“Yes,” he told her without hesitation.
“You can’t know that.”
“I can and I do. Your brother and I have been through a lot together. A lot. And you know I can’t give you any details, but suffice it to say, Woody’s ability to get himself, and those around him, out of the middle of a shit storm is legendary. And we might not even find him, Isabella, or Angelo at the address we’re headed to,” Spike said.
“You don’t believe that,” she said without any question in her tone. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be wasting our time.” She gave him a look. “I realize that you and Tiny might know more than you’re telling me. You might have found something else back in that apartment that you’re keeping close to your chest. And honestly, I don’t care. All I want is to find Woody and make sure he’s safe.”
Spike’s esteem for the woman next to him rose.
“Are we gonna talk about the plan when we get there or what?” she asked next.
Spike met Tiny’s gaze over her head for a moment, before his friend turned his attention back to the road.
“The plan is for us to park this piece of crap somewhere safe and out of the way, then do some recon. You’ll stay with the truck while we go in, hopefully find Woody, and get the hell out of there.”
Reese rolled her eyes. “Right, because it’ll be that easy,” she said sarcastically.
Spike shrugged. “Sometimes it is.”
She pressed her lips together and stared out the front windshield.
Spike didn’t like that she’d dismissed him so easily. “I’m not lying or trying to downplay what’s going on. You know as well as I do that messing with the cartel is bad news. But seriously, sometimes not overthinking or overengineering things is the best way to approach a problem.”
Reese looked at him again. She reluctantly nodded.
“I was on this mission once,” Tiny piped up, “and the objective was to go into a house full of insurgents, identify a specific HVT—high-value target—and bring him back to base to be interrogated. We spent twelve hours devising a very complicated plan to not only get into the house, but how to figure out which of the men was our guy when we did—and get him out without killing anyone else, which would’ve started an international incident and possibly a firefight we wouldn’t win since we’d be outnumbered ten to one.
“In the end, our team leader said, ‘fuck it,’ walked up to the damn door, knocked, asked to speak to the HVT, and he actually came to the door, as easy as you please. After a few words, he agreed to come with us to the base to have a chat with our commander. It was unbelievable, but it worked.”
“So you’re saying if we knock on the door and ask for Woody, they’ll bring him out?” Reese asked with a look on her face that clearly stated she thought Tiny was completely nuts.
He chuckled. “No. All I’m saying is that we could sit here and go through a million scenarios, but without knowing the layout of the house, how many people are there, what the area around it looks like, and a hundred other little details, any plan we make will be fucked before we even start.”
“I don’t like winging things,” Reese mumbled.
Spike couldn’t exactly disagree with her. He wasn’t thrilled with all the unknowns at the moment, but Tiny was right. They couldn’t plan anything without having intel. He was still holding Reese’s hand, and he tightened his fingers around hers. “We’re gonna find him.” As far as reassurances went, it fell a little short, but to his relief, Reese sighed and nodded.
“Okay, you guys are the professionals here, I’ll let you do your thing. But please don’t count me out. I can help,” she said.
Spike didn’t dismiss her words, because there was a chance they really might need her to help in some way. The odds weren’t looking good. With only two of them, even if they were highly trained special forces operatives, if things went sideways, they were definitely fucked.
“We hear you, Reese,” Spike said after a long moment. “And trust me, when the time comes, if we need you, we won’t have any problem asking for your help.”
He had no clue what kind of help that might be. The very last thing he’d ever do was put her in danger intentionally. She wasn’t coming into the house with them, Spike was adamant of that. But he wasn’t going to dismiss the idea that she could do something to assist. After all, while he or Tiny could’ve hotwired the truck, she’d done it a hell of a lot faster than Spike could’ve managed.
He didn’t let go of Reese’s hand for the remainder of the drive, and he was relieved she didn’t seem to be disturbed by how tightly he was holding onto her. Maybe because her grip was just as tight.
By the time they neared their coordinates, Spike was more than ready for action. Sitting around was never his favorite thing, and being in the truck for so long with no clue what they were driving into was seriously making him jittery.
Tiny pulled down a dirt road, although calling it a road was being generous. There were just two deep ruts where other vehicles had traveled before them. The truck being green and brown with plenty of rust worked in their favor, as it served as natural camouflage in the trees and bushes.
A couple minutes later, Tiny pulled off the trail, moving the truck as far into the woods as he could—which wasn’t very far at all.
“We’re about half a mile from the house. I need you to stay here, but not in the truck. If someone comes by and sees it and decides to investigate, it would be better if you weren’t in it,” Spike told her. “No matter what happens, please stay here. If we come back with Woody and you aren’t here, it won’t be good.”
Reese nodded as she stared at him with wide eyes.
“I don’t have a weapon to leave with you, so your best bet at this point is to stay hidden. Do not let anyone see you. Understand?”
She nodded again.
Spike stared at her for a long moment. Then he looked over at Tiny. “Can I have a minute?”
He and Tiny hadn’t been on any missions together, but just like at the hotel, the other man immediately understood that Spike wanted some time alone with Reese. He quickly nodded. “I’ll see what kind of foliage I can find to try to hide the truck better.” Then he climbed out of the vehicle without waiting for a response.
As soon as the door closed, Spike turned so he was more fully facing Reese and put a hand on her cheek. It was an intimate gesture, but he couldn’t stop himself. “If Woody’s here, I’m gonna find him.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“But you need to understand something. If we get back to this truck and you aren’t here, I’m gonna be…” His voice trailed off. So many words came to mind, but he wasn’t sure which to use. Pissed. Worried. Frantic. Upset. Devastated.
It made no sense. The connection he felt with this woman. Yes, he’d already felt as if he knew her a bit after hearing Woody talk about her for years. But it had been a long time since he’d seen her in person. Despite that, something deep within him had known from the second she’d opened that hotel door that Reese was different from anyone he’d ever dated. And he wanted—no, needed a chance to get to know her better.