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The woman started begging in Turkish. They might not understand the words, but she was clearly begging not to be hurt.
“Cut her down…gently,” Nolan ordered.
Ryker got his knife out to cut the rope and she started to sob in earnest.
“I don’t get it. Why is she scared of us if was the Turkish mafia who did this to her?”
“She’s saying it was American men who did this to her.”
Ryker whipped around to look at Leila. He’d forgotten she was there once he’d started concentrating on the injured woman. Rookie mistake.
Ryker tapped his communication device on his neck. “Gideon, have you been hearing all of this?”
“No, I’ve been listening in to Kostya and Landon. Whatcha got?”
“People have been tortured here at the autobody shop. Three dead, over-the-top torture. The one woman who is alive is scared to death of us. She was shouting ‘American’ like I was the devil. According to Leila, the woman is saying that Americans did this to her. What in the hell is she talking about? Do you have any idea?”
He watched as Leila spoke soothingly to the woman and Nolan worked to apply pressure to the bleeding wound in her side.
“Kostya and Landon caught up to the SUV that fled the scene,” Gideon said. “The two vehicles returned gunfire. The driver was killed and the SUV hit a literal brick wall.”
“How many others in the SUV?” Ryker asked.
“One other. Kostya found out he belongs to some rogue outfit, Kraken Elite, before he bled out. That explains why she’s afraid of Americans. Ryker, you, Nolan, and Leila need to get the hell out of Dodge.”
“Yeah, I heard a siren. As soon as we’re clear, you’ll call in that they need to get to this woman immediately, right?” Ryker pressed Gideon.
“You know it.”
“Good.” He turned to Nolan and Leila. “We’ve got to leave. The Turkish authorities are coming.”
Leila was brushing back the woman’s hair and whispering something into her ear. Then she looked up at Ryker.
“I’m not leaving her,” she said fiercely.
“Yes, yes you are. You’re never going to be able to explain your presence here; you’ve got to come with us.”
Leila’s eyes flashed fire. “I don’t give a shit, I’m not leaving her.”
“Leila,” Nolan spoke softly. “She’s going to live. You ending up in a Turkish prison is not going to do her any favors. You helping us find those boys, and the men who did this to her, will help.”
Ryker expected to see tears in her eyes when she looked back at him, but there was nothing but fierce vengeance. “Fine, I’ll go. But you better be taking me with you on every part of this op.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ryker was furious. He’d been mad ever since Gideon had mentioned Kraken Elite, and it had only gotten worse as he had driven back to the hotel.
Now he was pacing up and down the suite where Leila and every single member of the Omega Sky team who was on this mission was watching him.
“What’s so bad about this group?” Landon asked.
“I’ll tell you what’s so bad. They recruited my brother’s best friend, Lee, when he left the Marines after eight years. The only saving grace is that he had grown up in foster care and he was single.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Jase asked impatiently.
“They bill themselves as this elite outfit that can find anybody who has been kidnapped. And mostly they do. This is how Lee explained it—there’s blurring the lines, coloring outside of the lines, and blowing up the lines, and that’s what Kraken does. They don’t even care in what shape the kidnappee comes back in. Just so long as they have a pulse and they get their money.”
“So why did it matter that Lee didn’t have any family?” Jase asked again.
“The first mission that Lee needed to go out on was a kidnapping in Venezuela. The bounty was over twenty million if the wife was brought back alive, so the CEO was on the job. The man paying for his wife was the money launderer for the cartel and he had cash to spare, but the cartel figured any money he had was theirs.
