“Really? And here I was thinking it would be more along the lines of an adult-sized buffalo,” Penny tried to joke.
The tight press of Rafe’s mouth told her that her attempt to lighten the mood failed miserably.
When a heavy knock landed on the door, Rafe pulled it open to a waiting Trey. Dressed nearly identical to Rafe, he stood in the hall, thumbs hooked into his pockets, not looking the least surprised to see Penny walking up to his friend’s side.
“Prepare yourself for a lot of whining,” Trey warned her with a wink. “Logan’s been bitching about being left behind.”
The operator in question turned the corner. Grin in place, Logan strutted down the hall in his usual loose swagger.
“You look surprisingly okay with having to stay behind,” Penny stated, suspicious of the former Marine’s jovial mood.
Logan dropped an arm over her shoulder. “I’ll admit I was a little put out at first, but then I saw the group that’s going to be piling into the helo all sardine-like. Trust me—I’m definitely getting the better end of the deal. What do you say to you, me, and a bottle of the finest jungle wine they got on hand, darlin’? We’ll make an entire night of it.”
“There’s such a thing as jungle wine?” Penny grinned.
“You’re right. We don’t need the wine to have a good time. We just need each other.”
A low growl from Rafe’s direction had everyone—except Rafe—chuckling. He gripped her belt loops and pulled her out of Logan’s grasp and into his own, making the Marine laugh harder. “Cool down, brother. I’ve got almost nothing but the safety of your girl in mind.”
Penny rolled her eyes at the level of machismo filling the small hall and wrapped her arms around Rafe’s waist. When his gaze dropped to hers, she gently assured him, “We’ll be fine. You need to stop worrying about what’s happening here and start concentrating on what’s going to happen out there.”
“We still don’t know where Fuentes has his mole planted, and I’m about to leave you in a DEA-run facility…with Collins.” Rafe palmed her cheek, and instinctively she pushed her face into his touch. He waited a moment before leveling a look in his friend’s direction. “I’m entrusting you with precious cargo, Callahan.”
Logan nodded, suddenly a little more somber. “Like the lady said—no worries.”
Penny wished that were actually true. As they collected the rest of the team and met up with Collins and the others on the tarmac, her stomach tightened into multiple fist-sized knots. Ten minutes later, she watched the helo carrying Rafe and the guys lift into the dark sky.
This was real. It was happening. After bunkering down in flea-infested hotels and traipsing through the Honduran wilderness—which literally almost killed her with a scratch—things were finally coming to a close. It seemed to take forever to get to this point, and now it was flying by way too fast.
Though Rafe hadn’t asked for it, she summoned every ounce of love and threw it into her prayers for a safe return—very much aware that they hadn’t discussed what would happen between them when he did.
*
Penny’s eyes remained glued to the black-and-white footage being transmitted from the camera on Rafe’s vest. Each of the four Alpha-led teams entered the jungle warehouse—Fuentes’s suspected distribution hub—from different vantage points. Screen to screen, her eyes jumped from one monitor to the other. They all looked the same. No movement. No noise except for the brief exchange of voices as the teams systematically cleared each room and moved deeper into the building.
The place looked like a tomb, the halls no less vacant than each of the rooms or the surrounding grounds.
“Where is everyone?” Penny whispered.
“Situation report, Stone Cold?” Rafe’s voice called out Sean’s handle but was answered with blaring silence. One beat passed, then two. “I repeat, sit-rep? Do you read me?”
“Fuck me.” Sean’s muttered curse echoed over the comm link as if he’d shouted it through a megaphone. “Everyone, pull back! I repeat, all teams pull back! Get the fuck out of the building! Now! Move! Move!”
The microphone cut out, replacing the two-way audio with a static hiss. Penny was on her feet in an instant, her stomach flipping on its side as Rafe’s camera bounced with his mad-like-hell run. “What’s happening? What did he see?”
Logan’s fingers flew over the computer keys, cursing with each attempt to bring back the sound.
“Logan!”
“I’m working on it, darlin’. I’m working on it. Fuckin’ A, Collins! These computers are pieces of shit! Know how to work a fucking upgrade!”
“Explosives…rigged…trap.”