Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Nap? Are you serious? I can’t nap. I’m not staying alone in some hotel room going crazy.”
“Baby, you can’t leave this hotel. I can’t be worrying about you when I need to be focusing on what I’m doing.”
“I’ll wait with the women and girls. The baby needs diapers anyway and some clothes.” I already felt attached to them. Plus, they had survived worse situations than I could ever imagine. They’d be my reminder to be brave.
He studied me for a second. “Okay. I’ll walk you down to the gift shop. It’s closed, but Leland has the master key. Then you stay on the forty-fifth floor. No leaving.”
Ten minutes later, I had a bag containing whatever baby products the gift shop had—diapers, wipes, five small I heart Vegas onesies, a pacifier, and a couple bibs.
Carson dropped me back off at the room where the women and girls were, kissed me one final time, and left.
I sank down onto the couch, but Yoselin gestured for me to join all of them, still on the bed, the baby and Maria fast asleep. Good thing it was a King.
And so that’s where I waited for Carson, surrounded by those who had survived the unthinkable but were still able to give comfort when they saw another woman in need of it. And if that wasn’t a thing of generous beauty, I didn’t know what was.
_________
Carson
We all pulled out of the garage together, Dylan turning in the opposite direction to go to the estate where Bakos was hiding his family. I hoped to God he’d be all right. He wasn’t trained for the physical aspect of this and he’d need to get as close as possible to the residence in order to make the video we needed to pull this off. We couldn’t ever afford to get complacent—especially after what had happened on our last mission.
We needed more team members. Preacher would be joining us in the next year. He had agreed to move his family in order to work with us. And Noah would join us as well, as soon as his tour was over. It’d make the whole operation that much safer. But for now, we had to work with what we had—there wasn’t much of a choice.
We followed the GPS to the location Dylan had given us and parked a couple blocks away. And then we walked the several blocks to the warehouse, sticking to the shadows of the other buildings. The area was mostly industrial and deserted due to the holiday.
Just like Dylan had said, there were no outside guards. We moved toward the building carefully and quietly, ducking behind anything we could upon our approach.
Steady. Steady. Head on a swivel. No mistakes. I’m coming home to you, buttercup.
Josh and I watched behind us as Leland picked the backdoor lock. He had the door open in roughly thirty seconds. We all put our night vision goggles down and activated the building layout Dylan had downloaded. It showed up in the upper portion of our goggles.
Thankfully our budget was such that we had the most high-tech devices available.
We had already cleared several rooms without hearing any noise when Leland halted in front of us. We all listened carefully. Was that music?
At Leland’s command, we moved forward. Well, holy shit, it was music. Christmas music. We had showed up for a regular holiday party.
I glanced back at Josh and he gave me the thumbs-up sign, grinning.
We moved in closer and I gestured to Leland to move to the right of the door. Josh took the left. The door was old and wooden, with a cheap, builder-grade lock. Whether it was engaged or not, I wasn’t worried.
I held up my fingers, counting, and when I got to three, Leland and Josh looked away as I used all my force to kick the door open. It crashed inward, splinters flying, and we moved in before it could swing back toward us.
The guard closest to the door turned, raising his gun, but Leland moved on him and had him in a choke hold, his weapon clattering to the floor, before the other two men in the room had even fully turned around. He might not be able to run as fast as he used to, but Leland McManus was still a badass.
Josh scooped up the guard’s gun, stuck it in the back of his pants, and with one swift movement, brought his knee up and made contact with the other guard who’d been sitting in a chair and was just starting to stand. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
I went for the third man, who I recognized immediately by the pictures I had seen. Gabriel Bakos, evil-piece-of-shit extraordinaire. He sneered at me. “Come and get me, little boy.”
Little boy? Was he joking? He was backing up across the room, going for something in the waistband of his pants. Oh no you don’t. I rushed him and spun him around, removing the gun from his waistband and taking him in a choke hold as I held my own weapon to his side. He grunted as I pushed it into his soft flesh.