Page 54 of Protecting Bree
Which got her thinking. Iftheyweren’t victims, why wasshe? She hadn’t done anything wrong either. Carl, her ex, had been the one to freakingsellher. As if she were a piece of property.
She wasn’t. She was Bree Haynes, and she’d managed to elude Mateo and his goons for months. And she had Smiley on her side. And his friends. She had an army at her back, or would that be a Navy? She grinned at her own joke.
“Bree? You aren’t losing it over there, are you?” Julie asked worriedly.
To her surprise, Bree found herself chuckling. “No. Just thinking something that made me laugh. I have to say it…I’m terrified. This is a nightmare, and I don’t want to think about what’s going to happen when we get to wherever we’re going. I know Mateo is from Ecuador, but surely we aren’t going to be driven all the way there. And they can’t keep us in these crates the whole way either, right? They have to stop and feed us. At the very least give us water. I’m thinking that’s our chance. To take them by surprise, like you said, Julie.”
“I agree,” Fiona replied with a firm nod.
“Me too. So we need a weapon. Something we can use when they let us out of these cages.”
Taking a deep breath, and immediately regretting itagainbecause of the contaminated air she’d just sucked into her lungs, Bree coughed, then nodded. Shifting to herknees, her head brushing against the top of the cage, she shuffled to the end of the plastic tray. Methodically, inch by inch, she tested the plastic. Looking for weaknesses, anything that could be exploited and might help them escape.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Smiley leaned against the wall of the conference room back on the naval base. It was nearly one in the morning—and they were no closer to finding the missing women than they’d been earlier. Smiley hadn’t slept, but neither had anyone else. Everyone was on edge and tense, and tempers were short.
Putting over a dozen amped-up, stressed-out Navy SEALs in a room with no clear objective or plan wasn’t a great idea. And yet no one was going to leave. Not without having some intel on the whereabouts of three of their own.
Someone had ordered takeout, but hardly anyone had touched the food. Just the smell was making Smiley sick. Besides, all he could think about was what Bree might be eating—ornoteating, as he feared was the case. How could he eat when he knew she was hungry and hurting?
They’d spoken a couple times to Ryleigh via phone, but she didn’t have updated intel to share yet. A woman named Beth was working to try to track Castillo to any connectionshe might have at shipyards in Ensenada. They needed to narrow down where that chicken truck might end up before a team headed into Mexico.
The commander was making calls to get emergency approval to send Smiley and his team into that country, but there was a lot of red tape to work through with both the US and Mexican governments. Obviously, the authorities south of the border weren’t thrilled about a group of armed-to-the-teeth SEALs coming into their country, but because of Fiona and Julie’s past history in Mexico, the commander was slowly making headway.
Not quick enough for Smiley, Cookie, and Hurt though.
The older men looked as if they’d aged a decade overnight. Smiley had a feeling he probably looked the same. Just because he and Bree weren’t married didn’t mean he was any less affected.
He loved her.
There was no doubt in his mind that Bree Haynes was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. She was his perfect match. He had a feeling he’d known it back when he was desperately looking for her after meeting her that night in Vegas. Something about her just hit home. It made no sense, and a lot of people would scoff at the idea of soul mates. But without Bree, Smiley had no doubt he’d revert back to the grumpy asshole everyone thought he was before he’d met her.
And that wasn’t who Smiley wanted to be. Not anymore. He laughed more, tolerated the idiocy of his fellow humans better when he was around her. She made him want to be the kind of man she could rely on, who could make her laugh and smile every single day.
His future was a deep dark hole without her. Smiley knew that without a doubt. And if he lost her…
No. He couldn’t go there. Not while also staying focused on what he needed to do.
Jerking in surprise when the door to the conference room slammed open, Smiley glanced over to see who’d entered so abruptly. All conversation stopped, and it was so quiet, the ticking of the second hand from the clock on the wall was loud in the silent room.
“Well?” the man boomed, his slight southern accent clear even in that one word. “What’s happened since I’ve been trapped on that fucking plane? I was working with Ryleigh before I left, helping her go through video feeds, but the Wi-Fi on the plane wasn’t working so I had no way of communicating with anyone. Then we were delayed not once, butthreefucking times. I’m irritated beyond belief and I feel as I’m way behind. Someone fill me in. Stat.”
Tex.
Smiley couldn’t believe it. Tex fucking Keegan was here. In the flesh. He couldn’t remember a time when the man had personally involved himself in…a situation. He usually communicated via phone and stayed glued to his computer as he did what he could to help. For him to be here, in person, said a lot about what was happening. Smiley didn’t know whether to be impressed or fucking terrified.
“Well?” Tex demanded again.
Wolf broke out of his shock first and strode toward the man, hugging him. Hard.
The rest of Wolf’s team followed, and soon Tex was surrounded by his oldest and dearest friends. They had alot of history together, and it wasn’t surprising the SEALs were so happy to see the man.
Then it was Kevlar’s turn. Safe, Blink, Preacher, MacGyver, and Flash followed suit. Smiley was honored to meet the legend in person, but he hated the reason he was there in the first place.
Tex broke away from the others and walked toward him. He hadn’t moved from his place near the wall.
“Smiley,” he said, with a nod of his head.
