“It’ll be okay, honey,” she said, though she wasn’t sure she believed it. “We’ll be okay.”
“I want to go home,” Amy wailed. “I miss my mommy.”
“I know, sweetheart. Soon. I know it will be soon. You’ll see your mommy again. Tell me about the last thing you did with her.”
Amy sniffed. Brooke wasn’t sure her tears were abating, but the kid was thinking and that had to be good.
“We went to see a movie,” Amy said. “We had popcorn and hot dogs. It was fun.”
“What did you see, honey?”
“Mary Poppins.”
Okay, that was not at all the answer Brooke had expected. But there were theaters that sometimes showed old classic movies, which had to be how Amy and Shelly had gone to see it together. Because Mary Poppins was ancient. So ancient that Brooke remembered going to see it during a matinee with a friend and her mom. Brooke had fallen asleep. It was all she remembered.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes. Mary flew with an umbrella. And she sang so pretty.”
Brooke wished they had that magic umbrella right about now. “What else?”
“There was a man who swept chimneys. He danced and sang.”
“What’s your favorite movie?”
Amy screwed up her face for a second as she thought about it. “Frozen.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Elsa and Anna are brave and strong. Especially Anna. She makes Elsa see that she doesn’t have to be afraid.”
“Well then, you and I are like Elsa and Anna, right? Because we are brave and strong and we aren’t going to be afraid.”
Amy smiled, her little tear-streaked face lighting up with hope. “Do you think so?”
Brooke nodded hard. Maybe if she convinced the kid, she’d believe it too. “I absolutely do. We are two princesses trapped by an evil king—but we won’t be scared because we’re going to win and we’re going to get out of here.”
“Can I be Elsa?”
“Sure you can.”
Amy’s face fell. “I wish I had my Elsa costume.”
“I wish you did too. But we’ll just have to pretend, okay? You are wearing a lovely silver-and-blue gown, and there’s a crown on your head.”
Amy pretended to straighten the crown. “I should turn those bad men into ice. But my powers aren’t working right now.”
“They will get what’s coming to them, Your Majesty. We just have to be patient. And we mustn’t let on that we’re royalty when they look at us, okay? That’s between us.”
“I understand,” Amy said, her expression very serious.
The door opened and a woman came inside. She was carrying a tray, and she set it down on a small table before she hurried away again. The scents of meat and onions wafted from the tray. Brooke went over and uncovered the dishes. It wasn’t anything fancy, just some soup and bread, but they hadn’t eaten in hours now and it was welcome.
Amy came over and stood close by, waiting for Brooke to tell her it was okay to eat. Brooke considered that the food might be drugged but then decided that made little sense when they were already captives. She picked up one bowl and set it near the edge of the table, then did the same with the other. She put the bread between them. There were two bottles of water and they were unopened.
“Let’s eat, Your Majesty.”
They dragged two chairs over and sat down. Amy took a careful taste of soup. The kid had manners, that’s for sure. Brooke was so hungry she wanted to slurp the stuff up. But she followed Amy’s lead and spooned her soup methodically. Even doing that, it didn’t take long to eat it all.
They divided the bread and ate all that too. It was basic food but good and filling. Brooke let out a sigh and turned to gaze out the window at the rain that had started to fall. It didn’t help the heat. If anything, it made it muggier.
The pat-pat-pat of rain on the leaves was soothing in a way. The scents of earth and flowers permeated the air. Birds called through the trees, and something else chattered from time to time.
“Miss Brooke, there’s a monkey!” Amy stood excitedly and ran onto the balcony. Brooke joined her. A gray-and-orange monkey with a long tail and a white face jumped from tree to tree. Another monkey appeared soon after.
Amy laughed. Brooke was glad for that even if it couldn’t last. For now they were fed, dry, and they’d been left alone. On the plane, no one had touched either of them. Brooke had started that journey with her stress levels skyrocketing because she’d kept looking at the men on the plane and thinking they were going to abuse her and Amy. She’d even made a plan that if they tried to take her and Amy both, she’d submit voluntarily if they’d leave Amy alone.
