Chapter Four

"Place your wife back in the chair, Colonel," the disembodied voice instructed, "and report to the kitchen immediately for assignment to your room. We will deal with you later."

"Like Hell," Steve muttered. "Where are you? I'll deal with you - right now!"

"Put your wife in the chair, come upstairs...and we'll talk."

Jaime was dead weight in his arms and while Steve didn't know if she was hurt or drugged - or both - he wasn't about to leave her. According to Jaime, the children were no longer in the house, so Steve was determined to at least get his wife to safety. They could then work to find Jenna and Adam as a team.

Their captors had other plans. Steve had just reached the kitchen (still carrying Jaime) when a fresh swarm of armed guards tried to force his wife from his arms. Steve didn't dare set her down and she was apparently unable to stand, so he kicked out with one leg and sent a chair skittering across the linoleum.

One...two...three and four - the gunmen toppled like dominoes from a single blow to the first in line. Steve wasted no time heading out the front door and deep into the protection of the woods. No one appeared to be following and when they were a good distance away, Steve set Jaime gently onto a soft pile of leaves to assess her condition.

She was just beginning to come around, very confused and very, very frightened. "Where are we?" she whispered. "The kids...did you find 'em?"

"Not yet, Sweetheart," Steve told her gently.

"Gotta...go...back...!" she insisted. Jaime moved to stand up but Steve lowered her back onto the ground when she found she couldn't quite make it. He kept a vigilant watch as Jaime closed her eyes, once more surrendering to drug-induced darkness.

"Someone's here," Jaime told him an hour later, when a sudden flurry of activity penetrated her haze. She listened as closely as she was able, still needing to lean on Steve for support. "Oscar and Russ," she said quietly, then wrinkled her nose. "And Jack Hansen."

"Stay here," Steve insisted, kissing Jaime's cheek before settling her back onto the pile of leaves. She'd be safe there, for now. "I'll be right back to get you." Jaime nodded and drifted off again.

When Steve reached the house, Oscar and Hansen were helping to drag the last of the injured gunmen into the waiting caravan of cars. "Are you alright, Pal?" Oscar asked anxiously. "Where's Jaime?"

"I've got her hidden. She's safe...but she needs Rudy."

"He's right behind us," Russ announced. "About 15 minutes."

"Jenna and Adam?" Oscar asked Steve, who - overwhelmed by emotion - could only shake his head 'no'.

"We'll get them back," Oscar told his friend. He sent the caravan of prisoners away then returned to the group at the lead car.

"Jaime's out of commission," Steve continued. "I don't know what they gave her, but -"

"They drugged her?"

"Yeah - I think so. She's almost completely out of it."

"I've got some information for you," Oscar added. "You'll want to look at it before you bring Jaime back."

"It's that bad?"

"It's bad, Pal. You'd better sit down."

- - -

Jaime opened her eyes and found herself alone. Where was Steve? Was he in trouble? Had he found the kids? Slowly, silently, she made her way back toward the house. With Steve, Oscar, Hansen and Russ completely wrapped up in the criminal file and forming a plan of action, none of them saw Jaime as she emerged from among the trees. No one, that is, except the men in the black van that had stopped a hundred yards back from the house.

Still fairly dazed, Jaime was easily grabbed, silenced without a fight by a simple chloroform-soaked rag and tossed into the back of the van, which then sped away in reverse. Within mere seconds, Jaime was gone.

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