Nothing Ordinary by M J Marlow (best ereader for academics txt) 📕

calmed her and gave her strength. He would be with her in another two days. Then she called Agent Taylor to ask if they had found her note about the files and assure him that she would testify against Doctor Guthrie. Taylor told her they had finally decoded them and sent them to his superior officer. Taylor also told her that Guthrie and his sister were missing and warned her to expect a visit. Fernando Martinez put his men on full alert, but it was not good enough. Annie woke up late one evening and saw Guthrie standing over her. He bound her wrists and gagged her and then went to lock her door. When he had done this, he hefted her over his shoulder and carried her off the grounds to an old abandoned fort down the hill from the compound. “They’re going to come after you, Walter,” Annie hissed as he brought a meal to her several hours later. He had locked her in a cell in the old dungeon of the fort. “There is nowhere you can go where they won’t be able to find you.” “There is one very special place we can go,” Guthrie laughed. “They will have to come in stealth and face our private army to get to us.” He laid his hand on her abdomen. “Our children will be in college before your friends find you again.” He looked at her coldly. “Ready to surrender now?” “Never!” Annie hissed at him and moved around him to get to the door. Gillian was there to slam the door shut on her. “Bitch!” “Such language,” Gillian looked shocked. “We are going to have to work on that, little sister.” “You don’t like English?” Annie snapped at her. “Then let me tell you how I feel about you in German! Gehen Sie zur Hölle!” Then she crossed her arms and backed into the corner as far from Guthrie as she could get. “What a brat!” Gillian laughed. “Are you certain you want her, Walter?” Her phone rang and she put it in the cradle and put it on speaker. “This is Doctor Guthrie.” “Ah Senorita Doctor!” a melodious voice accented by a Spanish cadence snapped over the line. “You have my ahijada?” “Anneke is where she belongs,” Gillian retorted. “Back off now, Senor Martinez and let her go.” “I do not believe you would be so gullible as to go along with kidnapping, Doctor,” the man replied. “Do you value your profession so little that you would throw it away to help this monster?” “My brother is not the monster here,” Gillian spat back at him. “He wants Anneke and he should have her!” She moved away so that Annie couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation. She looked over at Guthrie, who was eyeing her closely. The look of triumph on his face made her blood boil. “You bastard!” Annie sobbed and launched herself at him. “You actually expect me to abandon my husband for you?” Guthrie pushed her down and raped her, leaving her bruised and dazed. “You are never leaving me again, darling,” Guthrie snarled at her as he yanked her up and shook her. “I will kill you before I let them take you away from me. Do you hear me?” Annie knew he meant it and she whimpered as fear filled her. She was never going to get away from this man alive. She sank back on the cot in the cell and wrapped her arms around her body, shaking. She caught Gillian’s eyes as the woman turned and saw that the other woman was disturbed by Guthrie’s outburst. “I have to get out of here,” she said as she put her arms around her waist. She grabbed one of the blankets folded at the foot of the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, but it did little to ease the shivers of fear coursing through her. How she fell asleep, she did not know. “Meal time,” Gillian smiled as she brought in a tray later. “You eat up now for your baby’s sake.” “Gillian,” Annie pleaded as the woman got up to go. “You have to help me get away from him. He’s insane!” “He’s just angry right now,” Gillian shook her head. “He loves you, Anneke.” She saw Annie’s look of disbelief. “He just wants to build a life for you and the children you’re going to give him and people are getting in the way of that.” “He has no right to do this to me, Gillian,” Annie snapped at her. “I have a husband and your brother just swooped in and took me away from him!” “Eat your lunch, Anneke,” Gillian frowned at her. How the girl could continue talking about her husband as if he were alive was just a sign that Walter was right. This poor girl was unstable. “You’ll feel better when you’ve eaten.” “I want out of here, Gillian,” Annie snapped as she sent the tray flying. “Don’t you understand that?” Gillian picked up the food and put it on the tray. Annie watched her leave the cell. “You’re as bad as he is!” she sobbed as the woman left her. Guthrie came to her a few moments later and he was very angry. “Leave me alone!” Annie sobbed as he stepped into the cell. “Walter, please let me go!” “You belong with me, Anneke,” Guthrie said as he pushed her down. “You know you do.” “I hate you,” Annie sobbed as she tried to get away from him. “Let me go!” Guthrie forced her out of the cell as she tried to fight. They got in a car and drove to the airfield where a jet was waiting. Guthrie smiled as he saw her strap herself in and he sank down on his knees and put his hand to her cheek. “Don’t be afraid, Anneke,” he smiled at her warmly. “We’re together now and we are going to have a good life