Chapter 9
“You ready, Hunter?” Aaron crouched behind a cluster of boulders on the west side of the road at the center of the valley where the meetup would take place. Mountains jutted up from the earth, tall and stark, marking the start of the Hindukush Mountain range at the border of the desert.
“I'm ready.” Hunter lifted his binoculars and swept the south region where the caravan should be arriving. “Crow's nest one, ready?”
“Roger,” Hoyt said through the comm. Hoyt had set up directly above Aaron and Hunter on the first over watch position.
“Crow’s nest two, ready?” Hunter asked.
“Roger, two is up and running.” Jared had set up on the hilltop across the road for second over watch.
Ethan and Ranger were positioned on the east side of the road behind some thick shrubs and rocks. “Check.”
“Got movement. Two tangos approaching from the south, one klick out.” Cord Carter's voice came through their secure communication line. He was with Merc and Riser at the south entrance to the valley, ready to fall in behind the cars carrying the girls coming up from the south.
“We got three coming from up top. Half a klick.” Aaron recognized Ethan's deep voice. “Three men per vehicle. They're armed.” He and Ranger would be ready to cut off any vehicle trying to make a run when the shit went down.
Their goal was simple, get Celine and Caroline out unharmed from an unknown number of enemy combatants on a mission they'd only had hours to plan.
“The Russians made the party,” Jared said.
A few seconds later a line of white SUVs entered the valley from the north and parked about fifty meters from center. Aaron didn't need his binoculars this close to see loaded vehicles. “Crow one, you got a bead?”
“Roger.”
“South SUVs breaching. Ready. Four men in the first vehicle, two in the next. No sign of the targets,” Hunter said.
This could be a trap if Mr. J knew they were in the country.
He knew full well that TF-S wouldn't let him harm Celine or Caroline.
On the heels of that thought came another: just because they couldn't see the girls sitting up in the vehicles didn't mean they weren't there.
If Mr. J had wanted easy transport, two unconscious bodies were a lot easier to handle. “Need to be ready for carry out.”
The second vehicle parked fifty meters from center, directly in front of Aaron. He searched the windows of the black SUVs for any sign of the girls.
“She's in there, my intel was right. Trust me,” Hunter said.
How the hell was he supposed to trust anyone with Celine's life?
Aaron forced himself to relax, got his heart rate under control and focused on the man getting out of the white SUV on the right. “We got a briefcase.”
The man was typical for security – big, broad shoulders, black suit and black sunglasses. Two pistols poking out of his open jacket in brown leather holsters.
The team had set up in a wide circle all the way around the meeting place, so no one was getting in or out without their permission.
The man held up his briefcase and approached the black vehicles with his arms raised and stopped halfway between the SUVs.
A few seconds later, the four men in the first vehicle from Mr. J’s caravan got out and approached.
What followed next was standard operating procedure for black market deals.
The suitcase guy showed the cash, the other man inspected it and gestured to his crew.
“On my signal,” Hunter said.
The front doors of the second black SUV opened, an armed guard on each side. The driver went to the back and opened the door.
“The girls must be in the last SUV.” Aaron's gaze locked on that open door, cursing that he was on the passenger side and couldn't see directly in the vehicle. “Ethan?”
“Got one female. She's gonna need a carry out.”
Fuck. Aaron's gut clenched down tight. Was it Celine? Was she okay?
The guard leaned down into the vehicle.
“Easy, man,” Hunter muttered. “Crow one and two, you ready?”
The thought of what she'd been through, what they could've done to her...Aaron rubbed his burning chest, feeling the hollow ache like someone had drilled out his heart.
“On my count,” Hoyt said. “One. Two. Three.”
Two bullets whizzed through the air, their loud boom muffled by silencers and the two men closest to the girl fell.
Aaron jumped to his feet and took off at a full out sprint for the men surrounding the SUVs, Hunter pounding it out behind him. The Russians’ vehicles roared to life and slammed into reverse. Two more shots pinged into their windshields and the vehicles rolled to a stop.
Aaron homed in on the back SUV. The passenger lifted his pistol and Aaron fired off three rounds, still running. The passenger slumped to his knees and hit the dirt.
“Get her, I'll hold them off,” Hunter shouted and made a right toward the front SUV.
The driver glanced behind him and saw Ethan, Ranger and Merc running in his direction. Aaron knew the minute the man realized his doom. The driver dove through the open back seat and came out on the other side, yanking the unconscious girl with him.
