Free Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) by Cindy Skaggs Page A

any time, which meant he didn’t have time to move Lauren to a secure location while he got answers. “They targeted Lauren. Specifically. I didn’t see them at the bar, but they had definitely staked out her habits. They knew she’d be on that stretch of highway. How long have you been staying with Debi?”
    “ Two weeks, but my schedule at the bar changes all the time, depending on how busy they are.”
    “ But you work every Sunday?”
    She shivered. “Yes.”
    Ryder caught Rose’s gaze. “They knew where she’d be. They disabled the truck.”
    “ What?” Panic laced her voice. “They’re the reason I crashed?”
    “ Baby, your brakes and your clutch went at the same time. Hard to call that a coincidence, especially when followed by the abduction. They’re related.”
    Her fingernails dug into his arm. “Why?”
    “ That’s what we’re going to find out.”
    “ You two go on. I got this,” Rose said across the room. “I’ll question these two, find out what we need to know, then—” He glanced at Lauren. “I’ll eliminate the product and the threat.”
    “ Is that a euphemism for murder?” Lauren pushed away from Ryder. “You can’t take the law into your own hands.”
    “ Watch me.” Ryder shook with the need for retribution.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Ryder assured her they weren’t killing anyone. Right before he stashed Lauren in an empty bedroom and locked the door, making her as much a prisoner as she’d been in the closet of the master bedroom. She paced and muttered to herself. Being tucked away “for her own good” felt a lot like sitting at the kid’s table.
    When Lauren left the room, the menace oozing off her warrior husband was off the charts. If Wade getting handsy had angered Ryder, it was nothing compared to the rage against the men who dared to take her. Ryder kept the rage contained in her presence, but he would let it loose on the two they planned to “interrogate.” No doubt he’d get answers.
    A chill washed her body in goose bumps. How did one go about interrogating a suspect? If she couldn’t think about it, she probably shouldn’t witness it. Still, she’d rather they gave her the option to stay or go. It wasn’t like she’d jump in to defend the men who’d kidnapped her, but she worried about Ryder. When they were dating, he’d go on missions for a week or two at a time. Each one altered him; had stolen pieces of his soul. The final deployment he refused to discuss at all. She feared this kind of operation would trigger the same response.
    She sat onto the lower bunk and huddled into the corner, seeking comfort in the childlike space, but the memory of Ryder’s stone cold face kept her on edge. No mercy. His look promised no mercy for the men in his custody, but there was a cost to cold, calculated torture. He’d wall himself off, and she couldn’t go through the separation again.
    She plucked a string from the navy comforter. Despite being married for eighteen months, they’d actually spent only a few months living together, thanks to the deployment and his sudden departure six months ago. Did she know him as well as she thought, or was she fooling herself?
    Ryder pushed through the door. “Time to go.”
    “ What happened?”
    “ We got the information,” he said without inflection. “Rose set a charge to go off in five minutes.”
    Lauren hopped from the bed. “You can’t blow up a house in the middle of a suburb. We can make an anonymous call. Let the police handle it.”
    “ They’re not handling it or these guys wouldn’t be so organized. We’re in a position to eliminate the product and the equipment.”
    A shiver shook her body. “Did you kill the people?”
    “ I told you I wouldn’t, so I didn’t.” His face was hard and unreadable. He motioned her forward with two fingers. “It will look like an accident in the meth lab.”
    “ This is U.S. soil. You don’t have the right—”
    “ They threatened you, so I have every