Ryan cradled his head in his hands. The sounds of snoring and keystrokes mixed together. After hours without sleep it was difficult to feel completely human.

He hadn’t seen Carson in going on seven hours.

At seventeen minutes after eleven, she’d crawled down into a small craft.

Ten minutes after that they’d lost both of the back-up trackers.

The closest thing to a lead they had was that they hadn’t been able to find any evidence that the small boat had gone ashore, which meant the boat was most likely still in the water or they’d traveled farther than they could locate using the drones and what security cameras they could access without Zain’s magic touch.

If they didn’t get a lead on Carson in the next five hours, the chances of her coming back alive diminished greatly. Kidnappings like this were different from Aegis Group’s normal gig, even the teams. While they specialized in bringing people home, it wasn’t usually a situation that was already headed for execution.

Her death meant her parents and sister also were killed. And all of those lives were on him because he hadn’t kept her safe. Even though he’d been careful not to promise that, he’d always thought he could keep Carson out of harm’s way. And now he could lose her forever. Before they’d truly gotten to know each other.

Alec thought Ryan was crazy for the way he felt about Carson. The Ryan he’d been two weeks ago wouldn’t have accepted this change. Even now he couldn’t explain it beyond that he and Carson were cut from the same cloth. He got her, and he hoped she was growing to understand him.

Losing her meant never finding out what they could have.

That wasn’t an option.

The main line to the command room rang. It was the one phone that had to be answered at all hours because they had people in the field the world over who could need support at a moment’s notice.

Ryan reached across the desk and grabbed the phone. It was probably Lepta Team checking in at the Egypt station. Those guys weren’t catching a break lately.

“Command room, Ryan speaking,” he said.

“Ryan?” Paxton’s voice was strained, the adrenaline coming through in that one word. “I’ve got him.”

“Him? Who?” Ryan stood.

Alec turned from where he sat at one of the terminals.

“The guy—Kawa? He’s talking to a guy in a suit. I’ve got it on the drone, but the wind is picking up. Silas is getting the coordinates.”

“Where are you?” Ryan tapped the button that put the call through the speakers.

“The drone’s flying over the big commercial dockyard in Elliott Bay. That island. I’m all turned around from flying this thing. Shit.”

“Harbour Island,” Alec said. “What pier though?”

“What? What’s wrong?” Ryan braced his hand on the desk.

“The guy in the suit is getting in a car. He’s leaving and Kawa is going back on this boat.”

“Get the license plate,” Alec called out.

“Snapping a picture now. Drone’s battery is almost dead.” The wind muffled Paxton’s side of the conversation a bit.

“Do you have the ship’s identifier?” Alec asked.

“I’ve got to bring the drone back. I took a lot of pictures and some video. I can figure out which one it is if I have to send another drone out. I know I got the ship’s identifier in at least one shot.”

“Send that to us as soon as you have it,” Ryan said.

“What’s goin’ on?” Ian sat up rubbing his face.

“I’ve got coordinates.” Ryan stared at the longitude and latitude Silas had texted him.

“We just found our girl,” Alec said to Ian.

Ian reached over and shook Vito awake.

“Can you locate the car?” Ryan crossed to stand behind Alec.

“I’m not Gavin. I don’t know how the fuck to do that shit.” He moved the mouse around a map, clicking into a few live stream cameras they could access, but they were too far away from the location of the drone footage.

“I’ll call Owen, let him know we have a lead,” Ian said.

“Should we do that?” Ryan stared at his friend.

“It’s their investigation. We can’t get in the way.”

“Even if they’d risk the lives of Carson and her whole family just to get the bigger fish?”

Ian held up his hands. “It won’t be like that. Owen’s watchin’ our back.”

“I trust Owen, but I can’t trust Walker. Did Owen look at the evidence? Did he see Carson’s laptop?” Ryan was still willing to bet the recordings she made were gone, but not the ones on her phone.

“We can’t keep this to ourselves. If we do, it would jeopardize our contract with the DoD. Not to mention we’d be impeding a federal investigation. Sorry, man.” Ian shook his head.

“Make the fucking call.” Ryan pulled out his phone, but there were no further messages.

Except Paxton would be uploading them to the company server.

Ryan sat down next to Alec and clicked through the file structure to a folder with a little gray circle that had a drop of blue in it.

