Chapter Twenty #19
I smiled as I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “I’m your headache.”
Sal let out a small snicker. “You’re a mess, not a headache.”
There was a difference?
Sal pressed a kiss to my forehead, as he had done for the children, and then turned to the rest of the room. “Everyone who is going needs to load up. We’re leaving in five minutes.”
I was already ready to go.
Remembering my promise, I gestured to Marcus and Dmitri and headed for the car. There were three vehicles parked right out front. I climbed into the first one, knowing that would be the one Sal rode in.
I did climb into the middle seat, however. Marcus and Dmitri climbed in on either side of me, casing me in. Clarke took the driver’s seat with Sal in the front passenger seat. I had no idea where the rest of them were except in the two cars behind us.
Hell, I didn’t even know who all was going.
“Lany, do you have your earpiece?”
I nodded and pulled it out of my pocket.
“Put it in your ear.” Sal held out earpieces to both Marcus and Dmitri. “If I tell you to leave the scene, you leave the scene. Understand?”
I nodded, knowing he would only tell me to leave if things went south. Like he had said, he needed to not worry about my safety. He needed to concentrate on rescuing my mother. I wasn’t going to do anything that might mess that up.
I wanted my mother back.
I could feel the tension in the tactical unit even before we got out on the road. As much as I knew these guys were trained for missions like this, this one was different. This time they were going after my mother. One wrong step and she could lose her life.
It didn’t help that we weren’t exactly sure who had taken her. We had an idea, but no concrete proof. If it really was Eben Juarez, I wanted the man dead. He’d been messing with our lives for way too long. He needed to be eliminated before he actually killed one of us…or sold us.
Been there, done that. Had the fucking T-shirt, several of them in fact.
It was a bit insane.
When I saw Sal pull out his cell phone, I got a bit nosy and listened in. Well, listened in to his end of the conversation anyway. It was short and sweet, and I immediately knew who he was talking to by what he said.
“Lyn has the address, and he should be sending it to you now. We’re already on our way there. I’d like your men to surround the warehouse, but do not breach. My team will do that. I just want your guys to keep anyone from escaping or entering.”
Sal nodded a few times before hanging up. He turned to look back at me. “Carlos is sending some of his men. Vinnie and Patty will be there as well. Once I speak with Vinnie, I’ll be sending him to wait with you. Patty and his guys will be going in with the rest of us.”
As much as I didn’t like the idea of being Vinnie’s babysitter, it was a good compromise. Vinnie wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. He didn’t need to be running about shooting off a gun. Besides, he was trying to stay out of the crime life. Shooting someone wasn’t the best way to do that.
“We’ll keep them safe, Sal,” Marcus stated.
Sal pointed his finger at me. “Make sure that one stays out of trouble.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t do miracles.”
Sal grunted before turning around and facing front.
I crossed my arms and glared.
Chapter Sixteen
Salvador
The tension in my chest tightened as we pulled up a block from the warehouse where we suspected Cynthia was being held. To say I was nervous would have been the world’s biggest understatement. I was terrified. If I didn’t bring Lany’s mother home safe and sound, he’d never forgive me.
Okay, he might forgive me, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. Except for when we rescued Lany—which happened way too often for my liking—I’d never been on a more important rescue operation.
This couldn’t go wrong.
I climbed out of the front seat and walked to the back door, pulling it open. Marcus must have seen the intent on my face because he immediately climbed out and stepped out of the way.
I unbuckled Lany’s seatbelt and pulled him to the edge of the seat before grabbing the side of his head. “I am serious, Lany. I need you to stay here where it’s safe. You can’t get involved in this.”
Lany nodded. “I know.”
But did he really?
“I promise to be good.”
I adored Lany to the depths of my soul, but I was also honest with myself about his personality. Sure, he totally meant to keep the promise he’d just made me, but that could change in an instant.
I only had one threat left.
“If you go into that warehouse before I come for you, I am going to assume you want to be single again.”
Lany’s eyes rounded, and a tiny gasp of air left his mouth.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lany was going to do something idiotic that would put his life in danger, and I couldn’t have that. I’d destroy the world if anything happened to him, and I’d do it with a vicious smile on my face.
“Do we have an understanding?”
Lany’s shoulders slumped. “I promise I will not go into the warehouse until you come for me.”
