Page 54 of Protecting Maggie
The box shook as what she could only guess was more containers were placed on and around it. The reality of her situation began to seep in. She was as good as dead. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t eat, she couldn’t call out for help. There was no place to use the bathroom. After three days without water, she’d simply fade away.
Would Roman go this far to shut her up? Probably. He definitely had the connections. He didn’t even have to get his own hands dirty. He just ordered someone to kidnap her and stuff her in this box. There was no telling where she’d end up at the end of her journey.
Shawn’s face popped into her head then, and sorrow hit Maggie hard. He’d never know how much he meant to her. Their last words were said in anger and frustration…at least on her part. He was literally the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she’d never get a chance to tell him.
Tears filled her eyes and dripped onto the wooden planks beneath her. This was it. She was going to be just another missing woman. People might wonder where she’d gone. Her probation officer would think she ran off, maybe to Mexico. There would be warrants for her arrest, but she’d never be found.
Shawn would probably think that since he hadn’t believed her about Roman, she’d left him and gone into hiding.
Well…maybe, maybe not. Shehadleft him that message. Maybe he’d find her computer and the recording of the call with Roman. Maybe there’d be a huge investigation and he’d eventually be found guilty. There would be a special48 HoursTV show on everything that happened…and it would end on a fucking cliffhanger, because while Roman might be convicted, which would be tough without her body, she’d still be missing.
Wanting to laugh hysterically at the ridiculous thoughts running through her head, Maggie sighed. Whatever Roman had in store for her, it probably wasn’t a slow, relatively painless death from dehydration. No, whatever he had up his sleeve would be hell.
Trying to ignore the pain coursing through her body—her neck where Gigantor had strangled her, her hip, her shoulders from her arms being wrenched behind her for so long, her hair and face because they were both being pulled from the duct tape, and several other places where she was sure she’d have bruises from being manhandled—Maggie closed her eyes.
Maybe if she slept, she’d wake up and this nightmare would be over.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“This is a joke, right?” MacGyver asked no one in particular.
The “mission” they’d been sent on was to fly to the other side of the world, go up in helicopters, and drop crates of weapons in strategic places so Ukrainian forces could gather them up and use them against the Russian forces attempting to occupy their country.
It wasn’t as if the SEALs hadn’t done this kind of thing before, but usually they’d been tasked to do so in the middle of a war zone. Dropping weapons and ammunition to fellow American soldiers who’d been pinned down and needed reinforcements. From what Preacher understood, the Russian army was miles away from this particular DZ, and wouldn’t be anywhere near it for at least a day or two.
The bottom line was, this drop wasn’t particularly dangerous. Any platoon could’ve done what they weredoing. It made no sense. And things that didn’t make sense made every SEAL’s “oh shit” meter go crazy.
Something had to be wrong. Preacher would normally assume their intel was faulty and they were flying into an ambush. In theory, they had plenty of time to make the drop. The small city not too far from the drop zone had already been pretty heavily bombed. Most civilians had fled the area, and their intel said the Russian troops sent to flush out any remaining stragglers were in no rush. Which was the alleged reason they were dropping weapons here. The area should be safe for Ukrainian soldiers to get in and out before the enemy arrived.
Maybe the Russian forces were closer than they’d been told. Maybe that was the feeling churning in Preacher’s gut.
“This is a red herring,” Smiley muttered. “We’re being tasked to do this bullshit drop to distract us from something else.”
“Yeah. To get us out of the fucking country so Robertson can get to Maggie.”
He glanced at MacGyver. His friend sounded just as pissed as Preacher. It made it hard to swallow through the lump of emotion in his throat. The team had talked a lot while on the plane, and they all agreed that Maggie was in danger. They hated that they’d had to leave so suddenly, and everyone was extremely worried about the fact that Preacher hadn’t been able to get a hold of her before they’d gone wheels up.
And now, hearing the concern and anger on Maggie’sbehalf coming from MacGyver made Preacher truly understand the meaning of friendship. Yes, he’d felt the same way when shit had happened to Remi, Josie, and Wren, but this was different. Because he was on the other side. It washiswoman possibly in danger—and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“So we drop these crates then get the fuck back to California,” Smiley said firmly.
Preacher wanted that more than he wanted to breathe, but it wasn’t so easy. They were at the mercy of their government. They went where they were told and did what they were ordered. They couldn’t decide to disobey an order and just get on a plane, a plane owned by the United States, and fly back to California.
“Arriving at the DZ in sixty seconds.”
The voice of one of the pilots in his ear made Preacher flinch. Looking out the open door of the chopper, he scanned the ground, surveilling the area where they were dropping the crates. Smiley and MacGyver were in the helicopter with him, and Safe, Blink, and Flash were in a second chopper. Kevlar was on the ground, monitoring the mission from their safe point in western Ukraine.
Preacher did his best to turn his mind to the task at hand. Anger bubbled just below the surface, but remembering Tex’s warning to keep his head in the game helped him concentrate on what needed to be done right that moment.
They had six crates that needed to be offloaded. The plan was for the chopper to hover about five feet off theground while the SEALs pushed the crates out the door onto the deserted farmlands just outside the city. The goal was to avoid them breaking apart when they landed to protect the supplies inside. Ukrainian soldiers in the area would come and collect the weapons, then disappear into the city to get ready for the Russians.
Nothing about this felt right, but at this point, Preacher simply wanted to get it done and get back across the border. The sooner they finished, the sooner he could try to get a hold of Maggie again.
“Thirty seconds.”
Smiley and MacGyver were busy with the crates, pushing them closer to the open door, readying them to be released.
“Fifteen seconds.”
