Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Seeing Liam walk away with his team and a rifle in hand . . . it’d been pure hell.
“This is your second time working an op with the team?” Emily’s nerves stretched to the point they’d snap at the slightest provocation.
Harper looked up from her computer screen on her lap from inside the Jeep Rubicon, parked about a half a mile away from the mansion on hole nine of the old golf course.
“I helped them out when I was still CIA—Liam saved me from near death—but yeah, this is my second official op.”
CIA? Her assumptions had been right then.
Harper returned her focus to the screen, which showcased the aerial footage from the drone Jake’s agency had provided.
“I’ve worked with Jared five or six times, though.
It’s going to take a long time to wrap my head around his betrayal, and that his actions might’ve resulted in agents dying on that op in Mexico five years ago. ”
“You really think he has intel on Carballo he’ll send us?”
“Maybe,” she said softly, her voice distant. “But either way, we’ll bring down both Carballo and Jared. I promise. I already have a program running to track down the transfer of funds made tonight between Elliott and Jared.”
“That’s good.”
“Not all CIA officers are bad,” Harper murmured. “The world just tends to only hear about the bad ones, so . . .”
“Sort of the way with everything, right? How often do you turn on the news and hear the good stuff?” She looked out her side window, wondering where Liam was right now.
She’d thought about asking Harper to explain the team’s infiltration strategy, but part of her didn’t want to know. It’d magnify her worry, and she was already scared shitless. Too many lives were on the line.
“We got lucky your brother’s agency is here for the assist,” Harper said after silence filled the Rubicon for a few minutes. “And with any luck, they can supply the British with the evidence about the Weston Tech fires.”
“Maybe justice can prevail in a courtroom after all?” She reached for her necklace inside her jacket and pulled on the chain, needing to hold on to her charm. To draw strength from Lady Liberty. To know and believe the good guys would win and everyone would be okay.
Harper zoomed in on the screen and grabbed her radio a split second later.
“We have movement,” she announced, and Emily leaned to the side to observe her laptop.
“Jessica’s car is outside the gate now,” she told Emily.
“When the guard opens the gates to approach, she’ll act drunk and ask for directions. ”
“And then shoot him, right?” She let go of her necklace at the news, that the operation was about to commence.
“She’ll shoot the guard and drive in.”
“I’m guessing some of the team is hidden in her car? Trunk?”
“A.J. and Asher.” She pressed the side button on her radio. “Gate’s opening,” she said a moment later.
Goose bumps scattered across her skin beneath her lightweight jacket, and she wedged her thumb between her teeth as she averted her eyes to the side window, the rise of bile working into her throat.
“We’re in,” Jessica said after a moment.
“Echo One. Bravo Four. Take your shots,” Harper commanded, and two pops punctured the silence in the Jeep.
“This is Four. Towers cleared. Moving to the next position,” Liam said, and she gripped her chest at the sound of his voice.
“Copy that, Four,” Harper answered.
“We have two heat signatures exiting the room on the second floor. Copy?” Harper informed the team. “The HVT has not moved.”
“Is the HVT now Elaina?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Yeah.”
Another painstaking silence filled the Jeep as they waited for the team. Asher’s voice suddenly blasted over the line, “Bravo Four! Get the fuck out of the tower. There’s a guy with an RPG tube prepping for launch.”
Emily sat taller at the news, unable to truly accept what she’d heard.
“I have a shot, TOC,” Wyatt said. “Taking him out now.”
“Get your ass out of there, Four. That’s a direct order,” Luke came on to the line, his voice breathy as if he was running.
“Go,” Emily said under her breath, her hands tightening on her lap. Go. Go. Go!
“Move, Four!” Wyatt yelled. “I took the shot, but . . .”
Emily clutched the door handle in a white-knuckle grip at the sound of an explosion over the line. “Oh, God.” She turned to Harper, needing her to say everything was okay. “What happened?”
“Bravo Four, you good? Bravo Four, do you copy?” Harper asked, her voice shaky.
“I don’t think he made it out, TOC,” Wyatt said. “I’m on my way to him.”
“Charlie Mike, Echo One,” Luke ordered. “Bravo Five is on his way for Four.”
Continue mission? No! She looked around the Jeep, frantic. She had to do something. If Liam was hurt . . .
