Chapter 5 #2
He chuckled. “No. All I’m saying is that we could sit here and go through a million scenarios, but without knowing the layout of the house, how many people are there, what the area around it looks like, and a hundred other little details, any plan we make will be fucked before we even start.”
“I don’t like winging things,” Reese mumbled.
Spike couldn’t exactly disagree with her.
He wasn’t thrilled with all the unknowns at the moment, but Tiny was right.
They couldn’t plan anything without having intel.
He was still holding Reese’s hand, and he tightened his fingers around hers.
“We’re gonna find him.” As far as reassurances went, it fell a little short, but to his relief, Reese sighed and nodded.
“Okay, you guys are the professionals here, I’ll let you do your thing. But please don’t count me out. I can help,” she said.
Spike didn’t dismiss her words, because there was a chance they really might need her to help in some way. The odds weren’t looking good. With only two of them, even if they were highly trained special forces operatives, if things went sideways, they were definitely fucked.
“We hear you, Reese,” Spike said after a long moment. “And trust me, when the time comes, if we need you, we won’t have any problem asking for your help.”
He had no clue what kind of help that might be.
The very last thing he’d ever do was put her in danger intentionally.
She wasn’t coming into the house with them, Spike was adamant of that.
But he wasn’t going to dismiss the idea that she could do something to assist. After all, while he or Tiny could’ve hotwired the truck, she’d done it a hell of a lot faster than Spike could’ve managed.
He didn’t let go of Reese’s hand for the remainder of the drive, and he was relieved she didn’t seem to be disturbed by how tightly he was holding onto her. Maybe because her grip was just as tight.
By the time they neared their coordinates, Spike was more than ready for action. Sitting around was never his favorite thing, and being in the truck for so long with no clue what they were driving into was seriously making him jittery.
Tiny pulled down a dirt road, although calling it a road was being generous. There were just two deep ruts where other vehicles had traveled before them. The truck being green and brown with plenty of rust worked in their favor, as it served as natural camouflage in the trees and bushes.
A couple minutes later, Tiny pulled off the trail, moving the truck as far into the woods as he could—which wasn’t very far at all.
“We’re about half a mile from the house.
I need you to stay here, but not in the truck.
If someone comes by and sees it and decides to investigate, it would be better if you weren’t in it,” Spike told her.
“No matter what happens, please stay here. If we come back with Woody and you aren’t here, it won’t be good. ”
Reese nodded as she stared at him with wide eyes.
“I don’t have a weapon to leave with you, so your best bet at this point is to stay hidden. Do not let anyone see you. Understand?”
She nodded again.
Spike stared at her for a long moment. Then he looked over at Tiny. “Can I have a minute?”
He and Tiny hadn’t been on any missions together, but just like at the hotel, the other man immediately understood that Spike wanted some time alone with Reese.
He quickly nodded. “I’ll see what kind of foliage I can find to try to hide the truck better.
” Then he climbed out of the vehicle without waiting for a response.
As soon as the door closed, Spike turned so he was more fully facing Reese and put a hand on her cheek. It was an intimate gesture, but he couldn’t stop himself. “If Woody’s here, I’m gonna find him.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“But you need to understand something. If we get back to this truck and you aren’t here, I’m gonna be…” His voice trailed off. So many words came to mind, but he wasn’t sure which to use. Pissed. Worried. Frantic. Upset. Devastated.
It made no sense. The connection he felt with this woman.
Yes, he’d already felt as if he knew her a bit after hearing Woody talk about her for years.
But it had been a long time since he’d seen her in person.
Despite that, something deep within him had known from the second she’d opened that hotel door that Reese was different from anyone he’d ever dated.
And he wanted—no, needed a chance to get to know her better.
If she got hurt, or worse, he instinctively knew he’d lose his chance at what Brick and Tonka had found. Knew that as well as he knew his own name.
But if he tried to explain it to her, she’d probably freak out.
“I promise not to do anything stupid,” she told him, staring at him with her gorgeous blue eyes.
“While I’d do anything to get Woody out of here safe and sound, I don’t want you and Tiny to sacrifice yourselves to make that happen.
