Chapter Twenty-Eight
IONA STRAPPED ON the last of her gear and slid her weapons into place, her movements fast and efficient. She refused to let herself think or feel. If she gave in to the temptation, the fear and fury swamping her would paralyze her.
This was no time for self-pitying indulgence. Elias was depending on her. She wouldn’t let him down again.
Iona tapped her earpiece. “I’m ready.”
“So are we,” Seth said. “We’ve got your back, Iona.”
“Z?”
“Right here. What do you need?”
“Anything from Elias?”
He remained silent.
Iona’s gut knotted. “Tell me.”
“One of Eddie’s enforcers is working over Elias.”
Bile rose in her throat. No, no, no. She couldn’t lose it right now. She’d have time later. “How bad is it?”
“Bad enough that you need to move right now.”
That was not what she wanted to hear. If she slipped into the compound unseen and freed Elias, would he be mobile enough to escape with her help?
Based on what Zane said and didn’t say, the answer to that question was a big no.
That meant improvising instead of using one of the five plans they’d cobbled together while the jet followed the same path as the plane carrying Elias from her.
“Copy that.” No matter. She would rescue Elias.
“Watch yourself, Iona,” Teagan said. “Elias won’t thank you for dying before he can marry you.”
Her lips curved. “Yes, ma’am.” Because this rescue mission was personal to Iona, she’d ceded leadership to Teagan. Being objective in this situation was impossible. Everything in her pushed Iona to race to Elias’ rescue.
Elias was as tough as nails. She needed to remember that shining fact. He’d been through Special Operations training and the training Fortress put all its operatives through. He could handle what Eddie and his cronies dished out.
She swallowed hard. He was injured, too. This situation was dangerous on so many levels. Knowing what she did about Eddie, Iona suspected he’d informed the enforcer of Elias’ injury. Whether the enforcer used that information to focus on Elias’ shoulder or to avoid that area was anyone’s guess.
Iona purposely iced down her emotions, walled them up behind an impenetrable mental barrier, and shifted into mission mode. She had a goal. Nothing would stop her from reaching Elias. She’d get him out of there even if their teammates couldn’t get to them.
She turned toward the path she’d mapped out in her head. “Moving now. Tell me if bogies are headed my way. I don’t want to make this too easy for them.”
“Remember the objective,” Maddox said.
“I haven’t forgotten, sir. I will get Elias out of there.”
“Without sacrificing yourself, Byrne. That is not part of the bargain we agreed to.”
“Copy that, sir.” But she’d do what she needed to do.
Iona picked up her pace, scanning the area as she jogged closer to the compound where Eddie Knight held his son captive.
What was the point of beating Elias? She thought Eddie wanted Elias as his heir. How could he do anything for his father if he was recovering from injuries?
Iona scowled. Eddie didn’t care about the injuries.
Since his father had a job for Elias to do, the prez must have told the person working Elias over to only create soft tissue injuries.
Painful but not deadly, as long as the person inflicting them knew what he was doing.
That was the kicker. Did the man know what he was doing?
Her hands fisted. That man, probably an enforcer, was now on Iona’s mental list. If he survived the night, she would keep track of him. Sometimes retribution was slow in coming, but it was as inevitable as the sunrise. He would pay.
She glanced at her watch and adjusted her course. Though she longed to run at full speed to the compound and Elias, Iona couldn’t walk right into the trap Eddie laid. She’d give the game away too soon.
A quarter of a mile later, Iona saw the first perimeter defenses. She easily circumvented the tripwires. “Tripwires 600 feet out,” she murmured and kept moving.
“Copy,” Seth said. “Same at 400 feet.”
“Fun times.” She continued to walk toward the compound. “Z, any updates?”
“He’s holding.”
She needed to be in that compound yesterday. “Copy. Can you communicate with him at all?”
“Negative. The enforcer isn’t letting up for a second, so Elias is never alone.”
“Does he still have his tactical watch on?”
“As far as I can tell.”
“Make it vibrate to communicate with Elias using Morse code.”
A pause, then, “Copy that.”
That would give Elias something to concentrate on other than the pain. He had to hold on for a few more minutes.
When the glow from the lights of the compound lightened the night sky, Iona slowed, scanning the surrounding forest for cameras and lurking guards.
Five minutes later, she stopped behind a cluster of trees, quartering the area. No cameras and no guards in this sector, almost as though they were herding her to the area where they wanted her to go.
