Finding the Way Back: A Stealth Ops Novel

by Sahin, Brittney

  When he brought his mouth back to hers, she wrapped her legs around his hips and held on tight as he slowed their rhythm.

  He made love to her. And she came again. And she nearly forgot the dangers of the world while their bodies collided.

  But a phone call from Luke when the plane touched down reminded her once again life was short. Life was anything but safe.

  “Roman’s in trouble,” Luke reported over speakerphone as she unbuckled to stand. “His cams and mic are offline now.”

  The color drained from Knox’s face, and he bowed his head, a clear indication of the dread delivered by Luke’s news.

  “We think Roman was trying to tell us something, but there was an issue—we couldn’t hear him clearly,” Luke said in a rush. “Next thing we knew, he was on his knees and lifting his hands in the air, and the men were shining lights on him outside. Pointing guns as he knelt before them. Then our feed died.”

  “How the hell did this happen?” Knox asked, fear in his eyes.

  “I think he surrendered on purpose.” Pain touched each of Luke’s words.

  “Why would he do that?” she asked.

  Knox closed his eyes. “Because he knew we needed a valid reason to go in there, one that wouldn’t get us arrested.”

  “He’s sacrificing himself so our entrance can be legally justified,” Luke explained, and the oh-shit moment hit her. These guys were willing to do anything and everything for the country.

  “He’s giving us an in,” Knox added in a somber tone, which had her heart breaking for him.

  “Why now, though? Why not wait and see how things play out? Jessica’s working on evidence and—” She stopped talking when Knox opened his eyes and peered at her.

  “He’s letting us know we can’t wait. Whatever he discovered, he needs us to go in there right now,” Knox told her.

  “One sec, I have Bravo Four coming in over comms.” A moment later, Luke asked Knox, “How far are you from us?”

  “Thirty minutes,” Knox answered, already starting for the exit.

  “Get here in twenty,” Luke rushed out. “We can’t wait. We’ve gotta head into the compound. We’re mapping out a revised infil plan.”

  “What’s going on?” Knox asked as they exited the plane.

  “Liam has eyes on Roman from his position,” Luke began, his voice slightly shaky. “He’s been placed in the stables, but the fuckers are pouring gasoline on the structure.” He paused for a second. “Looks like they’re getting ready to light the place up.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Knox tightened his hand on the wheel, doing his best not to turn the car around and take Adriana back to the airport.

  He’d told her the truth, but it wasn’t an invitation to join him on his next operation, damn it.

  Roman’s life was on the line right now. They didn’t even know if he was alive. And the rage on the inside, the desperate need to get to Roman in case there was a chance he was still alive—it was the only reason he didn’t turn the car around and bring Adriana somewhere far away and safe.

  But . . . was she right?

  Was it unfair of him to ask her to sit out because he loved her? Cared about her? Because she was a woman?

  Adriana was a trained agent, but was she equipped to go up against a militia? He’d seen her shoot. They’d hit the range in D.C. during his past visits, but had she ever been shot at? She’d never mentioned it, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened. She’d keep that shit from him for the same reason he kept all the crazy-ass stunts he’d pulled in his line of work over the years from her . . . to keep from worrying.

  He glimpsed her as he drove. She’d traded in her khakis and yellow shirt for something that would blend with the setting. Dark pants and a black long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and her hands rested in her lap.

  No slope to her shoulders, though. No sign of fear.

  But he was scared. He was fucking terrified. When his phone rang, it was him who startled.

  “Where are we at on connecting the dots between Leslie and Glenn?” he asked Jessica after placing her call on speaker. “My mom didn’t mention Leslie’s name, so she couldn’t have been connected to her team back in the seventies.”

  “Maybe she didn’t know Leslie back then, but Leslie was in Iran,” Jessica announced. “While you were flying, I discovered her husband worked at the American Embassy in Tehran.”

  “What’d Leslie’s husband do at the embassy?” Adriana reached for Knox’s free hand and laced their fingers together.

