The Dangerous Curves Series

Chapter 94

Late that night

King made eye contact with Tex and Honey. They were watching the warehouse closely, and he saw their wariness even from thirty feet away.

Yeah, I'm with you, guys. This is all wrong.

“King?” Knox's voice in his earpiece was hushed. “You there?”

“Yeah,” he muttered back. “You and Tank in position?”

“Copy that.”

“What do you see?”

A short pause. “Nothing much. No guard at the door, no cameras. The van is in the garage and the door is f*****g wide open.”

“Who the hell leaves the getaway vehicle in plain sight like that?” King said. “This is f*****g amateur hour, man. No way these are the same people who took the kid from the hospital. That was textbook.”

“No s**t. Whoever these guys are, they're just the babysitters.”

King looked at his watch. “OK. We move in two and on my mark. Knox, you and Tank take the front, Honey and Tex take the side. You clear my way, and I'll retrieve the package. Guys?”

“Copy, boss,” Honey said. “We got it.”

“And as tempting as it is to shoot these fuckers in the head, refrain for the moment,” King said. “These boys aren't the ones we really want, but they have to know something. Maybe we'll be able to persuade them to talk before we bring in the cops.”

His team murmured their assent, then fell silent. King stared at the back door some more, pondering his next few moves. No way to tell for sure where Freddie Karr was, but he was determined to find him. King just hoped it was in one piece and still sucking in air.

For just one second, he allowed himself to think about Pete and Jillian Karr; their pale, stricken faces had haunted his dreams for the past week. Despite not being wealthy people, they'd hired King's Men after almost a week of cooperating with the police. The cops were doing their best, but Freddie was the eighth newborn to go missing from hospitals all over Colorado in the past four months, and they were simply overwhelmed by false leads and mired in jurisdictional red tape.

King's Men had no such issues. They gave finding that baby their full attention, and they didn't worry about treading carefully around the local PD egos, and they sure as f**k didn't care about politics. There were huge advantages to being private contractors, and that included calling their own f*****g shots.

“OK,” King said. “Tex and Honey, go.”

“Roger that.”

Flat on his stomach, King watched as they approached the side door, guns drawn. Tex tried the door and looked stunned when it was actually unlocked. He and Honey shook their heads and King did too. What kind of f*****g kidnappers were this careless? Stupid ones, for damn sure, but also unprofessional, overconfident ones. He very much hoped that all these things would work against them now. 'Arrogant' meant 'too sure of themselves to be prepared', in King's experience, and that was something he'd be happy to exploit.

“We're in,” Honey said.

“Anyone?”

“No. But we hear them. They're close to the front.”

“Excellent. Tank and Knox, go in hot on my mark. Anyone tries to get out the side doors, Honey and Tex, you shoot 'em in the f*****g knees. I'll handle the back.”

“With pleasure,” Tex growled.

“I'm moving now,” King said. “Wait for my green.”

“Got it, boss,” Tank said. “Waitin'.”

King ran to the back of the building, alert and aware of everything. He got to the door and was mildly surprised to find it locked, but it was an old-fashioned key lock and he flicked it open in less than twenty seconds. He eased the door open, stood back. No movement inside, no noise, so he ducked in quickly.

“I'm in,” he said quietly. “Go.”

He heard the blast as Tank blew the front door clean off its hinges with his shotgun, heard the panicked voices and shouting. Moving now, moving towards the chaos, he came face-to-face with a man. The little prick blinked in shock and raised his gun. Without a second of hesitation, King shot him in the hand. The man howled and dropped the gun, and King was on him. He smashed his head into the floor and the man went still.

“Asshole,” King muttered and got to his feet again. He stuck the man's gun in the waistband of his jeans – never know when a spare might come in handy – and crept down the hallway.

The shooting was much louder now, and he heard his people shouting commands to stand still and drop weapons. From the sound of Tex's roars, these idiots weren't such great listeners, and King grinned when he heard the unmistakable sound of fists on flesh and bone. It was ugly in there, no doubt about that, but that wasn't King's concern. His people were handling the kidnappers, and he had to find that baby.

I'm coming, kiddo. You just hang in there.

He moved faster, checking every room, every corner. The fact that Freddie wasn't crying after all that noise was worrying; King hoped that whatever drugs they'd almost surely given him weren't too strong. They had some supplies here, and Knox could handle basic medical s**t, but none of his team were trained doctors.

There was one closed door at the very end of the hall and he approached it carefully, sure that this was where Freddie was. He listened, heard nothing inside, turned the handle, flung the door open. It rebounded off the wall and he stepped aside, expecting a blast of gunfire, but absolutely nothing happened.

They left the baby alone? Goddammit, these guys are morons, and I truly look forward to having a word with them.