I press my lips into a hard line. “I need an answer, Mae. Do you want a deal, or do you want twenty to life behind bars?”
Her gaze falls away, and she lets out a heavy sigh. “I’ll take the deal.”
“Smart choice,” I tell her. “Now, where the fuck has he taken her?”
She shakes her head. “How am I supposed to know? He built a fucking rape dungeon under our house, and I had no idea. In what world do you think I would know this?”
“Think, Mae. What’s he been spending his time on? Where’s he been going?”
“I don’t know. Just normal business stuff,” she says. “He’s been working on the buyout of this big shipping and logisticscompany. Nothing that’s going to tell you where he’s taken my daughter.”
My lips press into a hard line as I recall the business documentation that I’d found in his office the night I found his little basement, and with everything that was happening, I’d put his business mergers to the back of my mind.
“Keep her here,” I tell my men as I stride out of the living room and straight into Elias’s home office with Diesel and Ace on my heels. I push through the door and immediately grab the piles of business purchases I’d seen stashed in the filing cabinet before flicking through it to find the one for the shipping and logistics company.
“Here,” I say, putting it down on the desk as all three of us scan the papers, searching for something that could give us what we need.
“I’m not finding anything,” Ace mutters, getting frustrated as Diesel just keeps scanning, taking the pages I’m done with before looking over them a second time.
“Here’s something,” I say a minute later, putting the paper down on the desk and pointing directly at the list of assets the company holds, and I can’t help but notice that they have their own cargo ship that’s currently stationed two minutes outside the harbor, awaiting loading next month.
“A cargo ship?” Diesel muses. “It’s a risk.”
“It’s all we’ve got,” Ace supplies.
I drag my hand down my face. “If I’m wrong—”
“Don’t go to the what ifs,” Diesel says. “What does your gut say?”
I point at the paper, my fingers hovering over the ship. “She’s there,” I tell them. “He’s got her there.”
“Then we go,” Diesel says, getting to his feet, his dark gaze sweeping between me and Ace. “Your gut has never led us astraybefore, and it’s not about to start today. We go. We get your girl. And then we let Elias rot at the bottom of the fucking ocean.”
41
KNIGHT
Our fleet of six boats races across the surface of the water under the guise of darkness as I ball my hands into fists at my sides, unable to take my eyes off the massive cargo ship in the distance.
It’s been almost two hours since Harper was dragged away from Izzy’s bleeding body, and with every passing second, my anxiety gets worse. I just need to get in there and find her, but on a ship like this, it’s going to be one hell of a challenge. While there are only five or six passenger cabins, there are upward of one thousand containers that are about forty feet long. He could have stashed her anywhere.
I suppose I should be grateful that the cargo ship hasn’t been loaded yet, seeing as this ship can transport up to fifteen thousand containers at a time. And while I would happily search through every last one of them, I’m not sure Harper has the time for an operation like that.
I stand at the front of the boat, the night air whipping by me as I lift a pair of binoculars and continue assessing the cargo ship. The closer we get, the more intel I receive, and from what I can see on the surface, Elias has hired a team of muscle: ex–military soldiers, hit men for hire, ruthless men who should be locked up rather than walking the length of a cargo ship that’s holding my girl hostage.
Coming in hot with six boats, we’ve already lost the element of surprise, and I watch the hired muscle scampering across the ship like a bunch of rabid rats, trying to prepare themselves for our attack.
I shout out the noticeable threats I see, including who’s stationed where and armed with what weapons. While I don’t doubt they’re going to put up a good fight, they’re not my SWAT team, and they’re not equipped with my training, excellence, or hunger to win.
While they more than know we’re coming, the cover of night works in our favor, and we use it to our advantage as we finally surround the ship. The moment we reach the drop point, I make the signal to go, watching as both my team and our reserves dive straight into the water below, not an ounce of hesitation seen among them.
I throw myself into the water, diving deep and pushing through the darkness, knowing Elias’s men will be watching, but they won’t find us in the water. They’ll be too busy searching the dark horizon that they won’t even see us scaling the side of the ship until it’s too late.
The water is ice cold, and it immediately seeps into my bones, but I push through it like a goddamn seal, determined to get to that ship. My heavy tactical uniform slows me down, but it doesn’t deter me as I swim, and when I finally surface, I’m exactly where I need to be at the base of the ship, watching asone by one, my men emerge from the water and begin scaling the massive ship.
Quickly getting into position, I grab hold of one of the small metal ladders that lead right up to the top of the ship and pull myself out of the water, climbing up the sides like a fucking spider.
My team is invisible to anyone above, and as they begin to get nervous, Elias’s men start shooting at the empty boats we just vacated, having no idea that the threat is already onboard. One by one, my men reach the main deck of the ship, like an infestation quickly taking over.
