I hummed and kissed the top of her head. “As if you’d get rid of me that easily, mama.”
26
Blayke
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Noah whispered. We were crouched in the bushes about fifteen yards away from the large, yellow shipping containers the victims were being housed in. Just as Geek had warned us, there was a hell of a lot of armed guards around. We were outnumbered, but that wasn’t anything we weren’t used to.
We had Geek and Scorpion on our sides, and there wasn’t a single fucking thing those two didn’t see. On top of hacking into the security cameras, which Geek was manning, Scorpion was operating three drones, giving us a live play-by-play in Geek’s blind spots.
“What do you mean, mama?” I asked quietly, keeping my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary or any critters I wasn’t a fan of coming across. I didn’t know what kind of snakes Mexico had, and I wasn’t keen on finding out. If they stayed in their space, I’d stay right in mine.
“Something’s going to go wrong,” she said softly, glancing at me before focusing back on the scene in front of us. They weregetting ready to do a guard switch, which was when we’d make our move. Noah and I would take out everyone nearest us, and Gidget and Halo would do the same. Ink and Whiler would come around the back, providing cover for Alejandro and Joey to get to the victims.
I snorted. “Somethingalwaysgoes wrong, little mama.” Turning, I gripped her chin and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. Bad feeling or not, we were doing this. Wehadto do this because innocent lives were relying on us. “Ready?”
She huffed and pulled her mask over her face. “Don’t die.”
I scoffed. “I’d never, mama. Who would get on your nerves then?”
“Move quick,” Geek ordered through our earpieces. “Ink, Whiler, you have the guards on downtime coming toward you. Noah, Blayke, you’ve got five on your end. Gidget, Halo?—”
“Seven,” Gidget grumbled, already ahead of Geek.
The sound of gunfire rang through the air just as we began climbing the fence. Fuck, we were uncovered. There was no way of knowing if someone got trigger happy or if someone got spotted. Now, we just had to roll with the punches and hope for the fucking best.
I landed over the barbwire first, taking out two guards in rapid succession. Noah dropped down beside me, taking out a third. We had two more to go before we weresomewhatsafe.
I made a motion for her to watch my back, then prowled forward, keeping to the shadows. One of them poked their heads out from around the closest shipping container, and I popped a bullet right in his skull. Noah tapped my shoulder and pointed toward the side of the fence closest to the woods, where one of the guards was busy doing his fingerprint to escape.
I caught him in the back of the head. Our five were down.
“Cleared,” Noah said into our coms. “Where are we?—”
“Joey’s been shot,” Alejandro snapped. “Dios, it’s bad. You fucking idiot,” he snarled, probably to Joey.
“Easy, babe,” Joey rasped, his voice filled with pain. And there was my confirmation they had something going on. Fucking knew it. “Not dying.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Alejandro snapped, his accent thicker than I’d ever heard it. “Blayke, Noah, you’ll need to get the victims and transport them. I have to get him to the hospital, or hewilldie.”
I grimaced. Shit, that was bad. Alejandro wasn’t a fan of hospitals, especially when he had his own medical team. “On it.”
I looked at Noah. She nodded once, her eyes burning with anger. “Let’s get them free, baby.”
I pressed a hard, quick kiss to her mouth through our masks, then rushed for the door. Ink was rounding the building with bolt cutters. “Whiler is going with Alejandro and Joey for protection. I’m with you two until this is taken care of.”
He snapped the lock. “What—Alejandro doubts me?” I teased.
Noah huffed. “Can you takeanysituation seriously, Blayke?”
“Never,” Ink and I said at once. I rolled my eyes and pushed my hand against his face. “Fucking jinx.”
Ink laughed and knocked my hand aside. Noah slung open the doors, and my gut twisted as I stared at what awaited us—pregnant women, women withbabies, young boys and girls, teens… This was more than that mother fucker had told us. It wasso much worse.
Nothing had ever made me sick to my stomach, but as I stared at their dirty, frightened faces, for a moment, I was certain I was going to spew my fucking dinner.No onedeserved to go through this.Not a fucking soul.
“Focus,” Noah told me, her hand gripping my bicep and dragging me out of my head. “They need us, Blayke. You can rageand vent later, okay? I promise. But right now, I need youwith me.”
I blew out a soft breath, nodded, then shut it all down. Noah came around me, slinging her gun around to her back. She held her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat. “English?” she asked, her voice soft and soothing, a stark contrast to the woman I met daily. And fuck, it just made me fall for her even harder.
