Chapter 17 Rescue #2
But Annabeth ran interference as she often did. "Boys, for fuck's sake, can we put off the dick-measuring contest until after the extraction? Jesus, I should have picked a job with less testosterone."
The two men stood eye to eye and glared at each other for a few beats, but Annabeth chastised them again, her voice like a stern mother. "Guys, knock it off. We've got a job to do."
Both reluctantly stood down and backed away. Cade's heart pumped furiously at the near altercation, and as he settled, he regretted how he'd been so easily provoked. Fucking Tag, always pressing his buttons for fun.
"What the fuck is going on?" Taylor asked as he and the other van's occupants made their way to the group.
"Nothing," both Cade and Tag answered at once.
Taylor looked confused and swung his gaze to Annabeth, but she just shook her head, rolled her eyes and introduced Tristan.
"Everyone, this is Tristan Hines. Tristan, this is Taylor, Rodriguez, and Kate. The guys are on the rescue team, and Kate is the transport driver."
Cade watched as Tristan studied the two men he had told him about, and he could almost see the other man trying to reconcile what he knew about them with their appearances.
Taylor's shaved head and muscular build screamed military, but Rodriguez, short and skinny with bleach-blonde hair and baggy pants, didn't exactly fit the bill as a weapons expert.
He looked more like a teenager trying to look edgy and failing.
"Alright, does anyone need to see the house's blueprints again?"
"Nope," Taylor answered. "There are only two entrances, front and rear. Easy peasy."
"So, is everyone clear on the approach, procedures and contingency plan?" Annabeth asked, looking around. As everyone answered yes, Cade noticed Tristan looking pensive, maybe anxious now that the time was near, or worried his sister wouldn't actually be in the house as they assumed.
Cade hoped like hell they'd gotten that part right.
"Okay," Cade said, "So when we are all in position, and it's a go, I'll say, 'One more thing,' and that's your signal to move in."
When the other men nodded, Cade felt satisfied that they were ready to leave.
"Anything else?" Cade asked, his eyes landing on each team member in turn.
Tristan surprised him by saying, "I want to go with you."
Multiple sets of eyes snapped to the redhead as Cade's heart lurched, and he objected, "Absolutely not."
"I don't mean when you go in. I mean like, in the car, so I'm there when Natalie comes out."
"You can stay here with Annabeth and Kate. Annabeth will be on comms, so you can hear everything that goes on, and Kate can bring you to the house when she comes to get the girls."
"No, I want to be there as soon as you get Natalie. I don't want to wait."
"It will only be, like, ten or fifteen minutes until we can bring her back here," Cade argued, frustration rising.
"I don't care! She's my baby sister. She's terrified and possibly injured or... worse. I want to see her as soon as possible."
"It's a bad idea," Tag cautioned.
Cade tended to agree with Tag, though he loathed to say it out loud.
He glanced around at the others for support, but Taylor just shrugged, Rodriguez looked back and forth between him and Tag as if they would start swinging any second, and though Annabeth frowned, she remained silent.
Kate seemed a bit shocked that Tristan would ask such a thing.
Seeing Tristan's pleading eyes and recognizing once again that denying this man seemed impossible, as if some inexplicable mental block prevented him from uttering the word 'no,' Cade considered the request and thought through the possibility as he voiced it.
"Tristan could hide in the back seat. As long as he stays out of sight, there shouldn't be any risk.
He would stay in the car until I got him," Cade emphasized as he pinned Tristan with a pointed expression, "and then he could see his sister as soon as the hostiles are down. What do you all think?"
Rodriguez commented, "I mean, as long as he's hidden in the car, I don't think it's a problem." He turned to Tristan, "You're not going to run into the house when bullets are flying around, are you?"
The redhead shook his head vigorously, and Cade's resistance to the idea slipped a bit more. He knew Tristan wouldn't do anything risky.
Rodriguez continued, "And we're not incompetent, so it's not like the bad guys are going to get outside and find him."
"It's an unnecessary risk," Tag said, and though a voice in Cade's head seconded that, he turned to Taylor and asked, "What do you think?"
Taylor shrugged again. "Don't see how there's any danger if he stays in the car."
"Annabeth?"
Instead of answering Cade, she turned to Tristan. "Are you sure it's that important? Staying here with me and Kate would be safer."