Files were uploading.

He clicked into the folder. A dozen or so high quality images were there with two dozen more loading.

“Look at this.” Ryan brought up an image of Kawa dressed in a suit standing face to face with an older gentleman with silvering blond hair.

“Shit,” Ian spat.

“Who is it?” Ryan didn’t recognize the man.

“That’s Senator Neilson. He just won another term in congress.”

The senator Walker was after. And here they had a picture of the meet going down.

“Owen.” Ian held out his phone. “You’re on speaker. We just got a visual on our guy Kawa meetin’ with someone.”

“We have it, too.” Owen didn’t sound thrilled about that.

“What’s going on?” Ryan turned to focus on the phone.

“I’m looking at the boat now, and it’s a Chinese freight ship,” Owen said.

“Yeah, so?”

“Without saying too much, what I can tell you is that things with China aren’t good right now. Walker is on the phone with people in D.C. to authorize the Coast Guard to go on the boat to get them when it leaves, but I wouldn’t want to count on that.”

They were in deep water. Whatever was going on between the countries on a global scale could tip the balance with what happened to Carson.

“If you guys are going to do something, move fast,” Owen said, keeping his voice low.

The call ended.

For a moment no one spoke.

Ian glanced at Ryan.

“What do we do?” he asked.

Ryan considered his options.

His knee jerk reaction was to head to the boat, storm it and get Carson. But that could go poorly on all sides. Which left them with only one option.

“The FBI want the senator, so we need to get to him first.” Ryan glanced around the room. “We have to kidnap a senator.”

JOE’S FLIGHT WAS SCHEDULED to leave tonight. He’d flown here to find Kawa and figure out what the hell was going on with rescuing Jules. If he’d have known what a delay would mean to bringing her home, he wouldn’t have hesitated. This was the closest anyone had been to her in years.

He stared out the front window of the coffee shop and wondered where had it all gone wrong?

From the beginning he and his sister had been raised to put others first. He’d gone into politics while she needed to be closer to the action. She’d started out as a journalist then moved into documenting history as it happened. He still wasn’t entirely sure why she’d gone to Syria in the first place, but that was where she’d disappeared.

He’d called on every favor he was owed in those first few months trying to get her returned safely, but each time he was told their hands were tied. Syria was a land where they had no reach. They were at a stalemate with the Russians over that one plot of land and they couldn’t even make an attempt to rescue her.

She was out of luck.

His friends were so very sorry.

Their condolences had long since dried up leaving Joe full of regret.

His children were growing up without their aunt.

His wife had lost her best friend.

The world was a darker place without his sister in it.

So now he’d made a deal with the devil. After a long career of putting his state and country first, he was going to think about family.

He downed the rest of his coffee.

The bank would open and he’d have to do some creative explaining for why he wanted to withdraw that much cash. There would be questions and a waiting period, but soon enough he’d get his sister back.

Joe returned the ceramic mug to the counter and pulled out his phone.

His emails and messages from the staff back in D.C. beckoned him. He’d never dropped everything like this before. People were understandably curious, but he had no answers for them.

There was no message from his banker yet.

He exited the shop and turned left. Even with showing up early he’d still had to park around the corner and down the road a ways. At the corner he turned.

Two men stood at the curb next to his car. One had his hand on his hip, his coat drawn back, revealing the badge and gun at his hip.

Shit.

Joe turned as the walk sign changed. He followed along with the foot traffic headed in the opposite direction from his car.

Were they police? FBI? CIA?

What Joe was doing, it was wrong, but no one else would save his sister.

A man bumped into Joe, jostling him sideways.

Joe stepped away from the man, but he moved with him.

“Walk straight ahead with me if you don’t want the FBI to see you,” the man said in a low voice.

Joe stumbled over the curb.

What the hell was going on?

He lived a life according to all the rules, and the one time he chose to break them this happened?

“Your choice. Decide now,” the man said.

The system had failed his sister. He couldn’t keep failing her, too.

“Where are we going?” Joe asked.

“Straight ahead. There’s an SUV four cars down. See it?”

The big, blue SUV was hard not to notice.

Did Joe trust this random man off the street?

What options did he have?

“Get in. Now,” the man snapped.

The door to the SUV opened and Joe climbed in, sliding across the bench seat to the other side. The dark haired man climbed in after him.

