Oscar
A phone was ringing from somewhere in the room, but I had no intention of waking up and finding it. That was until it kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Finally, I blinked open my eyes to find myself in an unfamiliar room. I sat up with a start before remembering the night before. Ivy in black lace, nearly bare before me. The hot kisses. The torture of stopping before we did something we’d both eventually regret.
Ivy wasn’t in bed, and since it was her room, I had no idea where she’d gone. The confounded phone was still ringing, so I stood to find my jeans I’d thrown off in haste the night before. They were across the room, and my phone was still screaming at me from the pocket. I retrieved it and put it to my ear.
“What!”
“Oscar, finally. Geez, man. It’s Ivy. She’s gone.” It was Ryder on the other end, but his words stopped me dead in my tracks.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“Javier took her. Look, let’s not waste time right now. Get over here. I’m tracking her on GPS.”
“I’ll be right over.”
I pulled on the jeans and rummaged around the room until I found my shirt, belatedly remembering that Ivy had torn it open and all the buttons were missing. I threw it back on the floor and ran out of the room to my own, grabbing the first T-shirt I could find. I was in Ryder’s office less than three minutes after the time he called me.
“Where is she?”
“I’ve got a lead on her. They’re heading out of town. Looks like they stopped someplace in the city and then left from there.”
“What is Javier thinking?”
“Watch.”
Ryder played the video back, and I watched as Ivy and Javier seemed to chat in a friendly manner. Ivy neared the car door, and I wanted to scream at her to step away, but of course that wouldn’t do any good. Javier picked her up and put her in the car and then drew a gun from his duffel bag slung over his back and pointed it at her. Her face paled as Javier got in the car and spun out of the parking lot.
The timestamp said it had all taken place at seven thirty-five that morning. It was seven fifty now. Fifteen precious minutes had passed.
“Let’s go get her.”
“Hold your horses. I know it’s tempting to just run in blind, but we need to do this right.” Levi’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to find him propped against the doorjamb. “We have no idea why Javier took her and what his plan is.”
It was true, but I had a feeling the Cabs had a hand in this. I just didn’t know how Javier fitted into the puzzle.
“Fine. Where are they now?”
“Just outside the city.” Ryder was following a flashing light on a map on one of the computer screens.
The bell on the front door buzzed, and Ryder clicked over to the security camera. “It’s Javier.”
I raced from the room with Levi on my heels yelling my name.
“Oscar! Don’t do anything stupid!”
If kicking Javier’s ass and beating the information out of him was Levi’s definition of stupid, then he was out of luck. I was most definitely about to do something stupid.
Levi caught my arm just as I reached the door. “Oscar, wait. Hear him out. He might be able to help us find her. We don’t know what happened.”
I inhaled a deep breath and held it, blowing it out in a slow stream, hoping to calm the rage rushing through my veins. It helped. A little.
Unlocking the door, I opened it and allowed Javier to step through. He looked scared. Terrified, actually.
“You have thirty seconds to explain yourself before I kick your ass.”
Javier dropped his gaze and lifted his hands.
“I know I screwed up. They took my sisters.”
“Who’s they?”
“Some guys named Santos and Angel.”
“I knew it.”
“Start at the beginning.”
Javier did, telling us about how the Cabs had hired him to spy on Shadow Force and how they’d given him instructions to kidnap Ivy as soon as he had the opportunity. He also told us how they’d taken his ten- and twelve-year-old sisters.
“Ivy said you guys were like trained operatives or something and that you could help. I thought they’d give me my sisters when I handed Ivy over to them, but they didn’t. They have them somewhere. So, I came here, hoping you’d help.”
It took a lot of audacity to come back and ask us to help, but I understood that he’d had no choice. Or at least had felt as if he didn’t. Javier hadn’t known about our skills, and anything he would have reported to the Cabs would have been innocent.
Still, he’d taken my wife, and I wasn’t ready to forgive and forget quite yet.
We took Javier into the office suite and had him sit in a chair while we explained it all to Ryder.
“Well, that explains why the car stopped at the barn we reconned yesterday,” Ryder said, pointing to the dot on the screen.
“Not at the chicken houses?”
Ryder shook his head. “No idea what’s there, but apparently that’s where they’ve taken Ivy. It’s possible they have Cami there, too.”
“I’ll call Cade, Cruz, and Jolie and have them get here as soon as possible. I’d give anything to have eyes on the inside of that building. Ryder, are there any schematics out there?”
