Chapter 10 #2
“All right. Tex already confirmed the damn trackers are malfunctioning—which means the kidnappers almost definitely did something to them, since all three women were wearing at least one, and no way in hell do several trackers malfunction at once—we can’t just head straight to their location.
Which fucking sucks. But we also can’t stand around with our thumbs up our asses either.
So we split up. Some of us will check out the roads leading to the border, others will go to the coast and the shipyards.
We should also take a look at the truck stops.
He’s going to try to take them out of the country, we all agree on that, right? ”
Everyone nodded.
“He could go east until he gets to a crossing that he feels is less hot,” Dude suggested.
“What about airports? This asshole has the funds to be able to hire a pilot, right?” Preacher asked.
Smiley hadn’t even thought about that. With every word out of his colleagues’ mouths, his tension increased tenfold.
“We have to find them. Fiona can’t go through this again,” Cookie said, sounding distraught.
“We’re going to find her. All of them,” Wolf said sternly, clapping a hand on Cookie’s shoulder and holding on.
“You heard Tex. He’s pissed. Mostly at himself. He fucked up, and he knows it. If we’d known about Castillo before today, we could’ve locked down the women,” Benny said.
Smiley was done. He couldn’t think about what Bree and the others might be going through as they all stood around and talked about how fucked up this was. He had to do something. Turning, he headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Mozart called out.
“To look for Bree,” Smiley barked without slowing down.
He heard footsteps, and he braced himself to fight whoever was coming after him if they tried to stop him.
Instead, he heard Cookie say, “I’m going with him.”
“I’m driving,” Blink told them.
“Give me one second, Smiley,” Kevlar said.
“No.”
“Damn it! Stop for a fucking second. We need to be methodical about this. We don’t want to miss them!”
Kevlar sounded pissed, and Smiley heard the order in his tone. Taking a deep breath, he stopped, turning to look at his friend. He’d give him one more minute, out of respect, but after that he was out of here.
Kevlar quickly grabbed a notepad that was sitting on Safe’s counter.
“Okay, Smiley—you, Cookie, and Blink head east and check out the truck stops on the way to I-8. Hurt, Wolf, and Flash, you go south, look at the stops near I-5 heading toward Tijuana. Safe, Preacher, Dude, and Benny will head to the shipyard. See if you can talk to a foreman and look at security tapes. I’m sure Tex and his crew will get to them eventually, but if we can get a head start looking at them to see if a black SUV unloaded anything into a shipping container, that’ll be good.
“MacGyver, Mozart, Abe, and I will check out the regional airports. Everyone stays in control. We’re all pissed off about this, but going off half-cocked isn’t going to help Fiona, Julie, or Bree. Got it?” Kevlar asked.
“What are we telling the women? Caroline’s been blowing up my phone. She knows something’s up because of the way I left the house so abruptly,” Wolf said.
“The truth,” Smiley said, before anyone else could offer their opinions. “They need to stay alert. We have no idea if Castillo has eyes on any of them.”
“Fuck!”
“Shit!”
“Damn it!”
It was obvious no one else had thought about that. They’d been so focused on figuring out where Castillo might be taking Fiona, Julie, and Bree, they hadn’t even considered he might try to grab anyone else.
As one, everyone in the room—except Smiley, Cookie, and Hurt—brought their cells to their ears as they called their wives and girlfriends.
Five minutes later, everyone had frowns on their faces and the tension in the air was so thick it was almost hard to breathe.
“Jessyka’s getting in touch with the others and telling them to come to our house,” Benny said to his teammates.
“It’s large enough to accommodate everyone, including the kids. ”
“And Wren’s having everyone meet her here,” Safe added.
“Do we think having the women and kids all in one place is a good idea?” Preacher asked.
“Yes,” Dude said firmly. “There’s power and safety in numbers. And now that everyone knows what’s going on, they aren’t going to be surprised like Fiona, Julie, and Bree were. Cheyenne will be armed. No one is going to get close to her or the others.”
“Same with Remi,” Kevlar agreed. “She’s pissed. Scared, but angry as hell.”
Smiley was done. He was glad the women would be protected, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Bree and how scared she was. He didn’t want to imagine what she was going through.
Turning, he headed for the door once again, Cookie and Blink at his heels.
Searching truck stops felt like a futile mission.
But it had been an hour now since they’d been taken, and doing something was better than sitting around, waiting on Tex or one of the women he was working with to get back to them.
If they found out any info, they’d be in touch and could move to plan B. Or C, D, F, Q. Whatever.
All that mattered was finding the women before Castillo got them out of the country. Things would get much more complicated if that happened.
Complicated, but not impossible.
For the first time, Smiley understood Phantom a little better.
Phantom was a SEAL who’d gone rogue and traveled on his own out of the country to rescue a woman he’d never spoken to in person, had only seen once—at the bottom of a pit filled with dead bodies, where rebels had thrown her after allegedly killing the woman.
But she wasn’t dead. After his team had left Timor-Leste, Phantom thought he remembered seeing her foot move…
but no one believed him. He’d been determined to rescue her, with or without his commander’s or the Navy’s permission.
Smiley hadn’t approved when he’d heard what the SEAL had done.
He couldn’t understand why the man would risk his career and jail time to rescue a woman he didn’t even know.
Hell, even if he had known her, he didn’t understand the desire to risk everything he’d worked so hard for, without concrete proof she was even alive.
But now he did.
If Bree was taken out of the US, nothing would stop him from going after her.
He’d promised that if anything happened, he’d come for her.
And by damn, he wouldn’t break that vow.
No fucking way. He had a feeling Cookie and Hurt would be right there at his side.
They might not have as much to lose as he did when it came to their professions, but they were still risking their retirements.
“I’m driving,” Blink announced, as they headed out of the house. Smiley lobbed his keys toward his friend without comment. He didn’t mind if Blink drove, the man might not talk much, but he could be a psycho behind the wheel. He’d learned as much during one of their missions.
As he, Cookie, and Blink piled into his truck, Smiley took a deep breath. Bree had to be all right. She had to. He’d just found her. He couldn’t lose her now.