Page 103 of Fixed Asset

I laid down cover fire until Pete disappeared down the side of the hill.

“Get up, baby,” I demanded. “Take Calista and find cover.”

“Not a chance, hotshot.”

“Catarina.”

“Jack.”

“Baby, get the package secure. We’ll catch up.”

“Goddamnit, Jack,” Cat snarled. “I don’t like—”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Mase put in.

Cat rolled to her hip, then up to her knees, her right arm straight out, holding her Sig pointed toward where the enemy was holed up, her other hand reaching for Calista.

“If you’re not at the airport right after we get there, I’m coming back to find you,” Catarina angrily clipped.

Of course she would.

At one time, I would’ve called that reckless. Now I understood it for what it was—loyalty. She’d never leave me behind, or anyone on the team.

“Got it. Now go, baby.”

Catarina let out a colorful string of obscenities that in no way made sense, though I couldn’t miss their meaning or her level of displeasure.

“See you soon, Kitty Cat.”

Cat shot me an unhappy look before her anger cleared and her hand wrapped around my wrist.

“Be safe.”

“That’s my line.”

Then because that knot in the pit of my gut was twisting, I took the time we didn’t have to tug her close and press a hard kiss to her mouth.

“Get on that plane no matter—”

“Save your breath. I’m not leaving you.”

Fuck.

I lost her hand when she stepped away, then I lost sight of her when she took off in a sprint, and I turned back to the direction the gunfire was coming from and unloaded half a mag.

“Reload,” Mase called out. A moment later I heard him reengage.

I quickly glanced to the left. Cat and Calista were nowhere in sight.

“Ready?” I asked Mase.

“Yep.”

Mase took off in the same direction as Pete. The decline wasn’t steep, but it was unsteady. Rocks and sand made it possible to slide most of the way down.

“This shit was easier when I was twenty,” Mason griped.

He wasn’t wrong.