Against all odds delta s.., p.28
Against All Odds (Delta Shield Security), page 28
“I’ll have to trust you on that one.” She gave him a hesitant smile, and I had a feeling she was still trying to wrap her head around the quick change of events. Going from hostages to back in charge thanks to Carter.
Before I had a chance to speak my mind, Garrison let me know the president was on the line. “He’s in the Situation Room.” He accepted the call, and I let go of Seraphina to take the phone, my mind reeling a bit at talking to the Commander in Chief himself.
“Mr. President.” My heartbeat doubled its rate as I turned from the others, grabbing hold of the back of my neck, working at the tension there.
“Lawson,” he greeted. “I was woken up in the middle of the night and alerted to your situation by a very persistent man.”
“Carter.” Because of Seraphina, a bat signal in the sky popped into my mind, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Sorry about that, Mr. President.”
“I should be apologizing to you, son. This should never have happened. I’ve regretted a few appointments I’ve made in my time in office, but Director Johnson’s deception stings the most.” He let his words sit for a minute, and I had no plans to speak until I was told to.
I wasn’t someone to idolize another person. My dad did a bang-up job fucking up the father role and all, but President Bennett was certainly a man I looked up to and admired.
“While I understand what Johnson set out to do in the beginning, which was to thwart Chinese influence and power over the US, the means and methods he used to go about it I don’t approve of.” The man shared an uncanny resemblance to Denzel Washington, and I realized on the phone with him now, he even had the same soulful and deep voice. “And it’s why Johnson’s special unit has been disbanded, and their operation will be shut down indefinitely.”
Thank fuck. I’d keep the swearing to myself, given who I was speaking to. “How can I help, Mr. President?” I slowly faced the room, finding everyone’s attention set on me.
“Nina Sokolov is in CIA custody. I’m not sure if you’re yet aware of this, but she and her brother were recruited by the Agency over three years ago to help launch the operation . . .” The president continued speaking, sharing what my team had already figured out, and I listened to him as he verified and validated everything we’d assumed to be true, nodding along with every detail he shared.
“Yes, sir. We came to that conclusion ourselves,” I let him know after he finished his explanation.
“The woman you were charged to find by Homeland seems to be critical in helping us take out the Morales cartel while we have the chance, though, am I correct?” That was what I didn’t want to hear from him, but I knew it was coming.
I met Seraphina’s eyes, and the hand massaging the back of my neck dropped to my side. “Yes, Mr. President. We’re under the assumption Ezra Sokolov isn’t aware he’s a pawn in all of this, and we believe he’s after Seraphina to protect himself, and the original plan was to draw out the Moraleses and—”
He went ahead and cut to the point. “I need this mess cleaned up, son. All of it. Do you understand? No ties to our government or military.”
Son? I missed being called son by a father figure. I’d happily be Potus’s “son,” but not if he was asking me to use Seraphina to clean up the mess Director Johnson and Beth’s team had created.
“This is going to be an off-the-books operation.” He sounded as tired as I felt. “I have access to three elite special operations teams that don’t require Congress to . . .” He let his words go, allowing me to catch the drift of what he couldn’t seem to say.
Yup, classified.
“I believe you already met the pilot for Bravo.”
Owen York works for you? Well, fuck.
“My son happens to be on his team. They’re presently on leave, but I’m pulling them in. They’ll be the ones to meet you in Costa Rica and spin up with you. I anticipate we can have them to you in eight hours.”
I let that news sink in. Floor me, actually. Your son, huh?
“My other two teams will be tasked with handling the suppliers and the trafficking routes. The intel we pulled from the files relating to this rogue special project has helped us put together one giant target package on everyone. We can wipe out this whole damn thing that never should’ve been started in the first place.”
“And you want to hit everyone and everything at once? Does that mean you don’t want Ezra walking away from this alive, Mr. President?” Please say yes.
“That’s an affirmative.”
