“Give me the name of the hospital and the time frame, and I’ll see what I can find.”
He recited the information for the other man as he typed. It took Rawlins less than a minute to uncover the evidence needed to prove Shadow had been unknowingly tracked.
“Oh, yeah.” The man on the phone sounded hopeful as he continued to work. “Okay, so I’ve got Andrew Rawlins inside the E.R., and he’s wearing a set of scrubs.”
What the hell?
“You’re sure it’s him?”
“Positive. And when I go back to right when Shadow was being wheeled out of the room…bingo. Yep, there it is.”
“There what is?”
“The asshole pretended to accidentally bump into the bottom corner of Shadow’s gurney as the tech was wheeling her out. But when I played it in slo-mo, I caught the guy’s sleight of hand. Looks like he placed something along the sole of one of her shoes.”
“Which shoes?” Falcon asked next.
“White sneakers,” Rawlins answered instantly. A few more clicks and then, “The same white sneakers she was wearing when the wanna-be firefighters carried her and Rafe out the floor’s emergency exit.”
Carried her out…
Ah, God. If they were carried out then at the very least Shadow and her father were unconscious when they were taken. Because they were hurt, or was the cause something less frightening?
Slade’s gaze inadvertently slid to a spot of blood on the tiled floor.
“Rawlins, this is Falcon. Is there any way to tap into whatever system they used to track her here? If she’s still wearing the shoes, there’s a chance the device is still active, and if that’s the case?—”
“I should be able to figure out exactly where she and Owens were taken,” Rawlins finished for the team’s lead sniper. “It’ll be tricky, and might take me a few minutes. But if I can do a quick search for any anomalistic changes in signals in or around the building at the time you arrived and compare those with the signals at the time of her and Owens’ abductions…”
The man who’d already proven himself an invaluable asset took the next couple of minutes to do what he did best. Slade and his teammates waited anxiously for the results, knowing if this didn’t work, they’d be back to square one.
If this doesn’t work, Shadow and Rafe are both as good as dead.
But just as the gut-wrenching thought came to his mind, Rawlins renewed their hope that there might still be time. Time not only to find their teammate and boss, but to save two people they’d all come to love.
“I got her. The signal isn’t great, but it will at least get you to the building where she and Owens are being held.”
The entire group of Tac-Ops operatives grew excited with visible hope.
“Where?” Slade growled, needing to get to his woman before it was too late.
“Old warehouse at the edge of NoDa.” Rawlins referred to North Davidson, a neighborhood in Charlotte.
“That’s like ten minutes from here,” Bones exclaimed. “Max.”
“Let’s go.” Slade spun on his heels and headed for the door.
He didn’t have to look back to know his teammates were there. Because they were more than a team. They were family. And when it came to protecting their own, there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do.
Minutes later, they were in the SUV and racing to the woman Slade loved. Rather than get behind the wheel, he let Apollo drive while he focused on his phone.
With the warehouse’s address programmed into the vehicle’s GPS, and his fellow SEAL brother at the helm, Slade focused on the phone still held tightly in his hand as he studied the blueprints Rawlins sent just before they’d left.
The abandoned warehouse was large, and at first he felt defeated. But then he forced the emotion he was feeling aside and called upon his training. Once that happened, it didn’t take long for him to deduce the best, safest way for him and his team to enter the building.
“We’ll enter through the north.” He spoke loud enough so that his teammates and Rawlins could hear. “There’s a door there we should be able to breach.”
“You bring the goods?” Bones asked, presumably referring to his go-to breaching device.
