Chapter Nine

 

 

“Blue Team in position,” Tucker murmured through Reid’s earpiece in the darkness. “Stand by for breach.”

Reid kept watch with his teammates from their position behind some trees thirty yards from the wood-framed house ahead of them. All seven members of HRT Blue team were lined up alongside the east wall of the house, NVGs on and M4s up, ready to storm the place.

Overhead, tree branches swayed slightly in the breeze, blowing the draped moss hanging from them. The steady chirp of cicadas and crickets filled the night in a continual hum, and somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted in the darkness.

The scent of decaying vegetation and stagnant water hung in the muggy air. As far as they could tell, there was no perimeter security out here in the bayou. But without a doubt, as soon as the HRT breached the door, Ruiz and his men would come out fighting.

“Execute.”

At Tuck’s quiet command, one of his men blew the locks off the door. A couple flashbangs lit up the stygian doorway a moment later, for a brief instant making it bright as daylight inside. The point man rushed inside, followed by the rest of the HRT.

“Go,” Hamilton ordered FAST Bravo, just as shouts and shots rang out from inside.

Reid and three of his teammates rushed out of the trees to cover the east and south sides of the target house, while another four took the north and west sides and Hamilton stayed in between to monitor the situation.

Charging into position, Reid sighted down the barrel of his weapon and swept the side of the house, watching for anyone who might try and make a run for it.

It only took ninety seconds for the HRT to clear the house.

“House secure. Moving to outbuildings now.”

“Move in,” Hamilton ordered.

Reid led the way into the dilapidated house, his NVGs allowing him to see clearly in the darkness. The stench of the place was like a slap in the face—urine, garbage, pot and body odor all mixing with the sickly-sweet smell of rancid booze.

Inside the room on the left, a male body lay facedown on the floor. In the kitchen, two more lay sprawled out near the table. The HRT guys had already stripped them of weapons.

Reid motioned at Maka, Khan and Colebrook, and together they continued through the rear of the house and out into the backyard. They found the HRT boys already heading back from the rear of the property with three prisoners in tow.

Hamilton joined them on the damp overgrown grass. “Find what we were looking for?” he asked Tucker, who was in the lead.

“Nope, but we got one prisoner and two female hostages. The females need medical attention.”

Reid took in the two half-naked women, who were hunched over with their arms crossed over their bare breasts, both of them crying softly. He turned his angry stare to the male prisoner who had his chin up, his expression one of defiance.

Hamilton nodded and spoke to Reid and the others. “Get started in there.”

Reid and his teammates made short work of searching the place. “Small stash here,” he called out from one of the bedrooms, the restraints still fastened to the bed turning his stomach. No way the females tied down in here had been restrained by choice.

Khan stuck his head in, noted the pile of pistols and rifles Reid had just found under a floorboard that had been thinly disguised beneath an old rug.

“Wad of cash, too,” Reid added.

“Granger and Lockhart got a bunch of coke in the kitchen,” Khan said, hunkering down to pry the board free and toss it aside.

By the time they finished they’d found another two caches of weapons, along with enough weed and coke to meet the arrest threshold for the prisoner the HRT had taken.

Hamilton stopped in the doorway. “Forensics team’s here. You guys go check out the outbuildings while we process all this.”

Reid got up and stepped out into the hallway. Beyond the open front door, FBI agents and some of the HRT guys were talking with the two female hostages, who now had blankets draped around them. Both were standing up on their own power and seemed to be moving okay, but neither were the reporter, Victoria Gomez. Had she even been here?

He turned sideways to let a few support personnel past him, and strode back through the kitchen and living room to the back door. From the sagging rear porch, he could just make out the shadowy shape of the shed near the back fence.

The boards creaked as Khan joined him on the stoop. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Together they crossed the yard. As he neared the fence, Reid noticed a gap where some of the old boards had been broken, as though someone had smashed through it in their haste to escape. A K9 unit was already back there checking it out.

Reid aimed the high-powered beam of his tactical flashlight through the shed’s open doorway. A thin, badly stained bare mattress lay on the wood floor, along with a short, rusty length of chain attached to a bolt in the floorboards.

Reid’s jaw tightened, knowing what it signified. They’d kept one of the female hostages chained up out here like a fucking animal.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered under his breath, and stepped inside.

Khan stopped next to him, taking it all in. “Damn.”

Reid pushed out a breath and glanced around. “I’ll look at the back, you check the front.” He searched the floors and walls of the dismal prison, shifted the mattress aside to search beneath it, but there was nothing except that goddamn rusty chain and bolt. “Nothin’.”

“Front’s clear too,” Khan said. “I’ll start checking outside.”

Reid joined him, a deep-seated anger roiling inside him. He was the father of a little girl. The thought of a man treating a woman like that, knowing the sick fucks had planned to sell them into the skin trade afterward, made him want to smash the bastards’ faces in.

Again, he and Khan found nothing.

Reid reported their findings to Hamilton, who sent them out front to talk to the investigators. An ambulance was on scene now, treating the female hostages. He didn’t even want to think about what kinds of injuries they might have sustained being held captive here by these animals.

