Adam tried to spin around this time, Luke stepped back. Adam’s lack of eye contact told Luke most of what he needed to know.
“Someone grabbed Trevor’s assistant,” Adam said.
“Sela Andrews?”
“That’s the one.”
“Where is she now?”
“With Zach.”
Luke blew out a long breath. “Okay, and where is he?”
Adam glanced over his shoulder at the monitor. “Western Maryland. He hasn’t checked in since he left the car to get her, but his watch is on. I can hear everything.”
“It’s bad?”
“It’s not good, but Zach has it under control.” Adam cleared his throat. “For now.”
“Get out there. I’ll take care of the communications on this end and watch over Maddie.” When Adam didn’t move, Luke motioned for him to get up.
“I might not get there in time,” Adam said.
“Go. Use back roads. Borrow a helicopter if you have to. Move in fast and keep talking so I know where you are.”
Adam went to the weapons cabinet and typed in the security code. He loaded up with three guns, a knife and a bag of small explosives and headed for the door. He turned back right as the metal closure to the attached garage slid open. “Hey, Luke?”
Luke didn’t look up from the monitors and their focus on the darkness around Zach’s car. “Yeah?”
“Sorry we hid this one from you.”
Luke understood. The drive to rescue was ingrained in the men he fought beside. So was the need to find Rod and have an answer, whatever it was.
Other than Rod, the only person known to have information on the WitSec scam—the side job Rod was working on when he disappeared—was Trevor Walters. The one person close to Trevor was Sela. That made her a priority.
Luke nodded. “Later Zach can give us all an explanation of why he was close enough to Sela to watch her get kidnapped.”
“About that—”
“Get the woman out alive and figure out who tried to snatch her and why. We’ll handle the rest once she’s safe.”
“Thanks.”
“Just get there.” Luke made the statement to the silent room, but he knew Adam understood. One second too late and Zach would be a dead man.
Chapter Three
Sela raced into the dense woods off to the right of the cabin, wishing the sun would just rise already and shed some light on her path. Her thin heels dug into mud, her ankles twisting with each step. She ran blind, having no idea of direction or what she would do if she managed to reach anywhere else.
The humid breeze pressed against her face, stealing her last breath. She gasped, her throat grabbing for air as the smell of pine filled her head. Through watery eyes she glanced back at the dilapidated cabin.
Zach Bachman. She had a thick file on him sitting on the corner of her desk. She had one for every member of the Recovery Project. Trevor watched every move they made. He never explained why, but he did make it clear he respected the team’s resources. That didn’t mean he trusted them, and she followed his lead.
Sela didn’t understand the benefit of keeping tabs on Zach and his fellow agents, but she did what she was told. She owed Trevor that much and now it paid off. She could identify one of the men fighting over her. She just hoped she lived long enough to turn Zach’s name over to the police. Let him explain what he was doing with Johnnie. So long as she was safe, she didn’t care.
But stray thoughts kept hitting her even as she made her exit. Having Zach show up tonight made her wonder if he was one of the good guys or if he was with them. She didn’t even know who “them” was or why they wanted her, but she wasn’t stupid. Her employer, Orion Industries, specialized in threat management. They provided intelligence and paramilitary personnel to foreign governments and international corporations. Working for the owner made her a target.
Those awful rumors about her being more than an employee only made things worse. She hadn’t understood that until she got hit in the head and kidnapped.
She couldn’t afford to stick around now and try to put the pieces together. She certainly couldn’t be sure Zach would win this round. At six-foot-something, he had the advantage over the guy Johnnie. The sleek muscles peeking out under Zach’s black T-shirt also tilted the fight in his direction, but she wasn’t taking the chance that his broad chest and lethal reputation guaranteed a win. And she most definitely couldn’t be sure if he did win, he wouldn’t harm her. No, there were too many risks for her to trust anyone in that cabin.
When her ankle twisted, she reached out to catch her balance and scraped her palm against rough bark. Half hiding, half leaning, she pressed her back against a tree and tried to get her bearings. She needed to find her internal compass. Figure out which way was north, or south, or any other direction that led out of there.
A sharp smack echoed through the woods as the cabin door slammed open. A dark figure filled the entrance, but the light behind him plunged his face into shadows.
She didn’t wait for another sign. Her brain flashed a message to her legs to move. She ran toward the dark lump in the distance, hoping it was a car or anything she could hide in. Twigs snagged her already ruined stockings and branches scraped against her forearms as she tried to protect her face.
She ignored everything around her—all the sounds of shifting and moving coming from the dark woods—except the path beneath her feet. She absolutely had to stay on her feet.
As soon as the thought entered her mind her right foot slid out from under her. Her upper body went into free fall. She put out her arms to lessen the impact and landed on all fours on the hard ground. Her kneecap suffered the brunt of the blow.
She heard crunching and harsh breathing behind her and looked up in time to see the branches behind her shift to the side.
“Sela, don’t move!” The harsh whisper echoed around her.
Zach.
She couldn’t see him, but she sensed him. Heard him. Short brown hair and a lean body that proved he had not gone soft since his days in the military. He’d found her.
She tried to climb to her feet, but he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up as if she weighed little more than a kitchen towel. She kicked out her legs and fought him anyway.
“Stop,” he ordered.
That was never going to happen. The fear pumping through her had her keyed up and ready for battle. She called him every name she could think of.
He coughed when she landed a heel in his shin. “I have parents.”
She stilled. “What?”
“They’re likely sitting on a sofa
