Reid - Maddie Wade

Prologue

“Move to secure the hostages, I’m going back for the girl.”

“That’s a negative, Captain K. Secure the HVT and move to exfil now.”

Reid could hear his commander loud and clear but as he looked at the burning building he couldn’t just walk away and let a young girl with her entire life ahead of her die of smoke asphyxiation. He turned to his teammate Holler, who was looking at him and waiting for the order.

As team leader it was his job to secure his men’s safety and the safest option was to secure the HVT and get out of there. But with his sisters Nessa and Tori in his mind, he couldn’t walk away as a child died.

“Secure the HVT and head for the exfil.” He turned to Skinner. “You’re with me. I’m not leaving that girl to die.”

His teammate nodded and they took off towards the burning building, their bodies low as the sounds of gunfire from down the street hit their ears.

It should have been an easy mission, but the intelligence they had was off. The terrorists had hit the building before they could get Senator Reece and his family out. The objective had been to secure the Senator first. His bill for new legislation regarding the unification of gun control throughout the States was high profile and was receiving a mixed response.

He personally didn’t give a fuck. He just wanted to do his job and although technically the first objective was to secure him and his family, when the building had blown his orders were changed to secure Reece and exfil.

He’d thought the girl had been off site, had been assured she was off site, but the Senator had been screaming for his daughter as they dragged him out the building. The soul deep desperation as he begged them to save her had been something Reid couldn’t and wouldn’t walk away from.

Now, as they entered and made their way over the burning beam that hung down from the floor above, he knew it was likely not all of them would be walking out of this building alive.

He turned to Skinner who was wearing the same expression. “You can…”

“Shut your Southern trap. I ain’t going nowhere.”

Skinner was a damn good agent. Loyal and a brilliant tactician. Reid nodded and moved forward, ascending the stairs. He rounded the first set of stairs in the grand old building, his visibility decreased as the smoke thickened.

With eight bedrooms, the place was like a maze in the daylight, but at night with smoke and fire, not to mention the added threat of two armed terrorists still at large, it was a fucking quagmire of shit.

With his Heckler and Koch HK416 at his shoulder, Reid advanced down the second-floor landing to where the bedrooms were located. A wall of fire blocked his path as smoke burned his throat. “We need to find another way.”

Skinner nodded and they back tracked into one of the first rooms at the top of the stairs to see if they could move through the rooms. He knew from the plans that the office to their left had a balcony. If they could get past that he had a chance of getting in through the window.

“Captain K, this is Tack. Please be advised that the HVT is secure. We have more heat headed our way and our window for exfil is closing.”

“Good copy. We’re closing in on the target now.”

“Good copy. Tack out.”

Reid knew his boss was pissed but he also knew he was a good man. The balcony, as he expected, gave them access to the daughter’s bedroom window. He and Skinner made their way over the ledge as another explosion inside rocked the building causing him to lose his footing on the ledge and have to grab for the windowsill. Using all his strength, he hauled himself up and used the butt of his gun to smash through the glass.

Pulling himself up and through, he hit the ground and rose to see one of the men they’d been searching for standing over the form of the half-naked teen, his pants around his knees as he attempted to rape her.

Time stood still as he took in the scene, and watched the man grab for his gun. Reid reacted and fired, unflinching as the man fell dead on top of the girl he’d been about to rape. Over his feed he heard Skinner curse as he came through the window.

He ignored his teammate as he approached the girl and dragged