Page 233 of Alessio

Corrado blinked. “To do what?”

“Get back alive.”

What?

Cree smiled slightly, as though he could see the questions forming in Corrado’s mind. “For one, it’s a good way to put some of the skills you’ve been learning to a real test. Out in the real world, so to speak. The team will be near, or close enough to cause you trouble here and there. Think of it like a—”

“Hunt,” Corrado interjected.

“Well, yes.”

“And what do I get … if I make it back, I mean?”

Cree shrugged. “You’ll make it back, that’s a certainty. It’ll be whether or not they need to carry you back, or if you’ll walk in with your own legs that’ll make the difference.”

“That’s not that I asked.”

“A night away,” Cree said. “Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go … within reason, keep it to the state, you will be able to go. You’ll be provided with everything you need—vehicle, fake identification, just in case, and whatever else. No babysitters watching you. Prove you’ve learned something these last two months, because the past three weeks have put you back several steps, and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

Corrado chewed on his inner cheek. “Hmm.”

“There is an expiry on this offer. Ten seconds is what you have to decide.”

“Where will they drop me?”

“I told you, twenty-five miles—”

“No, where exactly?”

Cree smiled. “Nowhere. It’ll seem like nowhere because that’s exactly what it is.”

Huh.

Corrado looked at the team again.

“Three seconds,” Cree said.

“All right,” Corrado muttered, pushing off the bed and tossing the magazine aside, “what’s it going to hurt?”

Cree laughed.

An unusual sound, considering the man rarely did it.

“That’s what I want to hear,” Cree said, slapping him on the back as he passed. “Try not to fight the team too much when they put the hood over your head, yeah?”

“Great.”

Corrado was shoved to his knees roughly, and he felt the fucking rocks on the ground dig into his skin and bones through his pants. Something dropped to the ground beside him with a heavy thud, and then that hood was ripped from his head. It took him far too long to realize he was surrounded by cliffs. Red dirt, dry plants, and a few towering trees keeping the sun shaded.

Where the fuck was he?

He focused in on the man kneeling in front of him. Ten feet away from him was a helicopter that had landed in the only spot that seemed safe and wide enough for it to do so, considering the rocky ledges that led hundreds of feet down into more rocks.

Fun.

“Hey,” the guy said.

Corrado swallowed his nerves, saying, “Yeah?”