“Who has access to traffic cams and who is following orders?”
“Sorry… I…” Shit, even he could hear the panic in his voice. Bah, he couldn’t have hidden it if he tried, especially not from Max, who knew how he sounded in the most extreme situations imaginable.
“I get it, bro,”Max’s voice was soft,“Focus… k?”
“Yup.” That Max broke protocol and called him bro instead of Bravo Three, told him his teammate did get it.
“Head toward the freeway.”
Good, he didn’t need to be dealing with tolls and crap today. The freeway was free and better than the motorway. Plus, if driving to Naples this morning had shown him anything, it was that the motorway was almost at a standstill, with tourist traffic gridlocked for miles. “Roger that.”
* * *
Saxon glanced at his watch.Damn it, he had been driving around in circles for almost an hour. “Cupid, Bravo Three, are you fucking distracting me until y’all get here?” He’d freaking kill Max if he was. It was a city, there were cameras everywhere. Why the hell couldn’t Max find that van, and why wasn’t his ass where it needed to be already?
“Bravo Three, Cupid here, why the fuck would I do that?”
“Because you’re an ass.”
“Bravo Three, Eagle, watch your fucking mouth.”
Oops, that was Noble, apparently he had used up all the leeway he had been offered earlier. “Sorry, Boss.”
He tapped the brakes as the lights changed from green to amber, ignored the blaring beep of a car horn behind him, instead he kept an eye on the side mirror. The fast-moving figure of a man crossing toward his truck with his hand out put him on edge. When he saw that hand reaching for the door of his truck, Defcon One warnings blared in his brain.
“Fuck.” He had his spare Sig out from under the steering wheel and aimed at the passenger door by the time it had opened enough for Roman to climb in.
“Ha,” Roman slammed the door, turning slightly and leaning his shoulder against it. Instead of talking to Saxon, he smiled at the rear seat of the truck.
“If you shoot him, bro, I’m gonna have to kill you,” Luc’s voice came from behind Saxon’s head and his eyes met Saxon’s scowl in the rear-view mirror. “Trust me, that’s a mess your boss is not gonna want to clean up.”
“Drive, Sax.” Roman’s voice was covered by the blaring of the horn behind his truck again.
Jesus, these Italian drivers had no patience at all. The light had only just fucking turned green, they could wait the second it took to put the truck in gear. He looked at the clock on the dash and calculated how much time had passed since Max said his team were going wheels up. How were they so early? “How did you two get to Naples so fast?” He waved his hand in a one-finger salute at the fucker in the smart car behind them as he drove through the junction. In his ear he could hear Max snickering softly; if that asshole wasn’t taking this seriously, he was going to beat the crap out of him. “Cupid, Bravo Three, ya could have warned me I had Dumb and Dumber incoming.”
“Bravo Three, Cupid, keeping your head on a swivel is operator 101.”
“We were at the base,” Roman reached under the seat, pulled the lever, and pushed it back to give his knees some more space. Damn, he missed good old American trucks with enough room for long-legged people. “Noble has got to find us bigger vehicles.”
“Driving Humvees here would draw attention, babe.” Luc’s fingers stroked across the back of his neck.
“Can you two stop that,” Saxon grumbled. Bah, they also apparently didn’t get that he was stressed as fuck. He didn’t need for them to be their usual asshole selves as if they were on downtime, he needed them acting as operators on a mission. Spotting a white van parked off a side street, he only half glimpsed the number plate before he was past the street entrance. Was that it? He hit the brakes, slowed down, and reversed to look again. “Cupid, what was the reg number of that van?”
Over coms, Max rattled off the plate’s number.
“Got it,” Roman responded, “It’s not it, keep going.”
Good, he had coms too. Bah, he should have known Rome and Luc would come prepared. Saxon put the truck back in gear and hit the gas. Now if only his best friend, Roman’s partner Luc, could quit being a dick and help, they might get somewhere.
“Fuck off.” Luc smacked the back of Saxon’s head, “I’m setting you up a profile on Grindr again, you need to get laid.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.” Jesus, why did they have to act like dicks? Grindr? “What the actual fuck. We have to get Rick back and you want to joke?” He smacked at Roman’s arm. “Is he for real right now?”
“Left in 300 yards.”Max instructed.
“Bad choice of words,” Roman pointed to the left, telling Saxon which street he needed to take. “He’ll do it now.”
“Yup,” Luc scrolled through the screens on his phone looking for the app he wanted, “I’ll have it set up by the time we get to where we’re going.”
