Page 70 of Her Defiant Warrior

“There is going to be more security tomorrow night. We’re going to bring in more team members to support this effort, as well as Roger.”

Jase wondered where Amanda was. He hadn’t seen the crate with the C-4 when he’d been brought back through the garage.

“Who here cooks?” Ely asked.

The two bodybuilders looked at Spider.

“Make us dinner,” Ely demanded. “Enough for our prisoners, too.” He glanced over at Jase and Gideon. “Get out of your clothes. You’re going to need them for tomorrow night.” Then he pointed to the tablet in Gideon’s hand. “What’s that?”

“I needed it to look up the schematics of the building, sir. There had been much construction since I was last there.”

“Where did you get it?” Ely barked.

Jase bobbed his head. “I stole it, sir. We desperately needed it.”

Ely stormed over to him and backhanded him. “That was very risky.” Then he turned his attention back to Gideon. “You got what you needed?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. Give me the tablet. You can have it back tomorrow night.”

Gideon handed it over. Jase was confident he had hidden all of his correspondence with the other SEAL teams and whatever else he’d been busy doing.

“You heard me. Get out of those clothes.” Ely waved them to a back room. “Take him with you,” he waved to Ryker.

Ryker lifted his head from the dining room table. “Tomorrow night,” he slurred as he looked at Gideon and Jase. “Isn’t that handy? That’s when the word will go out to kill your families.”

“Please no, Sir,” Gideon begged. “We must do this, otherwise we will be killed.”

“Your choice,” Ryker said. “Your life, or the lives of your women and children.”

Jase turned to Ely. “I’m sorry, sir. I cannot continue.”

Ely backhanded him again. And again.

Jase didn’t flinch.

“Now, do you want my banking information?” Ryker asked.

Ely turned to Rob. “Can’t you do what this helper does?”

“I don’t know, Boss. Everything in the basement looked pretty complicated to me.”

Ely rounded on Gideon. “And you?”

“I have three sons and one daughter. They are my world.”

“Fuck!” He stormed into the kitchen, and Jase heard him rustling through a drawer. He came back out with a piece of stationery and a pink pen. “Write down your banking information.”

Ryker did. It was an actual account that the CIA always had available to them. You never knew what you might need on a mission.

* * *

Once again, they were hog-tied in the master bedroom, this time without their boots.

“What were you able to tell Kostya?” Jase asked Gideon in a hushed voice.

“Everything.”