Chapter 43
“Another successful mission,” Rob said proudly an hour later when those who’d survived were taken into custody. Nick had arranged transport for them to be taken to a special location. None of them bothered to ask where since Nick would never tell anyway.
They were still in the conference room to survey the police cleanup and make sure they didn’t ask too many probing questions.
“It depends on your definition,” Jack replied ruefully.
“Bad guys are captured, and we still have the drive. I’d call that success.”
“It almost wasn’t.” Jack wasn’t normally a Debbie Downer, but something was bothering him about this mission. At first, everything had gone smoothly. Andre had walked in and made the switch. Then Greg called, stating Carlos was heading into the building.
The team couldn’t risk coming out of hiding and blowing their cover. Then things escalated inside, and the buyer knew Andrea wasn’t Holly. It had taken everything inside of him not to rush to her rescue or put a bullet in the back of the guy’s head for threatening the woman he loved.
He had finally had enough when Carlos’s men stormed in. Jack didn’t know who fired first, but once the first shot rang out, he took down two guards and made his way toward Andrea.
“How did he even know how to find us?” Jack asked, thinking out loud.
“I don’t know. The same way he followed Holly. Tracking,” Carson suggested.
“We can call the coroner who stashed her to see if anything was on Holly that could have led them to Florida,” offered Luke.
“But it doesn’t explain how they knew where to find Andrea.” Jack started pacing as his mind turned. He felt like he was missing something. Something vital. “How did they know she’d be at the bar?”
“Holly could have been there, and they followed her,” Drew mentioned.
Jack hadn’t considered that. He had only been watching Andrea, not thinking about another person who looked like her. “Okay, plausible. But what about the buy today? The time. The location. None of us had been followed, and they showed up just a few minutes after it started. It was planned.”
“He could have gone through her phone before she fled and knew about the buy. He attacked in Florida to try and get to her before,” Greg spoke up, sharing his input.
Shit. He should have known. Jack could have hit himself. “The phone. I bet the bastard put a tracker on it.” He had unintentionally endangered Andrea. All this time, she’d had a homing beacon on her.
“That’s how they knew where to go,” said Luke, looking just as unhappy as Jack.
“We’ll have to make sure to disable it before we give it to Nick. There’s too much vital information on it to just get rid of.”
“Agreed. I’ll start working on it,” Barry commented.
“I’m sure Andrea will be all too happy to give it up.”
“And you. Are you giving her up?”
“Not a chance in hell.”
“Did you hear her confess her love?” Luke chuckled.
“Another one bites the dust.” Carson shook his head, but there was mirth in his eyes. Jack’s friends were giving him a hard time, but they were happy for him.
“Happily. After we wrap things up here, we’ll talk about our future plans.”
“You might leave us?” None of the team looked happy about Luke’s question. None of the guys’ ladies had asked them to leave the team. He hadn’t really thought about it too much, but if she asked, he would.
She had seen him in action and would no doubt worry when he left in the future for missions. Her fear and paranoia could poison their relationship, and he would be forced to make a decision.
“I don’t want to. I love what I do, but I love her too.”
“It’s not an easy position to be in,” Greg agreed. “We know what you’re going through. Whatever you decide, we’ll support you.”
“Yeah,” they all agreed.
“Thanks, guys.”
Andrea walked into their circle and wrapped her hand around Jack’s. He squeezed it before bringing her hand up to kiss her knuckles.
“On that note, we’re out of here,” Luke announced and left; the rest of the guys besides Jack started to follow.
“You’re leaving?” Andrea asked, her eyes widened with shock.
“To supervise cleanup, then we’ll head home.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“Thank you. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.”
Andrea shook her head in denial, looking down at her feet in embarrassment. “I didn’t do much, but thanks.”
Luke nodded, and the team departed, leaving Jack alone with Andrea.
“What a day,” he chuckled, suddenly feeling nervous.
“Yeah.” Andrea sounded just as anxious.
“Listen, Andrea, I know us both saying we love each other complicates things as we live in two different states, and things are too new to suggest moving to one central location, but I’m not big on the idea of long distance, especially with my schedule; but if that’s what you need, I’ll make it work. ”
Andrea’s lips puckered, and she looked thoughtful. He didn’t like he couldn’t read what she was thinking. “The fact is, I don’t have much going on in Florida. It was just a place to live. But you, you have a life in Vegas. A career.” She waved her hands around the room. “A very scary career.”
“Not all missions are like this,” he tried to reassure her.
Hoping he could sway her to come back home with him and not give up his job.
He would if he had to, but it would be like losing a part of himself.
He hadn’t known anything but warfare since he joined.
He didn’t have any other skillsets, but he could learn.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t tell me even if you did,” she said with a smirk, and he didn’t confirm or deny which seemed to be all the answer she needed. “I’ll come back with you under one condition.”
“What?” he asked, afraid of what she’d ask him to give up.
“You’ll let me do the cooking unless you’re making pizza.”
Jack released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “You’re not asking me to give up my job?”
Andrea’s eyebrows puckered in confusion. “I could never ask you to do that. I can see how much it means to you and the importance of it. I would never take that away from you.”
“I don’t deserve you,” Jack whispered as he pulled her close and kissed her. Her mouth opened, and his tongue dove inside. Hers met him stroke for stroke.
“I’ll be sure to remind you every day.”
“I can’t wait, but in the meantime, let’s take this conversation upstairs.”
“Then home?”
“We have one more stop then home.” It was a house, but she would make it a home. He would never give her reason to think she just had to exist, but fill each day with new adventures and make new memories.
“Where?”
“You’ll see,” he told her cryptically and dragged her upstairs.