“I’m okay, Bee. Just thinking.”
“Okay. But I’m always here if you need to chat or vent. I know how hard this work can be.”
Yep, if anyone knows, it’s Bee.
“I promise I’m okay. Ready to get this put to bed and back home until the next one.”
“I hear you.” She grins, then her smile softens as she sees Copper.
He wraps an arm around her waist and draws her to him. “Everything okay?”
I nod. “I’ll see you both later.”
It’s ten at night. We’ll return to our rooms for a bit before we head out to secure this Eades motherfucker.
***
“Check in.” Bee’s voice fills my ear.
I wait as my brothers check in one by one, ending with Blue, who had to walk the furthest and climb the mountain to find a good sniper position.
“Overwatch in place. Ten guards patrolling, two in the hut. No view into the house. Curtains are closed. Nickel, you’re up.”
I’ve drawn the short straw. It’s up to me to carry out the fake pizza delivery. If the guards open the box, all they’ll see is pizza, but we’ve secreted an explosive in the base.
I say ‘we,’ but it was Bee who did it under Cai’s careful eye. Watching the two of them, I knew it wasn’t the first time they’d done it.
Starting my sled, I ride up to the gates, stopping at the intercom. I press the buzzer, and don’t have to wait long for the guard to come out. He opens the pedestrian gate and walks towards me as I get off my sled.
“Pizza delivery.”
“Nobody ordered pizza. You have the wrong address.”
I make a show of removing the pizza box from my sled’s carrier and walk toward the guard, where he’s standing outside the security hut. I turn the box to show him that the address matches the property. Ramzi and Sterling did their online voodoo shit to find out the guard’s names and put one of them on the order.
“Are you sure? The order says it’s for Ryan”—I squint—“fuck, I can’t read this?”
I thrust the box towards him, so he has no choice but to grab it. “Hang on to that. Let me check on my phone.”
“Don’t worry,” the guard replies. “I can see who ordered it. I wish the fuckers in the big house would let us know when they order shit,” he mutters as he walks away. “This is the second time this week, for fuck’s sake. How are we meant to keep anyone safe like this?”
That was almost too easy. I know that all the guards are active in the trafficking, so I don’t feel bad for what I’m about to do.
Getting back on my sled, I ride away to a safe distance.
“Whenever you’re ready, Bee,” I say into the comms.
Parking my sled, I dismount and remove the delivery jacket, stuffing it in my saddlebag. I pull my handgun from its holster as I jog toward the house.
“In three, two, one,” Bee counts down in our ears.
Even though I’m expecting the blast, I’m still surprised when it happens.
“Let’s go, brothers,” Cahir orders. “Cai, you have the dogs. Tranq them quickly. Be safe, everyone. I’ll see you on the other side.”
We know what we’re doing and move as one unit—a marked improvement from our first operation. We’ve upped our training and run frequent drills on the paintball field. Brass, Iron, Cross, Blue, and Sterling punished our asses until we had no choice but to work as a team. Now, it’s paying off as we take out the guards, one after another.
Bee pilots the drones towards the house, releasing the bombs onto the roof of the house. They won’t do much damage—enough to spook them and draw out the guards inside.
