Page 46 of Thaddeus

Alive and breathing?

I was still trying to wrap my mind around what Dec had said when Kyle’s voice crackled through my earpiece. “Bravo team in place.”

Declan looked over at me and all traces of our conversation were wiped clear. Back was the cold, calculated warrior.

“Go,” he replied to Kyle and stepped out of the cover of the trees.

We had one shot at making entry to use the element of surprise. Once the initial shock of our presence wore off, we’d most likely be out-numbered, therefore at a disadvantage.

Luckily for us, we were good at what we did.

Declan kicked open the front door, revealing two men sitting on a couch. I swung the barrel of my rifle in their direction and in less than a second, both men were slumped to the side. A .223 round to the head was never pretty, but at close range it was downright disgusting.

As we advanced into the house, Declan took out a man coming out from behind a closed door. Just as Emerson had said, the floor plan was open. From our place near the front door we could see the entire house, including the only other exit, and five doors. She’d said four were bedrooms and one was a bathroom.

Dec gestured to the left, indicating he was going for the rooms. It had taken us all of two minutes to clear the house. Jesus, that easy. Only three men guarding the house. Something wasn’t right.

“We’re clear,” Max announced.

“Headed your way now,” Dec returned.

“Any issues?”

“Uneventful,” Dec told Kyle and we made our way to the back door.

“Should be smooth sailing. We’ve got eyes on the backyard,” Max said.

“That was too easy,” I said to Declan.

“Agreed.”

Smooth sailing? Right. Nothing was ever smooth.

Emerson

I wasn’t sure if I was getting seasick, even though we were technically on a river and not on the ocean, or if it was my nerves. Either way, my stomach was queasy and if I didn’t get off the boat soon I was going to be sick. And frankly, I’d had enough puking in front of these people to last a lifetime.

It felt like we’d been floating out there for hours, and try as I might, I couldn’t get Thad’s plea out of my head. I also couldn’t forget the way he’d looked at me like he actually cared about me. Once again, he’d been dressed in head-to-toe black, but he hadn’t pulled his mask over his face yet, so I could see every line of concern.

I didn’t know what to do with that.

I didn’t know why while I was sitting on the Kaituma that instead of watching out for whatever creature was surely in the water waiting for me to be its next snack, or worried about the insane amount of bug bites that now covered any flesh that was exposed, I was worried about Thad.

I didn’t know what to do with the ever-growing knot in my stomach nagging me to talk to him. Explain what I’d been doing and why.

“They're ready for us,” Brooks said, and started back to the dock.

“Did they say anything?” I asked.

“No.”

“Oh.” I tried to hide my disappointment, but obviously failed when Tatiana looked my way.

“That means everything went to plan,” Tatiana told me. “If everything wasn’t good, they wouldn’t be calling us to come in.”

“Right.”

God, I sounded pathetic.