As for his team, their work was done here. He and Khan started back through the woods together, heading for the spot where they’d left the van. “Think Ruiz was here?”

“If he was, the dogs will pick up his scent.”

Reid hoped they did, but he doubted anything would come of it. Ruiz had eluded U.S. authorities for a long time, and he was smart. Too smart to be caught holed up here with his enforcers and human cargo.

He stepped over a fallen log, the beam of his flashlight cutting like a laser through the darkness. Then a branch snapped somewhere to his right.

He froze and whipped around, aiming the beam there. A branch in the distance swayed at waist level, having been disturbed by something.

Or someone.

Without a word, Khan was right next to him, weapon up. Reid shut off his flashlight and lowered his NVGs into place, allowing them to hunt without the light giving them away.

Khan squeezed Reid’s right shoulder, signaling that he was ready to move. Reid crept forward, scanning the dense undergrowth, his pulse kicking up a notch. Was it Ruiz, or one of his men?

Something moved beyond the screen of leafy branches, right next to a path worn into the earth, making the surrounding brush quiver.

“Freeze,” Reid called out in a hard voice. He had his rifle to his shoulder, finger on the trigger guard, Khan locked and loaded behind him and to his right.

The brush stopped moving.

Reid zeroed in on the spot, every one of his senses on alert. “Stand up and put your hands in the air,” he commanded.

Nothing.

“Show yourself, now,” he yelled, taking a few gliding steps forward. He hated that he couldn’t see his target, or tell whether they were armed—

A figure stepped out onto the path, hands raised.

A woman. Naked.

Reid stopped. “Stay right there and don’t move,” he warned, approaching her slowly. She had something in her hand, but it didn’t look like a gun. Too bulky, and not the right shape.

Leaving Khan to cover him, Reid pulled his flashlight out and aimed it at her. The woman flinched as the light blinded her, and when she raised her arms in a gesture of self-defense, Reid finally saw what she was holding.

A big stick.

And she had a goddamn rusty collar and chain dangling from her neck.

Oh, Jesus.

He immediately lowered and slung his weapon, and gentled his demeanor. “Put the stick down and get onto your knees for me.” He needed to be certain she wasn’t armed with something else. His and Khan’s safety took precedence.

The woman seemed to weave on her feet for a moment, blinking at him with one bruised eye, the other swollen shut. Her face was too badly distorted to see her features clearly. They’d beaten the shit out of her, and it twisted Reid’s stomach.

“It’s okay,” he said in a softer tone, holding one hand toward her, palm-out. “We’re not gonna hurt you. We’re with the DEA.”

She stared back at him for a moment, her long, dark hair partially shielding her naked breasts. She was trembling all over.

“Put the stick down,” Reid said again. “We’re going to help you.”

The woman swallowed. Her hand twitched on the stick, then she opened her fist and it fell to the ground with a soft thud.

Okay, he wasn’t going to make her kneel before him while she was naked and wearing that goddamn collar, fresh from whatever those motherfuckers had done to her. “Cap,” he said to Hamilton over their comms. “We found another hostage. Meet us on the road.”

“Roger that.”

The woman took what appeared to be an involuntary step back as Reid continued to approach her. He stopped, tried to look as non-threatening as he could with his size while armed and wearing tactical gear. He motioned to Khan, who was beside him now. “I’m Special Agent Reid Prentiss. This is my teammate, Zaid. He’s our medic. Will you let him help you?” For starters, Reid wanted that fucking collar and chain off her, asap.

Her one-eyed gaze flicked over to Khan, her stiff posture and stance telling Reid that she was an instant from fleeing through the woods like a wounded doe. She had no reason to trust him, or believe that he and Khan were with the DEA. For all she knew they were more of Ruiz’s men, or someone else from the cartel.

“What’s your name?” he asked, not daring to move in case it triggered her flight response.

She didn’t answer, her chest and shoulders rising and falling with her rapid, harsh breaths. Blood trickled down from where the chain had bitten into her neck, and her wrists and ankles were raw from whatever they’d bound her with. The rest of her was a mass of bruises and other marks. Fucking hell, he wanted to cover her up and carry her out of here.

“Okay, I’m here,” Hamilton said through his earpiece.

Reid pointed a finger over her shoulder. “There’s a road just up ahead. My team leader is there waiting for us. We can get you help.”

The woman stared at him a few seconds longer, then glanced briefly over her shoulder and fixed her gaze back on him once more. Weighing her options. Realizing that there was nowhere for her to go. That she was trapped.

She crossed her arms over her breasts in a purely self-conscious move, seemed to hunch into herself as she dropped her chin. Reid lowered the beam of the flashlight, aiming it at the trail instead of her. Then she took a halting step back, instinctively moving away from him and Khan. Maybe not believing that there was someone actually waiting out on the road for them.

Reid bit back a sigh and reined in his frustration. She’d been through hell and back. He didn’t blame her for being scared and distrustful. “Okay, we’ll follow you. Go ahead and watch your step.”

She kept going, her body angled away from them, too afraid to give them her back.

“Moving to you, Cap,” Reid told him.

“Okay. Does she need medical attention?”