I immediately looked up at Seraphina, and she rested her hand over her heart at the nod I gave her, letting her know the president’s answer.
“We’re not giving up on the war on drugs, or from trying to keep our country safe from threats both foreign and domestic,” Potus began. “But this was never the moral or right way to go about it.”
“I agree, Mr. President.” But I can’t use Seraphina as bait. How the hell did I tell Potus to fuck off on that part?
“What are we doing with Beth?” Alex asked, catching my eye, so I repeated his question.
“Assign someone from the GRS team to stay back with her while you go out tonight, and my guys will bring her back to DC with them after the mission is complete.”
We could also use Hudson’s help as well. He could target what was left of Ezra’s operation in Miami, so I went ahead and gave that suggestion. After Potus agreed, I couldn’t help but ask, “And Carter? Where does he fit in?” I had to believe he’d juggled his plans around to help out.
“Since he’s on the other side of the globe, it makes more sense he lends a hand to my two teams that’ll be operating in Asia.”
“What about the rest of the cartel?” Seraphina asked. “Not all the Moraleses will be here. What if we also have them handled, too? So no new head of the snake can grow back.”
Good idea. I held the phone away from my ear for a moment. “Martín?”
She nodded. “Martín and his team can take down the rest of the cartel there while the others are here.”
That was a plan I could get on board with, and I had a feeling the president wouldn’t pass up that offer, either. I presented her idea to him, grateful that’d been a quick yes from him as well.
There were still a lot of moving pieces and unknowns, but if we were back in charge with the president in our corner, I was confident we’d make it work. Minus the one part. Minus Seraphina being placed in danger.
“It falls apart without me,” she whispered, reading my thoughts.
I closed my eyes, not able to look at her, or anyone, for that matter.
I had to think.
To find a way out of this that didn’t involve her.
But at the familiar sounds coming from outside, my eyes flashed open. We had company.
“Is that a helicopter?” she asked, beating me to it.
Alex was already on the move. Reed and the others as well.
“Sir, I’m going to have to call you back.” And I just hung up on Potus. Fuck. I chucked the phone at Garrison and, on instinct, pulled Seraphina behind me.
I made eye contact with the GRS team’s pilot, confirming he was in there with us, so it wasn’t him flying the helo.
He went over to the window and parted the blinds as I accepted a rifle from Nate. “Not our bird, and they’re fast-roping down. Prepare for a breach.”
“Beth. It has to be her. She must’ve had a backup plan in case her op was canked.” Alex immediately started for the second hallway, accepting a 9mm from Garrison on the way. “She had to have secretly texted someone,” was all I heard from him before he disappeared from view.
“We have them outnumbered,” Reed said, at the window now. “But it looks like they’re about to hit us with smoke or gas. They’re wearing masks.”
“What do we do?” Seraphina stepped around me, somehow managing to keep calm.
“We get the fuck out of here, is what,” Nate said for me. “Come on, there’s another way out.”
“They’re after Beth. We’ll go after her later.” First priority, get Seraphina to safety. I yelled out to Alex to get his ass back here and exfil with us.
“I’ve got him.” Reed waved me off. “Go. Get her out of here.”
I hesitated.
And I never hesitated.
But fuck.
I peered back and forth between Seraphina and Reed, becoming acutely aware of gunshots outside. The GRS operators patrolling the property were engaging, but I doubted they’d be able to hold off a helo overhead for long.
“Go, dammit,” Reed ordered, then went after Alex.
“I’ll go with him,” Garrison offered. “Nate and the others will get you two to safety. I’ll hold off as many as I can to buy you time.”
The last thing in the world I wanted was to leave without my teammates, but I couldn’t help anyone if we were knocked out by a gas agent.
“Yeah, okay.” With my free hand, I took the Glock at my back and offered it to her as we followed Nate and the others in the opposite direction from Beth’s room. “You said you know how to use one of these, right?”
