Page 36 of Deliverance

“This oil is fresh,” Dominic said. “I think the truck just left here recently.”

“Liam, are you getting all of this?” I asked.

“On it, Boss Lady,” he said. “Give me thirty seconds.”

Alexander joined me in the loading dock area. “Marcus said they didn’t find anything else unusual.”

“Boss Lady?” Liam said quickly. “I found the truck. It took a different route out of there than the first one did, but I think it’s headed to the rail yard.”

“Fuck!” The rail yard was at least a forty-minute drive away, and they had at least a thirty-minute head start on us. “Stall them if you can.”

“Working on it,” Liam said.

“Wilder, you and your team with Matt and Jerome stay and process the scene,” I ordered. “Everyone else, we have to get to the rail yard now!”

Everyone sprang into action as I raced towards the doors. Izzy screeched to a halt in front of the door, and we climbed in quickly. The door had barely closed, then we were racing away. But would we make it in time?

CHAPTER 16

EVELYN

The SUV bounced as Izzy flew into the rail yard. We piled out of the vehicle quickly as the sharp blast of the freight train’s horn signaled its imminent departure. Dominic ran towards the front of the train.

“I’m going to try to get the engineer to stop the train,” he called over his shoulder.

Sebastian ran after him while Izzy, Adrian, Alexander, Marcus, and I ran towards the train.

“Liam, where’s the truck now?” I demanded as we slowed our pace when the train came into view.

“I don’t know,” Liam said. “I think the cameras are glitching because I don’t see it.”

Fuck, so we were flying blind.

Alexander tapped my shoulder. “You, Marcus, and Adrian go that way.” He gestured towards the end of the train. “Izzy and I will start at the front. We’ll clear the train car by car.”

I nodded and took off towards the end of the train. Our footsteps quieted as we approached. The last twenty or so cars were flat beds, so we slowed to a stop behind the first boxcar. Marcus crept up to it, peering through one of the cracks of the car.

“Clear,” he whispered, and we moved to the next one.

Over the comms, I could hear Dominic announce himself as an FIA agent to the engineer on the freight train. He told him he needed to halt the train due to an active investigation. I tuned out their conversation as Liam took over the comms.

“The box truck left the rail yard,” Liam said. “So the girls are somewhere on the train. Plan on at least three hostiles, as that’s how many there were last time.”

“Copy,” I said as we crept towards the next car.

Adrian’s hand on my elbow stilled me. “Listen,” he breathed in my ear.

I strained to listen over the sounds of the rail yard. Muffled shouting came from a few boxcars ahead.

“Alexander, Izzy, I think we found the car,” I whispered. “About forty cars from the rear of the train.”

“Copy,” Izzy said. “Headed your way.”

“Wait till we get there,” Alexander instructed.

The train horn sounded again, and I bit my lip. I didn’t know if we could wait. It didn’t sound like Dominic and Sebastian were having success keeping the train there. I glanced to the side and saw the ladder that led to the top of the boxcar roof. We needed to draw out the men inside the car without endangering the girls any further.

Adrian followed my line of sight. “No way,” he hissed.