by Dale Mayer
She nodded slowly. “So now what?”
“We’ll find this guy, Green, and we’ll pick him up,” Ryland said, as he laughed.
“Somehow I’m not sure it’ll be that easy,” she said.
“No, it won’t be easy to find him,” he said. “We’ll have to find a way to bring him to us.”
“Haven’t you already found a way?” she asked. “I’m right here.”
“No way,” he said, frowning at her. “We’re not using you as bait.”
“You should,” she said. “I’m already a target. What’s the difference?”
Ryland looked to his partner for back up, but Cain nodded, saying, “She’s got a point there.”
“But he won’t be taken in by that,” Ryland said. “He’ll know it’s a trap.”
“No, probably not, so what can you do to sweeten the pot?” Tabi asked.
“Bring more of the team in,” Ryland said thoughtfully.
“Exactly,” she said. “Bring in the team, so it looks like they’re here to protect me. Then set us up someplace visible and have him give it a go.”
“You realize you could die?” Cain asked, his gaze curious and yet interested.
“Well, I will die at some point regardless,” she said. “Unfortunately that’s the one guarantee that comes with birth, and I have a fairly pragmatic attitude about death, after seeing it on a day-to-day basis.”
“Right, I guess your profession doesn’t keep you in an insulated tower either, does it?”
“No,” she said, “and I have no illusions. Honestly that is one of the reasons I go sailing every year to honor my brother. Because—while you’d like to think that you have years, hopefully eighty or ninety of them—too often, you only get a small fraction of that. Learning to live every day is a huge part of what I attempt to do with my life.”
“I like that,” Ryland said. “A lot actually.”
“Come sailing with me some time,” she said, with a smile. “We can go back and revisit where you crashed.”
He laughed at that. “I wouldn’t mind,” he said. “My view of the place is a little distorted.”
“Yeah. Like, from my vantage point, you were laying there, with a bunch of garbage hanging around, and your hand on Garret, to make sure he didn’t fall.”
He looked at her curiously. “Was my hand on him?”
“Well, that’s not quite the right phrase,” she said. “Your fingers were hooked into his belt. One of the things that got to me was the fact that even though you were about to slip off into the water yourself, you made sure that he was staying high.”
“He was hurt,” he said.
“So were you, but he was unconscious. That was the difference.”
He just gave a shrug and dismissed it.
But she wouldn’t let it go so easily. “It just says a lot about who you are.”
“It says a lot about my relationship with Garret,” he corrected. “We have each other’s back.”
She gave him a ghost of a smile. “Don’t like being a hero, do you?”
At that, Cain burst out laughing. “And that’s a little bit of a sore spot with us too,” he said. “In a good way.”
She looked at him and frowned.
“Bullard is really close to Levi and Ice, and they ran a compound out of Texas. They still do,” he said. “They’ve had a huge matchmaking scenario going on with their team—meaning, a lot of their men have come up with partners, like romantic partners, through their missions. And each time the hero comment tends to solidify where the future of the relationship is headed.”
“Every woman wants a hero,” she said. “The real truth is that heroes can be male and female. The real heroes, those who matter, are the ones who go about life, without requiring accolades, awards, or money. It’s the ones who help little old ladies cross the road, who stop in at the hospital to visit somebody without family after surgery, who always have a few extra dollars to quietly help someone out. It’s the ones who see a single mom carefully choosing the bare minimum at the grocery store, while the kids can’t take their eyes off the meat counter, who slips her a few bucks, so they all can live a little. The heroes are everyday people. I see them all the time, and I’ve always figured the best thing I could do in life was to be one of them.” At that, she fell silent, turned, and said, “Gosh, I don’t want to get all maudlin,” she said. “It would be really great if we didn’t have to sit here in the hotel room all day.”
“We aren’t,” Ryland said. “We’ve been having pretty heavy discussions once I tossed your idea at the gang.”
“Good, and I’m sure they jumped at it.”
“They did,” he said. “I’m the one fighting it.”
“That’s because you feel guilty,” she said with a knowing smile. “I saved you, so naturally you want to save me. But that’s not the way the world works. In a perfect world it would, but this is far from a perfect world.”
“I also don’t want my whole team to go up in the same blast.”
She thought about that. “Explosives. Yeah. It can’t be in the open either because they may have snipers. Can’t be in a building, as they’ll take it down. So what are the options?”
Cain spoke up. “Stealth.”
“So enough of the team in and enough of the team out?” she asked.
“Something like that,” he said, “and the decoy has to be in a public place, where it’s much harder to place bombs, and it needs to be fireproof.”
“Does that even exist?”
“The compounds that Levi and Bullard handle,” Cain said, “they’re all fireproof for just that reason.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure about the world you live in,” she said. “However, I’m sucked into it now, and I really hope you can pull this off and get us all out.”
