Rylie grabbed bags from the cooing women and headed toward the kitchen. Karen followed her.
Karen took the time in the kitchen to ask Rylie how her foster siblings were doing. It was a complicated story, but she and Dare had custody of three children ranging in ages seventeen to eight.
“The two oldest like San Diego a lot better than Oklahoma. Georgie desperately misses the woman who used to take care of him when I was out of town. We SKYPE almost every day with Mrs. Whitehawk, but it doesn’t matter. I think it’s the autism, because he can’t touch and feel her, he can’t comprehend that it’s her on the screen.”
Karen hadn’t met Georgie, but she’d heard about him from Dare. Both he and Rylie were devoted to the eight-year-old.
“Has he started school?”
Rylie brightened. “Dare found a place for him, and he attends three times a week, he’s acclimating really well. I never thought that would be possible.”
“That’s wonderful,” Karen said.
“Are you going back to teaching?” Rylie asked.
“I’m going to wait for Andrew to get just a little older, then I’m going to get certified in California. After that, yes, I’m going back to teaching. I love it.”
“I could see you in front of a class.” Rylie smiled.
“Quit yakking in there, the party’s out here,” Lydia called from the living room.
Karen took a sip of her milkshake as she headed toward the living room and realized she was starving. Lydia saw it and laughed.
“Rylie, we need to feed the Mama. Where are the dumplings?”
Soon everything was plated, and everybody was eating their food and talking in the living room.
The conversation soon turned to Karen’s wedding. Sophia told Karen some of the ideas she had for the desserts and Karen told the girls some of the problems she was having with the caterer. Eventually they started talking about the men in their lives.
“You do realize, you’re marrying the biggest caveman of them all, don’t you?” Lydia asked.
“I might have the biggest caveman of them all, but it’s my job to make sure he has a safe place to land. I make sure I’m always watching his back too. It’s a partnership, Ladies.”
“I like to think that I coddle Clint,” Lydia said.
“You would.” Sophia laughed.
Sophia’s phone rang. Then Lydia’s. They both went for their purses.
Karen listened as they both started taking calls from their men. Then Rylie’s phone rang, and she handed Andrew to Karen. When Angie and Beth’s phone rang, Karen knew what was going on. The men had been called on a mission. She cuddled Andrew close and waited for her phone to ring.
All the women walked around the apartment to different spots for privacy, one to the kitchen, one down the hall, one to the balcony and Lydia turned her back on the couch and whispered into her phone. Karen got up and walked past Rylie to her bedroom and shut the door. She put Andrew down in the bassinette and called Drake.
“Hey, Honey,” he answered. “Is everything okay?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because, once again you’re not going on a mission.”
He didn’t answer.
“Drake?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to say that you’re going with your team members,” Karen said in frustration. “I want you to say that you’re going to do the job you love.”
“I am going to do what I love, which is stay home with my woman and son.” She heard just as much frustration in his voice as there had been in hers.
“Dammit, Drake. I had my doctor’s visit. Everything is fine.” She paced around the bed, trying but failing to keep her voice down. “Piper’s here with me during the evenings and weekends. This is your job.”
“I have family leave. I’m taking it.”
God the man was so block-headed she needed a hammer and chisel to get through.
“I refuse to be an anchor.”
“How could you and our son ever be an anchor?” His voice was rising too.
“You’ve told me how your team acts as a unit. How every one of you is an integral part of a mission. Well I know you. I know you. They need you, Drake Avery. Get your ass on that plane or boat, or whatever, and go with them.”
Andrew started crying at her raised voice. She went over and patted his tummy, it didn’t help.
“Ship. They’re called ships. And we’d be going on a plane. What’s wrong with Andrew?”
Then she heard it. This wasn’t about her needing him to stay home to take care of her, he was having trouble leaving because of her near-death experience and he was loathe to leave their son. God, how stupid was she?
“He doesn’t like it when his mommy is arguing with his daddy.”
