Chapter Forty-Four Seraphina
Chapter Forty-Four
Seraphina
The last thirty minutes had been a blur of calls and conversations. So when I made it to the office to talk to Ryder, I felt like I’d sleepwalked my way there.
Ryder had his back to me, a laptop balanced on his hand as he, Reed, and ángel looked at something.
I quietly hung back in the doorway. It was my first time seeing Ryder dressed like an operator.
Military fatigues and a light-green long-sleeved shirt beneath a khaki vest that I hoped was also of the bullet-stopping variety.
He had a firearm holstered at his hip and a blade sheathed and strapped to his outer thigh.
The black backward ball cap was the only familiar look.
While propping myself up against the doorframe so I wouldn’t pass out from fatigue, I subtly cleared my throat, alerting them to my presence.
Ryder passed the laptop off to Reed and turned. “How’d the phone call go?” he asked as ángel and Reed gave me their attention.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me.” My teasing tone had to be a result of exhaustion now whooping my ass at hyperspeed.
That full mouth of his twitched, a handsome smile that had no business being there at four in the morning.
“According to Director Johnson, the plan was never to bring Ezra into the know. Only Nina and Andrej were their assets, and he claims he was unaware Beth framed Andrej and had him killed.” A few long strides brought Ryder over to me.
He offered me his hand as if knowing I was running on empty and needed an assist.
That had to be the laziest push away from a doorframe in history, but I managed to do it and keep myself upright.
Slow and steady wins the race, right? I’m definitely sliding into a sleepy delusional state, aren’t I?
“Was it the plan to replace Ezra with Nina if things went sideways down here? Does Nina know Ezra’s been working with Beth?
” The questions popped from my mouth of their own accord since my brain was still sluggish.
“The CIA Director monitored Johnson’s conversation with Nina since Potus no longer trusts his former DNI, and according to him, Nina said she suspected Ezra knew the truth about everything long before Andrej was killed, but she had no evidence and also had a gut feeling that was why her brother died.
So she kept her mouth shut to save her own neck. ”
“CIA. Potus . DNI. A few more letters, and we’ll complete the alphabet.” I lifted a shoulder. “Told you my humor is always off base.”
“It’s perfect any time.” He smiled, squeezing my hand as we faced the others in the office.
“So, what’d Martín say?” ángel asked, reminding me of the call I’d just made.
Ryder let go of my hand as if sensing I needed more help to stay on my feet, like an emotional-support forearm at my back, which he provided.
I rested my head against his shoulder. They all had places to be and people to kill, and there I was acting drugged from a lack of sleep and shock.
“Martín’s in, but are you sure you’re good with the plan?
It’s one thing to buy yourself protection from the cartel as we discussed at the club, quite another to have them all killed. ” No sense in sugarcoating the truth.
“Only my uncle and his son are en route here for the meeting with Ezra.” He said what he’d already told us when he first arrived at our villa.
He swiped a hand over his bald head, eyes shooting to the floor.
“This works better.” He looked up at me.
“I can handle assisting in killing them, but I’d rather it be Martín who handles my brother. I’m glad he stayed back in Mexico.”
I couldn’t imagine having a hand in the killing of a sibling. What was going through his mind right now couldn’t be pretty or easy. “Are you sure, though?”
“Do you know how many people my brother has murdered?” ángel opened his palms. “Somewhere north of fifty and south of a hundred. Give or take. That number doesn’t even include animals.”
Well, when you put it like that ... My stomach turned. More like somersaulted in disgust.
“After we proceed with phase one of the plan, I’ll touch base with your friend and let him know exactly where he’ll be able to find my brother and his associates.”
Phase one: “Snatch and grab” Beth and Ezra. Those were Reed’s words before I’d left to call Martín. I was looking forward to the unspoken phase in between one and two: interrogating them.
“Will someone try to replace the cartel after they’re taken out?” I managed to “snatch and grab” that thought from somewhere in my foggy brain, which was almost shocking.
“It would be best if I can take responsibility for killing Ezra as retribution for murdering my uncle and his people. I’ll be both revered and feared.” He side-eyed Ryder as if assuming where Ryder’s head went with that statement. “And no, this isn’t a ploy so I can take over for the cartel.”
“We believe you, or you wouldn’t be in this room with us right now,” Ryder said steadily, then deferred to Reed with a lift of the chin.
“This is the aerial view we’ll be watching while they’re gone.” Reed came over to us, turning the laptop for me to see. “Courtesy of the CIA. The, uh, good guys at the Agency, I should say. The director is on our side. The president vouches for him.”
