“No, I’m not okay. We’ve been kidnapped and Marsh is drinking martinis and probably flirting with the waitress!” she snapped and it sounded like she too was moving but not in my direction.

This was likely true. Uncle Marsh flirted. It was harmless but he was hot, hot guys did this even if they were taken. Aunt Bette knew there was no one for him but her and he never flirted where the flirtee would get any sense it was going anywhere. But he was a good-looking man. It was pure instinct to keep those skills sharp.

And anyway, Aunt Bette had been shopping. Uncle Marsh would probably have a three course dinner and four martinis before he worried where we’d gotten to.

“What happened? Where were you?” I asked.

“I was in a room tied to a chair where they asked me questions about an Elliott Belova. They thought I was Lanie’s mother, do not ask me why. A, I don’t look a thing like Lanie and B, I’m not old enough to be Lanie’s mother!” she stated, sounding more than slightly perturbed and I had to admit, since her A and B were very true, and she’d been tied to a chair, she had a right.

“Elliott is Lanie’s fiancé, or was until last night,” I informed her as I stopped moving and listened to her continuing to do it.

“I think I got that from her shouting it to him fifteen times on the phone this morning,” Aunt Bette returned.

“Right,” I muttered.

“What’s he into?” she asked.

“Well, according to Tack, the better question is to ask what he isn’t into,” I answered.

“Is Tack involved in this?”

“Um, not until Elliott involved him by asking him to whack the top man in the Russian mob,” I explained then hurriedly finished, “He refused, of course.”

“Of course,” Aunt Bette muttered, still moving around.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“So we’re dealing with the Russian mob here?” she asked back instead of answered.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“They had Russian accents,” she told me.

“Then yes,” I replied, thinking that was a good guess.

“Not good,” she whispered and kept moving around.

“Aunt Bette, what are you doing?”

“Trying to find something sharp to cut through these restraints.”

I fell silent. I did this because Aunt Bette had also been in the Air Force. That was how Uncle Marsh met her. This was before she “retired” and she did this early then took a contract job working for the Air Force. She told me what she did but it always confused me. She talked in a lot of acronyms like “TDY” and “PCC” and “FIGMO”. I didn’t speak Air Force acronym so I never knew what she was on about. It sounded like a desk job. She boiled it down to “human resources” but I always got the sense that she likely wasn’t filing away performance evaluations because I’d visited her office before and after she retired and seen how people were around her. There was respect and there was the respect people gave Aunt Bette.

I also fell silent because Aunt Bette had been in an avalanche. No joke. She’d lucked out and had an air pocket once the snow stopped covering her. She also picked the right direction to dig. Further, she used Aunt Bette Secret Skills to find every other member of her skiing party and dug them out too. It took her hours but she didn’t stop. She had everyone out and even splinted someone who broke their leg before the rescue people found them. She made the papers. It was big news.

And there was the fact that she was in the Air Force at all. The Air Force didn’t attract wusses.

Therefore, I had a feeling Aunt Bette was thinking of taking on the Russian mob.

I finally ended my silence. “Why are you doing that?”

“To get us out.”

Oh boy.

“Maybe we should wait until Uncle Marsh figures out we’re not coming and raises an alarm,” I suggested. “Or maybe someone saw us being abducted from the parking garage and called the police.”

“Tyra, this is the Russian mob.”

“Yes, I know which is why I think maybe we shouldn’t cause a ruckus and make them angry.”

“We won’t make them angry,” she assured me though I wasn’t feeling assured.

“Well, I’m thinking, they went to all that trouble to kidnap us, we try to escape, that won’t make them happy,” I returned.

“Excellent!” she whispered excitedly. “I think I found an exposed nail.”

Oh boy.

I heard her sawing away at the plastic restraints and tried to push up to sitting, saying, “What about Lanie?”

“We’ll get her before we go.”

I got to my bottom and stared in the direction of my Aunt’s voice. “You mean rescue then escape?”

“Of course,” she replied like I was a dim bulb.

“Aunt Bette!” I hissed. “We don’t know where we are. We have no weapons –”

“I’ll figure out something.”

Wonderful. Visions of Aunt Bette McGyvering an explosive with that exposed nail, some lint from her pocket and spit filled my head just as the door opened quickly and shut just as quickly.

I went still and I heard nothing but booted feet moving on the floor. Aunt Bette had wisely stopped sawing away at the plastic restraints.

“You’re safe,” a deep voice growled. “I’m Hawk. I’m getting you out of here. Be quiet, be smart and do what I say. Yeah?”

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 fuck 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.