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Summer’s brothers quickly began questioning guests, grabbing arms, stepping in front of laughing couples, demanding to know if they’d seen her.
“In the house,” one of the hard-eyed Special Forces soldiers answered. “I saw her about five minutes ago. Everything okay?”
“Hell no,” Caleb snapped as Falcon raced past them, Raeg close behind.
“Spread out!” Caleb yelled out to someone behind them. “Find her.”
Pushing through the patio entrance, Falcon searched the crowd, ice beginning to fill his veins, the knowledge that she was in danger building by the second.
He was just turning to rush through the dining area when a gunshot exploded from deep within the house.
“No!” The denial burst from Falcon’s lips as he began shoving guests out of his way, racing for the front of the house where the shot originated.
Dragovich had found a way to get to her. God, they were supposed to protect her. They were supposed to keep this from happening.
He was at a full run when he hit the foyer and came to a hard, agonizing stop.
Blood stained the marble. Too much blood.
Jerking the handgun from the small of his back, he moved quickly for the open doors and the shadowed entrance beyond.
The lights that had lit the area earlier were dark now, shattered glass on the landing attesting to the fact that they’d deliberately been blown.
Using hand signals, he directed Raeg to the blood trail leading from the house, then pointed to the rooms on each side of the entrance. Rushing into the room he chose for himself, he paused at the side of a window, crossed himself, then unlocked it and opened it just enough to ease through it, using the cover of the high shrubs to block his exit.
“Bastard…” He heard Summer curse from his right, somewhere from within the heavy growth of pine that grew along the edge of the house.
Checking for Raeg, he nodded toward the tree line.
“I hope you burn in hell…” Summer cried out.
Keeping to the cover of the trees, they moved quickly toward the sound. As they neared the side of the house he glimpsed Summer’s brother Caleb and her father following, armed and obviously following the sound of her voice as well.
“They’re heading for the swamp,” Caleb snapped as he got close enough. “If they get her to an airboat, she’s gone. We’ll never find her.”
It was night. The swamp was a primal, hungry creature at night, Summer’s father had once told him.
He heard Summer cry out again and sprinted into the tree line, hoping his night sight adjusted quickly enough to allow him to avoid any of those damned alligators that seemed to lurk anywhere.
A light ahead of him pinpointed Summer’s location. Spreading out, Caleb and his father moved in parallel to the glow of the flashlight.
“Caleb will kill you, Mike,” Summer cried out, pain and fury filling her voice.
“You bitch. You deserve it.” Mike Taggart’s voice carried through the night air. “You fucking neutered me when you took that knife to me. Ruined my life!”
She cried out again as the sound of laughter met the crack of flesh against flesh.
He’d hit her.
He’d kill the bastard, Falcon told himself.
“You tried to rape me. I was thirteen,” Summer yelled as Falcon caught sight of her struggling between Taggart and another, larger male.
“You deserved it, you stuck-up bitch,” Mike snarled. “Always thinking you’re better than everyone else. A little sedative to your daddy’s drink, and he was out like a light. You shouldn’t have fought me.”
The fury building inside was a dangerous thing, Falcon thought distantly as he caught Raeg’s eye and directed him behind the two men, Russians, one being supported by the other as they trailed Taggart and the silent captor as they dragged her through the trees, moving closer than ever to the water and no doubt an
airboat waiting for them.
