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“Do you require medical assistance?” Charlie asked.
“Why do you have Sam’s radio?” Liam barked.
“She… She…” The duchess was shaking too hard to get a word out.
“Your grace, I need you to focus,” I said firmly. “Take a deep breath in and out. Where’s Sam? Is she trapped under the rubble?”
“No, she helped me hide.”
“Hide?”
“There were… men. Five or six of them. They had guns.”
“Did you get a good look?”
“N-no. They all had masks on. Goggles, I think.” The duchess took a big breath in, choking on a sob. “Sam told me to hide. She gave me her radio to call you. I think she tried taking them on. They… They took her!”
“Did you hear them say anything?” Charlie asked. “Anything at all.”
“One of them said that they had what they needed.” She whimpered, unable to fight back her tears. “Oh, God. They were after me. They were after me and then took Sam instead! What if they hurt her? What if they—”
“We need to get the duchess to the panic room in the penthouse,” Kris said, speaking quickly and confidently. “She’ll be secure there.”
“And Sam?” Charlie asked.
“We’re going after her, but we need to gear up.”
“How are we going to find her?” I asked.
“Charlie, if she has her phone, do you think you can track her?”
He nodded. “It’ll take me a few minutes, but I should be able to do it with the equipment we have at home base.”
“Let’s get moving, then,” Kris said. “If they realize that they nabbed the wrong woman, that might spell trouble for Sam. If they have no problem harming innocents, then I doubt they’ll have any qualms about killing her once they discover the truth.”
I gritted my teeth. “There’s no fucking way we’ll let that happen.”
Liam nodded, his silent anger visible in his clenched jaw and steep frown. “Let’s go.”
* * *
There wasa panic room built into the back of the duchess’ bedroom, triggered by a secretly placed button underneath her bedside table. Once inside, the only way to open it would be if she pressed the release button on the interior. The whole thing was made of steel. It had plenty of food and water rations, a TV, some blankets, and a small bathroom in the back corner.
“You’ll be safe here,” Kris said to her. “Do not open this door for anyone except us. We’ll give you the all clear once we’re back. Do you understand?”
Duchess Arianna nodded quickly. “Yes, I understand. I’m so,sosorry. I should have listened to you, Charlie. I should have—”
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” Charlie said. “Our priority is finding Sam.”
“Close the door,” Kris instructed. “We need to get to work.”
The duchess entered the panic room and did just that, sealing herself away. The moment we heard the lock engage, we got down to business.
Charlie dug out his laptop along with a few other fancy gadgets and set up his station at the kitchen island. Liam and I pulled out our weapons cache, which had been put away neatly in two special hard case suitcases that had ? up until this point ? gone unused. Inside were pistols, Kevlar vests, knives, flash bombs, rifles… Everything we needed for a full-on tactical assault.
Kris oversaw the whole operation, keeping track of the time. While Liam and I suited up, Charlie worked his magic and attempted to locate Sam’s phone. With any luck, her captors might have forgotten to check her for it.
None of us spoke unless it was absolutely necessary. We’d done this song and dance before, so well-rehearsed that we moved together like a well-oiled machine. There was no need for orders, for questions. We all knew our jobs, our responsibilities. We knew our roles within the team and how to execute them.