“We’re not arguing,” Drake protested.
“Yes, we are.,” Karen sighed. “Get on the ship.”
“I’m going on a plane.”
She let out a deep breath. The knot in her chest unravelling. “So, you’re going?”
She heard his sigh through the telephone. “Didn’t you just give me an order? I live to serve.”
She giggled. “I’ll remember that when I’m finally healed up.”
“Oh, so I’m not on the naughty list anymore. You’re going to give me the go ahead?” he teased.
“You know I can’t resist you,” she teased back.
Magically, Andrew settled at her laugh. She sat on the side of the bed and cuddled the phone close, waiting for Drake to continue to talk.
“You’re sure you’re going to be alright?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m absolutely positive.”
“I worry about you.”
“Drake, who don’t you worry about?”
“Clint. I don’t worry about Clint.”
She laughed. “You have your ‘go bag’?” she asked, referring to the bag that contained everything he needed to leave at the drop of a hat. He normally kept it in his truck, but he might have taken it out since Andrew was born.
“Yeah, Baby, I have it.”
“Do you need to leave immediately?”
“I do,” he said quietly.
“We love you.”
“I love you more,” his Southern accent was thick.
“Stay safe.”
“Always.”
Chapter Five
“IT WAS A COORDINATED effort,” Captain Hale said grimly. He was briefing Midnight Delta and Black Dawn. The pictures on the screen showed the explosion at the airport in Douala, Cameroon.
“How many casualties?” Mason asked.
“Over one hundred, at least twenty dead. The car bomb at the Nigerian Embassy killed three of our marines. They stopped it before it made it to the building itself.”
“Hooyah,” the SEALs shouted.
“My sentiments exactly. Boko Haram has taken credit for both incidents. One thing that both Nigeria and Cameroon are working to keep under wraps is the fact that a girl’s orphanage on the Cameroon side of the border was overrun.”
“Fuck.” Drake’s heart sank. The high-profile kidnapping of over two hundred girls from a school in 2014 was just one incident, there were many more that flew under the radar.
“How many girls?” Finn asked. Mason’s head turned swiftly to stare at Finn, he knew how badly affected he had been when young girls had been trafficked in the past.
“It’s not known,” Captain Hale said.
“What’s our mission?” Mason asked. Drake could read the waves coming off his entire team, they all wanted to go after the girls.
“The CIA has intel that there is going to be a shipment of arms coming into either Ekong, Nigeria or Mundemba, Cameroon. I need both locations covered.”
Well that explained why both teams were being briefed. Come on Cameroon. He had a feeling that was where the tangos were going to be. He wanted them. He wanted them badly. He fe
lt heat on his neck. He turned and saw Clint staring at him. He mouthed Cameroon. Yep, it was a lock.
Gray Tyler, the lieutenant of Black Dawn spoke up. “Is our mission contained to just stopping the shipment?”
Captain Hale looked at Gray, then at Mason. “Your mission is to stop the shipment first and foremost. As always, I trust my teams to get the job done. I understand that every mission is fluid, and you will do what is right.”
Damn, Captain Hale had tacitly given them permission to save the girls if at all possible, as long as they stopped the shipment. Mason caught his eye. He could read his mind. He’d planned to help the girls no matter what. Righteous.
“You’re flying out in an hour. Black Dawn will be going to the airstrip the CIA identified in Nigeria. Mason, you and your team will be headed to Cameroon. You’ll be sharing transport to the Margaret Ekpo Airport in Nigeria. There’ll be choppers waiting to take you close to your destinations.”
“Was the orphanage close to the Margaret Ekpo Airport?” Aiden asked.
“The orphanage was in Amoto, Cameroon, which is almost exactly sixty clicks from Mundemba, but it would take you ten hours to get there from the airport because the Cross River National Park is basically a jungle. That’s why you need the choppers.”
“I’m leaving the rest of the coordination up to the two of you. I’ll need reports as often as possible when you hit the ground. Do you have any questions?”
