Page 8 of Russian Rescue

“Roger that,” Marcus responded.

“Wait.” Wes furrowed his brow. “How are we getting out of here?”

“Knox is going to fly over and extract us from the roof.”

His eyes went big. “Seriously? We’re doing an air-to-surface extraction? Like, for real?”

“Yes,” I answered quickly. “Knox has a plane he’s gonna grab us with. That way, we can just get the hell out of this city in one swoop. You cool with that?”

A long gulp slid over his Adam’s apple. “Uh, yeah. It’s just, wow. I’ve been on your cams for this shit before, but it’s a little crazy thinking I’m going to be swinging beneath a plane in real life.”

“You’ll be fine. We’ve got you. You just need to trust us.”

After exhaling a long breath, he answered, “Okay. Yeah. I trust you. Of course, I trust you. What’s the plan?” He ran a hand through his hair, and the simple movement amplified all the muscles rippling beneath his smooth skin.

Struggling to regain my focus on the mission ahead, I exhaled a deep breath and shut my eyes for a beat. When I opened them, the gorgeous face staring back at me knocked me off my game once more.

Keep it together, Piper.

“The plan is we head up to the roof. Knox will fly overhead with the Skyhook hanging out, and we’ll be waiting in our SPIE harnesses. You remember how those work?”

He nodded. “I mean, I’ve never used them in real life, but I’ve seen you guys do it. We attach to each other, and then the first guy hooks up and we get pulled up one at a time in a line after him.”

“Exactly. We’ll hook up to each other, then as he flies over, Knox will grab us with the Skyhook, and we’ll all fly off together. Easy peasy.”

“Easy peasy? We’re getting yeeted off a roof by a plane.”

I shrugged. “Like I said, easy peasy. If you follow everything I say, we should be able to get out unscathed. He’ll fly us out of Moscow, then we’ll—”

“So, I am in Russia?”

“Yeah. You’re in Russia. But not for long. Knox is gonna get us the hell out of here. He’s got a flight plan that will keep us under the radar so we can leave undetected.”

“Holy shit.” His broad shoulders slumped. “I can’t believe I got kidnapped and taken to Russia.”

“Yeah. We’re gonna have to figure out how in the hell that happened after we get you out of here.”

His face tightened, and by the guilty look in his eyes, I figured he already knew. But we didn’t have time to discuss it right now because getting him safely out of this situation was the only thing that mattered.

“We’re on the ninth floor of an under-construction office building just on the outskirts of the city,” I said to him before stepping to the open door. I peered my head out, looking for guards before waving Wes to follow me. “I cleared a path to the stairwell, but you’ll need to follow me and do exactly as I say.”

He tiptoed over in his bare feet and stood behind me. As he leaned over me and looked down the hall, I became acutely aware of his impressive six-foot plus height.

“Jesus,” he whispered as he looked at the carnage of the three dead guards sprawled in the hallway. “They don’t look like they’re going to make it.”

I smirked. “They didn’t even see me coming. Brooks? We clear?” I asked into my earpiece.

“Clear,” he responded.

It was strange having a voice other than Wes, Knox, and Marcus in my ear after all these years of it being just the four of us, but Brooks had been a huge help in tracking Wes down and getting us into the building where they held him. He wasn’t as skilled as Wes, but he was good enough to find him and access the cameras to help guide our way. We’d been able to keep the government in the dark about Wes’s capture thanks to Brooks, and I now understood why Wes had recommended him.

“Brooks is your Overwatch right now?” Wes whispered, and his warm breath ghosted my ear.

A shudder traveled up my spine, and not the bad kind. “Yeah. He’s our eyes in here since you’re not exactly available. He’s got access to most of the cameras. He’s clearing our way.”

“Awesome, tell him thanks for the assist.”

“Wes says thanks,” I repeated.