Page 53 of SEAL Ever After

“Who’s running this from Little Creek?” Patrick asked in a low voice.

“An officer friend of mine, Lt. Commander Morris.”

Patrick nodded. “He’s a good man.”

“He’s jeopardizing his own career as well,” Ryan said, “but I’d do it for him in a heartbeat.”

“Any one of us would,” Patrick confirmed. “The intel is solid. We might’ve moved quicker than they wanted, but we had Juan’s prints and real name, security camera images of his vehicle traveling westbound on I-64. He’s a known affiliate of the sex-trafficking ring. It all adds up.”

“Precisely. I’m not going to sit around on my ass while Sarah is taken somewhere else for me to never see her again. These guys move quick—they grab the women, move them down to Mexico, and sell them off to the highest bidder. Our chances of finding her decrease with every passing minute. It’s already been too damn long.”

“We’re not leaving here without her,” Patrick said, his voice cold.

Matthew sauntered up beside them, catching part of their conversation. “Ice is right,” he drawled. “The intel all points to moving Sarah here. You know what they say—better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

“I sure as hell don’t need anyone’s permission to save my fiancée,” Ryan said, his blood boiling.

Brent fell in step beside the group of them, frowning. “Hell no. None of us do. If someone took Ella, nothing on this Earth would stop me from finding her.”

Ryan nodded, adrenaline pumping through his veins as they walked off the tarmac and toward the control tower, where the Mexican authorities were waiting. “We’ll deal with the repercussions of this mission when we get home. I’ll take the heat from dragging the rest of you into this. Until then, my only priority is locating Sarah. Who’s got the list of targets from the last op?”

“I’ve got the imagery—maps and locations of the houses and buildings,” Christopher said. “We moved out quickly last time after grabbing the missing American woman. There were multiple other places to search.”

“But that wasn’t the mission,” Ryan confirmed.

“No sir, we only had the whereabouts of the first woman.”

A middle-aged man in a Mexican military uniform began walking toward them. “You recognize him?” Ryan asked, frowning.

“Affirmative,” Patrick replied. “We met with him a month ago.”

“Commander Foster,” the Mexican official said, his gaze landing on Patrick. “I came to the airport with my men to welcome you and your team back.”

Patrick’s gaze slid toward Ryan, but he nodded, letting the man believe Patrick was higher up the chain of command. No sense in drawing attention to himself. They didn’t know who was involved in leaking their names, but if someone had gone through the trouble to kidnap Sarah, he sure the hell didn’t need to blow it now by revealing himself. Not when they were so close to finding her.

“Colonel Rodriquez, good to see you,” Patrick responded, his cool blue gaze scanning the area. Ryan saw some other members of the military off in the distance, as well as what he assumed to be airport officials.

“You’re back for the other American? The friend of the woman you rescued? I haven’t seen any new information about her, but that’s wonderful news if you’ve found her.”

Patrick nodded as the men gathered round.

“We’ll need to go into the area we were before to conduct the search.”

“Understood,” Colonel Rodriquez said. “You have the full support of the Mexican government to obtain the missing American woman. I’ve made our local police aware of your pending arrival as well. I must admit, I was surprised not to hear from your State Department this time.”

“We were in a rush due to the sensitive nature of the operation,” Patrick said coolly.

The colonel nodded. “My men are waiting to escort you. You have your own transportation again, si?” he asked.

“Yes, we’ve got our own vehicles. We’ll be moving out immediately.”

Patrick turned toward the SEAL team as Colonel Rodriquez went to update his own men. Their headsets crackled, and Lt. Commander Morris began speaking from Little Creek. “While you were mid-flight, we obtained some additional information. Lexi was able to hack into a computer network down there—something the military has been attempting for weeks, as you may already be aware.”

“Sonofabitch,” Christopher muttered, looking impressed.

“What’d she find?” Ryan asked, clenching his jaw.

“We’ve got a new address. It’s an old plantation on the outskirts of town—not where you were searching before, but it’s referenced multiple times in the communications she’s intercepted. It looks like the prior group of houses is not being used as of this morning.”

---