That was his cue. Rogue sprinted to the driver’s side, opened the door and pushed the man across the bench as Keira pulled him toward her. He was still shaking from the jolt of the taser Keira had hit him with. It wouldn’t be long before the effects wore off. Keira had fitted a knit hat over his head and eyes so he couldn’t identify his attackers.
Rogue found the keys in the ignition, cranked the engine and pulled away from the diner and onto the road, heading in the direction of the compound.
Jade pulled out in front of them, taking the lead.
Keira quickly unzipped the front of the driver’s coveralls and pushed them as far as she could get them off his shoulders and arms. Once his arms were free, she secured his wrists behind his back and slapped duct tape across his mouth. She’d have to wait until they stopped to get him the rest of the way out of the overalls.
The rest would have to wait until they reached the abandoned barn just outside of the small town. When the man regained a little control of his muscles, Keira touched him again with the taser. He slumped, twitching.
Rogue felt a little sorry for the guy. But not too much. He’d delivered supplies to the compound for years, according to Jade and Keira. He had to have known something wasn’t quite right about the place and the fact they had young girls and women there with men overseeing them—no matronly women in sight.
Jade pulled off the road and parked the truck behind the barn. Rogue eased the truck to the side of the road and looked at the road ahead and the rearview mirror for any traffic.
When he was certain it was clear, he dropped down from the truck, rounded to the passenger side and helped Keira drag the man out and carry him into the barn. Once inside, Jade stood guard while Keira and Rogue stripped the driver out of his coveralls. Fortunately, the man was about the same height as Rogue, with a few more pounds on his frame. Rogue dressed in the coveralls and helped Keira tie the man to a post and secure his ankles with a zip tie.
With the taser’s effect already wearing off, the man cried out, his voice muffled by the duct tape.
“You’ll be all right,” Rogue told the man. “I’ll have someone come for you soon.”
At the barn door, Jade reported, “All clear.”
Rogue and Keira sprinted for the delivery truck, Jade for Keira’s truck, and they drove to the next location they’d found, an abandoned gas station with concrete barriers blocking the driveway.
Jade skirted the barriers and drove Keira’s truck around to the back of the building and parked it there.
Keira leaned across the seat in the truck. “Give me a kiss for luck?”
Rogue captured her face between his hands and kissed her hard and fast. “We’ll make this happen, then we’ll figure out where we go from there.”
She nodded, then slipped out of the truck to the ground.
Rogue dropped down and hurried to the rear door, unhooked the latch and slid the overhead door up on its tracks.
Jade and Keira scrambled into the back and searched through the stacks of boxes. When they found the two biggest boxes, they opened the tops and tossed the contents out.
Rogue pushed the packages of toilet paper out onto the ground while Keira and Jade tipped the boxes on their sides and crawled inside.
Rogue pushed the open ends of the boxes up against the wall of the truck closest to the cab and stacked several smaller boxes in front of them. If guards searched the truck, all they’d see would be boxes of supplies. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Jade and Keira called out in unison.
“Last chance to back out,” he offered.
“Not a chance,” Keira’s voice said through the box on the right.
Rogue grinned.
“Let’s go get my sister,” Jade said.
Rogue jumped down from the back of the truck, rolled the overhead door down and left the latch unhooked. If anything happened to him, Jade and Keira could get out.
He climbed into the cab, found the driver’s cap and pulled it down over his forehead, low enough to hide his eyes.
The compound was only a twenty-minute drive from the barn on a county road. Again, he didn’t like being the only one without comms. He had no idea if the women were okay back there, or if they’d get too hot or inhale too many fumes. Though he didn’t look forward to a firefight, he was ready to get there, find Lily and get the hell out of there.
Oh, that it would be that simple.
All too soon, he rolled to a stop at the gate to the compound, his gaze casually taking in the ten-foot-high walls topped with concertina wire, the steel gate manned by two guards in tactical gear, body armor vests and helmets. Each man carried a military-grade rifle and had extra magazines stuffed into the pockets of his vest.
