Chapter 17 #2
“If someone was renting it a month ago, there’s probably still water and electricity going to the property,” Digger assumed.
“There is,” Shadow confirmed her husband’s suspicion. “The house isn’t as up-to-date or nearly as fancy as either of Crawford’s homes. But that place is far more secluded. We’re talking a five-mile radius between neighbors. Which means—”
“There won’t be anyone close by to hear Alex when she screams.”
Coulter felt every eye in the cabin turn his way, and it didn’t take long to understood why.
“Dude.” Bones frowned. “That’s pretty dark. You shouldn’t let yourself go there. Trust me.”
“I appreciate the concern,” he explained. “But I wasn’t saying that as Alex’s boyfriend. I’m saying that Shadow is right. In this particular situation, a place like that makes the most logistical sense.”
“There’s more.” Shadow looked directly at him from the other side of her screen. “There’s a private landing strip less than a mile from the property’s eastern border. The owner’s name matches the one on the deed to the farmhouse and surrounding land.”
For the first time since discovering Alex had been taken, Coulter began to feel hope. Real hope that they had an actual chance to save her. That maybe they weren’t too late.
“Text me the coordinates,” Garrett instructed their tech genius extraordinaire. “I’ll get them to the pilot so he can make whatever adjustments needed to follow the course.”
“Copy that, Falcon.” Shadow’s fingers clicked across the keys. “Aaaand . . . there. Done.”
A moment later, Garrett’s phone dinged with an incoming text. “Sweet. Thanks, Shadow.”
“I’d say any time, but I’d love it if this was the last personal rescue mission we go on. I don’t think my heart can take many more.”
“Agreed.” Bones nodded as Shadow blew a kiss Digger’s way.
“Be careful, boys.” The adorable blonde sent them all a quick wave. “I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.”
“Thanks, Shadow.” Coulter gave her a nod.
The feed was cut and the flatscreen went black.
“We’re almost there, Colt,” Garrett spoke up again a few seconds later. “Alex is smart and she’s tough. She’s going to be okay.”
Coulter spent the remainder of the flight praying his brother was right.
Three hours later—after being in the air for a total of four-and-a-half—he and the team were finally landing.
The pilot Rafe had on standby set them down smoothly, the transition from air to ground seemingly effortless in its execution.
He didn’t wait for the jet to come to a complete stop before jumping out of his seat and grabbing his gear. Technically the protective vest, two pistols, extra mags, and ammo belonged to the team. But for this mission—his most important mission ever—they were his.
Once Coulter and the others were kitted up, they made their way down the jet’s folding steps. A warm breeze rolled past as his booted feet hit the paved airstrip.
It felt ominous. Almost like a warning of sorts. As if Mother Nature was letting them know danger was near.
Bring your worst, Crawford. I’m ready.
It was time this thing ended for good.
“That Crawford’s jet?” Bones pointed to the only other aircraft on the strip.
Coulter recognized it instantly from the intel photos he’d studied ad nauseum when he was first assigned the case. “That’s it.” He pulled one of the pistols free. “We should clear it, just in case.”
Moving as one, he and the team kept their weapons up and at the ready as they approached the nearby plane. When they got nearer, Digger took charge and used hand signals to give silent directions.
Bones, Digger, and Apollo went left. Coulter and Garrett took the plane’s right. The steps had been left down, so the jet’s door was wide-open. There were no sounds or obvious movements coming from inside.
Not a good sign.
Garrett took the lead as the two brothers made their way up the stairs. When they ducked inside, Garrett let loose with a curse. Stomach dropping, Coulter pushed his brother to the side so he could see.
Blood and some other stuff covered one of the chairs on the left. There was also some splattered on the wall. But it was the body in the aisle that had them both reeling with confusion and shock.
“Guess that closes the case on Crawford,” Garrett muttered.
Because Gordan Crawford was dead.
“What the hell?” Garrett moved in for a closer look. “You don’t think this was Alex . . . Do you?”
Coulter shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. My guess is our boy Vas decided to become his own boss.”
After a hurried check of the bathroom and the private bedroom in back, he felt comfortable assuming Vas killed Crawford and then took Alex with him.
“She’s not here.” He stepped over the body without giving it a second glance.
“Pilot’s dead.” Garrett thumbed the door behind him with a frown.
“We need to move, but . . . shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I just realized we have no way of getting to that house.”
As if conjuring up a ride from his panic alone, the sound of an approaching vehicle reached their ears.
“Our ride’s here!” Bones hollered up from the bottom of the jet’s folding stairs.
