Page 102 of SEAL's Promise

He placed one patch behind her ear where she’d worn the anti-nausea patch. Cal looked into her eyes. “Trust me?” When she nodded, he lifted the back of her shirt and pressed the second tracker to the small of her back. “If anything happens, don’t touch the trackers. If you do, the wrong person might notice.”

Goosebumps surged across her skin. “All right.”

“Come on.” He grabbed his bag and ran with her to the first-floor library. In seconds, she was inside the room. He pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. “I love you.” He closed the door and left.

Rachelle turned to the wall of monitors and sat at the desk. Every screen showed a different view of the house, inside and out, and various parts of the ranch.

She watched Wolf Pack gear up in less than a minute and run with their Go bags to the SUVs. They left in a cloud of dust.

Rachelle shifted her attention from screen to screen. Although she longed to call Amy, she didn’t want to endanger or distract her friend. Wolf Pack would arrive at the house in minutes. They already knew the lay of the land, an advantage the visitors didn’t have. Eric couldn’t run and Amy wouldn’t leave without him. She didn’t blame her friend. If Cal was injured, Rachelle wouldn’t leave him.

A short while later, movement on two screens caught her attention. Rachelle frowned. A group of hands were moving closer to the house. Were they coming for a late lunch?

She started to turn her attention to another screen when Lefty, one of the cowhands Rachelle recognized, moved to intercept the group of men. One of them raised his weapon and slammed the butt of a gun onto the side of Lefty’s head.

She gasped as the cowhand sank to the ground, unmoving. Rachelle grabbed her phone. Afraid to alert the enemy to his location with a phone call, she sent Cal a text to tell him what happened. He’d been right. The attack on the Texas unit was a diversion to lure Wolf Pack from the ranch.

She didn’t know how soon Wolf Pack could return. There were many real cowhands on this ranch and a few fake ones. Hopefully, Wolf Pack would arrive in time to prevent a disaster.

Her phone chimed. Cal.Help is coming. Stay in place. Thank goodness. All they had to do was hang on until help arrived.

She shoved her phone back into her pocket and scanned the screens again. The strangers had disappeared from view, and that worried her. Cal had complained about the gaps in camera coverage when they memorized escape routes and chose safe places to hide. Looked as though he was right.

On one of the screens, she watched Mrs. Grady return to the kitchen and remove a bag of potatoes from the pantry to start dinner preparations. A ball of ice formed in Rachelle’s stomach. She should warn Mrs. Grady that trouble was closing in on the ranch house. But she’d promised to stay in this room until Cal returned.

Before she decided what to do, the back door to the kitchen burst open. The group of strangers rushed into the room. One grabbed Mrs. Grady and forced her to one of the chairs at the kitchen table. He pressed a gun to Mrs. Grady’s temple, his gaze locked on the security camera in the corner of the room. He mouthed the words, “Come out, Rachelle, or she dies. One minute.”

Rachelle pressed a hand to her mouth. No, no, no. She couldn’t let them kill that sweet lady.

She sent Cal another text. “They captured Mrs. Grady and have a gun to her head. They said if I don’t come out, they’ll kill her.”

His response came seconds later. “On my way. Stall, baby.”

“I love you,” she texted, then slid her phone away. She entered the code to open the door to the safe room.

Rachelle closed the door behind her and walked toward the kitchen.

One of the strangers emerged from the shadows and clasped her upper arm in a tight grip. “Hello, Rachelle Carter. We’ve been looking for you,” he murmured, voice low. He propelled her into the midst of the group of armed thugs.

Tears filled Mrs. Grady’s eyes. “Rachelle, you should have stayed hidden.”

“I couldn’t let them hurt you.”

The man with the gun to Mrs. Grady’s head glanced at his friend standing a few feet away from Rachelle and the man gripping her arm. “Do it.”

Do what? She turned, eyes widening when she saw him step forward with a hypodermic needle in his hand. Rachelle tried to tear her arm from the thug’s grasp. “No!”

“Shut up,” he snapped. The man grabbed her hair and wrapped the strands around his fist to hold her immobile. His compatriot uncapped the hypodermic and plunged the needle into her neck.

Mrs. Grady cried out in horror.

Seconds later, Rachelle sank into darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Cal tracked his quarry through the woods near the safe house where Amy and Eric were holed up with the Texas team. At last count, ten men were roaming the woods, moving closer to the house by the minute.

Eli ordered Texas to stay in place to protect Eric and Amy because his gut said something was wrong. This might be a ploy to draw them from the house and leave the ambassador’s daughter and her boyfriend vulnerable to attack.

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