Chapter Twenty
REX
When he asked what had happened to my cheek, I explained—as I had to Alain—how I’d fallen out of the chair in a freak accident and hit my face. He gently prodded the cut on my cheekbone and the Steri-Strips I’d put on after cleaning my face, applauding my efforts.
He also assured me that my fall out of the wheelchair probably hadn’t caused the feeling to come back when I asked him if that could explain my spontaneous recovery.
The possibility existed in some fractionally small way, but these things usually happened on their own, once the body had healed enough.
And he confirmed that the numbness would most likely remain for some time—the tingling sensation an unfortunate painful side effect of the feeling coming back.
But best of all, he gave me an old man walker; it made me feel like a spring chicken. Who knew!
When I got stronger and my legs could take more weight without giving out on me, I’d progress to arm sticks and could probably abandon the wheelchair if I practiced every day at home in relative safety. He didn’t want me to have another fall.
By the time we finished up at the VA, it was late morning.
Alain called Candy to tell him he was going to be half an hour late and why.
He hung up and turned to grin at me. “Candy is bloody over the moon with happiness, Rex. Your terrific news will surely help the morale of the entire team tonight.”
I nodded, trying desperately to hide my deep disappointment at not being able to offer sniper cover during the Op. “I only wish I could be there with you guys, Alain. To be honest, I guess I’m sufferin’ from a huge case of fear of missin’ out.”
He laughed. “I know, it’s a bore. I’d have FOMO too.” He patted me on the shoulder in sympathy. “Let’s get you home, old man.”
He drove me home and left me in my living room with a huge hug. I spent the day trying to move my limbs again, played with Lola in the backyard by tossing the ball until she was exhausted, and then fed us both.
I tried the walker several times, managing to finally lift myself to a fully standing position and move my feet slowly to the sides, widening my stance. My legs tingled and burned, but I ignored the feeling of pain, instead reveling in the fact that I could feel anything at all.
I didn’t try to take a step, knowing I’d have to get stronger in my legs again, and I wasn’t confident to try it alone yet.
Lord knew if I did fall, Judy wouldn’t be able to lift my bulk back into the chair.
And now that I could feel things, my whole body ached from the fall and was getting stiff, so heaving myself upright into the chair was probably out of the question.
Walking would just have to wait until Theo was available to supervise my efforts on the parallel bars in PT.
I puttered aimlessly around the house, making sure to dust since it had been a long time since the house had been closed up.
At seven, I took a shower—grateful as hell for the addition of the grab bars—and had just gotten myself dressed and back in the chair, before Judy showed up.
“Oh, Rex! Alain told us the wonderful news,” she said as she hugged me with great enthusiasm. “You should see how happy the team is. You have to know that they’re beside themselves with joy.”
“Thanks, Judy. Now, if they can put an end to them cartel bastards who done this to me tonight, that’d be icin’ on the cake, and all I can hope for.” I knew it was a lie before I even finished uttering the words. And in typical Judy fashion, she called me out on it.
She looked at me thoughtfully. “But that’s not entirely true now, is it?” When I didn’t immediately reply, she squeezed my shoulder. “Rex…have you called Cachi to tell him?”
I shook my head. “I thought about it a lot, Judy…almost picked up the phone to call him a few times today but just couldn’t. It’s not fair. He’s so young and—”
“Rex, don’t be an idiot,” she said, cutting me off.
“That man loves you and no matter how many different ways you can think to deny you love him and you shouldn’t be with him, it’s not going to work.
Least of all with me. I have teenagers which pretty much makes me a human lie detector.
” She paused, looking determined. “You need to call him.”
I was quiet, pondering what she said because I knew in my heart she was probably right.
“We should get set up so you can check the Internet connection,” I said, changing the topic.
I didn’t want to talk about the way I’d treated Cachi the last time I’d seen him.
Not with Judy, and certainly not my team.
“Fine,” she singsonged, “don’t talk about it, but you know I’m right.
” She huffed, stomping her booted foot. She waggled her finger in my face.