“Bogies coming from the east,” Zane said.
“Copy.” Iona melted back into the forest, hugging shadows as she changed direction. “Rerouting.”
“I’ve got you. Ahead of you are six guards on perimeter watch. They haven’t moved in the past few minutes.”
“Copy.” Iona continued to ease her way through the foliage and trees, scanning constantly for hidden cameras, tripwires, and enforcers.
She skirted the perimeter of the compound as she wove an erratic path through the forest until she reached her final destination, the one place where there was a gap in camera coverage.
Her teammate, Riley, was amazing with computers.
In a matter of minutes, she’d hacked into the compound’s security system and mapped the cameras’ areas of coverage.
Iona didn’t mind taking advantage of the security blind spot.
“In position,” she murmured.
“For the moment, you’re clear,” Z said. “The roaming guards will be back around in five minutes. If you’re going, do it now.”
“Copy.”
Iona did one last scan, then stepped out into the shadowed compound yard. Movement drew attention. She knew that. The circumstances, however, made it critical for her to cross the open space at top speed. She had little time before the guards would make their rounds.
She raced across the yard and around the corner of a building, stopping in a doorway wreathed in darkness. Iona grasped the knob and twisted it. The knob gave easily under her hand.
She scowled. Did Eddie’s people believe they were so invincible that no one would dare invade their compound? Well, she dared. The man she loved was in this compound, and she intended to find him and get them both out of here.
“Echo in position,” Seth murmured.
“Artemis in position,” Teagan whispered. “Go when ready, Iona.”
“Infiltrating now.” With the mission clock ticking in her head, Iona slipped into the building.
After a quick glance, she closed the door to a mere crack and waited for the roaming guards to pass the door.
One minute passed, then two. At the three-minute mark, two men wearing Reckoner cuts strode past the doorway without a backward glance or stopping to test the knob.
If these men were part of her security detail, she’d fire them. She’d never seen a more inept security system in her life. Then again, perhaps that was to lull her into believing she was in this compound unobserved. She knew better than that. Eddie Knight knew she’d come to rescue his son.
She waited a few seconds, then slipped out of the storage building and headed toward the center of the compound, staying in the shadows as she went. “Where, Z?” she whispered.
“Left side of the compound. The target building has two levels. The main floor looks like an office setup. Four people on the floor. Elias is in the basement.”
Of course he was. “Copy.”
“One man with him. Two at opposite ends of the basement in other small rooms. They’re working over two other people.”
She scowled. If Elias were mobile, she’d enjoy interrupting the punishment the other prisoners were enduring.
Twice during her journey to the building where Elias was being held, Iona had to dive behind a tree or bush when one of the MC members walked into view. Zane’s warning had prevented her from being discovered both times.
“You’re clear,” Zane murmured. “Go.”
She went.
“You have ten minutes, Iona,” Teagan said. “After that, we’ll go to Phase Two.”
“Copy.” She sprinted across the final hundred feet, stopping in a darkened side doorway. After a quick glance around, Iona twisted the knob and once again found that it turned easily under her hand. Oh, yes. This was definitely a setup.
She slipped inside and closed the door behind her. Iona waited for a full minute to see if she had company coming after her, but nothing moved in the vicinity. To her right was an inaudible murmur of voices. Nothing stirred in the dimly lit building.
Skin prickling, she headed to the area where Zane and Riley believed the stairs to the basement level were located, alert for hidden cameras, ready for enforcers to appear at any moment.
Although she had to follow a zigzag pattern because of the cameras, Iona was reasonably certain she’d reached the door to the stairs without detection. She twisted the knob. It didn’t give.
Ha. This was the first door in the compound that was locked. “Someone locked the door to the basement.” After another glance around, Iona crouched in front of the knob and inserted her lock picks into the mechanism. Seconds later, the tumblers shifted. Perfect.
She slid her lock picks away, stood, and twisted the knob. Iona slipped into the darkened interior of the staircase leading downward into the basement beneath the building. The farther down the stairs she went, the colder the atmosphere became.
Man, talk about creepy. This was the definition of creepy. Hopefully, she wouldn’t encounter bats or snakes down here. She dealt with many types of critters on their missions, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed dealing with them. Unless the critter was a cat or a dog, she wasn’t a fan.
“Hold. Traffic.”