*
“It’s a shitty idea,” Ryland said, in a conference call twenty minutes later. He was very aware of the fact that Tabi was lying on the bed, watching movies on her laptop. She also had a headset on, so she didn’t have to hear anything that they were talking about. They’d been working on what they needed to do, and she was counting on them doing it. That kind of trust was amazing, but it was also difficult. It was a burden to bear, but no more of a burden than what he’d already accepted because she had saved his life, and he did feel responsible.
“It’s a good idea though,” Eton said, on the other side of the call. “Like she said, she’s already targeted.”
“We can’t protect her 100 percent,” Ryland said.
“Interesting,” Eton murmured.
“What do you mean, interesting?” Ryland asked, as he glared at Cain across the table.
A whisper of a smile crossed Cain’s face, which quickly disappeared.
“Well, it means that you care,” Eton said. “Because, if it were some other woman, you’d have been right up there with us, putting her front and center.”
“Well, I would hope not,” he said.
“Bullard is missing, presumed dead. Garret is in the ICU and may or may not recover, and you’ve been badly injured. For all we know,” Eton said, “the rest of us are in the line of fire as well.”
“Well, you know you probably are,” Ryland said, “and I agree with bringing you here. Green will most likely send everybody after us, to try and take us all out.”
“So we give him the opportunity,” Eton said, his voice turning hard. “Decision made. You’ve been overruled.”
“Who made you boss?” Ryland snapped.
“While Bullard’s down, I am,” Eton said, his voice cool. “If you’ve got an argument with that, wait until I get there, and you can try to punch me in the face. But you won’t succeed, given all the injuries you’ve got.”
“I’m fine,” he snapped.
“I saw the medical report, man,” Eton said, his voice softening ever-so-slightly. “Listen. We’ll look after her.”
“You can’t promise that,” Ryland said, as he pinched the bridge of his
nose, because, of course, there were no guarantees in any of this. A storm was about to happen, but he also knew that it was likely the best chance they had of getting this guy.
“We need him alive,” Eton said.
“We’ll do our best, but you know that, if our positions were reversed, no way we’d be taken alive.” Ryland hung up at that point. Because, of course, it was true. He looked at Cain and said, “I’ll go for a walk.”
“Stay inside,” Cain murmured.
He got up and stormed from the small room. He understood her feeling of needing to do something, anything to get out of the cramped quarters, but it really had nothing to do with the room itself and everything to do with the situation. Choosing the roof, he took the elevator as far as he could and then took the fire escape out onto the rooftop. There was no patio, no walkway, no nothing, just gravel, tar, and lots of HVAC system pipes. And that was fine. It just about suited his mood too.
He wandered carefully, staying close to the pipes, just in case a sharpshooter was out here, not that it would have made a whole lot of sense. But, so far, the bad guys have been one step ahead, and Ryland was done with that. Finally, his temper calmed, he accepted that this really was the best answer to bring the situation to a fast conclusion. He sent Cain a text message and typed Fine. I’m in.
Cain responded. Already in progress.
Ryland put his phone in his pocket and grumbled, “Of course it is.” He sat down against one of the large silver pipes and studied the city around him. Picking up his phone again, he sent a quick text to Cain, asking him to make sure that Garret was under guard.
Will do came the quick response.
Ryland looked around, checking out places to set up for snipers. They needed a public but not too public place for Tabi to be set up as bait. It had to be casual and unaffected. Because Green would just know that it was a setup. But it would also be too big of a pot for the pro to ignore. Was it just the one guy, Green? Would he hire local muscle? Or would Green be part of a bigger team of his own?
It would take a bigger team for Green to take out all of Bullard’s team, and they were all in for this one. People were flying in to help from all over the world. Everyone coming owed Bullard their life in one way or another. The fact was, there had been no word on Bullard at all. Ryland thought about that and then sent another message. And put out an APB, just in case there’s any sign of Bullard anywhere.
Dude, it’s already out there. We haven’t ever let up looking for Bullard. Stop worrying.
Nope, not happening.
Then worry about your own sorry ass, Cain wrote. Because, as much as we’ll look after her, we can’t cover for you too.
There’ll be no covering for me. This time he was so pissed, he dialed Cain and said, “Damn you for saying that, by the way.”
“Good, get angry,” Cain said. “Get mad, but make sure you come with your A-game on,” he said. “Otherwise we’ll put you in the same category as her, as one to be protected. And that’ll get pretty ugly.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Then get on board with the plan or get the hell off.” And, with that, Cain hung up on him.
Chapter 12
It was accidental that one of her earbuds fell out as Cain was snarling into the phone. She’d knew, just by what he was saying, that Ryland was on the other end. She kept her gaze locked on her laptop, so Cain wouldn’t know that she’d heard anything. And she quickly put the earpiece back in. Better that they didn’t know she’d seen a bit of how the dynamics played out. Seemed like Ryland was really pushing, but then he was also quite injured. It would be a terrible blow to his ego to even consider being put in the same category as her.
She lifted her head and gazed across the room. Ryland had already done so much that it would be a shame if they left him out in the end. She looked at Cain to see him staring at her. She removed both earbuds. “Don’t leave him out, please,” she said softly.
