“Keep your eyes open, Walker,” Gabe reminded him. “We’ll be there soon, but until we get there, you’re on your own.”
“Copy that. Might lose signal once I’m down here.”
“It’s no different than any other op,” Ryker tried his hand at encouragement. “You got this.”
No different, my ass.
Still, the man was right. As long as he relied on his training, he should have no problems finding Jenna. And Ortiz.
His leg screamed with each descending step, but Adrian pushed on until he stood in front of a door located at the bottom of the stairs. Turning the handle, he blew out a silent breath of relief when he found it unlocked.
The space he walked into was almost pitch-black, so he pulled the tactical light Ryker had given him from the pocket at his thigh and pushed it on.
The LED bulb illuminated a good chunk of the area, showing a long hallway with several doors on each side.
“Well that’s not creepy as fuck,” he muttered. When he got no response, Adrian tested his coms. “Dawson? Ghost? You copy?”
He was met with silence.
Shit.Well, he was used to flying solo. Like Ryker said…it was no different than any other op.
Keep telling yourself that, buddy.
And he did. With every step he took down the terrifying hallway. With every door he opened, expecting the worst but finding nothing.
Adrian told himself the same thing over and over until he almost believed it to be true. Then he heard it.
The sound was slight and hard to place. While Adrian couldn’t be sure, he thought it was almost like someone was trying to move a chair across the smooth floor.
Jenna!
Doing his best not to give himself away in case Ortiz was somewhere close, Adrian went to the source of the sound. It was a room on his right, in the dead center of the hallway.
He stood outside the door, his heartbeat rushing past his ears as he tried to listen with intense focus. He heard it again.
It was her. Ithadto be her.
Adrenaline pumped through his body with impressive speed. His heart washammeringnow, and he actually took a precious second to gulp down a calming breath before putting the flashlight away and switching to the mounted light on his pistol.
Curling a gloved fist around the metal handle, Adrian kept his gun steady as he used the handle to give the door a gentle push.
He inwardly cringed when the rusty hinges squealed in protest, but he continued on.
The space was much larger than the other rooms he’d cleared, and at first, he thought this room was empty, too. But then the beam from his light crossed over something near one of the back corners, and he knew.
His lungs froze inside his chest as he swung the light to the spot where it had just been. Adrian’s heart leaped into his throat when he saw her.
She was tied to the chair like before, but her mouth had been duct taped. Blood covered part of her forehead and right temple, and she was squinting away from the light. But she was alive.
“Jenna!”
Everything else seemed to vanish. His thoughts of killing Ortiz. The other teams.Everythingbut his primal need to go to her and make sure she was okay.
In a combination of running and limping—because his leg hurt like a sonofabitch—Adrian skidded to a stop just before he ranintoher.
“Baby?” He moved the light to the side to avoid blinding her. “Oh, thank God!”
Wide, terrified eyes met his. Bruised andswolleneyes that made him want to kill. Jenna was shaking her head and trying to tell him something, but the tape made it impossible to understand what she was saying.