Chapter 60
Chapter Sixty
Why bother with the doorknob when I have a perfectly good foot? I kick the door in and stalk inside.
The house is still a church on Friday night, but I stride down the short hallways, hungry for blood.
“Rory!” I bellow.
But it’s not one of the Russians that appears in the open doorway. It’s my teammate, Truck. His weapon is in his hands and wearing his get-down-to-fucking business face.
“No one here,” I kick a boot that’s sitting by the couch. It flies across the living room, crashing into the wall.
He looks around, his nearly black, hawk-like eyes taking the whole scene in at once. “Marshall told me about Aria and you think it could be Rory. I thought the teams were working together, are you sure he’d?—”
I nearly plow over him. “Do you have a company tablet?”
“In the truck, in my duffel.”
Thank fuck. I’m out the door when he yells at me.
“You need the password.”
He rattles off eight digits and I leap into a blue Ford pick-up that was sitting in front of the house with the door ajar.
I almost collapse to my knees with relief when I get the machine in my hands. The small, armored tactical tablet boots up right away, has a full battery and connects instantly to his satellite router.
Thank you. Thank you and thank you.
Truck is a solid operator. Of course his shit would be charged and ready to go.
I hold my breath as the icon spins on our team’s tracking software. Just looking at the map brings a kind of deadly calm into my chaotic system. Those topo lines have been my anchor since I was a kid.
But the small compass rose icon that blinks on at the corner of the screen hits me like a lightning strike. I hope it’s an omen, because it’s just like the tiny tattoo Aria has behind her ear.
Truck jogs to the truck and climbs into the driver’s seat. “Someone was here recently. How many trucks does Vik’s team have?”
“Three black Expeditions, plus Vik’s Suburban. None are here as you can see.”
He taps his finger to his jaw as he considers this. “Then why would they take our team truck?”
“To slow us down?”
“We’ll find them and get your girl back.”
That hits me in the chest so hard, I fight to keep the sound of despair that tears through me locked inside me.
Finally, a blue dot flashes on the screen—Amen— and I zoom in with my stomach in my throat. “The truck is outside Karma, roughly 8 klicks.”
We’re moving fast just seconds later. As he tears down the driveway through the agave fields, he cuts a look at the tablet I’m clenching with white knuckles.
“Is it moving?”
“According to our software it was recently. But now it’s stationary…
“Are they at some kind of house?”
I zoom in and turn on the terrain features.
“No. Looks like jungle,” I say with my panic flaring and stomach clenching. “Nothing for at least three klicks.
He doesn’t look at me again, but I feel him processing what I’ve just said.
The jungle is dense and unpredictable here in Vandemora. Bad things happen in places like this.
Hang on Aria. I’m coming baby.
Truck calls Griffon Kane and the rest of the team and somehow keeps the Ford on the road in the driving rain.
My mind is locked on. Nothing other than my determination to get Aria back.
She’s coming home safely.
Come hell. High water. Or fucking anything.
I watch as we get closer to the icon that marks the truck. It hasn’t moved in five minutes.
Five fucking minutes is a long time. Anything can happen in five minutes.
Truck hangs up and shoves my shoulder with a meaty fist.
“You solid?”
No, but I tip my chin.
He reaches behind him and pulls another gear bag from the floorboard. “That’s got?—”
“I don’t care what it’s got. I’ll use my bare hands. I’ll use a kitchen knife. I’ll fucking shove my goddamned boot so far down somenone’s throat?—”
He holds up a hand. “Point taken. But if you want it, there’s a nice sharp K-bar in there.”
I take his offer on the knife and take a handgun too.
“Your head clear enough?”
I turn to look at him, feeling the murderous rage coursing through my veins. “Do I look like I’m not clear?”
He lifts a brow. “You, my friend, look unhinged.”
“You would be too.”
His gaze flicks away. “I’ll never feel that fear again.”
Truck is a loner. Our team knows it was bad—whatever happened to him—but he’s never had more than one night with a woman since we met years ago.
Sounds familiar. Only I got blindsided.
Aria Kane.
I fist my shirt over the center of my chest. “I can’t take this. From the moment she got here, I’ve been worried sick about her.”
His expression hardens, the ghosts of his past flashing behind his stone facade. “You're a good SEAL. I got your back, brother.”
I turn to stare out the window at the road in front of us through the hellacious rain.
A good SEAL?
“A good operator wouldn’t let their girl be stolen in the middle of the night.”
His hands flex on the wheel. “Did you do it on purpose?”
“Fuck no!”
He snaps back viciously. “Then get that shit out of your head. ”
“I need my anger right now. It’s fuel.” And I’ll use it to burn the world down until Aria’s back.
We pass through a curve on the road and de-ja-vu hits me.
It's pouring rain just like it was a few nights ago. Lights are pointing in weird directions at the sky.
Only this time it’s a truck and not a plane.