  They were working an op.

  Together.

  What planet was he on?

  “The records are shit, but from what I can tell, he worked on the same floor as Nina’s dad,” Jessica answered.

  “So maybe the connection isn’t between my mom and Leslie—”

  “But between Leslie and Nina’s dad,” Jessica finished for him. “Or hell, Nina’s mom. It was her mom who was actually the spy.”

  “Are you suggesting Leslie was also selling secrets to the Russians? Using her husband for intel?” Adriana asked.

  “Does that mean Glenn covered for Leslie?” Jessica asked. “It’d explain why he wouldn’t want the truth to come out.”

  “He could be trying to hide the fact he conspired with the Russians, and our potential VP may have as well.” How the hell had this happened? “I honestly don’t know what to think, but we need to talk to Nina and see what she knows.”

  “Right. We’re spinning theories now,” Jessica reminded them. “I could come up with a half a dozen other reasons to explain everything. We’ll have to see how it shakes out.”

  “And what’s the status on the compound?” He needed good news. So help him, if Roman was dead, he’d have no mercy.

  “Liam and Wyatt are still in position. Harper flew the drone over five minutes ago. No change.”

  No change meant no fire, and they needed to keep it that way.

  “Won’t they see a drone?” Adriana’s spine bowed as worry slipped to the surface.

  “We have special technology,” was all Jessica said, even though she could’ve talked for hours about luminance and angles.

  Adriana relaxed her back against the seat. “Do you think the people at the compound know we’re going to infil?”

  God, he loved it when she talked infil and extractions to him. But shit, wrong time, wrong place for such thoughts. “Probably.”

  “I still can’t believe he’d risk his life to give you guys some sort of legal grounds to go in there. I hope this will hold up in court when this is over, but—”

  “We usually avoid courtrooms, in general. Doesn’t mesh well with covert ops,” he cut her off and refocused on the back road, which had shit for lighting. “But Roman did what any of us would’ve done.”

  “Quinn has the Feds in position,” Jessica said.

  “Hopefully, we won’t need them for backup.” They had to get Nina talking. They needed answers before the FBI took over and Glenn Sterling found out they were onto him. “Has Mendez picked any of this up on his radar yet?”

  “Not that we know of, which is why Quinn only has small teams in Abilene and San Angelo. People she personally vouched for,” Jessica replied.

  Knox briefly dropped his eyes to their clasped palms, and his heart stuttered.

  The woman was stubborn, and maybe he even loved that about her.

  But he didn’t want her to be stubborn right now.

  No, he wanted her to be safe.

  * * *

  “This could very well be our last operation together,” Luke said, his voice eerily low as if trying not to let emotion choke his words. “Let’s make it count. Let’s bring our man home.”

  They were standing in front of Luke with their helmet headlights at the dimmest setting so they could see each other without drawing attention to their presence. But with Adriana at his side, his stomach had that horrible sinking feeling.

  “We’ll g
et this done,” Asher said with confidence.

  Luke nodded. “What’s the status, Echo One?” he asked over comms.

  “It looks like there are some internal problems,” Wyatt replied. “I guess not everyone at the militia is on board with burning the place to the ground. We’ve got five guys arguing about a half a klick from the shooting range.”

  “That may work in our favor if they’re not a united front,” Knox noted.

  “Everyone’s armed, though. We may not be able to stick to rubber bullets on this one,” Wyatt added.

  “We’ll carry both, but let’s do our best not to kill anyone tonight, not unless it comes down to either you or them,” Luke instructed.

  “Where is Echo One?” Adriana faced Knox.

  “Wyatt’s positioned on a tree stand used for hunting. He’s outside the compound,” he explained. “Liam had to improvise.”

  “And that means?” she asked.

  “It means our boy is hanging off the side of a tree,” A.J. joined their conversation. “He’s in a type of sling.” He pointed to his hips. “The tree saddle gives him three-hundred-and-sixty-degree shooting mobility, and he’s up high enough to see what’s going on inside.”

