Breaking Rules (Delta Force Strong #2) - Elle James Page 0,1
first in, taking out the two guards left standing on the loading dock, supposedly guarding the open overhead door.
“Dock’s clear,” Dash reported after dragging the guard off to the side to avoid setting off any alarms.
The team entered the building through the large overhead doors.
Their goal wasn’t to kill all the men handling the women and children. They were there to capture the guy making the deals. However, if they killed a few of the bastards, great. Men like that didn’t belong in the world.
With strict instructions from their CO, they were to limit collateral damage. That meant they couldn’t shoot into the crowd of women and children. They might be shot at, but they couldn’t shoot back and risk the lives of any innocents.
The men inside were busy lining up the women and children. They marched a woman up to a raised platform.
One of the men grabbed the scarf from her head and ripped the abaya from her shoulders. The garment fell to the floor.
The woman squealed and tried to reach for the folds of fabric, but the man twisted his hand in her hair and yanked her upright.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she stood naked in front of a small group of men in turbans. She tried unsuccessfully to cover herself with her hands and arms.
The men standing below the poor woman approached her, studied her body and leaned their heads together. Finally, one nodded and spoke in what sounded more like Arabic than Pashtu.
The man holding the woman’s hair allowed her to gather her garments. Then he shoved her to the end of the dais and off to the side.
Another man lifted a female child up onto the raised platform.
“Bastards,” Dash murmured. “They’re selling these women and children.”
“Do you see our American middleman?”
Dash scanned the crowd of men, women and children. In the far corner of the building, another man stood, leaning his back against the wall, wearing a brown, felt Fedora, khaki cargo pants and a long-sleeved, loose-fitting shirt. His wardrobe stood out among the men dressed in the baggy trousers and tunics of middle eastern men.
“Back right corner,” Dash said.
“I see him,” Rucker responded from his position on the other side of the door leading into the warehouse. “Mac, Tank, Blade, Lance…cover the rear exit. Bull, Dash and I are going in.”
“Roger,” Mac responded. “On our way around the outside.”
Before Rucker and Bull could join Dash, the man in the Fedora spun and walked toward the rear exit.
Dash swore. “Our target just headed for the exit.”
“Picking up the pace,” Mac said. “See him ahead. He’s getting into a dark SUV.”
“Cripple it, but keep the bastard alive,” Rucker whispered.
“He discharged five men from the SUV. They’re providing cover for the vehicle’s getaway,” Mac reported.
“Do whatever it takes,” Rucker said. “We have to catch the bastard. We’re aborting the show and heading your way. Come on, Bull, Dash. Our guy is getting away.”
Dash’s jaw hardened. He hated leaving the women and children under such dire circumstances, but they had to catch the American responsible for selling them. Once they had him in hand, they’d go back to help the others.
After backing quietly out of the warehouse, Dash and Rucker turned and ran toward the back of the building.
The sound of machine gun rounds ripped through the air before Rucker and Dash reached the corner. They stopped short and pressed their backs to the wall. It was only a matter of time before the other men inside came out to see what all the fuss was about.
“Dawg, what’s going on? Where’s our target?” Rucker’s demanded.
“I fired on the driver’s side window and the tires, but the SUV is still moving. Hard to see in the dark to get a good bead on the tires when they’re driving directly away from me. The others are pinned down. The opposition is heavily armed, two bearing machine guns. When any of our guys move, they throw everything at them.”
In the lead, Dash eased up to the edge of the building, fit his night vision goggles over his eyes and glanced around the corner.
He spotted the green heat signatures of Mac, Blade, Tank and Bull, lying low to the ground, returning fire when they could.
Looking past them, he spotted four of the five men Dawg had indicated. They appeared as small green blobs hunkered close to the ground, their weapons trained on the Deltas.
Beyond them were the taillights of the SUV leaving the scene before they could capture the one person