Chapter Twenty-Four
THOSE WERE THE last words Cam ever wanted to hear from his teammates. “What kind of problem? Company?”
Dario gave a slight nod. “At least a dozen men out there, armed for more than a midnight stroll in the woods.”
He and his men exchanged grave looks. The mole. The mole must have leaked their location in his department. What was so important that they kidnapped a little boy, kidnapped and lost Sedona, and were now actively trying to reacquire her? “Prepare to engage.”
Cam shot off a brief text to David and turned to Sedona. “Did your captors mention a hidden passage out of here?” he asked, only halfway joking. He didn’t want to engage with Sedona in the line of fire.
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
Cam’s phone vibrated with an incoming call. He glanced at the screen. David. He swiped across the glass. “You’re on speaker with my team and Sedona.”
“How many?”
“At least dozen or so. Unknown if reinforcements are in the area.”
“The Thunderhawks can handle them with ease, but would you like some help, anyway?”
“I’d appreciate the assist.”
“We’re three minutes out. How did they catch up with you?”
“No trackers on us or our gear. We checked before we drove to the woods. No tails.” He let David draw the obvious conclusion.
“Where are you?”
“The place where Sedona was held.”
“Does one of your people have loose lips?”
He stiffened briefly, then relaxed. He understood where David was coming from. David didn’t want his department to have a mole. Any answer would be better than having to take the blame for so many things going wrong.
But Cam knew his team. Dario warned them about possible listening devices in this building. No one had spilled important information to the enemy. “They’re vaults.”
His boss groaned. “I was afraid you would say that. All right. I have the information I need. I’ll take care of the problem after we tie up a few loose ends. ETA one minute.”
“Copy that.”
“Seattle Solution?”
He smiled. “Perfect, sir.”
“Excellent. Montgomery out.”
After Cam slid his phone away, Dario folded his arms across his chest. “Care to enlighten the rest of us?”
Since Cam was the one who introduced this plan to David and his brothers, he’d named the maneuver Seattle Solution.
Cam moved in close to Dario and lowered his voice. “Can you rig up an explosion to take out a window at the back of the building on the left side?”
A slow smile curved Dario’s mouth. “In my sleep. How big do you want it?”
“Shock and awe, and a big hole in the wall.”
His smile widened. “You’ve got it. Time?”
Cam glanced at his tactical watch. “Is ninety seconds long enough?”
Dario reached for his Go bag. “Plenty.”
Excellent. He sent a message to David and Elliot, then slid his phone away, satisfaction swirling in his gut. That done, Cam signaled the rest of his team and quickly laid out the plan.
Mission clock ticking in his head, he wrapped his hand around Sedona’s. “Come with me.”
She looked curious, but didn’t ask questions.
He led her from the kitchen, up the stairs, and down the hallway to what should have been a library full of books. Instead, the shelves were empty of everything except dust. He would have enjoyed filling this room with volume after volume of books.
Cam stopped in front of a built-in window seat with a hinged storage compartment. He gripped the edge of the cushioned lid, raised it, and motioned toward the dusty interior.
Sedona stared into the box and swallowed hard. Just when Cam was convinced that he’d have to pick her up and put her in the hollow rectangle, she took his hand and stepped inside the window seat.
“I’ll return as soon as I can.” This confrontation shouldn’t take long. He hoped.
She kissed him lightly. “Be careful.”
“Always.” He had more reasons than ever to watch his six. Cam wouldn’t be careless with his life or the lives of his teammates. He helped her lie down inside the window seat. “No matter what you hear, don’t come out. I’ll tell you everything that happens later.” Cam kissed her and closed the lid.
He stepped back, scanned the window seat, and saw no clues that Sedona was inside. Perfect. Cam glanced at his tactical watch. Fifteen seconds to go. He drew his weapon and readied himself for a hard and fast fight.
He set up in the doorway of the empty library and counted down the remaining seconds to Dario’s surprise.
Right on schedule, a loud explosion rocked the house.
Outside, men yelled and snapped out orders as many of them repositioned themselves to cover the hole Dario left in the wall during a faked escape attempt.
Seconds later, David murmured through the Fortress earpieces, “M Team infiltrating now.”
“Don’t shoot us by mistake,” Levi drawled.
“Good thing we insisted they take our extra comm devices,” Caleb said.
“Oh, yeah,” Elliot murmured. “It’s a more efficient way to insult them.”
“Not an insult when it’s true,” Owen whispered.
Cam rolled his eyes. Bunch of comedians. “Leave me a couple to interview.”
