Chapter 31 #2
“Neither is Adriana. She quit,” he said, regret continuing to fill every inch of him that he ever let her get on that plane.
This was on him. If something happened to her, he’d be done. No turning to booze like her father had when he’d lost his wife. He meant what he’d said to her earlier.
His brothers would have to bury him six feet under because life wouldn’t be worth living without Adriana.
“You have to trust me.” Adriana rested a hand over his bicep.
“Please,” he begged, contemplating whether he could cuff her inside the van. “If you care about me, you’ll stay here.”
“I won’t let you lose anyone tonight. Not Roman. Not me. No one.” A grit of confidence blew through her words, and he wanted so much to believe her. To see her in this moment as only a badass agent. But the woman he was in love with would always come first.
“You can’t see the future,” he said, his chest throbbing.
“I can, and I’m looking at it.”
“Damn it, Addy.” He removed his helmet and angled his head so he could reach her lips with her helmet still on. He ignored the taste of face paint touching his lips in the process. Ignored the awkward coughs from his teammates around them.
“Let’s go get your guy back,” she murmured after their kiss.
“You kiss and make up? Can we roll now?” A.J. asked as Knox placed his helmet back on.
“If anything happens to her,” Knox gritted out but was cut off when a shotgun popped in the distance. A 12-gauge.
“This is Echo One. Darius Hilton shot one of the five guys gunning for the exit. What do you want me to do? I can’t let these men die.”
Luke dropped his head for a second. “You have Darius in your line of sight?”
“Yeah,” Wyatt returned.
“Take him down,” Luke ordered.
A few seconds later, Wyatt said, “Target is down, but these people will be wondering what the fuck happened. Better get a move on it.”
“Roger that. We’re going dark in less than two minutes. Prepare to engage,” Luke responded.
No comms. No way to communicate with each other when Harper killed all radio and cell frequencies for three minutes. But it was also their best chance to get in undetected.
The power would be cut, too. Meaning, the guys in the compound had no way to communicate with each other, either, or have eyes on them with their security cams disabled.
“Are we ready to go in there and get our brother back before Nina lights everything on fire?” Chris asked.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “We’re ready.”
Knox faced Adriana, and she pulled him in for a hug, his gear clanking against her vest, getting in the way of any real contact between them.
“Now,” Asher rasped, motioning for them to get a move on.
Knox turned off his headlight and positioned his NVGs in place, the familiar green hue filling his line of sight, then he followed Bravo Three with Adriana at his side to their assigned position.
The compound was surrounded by a metal fence that could easily be climbed once the security feeds were disabled.
But they had to rely on Aaron’s rudimentary drawing of where the land mines were located—if they were even still in the same spots. There was always the possibility that new ones had been added. Or hell, the land mines might have only been a scare tactic to keep people off the property.
They rushed about three hundred meters along the river to one of the weaker spots at the perimeter—not too far from the stables . . . where Roman was hopefully still being held. And hopefully still alive.
“Damn it,” Liam said over the line. “Nina’s rushing toward the stables now.”
“Which one?”
“First,” he said. “Shit, I don’t know. They’re side by side. There could be openings between them, which means she may not stay in the first one.”
“You in position, Bravo Five?” Luke asked.
“This is Five,” Knox said while looking at Adriana. “In position.”
“Prepare for infil,” Luke ordered. “Going dark for exactly three minutes in three, two, one.”
The comms died. The entire compound went black. And Knox’s stomach dropped knowing what he was about to do—put Adriana in danger.
He placed one hand on top of the other, and Adriana positioned her booted foot in his palm for a boost over the fence. He and Asher quickly followed.
“Land mines,” he mouthed to Adriana, not that she’d needed the reminder, but he couldn’t help himself.
Gunfire, from somewhere on the compound, rang in his ears. His teammates had already been forced to engage.
And like hell were those rubber bullets the militia fired.
“No targets in sight,” Asher whispered, standing off to Knox’s left, as they made their approach to the stables.
“We still sticking with rubber?” he asked, moving with caution, avoiding the landmarks Aaron had pointed out on the map where the explosives were buried.
“Do what you have to do.” Asher held a fist in the air, signaling for them to stop.
The three side-by-side stables loomed twenty feet out. They’d each take one, which meant he’d have to leave Adriana’s side.
“Smoke,” Adriana whispered, remaining crouched with her Sig in hand.
“It’s coming from the first building,” Asher said. “I’ll take that one.” He looked at Knox. “You get two.”