“What ride?” Coulter raced that way, skipping every other step on his way down.
The other man pointed to Coulter’s right.
He turned that way to see a black SUV rolling to a stop nearby. “Crawford’s dead, by the way,” he announced unceremoniously to the team’s medic.
“You’re kidding.” Bones frowned.
Coulter shook his head, more than a little glad to deliver the news. “Thankfully, no. But that means Vas has Alex, and he’s far more unpredictable, which makes him all the more dangerous.”
“Good thing we’ve got a set of wheels.” Bone winked.
“You can thank Shadow once we get back home. She just called Dig to give him a heads up that some guy she trusts named Mike agreed to pick us up and take us wherever we need to go from here. Apparently she was worried we’d shoot first and ask questions later. ”
“That’s fair.” Coulter shrugged. “But how did she arrange a ride for us on such short notice?”
“Ours is not to question how or why, my friend.”
“Bones is right.” Garrett gave him a nudge as he walked past. “I don’t know how that woman pulls off half the stuff she does, but she’s saved our asses more times than I can count.”
“Yes, she has.” Digger showed a rare smirk as the five of them made their way to their newly acquired ride. “In more ways than one.”
A man none of them knew stepped out from behind the wheel and greeted them with a wave. “My name’s Mike. I’m assuming you’re Shadow’s friends?”
“That’s us.” Bones shook the guy’s hand with a smile. “I won’t bother asking how you know our girl.”
“Probably for the best.” The mystery man got back into the driver’s seat.
Coulter and the others piled in, and soon, they were off. They made it to the end of the first gravel road when Digger’s phone began to ring.
“It’s Shadow,” he announced with a low rumble. “Hey, babe,” he answered. “You’re on speaker with the rest of the team.”
“You on the road yet?”
“Just now. What’s up?”
“I have a bead on Crawford’s car.”
“It’s not Crawford,” Coulter spoke up. “Vas took care of the bastard for us.”
“Well that was unexpected.”
“Tell me about it.” He huffed out a breath.
“Okay, well you’re going to have to speed up if you want to catch them before they reach the house.”
They all listened as the brilliant woman relayed the directions they needed to follow. Their driver pushed the gas pedal down even more. Within a few short minutes, another SUV came into sight.
“There! That has to be them, right?” Coulter prayed. To the man behind the wheel, he asked, “Can you get closer?”
“I can, but I’m guessing you’d rather not spook them.”
“He’s right,” Digger agreed. “Better to let them get to the house and get parked so this thing doesn’t turn into a high-speed chase.”
“Which would put Alex in even more danger than she already is,” Coulter mused. “Okay, so we keep following them from a safe distance.”
Please, be okay. God, please let her be okay.
The silent prayers played through his mind over and over again. They were close. So close he could almost feel her back in the safety of his arms.
If you let her make it through this, I promise I’ll never let her go again.
“Whoa. What the hell?” Mike let up on the gas.
From his spot in the center of the vehicle’s middle bench seat, Coulter refocused and followed the other man’s line of sight. His heart flew into his throat as his stomach dropped.
The SUV they were following—the one they were all but certain Alex was in—had just started to swerve. First left, then all the way back to the right.
“Did they blow a tire?”
“Nope.” Mike shook his head as his gaze remained locked on the car up ahead. “All four tires are full and intact.”
It swerved again, this time in a hard, sharp turn to the left. Coulter watched in utter horror as it immediately overcorrected toward the right.
“They’re going to wreck.”
The words were no more out of his mouth when the SUV hit the shoulder and rolled.
Once. Twice. The damn thing flipped over and over again.
“No!” he yelled as the others voiced their own version of denial and shock.
The crumpled vehicle finally came to a stop, landing upside-down with its bent wheels spinning.
“Go, go, go!” Coulter shouted.
Mike didn’t hesitate to push their SUV to its limit. A long moment later, they were skidding to a stop on the side of the road.
“Let me out,” he demanded as terror threatened to take him over.
Garrett opened the door and jumped out. Coulter followed with Bones and Apollo on his tail. Digger got out of the front passenger seat, and Mike stayed put with a look that said they were on their own for this part.
Coulter started to take off, his only thought was getting to Alex and making sure she was okay. But Garrett grabbed hold of his arm and stopped him short.
“Hold up.”
“She could be hurt.” He attempted to pull himself free.
“You don’t know what you’re walking into,” Garrett argued. “We do this together, as a team.”
But dammit, he wasn’t part of the team, and Alex could be hurt. Or worse. She could be—
“There she is!”