Chapter 35
“ G o time ,” Ryan said in Kane’s head as he and his brothers neared the vacant building where Dr. Sable was being held in an office on the first floor. With efficiency and stealth, they flanked to their positions. Adrenaline hummed through him as he switched to warrior mode. Beth was safe, but Dr. Sable wasn’t, and he’d promised his woman he’d bring her friend home.
His woman.
The thought was caveman-like, but fuck, he liked the sound of it. He tamped down the thought of how he’d satisfied her twice last night and took out two of the guards stationed at the warehouse with successive V-Strikes. A minute later, he received confirmation all the hostiles outside the building were down.
Silently, like the well-trained team they were, they entered the building and fanned out to their predetermined paths. Kane hurled twin V-Strikes at the Diablos outside a door. They fell as Nic and Linc entered the room.
Metal glinted in Kane’s periphery. Spinning, he landed a roundhouse kick with his steel to a thick chest. The Diablo flew into the wall and crashed to the ground.
“ On your six .”
Kane ducked and spun at Chris’s warning. The barrel of a rifle came into view. Firing a V-Strike from his thigh, he visualized it hitting his target’s gut. It found its mark.
“All clear,” Chris said, emerging from the stairwell.
Kane scanned the hallway. “All Clear.”
“Sable is secure,” Nic said as Kane slowly entered the room .
A plump, gray-haired woman sat in an office chair in front of a desk. Two unconscious Diablos lay on the floor on either side of her. Other than the furniture and a laptop, the dimly lit postage-stamp-sized room was empty.
Dr. Sable ran a hand over her spiky hair. “You guys must be the rest of the cavalry.”
Kane removed his helmet. “Are you okay, ma’am?”
Chris helped her rise from the folding chair.
She oscillated on her feet but didn’t crumble. “Yes. I knew they wouldn’t hurt me until they got the information. They think I’m old and weak and would drop from a heart attack if they tortured me, and then they’d have nothing.” She kicked one of the hostiles with the toe of a worn cowboy boot. “This one doesn’t know how to talk properly to his elders. I know Spanish and understood every one of his insults. Asshole.”
Kane bit back a snicker. Dr. Sable and Gran would get along great. “Did they get any data from you?”
“God, no.” She kicked the other fallen Diablo as Kane and Chris escorted her out of the building. “I’m a professional. I’ve been preparing for something like this my whole life. Kind of bummed that it’s over so quickly. It was a rush, although I was glad the one who kept flipping his knife and threatening to cut me left. He scared the crap out of me.” She sighed and stretched her neck. “Although, according to some of the gals in my book club, that blood kink thing is kind of hot.”
Wishing he could unhear that tidbit, Kane led her outside. Nic and Linc would stay at the scene and work with the FBI to secure the Diablos while he and Chris brought Dr. Sable back to headquarters.
As he helped her into the back of the SUV, she sighed and rested her head against the seat. How could the woman relax after being kidnapped by a drug cartel? He waited for some sense of closure, peace, or even the high he loved from reaching a goal to quell the uneasiness churning with the adrenaline in his veins, but the maddening edge wouldn’t abate. “We’re missing something.”
“We’re missing a lot,” Chris said. “It’s been making Scarlett crazy that she can’t figure out how Chavez tracked you and Beth to the safe house. There wasn’t a tracking app on his phone, but it doesn’t mean someone wasn’t feeding him the information from a source we haven’t uncovered yet.”
“We need to find that fucking source.”
Dr. Sable snapped up her head. “Back up, boys. Did you say Chavez? That’s the jerk’s name who kept flipping his knife like a show-off and ordering the others around.”
Kane snapped his head to the back seat. “Are you sure his name was Chavez?”
“Yes. Seems his little brother was arrested, and he wasn’t too happy about it.”
“Brother?” Dread licked up Kane’s spine. “Chavez doesn’t have a…” He slammed his hand onto the dashboard. “Fuck. When Chavez insinuated his brother would kill me, he hadn’t meant someone from his cartel family; he’d meant a biological brother.”
“Chavez’s siblings are supposed to be dead.”
Kane pulled up a photo on his phone of the man they’d apprehended from the second safe house and showed it to Dr. Sable. “Is this the knife-flipper?”
“Almost, but not quite. The idiot looked nearly identical to him, but his face was fuller. And this guy’s creepy black eyes appear the same, but not nearly as scary as the man who held a knife to my throat.”
The piece Kane had been missing slid into place with a sickening click. “Did he say anything else?”
“He told the others to handle me while he went to get his brother out of the hospital so they could get the other cazampulga together.”