Something hit him hard in the face. Drew shot up with a jolt ready to defend himself and Shay only to fall back to the ground groaning. His arm and shoulder were on fire with agony. His hand came up to cover it trying to ease the pain.
He cracked an eye open to see a face hovering just above him blurry at first then came into view. Greg. “There he is.” Greg said smiling down at him. “I’m glad I didn’t have to do CPR.”
“If you had, I would have killed you.” Drew tried sitting up slower this time, grimacing in pain the whole time. Blood rushed to his ears, his heart thumped loudly. Everything started spinning, threatening to drag him back into unconsciousness. His stomach turned sour as if he might puke.
A hand rested on his back. If they spoke to him, he couldn’t hear them. He closed his eyes waiting for the nausea to pass and the world to stop spinning. He took a calming, deep breath, then another, and another until he felt he could open his eyes and not black out.
“Take your time,” Greg said.
Drew opened his eyes again, looking around. The men he’d killed earlier were being dragged of by Nick, Daniel, and Sam. The rest of his teammates stood around the room except for Greg who squatted next to him and Barry was at the dining room table looking working on his laptop. “When did you get here?”
“A few minutes ago.”
“How did you know to come? I left my phone in bedroom. I told Shay to get it—where’s Shay?” He looked around theroom but didn’t see her. Dead settled like lead in the pit of his stomach. He knew before anyone said a word she wasn’t there.
“Not here. Greg called us to meet here. We all got here about the same time to see the door busted in and the bodies on the ground. So, what happened?” Jack asked. He leaned against the living room wall with his arms crossed and feet crossed at the ankle. The man always appeared so at ease, no matter the situation. Drew always appreciated his calm attitude, now though it irritated him.
Sykes men had taken Shay right from his house and Jack acted like he didn’t have a care in the world. That her loss didn’t affect him. If he wasn’t currently bleeding out Drew would punch him.
“Sykes team came and took her. Four men had come into the house. More must have been waiting outside out of sight. I was shot from behind and passed out.” Needing to stand and find her, Drew worked his way to his knees then stood up. Greg stayed close to his side in case he fell back down.
“Dude, you need to take it easy. You’re bleeding pretty good.” Drew didn’t need a mother hen. He needed to get patched up and get Shay back. Wherever she was. There were only a million places she could be.
“Just get my first-aid kit and patch me up and I’ll be good to go.”
“You need more than that.”
Drew cocked his head to the side to give Greg a withering glare. “Shay is at the hands of a trafficker and I have no idea where she is. Every second counts. Now, get the kit and keep your mouth shut.”
Greg looked like he wanted to argue but finally turned down the hall for Drew’s bathroom. He knew where Drew kept the kit.
Drew turned to Jack. “Find anything on the cameras?”
Jack pushed off the wall to head for the dining room table and stood next to Barry. “There was some footage but nothing to help us. The closest buildings didn’t show the club only their own business. Those that showed the club were old, outdated cameras so the footage was spotty. However,” Well this was sounding a little bit better. “One camera did show someone coming in during the black out. Like I said it’s not a great image but we can at least see gender.” Jack pulled the laptop from Barry in front of himself and pulled up an image. Drew leaned closer to the image. It was blurry just like Jack had said.
“We can’t enhance it in any way?” All Drew could tell was that it was a male with an athletic figure. The image was black and white so Drew didn’t know what color hair he had.
“It’s an outdated camera so unfortunately this is as good as it gets.”
“What about traffic cameras? We know the time they came and went.” Desperation clawed at Drew’s insides. This was the person who wanted Shay. If they could find him, they could find her.
“They’re smart. They knew to avoid places that cameras could pick them up. They probably knew the cameras at the other buildings sucked and couldn’t identify him.” Nick said coming back into the room with the others. Drew couldn’t hide the grimace at the blood streaks across his floor leading to outside. He didn’t want to think about how long it would take to get the bloodstains out of the hardwood.
He hadn’t been thinking about that at the time he’d killed them. His only focus was to take out any threat to Shay.
Drew slammed his fist down on the table in frustration. He wasn’t blaming ineptness on his team. He knew from experience they would move heaven and earth to find intel. Sykes was being too smart. Always staying one step in front of them.
“Take it easy,” Greg said coming back into the room carrying the first-aid kit under one arm.
“What about you?’ Drew demanded, ignoring Greg’s warning. “What did you find out from your contact?”
“I’ll tell you if you sit down and let me patch you up before you pass out again.” Greg said calmly. No one was a stranger to everyone’s mood swings when they’d been injured. They just took it with a grain of salt.
Drew sat down with a huff. “Now, tell me.”
Greg pulled up the seat next to him. Taking his time taking out the supplies he needed. Drew was sure his molars were going to crack from grinding them. His patience was dangling by a thread.
“He’s working for Sykes.”
