But again, he wouldn’t assume any of this. None of the men would. There was too much at stake to make assumptions.
The residence was surprisingly quiet with six tangos standing guard inside. On their end, Garrett took out one with a quick snap of the neck, Ghost used his KA-BAR to eliminate another, and Digger used a suppressor to take out the third with relative silence.
From the coms, they knew that Coach, Fletch, and Blade had taken care of any threats coming from their end. Within minutes, the ten men had met each other in the grand foyer.
Using hand signals alone, Ghost and Digger communicated with the others silently. Following the plan, Ghost, Garrett, and Digger headed upstairs via the main staircase. Apollo, Blade, Coach, and Fletch headed down the hallway toward Garcia’s main office, and Hollywood, Beatle, and Bones took the second set of stairs at the far east side of the house.
One by one, the rooms were cleared. Even the two that were lit up.
With each new door they came to, Garrett felt his heart would fly out of his chest. And with each empty room, he was met with disappointment.
The house was empty. No sign of Avery or Garcia.
“Fuck!” Garrett lifted his night goggles and stared back at the others. “Where the hell are they?”
“I don’t know.” Ghost shook his head. “We’ve checked every last inch of this place, inside and out. There’s no sign of them any—”
An engine roared to life from the east side of the property.
Son of a bitch.
“The fuck?” Bones scowled as all heads turned in that direction.
Headlights filled the foyer, and Garrett was thankful they’d already taken their night visions off.
“They must’ve been hiding in one of the vehicles,” Blade stated the obvious. “We looked as we walked past, but…I don’t know. We must’ve missed them, somehow.”
“He’s not getting away,” Garrett started for the nearest door.
He hadn’t come this far…gotten this close…only to lose her, now.
“Garcia must’ve heard us coming,” Blade pointed out the obvious. “He’s using her as fucking leverage!”
The one silver lining in this unexpected turn of events was that Garrett knew, even without having seen her, that Avery was still alive.
If Garcia had killed her, they would’ve already found her body. The only kill they’d found that wasn’t one of theirs was a man floating on his back in the pool.
And from the look of things, he’d been dead several hours.
All ten men ran in the direction of the headlights. They got back outside just in time to see an SUV spinning around and speeding off.
With the moonlight shining through the back window, Garrett caught a glimpse of Avery’s terrified face staring back at him. Her hands were pressed against the window, and she was screaming his name.
“Motherfucker!” he growled.
“Here!” Hollywood yelled from the driver’s side of another SUV. “Dipshit left the keys in the ignition!”
As luck would have it, it was an Escalade. Seating capacity of seven, but enough room in the back to squeeze three more.
Sending up a quick prayer of thanks, Garrett sprinted toward the running vehicle. He didn’t bother to see who was following him. He already knew.
His team. Ghost’s team. He trusted them all to have his back.
Since Hollywood was already behind the wheel, Garrett jumped into the passenger seat while Digger, Fletch, Ghost, Blade, and Coach filled the seats.
Lifting the back hatch, Beatle, Apollo, and Bones hopped in and held on tight, their legs dangling over the back bumper as Hollywood spun the vehicle around, spewing gravel as they went.
“Where the fuck does he think he’s going to go?” Apollo asked.