Page 56 of Shadow Lies

They certainly weren’t going to let him look at their security camera footage to see if it had captured her in the street.

An hour later he was no closer to finding Alexis and was going out of his mind.

Gone was his cool, calm SEALget shit donedemeanor. It seemed that attitude had abandoned him along with the Navy he’d served for over a decade.

With no resources to find her—no team behind him for back up, no tech to provide information, no weapons locker to draw from—he was left running around blindly with nothing but the photo of her on the cell phone.

He was getting nowhere and the more time that passed the lower his chances of finding her.

He needed help. But he’d be damned if he’d use the Charley phone and be monitored for this call. He pulled Alexis’s cell phone out of his bag. He could use it to call one of his old teammates.

Not everyone had cut him off completely like the Navy had. But not many had any power to do anything to help him. One did, though. A friend of a friend he’d been on an op with about five years ago had opened a private security company staffed by all former SEALs. But unlike Charley’s organization, this one was actually legit. Not shady.

He was moving into an alleyway to get out of the flow of tourists and be able to make the call in private when he sensed motion behind him.

Too late.

Someone grabbed him from behind. Two guys, maybe more. There seemed to be more hands than he could count, but they only held his arms.

Lucky from him, his arms weren’t necessary right now.

Close enough to the wall of the building, Kane leaned into the men gripping him from behind, using them as leverage to run up the wall and do a backflip that broke their hold on him.

When he landed with both feet on the sidewalk, he was in a better position. This time he was behind them.

The matching expression of shock on the two guys would have been laughable if he wasn’t too busy fighting the two other guys who rushed him.

Four men were here for him. Had whoever taken Alexis come for him too?

A small part of his brain that wasn’t fighting for his life considered that this was a good thing. That he’d most likely be taken to the same place Alexis had been. That didn’t stop him from battling his enemies with everything in him.

But this wasn’t a choreographed fight like at the performance today. It wasn’t a Jackie Chan movie where the good guy always won, no matter how many men opposed him.

He couldn’t fight four guys—all armed, all skilled—and win.

When he finally accepted that realization he went limp and let them grab him. Let them think he was cooperating. Then, when their guard was down, that’s when he’d strike.

Hooded in the back of the black town car that they’d shoved him inside he considered who might be responsible. Whoever was behind Wei was one option. The mining company or the government or whoever Alexis’spuppet masterwas.

He didn’t love that idea. Because if it was the Chinese government or a corporation sanctioned by them, they could be about to stash him in a deep dark hole for the rest of his life—or just kill him. He wasn't sure which of the two options was worse.

Of course, there was another possibility of who was behind his being taken. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this option either.

Charley.

ChapterTwenty

“So,Charleyis not so much a name. It’s a position?” Alexis asked, trying to wrap her head around the conversation she and Charley had been having.

“Yes.”

“So you’re like a handler for the men you recruit,” Alexis said.

“Men andwomen,” Charley stressed the last word pointedly.

“And women,” Alexis repeated.

That had been evidenced by the fact that this kidnapping was Charley’s idea of recruitment or a job interview.

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