“Already on it. The property was put up for sale last month. The buyer paid cash, and we now know why. There should be plans available. Hold tight.”
“I may be able to get us eyes on the inside.”
Both Levi and Ryder looked at me. “How’s that?”
“Washington sent over a prototype last week of a drone that’s the size of a bee. It’s loaded with a camera and flies much like the insect. All we need is a way to get it into the building, and we can see inside.”
“Awesome.” Ryder’s face lit up at the mention of a new toy to play with. Any other day, I’d be chomping at the bit to play, too. But my focus was solely on getting Ivy, and hopefully Cami too, out of there.
“What about my sisters?”
“Let’s hope they’re in there with our girls. If they are, we’ll get them out.”
“I want to help.”
“I think you’ve done enough.”
Javier stood, his shoulders back, remorse etched in the lines on his brow. The kid knew he’d screwed up. “I can help. You said you needed a diversion. Let me be that.”
“No—” I protested, but Levi held up a hand, cutting me off.
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea. If we can create a diversion big enough to draw out some of the guards, we can get the drone in, take a quick look around and then go in while they’re away.”
“They won’t be counting on us knowing where they are, so it should work.”
“There’s a farm next door. Looks like they’ve got a tractor or two on the grounds, so you should be able to make a big enough explosion that they’ll come running. I’ll secure it from the farmer and wire him money to cover the cost. Javier will drive it here—” Ryder pointed to a spot on a satellite image of the property. “Jolie will follow you in the jeep, pick you up and hightail it out of there before the guards show up.”
“I’m in.” Javier grinned, and I rolled my eyes. Looked as though we were creating a monster.
“Fine. Javier, follow me. I’m going to show you how to blow crap up.”
I took Javier to the parking lot in the back to show him the basics of exploding flammable objects. We went over the essentials and the safety measures. About the time we started our one and only practice round, Jolie arrived.
“Ryder told me to come find you. Said I’m going with Javier to blow up a tractor or something?” Her face broke into a wide smile. “Sure sounds like a helluva lot of fun!”
Great—another newbie to contain. Explosives were a blast, pardon the pun, if you knew what you were doing. I loved it. Every single moment—the risk, the danger, the big bang. It was a rush. But the two rookies who stood before me weren’t tried and true. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
“Look, that tractor is highly flammable. So, once you light the fuse, you’ve got to run like hell back to the truck. Jolie, don’t park too close, but not too far away either. Javier needs to get to you before it goes off, and you both need to be out of blast range in a matter of seconds. Got it?”
She nodded, the smile never fading from her face.
I sighed and shook my head. They’d be fine. Hopefully.
“When you’re finished blowing the tractor, meet us at the rendezvous site in case we need you to pick up any hostages.”
“Roger that.” Jolie gave me a snappy salute. I growled until she reached out and touched my arm.
“She’s strong. She’ll be fine. Probably giving them hell as we speak.”
I slung an arm around Jolie and pulled her in for a quick hug. Amazing how the little sprite had become like a sister to me in the last few months.
It was almost nine a.m., and Ivy had now been in danger for over an hour and a half. I was anxious to get out of there and get moving, and was on my way back inside to tell Levi to get a move on, when the rest of the team exited the building.
“Javier, your mama is here and safe with Piper. Go say goodbye. We roll out in fifteen.”
Javier took off to see his mom, and the rest of us loaded for bear. I packed a few extra surprises, just in case, and tested the tiny bee-like drone, its range and its video quality. It was a little grainy, but we should be able to make out the basic lay of the land inside the barn.
When we were all ready, Cruz and I took one van, Ryder, Levi, and Cade took the other, and Jolie and Javier took off in one of the jeeps. It was a thirty-minute drive to the barn, and my stomach was all twisted up on the inside. Cruz kept the conversation to a minimum, which I appreciated. Since he’d been in a situation where Lydia had been in trouble, I figured he understood how I was feeling.
We reached the road to the barn, and Jolie and Javier took off ahead of us. Cruz and I and the other van full of guys parked a half mile away and hid the vehicles in a copse of trees. That way if the bad guys took off looking for our vans, they wouldn’t find them at first glance. We had no way of knowing if the hostages would be in healthy shape to walk, but we had to hope they were. Otherwise, Jolie would have to drive into the thick of the battle. None of us wanted her in that kind of danger.
The jog to the outskirts of the property didn’t take us long. Even heavily armed, we were all fit and used to the routine. We waited patiently for the signal, knowing it would take them a few minutes to get to the property line and detonate the “tractor bomb,” as Jolie had started calling it over the radio waves.
