Not a sound disturbed the silence as they moved.He scanned their surroundings with his NVGs, rifle up and in firing position.His right arm throbbed and ached in protest but he ignored it.The sooner they got to the bunker and ensured it was empty, the sooner he could get patched up properly and get back to Candace.
They must have walked almost two miles in the darkness, snaking through the forest and winding through trees until he was certain Ruby had gotten them lost.
“Over there,” he heard her say softly, and turned to follow the end of her finger, pointed to the northwest.“Just around the base of this hill.”
“We’re getting close,” Taylor said via their comms.“Heads up for tripwires.”
Ryan’s gaze swept the ground as they continued closer to the area, then stopped, dropping to one knee with the others while Ruby and Taylor hunted around for the entrance.
“Should be right around here,” Ruby muttered, walking back and forth.“Gimme those goggle thingies,” she said to Taylor, holding out a hand impatiently while he undid his helmet and gave it to her.She looked like something out of a nightmare with the helmet on and the NVGs lowered over her eyes.
“That’s better.Now...”She paced to the left a few yards, turned in a half-circle.“Ah!There,” she whispered, pointing to a spot a few yards ahead.“See it?”
“I see it,” whispered Wade.“I’ll be damned.”
It took a long moment for Ryan to locate the entrance.They would never have found it without Ruby’s help.
Partially hidden by brush, the circular brown steel door was completely camouflaged from view, even half-uncovered the way it was.In this kind of cover, there was no way even a satellite could have spotted it.
The way the brush had been pushed aside suggested someone had been here recently.Maybe March or that Coventry guy.
Ryan adjusted his grip on his weapon, that familiar buzz at the base of his spine alerting him that danger was near.But he was ready, and while he didn’t know either of the Taylor brothers, he trusted Wade, Cam, and Jackson to have his back.
Taylor took his helmet back and pushed Ruby behind him.“Craig, get her back.”His brother took her by the arm and towed her away to the relative safety of a thick stand of trees a hundred feet away while the rest of them moved closer to the entrance.
Ryan hung back with Cam and Jackson while Taylor and Wade set a charge on top of the door.Taylor moved away a few yards.“You boys ready?”
At their collective affirmative, he blew the charge.A loud bang echoed through the forest, the flash of light illuminating the surrounding trees for an instant before everything went dark again, the landscape lit up in green by their night vision goggles.
Taylor approached the steel door, weapon aimed at it in case anyone was waiting below.“Go,” he commanded.
Ryan and the others charged forward.Wade raced over as Taylor shoved aside the damaged steel hatch and Wade threw in a flashbang.
The moment the diversionary device exploded, shots echoed from somewhere below in the darkened tunnel.
Candace stopped inthe middle of giving instructions to one of the staff members when the fire marshal walked in through the front doors of the main building.The entire resort was crawling with first responders and FBI agents, and they’d corralled all the guests into the lounge and main dining room, on the off chance that the threat wasn’t over yet.
“Fire’s out,” the forty-something man said as he unstrapped and removed his helmet.
Good.“That’s great news.How bad was the damage?”
“Eastern end of the ground and second floors are pretty much a write-off, but the good news is the water and smoke damage to the rest of the building was minimal, and the upper two floors weren’t affected.”
“I’ll have the staff move everyone from the first two floors into other buildings.Any idea how it started?”Had to have been March’s men.They’d set it to flush her and the others outside and send them into the ambush.
“Arson investigator is on the way, should be here within the hour.He’ll be able to tell you for certain once he does his report, but based on what happened here, I’m guessing they doused the side of the building with either gas or lighter fluid and then lit it.”
Bastards.Lucky no one had been killed tonight.“Is there anything you need from me right now?”She was already juggling several balls at the moment, but she could handle one more.
His lips quirked, his brown eyes kind.“Other than you going to the hospital to get that wound checked out?No.”
She smiled at him, even though smiling was the last thing she felt like doing.There’d been no word on the mission status.She’d refused to let his firefighters or the paramedics tend to her.Erin knew what she was doing, and had patched her up just fine until she could get to the hospital.The outer edge of her left shoulder blade ached, yeah, and she would go get it checked out by a doctor later.
“I will.”But not until Ryan was back safe and sound.Until then, she wasn’t budging from this resort.
He nodded once.“I’ll let you get back to work, then.Looks like you’ve got your hands full.”
At least being busy gave her something to focus on other than worrying about Ryan, her grandma and the others.
