“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.

Therefore, I didn’t hesitate. I put my hands to his shoulders and my foot in his hands. I had misgivings about this mostly because I had limited upper body strength so I had the feeling there was no way I was going to be able to pull myself over that tall fence.

I didn’t have to worry. Hawk didn’t give me a lift up. He gave me a lift up. Well past his waist, straight to his shoulders, boosting me with such strength and speed, he nearly hurled me over the wall. I was on my belly on the wall before I knew it. I swung my legs around and dropped down, soft knees, fell to my side and rolled.

Wow. Easy.

Not two seconds later, Aunt Bette followed me doing the same thing except hers was practiced, thus cooler like it wasn’t the first time she did it. Or the second.

I was thinking I now had proof Aunt Bette had secret ways when she grabbed my hand and pulled me aside as Hawk followed her. Then he moved and we moved with him. The fence ran along the side of a sleepy road, sleepy as in, no traffic. There was a black SUV some ways away from where we jumped over the fence. Hawk bleeped the locks. I went to the passenger side back, Aunt Bette to the front passenger seat.

“Down, no one sees you,” Hawk ordered.

“Copy that but do you have a secure phone? I need to call my husband,” Aunt Bette replied.

“Glove compartment,” Hawk answered, turned and through the gathering darkness another commando showed, Hispanic, shorter and leaner than Hawk. He didn’t speak. Hawk nodded to him, turned and nodded to Aunt Bette, his eyes sliced through me and then he and the other commando moved away.

I scrambled into the SUV. So did Aunt Bette. I got low. So did Aunt Bette. I heard her searching the glove box, I heard beeping noises then I heard her talking to Uncle Marsh.

But all I thought about was Lanie. I was safe now. I was breathing. I was unhurt. The same with Aunt Bette. I just hoped with all I had that when our rescuers returned with Lanie, they’d do it in one piece and she’d be in the same condition. Then I was going to hunt down Elliott my own damned self and wring his neck.

“Tyra?” Aunt Bette called when she beeped off the phone.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered back.

I bit my lip.

Then I said, “I’m sorry, Aunt Bette.”

“You didn’t kidnap me and tie me to a chair.”

This was true.

We fell silent. Several minutes later, the door opposite me opened and Hawk deposited Lanie in the seat. I twisted and looked up at her, automatically reaching out to grab her hand.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No,” her voice trembled.

Oh God.

“Did they hurt you?” I asked.

“No,” her voice trembled more.

“Honey –” I started but Hawk was folding in the driver’s seat and he interrupted me.

“Debrief later,” he ordered, started up the car and we took off.

I wanted to ask who he was, how he knew we were there and why he’d rescued us but he scared me a little bit seeing as he obviously wasn’t the police and entered an uncertain situation somewhat heavily armed. Not to mention, he could scale a twelve foot wall without anyone giving him a leg up.

Since I figured Aunt Bette knew what she was doing, and she also kept her silence, I followed suit and held Lanie’s hand squeezing tight. She didn’t squeeze tight back and I heard a hitch in her breath so I knew she was crying.

I bit my lip again.