“Who’s our intelligence liaison?” Mason asked.
“You’ve got two. Sheila Baker is CIA, she’s going with you, she’ll be here soon. Then there is Edwin Marsh, he’s with the Nigerian Embassy, he’ll be meeting you at the airport. By the time you get there, he’ll have something set up.”
Gray asked what Drake was thinking. “Are they setting up a command center near the airport?”
“That’s the plan.”
Thank all that was holy. Drake remembered one clusterfuck of a mission where a CIA operative thought he could keep up with the SEALs. He’d almost gotten Jack killed.
Captain Hale left the briefing room and Gray huddled up with Mason. Aiden gave a head jerk to Drake, and he followed him to the back of the room.
“Yeah?” Drake asked.
“The girls?” Aiden asked. “They’re not going to have gotten far.”
“Depends what CIA has to tell us about the rendezvous point for the arms deal. Hell, if they take them into the jungle it’s anybody’s game,” Drake pointed out.
Aiden nodded.
“But we agree on one thing. It’s not going to be like that school three years ago. They’re not going to disappear.”
“Amen, brother,” Aiden said.
“Don’t call me that. It gives me the heebie jeebies.” Drake shuddered.
Aiden grinned. He liked rubbing in the fact that he’d married Drake’s sister as often as possible. “I wonder how Karen’s brothers are going to take to having you in the family.”
“They’re going to love me,” Drake said positively.
“Sure, they are,” Aiden taunted.
SHEILA MADE IT JUST in time to board the plane. She was still getting information from Langley at the beginning of the sixteen-hour flight, and they decided she’d brief them when they were closer to Africa. They strapped into the plane for the long flight. Drake sat between Finn and Jack. Mason was on the other side of Finn, they did it on purpose, they were taking his temperature. This couldn’t get any worse. The thing that had sent Finn into a tailspin in the first place had been young girls in the slave trade in Canada, so the fact that they were going on a mission where young girls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram had to be his worst nightmare.
Mason played it cool. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Drake waited until everybody was asleep, except for Mason. He knew he was faking it. Then Drake waded in, because he couldn’t help himself. The blunt approach was always his methodology. He stared at Finn until he finally rolled his head against the headrest to look at him.
“Drop it, Avery.”
“Are you going to wig out?”
“Jesus. You have the tact of an elephant in a dollhouse.”
“That’s a bull in a china shop,” Drake shot back.
“I said what I meant. You’re worse than a bull. Are you going to tell me you’re not torn apart about those girls in the hands of those animals?”
Drake didn’t answer. How could he? He had six younger sisters and a four-year-old niece. It made him sick, but they had a mission to complete. Stopping those weapons meant that they would be saving the next school or orphanage, and the next, and so on.
“Yes, it makes me want to puke, but I’m going to be able do the job. Are you?”
Finn shook his head, then he grinned. “I’ve missed you and our special little times together.”
What?
“No matter how bad it got, you never treated me with kid gloves. Even Mase watched his words, you never have.”
“Just answer the fucking question.”
“If I didn’t know. And I mean know that I was rock solid, I wouldn’t be on this plane. We’re going to stop the shipment, then we are going to rescue those girls and annihilate those fuckers.” Finn’s smile was fierce.
“Hooyah,” Drake said.
“Now that you’re done being my shrink am I allowed to get some sleep?”
“Yep.” Drake shut his eyes, and leaned back against the hard headrest. Images of Andrew and Karen filled his head as he willed himself to sleep.
DRAKE HADN’T SEEN MASON so pissed in years. His face was carved out of stone. Sheila had given the two lieutenants and their seconds the lowdown on the plane. Which meant that Mason, Gray, Drake and Aiden felt confident they knew what they needed to get done on the mission. Then they got to the airport and Edwin Marsh pushed his way into the picture.
