Page 4 of Rescuing Tobias

Right as Isabella was about to open her mouth and set the scream free, all hell suddenly broke loose around her.

CHAPTER 2

March 13th

10:00 P.M.

Time to move.

The restless anxiety in his system was gone, replaced by an icy calm as Tobias and Rocco’s SEAL team stepped out of the trees. The old school sat in a small clearing, mostly just enough space for the building and what had probably at one time been a playground but was now used as a parking lot for a dozen vehicles.

In the shadows, the building gave off eerie horror movie vibes. It was two floors, from the number of windows he could see he assumed it had about two dozen rooms, none on the second floor were lit up, but a couple on the first floor were.

There didn't appear to be any guards watching the place because there were no shouts, no gunshots, no anything as he and the others approached. They’d already worked out their plan of how they were going to breach the building, and he and Forest “Phantom” Dalton would be entering through the front, while the other five guys would hit the back and side doors.

It would be a perfectly coordinated attack, and Tobias didn't have any doubts which side was going to come up on top.

Rocco, Ace, and Rex peeled away to the left, and Decker “Gumby” Kincade and Mark “Bubba” Wright to the right, while he and Phantom headed straight for the front door.

A moment before Rocco gave the order to enter, Tobias could have sworn he felt someone right on the other side, then a split second later, a small commotion. Whatever was going on in there he hoped it didn't interfere with their mission.

As soon as they got the go-ahead, he shoved open the door, weapon aimed and ready to go, Phantom at his six.

“Everybody down, down on your knees, hands behind your head,” he yelled the order as his gaze zeroed in on two men and a woman not far away from the door. Obviously, they’d been the source of the commotion, and when he saw one of the men kissing the woman, he assumed he could guess just what that commotion had been.

Both men spun around at the sound of his voice, both lifting weapons to point in his and Phantom’s direction. None of them wanted to kill any of the workers they found there. Okay, that wasn't exactly true. For the hell the ring had put Ava and all the other victims through, every single one of them wanted them all dead, but they knew they needed intel. The ring was large, coordinated, and successful. It needed to be shut down, but to do that, they needed someone who could point them to the head of the snake. Something that the doctor they already had in custody had been unable to do.

While he and Phantom kept their attention focused mostly on the men, the woman was much smaller and unarmed and therefore presented a much lesser threat, she apparently decided it was a good time to make a run for it.

The second his attention shifted to the woman, the man who had been kissing her seemed to think that he could make his move.

At the same time that the guard fired on him, Tobias fired back. The guard’s bullet went wide, pinging uselessly into a wall, but his bullet hit its target right between the eyes, dropping the man.

“You got him?” Tobias asked Phantom, gesturing at the other guard whose weapon was now wavering, not so willing to put his life on the line when it meant certain death.

“Yeah, you go after the woman,” Phantom replied.

Taking off out the front door where the woman had gone, he spotted her almost immediately, heading off into the trees.

“Nuh uh, sweetheart. You don’t get to run away and escape the consequences of your actions.”

Her much smaller strides were no match for his, and she was breathing heavily as she ran, making it easy to tell where she was. It took him less than a minute to find her, wrap a hand around her arm, and fling her up against the trunk of the nearest tree.

She let out a pained moan as her body made contact, and her wide, terrified blue eyes met his. While there was absolutely no mistaking the fear in her gaze, there was something else there, too. Defiance. A determination that said she had no intention of going quietly.

Too bad she didn't have a choice.

No longer was she playing God with other people’s lives. The game was over, and she was going to pay for what she’d done.

Still, as he stared down at her tiny form, her thin face framed by wild blonde curls, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was the faint bruise he could just make out. It stood out in stark contrast to her otherwise pasty complexion.

“Time to face the music,” he told the woman as he spun her around, pulled out zip ties, and bound her arms behind her back.

Again, she cried out in pain, and he wondered if the bruise was her only injury. While Tobias certainly didn't enjoy manhandling women, especially ones who didn't even top out at five feet tall, and who looked like angels with their blonde curls glinting in the moonlight, this woman was not some poor, innocent little victim. She was there, dressed in scrubs, working for an organ trafficking ring, and making out with one of the guards.

Just because she looked sweet and innocent didn't make her so.

A lesson he’d learned several times over when he was in Delta Force, and again as he worked for Prey.

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