“What the fuck was that?” Ryker backed away and settled into the seat opposite me. A glance around the cabin revealed multiple sets of eyes staring at me.
“Panic attack,” Skye explained my reaction to whomever cared while I closed my eyes in shame.
My job was to lead this task force. Now, they doubted my sanity. I’d just lost my ever-loving shit in front of my men.
Skye sat beside me and was buckled in. If anything happened to her during this operation, her husband would have my balls strung up in a sling.
But nothing would happen to Skye.
Her role kept her far from danger. I was the one rushing in, and we hadn’t stopped arguing about that. From the look on her face, we’d be having another conversation.
“You don’t need to—” she began.
It looked like we were having it now.
“You’re not talking me out of this.”
“But Forest, you can’t even get in the helicopter which is taking you to a plane, which will take you to another helicopter which…will take you to him.” She gave an exasperated huff. “Come on. This is an obvious trigger. Your skill set is not a frontline operative. You know this.”
I knew it.
Skye was right.
She always was.
It’s what I loved about her.
That didn’t mean I had to agree. My computer skills pulled us out of the deepest hell. I played the market and turned ten dollars into a hundred.
A hundred into a thousand.
Thousands into millions.
And millions to billions.
I did that.
Me, my computers, and my unique brain.
Next to Skye, computers were my best friends. They didn’t leak messy feelings all over the place like people. I understood computers and they understood me.
People, on the other hand?
They confused the hell out of me, and I never got it right.
But Skye wasn’t taking this from me.
I’d cracked the code on human emotions by studying people. I felt pretty confident in my abilities to navigate the landmine of nonverbal body language and innuendo in spoken conversation.
My body was a tool I honed to the sharpest edge. I forced Skye to take some of the self-defense classes I took, but I was a master of several martial arts and various fighting techniques.
And I was fucking huge.
My body was a weapon, and I would bring that to the fight against Snowden.
Skye didn’t know it, but this wasn’t a catch and recovery operation. Snowden wasn’t going to meet his end by a jury of his peers. I had every intention of bringing Snowden down and making sure he never took another breath, or hurt another child, ever again.
My sister would not approve.
So, I didn’t tell her about my plans.
Instead, I came apart in the back of the damn helicopter on the very first leg of our operation.
Fucking PTSD.
“I’m going.” I looked hard into her eyes. “I’ll be there when we take him down. I want him to know I’m the one who did it.”
“But Forest, you’re not trained for this.”
“I’ve spent my entire adult life training for exactly this.”
I never served in the military—Asperger’s was a disqualifying condition—but that didn’t mean I didn’t train with the best the military had to offer.
Every man and woman on my team were members of special operations teams. I had former SEALs, Delta operatives, and Skye’s medical team, which were a part of the Air Force’s Special Ops Surgical team, working for me.
I was the commander of my little army.
“I’m going.” I crossed my arms over my chest and turned away. Conversation over.
But she poked me. “We’re not done.” My sister poked me again.
“We’re done.” My exaggerated, slow blink brought a huff from her tiny little mouth.
“Are not.”
“Are so.”
“Dammit, Forest, why won’t you listen to reason?”
“When you’re ready to accept why I need to be there, I’ll listen to the words flapping out of your mouth. Until then, you have nothing to say I want to hear.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but I held up my index finger, silencing her.
“You don’t get it. I need to do this. I can’t sit behind the computer screen while others go in. And I have trained for this. I’ve trained for over a decade. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“If that’s so, then why did you have a meltdown? You can’t do that in front of Snowden. He’ll eat you alive.”
Snowden had already done far worse.
I had no answer for my sister. She could be right for all I knew. Except, this was something I had to do.
The helicopters took my team to the airport where we offloaded, then reloaded all our gear into one of my corporate jets.
I had my shit together and felt pumped to get started.
That would have to wait because our flight would take over half a day. I preferred the plane to the cramped quarters and the noise of the helicopter, and I liked my company’s private jet.
Every seat was one of those first-class pods. We had a sixteen-hour flight ahead of us, and I wanted everyone well-rested. In the middle of the plane, there were two private suites walled off from everyone else. I took one and gave the other to my sister.
At least that was the plan.
Instead, Skye, Ryker, and Tia shoved inside the cramped space of my not so private retreat.
These were more than friends. Skye was family. Tia had been one of my early rescues—Sara had been the first—Tia went to nursing school, wound up working in Skye’s emergency department, where Skye convinced her to become a certified nurse anesthetist.
Against my wishes, Tia refused all scholarships from our foster rescue foundation. Instead, she signed up for the military and went to nurse anesthetist school on the military’s dime.
Tia had wanted to see the world.
The military sent her to Afghanistan, where she and Ryker got together.
I met Ryker at Bagram Air Base, where he blew me away with his skill on the bass guitar. Angel Fire had plans to go on tour in the Afghanistan theater, and he saved the day after a bus accident took out Angel Fire’s bassist, Bent.
