“Fuck. Sorry,” Constantine groaned. “You’re clear.”
“A little close there, brother,” I hissed while moving inside.
The cabin was pitch-black, but with my night vision, I could make out two bodies not going anywhere, face down in the room. And another in a chair. Head hung. Probably cuffed to it. “Cleaner is down,” I alerted the team in a low voice. “But we have movement. Looks like one officer is still alive.” And he was crawling, trying to get cover.
“This is Alpha One. That’s a good copy. See if he knows anything. Get him to talk. We’ve got your back out here.”
War rumbled around us from outside and from every direction. And from the sounds of it, we’d be needing that backup and soon. By my guess, we had more than one team of bad guys out there trying to get inside the cabin, and we were all that stood in the way of them doing it.
A few more bursts of fire tapped at the exterior of the cabin, and I ducked out of view of the window and put eyes on Jesse, ensuring he was still good. He nodded and flicked his wrist and pointed to the guy crawling.
“We’re friendlies,” Jesse told him. “Here for a rescue.”
The man on the floor went still, and I spied his hand curling into a fist. Did he have something he was trying to protect?
“How do I know I can trust you?” he asked, still flat on his belly. No weapon in hand from what I could tell, and whatever was in his palm was too small to be a grenade.
“And how do we know we can trust you?” I countered. “The government sent a small team for such a valuable man. It’s almost like your boss didn’t clear this mission.” I took a knee, keeping my arm extended, pistol on him.
“Everyone wants the cleaner, but he’s dead. If you get me out of here, I’ll give you the client list he gave us just before the attack,” the man said instead. “Do we have a deal?”
Fuck, that was good news. “Deal,” I said without hesitation, but then a prickling sense of awareness washed over me as a red dot appeared on the guy’s back.
“Move,” I yelled to him, but it was too late, and he collapsed as the round made contact.
Jesse and I searched for cover as an unrecognizable voice came over comms. “This is Echo One. Sniper down.”
Echo One? And was he British? “Tell me that’s our backup,” I mouthed to Jesse, and he nodded.
“Sorry we’re late to the party, boys,” the Brit went on, “but we’re here now. And it looks like we have company. Two vehicles are en route, and they’re armed to the teeth. I suggest you get cover now.”
“Roger that,” Jesse replied, then low-crawled to the downed officer, and he unfurled his palm. “We have jackpot,” Jesse announced, letting the team know we weren’t walking away empty-handed.
“Wait for my orders to leave the cabin,” Carter said. “We need to get you and that package out of there, and there are too many threats out here.”
A whooshing sound of static hit my ear from the comm, followed by rapid sounds of gunfire outside the cabin as we made our way back to the side door. I exchanged my pistol for my rifle while we waited for orders.
“This is Echo Two. You want any of these fuckers rolling up in armed vehicles alive, or do you prefer them extra crispy with a side of bacon?” A Southern accent rolled through the line, hard to miss even over comms.
Who the hell were these guys?
“This is Alpha One. Keep a few alive if you can.”
“Roger that,” the Southerner answered.
“Echo Two’s my wife’s brother,” Jesse shared with me in a low voice. “So don’t worry, he’s highly motivated to get us out of here.” He looked back at me, and a flash of his bright-white teeth from a smile was visible through the green hue of my night vision.
“So your wife will kill him if something happens to you?” I asked.
Another smirk from Jesse. “Let’s just say you don’t want to get on a Southern woman’s bad side.”
“That’s the truth.” Another unfamiliar voice, and I detected a Boston accent. I forgot the fancier-than-normal comms meant they could hear us whether we wanted them to or not.
“And that voice you just heard . . . my sister’s husband,” Jesse remarked.
“A family business, huh?” I was shocked we were smiling and joking in the middle of battle. But hell, it only brought me back to my days in the army. And it wasn’t any different back then, only my dark sense of humor in my early twenties was a lot worse than now.
“You don’t know the half of it,” the Southerner, Echo Two, said in response. “And we’re preparing to send a little gift basket in the form of a fuck-you-up-the-ass present to the men hot on your tail on the southside. Take cover,” he warned.
“Roger that,” Carter remarked, and then an explosion rattled the ground.
“I could use a gift like that,” Alessandro said. “I’ve got two fuckers who just won’t quit twenty meters from the east side of the cabin. Lassoing their location with the IR laser now.”
“This is Echo Two. Target location confirmed,” the Southerner said. “And you’re welcome,” he added before the ground rocked beneath our feet yet again.
“This is Echo One,” the Brit said in my ear a minute later. “I can confirm from my vantage point there’s no more movement. Targets all appear to be down. There’s a chance one or two are alive, but they’re for sure as hell not threats now.”
“Roger that,” Carter responded. “Alpha Two and Seven, you’re clear to move,” he told us, and we left the cabin.
I took a deep breath, trying my best to relax, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. Literally and figuratively.
“This really your life now?” I asked Jesse as we moved, meeting up with Hudson and Alessandro on our trek to exfil.
Jesse tapped his ear, muting his comm this time, so I copied his move. We could still hear the others, but our conversation was now private. “Well, we prefer not to call in SEALs for an assist, because they’ll give us army boys hell for it later, but we do what we have to do.”
Alessandro motioned to Hudson and said, “SEAL too.”
“Of course you are,” Jesse laughingly commented.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” I told him, not referring to the fact they had SEALs for backup.
“I know.” Jesse looked over at me, his night-vision goggles still blocking his eyes. “But yeah, this is my life. You looking for it to be yours, too? Or are you out for good?”
My stomach dropped at what felt like an offer. But I didn’t have a chance to answer, because the thump of rotors overhead had me going still. I peered up at the sound of the whup-whup-whup chopping the sky and searched for a helo.
“A lot of people really want this list,” Jesse said under his breath before unmuting his comm. “Looks like it’s not game over yet. You ready?”
We all nodded before Alessandro said, “Yeah, let’s go toast these fuckers, shall we?”
“And try not to start a forest fire, if you don’t mind,” the Brit said as figures overhead began to fast-rope down.
“This is Alpha Two, they’re dropping in from the sky at our location,” Jesse told the team.
“Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Hudson remarked, shifting into position while readying his rifle.
“Oh, I like him,” the Southerner answered over comms.
“You would,” Jesse said. “He’s apparently one of you. A Team Guy,” he added before Hudson squeezed off a shot.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Maria
“Mmmm. That feels good.” I let free a moan as a pair of strong arms swallowed me up into a warm embrace, but the fog of sleep had yet to be lifted.
“I’m back, cara mia,” a husky voice whispered into my ear, and Enzo’s words officially shocked me out of my dreamlike state.
He was there in bed with me, and I wasn’t imagining it. Turning toward him, I felt him readjust his arm, settling it on my hip while drawing me closer, and my hands slid between us to cup his cheeks.