Snow Bound

23

"You guys really shouldn't have done this. It truly wasn't necessary." Whitney tells them as they walk out of the lawyers office.

"Yes, it was. Beyond necessary actually," John says nuzzling into her hair.

Whitney smiles up at him as she turns in his arms and gives him a kiss. Pulling back her eyes widen in terror. She looks over to a smiling Michael and she gets sick.

"Guys, you both have multiple laser sights on you and judging from the location, they are sniper rifles." Whitney tells them doing her best to not hyperventilate.

"Is there anything you should tell me?"

"It must be that encroacher. Shit." Michael says under his breath not wanting to give anything away. He keeps the smile on his face but his eyes harden.

John's eyes are pure rage and Whitney can feel him shaking in fury. She hugs him trying to get him to calm down.

"Isn't this a lovely sight." Some guy comes up to them and says.

"Who are you?" Michael says trying to keep his brother from exploding.

"The one calling the shots. Turn around girl and let me see you. I've heard that you are beautiful, but I don't always trust the reports given to me."

John growls angrily. Whitney has already gone through enough this day she doesn't need this shit on top of everything else. "It's alright, I'll be fine."

"Listen to the girl, she's smarter than you at this point." The man says smirking at how helpless he has the mafia leaders. He doesn't realize that he's made a mistake by not killing them upfront.

Whitney turns around and the man's eyes widen. "Oh, she is a beauty. Come here girl." John's arms tighten around her holding her to him. He growls even louder, loud enough that Whitney starts to panic.

"It's alright, let me go to him." Whitney tells John calmly, gently doing her best to follow the orders of the idiot and not make things infinitely worse. This is a very public place and to have a shooting right now there would certainly be deaths. Not just John's and Michael's, she doesn't want the innocent people hurt.

Reluctantly John lets her go but keeps his eyes on the bastard that dares to take her away from his side.

The unknown male does his best to keep from showing just how much John's stare is bothering him but is unable to hide the shaking in his hand when he touches Whitney's face. "You are so beautiful, you'll sell well."

With those words Whitney pulls inside herself and the man wonders what just happened. She went from a lively girl to someone that was no better than a doll, a puppet. "Take off the necklace, sweetheart." The man orders and Whitney mechanically moves to release the necklace. "Let it drop. That's a good girl."

"Leave her alone," John growls out. It's only Michael's hand on his arm that keeps him from attacking the daring man and killing him there and then.

"Come, my beauty, if you come with me willingly I'll let them live for now." Whitney nods and turns her head and mouths, find me, as she is lead away from the busy sidewalk into a dark SUV.

As soon as Whitney was in the car the two move rapidly in opposite directions and then start running for cover. Once they are safe they call for back up and make their way to their home. 

But first John returns and looks for the necklace he'd given her. He picks it up and clutches it in his hand. His face is stone cold and blank as he rises up, but he is filled with fury.

"Find her!" John rages as he walks through the door.

"Sir, she's being taken to the area we believed to be where the other group is setting up. We have eyes on all the buildings. One of our men reported a female being taken into a building with several men accompanying her. She made no effort to escape. She didn't appear to be tied or restrained in any way."

"I need numbers," John growls out. They can't waste lives by not having enough for when they go after Whitney.

"About ten went into the building." The man says and shrugs, "Other than that we don't know. The funny thing is, they don't appear to have any one on watch or look out." That draws the attention of all those hearing his report.

John gives him his full attention and the man swallows nervously. "Explain."

"All the men went into the building. We had previously cleared the area with no signs of intruders. Once the car drove off there was no sign of life other than our own men." The man tells him as fast as he can, he starts to sweat as John doesn't ease up on his stare.

"Do the men have thermal binoculars?" Michael asks in the silence that follows the report.

"No, not at this time." The man is thankful to have a reason to break his stare from John's.

"Get them to the men. We need to know how many are in the empty buildings."

"Once this is over, those buildings need to be demolished." John says through gritted teeth.

"Possibly, we'll see once this is done." Michael soothes.

"Is Whitney's tracker still at that location?" Michael asks another male standing by.

"No sir, it shows that she has moved some distance away actually. Looks like to the edge of the area we believe they have taken over as their base camp."

This just angers John even more. "Our people didn't see  her leave?"

"John, calm down. It's possible that they created a tunnel system. It wouldn't be too hard with all the access for pipes an wiring they'd need. Her tracker will let us know where she is." The fucker messed up by taking Whitney. He signed his death warrant by touching her and if he hurts her in any way, his death will be long and extremely painful.

The men are moving swiftly following orders. They are terrified of John in that moment and don't wish to be on the receiving end of his fury.

The thermal binoculars are sent out the door within minutes of the order being given.

"Once we know if there are any people inside, we'll plan a proper surprise party for them, John and that bastard that took Whitney will be the-"

"He'll be the one hurting the most, that damn coward." John says before storming off to the gym to work off some of his anger.

"We need to set up a rescue and plan for an ending of that bastard. Were you able to get an ID from the photo?" There had been cameras facing them when this all went down. They were able to get security footage and run facial recognition on it.

"He's a nobody. Nowhere in the system although the program is still running. But so far, nada." One of the men tells him as they walk to the study to make plans.

Michael nods absently. There will be a way to the tunnels in the building they took Whitney too. If there is one location for an entrance there likely are others. They will need to locate and prepare to enter from as many as possible.

"Gather the men. As soon as we have as much info as we can get we'll be heading in. With the way John is, we better not hold off longer than the day after tomorrow. If there is any movement on Whitney's tracker, more than just a short distance we'll need to be prepared to move." The man nods and heads out to give orders.

The men stationed around the suspected area gladly welcome the enhanced binoculars and look over the area once more. All told they find five people. One per building. Since one is located in the building that Whitney was taken they are assuming that the other entrances are in the buildings with people.

Michael orders extra men to watch the area. One man per location to watch just the locations where there are heat signatures of people and the other to keep watch of their surroundings.