When Day Breaks

“Shut the fuck up,” Swa

Hancock fell silent and kept glancing at his watch. A few moments later, Swa

Hancock was right on Swa

“Show me,” Swa

Joe hesitated, which made Swa

“Just show us, goddamn it,” Hancock demanded. “We’re wasting fucking time by standing here. Is she alive? Whatever it is, get on with it.”

Joe dragged a hand through his hair and then pulled out his sat phone.

“Eddie called a while ago freaking the fuck out. Eden’s kidnapper sent him a video because she wanted Eddie to see what she was doing to Eden. She taunted him by saying she was drawing out Eden’s death. Told him her revenge would be complete because she was going to kill Eden and she wanted him to watch her die. Which leads us to believe she’s going to send another video.”

“Show it,” Swa

Joe sighed. “This isn’t easy to see, man. But you need to keep it together. Donovan is working on a trace to see if he can track her location. Hopefully he’ll strike gold and be able to give us a specific location, or hell, if he can just get us in the general vicinity, we’ll find her.”

Before Swa

Hancock’s sudden intake of breath was heard over the noise of traffic and the incessant honking.

Swa

Eden was bound to a chair and blood covered her face as her kidnapper made yet another cut to Eden’s face, carving a meticulous line from her cheekbone to underneath her chin.

Eden’s shriek of pain brought hot tears to Swa

“Focus, goddamn it,” Hancock shouted. “We need to study the video, see if we can see anything that helps us pinpoint her location. Put it away, Swa

Swa

“Start it over,” Swa

It took everything he had to push aside his emotions and look at this with the detachment he always had on other missions. He couldn’t look at this when his mind was clouded and consumed with fear for Eden. He had to put it away and do the job. At any cost.

Bracing himself and forcing himself to study the video with objectivity, he zeroed in on the surroundings. This time Joe muted it because the only sound was Eden’s scream and Swa

Something caught his eye and his pulse ratcheted up, so much so that he could feel it beating at his temples and in his neck.

“Back that up,” Swa

He leaned in, taking the phone from Joe, and then hit play again, bringing the phone closer to his vision.

There. There it was!

Oh God. She had his necklace on!

He thrust the phone at Joe, his movements frantic as he dug out the GPS locator from his pocket. Goddamn it. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He was so rattled in the hotel room, he hadn’t even thought about looking for the necklace. He’d assumed she’d wear something far more glamorous to the launch party.

“What the hell?” Hancock demanded. “What’s going on? What did you see?”

“The necklace,” Swa

Everyone pushed forward as Swa

“Come on, come on,” Swa

Bingo! Relief crushed him with its weight. There was a blinking dot on the map of Paris. Eden was still in the city!

“Got her!” Swa

CHAPTER 35

THEY scrambled into two vehicles, shoving in clips, lifting assault rifles into place and positioning knives and flashbang grenades.

Swa

By using satellite imagery, they were able to pull up a picture of the exact location that gave Eden’s position. It was a house on the outskirts of Paris, just to the south, in a suburb with houses spaced short distances between them.

They had to make damn sure their entry was clean and not have an i

“Drive faster, goddamn it,” Swa

“I’ve got it to the floor, man,” Joe replied, his expression grim. “Get yourself together. We can’t afford to let emotion cloud your judgment. We don’t know for certain she’s where the tracking device is, and we don’t want to burst into a civilian’s home and blow them all to hell.”

Swa

Tears gathered and burned in his eyes, but he blinked them away, knowing he needed perfect vision and his senses sharp. They might get only one shot at this. If threatened, the crazy-ass woman would probably take Eden down even knowing she was about to die herself.

Hancock, who’d been studying the close-up map of the neighborhood, lifted his head.