Everyone knew many of the embassy members were CIA, and that’s who Marsh was. Turns out, he was the head CIA guy in Nigeria. He started countermanding Captain Hale’s orders right from the get-go.
“The Boko Haram won’t do any kind of pick-up in Cameroon, they will stick to Nigeria. That’s their preferred area of operation.”
“They are already way out of their preferred area of operation. They’re usually in the desert, instead they’re here in the jungle. We need to listen to Langley on this.”
“I don’t care if they’re south. They’ll still stick to Nigeria.”
“What are you talking about? Even when they’re in the North, they dip into Cameroon all the damn time. Look Marsh, Langley has a source. That’s all I’m at liberty to say. That source says the Haram have two points of entry in the South, those are airfields in Ekong, Nigeria and Mundemba, Cameroon.”
“Why wasn’t I told about an informant?” Edwin was outraged.
“It was need to know,” Sheila responded.
“I don’t give a shit what Langley says, there is a group of Boko Haram in Nigeria that just took a shot at the embassy, and then there’s the group in Cameroon who took the girls from the orphanage in Amoto. The Haram that has the new stash of girls will be too damn busy to go to an airfield, if you get my meaning.” The way he said that made Drake’s skin crawl. The idea that the terrorists would be hurting those girls turned his stomach. “Trust me, I know both sect leaders. There’s Sani and there’s Yemisi. Sani has more power than Yemisi, he’s going to be the one dealing with the arms.”
“These aren’t our orders. We are going to cover both airstrips,” Mason said, his voice was stone cold.
“No, you’re not. Sani is your target. End of discussion. Yemisi is not a big enough fish, trust me, I know what I’m doing.” The man was a pompous ass.
“The airfield in Mundemba has been recently cleared, we have satellite imaging that shows that.” Sheila tried explaining.
“You also have imaging that shows the airfield in Ekong has been cleared. You will not go after Yemisi. This conversation is over.” Edwin Marsh crossed his arms and stared at everyone in the room.
“Seems to me like your dismissy Yemisi awful quick.” Clint rhymed the two words, making a joke. Drake smothered a laugh.
“This is nothing to laugh at,” Marsh shouted as he turned, trying to figure out who said what.
“That’s enough,” Mason’s voice cut through the room. “You’re right it’s not a laughing matter. Marsh, we have our orders, and Ms. Baker’s highly reliable intelligence. We are going to be following those. We thank you for your attendance today. You are dismissed.”
“Dismissy,” Clint said just loudly enough for Drake to hear. Drake almost lost it.
“I outrank Sheila,” Marsh sputtered.
“Hunter, show Edwin the door,” Lieutenant Gray said to his biggest SEAL.
Drake enjoyed watching Hunter Diaz all but shove the wide-eyed Marsh out of the room.
“Ms. Baker, is there anything you would like to add before we board the choppers?” Mason asked.
“Can I take you back to Langley?” she said pointing to Hunter. “You would come in real handy.”
Hunter grinned.
THE BLACK DAWN SEAL team boarded their helicopter and Clint nudged Drake. “You know the action is in Cameroon, right?”
“Yeah, I feel it too,” Drake agreed.
“Quit the girl talk and climb aboard,” Finn shouted above the roar of the rotors. Drake grinned. Finn Crandall was definitely back.
They climbed aboard for twenty click trip to the Mundemba airstrip. They were going to have to hike in. It’d been awhile since Drake had been out to play in the jungle. The others had a recent mission in Costa Rica, so they had a leg up. Not that he’d ever admit it. Jungle schmungle, he could outdo everyone on this team.
An hour later he was breathing hard, but he was near the head of the pack. Jack was up ahead on point and Drake was beside Mason who was acting like he was out walking his goddamn dog or some shit. Drake put a grin on his face. Mason glanced over at him and smiled. Fucker knew he was faking it. Well, fake it ‘til you make it. That was his motto. Despite their fast pace, they were silent. They wanted to get close to the airfield before dawn so they could check things out.
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