him hope when nothing else had been able to penetrate the dim world he’d descended into. And so he hung on with all the fierceness he could muster, because now that she’d found him, he wasn’t going to let her go.
CHAPTER 6
“SON of a bitch, this is pissing me off.” Donovan stared down at the email message on his phone and let loose another string of expletives that had his brothers wincing.
“What’s going on, Van?” Ethan demanded.
Donovan looked up to where his brothers were packing gear and loading up their packs for the trek into the Afghani Mountains. There was grim acceptance of their possible fate. Each of them knew there was a good damn chance they wouldn’t come back, but there wasn’t an alternative. Not for them.
“He’s in a cave or so the latest email says. A fucking cave. Like there aren’t a million of those in these mountains?”
Garrett frowned. “But are there that many capable of holding prisoners? There are a few here that have been used as outposts for the Taliban.”
“We’ll question the locals and hope to hell we can buy information,” Sam said. “Our guide should be here soon then we’ll take out.”
Behind him, Rio stood quietly talking to his team while Steele and his team stood to the side, waiting. They were all mostly silent, their faces impassive.
A few moments later, a young man dressed in tattered pants and shirt appeared out of the dark. He wore a Western-style hoodie, but it was thin and holes riddled the sleeves and back.
“You are Sam Kelly?” the boy asked.
Sam took a step forward. “Yeah, that’s me. Are you Aamil?”
The boy nodded solemnly. “We must hurry. It is too open here. I’ll take you into the mountains.”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Donovan said.
The boy turned, a slight frown on his face.
“What do you know about caves around the Korengal Valley? A big enough cave to house prisoners.”
Aamil swallowed nervously. “I know of a few, but they are heavily guarded. It’s too dangerous.”
“To hell with dangerous,” Garrett said. “P.J. and Cole can take them out with their hands tied behind their backs.”
“Glad you’re so confident in our abilities,” P.J. said dryly. “Do the rest of you plan to do anything or are Cole and I going in alone?”
“Smart-ass,” Cole muttered.
“I want to question the locals,” Sam said to Aamil. “I need to know where those caves are and what kind of activity is around them.”
Aamil hesitated. “It will cost you double what we agreed upon.”
“I don’t give a damn what it costs,” Sam growled. “Just take us there.”
“We should go then. It’s better to travel in the dark.”
“Fall in,” Sam called softly. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
As they melted into the night, Donovan adjusted his rifle and stared into the darkness. He hoped to hell they weren’t getting jerked around. It pissed him off that this asshole emailing him obviously knew enough about Nathan’s family and situation to send a fucking SOS email but he couldn’t supply more than Nathan was in some cave in Korengal Valley?
It didn’t make any goddamn sense. Why not be more specific?
And if he knew so damn much about Nathan and had obviously talked to him, why wasn’t he doing more to help than just sending an email? For that matter, how the hell did he have the ability to send an email from here? He’d obviously talked to Nathan. Either he was one of the assholes holding Nathan captive and was helping him on the sly or…or the entire thing was a damn setup.
The more he thought about the situation, the more he didn’t like it. Now the entire KGI organization was on the ground in Afghanistan. In the most dangerous area. No backup. No help from Resnick. No way to guarantee that any of them would get back home.
Donovan glanced over at his brothers. They had no business coming on this mission. They had wives. Garrett had a fiancée. Sam had a daughter. They should have let Donovan come with the rest of KGI and stayed their asses at home.
“Quit looking like you just got a hand job from a drag queen,” Garrett muttered beside him.
“How the fuck do you know what I look like?” Donovan asked irritably. “It’s dark as shit out here.”
“Don’t need to see you to know you have that pinched, tight-ass look on your face. You weren’t coming without us. No way we’d let Nathan rot in some goddamn cave any more than we let Rachel stay