“Need to know?” His words hissed through clenched teeth. “Are you fucking kidding me?Ineeded to know, Jason! Myteamneeded to know! Ghost’s team was damn near blown off the fucking planet, for Christ’s sake! And now Radcliff has….you knew that she…” Gabe swallowed between frantic breaths, finding it hard to even say her name. “You knew that Ellena was going out there. You let her come here. Let them take her so she could, what? Get Radcliff to confess?” Gabe hit him again, this time letting him fall. “That’s it, isn’t it? You used her asfuckingbaitto try to trap him.”
Ryker quickly stood to defend himself, wiping the blood from his split lip as he moved. “We didn’t know for sure he’d be here, damn it!”
“But you thought he might be.” Gabe fumed. “Youhopedhe would, because then you’d be able to make your big bust. You make sure we’re in the dark about the fucking chopper so when it shows, we’re caught off guard. We’re too busy keeping our asses alive to keep that Hall fucker from getting Ellena on the plane.”
Ryker stood silent.
Gabe threw up his arms in frustration. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
“Fuck you, Dawson! Don’t stand there acting all high and mighty. How many times did you do the same damned thing?”
“Why?” Gabe’s voice boomed. “Why use Elle? You had Price dead to rights. You heard him confess to having Mark Ellis killed.”
“And that’s all we had on the guy! Daniel Price would’ve gone down for murdering Ellis. Maybe fleeing the scene of your wife’s accident. That’s it. Shit, Dawson. Start thinking like a fucking special ops soldier for two seconds, and you’ll see we had no other choice.”
“Bullshit.” Gabe shot daggers at the other man. “You could’ve turned Price.”
“Price wasn’t going to give up Radcliff. Not when he knew how far the crooked bastard can reach.”
“Guess someone should’ve told Radcliff that huh?” Jenna quipped.
Ignoring her, Ryker kept his eyes locked with Gabe’s. “We needed to get Radcliff to talk, and Dr. Dawson is pro at getting people to open up. So yeah, I wired her before we came here. But come on, man. Surely you can see the bigger picture, here. Using a weaker link to get your man is like strategy one-oh-one.”
His admission was like a punch to the gut. Ellena hadn’t mentioned anything about a wire or Ryker’s plan. Why didn’t she say anything?
Because she knew you’d never allow it.
Rage bubbled inside his veins as he continued throwing his anger toward the man responsible. “This isn’t the Middle East, and it’s not a goddamn war.”
“The hell it’s not!” Ryker’s angry voice filled the space around them. “Are you really that naïve, or have you just been out so long that you’ve forgotten what it’s like out there? This is every bit a war as the one you and your men fought in over there. And just like then, sometimes innocents get caught in the middle. It’s the way things play out and you know it. We all make sacrifices. Sucks, but it’s for the greater—”
Gabe went after him again, pushing him up against the same wall as before. “You’re talking about sacrificing the woman Ilove, you bastard! She’s mywife! Of course, a coldhearted bastard like you wouldn’t understand what that’s like, would you?”
Walker flinched but stayed silent.
“Hell no, he wouldn’t” Nate backed Gabe up.
“No.” Gabe shook his head with a snide smirk. “You wouldn’t. So don’t you dare stand there and spout off that ‘for the greater good’ bullshit because there’s nogoddamn waybusting Radcliff is worth more thanEllena’s life.”
“Or Walker’s,” Jenna added quietly. Her eyes rose to Gabe’s. “I mean, I get that the jerk kidnapped me and all. But he also kept the other jerk from…” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes as she let her voice trail.
Shit.Gabe had almost forgotten Walker was on that plane, too. Hearing Jenna recount how he’d protected her only added to his wavering opinion of the guy.
A sudden image of Walker covering Elle’s body with his flashed through Gabe’s mind.
He and his team had spent the past couple of years believing Walker was a traitor and a soulless murderer. But keeping Jenna safe, along with the selfless act he’d pulled on the runway with Elle, made Gabe think maybe they’d all been wrong.
About Walker…and possibly the man standing in front of him, now.
“What happens after Elle gets Radcliff to confess? You think he’s just gonna let her walk away from that shit? Hell no, he’s not. Radcliff will kill her the first chance he gets.
Ghost stepped up and put his hand on Gabe’s shoulder, “I think he gets it. And we need to get busy tracking that plane. We don’t want to stand around here wasting time when we don’t know how long—”
The other man stopped himself short, but Gabe knew what he meant. They didn’t know how long it would be until that plane landed. Once it did, they had no idea how much time Ellena had left.
With a pointed stare, he returned his focus to Ryker. “Do you have the equipment with you to trace the plane now?”
“It’s in my car.”
