CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FIVE
Lana’s mind went into overdrive at what she’d just learned. She needed a board and pens, asap.
Yeah, she knew she was weird, but it helped when her brain was spinning like it was right now. She looked around the space she was in before looking back at Ortega.
“Do you have an office we can go into? I need to work something out that’s floating around in my head.
I think I know why you are being targeted.
I don’t give two shits about your drugs or your arms deals.
The only thing I know is that you don’t deal in the flesh trade.
You despise it with every breath that you breathe.
But you’re being used as a scapegoat to boost ratings for Senator Hubbard’s election campaign.
The fact there are still five soldiers in your possession means they will call a strike on you.
Help me not only save their lives, but yours and your mothers,” Lana honestly admitted to Ortega.
Lana waited several minutes as she watched Ortega stare at her before looking down at his mother. When the woman nodded at him, Lana let loose the breath she’d been holding.
Lana, Rocky, and Viper went into Ortega’s office with him, his mother, and two of his most trusted men. They spent the next two hours hashing out what Lana was thinking, what Ortega and his men knew and worked out an agreement that Lana would push through with the C.I.A.
Three hours later, Lana and her team were loading all five soldiers into the back of the SUV and exiting Ortega’s compound. Cullen and the Delta team left the perimeter and hoofed it back to the rendezvous point.
Five hours after they had landed in Mexico, Lana and the entire team were on the plane, headed back to Ft. Bragg with their packages. Two of the men needed immediate medical attention once they landed safely.
All they could do right now was make them as comfortable as they could and pray they made it to the hospital in time. Especially Bryan.
Ortega admitted Bryan took the brunt of the beatings because he was told the man was the one who gave the false intel to his command for them to attack. The man’s anger at himself for falling into the perpetrator’s trap was admirable.
Ortega even went as far as apologizing to the five men for his actions when Lana explained to them what happened and why they were ambushed. The men were furious.
Now, they were getting ready to land back at Ft. Bragg and freedom. Since they didn’t have their cells, she couldn’t call Jayson and give him the good news.
She’d been gone three days in total for this op. Would he and the kids come with his parents to see Bryan?
“You’re different from when you and my brother first started dating.”
Lana looked down at the man with the hoarse, crackling voice to see Bryan’s eyes were open and on her. All she could think about was that his eyes were the same as Jayson’s.
Well, what she could see of them. One eye was completely swollen shut and the other he could barely see out of.
Bryan suffered several broken ribs and various other injuries. They were currently worried about punctured lungs and internal bleeding.
Geo and a Delta Force medic were doing all they could to keep him stable until he could get to the hospital at Ft. Bragg. She prayed she hadn’t sentenced him to death by pushing them to get back to base.
“Different how?” Lana’s voice cracked.
“Harder. Tougher. Like you’ve seen the devil and barely escaped. You’re colder than I remember.”
Lana chuckled at his words. “Then I have to say you’re right. I have danced with the devil a time or two. Each time I’ve barely survived.”
“Jay still loves you…”
Lana placed her hand on Bryan’s shoulder. She smiled over at him, and his sincerity melted another ice chunk off her heart.
“And I still love him,” she admitted, with a tear sliding down her face. “We’re still finding our way back to each other.”
“You’ve seen him recently?” Bryan coughed hard.
“Easy, Bryan. Enough talking until a doctor has seen you. Yes, I have seen him. Myself, Rocky, and Cullen have been in Hellburn Falls for a couple of weeks now. We originally returned for my father’s funeral but wound up staying to assist both Jayson and Ryan with the cases their departments are dealing with. ”
“Good. He needs you.” Bryan passed out after those words.
Lana panicked until Geo placed a hand on hers. “He’s okay, Ice. The meds are making him sleepy. He’s still alive.”
Lana relaxed slightly, waiting to see his chest rise, visual proof he was still alive. Then and only then was she able to relax.
She grabbed Bryan’s hand and held on for dear life as she leaned her head back against the plane wall and closed her eyes. Geo woke her up as they landed so she could help with keeping him steady as they landed.
Lana watched as the Army doctors and medical staff rushed on board to help the two most critical and got them off of the plane.
Once every single person on her team and the Delta Force team unloaded from the C-130, she finally walked down the plank at the rear end of the plane and joined everyone on the tarmac.
“Ma’am, thank you for bringing them home. We may not have liked how it was done, but it got our boys home.”
Lana turned to look at the soldier speaking to her and tilted her head. God, she felt so old right now with him calling her ma’am.
“For the record, Sgt., neither did I. But in that instance, for once, Ortega was innocent. Someone used that team to cover up their crimes. Innocent men lost their lives. I don’t agree with that.
They claimed human trafficking. But I know this, Ortega is guilty of many crimes, but human trafficking isn’t one of them.
He would never put a woman through what his mother went through. ”
“Was Trevor able to ID the caller who sent them into the ambush?”
She looked at the Delta Force team leader as he joined the growing group of people for now, surrounding her. When she turned her gaze to the team that went into the lion’s den with her, she gave a half truth to the men.
“Yes, but I’m not divulging that information at this time. We have a ticking time bomb in Hellburn Falls that needs to be defused first. When, and I promise it will be very soon, it’s time to nail them, I will call you so that you can be there with us to take them down.”
“Deal.”
Lana watched as the men walked away, hoping like hell she could deliver on her promise. She felt Team Valkyrie circling around her as if creating a barrier.
“What if we can’t follow through with nailing the person?” Cullen asked, biting her lower lip.
“We will. Because the plan we’ll be starting when we get back to Hellburn Falls will give that person no other choice but to show their faces. All of them. I can only hope that Jayson forgives me for what has to happen to get it all started.