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As he continued to watch, he was further confused by how…

normal the scene looked. Laryn occasionally said something to a worker nearby, and that person would bring her some sort of tool.

It literally looked like any other workday for her.

Casper had seen her do the same things day after day while working on his own MH-60 .

A moment of doubt assailed him. Was this not a kidnapping?

Had he misunderstood the entire situation?

Had Laryn planned this? She’d been the one to insist on staying inside the helicopter on the destroyer.

She could’ve easily loosened the wires to the FLIR, then planned to jump in and save the day.

She also could’ve passed along intel on where the extraction would be taking place.

But almost as soon as he had the thought, Casper dismissed it.

Thanks to Tex, they’d found the men responsible for betraying their mission and sabotaging their choppers.

And even if they hadn’t, there was no way Laryn could’ve known they’d be landing.

No possible way to know about the SEALs getting separated from their group.

No way she’d betray her country. And definitely no way she would’ve put so many people in danger, just to take a new job.

No. She would’ve simply put in her resignation and flown to Turkey of her own accord.

Ashamed that he’d doubted Laryn for even one second, Casper continued to survey the hangar.

He studied the workers around the helicopter.

Many looked malnourished and skinny. They didn’t meet anyone’s eyes and there was no banter being exchanged back and forth between any of the workers.

The hangar back home was a loud place when the mechanics were in there working. Lots of trash talk and joking around.

The men working here seemed as if they’d rather be anywhere else.

And now that he was paying closer attention, there were a few men dressed in the same uniform shirt and pants as Laryn, who didn’t seem to fit in with the other mechanics.

They were muscular, tall, their gazes constantly sweeping the large room.

It wasn’t obvious what they were looking for…unless they were there to make sure everyone was doing their jobs and no one tried to leave.

Frowning, feeling stupid, Casper realized for the first time that this wasn’t a regular military operation. This was forced labor.

Osman was essentially a contractor for the government, and he apparently did whatever it took to keep his employers—the government—happy with his work.

Including forcing men to work long hours for probably very little pay, and a few threats against their loved ones thrown in for good measure.

The government might not even know one of their contractors had gone rogue and was kidnapping men and women to work for him.

Feeling better that perhaps the Turkish government wasn’t falling back on Stalin-like practices from the Soviet era, Casper focused on Laryn.

She didn’t smile, didn’t try to make conversation with anyone—it was likely no one could understand her, or vice versa, anyway—and seemed to be working in one particular area under the nose of the chopper for a very long time.

Then it occurred to Casper what she was doing.

She was stalling.

Yes, there was a lot of sensitive tech equipment under the nose, but that stuff wasn’t her area of expertise. She knew the basics, but she was better with engines and the more mechanical aspects of the bird.

One of the large men next to Laryn said something to her that Casper obviously couldn’t hear, but he could see Laryn’s reaction to the words. She tensed and shook her head. She looked exhausted, but she was standing her ground against the man.

Clearly ignoring whatever her reply had been, he grabbed her upper arm. Laryn struggled against him, to no avail, and he began dragging her out from under the chopper.

Casper had seen enough. They’d found Laryn, they wouldn’t need to knock on every door on the upper level and wouldn’t have to navigate the dungeon. They needed to move. Now .

“I’m going in,” he told his team.

They didn’t protest, didn’t ask what the plan was. They’d worked together long enough, had to fly by the seat of their pants enough times, literally, that they’d figure out a plan as they went.

For a split-second, Casper thought about his brother. Nate would be appalled at the Night Stalkers’ apparent lack of any kind of organized plan. As a Navy SEAL, he and his team probably had plans A, B, C, and even D before they set foot on any kind of transport.

But even the best plan could be fucked by one simple element that was out of their control. Casper and his fellow pilots’ skills lie in making life-or-death decisions on the fly.

Because all the bright lights were currently pointed toward the MH-60s in the middle of the room, the beams didn’t quite reach the walls of the cavernous space. Which meant the four men were able to silently infiltrate the building without anyone even noticing.

