Page 60 of Lone Star Rescue

Jericho’s huff let Rafe know he wasn’t a fan of this, but he didn’t argue. He just drove, taking turn after turn onto roads that got smaller and less traveled until they were essentially driving on a dirt and gravel trail.

When they were about a quarter of a mile away from the compound, Jericho stopped, parking the van in a cluster of trees and grabbed some more gear. Some infrared binoculars and jamming equipment to disrupt cell phone signals and cameras.

They started walking, trudging through the thick woods, which were a blessing and curse. The trees gave them plenty of cover, but there were points where they had to squeeze through the rough bark just to keep moving.

Even before the compound came into sight, Jericho activated the jamming equipment, and then they continued.

And there it was.

There was no drone in sight, but whatever Ruby had sent had done a damn good job of imaging the place. Rafe took the infrared binoculars to see what they were up against. The infrared would detect any heat sources, and they should be able to tell from the size of the sources if Tessa and Bree were here.

“One man in each of the tunnels,” he relayed to Jericho. “One at each exit for a total of six.”

Then, Rafe looked toward the center shipping container where he’d figured Buckner would be. And he was. Or rather a man was there whose blurry red blob matched Buckner’s height and weight.

Steeling himself up, he shifted the binoculars again. Two more figures. Tessa and Bree, judging from their sizes. They were up on some kind of platform or stage.

And then everything inside Rafe turned to ice.

Because he saw the outline of something on their torsos. Something that was generating just enough heat for the binoculars to pick it up.

“Hell,” Rafe said. “Tessa and Bree have bombs strapped to them.”

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Chapter Sixteen

Bree tried to blink away the wooziness. It didn’t work. Everything was spinning, and her vision was too blurred to see anything.

But she could hear.

The occasional crackle of what she thought might be overhead lights. Something ticking. Footsteps. Muffled conversations.

And moans.

Someone was moaning, and Bree thought it might be someone in pain. She certainly was, but she hadn’t managed to get her mouth and throat working enough to come up with any semblance of sound.

Where was she?

What had happened to her?

Again, she fought the haze that had seemingly seeped into every part of her mind. She tried some deep breaths and blinked again. Now, she could see the outline of two men, both wearing some kind of gear.

Everything came flooding back to her. And her eyes fully opened.

She’d been at Rafe’s when the attack had started. An attack from Buckner and his henchmen. Tessa had run. So had Rafe and she, and they’d gotten separated. She’d heard Tessa scream and Rafe in a fierce fight with someone.

Bree wasn’t exactly sure what had happened after that. The smoke had obscured pretty much everything, but she’d run toward Tessa’s scream. Then, someone had shot her with a dart that was no doubt filled with some kind of sedative because she’d gone out after that.

Now, she was here.

But where washere?

She looked around and recognized the place from photos she’d seen. It was an old militia compound that the FBI had shut down years ago when she’d still been a deputy. There was the stench of mold and rot. Something else, too, that reminded her of a cheap plastic toy that had just been opened.

She felt the heavy weight on her chest and looked down. At first, she couldn’t grasp what she was seeing. But it was there.

A bomb.

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