Page 28 of Deadfall

Seven read ahead and laughed incredulously. “Yeah, historically this place was a popular pirate hideaway, and then later it was used for some sort of black site testing during World War Two so there’s even a mine field—okay, let’s maybe skip the forest.”

I grunted a reply, already deep into rechecking my weapons. Even though I’d already done it several times, there was never such a thing as too much prep work, so I did it all again. It was calming and methodical work, and helped to calm my already frazzled nerves. I was supposed to be the steady one, but all I’d felt since receiving that email was a pit in my stomach. I’d never been patient, but this drive to act was visceral and urgent. All I wanted to do was tear this place apart, find Emersyn and get the hell off the island.

Seven finished reading and swiped out of the information packet with a frown on his face. He came to sit down across from me and organized some of the surveillance gear we’d brought. We worked in a comfortable silence, each lost in our own dark thoughts. When the last bullet was racked and there was nothing left to do, we looked at each other.

“Ready?” I asked.

He nodded. “Let’s go get our girl.”

16

SEVEN

Nothing could have prepared me for the moment I saw Emersyn for the first time. It was one thing to fixate on someone from a picture and obsess over the constant strain of failed missions to find her, it was another thing entirely to finally lay eyes on the real thing. As we walked into the small guard house built into the cliffs, there she was, framed by the window like a fallen angel, and everything in me seized.

The weather had darkened ominously on our walk down to the beach, and the waves pounded the small strip of shore where she was chained to a post. At this distance she was nothing more than a swatch of porcelain skin against a dark landscape. Motionless, with her head bowed, the only movement was her blond hair as it blew back and forth in the wind. I was immediately and irrevocably captivated.

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

I’d managed to stay pretty emotionally detached from the search for her. I knew how detrimental it was to involve emotions, and so I’d fooled myself into not personalizing it. Emersyn was a daughter, just like most of the young women we saved. No more and no less important. That all got harder though when G increasingly grew more and more distraught by the similarities between Emersyn’s situation and the failed attempts to rescue his sister. The line had blurred for him, and the only way I could help was to ensure that it didn’t blur for me too.

I’d succeeded pretty well—until now—when the objective we’d been hounding for years was suddenly right in front of me; my possessive side perked right up and I knew I was completely and royally fucked.

“Well, since she’s not going anywhere, how about some cards, gentlemen?”

I was so focused on Emersyn I almost missed the two men who entered behind us. The man who’d spoken was tall, with black hair and hazel eyes that held a curious but friendly smile as he reached out a hand to G.

“My name is D’Angelo, but everyone calls me Angel.”

G shook Angel’s hand. “Griffin.”

The other man slouched down in one of the chairs that surrounded a rickety folding table. He was stocky, with a closely shaved head and a scowl that narrowed beady black eyes. I didn’t like him. Something about him creeped me out.

“Marcello,” he grunted.

Angel held his hand out to me next, and I gave him my usual rakish smile.

“Seven—and I’m definitely down for a game.”

I joined both of them at the table, but G turned back to the window. I knew there was no way he’d be able to concentrate with Emersyn this close. Angel took the cards and shuffled them while he chewed on a toothpick that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“Did you read her brief?” He jerked his head towards Emersyn. “They’re calling her the Hurricane.”

I feigned ignorance. “Is she important?”

“Sounds like it.”

I looked outside at the darkening landscape. I could barely make out the shape of Emersyn, and immediate unease shifted through me at the thought of the shadows enveloping her. Angel finished dealing the cards and I picked up my hand.

“Is that normal protocol around here?” I jerked my head towards the post she was chained to.

Angel made a noncommittal sound. “Depends.”

“On?” G asked.

He kept his back to the room as he continued to stare out at the beach. Angel looked at me, then at G’s back before he chuckled softly and returned to organizing the cards in his hand.

“You two are new, aren’t you?”