Page 4 of Fatal Temptation

CHAPTER FOUR

Lucas

THE WAITING was everlasting. They’d moved to the van now, parked a street away from the building they were surveilling. Mo and Evan were set up a street over, waiting for the go-ahead. The local police had provided their SWAT officers as well as two detectives, all of whom were busy securing the surrounding area.

Gemma was next to him and Tahir was sitting in front of the screens in the van, Sanchez behind them on the phone with the others to coordinate their entry.

Lucas was watching the screens in the van, all of them showing different cameras that Mo and Evan had set up around the building along with the few CCTV feeds around the area. They had a video feed from SWAT’s sniper as well and that was the one he kept coming back to. He watched the people visible in the window of the building, talking and gesturing. One of them kept looking at his watch until he said something that had them all moving.

“Something’s wrong,” he muttered, staring at the screen. “Something’s happening.”

He got up, putting his hands on the desk, leaning down to stare at the monitor.

“What are you seeing?” Tahir asked, turning in his chair to look up at him.

He ran his gaze across the screens, noting the movements of the men inside the building. He pressed his lips together when he caught sight of people with their heads down, walking between the men.

“They’re moving the girls.”

If they let them move the girls now, they would never find them again.

“We have to?”

“No,” Sanchez snapped, phone still in hand. “Do not interfere, Davis.”

“But?”

“Stay,” Sanchez ordered.

Lucas dropped back into his seat, glaring at the back of the man’s head as he exited the surveillance van. He turned his gaze to the monitors, annoyance grating at him.

“He’s going the wrong way,” he mumbled.

He heard the click of the door opening and looked up at Gemma as she jumped out and poked her head in, a brow raised at him.

“You coming?”

His lips tilted up for a second and he threw a glance Tahir’s way before following Gemma. He could only see the side of Tahir’s face, but the man was smiling. He was about to get them all in trouble, but it would be worth it if it ensured these bastards didn’t get away.

He put in his earpiece and pressed the button clipped to his sleeve to say, “We have movement on the west side of the building. Agents moving in to intercept.”

He dropped his hand to pull out his gun and ignored the commands coming through his earpiece. Sanchez was smart enough to cease the cursing to keep the line clear, but he knew the man was stewing, and he’d definitely pay for the insubordination later.

He and Gemma made their way down the empty street, thanks to the detectives and SWAT who had cleared it for them.

The building was one floor with ten-foot-high ceilings, surrounded by two-story buildings and a busy road on either side. They moved to the entrance opposite of where the men were headed, to a door leading out onto the street. The building had a loading dock that led out to the street behind the building. That’s where they would be taking the girls. They had to have had a truck already there because no vehicles had entered through the big green gate in the time they had been watching the place.

They reached the door, and he got into position, giving Gemma the go-ahead to open the door. He hadn’t expected it to be unlocked but it took Gemma three kicks before the lock shattered and the door swung open.

Gemma pushed the door out of the way and stepped back to let Lucas enter first. Despite the ruckus they’d made, no one came running for them. It was eerily quiet as they stepped inside the building and his voice was loud as he pressed the button to his earpiece.

“Agents entering from the east entry point.”

He got confirmation through the earpiece, and they continued inside, knowing their backup would be arriving shortly.

The entryway gave way to a staircase on their right side and what he knew to be a kitchen to their left. He knew the men had taken the girls through the kitchen to the back of the building.

He pointed to his right and Gemma gave him a curt nod before splitting up and heading in that direction. He continued down the hallway, listening closely but it wasn’t until he closed in on the door to the loading dock that he heard it. A truck idling. Running footsteps on wet gravel.

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