together.” His hand moved to her lips and he felt her shiver at his gentle caress. He saw the beginnings of passion firing in her blue eyes. “Tell me how much you want me, my love.” “No,” Annie shook her head. “What you have is a body that responds to your touch.” She looked at him coldly. “You will never have me.” “Is that a challenge I hear, my darling?” Guthrie asked as he leaned close and claimed her lips. “Very well, Anneke. I accept your challenge. I promise you that I will win.” Colonel Martinez arrived too late to help her. He saw the jet taking off and he cursed. He called the General and let him know what had happened, blaming himself for not moving sooner. He called in the call sign of the plane and alerted her family and the federal authorities to the fact that Doctor Walter and Doctor Gillian Guthrie had abducted her. 14 Jeffrey entered the office of the base commander at Leavenworth. He saluted the man with the steel gray eyes and hair and waited until the door closed. Then he smiled and relaxed. Edward Lang held out his hand and then clapped Jeffrey on the back. “So, nephew,” he smiled and stepped back to look him over, “tell me how I can help.” He listened to what was going on and his smiled died. “You have whatever you need,” he told Jeffrey. There was knock on the door and called out. “This is Captain Marcy Lewis. You will coordinate with her.” He looked at the woman. “Lewis, this is Captain Jeffrey Owens.” Jeffrey looked at the long-legged brunette with the cool green eyes and he bit back his smile. She was still easy on the eyes, he thought as he held out his hand and pretended not to know the woman. Her grip was strong and sure and he caught the amusement in her eyes as she dared him to break their pact. “My sister-in-law is being held prisoner at a survivalist camp near here, Captain,” he told her. “I will need help coordinating with the FBI and any men you can spare from here to make a strike and remove her.” She nodded. “She is nine months pregnant, Captain, so the timing in crucial.” “That’s no problem, Captain,” Marcy replied. “Just tell me how many men you need and what type of defenses we are tackling and we’ll be ready to move out in an hour.” Four hours later, Jeffrey lowered the binoculars and looked over at Taylor who was crouched down beside him on the hill overlooking the militia’s compound in Wyoming. He had just seen Anneke after three long months of chasing false clues and he could hardly breathe. Nine months pregnant now, she glowed with health. But he could see the strain of being held prisoner by that bastard was wearing her down and he wanted to hurt Guthrie, as he had never wanted to hurt anyone before. “He isn’t giving her a choice, Owens,” Taylor reminded him as he took the binoculars and trained them where Jeffrey pointed. “The bastard got her at a very low point in her life and he is taking advantage of that weakness to worm his way into her head.” “She doesn’t see it that way, though,” Jeffrey said. “But she’s as close to breaking as I’ve ever seen her.” “We’ll do what we can to help her once we get her out of there,” Taylor assured him. “That is not going to be easy.” He turned to Marcy. “Send out your recon, Captain. We need to move in fast and furious, but not without knowing what we face.” Marcy nodded and signaled to her troops and Taylor smiled as they moved off. “Now that is a woman!” “She’ll do,” Jeffrey nodded. He followed Marcy’s movements until she seemed to vanish into the landscape. She was good, he smiled as he went back to keeping his eye on Annie. Smart, competent, and beautiful. Annie raised her head towards the hills and frowned as she saw the flash of sunlight. She was standing by the garden watching the workers harvest some vegetables for her. Gillian had forbidden her to work now and given her helpers to be her hands. She put her hand to the small of her back and sighed. He was taking no chances with her now that she was almost ready to have her child. He was still trying to beat her down but she refused to resign herself to a life as his permanent prisoner. “Is something wrong, Anneke?” one of the girls asked as she caught Annie’s frown. “You’re not in pain, are you?” “No, Nan,” Annie shook her head. “I just felt as if I was being watched.” She shook her head as she let the hope that her feeling was correct slip away. No one was coming for her. She would have to get out of this place on her own. “Gillian said I might start to imagine things.” She looked over towards the clinic where Gillian worked as the compound doctor. She saw the basket filled with the vegetables she had decided to use for dinner. “Could one of you bring the basket to the kitchen please?” Nan picked up the basket and followed Annie into the kitchen and dining hall building. There were other girls moving around setting the tables for the upcoming meal. The vegetables were going to be steamed and that did not take long. Annie entered the kitchen to see the cook, a tall beefy man named Edwin, pulling the chickens out of the oven. “Set the basket down by the sink, Nan,” Annie told the girl. “You can get the steamer while I wash them off.” “You are going to sit down and put your feet up,” Gillian’s voice sounded behind her, annoyed. Annie turned to see the woman coming into the kitchen. “You missed your nap, Anneke,”