“Go,” the man in the passenger seat snapped before turning toward Joe. “Senator Neilson, my name is Ryan Scott. I’m hoping we can help each other.”

Ryan offered Joe his hand.

He felt the noose tighten a little more.

Joe knew better than to accept help blindly. He’d been in politics long enough to know he needed all the facts before he accepted any assistance, even the most innocent.

“I think I made a mistake. Stop the car.” He put his hand on the door.

“Just hear me out, please? Five minutes?” Ryan picked up a cell phone from the center console between the two front seats. “Yesterday this woman—my girlfriend, Carson Adair—was kidnapped by the man you spoke to earlier this morning.”

Joe’s mouth went dry at the image of him speaking with Kawa.

“This man killed Carson’s boss in her apartment in front of her. They’ve kidnapped her and her whole family. We believe they are being held on the boat you were at this morning. The FBI agent in charge of this investigation doesn’t care about Carson, her family or capturing Kawa. They want you. You’re the big fish they’re after now.”

They knew.

Already?

How had he failed so dismally?

He dropped his face into his hands. He’d failed not only his sister, but his family and his country. There were others who could bend the rules and even break them when no one was looking, but not Joe. Not him.

“Senator, why were you talking to Kawa?” Ryan asked.

“My sister. Jules. She’s been held for the last four years by a group in Syria. No one can find her. The State Department won’t send a team in after her. He told me he could save her if I just looked the other way.” Joe stared down at his hands. His sister and his career were gone if this got out. Without his position he could never hope to help her.

“That’s it? That’s the whole deal?” Ryan asked.

“I love my sister, Mr. Scott. She’s a good soul.”

“If you can help me, maybe we can help you. My friends and I work for a company called Aegis Group. We’re men with certain skills. I think we can bring everyone home safe if that’s your goal.”

Joe wanted to believe, but he couldn’t. Not after so long.

CARSON HAD EXHAUSTED her mediocre medical knowledge. Now all she could do was keep Frankie comfortable as she whimpered in pain.

The few things Carson knew were that the bullet must have bounced off the wall or floor, then hit Frankie in the lower back to the left of her spine. There was only one wound, so her television doctor degree told her the slug was still in there and if they didn’t get Frankie help soon she could die. What TV hadn’t prepared Carson for was the slow, oozing way the wound bled. It was always so fast on shows.

“She’s burning up,” Mom whispered. She’d screamed herself hoarse at the door yelling for help earlier.

“I don’t know what else to do.” Carson kept her hands pressed tight to Frankie’s back.

Dad stroked Frankie’s wild hair off her face.

They had no options. No hope. Nothing.

Unless one of them got out of here.

She stared at the impossibly small window.

If there was a will, there was a way.

“Dad? Can you stand for a few minutes? I want to try something.”

“What do you need?”

“I want to see if I can’t fit through that window or flag someone down. We need to get the attention of someone. If we don’t...” She couldn’t bring herself to finish that sentence.

“Let’s try,” he said.

Carson held out her hands and helped Dad to his feet. Together they crossed the large, empty room to stand under the rectangular window positioned at the very top of the room. Her best guess was that it couldn’t be more than six or eight inches tall. Her head might not be able to fit, but maybe she could wave.

“Frankie couldn’t see anything out of it earlier,” Mom said.

Dad leaned against the wall then laced his hands together, forming a step for her. “Ready.”

“Okay.”

Carson didn’t know if she should hope, but she wanted to believe this could make a difference for them.

She planted one hand against the wall and the other on Dad’s shoulder. She then placed one foot in his hands.

“One, two, three.” She stepped up and grasped the edge of the window with both hands.

Carson hauled herself up enough so she could peer out at the water. There was a lot of space between them and the next boat.

“I’ve got you.” Dad grasped her dangling feet and boosted her up farther. “Can you fit?”

“I don’t know.” She turned her head to the side and fit it through the window. “I might be able to fit.”

Carson thrust her arm through, but the wall outside was smooth. She peered down and down and down. That was going to be a long way to go before she hit the deck. If this was their only chance she had to take it.

“Can you get me up any farther?” She wasn’t certain her wider areas would squeeze through, but maybe she could manage.

“I’m here. We’ve got you,” Mom said.

She and Dad pushed her lower body higher while Carson wiggled her chest, willing herself to fit. The tight fit restricted her breathing to the point that her vision began to haze, but she was squeezing through.