“Yeah.”

Khan stayed silent, but Reid knew damn good and well his buddy was sickened by what had happened to her, and as a medic the urge to help her had to be burning a hole inside him right now.

A few yards from the dirt road, the woman stopped, having spotted Hamilton standing there near the van.

“Cap, is there a blanket in the van?” Reid asked.

“Gimme a sec.”

Reid and Khan both waited in place while their team leader went to look, and the woman stood frozen in place as though she was afraid to move.

“Yeah, got one,” Hamilton said a moment later.

“It’s okay,” Reid said to the woman. “It’s our team leader. He’s got a blanket for you. Let’s get you covered up, and then Zaid can take a look at you.” And I’ll get that fucking collar off you.

The woman’s breathing grew even shorter, the rapid rhythm of it telling Reid that she was a second away from either freaking out or bolting. Maybe she thought they were going to kidnap her again.

She’d been through too much already. He couldn’t put her through any more fear.

“Cap,” he murmured into his mic, keeping his gaze pinned to her. “Gonna need a hand here. She’s too scared.” He shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, ready to spring into action if she bolted.

“Hang on.” Seconds later Hamilton materialized through the trees, the blanket already spread open in his hands.

The woman gasped and whirled, and in the edge of the flashlight’s beam Reid caught the abject shock on his team leader’s face for a split second as Hamilton saw her and the state she was in. She whirled to flee, and Hamilton reacted instantly, leaping forward to capture her with the blanket, wrapping its folds around her as he lifted her off her feet.

Reid cursed silently and burst toward them. She let out a shrill scream and tried to fight her way free, but Hamilton had his arms locked around her, holding her to his chest. “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay,” he said gently. “Hey, no. I won’t hurt you. Shhh.”

Reid and Khan stopped a few feet from them and stood there. Reid’s heart squeezed as the woman stilled and finally curled into a ball, the blanket swallowing everything but the top half of her face and head.

Hamilton gently sank to the ground on his knees and pulled her into his lap. “It’s all right. Just breathe. Nobody’s ever going to hurt you again. I’m going to carry you to the van and—”

“N-no,” she said sharply.

Hamilton glanced up at them. Maybe the bastards had taken her that same way. Thrown her into a van before bringing her out here. “Okay, no van. I’ll carry you out to the road and my guys will call an ambulance up. Because you need medical attention. All right?”

She hesitated a moment, then managed a nod, and Reid let out a sigh of relief before asking for an ambulance to be sent around.

“Here we go.” Hamilton stood and started for the road. Reid stayed behind them to light the way with his flashlight while Khan loped ahead. When Reid emerged from the trees behind Hamilton, Khan was already bringing the van up. He popped out and slid the side door open for them.

The woman made a sound of protest and tried to twist away.

“I’m just going to sit you on the edge of the floor, not put you in it,” Hamilton said to her, never breaking his stride. Reaching the van, he gently set her inside the open doorway, and straightened. He turned his head and met Reid’s gaze, those steel gray eyes were so full of rage they all but glowed in the half-light. “Get that fucking collar off her,” he snarled under his breath.

Reid didn’t have to be told twice. He waited until Hamilton moved aside before approaching the woman, taking his helmet off so she could see him better in the moonlight. “Let’s get this chain off you, okay?” he said, reaching for it.

She tensed and drew away slightly, but otherwise didn’t move, her one functioning eye darting back and forth between the three of them.

Khan aimed the flashlight for him. Reid moved in close to get a good look at the collar. Some asshole had locked it with a padlock, giving her only a fraction of an inch breathing room between her skin and the rusted metal. It had worn a raw strip around her entire neck and throat, and he could tell with one look that the bloody wound was infected.

God dammit.

“I need a lockpick kit.”

“Try this,” Khan said, handing him a multi-tool.

Reid got to work. He tried his best not to tug on the collar, but he had to when he gave the multi-tool a final savage twist. “Sorry,” he murmured, but the metal hook on the padlock sprang free. He pulled it off and tossed it into the dirt, then carefully pried the stiff halves of the collar apart, the rusted links of the chain clanking dully on the van floor.

She hissed in a breath as it pulled away from her raw skin, and when Reid saw how deep it had cut into the sides of her neck, he clenched his back teeth together to suppress a growl of pure rage.

“There we go,” he said, finally pulling it free. He wanted to hurl the goddamn thing into the woods, but they’d need it for evidence, so he tossed it inside the van.

Hamilton moved in to crouch in front of her. “Can my medic take a look at you now?”

She looked from him to Khan, and Reid thought she was about to give her consent when the ambulance turned onto the road and headed for them. Her hand shot out from the blanket and latched onto Hamilton’s in pure reflex, seeking reassurance. Or protection.

With them, she had both.

Hamilton curled his fingers around her slender hand. “It’s all right. They’ll help you. Give you something for the pain.”

Her throat worked convulsively as she swallowed, her gaze trained on the approaching ambulance.

“What’s your name?” Hamilton asked gently.

Her head turned, her one open eye focusing on him. “Victoria,” she said, her voice hoarse either from disuse…or screaming. “Victoria Gomez.”