She quickly accepted it. “Point and shoot,” she said as I patted her lower back, urging her to move faster. “I’ve got this.”
I hated this. That she was in danger. That my teammates were. And that I was leaving them behind. I hated this whole damn situation, but I soldiered the fuck on and focused up.
“And I’ve got you,” I promised.
Chapter Forty-Two
Ryder
“Motherfucking son of a . . .” Alex snarled, baring his teeth, and I had to push him back down on the ground.
“Hold still, dammit.” My hands were soaked in his blood, and if he didn’t stop moving, he’d bleed out on me. “Can you keep the flashlight right there?” I directed to Seraphina, who was kneeling next to me alongside our patient.
She smoothed the back of her hand across Alex’s forehead as she held the light up so I could see outside in the dark. “You’ll be okay.” The fact he reminded her of her brother had to make this situation twice as hard on her.
“He’s not swearing up a storm because he’s in pain; he has morphine in him,” I explained while zeroing in on the main problem, and thank God these GRS operators had a decent medkit on hand. “He’s mad because—”
“The bitch shot me,” Alex barked out, trying to sit again, and Reed had to help me pin him back down. He was ready to go after his ex-wife, who’d successfully been extracted less than ten minutes ago.
“She’s gone off the rails.” Reed kept hold of Alex’s arm, trying to prevent him from moving around too much so I could deal with his wound.
“The smoke . . . I couldn’t . . .” Alex finally stopped resisting, which worried me even more that he was fading.
“One more second. Hang on, brother.” I continued to manage his wound, working to stabilize him. I was using the innovative device Nate had provided after we’d made it out of the safe house and were no longer under enemy fire.
“She got away.” Alex started cursing, which was a good sign the device I was using was doing its thing and helping.
“What’s that do?” Seraphina asked as I used the syringe-like applicator at his side where his flesh had been ripped apart and he still had a round embedded beneath his skin.
Reed spoke for me, explaining, “He’s injecting these small sponge-type things into the wound cavity. They expand and exert hemostatic pressure. Think of it like temporarily sealing a flat tire so no air can leak out. Or in this case, blood.”
I opened my hand palm up, a silent request for gauze, and someone handed it to me so I could finish patching him up.
“Better?” Seraphina asked him.
“No,” Alex grunted, clearly still in pissed-off territory. Yeah, you and me both. “My ex tried to kill me, and she got away.” He tried to sit, and I set a hand to his chest to encourage him back down on the grass. Not the best operating table, but we had no choice.
“I’m done with the light,” I let her know. “Not sure if the bullet hit any major organs. There was a lot of blood. We need to get him to a hospital ASAP.”
“No, don’t you dare medevac me to an ER.” Alex, dammit, with the protest. Always putting himself second to a mission. “We need our helo and pilot to chase after her.” The stubborn man tried to sit again. “Beth had her people blow up the bird here.”
“Do you have a death wish, brother?” Reed gritted out. “We’ll get her, but we need you alive.”
We had to first get our Black Hawk back at the villa. I had no clue where the hell we were, but we couldn’t be too far given the time it’d taken to leave the meeting with Ángel to arrive at this safe house.
I pivoted around, searching out the GRS pilot who was now on our side, and he gave me an okay nod he’d have our backs on this. Thankfully, he hadn’t been a Beth loyalist.
After the windows to her bedroom had been blown out so her team could breach, smoke had filled the room just as Alex walked in. I assumed he’d been caught off guard, and knowing him, couldn’t shoot her. However, she hadn’t hesitated. She grabbed a 9mm from one of her rescuers and shot Alex in the torso before her team extracted her, taking her out the window.
She’d only exfil’ed with her two loyal operators that Nate had already warned us about. She’d left Leo behind after rendering him unconscious.
Two more tangos had fast-roped down to the other side of the property where I’d been exiting with Seraphina, and they were after her, not us.
