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“Got it, I will.” He nodded.
“But all this comes in second,” I went on. “Top priority is getting victims to safety, and then we’ll examine them.”
“Understood.”
* * *
Elliott Jones
There goes the last light.
I turned on my earpiece. “Jones online.”
“RQ online,” Ryan said.
“Gray online,” Gray said.
Everyone else followed. We were ready.
Ramirez confirmed he heard us all.
My stomach tightened with last-minute nerves, and I would’ve chain-smoked on the way if we didn’t have to worry about the smell reaching our targets. Joel was the freaking weatherman now, keeping track of everything between humidity and the direction of the wind.
“Let’s move out, everyone,” I said. “Remember, only speak when necessary—and shoot to kill, except for Carillo. Lights off, and Gray and Shay, you stay a minimum of twenty yards behind Darius and Mercier.”
I signaled to Joel and Reese, with Joel taking the lead, me following, and Reese going third.
Ryan headed first for the other side of the mountain, Crew hot on his tail, with River trailing after.
Ortega, Mercier, and Darius approached straight ahead.
In under ten seconds, the others were out of sight, and I had to let my eyes adjust to the darkness.
We’re coming, darling. Just a few more minutes.
I lowered my night vision monocular and picked up the pace to keep up with Joel. I was gonna keep an eye on him till everyone was safe. Knowing him, he’d risk his life to bring Blake back, and that wasn’t good enough. Those two had to go home together. If anyone was risking their life, it was me.
“Heads up, Petrov’s on the phone again,” Darius reported. “Mercier will translate and give an update shortly.”
“Roger.” I jumped up on a boulder and glanced up the slope. We were almost halfway around.
* * *
Gray Quinn
Shay and I squatted down when we reached our spot halfway up the mountain. Darius and Adrien continued farther up till we couldn’t see them anymore. So far away from city lights and infrastructure, dark meant pitch-black.
“They’ve concluded a perimeter check,” Adrien said, sounding confused. “Either they’re just circling the immediate property, or we need to be really fucking careful because we might not be alone if someone’s on their way back.”
Everyone offered a quick confirmation, and I scanned my surroundings. Not that there was much to see. It was deathly quiet as well. The wind was picking up a bit, but that was all.
Shay grabbed my arm and pointed at something—holy shit. I saw the erratically moving beam from a flashlight a second later. Whoever it was, they were heading toward our vehicles.
“We have movement at the bottom of the mountain, approximately fifty yards from the cars,” I reported quietly. “Shay and I will approach to see if it’s a hostile.”
We were immediately met by hushed protests from Darius, River, Reese, and a couple others, but that was their overprotectiveness talking. I fucking knew what I was doing.
“You stay in your position, knucklehead,” Darius growled under his breath.
