Page 86 of Protecting Josie
Blink and Smiley crept across the dark road to the back of the car. They went around to the side of the car farthest away from the front door and leaned up to look in the window. Smiley took out a small pen light and turned it on, aiming it toward the back seat.
Blink inhaled sharply at the same time Smiley said, “What the fuck?”
Lying on the back seat was a woman. She had what looked like reddish-brown hair, and her eyes were huge in her face. She had a black eye, bruises all over her face, and a gag in her mouth. Her hands were bound with a zip tie, as were her ankles. If Blink had to guess, he would’ve said she was anywhere from her late twenties to mid-thirties, but it was hard to tell in her condition and in the darkness.
Smiley met Blink’s gaze, then reached for the door handle. To both their surprise, it wasn’t locked. And no overhead light turned on when the door swung open, another clear sign something seriously bad was going on.
Smiley reached into a pocket of his pants and pulled out the knife he always carried. It snicked open, and he reached for the gag around her mouth.
The woman flinched, but didn’t jerk away from Smiley. He reached inside the car and cut off the offending material.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
It was kind of a stupid question, because ofcoursethis woman wasn’t all right.
“No! Please help me!”
Without another word, Smiley leaned in farther and reached for her ankles.
Blink looked up at the house, then back at the woman. They didn’t have much time. At any moment the man could return, and they needed to be ready.
“What’s your name?” Smiley asked as he began to work on the zip-tie around her wrists.
“Bree. Bree Haynes,” she said. “I…My ex sold me to this asshole. He’s here to pick up someone else. Then he said he’s taking us to some underground brothel.” She shivered. With fear or revulsion, Blink wasn’t sure.
“I’m Jude Stark. My friends and I are Navy SEALs out of Riverton. You’re okay now.”
Blink had never heard his friend sound so…gentle. He wasn’t known for his bedside manner, so to speak. But as Smiley cut off the woman’s bindings, Blink was stuck on one of the last things the woman told them. The man was here to pick up someone else. And he knew in his gut who that was—Josie.
He’d been right. Shewashere. And no way was she being sold into sexual slavery.Fuck no.
“Come with me,” Smiley said gruffly, holding out his hand to the woman.
She recoiled.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to get you away from here. Youdidask for help,” he said brusquely, sounding more like the man Blink was used to.
The woman bit her already bleeding lip and winced. Then nodded. Without a word, Smiley took her hand in his and quickly led her down the street, toward where they’d parked, instead of heading back to Preacher.
The evidence of what Millie and Gen had planned for Josie sank in. Blink still didn’t know who had actually kidnapped her, but at this point it didn’t matter. They’d obviously sold his woman to this…monster, knowing what he had planned for her.
They were inhuman. He knew evil existed in the world, had given an oath to fight it on behalf of his country. Butthis…Blink was having a hard time wrapping his mind around it. Women knowingly selling another woman to a sex slaver was one of the worst things he could imagine. They wanted Josie to suffer in one of the worst ways imaginable.
He’d quietly closed the door of the sedan and was trying to figure out what his next move was going to be when Millie’s front door opened. Silhouetted in the doorway was the large man who’d gotten out of the car, and a diminutive shadow at his side.
Blink would recognize Josie anywhere.
The man had her upper arm in his grasp, and Blink could see that her hands were cuffed in front of her. The sight made him hesitate for just the slightest moment.
That hesitation was something his training should’ve prevented. But this wasn’t an op, it was personal—and the sheer relief of seeing Josie alive, combined with the rage over seeing her manhandled by the large man, was enough to make years of training fly out the window.
That hesitation caused him to fuck up…by not ducking back down behind the car fast enough, before the occupants of the house saw him standing by the back of the sedan.
Then all hell broke out.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The second the man walked into the house, Josie knew she was in deep shit. He was big. And he had a mean scowl on his face.
