Caitlyn O’Leary - SEAL at Sunrise (Silver SEALs Book 12)

Fuck. Something stinks!

Liam McAllister had gotten used to the myriad smells of the jungle. Hell, hed even tramped under a community of spider monkeys and gotten pelted by shit, so to think that it smelled putrid in this cabin was really saying something.

My God, what is that stench? Laird Campbell whispered almost soundlessly as they quietly pulled another board from the base of the shack. Liam glowered at his old friend who rolled his eyes but nodded at the admonishment. Liam and his three comrades had crept up to the two cabins, and even though they were both padlocked from the outside, and likely didnt have any bad guys inside, they still werent taking any chances. The four of them were entering, in stealth mode.

The wood was soft and rotten where it met the jungle floor, so it almost disintegrated in their hands as they removed it from the base of the back wall. Hell, they didnt even need to use their knives. Both men kept at itthey just needed a big enough hole for them to crawl through with their weapons at the ready. Hopefully, in one of these two cabins they would find the missing girla cache of guns would be nice toobut rescuing Heather Reading was most important.

Two weeks ago, Liam had been approached by the Department of Homeland Security to put together a team to track down a notorious arms dealer. Hed said no. It didnt matter how hard Silas Branson had twisted his arm, Liam had put in his time working for Uncle Sam, and he was through. But then everything had changed.

Three days ago, one of Liams oldest friends approached him. He was desperate. Laird needed help finding a young woman who had just been abducted from a resort in Cancun. Her mother and Laird had grown up together, and he had promised to find her. When the big Scotsman had come to Liam with information that Eduardo Riaz was trafficking in young women, and was likely behind the abduction, Liam was all-in. The fact that this was the same man who was suspected of running guns was just a happy accident. Heather Reading was the fourth college girl to have been abducted in two years and none of the others had ever been found.

Liam called Silas Branson and told him that hed help put a stop to Riazs operation with a couple of conditions. Si gladly capitulated. He gave him all the information and support he could. Two days later, Liam and four others were dropped in twenty miles from Eduardos hacienda. Theyd infiltrated the big house two hours ago, just before dawn. Caught off-guard, it wasnt much of a fightstill, some of Riazs men lost their lives. Theyd finally found Eduardo passed-out drunk and useless in the wine cellar as they searched the big house for Heather. They came up empty. They left Brannon Dodge to watch Riaz and the one guard who was still alive and went searching for Heather.

It was Hudson who found two barely-there tracks that led to these two shacks.

The two cabins were within spitting distance of one another. Hudson Wells and Cooper Laughlin were entering the second one.

Report, Liam ordered softly as he spoke into his headset.

Were prying the planks off. This cabin is solid. Cooper said.

Interesting.

Liam wondered why the difference. But then his focus shifted as the hole in the wall became big enough to get through. The smell blasted him and he reared back. Ah God, it was the smell of a decaying corpse. Hed only smelled it once before, but it was burned into his memory.

Jesus, Laird breathed. He shoved Liam out of the way and crawled forward.

Goddammit, be smart, Liam whispered harshly into his mic. Laird didnt bother to answer.

Liam hoped the smell didnt belong to Heather. She had only been missing for four days, but still, the jungle could be pretty harsh to a dead body.

Laird stilled in front of Liam. Good, it meant he was surveying the cabin before just charging in. He heard his muffled gag. Liam was close to throwing up, too. He started breathing through his mouth.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. There might not have been any windows, but the shack wasnt well-built so there were feeble glimmers of light coming through the ceiling. Thats when Liam saw them. Two bodies, dangling from meat hooks in different stages of decomposition.

Hed seen a lot of things in his life. He really thought he was immune.

He wasnt.

This got him.

Women.

Fierce rage.

Gut-wrenching sorrow.

When theyd scanned the room, it looked empty of any human life.

Liam, Heather has to be here. She has to be, Lairds voice was hoarse with pain, the smell forgotten.

Lairds flashlight scanned every nook and cranny of the shack, but nothing moved. There was actually a corduroy recliner.

A fucking puke-green recliner!

Then there was a stained mattress and two folding chairs, one upright and one overturned, a tarp in the corner, a dresser, a cooler, and a pile of beer cans.

Laird leaped across the room to the tarp. He flung it aside. There was nothing underneath. Liam went to the dresser. One of the drawers was on the floor. Empty. The two others hung open. In the middle one, he found the remnants of white powder. He didnt need to do a taste test to know it was either cocaine or heroin.