Page 44 of Tactically Acquired

I tried to move forward and stumbled, falling into the side of the vehicle. The man moved toward me again, but when I turned my gun on him, he stopped moving.

“The…woman…”

“She’s gone,” he whispered.

“Gone? She’s dead?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know. Another car came and—they pulled her out. They took off that way,” he said, pointing ahead of the accident.

“Fuck,” I muttered. I pulled out my phone and dialed Cap, hoping like hell he didn’t kill me. I was already feeling pretty shitty.

“Craig, where the fuck are you? You’re supposed to be here for a job!” he snapped.

My head pounded as he shouted at me. “Uh…I have some good news and some bad news, Cap.”

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Alright, tell me the bad news first.”

“Well, I came out to California to pretend kidnap an old friend so she could get some time off from her job.”

I heard his groan and knew he wasn’t going to be happy with the rest of what I had to say. “Kidnapping? Again? Craig, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“It was her idea, Cap. I swear to God!” I winced as my head felt like it split in two.

“Fine. We’ll cross that bridge later. What happened?”

“Alec is with me and…long story short, someone nailed us on the interstate.”

“How bad?” he bit out.

I looked at the wreckage and tried not to throw up as nausea swirled in my stomach. Fuck, I really didn’t feel good. “I’m gonna need some back up.”

“How fucking bad, Craig?”

“Could you stop yelling?” I asked, grabbing the side of my head as I made my way back around to the front of the vehicle. Well, what was left of it.

“Where’s the girl?”

“Gone. They took her.”

“Alec?”

“Knocked out.”

“So, what exactly is the good news?”

I scratched my jaw, hoping he saw this the same way I did. “Well, we’re alive.”

“Maybe not for long,” he ground out.

“See, I’m gonna choose to believe that you’re saying that because you think they might come back to finish us off and not because you’re going to kill us.”

“Take it how you will.”

Police sirens could be heard approaching. I needed a crew out here asap and I needed Becky on this now so I could find out what happened to Audrey.

“Boss, I really need Becky’s help on this.”

“No shit. Send me coordinates. What’s this woman’s name?”

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