“Hey, what’s this?” Falcon ran a gloved hand over the edge of one of the room’s wooden bookshelves. “This board is different from the other shelves. And it feels loose. Almost like you could…”
They watched as their teammate pushed the board in with the palm of his hand. A soft clicking sound reached Slade’s, and a beat later, the shelf began to move.
The hell?
“Holy shit!” Bones exclaimed. “The guy’s got a secret room!”
Thinking perhaps he’d underestimated their current target, Slade went to the hidden entrance. A light flickered to life as he led his team into the shadowed space. And when he saw the pictures taped to the small room’s back wall, he instantly felt sick.
Shadow.
There were at least a dozen pictures. And she was in every single one.
“Son of a bitch.” Falcon studied them closely.
Apollo and Bones both grumbled their own string of curses beneath their breaths.
Slade understood why they were enraged by the disturbing sight. Shadow was a member of Tac-Ops, and now they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’d been specifically targeted. So of course, these guys wanted to rip the man responsible to shreds.
But no matter how infuriated his teammates were, their rage toward Reiner didn’t hold a candle to Slade’s. Because they weren’t in love with Shadow. They hadn’t spent last night in her arms.
Slade did, and he had. And seeing the printed images of her…and even some that were zoomed out enough to also include him… That didn’t make him simply want to kill the slimy bastard.
I want to torture him slowly and without so much as an ounce of fucking mercy.
“Uh…Dig?” Apollo’s wary tone pulled Slade from his murderous thoughts. “We have a problem.” The man looked over at him before pointing to a specific image on the wall. “A big one.”
Slade walked back over to where Apollo was standing. He passed by a small table holding remnants of the same kind of explosive that had been used on his car. He looked at the picture Apollo’s index finger was still on, his heart sinking when he realized what had the other man so concerned.
The apartment.
The bastard had taken a picture of the apartment building where he and Shadow had stayed the night before. The same place where she and her father were now. And he’d left her there, thinking she was safe.
Son of a…
“The apartment’s been compromised,” he announced to the team. “We have to get back there.Now!”
Slade spun on his heels and made a beeline for the room’s hidden entrance. As he and the others rushed from the house, he pulled out his phone and called Shadow’s new number.
It rang and rang, but nobody answered. He tried again with the same disheartening results.
“Rafe’s not picking up,” Bones announced after two failed attempts to reach their boss.
Apollo added to the terrifying news by sharing, “No one’s answering the apartment’s landline, either.”
She’s okay. They have to be okay.
Slade couldn’t allow himself to think anything else. But as he and his teammates sprinted across the street to their SUV, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the ball of dread and fear growing deep in his gut.
The thought of something happening to Rafe was enough to bring him to his knees. But the thought of losing Shadow forever…
I can’t lose her now. Not like this. Not fucking ever.
And as he drove like a bat out of hell back to where he’d left her and her father, the same thought played on a loop over and over again in his head.
She’s okay.
She’s okay.
