Chapter 24
Bronc
“FUCK. How can there be no leads?” I bellowed from my spot at the head of the table, my eyes sweeping the room with hardened determination as my voice reverberated over the low hum of urgent conversation.
My elite special forces team surrounded me, a tangle of muscle and ego and intense skill.
Menace and Doc focused on an aerial map spread on the table’s scarred metal surface, markers of every color dotting its worn and pockmarked face.
Wrecker, Arsenal, and Papa sat with their laptops, keyboards tapping and entering commands into already overloaded systems. It had been days since I’d held Juliet.
Our bond stretched and thinned by both time and miles.
I rubbed my hand over the stubble that lined my jaw, then checked my phone again. Nothing. We normally worked on timelines of weeks, not days. This was pushing our limits.
“How he vanished after intel said he landed in Honduras is a mystery,” Doc said, his voice low and edged with annoyance. “He has to have someone on his team with skills.”
“Somebody who knew how to disappear them,” Menace added, his tone sharp with frustration. “I don’t get it.”
My chest ached with every beat, the distance between Juliet and our bond taking a toll I’d never thought I’d experience.
I clenched my hand to still the dull, relentless throb and willed myself to focus on the task at hand.
I had to get this shit handled so I could get back to her and make sure she wasn’t suffering.
We were going on almost a month. I never expected it to take this long.
Wrecker leaned back in his chair and regarded the rest of us with calculating eyes.
“We got nothin’ right now,” he said, his deep, commanding voice cutting through the din of activity.
“I’ve gone through every fucking file the DOD and CIA have.
The only fucking way we even knew he’d landed in Central America was through tapping into the vampire mafia network.
Koslov manages to have his lifeless fingers in everybody’s pie.
My head snapped up. “What the fuck, Wrecker? You didn’t think it was important to mention who your contact was?” My voice was little more than a growl, thinking that we were on a wild goose chase and had wasted our time here.
The tension in the room ratcheted up about 10 notches. Wrecker stood his ground. Every man in this room was an alpha in his own right. They all chose to bow the knee to me out of loyalty. But when it got like this, it was difficult to breathe.
“Kozlov’s daughter is a friend of Juliet’s no?” Wrecker asked. Looking me straight in the eyes.
Took me a minute to regain my composure enough to think straight. “Yeah. That’s where Juliet got her fake papers. Why they were so legit looking.”
“Kazimir is aware that Lucia takes her relationship with Juliet very seriously. He wants Harrison dead. His intel is good. He gave me all he had.”
That information was good enough for me. It still didn’t sit right with me, and I let him know it.
“Wrecker. You ever speak to another Supernatural Supreme Leader, especially if it’s a king, without my knowledge, we’re gonna have a problem. Understood?”
He pounded his fist over his heart. “Yes, Alpha.”
I knew he had gotten the message.
“Okay, continue.”
“I’ve found no trace of any offshore holdings. At least none connected to Hastings Labs. This fucker is a ghost.”
Menace muttered a string of curses that put even my choice of words to shame.
“How in the hell does he have that kind of power?” I asked. “And how’s he keeping a base of operations the size of a lab so hidden?”
Doc didn’t look up from his screen as he answered, the deliberate weight of his words silencing everyone else in the room. “Money,” he said. “And probably some damn expert help. This part of the world? You can keep mouths shut with enough cash.”
“He shouldn’t be able to just ghost like this.” My voice came out tight and sharp. “We’re missing something.”
“Maybe your little lady scarred him more than we figured,” Menace said, a knowing edge to his words.
“She’s not my little fuckin’ lady,” I said, trying to keep my frustration in check. “She’s your fuckin’ Luna.”
A low rumble of laughter rolled through the group, and I couldn’t help but crack a small, reluctant smile at their refusal to let me brood.
I picked up the list of countries we’d been considering; the paper worn and marked with pen and frustration.
Harrison could have a lab in any of a half dozen Central American countries, and Juliet’s mother, Renda—was as gone as he was.
I tossed the sheet back onto the table and swore under my breath as it floated down like a taunt.
“Arsenal?” I asked.
He straightened and gave me a precise, clipped nod. “Our perimeter is clear. We’re ready to roll on your word, Prez.”
My chest squeezed at his use of the title, and I resisted the urge to check my phone again.
Instead, I caught sight of the photo I’d taped next to my monitor.
Juliet’s wildfire eyes stared back at me like they were daring me to finish the mission and haul my ass home. I forced my attention back to the team.
“Should we give up on Guatemala?” I asked, my voice rough with reluctance.
“Negative,” Doc said, leaning back in his chair and tilting it onto two legs. “It’s a solid lead, Bronc. We have to check it out.”
“I want to be damn sure we don’t lose another week for nothing,” I said.
“Look,” Arsenal said. “We hit El Salvador. It could already be abandoned by the time we hit boots down. Same with Belize.”
“Juliet is good at home,” Papa said, cutting straight to my concerns with an unsettling clarity. “You’re gonna be no good to her if you don’t see this through.”
I nodded once, acknowledging his truth, though it pained me more than I wanted to admit. We had to be meticulous.
“Fuck,” I said finally, dragging my hand through my hair. “Alright, fine. We hit Guatemala. Doc, Arsenal, I want both of you ready to mobilize the second Wrecker gets a lock.”
