Chapter Forty-Eight Ryder
Chapter Forty-Eight
Ryder
Time had blurred that day, but knowing Alex was okay certainly helped me focus on what needed to be done tonight.
“Sorry to pull you away from your family again.” I removed my shades, standing out in front of the villa with Owen. It felt like yesterday since he’d dropped us off, and—wait, was it yesterday? I was losing track of time.
“I mean, technically, Potus did, so you’re in the clear with her.” Owen patted my shoulder twice, then tipped his head toward four other operators exiting two black Suburbans.
“I’m relieved to know that tiny, little toy plane you flew us here in survived your trip back over,” Seraphina said as I wrapped my arm around her.
Owen laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I can fly anything, don’t you worry, ma’am.
” He shifted his aviator sunglasses down his nose to wink before returning them to their place.
“I heard you have another pilot now. I guess that means I’ll be infil’ing on the ground.
Unless Carter pulled another Black Hawk out of thin air for me to use? ”
Reed joined us in the driveway. “At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised.” He said hello before we all turned our attention to the rest of the president’s special team unloading their SUVs.
I’d always heard rumors Potus had a few off-the-books Seal s working for him, and from the looks of it, that rumor was based in fact.
Carter had given me a few details about them over a call, but he hadn’t been allowed to reveal too much. He promised we were in good hands with Bravo. Plus, we had Nate, Garrison, and the other GRS operators for support. ángel’s team, too. Our numbers were looking good.
“Our secret teams aren’t such a secret anymore,” one of the operators, who I recognized as the president’s son, said on approach.
“At least they are to the bad guys—and, you know, Congress,” Owen commented, shifting to the side as more of the guys filtered over our way.
“Ain’t that the same fuckin’ thing?” one of the Seal s joked.
“I take it you’re the reason we’re here?” the dead ringer for Thor, with the Aussie accent to go with it, asked Seraphina next.
She smiled. “Guilty.”
“Wait up.” Reed removed his sunglasses. “Are you telling me Potus has both you and Wyatt Pierson working directly for him?” So, he recognized the Aussie. “Sniper legends,” he told me. “Two of the best in the world.”
Carter had let us know that Gwen’s dad, Wyatt, was the team leader for Echo. Gwen would be joining Carter and her father’s team in Asia, too. So yeah, the numbers were looking really fucking good. Odds in our favor, for sure. It was about damn time.
The Aussie closed one eye and shrugged. “Don’t tell Wyatt that. The bloke’s ego is big enough.” He introduced himself to those of us who didn’t know his name already, unlike the apparent fanboy at my side.
“Mister Doom and Gloom here is clearly an admirer of snipers, and apparently hackers, too.” I wasn’t sure if they’d pick up on the connection to Gwen I’d alluded to or not. “I learn something new about my teammates every day.”
Reed shook his head. “I like her for—”
Owen cut him off. “If by ‘her’ you mean Gwen, I hope you’re about to say ‘her skills.’ Word travels fast. Big brother—or in this case, father— is always watching. And you’ll learn why her old man’s really”—his smirk was targeted for the Aussie—“tied as the world’s best sniper.”
The guys on his team cracked smiles and laughed as Reed muttered, “Brains. I admire her brains, you assholes.” The grump at least grinned while shaking his head.
Seraphina casually leaned against me. “Small world, though, right?” she mused, reading my thoughts.
“You have no fuckin’ idea just how much,” Potus ’s son said—and damn, I had to admit, it was surreal to have the opportunity to be operating with him.
Seraphina straightened at the sight of a woman exiting the front passenger seat of one of their SUVs while ending a call. “Another woman. Thank God.”
“That’s my sister. She co-runs the team with me.” Bravo One set his sights on a guy with Jason Momoa vibes off to his right. “And my best friend’s wife.”
“Best friend’s sister, huh?” Seraphina’s smile was contagious. “And how does that work with you all out in the field together?”
I couldn’t imagine one of my best friends marrying a sibling. Not that I had a sister, but damn.
“We manage to survive,” the woman said as she pocketed her phone, closing in on us.
“By the skin of our teeth,” Owen teased as he playfully elbowed her in the side before she made the rounds, introducing herself as Jessica Scott-Hayes.
“Any other family members I need to know about to ... well, not piss off?” Reed had me laughing with that one. He wasn’t usually funny, but he was stepping up to the plate lately with some humor here and there.
