“Reese will be part of the setup on this end,” Drake answered. “Joey and he will—”
“Cut through the bull. What happened to the rest of my team?”
Drake cleared his throat. “Coercion Ten hit with an all-out attack at the beach house. Good news, we repelled the assault with help from the FBI and the local police. They even captured a couple of CT guys.”
“Bad news?” Mitch’s tone sounded ominous, like the rumble of thunder in the distance.
“Josh was grazed by a bullet.” Reese took up the telling, his voice clear, his words straightforward. “One FBI agent has busted ribs, another a busted nose. The rest of the resistance, including your team, got by with scrapes and bruises. Except for Cat.”
Liz heard her own intake of breath and covered her mouth as she took the last few steps to the main deck. No lies, no secrets; she needed to know what happened.
“Cat took a bullet to the shoulder,” Reese continued. “Would have been a clean shot straight through, but the bullet hit a bone. Fragmented. One of the pieces landed against her spine.”
Liz clenched her fingers.
“Last we heard, the surgeon had removed all the fragments. We’ll know more in a couple of days, after the swelling around the spine goes down. Prognosis looks good.”
Cat. Prognosis. Good. Liz breathed a sigh of relief.
Mitch had been strangely quiet throughout the report of the assault and injuries. In fact, at the moment, everyone in the wheelhouse seemed abnormally quiet.
“What else?” Mitch’s tone had hardened, lowered a notch.
“I left Stealth and Joey to keep an eye on Cat. Provide security for her. Josh will head back to the St. Louis headquarters.” Drake sucked in a deep breath. “Once we get you and Liz relocated, Reese can call OPAQUE headquarters for any needed backup.”
Quiet again. Lots and lots of deafening quiet.
“What else?” Mitch asked, his words insinuating with their flatness.
“That’s everything at the beach house,” Reese replied.
“Don’t play games with me. I heard the explosion. I saw the explosion on the horizon.” Mitch paused. “What happened to Keith?”
Liz replayed their escape from the beach house. Keith had had their back. He took the other Q40. Created a diversion. Then… Explosion? Flames? Keith? She’d been in such a panic during the escape and because of her fear of the water, she’d thought only of herself and Mitch.
Suddenly, she wanted to flee from the answer before it came. Tears flooded her eyes.
Why? Why had a sense of doom settled in her chest? She wanted to run to Mitch and wrap her arms around him. To cover his ears with her hands, keep him from hearing the answer. Why did she feel the need to protect him? Suddenly, she wanted to be anyplace but here…even in the water. Because the answer would—
“Keith didn’t make it.” Drake coughed. “CT blew him out of the water.”
“Dead?” Mitch roared with a mix of anger and angst. “Keith’s dead?”
Her legs felt like mush, her knees started to buckle. She steadied herself against the stairs leading to the wheelhouse and held on tight to keep from falling. The agent who had covered her and Mitch’s back as they escaped Captiva? The agent who’d quietly rode his Q40 in the opposite direction from them? Who’d revved into a high-speed roar only to divert any lurking Coercion Ten operatives? He’d died to save their lives?
From the wheelhouse, what sounded like a couple of thuds of a fist hitting a solid object floated across the air. The boat slightly swayed, along with a tiny squeak. And Mitch groaned with a hollow echo that punctuated the loss.
Her heart broke, and tears that had settled in her eyes a minute ago now flowed down her cheeks. Salty streams of shock and sadness swam to her lips, and she licked the salt away. Salt like the ocean. Salt that burned wounds. Salt that lived on emotion.
“My team’s in shambles. One dead. One may be paralyzed.” Mitch’s voice crashed through the night. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do, Drake. What’s so damn important about this case that CT would send in an attack force?”
She’d like to hear that answer, too. What could possibly be worth a man’s life?
“I know this is hard, Mitch,” Drake said. “Anytime we lose someone, it’s hell.”
Mitch started down the stairs from the wheelhouse. “I quit.”
Trying to hide, Liz rushed to the shadows near the side rail of the boat.
