Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“The other men are in route, Seth, but you know I pulled them off last night to review the surveillance videos from the businesses surrounding the club. They are a bit further out than you, but will be there in less than six minutes. Game face, Seth, I’m serious. Baker is depending on you to get him out safely.”
Fuck! Nobody had eyes on him? I raced toward the stairway, knowing this was going to take time that Landon hadn’t calculated…time Baker might not have. “Do I even have a driver or am I going to have to carjack somebody?” This assignment was turning into a clusterfuck…the most important one of my life and everything was going wrong. Why hadn’t he woken me up? Why? “The elevators are down, Landon. Fucking out of order,” I snapped.
There was a long pause before Landon answered, and I knew my mentor hadn’t been prepared for the loss of the elevators. How much time would that cause me to lose? I raced down the stairs, jumping down the bottom four steps on every floor.
“No need for a driver. The tracking device on his watch shows him in the building across the street. We were correct with our first assumptions on telescope man. He’s in the basement of the building. I have the blueprints in front of me and can talk you through it. We’ve got this, Seth. Baker is going to be completely safe. Using him as bait was always part of the plan. You were well aware and signed off on it.”
That was before I fell in love with him, I wanted to scream.
I punched the stairwell door open as Landon spoke into the phone, “Follow the hallway to your left and exit the building through the door at the end of the hall. Outside that door, make another left and there’s a walkway that leads to the neighboring building. We aren’t going to go in through the front door, so don’t barrel straight in. Let me know when you reach the end of the walkway. ETA on the rest of the team is four minutes.”
It took everything in me to not sprint in the direction of the building, but I knew I didn’t need to do anything to draw attention to myself. No doubt whoever it was behind this had people watching the building…just like we’d been watching them. Then it dawned on me. “Are you telling me that Javier’s involved with this?” Landon had told me his family owned both properties. Why in the hell would the man do something that could ruin his own business and then hire us to catch the fucker?
More importantly, did this mean Baker was in even more danger? Javier wouldn’t know about the GPS tracker in Baker’s watch, but he would be waiting for other members of the team to come to Baker’s rescue.
“No, not Javier. Javier is estranged from the rest of his family due to his homosexuality. His father, mother, sister, and twin brother are extreme right wing, Bible-thumping, fanatics. Who knows what their entire plan is, but it’s clear they are on a vendetta to destroy Javier and they don’t concern themselves with collateral damage, like the poor men they’ve abducted and abused. It’s the twin brother, Jericho, who’s taken Baker.”
My anger and fear were reaching a boiling point. “I’m at the end of the walkway. Which way now?” Every precious second lost could be a moment where the group was torturing Baker. I’d seen pictures of the other victims, it wasn’t pretty. They’d all survived, but would be scarred for life, physically and emotionally.
“Go right and follow the path like you’re headed toward the ocean. At the end of the building, you’ll see a service entrance that will lead to the basement floor. I have the code when you get there. The surveillance tapes were very helpful. It looks like it was Jericho, Javier’s twin brother, driving the SUV, and the other two guys are members of his church. I’m sure they think they’re doing shit to save souls…when they really only need to be worried about their own.”
“Code?” I demanded.
“372468#,” he answered. “The rest of the team is two minutes away. I don’t want you waiting on them, but I don’t need to hear you going in there like a keg of dynamite going off either, Seth. You’ve done this hundreds of times. Baker’s depending on you to keep your head on straight so you can keep him safe. ’Go to the fifth door on the left, there’ll be a staircase that leads down to the soundproof room where they are holding him.”
“I’ve got to go silent, Landon. I’ll keep the phone activated and in my pocket from here on out. Don’t talk unless it’s an emergency,” I growled.
“Seth…try to keep everybody alive—including the bad guys. Once they’re apprehended, the police will step in and take care of the rest. When you kill people, it’s loads of paperwork on my end.”