But damn, it was hard.
“Look alive, people,” Forrest called over the radio. “Vehicles are arriving at the loading dock now, and the Bilderberg Society people are on-site.”
“Roger that.” Jake glanced at Misty. “Give Jes and Caleb a heads-up. Darby could hit at any minute, and they need to be ready to move.”
Misty nodded and relayed the information into her radio.
Jake felt his heart speeding up more than it ever had during his days back in the SEALs, and he paced back and forth in front of the coffee table, his boots soundless on the plush green carpet. He’d gone on more missions than he could remember when he was a SEAL, and he’d never been this tense about any of them, even when he probably should have been.
His fingertips and gums tingled so much it was almost painful. Shit, he was on the edge of shifting. Not because he was worried about walking into a gunfight himself but because he was terrified about Jes walking into one. The thought made his inner wolf want to howl.
That’s when it hit him. Caleb was right. Jes truly wasThe Onefor him…his soul mate.
He only wished he’d told her last night after they’d made love. Or this morning when he’d woken up with her in his arms. But instead of talking about something important like that, or even spending a few extra minutes kissing, they’d been too focused on sneaking her out of his room and back into her own before anyone saw. Like they were embarrassed to get caught.
Jake prayed he didn’t regret that stupid crap.
* * *
“The Bilderberg contingent has arrived,” Misty announced over the radio. “Be ready to move the moment Darby and his people attack.”
Knowing Caleb wouldn’t bother, Jes paused to answer Misty. She was good at multitasking, but low crawling through knee-high grass while talking on a radio at the same time simply didn’t go together.
“We’ll be ready,” she murmured to her teammate back in London. “Tell everyone to be careful.”
“Don’t worry, Jes,” Misty replied. “I’ll keep an eye on everyone, especially Jake.”
Jes opened her mouth to point out she was worried about Misty, Forrest, and Harley just as much as Jake, but then decided not to bother. It was obvious Misty knew what she’d meant.
Sighing, she continued moving carefully toward the quaint two-story Tudor-style farmhouse ahead, parting the grass slowly so no one looking out a window would notice anything unusual.
This stretch between St Albans and Harpenden was full of trees, fields, and farms. While the area had a distinctly English flavor, it reminded her a lot of where she’d grown up in Pennsylvania. It had been so much simpler back then. Before she discovered creatures like whatever Darby was were out there terrorizing people.
When she finally caught up with Caleb, it was to find him sitting against the wall of a weathered wooden toolshed a few yards away from the back door of the house. The omega werewolf looked positively casual as he leaned against the building. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was hanging out at a family barbecue.
Jes gave him a nod, repositioning the small messenger bag slung over her shoulder and peeking around the side of the shed, then continuing toward the back of the house, Caleb silent as a ghost behind her. The grass closer to the house was shorter, and their trek across the yard left them completely exposed to whoever was inside, but it wasn’t like they could wait until tonight to do this. So broad daylight it was.
She and Caleb took their time, slowly working their way along the back and around to the side of the house, carefully peeking in the windows they passed. The kitchen with its brick oven was empty, as was the small mudroom and small study. None of the areas looked like they’d seen people in years. But Jes knew that couldn’t be true because they’d seen the two vans parked out front.
As she and Caleb rounded the front to sneak to the other side of the house, they finally found the occupants of those vehicles in the living room, along with the kids Darby had kidnapped. Jes quickly ducked, then slowly peeked over the windowsill again. Beside her, Caleb did the same.
The room had little in the way of furniture, unless you counted the two uncomfortable-looking wood chairs near the arched opening that led to the back of the house. Empty takeout containers and soda cans littered the floor, along with piles of used paper napkins.
Two big, surly-looking men sat in the chairs, handguns casually resting in their laps, their attention locked intently on the hostages.
There were eight kids in all—five girls and three boys, ranging in age from about five to seventeen—sitting on four bare mattresses positioned by the far wall of the living room. Olivia Phillips sat shoulder to shoulder with the oldest boy on the mattress in the front, like they were trying to protect the younger kids who crowded behind them, clearly terrified. Olivia was obviously scared, too, but determined at the same time.
To a child, every one of them sported bruises and scrapes of some kind. The boy beside Olivia looked like he’d been punched in the face hard enough to break his nose. Both his eyes were blackened and blood stained his T-shirt, but the fierce expression on his face showed just how brave he was.
Jes’s heart went out to each and every kid in there, and she wanted nothing more than to storm into the house and kill the men who’d abused and terrorized them. But she couldn’t do that. Not yet.
Caleb must have sensed her anger because he touched her arm and pointed at the back of the house. She nodded, knowing they needed to check out the rest of the place.
Jes covered the first floor while Caleb climbed the rock exterior to peek into the upstairs windows. They met up a few minutes later behind the shed to radio Misty and tell her the kids were okay, then compared notes, so they could come up with a plan. Because up until now, they hadn’t even known if the kids were still alive. She’d honestly thought when they got here, they’d find nothing but bodies. She’d never been so happy to be wrong.
“There are four more men sitting around the table in the dining room,” Jes told Caleb softly as she settled down on the ground beside him.
“Two more are upstairs in the bedrooms getting some shut-eye,” Caleb said.
