“What a fucking nightmare!” Lowering my weapon, I relax my stance and lean against the dirty concrete wall of the warehouse we raided tonight.
Maverick, our team lead, pulls his eye protection off and pinches the bridge of his nose. “We took care of the problem. We got the girls out. The Harper-Smith family got their girl back. All we can do is hope Lochlan, Collin, and Parker will pull through and be alright.”
Marak nods at Maverick, then smirks. “Agreed, but next time Dominic and Lochlan call you and say they need a favor, pretend you lost signal and hang up.”
“I like that idea, do that.” I fist-bump Marak while Maverick rolls his eyes and Allistar shakes his head with a grin.
The four of us take a few moments of silence to calm ourselves and catch our breath. After a raid, too much adrenaline always pumps through our bodies. It takes a while to relax and regroup.
My eyes roam around the nasty room we found ourselves in after the last ambulance left. We told the Harper-Smith clan to get lost, and we’d do a final sweep of the place. When the team we work with constantly called and asked for help rescuing their girl, we didn’t hesitate. We’re SWAT, and they’re like our extended family. It’s what we do.
Two of their men got hurt during the raid, and the girl they’ve all taken a liking to was in rough shape when we showed up. Their place is at the hospital right now, not here clearing rooms. We took care of everything for them after sending them away.
Movement in the far corner catches my attention, and I draw my weapon on instinct. The guys follow suit without hesitation, aiming in the general direction I have my gun trained on.
Maverick curses under his breath, and I know he found what caught my eye. He goes straight into commander mode. “Come out slowly with your hands raised!”
The foot sticking out from behind the couch doesn’t move. With only a quick glance in my direction, I know Maverick wants me to proceed forward. He and the guys have my six, so I’m not concerned about going in alone. When I’m with my team, I’m never alone.
“I’m coming to you. If you move suddenly, I will not hesitate to shoot you.” My warning does nothing to the figure behind the couch. The person remains motionless.
My steps are slow and measured as I continue my approach. My stomach drops as more of the person comes into view. A dirty pair of feet lead up to curvy, bare thighs and hips. Her torso is completely bare and excessively bruised. Her bare arms cover her chest, but it’s clear she’s only got a bra and panties on like the rest of the girls we found. “Holy shit.”
My gaze locks on a female lying motionless on the filthy ground, and I hope to high hell she’s only unconscious. Immediately, I lower my weapon and rush to her side. The guys follow my lead, coming around the side of the couch.
Allistar inhales sharply. “Jesus, how’d we miss her?”
“She’s behind a couch. We didn’t have any furniture to look behind or under in any other room. This one got past us, somehow.” Maverick already blames himself for missing the girl, and I know we’ll need to talk to him later. He may be our leader, but we all take responsibility for the team’s actions.
Normal protocol for a situation like this would be to pat the person down before checking for injuries. We can skip the pat down for this girl because she’s basically naked. My pointer and middle finger go to the pulse point on her neck, and I let out the breath I was holding. “She’s alive. Her pulse is strong, too.”
“The last of the ambulances left. I don’t want to wait on another one to show up to get her checked. Let’s use our truck and transport her.” Maverick, Allistar, and Marak move without another word spoken. The four of us work like a well-oiled machine, always one step ahead of the other.
While the guys roundup our transportation, I go about securing the girl as best I can. She’s older than the other girls we found. Her auburn hair covers her face in a tangled, dirty mess. Bruises and cuts cover her body, and sickness settles in the pit of my stomach when I think of what she must have been through.
She doesn’t appear to have any major injuries, but with my medical training, I know better than to jostle her too much. Without a gurney and with painful slowness, I pick her up myself. I take each step as if walking barefoot on glass. If she has a spinal injury, one wrong move could paralyze this girl, or worse.
Marak waits for me, holding the front door open. Maverick sits in the driver’s seat of the truck with the engine going. Allistar stands with the back door to the truck open. The three of them remain quiet and patient, no sign of agitation or jitters. They all know how important going slow and steady can be. Ironically, I’m the one who hates to wait for anything, except in this type of situation.
It probably only takes minutes, but it feels like hours pass before I reach the truck and deposit the girl in the back seat. Marak hops into the passenger seat while Allistar slides into the back, careful not to touch the girl. I squeeze myself into the back, doing my best to keep her still. The second my door shuts, Maverick takes off like a bat out of hell.
The back seat is cramped with the girl spread out. Allistar and I do our best to refrain from touching her. Still, I’m able to wiggle out of my jacket and cover her with it, giving her some modesty. The moment my jacket touches the girl she sucks in a harsh breath, scaring the absolute fuck out of Allistar and me.
I quickly regain my composure and remember my medical training. “Miss, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me?”
