"No!" Samantha's eyes flared with a mixture of anger and fear. "That's not good enough! Anything could happen while you're waiting for approval."
Dorn flashed a look to Toren that clearly said control your woman.
Toren’s jaw hardened. "Right, Dorn." He fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm sure if your wife were concerned for a family member you would do whatever you could to help."
Dorn's eyes flared a little brighter. "Yes I would." He turned to Samantha. "I wish we could all go right now and get your Kassie. And if the souls of millions didn't hang in the balance, we would. But it's a vital point in this mission. If we don’t succeed in disrupting this operation, earth could be headed into a world war, which would give the enemy a serious advantage to turn up the chaos knob. The fate of souls is on our heads, and yours now. As painful as it is, we can't save one person at the risk of millions." He glanced to Toren for help, sincerity clear in his furrowed brow.
Toren sighed and drew Samantha closer. "He's right, baby. Going after her now could tip off the over lord that we're on to him. Samantha, he makes a lot of bad people do very bad things. Prostitution, drugs, gambling, human trafficking, weapons… Anything related to human vices."
Samantha looked up at him, tears flooding her beautiful eyes. She blinked, long and slow, and a trail of tears rolled down her cheek. Toren's heart clenched with her pain. "I understand." Her voice was so low it was barely audible. "Just promise we'll get her as soon as we can."
"Baby, I swear. We'll flash to the ranch the very second Hetarne’s operation is crushed." Toren put every iota of his honor into the words.
Dorn nodded. "We both promise it."
Toren couldn't help notice Dorn had carefully avoided the use of the more binding words swear or vow, or even pledge. That differentiation meant the aquamarine warrior would do his best, as long as the cost wasn't too great. Toren raised a brow to let the bastard know he'd caught the intention.
Troy chose that moment to tap at the door frame. "Sorry to interrupt, but it couldn’t wait. We have an update." He turned and went back to the living room.
Toren led Samantha after Dorn and by the time they entered, Troy had resumed his seat and turned toward the big screen TV where Lucian fiddled with a cable connected to one of the laptops. Dorn stopped to stand near one of the couches but Toren continued on to one of the big leather easy chairs and sat, drawing Samantha to sit on his lap. The TV screen flared to life, displaying an array of images and several blocks of text.
Resuming his seat, Lucian bent over his computer again to tap at the keyboard. "Okay, here's what we have. There will be a closed auction accessible by invitation only. That means the prospective buyers have been carefully selected and have certain interests in common." One of the images centered on the screen and enlarged. "I was able to access satellite imagery of the location. The auction will be held in this warehouse."
"How do we know it's the right location?" Troy placed a bare foot on his knee.
Lucian brought one of the text blocks into view displaying what looked like a transcript of a conversation. "Here." He highlighted part of one line. "These numbers designate GPS coordinates corresponding to the building. And before you ask, I verified past events and locations to ensure they use the direct coordinates." Another image came up. "And here, one of a series of pics of various cargo vehicles entering the building. Also part of a pattern."
"Do we know what's going to be sold?" Toren forced himself to participate despite being torn between the mission and worry for Kassie.
The discussion went on with Lucian fielding all the questions. Ezekiel stayed behind his computer screen, occasionally pecking a few keys. Finally, he touched Lucian's arm and nodded.
"Ezekiel's been trying to find a way for us to get in to this exclusive auction. We can't go as prospective buyers. Hetarne only deals with people he knows personally."
Ezekiel set his computer aside and stood. "I called on some connections and found out they want some exterior security. Three men. I have to be one of them, since the guy arranging it knows me. We're just back from an operation in an unspecified South American nation, running security for an unspecified drug lord who had trouble from a rival. We took care of that issue for our boss, but a new rival rose and had him assassinated before we were paid. So we need a good payday, fast."
Dorn nodded. "Sounds good. Who are the other two?"
"That's your call. Come get me thirty minutes before time to roll. I need to explain to Skylar why I've been away from the bed so long." He didn't wait for Toren or anyone else to approve, just headed straight down the hallway to the room he and Skylar occupied.