Page 143 of Her Wild Warrior

Kostya laid on the accelerator so they could get to the small car dealership that had a service station and autobody shop attached. The gas pumps were up in flames, still no sign of firefighters.

“Look!” Nolan yelled. Everybody’s head turned to see what he was pointing at. It was an SUV the same make and model as theirs, and it was shooting out of the autobody shop behind the small little dealership.

“Landon, you and I are going to follow the SUV. Ryker, Nolan, and Leila, go see what’s going on at the autobody shop!”

Ryker wanted to haul ass out of the SUV, but he slowed down a step and a half, waiting for Leila to catch up, so they were three steps behind Nolan by the time they crossed the street. All three of them ducked and covered their heads when a gasoline tank blew, but then they resumed running toward the shop. The three bays were closed, as was the small door to the office, with the window blinds closed.

“If the fire spreads to the cars on the parking lot, we’re in trouble,” Nolan pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re always in trouble,” Ryker said as he kicked in the door.

There were three desks, two of them on their sides. One of the desks had blood smears all over it, and the trail led to another door that obviously went to the garage area. Ryker looked over his shoulder and saw that Leila was looking at the blood, but she wasn’t showing any outward signs that it was bothering her.

Good.

Nolan and he went to the door to the garage. With Nolan standing with his rifle, he was going to go high, and Ryker was crouching, so he’d go in low. Ryker slowly opened the door. They both nosed in with their rifles, then peeked in to see if there were any unfriendlies.

Nolan stepped into the room and pointed his rifle to the right but didn’t shoot.

“Aw fuck, man,” he muttered.

That was when Ryker was hit with the smell of fresh death. Blood, piss, and shit.

The overhead lights were on. They were too bright, bringing the horror into stark relief. Both he and Nolan were standing in a pool of blood that had come from a woman crushed under a car as a hydraulic lift had been lowered onto her lower torso. Now Ryker looked at what Nolan was staring at. It was a man who had been nailed to a wooden chair in a perfect spot to watch the woman being crushed. He had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.

“Shit, they tortured her in front of him. They wanted answers,” Nolan said.

He heard a sharp intake of breath behind him and turned to see Leila’s dark complexion now almost ashen.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She nodded her head.

Ryker turned to Nolan. “There were three desks in the office.”

“Right,” Nolan said.

“Go back into the office, Leila. We’ll call you if we need you.”

She immediately turned and strode back into the office; it was obvious that she didn’t need to be told twice.

Nolan and Ryker spread out and started to search the rest of the garage.

Ryker found another woman. She was tied to a workbench and it was clear that someone had used a welding torch on her—her hands and feet were a bloody, burned mess—before they stabbed her in her stomach. Luckily her hijab covered her face so he didn’t have to see her expression when she died. Then he saw the man who had been forced to watch her torture. He had been tied spread-eagled on another lift. There was a pool of vomit at his feet and a bullet in his forehead. Whoever did this, did they get the information they needed?

Behind him, Ryker heard a moan. He spun around and realized it had come from the woman tied to the workbench.

Jesus, fuck, she’s alive!

“Nolan! I need you now! I’ve got a live one!”

Ryker didn’t want to scare her, so he pushed his rifle over his shoulder and took off his gloves. He’d practiced a couple of words of Turkish on the plane over.

“Merhaba, benim adim Ryker,” he said as soothingly as he could as he pushed back her hijab the smallest bit so he could see her eyes.

“American!” she screeched weakly, as she arched away from him.

“Jesus, Ryker, what did you do?” Nolan growled as he pushed him out of the way.