Swift Strike (SEAL Team 14 Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

skin. His eyes fixated on her. His hazel eyes. Hazel .
    The man who had snatched her at the beginning of the siege had had the same light-colored eyes. He hadn’t been around since the initial days of the attack when the terrorists had stashed them in one of the rooms in the facility. But here he was now, wearing a red keffiyeh around his head and a traditional, white thawb with long sleeves. Only the faintest hint of wrinkles crinkled the skin around his eyes and mouth. He looked young, maybe in his mid to late thirties. Luckily, he didn’t seem to be carrying a weapon.
    That was not the case for the other man taking up space in the cramped chamber. The man who had removed her blindfold walked out from behind her to stand over in a corner of the room. This guy still had his face mask on, and he was holding a large gun.
    “I understand that this is a very distressing situation for you, Ms. Westlake. Really. You have my sincerest apologies for your inconvenience.”
    So the creep knew her name, not a shock. She had been wearing her facility identification badge when she was captured.
    Hazel Eyes stared her down as if he were waiting for her to speak. She kept her mouth shut. Really, what could she say? She did not even want to look at him, let alone muster up a civil response. She could try to reason with him, try to plead for him to let her and the others go, but she already knew it was a lost cause. They had all heard Lily screaming after the terrorists removed her from the main room three days ago. Lily never came back.
    She understood what that meant. All of the hostages had understood what it meant. They did not have to be told. Lily’s lingering absence was as much of a declarative sentence as any verbal statement that the terrorists could have uttered. Lily was dead. She had been killed by the same men who were holding them captive.
    Lena knew this truth deep in her bones. Just like she knew that Hazel Eyes was not going to let her go—at least not until he got what he wanted from her. Whatever it happened to be.
    “We weren’t planning on keeping you here for this long,” Hazel Eyes continued, lowering his imposing frame to the chair in front of her. “This must be a very traumatic and uncomfortable experience for you. I know you are accustomed to the finer things in life.”
    The lunatic smiled at her. He actually smiled at her as if they were reunited old friends who were just shooting the breeze, reminiscing about the follies of their youth.
    “You know I was surprised, really, that your father didn’t pay the release price,” he continued, his voice filled with faux concern. “What is your father’s net worth, by the way? Four hundred million dollars? Five hundred million? Surely, he does not have a problem coming up with one hundred million dollars in order to rescue his only daughter? If I were your father, I would consider money spent on ensuring your safety money well spent.”
    God . She wanted to tell him to go eat shit. She desperately wanted to knock that smug look right off his insufferable face. Instead, she bit her tongue and stiffly retorted, “Yeah, well, apparently you don’t know my father.” She hadn’t spoken in such a long time that her raspy, dry voice sounded foreign even to her own ears.
    “Apparently not,” Hazel Eyes conceded before shifting forward in his chair. He reached out then, enveloping her small hands in his large ones. She moved her hands to the side, recoiling from his unwanted touch. She tried to shake him off, but he held on stubbornly to her bound wrists.
    His thumb began to caress her hands ever so softly. The next words out of his mouth belied his actions. “Don’t mistake the kindness we have shown to you as weakness, Azeezee . I promise you, we are many things, but weak is not one of them.”
    She looked him straight in the eyes, but kept her mouth closed. There was no doubt in her mind that he was as brutal and callous as any other terrorist she’d