Rage erupted like a volcano at the sight of the other man touching her. Aaron exploded forward, reaching the vehicle in ten pounding footsteps. The man frantically tried to pull the girl out of the car and sling her over his shoulder.
Aaron transferred his pistol to his left hand, yanked his knife out with his right, running full force. The guard straightened and Aaron embedded his knife to the hilt in his throat.
The guard dropped, grabbing at his throat and gurgling. Aaron snatched the girl he hoped like hell was Celine from his shoulder before she hit the ground.
For that one heartbreaking second, he completely forgot about his surroundings as he peeled back the blue veil to reveal her face. His breath caught. She was alive. Celine was alive.
A bullet pinged into the car over his head and Aaron dropped to the ground and shoved Celine between him and the back tire.
A man stumbled around the front of the SUV, running to the side of the road. Aaron heard the sniper round a nanosecond before the man flew backwards, dead. The fight ended quickly after that. The team had set up a near perfect death trap for the swap.
“Clear,” Jared and Hoyt said almost simultaneously from their positions at over watch.
Aaron holstered his weapon and pulled Celine back into his arms, carefully brushing his fingertips across her cheek. A dark puffy bruise marred the right side of her face. Her bottom lip was swollen. He'd seen worse, much worse, but on Celine...Mr. J was a dead man.
“Caroline's not in any of the vehicles.” Hunter stepped into his line of vision.
“I need to check her for injuries. They've got her covered in this damn thing.” The blue burka didn’t belong on her.
“You try to wake her?” Hunter asked.
Aaron drew in a steady breath. “Celine, sweetheart, can you hear me?”
She didn't move an inch.
Someone touched his shoulder, and Aaron glanced back to see Ethan standing right behind him. “If they used the same stuff on her as they did on Kate, she'll be out for a while.”
Fucking bastards. At the first kidnapping, in the States, the men had used a heavy dose of opiates to knock the women out. Ethan's girlfriend, Kate, was the only one TF-S had managed to rescue, and she'd been out for over twenty-four hours from the drugs.
Aaron gently brushed his fingers through her hair, attempting to hide the fact that his hands shook from the rest of the team, and checked her skull. “I don't feel any injuries. Give me an ETA on the helo.”
“Big bird, what's your ETA?” Hunter had pulled a comm radio from his belt.
“Ten minutes.”
“Roger.”
“Ethan, pop the hatch on that SUV, I want to check her.”
Aaron stood with Celine in his arms and the group of big TF-S men moved back to give him room. Hunter and Ethan let the back seat down, giving him the whole back end of SUV to gently lay Celine down.
“Riser, come help me,” Aaron said. He and Riser had the most field medical training in their group.
Riser came to lean in the back of the SUV beside him, effectively blocking Celine's body from the rest of the group. They would have to undress her to check for injuries. Aaron reached for the burka, his hand shaking like a fucking baby.
“Hey, let me.” Riser pulled out his knife and Aaron moved his hand back as his teammate lifted the collar of Celine's gown and sliced through the material.
Aaron blew out the breath he'd been holding when he saw that she had on jeans and a blouse beneath this one. They finished removing the burka and Aaron forced himself to stop thinking like a wounded husband and instead act like the trained soldier he was.
Careful for hidden injuries, he tugged the loose jeans down to her knees and froze. His hands went numb. His mouth went numb. His chest went numb. Nearly black bruises in the pattern of fingerprints spread out over her inner thighs.
Aaron started to shake.
“Fuck,” Riser muttered.
He tried to swallow but his throat wouldn’t work. She’d been…dammit. He couldn’t even finish the thought.
Riser gripped his arm. “You don’t know for sure yet, brother. Why don’t you let me finish checking her? We need to evac pronto.”
It was all Aaron could do to rasp out, “No. I need to do it.”
Fighting back the rage, he finished removing her jeans. The only other injury to her legs was covered by a bandage around her left ankle. He left it alone, knowing on some instinctual level that if he saw her skin rubbed raw from a shackle he might puke.
Riser resumed position, his back to Celine, and Aaron slowly lifted her shirt, her bruised and battered breasts a gut wrenching twist of agony to his heart.
Aaron threw his head back and bit his cheek to keep back the scream of fury. He tasted blood.
Riser didn’t turn until Aaron had lowered her shirt once more and replaced her jeans. Three full weeks she'd been held captive. Three weeks she'd been at the mercy of a monster.