Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At the first man’s shout, Smiley’s head whipped around in the direction the sound had come from.
Blink and Kevlar had headed south to one of the smaller docks, and he’d stayed behind to watch a larger one.
It was starting to sink in that they might not find Bree.
The thought was almost debilitating. They’d been so close back in Ensenada.
So close to finding her and ending this once and for all.
But a part of Smiley, deep down, refused to give up. The same way he’d relentlessly searched for Bree back in the States. And she’d been there, right under his nose, the entire time. He just needed a break. A tiny little break. He could take it from there.
The shouting from someone not too far from him could possibly be that break he was waiting for. It was late…or early…and even though this was a working port, he hadn’t heard shouting in the middle of the night before.
Racing quickly toward the sound, Smiley moved silently through the crates, vehicles, and Conex containers strewn around the many docks and ports.
Unlike in the United States, it didn’t seem as if there was much oversight, as far as maintenance went.
Bulldozers sat abandoned and there were piles of construction debris everywhere.
It seemed to him that a major project had been in the works, then stopped suddenly.
Dodging around random piles of wood, concrete, and dirt, Smiley searched for the man who’d let out the pained shout…but as he moved farther away from the water, he had second thoughts. Was he on a wild goose chase? Would he miss the boat Bree arrived on if he took his eyes off the water?
He should turn back, at least contact Kevlar and Blink, work with his teammates to find out what was going on.
But something kept him running. Kept him moving away from the dock he’d been watching.
He was near the edge of the port now, where a tall chain-link fence had been erected for security purposes.
Suddenly, three men came into sight, and they were obviously looking for something—which had Smiley’s heart beating extra hard in his chest. There was no light back here except for the small beams coming from the flashlights carried by the three men he was now stalking.
Smiley barely prevented himself from announcing his presence by stumbling around a large mound of debris, directly into the men’s line of sight. They were walking up and down the fence line, shining their lights around the area.
Squinting to try to see what they were pointing at, Smiley spotted footprints in the dirt.
Hope rose within him, even though he had no reason to think the men were looking at Bree’s footprints. He hadn’t seen any boats come in, although there were dozens of docks in the huge port that he and his team weren’t able to monitor, not every moment of every day and night.
The men seemed agitated, almost frantic. Just when he was pulling out his phone to notify Kevlar that he needed assistance, one of the men let out a shout of triumph.
He ran over to a mound of what looked like mostly dirt and began rooting around.
The next sound Smiley heard almost stopped his heart. It was a heart-wrenching wail of despair and frustration. And he’d never forget it as long as he lived.
Bree!
He was racing toward the three men before he thought about what he was doing.
The man who’d found her grabbed hold of Bree’s arms and was dragging her out from where she’d attempted to conceal herself. She was struggling and doing her best to wrench free, without success, clouds of dirt flying from her body.
The other two men were laughing, standing off to the side and not helping their friend, assuming he could handle Bree on his own.
Smiley targeted them first. He silently snuck up behind the larger of the two men and, using the knife strapped to his thigh, quickly slit his throat. Even as he was falling to the ground, Smiley had already turned to the second man.
Losing the element of surprise meant the next man was a little more prepared. But he was no match for Smiley. He was a pissed-off Navy SEAL with his woman’s wail of fright still echoing in his head.
Smiley sacrificed the knife as it embedded deeply into the man’s chest, right over his heart, when he fell face down into the dirt.
He turned toward the last man. The one who dared to touch Bree.
Every muscle in his body tensed. The third man had Bree in a headlock. He was wrenching her head back so far, she was looking straight up instead of at Smiley. She was making choking noises in the back of her throat and standing on her tiptoes.
Smiley’s senses were on overload. The sounds from Bree, the briny smell of the ocean and dead fish, the blood he could feel on his hands, the bitter taste of fear in his mouth—and finally the sight of the woman he loved, practically naked, wearing nothing but that damn slip, both the material and her body covered in dirt.
The slip was hanging off one shoulder because of a broken strap, exposing one of her breasts.
Like Fiona and Julie, there were no shoes on her feet.
Out of everything, it was the lack of shoes that hit Smiley the hardest.
