“I’m sorry I made Jesse lie to you. I needed someone to have my back, but I didn’t expect things to go down last night the way they did.” He tried to get the truth out as quickly as possible. Rip the Band-Aid off fast.
“McKenna’s mother,” Ella whispered. “That’s the only thing I can think of that’d have you needing Jesse’s help.” He heard the pain in her tone and knew there were tears in her eyes. “And he’s in danger now, isn’t he?”
“I’m here because of her, yes.” He finally parted his lids and saw little white dots in his vision for a moment. “Jesse’s at one of the Sinaloa cartel’s compounds. He willingly went with them, and in a weird twist of fate, they’re indebted to him. He’s not in immediate danger. He’s trying to help me.”
“I don’t understand,” she said softly, her voice most likely not working at normal levels as she tried to wrangle her emotions and process the news. “Isn’t that the same cartel El Chapo used to run? I—I saw a documentary about him.”
He didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, so he deflected the best he could. “Carter and a few of his guys are in Mexico and watching the compound. Plans are in motion. I know telling you not to worry is a waste of time, but I won’t let anything happen to your husband. We’ll come back home together.”
“My husband can handle himself. He’s not some fictional character from a movie. He’s the real deal. A badass that bad guys are afraid of . . . and I know my man, he won’t die on me. He won’t leave me and the baby.” Despite her strong words, her voice trembled. “But you, Beck, you promised you’d never go after that woman again. No matter what she told you. And I won’t have her be the death of you. I just won’t have it. She doesn’t deserve you or McKenna.”
“I know,” he said, gripping the back of his neck with his free hand. “And you’re right. Jesse will be fine.” He needed his sister to hang on to that thought, to not stress and worry. To stay tough. “And I will be too. But can I be the one to tell A.J. about this?”
He didn’t want his situation distracting A.J. while on a mission. “I’ll tell him when he’s back home.” Whenever that might be. “I have to go,” he added when he heard a knock on the door, assuming it was Oliver. “I love you, sis. And tell McKenna I love her too.” He ended the call before she had a chance to say more because his stomach and his heart wouldn’t be able to tolerate a response.
On his way to the door, he dialed up Elaina’s mother, Emily, assuming her husband was also working the op with A.J., and he didn’t want to disturb him.
Beckett opened the door and stepped aside so Oliver could enter as the call went to voicemail. “Hey, Emily, it’s Beckett. We need to talk. Call me when you get a chance.”
“Everything okay?” Oliver asked while heading straight to the bed, his eyes focused on the heavy-duty black case there.
Beckett pocketed his phone as Oliver opened it up and retrieved a 9mm and a mag. He chambered a round and inserted the standard magazine of 15 rounds into the weapon, so it was fully loaded. “I just spoke to my sister. She seems to be more worried about me than her husband despite the fact he’s the one in a cartel compound.”
Oliver pivoted to face him, tucking the weapon at his back in the waistband of his jeans. He was dressed nearly identical to Beckett, minus the cowboy boots. He had on military-style black lace-up boots instead.
“That’s because Jesse is Jesse. And you, well, I guess you’ll need to prove your skills to all of us before we decide if you can hang with the big boys.” Oliver flashed him a quick smile, clearly not worried about his teammate, which should have put Beckett more at ease. “But first, you’ll need to survive a confrontation with Sydney.” He flicked the brim of his plain black ball cap as if to say, Good luck.
Sydney. Great. Another tough woman he needed to deal with. “Any updates from Carter and Gray?” he asked once they left the hotel suite and were alone in the stairwell. His room was only two flights away from Sydney’s.
“They’re positioned outside the compound, but they can’t get into any overwatch positions. It’s in the middle of the desert. And putting up one of our small drones during daylight hours to try and spot Jesse on the inside would be stupid. So for now, the boys are on standby.”
Beckett had to trust Jesse and his instincts. He chose to get in that Cadillac last night. He knew what he was doing.
“They’re probably by the pool or at the beach,” Oliver suggested after they’d located Sydney’s room and their knocking went unanswered.
Beckett nodded, and they headed outside in search of the two women. “So, how well do you know this woman Sydney is with?” he asked once they’d determined they weren’t at the pool.
Oliver tossed him a quick look from across his shoulder, a smirk meeting his eyes. “You looking for the Cliffs Notes or the unabridged version?”
“You pick.” Beckett shielded his eyes from the sun as he scanned the nearby beach and found himself slowing his pace, not all that eager to tell Sydney what he’d gotten her teammate tangled up in.
“Short version,” Oliver decided. “After the Army, but before joining Falcon, I was a bodyguard for a real estate mogul in Dubai. My boss was, well, thrown from a building, and I was set up as his attacker. Accused of killing him.”
Beckett stopped in his tracks. The short version of the story was a fucking doozy already. He couldn’t imagine the long explanation.
Oliver faced him and shrugged. “Mya and I have mutual friends, and she assisted in a roundabout way to ensure my name was cleared so I wasn’t”—he ran his thumb across his throat—“executed.”
“Well, that’s, uh, quite a story.”
Beckett blinked in shock when Oliver added, “Your brother and his SEAL buddies helped save my neck too.”
He supposed he wasn’t all that surprised. A.J. tended to save the world a lot, from what he’d learned. Even post-military. But A.J. had made it clear he’d never help Beckett go after McKenna’s mom again, not even if she called from her deathbed. A.J. hated the woman, but how in the hell was Beckett supposed to let McKenna’s mother die?
“Small world, I guess,” Oliver added as they began walking the boardwalk to approach the loungers set up near the water. “Mya happens to be friends with Sydney as well, and Sydney’s interested in Mya’s talents. She was a journalist in New York before joining a security team of former Marines who hunt down human traffickers. She’s great at finding people. Top-notch research skills.”
“And Sydney wants to poach her from the Marines?” Beckett was surprised by the unexpected smile on his lips that he quickly erased with the back of his hand.
“Or at least borrow her from time to time. I think she wants another woman on the team. Maybe serve as a buffer between her and Gray.” Oliver chuckled, but Beckett wasn’t clued in on the joke. “Gray and Sydney dated back at West Point, and I swear, the way that man still looks at her when we operate . . .”
Ah, enough said. Not that he ever planned on making a move on Sydney, but he wouldn’t let her occupy his thoughts again when he needed to relieve some tension. She may have been who he’d imagined a few times since Savanna and Griffin’s wedding last month, but he wouldn’t think about another man’s woman.