The tape stops rolling, but my gut doesn’t. I know what I saw. It has to be him.
“Roll back about ten seconds, Pierce.” I ignore Jade’s plea beside me while the tape is moving backwards in slow motion then filtering to life again on the screen. “Brighten it. It’s so fucking dark. There, on the roof. Enhance that,” I say loudly. The screen pauses in an instant. My body stiffens. My heart explodes.
“Motherfucker,” Pierce and Jackson both say at the same time.
“There he is. The fucker isn’t dead,” Jackson says with alarm.
“Is that him?” Jade points to the chicken shit sitting on the roof, his beady little eyes on the screen gazing back at me.
“Fuck. How the hell did we miss him? Our night vision should’ve picked that up.” Kase stands along with the rest of them, knowing this is only the beginning.
“Goddamn it,” I roar. I know my brother and that lopsided smirk on his face. The way he’s gloating, he knows he’s found my weakness. Ty isn’t looking at the dead bodies on the ground. Not him, no, his eyes are on Jade, blazing with satisfied revenge.
“Yes. That’s my fucking brother,” I say to all of their backs as I stalk furiously out the door.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JADE
I’ve made the call to my superior to let him know I’ve landed and my exact location. I’ve paced the floor while they set up. My heart clenched at the idea of watching that tape, and now I can’t believe Kaleb just had to live through all of that a second time. I’m trained for shit like this and had to close my eyes a few times. Reliving his nightmare all over again is killing me. Listening to the sound of my voice when I saw him hanging there brought back all the fucked-up flashbacks of the reality of that night. It hurts me to watch him suffer like this.
I’ve followed him to his own cabin and refuse to let him isolate himself and relive this shit over and over. I told him I was in this with him, and I don’t care if he’s angry or not, I’m going in. I hear the slam of the bathroom door, so I try to open it, only to find he’s locked it.
I’ve never seen him this angry and it scares me. I hope he won’t do anything drastic without the rest of us, but I know he’s going to try to shelter me from all of this.
“Kaleb. Please let me help.” I lean my forehead against the door, not knowing what to say to get him to open it. I can hear him throwing up, and it’s killing me to know his brother was that damn close, but I jumped the gun to save Kaleb. If I would’ve held strong like I was ordered to do, we could’ve scoped the area like we were supposed to and have the count before we went in. I wish I could say I wouldn’t do the same thing again, but I would. I hope like hell I’m never put in the same type of situation again.
He’s running the water now, and I’m relieved to hear he’s no longer throwing up. I can hear him brushing his teeth and then just the sound of the water continues. He's gone silent.
“Kaleb. I told you to open this door. I’m here to help….” The door swings open and I stop yelling over the change in the air. He looks different. He’s pasty with a strange look of uncontrollable fear on his face.
“You can’t fucking help me. I need a few minutes to deal with this shit, and then I’ll find you.”
“I’m not leaving you.” I stand firm. He’s not forcing me out of this.
“Jade. I need a fucking minute. Goddammit. Give me a fucking minute. I wish like fuck I could go to the gym or go for a damn run, but right now, I’m trying to figure out how to deal with all of this aggression. You need to go, and I’ll find you when I’m chilled the fuck out.” He comes out of the bathroom and looks straight into my face, trying to intimidate me into leaving. I don’t buy his move and won’t play his games. I look into his eyes and let the same fear and determination stare right back at him. I’m not giving up on this, on him. I will not back down.
“I’m not fucking leaving. Work it out on me.” He has aggression, and I can’t think of a better way to work it out than to fuck me senseless. He’s crazy if he thinks he needs a damn gym right now. There’s no way he needs to be lifting weights. He can work around his wounds again; we did it today on the plane. We can do it again. I’m sure we can figure something out. Together.
“No.” His response is steady and directly in front of my face.
“Why not?” I reply firmly, without flinching, even when he’s trying to act like a fucking giant towering over me.
“Because I’m ready to fuck something up, Jade. I’m not going to take this out on you.” His words are brittle, and I can see the chaos in his eyes.