Delta Force Rescue - Elle James Page 0,42

of vehicles that headed toward El Chefe’s compound.

Rafe was amazed that by the time the Brotherhood Protectors boarded the plane Hank secured to fly them to El Salvador, that they were fully equipped with weapons, ammunition and protective gear. The items had been stored in crates marked as movie cameras, props and electronics, supposedly destined for a remote location within the country of El Salvador to prepare to film an action-adventure film, starring Sadie McClain.

They remained in close communication with the Delta Force team that had been mobilized and was scheduled to arrive by commercial flight around the same time. They would meet on the ground in the target country and form a formidable team that would be ready, and in place, when Alejandra appeared to make the trade for Briana’s freedom at El Chefe’s compound.

Rafe hoped all went according to plan, and that they were able to extract both Briana and Alejandra from the cartel leader’s clutches without losing either woman or any of the team of Delta Force soldiers.

He understood plans were only good for starting a mission. They rarely executed exactly as intended.

Chapter 10

The men who’d loaded Briana into the Jeep and transported her down the hill to a clearing where a helicopter waited didn’t say a word to her. She asked them where they were taking her, but they remained stoically silent, refusing to give her an answer. They secured her wrists with zip-ties, thankfully in front of her, and then strapped her into the helicopter, an armed guard on either side of her.

Thirty minutes later, the helicopter set down on a landing strip on a large ranch where a jet airplane waited. Briana’s heart sank into the pit of her belly. She was in for a much longer ride than she’d imagined.

A couple of men speaking Spanish marched her up the steps and onto the jet. At that point, she figured she was on her way to meet the man Alejandra had tried to escape. She was on her way to El Salvador to answer to El Chefe Diablo, the Devil Boss. The only thing that kept her from breaking down into tears was the knowledge that they’d spared Rafe’s life. Even if she never saw the United States again, she would know that Rafe was alive and he’d be doing everything in his power to find her and bring her home.

The men who accompanied her on the plane carried military-grade rifles. If she wasn’t mistaken, they were AK-47s. Russian-made rifles she’d seen pictures of in news clips from all over the world. They did give her water to drink and allowed her to use the lavatory aboard the plane. It wasn’t like she could escape through a window. Not at 35,000 feet in the air. She must have fallen asleep somewhere over Oklahoma or Texas. When they landed to refuel, it was daylight and the signs at the landing strip were in Spanish. She wasn’t sure where they were, but she suspected Mexico. The men with the guns didn’t allow her to leave the plane, and they were on their way again as soon as the fuel trucks had finished filling the plane’s tanks.

By the time they landed at their destination, Briana was bone tired. She’d slept a little, sitting up, but she was worried about Rafe and heartsick for Lucy. The last she’d seen the dog, she’d been lying on the ground after being hit with a club. The pain in Briana’s wrists, where the hard plastic of the zip-ties had rubbed the skin raw, seemed inconsequential in comparison to Rafe’s and Lucy’s suffering. So far, the men who’d kidnapped her hadn’t done more than shove her a couple of times. She was sure the Devil Boss had a harsher punishment in store for her once she arrived at his compound.

Dread built with every passing mile they drove away from the airport and into the jungles of El Salvador. If she could, she’d escape, but making her way back to civilization might prove to be difficult and dangerous. She wasn’t sure what kinds of animals she might encounter, but they would be preferable to the men of the cartel who had, as Rafe had warned, killed entire families, including women and children, because their boss didn’t like the sound of their dogs barking.

Briana had read that cartels were notorious for making examples out of people who crossed them. Sometimes they hung them in their villages or mowed them down at family gatherings. The