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CHAPTERONE
They’d done their knock and announce, receiving no answer, which meant they were about to go in.
“Sound off,” Talia barked, ready to breach the one-story building.
“Andera, up,” Cisco barked into his mic.
“Lumous, up.”
“Nadirm, up.”
“Connaret, up.”
Doug, Jess, and Azis responded in turn.
Talia looked over her five-person squad, all hyped with adrenaline, and gave the order. “Go, go, go!”
In diamond formation with Talia in the center, the quintet moved forward at a crouch. Cisco wielded the steel battering ram, both hands firm on the large tool, dealing two solid blows to the wooden portal. The door split down the middle, and he used a booted foot to kick the wood clear before moving aside so the rest of the squad could enter.
Doug and Jess went first, aiming their weapons high, as Talia, sandwiched behind and between them, went low with Azis on her six. There was nothing to be seen.
“Clear,” she yelled.
“Andera, Nadirm, take left.” She pointed her weapon at a room with the door closed. “Lumous, you follow me.” There was a corridor to the right that led into the kitchen, then out the back of the house, according to the building plans they’d studied before beginning the op. “Connaret, stay put and cover our asses from anyone coming up our rear.”
Her squad members gave her succinct nods, but before she could move forward, Doug sent her an arrogant look and bypassed her position, taking point and moving forward without permission. Talia growled deep in her chest. It wasn’t the first time the asshole had made a show of usurping her authority, but it might just be his last. She’d had it with his attitude. He was such a fucking wild card.
As soon as this was over, Talia was going to kick his ass and read him the riot act. If he thought he’d continue to get away with his bullshit, he was mistaken.
“Clear,” she heard from her squad members left behind.
“Clear,” Doug said from his position, having moved farther down the hallway from her, barely glancing into the kitchen on his way by.Taliaentered the kitchen, checking under all surfaces and in cabinets before yanking open what she knew to be a pantry door. There, inside, was their perp.
“On your knees, hands on your head,” she ordered, grabbing the perp and lurching him forward until he was in position. She knocked him to his belly and was atop his prone body in less than two seconds, binding his hands behind him with the zip-ties on her belt.
“Kitchen clear. Suspect located and detained,” she snarled into her mic, angry as hell at Doug. She got to her feet and looked down the hallway where he’d disappeared. He’d opened the back door, against orders, and was now nowhere to be seen.
“Okay. We’re done here,” she growled. “Everybody out front.”
Leaving the dummy on the ground in the mocked-up kitchen that had been configured for their day’s drill, Talia stomped back through the sparse living room and back out into the daylight of their training grounds. She was furious. Beyond furious, but she needed to get a handle on her anger before addressing her squad. With the exception of Doug, they’d done well, performing competently and in synch. She had to remind herself of that before she blew a gasket and got labeled, “hysterical female” by the bane of her existence; a term she’d heard a number of times from him over the past few weeks, albeit always under his breath.
Her chief, Mason, must have seen the frustration on her face before she could clear it, because he strode over to her and gave a chin thrust toward the command bus. “Join me before you debrief,” he ordered.
“Squad E, clear,” she remembered to say so the drug-house scene could be reset for Squad F to do their thing. Then she followed Mase at a trot. His legs were about twice as long as hers, and he wasn’t cutting her any slack. Just the way Talia liked it. She was five foot two, but that didn’t mean she was “less” than anyone else.
“What happened in there?” Mason clipped as soon as they were on the bus and away from the curiosity of her peers. “The back door alarm sounded before the perp in the kitchen was secured.”
Talia knew they had cameras inside, showing every part of the home’s interior so Mason and the tech crew could monitor the drills. He knew exactly what had gone down. That he wanted her to rehash it, didn’t bode well.
“Doug again, sir,” Talia huffed, frustrated that she’d have to deal harshly with her recalcitrant squad member for the second time today. The first instance where he’d gone rogue, they’d been mimicking a highway traffic shut-down, searching for a kidnapped child—a dummy like the one she’d taken down in the kitchen. Doug had drawn his gun on one of the drivers before they’d ascertained he was the actual kidnapper. It had been a rookie move, and Talia had dragged him over the coals for it.
Mason continued. “If you can’t keep him in line, Talia, your squad will be useless to me on call-outs. We can’t have any wild cards on our team messing things up. Say the word, and he’s gone.”
Mason had made the offer before, the previous month during drills when Doug had done a few things that were equally as bone-headed, but Talia had fought to keep her squad together, certain she could get him under control. Maybe Mason was right, but she wasn’t quite ready to give up on Doug, yet.
“Let me talk to him one more time. After we have a word, I’ll sideline him for the next drill, and let him cool his heels. It’ll either get him thinking about his behavior, or walking out, because he’s going to be spitting mad.”
“Not an attitude we need when we’re trying to work as a cohesive unit, Talia,” Mason warned. “Tell him, from me, if he can’t keep his shit together, he’s finished.”
