Page 63 of Protecting Bree
Cookie knelt next to the bloodstain with his head dipped low.
The women had been here…but who’d been hurt. Julie? Fiona? Bree? None of the scenarios in Smiley’s head were good.
Suddenly, he needed out of that truck.
Smiley spun and hurried toward the door, jumping out and leaning over with his hands on his knees as he struggled to gain control over his rioting emotions.
He heard Cookie jump down and join him on the ground.
“Smiley, look,” he said, pointing with his flashlight at something lying in the dirt.
Turning to see what he’d found, Smiley crouched and reached for the object, picking up a crude-looking piece of plastic covered in material and…hair?
Adrenaline shot through him so fast and hard, Smiley felt light-headed.
“It’s not their blood!” he exclaimed with absolute conviction. “In the truck. It’s not theirs!”
“We don’t know that,” Cookie said.
“Look—this is Bree’s hair. I’d bet my life on it. She used it to bind the material around the plastic to make a handle.” His gaze went back to the truck, and he remembered seeing something, in one of the cages. “The plastic came from those cages. One of the trays was missing a chunk near the back edge.”
If Smiley held the shank next to the tray, he knew it would fit perfectly.
“It’s not their blood,” he repeated. “They made a weapon. Used it on at least one of their captors. Probably waited until he opened their cage and attacked him. I’m guessing he didn’t even see it coming. Figured they were weak and scared. Fucker underestimated our women.”
“Okay, but where are they now?”
“I don’t know.” But Smiley couldn’t help but feel proud. They had to be terrified, but they hadn’t given up. From all the stories he’d heard from Cookie about Fiona, he wasn’t all that surprised. He’d also seen firsthand Bree’s stubbornness when it came to staying under the radar and doing what she needed to do in order to remain safe. And Juliehad come a long way from the woman she’d been in that jungle in Mexico.
Smiley pocketed the shank the women had made—and used effectively, if the blood on the floor of the truck and on the plastic was any indication. It was tangible proof of the strength of the woman he loved.
He wasn’t losing Bree. Not if he could help it. He’d follow her to the ends of the Earth, and then fight the devil himself to bring her home. Together, they’d get through whatever difficulties she suffered from being kidnapped.
He had no illusions. By now, she’d most likely been violated in the worst way a womancouldbe violated. He’d get her all the help she needed. And he’d make sure she understood that he loved her no matter what she’d been forced to do. Bree Haynes was his match, and he’d be damned if someone took her away from him without a fight.
“You found blood in the truck?” Kevlar asked, sounding alarmed.
He’d completely forgotten Kevlar and Tex were standing nearby. They didn’t know about the cages. Hadn’t seen the blood.
“Yeah,” Cookie said grimly. “They were here. There are three cages in the back, big enough to hold the women. There’s also blood on the floor. Smiley doesn’t think it’s from any of the women, but we have no way of knowing.”
“If Smiley doesn’t think it’s theirs, it’s not,” Kevlar said firmly. “What now? Tex? What do you think?”
Tex frowned, and Smiley felt a black cloud move over him. Shit. If Tex was frowning, things were bad.
“I’m sure Castillo brought them here for transport.He’s based in Ecuador, so he could be bringing them there, but there’s also no telling who he sold them to. He could be shipping one, two, or even all three of them off to different places from here. Ryleigh is trying to track money trails, but there are so many of them. Russia, India, China…North Korea even.”
“What are you saying? That they’re gone? That we can’t find them?” Cookie asked in a cold, hard tone.
“No. That this search just got bigger than I expected. We can start with his compound in Ecuador, but we also need to regroup. Call for more assistance. We can’t search every boat on the sea, we need the Coast Guard’s help, and the Mexican authorities. We need to put the word out about the missing women, get as much assistance as we can from the countries Ryleigh has tracked Castillo’s money to.”
Smiley felt as if he had a four-hundred-pound weight on his heart. All his talk about finding Bree and making sure she came home seemed to go up in smoke. How the hell was he supposed to find her if the women were already on their way to some far-flung country? They wereso close—and yet they’d still taken too long. The women were gone.
His failure and guilt weighed on him even more than it had every time his mom was beaten. He didn’t have the excuse of being “just a kid” anymore. He was a grown man. A Navy SEAL. And yet his woman had been taken right out from under his nose and disappeared into thin air without a trace.
A noise from nearby had all four men spinning around with their weapons drawn. But what was it? Had it comefrom one of the hundred cars haphazardly parked around the trucks?
Cookie was the first to move. He holstered his weapon and hurried toward a nondescript brown hatchback parked in the middle of a row of other vehicles.
