She didn’t want to promise when every instinct made her want to rush those men and pummel them into the ground for trying to kidnap her father.
Trevor and Gina dropped down beside them, peering through the bushes at the men manhandling Alana’s father.
“We can’t let them take him,” Alana whispered.
“Agreed.”Chase pulled out his cell phone and sent a text.“I notified Hank.”
“We can’t wait.They’re going to load him up,” Trevor said.
The cartel men shoved her father toward the SUV.One of the leading armed men opened the back door.
“I need to get closer,” Chase said.“Cover me.”
Trevor poked his rifle barrel through a gap in the bushes and nodded.“Got your six.”
Chase took off.Hunkering low, he followed the line of bushes to the end, his rifle at the ready.
When they jerked her father roughly toward the open door of the vehicle, the older man dug in his heels.“I’m not going with you.You can’t make me go.”He threw himself backward, landing hard on the pavement, using his weight to anchor him to the ground.
“Daddy, get down!”Alana yelled.“Stay down!”
Her father rolled to the side, away from the men and pressed himself flat against the pavement.
The men holding the rifles turned toward the sound of Alana’s voice and raised their weapons.Standing in the light over the loading dock, they probably couldn’t see where Alana, Trevor and Gina lay in the dark behind the bushes.Still, Alana lay as flat to the ground as she could get and watched as Chase came at the men from a different direction than the one they were staring at.When he was close enough to get in a clear shot, he dropped to one knee and raised his rifle to his shoulder.
One of the men turned his raised rifle toward Chase.
Alana sucked in a breath and prayed.
The crack of a shot being fired sounded next to Alana.
The man aiming at Chase dropped to the ground, his weapon clattering against the ground.
Chase fired, taking out the other man whose weapon was aimed in Alana’s direction.
One of the men who’d been dragging Alana’s father lurched for the driver’s door.
“The tires,” a voice said behind Alana.Hank ran forward and aimed his rifle.“Shoot the tires.”He fired a round, hitting the right front tire.
Trevor took out the front left tire.
The man who’d lunged for the driver’s door yanked it open.Before he could jump in, Gina sent a bullet through the driver’s windshield.The man cursed in Spanish, slammed the door shut and ran hunkered low toward the trees at the far side of the loading area.
The last man standing bent toward the older man on the ground.Before he could lay a hand on him, Chase fired, hitting the man in the shoulder.He stumbled backward, clutching the wound.Once he regained his balance, he staggered toward the tree line and disappeared into the shadows.
Hank’s team ran after the two men who’d escaped.
Alana shot up and ran down to the loading dock.
Chase knelt beside her father, pulled the hood off his head and checked for a pulse.
Her father blinked up at the Navy SEAL, his hair and clothing disheveled, a bruise forming on his jaw.“You.”
“Yes, sir,” Chase said.
Dwayne Neal snorted.“About time you got back.Where’s my daughter?”
“I’m here, Daddy.”Alana dropped to her knees beside him, her chest tight at the sight of her father lying against the ground, looking like an old man, not the strong, unflappable CEO of his multimillion-dollar corporation.“You okay?”