Carson got a knee through the window. She shoved her weight toward the ocean. Something ripped as gravity worked in her favor and her lower body dropped out from under her leaving her hanging by her hands.

She was through!

Now she had to survive the fall.

RYAN PEERED INTO THE rearview mirror at Senator Joe Neilson. How had this gone from Carson doing the FBI a solid to incriminating a sitting congressman?

“When will you know if the transfer cleared?” Joe asked.

“As soon as my people text me.” Ryan had one eye on his phone while the rest of his attention was on the comm in his ear.

The FBI were watching the bank too closely for any of them to just drive out. A transfer this large had to be verified, so it wasn’t something Joe could authorize from anywhere. They’d managed to talk a banker into walking out to the parking garage across the street to go through the necessary authorizations.

“Leaving the bank now,” Vito said, his voice more of a rumble than anything else.

“Those two black cars are still there,” Paxton said.

Ryan’s phone chimed. He thrust it at Alec in the passenger seat.

“What’s going on?” Joe leaned forward.

“Our diversion is on the go.” Ryan tilted his head.

“The money has been transferred,” Alec said.

“Good.”

Rather than deal with Joe’s banker directly for this deal and rely on the FBI to keep their hands out of the pie, they’d had him wire the funds to an Aegis account. If they had to go through with paying Kawa, the digital transfer would be the more secure way to go. Using an Aegis account also provided some additional security for Joe’s money.

“They took the bait,” Vito said.

A moment later a bang echoed through the headsets.

“FBI,” someone shouted on the other end.

“Let’s move.” Alec pound his hand on the door.

Ryan accelerated, not too fast; he didn’t want to draw attention to the Mustang. They turned out onto the street and followed the one way traffic.

From the beginning they’d known they couldn’t easily lose the senator’s FBI tail, so the key was to fake them out. Ryan cruised through an intersection and glanced at his left.

A dark blue SUV sat blocked in by two FBI vehicles, lights on. Vito, Paxton and Silas had their hands up, cooperating as the agents all looked the wrong way.

“We are almost clear,” Ryan muttered. He watched the last glimpse of the bogus arrest in his mirror.

“I don’t see a tail,” Alec said.

“Time to drive like we have somewhere to be.” Ryan shifted and accelerated, zipping into an opening between two other vehicles. “Time to make the call, Senator.”

“What am I supposed to say?” Joe asked.

“Just like we talked about. Call him, tell him we are on our way. Do not mention it’s a digital transfer.” Ryan needed to get close to Kawa. Close enough to put a gun to his head and motivate him to return Carson and her family before he made a break for it.

Joe pressed his phone to his ear.

They were closing in on the twelve hour mark. Ryan prayed Carson was still okay.

Joe closed his eyes.

Through the comm Ryan listened to the jumble of voices. Agent Walker yelled at someone.

“Kawa. It’s Joe. I’ve got the money and I’m headed to you.”

Ryan tightened his hands on the wheel. He’d like to hear both sides of the conversation, but they were pressed for time and he needed to know what was going on with the others.

“No, I will not wait. Waiting is what messed this up last time. I’m coming to you. Be ready.” Joe hung up the phone.

“You. Where’s the red head and the senator?” That was Agent Walker’s voice coming through the comm.

“What did he say?” Alec asked Joe.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Paxton said through the comm.

“You know who I mean,” Agent Walker snapped.

“Oh, Ryan? He’s off today. We’re just headed to a job.” Paxton had this knack for sounding utterly at ease. He’d sell that story for everything he could.

Listening to both sides was getting to be too much for Ryan’s sleep deprived mind.

“He wanted to push it back. Meet me later,” Joe said.

There was no way Ryan was letting that happen. They’d slipped the FBI for the moment, but not for long.

“We’ll be there in twenty minute if traffic doesn’t fuck us.” Ryan swerved into another lane and punched it, shooting forward a few car lengths.

“Mute your comm?” Alec asked.

“What?” Ryan reached up and double tapped the unit.

“I’m not getting anything anymore.” Alec pointed at his ear.

“Powering mine off.”

The downside to the comms was that if they fell into the wrong hands, they could be tracked. If they were on. Turning them off meant they had no way of communicating with the others for support. Ryan and Alec were on their own.