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A.
“Wow,” he said, meeting her eyes. “I love it.”
“Do you?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.
He ran his fingers over it and leaned forward to kiss her. “I’ve never loved a gift more.”
“Me either,” Aine said, running her finger over the garnet charms. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had. Does that sound silly?”
“Not at all,” Striker answered, pulling her in as close to him as he could get her. “It’s the best Christmas I’ve ever had too.”
Epilogue
Mantis, Alegria, and Dutch
Alegria had spent most of Christmas Eve talking to Aine, reassuring her that the team who had gone in to search of Striker and Mantis, along with the two CIA operatives they’d been tasked with extracting from their Somali pirate kidnappers, were the best of the best. And that Striker and Mantis were too.
She’d all but promised Aine that Striker would come back safe, and was as happy as everyone else when he and Onyx walked in the front door.
Alegria held her breath, willing more men to follow, but none did. She waited, listening to Onyx give the condensed version of Striker’s rescue, knowing he was leaving out ninety percent of what had actually happened.
“Can we talk?” she asked.
Onyx nodded. “Where?”
“Come with me,” she answered, walking out the front door and down the pathway to the guest house.
“Where are Dutch and Mantis?” she asked once they were inside.
“We weren’t able to get a fix on Mantis’ twenty when we got to Mogadishu, although we had been able to track Striker.”
Alegria closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Go on.”
“It wasn’t until we were able to intercept Striker that we realized Mantis wasn’t with him. Striker was just as surprised that Mantis wasn’t with us.”
“Please, Onyx. Tell me what happened,” she implored, wishing he would just get on with it.
“Dutch has a Somali source who was able to confirm that Mantis had been ambushed on his way into the city. The team agreed that I fly Striker, Halo, and Tackle back to the States while Dutch, Ranger, and Diesel went to extract Mantis.”
“What have you heard?”
“Nothing yet. Hold on. It’s been a while since I’ve checked.” He pulled the phone out and looked at the screen. “They found him.”
“They found him?”
“That’s what it says.”
“Not that they’ve got him?”
“No, ma’am.” Onyx showed her the message.
“Merde.”
“I’ll follow up.”
—
