Page 74 of Rescuing Tobias

As he spoke, the guard advanced on her, closing the short distance between them until he was standing right in front of her, and she had to tilt her head all the way back to maintain eye contact.

Which she did mainly to spite him.

“You're valuable, but you're not exempt from punishment. And that value ends the moment you give birth. Might want to think about that. Might want to consider how you can earn yourself a little favor so that when you have your baby, there’s still a reason to keep you around.”

It didn't take a genius to figure out what he meant.

The arousal dancing in his dark eyes spoke volumes.

One of the other guards stepped up behind her, grabbed her bound wrists, and yanked them up higher, making Isabella cry out as it felt like her shoulders were about to be wrenched out of their sockets.

With his grip on her, she had no choice but to comply when he shoved her down to her knees. The man maintained that grip, keeping her shoulders at an awkward and painful angle so she had to try to stay still if she didn't want to make the pain worse.

The guard who’d done all the talking was still in front of her with a wicked grin on his face as he unbuckled his pants. As he freed himself, she couldn’t hide her look of revulsion. He was big, and already hard, and she would love nothing more than to sink her teeth into his flesh and teach him a lesson he’d never forget.

But she knew what would happen if she did.

Her baby would be the one to pay the price. They were keeping her alive until then, that much was clear, but what happened after depended on how well she behaved for the next several months. If she didn't do what they wanted, she had nodoubt that not only would they kill her after she’d given birth, but they’d find some sick way to torture her child before killing it too.

Large fingers circled her neck, squeezing just hard enough to make it difficult to breathe but not impossible, and the man chuckled as he guided his length to her lips.

Time was running out, and she was losing hope that Tobias was coming for her.

CHAPTER 22

April 27th

5:03 P.M.

It hadall taken too long.

That feeling of ants in his pants that Tobias had had on the night six weeks ago had nothing on this. This was that anxious feeling of needing to do something, wanting to get back out in the field and rescue some people rather than sitting safely in front of a computer screen times about a million.

There was every chance that if they didn't get moving in the next couple of seconds, he would lose his mind.

While he was no stranger to preparing for a raid, he’d never done one where the stakes were this high. Where his pregnant girlfriend, assuming Isabella could still look at him after he’d failed her so spectacularly, was inside the building.

His brain understood that they needed to make sure they had their intel gathered and their plan laid out before they struck, but his heart hadn't caught on to that.

Couldn’t while he was this close to Isabella.

All it knew was that it wanted her back in his arms where she belonged.

Right now, he couldn’t allow himself to worry about her hating him, being unable to forgive him, wanting nothing to do with him. Those were worries for after, once he knew she was alive and mostly unharmed. Then he could worry about that stuff.

Her life took precedence over everything else.

About to move from his position and tell Rocco that if they didn't get moving this second, he was going in alone, the words he’d been waiting for finally came through his comms set.

“Time to move,” Rocco’s calm, steady voice gave the order, and they were off.

Along with him and the SEAL team were some Canadian cops who would hold the perimeter while he and Rocco’s team went inside. From the intel they’d gathered, it looked like the trafficking ring had taken over an old factory that had at one time been used for produce and set up base there.

Another vehicle was parked outside in addition to the four Trinity had told them about, which meant there were extra people now present. From the drone’s infrared technology, they had ascertained that approximately forty people were currently in the building. A dozen hadn't been moving, so they were assuming those were the victims.

While they’d been gathering their intel, they’d had to remain out of sight of the guards searching the woods, presumably for Trinity Malloy. Since they also had to presume that the guards were in contact with one another, they—well, Rocco—had made the decision not to capture the men as they spotted them. Doing so could risk a kill order being sent back to the building, since that’s what had happened on the ship after Ava escaped.

So they’d waited until the woods grew quiet again, the guards returning to their base, and now it was time for them to do their thing.

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