“I’ll take the third then,” Adriana said.
Farther away on the grounds, more gunshots rang like fireworks popping in the air.
“Be safe,” Knox bit out, willing his voice not to break. Then he took off for the middle stable before he changed his mind, doing his best not to look back and check on her. He had to stay mission-focused even if it killed him.
Please let her be okay, he said a silent prayer once his back was flat up against the exterior wall of the middle stable.
He started to go for his weapon that fired rubber bullets, but if Nina was inside the stable with Roman, he wanted her to know he’d kill her if necessary. He needed answers, but he wouldn’t sacrifice Roman’s life for them.
Flames licked the sides of the first stable, and smoke filled the sky. His night vision goggles auto-corrected with the presence of the fire, cutting off his lights.
He opted for his rifle and moved inside. With the flames out of sight, the green hue of his goggles returned, allowing him to see in the dark.
He pivoted fast, turning to the side at the sight of movement. His boots tracked slowly across the dirt floor as he cleared each stall left and right.
As he neared the last two stalls, he halted at the familiar sound of a round being chambered.
The exit, which led to building three, was only ten feet away. Adriana could enter the stable any second. Asher would soon approach from the other side, too. He had to end this before anyone got hurt.
He shifted his NVGs up and wielded the stock of his rifle firmly to his cheek, his trigger arm winged to the side and his support arm against his chest. With his back to the wall, he maneuvered around the stall to his right, identifying two subjects.
“I know you can see me through your scope, which means you can see the shotgun pointed at this man’s head. And my eyes have already adjusted to the dark, so I can see you.”
A woman’s voice. Nina.
Roman was in a seated position with his back to the wall, his body slumped. Head hanging forward. Hands hidden behind his back. If he was tied up that meant they’d been worried Roman could escape—he had to be alive.
But he couldn’t help but ask, “How do I know he’s okay?” He held his rifle steady on Nina, and she kept the barrel of her shotgun on Roman.
She kicked his leg with her boot and Roman stirred. His chest lightly lifted, the signs of life evident. Thank God.
“Comms are back up.” Harper’s voice popped into his ear a moment later. “Based on what I’m seeing, the compound appears to be secure.”
Almost secure. He had to get Roman out of there. “You don’t need to do this, Nina,” Knox said in a clear voice so Harper could hear him. “You kill him, and you die, too. You know that.”
“He’s alive?” Harper’s voice cut out, static interrupting, or maybe they were tears.
“You think I’m alone?” Nina asked, pulling his focus to her.
“In this moment, yes. You ran here to kill him when you discovered we were here. You were probably planning on hopping the fence and escaping. Leaving your people behind.”
“Bravo Five needs an assist,” Harper rushed out. “Echo Four is alive, but . . .”
Harper’s voice faded in the background as Knox focused on Nina.
“Who are you?” Nina asked, a rough bite of distrust in her tone. “Y’all can’t be Feds. They wouldn’t dare step onto our property. This man a Marine?” She kicked Roman’s leg again. “Army boy?” Her words dragged out slowly.
“Bravo Five, I’m two stalls back from you,” Asher announced in his ear. “The fire isn’t far behind me, though.”
“I’ve got eyes on you, too.” His heartbeat jumped at the sound of Adriana’s voice in his ear, but he didn’t dare turn to get a visual on her because he needed to keep his rifle on Nina.
“This only ends one way,” he informed Nina. “Let us help you take down Glenn Sterling.”
“I made a mistake in trusting him. He’s as bad as her. They all are.”
“Who?” My mom?
Shit, he needed answers, but smoke was filling the stable.
Knox maintained his position, trying to figure out a way around this without Roman getting shot.
“We’re ready to move in when you need us,” Adriana said, keeping her voice steady. She was his damn rock right now.
“This is Bravo One. Approaching now,” Luke said over the line.
Adriana was okay.
The rest of his teammates were good.
And he had to keep it that way.
“A bunch of Polaroids are gonna bring down the government,” Nina said. “At least my parents’ deaths can serve a purpose.”
Roman’s breathing was evening out. He was coming to. A slight twitch to his leg he hoped Nina didn’t notice.
“Is that what you found in your uncle’s things? Polaroids. Of what? Of Glenn? Kathleen Bennett?”
“Can you believe Polaroids last forty years? They were tucked inside a book, barely faded. They slipped out when I was going through the box a few months ago. The timing must’ve been fate, what with Bennett and Renaldo running in the election.”