David snorted. “Is that what they call it these days? You heard the man. Cam needs a friend with info.”
“Depends on them,” Elliot said.
“Copy.” Cam understood. His fellow sniper would pull the trigger if necessary to protect his brothers, Cam, Sedona, and The Thunderhawks. “Same.”
“Figured.”
“Focus,” David snapped. Instantly, the comm chatter died.
“Ready to engage,” Dario said.
“Do it,” Cam murmured.
Soon, The Thunderhawks and M Team were at work. Sporadic gunfire erupted inside and outside the house, accompanied by screams, curses, and groans from the enemy who were down in and around the building. Over the comm system, both teams counted off the enemy combatants now out of the skirmish.
A noise caught Cam’s attention. He watched the mirror, perfectly positioned to give a view of the entire length of the hallway.
From the room with the hole in the wall came a mercenary, weapon up and tracking.
As the stranger passed through the dim moonlight streaming through a dirty window, several places on his belt and vest gleamed and pinpointed his location nicely for Cam.
Had to love it when your target did most of the work for you.
The stranger stopped in front of each room, threw open the doors, turned on the lights, and surged inside, only to wander back out and repeat the same sequence at the next room.
Cam shook his head. Really? Where was the man who hired this mercenary getting his recruits? The back of graphic novels? Anybody with common sense knew you didn’t turn lights on and off. That ruined your night vision long enough that someone could easily get the drop on you.
He waited until his quarry was across the hall, testing the doorknob. This door was locked, much to the chagrin of the mercenary. Cam had locked the door to slow down enemy soldiers tasked with searching the building room by room.
Fortress Security had definitely not trained this man because picking the lock to check the room took ten long, boring minutes.
He waited for his quarry to come to him. From the sounds inside the house, The Thunderhawks and M Team were taking down the enemy one at a time. Every few minutes outside the building, Elliot fired his sniper rifle.
When the mercenary reached inside the room across the hall to turn on the lights, Cam shut his eyes and turned his head. Those few seconds of his eyes not having to adjust were worth his weight in gold. He narrowed his eyes to slits and waited.
Mercenary cursed bitterly, turned off the light, and turned toward the last room where Cam had hidden Sedona.
He waited until Mercenary reached for the light switch.
Cam slipped up behind him, wrapped his arm around the stranger’s neck, and squeezed.
Although Mercenary fought against the sleeper hold, Cam compensated for every maneuver the man tried.
Finally, the lack of blood flow to the brain did the trick, and he slumped against Cam.
He grunted as he hauled Mercenary across the room to a small bathroom. Cam dumped the bruiser on the floor, used zip ties to cinch his wrists together, slapped a piece of duct tape across his mouth, removed all his weapons, and called it done.
After putting the weapons on the floor in front of the window seat, Cam raised the lid and looked down at Sedona’s beautiful, pale face. He tapped his earpiece. “Report,” he murmured.
As each man reported room by room that the building was clear and the perimeter secure, Cam reached into the box and helped Sedona from her hiding place. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
Cam wasn’t convinced. He wrapped his arms around Sedona and held her close. “Tell me.” Yes, he knew the rest of the men could hear whatever she said. Still, he had a feeling this was important for all of them to know. “Please.”
“Don’t worry about me. It’s silly.”
“Sedona, there should always be truth between us.”
She sighed. “Promise you won’t laugh.”
“I promise. Talk to me.”
Sedona’s cheeks turned pink. “Inside the window seat was dark.”
“I didn’t know you were afraid of the dark.”
“I wasn’t until I ran for my life in the woods with little light.”
“Kind of like tonight.”
“At least you had a tiny flashlight. That’s more light than I had.”
“If you had used the flashlight app on your phone that night, you would have pinpointed your location for the men hunting you.” He hugged Sedona. “I’ll make sure you aren’t in the darkness again.”
“I’ll be fine. Do what you have to do.”
“Focus,” David snapped over the comm device.
“Yes, sir. Thunderhawks and M Team, report. Any sign of the boy?” When the reports were all negative, he glanced at Sedona and saw the grief in her eyes as she listened to the reports through her earpiece.
“I might have something,” Owen said. “Someone forgot to take out the trash.”
“And?”
“They left behind part of a map of the area near Dunvale Quarry.”
“Recommendations?”
“Explore the area.”
Cam’s heart skipped a beat. Yes. He should have thought of that sooner. “The quarry has several outbuildings. It’s the perfect place to hide someone.”
Sedona’s eyes widened. “You think Julio might be there?”