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“There!” Brax yelled. “Turn there!”

Gideon turned, but not fast enough. Brax knew in his head that he was doing the right thing, but it was killing him. Now was not the time for screeching tires. Gideon double parked a block down the street from the target house.

All three men jumped out of the car, grabbing their weapons. They ran down the street. They were in the bad part of town, and when they passed three young men sitting on a porch stoop, they turned their heads.

Brax was running slower than Gideon and Mateo because he still had the phone up to his ear. He heard Jenny gasping for breath.

“Now tell me where Fiona is,” Ronald asked again.

“Portugal,” Jenny said so softly that Brax could barely hear her.

“You’re going to have to narrow that down some. You’re also going to have to tell us the name she’s currently using.” Ronald sounded so reasonable it made Brax go ice cold. He could see Mateo scouting the perimeter of the east side of the house. Gideon had disappeared around the west side.

Jenny was continuing to breathe in short painful pants.

“Tick tock,” Jeffrey said. “I don’t like cutting you, but I will if you don’t start talking. Hell, you heard the man, I’ll get to buy an island. Hey boss, where should I cut next?”

“Her alias is Simonne LeGare. She lives in Braga.”

“That’s still not enough.”

“I can’t think of any more,” Jenny wailed.

Gideon came back to the front of the house. He motioned Brax and Mateo toward him. They gathered around. “They have her in the basement. There are three windows, none of them large enough to get through. Decorative only. The only other egress is stairs leading up to the kitchen. They’re not facing the stairs, Jenny is.”

“And the windows?” Brax asked.

“They’re up and to their left. There are racks with boxes in front of them. Shots will be difficult, but not impossible.” Gideon answered.

“I want the stairs,” Brax said.

Mateo and Gideon nodded.

“We’ll be at the windows,” Gideon said. “We’ll hold fire until you make a move unless Jeff starts in on her again.”

They all nodded.

Through it all, Brax had had his phone on speaker, the only sound had been Jenny’s harsh breathing. They broke apart and went their separate ways.

Brax easily broke the lock on the back kitchen door and crept inside. The house was a shambles, it looked like it had been used as a meth house at one point. He spotted the door that led to the basement. It wasn’t closed shut. He nudged it open just enough to squeeze past the opening and looked at the wooden stairs. Silently, he stepped on the outer edges of each stair as he crept down.

“Uhmm, I’m thinking. Honest. I’m thinking.”

“How about where she works?” Ronald asked. “Do you know where she works?”

“Yes!” Jenny cried out excitedly. “It’s for a graphic design company. It starts with a C.”

“Jeffrey, cut her again.”

Rage like he had never felt before, flowed through his body as Brax bent down so he could see past the overhang and look at the scene in front of him. Ronald had a gun hanging from his fingertips at his side, and Jeffrey was nudging up Jenny’s skirt with the tip of his knife. Brax lifted his gun, took aim, and fired.

Jenny screamed.

Brax fired again as he heard two more shots.

Jenny continued to scream and scream and scream.

Jeffrey collapsed onto Jenny. Brax rushed to her, picked up Jeffrey’s body, and flung it away.

“Brax, you came.”

“Of course I did.”

He crushed her to his chest, uncaring about the blood and vomit that covered her. He cupped her cheeks so he could look in her eyes. One eye was swollen shut, the other stuck shut with blood and vomit.

“Jenny, can you see me?”

“No. Can you wipe my face off?”

“How’d you know it was me?”

“Because you’ll always come to my rescue.”