Page 50 of Peace Under Fire

They each had a medical monitor laying on their chests—the kind used to track heart rate and respiration. The sheer volume of straps chaining them to the stretchers indicated they were prisoners.

After the last stretcher was loaded into the cargo truck, the medical personnel followed the stretchers into the back and the door rolled down.

The images of the car exploding and the birds attacking rolled through his mind. No doubt the people in the back were there to make sure the women remained unconscious and under control.

The men who’d gone around the sides of the building rejoined the ones out front. After some discussion, the large group of twelve split into two groups of six. Guns drawn, they headed for the remaining two outbuildings.

“They’re searching for something,” Brick said, squinting, as the two teams entered the buildings.

“For someone,” Squish corrected. Even from a distance, it was obvious the bastards had been well-trained. They’d taken tactical positions and were inserting like a team. “They only brought eight stretchers out,” Squish said. Although that wasn’t quite true. The medical crew had taken nine stretchers into the main building. Nine stretchers for nine women. But when they’d come out, only eight of the stretchers had been occupied. The ninth had been empty. “One of Mandy’s sisters escaped.”

But which sister?

And where was she?

CHAPTER 12

Mandy buried her face deeper in the pillow and tried to ignore the insistent voice droning in her ear. An annoying hand joined the pesky voice. It latched onto her shoulder and started shaking her—back and forth, back and forth—until slowly, determinedly, it shook her from her slumber.

“Go away,” she mumbled, burying her face deeper into the soft, warm pillow.

“Wake up, sunshine. We’ve got something to show you,” Jacob said, that familiar, impatient edge to his voice at odds with the nickname he’d suddenly bestowed on her.

Sunshine?

What is that about? He’s never called me by pet names before.

It was enough to make her crack open her eyes and turn her head.

Jacob, who was leaning in the open car doorway, pulled back. “Tex sent video of what went down at your…home.”

That brought her wide awake. “He did?”

The only way their friend could have gotten video of the compound was if he’d hacked into Kaylee’s security cameras. But her sister was paranoid about someone breaking into her system and had taken extra measures to protect the security footage. The fact this Tex had managed to access the feed, anyway, meant he was good. Very, very good.

“Yeah. He sent us footage of the attack on your family.” He hesitated, scrubbing a hand through his hair, leaving it rumpled and sexy. “We need you to look at the video. We think one of your sisters escaped. We need to know which one.”

She bolted upright. “Escaped? Are you sure?”

“You said there were nine sisters at the compound. Eight women were gassed and removed. They had a ninth stretcher, but it was empty. Even more telling is the men who attacked the place spread out in a search formation. They were looking for someone.”

“Let me see.” She eagerly reached for the phone Jacob held. Hope rushed through her. One of her sisters had escaped. She wasn’t alone.

The hope quickly turned to horror.

She’d abandoned one of her sisters, had left her there to fend for herself. She should have returned home regardless of Giulia’s warning. She should have checked the compound for herself.

By fleeing, she’d left her sister alone, vulnerable, and traumatized.

“We have to go back,” she said as she tried to grab the phone. “We have to help whoever escaped.”

Jacob pulled the phone out of reach and took a step back. “Tex has a team on the way. They’ll look for her.”

Mandy shook her head vigorously. “They won’t find her. She isn’t going to show herself to someone she doesn’t know. Particularly to a military team. And I’ve seen your friends, Jacob. They scream military. She’ll hide instead.” She paused, gulping in air to feed her straining lungs. “I’m the only person she’ll come to.”

Jacob made a noncommittal noise. “We’ll talk about this after you’ve seen the video. Right now, we need to know which of your sisters escape and what her ability is. We need to know what our boys might be walking into.”

Right. That made sense.

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