But it hadn’t happened, and for that she was grateful. She didn’t know how she would have gotten through it, but for this child she would have sacrificed herself. Still would if it came down to it.
She desperately hoped it did not because she knew it would break her beyond repair.
The monkeys played and chattered a bit before one of the guards threw something at them. They scampered away, the trees swaying from their passage. Amy stopped laughing and drew in a deep breath. Brooke put her arm around the child and squeezed her shoulder.
“Courage, Elsa.”
She could feel the stiffening of the little body beside her. “I’m brave and strong.”
“Yes, you are. And so am I,” Brooke said. She hoped it was true.
Night fell on the jungle. They curled up on the bed, cocooned within the mosquito netting, and tried to fall asleep. Amy succeeded within minutes. But Brooke lingered, thinking of Cade, thinking of their last moments together and all the things she hadn’t said. Hearing his voice on the phone earlier—that had killed her. She’d wanted to tell him she loved him, just in case, but she hadn’t wanted to give Lopez that kind of leverage. He already figured they were romantically involved based on the fact Cade had spent the night at her house, but he didn’t know more than that.
And she wasn’t going to give it to him. Cade was hers alone.
Eventually she dozed to the sound of a million frogs and other creatures singing their arias into the night. It was, in its own way, peaceful. She could almost think she was on a tropical vacation.
But a few hours later an explosion woke her from a dead sleep and shattered all illusions of peace. Brooke’s heart crashed into her ribs as a fireball shot into the sky and automatic gunfire sprayed the air.
Someone was coming. But who?
Chapter 22
Cade ran through the jungle clad in a black assault suit, face painted, night vision goggles on, rifle at the ready. It had been a long ride to get here, but they’d HALOed in an hour ago, buried their parachutes and breathing gear, and humped it across the jungle to wind up at the Espinoza Cartel’s remote stronghold. Now Echo Squad was executing a precise plan of distracting the cartel’s men and infiltrating the facility.
Mal had set off the explosion at the ammo dump a few yards from the main building that housed Andreas Lopez and his drug-smuggling operation. Men ran from their posts to help put out the fire. But there was no putting out the blaze after what Mal had done, even if it was still damp with rain in the air. The explosion had been fantastic, and now the jungle blazed with light that would last a long while.
Cade and Harley, along with teammates Dean “Wolf” Garner and Ryder “Muffin” Hanson, bolted for the house. They’d cut the power to the generators first so that everything would remain dark other than the glow from the fire. They didn’t know for certain that Brooke and Amy were in there, but that was the last known location they’d been traced to. Lopez had not called back after he’d hung up on Cade, but Hacker had put a tracer on his phone that indicated he was still here. Every time he called someone, the phone pinged out the location.
Didn’t mean he hadn’t moved Brooke and Amy, but considering how much trouble it was to get to this location, it wasn’t precisely logical to move them when you thought you were impervi
ous to attack.
They weren’t though, which Cade thanked his HOT training for. Another group might not try it, but HOT was balls to the wall for this kind of shit. Noah “Easy” Cross and Jax “Gem” Stone had taken up position in a tree nearby and were busy picking off the cartel’s men as they ran across open ground.
Cade didn’t stop for anything. When he came face-to-face with a cartel member, he shot the asshole and kept on going. The house loomed in front of him now. He put on a last burst of speed and rammed the door open, knocking down a man trying to come through from the other side.
Harley was right behind him, and the two of them ran up the stairs to clear the top floor of the house before heading back down. That’s where the bedrooms would be and where it was most likely they’d find Brooke and Amy if they were still here. There was no basement because the ground was too wet, so they already knew not to search for one.
“B team is in,” Cade said into the mic on his helmet. “Status reports.”
