Breana: I know you do.
Jade stared at her phone. Breana had helped her move beyond the walls of her house to sit on her front porch. Then she’d pushed herself to take walks in downtown Benton Harbor. Usually, after business hours, to avoid the crowds. But she’d done it. Comfortable with it? Not even close, but she was no longer a prisoner in her own home. Stepping outside at night—not happening.
She noted the low battery on her phone. Two percent wouldn’t last long. Jade debated for all of five seconds, then plugged her phone into the charger.
Time to take that walk she’d promised herself. After slipping on her sports sandals, she headed down the garden path to the beach. Her heart rate increased, and her stomach churned. Her gaze scoured the foliage for danger.
Why did she think she could do this?
No. She refused to let her fear take over. This trip would be another puzzle piece in the journey to freedom from her phobia. The anxiety that ruled her day-to-day life wouldn’t win.
Pausing on the path, she closed her eyes, breathed in and out, and allowed her mind to settle. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the world around her with a new perspective. The vibrant pinks, oranges, and yellows dotted among the lush green leaves wrapped her in a sense of calm. She almost felt normal for once in her life. This whole immersion therapy might work after all.
The thud of footsteps rushed toward her.
Jade spun.
The first blow hit her ribs. The second took the air from her lungs. She collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball, gasping.
“You sure this is the one?”
“Facial match says she’s the contractor’s daughter.” The muffled voices spoke in a Spanish accent.
Contractor’s daughter? She had no one—an orphan raised in the foster system.
“Grab her, and let’s get out of here.”
She whimpered and fought the urge to give up. Determined, she kicked out and landed a blow to the man closest to her. He cursed and latched on to her wrist. She bit and clawed, but the man’s strength overpowered hers.
Zip ties looped her wrists. The attacker yanked. The sturdy plastic dug into her skin. Once secure, a sack was shoved over her head.
Her heart rate spiked.
“She really knows the information?”
“If she doesn’t, her daddy will cough up the intel for her release.”
There was no father to fight for her. Only one person knew her whereabouts. Breana. And she wouldn’t call again until the end of the week. Friends? She didn’t have any, except for Charlie Team. But they wouldn’t miss her anytime soon.
At that realization, the air vacated her lungs. She gasped, hoping for a sip of precious oxygen, but her anxiety meter had pegged its limit.
Her world tilted.
The side of her head exploded at another strike from her abductors. Pain bloomed behind her ear. Then—nothing.
Jade woke with no sense of time and no clue where those men had taken her. Her wrists throbbed from where the now-removed zip ties had cut deep. The rope used to re-bind herwrist rubbed against the raw skin. The air around her smelled of earth and mildew. A half-wood, half-thatch hut had become her prison. The dampness of the dirt floor soaked into the material of her shirt and shorts.
Funny. The shack should scare the daylights out of her. Instead, it soothed her. She lay on her side, tethered to a wooden pole in the middle of the small hovel, for heaven’s sake. But she was inside, not out in the open. The mind was a weird thing at times.
Jade shifted to sit upright and cried out. Pain shot through her torso. The abuse from when the men grabbed her came rushing back. A multitude of shallow pants later, the agony subsided. Her face ached, and her mouth mimicked the Sahara Desert.
This time, when she tried to sit up again, she moved at a sloth’s pace, breathing through the pain. She scooted backward and propped herself up against the wooden wall of the hut. Lightheadedness claimed her. Closing her eyes, she willed the world to stop spinning.
A tear leaked out and slid down her cheek. Would anyone find her? Would anyone care that she went missing? Probably not.
Jade pondered the why of it all and came up empty. She shifted her focus to the who. Who had kidnapped her? One thing for sure—the men who had taken her were confused. They thought she was someone else—someone valuable—a contractor’s daughter.
She sucked in a breath through her teeth and forced herself to work the problem. The only contractor that made sense linked back to the Echo Team’s capture and the comms system someone hijacked to hunt down the Delta Force team and make them disappear. She’d done a deep dive into the code but failed to find the leak.
