Chapter 15
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KNOX CROSSED HIS ARMS as he sat in the bullpen at noon, his teammates assembled around him.
Holt had called a briefing, and several of the IT staff were readying to update them about Quinn.
The room was tense, the need to formulate a plan quickly at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Too much time had already passed, and it was urgent they move quickly—except without specifics, they were fucked.
He felt ill. There’d been no additional pings on her cell phone. No texts claiming she was “sick” or otherwise incapacitated. There’d been no further clues at all, but he knew in his gut that she was with Adam Qureshi.
Analysts were digging deeper into the background of the man in question, trying to ascertain his contacts overseas to determine his specific location. It had provided limited intel so far, but Knox’s main concern was the woman he was falling for.
Shit.
A few short days ago, everything had been normal. He’d been planning to ask Quinn out—to finally make a move from being friends to something more. And now? She was likely on the other side of the world, terrified, and being held against her will.
Holt stormed into the room, looking agitated, a pile of folders in his hand.
He no doubt had other projects on the table, black ops assignments the Feds would send their way.
Jett’s team in New York might have to handle any immediate new cases.
Bravo Team only had one focus at the moment—getting back one of their own.
Quinn was as essential to the team as Knox or any of his former Delta Force teammates.
He hated that she’d been kidnapped and would have willingly traded places with her in a heartbeat. So would any of the other men.
Logan stood at the front of the room, his gaze on Holt as the man headed his way.
Knox watched Holt speak with him for a moment, the two men conferring.
Lily, the receptionist at Shadow Security, suddenly poked her head in the door.
A hint of pink spread across her cheeks as all eyes landed on her.
She was quiet, which was interesting given her line of work.
Knox almost pictured her more as a librarian.
Maybe a damn kindergarten teacher. Handling a group of rowdy, former military guys seemed almost too much for her to handle.
Xaden and Coop usually flirted shamelessly with Lily, but Knox had noticed Holt had a protective streak a mile wide when it came to the younger woman.
He instructed Logan to wait a moment and immediately crossed the bull pen to speak with Lily in hushed tones at the door.
They were an interesting contrast, with Holt gruff and bold, muscled, and standing a good head taller than her.
He was probably fifteen years older than Lily, too.
She wasn’t Knox’s type at all, but it was interesting to see the boss soften slightly around the woman.
He gave her his complete attention, and Knox noticed she was flushing the entire time.
Interesting.
They finished speaking, and suddenly Holt was all business once again, grabbing a seat at the table.
He gave Logan a nod, signaling the go-ahead to start the briefing.
Radley nudged Boone, clearly having noted the exchange at the door as well.
Knox didn’t have time to ponder Holt and Lily any further. His only priority was finding Quinn.
Logan cleared his throat, moving toward the laptop he’d set up.
“We’ve obtained additional surveillance footage from SFO.
Quinn was definitely on the same flight as Adam Qureshi, bound for Heathrow.
She was brought onboard via the tarmac, however.
She didn’t board through the gate with the other passengers. ”
“What the fuck?” Knox asked, sitting up straighter in his seat.
Logan eyed him. “An airport ground worker was seen guiding her up a set of stairs that connected to the jetway. While every other passenger was funneled in through the Passenger Boarding Bridge, or PBB, Qureshi somehow got the airport ground crew involved in bringing Quinn onboard via other methods.”
“What the hell?” Gage asked, looking irritated. “Did Qureshi bribe him or something? That’s insane and a major security flap.”
“We’ll be contacting the San Francisco Airport Authority to inform them of the breach in security,” Holt said, his voice gruff.
“Logan and the IT staff saw it all on SFO’s own damn surveillance footage.
How this played out, I’m not certain. No doubt heads will roll, but that’s not my concern at the moment. Quinn was on that airplane.”
A million questions flooded Knox’s mind.
Did she have a seat? What did the flight crew think when a woman showed up without a boarding pass?
How did Qureshi pull this off—spontaneously, at that?
Quinn had likely been in the wrong place at the wrong time the other night, and she’d still been kidnapped and smuggled out of the country.
