Chapter 1 #3
Thank fuck Drax was handy with knives, because even a suppressed gunshot would carry through these mountains, and Zenko had no intention of announcing their position to every armed asshole within hearing distance.
The two guards outside the cave needed to go down quietly, which made Drax the obvious choice.
Zenko watched as his teammate pulled two stiletto knives from the scabbards on his wrists, palmed them for a second, then adjusted his grip with the ease of a man who had done this shit enough times that Zenko knew exactly what was coming next.
Drax drew his arm back and sent the first blade through the darkness, immediately following it with the second.
The first sickening thud reached Zenko as Drax’s blade struck home, followed almost immediately by the second.
Both guards dropped where they stood, and Zenko kept his weapon trained on them while he waited for confirmation that neither man was getting back up.
The clear command sounded in his ear seconds later, and he motioned Reese forward while Drax moved in to retrieve his knives.
“Moving into the cave,” Zenko whispered into comms.
“Watch your sixes.” Noble’s reply was cut off as Zenko muted the comms device. He didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention.
Zenko and Reese paused while Drax bent to retrieve his knives and replaced them in their scabbards before all three moved deeper into the cave system with soundless steps and their weapons at ready.
Years spent on various Special Forces teams had drilled that shit into them until moving together this way required little more than a glance or hand signal between them.
Zenko hoped like hell those two guards were the only tangos they would meet before they found the prisoner and got their asses back outside.
Stop whining, you big baby. Being outnumbered here just makes it a target-rich environment, and you fucking know it.
It didn’t matter if they were outnumbered. Zen knew they would handle any obstacle thrown their way. This Shaun guy—they would rescue him. Any other outcome was just not acceptable. This man wasn’t dying on their watch.
If the intel Max and Noble had sent him was correct, Shaun Jacobsen had been missing for three weeks.
How much of that time he had spent in this cave was anyone’s fucking guess, and Zenko had no idea what condition they were going to find him in.
Didn’t matter, though, because the motto he lived and breathed by was, ‘the only easy day was yesterday’.
His jaw clenched when the light from his torch flashed over a small cage in the corner of the cave.
He caught sight of the man crouched in the confined space and cursed.
Ropes tied around his wrists kept his shoulders locked since his arms were tied behind his back.
His head lolled against one side of the cage, his breathing shallow and labored.
“Fuck. Target in sight,” he whispered, knowing the body camera on his clothing would be streaming the images back to base. Drax and Reese took up positions at either side of the entrance of this cavern they’d found, further back in the cave system.
Zenko saw the instant the other man became aware he was no longer alone, because his eyes popped open and immediately locked onto him.
Despite the shallow breathing and the way his battered body sagged against the side of the cage, something changed in his expression as he focused on Zenko.
The exhaustion was still there, impossible to miss considering the shape the poor bastard was in, but his stare sharpened as he took in Zenko and whatever he could see beyond him.
That was enough for Zenko. Whoever had put Shaun Jacobsen in that cage had hurt him badly, but judging by the way those eyes tracked him, they sure as fuck hadn’t managed to take the fight out of him.
He mouthed the word, “American.” When the man—nope, Shaun, he reminded himself—just stared at a point past his left shoulder, Zenko moved slightly and lifted his finger to his lips. He mouthed again, “I’m American, shh. Do you understand me?”
Shit, when they said he had blue eyes, nobody mentioned those eyes were brilliant turquoise.
He gave himself a mental kick in the ass. After ten years of fighting for his country, he should know better than to let himself get distracted by thinking about how gorgeous the man’s fucking eyes were.
Zenko caught a flash of something in Shaun’s eyes before the man’s expression settled into an assessing stare.
Even half-dead in a fucking cage, Shaun was studying him, his gaze shifting briefly toward the two armed men guarding the cavern entrance before returning to Zenko.
A second later, he gave a slight nod. Zenko took it as acknowledgment that Shaun understood enough of what was happening to trust them for the moment, which was all he fucking needed.
Thank fuck for that.
Zenko pulled bolt cutters from his pack and stepped closer with his K-Bar in his other hand. “I’m gonna cut the lock and pull you out of there,” he whispered quietly. “Not going to lie, though, it’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch.”
Reaching his hand through the wire of the cage, he wrapped his hand around Shaun’s wrist and squeezed lightly. “You make a sound, and we’re fucked, got it?”