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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

How the hell had this happened?

Jay’s voice echoed in Ryden’s head, the way he’d called for Ryden, the fear. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Fire and smoke exploded into the night sky, and Ryden’s heart stopped. What the hell? Was that…? Fuck . His blood turned to ice, and a lump formed in his throat. They blew up the van.

Jay .

Ryden didn’t wait for the others. He flung the strap of his rifle across his chest and bolted, not caring about breaking formation, being out in the open, or being shot at.

It went against every instinct, every bit of training he’d had, but his heart was in the driver’s seat.

He jumped off the bottom of the gangway and took off again, sprinting across the container yard.

His thoughts raced, all kinds of horrific images invading his brain, but he shoved them out, refusing to accept any of them to be true. He had to get to the van, to Jay.

“Ryden, wait!”

Finch wasn’t far behind, but Ryden couldn’t stop.

His ears rang, and the voices in his comms sounded muffled, as if underwater, which was fitting since Ryden felt like he was drowning.

All he could focus on was getting to the man he’d lost his heart to, a man who could make him laugh, sing, and growl in frustration at the same time. He couldn’t lose Jay.

When Ryden agreed to let Jay come along, he refused to go down the path of what-if scenarios.

Even knowing the likelihood the assholes had hired help, there had been no evidence to suggest they wouldn’t be busy with their product considering their desperation and last-minute scramble.

Besides, it’s not like they would have known Jay would be there. Even if they had, why go after him?

The container yard blurred around him, and shouts from King and the others echoed in his ears. Ryden’s lungs burned, but nothing mattered except reaching that van. He had to believe Jay was alive.

Please, darlin’. Be alive.

When the smoke cleared enough to reveal the scorched shell of the surveillance van, Ryden skidded to a halt.

The doors were blown halfway off, and the side was crushed in, like something had tried to plow through it.

Glass littered the ground, and the smell of scorched plastic and electronics threatened to choke him.

“Jay?” Ryden’s voice was a whisper, and the back of his eyes stung. Please, don’t let him be in there. “Sweetheart?”

No answer. Not that there would be.

Ryden forced his body into action, rushing to the back of what remained of the van and wrenched open the remaining door. Inside, the red emergency lights pulsed, and a couple of the screens flickered. One of the chairs had been torn from its base, but the scorched console was mostly intact.

The equipment locker was open, and a gas mask lay on the floor along with a Glock. Ryden climbed in and crouched down to pick up the mask. He couldn’t help his shaky smile. Jay had intended to go down fighting.

Instead, he’d been taken.

“Those sons of bitches.” Ryden wiped at his eyes as he stood. He was going to hunt them down, and once he had Jay safely back in his arms, he would make them pay.

“Ryden!” Finch’s voice crackled through the comms. “Where the hell are—Damn.” He stood outside the doors, the color draining from his face. “Tell me he’s not…”

“He ain’t here,” Ryden murmured, standing. “Jay’s gone.” He shook his head and tried to get a hold of himself. “ Fuck !” He slammed the mask onto the floor. “I should have made him stay home, tied him to a fucking chair or something.”

“Come on, man,” Finch said quietly, climbing in after him. “You know my stubborn baby brother. He would have found a way to be here. This isn’t on you.”

The rest of the team arrived, their expressions a mixture of concern and fury. Ryden and Finch jumped out of the van to join them.

“They took him,” Ryden said. “Those assholes had to have been watching us, planning for this.” He turned to Jack. “How the fuck did this happen?”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t know. Doesn’t matter how good these guys are. There’s no way they got into our system. Leo and I built it together. The damn NSA couldn’t get into it.”

“These guys don’t need to get into your system,” Finch said. “Are you telling me you Snake Eaters wouldn’t have been able to do this op without your fancy equipment if push came to shove?”

“Of course we fucking could,” Joker growled. “Doesn’t explain how they got the drop on us.”

King rubbed his hands over his face. “Damn it. We’re the visitors and they’re the home team.

They’ve operated out of this port for years without getting caught.

Probably knew we were here the second we rolled through the gates.

They didn’t need our system when they have the whole damn port.

Fuck !” He removed his helmet and chucked it against the van.

It smacked the side with a loud thud before bouncing off and skidding across the dirt.