While Ryker carried the tour, the military man who played on stage with the rock legends who were Angel Fire, Bent slowly recovered the use of his busted-up arm. Ryker and Tia hooked up, something that cost Tia her career, but for me, everything worked out perfectly.
I got two top-notch special ops, surgical team members, to anchor Skye’s medical team. Bent got better with the help of a perky physical therapist he hated…at least until Piper got ahold of him.
Thoughts of Piper Rains had me thinking about her brother, and I hoped to hell my intelligence was correct. Her brother had been abducted, lost as far as we knew, but I found him and promised Piper I would bring her brother home.
I just hoped he hadn’t died in Snowden’s death matches. It had taken far too long to get to this point.
All in all, for a boy who lost his parents, I had found a new family along the way. I counted myself lucky and blessed.
They were also a royal pain in my ass because Skye had been talking to Ryker and Tia. This was a last-ditch intervention.
“You know…” Ryker leaned against the doorframe. “Most commanding officers stay in Command and Control, monitoring the troops from there.”
“I’m going,” I said.
“Ryker has a point.” Tia placed her hand on my arm. “You can direct from there, as things change, and they always do, it’ll be up to you to react, respond, and redirect.”
“I’m going.” I practically growled out the words.
“Forest, I think you’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment on this one.” Skye wrung her hands, wanting to touch me, but knowing she couldn’t.
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you
think. I’m going to be the one who takes him down. I want him to see my face when I do it.”
I wanted my face to be the last thing the bastard ever saw.
Skye would want to save me from that. She didn’t want my soul sullied by murder.
She should know.
That was the weight she bore every day. Skye killed our foster father to keep me safe. When she learned Snowden planned to take me and put me in the death matches, she did what it took to free us.
I’d let her carry that burden for far too long. It was time I stepped up and took care of the rest.
I crossed my arms over my broad chest and stared down at all of them.
“What I think is that we’re getting ready to take off. The three of you need to take your seats, buckle up, and put your tray tables in their full and upright position. Settle in, sit back and relax. Enjoy your damn flight, and leave me the fuck alone. I’m going in with my team, and there’s nothing the three of you can say to change that.”
Ryker gave Tia a look. “Come on, T, the boss has spoken.” He raised his hands, palms out in surrender, and gave a jerk of his head.
“Let’s find our seats and strap in. It looks like this is going to be a bumpy ride.” Tia gave Skye a sympathetic look, then took hold of one of Ryker’s hands.
Her emphasis on that word had me gritting my teeth, and I gave her an irritated look, which she ignored. Tia pulled Ryker to the back to find their seats while Skye stood in the doorway with her tiny fists bunched up.
“We’re not talking about this anymore,” I said. “I’m going.”
“Oh, I know you are, you frustrating, mountain of a man, but I’m allowed to be worried. When was the last time you lost it like that? What’s going to happen when you see him again?”
“Skye…”
“I know you’re a tough guy now. But Snowden? Seeing him is going to trigger you, and we can’t afford anything like what happened in the helicopter to happen during this mission.”
She pointed outside my cabin toward our team.
“You have twelve highly trained military operatives who lived and breathed this kind of stuff when they were in the military. You’ve run them ragged with training, but they know how to dissociate their emotions from the mission. You don’t.”
“So?”
“It makes you a liability. Why can’t you see that?”
“Why can’t you have a little faith in me? Why can’t you see why I need to be there?”
“I know why you want to go. I do, but I don’t see this ending well.”
“I’m not that little boy anymore. I’m not afraid of the dark.”
Skye took in a deep breath. “I know, Forest. I do. You’re not my little beanpole anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t worry.”
I did something I rarely did. I reached out and traced the line of her jaw with the back of my knuckles. That was the only kind of touch I could handle without going into cataleptic shock.
“I love that you worry about me. It means a lot. But I need you to have faith in me. Can you do that for me, my summer sky? Can you have faith in me?”
She blew out a frustrated breath and looked up. “I will, Bean. I don’t like it, but I’ll try.”
“Good. Now, try to get some sleep. Once we land, we’re going to hit the ground running.”
“Promise you’ll be safe.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Promise you won’t need me.”
She didn’t mean her.
Skye meant her medical team.
I didn’t think we’d be walking into a firing match. We were prepared, and I didn’t believe Snowden would be that paranoid that we would face any real resistance.
We were going to swim in under the radar, sneak into the event, and grab Snowden before anyone could blink.
Then, I would kill him.
I anticipated no problems.
Chapter Seven
Forest
We left before midnight Central Standard time and found ourselves halfway around the world in the Philippines sixteen hours later. We'd crossed the international date line, which meant while it felt like early evening to us, the people of Manilla were waking up to a new day.
My team rested on the flight. We were going to struggle with jet lag but would get through it.
Xavier had his men meet us at the airport, and when I glanced out the window, I could see we would be traveling in style. He'd chartered a luxury bus.
