Chapter Three Ryder
Chapter Three
Ryder
The mission had gone smoothly. Textbook perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Alex had successfully removed our target from the party and passed him off to Reed and Leo before another perimeter sweep happened.
Easy fucking day—or in this case, night. Now for the hard part: walk out the front door, turning my back on the woman my gut told me needed help. That wasn’t in my nature to do.
Okay, so maybe it was more than that. It was the fact I also wanted her. To know her lips. Her body. Her mind.
I didn’t even give a damn that she knowingly worked for a criminal. It didn’t matter to me. If she was willing to walk away from that life, then I’d move heaven and earth to help make it happen.
I tore my hand through my hair, contemplating my options now that the mission was nearly complete. The only part left to do was actually fucking leave.
At the sight of Alex inside the house—which meant he’d managed to discreetly slip through a side door—I headed in to meet him.
The man was a master at getting in and out of places unseen.
Growing up, Alex had learned a thing or two from his father, who was a Vegas escape artist with his own headline show.
I slid open the glass door, and the booming electronic music slapped me in the face.
I kept my head down, turned away from the security cameras, and started for where Alex was waiting for me.
In my peripheral view, a flash of red caught my attention, and I wound up colliding with a couple dancing.
I held up my palms in apology before searching out my new favorite color.
When I determined it was her, it was as if someone hit the pause button on my life and everything around me stopped. The music. The dancing. All of it.
The woman in red. The gorgeous accountant. The woman I couldn’t have.
Two guards strong-armed her out the side door with a 9mm trained on her.
My blood heated, and my hands converted to fists, becoming weapons at my sides. I was seeing red again, but in a much different way.
“You okay?” Alex asked, and I nodded toward the side door.
“The woman from the balcony needs help.” Had Ezra found out she’d been alone with me on the balcony? Was she being punished because of it? “You got my six on this?”
“Of course.” He discreetly tapped his earpiece, and I was thankful we’d told the guys to hang tight until we made a clean exfil before they took off, because now we needed them as backup.
We went outside, and I let Reed and Leo know there was a change in plans.
Maintaining our distance so we weren’t exposed, we managed to catch up with her and the two men as they led her down a lit-up pathway. If they were heading toward where Ezra’s yacht was docked, they’d run into our men.
“This is One. The two armed tangos and the woman are now on approach,” I warned Reed and Leo over comms, low enough so I wasn’t overheard. “Hide the hostage, and get behind your rifles and await my orders.”
“We can make a clean exfil before they arrive,” Leo said. “We’re not supposed to let anyone know we’re here. Why are we going to engage?”
I staggered back a step, not the direction I needed to go, but did I really need to spell this out for him? “We’re not letting a woman die.”
“This is Three, lima charlie ,” Reed responded, letting me know he heard my orders loud and clear and wouldn’t be pushing back. “I’ll advise when I have them in view.”
“I disagree with this. We’ll kick a hornet’s nest by opening fire on these men. This is not our mission.” Fucking Leo. So help me. He was outwardly telling me to fuck off, and this situation was already complicated enough.
“Your team leader just gave you an order,” Alex hissed. “You damn well follow it.”
“We’re not in the military anymore. That shit doesn’t work. I will not engage unless I’m fired upon.” Leo was proving at the wrong damn time that he wasn’t cut out for our team.
“I have them locked in,” Reed, the voice of reason in my ear, let me know. “I can’t see you two, which means you should still be safe from their view.”
Good. “The second the first tango doesn’t have his weapon pointed at her, take him and the other guy out.”
Reed confirmed he’d heard the order, and I stopped walking when she tripped and fell forward.
She took me and the guards by surprise when she pivoted and swept her leg around, knocking one guard off-balance.
The second his weapon was no longer on her, Reed took the shot, using the suppressor so the noise was slightly less audible.
After Reed nailed him in the head, he let us know: “I can’t get a clean shot of the other guy. She’s in my line of sight.”
I didn’t hesitate and rushed to take down the second mark myself before he knew what was happening.
The second tango, sidearm in hand, was in the process of doing a three-sixty while ducking his head, searching for the direction the shot had been fired from.
I closed in on him from behind, threw my forearm across the front of his neck, and squeezed. CQB it was, then. I bent his arm, snapping it back with my other hand, and he barked out something in what sounded like Russian before dropping his pistol.
“Take her to the others,” I yelled to Alex, unable to put eyes on her, too busy dealing with the guy trying to escape. I released my hold on him, only to shove him forward, knowing Reed would handle him.
Two rounds in his chest, and he was down.
I spun around, finding her staring at me with wide eyes alongside Alex. Her hair hung wild and messy around her face, covering one eye.
“We need to go. More will come.” I stepped over a dead body to get to her. “Now,” I said while offering my hand, “will you please come with me?”