Page 80 of Rescuing Erin

Alice gasped, and I eyed my mom suspiciously, her tone was flat and matter of fact. I was beginning to wonder how much of my mother’s confidence was a put on.

Alice’s gaze slid to mine before she reached her hand out to me. “Yes. We have a lot to plan. And dresses to find. And flowers to order.”

When Colin’s mother pulled me into her embrace and wrapped her mom arms around me, they felt almost as good as my own mother’s—almost.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Erin. You’ll see,” she whispered.

“I hope you’re right.”

Chapter 28

“Alpha team, this is bravo team coming in hot from your south at five o’clock,” Rocco’s voice came over the comm in my ear.

“Copy that, bravo team. Last known . . .” I tuned out Zane while I relayed the last known GPS coordinates. “We’re headed west. Eyes peeled.”

“Roger,” Rocco replied.

“I can’t see a motherfucking thing through the tree canopy,” Jax complained.

“Keep fucking looking,” Zane barked. “Colin. Call in our location to Tex.”

“Copy.” I switched my radio to Tex’s frequency. “Tex, this is Breeze, you copy?”

“Go for Tex.” It was hard to hear him over the rotor blades even with ear-pro on over my comms.

“We’re at last known. No sight. Do you have anything for us?”

“Has Rocco’s team arrived?”

“Affirmative.”

“I’m going to activate the subcutaneous tracking device. You’ll be on a fast-moving clock. Once it’s active, the hacks will be able to locate him, too.” Fucking hell. I didn’t want to ask when the president had gotten a tracker implanted under his skin. “Twenty-four kilometers. North 39-39. West 77-27. Your time has started. I’ll direct traffic your way when the rest of the guys land. Good luck.”

“Copy that. Out.” I switched back to the teams’ comms and repeated what Tex had said.

“Roger,” came from Rocco.

“Clusterfucking hell. Six minutes,” Zane grumbled.

We had six minutes to get to the location Tex had given us. I took that time to check my weapons and extra ammo mags. I hoped to God when we got to Tom he was still breathing. It had been almost two hours since Tex had lost communication with the pilot. I didn’t know how Tex had pulled off keeping this under wraps and I was a little afraid to find out. I always knew Tex was a whole lot of dangerous behind a computer but now, with a hundred percent certainty, I knew he could fuck some shit up and leave the US in shambles if he wanted to.

“I have visual on Marine One,” Rocco said. “No movement. Switching to thermal. Three down. I repeat there are three down.”

Shit. Three dead and cooling bodies. The helicopter Rocco and his team were in hovered over the downed Marine One.

It wasn’t but a minute later a black rope dangled out of the side of the open door. “Cover,” Gumby, one of the SEALs from Rocco’s team said as the helicopter started to lower.

“Roger,” I called back.

Pulling my FNH SCAR rifle up and to the ready, I watched the six men from the other team fast rope down. Once each of their feet hit the ground, we continued north and circled the location Tex had given us.

“Still can’t see a motherfucking thing,” Leo griped.

“Head five klicks north. We need to unload,” Zane called to the pilot.

“Pilot down. Two SSAs down. He’s not here,” Bubba called in. “Repeat, not at this location.”

It was a relief Tom wasn’t among the dead, but both of the secret service agents were, which meant he was unprotected.