Page 85 of Elite Metal: Warriors

“What do you do? You go fucking rescue your woman, that’s what.”

They fell silent then, but somehow silence didn’t help. At least during their exchange, Benedict had been a little distracted. With time to think, his angst rose again. He couldn’t help blaming himself that they’d found her. There must have been something he missed. Some tracker he hadn’t found. Something.

He should have listened to the paranoid voice in the back of his head. Should have looked harder.

But he hadn’t. He’d failed her.

He wouldn’t fail her again.

“Do you have a plan?” Sterling asked after a while.

“Is guns-blazing a plan?”

“Works for me. And if that won’t work?”

“I have something they want. I can trade it for her if I have to.” And shit, he would, even if it meant the complete failure of this mission. He would do anything to get her back safe.

“What is it?”

“The file she has on Red Wolf.” He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and held it in trembling fingers. He didn’t have the best memory, but if he read it, maybe he could retain key facts in the event he had to turn over the intel to get her back. Slowly, he opened the envelope and slid a single piece of paper out. And stared.

Shit.

“What does it say?” Sterling asked.

“Bananas. Grapefruit. Kale.”

“What?”

“Red beans. Rice. Soy milk.”

“What kind of shit is that?”

“Code?”

“What the hell kind of code is that?”

Benedict studied it. Deconstructed the words. Rearranged the letters. No matter what he tried, it didn’t make any sense.

And then it hit him and hit him hard.

This wasn’t the all-important file.

This wasn’t the file at all. It was a grocery list. A decoy she’d used to placate him when he’d first dragged her from her apartment.

Two questions whirled in his mind.

First, where the hell was the real file? The one that could help them close in on Red Wolf?

And secondly, what would he do now, when he didn’t have any leverage whatsoever?

How on earth would he save her?

* * *

“Where is it?” Ralley’s face was red. The veins on his forehead bulged out and throbbed. His neck muscles were visible as he yelled. He’d been yelling a while.

Michelle stared at him in fascination. She’d never seen him so upset. He’d always been calm, cool, collected. Slick, smarmy even. They had her tied to the chair, the chair the dumbass guard had been sitting in, in the empty hangar. The four men surrounded her, all glowering…especially the one she’d stabbed. His jacket was stained with blood and his expression made it pretty clear he’d be more than happy to snap her neck anytime now.