Each two-man team gave a quick report about where they were and what was happening. Dean and Ryder were in the house, clearing the first floor. Cade and Harley kicked in doors on the second floor and swept through rooms. They startled a naked woman who shrieked and dragged the covers up over her body, but they kept going, bursting into rooms, shoving everyone onto the floor and zip-tying their wrists. Naked women included, because you never took it for granted she wasn’t involved and dangerous.
But there was no Lopez, and that was worrying. Cade and Harley were a well-oiled team as they moved through the upper level. They kicked in yet another door and burst into the room, weapons at the ready and flashlights shining into eyes in order to blind the targets.
Cade’s heart stopped as he processed what was going on. Brooke and Amy sat back to back on two chairs, their bodies bound together with rope, their mouths duct-taped closed. But that wasn’t the frightening part. What was frightening was the bomb sitting in Brooke’s lap. He could see the wires, the timer, the sticks of dynamite and plastic explosives that held it all together. Her eyes were wide and frightened, but there were no tears.
Andreas Lopez sat in the window, kicking one leg back and forth, a cell phone held in his fingers.
“Ah, so you must be the American military come to rescue these ladies. Noble, gentlemen. Very noble. But I want my guns. If I don’t get my guns, I’ll press the button on my phone that will send the signal to the detonator.”
“You’ll blow yourself up too,” Cade said.
“Yes, I am aware. But you will have lost this battle because you will blow up with us. I may not have my guns, but the military will not have you—and these women’s families will never see them again. So wouldn’t it simply be easier to arrange an exchange? Then we all live.”
Cade didn’t believe that for a moment.
“A cell phone detonator,” he said for Hacker’s benefit. The IT specialist was listening in from the rendezvous point. Maybe he could disarm it. “Clever.”
“Ah yes, that American superiority that thinks we South Americans cannot possibly be as sophisticated. Scott Lloyd thought so too, much to his detriment.”
“He tried to sell your guns to someone else.”
Lopez perked up. “He did indeed. I take it you found them then.”
Cade didn’t answer. Lopez shrugged.
“But of course you did, or you would not know this.”
Cade could see the rise and fall of Brooke’s chest. He kept expecting her or the kid to cry, but neither of them did. All he wanted was to cut the ropes and free them both, take them out of here and figure out the damage somewhere far away where he could give them food and water and a soft bed to lie in.
But they were a long way from those things at the moment. He had to disarm Lopez first—before the man could blow them all to kingdom come.
“I suggest you take your men and get the hell out of here,” Lopez said, dark eyes flashing. “Once you deliver my guns, I’ll let these ladies go.”
“You won’t let them go,” Cade said. “You have no intention of doing so.”
Lopez smirked. “This is a chance you will have to take, yes?”
“I’ve blocked his signal, Saint,” Hacker growled into Cade’s earpiece. “He can’t send a flicker of data to the bomb now. But you need to get the phone away from him and cancel any detonation command he’s programmed in. With signals being what they are out here, I can’t guarantee my jam will hold for more than a couple of minutes.”
“Copy that,” Cade said. Lopez seemed to think Cade was talking to him, so the dude didn’t expect what happened next.
Cade launched himself at Lopez. They fell through the open window and crashed onto the balcony. The phone went skidding across the stone and fell over the side as Cade’s heart dropped along with it. Fuck!
Lopez aimed an elbow at Cade’s windpipe. He barely evaded the maneuver before the man twisted and brought a knee up into Cade’s groin.
The blow glanced off the protective gear he wore and Cade growled. “You missed, asshole.”
“You need to get that bomb, Saint!” Hacker screamed into his ear. “I’m losing the signal!”
“You can’t win,” Lopez hissed. “Even if you escape, I will find you. I will find you both, and when I do—”
Cade drew his nine mil and put a bullet through the man’s brain.
“Get them out,” he shouted at Harley. “NOW!”
Cade levered himself up and spun for the door. His leg ached where he’d twisted it during the landing, but he limped through the door and found his teammate cutting the last of the restraints. Cade took the bomb in his hands and went back outside to fling it from the balcony. It left his hands, sailing into the air—and exploded just as Cade made it into the building again. The concussion from the explosion knocked him to his knees. Harley had Brooke and Amy at the other door, pushing them through.
