“She’s safe, and from what Em said, she’s happy right now.” Kincaid slaps me on the back. “So, get your head in the game, so we can all make it back home safe, yeah?”
I nod and follow him to the huge table set up in the center of the main room of the command center.
More than forty men are grouped around, waiting for final details and intel.
“Those the new guys?” I angle my head at the men I don’t recognize.
It’s not uncommon to have a few unfamiliar faces when we have a job to do. Shadow and Blade have always been adamant that we involve local forces as much as we can without compromising our main focus, but there are at least a dozen men in addition to the federal agents.
“Yeah,” Rocker says. “That’s only half the team. There are ten still back at the hotel.”
“And Jinx was worried about me having his six. Can we trust hired guns?”
“Technically, we’re the hired guns,” Rocker mutters. “I’ve never worked with their entire team, but we did a job six years ago, and a couple of these guys tagged along. They’re like the Rambos of infiltration, recon, and recovery.”
“You make them sound like they’re better than we are.” We both chuckle, our hard-earned egos not allowing us to let those thoughts sit very long.
“I saw one guy take a shotgun blast to the vest, and he didn’t even flinch,” Rocker adds, and I know he’s thinking about taking the hits to the chest in Miami that laid him out for a couple of days. “They’re in this for the money, but they’re efficient as hell. I’m glad they’re here.”
“If you trust them, I’ll trust them.”
He nods at me, and his faith in them is all I need to have the same.
“This is going to go a little faster than we initially thought,” Kincaid says from the head of the table.
All the guys turn to statues. We’re in the window of time where all jokes, all thoughts of everything else going on in our lives have to fall to the wayside. Errors at this point can lead to death, and that’s unacceptable.
“As much as we tried to prevent it, Cortez and Jiménez know that we’re here. Although we hoped we could sneak in undetected, it’s difficult to move sixty men into a country without drawing some attention,” Kincaid continues.
Sixty men? That’s one hell of a platoon. In the Marine Corps, we took over small towns in Turkey with a lot fewer men. My confidence grows as Kincaid talks about what we’re facing.
“They’re ready for us. They’re armed to the teeth, but so are we.” We all look down at the aerial maps spread out on the table as Kincaid points out areas of focus. “Twelve men from Blackbridge Security will go to Luis Cortez’s compound. Movement around there has been minimal during the last three days. All of Cerberus and the remaining men from Blackbridge will infiltrate Xavier Cortez’s compound.”
“With the way they’ve set up their defenses,” Shadow begins as he points to the property in front of Xavier’s compound, “they’re expecting us to enter here. Team C will be bottlenecked in this area. We expect heavy fire since intel has revealed this is where they expect us to hit the hardest.”
Shadow has that glint in his eyes that I have grown to love so much. The thrill of the fight begins to seep into my veins, and all other thoughts slip away.
“The National Bolivarian Armed Forces reluctantly provided us with a few toys to ensure we’re able to breach the property here.” Shadow indicates the area at the back of the compound as far away from the front entrance as possible.
“Toys?” Jinx asks.
“Nothing major,” Shadow says with a smirk. “A couple of tanks and a few rocket launchers.”
Several of us around the table chuckle, and Kincaid waits until it dies down before he picks back up.
The final details are laid out. Each team is given their micro orders, but one question grows in my mind, and from the looks on the other guys’ faces, I know they’re thinking it, too.
“Any questions?” Kincaid asks after the tank drivers ask about specifics on structural things, so the compound doesn’t come down around us.
Several of us look around, but I finally take a step forward and speak up, “What’s the order on prisoners?”
Kincaid looks to Shadow and his brother Dominic before making eye contact with Deacon Black, the founder of Blackbridge Security.
“Take none,” he finally says when his eyes make it back to mine.
“That being said,” Dominic interrupts after a loud whoop and cheers from the other men die down. “It’s our duty to protect the women they’re holding hostage. We have a rough count of over twenty inside. If we’re lucky, they’ll all be grouped together, but we know how quick luck runs out with these guys. So be careful, and when in doubt, let God sort ‘em out.”
We all nod because that’s always understood. No matter what, we go home. That’s always the rule.
“And Gabrielle Butler?” Jinx asks.
“The CIA would like to interrogate her, but at the end of the day, she’s considered turned and is with Jiménez now. If she pulls on you, take her down.” Kincaid says the words like they don’t affect him, but I know he doesn’t take giving the kill order of a woman lightly.
We’re infiltrating at three in the morning, so we’re ushered out of the command center to a small ranch that the federal government recently commandeered under the orders of getting some rest.
With any luck, we’ll be back home in New Mexico in less than twenty-four hours.
Chapter 18
Mia
I’m startled more than I should be when my ringing phone jolts me from sleep. It hasn’t rung once since I got it.
My pulse spikes when the sound continues, but it has nothing on the way I feel when I see Ryan’s club name ‘Scooter’ on the screen.
“H-hello,” I mumble, my voice not working well since I was sleeping.
“It’s late. I shouldn’t have called.”
“No, it’s fine,” I insist as I sit up on the bed and pull the covers up to my chin.
“You were sleeping. I know how hard that is for you when…” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”
I know what he was going to say, and he’s right. It is harder for me to sleep when he’s not here, but I wore myself out today. I didn’t do much physically, but hanging out with the girls without my normal nap left me exhausted and ready for bed.
“I’m at Emmalyn’s,” I tell him.
“Kincaid told me you were staying there. I’m glad you spent some time with them today.”
It’s implied that he’s glad I didn’t stay holed up in the room all day.
“It’s so quiet here with everyone gone.”
I want to tell him I miss him, that I want him to come home soon. I want to let him know that I feel safe, but I’d feel better if he were lying beside me with his arms wrapped around my body. I shiver, a quick tremble working over my entire body in his absence.
“Is it too quiet?” I hear a rustling sound, and I wonder if he’s in bed, too. “I don’t want you getting stuck in your head.”