I wasn’t accepting defeat. We’d only heard one shot. There was no scream from Ariella. No sound of victory from Sergio.
I geared up with a bulletproof vest and let Jayden help himself to any additional equipment of mine that was leftover.
I grabbed a second pistol and tucked it into my boots and a semi-automatic that I secured around my shoulder.
I wasn’t taking any chances.
I jogged into the darkness, my feet not the least bit silent as my boots smashed leaves and stomped on branches.
Maybe I would get Sergio’s attention and he’d leave Ariella alone.
That was my hope.
Would it go according to plan? Probably not.
At least he knew someone else was in the forest trailing him.
He wasn’t alone, and neither was Ariella.
Jayden kept close behind me. It only took him a minute to catch up, and he was on my heel.
“Fan out?” he asked.
It was only the two of us.
“No. If he’s got the gear, we don’t want him to see both of us,” I said. While I didn’t want to get shot, I was also willing to die to make sure that Ariella was safe, and if that meant Jayden was getting to her in time, so be it.
I glanced down at the ground, seeing a broken branch—a sign they’d come this way through the forest.
“Keep moving,” I said in a hushed whisper. The sound carried through the forest. Sound always traveled farther at night, and while I tried to keep my voice down, my feet weren’t exactly quiet.
“Anything?” Jayden asked.
“Nada.” I hadn’t spotted any signs of life. I should have brought gear with me to detect heat signatures, but that was back at the Eagle Tactical office.
We didn’t have time to call for reinforcements or request additional gear.
Ariella’s life was on the line, and at any moment, Sergio could find her, shoot her, or worse, kill us and drag her back to be his sex slave.
Bile rose to my throat at the disgusting thought of what he would do to her.
MyAriella.
I’d sooner die than let him lay a hand on her.
A second shot rang out.
This time it was pointed in our direction and whizzed by, piercing a nearby tree.
The googles revealed no one to me. I held up my arm, indicating to Jayden to hold up.
Sergio had to be hiding.
Was he hidden behind a tree?
Where else could he be? I didn’t see anything else, no sign of him. No sign of movement.
My eyes narrowed and twitched as I spotted the long end of the shotgun.
“Duck.” I reached behind me for Jayden and threw him down on the ground with me.
Sergio had spotted us.