“Valkyrie?” Jayson’s eyes got wide as he turned to his brother, whose shock mirrored his.
He’d heard of Team Valkyrie. The rumors floating around were that it was a team of women who did what the males couldn’t.
The rumor was that they were part of the C.I.A’s most secretive ops team that went undercover deep into enemy territory. He knew his woman was a badass but never thought it went that far.
Jayson closed his eyes and said a quick prayer for the man upstairs to bring all three women and his baby brother home in once piece. For all their sakes.
Lana climbed into the chopper behind Cullen and Rocky. She chanced one last look at Jayson and drank him in.
She committed every part of him to her memory. She hated that she didn’t get to tell the twins bye.
She knew they were in good hands with their father and his family. She knew the rest of the team would be there to help them as well with everything.
“What do you know?” Cullen broke the silence when they were airborne.
“Two days ago, Delta team three, red squad was specifically pulled for an op in the Soriano’s cartel-controlled area in Mexico. The cartel was tipped off to their mission and were lying in wait for the team to arrive. There are three confirmed dead and five considered missing.”
“What’s the plan?” Rocky asked, her eyes going dark and deadly.
“Country, Hawk, and Viper are meeting with us at Bragg. Cullen, you are taking the Delta team and setting a perimeteraround Ortega’s property once we get there. No one in or out unless I give the say so.”
“Okay. What are you doing?” Cullen asked, looking at Lana skeptically.
“I’m going into the lion’s den. Rocky, you can refuse and work with Cullen and the Delta boys. I will give the other three the same option.”
“What’s the game plan?” Rocky asked firmly.
“I strongly believe that Bryan’s Delta Force team was used as a pawn to go after the Soriano’s cartel. The person who set them up was using them to boost their credibility for something. We have elections coming up for the Presidency, Senate, and Congress. We haven’t been able to ID the caller yet, but once we do, the gates of hell are going to open.”
The three women landed on the busy airstrip at Ft. Bragg. Lana saw Country, Hawk, and Viper standing with the team that was going with them.
She also saw Geo, Blade, Houston, and Athena standing next to the others. Looks like she’s going with a full team as well.
Twenty minutes after landing at Ft. Bragg, Lana and the rest of her team were loaded into the C-130 and headed to Ft. Hood for them to get their last briefing before they moved on to the next location. They were going to be dropped four miles from their target location into a remote jungle.
Lana and the five she chose were going in by a private vehicle that would be waiting for them via the contact they had in the area. They knew it was a suicide mission, but she strongly believed what she had planned would work.
She had authorization from General Taylor to do whatever was needed to bring their people back home. The man was furious that his men went into an unknown ambush set up by one of their own.
While they were headed their way, Trevor was doing what he could to ID the voice before they arrived so that precious time wasn’t wasted before they could take off into the actual op itself. The whole operation was being done in the dark without proper authorization from the White House or anyone above General Taylor, so that the person who set up the ambush would be none the wiser that they were on to them.
Lana, Rocky, and Cullen left their phones with Sgt. Bueller in case their locations were being tracked that way, so it would show that they were still in Hellburn Falls. She knew the others had left their phones at home or elsewhere in case of the same thing.
As soon as the plane had leveled off, they were dark. Lana gathered the others around and laid out the intel she currently had and the plan of attack.
These men wanted blood. Three of their brothers were dead and five others were missing.
While they understood the plan, they didn’t like it. She didn’t know if it had to do with letting the men responsible go without punishment or the fact only the women were going into the lion’s den or both.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-THREE
Lana’s feet touched the ground, her parachute landing behind her. She quickly bunched her chute up and put it away.
She saw the rest of her team do the same. Handling her weapon, she nodded at everyone as they started the four-mile trek to the nearest village.
Thirty minutes later, Lana raised her fist and nodded at Cullen and the Delta Force captain. They knew what needed to be done.