“I will never understand why men are so stubborn. You all need a good kick where the sun don’t shine, and if you weren’t sitting in that chair, Rex, I’d put my size five boot right up your ass! ”
I chuckled, shrugging. “You’re such a delicate flower, ain’t you?” The expression on her face morphed into something quite lethal, so I threw up both hands to block any blows she had planned. “Sorry, sorry…I know you’re just bein’ a mom, Judy. Trust me, I get it. You need to fix things.”
“Condescending shithead,” she grumbled. “You should thank God I’m not your mom. I’m being serious when I say I would’ve kicked your ass by now if I was.”
I frowned at her, trying desperately to take her seriously, but barely able to keep from bursting out laughing.
She finally let out a long sigh. “Fine. I can tell it’s useless to try to pound sense into your thick skull, so let’s get the computer set up.”
I made coffee while she fussed with the laptop and just before nine, she had the split screen all set up.
When the guys did their check-ins, sounding off in the coms, I was sitting on the edge of my seat.
Patsy’s helmet cam was on one of the screens and the other screens showed helmet cams from Mars, located across the street in sniper position, and Mickey and Candy at the front door to the office.
Candy would go into the room first with Nash, Raven, Miguel, and Alain to be followed by Mickey who’d be the final guy making entry.
Lincoln Snow’s team was at the ready, holed up in an office in the building next door.
We also had Sarah Connor, SAC of the ATF, who just happened to be Lincoln’s wife, set up in second sniper position, replacing what should have been me.
Snow’s team were ready to swoop in and ID Aguilar and make arrests the second Patsy and Napoleon began their rappel from the roof.
Timing had to be exact, but Tac Team One was good at that.
The entire office was L-shaped, about fifteen hundred square feet, divided up into eight offices including one at the very back looking out onto Ventura Boulevard, and a kitchen, off to the right side.
The back office was the largest, reserved for Tawantinsuyu Imports chief executive officer.
As it turned out, the new leader of the Lima distribution network, Oscar Aguilar, was the new CEO so the team would probably need to mow through the lower-level thugs to get to him first.
As I watched the screen which Judy had transferred from the laptop to my big screen TV in the living room, giving us a bigger, better view, Candy held up a thermal imaging camera at the office door.
It clearly showed how many bodies were located in the room just beyond.
Three heat signatures lit up the screen in orange.
Candy held up three fingers, showing the men behind him what to expect as they breached the door.
When he turned, the men grouped around him were ready to make entry with him.
One man came forward and Candy stepped back to make way for him. The man—who I could now identify as Miguel from his wide frame, began circling the edges of the door with det cord. They planned on breaching with explosives which made a hell of a lot of sense for causing general chaos and confusion.
Candy began the countdown in the coms as they stood back. “Snickers, Plenty, go to rappel. Repeat. You’re a go!” Candy said.
My heart raced, watching the box on the upper right, noting the view of twinkling lights coming from the hillside houses behind the commercial buildings on Ventura Boulevard.
It was weird seeing everything from Patsy’s point of view through the lens of his helmet cam.
He glanced left and Napoleon stood beside him in position on the roof of the building as they readied themselves for the drop.
The moment I thought it, Patsy replied, “Rappelling now!”
His helmet cam blurred momentarily as he dropped off the roof, then refocused as he came to an abrupt stop, and swung a sledgehammer at the corner of the office window away from the entry door.
I could hear the twin strike of Napoleon beside him before one more heavy blow imploded the window inward and they swung in.
The office door exploded a second later, Candy shouting.
“Breach! Breach! Breach!” There was a loud explosion as a flashbang suddenly whited out the screens, and the boss ran into the room with the rest of the team at his back.
I just caught what was left of the splintered door from the perspective of Mickey’s helmet cam, as he brought up the rear.
The constant rat-a-tat-tat of the automatic rifles had my muscles on instant alert but from where I sat in my wheelchair, all I could feel was frustration at not being able to see what was happening properly. I gripped the handles of the chair in a death grip as I waited for the smoke to clear.