Chapter 17
Xander
We leftat nine like I hoped, in a party of two trucks.
Two teams.
One would stay on the outside. The rest was going in for the rescue.
One truck had ten marine recons Jack had commissioned for this black op mission.
He’d gotten the best. Guys would were the best in what they did. We had three snipers, two gunners and the rest were front men. Jack gave them their own specific orders.
My truck carried me, Jack, Giovanni, Frankie and four marines who were going in with us. Wes and Dorian stayed behind as planned to be my eyes.
It was a good team. There were some seriously skilled men here. All put together I would say we had a chance.
I just hated it. All of it.
It all reminded me of the last time. It was too much of a reminder of what happened last time. My thoughts were consumed with the memory for the whole journey. The whole time I went over everything that had happened.
It was most likely down to the fact that last time was when I actually had a battle with the Ra.
I never even got close to Balthazar.
All I did was see him kill Claire and throw the grenade that took me out.
That was it, and previously I never got close either. Not close enough to land a fist in his face, get a good shot, or anything like that.
Of all those times –and they were really terrible times –this felt like the worst.
All those other times he’d never had anyone close to me from the beginning. It was always a surprise attack that knocked me for six.
The first memorable time was when he kidnapped Vlad Hanflick and blew up the orphanage. The next that stood out was of course when he lured my team in by taking one of our own and killed everyone.
This time I’d already experienced the damage. He’d taken Jia and I didn’t know what he could be doing to her or what he could have done.
Frankie nudged me in my side and I looked to him.
I was sitting away from everyone. Closer to the driver. I’d done that on purpose so I could think. Frankie however took it as an invite to sit near me.
Jack was at the far end of the truck going over some stuff with the marines and Giovanni sat by himself.
“I don’t like the quiet,” Frankie stated. “Not when shit’s going down.”
I glanced at him. I preferred quiet especially in those times. I also wasn’t the best person to talk to.
“Sometimes it’s good to reflect,” I answered hoping he’d take the hint that I didn’t want to talk.
He didn’t. I suspected that was on purpose too.
“Sometimes you do too much reflecting. See that’s the difference between mafia guys and the others. We talk it out and act as a unit. That’s us. We know what’s on the other guys mind so we have his back before he can even ask.”
“I’m not like that. And…” my voice trailed off as I glanced over at Giovanni who was just staring over at the wall. In his casual wear he looked so different from what I was used to. His presence was making me worse. I had the prints in my backpack. I’d keep them close to me.
Frankie followed my gaze and shook his head. When he looked back to me he sighed.
“Kid, I get it,” he said with an uneasy smile. “I do, but right now we’re in this together. We’re going in for the same goal, same cause. I’ve been watching over Jia since she was a little girl. It gets to me too that this has happened. It’s why I’m here. We just have to work together.”