I hopped down the stairs and breathed in the humid air as Ben Chambers beamed up at me. Sweat beaded my brow instantaneously. The stifling heat made it hard to breathe.
Standing beside Ben were the members of his team: Chad, Bay, and Mel. Like my men, they were former military special ops, trained to get in and get out without being seen and to fight as dirty as it took to get the mission done.
"Hey, Forest." Ben held out his hand, and we shook. "How was the flight?"
"Not bad."
Skye tried to talk to me after we took off, but I pushed her out of my tiny cabin, popped some melatonin, and fell into a dreamless sleep. My body was well-rested and eager to get things going. I considered that a win.
Chad, Bay, and Mel stepped forward, shaking my hand and thumping my back. I could do without all the back thumping, but it seemed to be a thing with these men.
"We've got luxury wheels for you." Mel gestured to the motorcoach.
"Is Xavier here?"
"He'll meet up with us later." Ben stepped forward and opened his arms wide for Skye. "How've you been, sweetie? How's the kid?"
"He's getting bigger every day. Thanks." Skye went for the hug instead of shaking hands.
"Hey, T." Ben passed Skye to Chad, who buried her in a hug. Tia folded into Ben's embrace while he gave Ryker a smirk. "Your girl smells like heaven."
Ryker pulled Tia out of Ben's grip, then swung out his hand to shake. They did the chest bump thing and followed it with a smack to the back.
I rolled my eyes through the whole thing.
Skye hugged Bay and Mel, stepping back as Tia greeted the men. Ryker followed along behind the women.
Was this a damn reunion or a fucking operation?
The last time we'd all been together had been when we'd taken Zane Carson down.
Josh Davenport had mocked up a snuff operation, pretending to kill his twin brother's slave, Kate Summers, in front of Carson as a demonstration of a new service he planned to offer.
Carson, with Snowden, showed more than a little interest in expanding their business, peddling death for entertainment. Unfortunately for Carson, Josh's invitation to one of their matches resulted in Carson's death. Unfortunately for me, it sent Snowden running for cover.
I would say the whole thing set back my operation, except I had nothing on Snowden before Josh getting involved. He recovered Carson's cell phone, which, in a roundabout way, finally led me to Snowden.
And I do mean roundabout.
Snowden went to ground after that disastrous event. His death matches stopped, putting a massive dent in his bottom line. The man was hungry, but we found him again, and the bastard was up to his old tricks.
During Josh's operation, we rescued a score of young boys consigned to live or die in Snowden and Carson's sick game, as well as far too many young girls pressed into the slave trade. Snowden had his fingers in a lot of really disgusting shit. All that would end before the sun set.
We were kind of like freedom fighters reuniting to take down the next big bad guy on the list, but that didn't mean we had to do all the chest-bumping and back-thumping crap.
What a waste of time.
"We going to shoot the shit all day?" I glanced at Ben and what seemed the ponderously slow loading of the bus. "Or are we going to get this show on the road? Xavier did say our timetable was tight."
I glanced at my watch and did a little mental math taking into account the length of our flight and the change in time zones. We were going to be cutting things close and didn't have tim
e to dick around.
"Everybody on board!" I shouted to my team, who were unloading the jet and putting everything on the bus.
My team climbed on board the bus while I wiped the sweat from my brow. It was fucking hot in Manilla.
Our ride lasted longer than I would have liked. The roads were passable at best and scary as shit the rest of the time. Eventually, we pulled into a huge compound surrounded by massive cinderblock walls. Mel stopped the bus in a courtyard where two military helicopters sat with their rotors anchored to the ground.
I may have my hand in a lot of shit, but my businesses were above board and legal. Xavier straddled the line between two worlds, and I was curious as shit about how he managed to obtain not one, but two helicopters.
Mel opened the door of the bus, and I was the first to climb out.
Ben followed. "Have your team park their gear over there." He pointed to an open garage. "We'll meet inside and get everyone briefed."
"How long do we have?"
"A few hours to make our insertion. You'll be dropping-in a little over a half-mile offshore."
Everyone went to work. I didn't mess with my gear. Someone would sort it out and bring me what I wanted; there were perks to being the boss.
Skye stuck tight to my side with her disapproving frown front and center. Tia and Ryker, along with their trauma surgeon, Dr. Eli Tool, went with my men to set their gear aside. Strictly support, the chances of us needing their particular skill set amounted to zero.
They were here as a concession to Skye. She told me long ago if there was a chance of bullets flying, she would be there to patch up the damage.
We followed Ben inside and found ourselves gathered around a large dining table. Maps cluttered the top reminding me of a wartime strategy session. I supposed that wasn't far off. However, we had other assets. Computer screens covered the far wall. Radar, weather, and views from the nose cone of our drone, among other things, were continuously updated.
"Where's Xavier?"
"Right here." A voice called out from behind me, and I spun around.
Xavier greeted me with warm eyes and a firm handshake. "How was the flight?"
"Long, but comfortable."
Forest's Fall (Captive Hearts Book 3) Page 6