Page 64 of Sniper's Pride

“It pains me to admit it,” Griffin agreed, “but I don’t like the husband for this at all.”

And he didn’t need anyone to chime in then to remind him what that meant. That they had nothing. That Mariah was in the trunk of a car and they didn’t know who was doing it or why.

But at least they knew where.

Griffin was going to have to be happy with that.

Isaac kept a ten-mile cushion between them and the signal from Mariah’s phone. And when the signal finally stopped bumping its way deeper into the countryside, he moved in closer, then pulled over to the side of the road so they could rustle up intel. There was no need to go in hot and make everything worse than it already was.

It was the same protocol they would use in any situation, but this was the first time in Griffin’s memory that he felt each second that dragged by like fingers digging into his throat.

Deeper and then deeper still.

Oz sent satellite images of the big falling-down red barn out in the middle of the woods where Mariah’s signal was holding steady. The perfect place to take someone, Griffin thought, as they all stood outside the car onthe quiet dirt lane. He adjusted the strap that held his rifle in place as if that, too, were choking him.

“We need to get eyes inside,” Isaac was saying. “We need to get eyes on Mariah. And I don’t think we want to wait for dark.”

“We’re not waiting,” Griffin bit out.

And he knew how bad it all was when no one even bothered to throw him any side-eye for leapfrogging the chain of command or throwing his weight around.

He didn’t care.

Isaac found a better place to stash the vehicle, and then the four of them set out, making their way through the woods the way they’d trained a thousand times before. It was a good five-mile hike, but it was flat here. Easy.

No snow and, better yet, no bears.

When they reached the clearing where the barn was located, Isaac gave the signal, and they fanned out.

Griffin knew what he was supposed to do. He knew it made sense to follow the established protocol, the way they had at the ex’s house. Do some recon, get a sense of what was going down and how many people were involved, ascertain proof of life, and then consult with his brothers before doing anything rash.

He’d never done anything rash in his life, until Mariah.

But once it was clear the two guards ambling around the field in a lazy patrol were the entirety of the security system, he didn’t have it in him to wait.

“I need a diversion to the southwest,” he said under his breath on their comm channel.

“Negative, dumbass,” Blue growled back, from his position to the southwest.

“I need it now,” Griffin retorted, already moving.

He heard Blue curse. And he didn’t have to hear Isaac or Jonas to know they shared Blue’s feelings on this.

Griffin cared about one thing, and she was inside that barn.

He scaled the tree before him, then swung out on one of the wide upper branches. He crouched where he was, waiting.

Because Blue might curse, but he wouldn’t leave Griffin hanging.

There was a sudden, loud sound from the southwest quadrant. It sounded like a heavy branch cracking—or someone cracking a heavy branch—and it easily got the attention of the two men patrolling the clearing. They whirled toward the disturbance, guns high, and moved in. Fast.

Behind them, on the far side of the barn, Griffin jumped.

He aimed for the questionable, patchy roof of the barn, spreading himself out as he went to make sure he landed lightly. He rolled almost before he hit, spreading out his body mass and getting the hell away from the point of impact in case anyone was waiting for him.

The roll took him toward the edge of the roof, and he didn’t wait for the guards down below to start paying more attention to their surroundings than to a mysterious noise in the woods. He swung himself down and straight through the looming opening high up on the barn’s side that he assumed had something to do with hay.

He landed the way he always did, light and easy, the weight of his rifle a comfort against his back, the way it was supposed to be. Then he waited for his eyes to adjust.

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