If you get to that house and it’s too dangerous to get inside… don’t do it.”
Spike’s mind went back to one of the many missions that had stuck inside his brain, making him feel unfit to be around normal society after he’d finally called it quits with the Army.
They’d been in some country…hell, he couldn’t even remember which one now, but there had been shelling all around them and endless gunfire.
His ears rang with the constant barrage of noise, and all he could smell was gunpowder and smoke from the fires caused by the RPGs exploding in the buildings.
A woman had appeared out of nowhere. She was crying and hysterical.
She spoke broken English and she’d run right up to Spike and grabbed his arm.
He’d been seconds away from using his elbow to break the bones in her face, having run into women used as decoys more than once on missions, when she’d begged him to rescue her husband.
Apparently, he’d gotten trapped under some rubble in a nearby house.
It wasn’t so much that she’d been desperate enough to approach him and his team of deadly looking soldiers…but her words that had stuck with Spike after all these years.
Military coming. You soldier. You die to save husband! He better than you.
It was stupid to put any weight to her words.
It shouldn’t have mattered that the woman thought his life was worth less than her husband’s, simply because he was a soldier.
The woman had been desperate and scared out of her mind.
But Spike couldn’t help thinking that she was right.
He was in their country, killing people…
and for what? To this day, he didn’t know.
So Reese telling him that she didn’t want him to sacrifice himself for her brother, who she’d known her entire life and loved enough to come to a foreign country to try to find him on her own, meant a lot.
No, it meant everything.
Her words soothed some of the hurt he’d held onto for years.
“No one is sacrificing themselves,” he told her gruffly. “We’re all getting out of here.”
Reese pressed her lips together, then took a deep breath. “I don’t…I want…Shoot.”
“What? You can tell me anything.”
“I’ve had a crush on you forever,” she blurted.
“I know it’s stupid and stereotypical…kid sister likes her older brother’s friend…
but there it is. I just wanted you to know that I’m in awe of you.
And proud of what you and your Delta team did for our country.
I think you’re amazing and I’ve looked up The Refuge online and it’s awesome.
And no matter what happens…I’ll never forget that you came down here looking for Woody. ”
Her words sent warmth cascading through Spike.
He and Tiny needed to get going. The longer they were here, the greater the chance of discovery and the higher the possibility that whoever had chased them out of Isabella and Angelo’s apartment would show up and let everyone know what had happened.
But he couldn’t tear himself away from this woman just yet.
“I didn’t come down here for Woody,” he admitted.
Her brows furrowed in confusion. “You didn’t?”
“No. I came here for you.”
He watched as a blush bloomed in her cheeks and she licked her lips. “Oh.”
Spike couldn’t help but smile. “That’s all you’re gonna say?”
Reese nodded. “I think so.”
“All right. And for the record…I think you’re pretty awesome too. And when this is done, and we’re back in the States safe and sound…I’d like to explore whatever this is that’s happening between us.”
“Really?”
He hated how surprised she sounded. This woman should never question her appeal. Ever. “Really.”
“I’d like that.”
Spike nodded. There was more he wanted to say. But he could see Tiny waiting not so patiently outside the truck. “I need to get going.”
Reese gave him a worried smile, then brought her hand up to where his rested on her cheek. She covered it, turned her head, kissed his palm, then dropped her hand.
He could feel her lips on his skin as if the kiss had branded him. “Be safe,” he choked out of a tight throat before blindly reaching for the door handle. He needed to go, now, before he changed his mind about going at all.
Spike didn’t look back at the truck after he shut the door.
He couldn’t. Knowing Reese had a crush on him made him want to let out a jubilant whoop like a goddamn kid.
He was more determined than ever to get back to her—with her brother in tow.
She’d agreed to see him when they were safe, and even though the logistics of that were going to be tough, he wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass.
“You ready?” Tiny asked when he approached.
“Yes.”
“She okay?”
“Yup. Let’s do this.”
Tiny nodded and the men headed off through the trees toward their target. They had no idea what they’d find when they got there, but Spike hoped it would be Woody, Isabella, and Angelo—alive and unharmed.