Page 113 of The Art of You

“What is it?” I asked him, barely registering the notification sounding from my pocket.

“It’s positive,” he said in a strained voice while unfurling his hand. “My wife’s pregnant. She was taking a test when those assholes . . .” He lifted his chin to the ceiling, breathing hard and fast.

I wasn’t sure what the hell to say or do. The only thing that’d help this man was to save his family. That was the only way I’d survive this, too.

“We’re getting them back today. I swear to God we are,” I said while reaching for my phone.

Slapping a hand to the counter, my breath froze in my lungs when I saw my friend request had finally been accepted.

I clicked on the notification, and at the sight of all 364 images there, I collapsed to my knees in front of Alessandro. Blistering heat shot through my body as I processed what I was seeing.

“They’ve been watching all of us,” he rasped. “My wife and I in Nashville. Maria and Enzo in Charlotte. You at the bar. And Izzy . . . fuck, they must have cameras inside her house.”

The blood drained from my face. I had to swallow back the bile rising up in my throat.

Images of Bella in a towel inside her bedroom. Several of her in only her underwear and bra. One of just her bear on the bed, and why in the hell . ..

I let my thoughts go as it dawned on me. “The gas leak. That’s when he planted the cameras to take these photos.”Fuck.“I guarantee he planted a tracker in her bear. Hell, any number of things at her place could have trackers or listening devices.”

“She had the bear in Spain.” He muttered something in Italian, then bit out, “Alfie said Keith was the one to track us to the hotel. That’s probably how.”

“Keith couldn’t take the chance he’d lose track of us if we didn’t play ball and meet Alfie. He’d have contingencies in place.”The post of the bear is to fuck with us.Consider him successful. This guy had been five steps ahead of us at every turn.

“I’m going to kill them,” Alessandro said steadily in a dark voice, echoing my thoughts as a new image was posted.

It was of Bella and Callie, tied up in chairs, eyes closed, heads hanging forward.

My stomach dropped all over again as I stared at them.

“He has them at our factory.” Alessandro abruptly stood, becoming mission-focused, while pocketing the pregnancy test.

I forced myself to stand as well. “Constantine was right.”

Alessandro’s pupils were dilated, the darkness smothering whatever humanity was inside him. He didn’t have to say anything else, I was already on the same ready-to-commit-murder page.

“They want us there where it all started.”

Alessandro snarled, “Then that’s where this ends for good.”

“Pull him back,” Echo’s team leader ordered, eyes on the small screen on Echo Three’s wrist. “They’ll bloody kill him if theysee him,” he remarked, his British accent pushing through. “And we’re not losing anyone today.”

Echo Three gave the order, and his canine about-faced and immediately left his current position. He’d sniffed out explosives and confirmed our fears. Enough C4 to take out the entire building was rigged to blow inside the garage, directly below the room where Bella and Callie were tied up.

We only knew they were alive, as well as their exact location, thanks to impressive tech Echo Team came equipped with, including a drone the size of a bee that gave us an inside view of the factory. All that intel boiled down to deactivating a weapon while engaging with twenty armed tangos without letting Keith or Green turn this into a suicide mission. I had to believe they were fine with going down as long as we went with them, and that was our biggest obstacle—fighting an enemy willing to die.

“You clear the room for me, and I can defuse the bomb. I’ll have my wife in my ear walking me through it,” Roman said.

Echo One turned his attention to me. While killing the power and jamming the cell signals was a good start, the assholes inside still had the advantage. They had the women we loved in direct danger. One wrong move, and we’d lose them.

“I say we have a mad minute,” Echo Two, the Teamguy with the deep Southern drawl, offered, standing alongside his leader. “We go in quick and dirty in those first sixty seconds. Shoot every threat possible in the kill zone.”

As their Belgian Malinois padded up to us, Echo One nodded. “I agree. My guys will provide cover for Roman so he can defuse the explosives. That means you’ll need to deal with the tangos on every other floor.”

Constantine shifted my way, adding, “Delta Team willhandle the breaching points for a quick entry for Alpha and Echo.”

Alfie, Adelina, Malik, Marc, and a few of our other operators were on Delta, while Alessandro, Constantine, Sydney, and I were Alpha tonight.

“I can mount the 249 and set the rest of the line for the ambush,” Alfie offered since he had the M249 SAW at his side. It wasn’t as heavy duty as the 240, but it’d serve its purpose. The belt-fed machine gun could quickly and easily take out a large number of tangos, clearing a path to get us to Bella and Callie within that mad minute.

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