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“Good boy,” I said as I stroked his back.

He sat down on his haunches just like he’d been trained to do.

At that moment, I felt like a proud papa.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with.” I crouched down, extracting the assault rifle.

I already had a handgun in a holster, with two knives easily accessible.

I also had a silencer. There would likely be guards preventing her from escaping.

They’d need to be vanquished as quietly as possible.

We moved to the side of the property, realizing that the shape of the property wasn’t in a perfect square or rectangle. At least luck was on my side. Discovering a section of fence that was barbed wire was like a godsend. They’d likely done so given the thick foliage.

I also had bolt cutters. After ensuring the system wasn’t electrified, I cut a portion large enough to fit through.

“You need to stay right here, boy. Alert me if anyone comes. Okay?” He tipped his head quizzically but sat down as he’d done before. With limited training, I had to place hope on the fact he’d listen to me.

I moved through the open area, immediately gathering my bearings. Hearing nothing, I advanced, forced to use a small flashlight to guide my way. This was dicey as fuck, but there was no other choice.

As I moved in a pattern learned with the SEALs, I covered more ground while keeping my bearings. A noise caught my attention and I crouched down, now crawling through the foliage, ending on my belly and sliding through a thick patch of briars.

The noise had been voices. There were two men dressed in combat gear standing outside a small building. From the looks of it, I’d say it was an outbuilding typically used to keep gardening supplies. Concrete, the location was perfect to mask any noise.

Including her screams.

I pulled out the small binoculars, scanning the area.

From what I could tell, it was only the two men.

The estate was large, located a couple hundred yards from the small enclosure.

I calculated the distance before housing the binoculars and moving forward, still crawling until I was within thirty feet.

Finally crouching, I attached the silencer to one of the handguns and waited as the men began to make their rounds.

The first shot was easy, the soldier dropping where he was standing. But the second was a pain in my ass.

He’d heard the thud and turned, immediately drawing his weapon and attempting to find safety.

I bolted forward, rushing toward him with no hesitation. I sensed exactly what he was going to do, shout that there was an intruder.

Before he had a chance, I lunged, tackling him to the ground. Wrestling, I managed two hard punches before being tossed off. He believed himself to be a hero. Instead of lifting his weapon, he threw himself toward me. With both hands on the weapon, I fired several shots.

Managing to roll, I avoided his heavy body dumping on mine and took a deep breath. There’d been enough commotion I was on edge, immediately returning to a crouching position.

There were no other sounds except for whatever insects and night creatures were moving through the trees. With caution, I approached the building. Forget patience. I shot off the lock. There was a chance a soldier had been placed inside.

I waited outside the door, finally glancing around the edge of the door and seeing nothing but utter darkness. Grabbing the flashlight, I flashed the beam inside. What the hell? Where was she? If this was a fucking wild goose chase, I’d castrate Gray.

I moved inside and almost instantly was tackled, hitting the wall as fists came flying. The flashlight was dropped, but I kept the weapon, doing what I could to keep it from the person attacking.

It took me a few seconds to realize they were small fists, the person fighting me weak. A woman. Her scream was shrill, forcing me to slap my hand around her mouth, jerking her around so I was easily able to hold her against me.

She continued fighting, doing a damn good job of throwing jabs behind her head.

“Juliette,” I whispered. “Stop. I’m here to free you.” I kept my voice low.

At least after a few seconds she stopped fighting.

“Now, I’m going to let you go, but don’t scream. We need to get out of here.”

When I let her go, I was certain she didn’t believe me. She whipped around to face me, her terror-filled eyes glaring at me. They were partially unfocused, likely from the darkened environment.

“Who… are… you?”

“A friend of your father’s sent to find you. Are you too weak to walk?”

“No. But wait. Why should I go with you?” Of course she was in shock, but the way she’d come out fighting indicated she’d be alright. A quick survey told me she had some cuts and bruises, her face showing signs of blunt force trauma, but otherwise she was unharmed.

Thank God for that.

“Because you have no choice if you want to return to safety.”

She processed the information as precious seconds ticked by. “Okay.”

I snatched the flashlight, taking another look at where she’d been held. Fuck the assholes. If I could kill every last one of them, I would.

While she was able to keep up with me, her exhaustion was making it slow. At least she managed to continue as we crawled our way through the foliage. Only when we were close to the fence did she falter, dropping to her knees.

“Hey. We’re getting closer,” I told her, suddenly becoming aware I’d heard noise. “Come on. We need to go. Now.”

Sensing my urgency, she stumbled forward, rushing with me the rest of the way. Once we were at the fence, I tugged the barbed wire, ushering her out first. She yelped and I immediately hissed. Every sound could draw attention to us.

“There’s a killer dog.”

“That’s Tank. He’s with me.” Tank was wiggling, immediately greeting her as soon as she crawled through. She was shaking and I knew she wouldn’t be able to go on that much longer.

I wrapped my arm around her waist, nodding to Tank. We were barely a hundred feet away when an excessive number of lights were turned on at the compound.

“Shit. They know you’re gone. Do not look back.” We raced together through the trees, using other walls hiding the estates inside as cover.

Tank barely made a sound as we continued our path, but soon the sound of engines could be heard in addition to several foreign voices. What the hell? Who were these people? There was no time to analyze or ask questions. I had to get us back to the airport.

We were almost where I’d hidden the Jeep when she collapsed.

Shit. I scooped her into my arms, taking off running again. Once at the Jeep, Tank waited as I eased her onto the backseat. At this point, keeping her out of sight could help.

After scanning the side mirrors, I started the engine. This could end in one of two ways.

And right now, I wasn’t in the mood to die.