  “Oh.” She looked at Knox. “Sounds dangerous.”

  “He’s done this before. He’ll be fine.” He wasn’t worried about Liam right now because Liam wasn’t going inside the compound—Adriana was.

  “Prepare for infil,” Luke announced, and Knox’s pulse jumped. “Five minutes.”

  “I think they’re about to set the place on fire. They just moved the horses from the stable to another part of the grounds,” Liam said a few seconds later.

  “Well, at least they care about animals.” A.J. shook his head. “I have zero tolerance for a man who’d hurt a horse.”

  “Or a Teamguy, right?” Chris, Echo Three, stood off to A.J.’s left. “Roman sure as hell better be okay and make it out alive or so help me God.”

  “He will,” Harper said, but Knox detected a hint of fear in her tone.

  “We’ll get him out.” Knox nodded at Harper, doing his best to appear calm, even if he was anything but.

  “Got a chest plate on under there?” Adriana asked him while he packed his vest with ammo.

  “Of course.” He peered at the bulletproof vest she had on, then his gaze dipped to the pistol strapped to her leg. Another weapon at her hip. A rifle slung across her body. Combat paint on her face.

  Was this really happening?

  “Please stay here.” His voice broke, and he didn’t give a damn if his brothers witnessed the emotion.

  She may have looked like G.I. Jane, but she was still Adriana, the woman he’d known and loved for twenty years. His Addy.

  “You go, I go,” she repeated what she’d said at the hotel before they’d jetted off to Texas.

  He’d give anything to be back on the bed inside the jet, even if it was his parents’ bed if it meant keeping her away from danger.

  “They’ve got me covered.” He jerked a thumb behind him toward the guys.

  “We need all the help we can get,” Luke said, and his words had Knox turning toward him. “We’re heading inside an unknown situation with fifty armed men inside.”

  “Harper will have eyes on us with the drone up there. We’ll be fine,” Knox countered.

  “And she won’t be able to communicate their locations when our comms go out,” Luke reminded him.

  The last thing Knox needed was for Luke to defend Adriana’s decision to join the operation.

  “I should go,” Harper said. “Roman needs us, and . . .” She looked between Knox and Luke, her concern for Echo Four obvious. “Let me go instead. Adriana can stay back.”

  “We need you to jam the frequencies, control the drone, and maintain contact with Quinn—”

  “Harper can tell Adriana what to do,” Knox interrupted Luke, and Asher reached for his arm as if saying, She’ll be okay.

  But if this was Jessica about to walk into a gunfight no way would he be cool with that.

  “We don’t have time for a lesson,” Finn, Echo Five, said. “Roman’s inside.”

  “It’s Adriana’s call, but she does have training,” Luke pointed out. “And if she says she’s got our six, then, brother, she’s got our six.”

  Harper reached for Luke. “Let me go.”

  A battle between the women as to who should put their lives on the line. Great.

  How about neither?

  But he knew that wouldn’t fly. They were both strong and independent, and so . . .

  Before Luke could say anything, Finn stepped closer to Harper. “You shouldn’t—”

  “Roman is in there,” Harper said, her voice breaking. “I’ll go.”

  “While I respect you want to get your guy out,” Adriana interjected herself into whatever was going on between Finn and Harper right now, “Luke and Finn are right. There’s no time for you to teach me everything. I’ve got this. I promise.”

  “Luke, if this was Eva, you’d never let her go in there.” Knox had to try one more time.

  “And Eva’s not Secret Service,” Luke shot back the reminder.

  “Neither is Adriana. She quit,” he said, regret continuing to fill every inch of him that he ever let her get on that plane.

  This was on him. If something happened to her, he’d be done. No turning to booze like her father had when he’d lost his wife. He meant what he’d said to her earlier.

  His brothers would have to bury him six feet under because life wouldn’t be worth living without Adriana.

