“About?” I’m breathless with anticipation and fear.
“Malik.” Ace gives me a tiny smile. “It looks like he’s still alive.”
My legs sag, and I gasp, “He’salive?”
“In Iran. Tyler’s still working on the exact location.”
Tears fill my eyes. “We have to find him, Ace. If he’s been there all this time…”
Ace hugs me close. “We will, Tink. I promise. We’ll bring him home.”
CHAPTER 18
ACE
Fuck,I wish Yara had agreed to stay home.
As our van bumps down the dirt road, I can’t stop thinking of all the ways this op could go horribly wrong.
Going in blind like this, not knowing how well prepared our opponents will be, what kind of security the building has… and that’s not even considering the dangers facing us on the way back out of the country.
Shit, anything could happen.
The ground outside the house we’re headed to could be armed with tripwires, where one wrong step could mean death.
A stray bullet could catch one of us in the shoulder or thigh, severing an artery.
Malik’s captors could decide to blow up the building, rather than allow us to rescue him. I could end up crouched over another person I care about, watching their life fade away before my eyes.
And if Yara gets hurt? If I lose her, like I did in my nightmare? If I fail to protect the woman I’ve fallen in love with?
Fuck. Just the thought of it makes my heart feel like it’s dying.
“We’re less than one klick out,” Saint reports. His icy blue eyes appear in the rearview mirror, calm and determined. Yara’s former teammate has been enviably confident from the moment he arrived in Portland to join us on this mission. One of the first things he said during our initial planning meeting was, “If Malik survived this long, it wasn’t for nothing. We’re going to get him out. I’m sure of it.”
If I wasn’t so damn scared for Yara, I might be more confident, too. After all, rescuing a hostage from enemy territory isn’t something new for me. In the Green Berets, and more frequently, Delta, we were often sent in on high-stakes rescue missions. And up until now, I’ve never failed.
Really?the doubting voice in my head asks.Never failed? What about Garrett? Sawyer? The op when you froze up and endangered your entire team?
That was different,I silently argue.With Garrett and Sawyer, we were set up to fail. And that one time…
Shit.
Icouldfreeze up again, in theory. So could Yara. She could be triggered by any number of things—the sound of gunfire, explosions, blood—and end up in even more danger than she is already.
An image flashes before my eyes, of Yara standing stock-still in the middle of a room, her face ghost-pale and her eyes glazed over, caught up in her memories instead of the present. I rush towards her, shouting for her to snap out of it, to get down, but before I reach her, she’s hit by a barrage of bullets. And by the time I do, she’s lying on the ground in a pool of blood, crimson bubbling from her mouth, and?—
“According to satellite images, there should be a cluster of trees on the right-hand side of the road,” Tyler says. He’s sittingin the passenger seat, staring down at his laptop. “Just about five hundred yards from the building. We still want to hide the van there?”
From the second row of seats, Rafe leans over Tyler’s shoulder to look at the laptop screen. “I think we have to,” he replies. “As much as I’d like to park closer, there just isn’t enough cover.” He turns to glance at Grover and Trigger, two guys I knew from Delta and old friends of Malik’s. “You guys comfortable with that?”
If it were just the Shadow team involved, Rafe wouldn’t have to ask. He’d know we trust his judgement. But with several non-Blade and Arrow members involved in the mission, I can understand why Rafe wants them to feel included.
When we first discussed this ambitious plan ten days ago, sitting around the conference table at HQ, I assumed it would be strictly B and A going. But then Yara brought up bringing Saint in on the op. “Ford has a kid, and Kai’s wife is expecting,” she explained, “so I wouldn’t want to ask them to take such a risk. But I think Saint would want to be a part of it. He and Malik were best friends, after all.”
Yara was right. As soon as she asked him, Saint was in. And then Saint mentioned Grover and Trigger, who were old friends of Malik’s back from their early days in the Army. “I think they’d want in,” Saint told us. “Especially Grover. Since he was held hostage himself. And you know them, don’t you, Ace?” he asked. “They’re real stand-up guys. I think they’d be a real asset.”
Our times in Delta didn’t overlap much, so I don’t know them particularly well, but as soon as Saint brought up their names, I had to agree. Adding two more skilled operators to our mission would only improve our chances of success. And Grover and Trigger are some of the best.
