Page 45 of Protecting Bree
Bree coughed and felt the world start to spin.
“Oh, shit,” Julie muttered, as she brought her shirt up to cover her nose and mouth.
But it was no use. The fog was thick and it was getting harder and harder to think. They were being drugged. She could only think of one person who’d have a vehicle madewith unbreakable glass, a partition between the cargo area and the rest of the car, and a way to gas the occupants.
Mateo Castillo.
He wasn’t being handcuffed and taken to jail. He washere. Now. And he’d found her.
Not only her, but he’d taken Julie and Fiona as well.
It wasn’t fair! They’d already been through hell.
Crawling over to Fiona, Bree wrapped her arms around the woman and held on as tightly as she could, even as she felt herself losing consciousness. Whatever Mateo had in store for them wouldn’t be good. She knew that as well as she knew her own name. But she vowed to do whatever it took to get Fiona and Julie out of this. Mateo was afterher. Not them.
The last thought she had before passing out was how pissed Smiley was going to be. The guilt he’d feel would be overwhelming. He’d assigned himself as her protector, and yet she’d been taken right out from under his nose.
She had no idea how Mateo had known where and when to strike, but that didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was surviving until Smiley and his friends could find them.
Thirty minutes later, Safe’s house was packed to the gills, but Smiley barely noticed. He couldn’t get the sight of that empty back room out of his head. He hadn’t heard a damn thing. No screams. Nothing. Castillo had swooped in and somehow taken all three women without making a sound.
Hurt had already given Tex access to the store’s security camera footage. He was already working on trackingCastillo through other CCTV cameras in the area. Meanwhile, Hurt was trying to connect the security camera app for Julie’s system to the television at Safe’s house, so they could view the footage.
Even knowing Tex was on this, Smiley felt sick. He couldn’t help but feel as if this was his fault.
“What the fuck went wrong with the task force?” Cookie bit out. He wasn’t asking anyone in particular, but the room in general.
All of Cookie’s former teammates were there. As were Smiley’s friends. Everyone wanted todosomething, but they didn’t have a direction to take yet. So they had to wait. Which normally wouldn’t be a problem, they were all used to waiting, but this time things were personal. Not only was Bree’s life in danger, but Fiona and Julie’s too.
And everyone was more than aware of what had happened all those years ago in Mexico. How badly the women had been abused. How Fiona had been drugged. And how she’d had that relapse when she’d come back to California. This was literally her worst nightmare come true.
And Julie…she hadn’t exactly dealt well with being a captive last time, although she was definitely a different person now than she was all those years ago.
Then there was Bree. Yes, she’d been taken from her apartment back in Vegas, but she’d been rescued pretty quickly. How was she holding up?
Smiley couldn’t stop thinking about what he should’ve done. How he should’ve kept her on base or at his apartment until he’d gotten confirmation that Castillo was taken into custody.
Minutes later, Hurt had finally gotten the securityfootage pulled up from My Sister’s Closet, and everyone gathered around the TV to watch.
Kevlar sidled up next to Smiley and put his arm around his shoulders. He needed the support, and didn’t push his team leader’s arm away. He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing Bree being taken.
As he leaned against Kevlar, Hurt clicked play. Holding his breath, Smiley watched as the girls smiled and chatted. Fiona held up a dress she’d just taken out of one of the garbage bags full of clothing. Then the back door slammed open, and all three women spun around as three men stormed inside.
To Smiley’s shock, Castillo himself was among the three kidnappers. He stood out amongst the others, as he was quite large, both in height and weight. He stormed toward Bree, who stumbled backward and tripped over one of the bags.
Fiona and Julie were struggling with the other two men as Castillo grabbed Bree. He wrapped his arm around her neck, and Smiley could barely breathe himself as he imagined the panic Bree must’ve been feeling.
And just like that, the back room was empty.
The entire kidnapping had taken no more than thirty seconds.
Twenty-four seconds, to be exact.
The view changed to the camera in the back alley, and Smiley watched as the women were forced into the cargo area of a large SUV. He could see Julie pounding on the back glass as the vehicle sped out of the alley.
To everyone’s dismay, they could clearly see the license plate on the SUV had been blacked out. No doubt theywould pull over somewhere and take the tape off so they wouldn’t be stopped by the cops.
After watching the video, the room was silent as the men absorbed what they’d seen.
