“Your head?” Emily asked. “Liam, get her some medicine.”
“No.” Elaina pulled away. “It’s Beckett. I think I’m feeling his pain.” She looked at Sydney and began sobbing.
Elaina’s gut-wrenching news hit Sydney hard, and she felt as though her world had been pulled out from under her. Like a vital piece of her had suddenly gone missing. And then Levi’s voice appeared in her head. You’re a warrior, Mom. Her son was right. She had to stay strong and hold it together for Beckett.
“He’ll be okay.” Mya stepped forward, and she looked like she’d been through the wringer too. The drug was still in her system, and Sydney wasn’t sure if her friend remembered anything from last night. But Oliver had apologized about kissing her, so he’d recalled some of it. “Beckett will be okay, right?”
“This is too much for her.” Emily shook her head. “Too much stress.”
“It’s not that, Mom.” Elaina frowned, tears still falling down her cheeks. “I’m upset because I can’t see what will happen to Beckett. I only know Dad saves the boy.” She turned and ran from the room.
After Emily and Liam followed Elaina from the room, Sydney gave in and fell to her knees.
“We need a new plan,” Carter spoke up. “Making our move at Jorge’s birthday party, even if it’s still scheduled to happen, is out. We need to move in sooner.”
“Beckett and Jesse may be on the inside, but they can’t take down everyone,” Griffin pointed out. “We’re going to need an army, but do we have the time to assemble one?”
“We already have an army,” Mya said, still appearing pale and shaky. “We have Marines in Mexico. Martín and his men.” Mya scanned the room, her gaze falling on Camila last. “And we have you.”
“Me?” Camila set a hand to her chest.
“Elaina can’t see what will happen, but . . .” Sydney rose from her knees. “Elaina’s never been wrong, so was she right about you?” she asked, guessing Mya may have been grasping at straws, but they’d take all the luck, fate, whatever it was called they could get. “Can you see things like Elaina does?” She swallowed as their eyes connected. “Can you help us? Help Beckett?”
Camila turned her back to the room. “The last time I tried helping,” she began, “people died anyway. Seeing things, as you put it, has only ever been a curse for me.”
“Camila.” The normally stoic and composed Carter sounded shocked, but he quickly recovered and calmly walked her way while the rest of the room fell back to give them space.
Sydney remained rooted in place. They needed help. And she needed Beckett alive.
The universe hadn’t put her on this path with Beckett only to steal him away now, damn it.
“Camila, if you can help,” Sydney said, unable to rein in her emotions, “I’m begging you.”
Camila turned her way. “I don’t have visions like Elaina. I have dreams. And they’re messy and hard to interpret.” She closed her eyes. “More like nightmares.”
“But did you have a dream about this trip? About Beckett?” Sydney crossed the space between them, her heart racing.
“I accepted the murder case because of one, yes,” Camila confessed. “I’d have to try to remember the details. Maybe sketch what I saw in the nightmare to make sense of it.” She paused and released a shaky breath. “What if I misinterpret it and make things worse? What if it changes the outcome and someone who should’ve lived dies?”
“We need all the help we can get right now,” Sydney pleaded.
“The party planners and band will be setting up at Jorge’s tomorrow,” Carter said. “Too many civilians. Plus, unlike our original plans, they’ll see us coming.”
“Right.” Sydney worked through the problem in her head. “But do we have time to get Martín’s people here and map out an infil plan to strike tonight?”
“Not tonight.” Camila looked up, rubbing her forehead the way Elaina had done as she tried to remember the nightmare. “We must go now. Beckett doesn’t have time.” She squeezed her eyes closed and drew a hand over her heart. “The details aren’t very clear, but I can see your friend Jesse, the one from the club last night. He’ll try to stop them from killing Beckett today.” She gave Sydney a grave look. “But they both die.”
“Well, that ain’t gonna happen, I can promise you that.” Sydney recognized that deep voice and Southern accent and turned just as A.J. dropped his duffle bag in the doorway.
“What are you doing here?” Carter asked.
“Caught a flight yesterday. I couldn’t let my brother do this without me.” A.J. removed his ball cap and ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair as Liam joined them. “The terrorists aren’t going anywhere. They can wait,” A.J. gritted out. “But from the sounds of it, Beckett and Jesse can’t.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“This will work. It has to.” Sydney looked up from the map displayed on the iPad screen, meeting Carter’s eyes across the table.
“It’s the only plan that makes sense, and they won’t expect a daylight rescue. We draw as many men away from the estate as possible.” He pointed to the road on the screen where some of the team planned to position themselves on high ground several klicks away from Jorge’s estate. “Our bait vehicle will fake an attack, then retreat. Jorge will send a team to pursue. Our guys will wait to take them out as soon as they get”—he zoomed in on the road on screen, repeating the plan they’d already agreed upon—“here.”
“They’ll send another team of men out when their boys don’t answer their calls.” Hopefully.
“And then we’ll light up the next team,” Carter finished for her.
“The second y’all blow those fuckers sky high,” A.J. joined the conversation, heading toward the table, “we quietly breach the estate. Once we free Beckett and Jesse realizes he can switch to Team Good Guys, there should be enough of us to handle the stragglers left inside Jorge’s home.”
“After you let us know Miles, Jesse, and Beckett are safe, the rest of us will converge on the property and join the party,” Jack tossed out. “Plus, we have the world’s best sniper here,” he added while looking at Liam. “And Griffin ain’t half bad.”
Griffin rolled his eyes. He and the rest of the guys were checking their weapons and prepping for the op. Everyone except Oliver, who would be staying back to keep an eye on Elaina, Emily, and Mya at the safe house.
“Luckily, we did recon on Jorge’s place this week with the drone. Thermal imaging showed twenty people on-site any given day. Some of those are more than likely staff. So, heads on a swivel for innocents,” Carter noted, probably for A.J.’s sake since he hadn’t been clued in on the details. “We also now have Miguel, Hector, and the scientist at Jorge’s too.”
“My guy watching the place right now just texted that four more heavily armed men rolled up, which we anticipated after this morning,” Camila shared.