Chapter 79

79

Quade had never been on a high stakes rescue mission like this. Not in real life. Movies just didn’t count. He was afraid. He knew what kind of consequences they were all facing now. Dylan could be dead.

There were six men, at least, who had her now.

Fear threatened to make him puke, but Quade just kept walking. He was sticking close to Fletcher. His friend wasn’t going to face this alone. Quade wasn’t about to let him.

Quade was a fourth dan in taekwondo. He had been trained literally by the world’s best. Slater had won the world title twice. Quade had never competed at that scale, but he would never forget what it had felt like to watch the brother who had been the closest thing to a father Quade had ever had achieve that honor.

But competitive martial arts was far different than hiking through the cold, dark woods to save a friend.

“There. There’s the house,” Ben said. “That’s Braelyn’s car, two other vehicles I don’t recognize.”

But they could see people moving. Barely. There was just a small, single bulb porch light glowing. It wasn’t enough to even identify the people.

And two of them were obviously hurt.

Quade’s breath caught when he realized one thing: none of them were small enough to be Dylan.

None.

Ben shifted closer. “Neither of you do anything stupid.”

“We need to get closer,” Quade said. He and Ben understood each other. They weren’t letting Fletcher do this alone.