“What about Rachel?” Sean demanded. “Was she with you?”
Ethan hauled himself to his feet and grabbed onto Sean’s shoulder when he bobbled. Fuck. He didn’t need this.
“Yeah. She was with me. Bastards took her. She was right, damn it. The accident on the bridge. Wasn’t an accident. Those ass**les were waiting for us when we left Sam’s. They rammed us and took her.”
“Holy mother of God,” Sean whispered.
He immediately began barking orders into his radio. He broke off at one point and stared hard at Ethan.
“Tell me every thing you remember, Ethan. We need a starting point.”
“I don’t know,” Ethan bit out. “It was dark. I saw them parked at the intersection of the highway. They turned on their brights and rammed us when we got close. The rest is fuzzy, but I remember Rachel screaming while some guy yanked her out of the truck by her hair.”
“God help us,” Sean muttered. “Okay, we’re going to have to organize a wide search. They have a head start on us. I’ll radio for the highways and secondary roads to be roadblocked. I’ll contact the Henry Country Sheriff’s Department and get them out looking.”
“Give me a phone so I can call Sam and Garrett.”
Sean tossed him a cell phone and he dialed Sam’s number. His gut was churning like a volcano. Fear had him by the balls. Sean was talking fast in the background, his radio going off like a bullhorn. Ethan had to hand it to the younger man, he knew his shit, and right now he was glad as hell to have him to help find Rachel.
He closed his eyes as he waited for Sam to answer.
I’m coming, baby. Hold on. I’ll get to you, I swear it. Just hang on. For me. For us.
Please God, don’t take her now.
Someone wanted her dead. Her life depended on him and his brothers figuring it out yesterday. And God help the f**kers when Ethan found them.
SAM rubbed his hand wearily over his face. What a goddamn mess. He’d never suspected. Oh sure, he’d known Ethan could be a rigid son of a bitch, but he’d never dreamed his marriage to Rachel had been in so much trouble.
He stared over at Garrett, who wore a look of equal bafflement. Garrett looked up and simply shook his head.
“Me. And Rachel.”
He shook his head again, as if he couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea that someone had thought he was having an affair with his brother’s wife.
“That’s messed up,” Garrett said.
Sam glanced at his watch. It was almost time for Rio to check in. No sense going back to bed now. He gestured at Garrett.
“Come on. Let’s head to the war room. Rio will be checking in soon, and you and I need to plan our trip over. Steele’s probably already on his way. Against my wishes, I might add. Never can tell that son of a bitch anything. I don’t know how he ever got through basic training. He doesn’t take orders for shit.”
“He got through because he’s a goddamn machine,” Garrett muttered.
He got up to follow Sam, and the two walked out the side door and trudged across the grass in the dark.
“You ever consider how ridiculous it is to carry the sat phone from the house to the war room in the middle of the night?” Garrett asked in an amused tone as Sam punched in the security codes to the door.
Sam glanced down and shrugged. They kept the phone on them at all times when their men were pulling a mission, but he’d prefer to take report here where he had access to all their equipment.
A few seconds later, the fluorescent tubes along the ceiling lit up and flooded the interior with light. Sam checked his watch again as he took a seat behind the computer.
Donovan would be landing in Texas in another half hour and would check in once he met his team. From there they’d take the short hop into Mexico for what was supposed to be a quick in-and-out extrication.
Sam yawned. “Might as well stay up for Van.”
Garrett nodded as he studied the information Donovan had left behind.
“I should have pushed to go with him,” Garrett said.
Sam leaned back in his chair and lifted an eyebrow in Garrett’s direction. “Like you pushed to go with me into South America?”
“I gave in to Van because he could handle that mission with both hands tied behind his back. Your trip to South America with Rio is a whole other ball game, and you damn well know it.”
Sam held his hands up in surrender. Garrett was getting all lathered up again, not that it took much.
The sat phone beeped, signaling an incoming call. Sam reached for the receiver.
“Sam here. Go ahead.”
There was interference on the line that made Sam frown. Damn bad time to be out of position.
“Bad news, bossman,” Rio drawled. “Someone got here behind us.”
“What do you mean behind you?” Sam demanded.
“We tagged your boys, set up surveillance, did a recon several miles to the north to set up an entry point for you. When we returned, the entire village had been wiped. It was professional and it was bloody. Message sent, I’m thinking.”
Sam’s blood went cold. It was too pat. The timing too close to Rachel’s accident on the bridge.
“Son of a bitch,” he breathed as he sat forward in his seat. “Pull out and get your asses back home. Immediately.”
“There’s more. We found one guy alive. Said he tried to help Rachel. Protected her while she was in captivity.”
“Protected her my ass,” Sam snarled.