He and the others began making their way to the stairwell at the back of the expansive lobby. They were halfway there when a noise stopped them in their tracks.
Emmett lifted a fist, and the others froze. They stopped and listened closely.
“Someone’s coming,” Blake whispered from where he stood at Emmett’s right.
The noise sounded again, pulling his focus toward the stairwell door. Whoever it was, they were heading up the stairs, and he and the others were directly in their path.
With another hand motion, Emmett alerted his team. They raised their weapons and steadied their stances, preparing themselves for a battle they sensed was coming.
The door opened. A man dressed in plain clothes like the others appeared. He was quick on the draw, but Emmett was quicker. He pulled his trigger, killing the man in one shot.
“Third target down,” he relayed to the two men guarding the building’s perimeter.
He looked through the doorway before them. The first step of a set of concrete stairs was visible behind the man he’d just shot. From what Blake had already told them, they led down to a long hallway beneath the building. Several rooms of various sizes had been constructed along its length.
Janie’s in one of those rooms.
Knowing the woman he loved was waiting, he used the small mic in his ear to let Jethro and Boone know he was implementing the final stage of their plan.
“Echo is on the move.” He kept his voice low. “We’re heading down to the basement now.”
“Copy that,” Boone’s response was immediate.
“Switching positions to the building’s south wall,” Jethro told him, rather than asked.
If the man felt the need to move, Emmett trusted there was a good reason. With no time for questions, he gave his team the signal to move. Without hesitation, they fell into a single-file line.
Emmett took the lead, keeping his rifle up and at the ready. His grip was strong, the gun he held in hishand steady as his boots began carrying him down the stairs.
He stopped two steps in, holding up a tight fist when a muffled sound reached his ears. His heart thumped hard, and a bead of sweat ran down the length of his spine. And then he heard it again.
It was a woman’s scream. Not just any woman.
Janie!
Emmett’s heart nearly stopped at the high-pitched sound. He took off down the remaining steps, trusting his team to follow. He reached the small landing separating the split stairwell’s two levels. He stepped down onto the flat surface and turned right, taking those steps down to the underground level.
Five minutes earlier . . .
“Come on, Janie.” A man named Billy stood in front of her, a very large knife held loosely in his hand. “Just tell me where the file is, and I promise you won’t suffer.”
It was the same man who’d broken into her hotel room.
He’d come into the room a few moments before. Introduced to her by that jackass, Christopher Campbell. And he wanted her to tell him about something she knew nothing about.
“What file?”
And news flash, asshole. I’m already suffering.
Not physically. She had nothing more than a splitting headache, a throbbing cheek, and a few new bruises. But she’d been forced into the room next door and was currently tied to a chair. And now, on top of everything else, this psycho was about to cut her.
Janie’s heart broke thinking of the man she loved. She was going to die here. This man was going to torture and then murder her, and she was never going to see Emmett’s handsome face again.
A tear fell over her cheek, and Billy laughed. The son of a bitch actuallylaughed.
She shouldn’t be surprised, really. Everything about the creep was a giant contradiction.
He looked normal. Like someone you’d share a friendly hello with while passing them on the sidewalk or in line at the grocery store. He smiled. Told jokes. Seemed genuinely friendly.
