The Years Between by Leanne Davis Page A

would bother. But if the general didn’t seem to think it mattered for Will to know, he guessed it really didn’t matter.
    He simply watched them. It was so fucking easy, he almost nodded off to sleep once. He was so well hidden, he didn’t see how anyone would ever suspect he was there.
    And then, they brought her in.
    He first glimpsed his quarry from a hundred feet above her. She was blindfolded and her hands were tied behind her back. She was naked and her feet were bare. He drew in a sharp breath. Not his usual mission. His hands gripped his gun tighter, and he had to concentrate and tell himself to lighten up on the weapon. Last thing he needed was to shoot it off without warning. But holy fuck! What were they going to do to her? He leaned down onto his knee and finally looked down again. She was crying, and he saw the tears fall off her face. They led her to an area of the warehouse where their offices seemed to be located. The man was anonymously hooded. Why? Not like the pathetic, small, crying girl could do anything to get away from them. She started to resist more, the closer they got to the office area. She seemed to dig her heels in. She twisted her body and shook her head. Her cries became louder and she yelled, “No. No. Please, no!” several times.
    They laughed. The man pulled her mercilessly behind him and two emerged from the offices. The captor pushed her onto her knees. He forcibly shoved her back, grabbing her hands and securing her to ropes that were dangling from the exposed pipe that ran the length of the warehouse. Another took her thrashing legs and bound them to the other end, which was creepier still as the ties were bolted onto the cement floor.
    They had fucking done this before! That knowledge hit Will hard. They had done this to women before; and he gathered, from the swift way they operated, none of it was new to any of them. There was no hesitation. It was quick, awful, and with almost production line sterility. She pulled hard against the restraints until the captor simply set a knife to the fragile part of the girl’s neck. She stopped. Dead still now, she whimpered.
    Will glanced around, and, for the first time ever, nearly panicked. Shit. Fuck. He had to do something. There were a dozen or more men working around the place. Half of them didn’t even glance at what was taking place in the corner. They simply didn’t care. They were busy moving merchandise around. Some were repackaging it to smuggle wherever. He stared hard at his hands as the sweat dripped off his forehead. His heart raced, and his breathing turned broken and rapid.
    He should have unpinned a grenade and blown up the whole fucking building and all of them inside it. It seemed almost a better solution than seeing what he was about to watch. But killing her with them didn’t accomplish much for her. He scoped out the place. He could quite possibly kill a few of them before they realized he was there. But once they did, he was as vulnerable as a newborn bird in a nest for them. They’d simply pick him off. FUCK. His only means of escaping death was the element of surprise. That meant he had to witness the rape and torture of the girl below him. He shut his eyes, gritting his teeth and finally glanced back down. The man whom he suspected ran the cell of drug traffickers, or sex-trafficking ring, or whatever these putrid, vile fuckers were doing, finally knelt between the girl’s legs, and shoved his hand into her.
    Will heard her scream. He felt it down in his gut. His heart. His soul. He heard her screams and her cries and knew he’d carry them with him until the day he died. He looked one time before finally turning his back and leaning against the wall, trying to let the edge of the metal cool his inflamed skin. He leaned off to the side and heaved when bile and acid rushed up his throat and spewed out. He puked all over the fucking HVAC system before he finally lifted his fingers to his ears and pressed as hard