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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

And Casper had Tex in his ear.

When he’d called Tex to tell him that they’d gotten the okay to go in and get Laryn, the former SEAL had insisted on being involved. Casper had no problem agreeing. He needed all the help he could get. To find a way into the hangar, to find Laryn, and then to get the hell out of dodge.

Tex had maps, satellite feeds, and an almost supernatural ability to see through time and space to know what was going on. It almost felt as if he was physically there. And Casper was glad for the help.

“Things got busy tonight. More movement,” Tex said in Casper’s ear as the MH-60 took off from the deck of the destroyer.

This was it. They’d either return with Laryn in tow or die trying.

And Casper had no plans on dying today. He had a life with Laryn to live.

No way was he letting some asshole take that away from him before he’d had a chance to experience it.

“As I told you before,” Tex said, “my suggestion is that you and your team approach the hangar from the east. Getting through the security around where the building is located won’t be difficult, because there isn’t any.

They do have guards stationed at the main entry points of the hangar, but on the side where the neighborhood stands, there aren’t any doors. ”

“So how are we getting in?” Casper asked.

“I said there aren’t doors, but there are plenty of windows. You’ll have to find one that’s broken or open, or can be otherwise breached without making too much noise.”

Casper nodded to himself as Buck and Obi-Wan flew over the dark waters of the Mediterranean toward the hills outside the city where Laryn had been taken.

All things considered, the time between when she was taken and now was relatively short.

But not short enough. Casper couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could’ve happened to her in a week’s time. It made him feel sick inside.

He did his best to shut off those thoughts.

His only objective was getting in, finding Laryn, and getting them the hell out.

They could deal with the ramifications of whatever had happened to her when they were all safe.

He supposed this was the moment when some men would decide they didn’t want to deal with a woman who would almost certainly be dealing with some form of PTSD in the future.

But not Casper. He’d never met a woman who was more his match than Laryn.

Together, they’d figure out what she needed.

“You hear me?”

“Sorry, no,” Casper admitted .

“Hey…everything I’ve learned about Laryn proves that she’s tough,” Tex said quietly.

Casper didn’t love that the man had been looking into Laryn, but he supposed it was necessary…and he appreciated the assurance just then.

“I’ve known some amazing women over the years,” Tex continued. “They all went through some shit, but with the support of their friends and their men, they’re thriving today. I have no doubt Laryn will do the same.”

Determination rose within Casper. Damn straight she would. She’d probably bitch at him for losing another chopper so soon after the last one. She’d complain about the workload she’d be under trying to retrofit another MH-60 and having to endure another test flight.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah,” he said a little belatedly.

The rest of the flight was spent going over the layout of the hangar, at least from what Tex had been able to uncover.

He wasn’t sure of the number of employees who’d be at the warehouse at this time of night, but they were all hoping the number at two in the morning would be less than if they went in during the day or even closer to sunrise.

Before they knew it, Buck and Obi-Wan were hovering over the LZ and the Night Stalkers began to fast rope to the ground below.

When Casper was the only one left in the back, Buck turned around and said, “We’ll be waiting for word to come in for extraction. Bring her home, Casper.”

“I plan on it,” he told his friend with a firm nod, before grabbing the rope and stepping out of the back of the chopper.

It didn’t take long for him to be on the ground next to his friends.

No one said a word as they adjusted their small packs and began jogging toward the city.

It was likely the chopper had been seen, but no one would know that it hadn’t simply been off course.

That it had been dropping off four operatives intent on stealing back what was theirs.

Casper wasn’t interested in what excuses the captain might give the Turkish government for their chopper being in their airspace. His only concern was Laryn.

The couple klicks to the city didn’t take long, and soon the four men were weaving in and out of streets that had seen better days.

Expensive homes and cars parked along the roadway had given way to the poorer section, which was their destination.

The hangar that held the military’s brand-new MH-60 choppers was in a run-down part of the city.

Casper supposed that was done deliberately.

To try to disguise exactly what was inside.

As they neared their objective, the four men slowed.

The building loomed tall in front of them, in stark contrast to the two-story run-down apartment buildings and shacks that had been assembled nearby.

Casper’s heart was racing, adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream as he crouched under one of the many windows along the east side, just as Tex had suggested.

He could enable comms with the former SEAL with a simple press of a button on his radio, but Casper was done planning.

He was ready for action. The first place they’d look for Laryn was the basement.

Tex had let them know there was a huge room under the floor of the hangar.

It could be storage, but Tex’s intel said it was a dungeon of sorts.

Full of cells reserved for men who’d been accused of treason or other high-level crimes.

The thought of Laryn being down there made Casper want to puke, but it was the most logical place for Osman to stash her.

Tex had warned if she was down there, it wouldn’t be easy to break her out. There were no windows on that level and the only way out was up one of two narrow staircases. It would be easy for them to be trapped down there, so they had to be very careful not to get caught.

The hangar where the choppers were located was much like any other. A large, open space with a few offices along the north and south walls. There was a catwalk around the entire area, likely so guards could keep watch over what was happening on the floor below.

Above that was an entire floor of rooms. Tex had guessed they housed the men who worked on the helicopters and airplanes stored in the building.

If Laryn was in one of those rooms, Casper and his team would be hard-pressed to find her without raising alarm bells.

It wasn’t as if they could knock on every door and ask politely for an American woman.

It seemed getting into the country was the easy part of this mission. Casper wasn’t above killing every single person who stood between him and Laryn, despite promising the captain that bloodshed would be kept to a minimum.

Taking out a snake camera—a tiny lens at the end of a flexible piece of metal, much like a snake tool used back home to clean clogs from toilets—Casper lifted it to the window nearest him and pointed it at the glass.

Watching the video being transmitted on the small screen on his wrist, Casper held his breath, not sure what they’d find.

To his surprise, the hangar was fairly busy.

Lights shone in the middle of the cavernous space, making it easy to see what was going on.

He spotted two MH-60 helicopters, with men walking around, under, and inside them.

It was three-thirty in the morning, and it seemed as if the government wasn’t wasting any time getting their new acquisitions battle ready.

“ Pbsst .”

Looking to his right, Casper saw Edge motioning him toward him.

“This window’s open,” Edge whispered.

What the hell?

“Open?” Chaos asked quietly.

“Yeah. I figured I might as well try to see if we could get in the easy way. I pushed up on the glass and the fucking thing opened,” Edge said, clearly as surprised as the rest of them .

Casper shook his head in disbelief. So much for national security. But he supposed most people in this area knew better than to go into this building. Especially if the intel about working conditions Tex had passed along was any indication.

Lifting the camera once more, Casper stuck it into the open window, pleased at how much clearer the picture on the small screen became.

He took several precious minutes to look around carefully, racking his brain for a clue on how they were going to enter.

While there weren’t nearly as many people as Tex had estimated were working during the day, there were still way more than their four-man team had expected for the middle of the night.

They’d been hoping to sneak in and stay in the shadows while they went to the staircase that led down to the cells beneath the hangar floor.

Then something caught his eye. He stopped the camera and panned back.

There!

One of the workers crouched under the nose of the chopper had long hair. It was pulled up into a bun, but now that he was focusing on the person, it was obviously a woman.

It was Laryn!

“She’s there!” he exclaimed softly, with immense relief.

“Where?” Pyro asked.

“At the chopper on the right. Under the nose.”

“How many guards are there?”

That was the weird thing. Casper didn’t see anyone standing around with rifles or any other weapons, forcing anyone to work.