“Give me a gun. I’m going with or without one.” She held her palm open to Harper.
“Knox has medical training. He’s on his way. Liam’s radio probably just got messed up during the blast.” Harper had managed to keep her voice calm, but the look in her eyes read anything but.
“I don’t give a damn. I’m going!” She opened the door and stepped out. “Gun,” she snapped out like an order.
Less than a half a mile. She could run that in four minutes. But would there be time?
“What will you do, Emily? The boys are in the middle of a rescue—you can’t run into that compound. You could risk the entire op,” Harper pleaded. “If something happens to you, Liam will kill me.”
“I have to get to him.” She found Harper’s eyes. “I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”
“Wait,” Harper yelled as Emily started to close the door. “Take this.”
Emily leaned in and grabbed the pistol and a radio.
“Don’t die,” Harper hissed.
Emily nodded and slammed the door closed. She clipped the radio to her belt buckle and used the light attached to the gun to guide her way as she ran across the golf course and toward the mansion.
He’s okay. She kept the words on repeat as she sprinted, her lungs burning as if a fire had been lit in her chest.
“We have a visual on the HVT,” Asher said over the radio as she ran, and she tried not to slow her pace at his announcement.
The next rounds of gunfire she heard didn’t come from the radio—she was closing in on the site. Close enough to hear the pops.
Flames engulfed the east side tower, stretching up, and everything inside of her went cold. Completely numb at the sight.
“TOC, come in,” someone said over the radio. “The HVT and her father are secure.”
Elaina’s okay. She’s okay. Oh, God.
She looked toward the sky in thanks. But Liam . . . she had to make sure he was okay, too.
“Emily’s on her way to Bravo Four,” Harper exclaimed. “I’m sorry. She—”
“There are still armed men in here,” Asher interrupted.
“This is Echo One, I have eyes on her,” Wyatt said, and the fact he could see her made her feel better. Safer.
She raced around the side of the tall cement wall, her arms pumping with the gun in hand.
“You have two tangos on the move,” Harper said. “One appears to be making his way toward Emily.”
“I got him.” A gunshot followed Wyatt’s words.
“Thank you,” she said, even though Wyatt couldn’t hear her. She kept on the move, closing in on the burning tower.
She slowed at the sight of Knox kneeling over Liam about twenty feet away from the tower at the base of a fallen tree.
She shook off the shock and picked up her pace, fear pulsing through her body. “We need to medevac him now,” he said into his radio. “He has a pulse, but it’s too fucking faint. I don’t know if he’s going to make—”
“No!” Emily yelled out her anguish and dropped the gun.
She was disoriented from the explosion, even though she’d been nowhere close, and her ears still rang with the noise of gunfire. But it was the metallic scent of blood and the sight of Liam’s lifeless body lying on the ground that forced her hand up to cover her mouth.
Blood everywhere.
His clothes torn.
Eyes closed.
Lips parted as if he’d already taken his last breath.
This can’t be happening. No, God, please.
“You have to do something,” she shrieked. “Do something!” she cried again, her lip trembling. Her entire body shaking as she fell to her knees.
“I gave him a shot of epi.” Knox had already removed Liam’s bulletproof vest and was performing chest compressions as he spoke calmly but urgently. “We have a defibrillator on the chopper. He might make it if we can—”
“He has to make it!” she cried, her chin wobbly.
She grabbed hold of Liam’s limp hand and lifted his palm to her cheek, unable to stop the sob ripping from her chest.
“Liam!” a little voice yelled from behind.
“Stop her!” someone, maybe Wyatt, screamed. “Don’t let her see him like that.”
“No!” Elaina dropped down next to Emily. “You can’t die. I need you!”
As much as Emily didn’t want to let go of Liam’s hand—she did it. She did it for Elaina. She did it so his team could get to him—to take him away. To hopefully save his life.
“He has to be okay.” Elaina’s words were strangled with emotion as Emily pulled her into her arms and squeezed her tight. “We can’t lose him, Emily.”
“Tell me that you’d let me go. Promise me if we try to make this work and something happens to me—you’ll let me go.” Liam’s words from yesterday ripped through her mind.
“No,” she whispered under her breath as if Liam could hear her right now. “I can’t let you go.”