Page 5 of Her Ruthless Protector

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Kane heard the first cries four minutes into the mission. It was a baby. Then he heard a woman yelling. Then children.

“I’ve got five covered on the first floor,” Leo said. “All women and children. Max has unarmed two of them, I’ve got them contained.”

“I see you,” Kane said. He spotted Max moving away from Leo Perez. “Where are you going, Max?”

“That was the family room. I’m moving upstairs.” Max answered.

Kane heard gunshots.

“Just took down a man. Not dead, just wounded,” Cullen reported. He and Nick were on the top floor.

“It’s not our guy,” Nick said.

“Lots of computer equipment up here. It might give us the information we need,” Cullen said.

“Grab whatever hard drive you can, I’ll see if I can work with it,” Kane directed his teammate. He knew that put Cullen out of commission. “Asher? Raiden? Anything at the garage?” he asked.

“Nada,” Raiden answered.

“Move your asses over to the house. Climb up the outside to the top floor,” Kane commanded.

“Negative,” Max said.

“Raiden, you go up the outside and get to the top floor and help Nick watch Cullen’s back. Asher, you come in the bottom floor. We still need to check for tunnels down here.”

They were now nine minutes into the mission.

“Kane, I’ve got two towers and a laptop, should I take all of it?” Cullen asked.

“Try to rip the hard drives out of the towers if you can. That’s all we need.”

“I’m waiting for Raiden,” Cullen said. It was for the best—Cullen would fuck it up, Raiden knew what he was doing.

“I’m almost there,” Raiden said over the comm.

“Asher, where are you?” Max whispered fiercely.

“I just passed Zed. I found some footprints that stopped in front of… Wait a minute,” Asher paused. Kane could hear something heavy scraping. He assumed Asher was shoving a piece of furniture out of the way. “Found the stairs to the tunnel,” Asher exclaimed.

“Wait for me,” Max said.

Kane hated the thought of Max and Asher in an underground tunnel—his asset tracking would be useless. But the communication device should still work.

“I found where the tunnel exits on this side of the wall,” Zed piped up. “What do you want me to do?”

“Sit tight,” Max said.

“Stay where you are,” Kane said.

Both men spoke simultaneously. Kane continued. “If something goes sideways down in the tunnels, Max or Asher will put out an S.O.S., but other than that, wait for the target to come to you.”

“Agreed,” Max said.

“Roger.”

“We’re at thirteen minutes, gentlemen,” Kane said calmly. “Raiden, have you taken over for Cullen? Can he go backup Nick?”