Herald the Night

Chapter Thirty-Two

Luke had seen a lot of shit in his life, but nothing compared to watching a man”s mind break with reality in real time. As soon as Anna confirmed the identity of the person responsible for Theo and Toby’s disappearance, Connor went offline. The vacant look in his eyes, the slackening of his posture, the sickly pallor of his face—it all brought goosebumps to Luke’s skin and made his own unease increase exponentially. He rushed forward to catch the man’s fall as his legs gave out from the sheer shock value of realizing that a man they presumed dead for months was alive and actively threatening them.

No one else moved. The blow this information delivered was enough to push them from their tenuous foundations, but none were as rocked to the core as Connor. Luke shifted to his knees and grabbed Connor”s face roughly between his palms in an attempt to drag him back to them again. The man had barely regained his footing. Luke genuinely worried that this might be what finally broke him.

“O’Brien! Come on, soldier! You can”t quit now!” Luke pressed his forehead against the cold, sweat-damp skin of Connor’s and shifted his hand to clutch at the nape of his neck. “Come the fuck on, man! You can do this!”

Connor’s eyes slammed shut and a choked sound escaped his lips. Somehow, over six feet of muscled former Marine folded in on himself to the point where Luke was the only thing holding him upright as he began hyperventilating.

“Fuck, man.” Luke readjusted his grip and sat Connor up straighter. “Breathe, Con. Fucking breathe and pull yourself together. We”re going to get him, but I need you with us to do that!”

Luke jostled Connor’s nearly limp frame and kept up a litany of pleas, growing louder with each passing moment. Eventually, miraculously, the rapid-fire rasp of his breathing leveled out with a ragged gasp. He wasn”t one hundred percent back, but the lucidity was slowly returning to his eyes and the color began creeping back into his face.

“Thank fuck. Thought we lost you there, soldier.” Luke pressed a kiss to Connor”s forehead and sat back on his haunches. Honestly, this was almost worse than any of the battles he”d seen. Almost.

“What… what do we do?” Connor’s palms splayed over his thighs as he dragged breath after breath into his lungs. Less vacant now, his eyes took on an edge of raw panic.

“Working on last knowns now, Con. We”re going to figure it out.” Taz called from nearby and Luke glanced up toward his voice. A wink was all the acknowledgement Taz gave him before diving back into the glimpse of the world he had through his laptop.

“Guys, we’re setting up a command post in that garage across the street. Come on.” The police officer named Hank beckoned, directing the beam of a flashlight toward a simple two car garage diagonally across the street from the safe house.

“You heard the man, Con. Let”s go.” Luke pushed himself into a standing position and extended his hand. Connor shook his head and sank backward, grunting softly as his ass landed on the ground.

“I need a minute. I just… I just need a minute.”

Luke hesitated, caught between wanting to stay with his comrade and move forward with the team. No man left behind had always been the mantra. It went against every code of honor to walk away from Connor, but the man wasn”t budging. His eyes turned toward the retreating backs of the rest of their friends, catching Taz’ arched eyebrow as he stopped halfway with an expectant expression.

“Go, Luke! I need y’all there. Just gimme a damn minute!” Connor pushed his hands into his cropped hair and expelled a shaky sigh. “Just a minute.”

“Holding you to that, son.” Luke reached down to squeeze Connor’s broad shoulder and took the first step away. Every step became harder than the last, and more than once, he stopped altogether to look back at the nearly broken man seated alone in the darkness. He needed Connor to pull through. He needed them all to be okay. He needed this nightmare to end.

The garage was stuffy, hot, and impossibly crowded. Officers and agents rushed in every direction to reclaim workbenches and erect make-shift tables. Laptops appeared, Taz’s among them, as the group tried to create order amid the chaos. Abriella took control, barking orders to anyone within hearing range. Given how loud she could be, there were a lot of people rushing to embrace her natural leadership skills. Taz began orchestrating an operations center of his own amid the officers who had gathered laptops. Within a few minutes, something resembling a legitimate command center began to take shape.

“Luke! Vamos, I need you here!” Abriella”s call pulled him deeper into the madness. She grabbed his arm and tugged him into a corner before lowering her voice. “We have two different addresses, but I do not recognize them. Taz says you will know one.”

He lowered his gaze toward the tablet she pushed into his chest. Neither looked familiar until he clicked the coordinates underneath the bottom one. The warehouse from his nightmares came into view. It was the location of the lab he had worked during their last emergency field mission after the attempted assassination of the President.

“Fuck. I do.” Luke offered the tablet back. “The warehouse. We were first on the scene after the shooting incident. What do you need from me?”

“We have units being dispatched. Road blocks will be set up. Searches. Director Robins is coming but we have already lost too much time. Take your brothers. Go now!”

Luke grabbed her wrist before she could take off. “Wait, what makes you sure this is the right location? They”re on opposite sides of the city. What if we”re wrong?”

