Defending Raven (Mountain Mercenaries #7)(58)

She walked up to the gate at the front of the house and rang the bell, waiting for someone to answer and going over her prepared speech in her head. When nothing happened, Mags frowned and pushed the button once more.

Several minutes later, she was still standing outside the locked gate. No one had answered the ringing of the bell.

Unease bloomed in her belly, and she frantically hit the button again and again. When still no one answered, she peered between the wrought-iron bars of the gate and yelled out in Spanish, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

She saw no movement in the house. No lights were on, and she didn’t see any smoke rising from the chimney.

Desperate now, she grabbed hold of the bars and tugged—

To her surprise, the gate moved.

Looking down, Mags realized it wasn’t locked. She pushed it open, dread filling her when it swung open with ease.

She took one step toward the house, anxious to see what the hell was going on, but someone grabbed hold of her upper arm.

Panicking, Mags spun around and aimed her fist at approximately where she figured the person’s head would be.

Gray caught her fist in the palm of his hand. “Easy, Raven, it’s just me.”

“Gray! No one’s answering,” Mags cried. “They should be here!”

“I know. We’re on this. Stay calm.”

Stay calm? How in the hell could she stay calm? First Dave had disappeared, and now it seemed David was gone as well. Mags did her best to control her mounting panic. Gray nodded to someone behind her, and she barely flinched when she felt someone else take hold of her arm. Two weeks ago she would’ve freaked if anyone had grabbed her like these men were doing, but she knew her husband trusted them with his life. She wasn’t scared of them. At the moment, she was more afraid for her son.

It was Meat at her side now. When she looked back, Gray had disappeared.

“Where’d he go?” she whispered.

“Gray’s a ghost,” Meat replied, as if they were simply having a normal conversation on a normal day. “Out of all of us, he’s got the most uncanny ability to blend in with his surroundings and not be seen. Which is odd, considering how tall he is, but it’s true.”

He’d pulled her off the street and just inside the gate, so they couldn’t be seen by random people walking by. He moved his hand down to her hand and grabbed hold. It should’ve felt weird, holding hands with a man who wasn’t her husband, but at the moment, Mags would take any comfort she could get.

“The others are going to go inside and see what’s up,” Meat said softly. “If David is there, they’ll bring him out to you.”

If he was there. She looked up at the large man standing next to her. “Oh God, Meat, he has to be there.”

“Shhhhhh, Raven. Don’t borrow trouble.” Then he looked down at her. “I swear to you right here and now, if he’s been moved, we will find him.”

Everyone kept telling her that, but she had no idea how they were going to go about it. Thoughts of Zara and how she’d been on her own in Peru from a young age flitted through Mags’s head.

As if he could read her mind, Meat said, “He will not have to grow up without his mother. I give you my word.”

Without a doubt, the best decision Mags had made in years was rescuing this man when he was lying broken and bleeding in the barrio. She didn’t know much about him then; all she knew was that he’d been ambushed and hurt while he and his team were in Lima to rescue children.

She could’ve ignored what Ruben and his gang were doing outside their hut. She could’ve told her friends to stay quiet and not get involved. She’d lost her faith in the idea that everything happened for a reason. How could she believe there was a reason for her being kidnapped and held against her will and made to do vile things?

But standing against the wall, watching and waiting for her husband’s men to come out of the house, hopefully with her son, made her belief come back stronger than ever before. Yes, she’d lived through hell, but she had a son. She’d always wanted a child, and even though she hadn’t gotten him the way she would’ve wanted, he was still here, and she loved him more than she could’ve imagined when she dreamed about being a mother. Not only that, but her husband had found her.

And the very man whose life she’d helped save was standing next to her right now, swearing that, if her son was missing, he’d find him. It was almost enough to make her cry.

They watched in silence as the lights flicked on and off in the house. Then the men slowly filed out the front door as if they owned the place.

Mags’s breath caught in her throat.

Arrow was the first to reach her and Meat. “It’s empty. No one’s there.”

“No one?” Mags asked.

“No,” Arrow told her, his expression filled with sympathy.

Feeling dizzy, Mags closed her eyes. She felt hands land on her shoulders, and her eyes popped open immediately. She didn’t like feeling closed in, but she didn’t move a muscle.

“They didn’t leave that long ago,” Arrow said. “There was a cup of tea on the table that was still lukewarm. Whatever del Rio has planned, I’m guessing it takes time. And everything about this empty house feels like it was a rush job, so he’s not going to do anything with David right away. We’ve got time to track del Rio both physically and online. We’re gonna find your son.”