AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The safe house. God, Trent, I knew I could depend on you.”
Trent jerked the driver’s door opened and pushed Timmons in the seat.
“Don’t call me, don’t call anyone,” he ordered him. “Just lay low and don’t open the door for anyone but me.”
There was only one person who knew the details of the information Trent had been working on, as well as Timmons’s part in it. His partner, Guy Warner. Even Bailey hadn’t known who Trent’s contact was or that he was tracking the connections in Australia to Warbucks.
Timmons jammed the key into the ignition as Trent backed away. The ignition started as Trent turned away to run back to the bungalow. Then the night exploded around him. Trent felt himself being catapulted through the air, his body landing hard enough to drive the air from his lungs as he bounced into the mud and muck of the swampy canal that ran past the bungalow.
The night was ablaze as another explosion rocked the night, sending more fragments of the vehicle hurtling through the air.
He fought to breathe through the pain, to make sense of the blinding light and pyrotechnic colors that danced in front of his eyes.
He could hear screams. A woman’s screams, Bailey’s. The sound of her cries tore through the night as he dragged his eyes open and fought to roll to his side.
He struggled to turn, blinking against the mud that covered his eyes and rain that poured over his face. As his vision finally cleared, he focused on the hell that had been the driveway, and saw his partner, Guy Warner.
He was racing from his car to the Land Rover. The agent had a curiously smug expression on his face. And there was Bailey, wrapped in a sheet, screaming for Trent.
It was too late, Guy had already found him. He fought past the constriction in his chest, tried to think, to find the closest route to Bailey when he saw Guy move to her. She threw herself in his arms.
Trent blinked as his vision began to blur. He fought to refocus, then watched as another agency vehicle pulled up and one of the American SEALs who had worked this last op with himself and Bailey moved into view.
Jordan Malone.
His gaze blurred again even as he fought it.
The night began to close around him, to smother him in darkness.
“Easy there, Trent.” He was caught before he hit the ground and struggled to get free.
“Hold up,” a dark male voice hissed. “We’ve got this one covered, buddy.”
Trent tried to shake his head, to make sense of what was going on. He recognized the voice, he just couldn’t place it.
“Bailey,” he groaned.
“Bailey’s covered. Let’s move out.”
He couldn’t see. His vision swam with colors that didn’t make sense. His skin burned like fire, like acid. He felt singed from the inside out.
“Bailey.” He groaned her name again as he fought the hands that forced him to move.
Bailey. He’d left her there. He’d promised to return. The first woman he’d ever promised to return to.
“Bailey’s safe.” Reno. That was his name. Reno Chavez. Navy SEAL. Part of the SEAL team working within the joint American–Australian operation they had conducted.
Dizziness washed over him again. Darkness covered him like a layer of ice. He couldn’t fight it this time. He couldn’t halt the tide of nothingness that washed over him and dragged him under.
He could feel death moving over him despite his battle against it. The breath stilled in his chest, fury rocking through him. Warbucks. The bastard had managed to defeat him before the battle had ever begun.
Atlanta, Georgia
Five Years Later
Bailey Serborne fought until she was gasping for breath, until breathing actually seemed exhausting, uncertain. She jerked against her bonds, screaming through the gag and she refused to cry.
She’d been captured tracking the international terrorist known as Orion, but she hadn’t been captured by Orion. Oh no, even Orion wasn’t this damned efficient. She had been captured by the team of unknown men guarding Orion’s target, Risa Clay. The young woman had been marked to die by the bastard who had raped her eight years before. She was remembering who her rapist was: He had aided her father, Jansen Clay, in his white slavery operation and the kidnapping of a senator’s daughter.