“Go,” he yelled, scrambling for purchase as another explosion sounded out in the jungle. More of the ammo blowing. They’d expected that.
“Got a truck,” Mal said into the earpiece. “We’re wired and ready to go. Everything else is disabled.”
“How many bodies?” Cade asked.
“A lot. There’ll be a few of them left after this, but not enough to do any damage in the drug world for quite some time.”
Cade caught up to his teammate, who was carrying Amy as they flew down the stairs and outside. Brooke ran beside him, head down and determined. Her mouth wasn’t taped anymore. He knew that Harley hadn’t removed the tape because there’d been no time. Which meant Brooke had done it herself. Ripped duct tape off her mouth, which he knew from experience hurt like a motherfucker.
They hurtled toward the truck that Mal was sitting in, all of Echo Squad converging at once. Except for the two snipers, who would join them when they passed by their hideout in the tree. Harley handed Amy to someone in the truck and then reached for Brooke. She shrank away, but Cade was there, gripping her shoulders firmly. Harley jumped inside and let Cade handle it.
“Need to get you inside,” he said in her ear.
She nodded and he helped her into the truck where she took a seat beside Amy. Cade clambered in and flopped onto the seat. The rest of the team piled inside. When they were all there, Mal pressed the gas and the truck shot down the dirt road toward the trees. A quick pause for Noah and Jax to drop into the vehicle, and Echo Squad was barreling down the road as the Espinoza Cartel’s ammo dump turned the sky orange behind them.
Cade wanted to drag Brooke into his arms, but Amy was between them. Instead, he put a hand on the nape of her neck. She turned her gaze to him. He held his breath for a long minute, wondering what he would see. But then she smiled. And his world got knocked sideways by the beauty in that smile.
Brooke was his. And he planned to tell her about it just as soon as he got a chance.
*
Brooke thought they probably drove for a couple of hours, though she dozed a bit here and there, un
til they reached a site where a military helicopter was waiting, the rotors beating the air into a tornado around them. Brooke kept Amy in her sights, though the men took good care of her, carrying her from truck to helicopter, belting her in, telling her not to be afraid.
But Amy wasn’t afraid, not anymore. She’d been in character now for a while, and Brooke was so darn proud of the kid she could burst. But she was also worried because what if pretending to be someone else in order to stay strong was a mistake? What if Amy had long-term problems from this?
What if she ended up like Brooke, afraid of her own shadow and unable to form normal relationships with people? And what if that was Brooke’s fault for suggesting they pretend to be Elsa and Anna in the first place?
Brooke brooded on these thoughts during the flight. She was across from Cade rather than next to him like she wanted to be. When he’d burst through that door earlier, she’d been so relieved and happy. And scared, of course, because Lopez was crazy enough to detonate the bomb if provoked.
When Cade had launched himself at Lopez, her heart lodged in her throat and her life flashed before her eyes. But then there was the sound of a gunshot and Cade was back, apparently unhurt, to grab the bomb from her lap and throw it. Every moment of that maneuver was etched into her mind, from the hard look on his face to the way he didn’t hesitate to pick up a live bomb and carry it away from her.
She’d been avoiding the thought of the gunshot as much as she could, but there was no avoiding it any longer. Cade had tackled Lopez and they’d fallen out the open window. Cade came back and Lopez did not, which meant that Lopez was the one who’d been shot. He hadn’t shot himself. And since he hadn’t come back at all, Cade had clearly killed him.
She examined her feelings about that. There was horror and fear—and there was relief too. Cade had killed the man who’d killed Scott and planned to kill her and Amy. He’d threatened to turn them into shark bait. He’d strapped a bomb to them. He did not care about their lives, so she wasn’t going to care about his. He’d made his choice, and he’d paid a price for it.
HOT Angel: Hostile Operations Team - Book 12 Page 18
