Two Familiar Faces
Triumph
He woke to a violent shaking of his shoulder, an ammonia stick under his nose, and a hand clamped over his mouth. He could barely make out the shape of a man leaning over him, and his instinct was to fight.
“Triumph! Stop struggling.” The voice sounded slightly familiar. “It’s Demon.”
They’d been found.
The relief he felt was overwhelming, but he hoped to feel much better when he saw Glennon. From what he could see of the room, she wasn’t there.
He held up his hands to show he understood. As soon as the hand moved from his mouth, he hissed, “Where is she?”
Still shaking his head from the smell lingering in his nose, he sat up gingerly from the ground. He winced, putting a hand to his back. That punch to the kidney was going to be painful for a bit, but he’d survive.
“They have her next door. We need you mobile before we can pull her out.”
There was tension in the man’s voice, as if he didn’t like that they had to wait, but knew it was absolutely necessary. That didn’t bode well.
“Demon.” A hushed voice came from near the door. “Patch him up. Quick. The leader is leaving.”
Steel.
Demon helped Triumph sit up. “Are you nauseous? Headache? Bleeding from anywhere?”
“No. Yes. No. Don’t worry about me. Just get Glennon. I’ll follow.”
“Do you know who the guy all in black is?”
“Cesar. Glennon said he’s Guillermo’s right-hand man, come to collect us.”
The voice from the door muttered, “He must have come in after I left. I didn’t recognize him.
” More candidly, he spoke again, and it took Triumph a minute to realize he was talking to someone over a radio.
“Copy that. Not sure exactly what we’re going to be walking into, so be ready.
We’re just waiting for the target to get out of sight, then we’re heading out of unit three and into unit four to collect Little Spy. ”
The waiting was killing him. “Do you know how long I was out?”
“We arrived just as she was being taken next door. That’s been about twenty minutes.”
Neither man would look him in the eye. “What did he do to her?”
The man at the door seemed to go extra rigid.
Demon answered gruffly, “Doesn’t matter as long as she’s still alive. Remember that when you see her.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, I care, but… Yes, all that matters is she’s alive.”
He grunted. “We’re good here, Steel,” he said to his partner.
“Wait!” The two men looked at him. “There are two women here. A couple of kids. Just… so you’re aware.”
Both men nodded at him, then focused their attention on opening the door and slipping out into the darkness.
Silently, they made it the few feet to the next hut and plastered themselves to the side of the building.
They could hear the two men inside through the window, but the words were low.
After confirming that Cesar was still across the way, Demon pulled the door open, allowing Steel to slink through.
Two tiny puffs of air sounded, and Triumph was hot on Demon’s heels through the entryway to get to Glennon.
He swallowed tightly. He was sure what he saw could have been much worse, but he didn’t want to think about it.
“Glennon,” he whispered in anguish.
He rushed over to her side, Demon right behind him. Her chest rose and fell, but she was out cold.
Quickly, the medic did a pat-down of her body, looking for any wounds or broken bones. “Can you carry her for a little bit?” Demon asked.
“Yes.”
His entire body felt like he’d been hit by a bus, but he would do whatever needed to be done. There was no way he was holding these men back or letting Glennon down.
Steel finished taking pictures and fingerprints of the men he’d felled on entry, then came up along the other side of her unconscious form on the ground. “She’s small, but she’s deadweight. If she slows you down, give her to me. No shame. I can carry her and shoot at the same time if I have to.”
Triumph scooped up Glennon’s body and, as gently as he could, put her over his shoulder. Demon helped wrap her around his neck in a fireman’s carry, and once she was secure, they were out the door and down the path.
“How long do you think we have before he realizes she’s gone?” Triumph asked.
“Minutes, tops. We’re not going too far though. You afraid of heights?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Well, that wasn’t cryptic at all. Where the hell were they going? The hill they’d come down earlier was the tallest one for several miles.
The leader of the two men kept pushing down the path, the giant behind him. Two minutes later, one of them swore. “Midas’ drone just picked up Cesar returning to the hut. Time to hoof it.”
Demon tapped him on the shoulder. “Give her to me. I can move faster with her.”
He hated handing Glennon over to the man, but it made sense.
“Just keep up with Steel and don’t worry about her. I’ve got her. Promise.”
They took off down the path, not running but definitely jogging, and no longer caring about making noise. At one point, he saw Steel put a hand to his ear, as if trying to block out noise. He threw back over his shoulder, “Quarter of a mile. Top speed the entire way. Let’s go!”
He was no slouch when it came to physical activity. He ran on the treadmill daily and worked out in the gym, but these guys were on a whole other level. He was pretty sure Demon could run faster, even with Glennon around his neck, but he paced just behind him.
He heard rotors.
“Keep going!” Demon yelled. “We’ll cover you! Helicopter is your ticket out of here. If we don’t catch up, we’ll meet you later.”
The medic handed Glennon back over to Triumph, then he and Steel went shoulder to shoulder, forming a backward-moving shield to keep the pair from the direct line of a bullet.
As he took off for the helicopter touching down, Cesar and the remaining men he’d brought with him burst through the tree line, their weapons firing.
Through the side window, he caught a glimpse of pink hair.
Two men he’d never seen before reached for Glennon, then hauled Triumph in behind them.
Close on their heels, Demon and Steel continued to exchange gunfire with Cesar and the two soldiers.
Their former escorts pitched themselves into the chopper, and it quickly rose into the sky, heading north.
Gunfire exchanged from the open door of the bird. One of Cesar’s men went down, and when it was clear that both sides were just wasting bullets because they were out of range, his fellow foot soldier grabbed him, and all three of Guillermo’s men headed into the trees.
Immediately, Demon spun around, holstered his weapon, and went to work on Glennon. The man said nothing, but Triumph could tell how pissed he was based on the clenching of his jaw.
In the hut, Cesar had grabbed her chin. But now she had bruises already forming on either side of her mouth.
Triumph ground his teeth together too. These weren’t from that initial contact.
They weren’t even from being punched or backhanded.
They were from her mouth being squeezed. Pried open. Held open.
“He didn’t touch her anywhere else,” Demon ground out. “Remember. She’s alive. Hold onto your anger, but push it back. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”
He held darkness in him—his past had shown him that. He clenched his fists. Only one time had he fully raged out on another human being. He never wanted to do so again.
But he knew, no matter what it took—every cent of his money, every favor owed to him, even his own life—Cesar was a fucking dead man walking.