His nostrils flared and his chest jumped.
I knew it.
He was on the verge of a flashback.
“You’re not there,” I said with a shake of my head. “No one has Amanda. She’s safe with King and the guys, and you’re here, ready to plot revenge on the men that touched her.”
Wrecker’s eyes hardened. “No one touches her. Ever. Again.”
I shook my head. “Never again. That’s what we’re here doing.”
He nodded as he drew in another shaky breath. I finally felt his hands releasing. “Yeah. Right. That’s… that’s what we’re doing.”
“You’re not there. Say it.”
“I’m not there.”
“Amanda is safe.”
He cleared his throat. “Amanda is safe.”
I nodded as I felt the rest of his fists relax. “She’s safe, and you’re safe, and by the time we’re done, the entire town will be safe. All of the towns around us will be. We’ve got this, and so do you.”
His shoulders finally relaxed. “Yeah, yeah. Right. Sorry.”
“No sorries,” Cap said. “Just breathe.”
“Got another one,” Ranger said.
“Another what?” Wrecker asked.
He tried turning toward the screen, but I released his hands and caught his shoulder. I turned him back to me and gave him an inquisitive look, but he simply shook his head. I quickly checked his pupils to make sure they weren’t dilated like they were when I first clocked him balling up his fists, but his eyes returned to normal.
I nodded and turned my attention back to the screen as well.
“All right, another what now?” I asked.
“Another building with heat signatures.”
I furrowed my brow. “Wait, really?”
Ranger nodded. “I expected the three. The two that Cap and Wrecker were in, and the one we’re still trying to establish in terms of where Marla came from. But I’ve come across a fourth one.”
“Fucking hell,” I muttered as I hunched back over Ranger’s shoulder.
“And the worst part?” he asked as he pointed at Scout’s map. Scout handed it to him and Ranger held it up for all of us to see. “None of these places are close. They’re all spread out as fuck. We’ll never be able to attack properly.”
“Which is why we aren’t attacking,” Cap said as he reared back up, stretching his arms over his head. “Ranger.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Keep doing flyovers of the state park. However many of these installations they’ve got thrown up in that place, we need to know about them. But you’re right. Whatever part of me hoped we could still storm in there and kill all of those assholes went out the window when we dropped a circle on that third building. Nothing is close. Everything is separated by miles. We wouldn’t have enough men, even with King’s crew, to take them on fully.”
“Were we even considering that?” Brutus asked. “Since we’re working with our contact in the DOJ to gather information?”
Cap just slowly turned and leveled him with a look, which made Brutus hold up his hands in a mocking sort of surrender.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Cap look at anyone like that, much less Brutus.