  “You have to trust me.” Adriana rested a hand over his bicep.

  “Please,” he begged, contemplating whether he could cuff her inside the van. “If you care about me, you’ll stay here.”

  “I won’t let you lose anyone tonight. Not Roman. Not me. No one.” A grit of confidence blew through her words, and he wanted so much to believe her. To see her in this moment as only a badass agent. But the woman he was in love with would always come first.

  “You can’t see the future,” he said, his chest throbbing.

  “I can, and I’m looking at it.”

  “Damn it, Addy.” He removed his helmet and angled his head so he could reach her lips with her helmet still on. He ignored the taste of face paint touching his lips in the process. Ignored the awkward coughs from his teammates around them.

  “Let’s go get your guy back,” she murmured after their kiss.

  “You kiss and make up? Can we roll now?” A.J. asked as Knox placed his helmet back on.

  “If anything happens to her,” Knox gritted out but was cut off when a shotgun popped in the distance. A 12-gauge.

  “This is Echo One. Darius Hilton shot one of the five guys gunning for the exit. What do you want me to do? I can’t let these men die.”

  Luke dropped his head for a second. “You have Darius in your line of sight?”

  “Yeah,” Wyatt returned.

  “Take him down,” Luke ordered.

  A few seconds later, Wyatt said, “Target is down, but these people will be wondering what the fuck happened. Better get a move on it.”

  “Roger that. We’re going dark in less than two minutes. Prepare to engage,” Luke responded.

  No comms. No way to communicate with each other when Harper killed all radio and cell frequencies for three minutes. But it was also their best chance to get in undetected.

  The power would be cut, too. Meaning, the guys in the compound had no way to communicate with each other, either, or have eyes on them with their security cams disabled.

  “Are we ready to go in there and get our brother back before Nina lights everything on fire?” Chris asked.

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “We’re ready.”

  Knox faced Adriana, and she pulled him in for a hug, his gear clanking against her vest, getting in the way of any real contact between them.

  “Now,” Asher rasped, motioning for them to get a move on.

  Kno
x turned off his headlight and positioned his NVGs in place, the familiar green hue filling his line of sight, then he followed Bravo Three with Adriana at his side to their assigned position.

  The compound was surrounded by a metal fence that could easily be climbed once the security feeds were disabled.

  But they had to rely on Aaron’s rudimentary drawing of where the land mines were located—if they were even still in the same spots. There was always the possibility that new ones had been added. Or hell, the land mines might have only been a scare tactic to keep people off the property.

  They rushed about three hundred meters along the river to one of the weaker spots at the perimeter—not too far from the stables . . . where Roman was hopefully still being held. And hopefully still alive.

  “Damn it,” Liam said over the line. “Nina’s rushing toward the stables now.”

  “Which one?”

  “First,” he said. “Shit, I don’t know. They’re side by side. There could be openings between them, which means she may not stay in the first one.”

  “You in position, Bravo Five?” Luke asked.

  “This is Five,” Knox said while looking at Adriana. “In position.”

  “Prepare for infil,” Luke ordered. “Going dark for exactly three minutes in three, two, one.”

  The comms died. The entire compound went black. And Knox’s stomach dropped knowing what he was about to do—put Adriana in danger.

  He placed one hand on top of the other, and Adriana positioned her booted foot in his palm for a boost over the fence. He and Asher quickly followed.

  “Land mines,” he mouthed to Adriana, not that she’d needed the reminder, but he couldn’t help himself.

  Gunfire, from somewhere on the compound, rang in his ears. His teammates had already been forced to engage.

  And like hell were those rubber bullets the militia fired.

  “No targets in sight,” Asher whispered, standing off to Knox’s left, as they made their approach to the stables.

  “We still sticking with rubber?” he asked, moving with caution, avoiding the landmarks Aaron had pointed out on the map where the explosives were buried.

  “Do what you have to do.” Asher held a fist in the air, signaling for them to stop.