Oh thank God.
Since he told us to be quiet, and he sounded like he knew what he was doing as well as a little scary, I was debating whether or not to answer with a “yeah” when Aunt Bette said, “Plastic restraints, wrists and ankles.”
I heard movement, more movement, some more then I felt strong fingers close on my wrist then they were free, movement at my side and then my ankles were free.
Hallelujah.
I rubbed my wrists and heard Aunt Bette ask, “Do you have an extra weapon?”
“This is gonna go quiet. No heroes. ‘Specially not ones who don’t know what the f**k they’re doin’.”
Aunt Bette replied with, “I know you. JTF Able Promise. I’m Lieutenant Colonel Bette Mansfield, retired.”
Silence for a beat then, “Right.”
There was more movement then I heard the sounds I heard on TV when people were fiddling with a gun.
Oh boy. I had a feeling the dude called Hawk spoke Air Force acronym but I didn’t know if this was good or bad.
“You good?” Hawk asked.
“Talk to me,” Aunt Bette ordered sounding curt, bossy and scarily like she knew exactly what she was doing.
Oh boy!
“Neutralized the boys outside. No guard on this door. Two boys on the first floor. Two with your girl who’s on the second floor.”
Oh God. What were they doing to Lanie?
“You have backup?” Aunt Bette asked.
“Called it, the boys we’re dealing with, couldn’t wait. Right now it’s just me. Plan is, I get you out safe, I go back for the girl. My backup should be here by then.”
“Works for me,” Aunt Bette stated.
“It doesn’t work for me,” I butted in. “We need to get Lanie.”
“Quiet,” Hawk ordered.
“No, seriously, this is the Russian mob. They might be –”
My mouth was covered with a big hand and how he hit the target with such accuracy in the dark was beyond me.
“Quiet,” he growled, took his hand away and ordered, “Everyone up. Let’s go.”
I pushed myself to my feet feeling achy and stiff from being tied up and lying on the floor for so long. But I didn’t take the time to stretch. The door opened and I felt Aunt Bette grab my hand. She pulled me out the door into a dark, unlit hall.
We walked about five feet then I heard Aunt Bette whisper, “Stairs,” right before I tripped up the first couple of them.
I righted my footing and moved up the stairs. Hawk opened a door and late evening sun showed through. It also showed on Hawk who was tall, built, dark-haired, wearing a skintight gray tee and black cargo pants and if I hadn’t seen all the gorgeousness that was Tack our rescuer would be far and away the most handsome man I’d laid eyes on in my life. One word: hawt.
As hot as he was, he was also carrying a gun, surveying the area outside the door, giving us a nod and moving forward agilely and alertly. Aunt Bette had a gun too and Lanie was somewhere with two of the bad guys so I had no time to appreciate how hot he was.
Aunt Bette gave me a head gesture that told me to precede her, I did, following Hawk. We made it through the room, out the door and across a lawn with no incident. We stopped under a long, very tall, solid fence.
He looked down at me. “I’ll give you a lift up. You’re gonna have to pull yourself over. Drop down to the other side. Soft knees when you land. Fall to your side immediately and roll outta the way.”
He didn’t say, “Yeah?” to ask if I got it, he just linked his hands and bent so I was guessing time was of the essence.