When Day Breaks

“I have no f**king clue,” Swanny ground out. “I couldn’t give a shit about the whys and wherefores about who called who and why. Joe said Eddie sent him something and then told me not to lose my shit and remain focused. Now you tell me. Does that sound good to you?”

The heavy sarcasm—and a healthy dose of terror—was registered by Hancock. He lost some of his belligerence and he actually paled.

“Jesus,” he whispered. “What the f**k could it be? God, don’t let it be a picture of her dead body.”

“Shut the f**k up,” Swanny raged, uncaring that he was precariously close to losing all control and simply imploding. “Joe said we had to go in and get her out before it was too late. That means she’s not dead. Yet.”

Hancock fell silent and kept glancing at his watch. A few moments later, Swanny’s team roared up in two vehicles, having split up to cover more ground. Swanny was out and running in Joe’s direction before Joe could even get out.

Hancock was right on Swanny’s heels, ignoring the incessant honking by pissed-off drivers whom Hancock had blocked by parking at the corner of the intersection.

“Show me,” Swanny said bluntly.

Joe hesitated, which made Swanny’s insides twist into one huge ball. He could barely breathe for the dread gripping him.

“Just show us, goddamn it,” Hancock demanded. “We’re wasting f**king time by standing here. Is she alive? Whatever it is, get on with it.”

Joe dragged a hand through his hair and then pulled out his sat phone.

“Eddie called a while ago freaking the f**k out. Eden’s kidnapper sent him a video because she wanted Eddie to see what she was doing to Eden. She taunted him by saying she was drawing out Eden’s death. Told him her revenge would be complete because she was going to kill Eden and she wanted him to watch her die. Which leads us to believe she’s going to send another video.”

“Show it,” Swanny said, his nostrils flaring.

Joe sighed. “This isn’t easy to see, man. But you need to keep it together. Donovan is working on a trace to see if he can track her location. Hopefully he’ll strike gold and be able to give us a specific location, or hell, if he can just get us in the general vicinity, we’ll find her.”

Before Swanny or Hancock could tell him to quit delaying and show the damn video, Joe turned his phone around and hit the play button for the video.

Hancock’s sudden intake of breath was heard over the noise of traffic and the incessant honking.

Swanny felt sucker-punched as he stared at the events unfolding in front of him. He was numb, utterly numb. He’d never felt horror to this degree. Not even when he and Nathan had been tortured and starved for two months in hell.

Eden was bound to a chair and blood covered her face as her kidnapper made yet another cut to Eden’s face, carving a meticulous line from her cheekbone to underneath her chin.

Eden’s shriek of pain brought hot tears to Swanny’s eyes. He closed them, unable to bear it any longer. He didn’t even bother to wipe the tears away. He was devastated by what he saw Eden having to endure. The woman was systematically torturing her and taunting her with her impending death.

“Focus, goddamn it,” Hancock shouted. “We need to study the video, see if we can see anything that helps us pinpoint her location. Put it away, Swanny. Eden needs us. You can’t help her if you lose your shit now.”

Swanny visibly shook off his grief and rage and refocused his attention on the tear-blurred screen in front of him.

“Start it over,” Swanny choked out. “Hancock’s right. We need to look beyond Eden to see if we can locate anything that helps us. She doesn’t have long. When this crazy bitch grows tired of torturing Eden and taunting both her and Eddie, she’ll kill Eden and the next video we receive will be of her dead body.”

It took everything he had to push aside his emotions and look at this with the detachment he always had on other missions. He couldn’t look at this when his mind was clouded and consumed with fear for Eden. He had to put it away and do the job. At any cost.

Bracing himself and forcing himself to study the video with objectivity, he zeroed in on the surroundings. This time Joe muted it because the only sound was Eden’s scream and Swanny couldn’t bear to hear it again. Knowing she was in agony was hard enough. Listening again would send Swanny right over the edge. And he was precariously close to losing his shit. One push and he’d be gone.

Something caught his eye and his pulse ratcheted up, so much so that he could feel it beating at his temples and in his neck.

“Back that up,” Swanny ordered.

He leaned in, taking the phone from Joe, and then hit play again, bringing the phone closer to his vision.

There. There it was!

Oh God. She had his necklace on!

He thrust the phone at Joe, his movements frantic as he dug out the GPS locator from his pocket. Goddamn it. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He was so rattled in the hotel room, he hadn’t even thought about looking for the necklace. He’d assumed she’d wear something far more glamorous to the launch party.

“What the hell?” Hancock demanded. “What’s going on? What did you see?”

“The necklace,” Swanny rasped as he yanked out the locator. “I gave her a necklace with a tracking device. I told her to wear it when she wasn’t filming or at an event. I never expected she’d wear it tonight. That must have been the surprise she’d planned for me and why she didn’t want me to see her dressing. Yes, I gave it to her as a gift, something special, but my primary focus was on having a way to make sure she was safe if I wasn’t with her for whatever reason. But she didn’t know it had a chip. I didn’t want her to misinterpret the gesture.”