Page 43 of SEAL Ever After

Quickly pulling the sweatshirt over her head, she wanted to vomit. Selling her off could only mean for sex. Were they part of some twisted sex trafficking ring?

At this point, her best hope was that the men didn’t touch her. They’d “save” her for whatever sicko was purchasing women, and Ryan would find her and come to her rescue.

He had to.

The alternative wasn’t even something she wanted to consider.

Thanking God that the sweatshirt was so big it fell beneath her bottom, covering her, she pulled the slip she had on down her legs. The men stopped their conversation as one of them whistled at her, and she froze.

“Hurry up.” Juan snapped.

She quickly pulled the sweatpants on, realizing she’d have to hold them up because they were so large.

At least she had some clothing on though. They certainly weren’t going to rape her right here in the parking lot—not if they’d told her to get dressed.

“On the plane,” Juan commanded.

Sarah paused, her gaze darting around the area.

“There’s nowhere to run. The only people here work for me. And I promised to escort you to Mexico myself. You’re quite a prize,” he added with a chuckle.

When she didn’t move, then man who’d been carrying the clothes roughly grabbed her arm. His firm grip on her bicep caused her to flinch, but she quickly hustled along beside him toward the waiting plane.

Juan followed behind them. As the rough asphalt bit into her bare feet, she wondered what had happened to her shoes. To her wedding gown. To her entire life.

Hot tears filled her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. Could it really have been only yesterday that she was planning to get married to the man of her dreams?

She could pull away and try to fight the men, but they’d hurt her. Knock her out or drug her again.

And she had nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.

The man holding her arm shoved her ahead of him up the steps of the plane. The metal was hot from the sun, and it burned her bare feet, causing her to hurry. Taking once last quick look around, trying to remember any detail as if that would somehow help her escape, she gulped in some air.

She’d be alone with these men in an enclosed airplane, flying out of the country.

Flying away from Ryan, her family, and her entire life.

When she paused a beat too long, Juan grabbed her other arm and shoved her forward, pushing her into the waiting airplane. As the men boarded after her, the door shut behind them, sealing her fate right along with it.

Chapter 20

Ryan paced back and forth in the bullpen at Little Creek on Sunday evening, muttering under his breath. Men from both SEAL teams were seated around the table, poring over information. Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since Sarah had been kidnapped. Twenty. Four. Hours.

Ryan knew the odds—the first day someone went missing was critical. Crucial to their discovery and rescue.

Sarah could be anywhere in the world by now. Anywhere.

Bile rose in the back of his throat as he thought of someone touching her—harming her. He didn’t even want to imagine the worst of what those monsters had done to her.

After contacting the police yesterday, they’d thoroughly searched the hotel suite that Ryan and Sarah were supposed to spend their wedding night in, detectives taking fingerprints and interviewing Morgan and Bree. Seeing the room he was supposed to come back to with his wife cordoned off by police tape was a sight he’d never forget.

Instead of walking down the aisle, she’d simply vanished without a trace.

Instead of spending the night making love to his wife, he’d been up for hours working with the police and out of his mind with worry.

Investigators had searched the hotel room of the hairstylist shortly afterward, but she’d been nowhere to be found either.

Ryan and the other men had swarmed the lobby and hotel perimeter, unwilling to let anyone get away with Sarah. The Virginia Beach boardwalk and strand were packed though. While they’d been in the initial phases of the search, she could’ve been hustled out the back door amidst the crowds, never to be seen again.

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