That’s something. But wait. “You’re staying?
” That had me awake, bolstering me upright and no longer leaning against Ryder.
“Shouldn’t you have his back?” Reed and Ryder swapped a quick look, and sleepy or not, I easily read it.
“You won’t be able to focus on the mission if you’re worried about me back here?
” Reed’s the only one you trust to keep an eye on me with Beth and Ezra still out there.
“I have plenty of support out in the field,” Ryder said like a promise. “The GRS operators.” He tipped his head in ángel’s direction. “His men.”
“What about the helicopter? Will the pilot make it back here in time from the hospital?” A fresh wave of nerves hit me as I thought about Alex in surgery right now, knowing it pained both Ryder and Reed not to be there with him.
“He’ll be here soon, but we’re going to be infil’ing on foot. We need to keep Beth and Ezra alive. Once they’re in our custody, Nate will be on the door gun in the helo, and he’ll clear a path for a clean exfil,” Ryder explained. We were lucky that GRS pilot guy was on our side.
“We sure we have to keep that witch alive?” The comment from ángel earned him a surprising smile of approval from Reed.
“Just for now. Once you prove to the cartel you have her, and we get a fix on their location, we only need them to clock her with you. After that”—Ryder raised one shoulder—“if something were to happen to her ...”
“ Whatever will be, will be, ” I couldn’t help but murmur.
The woman was responsible for my family being murdered, Alex being in the hospital.
Probably many more lives were stolen because she’d turned her special assignment into a power and money grab for her and Ezra.
So yeah, whatever was meant to be, would be, when it came to her.
“She’s been an even bigger thorn in my side than the cartel,” ángel said after letting go of a deep breath. “I’m ready to be rid of her.”
“So, she never gave you an option to work with Andrej?” My curiosity got the best of me, despite me being exhausted.
“No, she set me up. I found out the hard way. Never trust a spy.” He shook his head.
“She had photos taken of my first meeting with Andrej when I rejected his offer. She used the images to blackmail me. She said she’d send them to the cartel and allege I was working with their competitor and that’s why I really left the family business. ”
“The woman’s playbook is thicker than the Bible,” Reed grunted in disgust while setting aside the laptop.
“Beth always talked to me through Andrej, never in person. She’s manipulative, though. She convinced me that helping the Agency would help my people. We’d take down the cartel together.”
Manipulative is an understatement. “Well, we’ll be done with her and the cartel soon.
” I hoped that was a promise that’d come true, at least. First things first. Snatch and grab two assholes.
“You don’t think Beth will have Ezra reach out to the Moraleses to warn them, right?
Try and spoil the mission since their plan failed? ”
“No.” Ryder was quick to shoot down my concern. “Beth won’t ever believe I’ll use you as bait to get to the Moraleses now that she’s not calling the shots, trying to force our hand.” And that was an excellent point.
“So, I’ll be able to see your operation the whole time?”
“If it doesn’t stress you out to watch, then yeah, you can keep an eye on us,” Ryder said as Garrison filled the doorway.
“Jayden’s here. It’s go-time.” Garrison let us know their pilot had returned.
“Tell everyone to get ready. We leave in five,” Ryder ordered, then Reed and ángel followed Garrison out, presumably to give us a minute alone.
Once it was just us, he looped my arms up over his shoulders, and I linked my wrists behind his neck.
He had magazines loaded into his vest that pressed against me, but I didn’t give a damn.
I’d also forgotten all about sleep and everything else in that moment, knowing he was about to ride off into battle.
This was the hard part. The part of him that women he’d dated may have struggled to deal with. This was what he was worried might scare me off. The leaving me to fight, knowing this goodbye could be his last.
I’d never known my goodbye to my parents and brother was the final one.
Not going to cry, dammit.
Not now.
“You okay?” He let go of my arms and held my face between his hands, then he threaded his fingers up into my hair and tipped my head, urging my eyes on his. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“ You tell me that.” He was worried about Alex, worried about leaving me, worried about a lot of things. I didn’t want that clouding his judgment and ruining his focus out there.
“As long as you promise me you’ll be here when I get back, I’m good.” His somber tone and the pained expression crossing his face about did me in.
Damn his father for leaving him. Damn every woman who hurt this man.
“Of course I’ll be here. You don’t walk away from a man you fell for on night one , now do you?” I pressed up on my toes, and he bent his head as I drew my mouth to his ear. “Some loves are meant to be, even when the odds are against them.”