Page 69 of Protecting Bree
Tex was kind of scary, but Smiley was never as glad to have someone on his side as he was right this moment.
“Trackers?” Kevlar asked.
Tex sighed and his brows furrowed. “I don’t have any with me. As you can probably guess, I left home in a hurry. Then things happened so fast with coming here to Ensenada that I wasn’t able to get some backups from Wolf, which I’m sure he has hanging around his house.”
“I’ve got mine,” Smiley said.
“Did you find our trackers? When we woke up, all of our jewelry was gone,” Fiona said.
Cookie nodded. “They were mostly destroyed, but I do have your rings. The signal is faint but still there, at least that’s what Ryleigh said.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out her wedding rings. “Give me your hand,” he ordered.
Fiona did, and Cookie slid her rings back onto her finger. Then he brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back.
Julie took her earrings from Kevlar, frowning a little sadly at them, since they were so bent and broken.
“I’ll make sure your teammates have their trackers with them before they head down to South America,” Tex said, looking back at his computer screen. “Castillo’s going down,” he muttered. “He picked on the wrong woman.Women. Team. He should’ve known that he didn’t get away with this all those years ago, and there’s no damn way he’sgetting away with it a second time. Don’t mess with Navy SEALs.Period.”
“Hoo-ah,” Cookie and Kevlar said under their breaths.
But Smiley was thinking too hard about what was to come to bother with the typical Navy cheer. Making a plan felt like a step forward, but having to wait until that afternoon to leave Mexico didn’t sit well. Even knowing that the boat Bree was on couldn’t magically levitate to Ecuador didn’t make him feel any better.
They had to figure out where the boat would make landfall. Ecuador wasn’t a small country. And knowing where Castillo’s compound was wouldn’t make narrowing down the boat’s location any easier. Tex was good, but he wasn’tthatgood.
Or was he? Maybe luck would be on their side, and they’d be able to meet the boat at a shipyard when it docked. They could end this once and for all, without having to hike into the fucking jungle.
Smiley would never admit it, but he hated the jungle. Bugs gave him the creeps. And snakes? Forget about it. But he’d face a million snakes if it meant getting Bree back safely.
Excusing himself after telling Fiona and Julie how relieved he was that they were all right, Smiley went back to his room. He didn’t feel like being around anyone right now. He needed to think. To plan. To stress the fuck out. Once he got it out of his system, he could fly to Ecuador and be the kick-ass Navy SEAL he’d trained to be for years. Because this mission? It was the most important of his life. And he had no intention of failing.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was official. Bree was seasick. She felt awful. Escaping was the last thing she was thinking about. Since she no longer had anything in her belly, all she could do was dry heave…which might’ve been a blessing in disguise, because her captors wanted nothing to do with her. She was grossing them out.
They left her alone, for the most part. Preferring to stay out of the small cabin where her cage was located, which now smelled like vomit and body odor. To her surprise, they’d also left her water, which was more than they’d done for her and the others when they were in that damn truck filled with chickens.
But she couldn’t even really appreciate it much. She tried to drink, but it usually came right back up. Bree was weak, disoriented, and so sick of being on this boat, she was actually looking forward to when they arrived in Ecuador. And that was just sad, because arriving in the country meant her suffering wouldreallystart. Mateo would be there, and he probably wouldn’t care that she was seasick.
The only thing that kept Bree from completely giving up was the thought of Smiley. And of Fiona and Julie being rescued. She had no way of knowing that they’d gotten away, but given the way the men who’d beaten her had been acting, and the snippets of conversation she’d been able to translate, they seemed scared shitless to see Mateo. And she hoped that meant the other women hadn’t been found.
Surely the SEALs would’ve gotten to them by now. Maybe Julie and Fiona had found someone who’d let them use a phone, and they were able to call Wolf, or Tex, or somebody to come get them. The thought made Bree smile, even though it hurt her face to do so.
She was swollen and bruised all to hell. Maybe her appearance would be a turn-off to Mateo’s employees. Then she huffed out an exasperated breath. No, it wouldn’t. Men who had no problem sexually assaulting women being held against their will wouldn’t give a shit if said woman was covered in bruises or begging for them to leave her alone. They’d take what they wanted, damn the consequences.
Turning her mind away from that, Bree’s stomach tightened once more as they dropped off another big wave, and she began to dry heave again. She was a mess. Tears leaked out of her eye that wasn’t swollen shut and rolled down her cheek. Right about now, she’d kill for a toothbrush. And for the room to stop rocking.
Time had no meaning. Bree had no idea how long she’d been on the boat, or how much longer they had to go. She could only close her eyes and pray this torture would beover soon. Of course, she had to be careful what she wished for…because what was waiting for her on dry land was most likely a hundred times worse than what she was experiencing right now.
Not able to wrap her mind around the fact that she could ever feel worse than she did right now, Bree did the only thing she was capable of at the moment. She closed her good eye, curled into a ball, and prayed to sleep. To escape the hell she was in. Even if just for a moment.
Smiley was nervous. No, he was internally freaking out. He and Kevlar were in Ecuador. The city of Guayaquil, to be precise. It was where Tex thought Castillo would most likely be waiting for Bree. But if he was wrong…
Smiley didn’t want to even think about that possibility. Guayaquil was the largest city in the country, with about two-point-two million inhabitants. But it was also where most of the import and export trade was conducted. It was home to the country’s chief port, where the majority of the ships entered and exited. Making it ideal for Castillo. It was likely many of the workers had been given bribes to ignore anything illegal they might see or hear.
Port Guayaquil itself was responsible for ninety percent of the commercial flow that affected the national economy, but there were also other, smaller seaports and marinas. They had no way of knowing where the boat Bree was on would be docking.
When Smiley and Kevlar had arrived, it was almost three in the morning, and they’d met up with Tex’s contact, waiting for them outside of customs as promised.The man didn’t speak much, simply nodded at them and led them out to his truck. As he drove them through the city, it was obvious the country was in the middle of a crisis.
Men with rifles openly prowled the dark streets and signs of recent violence were everywhere. Very few people were out and about, owing to the late hour…and likely the state of nervousness from civilians.