“It”s the best I can think of, Luke.” Abriella met his gaze with glimmering eyes. “It”s the best I can do.”

Luke”s mouth became a thin line as he clenched his jaw. With a curt nod, he released her wrist and turned to search for his brothers. Somehow, he had a feeling they would have found a way to ingratiate themselves amongst all the official officers and agents.

He wasn”t wrong. Their matching brown-haired heads bobbed at the edge of his vision and he cut through the bustle to get closer. Not surprising in the least was the fact that they’d managed to find windbreakers emblazoned with the FBI lettering on the back. Part of him wondered if they didn”t have them already in the back of their car.

“Leon, Liam… what the fuck are you doing?” Luke hissed softly under his breath as he muscled them away from the table they were manning. “Do you understand how fucking illegal this is?!”

“Shh! We”re just assisting. Nothing official.”

“Yeah, bro. Assisting. One of the police even gave us a radio.” Liam held up the item in question with a toothy grin.

“Lemme guess, after you asked for one?” Luke eyed his younger brother with a withering glare.

“Details, schmetails.”

Luke passed a hand over his face and tried to collect his thoughts. “Okay, look. Abs wants us to get ahead of the curve and check one of the locations. We have to go now. Units are coming and going, but it”s a shit show.”

“Sweet!”

“Fuck yeah! Let”s roll.”

“Wait—oh, for fuck’s sake!” Luke broke into a jog to catch up with his twin brother’s as they took off toward the road. He caught up just as they reached the Subaru and moved to get in. “Hold up!”

“Right, sorry bro.” Leon stalled with his hand on the driver”s side door. “Did you want to drive?”

“We”re likely to meet units there. You aren”t Feds, or even cops. Of fucking course I”m driving.” Luke shoved his brother out of the way and reached for the door. He stopped and squinted into the darkness until movement caught his attention. Connor was headed toward them at a sprint. He didn”t slow his pace, instead grabbing Luke’s wrist and dragging him farther from the car and into the shadows.

“What the—”

“I know where they are!” Connor shoved his cell phone into Luke’s grip with a trembling hand.

Luke dropped his eyes to the device and read through the messages on the screen.

Unknown: Here, kitty kitty kitty.

Unknown: I have your mouse.

Unknown: Come now. Come alone. Come unarmed. Come on foot. Every time I hear a siren, he gets one step closer to the morgue. I”m not above moving on to the baby mouse if he dies. If anyone follows you, they both die.

Underneath the texts was an address. Beneath that, a picture. A sharp intake of breath expanded Luke’s chest as he skimmed the photo. Theo and Toby were tied up together, back to back and seated against the base of a tree. The flash from the photo illuminated them in too bright contrast with the surroundings. The most alarming part of the image was the bright red swath of blood visible on Theo’s bare chest. His head was bowed, so his face wasn”t visible, but Toby’s was—wide-eyed and pale as he stared at the camera, his terror frozen in a chilling still-frame image.

“I”m going now.” Connor reached for the phone, but Luke jerked it back before he could grab it.

“Like fuck you are!” Luke narrowed his eyes and stepped back further as Connor made another attempt for the cell. “We need to get SWAT, a hostage negotiator… Christ, Connor. You can”t just walk into this blind!”

“If’n we come in hot, they”re both gone. I ain”t risking it. Fields wants me, so that’s what he’ll get. Y”all give me a fifteen minute head start, then we bring in the backup. I ain”t stupid. I just want him to think he”s won. The bastard’s a fucking psychopath.”

“Are you out of your mind?! If he really is after you, this isn”t a rescue mission, it”s fucking suicide! You’re walking into a death trap.” Luke shoved Connor back against a tree trunk and stiff-armed him to keep the phone out of reach.

“If’n it’s what I gotta do to save him, so fucking be it! It”s worth the risk. But y’all know, sure as shit, if’n we rush in there with the fucking Feds, they”re both done. Gone. Not happening. Not on my watch.” Connor’s chest rose and fell under Luke’s palm. The primal, dark edge to his narrowed gaze had Luke’s blood running cold.

“Look, we got an idea,” Leon stepped into view and held out his palms in a placating gesture. Evidently, Connor’s wild animal appearance was alarming to more than just Luke. “We’ve got a shit ton of gear. Luke, you worked hostage negotiations. Connor… you’ve got the training. We can be the advance team. But we gotta get Abs and the Feds on board. If we rock up flying solo and it goes to shit, we’re all fucked.”

Liam appeared on the opposite side. “Give us the address. We can work it like an extraction. We”ve all done it before. But we aren”t gonna achieve shit if we just run in blind.”

“Fine, but we need to move.” Connor reached for the phone yet again, and this time, Luke let him have it.

“Gendry to Garcia, come in.” Liam called into the radio some beat cop was dumb enough to hand to him earlier. “We need you outside, over.”

“Garcia to Gendry. Wilco, over and out.”

