caught in her throat. “And, he may not know it, but Christiaan needs her. What’s going to happen if the police don’t find her in time?”

“Oh, honey.” Hannah wound her free arm around Kayla, bringing the teen’s head to her shoulder. “We shouldn’t think like that – I know it’s hard, believe me. You just want to get out there and find her…and maybe punch those jerks in the face a few times. Maybe even kick them in the nuts.” Kayla giggled through her tears. “But the best thing we can do is what we’re doing right now. Erik needs us. Ruan needs us. And God, does Tiaan ever need us right now. Our strength is what will keep everything and everyone together in the days to come.”

A swift glance at Kayla’s expression told Hannah that she didn’t believe it, but she wanted to be strong. Hannah knew what it felt like, that helplessness overriding all other emotions, drugging rational thought. It had been something she experienced quite often in the beginning of her relationship with Mac, fearing that she’d be unable to reach him completely, to have all of him. He had surprised her though, one night before Erik was born, by opening up and admitting most of his life to her.

Her attention was brought back to the present by the hungry little one in her arms, crying for his milk. With a heavy heart, she handed Ruan to Kayla and set to work, warming up some of the breast milk Chelsea had expressed before venturing out with Tiaan the other day. Her thoughts remained on her friend, hoping and praying that she was unharmed and would remain as such until the police located her and brought her to safety.

~~~

Chelsea didn’t know how much time had passed since the moment she was brought into this dank and filthy room, but she did know, at the very least, that Ruan was safe. Somehow, Christiaan managed to keep him away from the psychopath holding her captive, and that was all that mattered to her. He might not know much about babies now, but Hannah and Mac would help. They’d see to it that her baby and Tiaan were alright without her.

She whimpered, realising that she might never see her son again. Never see his dark eyes lighting up when he looked at her, or the way his lips parted in a wide, toothless grin when he was happy. She’d never hear the squeaky sounds he made when attempting to raise his head during tummy time, or feel the softness of his skin when giving him a bath or a light massage to help him get to sleep.

The tear slipping down her cheek quickly became icy, even before it reached the corner of her mouth. Wiping her smelly sleeve against her face wasn’t something she wanted to do so Chelsea left the salty droplet to be absorbed slowly by her skin. She’d never see Tiaan again either. So much had gone unspoken between them that night. If only she had just told him exactly what she felt, he’d know. Now, he might go through life wondering, questioning himself.

At the sound of metal scraping against concrete, Chelsea
made certain to do as she had been instructed and remain at the far end of the room. One of the guards slid a tray with a tin cup of water, some vegetable mush – if she was lucky she might even find a bit of meat in it – and some kind of bread that could be better served as a doorstop. At first, she ate hurriedly, frightened that someone might come in and take the food away from her.

By now though she realized they wanted her alive for some reason and
Chelsea took her time, savouring the horrid slop while looking at her surroundings. Her cell consisted of a small, filthy, and exceptionally dark room which, by her count, was ten steps by twelve steps in her size eight bare feet. Three of the walls were concrete and one at the front had a heavy metal door, and the rest of the wall was the same hard and damp concrete as the others.

A man’s voice barking orders carried to her little stone room with the steel door she had almost torn her fingernails off attempting to escape through. It belonged to that horrible man, the one who eyed her with unrestrained want. She swallowed down the bile that was currently rising to her mouth. The thought of his hands anywhere on her made her feel violently ill. If it came down to it, she’d rather end her own life than allow the bastard to even attempt to have his way with her.

When she heard the clink of a key entering the lock, Chelsea set the rest of her uneaten meal on the tray and braced herself. The door swung open again to reveal the darkened form of the very man she feared the most. His expression intimidating, he entered the room, slamming the door shut behind him. The entire time, his eyes flicked over her body. Had it been Tiaan looking at her like this, Chelsea wouldn’t fear him or what he had planned with her.

Nostrils flared in ire, lips curled downwards menacingly, he stalked the floor in front of where she sat with his hands on his hips. Finally, he spoke directly to her for the first time since she was brought to this hell hole.

“I saw you, y’know.” The man stopped in front of her. “On your goddamned knees in the forest, letting that piece of shit traitor fuck your pretty little mouth.”

Instinctively, she raised a quivering hand to cover her lips. This man had been spying on their intimate encounter! Her stomach roiled at what she knew was going to happen next. She shut her eyes and sent up a prayer, hoping that someone was listening.

“Since you give it away so freely, I’ll take exactly what you gave him.” Even as he spoke, the sound of his zipper being pulled down thundered through the room. Then the man grabbed her hair close to the roots, pulling it hard. She shrieked in pain. “And if you even
think
about biting me, I’ll use you in ways that’ll make you wish you were dead first. I’ll record it, and I’ll show Carstens all of it, before I kill him with my bare fuckin’ hands.”

His knuckles cracked across her jaw, winning another cry from her.

I wish I was dead
, Chelsea thought, hitting the floor with a thud.
Please, God. Kill me now.

A pair of hands pulled her upright and into an all too familiar position.

It seemed God wasn’t listening.

“
Stay with me tonight
,” Tiaan’s voice echoed in her mind.

Those were the words he had spoken to her, mere moments after the lights came back on in the elevator.

“
Stay with me…please.
”

Chelsea shut her mind off from her body and imagined that she was back in the hotel with Christiaan.