Page 89 of Protecting Bree
“Right. We’re on a roof. My estimate is probably about five or so miles from the coast.”
“How the fuck did you get all the way out there?”
“Again, no clue.”
“I need more than a roof. Describe the area.”
“We’re in an apartment building of some sort. Ten stories.” Smiley walked back to the edge of the roof and looked out, describing as many buildings and landmarks as he could make out.
“Right. I think MacGyver and Safe have you pinpointed on the map. Can you stay put while we come to you? The roads here suck and the violence out there has ramped up more and more throughout the day. It’ll take at least thirty minutes before we can get to your location.”
“Negative. My Spidey senses are screaming at me to move. Castillo has flyers out with Bree’s picture on them.He’s offering more money than anyone here could make in a lifetime for information on her whereabouts.”
“Yeah, we saw,” Kevlar said, disgust heavy in his tone. “Right. Can you see a statue of a guy riding a horse to your southwest?”
“Um…” Smiley said, searching the area for what Kevlar described. Then he turned to Bree. “Is there a big statue of a horse and a guy near here?”
Without pause, Bree pointed to their left.
“Let me guess, your woman is a master navigator.”
“Way better than me,” Smiley told him.
“Everyoneis better than you,” his team leader joked. Then got serious. “Get moving. We’ll meet you there. Keep your head down. We’ll find you. Glad you’re all right, Smiley. We were worried.”
For some reason, Smiley got choked up hearing that. He and his teammates were used to being in danger. To looking in the eyes of death and not flinching. But this situation definitely felt different.
“Thirty minutes, Smiley. Don’t stand us up or we’ll be pissed.”
The line went silent.
Smiley stepped around to the front of the woman’s shelter and handed the phone back to her with a smile and a nod.
“Um…Smiley?”
“Yeah?” he said, not liking Bree’s tone. He quickly stepped back to her side and wrapped an arm around her waist as she leaned over the side of the building a little too much for his liking.
“I’m thinking that’s not a good thing.”
Smiley leaned over to see where Bree was pointing. “Fuck!”
A military-style truck had pulled up in front of the apartment building and armed men were jumping out of the back, running toward the front door.
Without a word, he took Bree’s hand and hurried toward the door to the stairwell. They needed to get off this roof. Before those men made it up here. For some reason, Smiley had no doubt they were there for them.
Someone had obviously made a phone call to Castillo to report that they’d found the missing American. Using the stairs to get to the first floor was out. They’d have to find another way.
“Smiley?”
“Thirty minutes, Bree. All we have to do is keep ahead of them for thirty minutes. Then Kevlar and the rest of the gang will be here. Can you do that?”
“Piece of cake,” she said, her voice shaking.
Usually while in the middle of a mission, when bullets were flying and one wrong step could make the difference between life and death, Smiley felt at his most untouchable. He’d laughed in the face of death more than once. But at this moment, all he felt was dread. It wasn’t justhislife on the line.
He’d always known dying for his country was a possibility. But Bree had done nothing wrong. Had simply dated the wrong man. And here she was, kidnapped twice, beaten, and in the middle of an attempted military takeover and trapped like a rat in a maze.
Desperation made Smiley move faster. He held Bree’s hand with an iron grip as he ran down to the floor below the roof. He needed to find a place to hide, to let Castillo’shenchmen run past them and waste their time searching the roof. Surely one of the inhabitants up there would tell them that they’d left, but they’d have no idea which floor of the building they were on, or which apartment they might be in.