They exchanged looks, and Doc gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Roger that”
I shot him a hard stare.
My eyes wandered back to Juliet’s photo, and I had to suppress the gnawing urge to abandon the mission and go back to Texas to find her and make sure she was okay. I knew her heart was breaking, and that was breaking my heart.
“Any ideas on what we’re dealing with?” I asked.
Arsenal folded his arms across his chest, his movements precise and methodical. “Assuming we find the lab, count on heavy local coverage,” he said. “There will be private guards, too. Wouldn’t be surprised if some are local military.”
“Or ex,” Wrecker added. “He’ll have every merc with a passport ready to protect those facilities.”
“And they’ll all be after our heads if we don’t move fast,” Menace said.
“If it even is Guatemala,” Doc said with a touch of doubt.
“Wrecker,” I barked, pushing aside my personal angst. “Get back to hacking again. We need any location you can grab.”
“I told you I’ve got nothing.”
“Then get us something.”
Wrecker nodded once, then bent back to his computer, fingers flying across the keyboard in what seemed to be an impossible blur of motion. I was surrounded by the best of the best. All of us had spent enough time in the field to know just how badly a mission like this could play out.
Papa leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and then studied me with calm, level eyes. “Still holding my bet on Costa Rica, but Guatemala’s worth the shot.”
“Our best hope is that he gets careless,” Arsenal said. “We need to get rid of every piece of shifter evidence we can find.”
“Ten-four to that.” I agreed. Keeping supernaturals off the radar is part of our mission.
“And if we find her?” Papa asked. “What’s the play?”
“Smash and grab,” I said. “We’ll get her out and scuttle any and everything else. Including personnel.”
The unspoken if hung heavy in the air. If we find anything. If the site isn’t cleared. If there’s even a site at all.
“Let’s hope we’ll be stateside in three days,” Doc said, answering my unspoken concerns with casual confidence.
“And you can go all Romeo on your Juliet,” Menace added.
“Fuck you,” I grumbled, unable to keep the edge from my voice. They didn’t seem to mind.
The oppressive Central American heat bore down on us, and the humid air hung so thick it felt like it could be cut with a knife. It added to the sense of urgency, the desire to wrap up and head out.
I took a breath to settle myself and gave them all a determined nod. “Wrecker?”
He kept typing, kept searching, kept his focus even as I paced the narrow, utilitarian space, my energy nearly spent from the distance between me and Juliet.
“Almost in.”
“See what you can find about his merc team while you’re at it,” I added.
Wrecker paused his frantic typing and looked at me, his stare as serious and menacing as I’d ever seen. “You know what it’ll be like if they’re as good as the crew you’ve put together.”
“Just find us what we need.”
I’d lost track of how many times I'd checked my phone since we’d taken up camp in this temporary location.
There had been a text from Ma in the early morning hours letting me know Juliet was safe but withdrawn, a single line from Maddie a few days later telling me to keep the faith, but nothing from Juliet herself since I left.
Her silence was louder than any response I might have received, and I hoped it meant she was as torn up about our separation as I was.
“There,” Wrecker said, a sudden light of triumph flickering in his eyes. “Intercepted satellite comms, then patched a bug through. Lot of chatter between Guatemala City and here.”
“Your lead’s heating up,” Arsenal said, confidence lacing his words.
I tried to ignore the small wave of relief that rushed over me, tried not to focus on what was waiting back home. Tried to be the leader they needed me to be.
“We don’t move until Wrecker has vicinity,” I said, struggling to keep my priorities straight. The conflict within me was brutal and barely controlled.
Doc shot me a knowing look. “It’s go-time, Bronc.”
“Pack it up, people!” I called out, already halfway to the door.
“You heard the man!” Arsenal said, adding a sharp military tone to his words as he corralled the rest of the team.
I grabbed my phone off the table and gave Juliet’s photo one last, lingering glance before shoving it into my pocket. The stark fear of losing her to time and distance consumed my thoughts. I couldn’t shake the feeling that my hesitation had cost us too much already.
We geared up and hauled out to the landing zone, knowing our best chance of finding anything was to hit hard and fast. There wasn’t a moment to spare, and if this lead was solid, it would get us back home in time to hold Juliet and bring her even closer to us than she had been before.
We hoped.
That night I finally heard from Juliet. A brief Facetime. I almost melted at seeing her beautiful face. She’d just gotten out of the bath and was settled into bed for the night.
“Hi baby.” Her voice was so small.
“Hi there beautiful. Miss the hell outa you.” I gave her a smile.
“Miss you more. Wish you were home. I’m guessing you’ve had no luck?”
“No precious. We’re heading to Guatemala tomorrow. There’s chatter. Gonna check it out. Fingers crossed.” I saw her face fall.
“Oh, okay. I’m hoping extra hard that’ll be it. Tomorrow will be the day. Well, hey honey, I’m super tired. Think I’m gonna turn in. I love you so much. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know if I ever told you that.”
“Sweetheart. You are everything to me. You know that. I cannot wait to see you. We’re doing our best so I can get back to you. I love you.”
The line went dead. Faint feelings of love and something else I couldn’t name poured through the bond.