Page 47 of Marked

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“I’ve got it.” Dare’s voice boomed out of the speaker on Cole’s phone. He and Nash sat behind the desk in the office. Nash occupied the chair and Cole sat on the edge of the desk, but all he wanted to do was pace. The women had stepped out minutes earlier.

Anticipation lit fire in Cole’s veins and he stood to lean over his brother’s shoulder. The urge to get in his car and meet Dare and then storm the farmhouse rattled his core.

“Did you send the images?” Nash interjected.

“Just did.”

A soft ping drew their attention to the computer. Cole shook the mouse and brought to life the program Dare had given them access to.

A drone image of trees was the first shot. Cole flicked through the others, which depicted the property from various angles, and finally stopped on the first photo of the farmhouse. “That’s a huge acreage.”

“Massive. To the south of the house are what look like stables, then a barn and maybe a ranch hand’s place. Hard to say until we get there.”

Cole scrolled through a few more images, which matched Dare’s description of the layout. “My bet is they’re holding Bella in one of the outbuildings.”

“Last picture shows the white van. It’s parked near the barn, so I’d have to agree with you.”

“We’ll start with the outbuildings,” Nash mused. “If we come up empty then we’ll search the house, which will likely have tighter security.”

Cole locked eyes with his brother. If Dallas made it over, as he’d promised, there’d be a handful of them for the ambush.

“What time do you want to head in?” Dare asked.

“We’ll take an hour or so to go over a more detailed plan once you and Dallas get here, then have a quick bite before the drive.”

“I’ve got a little more intel regarding the guard postings,” Dare said. “So I want to go over that first.”

Nash’s face tightened. “We should wait until closer to dark.”

Cole rubbed his thumb over a knuckle. It’d be ideal to make their move under the shroud of night, but that meant Bella would be in the kidnappers’ hold for longer. Sophia might not go for that.

“We’ll figure it out,” Cole said.

“All right. I’ll be there in a bit.” Dare disconnected and Cole stared at the outbuildings on the computer screen.

Hell, the fact that Bella was in there, that he could all but see her, scared and alone in a fucking barn, made his blood heat. And he’d never even met the kid.

Sophia would lose it.

“Guess we’d better tell Lexi and Sophia what we’ve found.” Nash stood and went to the door. Cracking it open, he hollered into the hall.

Tess and Lexi entered the room first. Sophia came last, her hair brushed over her shoulder and her eyes solemn, as if she expected devastating news.

He nodded at the seat Nash had vacated a moment before, but rather than sit, she came around the desk to stand beside him. Her slight body emanated a foreboding energy, and his arm itched to pull her to his side. Stupid. She didn’t need comfort. And she sure as hell didn’t want it from him.

Nonetheless, the sight of those small pupils in her honey-toned orbs made something deep inside him ache. A need so out of his territory that the best thing to do would be to walk off the case.

Too late now.

They were hours away from getting Bella back, and he’d be damn sure he had the opportunity to kill some bastards in the process. Fewer child abusers in the world would be a good thing. He cleared his throat and nodded at the screen, clicking back to the first picture. “Dare sent the drone images of the farmhouse and acreage.”

She shouldered closer to the screen, bringing her side against his abdomen as she leaned forward. “This is it? You’re sure?”

“That’s the address Lawson had.”

Nash sat on the edge of the desk and tapped an arrow button on the keyboard to bring forward the next few shots. “As you can see, there’s some outbuildings. Quite a few. We’re going to hit them first because—”

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