“Get back!” the man ordered.
But Smiley had no intention of doing any such thing. He also wasn’t going to stand there and have a fucking conversation with this asshole or give him a chance to hurt Bree any more than he already had.
In one fluid movement, Smiley grabbed the pistol from the holster at his back and swung it up. He fired one shot.
It went right through the man’s forehead.
He fell like a stone, taking Bree with him.
Smiley rushed forward and desperately tried to untangle her from the dead man’s grip. On his knees, he pulled Bree into his arms and held her so tight, it had to be painful, but he couldn’t seem to loosen his arms.
That is, until he heard a slight whimper from her lips.
That had him pulling back faster than anything she might have said to him.
“Bree?”
“Smiley…You’re here,” she croaked.
“Of course I am. I told you that I’d come for you no matter what.”
“How…how are you here?” she asked.
Smiley frowned. She sounded out of it. “Where are you hurt?” he barked, wincing at his tone. But she didn’t seem to even notice. She blinked, and it was only then he realized that one of her eyes was swollen shut.
He’d killed these assholes too quickly.
“Bree? Talk to me. Where are you hurt?”
“Um…everywhere. Do you have any food? I’m so hungry.”
His heart broke again. Smiley didn’t think anything could be more painful than seeing the woman he loved so damaged. But hearing the desperation and fear in her voice was like a physical blow.
“I have some in the car. Come on, I need to get you out of here and somewhere safe.”
Just as he finished saying the words, loud shouts echoed through the port, coming from the direction of the water. He reached for his phone but came up empty. Fuck. He remembered holding it, getting ready to text Kevlar when Bree’s hiding place was discovered. He must’ve dropped it.
Moving quickly, Smiley acted on instinct. He picked up Bree, holding her against his chest, and began moving quickly away from the dead men.
He still had his pistol, but not enough bullets to take down an entire group of bad guys.
His teammates would’ve heard the shot, but it would take too long for them to figure out exactly where it came from.
He had no way of communicating with Kevlar and Blink without his phone, and Bree was seriously hurt.
He needed to get them out of here. Now.
He ran, with no destination in mind except getting away from the yelling he heard behind him. Unfortunately, the team’s vehicle was in the other direction, but at the moment, getting Bree away from the men he heard shouting back and forth—a dozen or so, at his guess—was his only mission.
“Smiley?” she asked, the fear and uncertainty easy to hear in that one word.
“I’ve got you,” he told her, seeing exactly what he needed. Up ahead, there was a gate in the perimeter fence. Upon closer inspection, he saw there was a small lock holding it closed. Reluctantly, Smiley put Bree on her feet. “Hold on to the fence for a second, sweetheart.”
Her arm tightened around his neck. “Don’t leave me!” she exclaimed, panicking.
Smiley turned to her, put his hands on her face, and leaned down so his forehead was resting against hers. “I’m not leaving you. I’m never fucking leaving you. I just need to get this gate open, then we’ll be on our way again.”
He’d never been so proud of Bree as he was in that moment, when she took a deep breath, nodded, and took a step to the side, putting her back against the fence. “I’m sorry. I know you aren’t going to leave. I just…I can’t believe you’re here.”
Moving slowly, Smiley lifted the scrap of material on her chest and tried to cover up her exposed breast. She looked down, then brought her hand up to hold the slip in place.
Feeling anger course through his veins, Smiley turned toward the fence before he did something stupid, like turn around and hunt the men looking for her and kill them one by one with his bare hands.
He had no doubt he could do it. With the way he was feeling, they’d be dead before they knew what hit them.
But he’d promised not to leave Bree, and no way in hell was he breaking that promise.
He turned toward the gate and took a deep breath, then lifted his leg and kicked at the lock with his boot as hard as he could.
The small, flimsy lock broke upon impact, metal parts flying in all directions.
Then it was a simple matter of lifting the latch and pushing the gate open.
He turned back to Bree and picked her up again without a word.
He walked through the gate, intending on not looking back, but Bree stopped him.
“We should close it. So they don’t know for sure we came this way.”
She was right. Adrenaline was making it difficult for Smiley to think. That, and holding a wounded and hurting Bree.