“It’s a family affair when it comes to us.” Owen shrugged. “Just always be on your best behavior, and you avoid an angry father, brother ... or, you know, president.”
Potus ’s son, Knox, rolled his eyes.
After a few more minutes of shooting the shit with everyone, Seraphina pulled me off to the side of the group. “I need to find something to keep myself busy. You know, so I’m not nervously in your way with the mission-prep stuff.”
I leaned in, dropping my mouth to her ear. “By ‘busy,’ do you mean wearing that red bathing suit and swimming?”
“No, I can’t have you distracted right now or having a heart attack.” She eased back, smiling, then turned toward everyone, asking, “So, who’s hungry?”
Later that night
After Ezra arranged the meeting spot with the Moraleses, like we’d forced him to do an hour ago, ángel’s uncle then reached out to ángel. Thankfully, everything was falling into place.
The majority of us were currently huddled in the office, prepping the infil plan, and I had the real-time satellite view of our expected target location broadcasted on the TV screen.
The property in question was just outside San José in Escazú, secluded and set in the jungle. A perfect spot for the cartel to lay low.
“This has to be the place where he plans to take us.” ángel stood alongside me, observing the screen. “Well, if we gave him the chance to, at least.”
And we aren’t. “It’s not shocking your uncle doesn’t trust you enough to hand over his address so you can GPS your way there.” We’d hoped, but we’d had a contingency plan for that if not.
“But if we’re wrong about this location,” Seraphina said, drawing my eyes to where she was hanging out in the doorway now, “that’s why ángel needs to head to the meeting spot where his uncle is supposed to pick him up with Beth as bait?”
I did my best to smile and nod and act A-the-fuck-okay for her. When in reality, the idea of how quickly we’d had to pull this plan together didn’t sit well with me. “I don’t think we’re wrong on the location, though,” I added when it was clear she wasn’t buying my smile.
ángel must’ve read her worried look and slouched posture, too, because he went over to the TV and explained, “My uncle wants me to park on this back road here and wait for his guys to pick me up, and that puts us three miles out from where we believe he’s set up.”
“Considering that mansion is abandoned and we’re picking up twenty-four heat signatures inside, definitely has me believing they’re in there,” Bravo One chimed in, hopefully boosting her confidence with that fact as well.
“Thankfully, his uncle has no clue he’d have access to satellites and thermal imaging of this kind. We’re blindsiding him.”
“And I’ll be monitoring the feeds the whole time and in their ears. Any sudden changes, and I can alert all teams.” Jessica’s reassuring words had to be for Seraphina, and I gave her an appreciative nod.
“Too bad you couldn’t drone strike the place instead,” Seraphina murmured before her shoulders fell from a deep sigh. Yup, nerves were still active. “But, uh, your father,” she continued, eyes on Bravo Five, “doesn’t want his fingerprint on this.”
Bravo Five gave her a small smile and nod as his answer.
“The mansion used to be owned by an arms trafficker back in the nineties,” Reed said, redirecting our attention. “So it makes sense he’d pick a spot like this. Lots of obstacles out there to get in our way.”
With my back to Seraphina, I discreetly swiped my hand beneath my chin, letting him know to save those details for when she wasn’t in the room. I was trying to de-stress her, not elevate her anxiety.
“There’s a river we could use as one point of entry to sneak up around the back of the property and bypass security. Río Virilla ,” Bravo One said, hopefully distracting her from Reed’s warning. “My guys can infil there.”
I zeroed in on a possible infil route for my team, which consisted of Reed and the other GRS operators who’d be Delta Team tonight. “We can breach from the east side. Handle their men on overwatch first before Bravo moves in.”
“I’ll head to the meetup spot, let my uncle’s men put eyes on me so they don’t know the ambush is about to happen, then you all move on target. I’ll take out my uncle’s men sent to pick Beth and myself up, and join you at his place after.”
“I’d like to run one or two more contingency plans before we head out,” Jessica said as she checked her watch, “but we’re short on time.”
“And you have something to do first before we spin up, right?” Reed asked me, and yeah, I did.
I had to go kill Ezra so we could drop his body, along with the rest of his crew, on the scene to blame for the cartel deaths.
I’d never killed a man in cold blood like that. I’d been looking forward to this moment, so the fact I was feeling oddly sick about it was unsettling.
“Isn’t there another way?” At Seraphina’s soft voice, I turned to face her.
“We’ll give you two a minute.” Jessica shooed everyone from the room, spinning her finger in the air.
