“Shit,” Rio crouched next to Cade’s shoulder, together they watched the girl make a run for it across the parking lot. He frowned at the dust kicked up by her heels. He should not be able to see it. The girl stumbled and fell.
“Sniper.” Cade muttered. “She should have waited. Damn it.” His fingers dug into the wooden frame of the door, so hard Rio could see the white in his knuckles.
“She was afraid.” The whiff of the other man’s aftershave shouldn’t be able to make its presence known right now. He should be paying attention to what was happening around him, instead his dick was rapidly filling. He swallowed hard to make sure he didn’t groan out loud. Because fuck, that scent along with the adrenaline flooding his bloodstream, was making him crazy.
“And now she is dead.” Cade gave a full body shake, “We go left, along the wall.”
“Sure,” Rio agreed, “You lead, I will follow.”
“Saying that to a man like me is dangerous as fuck.” Cade muttered. “Stay right on my ass, got it.”
Right on your ass? Oh yes, fucking please.“Yeah.”
* * *
“G One Seven, you got visual?”
“Working on it, Sir.”
Over his earpiece, he could hear the clicking of the keys.
“Best I can get is a visual on the Caddy.”
Cade knew she would be sitting at the main desk in the War - Room. If past experience told him anything, Harper probably had the end of a pencil stuffed in her mouth and she chewed on the end of it as she worked.
“That is our Caddy, right?”
“Yup.” Cade replied. He wasn’t normally a Cadillac guy, and much preferred something from the Ford line. But right now, he was thanking whichever god had been watching out for him that when he had hit the team’s storage unit, the only keys available had been for this Caddy. He had a feeling they were going to need the ceramic plate inserts throughout the chassis and body designed to withstand anything short of a 120 mm armor-piercing shell. The glass had been replaced with thick bulletproof material, all of which added a shitload of extra weight to the car. The extra weight would slow them down, but the armor could ward off slugs from a .300 Win-Mag. “On my mark.”
“Ready.”
“Go.” Cade ducked as low as possible, keeping as close to the wall as he could. The ten seconds it took them to work their way to the Caddy sucked. Cade was waiting for someone to notice them as they had the waitress. Was waiting for the thump of a bullet or a cry of pain from the man behind him. He paused as they approached the car. Dropping to his knees he did a quick scan underneath the vehicle. “We’re good.” he whispered to Rio.
“Roger.” Harper responded, but Cade ignored her for now.
“You get in back.” Cade instructed Rio, barely waiting for the other man’s nod before he put the key in the lock. Yeah, the beep from the electronic key was not something he wanted right now. Finally, he could hear the sounds of police sirens.
“Move your ass, G Three.”Good, Harper had followed protocol and used the same shortened version of his code name.“They are moving through the ground floor, searching for someone.”
Cade jumped into the driver’s seat and softly closed the door. He winced when the rear door slammed, making more noise than he had hoped for as Rio closed it. “Fuck, belt up.” Firing the engine, if he could have, Cade would have crossed every finger and toe he had as he threw the Caddy into gear and pressed his foot to the floor. The big Cadillac fishtailed across the lot toward the archway that marked the entrance way.
“Shit,” Rio ducked as a bullet slammed off the rear window, the bulletproof glass cracking but not shattering. Cade didn’t bother to look for traffic coming in either direction. Pulling the handbrake, he swung the car into the barest gap between a bus and a truck. Ignoring the hoots and blaring of horns, he weaved in and out of traffic until he turned the corner at the end of the street.
“G One Seven, am I clear?”
“Yes, Sir,”Harper told him,“Bossman says get your ass to the safe house.”
“Affirmative,” Oh yeah, getting his ass to a safe house was the plan. He had peopled enough, thank you very much. He was giving the experience zero stars and he would not recommend it to anyone else.
“Don’t forget to drop your passenger somewhere safe.”
What? Yeah, nope, he kinda wanted to keep him. “I’ll do that.” Cade replied before hitting the button on the speaker. He left the device in his ear, in case he needed it. Glancing in the rearview mirror, he made eye contact with Rio, “Where to?”
Rio shrugged and scrunched up the corner of his lip, as if he was thinking of how to respond. “What was that about?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
“Probably cartel related,” Cade slowed for a red light, but hit the gas again as it changed to green, before he had come to a full stop. “It’s South America, most shit like that is cartel related.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