None of it made sense, but the evidence was staring at him right in the face.
Quinn had been on the goddamn airplane.
“Where did they head after Heathrow?” he asked, his voice urgent.
Holt rose to his feet, nodding at Logan, who clicked through the slides.
“After Adam Qureshi’s flight landed in Heathrow, he caught a plane to Kabul.
This is where it gets interesting,” Holt said.
“Somehow during the time he kidnapped Quinn in Seattle and landed in London, he obtained a falsified passport for her to travel under. We’ve determined Quinn is traveling under the alias Sarah Qureshi. ”
“He’s pretending that she’s his wife?” Knox asked in shock.
“How the hell is that even possible?” Cooper asked. “There’s no way Quinncess would sit back and play the happy housewife for some terrorist asshole. No fucking way.”
“She must’ve been drugged,” Xaden said. “Or unconscious.”
Knox eyed him sharply. “No. Customs wouldn’t let an unconscious woman enter the country. They’d have called an ambulance. She never would’ve gotten off the plane.”
Knox was drumming his fingers on the table, thinking. “My guess is drugs. Maybe they said she had a fear of flying. People are prescribed Xanax all the time to combat their fears and board a plane. Can we get footage from London?” he asked.
Logan frowned. “We’re working on it, but there have been some technical difficulties. While we don’t have video surveillance, we do have the flight manifests. Adam and Sarah Qureshi boarded a plane together to Kabul sixteen hours ago.”
Knox let out a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. “And where the hell are they now?” he wondered aloud.
Holt eyed him, his voice calm. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”
***
FRUSTRATED, KNOX RAN his hand through his hair, studying the still shots Logan had obtained.
Bravo Team still didn’t have full surveillance footage from Heathrow, but his heart clenched.
That was Quinn. She looked totally out of it, her eyes slightly gazed, listing slightly to the side, Qureshi’s arm wound tightly around her waist.
His fists clenched.
Hopefully Qureshi had pretended Quinn was his wife in name only. If he’d done a single thing to hurt her, he was a fucking dead man.
Emily continued clicking through the still shots they’d pulled, Logan working on getting the footage to play. He was on the phone with their British counterparts, speaking in low tones on the other side of the room.
This was better than nothing, but Knox was restless. Anxious. They needed to go wheels up and get to her, but even in his agitated state, Knox knew that moving in without a plan could be a death wish.
“There,” Holt said in a low voice, ordering Emily to stop the slideshow of photos. “That’s the best shot we have of him. He has scratches on his face,” Holt suddenly barked.
“Son of a bitch,” Knox spat out.
Cooper leaned closer. “That he does, but our Quinncess fought him. I’m sure of it.”
“Hang on, baby girl,” Knox muttered under his breath. She wasn’t his girl, but shit. He’d never been so scared as when he realized she was missing. As soon as they found her—and they would—he would tell her how he felt. No more flirting or taking it slow. Knox wanted Quinn to be his.
Xaden came hustling into the bullpen, his eyes landing on Holt. “A worker near the regional airport here in Seattle found a discarded leather jacket near some dumpsters. Seattle PD sent over a photo.”
Knox clenched his jaw, taking Xaden’s phone to study the picture. “It’s Quinn’s,” he grunted.
It felt like a punch to the gut. The leather jacket was discarded on the ground like it was nothing.
He scanned over every detail carefully. There was no blood evident on it, so perhaps there hadn’t been a struggle.
But who the fuck was he kidding? Quinn wouldn’t have gone without a fight.
They’d likely hurt her. Subdued her. Stuffed her into a fucking suitcase.
Rage coursed through him.
“She’s okay,” Cooper told him, evidently sharing his line of thought. “We saw the damn photo from London.”
“And I’ve got good news,” Logan said, turning toward the group.
“You got the footage to work?” Knox asked.
Logan smiled. “Even better. I’ve got names of his contacts in Kabul. They might be using burner phones, they might be hidden in the goddamn mountains, but I think I can trace them.”
“Then let’s get on a goddamn airplane,” Knox said, rising to his feet.