For all the hard-ass he appeared to be, as he looked at her, his gaze was soft. “If he comes up to snuff, we won’t,” he said. “But we can’t have him fighting us at every turn. He can’t be a liability.”
“I get it,” she said. “You’re the badass, carrying the worries of the world, but he’s got nine fractures. If you don’t give him a chance to do this, to pay me back somehow, it’ll eat away at his soul.”
“I know that,” Cain said, as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I never intended to say it, but he needs a wake-up call. He has to get on board and quit fighting against the plan, or he becomes a liability we can’t afford.”
“Got it,” she said, as she put her earbuds back in, and determinedly flicked through the movie options again, looking for anything to take her mind off what was happening. Then realized she was starving again. “How about a food coma? Coffee and food couldn’t hurt, right?”
He looked at her, smiled, and said, “I guess that’s an easy answer, isn’t it?”
“It’s something,” she said. “Bring him a meal too.”
“Well, I suspect he’ll be storming in ready to kick my ass any minute now anyway.”
“I don’t,” she said. “If it were me, I’d be out looking to see how I could contribute. I’d be assessing buildings, locations, looking for where a sniper could be positioned, vehicle access, and all that. I don’t really know what your terminology is, but any time I’ve been talked down to and accused of not pulling my weight, I dove in 300 percent, to make sure such slander could never be expressed in my direction again.”
He looked at her with respect. “Glad to hear that,” he said. “Looks like the two of you are well matched.”
She stared at him, startled. And then nodded. “We are, I guess,” she said. “Not sure how we got to this place or where it’ll go. I guess it depends on what happens after this little meetup you’ve got planned.”
“The thing is,” he said, with half a smile, “we might have a plan, but that doesn’t mean that we can count on the other party playing along the way we hope.”
“Well, they wouldn’t be adversaries of yours if they would play along nicely.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, curious, even as he texted. He had found himself intrigued by the different perspectives she brought.
“I mean, if they were adversaries, and they were any weaker or less skilled, you would have taken them out already. The fact that you haven’t means that they are up to your skill level, and they will be looking for this.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m glad that you understand that.”
She settled back into the movie, her mind still storming around corners, realizing she needed to acknowledge everything that had happened to her. She opened up a document and started typing, describing everything that had happened to her since she’d gone out for that fateful sailing trip. That’s funny because nobody had even asked about the bag that she had taken off the sailboat. And it was still with her. She glanced at it, time and time again, and then finally, when she couldn’t put it to rest, she got up, setting aside her laptop. Walking over, she pulled her bag out and searched through it to make sure it was still there. When she pulled out the tiny patch, she smiled and gave it a good rub against her arm. As long as it was still here, she was good.
“And what is that?” Cain asked.
Just then the door burst open, and Ryland came in. “Here I am, with the trolley of food,” he announced.
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “That was my request.”
He nodded, saw the item in her hand, and asked, “What’s that?”
She stared down at it, shrugged, and put it back in her bag. “Something that’s important to me, that means nothing to anybody else.”
“Which just makes it all the more interesting,” Ryland said, walking up behind her. “May I see?”
She hesitated, then nodded, and pulled it back out again.
“It’s a Boy Scout badge,” he said. And across the top in hand embroidery was the name Lucas.
He still didn’t look at her, as he asked, “Your brother’s?”
“Yes,” she said. “He gave it to me when I got the sailboat to keep on board for good luck.”
“And you managed to get it off when the boat went down?”
“Remember when everybody was yelling at me? Maybe you don’t though,” she said. “It was not only chaotic but it was all about getting you off safely.”
“I remember you going back under, but I didn’t really register how or why.” He tapped it gently and stroked his finger across the embroidered name. “Did you do that?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Pretty clumsy, isn’t it?”
“No,” he said. “It’s very, very special. I’m really glad you got it off the boat.”
Her throat choked up with tears, as she smiled, nodded, and said, “I’ll be sure to put it on my next sailboat too.” Then she put it back into her bag.
He gave her a gentle squeeze and said, “Absolutely, and I’ll take you up on that offer by the way.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“To go sailing. Remember?”
She smiled. “Yeah, and I can show you a few of our favorite haunts.”
He nodded, and, pointing to the food, he said, “How about we eat now?”
She smiled and caught Cain looking at the two of them and realized he’d heard the conversation. She shrugged, looking at Cain, and said, “Guess you had to be there.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t,” he said. “I could have made it easier on both of you.”
“Or,” she said, “you could have been another one for me to look out for.”
At that, Cain burst out laughing. “Another point to you,” he said.
Feeling happier, she turned her attention to the food. She found great big sandwiches, like Reubens, with sauerkraut and some meat. “I don’t know what it is,” she said, “but I’m already loving it.” And the three of them sat down and ate a wonderful meal, the earlier tension dispelled.
By the time lunch was over, she yawned and said, “I’ll have to have a nap, especially after that heavy carb load.”
“The bed is all yours,” Ryland said. “Or, if you’d rather have a little more privacy, you can use the other room.”