The moment I was alone with her, Seraphina cut across the room, and I took hold of her hips. We didn’t have much time to spare, but I needed her to talk me through this. To give me the okay to take the life of an unarmed man. It was much easier to talk about, but now ...
“He killed your family. So did she. They’re monsters.” That was my attempt to rationalize my way through this. “He’d have assaulted you before killing you, too.” The desire to commit murder, which was exactly what it would be, was front and center again.
She lifted her arms and draped them over my shoulders, linking her wrists behind my neck. “Yes and yes. But there’s something more important than revenge to me now.”
“And that is?” I swallowed, staring into her beautiful eyes. The pain in my chest from being shot had nothing on this uncertain feeling inside me right now.
“You. Your soul.”
“Don’t tell me Alex got in your head with all that seeing-the-bright-light stuff.”
“I promised you that you’re not going to hell. The only way I can keep that promise is if you don’t kill anyone that’s unarmed.”
I shrugged. “Easy remedy. I give the fucker some cutlery, then take his life.”
“Don’t you dark-humor your way out of this on me.”
I rested my forehead against hers. “Tell me what to do, then. Take the decision away from me. Because if it were up to me, I’d offer him up to the Moraleses and let them disembowel him so he had a slow, painful death. A shot to the head is too easy.”
She eased back, finding my eyes. “So do that.”
“What?” I raised my brows.
“Bring Ezra alive with you tonight and throw him into the lion’s den. Let the Moraleses do what they do best. Evil against evil. They’ll handle him so you don’t have to.” She brought my hands around to my face and held my cheeks. “You’re a good man.”
I tried to look away from her, but she wasn’t having it. “Maybe I don’t want to be good right now?”
“You can be bad with me later,” she taunted, momentarily distracting me from anything and everything dark.
“Your heart’s too big to do something you’ll regret,” she said, shifting back to seriousness.
“You left the army because ...” She frowned.
“Revenge will never be worth the price of your soul. But I still want him dead, just not because you slit his throat or shot him in the head.”
Oh, how I wanted to do so much more to him than that.
But.
Fucking but.
She was right.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I won’t be stubborn and fight you on this.” Not enough time to, anyway. “I’m not going to forget your idea to be bad later with you, though.”
“I’m counting on it.” She pressed up onto her toes to kiss me, and I lost myself to her the moment our lips touched.
Someone needed to bottle up whatever she made me feel and sell that instead. Fuck fentanyl. Drugs had nothing on this.
“You need to get going,” I murmured against her mouth a moment later. “Don’t leave Alex’s hospital room for a minute until I let you know it’s safe.”
Our pilot and Nate would be dropping her off at the hospital while we drove to the mansion; then they’d meet up with us precisely when we needed them.
“Roger that.” She smiled against my lips before breaking away to look at me. “I’d rather force Alex to watch a telenovela than the aerial footage of your mission. My heart can’t handle round two of that.”
“Much better plan, I agree.” I hated leaving her. Hated this part. The goodbye. The I-need-to-survive kiss before I left.
“So, run this by me one more time so my stomach is less knotty.”
“Hudson and his team are going to hit the Sokolovs’ operation in Miami when we target the Moraleses.
Martín’s taking out ángel’s brother and the rest of the cartel the second we advance on the mansion.
Potus ’s other two Seal teams, with the help of Carter, are dealing with the suppliers simultaneously. ”
“No chance of escape that way for anyone.”
I nodded. “That’s the hope.”
“It’s really almost over, then?”
“I’m sure other criminals will step in and try to fill the void, but .
..” It’s never-ending. “Hudson will keep up the fight. But for us, for ángel, yeah, it’s over.
” I pulled her into my arms. “Well, or I should say, for us, it’s just beginning.
” I slanted my mouth over hers, and we kept in that position until a throat being cleared interrupted us.
“You ready?” Reed asked. He was standing alongside Bravo One.
“He was born ready for this.” Seraphina set her hand on my chest, and her words about broke some kind of emotional dam inside me. She was supporting who I was and what I did with that comment, and it meant more to me than she’d ever know.
“Let’s do this, then.” Bravo One signaled for us to head out; then I focused back on Seraphina as she cradled the back of my neck, drawing her mouth to my ear.
“My dad’s watching over you. I can feel it,” she whispered, and fuck, she was going to choke me up all over again. “He’s got your six because he knows you have mine.”