“Now.”
“No.” For the second time, Cade ignored the order, instead he crouched next to his man. “It’s going to be okay, Rio,” Cade reached out a hand. Rio backed farther away, “You have to find the girl, make sure she is okay.”
“What girl?”
“Real target.” Rio looked up at Cade, hoping like hell they would believe him, “Check Haaz’s coat. Picture in top pocket.”
“You mean the photo Creed put a hole through with a bullet?” Hawk squatted next to the body. He pulled out the picture and held it up for the others to see; as expected, no features were visible.
“Who is she?”
“The daughter of someone important in Mossad.” Rio could see a man running across the tarmac behind Cade. He was about to yell out a warning when he realized it was Angelo.
“I’ll call Malik.” Micah was already on the phone to him at Panther headquarters in Texas. Malik had worked with Mossad and still had contacts.
Angelo skidded to a stop next to Cade and Rio, “Talk to me.” He nudged Cade in the side but spoke to Rio. “Tell me what they said as they put this on you and how it’s attached.”
“Vest, under my clothes.” Rio said. He kept his eyes on Cade. He hated that these men were here with him. Being near him put them in danger. He didn’t want them to die, not because of him. “Once the vest was on, he taped something to my side, then flicked a switch near the bottom at the back.”
“Okay, let’s see what we got.” Angelo carefully opened Rio’s shirt. He raised his eyebrows at the low growling sound coming from Cade’s chest. “Hey dumbass, I am getting your man out of a bomb vest, not fucking seducing him. Chill, even I’m not that much of a dick.”
“Sorry.” Cade managed to look rueful, but not one bit sorry even as he offered the apology.
“Lies.” Angelo muttered. He kept ripping the shirt, exposing the vest. He carefully studied it for a couple of minutes, not wanting to miss anything, then took a deep breath. It was now or never. He thought he’d discovered the line that was connected to the C4 that was in the vest Rio wore. He could see the bomb also had at least a couple of pounds of metal inside it. If it went off, it would send shrapnel flying. They would be dead, just as Rio feared. He didn’t want to think about what their bodies would look like if those nails went flying.
Angelo glanced at Cade and Rio. “I’ve reached enough of this damn bomb so I can disarm it. Are you both ready?”
“Yeah,” Cade told him with far more bravado than he felt. Before Angelo moved, he spoke quickly to Rio, “I love you!” There was no freaking way he was dying without telling him. Nope, enough shit and stalling. “I love you.” He repeated it.
“I—uh—”
Angelo chuckled, feeling amusement for the first time since he had come racing out of TOC. “I think you stunned him, bro.”
“Do it,” Cade growled.
Angelo cut the wire and waited, he didn’t think there was a secondary trigger, but he couldn’t be sure until he checked the vest. “Let’s get you out of it.” He carefully removed the vest from Rio. As soon his second arm cleared the armhole, Cade put his hands under Rio’s armpits and dragged him back.
“Thank fuck.” Cade didn’t give a shit where they were, or who was watching, he was kissing his man.
Rio kissed him back, hard. He thought he would never see Cade again. Thought he was going to die. Had resigned himself to it. But right now, did it matter? No, not with Cade kissing him stupid. But there was something he was supposed to do, what was it? He pulled back from the kiss. “I love you too.”
Epilogue
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Cade went to the fridge and grabbed two beers. It had been two weeks of hell since they had come back from Somalia. Endless debriefings and questions. If someone asked him to look at another file or sign another form anytime soon, he was going to put his boot so far up their asses, they’d be spitting out laces and leather for a month.
“Yeah,” Rio took the bottle Cade held out to him. The last couple of weeks had been the bit the movies never showed. The aftermath of hell was no picnic. Every move made, every decision taken, had been analyzed and second guessed, multiple times. His father had gone to ground. His plans to cause a shitshow in the Middle East, yeah, those went down in the hail of gunfire that killed Rio’s half-brothers. Not that he mourned the loss of his family. They were never family. He would never understand why they had taken him from Mexico when he was just a kid.
“You’re brooding.”
“Kind of.” Rio shifted on the couch, turning to face Cade, one foot tucked under him. “We still didn’t find the girl?”
“No,” Cade grabbed a handful of chips and stuffed them into his mouth. “Malik gave a heads up to his contact in Mossad. But we have no record of any known operative’s daughter being booked on that flight.”
“What happens now?”
“Besides you becoming a Ghost?”
“Yeah,” Rio grinned at Cade, “It’s going to be so weird looking in the mirror and not seeing me looking back at me. If that makes sense.”