Nate and I took them down. Headshots. No hesitation. Zero fucks given at that point. Thankfully, Seraphina never had to shoot anyone with the 9mm I’d given her. I never wanted her to experience what it was like to take a life.
A door gunner inside Beth’s escape vehicle, a modified Boeing Apache that had no business being anywhere in Costa Rica, had opened fire on us once she was safely on board. He’d forced us to take cover while he blew to high hell the helo parked there, along with the three SUVs.
Only when we were in the clear could we safely move Alex to handle his wound. Hopefully, we hadn’t lost too much time. The fact he was still conscious and could swear were good signs. The morphine I’d shot him up with may have helped the pain but not his anger.
“So, not to state the obvious, but how are we getting to our villa?” Seraphina asked.
“We can’t carry him for miles, and we have to be at least a good ten mikes out from our place, if not more,” I said, trying to work the problem. To think.
“We could call for an ambulance, but then we have to explain what happened, and I don’t think we want to deal with the police. We’re not technically here, remember?” Reed reminded me of my conversation with Potus.
“We have no choice. We have to get him there somehow.” I finally stood, helping Seraphina up as well. I set my hands on my hips, assessing the scene, along with our options. I did a three-sixty, checking out the chaos around us.
While there were no other houses around that I could see, the explosions and “fireworks” would have drawn attention. The authorities were more than likely en route now. We’d all get thrown behind bars until Potus could negotiate our way out. That was a problem second to our first one: Alex’s GSW.
“Ángel,” she announced, and I turned to see her holding her phone. “He’s calling.” I’d forgotten I’d given her cell back before I spoke to the president. “Maybe he can help us?”
Great. Get help from a former cartel member. What choice did we have at this point? “Okay,” I agreed after exchanging a look with Reed, who nodded as well.
Ángel cut straight to it once she had him on speakerphone. “I saw what happened. I didn’t trust her, so I had you all followed after you left my shop. We had a drone up.”
My hands fell to my sides at the news. “Tell me you still have eyes on her.”
“I do. They’ve already landed about six miles due north of that safe house you’re at. I’m not letting them out of my sight. I also have a team on their way to you. Looks like you need a lift.”
That we do. We’d be leaving Leo behind here, though. He could find his own ride home.
“Thank you,” I finally managed, hanging my head in relief. I’d never have thought this man would become a guardian angel for us.
“I need to go after her.” At Alex’s words, I spun back to find him trying to sit, and Reed was at his six, easing him down yet again before he hurt himself.
“We will,” I promised. “The team sent to help her, do you know anything about them? Are they CIA? GRS?”
“This was a surprise even to me,” Ángel began. “But the house she was taken to, well—”
“Don’t tell me,” I cut him off. “I already know.” I swallowed, then lifted my eyes to the dark, starless sky.
“Who?” Seraphina asked.
“Ezra Sokolov,” Ángel answered for me.
“Wait, no, that doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered. “He can’t be in the know, because then . . .”
“I don’t think Ezra’s a CIA asset like Nina is. But Beth is the one he’s afraid to piss off, not his wife.” My shoulders slumped as the pieces came together. “He knows he’s not working for the Russians, because he’s working with her.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Ryder
“I hate you for making me—”
“At least you’ll be alive to hate me.” I slid the door shut and spun my finger in the air, signaling to head out. “Make sure no one gets near him at the hospital,” I told the other GRS operator who’d be accompanying Alex as an escort on the helo.
Ángel’s men had delivered us to our villa, as Ángel had promised they would. Ángel would be joining us soon, bringing with him the coordinates for Beth and Ezra’s location. He assured us he wouldn’t let them out of his sight, and God help me, I couldn’t believe it, but I trusted him.
I waited for the pilot to take off, a foreboding, sinking feeling in the deep pit of my stomach. Not going along with Alex was killing me. Once they were out of sight, I started for our villa, grateful all over again for this place Carter had provided us.
