“Sloane!”
Lance’s voice boomed, and Sloane jumped out of Ben’s embrace in sheer surprise, almost knocking him off his stool.
As he’d come out of the elevator, he’d roared her name, obviously expecting her to still be locked in her room and not sitting behind Ben.
“What? Why are you yelling?”
Lance swiveled, instinctively pointing his gun at her, but lowered it immediately. His expression rapidly shifted from murderous to annoyed, and then relieved before being worried again. “You’re up. Good. You need to come downstairs now. We’re in serious shit.”
Her entire body went on full alert. “You got a hit on the traffickers?”
Lance hesitated before pressing the elevator button. He moved inside, followed by Sloane and Ben.
“I was waiting for Luke’s new coordinates before crashing your bedroom door down and dragging your stubborn ass out of bed. In fact, the entire team has been put on standby just in case we needed immediate backup.”
The elevator’s doors opened and the three of them rushed downstairs to see Devin cursing at his screen.
When he peeked at Sloane and she saw the same worried look on his face, she knew deep down in her gut it didn’t bode well.
Lance stepped next to Devin. “Did you find him?”
Her breath caught and the fact she didn’t lose control was due to her years of experience and in-depth knowledge that she had to keep it together.
“Tell me that ‘him’ you’re talking about isn’t Luke.”
The hacker winced. “Sorry, Sloane. We all let out guards down, expecting Luke to simply reach out when he came up with potential spots to check. We didn’t think he’d go by himself to investigate.”
It was as if her entire being wanted to explode into a storm and accuse everyone in the room of having made a big mistake. But Ben’s words echoed inside her, and she’d been the one to retreat into her room like a child and not put on her big girl pants like she should have.
“Just tell me the situation.”
Devin pointed at a list on his screen. “You know that Luke was working on a list of potential locations that the traffickers might be using. Once he discovered the pattern of one entrance being in plain sight for the truck to drop their delivery, and the other inside a building, so they can transport it without being seen, he began revising the list, narrowing it down. Luke sent us an updated list a few hours ago. There’s a limited selection of potential spots that I was ready to send to the police so the boys in blue would take care of the rest, but he told us to wait. He said he needed to verify one more building access, that it might be the motherload, the place where the biggest transports were done.”
Sloane fidgeted, anticipating the answer. “He just didn’t tell you he’d be doing that in person.”
Lance sighed, his shoulders sagging a little. “We thought he’d stay put, but we should’ve known better. It’s what Devin said. Luke sent a text message twenty minutes ago, telling me that he’d stumbled across a potential drop.”
Dread fell on her like a shower of stones. “And?”
Lance shook his head. “And nothing. That was his last message. I asked Devin to track his cell signal and went to get you.”
The heat of panic coursing through her veins only lasted a few seconds, replaced by stone-cold resolution. “Did you tag his last location?”
Without a word, a map appeared, a red circle defining a sector she remembered well.
“I’ve been there... and not that long ago. Remember we had a hint about three of Mr. White’s men loaded with boxes and going under at that spot? I found them on their way out and almost got killed when one of them got behind me. A faceless man saved me. Luke. We haven’t had a chance to explore that place again with everything else that’s happened, and it’s probably why he wanted to take another look. Smart move, but not so much going alone.” Guilt crept inside her heart, but there was no time to deal with that, not when Luke’s life was on the line.
“I’m going to call in everyone that’s available from the team.”
Sloane nodded. “I hope it will be enough. Devin, load the underground maps so I can consult them even when the signal is gone.”
As she sprinted to get ready, Lance loaded up the gear. In record time, she got to her bike. It may have been too cold for it, but for Sloane, speed was of the essence. She needed to get to Luke as fast as possible.
Just as the engine roared to life, Devin checked her connection via her earpiece. “I know you care about him, Sloane, but be careful. We don’t have the upper hand in this, and we don’t know where Luke is, or how many people are down there. Luke’s survival depends on yours. Don’t forget that. I’ll send the others after you. Bring him back, babe. Good luck.”
Once out of the underground parking, Sloane pushed the bike to its destination with Devin’s words still in her head. She wouldn’t allow any other outcome. She didn’t care about how many bad guys were underground, or even if her life was at risk. Luke would get out of there alive.
Chapter 23
Luke tried hard to ignore the humidity hugging him like a wet blanket. His body shivered, but his discomfort wasn’t high on his priority list. Since he’d left Sloane and the lair, despair had almost sidetracked his research. With his brain constantly going back over what happened with Sloane and debating if he’d done the right thing or not by leaving, Luke almost missed the obvious. He’d indulged in Sloan’s warm body, but he had no illusions that he’d changed her mind. At least he’d said goodbye his way, pouring his soul into their joining, opening his heart one more time before shutting it for good.
Work became his sanity, his mission to keep himself from sliding into unwanted thoughts. Through all the maps, all his notes, all the possibilities in his head, a few scribbles fell in front of him, and brought him back to an event that seemed so far away now: the failed urbex with Eddie where he’d met the Vigilante for the first time. Everything had happened so fast since then Luke had almost forgotten the reason he’d gone there in the first place.
He knew for sure there was an anomaly in that spot, an intersection nobody had found before, just like the tunnel from the hotel the bad guys had blown up: one end was hidden from view, the other obvious where a car could do a drop via a manhole. That was the only reason the traffickers would’ve used that specific location. If she’d had more time, Sloane would’ve discovered the path, which was why he needed to narrow down the list and give it to the cops so they could plug all the holes.
Luke knew he had to check it out for himself before alerting the team, or at least do some basic recon with what he knew. Confirmation was crucial. What he hadn’t planned for was almost coming face to face with them. When he’d reached the intersection with one way leading to the open space where he’d seen the Vigilante and the three men, Luke’s intention was to go the other way, to confirm if his theory was right. His plan went south when noise reverberated through the tunnels, leaving him with two choices: push ahead of the traffickers or retreat to the same command center where he’d shot the bad guys.
Instinct led him to the command center, ducking out of sight just as light beams scanned the area.