ONLY ONE OF the three tangos on the floor was still conscious when Georgia appeared, but he was fading fast.
Dismissing him, Heath pushed to his feet and shifted his full attention to the women coming toward him, rushing over to help the one Georgia was half-carrying. The second one appeared unhurt, following under her own power. They were both wearing the clothes they had been kidnapped in.
“I’ve got her,” he told Georgia, bending slightly to scoop the first woman up in his arms. “Where are you hurt?” he asked as he carried her across the warehouse, while Georgia and the other woman followed.
“My knee,” she choked out. Both of them were crying.
“Okay, let’s take a look,” he said, setting her down in a chair halfway across the floor. He could feel the seconds ticking past. They needed to bug out of here fast.
Briar was still keeping watch from across the street, and Trinity had eyes on a whole bunch of views of the exterior. So far neither of them had reported any additional threats coming their way. He had time to assess and treat before leaving.
The seated woman had on a thigh-length dress. She was trembling from shock as he took her wrist to check her pulse. He went to one knee beside her and reached for an ACE bandage from his vest. Georgia was talking to the other woman about twenty feet away.
“Are you Holly?” She was pale and her pulse was fast, but she was breathing fine, her pupils were okay, and she didn’t show any signs of being critically dehydrated.
“Yes,” she said in a shocked tone. “How d-did you…”
He didn’t answer, still assessing her. There were no obvious wounds anywhere, only some minor bruising and scratches. Probably because the assholes who’d kidnapped her didn’t want to damage the merchandise before handing her off to the buyer.
“Your left knee?” he asked, examining it with gentle, gloved hands. It was a little swollen on the medial aspect, with some bruising on the kneecap.
“Y-yes.” She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. “Who are you guys?”
“We’re here to get you out,” he told her, and began wrapping her knee in a figure-eight pattern.
“They were going…” She swallowed, fought for composure. “Going to sell us,” she whispered.
A hot stab of anger punched through him. “We know. But they won’t hurt you or anyone else ever again,” he vowed, tucking the edges of the bandage in, then taking out a Mylar blanket and draping it around her to conserve warmth. “There. You sit tight for just a bit longer, and we’ll have you out of here.” He glanced up just as Bautista appeared out of the hallway, dragging a bleeding man behind him.
Heath turned Holly’s chair to face away so she wouldn’t have to see her captor, gave her a reassuring smile through his balaclava and squeezed her shoulder gently. “Be right back.”
Bautista dumped his blindfolded cargo on the floor and folded his arms as he glanced at the women. “How are they?”
“Scared out of their minds, but otherwise okay.” He nodded at the bleeding guy. “What’s his story?”
“He fucked around and found out.”
Heath felt zero sympathy for the asshole, glad he was hurting after what he’d done to these and other women.
“Just patch him up enough to stop him from bleeding out until at least after the cops get here.”
Amber would call the cops as soon as the team had cleared the area with the freed hostages. “Roger.” The restraints made it easier to work on him, but the slice across the inner thigh was deep enough that muscle showed. Bautista didn’t fuck around.
With anyone else, Heath might have thought it was pure chance that had made the knife miss the femoral artery, but given Bautista’s expertise with a blade, he knew better. A few more ounces of pressure, and it would have been a bloodbath. Although this bastard didn’t realize it, he was only still alive because Bautista had allowed it.
“How much longer?” Briar asked.
“Two minutes,” he replied, working as fast as he could to staunch the bleeding.
As soon as he’d finished applying the pressure bandages, he pushed to his feet. “We’re coming out, two females in tow.”
“Copy that,” she replied.
Bautista bent to lever the wounded guy across his massive shoulders and stood to carry him back to the other prisoners, ignoring the uttered curses and threats while Heath went back for Holly. Georgia took point, the other woman behind her. Heath followed her, and Bautista brought up the rear.
They paused inside the busted side door, waiting for confirmation that it was safe to exit. At Briar’s reply, Georgia stepped outside, weapon in a double-handed grip as she began to lead the way across the asphalt courtyard at the center of the group of buildings.
Heath was part way across it when the faint sound of an engine caught his attention, immediately followed by the screech of tires.
Automatically, he set the woman he was carrying down and drew his pistol, looking around.
“On your left,” Briar said in a hard voice.
He turned. A car was screaming toward them. Georgia whirled around. The woman she’d been escorting stood frozen in terror in the glare of the headlights.
With a mental curse, Heath sprinted toward her. The car sped up. He raised his weapon and fired as Georgia did the same, but the non-lethal rounds didn’t hit the driver. The car kept coming.
Heath lowered his weapon and ran, charging for the woman. She took a startled step to the side and tried to run.
The car raced right at her.
Suddenly there was a loud thud, and a large bullet hole appeared in the windshield.
Briar.
The car veered, the driver slumped over the wheel. The woman stopped and darted the other way, but too late.
Heath dropped his weapon and dove at her, knocking her out of the way. But the forward momentum threw him directly in the path of the vehicle.
Pain exploded like a lightning bolt when it hit him.
The impact threw him upward, launching into the air. It spun him twice, then slammed him hard into the ground.
For an instant he stared up at the sky, his brain kicking in. Shit, no. Chloe…
Then blackness swallowed him.
Chapter Fourteen
“Twenty seconds.”
Chloe didn’t respond to Trinity’s announcement in her earpiece, too busy connecting the wires to the device she’d just planted beneath the car’s fuel tank. Man, what a rush. She’d forgotten how good this felt. And while bringing down a building would have been a lot more fun, they couldn’t afford that much damage.
This was better than nothing. And she got a big kick out of knowing she was about to destroy Tarasov’s favorite toy.
Her time window was rapidly closing, however. Tarasov’s security patrols weren’t the primary concern. They were scattered and didn’t appear to be on any kind of set schedule here at the garage.
The problem was, the patch Amber had coded for them to upload to the security cameras in this building was about to end. Chloe needed to be out of here by the time that happened, or someone might see her and her team would lose the element of surprise necessary to pull this off.
With a practiced hand, she finished connecting the detonator under the Audi R8 and climbed to her feet. “Done,” she whispered, giving the car a longing, regretful look. Such a pretty car. Was such a total waste to destroy it, except that it was sure to piss Tarasov off.