“Watch yourself, Iona,” Teagan said. “Elias won’t thank you for dying before he can marry you.”
Her lips curved. “Yes, ma’am.” Because this rescue mission was personal to Iona, she’d ceded leadership to Teagan. Being objective in this situation was impossible. Everything in her pushed Iona to race to Elias’ rescue.
Elias was as tough as nails. She needed to remember that shining fact. He’d been through Special Operations training and the training Fortress put all its operatives through. He could handle what Eddie and his cronies dished out.
She swallowed hard. He was injured, too. This situation was dangerous on so many levels. Knowing what she did about Eddie, Iona suspected he’d informed the enforcer of Elias’ injury. Whether the enforcer used that information to focus on Elias’ shoulder or to avoid that area was anyone’s guess.
Iona purposely iced down her emotions, walled them up behind an impenetrable mental barrier, and shifted into mission mode. She had a goal. Nothing would stop her from reaching Elias. She’d get him out of there even if their teammates couldn’t get to them.
She turned toward the path she’d mapped out in her head. “Moving now. Tell me if bogies are headed my way. I don’t want to make this too easy for them.”
“Remember the objective,” Maddox said.
“I haven’t forgotten, sir. I will get Elias out of there.”
“Without sacrificing yourself, Byrne. That is not part of the bargain we agreed to.”
“Copy that, sir.” But she’d do what she needed to do.
Iona picked up her pace, scanning the area as she jogged closer to the compound where Eddie Knight held his son captive.
What was the point of beating Elias? She thought Eddie wanted Elias as his heir. How could he do anything for his father if he was recovering from injuries?
Iona scowled. Eddie didn’t care about the injuries. Since his father had a job for Elias to do, the prez must have told the person working Elias over to only create soft tissue injuries. Painful but not deadly, as long as the person inflicting them knew what he was doing. That was the kicker. Did the man know what he was doing?
Her hands fisted. That man, probably an enforcer, was now on Iona’s mental list. If he survived the night, she would keep track of him. Sometimes retribution was slow in coming, but it was as inevitable as the sunrise. He would pay.
She glanced at her watch and adjusted her course. Though she longed to run at full speed to the compound and Elias, Iona couldn’t walk right into the trap Eddie laid. She’d give the game away too soon.
A quarter of a mile later, Iona saw the first perimeter defenses. She easily circumvented the tripwires. “Tripwires 600 feet out,” she murmured and kept moving.
“Copy,” Seth said. “Same at 400 feet.”
“Fun times.” She continued to walk toward the compound. “Z, any updates?”
“He’s holding.”
She needed to be in that compound yesterday. “Copy. Can you communicate with him at all?”
“Negative. The enforcer isn’t letting up for a second, so Elias is never alone.”
“Does he still have his tactical watch on?”
“As far as I can tell.”
“Make it vibrate to communicate with Elias using Morse code.”
A pause, then, “Copy that.”
That would give Elias something to concentrate on other than the pain. He had to hold on for a few more minutes.
When the glow from the lights of the compound lightened the night sky, Iona slowed, scanning the surrounding forest for cameras and lurking guards.
Five minutes later, she stopped behind a cluster of trees, quartering the area. No cameras and no guards in this sector, almost as though they were herding her to the area where they wanted her to go.
“Bogies coming from the east,” Zane said.
“Copy.” Iona melted back into the forest, hugging shadows as she changed direction. “Rerouting.”
