Chapter Forty-Six
Baxter
My men in the chopper have searched for over half an hour, but the damn car just vanished. Whoever these people are, they know what they are doing, there’s no doubt about that. They cased the school, they knew where the dead zone was, and used that to their advantage.
Whoever they are, they have to be highly trained to leave no footprint behind, no evidence whatsoever.
But what they’ve underestimated is that I don’t take our friendship for granted.
I will rain down hell on the entire country until I find her.
And weirdly, as much as I despise her boyfriends, Onyx and I have formed an understanding when it comes to her safety.
I might give him crap about being so close to her, but I’m no threat.
She put me in the friendzone the second she started having feelings for them.
I glance at Onyx sitting in the passenger seat; I didn’t trust him to drive. His security and brother are in the car behind us.
“What the fuck are we going to do? Your men lost her!” Onyx snaps. “And why the fuck didn’t we keep eyes on her?”
I let his tone slide even though men have lost their tongues for speaking to me like that in the past.
“Because the old fuck blindsided us. We were expecting him to breach the perimeter, not fucking clear it undetected. That wasn’t his usual style.”
“If he is behind this, I’m going to rip everything from his body slowly until he tells me where she is.”
“This wasn’t him,” I say. I’ve been thinking about it over and over. They used helicopters and once they surprised us, they had military vehicles smash through our barriers.
“How do you know?” he snaps again. This time, I shoot him a warning glare.
“It was too clean. Whoever this was planned to get her out undetected. Harold’s men would have just snatched and left the same way they came in. Yet she was taken out through a blind spot. The question is who did it?”
I pull the car to the side of the road, Frost and Slate get out of Frost’s car, and we give them a quick update. Think, Baxter…what kind of people have training like yours, that can move around undetected?
“Baxter come in,” one of my men says through our walkie talkies.
“What did you find?” I ask.
“We had a sighting. We’re going to head that way now. Do you have eyes on us?”
“No, you are out of sight.”
“We will circle back around and get you the coordinates.”
Frost and Slate race back to the car and we both pull out. The helicopter comes back overhead, and we follow where they lead while they work on the exact location.
My damn phone buzzes in my pocket again, but this time it’s a text.
I’ve been ignoring them today; having someone followed means I have regular updates sent to my phone every time she moves around.
Over the top? Maybe. But I don’t like not being able to work out what makes someone tick, and this Raven girl is a damn mystery to me. I don’t like it.
I retrieve my phone.
“What?” I bark. “This better be fucking important! I have an extraction team in the air and you’re wasting valuable time.”
“Awesome! So you do love me, Batman.”
“Amelie, where are you?”
Onyx leans over me and tries to grab at my phone, the car swerves to the wrong side of the road so I punch him.
“Fuck,” I grumble letting go of the phone and bringing us back to the right side of the road before I kill us both.
I’m not opposed to taking him out, but at least not until after we get Amelie back.
“Are you hurt?!” he demands, sincerely worried about her. “Please tell me that you’re okay, baby.” Maybe there’s hope for me after all, if she can tame someone like him...I snort at myself. There is no hope for me.
“If they hurt one hair on your head, I’ll kill them.”
I snap my attention back to Onyx, mother fucker needs to hurry up and tell me where she is.
“I’ll help you!” Bex screams. Even I hear her through the speakers, that girl needs to be taken to the damn vet to have her voice box removed. It would be doing the world a favour. Fuck, I’ll do it for them.
“Of course. We’re on our way, baby,” he says before the call goes dead. “They’re at the cottage Camilla is staying at.”
I take a sharp left and Onyx grabs on to the holy fuck bar. Frost follows closely behind.
I radio into my team the location that we are headed to and tell them to stay on standby for backup. We don’t know what we’re walking into, and since Amelie wanted to be friends, which comes with feelings, it can compromise a mission.
You think with your heart and not your head.
We need unbiased men who have no attachment to her to be ready to do whatever it takes.
We would hesitate to take out Camilla or Debbie because Amelie will order us not to, but my men aren’t affiliated with The Order.
They will take out anyone, including me if they deem me a threat to Amelie.
Their orders are to find and bring her back alive, to take out anyone who tries to stop them.
They’re on standby and awaiting my instructions.
We pull our cars to an abrupt stop, and we all pile out, guns drawn. Frost takes the lead and signals for him and Slate to go around the back and for Onyx and me to take the front.
We’re slowly approaching the front door when it swings open and Camilla is standing before us. She beckons us in and we follow, cautiously though.
Moving further into the house, I see Amelie and Bex are seated in the lounge. I take in the three men with guns drawn, and both Onyx and I don’t lower ours. Frost and Slate cover us from the opposite side of the room.
I recognise these men from Debbie’s file; she’s had mercenaries protecting her.
“Lower your weapons,” the meathead demands. None of us listen.
“You first,” Onyx growls. “You took our girl and are lucky we don’t kill you.”
One of the men scoffs. I turn my aim to him, and he raises a brow in defiance.
“What’s with the pissing contest boys?” Bex asks, jumping up from her seat.
“Can you put your guns away? There’s been enough shooting today,” Amelie snaps and we reluctantly lower our weapons. Debbie nods to her men and they do the same.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us you had her?!” Onyx accuses. We look to Debbie, waiting for her response.
“I did. I sent you a text once Camilla and I were out safely, since you didn’t care to inform us of what was going to happen.”
I scoff. “I gave you your guns, what more did you want? A handwritten letter?”
I feel like shit. I let my obsession interfere with my job. I won’t be letting that happen again. I need to bloody focus. Someone needs to die today by my hands. I need to right the damn static in my head.
“We need to head back to HQ. Sawyer says we need to bring them all in,” Frost announces, putting his phone back into his pocket.
“You’re not taking us anywhere.”
Onyx steps closer to the mercenaries. But Amelie stands and slides herself in front of him and places her hand on his chest. “Just let them go, they were doing their job and they kept us safe.”
“Kept us safe,” Bex scoffs. “They fucking kidnapped us and put bags over our heads and tied us to a chair!”
Onyx tries to step forward but Amelie uses two hands to push him back. “Debbie make them leave, I promise you’ll be safe with us.”
She tells her men to leave, and both Slate and Onyx fuss over Amelie. She looks past Onyx to me.
“Do you need a hug too?” she asks. I don’t even think she’s being sarcastic.
“I’m willing to make the sacrifice for the greater good,” Bex offers eagerly.
“Come near me and I will cut you,” I warn her as she takes a step towards me.
“Kinky…I like it.”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I bark. “And blindfold those two. They can’t know the location of HQ.”
With that, I turn and leave the house before Amelie’s newly acquired sister gets turned into worm food because she put her hands on me.