Page 16 of Bound By Pain
Reigning in my annoyance, I fill him in on what we learned from the dickhead leading the Wexern group. “We’re going to meet up with a raid team now. I’ll let you know if we find her.”
“Whenyou find her,” he corrects. “Because you will find her, Mr. Hale. No matter how long it takes.” He hangs up before I can curse him out, so I toss my phone into the back seat and cross my arms over my chest.
“He’s right,” Lex says. I scowl at my roommate and best friend. Of course, Shiloh is right. Nothing will stop me from finding Bea. I just don’t want to hear shit from an Alpha who pushes her away at every turn.
If he doesn’t want her, he should mind his fucking business and let me focus on rescuingmyOmega.
The abandoned mine Voight sent us to has four buildings on the property, all clustered at the center. Overgrowth and a large patch of forest sit between them and the main road, making it easy for our teams to stealthily enter.
We wait for nightfall, watching from our positions to monitor their guard rotations. Porter’s team had gotten thermal imaging of the property from a drone. The largest building—a two-storyrectangle made of faded brown brick—is the only one currently occupied. With the body count inside, that should be where my Omega is. Either that, or the Eternals have a hell of a lot more men hiding here than we originally thought.
Night falls, and we strike. My feet move quietly across the packed dirt lot as we approach the front doors. I press my back to the brick when we get close enough, waiting for the signal from the other teams to proceed. When the call goes up, Catalco motions to one of the other agents, who pulls a door ram from his side and aims below the rusted knob.
Every entrance except the south-facing side still has the original doors, making it easy to access the building from those points. Porter’s team is waiting there, ready to use a small brick of C4 to take out the only door they replaced. If we open the other doors and find they’ve heavily fortified the interior, we will have to reconvene there.
Catalco steps inside and swears, confirming our concerns. He briefly shines a flashlight inside, showing us all the concrete wall blocking our path inside. Motioning us toward the south, he sends up a call to alert Porter’s team to what we found. It echoes on the other side of the building as well, leaving us with one way in.
Hopefully, that also means there is only one way out.
We reach the southern corner and wait for the team taking point to complete their breach. As soon as the boom whips through the air, we move in. It’s chaos inside as Eternal members take cover and return fire. With so many of our agents pinned down, there is little room to progress forward.
Lobbing a smoke bomb through the air, Catalco ducks back around the wall we’re crouched behind and motions for me. “Go find your girl. And Ridley? Don’t get yourself killed.”
With a sharp nod, I slip a mask over my face and dodge into the smoke-filled room. A gang member stumbles in front of me,eyes widening when he sees me. I slam the butt of my assault rifle into his forehead and watch him crumble to the floor. Stepping over his body, I continue my journey toward the next room.
Movement to my left has me swinging my weapon, but the familiar FCDA uniform stops me. Lex steps to my side, a mask covering his face. Together, we breach the next room. A long hallway awaits us, with doors on either side spread along its length. From the original blueprints and the drone footage, we’re estimating that the victims are being held in what used to be the dining hall. It’s the largest room in the building, and it sits to the northwest of our current position.
Meaning we have a lot of room to cover.
Ripping my mask off, I hang it back on my belt. “I’ll take the left. You go right.”
Lex grunts, removing his mask before he stalks down the hall. With a glance behind me, I follow. The rest of the teams will catch up with us soon.
The first room I breach is an empty bunk room. A side door leads to a secondary adjoining bunk room. Two men cower behind the door leading back to the hallway. I catch them off guard, landing shots on both men before they can turn their weapons my way.
A small part of me recoils at the violence and bloodshed surrounding me, but remembering the pain I felt through my Fated connection to Bea turns any empathy I could muster to dust. These assholes hurt my Omega. They deserve every ounce of this pain. Even death isn’t enough to make up for all the damage they’ve caused.
Back in the hallway, I continue to the next room. This storage room has two other entrances, leading me away from the main hall. Taking the door at the back, I work room by room toward where my girl should be.
In a secondary hallway, I stumble upon a group of Eternals. They duck into doorways and fire my way, but their shots go wide. Blowing out a slow breath, I wait for their shots to slow and lean around the corner. My shots don’t miss. One by one, they fall.
As I take the last of them out, a door opens further down, and a familiar face steps out. Fucking Marcus Brown. Creed’s brother. He watches his men fall, then looks at me. Before I can react, he turns on his heel and runs back into the room he left. I swear and follow him.
No way in hell am I letting this piece of shit escape. Not after what he put Creed and my Omega through.
The room he entered houses their security feeds, but he’s damaged the equipment. It’s sizzling, and all the screens are dark. Of course, this asshole had to make things harder for me!
Running through the open doorway at the back, I skid to a stop and frown. It’s empty. No windows, no doors. No Marcus, either.
“Motherfucker!”
Noise behind me has me swinging around, but it’s just Catalco and the rest of his team joining me. “Dead end?”
“No,” I grunt. “That asshole Marcus ran in here and disappeared. There has to be a way out of this room.”
Jerking his head, he puts one of his men on guard duty at the door, and has the other two help search. We tear the room apart, moving shelves and furniture. Seeing nothing obvious, we beat on the walls.
“Looks like there’s a door here,” Catalco calls.
