The group agreed.
Pausing, Teddy swept his gaze over his team. People he admired and trusted with his life. He believed in his idea and he needed to sell it to the group.
“Rather than continue to play defense, we go on the offense and we bait the terrorists to us. We use our family restaurant—Santini Ristorante—to host a holiday charity event. It would be well-publicized, but the only people there would be ALPHA?—”
“Teddy—” Greystone started.
“I like what I’m hearing,” Hawk pushed back. “Let my man finish.”
“Seriously?” Greystone shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Shhhh,” Slash scolded.
Greystone held up his hands in mock surrender. “Mi dispiace, fratello mio. I’m sorry, my brother.”
“Grazie.” Teddy glanced around at the eager faces. “Anyone at the event is ALPHA or BLACK OPS. They’re posing as the public for the kick-off of this holiday charity event.”
“We can include journalist Alexandra Wilde,” Sin said. “She’s my go-to for anything press-related.”
“How do we stop the public from showing?” Greystone asked.
“It’s a closed event,” Teddy said. “We’ll kick it off in the parking lot, ask Sin’s reporter friend to film our story live.Sitting ducks for the terrorists to strike us down… only, this time, we’ll be ready.”
“Hell, no,” Greystone shot out. “Non voglio che il tuo sangue si sporchi le mie mani. I will not have everyone’s blood on my hands.”
“I’m confident Muhammad Haqazzii will send a team to take us out,” Teddy pushed back.
“What if they blow up the building?” Caroline asked.
Teddy shook his head. “They’re goal is execution-style assassinations. They could slip someone into the crowd, but I’m thinking they’d do a drive-by. We put a sharpshooter on a nearby rooftop to take them out.”
“Jericho’s our in-house sniper,” Sin said, “and he’s out with back surgery.”
“Actually,” Caroline said, “you’ve already got the best sharpshooter right here in this building.”
All eyes flew in her direction.
Silence.
“Who?” Hawk asked, after several long seconds.
“Seriously, who’s better than Jericho?” Prescott followed up with.
“My sister,” Caroline replied.
“Oh, right,” Sin said.
“Of course,” Slash added. “Duh.”
The team laughed.
“Sydney’s an Olympic gold medalist in marksmanship,” Caroline explained. “She cleaned up in the ten, twenty-five,andfifty-meter events with five golds. Rifle, pistol,andshotgun.”
Holy hell.
“Wow,” Addison said. “Major props to Sydney.”
“She can shoot prone, kneeling or standing,” Caroline said. “I’m only telling you because she never would. She’s super humble, but she’s a phenomenal sharpshooter.”
