Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,49

in the last week. But this time, he turned at the last minute and grabbed her. He covered her mouth, his hand hard and unforgiving as he clamped down on her. And then she felt the bite of something in her arm.

A syringe. She wanted to kick out knowing if she could just make a sound, Heath would be in the room in a heartbeat. But someone had her lower body. She felt instantly heavy like any movement was too much. She was slogging through mud. Or cement.

She fought to move, to do anything to let Heath know something was wrong. He and Duff were right outside the door. All she needed to do was to make a noise. To knock over something.

Her body was numb and unresponsive. She watched in horror through bleary eyes as two of Demir’s advisors moved the chairs they’d been sitting in moments ago and lifted a trap door in the floor.

The rug was attached to the door. Once it was closed from the inside, no one would be able to tell how she’d been taken from the room or where she’d gone.

There was no time for her to do anything to stop what was happening. She tried to fight whatever they’d injected her with but it was like fighting against a tidal wave as blackness crashed over her.

Chapter 27

Heath was nowhere near as calm as he needed to be for this op. He and Duff were outside the door to the room where the talks were taking place, just as they had been countless times this week. But his whole body physically ached to go in and pull Eleanor out of there.

She’d been right that if they stopped the talks, Demir would have been suspicious, but still, it didn’t mean she should be in there putting herself at risk.

Fuck, he hated this.

Still, Zip and Jangles were with Trigger and Lefty and the guys at the bunker. They’d tip them off the minute they made the decision to move and they’d give them time to get Eleanor out. He trusted them. Team Two was a good team.

He tried to relax his muscles. His arm was nearly fully healed and the little pinches of pain he felt from time to time were easy to ignore. Which was good. He needed to be ready for anything right now if he was going to keep Eleanor safe.

Their comms crackled as the channel opened and he heard Zips’ voice in his ear.

“Something went wrong. We’re taking fire from inside the bunker. Get Eleanor out of there. Get her out, now!”

Heath didn’t need to be told twice. He and Duff turned and Duff got them into the room with a boot to the door.

The empty room.

Heath moved in, weapon raised, heart slamming out a panicked rhythm in his chest.

She was gone. Fuck, she was gone! How the hell was this happening?

Zip spoke again. “We’re taking the bunker. Clear out of there.”

Heath was cursing up a blue streak as Duff answered. “Eleanor is missing. Going after her.”

The words gutted Heath. The room had no windows and no other door. He knew they didn’t have much time before the fighting broke out here, too. Demir’s soldiers were all over the compound. They’d be coming for them as soon as they found out about the raid at the bunker.

“Watch our six,” he said to Duff as he lowered his weapon and started scanning the room for the way out.

There. The chairs that had been in one corner earlier now stood in front of the large desk on the other side of the room.

He went to where they had been and checked the rug. “Trap door,” he said to Duff who came to provide cover as he lifted the door.

They looked down into a tunnel that was dimly lit. At the bottom, he could make out a shoe. Eleanor’s shoe.

His mind screamed as he tried to figure out how long ago they could have taken her. Had he heard anything from inside the room? Maybe something his mind had automatically dismissed as normal, but that might have been her trying to call out for him.

His gut churned and nausea hit as he thought of her trying to call to him and not getting the help she needed.

Duff gave him a nod and Heath lowered himself into the tunnel, raising his weapon. Duff dropped down after him, pulling the trap door shut. With any luck, Demir’s men would think they’d left and wouldn’t follow them