She was the leader of this op, and a trip to the E.R. would take hours…at least. And she’d definitely suffered worse injuries than this and lived to see another day.
“You’re concussed.”
The growled diagnosis came from Jagger, who was still standing to her right. Careful to keep her movements slow and steady, Natalia’s attention slid away from Christian.
“I’m fine,” she repeated, holding Jagger’s stare as steady as her aching head would allow. “It’s nothing a couple of ibuprofen and a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”
Liar, liar.
“You took a round to the chest, and your head bounced off the pavement like it was a damn ball.”
Bounced, huh? Explains why my skull feels like it’s seconds away from imploding.
“I’m upright and talking, which is more than I can say about those two.” She pointed toward the bodies bleeding all over the boat’s wooden deck. “Look, we’ll go over what happened in detail later, but right now, our priority is clearing the scene so the clean-up crew can do their jobs.”
The ten men she and the two teams had left duct taped and bound. The dead bodies. All the blood. By the time Natalia’s crew was finished, it would be as if none of them were ever there.
“Yeah, sorry about that, Agent Foster.” Jimmy stepped forward despite her warning that they needed to go. “Asshole turned his gun my way.” A casual shrug. “I had no choice but to shoot.”
Before she could remind him that she’djustsaid they’d do a breakdown of the mission later, Jagger spun on the heels of his boots and locked the other man down with an angry glare.
“You always have a choice, Baxter,” Jagger growled. “And FYI, that guy wasn’t turning to shoot. He got startled by the damn fish that jumped out of the water. But right before that, he was about to drop his weapon and surrender.”
Glad I’m not the only one who saw it that way.
“Your shot set everything into motion.” Jagger went on. “And it was your shot that damn near got Agent Foster killed.”
Jimmy’s face tightened beneath the black paint smearing his smooth, shaven skin. With more bite in his defensive tone, the Echo Team member shot back with, “I just said, I didn’t have a choice. The prick was turning his gun my way. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
“You should have been damn sure.”
“You wait, you die.” Jimmy took a hard step forward. “Or have you forgotten what they taught you in basic?”
Ah, hell.
As if the bump to her head gave her otherworldly powers, Natalia could see the next few seconds playing out in her achingmind. Jagger would cold-clock Jimmy. Jimmy would most likely go down. There’d wind up being a brawl between Delta and Echo, and the rest of their mission would undoubtedly go to shit.
Or…
“Enough!” Natalia forced her way between the two men, not giving either of them the chance to argue. “You want to whip ’em out and compare sizes? Fine. But that shit waits until you’re on your own time. Understood?”
Jagger’s gaze lowered to hers, and though she could tell he wanted to say a whole lot more, he dipped his chin in agreement.
She looked to Jimmy, who was still looking at Jagger like he wanted to punch the senior operative square in the mouth. Dammit, they didnothave time for a pissing contest, and she needed to make sure he knew it.
“I asked you a question, Baxter.” Natalia faced him directly. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” the young Echo Team member grumbled.
“Yes, what?” Jagger demanded from where he stood behind her.
A muscle twitched at the side of Jimmy’s jaw before he added a tightly enunciated, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” She stepped out from between the two idiots and started to walk away. “I’m giving the cleaners the green light. We’ve already wasted too much time as it is.”
While she used her comms to contact the cleaners on a secured channel, Jagger and the others fell in line silently behind her. As far as the op was concerned, their part in it was complete. They’d leave the same way they came, and the clean-up crew would take care of the rest.
Sanchez’s boat would vanish, along with the bodies of his deceased employees. The other ten men working for the cartel would be taken into custody and transported to a secured location where they’d be questioned.
