She looked over to see him walking toward her, his familiar long strides filled with purpose. Still, it was hard to imagine the man dressed head to foot in camo, his lean face covered in black grease paint, was Reese, CEO of a powerful Dallas corporation.
Or Reese the tender lover. This man was a woman’s secret fantasy, a true alpha male. It occurred to her that if things were different and Griff were safely home, she’d like to get to know this Reese, the formidable man he kept locked away.
Arousal slipped through her. What sort of lover would he be if his deeper passions were unleashed?
Kenzie shook the untimely thought away.
“Let’s review,” Bran said, pulling her back to the moment as he seated himself on one of the logs, clearly in military mode. They all sat down around the empty campfire, Kenzie next to Reese.
“Sit rep,” Bran prodded. “Reese?”
“From what I could tell, it looks like the road coming in from the north dead-ends at the cabin. That’s the way they came in and their only way out.”
“He’s right,” Chase agreed. “No exit south of the cabin. They can cross the creek on foot and reach the road on our side, but that’s it.”
“So we’ve got them bottled up in there,” Bran said.
That’s one way to look at it, Kenzie thought.
“Anyone find a decent crossing?” Chase asked. “The way I went in isn’t any good. Too many hazards.”
“Same to the north,” Reese agreed.
“I found a route,” Bran said. “Had to clear some of the brush and obstacles, but I left it marked with yellow neon reflective tape. It’ll work as a way to bring Griff out.”
Kenzie’s heart began to pound. It wouldn’t be long now.
“What about your sniper’s nest?” Reese asked Bran.
“Already in place. Tranq gun’s loaded and waiting on-site.” Bran rose from the log. “Let’s fire up the drone and make another pass over the cabin before it’s too dark. We can check things out, make sure everything looks good. There’s a crescent moon tonight, which will help or hurt, depending on how the situation unfolds. As soon as it’s full dark, we go in.”
* * *
Griff sat on the edge of the saggy iron bed. The slivers of sunlight that dimly lit the room through cracks in the walls were fading. It was almost dark outside, the evening filled with eerie swamp sounds.
Fear crawled through him. Time was running out. Tomorrow morning, as soon as the call the men were waiting for came in, they were going to kill him.
His stomach churned. Any minute they would be bringing something for supper. For once in his life, Griff wasn’t hungry.
He had to find a way to escape. He couldn’t afford to wait.
His mind spun with ideas, stuff he’d seen in the movies or read in fantasy novels. But he didn’t have a weapon and he didn’t really think any of the make-believe stuff would work.
In the end, he decided the best he could do was be ready if an opportunity came along. It worried him that even if he got away, the men might do what they said and come after him and his mom.
Griff closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would think about that when the time came.
In the meantime, he would be ready.
THIRTY-FIVE
“Two minutes,” Bran said. “Check your gear one last time, then we move out.”
Reese was more than ready. Had been for what seemed hours. It was heading toward full dark, the night sounds of the bayou beginning to come alive. A coyote howled. Insects rubbed their wings, setting up an eerie rhythm. A bobcat growled in the underbrush not far away.
Reese strode toward Kenzie, reached out, and caught her shoulders. “You going to be okay?”
She managed a passable smile. “I’m terrified, but I’ll be all right.”
“I know you will.” Leaning down, he kissed her, taking it as deep as time allowed. “You’ve got a radio. You’ll be able to hear what we’re saying. The keys are in the pickup. If anything goes wrong, take the truck and get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you and Griff, so don’t waste your breath.” Reese opened his mouth to protest, but Kenzie pressed her fingers over his lips. “Don’t argue. Just kiss me one last time and get going.”
Reese complied, lingering a few seconds longer than he should have, earning a nudge from Chase.
“Time to go.”
“Stay safe,” Kenzie called after them.
Reese draped a pair of night-vision binoculars around his neck and adjusted the earbud that connected him to the radio he was carrying. Bran headed in one direction, Reese and Chase in another. The plan was for Brandon to use the tranq gun to take out the men guarding the perimeter. Once they were down, Reese and Chase would drag the men’s unconscious bodies out of sight. But it could get dicey.
Whatever it took, they would do what they had to. The men were kidnappers, hired killers. A child’s life was at stake. They didn’t have a lot of choices.
Reese followed Chase along the path Bran had scouted and marked with yellow glow-in-the-dark tape. The trail sloped onto the bank of the creek. Reese’s cowboy boots sank ankle-deep in the mud, then a few more steps and he was sloshing through the water, a slowly moving stream about three feet deep. A beaver slid into the lazy current on his right and suddenly a deer bolted on his left, bounding noisily through the low-hanging branches toward safety.
At the sound, Chase went still in the water ahead of him, waiting, giving the silence a chance to return, followed by the forest sounds that had muffled their movements.
Something cut through the water between them. Reese tensed as he watched a big-bodied snake swimming toward him, head raised just above the surface. Hard to tell what flavor it was, but a poisonous bite out here could be deadly. Reese silently pulled an eight-inch folding knife out of his pocket and flipped the blade open.
The snake kept closing but turned away at the last moment and swam on past, missing him by inches. Reese breathed a sigh of relief. He started moving again, quietly slogging his way toward the opposite shore. Taking a moment to dump the water out of his boots, he dragged them back on and caught up with Chase.
Neither spoke. Chase left the trail and began circling toward the south while Reese headed north. The drone had revealed two doors into the cabin. Chase would go in through the back, Reese the front. Bran would go in through an attic window the drone had spotted, accessible from the roof.
But first they had to deal with the men patrolling the grounds outside.
Careful to stay in the shadows, Reese made his way through the heavy foliage to the north. Using the night-vision binoculars, he scanned the area. The rangy guy with the mustache stood not far away near the bank of the creek. On the other side of the clearing, the guy with the stocky build in the ball cap leaned against the Jeep, smoking a cigarette. The big guy with the ponytail was nowhere in sight, likely behind the cabin. Chase would have him spotted.