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“We’ll get her out,” Cohen said after almost forty minutes of complete silence, save for the heavy breathing of the three dogs in the back.
“We have to,” I said, exhaling hard.
“How much she tell you about me?” Cohen asked.
“I don’t think she knows much to tell,” I said. “She told me that she found a listing for your range. And that she comes to shoot here on occasion. And that she thinks you might be ex-military. That was about it.”
“Figured she would have looked into me,” he said.
“And if she had, what would she have found?”
“Military record,” he said. “Though a lot of the shit that ends up on paper doesn’t match what actually goes down, what we all specialized in.”
“What’d you specialize in?” I asked.
“Extractions.”
Shit.
That was unexpected, but welcome.
“Yeah?” I asked. “Who’d you extract?”
“Mostly informants or high-level diplomats in unstable countries, but there was other shit. Our boys being held in prisons that needed to be freed. That sort of shit. That’s what I did. For about fifteen years. So I can say with a fair bit of certainty, that we will get her out.”
“His facilities are all underground,” I said.
“Yeah, a lot of these sorts of things are,” he agreed. “Doesn’t necessarily make this harder, just different. Three more of your men are coming?”
“Yeah.”
“They know how to handle themselves?”
“Yeah,” I told him. Because, while they weren’t former military that specialized in this sort of shit, they had good instincts, and weren’t shy to hit, maim, or kill when it was necessary.
“Good. So long as you all can follow directions, we can do this. What’s the end game, though?”
“To get Murphy out,” I said, brows pinching.
“Obviously,” he said, shaking his head. “But she’s not going to be the only woman in that dungeon. Just like Cain Roth won’t be the only man.”
“Last time, Murphy got free, then called in a tip for the Feds to free the women and round up any of the men left.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to be an option in this case,” Cohen said. “She got out. We’re going in. It’s a different scenario.”
Yeah, I guess he was right.
“If there’s no way to do a quiet extraction then call in a tip, the only choice is to take out the men, free the women, and then call the police when we are on our way out.”
“They’ll be evidence,” Cohen said. “Men like Cain, they like their surveillance.”
“If Rook can’t fuck it up remotely, I guess I can text the guys to tell them to pick up gloves and masks.”
“Tell them to anyway. Better to be prepared,” Cohen said, and I went ahead and shot off the text, cluing in Slash as well.
We stopped for gas once, letting the dogs out and getting them a drink, then we were back on the road again.
“Where are her dogs?” Cohen asked, breaking a silence that stretched on for almost an hour.
“They’re at my clubhouse,” I said. “They’ve been on a lot of road trips lately. We figured there was no reason to bring them, so we gave them a break.”
In retrospect, another mistake.
Miranda and Samantha would have gone with Murphy, would have created some sort of distraction, maybe a way for her to get away.
“Your dogs aren’t trained to attack?” I asked, thinking of him in that bathtub. We still hadn’t dressed any of his wounds. He wasn’t complaining, but he had to be hurting like hell.
“They’d taken off after a fox right before those fucks showed up. They must have parked far off and came over on foot, because I didn’t hear a truck.
“The only reason I knew they were around was the creak of a floorboard, but they were all on me before I had a chance to react.”
“Why didn’t they kill you?” I asked.
“That I don’t know,” he admitted, shrugging. “Maybe they thought they might need me if she didn’t show up, or if shit didn’t go to plan. Like I’d fucking lure an innocent woman into his trap,” he scoffed.
“Men like Cain Roth can’t imagine that any man would protect any woman at the risk of his own life.”
“Guess that’s it,” Cohen agreed. “Hope she’s not thinking I flipped on her,” he added, jaw tight.
“Well, you will show her that you didn’t.”
“You been with her long?” he asked. “Never mentioned you.”
“No. I’m new. We’re new,” I added.
“But going somewhere, it seems. She’d never bring just anyone out my way,” he added when I looked at him. “She knows I like my privacy. She’s the same way.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But she’s actually learning to like having people around these days.”
I hoped that those experiences, those connections, would light a fire in her, keep her strong until we got there.
Just shy of five hours into the drive, we met up with Riff, Raff, Coach, and, surprisingly, Crow.
