I took a deep breath, knowing I had to contain my edginess. I’d spent the last fifteen minutes listening to Harlow Lewis spill out her story between anguished sobs, knowing that if we’d been involved from day one, we wouldn’t be in the situation we were facing right now.
The FBI negotiation process had been too damn slow.
Nine days was an eternity to waste when you had a hostage in the hands of Lanian guerillas. They weren’t exactly known for their humane treatment of captives.
Apparently, upper management had negotiated Harlow’s release with FBI assistance in our absence, but we still had one man missing, and an intern in captivity who had been doing a summer internship under Harlow’s supervision.
Son of a bitch! How had three of our geologists ended up being captives of Lanian rebels in the first place? It didn’t make any sense.
Number one…now that the previously war-torn country had been at peace for several years, and a new generation of leadership had taken control, Lania had been on its way to becoming a highly desirable tourist destination in the Mediterranean.
Number two…all of the rebels were supposed to be gone. There hadn’t been an incident in Lania for the last two years, and before that, there had only been a few minor protests.
Number three…why was I so damn furious right now that numbers one and two were apparently bullshit?
If there was any rebel activity, we damn well should have known about it.
I looked at my younger brother Jax, and I could tell he was feeling the same way I was at the moment, even though you’d never know it by looking at his face. However, I knew my brother, and there were always a few small tells he couldn’t hide from me that clued me into exactly how he was reacting.
My youngest brother, Cooper, had decided to stay in Seattle for a few weeks to connect with some old college buddies. But if he were here, I knew he’d feel the same outrage Jax and I were experiencing right now.
Goddammit! This shouldn’t be happening.
But it was, which is exactly why I’d called in the third person in the room.
I turned my gaze to Marshall, the leader of the volunteer rescue task force that was simply known as Last Hope, and tried to gauge his position.
Jax and I had put in an urgent call to Marshall the moment we’d heard about the kidnapping. As usual, he’d showed up within a few hours with all the relevant information needed to try to perform a rescue attempt.
Unlike Jax, the former Commander Marshall was really hard to read. His calm demeanor under pressure, and kick-ass skill as a previous leader of one of the Navy SEAL teams was legendary. So it wasn’t all that surprising that I didn’t have a clue what the older man was thinking, even though my brothers and I had worked alongside the guy for years to get Last Hope to where it was today.
Marshall was an enigma to almost everyone who volunteered for Last Hope. All we really knew is that he’d been injured during a mission while he was active military, which had forced him into retirement earlier than he’d planned.
Jax, Cooper and I had jumped on board with Marshall soon after we’d all left our own Special Forces units, and the military, to take our places as the owners of Montgomery Mining. We’d wanted to help Marshall grow Last Hope, and we had.
In the beginning, my brothers and I had carried out a lot of the rescues ourselves, but Marshall now had way more volunteers than he actually needed for that. Younger guys who were fresh out of special ops.
One of the most important reasons we tried to stay out of doing rescues ourselves was because all our faces had become more and more recognizable since we’d left the military. The press chased Jax the most. I tried to keep a low profile, and so did Cooper, but there were times we couldn’t avoid photos, either. Once we’d returned to the civilian world, and put Montgomery Mining back at the top, everybody had wanted a photo of the billionaire bachelor Montgomery brothers.
It had gotten too damn risky for us to be on the front line.
Now, we were much more valuable providing resources and working on the strategic planning—most of the time.
Marshall lifted a brow. “Obviously, the federal government is treading lightly on this one now that we’re friend rather than foe to Lania, and everyone has kissed and made up during the last couple of years. They don’t want to rock the boat, and any Lanian rebels are considered terrorists. You boys definitely know the U.S. government’s position on negotiating ransom with presumed terrorists. They sent in the FBI to assist with the negotiations for Harlow, but Montgomery Mining ultimately was the one who paid the ransom for her release. Any attempted rescue for Taylor, if it happens, would need to be completely covert, and we’re on our own.”
Fuck! Yeah, I knew that. All of the cases we handled were situations that the federal government didn’t want to, or wouldn’t, take any action on. However, it was a hell of a lot easier to pull out captives when we weren’t tiptoeing around politics.
I turned to our lone released hostage again. She’d already told us her story, but as expected from anyone who had been a captive, it had been slightly scattered. I had to make damn sure I was up to speed since I’d only found out about this entire situation a few hours ago. Having the woman show up at Montgomery Mining headquarters not long ago to plead for help for her intern and boyfriend had been the only stroke of luck we’d had so far.
I had to give her credit, she had gotten my attention, even though she’d rolled her way into the upper offices in a wheelchair, completely out of breath from the effort it had taken her to get there. She’d demanded to see a Montgomery in a hoarse but scratchy voice that had somehow carried into my office.
“Dr. Lewis, you were released two days ago?” I asked, trying like hell to use a much calmer tone.
The pretty blonde looked like she’d been through hell, and should be in a hospital instead of here in downtown San Diego. Then again, if someone I cared about was possibly dead, and my friend was still being held hostage, I’d be doing everything I could to get them help, too.
She cleared her throat nervously. “Please, all of you, call me Harlow, and yes, I was released two days ago. It took a day for them to get me back to the U.S., and once I was back, the doctors wanted to get me totally hydrated again, run a million tests, and start some physical therapy before they let me out of the hospital. But I couldn’t get any information about Taylor and Mark from the medical center since I don’t exactly have any of the Montgomery brothers on speed dial. I ended up leaving the facility this morning against medical advice because I have to do something. I think everyone assumes Mark is dead, and Taylor was my responsibility, a summer intern working under my guidance. She’s also my friend, and she’s still being held. I don’t understand why she wasn’t let go with me.” Her voice was desperate now, and her expression tormented. “Taylor puts on a brave face, but she isn’t going to last much longer. We were both in bad shape when I left. And after two more days in that sweltering hot box with no water, I’m not even sure she’s still alive.”
Harlow looked fragile and haunted, which bothered me much more than I wanted to admit. Even though she and I had never personally met, I felt responsible for every single person who worked for Montgomery Mining, and she’d been on this exploration for us. All three of them had. “I’m sorry this happened,” I said, not knowing what the hell else to say. “My brothers and I should have been informed immediately, not nine days after the fact. Our management did everything they could to get you released, and I’ll do everything I can to bring back the other two.”