“We’ve commandeered the tractor bomb, and Javier is driving it out to the edge of the property. It’s slow going. These things don’t go very fast.” Jolie’s voice came through the comm device in my ear loud and clear.
We watched the guards surrounding the barn. There appeared to be four of them, two at the front doors and two on the back side at each corner. There was no security detail walking the grounds, which would prove to be a huge failure on their end.
“We’re in place,” said Jolie’s voice in my ear.
“Roger,” Levi answered back.
“Any minute now.”
It felt like hours instead of minutes as we waited for the explosion to come. But we were not disappointed when it did.
The sound was like a freight train barreling down on us at high speed; the earth shook with the force of the blast, and the tops of the trees swayed violently back and forth. Smoke and flames billowed up in a cloud just past the horizon, and just as we hoped, all four guards ran to their trucks. Four more ran out of the building, leaving the door open for just long enough for me to activate the drone and fly right in the front. As soon as I was in, Levi used his phone as the monitor.
“The place appears to be renovated for weddings or special occasions. The Cabs have been busy, though. One side of the room is unused.” He pointed to the side of the building that was vacant. “The other side has a few makeshift cell-like structures as well as some curtained rooms. People are running around. Medical staff, it seems. I can’t see faces very well, but it appears that there are only a couple of guards left.” I flew the drone high up in order that it wouldn’t be detected. Of course, with the amount of bustling activity over the explosion, I doubted anyone would notice the tiny contraption.
A second explosion rocked the earth, an unexpected blessing. Ryder voiced his concern for Jolie over the airways. “Jolie, honey. You all right?”
“Just dandy. Javier and I are clear and almost off the farm’s property. We’ll stay close in case you need us.” His relieved expression was shared by all of us.
“Roger that.”
“There’s a guard standing by one of the rooms. I’d bet my bottom dollar that’s where your girl is. I say we blow through the side of the building. They won’t expect us and won’t be able to use this facility for quite some time.”
We all agreed, and I landed the drone on one of the rafters of the barn. Hopefully I’d be able to retrieve it once we rescued the girls.
“Let’s go.” Levi gave the order, and we jogged across the yard to the side of the building that was unoccupied. I pulled the charges from my backpack and made quick work of placing them in the right places to blow a hole in the side of the barn. When it was set, we all stood back, and I blew the charge.
The earth shook, and smoke and debris rained down as screams rang out inside the building. Levi readied the flash bang and threw it in.
“Go, go, go!” Levi made the hand motion for us to go once the bang detonated, and we pressed in close behind him and Cade, filing in as we’d done so many times before.
We took out both guards, who were wandering around in confusion from the noise and light of the bang, in a matter of seconds.
“Get down!” The medical personnel scurrying about were hysterical, clearly not expecting to have their world go up in smoke. We only had a couple of minutes before the other guards returned. Eight to five weren’t terrible odds, but it was definitely preferable for us to get out of there before they returned.
We stalked across the floor, scanning the room for any movements. The barn was huge and mostly open, although there was a small office near the front door that we’d need to clear before we left.
“Cade and I will take the office. You guys go to the locked rooms.”
I nodded and took off to where the guard had stood in front of the door. He was lying on his back with a hole in his chest, so he wouldn’t be any problem. I fumbled with the knob and found it was much the same as the doors at the other location: the locking mechanism was on the outside. However, it also had a padlock beneath it that we’d need to break off.
I didn’t have time to set up the charges, and I had no idea how close Ivy or whoever was behind the door might be. I knocked and yelled, “Stand back away from the door. I’ve got to shoot the lock off.”
I waited for some sort of response, but I didn’t hear anything. Did that mean they’d hurt her? Or that it wasn’t her at all?
I aimed my weapon and fired, hitting the lock on the first shot. It popped off, and I opened the door.
What I found made my blood run like ice water in my veins. Pure, unadulterated fear like I’d never felt before shot through me, and I felt as if I was going to be sick.
I heard Cruz yell out that he’d found two hostages in the room next to this one, but I couldn’t respond. Cami lay on the floor, her hands over her ears—but that wasn’t what made me want to prowl around like a wounded animal.
I focused my aim on the man who held my wife, a syringe poking into her neck, a small rivulet of blood trickling down her throat.
“One step closer, and I’ll plunge this needle into her throat. She’ll be dead in minutes.”