The outburst made everyone jump, and they all stared at King. The only time Ryden had seen King lose his shit was when Leo was shot. The man was grumpy as all hell, but he was a mountain, always in control. But Jay was family, and someone had messed with King’s family.

“We’re going to get him back,” Ace said, his frown deep.

King rounded on Ace. “How did we fuck this up so badly?”

Ace grabbed King by the neck of his tactical vest and pulled him close, meeting his gaze. “Stop. We are going to get him back.”

King clenched his jaw so hard that Ryden was afraid the guy was going to break something. Instead, he took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out through his mouth. “Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s get to work.”

Ryden turned his attention back to Jack. “There’s gotta be a way you can track Jay. He’s somewhere in this port. I can feel it.”

Lucky nodded. “Plus, there’s no way these assholes are going to leave their product behind. They have to be planning something.”

“I’ve still got access to the port security system,” Jack said, tapping away at his tablet screen. “Let me see what I can find. This might take a minute.”

They might not have a minute. Ryden did everything in his power not to think of those bastards and what they might want with Jay. Walton and his men had come this far. They weren’t going to walk away.

Joker removed his phone from his pocket. “We need to find Jay before the police swarm this place. No way someone didn’t hear that explosion.”

Port security was probably on their way, which meant they had to move fast. Good thing the port was so damned big. Their priority was getting Jay back. Their second goal would be to get out of here without being seen, which would be interesting considering the van was out of commission.

“What do they want with Jay?” Saint asked. “If they took him alive, it’s for a reason.”

Ryden ran a hand through his hair. “His connection to me, his security clearance at work, or maybe they’re just sadistic assholes. Take your pick.”

“Jay’s cellphone is offline,” Jack grumbled. “No surprise there.”

“Wait.” Ryden turned to Jack. “His smartwatch. I used to tease him ’bout how ridiculous he was for usin’ that thing to do everything, even pay for his coffee. He’s gotta have his location on.”

“Let’s hope they haven’t figured it out yet,” Jack muttered, tapping away at his tablet again.

“I’ve got something.” Jack zoomed in on a large structure.

“There’s a warehouse that belongs to a remodeling company.

It’s where they store their building supplies.

I can’t get a heat signature unless I’m outside the building, but this is where Jay’s watch is pinging. ”

Finch pressed his lips together in a thin line. “I don’t like this. You think they wouldn’t have checked him over and found the watch? It would have been the first thing I did. Take his phone and his smartwatch.”

“Doesn’t matter,” King said, scanning the area around them and motioning to several parked vehicles. “We need to borrow some SUVs. Jack?”

“I’m on it.”

They took off toward the parking lot while Jack got to doing what he did best. When they reached the parked cars, he pointed to two black SUVs. “Those. I can hack into their computer systems.”

“Split up,” King ordered.

King climbed into the driver’s side of one SUV with Ace, Lucky, and Jack joining him, while Finch drove the second SUV carrying Ryden, Saint, and Joker.

They headed out of the lot, making sure not to speed and attract any unwanted attention.

The only good thing about the van exploding was that any security or police that showed up would be occupied with that, giving them time to get to Jay.

They didn’t have long, but then something told Ryden that the bastards weren’t hanging around for the fun of it.

“Hey.” Saint squeezed Ryden’s knee, getting his attention. “We’re going to get him back.”

Ryden nodded, his frown deep as he pulled his fuzzy green friend from his pocket.

He stared down at Pascal, unable to believe Jay had brought the silly little thing with him.

It squeezed at his heart in a way nothing ever had, probably because Jay made him feel a lightness he hadn’t thought he’d ever feel again.

Relationships of any kind had always been challenging for Ryden, and in the beginning, things with Jay had been complicated as hell, or at least it had felt that way.

But now? Being with Jay was easy. It was comfortable and fun.

They were only in the beginning stages, and he was sure they’d still drive each other up the wall, but what they had was something special.

As brave as Jay was, he had to be terrified.

No amount of self-defense or reading incident reports could come close to the danger he was in.

Jay might have kicked his almost-kidnapper’s ass, but he was on his own against five armed ex-Marines.

When Ryden lifted his head, he caught Finch’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

“You love him, don’t you?”