“Good.”
He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “I don’t want to be single.”
I curled my fingers around the nape of his neck and jerked him forward until our lips met. The kiss was rough and possessive, just like me. I thrust my tongue past his lips and into the recesses of his mouth, dominating him as I always did.
One of the things I truly loved about Lany was his acceptance of all facets of my personality, including my overwhelming need to dominate him. It had started the first time our eyes met in that bar bathroom all those years ago and continued in bright livid color to this very day.
But there was a soft side, too.
As I let our lips slowly part, I stared into his amber-green eyes. “I love you, Lany.”
Tears instantly flooded his eyes, making them luminous. “I know,” he whispered. “I love you, too.”
“Listen to Marcus until I come for you.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I simply stepped away from him and then glanced at Marcus. “Keep him safe.”
Marcus gave me a single nod before moving to stand in the doorway of the vehicle. He’d been guarding Lany long enough to know how to keep him safe, and I knew he’d do his level best to do just that.
I prayed it was enough.
“Let’s go.”
I started moving toward the warehouse, my steps confident and sure. This was what I excelled at. It had been the same in the Marines and now as the commander of SWAT Team One. I knew what I was doing, how to save the people I was rescuing, and how to keep myself and my team safe.
Lany was the unknown factor. If he stayed where I had left him until I came for him, then everything would be okay. If he didn’t—and I had doubts that he would—then the rescue would go to hell and I’d have to change the plan on the fly.
I pushed my worry to the back of my mind and went into rescue mode.
It was the only thing I could do.
I knew that Cynthia was supposed to be inside that warehouse. I needed to get to it, confirm that that was where she was being held, and then go in and get her, preferably without anyone getting hurt…or Lany breaking his promise to me.
At the end of the day, if we were all breathing, Cynthia was rescued, and Lany wasn’t in the emergency room, I’d call it a win.
We were about halfway down the block when I saw a figure step out of the shadows.
I pulled my gun out of my holster and aimed before heading in that direction.
I breathed a sigh of relief and reholstered my gun when the shadow became Vinnie.
His bodyguard Barak stood right behind him, always guarding him.
“Carlos has twenty men surrounding the warehouse,” Vinnie told me. “Once you rescue Cynthia, they will fade into the darkness for obvious reasons.”
While we all knew they were there, the police could not. It wouldn’t do any of us any good if Internal Affairs learned I’d taken thugs from the Gambino crime family on a rescue mission.
“Just make sure they incapacitate if they can, not shoot to kill.”
“They know,” Vinnie replied. “They are simply here to assist you in case you need them. We all want Cynthia returned safely.”
It was amazing to me that a woman no taller than my husband could garner so much adoration from men from all walks of life so easily. Cynthia smiled and we all smiled. Cynthia got kidnapped and people from both sides of the law were ready to throw down their lives to get her back.
I lived a very weird life.
Vinnie gestured to a building a little farther down the block. “Patty and his guys are over that way watching the warehouse.”
I gestured back the way I’d come. “Lany, Marcus, and Dmitri are back there in the car. You can wait with them.”
Vinnie’s eyes widened. “You brought Lany?”
My sigh was heavy. “He refused to stay home.”
Vinnie grunted and started walking. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
“I’d appreciate it, Vinnie.” He might be one of the few people on the face of the planet that could talk sense into Lany. God knew Lany didn’t listen to most people.
I waited until Vinnie disappeared into the darkness before restarting my trek toward the warehouse. Once I reached the building where Patty and his guys were waiting, I ordered Clarke to find someplace high to nest with his sniper rifle. I needed him to be my eyes and ears.
The plan was simple. Sneak into the warehouse, take out anyone we saw, and rescue Cynthia. Unfortunately, plans were just that, plans. They were ideas of what should be done, not necessarily what would be done, especially when we were walking into a place without knowing pretty much everything.
I tapped my earpiece. “Lyn?”
“Copy, Commander.”
“Has there been any movement?”
“No, not since the van arrived at the warehouse.”
“We’re getting ready to breach,” I told him. “Alert me if anything changes.”
I couldn’t help the feeling that something was off about all of this. Yes, Cynthia being the kidnap victim was all sorts of wrong, but something else was nagging at me, and I couldn’t figure out what it was.