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Mantis had the plane waiting on the private airfield near Heathrow. What he’d expected to be a quiet flight back to the States was going to be anything but, given his three original K19 partners were there, waiting for him.
“What the hell?” he said, unable to hide the smile that gave away how happy he was to see them.
“We figured you prob
ably had your head up your ass over Raketa about as much as we each did in the last year,” said Razor, hugging him and slapping him on the back.
“Quite a risk leaving Ava,” Gunner said, the smile leaving his face.
“If you think my wife doesn’t have the full protection of every governmental security agency and a handful of mercenaries, then you don’t know me at all.”
“Hey, Gunner,” said Kade, walking forward to hug him the way Razor had.
“You even got Eighty-eight away from your daughter. I’m stunned.”
Mercer walked forward as well, but waited for Gunner to hug him.
“Still scared of me, are ya?” Gunner said, elbowing him in the side.
Mercer laughed. “You think you intimidate me only because I tolerate your delusions.”
“I appreciate this,” Gunner said, acknowledging each of them.
“Been where you are,” said Kade, the man who had initially brought the team together, and who had served as mentor to the rest of them. “Tell us what you’ve got so far.”
Gunner reiterated what they already knew about Petrov’s relation to Raketa as well as his belief that the woman also being held was her mother.
“Pick up any trace of where he might’ve been headed?” Kade asked.
Gunner had a handful of theories, based mostly on where he knew Petrov wouldn’t be welcome. Mainly, anywhere with Russian or Armenian influence. Unfortunately, that still left a long list of possibilities.
“What’s in the box?” asked Razor. “This one of yours, Doc?”
Kade shook his head and so did Gunner. When they believed he’d been killed while deep undercover, they’d carefully executed the requests he’d made of them.
One request was to deliver a box to Kade’s youngest brother, tasking him with delivering it to the woman that brother was now married to. That hadn’t been the only box Kade had left behind. The rest had been up to Mercer to divvy up per his former boss’s instructions.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he muttered, setting it down on one of the tables. He’d packed the wooden box inside a cardboard one after making sure it was wrapped in acid-free paper and bubble wrap. “I’m not opening it again until I get to the island.”
He looked toward the cockpit and saw Mantis in place. “What’s the hold-up?” he asked.
“Mercer and I are staying here for the time being,” Kade told him. “Razor will travel back with you.”
“I thought you were retiring.”
“That’s the plan. Once this op is complete.”
Gunner looked between the men he knew as Doc and Eighty-eight. “What op?”
Razor laughed and shook his head. “The one where we make sure you get to be the knight in shining armor who rescues the princess, asshole.”
Gunner laughed out loud. “There isn’t a man alive who is less of a knight than I am, nor a woman less of a princess than my Rocket Girl.”
“You have your work cut out for you,” said Kade, picking up his duffel and checking each of his guns before putting them in their various holsters.
“What’s that mean?” Gunner said when no one else reacted.
Razor grasped his shoulder. “It means that I’ve gotta school you in how to handle a woman between here and Chesapeake Bay.”
