Page 39 of Defending Mateo
Giving her a little nudge, she started walking along behind the old man holding her leash. They walked up the steps and through the front door. There was no chance for her to look around or get a lay of the land, because the man kept walking. They went up a grand staircase, then took a right turn, and then a left, and another right, before they stopped outside a door at the end of the hall.
The man opened the door and walked her inside. It was a beautiful room. Huge, with a large sitting area over by French doors that looked as though they led out to a balcony. They’d probably be locked, but she’d check as soon as she was alone. There was an enormous canopy bed, bedside tables, and a bookcase with a rocking chair beside it. She wasn't sure whether the room had so much furniture because she was going to be confined to it, or if it was because King really saw her as his new princess.
“Bend over the side of the bed,” the man instructed, and when she hesitated slightly, he yanked on the lead as he dragged her to the bed.
Biting back a whimper, she did as he instructed. Because the skirt of the princess gown she was still wearing was so short, it immediately bared her naked backside to him. He steppedclose, but with her head angled sideways, she couldn’t see him properly, so when he spread her cheeks, she tensed, worrying he was going to rape her back there.
Chuckling, the man pressed the tip of a finger to the tight ring of muscles. “Not today, princess. Not until I’ve been given permission, but I can't wait to take you there, even if I won't be your first.” As soon as he’d said the words, something sharp pierced the skin of her left buttock, like the feel of a needle sliding through her skin. “There, now you're tagged. Even if you manage to get out of the house unnoticed, we’ll be able to track your location.”
With that, the man stepped back, and she heard his footsteps echo across the wooden floorboards, then a moment later, the door closed and locked behind him.
Tagged.
Like an animal.
For a long moment, she didn't move, trying to process this new information. How did that work for when she was rescued? Would it mean that the team who came to get her would have trouble getting her out because King and his people would be able to follow her every move? They’d obviously chosen this spot on purpose, because she’d never be able to get the tracker out on her own. Maybe one of the guys would be able to, but the thought of more strangers—even if they were the good guys—touching her backside left her feeling violated all over again.
Everything was overwhelming.
Whenever she thought she was starting to get her footing, that things couldn’t get any worse, she was shown that they absolutely could. And now, Ally was beginning to wonder if being rescued was the magic answer she’d been praying for.
Maybe she’d get out of here alive, maybe she’d be taken back home, but her life would never be the same. She’d never be thesame, and it felt like her world had spun so far outside of her control that she’d never be able to regain it.
August 20th
4:31 P.M.
“We need to get in there,” Mateo growled as he watched the footage from the drone currently flying over a remote mansion in the Vanuatuan jungle.
“We will,” Walker “Trigger” Nelson assured him, his gray eyes full of an empathy that told Mateo that the man had personal experience with seeing someone he cared about in trouble.
“Now,” he added. Because he didn't want to wait another second to go in and get Ally out of whatever hell she’d been living for the last twenty-four or so hours.
After he’d left her in the holding room back in the warehouse, he’d had to walk away before he lost control and started killing anyone who got in his path. The rage had been too intense, and he’d seriously been concerned that he’d lose control, go on a killing spree that would likely end with him dead.
If he was dead, there was no way to get the name and address of her buyer to Falcon.
Mateo knew now that Nathan had been one of the other men there undercover, and that the man had been tagging women so that Prey could go in and rescue them. But he didn't know who the other two men were, didn't know if they could be trusted to know that if he had a history with Ally, then she needed to be rescued. It was likely they didn't care. He didn't know who theywere, and they didn't know who he was, so they didn't know that Ally had to be important to Prey through him.
Without him in the picture, Ally could be lost forever.
That was the only thing that had kept him sane.
The only thing that was helping him maintain a semblance of sanity now.
It wasn't that he doubted Delta Force team would do everything in their power to rescue Ally. Nor did he doubt that they would succeed. Of course, they would. They were the best of the best, but it wasn't the same. He had to be here. Ally needed him to be here.
Falcon was right about that. Mateo had spent an entire lifetime trying to prove to the world that he wasn't selfish like his family had been that long-ago night. It was what had led him to become a cop, then to join Prey, and it had almost caused him to leave his girl behind because he never wanted anyone to compare him to the family he hated.
“We need to get a better idea of what we’re expecting when we get in there,” Gage “Lefty” Haskins reminded him as though he’d forgotten.
Just because he hadn't served in the military didn't mean that he didn't understand how to run an op like this. Well, at least he understood the basics. Maybe undercover work was what he’d dedicated most of his adult life to, but the underlying principles were the same. Gather as much intel as you could and only make your move once you were sure it was the right one.
There was no denying that they didn't have intel yet to make a move, it was just that for the first time ever, he didn't care.
“Good news is there doesn’t seem to be a large number of guards,” Kane “Brain” Temple piped up. “From what we’ve seen so far, there are half a dozen men who patrol the perimeter. Even if we assume that they switch out at the twelve-hour mark, thatstill only means there are a dozen guards. That’s less than a two-to-one ratio.”
“Could be more inside,” Porter “Oz” Reed added. “But even if there are, with the low number of guards, I’m guessing there wouldn't be more than two assigned to be with Koa Rolland at any time, so I still think the odds are more than in our favor.”
