Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(75)
“Am I the only one wondering why everyone’s bailed on their posts?” Vince asked from over Rafe’s shoulder. “Or is that the SEAL in me being too f*cking curious?”
“We need to know what the hell we’re up against,” Rafe grumbled in agreement. “I’ve already been buried under rubble once today. I’ve hit my f*cking quota.”
Vince nodded. The former SEAL grabbed his team and headed toward the belly of the beast, the most effective location if someone wanted to level an entire f*cking building. Again.
“Freeze,” Logan ordered over the radio. “Ten unknowns are coming at you from the east corridor. They’re slow but on the move.”
Kneeling, Trey slipped a sneak-and-peek mirror around the corner. He held up two fingers to indicate that there were only two guards, armed, but with eight civilians able to get caught in the line of fire. That meant eight ways things could all go to shit if they weren’t careful.
With Trey counting down the time to arrival, Rafe plastered himself against the wall. Three. Two. One. At zero, they moved together like they’d done on countless missions before.
Trey took out the man on the left while Rafe subdued the second with an elbow strike to the throat. They went down quick and fast, almost too easy. Around them, a gaggle of women scrambled to hide in the empty hall, all of them screaming.
“Hey! Relax. We’re here to help you!” Trey lifted his hands in a show of innocence. “Calm down!”
Rafe scanned the sea of faces and immediately felt his panic level spike when he didn’t see Penny among them. But there was one there that made him pause.
“Trey.” Rafe caught his friend’s attention and nodded toward the back of the group. The emotional tightening of his friend’s jaw confirmed what Rafe had already guessed.
An auburn-haired woman that could’ve passed as Penny’s sister cradled a sobbing girl in her arms. She cooed and shushed the young woman, but kept her wary gray-eyed gaze focused on him.
“Rachel?” Hand outstretched so as not to scare her shitless, he stepped closer. “It’s okay. We’ve come to get you out of here. All of you. We’ve come to take you home.”
“You’re the help Penn said was coming?” Rachel asked in a murmur. The poor thing looked ready to bolt.
“We sure are, hon.” Rafe took another small step closer. He gestured to where Trey’s feet remained rooted to the spot, watching. “And I believe you know this big ole lug, right? We all want to get you home, Rachel.”
Rachel’s gaze went back and forth between Rafe and Trey. “Penny. You have to get Penny. He took her to the clinic. He said he was going to make her like…us.” Her gaze flickered to the obviously half-drugged, abused, and malnourished group of young women.
Like f*cking hell. Not wanting to stress Rachel out any more than she already was, Rafe fought to keep a lid on the burning rush of anger. “I’m not going to let that happen, honey.”
“Kids,” Vince’s voice interrupted through the comm link, “we got a problem in the form of a f*ck-ton of C-4 and barrels of chemicals that make a big-ass boom—already wired and this time with a remote-f*cking-detonation system.”
“Fuck me upside down,” Trey cursed under his breath.
Rafe hit Rachel with the full force of his gaze. “Can you tell me where this clinic is?”
“N-no. But I can show you,” Rachel stuttered. She must’ve read his hesitancy, because she stood a little straighter and lifted her pointed chin. “I can do it. I’ll keep up. I promise.”
“Trey?” Rafe let his face spell out his unspoken question.
Trey nodded. “Go. I got this. You just make sure you get our girl, Ortega.”
“Plan on it.”
Rafe let Rachel lead, her pace slow but steady as they navigated the deserted corridors. Each tick of the clock took an eternity until they finally stepped in front of an unmarked door. He knew Penny was behind it. He sensed it with a violent twist of his gut, and it took everything he had not to blow through it like some kind of crazed bulldozer.
He turned to tell Rachel to make skid marks out of the compound and was met with a level stare. With her thin arms folded across her chest, she didn’t look the least bit threatening, but she did look damned determined not to move a f*cking inch.
“You have no intention of leaving, do you?” he asked.
“No. Not until I know Penn’s okay.”
Rafe couldn’t help but grin. “Moxie runs in the family, huh? Fine. But you wait here until we know exactly what’s on the other side of that door. You got me?”
Finally, she nodded.
He tucked Rachel a safe distance back from the door before molding a strip of Semtex against the lock. Two seconds later, the faltered door paved his way into the sterile twenty-by-twenty room. It was a lot like the jungle bunker but with one exception—instead of a line of beds, a single reclining chair adorned with shackles was mounted into the floor.
And it wasn’t empty.
Penny’s gaze whipped his way. At the sight of her battered body, volatile anger burned through his veins. Bruises lay on top of bruises, the golf ball–sized knot on her forehead being the largest. Her bottom lip was split open, and a fresh welt was beginning to bloom on her right cheek. Rafe was going to make the bastard pay for touching her, and he was going to pay severely.