“Two tangoes incoming,” Saint said over the headsets.“Renegade and I are taking them out.Over.”
Gunshots sounded in the distance, followed by an explosion, and Luciana jumped, crying out in surprise.
“Those are the good guys,” Harrison promised, trying to soothe her.“My team is up ahead, making sure we have a clear path.They had to eliminate several cartel vehicles headed toward us.”
“Okay.”But she shrunk into herself even more.
Harrison shifted in his seat, noting how he towered above her even while sitting down.Luciana was so much smaller than him, he couldn’t help but want to protect her from harm.Aside from that, she was young.Maybe not as young as the teenage victims, but he knew her to be thirty-one.Harrison was forty-four.He felt responsible for her.Protective.Neither of them were in their own country, Luciana being Colombian, but he had the distinct advantage of having his team and the U.S.military at his back.She was sitting here with nothing but the clothes on her back, and he hated how vulnerable and scared she seemed.
“We’re heading to an airfield outside Panama City,” he told her.“The cartel will be looking for us,” he added darkly.“It isn’t safe to stick around, so we’re going straight to the plane.”
“What’s going to happen after that?”she finally asked, her voice soft.
The Humvees had exited the fenced-in, secluded property, and the caravan of vehicles was rolling out together along the road, picking up speed.The crackle of Harrison’s headset briefly interrupted his line of thoughts as Wyatt gave another update, and then they reached Wyatt and Sawyer, the SEAL team passing the vehicles of the cartel members they’d taken out, before racing to the highway and toward the airfield.
“Oh my gosh,” Luciana gasped, staring at the destruction, both cartel vehicles now in flames.“They really were coming for us.”
Harrison clenched his jaw.“Yes, but those particular men won’t be a concern any longer.”He didn’t say anything else.There was no need.Luciana could clearly see the latest men after them would no longer be a problem.He exchanged a glance with Ryan in the dimly lit vehicle.
“Luciana, I haven’t gotten a chance to properly introduce myself, but I’m Ryan Pierce.Avery’s boyfriend,” Ryan added, looking toward Luciana.
“Si.I knew it!I’ve seen your photograph,” she told him, growing more excited the further they got from her captor’s home.“Avery is really okay, yes?We were kidnapped together.I only awoke once when we were being transported in the same vehicle, and when I was fully cognizant again, she was gone.”
Ryan cleared his throat, studying her for a moment.“Yes, she’s okay.We were able to rescue her not long after the kidnapping.We tracked a cell phone to her location and were able to successfully locate her.You weren’t there,” he added, his voice tinged with regret.“We had no idea where they’d taken you.Avery was sold, and we had reason to believe you’d been sold as well and were no longer in the hands of the Gulf Clan.”
“Si.I was not there with her.They took her away—sold her off, as you said.Avery is blonde and beautiful.She was nothing but a rare commodity to them,” she spat out.“I hate that anything bad happened to her.”
“She was heavily drugged but otherwise unharmed,” Ryan told her.“They had ill-intentions, but we were fortunate to get to her so quickly.I’m sorry for everything you endured.No one should have to go through that.”
“It is not your fault,” Luciana told him.“If you hadn’t come for me tonight, I would still be there in that bedroom, probably a captive forever.I didn’t think anyone was looking for me,” she added, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks.
Harrison’s throat closed.He was a gruff, no-nonsense man, but the sight of her in tears gutted him.Luciana would likely need medical attention sooner rather than later.Just because she appeared fine didn’t mean she was.He had no idea what she’d endured over the past month.She was alive though because of Harrison and his team—living and breathing and sitting right beside him.Maybe he hadn’t saved that young woman held hostage long ago, but he’d saved Luciana.She’d be able to live her life now.She’d have to recover, but she’d be free.
Resolve bloomed within him—determination to cripple the Gulf Clan so they couldn’t continue taking women hostage and selling them off like property.Harrison’s team had quickly searched the home tonight, and while there’d been staff there, they hadn’t found other captive women.Harrison eyed Luciana.“There were two teenagers kidnapped the other evening in Panama City, but we didn’t find them in Santiago Garcia’s home tonight.”
Luciana stiffened.“No.They are not there.I heard them their first night—their cries and screams.I believe they were quickly sold and moved off his property to new locations.”
“Damn it,” Sawyer muttered from across the vehicle, having been listening to their conversation.
Luciana eyed him warily.
“There is nothing you could have done to help them,” Harrison assured her.“You were a prisoner, too.You survived.The authorities are searching for the girls, but they haven’t been successful.”
“They’re probably long gone,” she said, looking pale.
The vehicle was quiet for a moment.She was right.The fact of the matter was, if they’d already been moved out of the country, it would be exceedingly difficult to track the girls’ location.While there was always a possibility they’d be sighted somewhere, most victims weren’t paraded around in public like Luciana had been.
Harrison worked that thought over in his mind.“Paraded” wasn’t exactly the right word, but had the cartel brought her out in public because they wanted her to be seen?Her appearance in the alley was one thing, with a woman happening to notice her.Taking Luciana to a crowded nightclub with security cameras and multiple witnesses was another thing entirely.Was the cartel really that bold?Did they assume no one would question them, or was something else going on?
He frowned.
“Avery will be thrilled to learn that you’re okay,” Ryan told her.“She’s been worried sick given that no one had any idea where you were or if you were still alive.”
“Does she know you’re here?”Luciana asked.“I’ve been so worried about her, too.Thinking about Avery was what kept me going some days.Even though they separated us, it felt like we were going through it together, in a sense.Does she know you came to save me?”
“Negative,” Ryan told her, looking slightly regretful.“We can’t share details of our missions with anyone.I wish I could’ve told Avery that you were alive, but OPSEC—operational security—is for her safety, too.If the bad guys, so to speak, knew our friends and families had details about our missions, they’d be in danger.Avery doesn’t even know I’m in Panama.”
“Oh.That makes sense,” she told him.