"I want to see her as soon as I possibly can," Tristan stated, his voice shaky with emotion.
The quiver chipped away the last of Cade's opposition. He could sense how important this was to Tris, and it was in his power to do this one thing to make him happy. Besides, if the idea was really that dangerous, someone on the team would’ve spoken up.
"So it's decided? Any other discussion or objections?"
Annabeth mumbled something that sounded like grudging consent, and Tag pursed his lips but relented, "Whatever."
No one else spoke, and Cade glanced back at Tristan, seeing that his shoulders had relaxed. Tristan leaned to him and whispered, "Thank you," and Cade felt at that moment he had made the right decision.
"Okay, anything else?"
"Nope. Let's go kill some bad guys," Rodriguez said enthusiastically.
"Okay," Cade concluded, "Everyone grab what they need, then we'll check in with Hamm and go."
The three other agents entered Annabeth's van and exited shortly after with weapons, and in Tag's case, high-tech goggles.
Cade went in after they finished, slipping a new magazine into his Glock and tucking the piece into his waistband at his back.
He also slipped on a black leather jacket to cover his gun, then emerged from the van and scanned for Tristan, relieved when he found him talking to Rodriguez while the blond dickface kept his distance.
They all hooked up to comms, with the agents using invisible earpieces and Annabeth donning a headset in the van.
She checked in with Hamm, and when they got the go-ahead, she and Kate stayed behind as the five men got into the car, with Cade behind the wheel, Tag in the front passenger seat, and Tristan squeezed between Taylor and Rodriguez in the back.
Within two minutes, they were almost at the house's driveway, and since the plan called for the other three agents to approach the back of the house on foot, Cade stopped to let them out.
Now that they were close to the house, Cade's fear for Tristan rose again, and he twisted in his seat and sternly told the other man, "Get down on the floor so no one can see you.
While I'm parked at the house, keep your head low and stay hidden.
When it's safe, I'll come to you. Do not get out until I get you," he emphasized before asking, "Understand? "
"Yes," Tristan responded before folding himself into a ball on the floor of the back seat.
According to plan, Cade turned into the long tree-lined, gravel driveway and parked in front of the house next to two other cars. As he opened the door, Tristan whispered, "Be careful. Okay?"
The earnest concern for his safety did funny things to Cade's insides, and wanting to reassure the other man, he answered, "I will be. It's going to be fine. It will be over soon, I promise."
Taking a deep breath and mentally reviewing the procedure again, Cade got out of the car, adjusted his jacket and approached the porch, throwing one last look over his shoulder to inspect the car and convince himself that Tristan was well-hidden.
Seeing nothing from the blackness inside the vehicle, he set aside his reservations and focused on his task.
When Cade pounded on the front door, a guy answered the door and glared at him. He was about Cade's height, with a big gut, slicked-back brown hair, and a pockmarked face. The hand he hid behind the door no doubt concealed a gun.
"The fuck you want? We didn't order no food."
Cade did his best to sound like a lackey for a shitbag criminal. "I'm here to check the product for the auction. The Handler told my boss I could."
The man studied him for a minute. "The Handler didn't tell me no one was coming."
"How the fuck is that my problem, dude? My boss wants me to check the product, I'm checking the fucking product."
"What are you supposed to check it for?"
"To make sure it's as advertised. A rough ruby."
"There's fucking pictures online."
"Yeah, but my boss is worried you dyed her hair or something. I'm supposed to check she's a natural redhead and a virgin. My boss is a paranoid dickhead."
"The Handler didn't say... "
"You think the Handler cares about this petty shit, man?" Cade spat out, knowing full well the Handler would care very much about what was about to go down, but fairly confident this goon was too stupid to figure that out.
"My boss wants to bid a shit-ton of money. Let me peek at her, and I'll be out of here in five minutes. My boss is happy, bids a lot of money, then your boss is happy, and I still have a job. The Handler said it was okay. Come on, man. My boss can be a real prick when he doesn't get what he wants."
"Fine, whatever," the guy relented. "But gimme your piece first."
Cade silently cursed. He'd figured this was a possibility, that he'd have to go in unarmed, but he'd hoped the guy would be a bit more clueless. He reached back and pulled his Glock from his waistband, holding it by the barrel instead of the grip when he handed it over.
The guy slipped the gun into his own waistband, then said, "Lift your shirt so I can see you ain't wearing no wire."