The lack of obvious weapons made Casper’s hopes rise that they’d be able to grab Laryn and get the hell out of dodge without any—or much—resistance.

Looking around for her once he was inside, Casper had a moment of panic when he couldn’t spot Laryn right away. Then a commotion on the other side of the hangar, near the stairs, caught his attention.

Laryn had managed to pull her arm out of the man’s grip, and she’d fallen on her ass on the hard concrete floor. The man was standing above her, frowning.

“Get up!” he barked in a voice loud enough that it carried across the huge room.

“No! I’m not going anywhere with you!”

“You are. And this defiance will be punished. You’ll learn to obey your husband one way or another. Now…Get. Up.”

Husband? No fucking way !

Casper saw red. It was only Pyro’s hand on his arm that kept him from rushing straight across the hangar floor to where Laryn sat on the floor.

They’d been inching along the shadows on the outskirts of the room, trying to stay undetected for as long as possible.

There was no telling the chaos that would explode once they were discovered.

But as Casper worked his way toward Laryn, needing to get to her as fast as possible, something strange was happening around them. They were being noticed…by the workers closest to them

And no one was raising any kind of alarm.

Most of the men Casper had clocked as being guards of some sort were watching the scene between Laryn and the man who claimed to be her husband. They weren’t paying any attention to the perimeter of the room, to anyone who might be hiding in the shadows.

With every second that passed, more employees spotted Casper and his team, but still no one said a word, solidifying his guess that no one was there voluntarily. They were forced labor, and not too keen on bringing any kind of attention to themselves.

Or maybe even hoping for their own opportunity to escape…

Making a split-second decision as he and his team approached one of the large hangar doors on the north side of the building, Casper grasped the handle of the door and yanked back, hard , praying it wasn’t locked. Just like the damn window they’d used to gain entry.

It wasn’t.

The door groaned and let out a horrible screeching noise, but it rolled back wide enough to allow several people to pass through side by side.

Then Casper aimed his pistol and shot a few rounds into the ground, just outside the door. The noise was startling in its loudness, especially with the hangar being so unnaturally silent .

He yelled, “Go!” as he pointed toward the now open door.

Several of the workers standing near him and his team looked confused, but he saw the exact moment understanding dawned.

All it took was one man making a break for the door to set off the others around him. Casper and his team were almost trampled as they rushed to get out of the way of the men racing for freedom.

He’d needed a distraction, and he’d gotten one.

The men he’d tagged as guards were now yelling, probably telling everyone to stop, to get back to work, but no one listened. They’d caught a whiff of freedom and were doing what they could to take it.

His attention now focused on finding his woman, Casper rushed forward, no longer concerned with staying in the shadows. No one paid attention to him and the others as they raced toward where they’d last seen Laryn.

But she wasn’t there anymore.

Looking around frantically, Casper’s heart fell into his throat when he didn’t see her. Then he heard her scream. Turning, he saw a door.

Of course. The stairs. The man had dragged her into the stairwell, was probably taking her up to one of the rooms.

Pyro had obviously had the same thought, as he beat Casper to the door, pulling it open and holding it for the others as they ran through.

Laryn’s voice was louder now, echoing around the stairwell.

“ No . Stop! Let go of me, you asshole!”

It sounded as if they were at the top of the stairs above them. Then a loud smacking sound reached his ears, right before Laryn cried out in pain.

A sheen of red fell over Casper’s eyes. The man would die for putting his hands on Laryn. He’d promised to keep casualties to a minimum, but he was looking forward to taking out this bastard .

A door clanged shut above them just as Casper started taking the stairs two at a time, desperate to reach her before the man got her inside one of the rooms on the floor above.

Not knowing if the man was armed, Casper quietly opened the door at the top in time to see Laryn literally being dragged down the hall by her hair.

She was kicking her feet and holding onto the man’s wrist, trying to take the pressure off her scalp. She was also swearing like a sailor, using every curse word she’d learned over the years from working alongside her fellow blue-collar mechanics.