Page 73 of Protecting Bree
No! She couldn’t get this close only to break now.
But her mind could no longer overpower her body. Bree fell to her knees, hard. A squeak of pain escaped her lips as she scraped the hell out of her legs. She stayed there a beat, on her hands and knees, panting.
She was so tired. She’d triedso hard. And it looked as if she was going to fail after all. And that sucked! She considered getting up and running some more, but even as she gave her body the order, her limbs refused to move.
With a last-ditch will to live, to escape, Bree dragged herself toward a large pile of debris. It was rocks, leaves, and dirt, piled up as if moved by a bulldozer or something. Maybe she could hide herself behind it.
As she neared it, the male voices got louder. They were right on her tail.
To her surprise, the pile was pliant. Crumbly. Turning so her legs were toward the pile, she crawled backward. Her legs were quickly swallowed up by the debris.
Wiggling and squirming, Bree franticly tried to cover as much of her body as she could. To push her way inside the pile. She was able to get all but her head and shoulders into the dirt.
It occurred to her that she was basically burying herself alive. That she was making it easier for the men searching for her to conk her on the head, then use the pile as her actual grave, hiding their misdeed from the authorities and anyone who might come looking for her.
And that made her think about Smiley once more.
Determined to do whatever she could to help herself, grave or not, Bree scooped up some of the dirt around herand rubbed it into her hair and shoulders, trying to blend in more with the dark pile of dirt and rubble.
Then when the voices were perilously close, just on the other side of her hiding place, she lowered her forehead to the ground and held her breath, praying she was sufficiently hidden and her pursuers would walk right by.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At the first man’s shout, Smiley’s head whipped around in the direction the sound had come from. Blink and Kevlar had headed south to one of the smaller docks, and he’d stayed behind to watch a larger one. It was starting to sink in that they might not find Bree. The thought was almost debilitating. They’d been so close back in Ensenada. So close to finding her and ending this once and for all.
But a part of Smiley, deep down, refused to give up. The same way he’d relentlessly searched for Bree back in the States. And she’d been there, right under his nose, the entire time. He just needed a break. A tiny little break. He could take it from there.
The shouting from someone not too far from him could possibly be that break he was waiting for. It was late…or early…and even though this was a working port, he hadn’t heard shouting in the middle of the night before.
Racing quickly toward the sound, Smiley moved silently through the crates, vehicles, and Conex containers strewn around the many docks and ports. Unlike in theUnited States, it didn’t seem as if there was much oversight, as far as maintenance went. Bulldozers sat abandoned and there were piles of construction debris everywhere. It seemed to him that a major project had been in the works, then stopped suddenly.
Dodging around random piles of wood, concrete, and dirt, Smiley searched for the man who’d let out the pained shout…but as he moved farther away from the water, he had second thoughts. Was he on a wild goose chase? Would he miss the boat Bree arrived on if he took his eyes off the water?
He should turn back, at least contact Kevlar and Blink, work with his teammates to find out what was going on.
But something kept him running. Kept him moving away from the dock he’d been watching.
He was near the edge of the port now, where a tall chain-link fence had been erected for security purposes. Suddenly, three men came into sight, and they were obviously looking for something—which had Smiley’s heart beating extra hard in his chest. There was no light back here except for the small beams coming from the flashlights carried by the three men he was now stalking.
Smiley barely prevented himself from announcing his presence by stumbling around a large mound of debris, directly into the men’s line of sight. They were walking up and down the fence line, shining their lights around the area.
Squinting to try to see what they were pointing at, Smiley spotted footprints in the dirt.
Hope rose within him, even though he had no reason to think the men were looking atBree’sfootprints. He hadn’t seen any boats come in, although there were dozensof docks in the huge port that he and his team weren’t able to monitor, not every moment of every day and night.
The men seemed agitated, almost frantic. Just when he was pulling out his phone to notify Kevlar that he needed assistance, one of the men let out a shout of triumph.
He ran over to a mound of what looked like mostly dirt and began rooting around.
The next sound Smiley heard almost stopped his heart. It was a heart-wrenching wail of despair and frustration. And he’d never forget it as long as he lived.
Bree!
He was racing toward the three men before he thought about what he was doing.
The man who’d found her grabbed hold of Bree’s arms and was dragging her out from where she’d attempted to conceal herself. She was struggling and doing her best to wrench free, without success, clouds of dirt flying from her body.
The other two men were laughing, standing off to the side and not helping their friend, assuming he could handle Bree on his own.
