Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Bravo One, what’s your position?” From inside the van, Jessica eyed both laptops in front of her, monitoring all of the feeds, but she’d lost visual on her brother.
Before Luke could answer, he appeared back in her line of sight.
“Bravo One, cancel that. Position confirmed.” Jessica switched screens and found Bravo Two—Owen—before confirming Knox’s location as he moved through the crowd with his father.
God, that had to be an awkward homecoming. Knox hated the political life, but he’d taken one for the team, and she was grateful. Now, they just had to ensure he didn’t take a bullet, too.
She wished she could get eyes on Bravo Three and Four, but Asher and Liam were out of sight and on overwatch.
There were only a few locations where Egon would be able to wait in the wings for the shot, and Bravo Three and Four had them covered from their vantage points.
They couldn’t risk scaring Egon off, so they had to wait until he showed himself—even if that left them with mere seconds before Egon could fire a kill round at Knox.
Beneath Knox’s blazer was a bulletproof vest, but that wouldn’t do anything to save him from a head shot.
“Bravo Four, any signs of the target?” She shoved the locks of her long black wig to her back and studied the laptop.
“Nothing yet,” Liam responded.
“Bravo Three, anything?” she asked.
“No visual contact,” Asher said, his voice gritty and hard. “Copy?”
The man was angry at her, and maybe it’d been piss-poor timing to lay the truth between them that morning, but he’d insisted on the conversation, and so . . .
How could he not see the danger a relationship between them could pose to missions, though?
And yet, why did her stomach hurt so bad right now when she thought of their talk? Why did everything inside of her hurt, in fact?
Sex with no strings. Sure.
Maybe she was losing her mind. Because when he’d kissed her that morning she’d never wanted him to stop. Sex would be a gateway to more, and she’d been blinded by desire to make such an offer.
“That’s a good copy, Bravo Three,” she finally answered, blinking her thoughts back to focus.
“I think I have visual confirmation of the target,” Liam said a second later, and the beats of her heart escalated.
“Bravo Four, what do you mean by you ‘think’?” Luke asked before she could.
“I have movement in tower three, but I can’t confirm if it’s our guy,” Liam answered.
“Four, hold your position until confirmation,” Luke ordered.
“Shit.” It was Asher. “I think he knows we’re here. He’s on the move. I’m going after him.”
“Wait,” Jessica yelled, worried about an on-foot chase in the midst of a political gathering—in a foreign country, no less. And, more importantly, something could happen to Asher.
She scanned the cameras, but she didn’t have a clear view of tower three or Asher.
“No time. I’ll lose him,” he responded, his breathing labored as he spoke, already in pursuit.
“One, do you copy?” she asked. “This could be a trap. He likes to distract and deflect.”
“Copy, T—” Luke’s words were cut off when a loud boom roared, and the van shook like an earthquake had erupted beneath her feet.
She checked the cameras. The crowd started to scatter just as the alarms sounded. But there was no sign of anything on screen.
“This is One. The alarms are going off. Sounds like an explosion. What happened?”
“Shit. I don’t know.” She grabbed her pistol and tore out of the van, finding the mass of people flooding through the arena’s exit.
Her gaze fell upon a burning car down the street. It was outside of the security search perimeter, but close enough to set off alarms.
She pressed her hand to her ear. “Bravo Three, do you copy?”
Nothing.
“This is Bravo Four. From my vantage point, it appears the target set off a car bomb to get the crowd to run. A backup plan for an escape,” Liam said over the line. “Bravo Three was still in pursuit of the target last I saw. Copy, TOC?”
“Copy.” Relief settled in her chest. “You have eyes on Bravo Three? He’s not coming in over comms.” She stowed her firearm before anyone could spot it.
“I lost visual on Bravo Three,” Liam said, and her lungs burned.
“Bravo Three, come in,” she tried again. “Do you copy?” She caught sight of Luke, Owen, and Knox exiting the arena on fast approach.
They split three different ways with Luke heading for her.
“You okay?” he asked, weapon now stowed.
“No. We can’t lose him,” she whispered, her mouth going bone-dry.
“Asher can handle himself. Don’t worry,” he said.
“But will he bring us Egon back alive?”