The group moved back to the Subaru and Leon opened the hatchback. Luke groaned and swiped a palm over his face. He”d been too caught up in the moment back at their house to realize his brothers had packed half their private arsenal into the SUV. Tactical equipment of every make and model filled the space.

“Guys… what the fuck?” Luke hissed as he dug through the various cases and bags.

“Always gotta be prepared.” Liam shrugged and swatted Luke’s hand away. “Careful, we haven”t even gotten to play with most of this yet.”

“Oh, here! Night vision. I got infrared somewhere too. Hold on,” Leon mumbled, mostly to himself, as he dug through the equipment.

“What, Luke?” Abriella jogged closer and pulled up short beside them. “Why are you still here?”

“Change of plans. We’ve got a location, but the situation is hot as fuck.” Luke checked the surroundings and leaned closer. “The subject requested Connor come alone, on foot, or Theo dies. They”re on the outskirts of Georgetown Reservoir, in the trees. If we roll in hot with a SWAT team, he’ll see us coming from a mile away.”

“Fuck… fuck, fuck, fuck!” Abriella swept her hands into her hair and swore again. “We need—”

“A hostage negotiator, a surveillance team, we know.” Luke tapped his chest. “We can go in first. Liam and Leon on surveillance. Connor as our line of communication. I”ll coach him through a mic. We’ll have ears and eyes. We cannot… absolutely cannot go running in there hot.”

“This is loco. You’re all loco.” Despite her proclamation, Abriella pulled out her phone and snapped her fingers at them all before making a beckoning motion. Connor unlocked his phone and handed it to her. A pregnant pause lingered over them all as she paced, reading through the messages while still holding her phone to her ear. Finally, she spoke.

“Director Robins, it’s Agent Garcia. I have a lead but the situation is precarious. I”m putting together a team to move in. I need a SWAT on standby. Permission to proceed?” Abriella stopped in her tracks and held her breath. All of them held their breath, to be honest. Luke’s hands slowly became fists as the tension escalated to a breaking point.

“Gracias. Gracias. I”ll send the address. We’ll keep you posted.” Abriella lowered her phone and immediately began typing on the screen one-handed. Once she handed Connor his phone back, she typed even faster.

“Looks like a go. Gear up, guys.” Luke stepped toward the driver’s side door again and flung it open. He cursed when he found the keys still in the ignition. “Liam… you left this all here unlocked?”

“Bruh… it”s all cops and Feds. Do you honestly think anyone”s worried about robbing cars right now?”

As much as Luke didn”t want to admit it, his brother had a point. He erred on the side of saying nothing at all.

“Bell, are you fucking serious?!” Taz’ voice had Luke pivoting in place. “This is the same kind of stupid shit that almost got you two fucking shot the last time! It”s like deja fucking vu!”

“Tch! Shut it. You help, or you hush. Robins is sending us backup. Connor will be in a vest. It”s the best we can do. We still do not know who to trust in the Bureau. Get in the car.” Abriella snapped her fingers again and held out her palm. Taz dumped a tangle of earpieces and radio receivers in her hand before sliding to the passenger side of the car with his laptop under his arm, bitching under his breath the entire way.

It took a little bit of forever for them all to mic up. This was the most insane, unhinged plan he’d ever engaged in. He knew his brothers were insane. He often questioned Abriella’s mind. Connor had been off his rocker for months. Taz was… Taz. Luke, in contrast, had always been a rule follower and a regimented leader with a need for control.

He finished securing his radio and started off the cycle of mic checks, pushing the button on and off once. The responding clicks in his ear answered in sequence. Connor’s was a live mic. He stepped away and pivoted, moving toward Abriella’s car nearby before doing a mic check of his own.

“Loud and clear, over.”

“Vest, pendejo!” Abriella called out louder than needed and he answered with a middle finger flung over his shoulder. Nevertheless, Luke exhaled a small sigh of relief as Connor stripped out of his underarm holster and hauled his shirt over his head before opening the back of Abriella’s SUV. Only once he saw Connor grab the bullet resistant vest from the back did he fully relax.

Adrenaline pulsated through Luke’s system as he turned back to the Subaru and slid into the driver’s seat. Taz was already busy with his laptop in the passenger seat beside him. Finally, Liam and Leon piled into the backseat with their new toys in hand, quietly bickering over who got to wear which vision aid. Abriella knocked on the window and motioned for him to roll it down.

“Do not let him do something stupid.” Her hand pressed to Luke’s cheek. “Don”t let anyone do anything stupid. I need you all back. Stay on the comms, mi amigo. Love you all.” She backed away and flashed a hand signal to her car before slapping her palm against the roof of the Subaru. Luke gave a salute to Abriella, his expression grim as the true magnitude of what they were undertaking settled in his chest. They were all absolutely insane, but perhaps it took insanity to beat the criminally insane at their own game. He could only hope.