Her eyes flutter a few times before finally cracking open a fraction. She absorbs her surroundings, though it’s clear she’s still out of it by the way her pupils dilate and her eyelids struggle to stay up. Her gaze lands in my direction with a squint as if attempting to focus. Hard determination crosses her features mere seconds before she juts out her knee, nailing me directly in the family jewels. The air rushes from my lungs, and I cup myself in a feeble attempt to ease the searing pain.
The girl screams at the top of her lungs while wiggling and squirming away from me, only to bump into Allistar. She obviously doesn’t have her wits about her fully because she can’t pull herself to a seated position. The pitch she manages to hit with her scream makes my ears ring, though. “Let me go! I’m not a goddamn toy! Let me out of here!”
Her words slur and make little sense, but I can’t suck in enough air to help her calm down. Luckily Allistar takes over, putting his hands gently on her shoulders to keep her from thrashing around. If she has any internal injuries, the movement could be fatal. “Hey, we aren’t going to hurt you. We want to help you. Just calm down, please.”
Allistar easily coaxes the girl back down again. His quiet voice eases her panic somewhat. She shakes her head slowly from side to side, tears slipping from her half-closed eyes. “Where’s Jenna? Let us go . . .. I want to go home. Just let me go home.”
“We’re taking you to the hospital. You can call your family from there. You’ll get home soon, I promise. Just relax,” Allister assures her, but she slips into unconsciousness before there’s time for his promise to register.
“What the hell was that?” Maverick shouts from the front seat, obviously not happy about his lack of power over the situation in the back seat. The man needs to work on his control freak tendencies. He’s been a commanding fuck since high school. Normally, it isn’t a big deal, but sometimes, he needs to take a few breaths and calm the hell down. He can’t regulate and dominate everything.
Allistar plops back into his seat and runs a hand down his face. His eyes dart to mine, and he takes in my pathetic state. My right knee rests awkwardly on the floorboard while I hold my sore junk and take short, painful breaths. I know what’s coming before it even happens.
My eyes narrow into slits as Allistar bursts into laughter. “She kneed him in the balls. Holy shit, that was hilarious. He didn’t even see it coming! That was a good one, too. She wasn’t even fully with it, and she managed a direct hit.”
Marak snorts, and Maverick coughs, though it sounds suspiciously like a laugh being covered up. “Fuck you all. That shit hurt. I had no prep time. She just lashed out! Who the hell does that?”
“Someone who was kidnapped and beaten, and God knows what else,” Maverick replies as we pull up to the ambulance bay at the hospital. It sobers us all up. We divert back to business as Maverick and Allistar hurry inside to find some help. Marak opens my door, and we help the EMT’s transfer the girl when they race up to the truck with a gurney.
They rush off with her, but not before Maverick calls out to them, “I want an update when she’s stable.”
It’s not a request. Maverick now considers this case personal since he thinks he’s the reason we missed her. He doesn’t have to tell us what he’s thinking. We’ve all been friends long enough to know his thought process. In his mind, he should have thought to look behind the only couch in the entire building. If she doesn’t survive, he’ll never forgive himself.
Marak, Allistar, and I share a long sideways glance with each other. The three of us need to talk to Maverick. He’s no more responsible for missing the girl than the rest of us. We have to be sure he understands our logic and doesn’t do anything crazy, like name himself her new protector or some shit.
“Hey, Mav, let’s grab our bags and find a place to change. Then we can get an update from the Harper-Smith’s. I’m sure it’ll be a bit before they update us on that girl, but we can find out about the rest of them.” Allistar places a hand on Maverick’s shoulder. He’s always making sure the three of us take care of ourselves.
Maverick remains silent, staring ahead at the ambulance bay for a long time. We wait for him. We know he’s sorting out his thoughts, and while he heard Allistar, he won’t respond until he’s ready. Marak and Allistar don’t mind Maverick’s silent, deep thinking process, but it kills me to wait. If I had my way, I’d take him by the shoulders and shake him, telling him to knock his shit off and listen to us. I don’t, though. He hit me in the jaw the one time I did that— fond high school memories.
“Okay.” Maverick finally nods, though I think it’s more to himself and whatever plan he just came up with in his mind. “Let’s get changed and updated. Then, we can check on the girl.”
“I wish we could have asked for her name before she passed out again.” Allistar frowns deeply as we all head back to the truck to park it and grab our bags.
With a dismissive shrug, I pull the back door open and reach for the duffle under the seat. “We can ask her when she wakes up. No big deal.” I force myself to remain positive about the situation with her and the rest of the girls.
“If she wakes up.” Maverick’s tone is hushed, but we all hear him.
All the girls we found were in bad shape, some worse than others. This girl wasn’t the only one unconscious, and a few were barely hanging on. The only thing to do now is wait and hope.